Ted's Soapbox 2.0

It has been a cold wet couple of days. It rained all day today and in mid morning it was mixed with snow, big wet flakes. I am finding the heat pump heat a little different. It feels colder in the house even though it is the same tempature as we always keep it at, 68. I guess it will take time to get use to.

I have been having some kidney stone issues the past couple of weeks. I passed one stone and I know I have atleast one more, because I can feel it moving from time to time. I have been doubled over by pain a couple of times and it makes it hard to sleep. The biggest issue is that this time they have been from my left side which is my bad kidney.

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Soupy Sales was one of my favorites to watch on TV.

Sales died in a hospice in New York after being admitted a week ago.

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“WE ALL LIVE IN A COCAINE SUBMARINE”

Guatemalan and US authorities have seized a makeshift submarine loaded with cocaine with a US street value of $200,000,000.

At least two other submarine-like vessels have been found by anti-drug patrols in the waters around Central America.

Usually these types of submarine cost about 1 million dollars and are sunk after their first use.

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ISRAEL REJECTS MORE CHARGES OF ABUSE

Israeli border police officers who were filmed apparently abusing Palestinian civilians will not face charges. An appeal calling for an investigation was rejected and the police’s actions dismissed as “only light blows”. The three videos show Palestinian civilians being struck, grabbed and humiliated by uniformed officers.

Israel and the US are due to begin a two-week military defence exercise, thought to be the largest of its kind in Israel’s history.

The exercise will focus on providing a joint defence against a simulated co-ordinated missile attack on Israel.

Up to 2,000 joint military personnel are believed to be taking part, along with at least 15 American ships.

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SOME GOOD NEWS

Federal employees under the National Security Personnel System are only a presidential signature away from having the program abolished.

The Senate approved the $680.2 billion Defense authorization bill that contained a provision to ax the controversial pay-for-performance program. The bill, which passed in a 68-29 vote, now heads to the White House for President Barack Obama’s signature. Obama has threatened to veto the bill over a separate measure unrelated to NSPS. If the bill is sent back to Congress for revisions, the NSPS provisions are likely to survive.

Other provisions in the 2010 Defense authorization bill would:
• Allow agencies to temporarily rehire retirees at their full salaries and annuities.
• Provide locality pay for federal employees in Hawaii, Alaska and U.S. territories.
• Allow previously retired FERS employees returning to the federal government to redeposit their annuities to the civil service trust fund, permitting them to combine their past and new federal service for future retirement benefit calculations.
• Recalculate annuities of CSRS employees who work part time at the end of their careers so they are based only on their full-time salaries.
• Require the Defense Department to justify sole-source contracts worth more than $20 million.
• Suspend the use of public-private competitions for federal jobs under Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76.

****I will be very happy to see the end of NSPS. It is one of the worst systems anyone could have thought of, I guess that should have been expected since it was a Rumsfeld plan.****

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PICTURES

Check out some wildlife pictures from the Chernobyl exclusion zone, and of the area itself.

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Number of Operations Iraq Freedom and Enduring Freedom casualties
as confirmed by U.S. Central Command: 5211

LCPL David R. Baker USMC