aimless

An article at CNNMoney.com quotes members of congress regarding the award of the tanker contract to Northop/EADS:

“It truly makes me question our trade agenda when we brought a massive case before the WTO…then turn around and bestow one of the largest military contracts we’ve ever had to the same company that received the same launch aid,” Roberts said during questioning of U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., said he agreed with Roberts, calling the Air Force decision “very disturbing.”

Schwab said U.S. trade officials are “still pursuing as actively as ever” the complaint against the EU at the WTO. She said Air Force officials sought information from the trade office about the WTO dispute early in the procurement review, but had not consulted with USTR on the decision.

The WTO is expected to rule on the U.S. complaint in April or May.

Roberts said that if the U.S. wins the case, it will be entitled to retaliate with punitive tariffs on imports from the EU. That creates a situation where ” U.S. taxpayers could potentially foot the bill for higher duties on spare parts for an Airbus tanker being assembled in the United States,” he said.

Sure, that makes sense.

Read the entire article here.

I read these comments about the award of the lucrative defense contract recently awarded to Northop Grumman and EADS (parent of Airbus), and it summed up my opinion well. There is something that is just not sitting right about military equipment being made by the same European countries that do not support us. Isn’t that a little like asking a dog to watch the steak until you get back?

Hunter: Air Force Decision Costs U.S. More Than 100,000 Thousand Jobs

Washington D.C. - U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), the Ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, today released the following statement regarding the Air Force’s decision to award the KC-45A tanker contract to Northop Grumman-European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS):

…

“These are the same European governments who are unwilling to support us in the Global War on Terror and over the last few months refused to provide even an additional one hundred soldiers apiece for Afghanistan operations. Instead, we have to send 3,200 additional U.S. Marines to Afghanistan while they take $35 billion in American taxpayer contracts. Two-thirds of the foreign countries involved in this deal also fail to spend the minimum of two percent of GDP on defense as required by NATO membership.”

Yep, that about sums it up. Read the entire article here.

My youngest son is home sick today.

I can tell you one thing, he will either get better quick or I will have him in timeout until he’s 9. He’s 6.5, autistic, full of P&V, and learning how to exert his independence. While I was otherwise occupied, he flushed an entire tube of TP down the toilet. Well, all except the last 100 feet, which are waiting for my attention. Apparently, if you flush, then feed the end in, it just keeps going, and going, and going, and <flush> going, and going, and going…<flush> going, oops too much momentum on the TP end of the equation, going…<flush>.

Yep, just messing around.

Technorati Profile

When you back up all of your stuff, don’t delete things on your web server until you’re SURE that it will not have garbage in it. I didn’t, and now I have to rely on my sql backup of my ancient WordPress installation. So much for archives. I may have to move some special ones in manually.

It has been too long since I spent time here, in my blog. I love being here, and I often think of things I’d like to by saying to you. But my hours slip away with work, and raising my children. When I started writing here I didn’t know I had a muscular disease. Or that my youngest son had autism. Things have gotten complicated since then.

In some ways, it is actually more simple now. I only have so much energy to go around, so it goes to my work and my boys, and there is precious little left of me to pour into this page. I wish it were different.

Right now, I should be packing. I have the wonderful opportunity to move into a three bedroom apartment next Monday. Next Monday. Exactly 2/3 of my current boys’ room is packed. Nothing else. You should see this place, it is like a nightmare. My older son and I are very excited about the upcoming change, but I am a little overwhelmed.

I keep paying for my little space in the blogosphere, in hopes that I will have a rekindled desire to write more. I love to write! But the time keeps slipping away.

I read a news story today about a family that suffered the death of their son while he was on duty in Iraq. To further add to their suffering, a group of lunatics protested his funeral. To quote directly from the article (AP)

Members of Westboro say the military deaths in Iraq are God’s punishment for America’s tolerance of gays. They typically carry signs with slogans such as “God Hates Fags” and “Thank God for IEDs,” a reference to the roadside bombs used by insurgents.

This is one of the most sickening things I’ve ever heard. The article also gave a link to the family’s web site, where they have posted a copy of the complaint (civil lawsuit) that was filed today, suing this so-called church and participating members for “…defamation, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress.”

The “church’s” (the term is used very loosely here) reasoning is also offensive and completely unfounded.

With terrorists like this at home, who needs to go overseas to be hated for being born in any U.S. zip code?

Maybe dead again.

Regardless, I really went off on a long non-writing tangent after the autism diagnosis for my son. In the meantime much has happened, and if I have any sense, I will write about it here. After all why else am I maintaining this server share?

I received the report this week that gives me a firm diagnosis for my little boy - he has autism. He has high-functioning autism, which is to say that he probably has a normal or above-normal IQ but still has many symptoms of autism.

One thing that really stands out about Andrew is that he rarely speaks, and he asks no questions. Not a one. He is about 3 1/2 years old, and never asks a question. Those of you who are parents know that this means something is wrong! Kids at this age are starting to ask all of the favorites like “Why can’t I watch TV?” and “Why is dirt dirty?”.

So now in addition to my search for information about polymyositis, I will be looking to find out all I can about autism, the No Child Left Behind Act, and how to write an IEP.