Chinese Olympics

I was watching ‘Your World’ with Neil Cavuto today, and he had a guest talking about how people should boycott The Olympics because of China’s policies toward neighbors. I agree sponsors should not put place ads for TV coverage, or make ads to run during the Olympics. I think supporting the TV broadcast will support Chinese policies, and justify the murder of innocents.

However I think supporting the US Olympic Team is a totally different story, and we SHOULD NOT pull out of the Olympics as a nation. The Olympics are the climax of many of those athletes lives. It is their 5 minutes of fame. I have met some past athletes who did and did not win metals, years ago, and once this is over, they go on to have real lives in offices, and stores, and schools. This is their moment.

I will not watch the opening ceremony.

I will not support the television sponsors. It is already on a network I don’t watch much anyway.

I suggest EVERYONE carefully look at who sponsors these games television broadcast and think twice about it. Make this a loser for the network, China, and the Olympic Committee. Make them think twice about having the Olympics in a country that enslaves it’s population and legalizes the murder of people for religious purposes.

Greenpeace

Here is a story my grandfather told me about in Arkansas. A neighbor of his worked for a logging company for 12 years. And I will begin by telling you how they sort trees. First of all, they do not normally ‘clear cut’ unless it is new land and they need all the different types of trees cleared to make way for a single or sectional tree type (like a farmer tills the ground disturbing the grass to plant corn).

Normally they have a group of people go through the area, and find the trees most ready to be harvested. If there is a group close together they pick one, and leave the rest. If one tree is picked, the ones on either side are spared. They wrap a colored plastic wrap around the trees to be cut. Once they are removed, they plant 2 trees at least in different areas around the place the tree was, and put down a layer of topsoil (usually over the whole area, but sometimes only over part that needs it). Somewhere between monthly and quarterly the areas underbrush is cleared away, leaving the ground, and grass clean and preventing forest fires. The whole area is maintained, and wildlife is left to flourish. Hunting is prohibited in their private land, because a bullet in the wood could damage a high power saw used to cut the tree when the time comes. Still land nearby is highly sought after for hunting due to large amounts of game.

At some point in the 80s, I am not sure the exact date, since my Grandfather has now passed, I can not exactly ask him. Greenpeace came to town to protest the cutting of trees by the lumber companies. They had a little march, a small protest, and are salads at the all “you can eat” Catfish Dinner at the local joint. Everyone laughed, had a good time, and they left. No one had a second thought.

Two weeks later they began cutting the trees, and after a couple of trees were complete without error, a blade on a high power saw broke mid chain, and whipped around nearly severing a mans arm. If it hit a little higher it would have killed him. After weeks of therapy he was finally able to do normal things around the house, but would never be able to lift anything heavy again.

That sort of thing doesn’t happen, so all the saws were inspected, and new blades put on all of them. This took a couple weeks, in the mean time all these guys were without work, and had been waiting for this season to open so they can earn a living for the year.

They started up again, and after a few trees, a chain breaks again. This time it hits a guy in the side and back. Less damaging to him, but still no picnic. This man recovered fine, but the investigation found the problem. A long staple made of tungsten carbide in the tree. Just below the surface, under the bark, so it was just a month or so old. (about the time Greenpeace was there).

So now they stop work again, and X-Ray all the trees, this takes more than a month. More than half the trees in the area are found to have these staples. The company has no choice. They can not risk mens lives. They bring in heavy equipment and clearcut the whole forrest. Because the staples would damage saw blades at the mill, they can not be used for lumber. So some of the best lumber Pine in the world is crushed and turned into paper. So much the company can’t sell all of it before it drys out, so the rest they grind up and dump in a landfill.

In the meantime Several hundred people lost their jobs for 20 years while the trees grow. Several hundred more at the mill lost their jobs since they had nothing to cut. Greenpeace went on, and a community suffers.

Do I think Greenpeace meant to do this? No. It was eco-terrorists in their ranks.

The problem with Greenpeace is if you preach hate toward a group, (business) then that feeds the hate of the extremists. See the Moslem faith. They are not all terrorists, or even a small percentage are. Problem is when you tell people to hate, that is all they know.

SAVE THE TROOPS LIVES

For years now people have been asking why the troops are not protected. The Military blames Congress, who blames the President who says he is approving what the military asks for. Somewhere in there, someone claims costs are a factor, someone else says we have the best there is, and someone does a show on something better. Round and round we go, and the people in Iraq keep dieing.

Yesterday Bush posthumously presented a Navy SEAL, Michael Monsoor the Metal of Honor. A great American who also earned a Silver Star. And one of the reasons it was posthumously, was because the military still does not have adequate body armor for the troops.

Oh, there is blame to go around, but lets begin with what the military has now as a standard body armor. Interceptor body armor is a single sheet of carbon-carbon ceramic that is very strong, but not strong enough. It does not pass Level IIIA testing by the military, which other armors have. It will stop a 7.62x51 NATO at range, but close up is another question. In 2005 the whole line of them in use by the Marines were pulled and sent back to the manufacturer when it was found they could not stop a standard 9mm pistol round, in fact the manufacturer found some of their units to not be able to stop any round.

A company called Pinnacle Armor has gone to great lengths to market their armor to the military as being greater. In fact it has passed every III test, except it failed two shots of 7.62x63mm 166gr APM2, which is part of the Level IV test and not level III. Even then, the military testers had fits arguing where to test the armor since it is flexible, unlike anything else they had tested, and one tester said they shot it in a non-protection area. However the armor did fail after being subjected to heat for several hours, the separate disks slide around and the adhesive holding them in place melts. This leaves large areas without protection, and the prime reason for failures. Frankly I find this an easy fix, with a phone call to 3M who has more than enough experience with adhesives, both military and otherwise. Still the protection from Dragon skin is unlike anything else on the market, but so is the price. Interceptor is $1585 per unit, and Dragon skin is almost $4000. Still in an area where we pay $250,000 or more for training a soldier, is $4,000 really a lot?

Dragon Skin on the Discovery Channel show Future Weapons took a full clip of 9mm fired from an MP5, and AK-47 and LAYING ON A GRENADE. The soldier would have trauma to be sure, and be injured from shrapnel, but the armor took the force and the soldier would likely have lived.

California SWAT demonstrated a vest taking .308 sniper rounds, and still taking 30 rounds of MP5 point blank. Also on a separate armor shoed it stopping 200 rounds from MP5s and 40 rounds from an AK-47 without failure. There is no other armor that can do this, and Dragon Skin is flexable, which means you can move in it freely.

Why is Dragon Skin not used by the military? Politics. If you think the United States Congress is political, visit the pentagon. If the Army likes it, the Marines hate it. If the Airforce wants it, the Navy rejects it. Not matter what it is. Lives saved is the bottom line, but it is the group who wanted holes on the side of the Bradley so you could shoot out it. We are talking about the same group who wanted bright colored clothing for soldiers as an attempt to cut down on friendly fire. Just because we have the best and brightest military doesn’t mean everyone is a genius.

Special forces who can choose anything equipment wise, choose Dragon Skin. Afghanistan’s president and generals choose Dragon Skin. Dozens of SWAT and special forces groups around the world choose Dragon Skin. U.S. Secret Service chooses Dragon Skin. The military needs to get off it’s tail, and recognize the future is here before more Americans like Mr. Monsoor lose their lives.