It's time....

Well I think it's that time again. It's been roughly six months since I've posted anything up here. I'm making some moves and changing some things in my life. Stay tuned.......

Spiral Out

The DJ in me....

I have been on Blip.FM since June 2009. I used it for a little bit then forgot about it. Then every so often I would check in and play a few songs. I have now been on it daily for the past week. It's a pretty cool site that lets you find songs from your favorite artists and even obscure ones to play as though you were the DJ. I look at it as being therapy. I get to play the music I want to hear and if other people want to listen to my "station" then all the better. Why do I find myself going to the site each day? It's an "out" for me. It's a way of expressing myself to my friends and even to people I don't know that choose to listen to what I want to play.

Music to me is the key to a persons soul. I wouldn't be where I am today without my parents, sister, friends, and extended family. However, with that being said...If I didn't have my music I would be a lost soul. That may be weird to some people, but to me music helps explain how a person thinks, views the world, reacts to situations, etc. Now granted some people just view music as entertainment alone. We all know those types and I'm sure some of my friends fall into this category. There's nothing wrong with liking Pop 40, Top 40, or whatever is popular at the moment. Hell even I'm guilty of listening to (and liking..shhh don't tell anyone) certain so-called "popular" artists.

My range of music tastes vary depending on what mood I am in. Lately I've been listening to a lot of house, techno, and drum & bass. (No I'm not taking drugs people!) A majority of the time though, I will have Tool, Rage Against The Machine, or Pink Floyd playing on my Zune Player. With out a doubt, Tool, is my favorite band of all time. The music and the lyrics mold together to form a perfect sound. There are not many bands out there today that can evolve from one album to another like Tool does. Maynard James Keenan on vocals will blow your mind. Adam Jones on guitar and Justin Chancellor on bass will astound you. And last and probably the most impressive in my eyes, Danny Carey on drums. Danny is arguably one of the most gifted percussionists of the last 20 years.

I could sit and listen to every single Tool album from start to finish every single day and be content. Some would say that allowing an artist or a group to influence your life that much is ridiculous. It's not that I rely on Tool to influence my life, but it's music that I can turn to that will make my day that much better. It might be "heavy" music, but it soothes my soul. I can take whatever I want from their music and can decipher what each song means in my life rather than turning to them and asking them what each song means.

Do you have a favorite band? Do you have one song that you turn to when you are having a bad day? Can you relate to that song? If you answered yes to any of these questions then perhaps music really is the key to a persons soul.

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Blackwater 61

I was watching 60 Minutes tonight on CBS. Now I don't normally watch the program, but the intro had a story that caught my attention. The story was about Blackwater. For those of you that do not know what Blackwater is to put it in simple terms it was a contract army hired by the United States government to help in Iraq and Afghanistan. Blackwater hired former military personnel to run along side our regular military. In short Blackwater were "hired guns" or "contract killers". The piece on 60 minutes was entitled, Blackwater 61, which was the airplane call sign operated by Presidential Airlines.

Blackwater 61 (CBS 60 Minutes Video)was carrying a total of six people on board, three being Blackwater employees and three being military personnel. One of the military personnel that was on board the flight was Lt. Colonel McMahon. His wife, now a widow, is Col. McMahon. They were classmates at Westpoint and each served their country as they were asked to do after graduating from Westpoint. Lt. Colonel McMahon took a last minute ride with two of his soldiers on Blackwater 61.

Unfortunately the pilots of Blackwater 61 were inexperienced pilots. They had only been in Afghanistan for a total of 13 days. On top of that Presidential Airlines did not have the proper equipment to keep track of Blackwater 61 once it took off from the airstrip. There was no way to know that the inexperienced pilots had actually taken the wrong flight plan through a dangerous strip of mountains that any experienced pilot would be scared to fly through.

The following piece in red text is a transcript of the pilots as they flew through the skies of Afghanistan:

English: I hope I’m goin’ in the right valley.

Hammer: That one or this one?

English: I’m just gonna go up this one. … We’ll just see where this leads. … Normally we’d have time to, on a short day like this, we’d have time to play a little bit, do some explorin’, but with these winds comin’ up I want to (expletive) get there as fast as we can. …

Rowe: I don’t see anythin’ over about 13-three is the highest peak in the whole route, I think. …

English: Yeah, so we’ll be able to pick our way around it. … Yeah, with this good visibility, (expletive) it’s as easy as pie. You run into somethin’ big, you just parallel it until you find a way through. … Cool up in here.

Hammer: Yeah, this is fun.

English: We’re not supposed to be havin’ fun, though. … It’s supposed to be all work. We can’t enjoy any of it.

English: Exactly.

Hammer: ’Cause we’re getting paid too much to be havin’ fun.

English: You’re God (expletive) right. …

Rowe: I don’t know what we’re gonna see. We don’t normally go this route. …

English: All we want is to avoid seeing rock at 12 o’clock. … Ah, yeah, look at this. I swear to God, they wouldn’t pay me if they knew how much fun this was. …

Hammer: Well, this, ah, row of mountains off to our left – I mean, it doesn’t get much lower than about 14,000 the whole length of it, at least not till the edge of my map

The fact that these pilots were not taking the flight seriously is beyond me. At one point they even discussed what kind of music they should be playing while they try to navigate the mountains. Another point in the discussion Lt. Col. McMahon says that they are taking the wrong route and that they never go this way because of the terrain. 

Col. McMahon, the wife of Lt. Col. McMahon filed a lawsuit against Blackwater and Presidential Airlines for negligence in the way it operated Blackwater 61. Blackwater and Presidential Airlines tried to get the case dismissed "on the grounds that they were part of the military and immunized from civil lawsuits." (Story on CBS) 

Now wait a minute there Blackwater! You are a private contractor and NOT part of the military. After that didn't work Blackwater and Presidential Airlines they asked that the case be tried under Islamic law because the crash happened in Afghanistan. Under Islamic law companies are not held liable for the actions of its employees. On top of all that not once did Blackwater or Presidential Airlines send their condolences or offer any sort of apology to any of the families involved in the crash. 

Presidential Airways chief, Richard Pere, tried to put some of the blame of the crash on Lt. Col. McMahon. He stated during a deposition that, "Something changed them to make them go to the north, sir." He was then asked when something changed and he stated, "It took place after Lt. Colonel McMahon got on board that aircraft."

The audacity of Mr. Richard Pere is beyond me. A decorated soldier was doing his duty for our country and his life is put into the hands of civilians! Hired contractors to do a job that OUR military should be doing. After this incident Blackwater and Presidential Airlines was put on suspension for one month. 

After the suspension was over Blackwater and Presidential Airlines was awarded a new contract to the tune of $92 MILLION! Our own goverment hiring these civilian companies to do work that our military should be doing. Of course the "owners" of these "hired guns" are all in the back pocket of our elected officials. 
This is just another reason why our government needs to be turned upside down and all of the dirty, greedy, disgusting bastards thrown out into the streets. 


So while our educational system across the United States is in shambles our government ponies up $92 Million to an organization that is negligent in its operations and has no sympathy for the families of its employees. And not only that received so much press about their operations that they were forced to change their name to XE Services!!!!

Interesting Links

The "New and Improved" Blackwater 

Training Center