For those we lost, We will not forget 09/11/2001 “Our God given unalienable rights are given to us all as individuals. They tell us what we may do for ourselves, and they are the embodiment of liberty. The so-called rights that government gives to some of us are parcelled out to select groups as classes. They tell us what one class of people may require another to do for them, and they are the very essence of slavery.”
— Perri Nelson, February 9, 2010

A bheil Gàidhlig agaibh?

 

Wednesday Hero -- Ellicia and Reid Stanley

Published Tue, Feb 13 2007 10:53 PM
Capt. Lyle L. Gordon

Ellicia Stanley & her husband SPC Reid Stanley

I received and email from Wednesday Hero Blogroll member Mary Ann in which she suggested that I profile the spouse of a soldier. Seeing as I'd profiled one such spouse in the past, I thought this was the perfect opportunity to do it again. I hadn't read the entire letter before I said yes, but after reading it I'm glad she sent it to me.

I think military families, especially the spouses, while they sign no contract, serve our country just as much as the service member. They give up familiar home ties and relocate all over the country, all over the world. They give up their civilian lives for something bigger than themselves. Ellicia was a military wife for only two and a half years. Before they married, but after 9/11, Reid came to her and told her of his desire to enlist. He wanted to do his part. He tells part of the story in his blog post http://kafstorm.blogspot.com/2005/07/why-i-joined-army.html

She encouraged him, pushing him so he could meet his goal of serving his country. He did and took his oath in October 2002. By the time they were married in July 2004, Reid was already stationed in Germany. It was 3 months before she could join him there. In a move that, for someone who'd seldom left her hometown in South Carolina, must have come as quite an adjustment. But she did it, as do so many other military wives.

Then came deployment to Afghanistan in May 2005. They spent their first anniversary apart. Reid writes about that anniversary in this post http://kafstorm.blogspot.com/2005/07/my-hero.html

It was in the sixth month of deployment when Ellicia received the news — she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Devastating. However, in an email to me on the day she received her diagnosis, the phrase she used was, "not stellar news". Understated, calm, steady, no hysteria, it was another challenge to face.

I came to admire her because, I too, had been away from home, (not to a foreign country), with a one small child (not three), and my husband traveling (not in a war zone). Knowing what my experience had been like, I was amazed at how she took it all in stride. Even when faced with a terminal diagnosis, she faced it all with grace, dignity and humor. All the while supporting her husband, the mission and the country.

Reid was given compassionate leave back to Germany in November 2005. For the next thirteen months they fought their own personal war with cancer…breast, lung…and finally eleven tumors in her brain.

In November 2006 the Stanley's took compassionate reassignment back to the U.S. to Ft. Eustis, Virginia.

On 31 December 2006, Ellicia lost her battle. But her spirit lives on in her husband, her children, and the many people she inspired with her courage.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero. We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. If you would like to participate in honoring the brave men and women who serve this great country, you can find out how by clicking here.

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Get ready to see a million dollars wasted

Published Tue, Feb 13 2007 3:18 PM
Technorati Tags: Transportation

And get ready to see the City of Seattle and Greg Nickels throw a childish temper tantrum in court. They aren't going to like this at all, and they've already promised they'd be childish about this.

The legislature's response to the DOT letter that concluded that the four-lane tunnel would be unsafe was very swift. You'd almost think they saw it coming. From the Seattle Times:

State legislative leaders today said Seattle's tunnel proposal is dead.

The state, they said, has "no choice but to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct with an elevated structure."

The prepared statement came in response to a state Department of Transportation letter that concluded Seattle's proposal for a four-lane Alaskan Way tunnel should be dropped from further consideration. The DOT letter, released this morning, said there are "serious operational and safety problems found during our technical review."

"It makes absolutely no sense to replace an unsafe Viaduct with an unsafe tunnel," Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, chairwoman of the Senate Transportation Committee, said in a joint statement.

...

In the all-mail election — for which ballots must be postmarked by March 13 — Seattle voters will be asked to vote "yes" or "no" on whether they prefer an elevated or a tunnel.

... 

However, Seattle City Council President Nick Licata, who supports rebuilding the viaduct, said he has made a call to King County Elections to see how the city could cancel the March 13 election.

"I think it makes this election superfluous," Licata said. "How can we ask voters to vote for something we know is seen as worthless by state legislators."

He said he wants to see if the election could be stopped "because we'd be wasting $1 million. I think it's a wasted effort."

It won't be too long before we see Greg Nickels and the Seattle City Council prove their childishness. Here's some evidence that this is what we can expect...

  • The city has passed an ordinance declaring an elevated viaduct "inconsistent" with use and height regulations and the city's comprehensive plan. -- Source: Seattle Times 11/21/2006.
  • The city has said it could inflate the $2.8 billion cost of an elevated viaduct to nearly $5 billion by slowing permits, filing lawsuits and using other tactics to oppose the project. -- Source: Seattle Times 11/21/2006.
  • The city of Seattle owns major utilities within the right-of-way that must be relocated. Without full cooperation, significant delays are likely. -- Source: Seattle Times 11/21/2006.
  • Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels says the city "will not support" any option other than a multi-billion dollar tunnel to replace the aging Alaskan Way viaduct... -- Source: Northwest Cable News 11/22/2006.
  • A Department of Transportation study found that diverting viaduct traffic onto surface streets could increase congestion downtown from four hours a day to 13 hours a day. -- Source: Northwest Cable News 11/22/2006.
  • [Seattle City Council President Nick] Licata predicted that no matter what happens with a viaduct vote, extensive and expensive legal battles would follow. -- Source: Seattle Times 12/21/2006.

Maybe, as SVC Alumnus says, this will become the viaduct to Olympia for the GOP.

Previous Posts:

Cross posted at NWBloggers.com

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Is It Just Me?, The Random Yak, Big Dog's Weblog, Adam's Blog, basil's blog, Common Folk Using Common Sense, The Amboy Times, Conservative Cat, Pursuing Holiness, Rightlinx, Faultline USA, third world county, stikNstein... has no mercy, Pirate's Cove, Planck's Constant, and Dumb Ox Daily News, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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A six year-long public safety emergency mired in personal politics

Published Tue, Feb 13 2007 1:16 PM
Technorati Tags: Transportation, Annoyances

Are Greg Nickel's dreams of a tunnel doomed to fail? Or will the State Department of Transportation's findings be ignored? Will the results of the advisory vote on the Alaskan Way Viaduct's replacement mean anything? Or are Greg Nickels and the Seattle City Council so set on a tunnel that they'll give us "Big Dig Lite"? From the Seattle Times:

Seattle's proposal for a reduced, four-lane Alaskan Way tunnel should be dropped from further consideration, because of "serious operational and safety problems found during our technical review," the State Department of Transportation said in a letter released this morning.

...

Next week, advisory ballots will be mailed to Seattle voters, who are being asked to choose a four-lane tunnel, or a six-lane elevated structure. Final decisions rest with the state, where some officials have called the advisory measure flawed, or even meaningless.

The existing Alaskan Way Viaduct, built in 1953, was damaged in the 2001 Nisqually Earthquake.

It's been nearly six years, and it's likely to be another six before this is finally over with. This six year "public safety emergency" has been hampered by the personal ambitions of Greg Nickels and the Seattle City Council for too long.

Greg Nickels and the Seattle City Council don't really care about public safety. If this was really about public safety, the viaduct would have already been repaired or replaced. Instead they've fought with the state and with the voters for the last six years. They've even promised to hamper the construction of anything other than a tunnel through the permitting process, and through lawsuits.

Isn't enough enough?

Previous Posts:

Cross posted at NWBloggers.com

Trackposted to Rightlinx, third world county, The Random Yak, Faultline USA, Big Dog's Weblog, Adam's Blog, stikNstein... has no mercy, basil's blog, Pirate's Cove, Planck's Constant, Common Folk Using Common Sense, The Amboy Times, Dumb Ox Daily News, Conservative Cat, and Pursuing Holiness, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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Ain't Technology Great?

Published Tue, Feb 13 2007 12:52 AM
Technorati Tags: Computers and Internet, Software Development, Open Trackbacks

Yes, I know that's horrible grammar. That's the point.

Well, a few of my issues with Vista appear to have decent work-arounds. I've managed to get Visual Studio 2003 working with Windows Vista (yes, there are compatibility issues). I am able to debug the website source code on my Vista box now.

That's a good thing, because it means I will be able to resume development of the features I've got planned for my website/blog. I would have been able to do that anyway, because I have other computers and I could always do the development on one of them, but I prefer to use my main machine for the job.

Now if I can get Office 2007 and Vista activated my remaining issues will be, if not completely solved, taken care of. We'll see how activation goes after a few rounds of conversation with Microsoft. I've posted a message on their support community, and gotten a reply already. Let's see where that takes us.

Update: It appears that the problem with activation was a part of McAfee's Security Center. I uninstalled that and was able to activate Both Windows Vista Ultimate and Office 2007. I've since re-installed McAfee Security Center, and all appears to be well.

Have you seen this here recently?

Site Offline

We're experiencing technical difficulties right now, so our site is temporarily offline. There may be an error in the site code, or a problem has occurred transferring site binaries. In any case, we hope to be back soon.

This site will return!

If so, it's because my web host appears to have been acting up again. I tried posting a little while ago without success. Then I got the post failure dump in my e-mail. It said there was insufficient disk space. That seemed a bit odd, since I've only used about 140 megabytes out of 400 gigabytes allotted. So I contacted support and they're moving my site to another server.

I've got to say I've been very satisfied with the 24/7/365 support they give for the price I'm paying. If you're looking for a web host that provides ASP.NET 1.1 or ASP.NET 2.0, or that hosts PHP, and provides 100mb of MySQL and 50mb for SQL server, plus 400gb of disk space and 4000gb of monthly bandwidth for about $20.00 a month, Brinkster is the way to go. At least it has been for me.

Sure I've had a few problems with them, but they always seem to get things straightened out fairly quickly.

This is your open trackbacks post for Tuesday, February 13, 2007.

If you have something interesting you'd like to share, feel free to link it here and leave a trackback.

Just remember the trackback policy.

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