@Pedonator: I did it for the Navy’s meager GI Bill, because my BF joined, and I didn’t want to follow him around the country as a military wife without marketable skills, and because we hadn’t been in a war since Vietnam. Then came along the 1st Gulf War. Holy shit! My ex was on a carrier in the Gulf, and I was stationed at a Navy hospital in SD and later Camp Pendleton. The 1st GW was the first time female soldiers were deployed in “semicombat” roles, and it was the first time married couples with kids were deployed at the same time — a major no-no, but “The Needs of the Navy/MC/Army/AF” outweigh their rules very often.

There were days that my alarm went off at Oh-Dark-Thirty, and I’d lie in bed looking at the ceiling thinking, “I’m 22 years old. I’m in the Navy. I’m married and pregnant. I live in CA. HOW THE HELL DID THIS HAPPEN?”

I served with people who were pretty gung ho about the whole military thing, but most of us enlisted folks wanted to get out of the ghetto/hinterlands/needed money for college and never thought we’d see a war while “we did our time” like a fucking prison sentence.

The sad thing is, when you’ve been conditioned to be a soldier or a sailor at such a young adult age, when you finally *do* get out, sometimes you can’t adjust to the civilian world, so you go right back in, especially if you didn’t learn any marketable skills while you were in.

My ex repaired and maintained FLIR cameras on S3s. Not too many civilian planes have FLIR, so he was kind of stuck in the Navy for 20 years even though he knew more about aviation electronics than most. But he didn’t have a degree, sooooo…

I haven’t heard of any significant change from the announced version of the House bill. We remain well and truly fucked.

@Pedonator: TV sucked tonight after The Prisoner was over. We cranked up the Sinatra channel on Sirius, built a fire outside, drank wine and smoked cigars. My friend’s GF had a cigarette. A martini now would be perfectly excessive.

But can anyone tell us what they will finally be voting for? Does a real public option survive?

That’s about the only thing I can bring myself to care about anymore. I will cry myself to sleep tonight about the complete defeat of any possible Socialist takeover by Government of healthcare 18% of the US American Econofme.

Curses Michele Bachmann! You may have won this battle, but you have NOT WON THE WAR! Nyah ha ha!

One hour of Rules Committee blather, then vote on rules of debate. So the debate proper begins around 11ish. Four hours on the bill itself. Twenty minutes on the abortion language. Vote on that. One hour on fake Republican bill. Vote on that. Ten minutes on motion to recommit. Vote on that. Then final passage — probably around 6pm or 7pm or so.

Unless Steny needs to twist some more arms, in which case we get a vote around New Years or something. And unless there isn’t a bullshit motion to adjourn, or seven or eight motions to suspend the rules and pass bills telling Americans how good cupcakes are.

Gavel-to-throwing-of-gavel coverage here. Unless I get really bored and fall over dead from a stroke.

You have to be a hard-core forager and squatter to really reject the dominant culture. Most of us find some way to compromise what we know to be true sustain severe cognitive dissonance in order to get through the day. And to provide for our families beloved creatures.

For those who understand the deep wrongness of the way things are, those who can’t bring themselves to wish for short-term economic growth that will somehow float all our ships (at the cost of the sustainability of humanity), our predicament is a real conundrum.

I don’t wish any particular person — much less specific segments of humanity — their ultimate demise. But I understand that the culture I belong to is fundamentally unsustainable. One way or another, there will be corrections.

I put on Sean Hannity for background noise, thinking there was little else news-y to choose from, but after just a few minutes I couldn’t take it anymore and I actually switched to Project Runway. Which at least, as background noise, I can ignore.

But I keep thinking about that little girl and her dad.

What kind of programming makes a little girl proud that her dad is abroad in Iraq, representing the US American culture via violent force?

What kind of programming made her dad volunteer to go there?

I deeply don’t understand the people who serve in our military. I’m all for repeal of DADT, but most of the time it’s very hard to find much sympathy for anyone who would pledge allegiance to the Flag.

I really don’t understand why anyone would voluntarily put themselves in a position to potentially follow orders to do something morally repugnant, just because such orders come from those in charge of the country in which they happened to be born.