Ted's Soapbox 2.0

I had knee surgery last Thursday, it really hurt the second and third day but now it feels much better. I have the most pain at night now. I will find out Friday when I can go back to work but I am very bored at home right now. Someone can only sit around and watch TV or sleep for so long before they start to go crazy and start talking back to the TV. I am ready to go back to work and hope the doctor says I can go back.

One of our cat’s, Starbuck, got really sick on Saturday and my wife took her to the vet. She wouldn’t move, she was just laying on the floor and when Dawnell got her to the vet she was fine. On Sunday morning Star was just laying on the floor again and when Dawnell picked her up it was like she was dead, no muscle control at all and she took her back to the vet again. The vet said she was near death and he didn’t know what was wrong. He kept her until Tuesday evening. Starbuck came back home and she is almost back to her old self. She is talking and walking around and ate some canned food. She was also drinking water but she doesn’t have much energy at all. She will do some things and just flop on the floor and sleep for an hour or two. Hopefully she will continue to improve, it wouldn’t be easy to have to put down two cats within a couple of months of each other.

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Two asteroids are expected to pass within 154,000 miles of Earth today, closer than the distance between the Earth and the moon, NASA announced.

Asteroid 2010 RX30 is estimated to be approximately 32 to 65 feet in size and will pass within approximately 154,000 miles of Earth at 5:51 a.m. Wednesday. The
second object, 2010 RF12, estimated to be 20 to 46 feet in size, will
pass within approximately 49,000 miles at 5:12 p.m.

Neither should hit the planet and should be visible with moderate-sized amateur telescopes.

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Check out this interactive of what some of the countries are feeding their troops in Afghanistan.

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Homeowners Association removes headstones from the 1800’s and plans to replace them with white flat placards that will lie flush on the ground.

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Number of Operations Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom and New Dawn
casualties as confirmed by U.S. Central Command: 5663
Deaths by Conflict
Operation Iraqi Freedom: 4400
Operation Enduring Freedom: 1262
Operation New Dawn: 1
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20 year old Marine Lance Cpl. Christopher B. Rodgers

I had surgery on my knee so I am not really gonna post for a few more days until I can sit comfortably and think clearly. Right now, most things are a little hazy and jumbled together, but I have been making a list of things I want to write about.

We had some good news from my son’s school. The news paper was incorrect and they are not closing at the end of the year. It was a big relief to hear that news as we were looking for a new school and wondering if our school district would contract out with another place for his senior year, or make him return to the district for the last year. He does so much better away from the district.

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Its been over seven years since U.S. and U.K. forces entered Iraq to topple President Saddam Hussein. This past Thursday, the last US combat unit crossed into Kuwait with little or no fanfare, reporters were not allowed to report the withdrawl until troops were almost at the border, unlike when the first coalition forces invaded Iraq in March 2003.

Just before dawn on Thursday morning the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division passedout of Iraq and into Kuwait.

The cost of the war has been high, both in financial in human terms. Over 4,400 US troops and well over 100,000 Iraqi civilians died during the war and following civil unrest.

Iraq is by no means any better off today than it was under Saddam Hussein, with sectarian and ethnic tensions still present and the insurgents regaining strength in the vacuum left with the troop withdrawl.

President Barack Obama had pledged to bring the troops home during his election campaign. By Aug. 31 there will be just 50,000 US troops in the country, to advise Iraqi forces and protect US interests.

The State of Forces Agreement states that US troops are not allowed to mount combat operations unless they are asked to by the Iraqi authorities. But they can act, and reportedly already have acted, unilaterally by killing suspected insurgents. They justify this by saying they are protecting their troops.

Defence secretary, Robert Gates,said that if a new Iraqi government is formed “and they want to talk about US troops remaing beyond 2011, we’re obviously open to that discussion.” Commanders on both sides have said Iraq will not be ready.

****The reason we were told we needed to invade Iraq, WMD’s, conspiracy with Al Qaeda, 9/11 connections, have all been proven false. So while 4400, American service members died in Iraq, the Al Queda leaders who allegedly planned and carried out the 9/11 attacks were able to escape from Afghanistan.****

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Number of Operations Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom and New Dawn
casualties as confirmed by U.S. Central Command: 5616

Deaths by Conflict

Operation Iraqi Freedom: 4400
Operation Enduring Freedom: 1216
Operation New Dawn: 0
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26 year old Marine Staff Sgt. Michael A. Bock

The planet Neptune will be in opposition, when the sun, Earth, and a planet fall in a straight line on Aug. 20. The planet will be exactly opposite the sun in the sky, being highest in the sky at local midnight. Usually this is also the point where the planet is closest to the Earth.

This week Neptune will return to the spot where it was discovered in 1846, in the constellation Capricornus.

This opposition is special because Neptune will be returning close to the spot where it was discovered in 1846, marking its first complete trip around the sun since its discovery.

Coincidentally opposition in 1846 also fell on Aug. 20, although the planet wasn’t actually spotted until over a month later, on Sept. 23.

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Number of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom
casualties as confirmed by U.S. Central Command: 5616

Deaths by Conflict

Operation Iraqi Freedom: 4400
Operation Enduring Freedom: 1216
_______________________________________________________________
21 year old Army Pvt. Charles M. High IV

We had a lot of rain last night and today, but it is cool out.

This is my last week of work before I am off for a few days and then off for my surgery on my knee. I am ready to have the pain in my knee be gone.

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Israeli army...the best time of my life

A former Israeli soldier posted photos on Facebook of herself in uniform smiling beside bound and blindfolded Palestinian prisoners, drawing sharp criticism Monday from the Israeli military and Palestinian officials.

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Israel has “eight days” to launch a military strike against Iran’s Bushehr nuclear facility and stop Tehran from acquiring a functioning atomic plant.

Iran is to bring online its first nuclear power reactor, built with Russia’s help, on August 21, when a shipment of nuclear fuel will be loaded into the plant’s core. At that point, it will be too late for Israel to launch a military strike against the facility because any attack would spread radiation and affect Iranian civilians.

According to international law, installations which have real fuel cannot be attacked because of the humanitarian consequences, although Israel has never been bothered by international laws in the past.

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Number of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom casualties as
confirmed by U.S. Central Command: 5609

Deaths by Conflict

Operation Iraqi Freedom: 4400
Operation Enduring Freedom: 1209
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20 year old Marine Lance Cpl. Kevin M. Cornelius

The heat has finally left us! Its still hot outside but not like it has been. I can walk out now and not feel like I just jumped into a steam room. The dogs can go out for more than a minute at a time and hopefully the grass will stop turning brown.

I hate to see the electric bill for this month.

I applied for another job today, I am sure I won’t get it but I keep on trying to find something that is normal work days and not shift work. I figure one say I will get lucky.

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ISN’T JESUS ABOUT LOVE AND PEACE?

PALINBOTS are at it again, this time about a dozen right-wing Christians, carrying placards and yelling “Islam is a lie,” angrily confronted worshippers outside a Fairfield Avenue mosque Friday.

“Jesus hates Muslims,” they screamed at worshippers arriving at the Masjid An-Noor mosque to prepare for the holy month of Ramadan. One protester shoved a placard at a group of young children leaving the mosque. “Murderers,” he shouted.

Flip Benham, of Dallas, Texas, organizer of the protest, was yelling at the worshipers with a bullhorn.

“This is a war in America and we are taking it to the mosques around the country,” he said.

Turning peace and love into hate

Mustafa Salahuddin, an Ansonia police officer and parishioner at the mosque, calmly watched the protesters from the mosque’s parking area.

“This is unfortunate, but it’s a free country,” he commented on the protest. “But I believe Jesus would have been appalled by this. We revere Jesus the same way they do.”

****I thought Jesus was suppose to love everyone. I keep seeing all these Christian groups protesting with signs saying that Jesus hates this and that and that God hates this and that. It makes me think that maybe I don’t want anything to do with such a hateful God and Jesus. ****

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GM said Thursday that it made $1.3 billion from April through June, its second straight quarter in the black and a complete reversal from last year, when it was forced into bankruptcy and the U.S. government took a majority stake.

****You, as a taxpayer are a part owner of GM, but you are not going to get any of that profit.****

Ford Motor Co., which never needed government help, made $2.6 billion in the second quarter, its fifth straight quarterly profit.

Chrysler Group LLC, which got $15.5 billion in federal aid, narrowed its second-quarter loss to $172 million.

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Number of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom
casualties as confirmed by U.S. Central Command: 5609

Deaths by Conflict

Operation Iraqi Freedom: 4400
Operation Enduring Freedom: 1209
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19 year old Marine Pfc. Vincent E. Gammone III

My sinus issue is getting better, I am starting to be able to taste things again and I can breath through my nose most of the time now.

Not much has been going on at home, it has just been too hot with temps around 100 and heat indexes close to 115. The heat pump is doing a great job and keeping the house cool.

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Ramadan is the 9th month of the Islamic calendar. It’s when Muslims all over the world spend 30 days observing fast and bettering themselves in principles of faith.

Here is an idiots guide to Ramadan for those who want to learn more.

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In hidden vaults across the country, the US government is building a stockpile of $1 coins. So many coins that if the coins were stacked they would reach almost seven times higher than the International Space Station , and the Federal Reserve is running out of storage space, and the piles continued to grow because the law requires the US Mint to issue four new presidential coins each year even if most of the previous year’s coins remain in government vaults.

Americans won’t use the coins, preferring $1 notes. But the US keeps minting them anyway, and the Fed estimates it already has enough $1 coins to last the next 10 years.

Because a coin can last four decades while a dollar bill lasts only a few years, replacing the dollar bill with the coin could save the US $500m to $700m per year in printing and paper costs, not counding the cost of storing and guarding the current unused coins.

But we Americans are stupid and like our paper money, and members of Congress are afraid to pass a law that does away with the one dollar bill for fear of losing votes in their next election.

****Wow, 500 million dollars a year sure would buy a lot of school books for kids****

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Number of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom
casualties as confirmed by U.S. Central Command: 5607

Deaths by Conflict

Operation Iraqi Freedom: 4400
Operation Enduring Freedom: 1207
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23 year old Marine Cpl. Max W. Donahue