In Memory of Old Ranter

Oh my dearest friends,

This is perhaps the most difficult post I have ever made. My dearest, dearest, most dearest friend and comrade Old Ranter passed away today 3.18.08 at approximately 5am.

There are no words to express the depth of sorrow that his family, his close friends and I are feeling. Personally, he was my best friend. He used to call me his "tele-wife" because we talked on the phone for hours and hours to such a degree that his brother had to buy him a new extra powered cell phone battery.

His family was so awesome to him - all his life he knew he was loved. How precious is that? He was a loving friend to many, protective and devoted Uncle, best brother you could imagine, and a loving son.

He donated literally thousands of hours to the non-profit organization I run. How can I ever thank him?

He loved computers, anything high-tech or security related. I have fond memories of seeing him walk into my home with numerous gadgets on his belt.

I express to you all my love for him and I know how important you all were to him, and how wonderful this blog was and will continue to be.

His knowledge of history will continue to amaze me.

With love,

Desert Woman desertwoman1(at)gmail.com

U.S. Almost fires on Iranian Navy

Imagine my surprise when awakening I discovered we lost the chance to take out the Iranian navy. Sky News is reporting on their morning breaking news that US Comes Close To Firing On Iran Ships.

According to Sky News: American forces were on the verge of firing on the vessels after being harassed and provoked, according to Pentagon officials, but the Iranian boats suddenly veered away and ended the incident.

"It is the most serious provocation of this sort that we've seen yet," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.

The incident happened as the US Navy cruiser, destroyer and frigate were crossing the strait on their way into the Persian Gulf.

Let me be perfectly honest here, no one, not even me wants more war in the already war savaged Middle East, however, a chance to shove all of the bovine excrement that Iran has been spouting right down their throats, well, that is not war, that is pure poetic street justice. We must always remember too, the good thing about individuals who act their life like a total ass; they will do it again and again.

I am Back!

It has been a long and winding road, filled with potholes and other debris, but I am now once more back among the somewhat healthy.

To say that this has been an experience straight from Hell is putting it mildly. What began November 5^th as slight problem breathing, quickly escalated to an asthmatic bronchial shut down which kept me in full respiratory distress for a thirteen hour period.

Three days later as I am sitting on my antiseptically clean hospital room, which was technically called a cardiac monitoring unit, as all patients wore a small heart, lungs, etc., monitor which constantly transmitted readings to a processing unit. I was just about to take a bit out of a lunch time turkey sandwich when my chest begins to flutter. Oh great, I, muttered, this was not going to be a good thing, it never is and I was correct on that assumption.

Things were all acting a bit strange, the chest fluttering, my throat was on fire and I see two nurses walking into my room in slow motion. I knew that was not among the normal things in life, so I was not really shocked when I saw my Doctor following them pushing the cardiac crash cart.

Perhaps it was the slow motion nurses or the sight of my Doctor pushing that cart, after all, has anyone actually seen one of the heart needles they use? My frail and still recovering body shudders even thinking about them, but I recovered and it turned out I was now in Ventricular Fibrillation, which according to Merck Manuals, is not a good thing. Here is a small excerpt, "Ventricular fibrillation is a potentially fatal, uncoordinated series of very rapid, ineffective contractions of the ventricles caused by many chaotic electrical impulses."

Here is the full link in case anyone is interested in further reading.

My cardiologist wanted to try a few days of medication specifically designed to correct an abnormal beat. After four days, it was evident that was not going to work out, so they wheeled me up to the heart lab, knocked me out for a few hours and stopped my heart. This was the normal cure and once started it took on its familiar old beat.

The major problem with spending ten days in the hospital, with the severe medical problems that I was undergoing was my muscles were not being used. In fact, they had all atrophied as we quickly discovered when I attempted to take a walk under nursing supervision and quickly fell upon my butt.

Now I was off to a rehabilitation center where they would access my medical problem situation and design an exercise routine to meet my needs as well as getting my body working once more.

I learned quickly that when a physician tells you that you are going to a rehab center, (nursing home) and you inquire how long it will take, they are going to look you in the eyes and lie. Yes they are, they will tell you,

"Oh, just a few days, just enough to get you walking once more."

That translated to four and one half weeks of extended therapy, but I was now all better and went back home, or so I thought.

I will finish this in a few days with the allergic reaction from hell. Yes, I was allergic to myself. I had so much fun.

Update on The Ranter - hospitalized

My dear friends,

I am writing on behalf The Ranter, our friend.

He was hospitalized two weeks ago with an acute pulmonary stress and arrest, and we almost lost him.

He was as close to death's door as a human being can be. It occured due to a combination of elements, some related to his smoking and its effect on his heart.

He is now in a rehabilation facility, learning how to walk again, and to breath normally which is quite stressful and fearful for someone whose lungs and heart both basically said "I give up".

He wants everyone here to know that he is thinking of them and that he will post as soon as he gets home, which could be as soon as 10 days.

It all depends on how his body reacts to the healing efforts that are extended to him.

I know we all share a deep respect, love and concern for him and I am assured that you will all pray for a quick and speedy recovery for our dear friend.

With lots of love to all of you,

Desert woman.

PS - If you wish, you can email me at desertwoman1(at)gmail.com and I will read your emails to him.

The dog needs house training

This is a bit off my beaten path, but worth talking about.

It appears that the worm has turned for Duane "Dog" Chapman, America's bounty hunter. It was not that long ago that everyone, including me, was on the "Save the Dog" bandwagon. The Dog had traced a millionaire rapist to Mexico, went in, and grabbed the scumbag, problem was, Mexico did not appreciate someone taking their cash cow, so they wanted to put the Dog in jail, a Mexican jail!

Since then, the dog has been the number one show on the A&E channel as well as tossed out a book or two and all the while wearing a mullet and Indian beads in his hair. Yes sir, the world was good for the dog, and then he had to go and blow the whole thing with a temper tantrum. He should have stuck to catching criminals and not try and change the world.

Click Here for the full story.

It seemed one of the dog's many sons was dating a woman the dog did not like too much and after a telephone call and many nasty no-no words the dog is in the dog house and without a show, I might add.

To top it all off, it turned out his son recorded the temper tantrum telephone call then sold it to a magazine! The dog simply cannot catch a break now; perhaps he needs to change his kibble.

This is truly another case of someone's head becoming too big for their brain. One thing is for certain, after what he said on the tape, the dog will be running around with his tail between his legs for quite a while now.

Stupid is as stupid does

It appears that the war on terrorism is offering individuals who are ticked off at family members a way to get even.

AFP.com, Agence France-Presse is reporting that a Swedish man, angry with his daughter's husband has been charged with libel for telling the FBI that the son-in-law had links to al-Qaeda.

Click Here for the full story.

Now let us be honest here, sticking the guy in Guantanamo forever is not the best solution for your daughter's marital woes. It does tend to remove the problem, but when the FBI gets wind of what you did, well, that is not exactly the best people to be angry at you for something.

Now here is the funny part, the article reports, "The man, who admitted sending the email, said he did not think the US authorities would stupid enough to believe him."

This guy has not even seen the depths of stupidity yet, he just needs to look around his part of the globe, there is plenty of idiotic things that would amaze him. As far as terrorism, if you are stupid enough to turn in your family member on a trumped up terror threat then don't be surprised when he is never seen again.

Who is on first?

What fascinates me the most is seeing all of the election nonsense going on and some of the politicians calling for restraint with Iran.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I really do not believe we have set anything in action that would even suggest we are planning military action against them.

Of course, I realize that sanctions are in place, but where is the military build up for a so-called invasion with bombers or manpower, nothing is in place. Yet, we have Presidential candidates saying everything except, we surrender.

What else amazes me is how they are all saying what a peaceful solution each of them can bring to the table. Take the latest reported by Fox News, "Sen. Barack Obama said Friday that as president he would personally negotiate with Iran, offering economic incentives and a chance for peaceful relations if Iranian leaders would forego pursuit of nuclear weapons and support of terrorists."

Nice guy, someone needs to tell these bags of wind that the war is taking place in Iraq, Afghanistan and a few other places around the globe and that is where the work needs to be addressed.

Election time certainly does bring out just about every scenario possible with everyone offering every form of solutions, even if they are wrong and do not even exists.

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I am a news junkie. It is true and I cannot do anything about it. For many months, I have subscribed to various news services that send out the morning headlines, news tips and breaking news events. When I was out of the loop without my vision, my inbox quickly filled up with all of the news services coming in constantly.

To combat that problem I have unsubscribed to a few and kept only two or three services. I am still a news junkie, just less items cluttering up my inbox.

One of the major benefits to my news addiction is I can tell you exactly what is going on in the world by a quick look at the topics of the important news releases. It matters not what the services are saying, I can see in the inbox what the frame of mind is for that given day.

Lately, it has all been Iran and not if we are going to attack, but where and with which country besides us. Of course, lately, every news item has pertained to our close relationship with Israel and how they have turned their views on the Middle East into the United States views and whether or not it is a success. Some of the services are painting glowing testament of that success and others are saying what a combined failure it has been.

Let us not forget that small portion of our society that could care less if anything is working, they are only concerned with the fall of civilization and the three horsemen riding to bring about its total destruction.

Take this morning for example, there were various think tanks and experts saying how badly we have failed in the Middle East. A few of them discussed the escalating tensions with Iran and why any war with them is doomed to failure. Of course, there were two articles stating that we are simply towing the Israeli party line in the Middle East and when this all comes tumbling down it is their fault.

What amazed me was not one article made any comments on how the United States could bring about a peaceful solution in the Middle East, only predictions of doom and tensions quickly escalating to a religious war between anyone who tries to intercede.

Then it struck me, these people do not want peace in the Middle East, they want war and destruction. If there were peace then these prophets of doom would be out of business.

Perhaps it is time to stop listening to the so-called experts and their predictions of doom and begin to work together towards peaceful solutions. What a concept, of course, this will never happen. But It sure would be nice if it did.