Friday, October 31, 2008

University of Washington students tried to save man who set himself on fire


Former UW staffer dies after setting fire to self
A former University of Washington staff member died Thursday after dousing himself with gasoline and setting himself on fire in Red Square.

By Will Mari and Nick Perry

Seattle Times staff reporters


A former University of Washington staff member died Thursday after dousing himself with gasoline and setting himself on fire in Red Square.

The 61-year-old man, who was not named by officials pending notification of his next of kin, was a recent employee, according to UW assistant police Chief Ralph Robinson.

UW spokesman Norm Arkans said the man separated from the university over the summer, but declined to elaborate on the circumstances.

"We don't know why he did this," said Robinson. "There were no protests or demonstrations going on, so we don't think it was political. He wasn't in a fight as far as we know. We just don't know what drove him."
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Officers shaken after finding a mom killed herself along with three small children

When we read stories like this, it is easy to understand the pain the family has, neighbors have and friends have, but too often we forget about what the members of the law enforcement community go through. If you pray for the family, which I'm sure you will, please add in the sheriff's department as well as the other first responders.




The grandparents weren't the only ones shaken. Dawsey said that first responders were greeted by the "horrific sight" of "young children, snuffed out."

"I know our deputies ... are pretty broken up about the whole scene," said sheriff's spokeswoman Gail Tierney.


October 31, 2008
Mother kills self, three young sons in Citrus County
FLORAL CITY -- Tragedy has struck Citrus County hard yet again: a mother appears to have taken the lives of her three young boys with a gun that she then turned on herself, according to the Citrus County Sheriff's Office.

The oldest boy was almost 4. The youngest was just 15-months-old.

The mother was identified this afternoon as 23-year-old Alicia Chomic of Pasco County. Her children were identified as Thomas Goldsmith Jr., almost 4; Damian Lietz, 2 1/2-years-old; and 15-month-old Anthony Lietz Jr.

The apparent murder-suicide took place at the home of the maternal grandmother, Vickie Maslowski, at 4983 E. Stoer Lane. Sheriff's officials said the 23-year-old mother and children left Pasco County about a week ago to move in with the grandmother and Chomic's stepfather in their Floral City mobile home.

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http://blogs.tampabay.com/breakingnews/2008/10/mom-three-sons.html

Blue Angels remove 2 for inappropriate relationship; only 5 jets to fly rest of season


Blue Angels remove 2 for inappropriate relationship; only 5 jets to fly rest of season
By Associated Press
11:06 PM EDT, October 30, 2008
PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) _ A spokesman for the U.S. Navy Blue Angels says the stunt-flying team will be down one jet the rest of its season after removing two members from duty for having an inappropriate relationship.

Capt. Tyson Dunkelberger, a spokesman for the team based at Naval Air Station Pensacola, said Thursday the squadron will finish its last three air shows next month with five jets.

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I wonder how much this will change the show at the Kennedy Space Center coming up?

Marine motorcycle deaths top their Iraq combat fatalities


picture from Sportbike.net


Marine motorcycle deaths top their Iraq combat fatalities
Story Highlights
25 Marines killed on motorcycles in past 12 months, compared with 20 killed in Iraq

Top Marine official: "The Marines are very serious about" addressing problem

All but one of the deaths have involved super-fast sport bikes

Marines have recently implemented a mandatory sport-bike course

From Larry Shaughnessy
CNN Pentagon Producer

About 18,000 of the nearly 200,000 Marines are believed to own motorcycles, Amos said.


QUANTICO, Virginia (CNN) -- Motorcycle accidents have killed more Marines in the past 12 months than enemy fire in Iraq, a rate that's so alarming it has prompted top brass to call a meeting to address the issue, officials say. Twenty-five Marines have died in motorcycle crashes since last November -- all but one of them involving sport bikes that can reach speeds of well over 100 mph, according to Marine officials. In that same period, 20 Marines have been killed in action in Iraq.

The 25 deaths are the highest motorcycle death toll ever for the Marine Corps.

Gen. James Amos, the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, told CNN that commanders are trying to drill down on what "we need to do to help our Marines survive on these sport bikes."

"The Marines are very serious about it," he said.
Watch these aren't your father's Harleys »
Marine Gunnery Sgt. Art Tucker knows all too well about the dangers of sport bikes. An owner of a Kawasaki Ninja, Tucker has had two crashes, and the second one nearly killed him.
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http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/30/marine.motorcycles/index.html

Why haven't we heard about sailors deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan?


If you keep track of the reports on the deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan, you would know that it is not just the Army and Marines, along with the National Guards and Reservists, but the Navy as well as the Air Force. What I didn't know was that so little was being done for the sailors who deploy into other units. This is sad and this is wrong.

You'd think that the DOD would be doing everything possible for the Navy and their families. Something needs to be done about this.

Sailors go solo on stressful Army, USMC tours

By Melissa Nelson - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Oct 31, 2008 14:52:28 EDT

PENSACOLA NAVAL AIR STATION, Fla. — Chief Warrant Officer Bob Turner spent most of the last year at an Army base in Afghanistan, far from his fellow sailors and the sea. The 28-year veteran was one of thousands of sailors attached by themselves to Army and Marine units, groups that trained together stateside — without them.

These solo sailors and their families lack the usual support groups for deployed personnel, and the costs of that can be considerable.

The stress for “individual augmentees,” as they’re called, can be greater than shipboard assignments because sailors deploy alone for six months to a year and are doing entirely different jobs than they’ve had throughout their careers, said Cmdr. Tracy Skipton, a psychiatrist at Pensacola Naval Hospital. Turner, for instance, was providing electronics support for a special operations team working outside the base.

“It was a whole new life for me,” Turner said.

It wasn’t easy working his way into the unit, either. Even though Turner wore an Army uniform and worked closely with soldiers, it took him months to feel that he was part of the team.

“You definitely know you are an IA because you see a group of Army come in together and they’ve trained in the states together and made plans to get ready for this,” he said.
go here for more
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/10/ap_navyia_103108/

Alaska Veterans not being taken care of properly

Alaska Native veterans dissatisfied with health services
By JILL FANKHAUSER
Alaska Star
Alaska Native veteran Walter Sampson wants to know why the U.S. government, and Veterans Affairs specifically, have not kept their promise to care for him and his veteran friends.

“For the last 38 years I have been trying to cut the red tape,” Sampson said. “And until this point, I've been unable to.”

Sampson, a Vietnam veteran, spoke to a panel of leaders from the National Guard, VA, Indian Health Services, Alaska Federation of Natives and the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corp. at the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention Oct.23. The panel discussed what each group is doing to increase quality and access to health care in rural Alaska, and what the future may look like.

Barriers to health care are often caused by geographical and financial challenges, as well as access to medical specialists or community health aides, said panelist Chris Mandregan, Alaska director of the federal Indian Health Service.
go here for more
http://www.alaskastar.com/stories/103008/mil_20081030034.shtml

Capt. Alex Houston Shows Warrior Ethos

Commander Shows Warrior Ethos

Army.com - Huntsville,Al,USA


“He walks the walk, and talks the talk,” she said. “He and his family are committed to the unit and soldiers. His injury has not been an impediment at all. He’s a true testament to the Warrior Ethos — a testament to what the folks at Walter Reed and he have done.”

Oct. 30, 2008
By Sarah Maxwell

FORT DETRICK, Md. ( American Forces Press Service) – In most ways, Army Capt. Alex Houston is like any other Army commander.

He comes to work here every day ready to lead and set the standard for the soldiers who work for him. He diligently performs all of his administrative duties as the 21st Signal Brigade Headquarters and Headquarters Company commander, and he gets down and dirty with the unit during company physical training. He jokes with his staff, and even has been known to sing off-key for them.

And he does this all as a wounded warrior. As a platoon leader in Iraq, Houston lost his left hand when his convoy was attacked during a night mission.

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Halloween pardon sought for executed British witches

When we talk about trauma it's easy to understand what it must have been like to be accused of being a witch just because someone decided to say you were one. That is what all of this was about. Someone saying something against you without having to prove one bit of it. How would you defend yourself when no one was asking for the claim to be proven and people you thought you knew were condemning you?

That is what is happening right here and now in this country. People are making all kinds of claims against others without offering any evidence. People are begin held by this country in other nations, like Iraq and Afghanistan without trials, without evidence, but some in this country see nothing wrong with that. People are making all kinds of false claims against Senator Obama without any evidence to prove it is true. How many times do you have to hear a McCain supporter repeating what they heard without any proof? This is the selection of the next president of the United States of America and some people have taken it so lightly they will believe rumors without evidence?

When the claims are proven false by some in the media, McCain and Palin just go on repeating the lie no matter what the truth is and they break the Commandment about bearing false witness, yet their supporters find nothing wrong with any of this? It would be one thing if they said something they thought was true then stopped saying it when it was proven false, but they just keep repeating the lie. Didn't they understand what happened in our own history with the Salem Witchcraft Trials? I often wonder how traumatic it will be for the people who have believed McCain and Palin when they find out they were lied to. Fear is a powerful thing but a lie is only powerful when no one is asking for evidence.


picture from About.com
Halloween pardon sought for executed British witches
Story Highlights
Petition seeks pardon for UK witches hundreds of years after their deaths

Around 400 people were executed in England for alleged witchcraft

The Witchcraft Act of 1735 put an end to trials of accused witches


LONDON, England (CNN) -- Campaigners in London planned to petition the British government Friday for a posthumous pardon for the hundreds of people executed for witchcraft between the 16th and 18th centuries.



They said Halloween is a good time to highlight the "grave miscarriage of justice" suffered by the men and women falsely accused of being witches.

Their petition asks Justice Minister Jack Straw to recommend that Queen Elizabeth issue a pardon.

"We felt that it was time that the sinister associations held by a minority of people regarding witches and Halloween were tackled head-on," said Emma Angel, head of Angels, a large costume supplier in London.

"We were gobsmacked to discover that though the law was changed hundreds of years ago and society had moved on, the victims were never officially pardoned."
go here for more
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/10/31/britain.witches/index.html

Military interest in memory manipulation as means of treating PTSD

Great the mice can forget but one thing I doubt the researchers are thinking about is the soul and emotions. Do mice have souls? Do they love and regret? Do they have a conscience? Do they pray to God? If the memory is erased after the trauma, after the trauma touches the soul, what happens then? Do they no longer remember the event and thus find no reason for feeling the way they do? What do they do when this happens? How do you heal something when you can't remember it? For all the talk about the troops and faith, it really is strange they wouldn't think of any of this and understand that this could be a very bad thing to do.

Military investigates amnesia beams

Military interest in memory manipulation as means of treating PTSD.


By David Hambling
A team of scientists from the United States and China announced last week that, for the first time, they had found a means of selectively and safely erasing memories in mice, using the signaling molecule αCaMKII. It's a big step forward, and one that will be of considerable interest to the military, which has devoted efforts to memory manipulation as a means of treating post-traumatic stress disorder. But some military research has moved in another direction entirely.

In the 1980s, researchers found that even low-level exposure to a beam of electrons caused rats to forget what had just happened to them (an effect known as retrograde amnesia — the other version, anteretrograde amnesia, is when you can't form new memories). The same effect was also achieved with X-rays. The time factor was not large — it only caused memory loss about the previous four seconds — but the effect was intriguing.
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Thursday, October 30, 2008

Deployed soldiers are paying attention to election, but wish someone paid attention to them

Is the economy important in this election? Absolutely! But imagine being in Iraq or Afghanistan right now and noticing how little coverage there is in either place. Would you feel as if anyone cared anymore? It keeps getting forgotten that everything that happens here affects them just as much as it does us because they have family here dealing with it and know they will have to return to it as well. They just have the extra burden on their shoulders trying to do their duty and stay alive. Why have the politicians forgotten them?

McCain, well he still wants to use them to sell his "I know how to win wars" but never addresses the simple fact the surge of troops had little to do with it and it was the rest that went on to reduce the violence and our troops dying as well as the Iraqis. Obama is focused on the economy and says that he wants to bring the troops home from Iraq and build up forces in Afghanistan. Aside from that, they are hardly mentioned.

One other missing subject in this election is the veterans, especially the wounded veterans needing care. McCain says he cares about them but his votes have proven he really doesn't. Obama serves on the Veterans Affairs Committee and has been part of the changes for the better in the VA, but we are left to wonder why it is Obama never really brings any of this up. Why wouldn't he be proud of his record on veterans issues compared to McCain? While they will say there are only so many hours in the day, it would be a wonderful thing if some reporter interviewing them would at least bring the subject of the troops deployed and the veterans who have been wounded at least once in a while. They noticed.

Soldiers see wars, economy as key election concerns
European edition, Friday, October 31, 2008



For Staff Sgt. Derek Detherow, based in Baghdad’s Sadr City district, the Iraq war is by far the biggest issue in the upcoming U.S. elections.

After all, the decisions that the future president will make on the war will directly affect him.

"The biggest thing in my life is here in Iraq," Detherow, who is with 1st Battalion, 35th Armor Regiment, said recently. "I can’t see too much beyond that."


Detherow said he doesn’t like how little attention is paid to his soldiers who are out working every single day. Yet he also acknowledged that there was some good in not being such a hot topic this year.



"The way I look at it, there are pros and cons of both the Republicans and the Democrats, and I don’t really favor either side," said Pvt. Gabriel Esquero, 25, of Alamogordo, N.M. "I’m just for whatever presidential candidate is ready to build the economy back up."

Esquero added that he believed both candidates had failed to talk enough to voters about what is at stake in Afghanistan.

"I think a lot of people fail to know what the issues are here," he said. "A lot of people think this is a wasted effort here."
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