Let's protect our hearts and our lives

My classmate, Kelly's blog post, Overwhelming Oppositions of Obesity reminds me of a commercial I saw last night, it was an aspirin commercial and the woman who was speaking was a rather heavy woman. She told her story of how she had a heart attack on an airplane and survived because she took an aspirin and now her doctor has her on an aspirin regimen to help prevent future heart attacks.
Now, I don't know all that there is to know about the causes of heart attacks or heart disease, but there is a link between being overweight and cardiovascular and heart disease. According to AHealthyMe.com, despite our national obsession with thinness, Americans are heavier and less active than ever before. Over the past 40 years, there has been a marked rise in obesity in the United States, which experts associate in large part with overeating, a rise in fast food consumption, and a sedentary lifestyle in which many Americans do little more than walk to and from their cars. That's a lot of people with a higher-than-normal risk of developing heart disease. I really think that this is such an important issue and we as Americans need to take a close look at what we are putting in our mouths and putting on our children’s plates, because this problem isn’t just with adults, according to the American Heart Association, currently about 12 million American children and adolescents, ages two to 19, are considered obese, and the health consequences are staggering. Recent research shows that an obese child's arteries resemble those of a middle-aged adult, and that overweight adolescents have an overwhelming chance of becoming obese adults with an increased risk for cardiovascular disease. This is not just a matter of how we look; it’s a matter of health and a matter of life and death.

Women are veterans too!

Combat is not just for men anymore, women are now accounting for 14 percent of active-duty military. From the American Revolution to Panama, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq, women have served in some way in every conflict. So many of the services offered to veteran's re-entering the civilian life are catered to men, when women of the armed services are in need of assistance as well. I was excited to read the article from The Christian Science Monitor, Operation Home Front helps women veterans heal, the VA has been slow to incorporate programs for female veteran's who are struggling with so many different issues, especially those that need assistance with physical and emotional stress related to having served in combat and on the front lines in Iraq and Afghanistan. Another issue faced by female veterans is sexual trauma, "Sexual abuse in the military is on the rise. According to a Defense Department report in March, such incidents had increased by 11 percent over the previous year, and 87 percent of the victims were female." Operation Homefront was created by the Department of Veterans Affairs to assist our female veteran's and their families with health and welfare issues, financial assistance, food assistance, auto repair programs and so much more. It's time the government step forward and award not just the men, but the women in the armed forces for doing their jobs! These are REAL women in the military that continue to do their jobs, continue to serve their country and wonder why there are no services catered around them as there are for the men, I'm so glad the VA is finally giving our women veteran's a chance to transition without strife.

A child is NOT a choice...

I am a little disappointed in the amount of people, especially women that agree with our classmate Megan’s blog post on abortion. As a woman, I can see where Megan is coming from by not wanting our bodies controlled by the government, but any way you put it, I am still 100% pro-life. I would much rather the government tell me that I cannot have an abortion, then have the option to kill another human being growing inside of me, a child of my own blood. Megan's main argument is that she doesn't want the government to mandate what she does with her body, however, the government controls that already. You are required to wear a seat belt while driving a motor vehicle, are you not? Is controlling your public saftey not the same as ensuring the life of a child be protected while in the womb? Drugs in which people consume into their bodies are illegal, shouldn't I have that choice as well, whether or not I want to harm my body by putting illegal chemicals into it? Sure it IS your body Megan, that they are protecting with these other laws that we are required to abide by, the child growing inside a woman's body is not her own and should be protected by any measure!

Megan states, “I am a responsible adult, who made a decision long ago to not have children and I take all the precautions, but if something ever did happen, I want to know that I have the right to choose, not the government telling me I can’t because I wasn’t raped, or it’s not medically necessary. And that’s what it boils down to, it’s my body it should be my right.” However, I have to ask, if you have taken all precautions on not having children, have you really? Instead of saying that you don’t want children, so you should be able to have an abortion should you accidentally get pregnant, perhaps an option is to opt for long term and permanent procedures to ensure that you will not have to make that choice of killing your unborn child. There are many forms of permanent birth control, such as tubal ligation, or for men a vasectomy. I did some research and found a procedure call Essure, which is a permanent procedure that takes less than 10 minutes in your doctor’s office and creates a natural barrier against pregnancy. At current rates, it is estimated that one in three women in the United States will have an abortion by age 45. Women from all different backgrounds, ethnicities, religions, and political views have abortions. It is one of the most common surgical procedures in the United States. Induced abortion remains the major form of birth control among American women, but it should be limited to those who absolutely need it in life or death situations, it should not be an option because a woman was careless, uninformed or have limited access to information concerning modern methods of planning and reproductive health. Abortion should never be an option, and is not an option for a “responsible” adult woman.

Where there's smoke, there's fire.

I am completely blown away by a Fox News report that a Qatari Diplomat, Mohammed Al-Madadi, will be allowed to stay and continue his business in the United States after smoking on an American aircraft and when questioned, jokes that he was trying to light his shoes. Qatar's U.S. ambassador, Ali Bin Fahad Al-Hajri, cautioned against a rush to judgment. "This diplomat was traveling to Denver on official embassy business on my instructions, and he was certainly not engaged in any threatening activity," he said in a statement on his Washington embassy's Web site. "The facts will reveal that this was a mistake.”
This joke was far from innocent, while I believe his immunity status should be respected, he needs to be expelled from doing business in the United States. Al-Madadi obviously showed poor judgment and responsibility, and Qatar’s U.S. Ambassador should be ashamed! Qatar and any other country should have some respect when it comes to making terroristic threats to American’s, joking or not, all threats should be taken seriously regardless of diplomatic status. It is an insult to this country and to American’s to continue to allow this man to stay in our country. Although authorities state that Al-Madadi didn’t commit a crime and will not be criminally charged stating that diplomats have broad immunity, I think there should be a no tolerance rule for these kinds of acts when it comes to our national security.
Even though authorities believe that no crime had been committed, I did a little research and found that federal law prohibits tampering with smoke detectors or smoking in lavatories on American aircraft. Not sure what federal law means in other countries, but we American’s are held at a pretty high standard! It seems obvious that diplomatic immunity places Mohammed Al-Madadi above the law.

The following is an example of a Texas statute dealing with terroristic threats, taken from http://definitions.uslegal.com/t/terroristic-threat/:

TERRORISTIC THREAT

(a) A person commits an offense if he threatens to commit any offense involving violence to any person or property with intent to:
cause a reaction of any type to his threat[s] by an official or volunteer agency organized to deal with emergencies;
place any person in fear of imminent serious bodily injury;
prevent or interrupt the occupation or use of a building; room; place of assembly; place to which the public has access; place of employment or occupation; aircraft, automobile, or other form of conveyance; or other public place;
cause impairment or interruption of public communications, public transportation, public water, gas, or power supply or other public service;
place the public or a substantial group of the public in fear of serious bodily injury; or
Influence the conduct or activities of a branch or agency of the federal government, the state, or a political subdivision of the state.

The following is what I found on the tobacco and smoking policy onboard airlines, taken from http://www.law.capital.edu/Tobacco/federal_laws.asp.

Federal Laws

Smoking Restrictions
Airplanes and Airports

General Rule: The federal government prohibits smoking on all U.S. airline flights arriving in or departing from the United States. 49 U.S.C.A. § 41706 (a) (2005).

Enforcement Agency: The Federal Aviation Administration enforces the smoking restriction on airline flights.

Penalties: Civil fines for smoking on an airline flight range from $2,200 for smoking in an airplane seat or cabin to $3,300 for smoking in an airplane lavatory. Tampering with a smoke detector installed in an airplane lavatory is punishable by a $2,200 fine. 14 C.F.R. § 121.317(g), (h), (i) (2005); 49 U.S.C.A. § 46301 (2005).

Nobama Care For Me Please!

Ted Rall of The Smirking Chimp writes asking for right wingers to give a hand in voting down the ObamaCare proposal and come to the rescue because, “We can't count on so-called liberals to fight for us.” Now, tell me Ted, who was it that voted Obama into office in the first place? Are you not one in the majority that voted for “change”, but when you get it you want to blame the other side, the Republicans, for not doing enough to stop the “change” that you no longer want? Rall comments in his blog, Hey, Right-Wingers! Save Us From ObamaCare! , that David Rivkin, a Conservative attorney, is attempting to sue the government because ObamaCare goes against our Constitutional rights. However, Rall feels like more needs to be done by Republicans to stop the passing of the healthcare reform bill. I agree, I think Republicans and Democrats alike need to really look at the big picture and what the reform will mean to all of us, not just those without insurance. But then again, I am one of the Conservatives that didn’t vote for Obama, so am completely against this reform. So, Ted, before you start blaming and pointing your guilty finger at the Conservatives, maybe you are the one that needs to call your Congressman and lay your claim to try and persuade them against the change in our healthcare system, or as you say, “non-system”. Because as you point out, Rush Limbaugh feels that there isn’t anything wrong with our current system, and neither do I. Sure, premiums are high, and I’d rather not pay $480.00 a month to insure my family, I would love to get it for free like those who abuse our welfare systems do, but I like knowing that if my children or myself get sick, we will be taken care of so I suck it up and pay it every month!

ACORN: Don't Pass Go, Don't Collect $200

In the latest "get out of jail free" case, “ACORN workers cleared in NYC prostitute video” the article in USA Today not only displays the case an easy victory for ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), but also displays a tainted portrayal of the justice system.

The article, “ACORN workers cleared in NYC prostitute video” discuss’ the alleged prostitute money laundering scheme approved by ACORN. The alleged crime was captured on video and still seemed to slip through the cracks as a harmless oversight. According to the New York prosecutors office, which voted in favor of ACORN and found them innocent of no wrong doing, laundering earnings and falsify an application for public assistance is not a crime punishable by the U.S. justice system.

From my professional and educational background, a crime where laws were not abided is still a crime. For a professional organization to encourage lying and falsifying documents to aid someone and particularly someone who works in an illegal profession, is in my eyes, not only immoral but wrong in all aspects, including accepting money from the federal government. I am saddened to think that ACORN and no doubt, other organizations are allowing these practices to continue to do business in this fashion and view it as an acceptable means to an end. ACORN and any other organizations that are using these practices should be shut down, regardless of their political standings and who they are helping until proper policies and procedures are put into place to ensure that these wrong doings will not happen again and hardworking tax payers are not paying for illegal distribution of federal money.

Hey Joe Biden...

The article, Biden, Obama Administration Ignoring Al Qaeda Pursuit of WMD is interesting because I think so much focus has been taken off the global war on terror and place upon the economy since the beginning of the Obama administration. I am not saying that the American economy is not important, it is very important for all of us, however for Biden to say that he feels that “another terrorist attack is unlikely” is being very naïve to what the international terrorists are capable of doing to American’s on American soil. Liz Cheney makes a valid point in staing that she feels that Joe Biden is misinforming American's that we are safe from terrorism here at home. I think we all need to be aware that Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups are still out there and be aware of what they are capable of doing and that it is much worse than that of any recession. Hey Joe Biden, get your head out of the closet and wake up and smell the terrorists!