The Conservative Zone

Well!

I just finished a 4 day course on how to implement Supported Employment. This is where you have a top-down system to support employment of people with mental illness. We are 25% of the population, and only 10% of us have jobs. 75% of us want jobs, but for one reason or another, can't get one. We could be held back by family or friends, fear that we would lose our benefits, or even our mental health support staff (case manager, et.al.) could be discouraging us.

This program shows through several studies that a person with mental illness getting a job has no down side and a lot of positive things. Like improvement of symptom control, self-esteem, and so on. If you thought job stresses might put someone with mental illness back in the hospital, you'd be wrong. The major problem is the paradigm shift everyone would have to undergo in order to make it happen. Executives and bean counters need to see that there is no additional cost if you get rid of those time wasting day treatment programs, case managers, psychologists and psychiatrists need to stop seeing them as "their" patients and "they" are too whatever to work.

Now this doesn't work for everybody, you can't put every person with mental illness to work. But you can at least try to do it with those that want to. And like I said, that is 75% of the mentally ill.

Now, my rant.

For my work day, I normally keep the radio on and listen to Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and then Dave Ramsey. Those guys talk from 8 to 5. But my local radio station, for some reason, has decided to extend the morning news show an extra hour, over the first hour of Glenn Beck. This has upset me quite a lot. It is a disruption to my routine, and I don't like it. I have emailed my displeasure to the radio station, but I am being ignored. I guess I'll have to take it up with their local talk show, Mike Fleming, who I can't stand any more.

Back to your regular programming.

Posted by Mark at 8:24 AM | Permalink

Recently, I tried a new mail program, Incredimail XE. It had a very Windows XP type interface, and it has your choice of email notifiers, like a butler walking onto the screen, and in a haughty voice says, "You have mail, sir." Then you click on him and he walks off the screen.

So, In installed it and then imported my messages from Eudora, a program that I have been using since I was on the Macintosh. This is where things started to go wrong.

First, it imported two of every message. Then, it sent about a hundred old outbox emails. I have spent the past three days apologizing for the fact that I have confused just about everybody who I correspond with. They got months old emails (again), a series of them and it just threw everybody in a spin.

While apologizing, one acquaintance sent back that Incredimail has a ton of spyware. Well, that was the last straw for me. I quickly uninstalled the program. Hopefully no damage was done. I ran my anti-spyware programs to clean out any residual effects of the program.

So, my warning to you is closely read the Users Agreement and be careful installing any new program.

Posted by Mark at 11:11 AM | Permalink

For all of those who purport that Islam is a religion of peace, please note what the response is to the Pope's comments. Their first reaction is violence. Their only response is violence.

We are, as a culture, in for the fight of our lives. It is imperative that we wake up and realize that if we don't start fighting back, we are going to lose, and Islam will win.

There are many types of Islam, as there are many types of Christianity. But Christians don't kill Christians because they worship differently. Muslims, however, do kill each other over differences in their religion. Their first response to any type of problem is violence. We must find a way to reform Islam. We must find a Martin Luther that will change the face of Islam into the religion of peace it claims to be. But I'm not holding my breath. Even in the most innocuous passages of the Koran, it preaches hate, violence and the sword against non-believers.

It's time that you realize that unless something changes within them, we may be forced to wipe them out. Every source of terror, every source of war for the past 40 years has been Islam. They are becoming resurgent and I don't like it, but I would not rather convert to Islam. So it's either die or kill.

Your choice.

Posted by Mark at 9:13 AM | Permalink

I wrote here back in 2004 about how organic food is "full of shit." Now it seems that it was only a matter of time before some H157:O7 infected cow dung made it onto and into some of our food. That is, if this is the common link. Right now it seems to be, and everyone is acting as if it were.

I don't want to bad mouth organic food. They operate under a wonderful principle. The bad news is, it's the difference between good, sound ideas and ideas that sound good. Spreading manure from animals that could have a bacteria that is dangerous to humans, well that just doesn't sound like a good idea. It's wonderful that they want to save the planet and all, but I'm not sure this is how you do it. We moved to other fertilizers because this stuff is bad for you.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

Posted by Mark at 9:20 AM | Permalink

Between the Battle Bunker and Fanatic Games, there is a 40k tournament every month. So get used to seeing a lot of battle reports. =)

Anyway, the first battle this past Saturday was against Frank. It seems every time I go to a Fanatic tournament, I'm fighting Frank and his custom Marines. We drew Unplanned Assault for our Scenario. This is where you start with a small part of your forces, and half-way through the battle determine what your objectives are. Well, most of my forces showed up early and pounded his, while his came on piecemeal. The ultimate objectives were to control terrain features, and we had 4 picked out. We had two close combats where we wiped each other out (very rare), and I chased him off one objective in turn 6, so I ended up winning 2 objectives to 1.

Battle 2 was against Kolton and his Eldar, a somewhat new player. This scenario was "Suicide Squad." This is where you are trying to get one of your own units killed, while trying not to kill his suicide squad. You receive 150 victory points of your suicide squad dies, and you lose 150 points if your suicide squad doesn't die. The short story is, I smoked him. I rendered his two vehicles weaponless, and wiped everything else off the board, except for his HQ and his suicide squad. I was mostly intact, except for the suicide Dreadnought. Kolton killed it gleefully, not understanding the rules. He's young, and hopefully this will teach him to read the scenario.

The last battle of the day was against Jared and his Space Wolves. This scenario was "This is heavy, Doc" where the gravity was variable. Jared got first turn and proceeded to smoke me like a fine cigar. His first shots killed my tank and my Heavy Weapons Squad. Things went downhill from there. At the end of the game, I had one squad alive, only because they were way away from everything else, pouring fire into a Land Speeder. I managed to immobilize it and kill a weapon, but it was still there. His HQ squad wiped mine out without breaking a sweat. But then again, he was carrying all power weapons, something you don't get a save against. I don't get to carry stuff like that =(.

After the smoke cleared, I ended up in 3rd place! I won a $10 blister figure, so I got my money out of the tournament. Hopefully I will get a little better and start placing higher in these tournaments. I'm starting to get a consistent 2-1, and the one loss is against the player who ultimately wins the tournament (which is what happened here).

Anyway, next tournament should be Oct 21st at the Battle Bunker. We'll see you there.

Posted by Mark at 8:41 AM | Permalink

Here you go. Check out this video. The only complaint is the guy in the BMW escalated the situation by flipping the bird. That is not the proper action if you are in his situation.

By the way, this link is DEFINITELY not safe for work.

Posted by Mark at 12:23 PM | Permalink

On this day, five years ago, I was at home, mindlessly watching morning TV. All of a sudden, there was a break in programming and we cut to the greatest horror the American people have endured since Pearl Harbor.

My parents remembered until the day they died where they were on December 7th, 1941. My family and I will always remember where we were on September 11th, 2001.

Today, tears stream down my face. Tears of sorrow, of tears of remembrance, tears of rage.

The American people must unite against radical Islam, because they are united against us. And they have a better plan for killing us than we have of killing them. Those who want peace at any price do not understand that they want the peace of slavery or death, for that is the only peace you will get from these terrorists.

Today, we are engaged in a great struggle, not to kill terrorists, but to prevent them from coming into existence in the first place. Terrorists are born in the poverty and hopelessness of the poorest parts of the Islamic countries. Where a purpose and promise of 72 virgins can be sold and believed. We are trying to eliminate the environment that spawns radical Islam in the first place.

Despite the insurgency (which lasted for seven years in post-war Germany), we make progress. More Sunni's and Sh'ias want peace and freedom rather than to kill each other with car bombs.

Never forget this day. On this day was born a new American people, one forged in horror, steeled in hope, and united by a common bond.

We have places to be and terrorists to kill. We have to advance forward, retreat is not an option. We must fight these terrorists, the question is, do we advance and fight them there, in the streets of Iraq, or here, in the streets of America. Your choice.

Let's Roll.

Posted by Mark at 8:43 AM | Permalink