DOD to Military: If you're not Gay then you can take it up the .....

Last week, the DOD (Department of Defense for those of you not up on your military acronyms) announced that in order to “provide fairness” to those members of the service who are homosexual to get married, the military would now generously give them 10 days of uncharged guaranteed leave in order to get married. I'm going to call crap on this policy, I think its absolute crap, pure and simple.

Now, don't get me wrong. I have nothing against homosexuals in the military. I don't care if a homosexual couple moves next door to me, nor do I care if a homosexual works with my husband. I honestly don't care if a homosexual were to deploy with my husband and see his ass butt naked in the showers – it doesn't bother me. However, this new “policy” bugs the shit out of me.

If a straight, heterosexual military member decides to get married out of state, they have to put in for leave and hope it get approved. There's no guarantee it will get approved, one has to hope and pray their superior approves it. When it is approved, it comes out of what days they have banked up, if you only have 5 days banked, well, you better get married really fast and get your ass back in time. No honeymoon for you. I know many people who have planned a wedding only to have something go wrong, whether it was leave not being approved or the wedding was outside the travel radius that was approved. Shit happens in the military, quite often.

However, now the DOD says “hey, if your gay, guess what, the rules do not apply to you.”.. If you're gay and want to get married, you automatically get 10 days, regardless if you've got that time banked or not. And its 10 days free, just for being gay and getting married.

How is this policy fair in any way shape or form? If a military member is deployed to a foreign combat theater for 1 year or more, they are given 15 days R&R which they are charged for out of their normal leave account. So basically the DOD is saying we will reward you for just being gay by giving you 10 days to go get married, but if your straight and putting your life on the line, you gotta pay for it yourself?

Originally, with the repeal of “Don't Ask – Don't Tell” we were told that all the government wanted to do was make it so that homosexual military members could have the same rights as their straight counterparts. I don't mind this, I honestly don't – but this does NOT create a level playing field across the board. To me, Equal means that both homosexual and heterosexual military members get the exact same treatment – access to military healthcare, BAH, survivor benefits for spouses. Equal does not mean give one side better treatment or more benefits than the other and tell us that it's fair. I'm sure there's plenty of heterosexual military members who would love to be given 10 free leave days to get married but that's not going to happen. So, why should homosexuals get it?

Fair is making homosexual members pay for their leave out of their accrued normal leave account, just like their straight counterparts. What's next DOD? Give homosexual couples who are E-4 or below houses established for Field Grade officers because they might not be comfortable living with possibly discrimination from straight E-4 and below in JNCO housing?

In my opinion (Not that the DOD or President Obama asked me for it ) is that by giving homosexual members “perks” or extras like the 10 extra days , instead of making the transition easier, it will only cause animosity between straight service members and homosexual service members. It doesn't matter if someone is Gay or Straight, they all serve the same military, the same country and should be given the same treatment. 

Until next Time...

Like Bob Barker says : Please remember to have your Pets Spayed or Neutered - Or Else!

Time for a new blog. I'm sure some have thought I have forgotten about you guys, I have not. I'm still around but work and life dictate when I'm able to write. Oh, responsibilities, you have a fine way of interfering with any fun that I have.

Topic today is probably going to piss a few people off and I am fine with that. Getting pissed off about something is healthy – it means that you're passionate about something. Some of you are going to agree with me as well and that's fine too. Either way, this blog is how I feel about things that occur on this base so I tell it the way that I see it.

This is how I see it:

Now, I'll be the first to admit that there are some piss poor pet owners on this base. There's a number of you who really shouldn't have pets. Pets are a responsibility and the decision to adopt a pet is one that should never be taken lightly. Many things should be considered when you adopt a new pet to bring in your home – do you have the time to actually take care and socialize that pet? Do you have the room for that pet because small cute puppies often grow up to be large dogs who need a yard and exercise for example. So many times people see a cute puppy and make a spur of the moment decision to bring it home without considering these factors and before you know it, the pup is being rehomed from no fault of its own but that of the irresponsible owner. Yes, these types of situations happen and its unfortunate. But, this is not what I want to write about.

Just One Example of a typical "free pet" post response

What grinds my gears is to see when people post on FB asking to rehome their pet and someone jumps their ass for it. Now, there are the “habitual rehomers” that do post and I can understand why someone would jump their ass – I mean, if you've rehomed 10 pets in 12 months then you need to stop getting dogs. In this case, the problem is not the dog but the owner. However, I'm speaking in regards to people who post one post saying they're cat had kittens and are looking for a home for them. Or the one time poster of someone who has a dog they need to rehome for one reason or another. There's always a handful of people who have to jump on the threads and bitch people out for either not having their pet fixed or for getting an animal without consideration for the long term responsibility.  When someone posts “looking for a forever home for my pet ASAP” with no other details, we don't know the details of the why.

This burns my ass because I've been in that situation before and had someone bitched me out about not having a pet fixed, I would have been beyond pissed. I'm a strong proponent for getting your pets fixed, you'll hear no arguments out of me here. However, guess what people? SHIT HAPPENS!! Yup, it happens a lot. I've had numerous cats in my lifetime and I've had a litter kittens born under my care. I once adopted an already pregnant cat and found loving homes for the offspring. Two months after she had her kittens, she was fixed. If someone bitched me out for being “irresponsible” when I was trying to find homes for those kittens, I would have been pretty livid. 

Here's a news flash to you bitches – get off your fucking high horses and shut your damn traps. If you don't know the situation, shut the fuck up, pure and simple. Not every pet post needs to be a teaching opportunity for you to preach about responsibility and give you the right to make people feel like shit when they have kittens or puppies. In your perfect world, every animal would be fixed but if that were the case, there would no longer be cats and dogs without a 500 dollar price tag since the only animals breeding would be purebred and expensive -which would also comes along with all the health problems many purebred animals have – making pet ownership only available to those in the higher tax brackets. Yes, there's plenty of unwanted pets out there, I understand this and animals repopulate at alarming speeds. So do some humans yet nobody's screaming “fix that woman” every time another baby is born.

Just shut the fuck up already – we all know to fix our pets. Hell, its even on The Price is Right . Bitching people out is not going to change things and it sure the hell isn't productive to an already born animal.

Then, there's the people who bitch out people when they rehome an existing pet. Again, without knowing the situation, these bitches (usually the same bitches who always post the links or bitches about fixing your pet) always jump and say some shit like “you shouldn't ever get another pet as you're an irresponsible pet owner”. Again, bitches, you don't know the situation. I for one don't always understand the reasoning for rehoming a pet just because you're PCSing – I've done it with pets and it turned out fine, however unless I know the whole story, I'm not going to cast judgment. Instead, I hope that the pet finds a good home. But that's not good enough for you bitches – nope, you got to jump on a thread and once again berate a person for their decision. Here's another news flash – be glad they are looking for a good home for their pet and not just dropping them off in the desert to become coyote fodder. When you see a post of a pet looking for a new home, actually look at the picture. Does the pet look healthy? Does it look well cared for? Is its weight appropriate for its size? If the pet looks like its been well cared for, then stop for a moment and consider that the owner has taken the time to care for and love the pet and it is probably hard for them to let the animal go but situations have deemed it necessary. Maybe in the case of a PCS, the pet is elderly and couldn't make the travel without being a risk to its life so the owner would rather part with the pet then to risk its life. Maybe the owner got the pet years ago, loved and cared for it, but then had a child who is allergic – last I checked you can't get rid of the kid. I'm not saying that if someone posts “I need to get rid of this dog because my yard isn't big enough” and they post a picture of a huge horse of a dog sitting in a patch of grass the size of a postage stamp that maybe one suggests in the future they get a smaller dog that doesn't need much room but instead of bitching people out and giving them a lecture on almost every post, have some tact and just shut the fuck up. 

Hell, you even criticize people when they don't feed their pets food that you feel is adequate - Shame on anyone who feeds their pet "Purina" - Don't you know you should be cooking wild game for your pets?  Anything less is considered animal abuse in the eyes of the lecturers. Fuck people - if a family can't afford to eat steak every fucking day, do you honestly think they can afford to feed their pet steak every day? I've yet to see one pet food that anyone of these people actually approve of - you can't buy shit at the commissary or they bitch, you can't buy shit from the vet or they bitch. Nothing is good enough for your pet except slaughtering a cow in your own back yard and feeding it to your pet.  Shame on you if you don't spend all that extra money on pet food - you shouldn't own a pet. Come on people - stop making people feel guilty because they can't afford a 50 dollar bag of Blue Buffalo dog food and instead opt for a 15 dollar bag of whatever at the Commissary -and before I get bitched out, my cat eats Taste of the Wild so we'll nip that argument in the bud right now. Yes, some people are going to feed their pets "inferior" pet foods and that might be all they can afford. Get over it - feed your pet whatever the hell you want and mind your own damn business. You bitching and posting about how dangerous commercial pet food will not change the fact that some people are on a very small fixed income but still want to own pets.  Hell, I find it more offensive you dress your pets up in pink fru fru designer outfits when they already have a perfectly fine fur coat. Halloween is fine but on an every day basis? It looks fucking stupid.

For your dog's sake, buy a baby doll or something if you need to dress something up.

Here's another thing. It's fair to say there are many people who need to learn the difference between a pet and a kid. Yes, I understand, you love your pet, I love my pets. However, your “fur babies” are still animals and there's a number of you who seem to forget this fact. No matter how diligent an owner may be, dogs are dogs and occasionally escape their confines. This is one of those things that hasn't necessary been bred out of dogs, they wander if given the opportunity. On this base, there are dogs who have been known to jump the fences, dig holes under the fences or squeeze through the smallest gap of those fences. Dogs also have something known as prey drive and needless to say this base has a shit ton of squirrels running around teasing the base dogs. All it takes is one squirrel to

Those damn Slutty Squirrels

give your dog that “come hither” look, shake its bushy tail in a seductive manner (you know how those slutty squirrels are) and before you know it, your dog is like your husband at a titty bar. Dogs are dogs, they are not kids. You may “train” your dog to stay in the confines of your fence but if given the opportunity and the stimuli, your dog is going to do what dogs do, they are going to escape. I'm sure when this happens, the owner is scared for the safety of the dog. Many times they often have to deal with the embarrassment of their dog's (and sometimes their cat's) photo plastered all over the Edwards pages. While I'm sure these owners are very grateful when someone houses their pet long enough for them to retrieve it, I'm sure its still embarrassing as all fuck for them. And yet, some of you bitches decide to take this one step further and give your lecture about the owner being “irresponsible”. Seriously, keep your fucking mouth shut for Christ's sake. Get off your high horse and stop giving unnecessary and unwanted lectures – all you do is piss people off, cause drama and look like a self-righteous bitch.

As said, I understand pets are a responsibility and we should love and take care of them. I also understand they are a lifetime commitment. But, I also understand that no matter what you say to people on Facebook, you're not going to change the situation. Take your unsolicited advice and shove it right up your ass. People don't need to be lectured every time they post – and while some people may say that this post is “unsolicited advice” I'd like to point out that nobody forced you to come to this blog site and read this – you came here knowing this blog is me posting my opinion. However, someone posting looking for a home for an animal is not posting looking for someone to post about their irresponsibility as a pet owner.

I have never seen anyone respond positively to one of these posters – I've never seen anyone say “oh, thank you so much for letting me know I should have had my pet fixed before it had a litter of unwanted babies. I've now seen the errors of my ways and shall promptly make an appointment at the vet at my earliest convenience.”. I've never seen anyone who's pet got loose say “Thank you for pointing out that I should do everything in my nature to make sure my pet never accidentally gets out of its yard. I can't believe I have been so irresponsible as a pet owner and I will promptly fix the problem.” Instead, I've seen a lot of “I didn't post this for your negativity. Please get off my thread” and shit to that nature. 

Take a hint people – nobody wants your lectures and nobody wants your negativity. The only thing you accomplish posting this shit is pissing people off.

Until next time...

Battle Lines Have Been Drawn

Today I thought I would cover a topic that's pretty controversial. It has nothing to do with Edwards itself - or the people of Edwards - but this country as a whole.

In the wake of the Zimmerman/Martin trial and Zimmerman's acquittal, one thing has become very apparent. Lines have been drawn in this country in ways we have not seen since the days of the Civil War.  War has been declared in this country but unfortunately the sides are not clear cut nor are they fighting for something honorable like independence. Suddenly everyone is enemy #1 no matter who you are.

This country is failing fast and there's no sign of any deliverance any time in the near future. Yet instead of the American people pulling together and deciding to fight for this country and our rights, we decide to fight against each other for no other reason then the reason to do so.

People are being attacked on the streets all over this country for no reason beyond their skin color, all in the name of "justice" for Trayvon Martin. Tell me people, exactly what this accomplishes? Whether one believes Zimmerman was right or wrong, where does the mentality of punishing everyone of a specific race as justice come from? Is it fair to "Kill the Whitey" because a jury of 6 found Zimmerman innocent? Is it fair to lump all blacks as hoodie wearing thugs because of the actions of Martin? To make matters worse, we made a whole new classification of race during this trial - Zimmerman who is considered Hispanic - was suddenly classified as a "White Hispanic". We have an entire generation of mixed children - where one parent is black and one is white - but we do not classify these children as "White African Americans", do we? However, suddenly we have "White Hispanics" in order for the media to make this case a white vs black hate crime and a civil rights case.

Here's a news flash people - take it or leave it. The media told you exactly what they wanted you to believe and you took that bait - hook line and sinker. .

The photos that were constantly shown on the news.

Martin was not an angel, regardless to what the media may have tried to paint him as. He was not an innocent kid just out buying skittles and tea. He was not the smiling kid in the photographs plastered all over the media. He was a huge "thug" (his own words, not my own) who lived for violence. He was a drug addict, a thief and a racist. His autopsy was shown to prove that he he had a history of using "Lean" - a narcotic drink made by mixing Arizona Watermelon drink, skittles and codine cough syrup.

Zimmerman was also no angel either but he was not the monster portrayed by the media. He was overly gung ho about his position as watchdog for his neighborhood watch program but he was not the racist white man that the media said he was. Along with facts about Martin, facts about Zimmerman have come to light after the trial verdict. He was a man who went out of his way to protect the rights of individuals of color when he felt they were treated unfairly.

Day after day, crimes upon people occur. Each day, hundreds of crimes take place - white on black, black on white, black on black, white on white, Hispanic on Hispanic. Yet, these crimes do not take top slot in our news. However, this incident in Florida which in all reality was much less heinous then many of the murders that take place on a daily basis, was force fed down our throats. Why is that? 

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not going to use this blog to defend Zimmerman or tarnish Martin. However, I will say that I have voiced my opinion more than once to state how I felt about this case and have had people "unfriend" me solely because my opinion was not that of crucifying Zimmerman. (My opinion is that they were both in the wrong). I've had facebook feeds saying if anyone dares to post anything in favor of Zimmerman or the verdict that they would be unfriended immediately.  People feel very strongly about this case - Why? Why this case? Why is there such an outcry for Martin who's actions and choices led to his death? Why is there no outcry for Antonio Santiago, a 13 month old boy shot in the head while sitting in his stroller by two black teenagers who tried to rob his mother? Because black on white crimes doesn't fan the flames of hatred that the media needed, even if it involved a truly innocent child killed in cold blood. Why?

Antonio Santiago - shot on March 11th, 2013.

Maybe its because the current administration figured that by focusing our attention on Zimmerman/Martin and fan the flames of racism, they could shift attention away from issues that would draw attention to them and make those in this country question their motives. When was the last time a story about Benghazi headline news? Or the national debt? Why would the shooting of one individual take precedence over more important issues?

Let me inform you of just how uneducated the national media and the government would have us be. During the Zimmerman trial, how many of my readers were aware that the President signed an agreement with Russia in order to bring 15,000  Russian troops into the US to assist with an upcoming "disaster"? Originally when I heard this story, I had thought it was typical conspiracy theory BS. Unfortunately, it is not false information. The truth is that nobody knows exactly why these troops were brought into this country - some believe that it might be because our own US military cannot be used against civilians in this country. Who knows for sure. But I look at it this way - if the US Government cannot afford to pay our military and are constantly making budget cuts, why would they pay for a foreign military?

Since I'm on the topic of our troops, were you also aware that during all the the Zimmerman/Martin attention, the government announced that because of the failure by Congress to end budget sequestration that the government might force the services in fiscal 2014 to freeze military promotions, suspend recruiting and halt all change of station moves?  While everyone's attention was focused on a trial that had no true effect on our lives, the government was playing a slight of hand. Hope you like Edwards people, because if the Government gets it way, you won't be going anywhere anytime soon. Hope all you military guys got your promotion this year because it not, you're probably going to be stuck in your current rank for a long long time, because it doesn't look like anything will be changing anytime soon. And where does it make sense that we're going to pay for 15000 troops from Russia but we can't afford our own military troops?


 I will admit, I have never been an Obama supporter and I have never voted for him, I felt the other opponents were a better choice for our country. Yet, for the last 5 years, we have been told that if you do not support the President, you are a racist, especially if your skin is white. When it comes to politics these days, the color of your skin determines if you are allowed to have an opinion or not. Even before the first election, when Obama was campaigning this was made apparent when a the word "articulate" was used to describe Senator Obama and was deemed a racist comment. (Ironically, the white man who described the Senator as such was Joe Biden, who became Obama's running mate and later his Vice President).  I will be the first to admit that I believe the current President and his wife feel that they are either Royalty or celebrities other than just an elected political figurehead. They jet set all over the world taking back to back frivolous vacations on the taxpayers dimes while telling the American people that this country is in financial crisis and that this country cannot pay its bills.  The government shuts down the White House (a building paid for and maintained by our tax dollars) saying there's no money to pay for tours for groups of school kids or visitors to DC, yet celebrities such as Justin Timberlake, Jay-Z and Beyoncé can go in and out like they live there anytime they want  and perform private concerts (again on the tax payer's backs) because they are "good friends" with the first family. School children are going hungry at school because the First Lady has made severe caloric limitations and foods given at school lunches while her and her children eat high on the hog. Yet, hey, Trayvon Martin is much more important for the American people to know about then what is going on in our own back yard, right?

This administration has done absolutely nothing to bring the American people together. Instead, it has seemed to do everything in its power to cause animosity between the people, drawing lines between the races. The President has broken into normal broadcasts in order to issue statements about the death of Whitney Houston and to speak openly about his feelings about Trayvon Martin, yet upon the death of Margaret Thatcher he failed to attend or send anyone as a representative of this country to her funeral.  When a cracked out singer who dies of an overdose takes precedence over one of the greatest women to have lived, you have to start questioning the decisions being made.

I'm definitely not a politician. I wouldn't even consider myself an armchair politician to be honest.  However, I am beginning to feel I'm the wrong color and even the wrong nationality for the current administration to support and represent me.  I am not black, I am not unemployed, I am not an illegal immigrant, I am not gay. I do not need government assistance, or a free cell phone, or Obamacare.  However, I am a middle working class, college educated white female who is married to a military member. I own guns, I own a gas guzzling vehicle, and I pay my own bills and my own way. This puts me in a very unpopular minority in this country.  It also puts myself and my family at risk now, when this country is so heated in hatred in a war of black vs whites. 

In closing, I'd like to leave you with a few quotes a very wise man. A man of color who understood that you don't stand with your hand out for freebies but knew the importance of struggle, suffering and working to make this country better. A man who understood that people all needed to stand together, not separate themselves based on skin color, in order for this country (and mankind in general) to survive. This world needs more Martin Luther King Jr's and less of the Jesse Jacksons and Al Sharptons of this world.. This country needs leaders who can bring us all together - the more we're divided against ourselves, the easier it is for us to allow our government to force us to look one way while we should be looking the other.

"Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent"

"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools"

"Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies - or else? The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars- must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation"

Until next time...