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).