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 Greetings! You are reading an article from The Mudville Gazette. To reach the front page, with all the latest news and views, click the logo above or "main" below. Thanks for stopping by! November 21, 2005 A Welcome Home HeartbreakBy Mrs GreyhawkSome readers of the milblogs may be familiar with this case and if not let me introduce you to little Kelsey.  She was just two years old when she was brutally murdered in October of this year. She suffered nine months of abuse before her life was tragically stolen from her. And died couple of days before her father returned home from serving our country. From Kelsey's Grandmother on her father's side: My granddaughter Kelsey was born after her parents were divorced. I wondered why this child would be put on this earth after the two people who were not meant to be together had already gone their separate ways. I knew she had a purpose, but what could it be?Lost In Lima Ohio, has been following this story closely and keeping us updated. Posted by Mrs Greyhawk / November 21, 2005 3:40 PM | Permalink 17 Comments |
November 26, 2010America@war [Greyhawk]
I think anyone who's ever pondered the "comment" option - once only available on blogs and bulletin boards, now ubiquitous on almost any web site - will appreciate this:
The so-called faculty of writing is not so much a faculty of writing as it is a faculty of thinking. When a man says, "I have an idea but I can't express it"; that man hasn't an idea but merely a vague feeling. If a man has a feeling of that kind, and will sit down for a half an hour and persistently try to put into writing what he feels, the probabilities are at least 90 percent that he will either be able to record it, or else realize that he has no idea at all. In either case, he will do himself a benefit. That's wisdom from the past, captured for posterity at the US Naval Institute, shared via the web on the institute's 137th anniversary. From their about page:
"The Naval Institute has three core activities," among them, History and Preservation: The Naval Institute also has recently introduced Americans at War, a living history of Americans at war in their own words and from their own experiences. These 90-second vignettes convey powerful stories of inspiration, pride, and patriotism. Take a look at the collection, and you'll see it's not limited to accounts from those who served on ships at sea, members of the other branches are well-represented. I'm fortunate to have met USNI's Mary Ripley, she's responsible for the institute's oral history program (and she's the daughter of the late John Ripley, whose story is told here). She also deserves much credit for their blog. ("We're not the Navy nor any government agency. Blog and comment freely.") We met at a milblog conference - Mary knew (and I would come to realize) that milbloggers are the 21st-century version of exactly what the US Naval Institute is all about. Once that light bulb came on in my head, I mentioned a vague idea for a project to her - milblogs as the 21st century oral history that they are. "Put that in writing," she said (of course - see first paragraph above!) - and here's part of the result. Shortly after the first tent was pitched by the American military in Iraq a wire was connected to a computer therein, and the internet was available to a generation of Americans at war - many of whom had grown up online. From that point on, at any given moment, somewhere in Iraq a Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine was at a keyboard sharing the events of his or her day with the folks back home. While most would simply fire off an email, others took advantage of the (then) relatively new online blogging platforms to post their thoughts and experiences for the entire world to see. The milblog was born - and from that moment to this stories detailing everything from the most mundane aspects of camp life to intense combat action (often described within hours of the event) have been available on the web... And et cetera - but since you're reading this on a milblog, you probably knew that. And you know that milblogs aren't just blogs written by troops at war, that many friends, family members, and supporters likewise documented their story of America at war online in near-real time, as those stories developed. The diversity in membership of that group is broad, the one thing we all have in common is the impulse to make sense of the seemingly senseless, and communicate the tale - for each of us that impulse was strong enough to overcome whatever barriers prevent the vast majority of people from doing the same. Everyone at some point has some vague idea they believe should be shared - we were the people who, from some combination of internal and external urging, found and spent those many half hours persistently trying to write it down. But where will all that be in another 137 years? Or five or ten, for that matter. That's something I've asked myself since at least 2004 - when I wrote this:
Membership in the ghost battalion has grown in the years since, and an ever growing majority of those abandoned-but-still-standing sites are vanishing. Have you checked out Lt Smash's site lately? How about Sgt Hook's? If you're a long-time milblog reader you know the first widely-read milblog from Operation Iraq Freedom and the first widely-read milblog from Afghanistan are both gone from the web. If you're a relative newcomer to this world you may never even have heard of them - or the dozens upon dozens of others who carried forth the standard they set down. If you have a vague notion that something should be done about that, (a notion I've heard expressed more than once...) then you and I and the good folks at the US Naval Institute are in agreement. Preserving the history documented by the milbloggers is just one of the goals of the milblog project, the once-vague idea that we're now making real. And it's a big idea, if I say so myself - too big to explain in one simple blog post, so stand by for more. Likewise, it's too big a task to be accomplished by just one person. So if you're a milblogger (and exactly what is a milblogger? is a topic for much further discussion on its own) I'm asking for your help. All I'll really need is just a little bit (maybe just one or two of those half hours...) of your time, and your willingness to tell the tale. We've already made history, it's time to save it. (More to follow...) Posted 4:02 PM | Permalink |
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The Mudville Gazette is the on-line voice of an American warrior and his wife who stands by him. They prefer to see peaceful change render force of arms unnecessary. Until that day they stand fast with those who struggle for freedom, strike for reason, and pray for a better tomorrow.
 
 
 Furthermore, I will occasionally use satire or parody herein. The bottom line: it's my house. I like having visitors to my house. I hope you are entertained. I fight for your right to free speech, and am thrilled when you exercise said rights here. Comments and e-mails are welcome, but all such communication is to be assumed to be 1)the original work of any who initiate said communication and 2)the property of the Mudville Gazette, with free use granted thereto for publication in electronic or written form. If you do NOT wish to have your message posted, write "CONFIDENTIAL" in the subject line of your email. Original content copyright © 2003 - 2011 by Greyhawk. Fair, not-for-profit use of said material by others is encouraged, as long as acknowledgement and credit is given, to include the url of the original source post. Other arrangements can be made as needed. Contact: greyhawk at mudvillegazette dot com  Tending Distant Far from hearth and home, watching What tales we'll tell When things grim Some distant sunset, vision fading Saluting fallen friends whose names - Greyhawk, Baghdad, December 2004 |
Sad story. Sounds like the mother was a dirtbag who hooked up with another dirtbag.
By the way, not to defend the Oklahoma DHS's actions, but DHS operations are almost always overstaffed and underfunded. You know, low taxes and all that.
Yeah, those low taxes which are only enough to fund hundreds of billions of dollers worth of pork barrel projects but not protecting children like this.
Solution: jack up taxes some more!
Just goes to show how carefully some people think their positions through.
Poor child, and poor father. My thoughts are with them both.
Please let us know, how can we help. My heart just cries for this little angel and her father.
Patti
soldiersangels@gmail.com
I'd also have to wonder about the whole situation. I mean, this woman divorces the guy and takes up with the sort ofn scumbag who beats a child to death. Wouldn't you think the father of the child would have known this woman a little better before deciding to crank out a baby with her?
Now, you can't predict stuff like that death in advance, and life's full of surprises including nasty ones like this. But what sort of couple was this? She divorces him while she's pregnant. Says something pretty bad about her, and frankly if I were him I doubt I'd be feeling all that great about myself.
Oh well, I guess it's how things are done in the red states. If I'm not mistaken, Oklahoma has the highest divorce rate in the United States, as opposed to, say, Massachusetts, which has the lowest.
God forbid we should discuss personal responsibility here, huh?
Poor little Angel. Will link to this story and the families web.
DHS has had a long history of mishandling cases in a lot of states for years. Bringing up tax cuts concerning the death of a child due to what is most likely a long term problem that has occurred for several administrations is obscene.
What's obscene, dear Becky, is what happened to the child. As for DHS's being underfunded, it happens all over the place. Open your eyes, wipe away the crocodile tears, stopping patting yourself on the back for your concern and take a look. The lower the state tax burden, generally the worse the DHS is. Not always true, but it's usually the case.
Wilson,
Way to show some class.
Amazing, that you've trained your high horse to dance on graves like that.
Another rainy day in Seattle, nothing better to do than troll some milblogs...
As a Nurse I have seen DHS drop the ball for years. Coming from a state with one of the highest tax ratios in the Nation we still have a DHS that fails. The more money you throw at a failure the harder it can drop the ball.
Try taking a look at the departments instead of declaring a lack of money to be the problem.
Gee between a chance to show sympathy to a lost child and her grieving father or scoring political points, Wilson Kolb chooses politics.
How sad.
Hey children, if I ran the show the stepfather would be executed and the mother would get a good, hard look to see what she knew of the abuse. If she knew anything or was in a position where she should have known, she'd be doing hard time.
As for the rest, I absolutely stand by every word of what I wrote. To the Besky's of the world I say this: Sympathy costs you nothing and it means the same. Jesus didn't call this little girl home, her dirtbag mother and scumbag stepfather are responsible for her death. And I'd really like to know what the father was thinking with respect to having a kid with that woman who impersonated a mother.
The fact that he was in the military doesn't absolve the guy of responsibility for his choices. And Becky and the rest of the Jawohl! crowd here might stop to ponder the fate of the many thousands of Iraqi children whose only crime in life was to cross the path of an American cluster bomb. Life's cruel; no one is more comfortable with the idea than you.
When God stuck children on the earth, he didn't make any distinctions based on geography. Kids are to be protected. So spare us the extravagant hoo-hah about the cute kid in Oklahoma when you're silent about the thousands upon thousands in Iraq. Your "compassion," like your other so-called values, is completely phony.
Wilson, whether you choose to agree with the war or not- it may do you some good to follow my grandfathers advice "you do not have to favor why we are fighting, but you must respect those that are fighting".
If you like your goverment granted right to run your mouth, you should thank a soldier for it. If you like the fact that you can get in your fancy car and drive to your left winged tree hugging war bashing parties- thank a soldier. Because what it comes down to is that if these men and women where not willing to fight for your unthankful disrespectful self- you wouldn't have the right to nod your head in either direction without permission from some crazed goverment run regime.
And honestly, these men and women are willingly risking their lives in order to serve your country. Now if I can over look the fact that that means they are also risking their lives so that idiots like you can continue to insult them, and every one else who you disagree with- you should be willing to shut up and sit down, and show a bit of respect for them.
What a sorry excuse for an American you are, L. The "right to run your mouth" is not government granted. Like the average rightwingnut, you haven't ever bothered to study the founding documents of the country you falsely claim to love, or the principles by which it was founded.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal, with the inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That governments are formed to protect those rights, and that they draw their power from the consent of the governed.
So, you five-star idiot, if you think the U.S. government "grants" a right to free speech then you're just as stupid as your Fake President and you probably lie as effortlessly as he does, too.
Now, as for the soldiers in Iraq, absoutely nothing they are doing there is defending this country. They are Americans in harm's way, and as such I wish them the best and eagerly await their return home, where they belong. I have never held the war against them; they don't get to choose their deployments.
You and your Liar in Chief have shamefully invoked patriotism in service of an imperial conquest that has utterly nothing to do with defending the United States.
Wilson, there goes that left wing nut in you, distorting the reality again.
The very document that you refer to only goes to prove my point, thanks. The Constitution was created by our founding fathers, it established many rights that we where to have under the American Government. First Amendment guarantees the freedom of worship, of speech, of the press, of assembly, and of petition to the government for redress of grievances.Note the whole the freedom of speech part. Now, that means that when establishing the rights you would have under the power of the American government- they decided to protect not only my right but yours. They choose to guarantee that under our system of government, you would be granted free speech- without the threat of government interference. The ability to speak may be something that everyone world wide normally shares (just to be PC with you- expect those that are mute) but the RIGHT to use that ability was given, and is preserved by YOUR government. You are welcome to step into some third world, communist run, regime controlled country and attempt to run your month under the pretense that they believe the "all men are created equal" deal there too- I just don't want to hear your pleas when you are tortured or killed because you said something that THAT country's government didn't agree with.
The founding fathers granted the right to free speech- why? Because just they wanted to ensure that the Americans of later generations would be able to have that right. If there had never been an issue with whether people should be able to enjoy freedom of speech, without the threat of persecution from the government, they would not have included it.
As for who is the "sorry excuse for an American ", I would have to point at the very person who clearly lacks respect with the very rights ENSURED and GRANTED to you by our first system of government. And those that fought for those rights. Or didn't you ever get to the part of American History where we learned about the struggle of the first Americans to gain freedom from the British?
As for this war, and your beliefs- I do ask you to change your thoughts on whether it is justified or not- but I would have hoped that you would respect those that, whether in this war or in one you believe in, would risk their lives to serve. I would ask that you give them the honor they are due, and to realize that if tomorrow a regime came into America and attempted to take away your rights, these men and women who you condemn now would be the very man and women giving their lives to protect you. Funny, how after you can criticize them they would still be willing to serve you.
Once again, L, you flunk civics class. Where did you go to school, in some wingnut southern "Christian" academy established to prevent the horrors of sitting next to a black child?
Neither the U.S. Constitution nor the founders "granted" the right to free speech. That and other rights were granted by the Creator; our government is based on the principle that governments must recognize those rights, and that to secure those rights governments are formed aqnd that their authority is derived from the consent of the governed.
It never ceases to amaze me how much fake "patriots" such as yourself who claim to love this country but actually hate everything it stands for, prattle on without knowing the first thing about the principles by which we were founded. The next lie I'm sure you'll be telling is that this country was founded on "Judeo-Christian" principles, when in fact the founders were overwhlemingly non-Christian and non-Jewish.
I say this because the "Christian nation" lie is a favorite of the rightwingnut phonies, who when confronted with the historical fact that the founders were Deists, simply lie about the whole thing. They'll take quotes out of context from Deists, who were pro-religion but were not Christians, or they'll willfully ignore Deist beliefs and portray them as Christians when in fact they were not.
So, L, I say you're ignorant and that you hate your country. Stupidity and arrangance are a dangerous combination, as anyone who looks at the Liar in Chief can attest.
Oh, one other thing: When you write that I condemn the military, that's another lie. I have never done so, and do not do so. Frankly, L., you are so hooked on lying that you wouldn't know the truth if it stepped onto your elevator and farted.
Yeah, great Winston, jump in and talk smack about a guy who just had his daughter murdered. I'm sure you know all the facts. Are you one of those morons who believes that women who are raped asked for it? You're disgusting.
Wilson, you're an idiot! This is not the forum for your diarrhea mouth! If you want to talk politics, go to Sean Hannity's site where they expect your kind of crap. I pity your sour soul!