9 Troops Killed – How many soldiers is that?!

Check out the definition of a Troop:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/troop

Notice something strange?  With 14 possible definitions, every single definition indicates that a troop is more than one person.  So how many people died when 9 troops are killed?  Well, let see if the minimum for a troop is 2 soldiers (and more likely 4 to 50), then with 9 troops killed that’s at least 18 soldiers, or more likely 36 to 450 soldiers … right?

WRONG.

Apparently when you’re the one who gets to create the news you can redefine words at your whim and fancy to mislead, confuse, and persuade.  In this case, whenever the mainstream media talks about “troops” being killed, it seems that according to the media a troop is one soldier.  That’s right.  One soldier.  So apparently if you’re in the news corp you can refer to Private Smith as Troop Smith (kind of like Trooper Smith except that “Trooper” sounds like only one person, and that’s not really what the media is going for).  Now, Troop Smith, is in my meager understanding a Troop of multiple Smiths, but then I’m just a regular guy who just reads dictionaries.  What do I know?  I’m not the all-knowing media.

Also when you own the media you’re allowed to ignore existing and more suitable words that the ones you redefine or make up, especially if they don’t serve your purpose.  You can, for example, ignore the word “Soldier” which, like “Trooper”, sounds like only one person.  That’s not good if you want 9 Soldiers to sound like even more than what they already are.

Someone correct me if I’m wrong – but 9 soldier deaths (as horrible as they are), is mathematically far far less than 18 soldier deaths , or (what fits the definition more closely) anywhere from 36 to 450 soldier deaths, which has a lot of shock value.

Just something to think about next time you read X-many troops killed.  Don’t be fooled by the mainstream media.  Instead, just get out your dictionary and a pen and write in there after definition number 14:

15) troop – what the msm likes to call one soldier when they want the number to sound really large.

Tagged – part 2

4) I married way above myself.

5) Just because I don’t blog about something doesn’t mean it isn’t important to me. Case in point: my kids are at the core of my life.  Don’t let my blog fool you … I started this blog a few years ago simply to satisfy my social and political conscience, doing so under the obnoxious presumption that a bunch of people who don’t even know me (and couldn’t care less about my kids) would want to read it.  It seemed a better idea than wasting time arguing in forums connected to opinion pieces where nobody gets any respect.  The world would probably be a better place if I just stayed quiet, but I can’t.

That said, I do however love to read blogs from friends and family about them and their kids.  Melissa, my wife, does that at sunshineysoul.blogspot.com, and does an awesome job, as do most of my family members (see the links at www.lindasnook.com).  In fact, with my widely disparate interests I’ve thought about doing several different blogs – one on www.beliefnet.com , another on www.popsci.com or sciencenews.org, another on www.treehugger.com, and another on www.townhall.org and maybe a private one which I’d make available to family and close friends.  Yeah, right … like I have the time.

6)  If I’m not allowed to develop creative solutions on a regular basis I get very restless and dissatisfied with whatever it is that I’m doing. I see this as a weakness rather than as a strength, and I greatly admire those who have the discipline to stick with important but mundane details (like honing in a process, making sales calls, or doing accounting) even though it’s mind-crushingly boring and often seems hopelessly futile.  Staying interested in something and having the discipline to completing an important yet boring task or project are skills I’m currently working on and it’s a daily struggle for me.  Fortunately owning my own business gives me the option to branch out to new areas when this happens, but I find myself missing out on some opportunities simply because I don’t find them interesting – and that’s something I regret.

7) I’m loathe to either buy replacement things or pay someone to repair stuff for me, and as a result I try to fix everything. Melissa has been kind enough to say I can fix anything, but the truth is I fix only about half of the things I try to fix, and I ruin the other half.  Those things I fix I often spend far more time on it than the time-value equation justifies.  That said, I do love fixing something that either ends up saving me lots of money in the long run, or provides us with a better product than what any amount of money can buy.  Stay tuned for my “pimp my push mower” post to see what I mean.

8 ) For long-sleeve shirts I wear Perry Ellis “Portfolio” exclusively. I don’t know why shirt manufacturers think this but they seem to be of the conclusion that if your neck size isn’t that big (I have about a 16 neck) then your shoulders are pretty much non-existent.  I’m not sure why they make that assumption, but it just makes being a pencil-necked geek that much more emasculating.  I think their logic must go something like this: small neck = completely shoulder-less wimp.  Anyway, Perry Ellis Portfolio shirts are roomier in the shoulders, which is great when you’re an otherwise pencil-neck geek like me.

So there it is … 8 things that will make absolutely no difference in your life.  I can now be satisfied that I’ve permanently embedded this largely useless info in some of your precious brain cells that could have otherwise solved life’s most perplexing questions.  Your welcome!

I’ve been tagged – part 1

Apparently this means I have to tell you 8 things about myself.  I don’t have time to do 8 all in one sitting … so here’s three for now:

1) FACT:  I pretty much know everything.  No, not just in the sense that I act like a know-it-all … In fact I do the opposite. I act like an imbecile so people won’t be afraid that I really know everything.  It’s puts them at ease.  Of course that has the negative side effect of everyone thinking I’m a complete moron [insert pic here of me looking like I always do].  So if you thought I was an imbecile … now you know the truth: it’s all an act.

Truth be known, I really just know “most everything” (instead of “everything”), but I round it up to “everything” since it’s so close.  At least I really think that I know everything, as opposed to those know-it-all posers who just pretend that they know everything in order to mask some deep-seated insecurities.

I probably shouldn’t admit this, because from now-on whenever I’m acting like I don’t know something you’ll naturally conclude that I’m really just playing my own little sick private joke as I condescend to all you “know-it-less” people.

But like I said I’m just trying to put you at ease, out of the kindness of my heart.  You know … trying to be nice to all stupid people who don’t really know everything, but just know lots of things.  People like Plank, Einstein, Ken Jennings you know … all those other supposedly “smart people”.  That’s why sometimes I misspell things and use poor sentence constructs … it’s just to put you at ease and think, “Hey … he’s a normal guy with weaknesses too, just like the rest of us”.  In truth I’m not.  It’s just that I want to put all you “know-it-less” people at ease.

2) I procrastinate. I’ve been meaning to tell you about this for some time now.

3) I have scars of stupidity all over my body. Some of them have faded over the years, but they’re still there.  Like the time I missed that piece of wood with that ax at my childhood friend’s house, and embedded the ax head into my leg.

Okay “embedded” might be an embellishment, but it hurt.  It hurt a lot.  Then there was the time I was showing off for some girl who’s family was visiting ours … I jumped from the mid-way landing to our downstairs landing – hitting my head on the ceiling edge and ended up with a dozen stitches.  She was not impressed.

Then there was the time I decided to make a wooden knife with my pocket knife.  I don’t know why some kids do this, but they do.  I mean … here’s a steel bladed knife  that’s capable of taking down a bear, but instead they use it to make a dull wooden knife that’s about as sharp as a spoon.  Why?  Anyway, I practically cut my thumb off.  That was 32 years ago and I still have a scar that goes halfway around my thumb.

Then there was that time I was using my dad’s off-limits table saw in order build a rocket-ship to go to the moon … you guessed it – I jammed the end of my thumb into the spinning flesh-hungry blade.  That hurt too.  A lot.  Lot’s of stitches.

There were other scars I received in those 2 years, but the point is that I still do it – the table saw incident I repeated a couple years ago.  Same thumb, same type of saw, different project.  That thumb is now about 1/4 shorter now.