Sometimes a coincidence or coincidences can bring to the surface emotions locked away for years and years. It's as if the final part of the jigsaw is finally put in it's place.
This is such a story, first seen in the Star-Telegraph.
Photo - Soldiers Laying Down Covering Fire with machinegun - Vietnam 1966
By Dave Stancliff/For the Times-Standard
Posted: 11/14/2010 01:29:46 AM PST
While our government is busy waging war in Afghanistan, a war on our own border is escalating and resulting in increased American causalities. "We have been at war here since 2003 and unfortunately we are familiar with the concept of death," Col. Bill Meehan, a spokesman for the Texas National Guard, recently told the national press.
Col. Meehan's comment came on the heels of the murder of a National Guardsman, Jose Gil Hernandez Ramirez, 21, of El Paso, who made the mistake of crossing over into the border city of Ciudad Juarez on personal business.
More than 6,500 people have been killed in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, since a turf war erupted two years ago between the Juarez and Sinaloa drug cartels.
Another American who made a mistake and paid for it with his life was David Michael Hartley of Texas. He and his wife Tiffany were ambushed after crossing into Mexican waters with their personal watercraft on Falcon Lake, near the southern tip of Texas, on Sept. 30th.
According to a Houston Chronicle analysis of the U.S. State Department's death registry, 48 Americans were slain in Mexico during the first six months of 2010. The U.S. State Department says more than 80 Americans have been killed this year in Chihuahua, the state where Juarez is located. That's already more than the 79 homicides of U.S. citizens in all of Mexico in 2009.
In October, six U.S. citizens were killed in less than a week in Ciudad Juarez, including two students in the latest attack, according to U.S. officials. It has one of the world's highest murder rates, with more than 2,000 people killed this year.
Why are stories like this more commonplace every day? Perhaps because the war, and it is a war, in Mexico is spilling into U.S. territory with frightening regularity. The Mexican Gulf drug cartel has penetrated 270 U.S. cities according to recent Homeland Security reports. Atlanta, Georgia, is a major Gulf cartel smuggling hub according to the DEA and state authorities.
Our government needs to stop acting like the world's police force. We can't afford it. Mexican drug traffickers sell heroin and other drugs in our cities with impunity. What's happening on our borders and in our cities should be priority No. 1. National security should start at home.
Mexico is in a state of siege and shock from the increasing brutality of cartels who show the world who is really in control there. The Mexican media have all but surrendered to these cartels because the government can't protect journalists who dare to report their illegal activities. Freedom of the press is suppressed daily.
Despite this grim drama next door, our politicians have focused their efforts on Iraq and Afghanistan to “protect” our national interests. I question why they downplay this war in Mexico.
It's troubling being next to a country so corrupt its police are suspected of being connected to the cartels they fight.
Americans tourists traveling to Mexico are warned about certain areas, mostly in Northern Mexico (on our borders), acknowledged to be dangerous by both the Mexican government and ours. T
The big picture is we have an unstable country next door. An increasing number of its inhabitants flee to the U.S. seeking safety, as well as for financial reasons. Their war is spilling over into our country and our politicians prance around that reality, trying to act like they're doing something about it. The death toll is going up, not down.
This volatile situation is no secret. It's been going on for decades, and despite nice talk between our two governments about lofty trading goals and human rights, the reality is much more sober. We need to protect Americans from the war next store, and that takes money.
As It Stands, what's it going to take to get our politicians to recognize the war in Mexico endangers Americans more than the Taliban?
He wrote about topics like predestination and original sin. Some of his doctrines separate Western and Eastern Christianity, with St. Augustine defining certain doctrines of Western Christianity.
He lived and died in Africa during the time of the attack of the Vandals, A.D. 430.
Read more about Augustine:
I’ve enjoyed Rockwell’s art ever since my art classes in high school when we studied masters like him. It’s amazing to me what he did with a staged Black & White photo. The coloring and slight adjustments to make the scene stand out show his genius. If you’d like to see more examples GO HERE.
A BEACH? NO! THIS IS NOT A BEACH!
A yacht was traveling in the South Pacific when the crew came across a weird sight. Look at these photos and try to imagine the thrill of experiencing this phenomenon.
Mexico’s war is spilling into the U.S. (see chart). Our government needs to get out of Afghanistan and use that money to protect Americans at home. National security starts at home.
Record Number of Americans Killed on Border
“It has been a violent year in Mexico. Last weekend was no exception. Four Americans were killed in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, which sets just across the border from El Paso, Texas. Two were fatally shot near the Zaragoza international bridge in one incident. In separate incidents, two other U.S. citizen suffered fatal shooting wounds in Ciudad Juarez.”
“Gunmen have killed six U.S. citizens in separate attacks since Saturday in the violent border city of Ciudad Juarez, the U.S. consulate said on Thursday, as Mexico struggles to halt surging murders.”
Mexico cops arrest child in hunt for hitmen as young as 12
“Parents in the violent cities of Ciudad Juarez and Tijuana on the U.S. border say children as young as 8 years old want to grow up to be drug lords, as the thrills and wealth of the trafficking world touches their lives.”
Melissa Dahl writes: Why did the cookie go to the hospital?
Because he felt crummy.
What did one snowman say to the other snowman?
Smells like carrots.
Why does Snoop Dogg carry an umbrella?
Fo' drizzle.
Terrible jokes? Or a sign of a brain disorder? Actually, sometimes it's hard to tell.
Witzelsucht (the Germans just have the best words for everything, don't they?) is a brain dysfunction that causes all sorts of compulsive silliness: bad jokes, corny puns, wacky behavior. It's also sometimes called the "joking disease," and as Taiwanese researchers phrased it in a 2005 report, it's a "tendency to tell inappropriate and poor jokes." We've covered all sorts of strange disorders of the mind in earlier Body Odd posts: one disorder makes you believe your loved ones are strangers, another convinces you that your hand has taken on a life of its own. Now, we give you a brain disorder that actually causes a poor sense of humor.
The Minimum Wage Machine is an artwork made by Blake Fall-Conroy. Anyone who interacts with the machine can “work” for a minimum wage.
Turning the crank by hand will yield one penny every five seconds, adding up to $7.15 an hour, which is New York State’s current minimum wage.
I’m curious to know who fills the Wage Machine up when the box is empty!
Grain alcohol may bring back memories — or flashbacks — of college dorms.
But Gilardi’s, a sleek Italian bistro in Springfield, Mo., offers a house-made Limoncello with lemon zest, sugar, and the 190-proof grain alcohol Everclear. It’s served straight up in a sugar-rimmed cordial glass — hardly a means to a sloppy end.
Slideshow: World's strongest liquors
The drink is no anomaly. In the last few years, exceedingly potent alcohols have moved beyond the frat house and into the mainstream palate, thanks to the revival of pre-Prohibition cocktails and our unending thirst for the latest and greatest. “There’s this new level of connoisseurship among drinkers in search of novelty,” says Noah Rothbaum, editor in chief of liquor.com. “It’s not about flavor; it’s about the experience.”
Warning. Sensory overload. Too much Trump, Stormy Daniels, MAGA Mike Johnson, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Lindsey Graham. Too many Trump tr...
