I’ve been lurking a while, so I thought I’d introduce myself:
I'm originally from New Orleans, LA; I still have lots of family and friends in the area.
Texas is my adopted home state; I wasn’t born there but I got there as soon as I could.
I'm married (17.5 years) with blended family – my youngest is a HS senior; the rest have all moved out.
I'm a U.S. Air Force officer with more than 20 years service, live in northern Virginia, work at Pentagon.
I’ve been to the Middle East twice since 9/11, never in combat. I’ve also lived or worked in Alaska, California, Illinois and Missouri (not in that order).
I'm retiring from the AF next summer … returning to Texas (hopefully Austin) to begin my 2d career.
I'm a casual EQ player for about 10 months, main is 65 Frog Necro with ~125 AA points.
Favorite sport to watch – NFL football; favorite sport to play – hot-dog-eating
Other hobbies – weight lifting and jogging.
I lurk in the Asylum because it’s always good for a laugh.
Politics: libertarian. I support equal civil rights for homosexuals, abortion rights in the first trimester, gun ownership by law abiding citizens, separation of church and state.
We need to take much better care of the environment – if I have to choose between saving your job and an endangered species, I’ll save the endangered species (My job is a different story). And I we need to find a way to fix our national health care problem … emergency room treatment for minor ailments and for serious ailments which should have been treated sooner is not the answer -- too expensive and not effective. My 23-year old step daughter doesn't have any health insurance and that's a terrible thing to experience.
I’m glad we got rid of Saddam Hussein; the Iraq war was a just cause but poorly directed (to the point of buffoonery), a useful reminder on the risks of using military force – but be honest, how many of us still think we should have intervened militarily in places like Rwanda and Darfur when things started going really bad there …
I just voted Libertarian on a Senate seat and Republican on a House seat
Until today (and that jury is still out), everyone I’ve ever voted for Pres has won – Reagan 2d term, Bush I, Clinton twice – I couldn’t bring myself to vote for either the Republican or Democratic candidates in the past two Pres elections.
Today I voted McCain for Pres because I believe he’s overall closer to center than Obama and because I don’t believe that Obama has what it takes to lead (voting “Present†is an abdication of leadership responsibility) – I hope I’m wrong about him; I do believe he could go a long way to restoring America’s image in the world. And ... electing a person of color means I never have to listen to someone whine about glass ceilings again.
I’ll respond to questions and comments if necessary, then I’ll go back to lurking :-)