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Tobacco 435,000
Poor Diet and Physical Inactivity 365,000
Alcohol 85,000
Microbial Agents 75,000
Toxic Agents 55,000
Motor Vehicle Crashes 26,347
Adverse Reactions to Prescription Drugs 32,000
Suicide 30,622
Incidents Involving Firearms 29,000
Homicide 20,308
Sexual Behaviors 20,000
All Illicit Drug Use, Direct and Indirect 17,000
Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs Such As Aspirin 7,600
TERRORISM 310

Based on 3100 terrorist involved deaths over the past 10 years

You won’t hear this discussion in Canada, France or anywhere else that people with no understanding of economics are in power. I will avoid most of the technical mumbo jumbo and this article wil not, by any means, be a comprehensive examination of tax law or economics. Continue reading →

We spend over 50% of our budget on national defense, yet couldn’t prevent the 9/11 attacks OR correctly predict and carry out a sound battle plan in the Iraq War. In spite of this, all Republicans want to talk about is what we need to do about terrorism, illegal immigrants and liberals. Never mind that our military is currently constituted to fight a war that took place in the 1940s, and the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks is still out there. Now they’re saying it’s all about having faith, and allowing the President to rule as if he were a dictator. Continue reading →

Republican National Chairman Ken Mehlman pleaded with Lott last week to run again. The senator was as blunt with this emissary from President Bush as he was with me. “Where is our vision and our agenda?” he asked. The malaise afflicting the Bush administration not only threatens a Senate seat in Mississippi but impacts Lott’s decision whether to retire.
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We’re picking up stakes and moving west. A town called Agawam out in Western Massachusetts. This week has been hectic, but today we’ve been able to get just about everything we own into one of these boxes I’m surrounded by. I’ll have pictures of our new house posted once we’re all set up. It’ll be a few days before the posts start showing up.

There’s an old Ali fight on TV right now. The boys are asleep. They like watching old fights of Ali.

My life was altered for the better by comedians I grew up listenting to. Continue reading →

An article I came across. Anyone else love his movies? Continue reading →

If John Kerry walked in on somebody having sex with his wife and he held a press conference, it would sound like this:

“Today my opponent did something I find to be simply deplorable, and so I’m wrought with a lot of feelings about him, about my wife, and to get right to the center of what I’m talking about would require me to remind everyone of the fact that…”

Murtha speaks without rhetoric or meaningless filler injected just to kill time and/or confuse whoever might be listening.

(This was written by my wife Heather)

The day I turned eleven John Lennon was murdered. I only knew him as a British guy who had tiny round glasses. Continue reading →

It’s amazing to me that this site is still up. In case it goes away anytime soon, I’m archiving the entire thing. These guys are the ones who made the video in Iraq, shooting indiscriminantly to a soundtrack (I got the video before it was removed, but need to figure out how to upload it to the site). The message board captures that subject, as well as drug and alcohol abuse by Aegis people on the ground in Iraq.

YOU AND I PAY THESE CLOWNS MILLIONS! TO GET DRUNK AND GO ON A KILLING SPREE! Continue reading →

By FRANK RICH
WHEN a government substitutes propaganda for governing, the Potemkin village is all. Since we don’t get honest information from this White House, we must instead, as the Soviets once did, decode our rulers’ fictions to discern what’s really happening. What we’re seeing now is the wheels coming off: As the administration’s stagecraft becomes more baroque, its credibility tanks further both at home and abroad. The propaganda techniques may be echt Goebbels, but they increasingly come off as pure Ali G. Continue reading →

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This is a very entertaining read, with pictures of each. Sonicrusk is a good friend of mine from our Army days, and for years we corresponded with letters back and forth. Without exception, every one I received over a 5-6 year period had me cracking up. He’s a great storyteller, and a much better writer than he’s ever given himself credit for. I must have written to him just about every time that he needed to get a blog going. I’m so glad he did!

Sonicrusk Link Continue reading →

RIP

“Where all think alike, no one thinks very much.”
– Walter Lippmann

Anyone who hasn’t seen Entourage (HBO)…YOU’RE ON NOTICE! Yea you!

Look, if you want to keep rolling your eyes, that’s fine…I know there’s a War on HBO in America today. Whether or not the liberal media ever decides to get off their gay lover long enough to cover it, you can count on the interns, photocopiers and laser printers here at ‘deadissue’ to give it to you straight. Continue reading →

What’s the over/under on Republicans going to jail during this glorious period of American history? How many church-goin’-tough-on-crime righties have to go down before corruption becomes a bigger story than this bullshit ‘War on Christmas’?

Sen. Conrad Burns – R – Montana, Sweatshop Enthusiast Continue reading →

“when you tell the truth and they think you shouldn’t have.”

Right Thinker brought up his name in a thread where the Iraq War was being debated, citing his impression of Iraq as a safe place following a recent visit. At first I was stuck trying to figure out why I hadn’t written anything about the man, because there’s a solid feeling of resentment that’s been brewing inside of me for a while now. After thinking about it for a couple days, I’ve realized what it is that bothers me so much about him. He votes consistently as a candidate rather than as a Senator. Continue reading →

The Government Accountability Office puts it like this:

Among other things, the GAO confirms that: Continue reading →

I read Stars and Stripes every day for 2.5 years when I was in Germany. Letters to the editor were never this serious in my day, but there wasn’t a war like this one either. So for everyone who participated in the ‘Bush thinks he’s your father’ thread, give this letter a read. Continue reading →

Here’s a brief case study (more to come) of one contract for the British “private security”company Aegis, recently awarded a $293 million security contract in Iraq by the United States government.

The man who created Aegis (Lt Col Tim Spicer) has a resume that reads like a list of indictments.

– Two soldiers under his command indiscrimantly shot and killed a catholic teenager. Convicted of murder, Spicer still defends their actions.
– Arrested for illegally importing arms to Papua New Guinea for the employees of his “Private Military Company” Sandline.
– The next year he was in trouble again for breaking an arms embargo in Sierra Leone on behalf of a Canadian businessman who is currently awaiting extradition to Thailand on fraud charges.

Now some perspective. In the United States if you want to drive a truck for a living, you’re required to pass periodical drug screenings. Any kind of criminal charge on your record could exclude you from working in the financial services arena. Want to become police or a firefighter? Get in line.

How about a job leading 20,000 mercenaries in a combat zone? Continue reading →