The text of this 52-page nightmare, if read in a courtroom to a witness, would instantly draw an objection from opposing counsel for leading that witness. When a wounded vet is asked if “I can no longer contribute to my family’s well being,” or “I am a severe financial burden on my family” if his situation “causes severe emotional burden for my family” the only desired outcome by the government is for the vet to agree.

When the vet agrees that they are a burden, that they are a financial strain. They lose hope. They enlisted to serve the country they love, and those who are running the country are not returning that emotion.

I like to think we all know that hope is one of the most powerful motivators we have as a species. The desire to overcome and endure that which is before us sets us apart. When deprived of this singular emotion, you shut down, become depressed, and give up. Without question this seems to be the desired result by this administration.

The government has no qualms about pumping our brave men and women full of drugs to save them; they balk at personal care and interaction, but they’ll give you a drug for anything, even if you’re fine.

As a viewer of television, I’m sure you’ve seen the ads for anti-depression medication. The most telling fact these commercials give you is in the warnings. After the once sad man, is no longer sad and the depressed woman “can get on with her day” the ad warns of an increase in suicidal thoughts.

It would seem that the solution to the governments problem of veterans health care is now a two part attack. Push the vet into depression by filling their head with hope destroying thoughts, while filling their hearts with guilt for not being able to help their families. Then attempting to treat the depression with a class of drugs that warns you upfront that one of the potential outcomes of depression, suicide, can in fact be made worse by the “treatment” designed to fix the problem.

I don’t mean to imply that the government has this malignant thought process, I mean to draw the logical conclusion between what the Congress is trying to do and what the military is already doing. Granted, the process was paused between the Clinton and Obama administrations, and we still saw a rise in veteran deaths.

Since the Obama administration took over, Salon.com reports that already 91 soldiers have taken their own lives, almost 75% of the total for all of last year. It now forces you to consider a link between the “Death Book” and veteran suicides, from all past conflicts, not just the current Iraq/Afghanistan War.

Beyond this number, an article from the Portland Tribune on August 21, 2008, drops an even more startling number; 153 Oregon veterans from all conflicts committed suicide. The article does not say how many were being treated by the VA. One can only guess at the number this year.

I scoped the inaugural issue of CA Fighter magazine at the Fresno State Rec Center yesterday. It looks amazing. In depth articles. Fighter profiles and MMA Camp reviews. This magazine really has legs and we should be seeing great things out of it in the future. The magazine also feels like quality. It seemed like every page was thicker and more colorful then any other magazine on the market, covering any topic. MMA in California is huge and growing. CA Fighter magazine is at the forefront of this growth. I do have a couple suggestions though.

While probably not feasible anytime soon; I would love to see an MMA League that pits camp on camp a la Ultimate Fighter. The major difference is that the camps would be legitimate MMA  camps operating with real clients. The fights could take place in local venues, similar to Fresno, CA Rumble in the Park, held at the Woodward Park amphitheater. These fights would bring in revenue to the hosting venue/city during times of financial cutbacks and help promote the camps that train the fighters. Now I don’t expect CA  Fighter to do this all on their own, but the idea is something that would make since given their content. Plus, an MMA League in California could serve as a legitimate minor league system for the UFC as well as other MMA organizations.

Second, I would love to see CA Fighter do some sort of man on the street segment where they take a random, untrained guy and put him through the paces of training in MMA. It may be a year long piece, but I would love to see if a normal guy can take the punishment without quitting.

Overall, CA Fighter is a great magazine for keeping up on the MMA scene in CA as well as looking at the future of MMA nationally.

Build a Computer:

Why you don’t know how to do this: It’s a computer. A dozen parts coming together to create the ability to go online. You probably ask yourself, what’s RAM? And how come my Hard Drive makes a scratching noise sometimes? The simple answer to why you don’t know how to build a computer; it’s complicated. Finding parts isn’t hard, finding the right parts is. Putting it together isn’t hard, putting it together right the first time is. With the ability to buy a complete computer at Best Buy so easy, why build your own. Simply, you want a computer that can be upgraded every couple of months and be usable. Instead you buy a completely new computer every couple of years and only to find out you’re angry at how slow it is 6 months later.

Solution: Build a computer. Take a couple of weeks and buy a book on building computers. Study it, breathe it, live it. Once you’ve built it you’ll technically smarter then 95% of your friends, family and their friends and their family. You’ll be the one they call when their computer crashes. By this time, you’ll know that most likely their hard drive crashed and they lost their data. The good news is you convinced them to back their data up, now you’re the hero.

Change a Flat Tire:

Why you don’t know how to do this: Ever seen a slasher movie where the college students get stuck on the side of the road because their car has flat, and the buff, model looking male lead has no idea what a lug nut is? You know you have. The only thing preventing you from being in this scenario, besides not looking like a model, is a big screen. If you haven’t been stranded on the side of a desolate highway, or even a mildly traveled one, consider yourself lucky, but the law of averages isn’t on your side. Everyday you don’t check the pressure on your tires, (do you know how to do that?) takes you one mile closer to staring in your own personal horror film. Besides, who wants to be on a date and not know how to change a tire. Girls want a man who can do more then call AAA.

Solution: Find some flat ground, get the jack your car conveniently has in the trunk, next to your spare. If you didn’t know your car comes with a jack, read you manual. Proceed to loosen the lug nuts on one of your wheels, preferably the one up in the air. Attach the spare, tighten the lug nuts, and take a test drive. Come back and re-attach your normal tire. Reward yourself with a Klondike bar, because you are more of a man now (if you’re a woman, you are now better then your boyfriend).

Shoot a Gun:

Why you don’t know how to do this: Come on, ever since the end of the draft, you haven’t had a reason to learn to shoot a gun. The only reason you learned to shoot then, was to have a head start on the poor sap who didn’t. Because when the Army pencil whipped your basic training you at least knew where the safety was. Nowadays, you don’t know how to shoot because your food magically appears in the meat locker at Costco. You don’t know what it means to live off the land and fend for yourself. The good news is you don’t need to know who to do these things, but you should. The modern reason to know how to shoot a gun is to protect yourself. You really don’t want to be caught in the middle of your house being robbed and have no way to defend yourself and your family. You have life too easy these days, and somewhere robbers, muggers and thieves of all kinds know this, and are plotting against you.

Solution: Do yourself a favor and buy the cheapest life insurance policy available, a shotgun (they’re easy, point, shoot, pump, point shoot, repeat) is simple, reliable, and makes a big hole in whatever you point it at. After this, go to your local shooting range and sign up for the pistol class. You’ll feel a whole new confidence and add tool to your kit. If you’ve caught the bug, find a tactical shooting range and get qualified for a concealed weapon, then you can carry your life insurance anywhere (except for schools, court houses, government buildings, and some parks).

Cut Down a Tree:

Why you don’t know how to do this: Ever since natural gas was discovered, you’ve become accustomed to wood free heat, and ever since the Swedes gave us IKEA, you’ve become accustomed to manufactured DIY furniture. In fact, the closest you’ve probably come to wood is attempting to build a crappy beer pong table. When your great grand parents moved out west, they had to clear their entire property of trees, then they built their first house out of the trees the cut down. Simply, you don’t have a good reason to cut down a tree anymore.

Solution: You don’t have to break out the ax or two person saw, a chainsaw will be fine (please don’t use an electric one wuss). The most important thing to bringing down a tree is falling it where you want. It’s no good having to fix your neighbors fence when you screw up. To do this, cut a notch out of the tree on the side you want to fall, and proceed to attack it from the back. If done correctly, the tree will fall in the direction you made the notch. If the tree is huge (20 ft or bigger) make DIY grappling hook and have someone pull it down in the correct direction. Women love lumberjacks. It’s probably something to do with knowing how to handle wood, but you never know. Just don’t wear plaid.

Keep a Journal:

Why you don’t know how to do this: It takes time, patience, and dedication. Three of the most valuable and least abundant qualities found in your everyday life. Writing and maintaining a journal is a personal and intimate task. It’s something no one else should ever see, and if they did you would be embarrassed. With modern distractions, like this blog, we don’t have the inclination to write down our thoughts. Without journals, the lives of some of the most powerful men and women in the history of the world would still be myth and legend. Anne Frank wouldn’t have a book, and George Washington would still have chopped down a cherry tree. Most importantly, you don’t keep a journal because you haven’t thought about it.

Solution: Start writing. Find a time of the day where you can be alone and share your thoughts with yourself. You’ll find how liberating it is to express what you can’t tell anyone. You’ll also find that you’ll discover solutions to your problems simply by considering them while you’re thinking about them. Keeping a journal also adds a sense of mystique to you; you have so much going on that you need to keep track of it. As the say, be a man, use your hand. To write that is.

Your first instinct is to flee, but to where; you on the second, third or even the fourth floor and the there’s no ledge to use to escape lower. You hear more shots and now screams as the gunman or gunmen go from class to class shooting, wounding and maybe even killing. Then you remember that you’re armed. Or are you? Unless you attend college in Utah, you may as well flip a coin on your chances of living, dying or being wounded.

The scenario continues like this. You live in Utah, and the gunman enters you class room attempting to fire on you or your classmates you can put him down. The story ends here. There will be reports and statements to fill out for sure, and the NRA may even pick up the tab for the rest of your tuition (if only).

The alternate scenario ends a little differently. Now you’re a student Illinois. A state with unconscionably restrictive concealed carry laws. With the same flight or fight options, except you don’t have a weapon. You can’t leave because your too high, the gunman is blocking the door. Within minutes 3 dozen shots are fired and you, your friends and the TA are in shock, wounded or dead.

This scenario is the most common example of what happens when the federal and state government tell us that they will be our protectors. Now, it’s not all their fault, we share some blame for this too. We are not telling our congressmen and women or our senators that we demand the return of the ability to protect ourselves. Time after time, shooting after shooting.

Talking heads tell us that we need more gun control, more “Gun Free Zones”. The ironic thing about these statements is that only law abiding citizens, and in this case students, listen to them anyway. The Trench Coat Mafias (Columbine) and Seung-Hui Cho’s (Virginia Tech) of the world don’t give a damn about silly laws that make what they intend to do easier. Obviously they didn’t stop the Gun Free Zone signs, but the law abiding students who did and left their weapons in their cars paid the price for our inaction.

Whether you agree with the premise of guns on campus or not is beside the point. The question you must ask yourself is whether you will allow the most sacred Right in the history of man, the ability to defend yourself, to be trampled on in the name of assumed security at the expense of your life. Secondly, for those of you who believe so wholeheartedly in the rights to free speech, a free press and the freedom to assemble enshrined in the 1^st Amendment, you must ask yourself what gives you those The only thing preventing those rights from being infringed upon anymore is the 2^nd Amendments guarantee that you can personally defend yourself against attack by an increasingly oppressive government.

I’ve saved the good news for last. Eleven states are considering legislation to restore to students who are lawfully permitted the right to carry concealed handguns on their campuses. With your help, more may follow. What do you think about this issue?