Archive for November 8th, 2007
State Dept and Defense Dept Show Their Colors
What a dichotomy of service and sacrifice we have in the news this week. “Diplomats” in the State Department who refuse to serve in Iraq and soldiers in the Defense Department who cheat to pass medicals to stay in Iraq.
October 31, 2007
New Iraq policy prompts angry words at the State Department
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Calling it “a potential death sentence,” several hundred diplomats expressed their resentment Wednesday over a new State Department policy that could force them to serve in Iraq or risk losing their jobs.The sharpest comments came from Jack Croddy, a 36-year veteran of the Foreign Service.
To loud applause from his fellow workers, he asked how the State Department could protect people in Baghdad or the Iraq countryside when “incoming is coming in every day. Rockets are hitting the Green Zone.”
“It is one thing if someone believes in what is going on over there and volunteers,” he said, “but it is another thing to send someone over there on a forced assignment. And I’m sorry, but basically that is a potential death sentence and you know it. Who will raise our children if we are dead or wounded?”
November 6, 2007
Troops cheat on brain-injury tests to stay with units
WASHINGTON – “Troops in Iraq and elsewhere have tried to avoid being pulled out of combat units by cheating on problem-solving tests that are used to spot traumatic brain-injury problems, military doctors say.
New versions of the tests were sent into Iraq late last month to prevent the cheating, says Air Force Lt. Col. Michael Jaffee of the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center in Washington, D.C.
“With highly motivated individuals, be they athletes, be they our service members in harm’s way, there is a motivation to stay with the unit and stay on the job or stay in the game,” he says.
The tests, administered by medics in the field, are the military’s primary means of uncovering subtle signs of brain injuries from exposure to blasts.
Reports of cheating began surfacing in Iraq during the summer, says Col. Brian Eastridge, a trauma surgeon who supervises medical care in Iraq and Afghanistan from his office in Baghdad.”
Words to describe the despicable, sniveling actions of cowards like State Department Jack Croddy, a mouse of a man who has been living off the largesse of the American taxpayer for 36 years, fail me. I’m trying to keep this blog “clean”, so I can’t say what I’d really think of Croddy and his “applauding fellow workers.”
My feelings echo those of John Carey, here… who knows more and writes better that I do. What I do know is that Croddy and the rest of those self-indulgent, duty-shirking prima donnas took virtually the same oath to defend this nation as did those troopers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Democrats say we send our children to Iraq. Not so…the children are in the State Department; the adults are in in Iraq.
Poor Grampa…He Only Had an 8th Grade Education
Remember when grandparents and great-grandparents stated that they only had an 8th grade education? Well, check this out. Could any of us have passed the 8th grade in 1895?
This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina, Kansas, USA. It was taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina, KS, and reprinted by the Salina Journal.
8th Grade Final Exam:
Salina, KS, 1895
Grammar (Time, one hour)
1. Give nine rules for the use of capital letters.
2. Name the parts of speech and define those that have no modifications.
3. Define verse, stanza and paragraph.
4. What are the principal parts of a verb? Give principal parts of “lie”, “play”, and “run.”
5. Define case; illustrate each case.
6. What is punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of punctuation.
7 – 10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.
Arithmetic (Time, 65 minutes)
1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.
2. A wagon box is 2 ft. deep, 10 feet long and 3 ft. wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?
3. If a load of wheat weighs 3942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1050 lbs for tare?
4. District No 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and has $104 f or incidentals?
5. Find the cost of 6720 lbs. coal at $6.00 per ton.
6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.
7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft. long at $20 per meter?
8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.
9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance of which is 640 rods?
10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt.
U.S. History (Time, 45 minutes)
1. Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided
2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus.
3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War.
4. Show the territorial growth of the United States.
5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas.
6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.
7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe?
8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, and 1865.
Orthography (Time, one hour)
1. What is meant by the following: alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, and syllabication?
2. What are elementary sounds? How classified?
3. What are the following, and give examples of each: trigraph, sub vocal, diphthong, cognate letters, and lingual.
4. Give four substitutes for caret ‘u.’
5. Give two rules for spelling words with final ‘e.’ Name two exceptions under each rule.
6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each.
7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi-, dis-, mis-, pre-, semi-, post-, non-, inter-, mono-, and sup-.
8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last.
9. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane, vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.
10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication.
Geography (Time, one hour)
1. What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?
2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas?
3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean?
4. Describe the mountains of North America.
5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia, Odessa, Denver, Manitoba, Hecla, Yukon, St. Helena, Juan Fernandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco.
6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S.
7. Name all the republics of: Europe and give the capital of each.
8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude?
9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers.
10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give the inclination of the earth.
Notice that the exam took FIVE HOURS to complete. Gives the saying “he only had an 8th grade education” a whole new meaning, doesn’t it? This also shows you how poor our education system has become… and, NO! I don’t have the answers.
Minorities
Minorities…..Are we showing enough sympathy for these people?.
* They travel for miles in the heat and dust.
* They put their lives at risk crossing a border.
* They work long hours for little pay.
* They do the jobs that others won’t do or are afraid to do.
* They live in crowded conditions among a people who speak a different language.
* They rarely see their families, and they face adversity all day… every day.
I’m not talking about illegal aliens; I’m talking about our American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Doesn’t it seem strange that so many Democrats and some Republicans are willing to lavish all kinds of monetary and social benefits on illegal immigrants, but don’t support our troops and are now threatening to de-fund them?
