Scoop’s Views

With 2008 suicide rates expected to exceed last year’s all-time-high rate and threatening to top those in the civilian population, the Army is stepping up efforts to get Soldiers and their leaders to look out for each other’s well-being and to take the stigma out of seeking mental-health help.

Sixty-two active-duty Soldiers, most of them junior enlisted members, committed suicide so far this calendar year, Col. Eddie Stephens, the Army’s deputy director for human resource policy, told reporters today during a Pentagon roundtable. The armed forces medical examiner is investigating another 31 suspected cases to determine if they will be classified as suicides.

Tags: ACE, active duty soldiers, American Forces Press Service, armed forces medical examiner, Army family, Army Reserve units, Ask Care Escort, battle buddies, battlefield, behavioral health care, Brig. Gen. Rhonda Cornum, civilian population, Col. Eddie Stephens, Donna Miles, financial difficulties, intervene, intervention, junior enlisted members, leaders, legal issues, mental health help, National Guard units, National Suicide Prevention Week, occupational and operational issues, Pentagon, problems, relationships, risk factors, Shoulder to Shoulder No Soldier Stands Alone, soldiers, strength, stresses, suicide awareness training, suicide rates, U.S. Army, warning signs, weakness, World Suicide Prevention Day

Below is a joke sent to me by a friend, Stan (aka Stan the Man), an alum at my alma mater who is old enough to be my father, or on a bad day, an older brother.

Stan’s a good guy. He likes to keep busy in real life, and when he isn’t busy, you can tell: he sends tens of email messages, some with photos, some with jokes, others with videos or PowerPoint presentations, and some, well, they have a subject line warning you of “how bad” the content may be, starting with a rating of R, if I recall a message from months ago correctly. You have to appreciate someone who is willing to tag potentially “offensive” messages in the subject line – whether for your own preferences or due to workplace restrictions.

Tags: blue vest, children, courteous, email messages, emails, employment, Forrest Gump, Friends, greeter, Humor, jobs, jokes, kids, manners, Navy, offensive, older Americans, older workers, part time jobs, Photos, polite, PowerPoint presentations, presentations, retirees, subject lines, supervisors, twins, US Navy, videos, Wal-Mart, Walmart, woman, Women, workplace, yelling

MSNBC is reporting former Republican Sen. Phil Gramm is stepping down as co-chairman of Republican John McCain’s presidential campaign.

Tags: co-chairman, former Republican senator, John McCain, McCain for President, nation of whiners, Obama for President, Phil Gramm, Phil Gramm resignation, Phil Gramm resigns, presidential campaign, resignation

Here’s a non-partisan joke going around in email. It’s hilarious, can be enjoyed by both parties, and it may be politically correct. If it isn’t, don’t complain to me because I don’t care.

While walking down the street one day a U.S. senator is hit by a truck and dies. His soul arrives in heaven and is met by St. Peter who’s standing at the Pearly Gates.

Tags: barren lands, Beezlebub, campaigning, Campaigns, caviar, champagne, clouds, clubhouse, contended souls, dancing, dead, death, devil, diablo, dine, dinners, dressed in rags, formal evening attire, Friends, garbage, golf course, golfing, green golf course, harps, Heaven, heaven-and-hell, Hell, joking, lame-duck-senator, lobster, parties, party, Pearly Gates, picking up trash, politicians, Politics, Prince of Darkness, Satan, Senator, senator-in-limbo, singing, St. Peter, trash falling from above, voted, votes, voting, waste

In moving the clocks ahead one hour, we are effectively losing an hour of sleep. Without proper preparation for the time change, people end up sleepy. In honor of sleepy people, as well as a tribute to our men and women in uniform, here’s a great video.

Tags: Afghanistan, airborne, Army, bivouacs, combat, honors, infantry, Iran, Iraq, light infantry, maneuvers, Sleep, sleep anywhere, sleepiness, sleepy, soldiering, soldiers, tributes, U.S. Army

Here’s a hat tip to my good friend, DA66, who sends me a lot of humorous stuff, but also some stuff that cracks me up to no end.

In thinking back over the past few days of “presidential campaigning,” I recall Barack Obama saying it’s time for him to turn up the heat and really dish out the nasties on his opponent, Hillary Clinton. I wonder if Barack’s people are behind this ditty sent to me by DA66, who could be one of my people, but I just can’t afford to hire him.

Tags: Barack Obama, cigars, country roads, cows, DA66, driver, farmhouses, Hillary Clinton, killed opponents, presidential campaigns, presidential election, win

People often say, “It’s all a matter of perspective,” but many times when other say it, it is because you are going through a rough time.

Tags: dad, Email, families, family, farming, farms, father, horizon, Humor, Life, perspective, ponds, pools, protection, servants, son, speechless, wealth

After three days of email exchanges, Oliver sent me an alpha version of cForms 5.4. Alpha versions of development — pre-beta releases. Betas are basically “stable” products that are being considered for release. I’ve been alpha- and beta-testing for almost 20 years, so I backed up my database, installed and activated cForms 5.4 alpha, and went to work.

Today, in fact, around 1:20 a.m. Eastern Time (-0500), BBC journalist Alan Johnston was released by his captors after 115 days in captivity. Again, it is Independence Day: this time for a journalist.

Tags: Alan Johnston, Alan Johnston BBC, Alan Johnston reporter, Britain, correspondents, Declaration of Independence, editors, foreign correspondents, Fourth of July, Independence Day, July 4, July 4, 1776, Kankakee Daily Journal, Phil Angelo, Princess Diana, reporters, reporters without borders, stop the presses, U.S., U.S. of A., U.S.A., war correspondents

When I began fiddling with the SanDisk Cruzer, I found it has this “desktop” software, so you can encrypt the contents of the drive. That’s a nice idea, but since I have no idea what’s behind that encryption, and didn’t take time to hack it, I decided to simply wipe the drive and use it how I use all keyfobs: using my own encryption source. I didn’t wipe everything off the drive, though, until I played with the stuff that came as bonus features.

It’s been a year since a federal law has gone into effect that makes it a crime to harass anyone online.

Tags: defamation, Email, federal online harassment law, Friends, Government, harass, Legal, Life, Online, People, Society, stalkers

It’s 2007 and it’s already a better year than the one that just ended amidst a barrage of fireworks.