THREE MONTHS AND HOLDING

TO BE OR WHAT?

Yeah. Well. I Gave It A Shot.

I'm trying to decide whether it's worth my while , or anyone else's, to continue this blog. My numbers do keep creeping slowly upward, like old spiders on a new wall. But I still don't get any comments. That's partly because I've shut off the easy-access version here at blogspot: Too many racist, sexist homophobic assholes. No time to babysit.

Then there's the look of the place. I really hate the templates BLOGGER/ blogspot provides, but I haven't seen anything much better elsewhere. I'm not looking for bells and whistles. I want the site to load quickly, and be easy to read and navigate. It would be nice to include a blogroll, if it doesn't screw me up or slow me down too much.

Time is really the problem. It takes hours of reading online newspapers, magazines, zines, blogs and other sites, plus fact-checking, writing, editing, posting and tweaking, pinging and promoting. All I wanted to do was communicate. But that's not happening.

If anyone out there has any constructive suggestions, post a comment or e-mail me. Whether I keep this up will depend upon the response. I know you're out there. How about some feedback? What works or doesn't work, here, or elsewhere? What can I do about it? Do you give a shit? Should I?

TO POST A COMMENT: CLICK ON "COMMENTS," "Post a Comment" or "# of COMMENTS" just below the SOCIAL BOOKMARKING LINKS (Digg, Delicious, etc), about three inches down from here. Please do comment. Thank you.

IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM YOUR BLOGGERS:

Suggestion Box & Tip Jar We would like to make over this blog to make it easier to access, to read and to comment on. We would also like to serve our readers better by providing more of what you need and want to see. All serious suggestions will be considered. We hope to move to our own domain in the near future, and we would like to ask for your financial assistance in doing that, and in upgrading our hardware & software. Small one-time donations and larger long-term subscriptions are welcome. Exclusive advertising is also available. If you think we are wasting our time in doing all this, please let us know. If you wish to help us, now is the time. As always, negative bullsh*t from right-wing trolls will be sh*tcanned. Thank you to everyone else. Please send feedback & PayPal contributions to cosanostradamusATexciteDOTcom. Thanks.

SUPPORT OUR TROOPS: BRING THEM ALL HOME ALIVE, NOW!

SUICIDE IS PAINLESS

AT LEAST THAT'S WHAT THEY SAY

Death Wish Common In The Military

Especially the Marine Corps. We had two kids kill themselves when I was in boot camp, one from the series following us, one from ours. Don't know if they count suicides during basic training as active-duty suicides. There were several fairly suicidal types in my outfit, the whole time I was at my first duty station. No one killed himself. But there was always that air, of self-destruction and the death wish, present. And that was in garrison.

Suicide is romantic, to some people. Teenagers, especially, seem fascinated by it. The military provides them with a really romantic and adventurous way of killing themselves. Once they get in, they realize that they just have more reason for suicide: The boredom, the constant harassment, the stuff you really miss: Opportunities, freedom, female companionship. Especially in the Marines. Especially on deployment.

War provides the ultimate venue for suicide: Take a bad guy with you, be a hero, go out in a real blaze of glory. Get writ up in the hometown paper, maybe have the girl next door shed a tear for you. No way of knowing how many combat deaths are suicides, at least in part. The ones who ice themselves in garrison, or on Civvy Street are the only ones the military counts as suicides, normally.

Then there's the guys coming home from combat. The ones who've seen the horrors, close up. The ones who did terrible things. Things they can't forget. Things they can't live with, back in the real world. It doesn't help when everyone at home, from the President on down, is in denial about what war really is. Any war. Throw in a real lack of concern for the welfare of the troops, and the veterans, and you've got one more reason for suicide. But those don't count, either, once you're out of the military, in their body count. Not to them, any way.



"U.S. Marines Suffer Most Suicides in Five Years"




Send comments to cosanostradamus AT excite DOT com.



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TO POST A COMMENT: CLICK ON "COMMENTS," "Post a Comment" or "# of COMMENTS" just below the SOCIAL BOOKMARKING LINKS (Digg, Delicious, etc), about three inches down from here. Please do comment. Thank you.

IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM YOUR BLOGGERS:

Suggestion Box & Tip Jar We would like to make over this blog to make it easier to access, to read and to comment on. We would also like to serve our readers better by providing more of what you need and want to see. All serious suggestions will be considered. We hope to move to our own domain in the near future, and we would like to ask for your financial assistance in doing that, and in upgrading our hardware & software. Small one-time donations and larger long-term subscriptions are welcome. Exclusive advertising is also available. If you think we are wasting our time in doing all this, please let us know. If you wish to help us, now is the time. As always, negative bullsh*t from right-wing trolls will be sh*tcanned. Thank you to everyone else. Please send feedback & PayPal contributions to cosanostradamusATexciteDOTcom. Thanks.

SUPPORT OUR TROOPS: BRING THEM ALL HOME ALIVE, NOW!