The wife and I saw the film Stop-Loss this past weekend.  I had never heard of the term stop-loss before I saw the movie, it is basically the ability of the US Army to involuntarily extend a soldier’s enlistment contract past the initial end of service date in the time of war.  That is where the rub is, we haven’t declared war on Iraq, we have a nebulous war on terror (it might as well be a war on cockroaches or martians).  Overall it was a decent movie, it won’t win any awards, but it definitely gets the message across that our soldiers are getting fucked in the ass on this one.  When I say fucked in the ass, that isn’t just with the stop-loss, it goes for the whole nasty mess the assholes in charge of our country have gotten them into.  There is a decent comment thread about stop-loss on the movies blog site here, comments are mostly from military men and women.  I will leave you with a poignant comment from a soldier that is currently being stop-lossed:

I am grateful a film is out about the Stop-Loss issue. Many of us have been “Stop-Lossed” and sent back to Iraq after our contracts with the Army have been fulfilled. Some of us never came home. After having served my country for 11 years, it is shameful that we, as soldiers, are subject to imprisonment if we fail to uphold our end of our contracts with the US Government, yet it is perfectly legal for the US Government to not uphold its end of the bargain. We all accept and do what is required of us while serving our country. But when our “time is up” and “duty fulfilled” they force us back and demand more. Personally, I believe that President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and former Secretary of Defense Rumsfield, should be held personally accountable and legally charged for the death of every soldier that was deployed under Stop-Loss. We did our duty, now let us go.

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Debra LaFave is due back in court in January, this time on probation violation.  For those of you who don’t remember, LaFave was convicted of “lewd and lascivious battery on a child under the age of 16″ and admitted to having sex with a 14 year old male student five times.  LaFave’s probation violation?  She shared a conversation about her personal life with a 16 year old.  That bitch! 

I’m sorry, but I can’t vilify this person.  I admit I don’t know the intricate details of this case but putting myself in the 14 year old boys shoes, there would be no victim.  There is a double-standard here, but let’s be real, any 14 year old boy would give his left nut to sleep with her once, let alone five times.  Hell if it was me, I would be king of the world in Junior High.  Not only that, but she’s hot!  Just look at her:

I don’t know about you, but this would be a 14 year old boy’s dream, so in my mind, she’s no criminal, she’s in the dream-making business.

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Score one for Simpson?  O.J. gets his Rolex back after an appraiser determined that the watch was only worth a hundred bucks.  The watch was seized recently by the Goldman’s lawyers but was ordered to be returned after the appraisal came back.  Goldman lawyer David Cook was quoted in an ABCnews.com article:

“While we are clearly disappointed with the outcome, this tells us that collecting on this judgment, against this guy, is really tough,” Cook said.

At least now O.J. won’t be late to his next felony….

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As a gross generalization, we Americans have become numb to the erosion of our civil liberties.  One of my biggest pet peeves are the passing of legislation put in place to “protect” us from ourselves.  The simplest example of this are the seat-belt laws.  On the surface this makes sense because everybody knows it is safer wearing a seat-belt.  But, do we really want the government to dictate safety to us via legislation?  What’s next, getting a ticket for being a dumb-ass?  (Which is basically what the seat-belt law is about).  There is no crime here and there is no victim.  If I want to be a dumb-ass, why can’t I? (I have plenty of practice)  This is a slippery slope that we are on and the government is slowly but surely chopping away at the remaining liberties we possess.

 Another example of this are the smoking bans.  There are some interesting comments from Hear ItFrom.Us regarding the recent legislation in Tennessee.

Finally, popular opinion has won out over individual property rights, and people no longer have the power to decide what types of otherwise legal activities they will allow on their own property. What a great day for individual liberty!!!

I’m not sure what the answer here is, but maybe it starts with everyday people asking the right questions, like “why?”….

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I caught most of the 60 Minutes interview of Clarence Thomas this evening between screaming fits of rage from my children.  I was impressed with his candor and at how well spoken he was.  Check out his wikipedia page here for more info.  I agree with some of his stances (free speech for the most part) and disagree with others (his stance on the executive).  I still love the term “we’re going to Bork him” used in reference to the nomination hearings, our Congressmen and Senators are dirty dirty people.  And, it’s a damn shame that the Anita Hill pubic hair thing will follow him to the grave and beyond.

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