Mother of US Iraq casualty vows to follow Bush

[Placebo]

The mother of a US soldier killed in Iraq warned she would camp outside the White House next month if US President George W. Bush refuses to meet with her here at his ranch.

"I don't understand why he cannot spend ten minutes of his time to talk to somebody whose life he has devastated," said Cindy Sheehan, 48, who has been camped out about a kilometer from the gates of Bush's ranch since Saturday.

Sheehan, whose son, Casey, was killed in April 2004 five days after arriving in Iraq , wants to meet with Bush face-to-face to deliver her anti-war message.

"I want Bush to stop using my son's sacrifice to justify the killing," she told reporters, insisting that "he needs to bring the troops home now."

More...

:patriot: :grouphug: :patriot:

We love you Cindy!

[The Doctor.]

1. "About a kilometer..."?

Someone needs to explain the English system to these people.

[rodeodance]

2. I am just glad they are covering this story

[tocqueville]

3. "English system" ? sorry the metric system is a French invention

A metric system is a system of units for measurement based upon the metre, developed in late 18th century France, and decimal multipliers. By additions—due to scientific discoveries—, refinements and selection of base units, there has been a number of metric systems:

The original French system with metre, are (100 m²), stere (1 m³) or litre (1 dm³) and kilogram as well as some prefixes,
several national variants thereof with aliases for some common subdivisions, in general redefinition of other units in use, e.g. 500-g pounds or 10-kg miles,

CGS, centimetre-gram-second systems,
MKS, metre-kilogram-second systems,
MKSA, metre-kilogram-second-ampere systems,
SI, the current international system, and the one currently most widely used around the world,
MTS, metre-ton-second systems.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_system

[The Doctor.]

6. Yes, but the author doesn't seem to understand that

all reports indicate she is over a mile away which would be more than 'about a kilometer'.

Thus, it is the English system they may not grasp... rather than the metric which is more widely understood.

My statement stands.

{oe} - Oh... I see you mistook my meaning. I used the base assumption that the author understood the metric system, but not the English system.

[tocqueville]

10. OK now I understand

you should have said the Imperial system

[The Doctor.]

11. Fair enough.

They were still WAY off on their assumption of proximity.

[JDPriestly]

8. Mile = 2.2 kilometers

Kilometer is a little less than a half a mile.

[tocqueville]

12. 1 Km = 0.6213712 miles

you must divide by "two" not the contrary

[JDPriestly]

19. Thanks. See my follow up post for an apology.

[suneel112]

13. Actually, its 1 mile = 1.61 kilometers

so 80 km/hr is around 50 mi/hr.

[Catholic Sensation]

14. a kilogram is 2.2 pounds

[JDPriestly]

18. Woops! You are right.

And I lived in Europe for years and used the metric system every day. How embarrassing.

[AlphaCentauri]

17. "We need patience when it comes to culture" Gerard Iannelli

Thirty years ago, Congress tried to convert this nation of rebels to the metric system, claiming that an interdependent world market required it and that our economic survival depended upon it. But when the contemplated change began to take the form of metric highway signs, gas pumps and thermometers, Americans demanded and received the return of their familiar English units. Congressional efforts to promote conversion only invoked fear and hostility.

"The mistake was made in trying to do that before having a public-awareness campaign," says Gerard Iannelli, director of the U.S. Metric Program, a project of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Iannelli tells Insight that America's rejection of the metric system is "a perceptual problem." Americans were asked to forget their familiar measurements and adhere to a foreign system without enough social engineering. "I really think we should wait until people begin to think in the language" before converting traffic signs, weather reports and supermarket scales, Iannelli says.

http://www.insightmag.com/media/paper441/news/2001/09/24/Nation/The-Metric.System.Still.A.Matter.Of.Inches-161345.shtml

........

1982
President Ronald Reagan disbanded the U.S. Metric Board and canceled its funding. Responsibility for metric coordination was transferred to the Office of Metric Programs in the Department of Commerce.

[CTyankee]

4. Why?

Aren't we in the minority of countries that use our system, not the metric system? Just askin'.

[The Doctor.]

9. That is precisely my point...

The reporting agency is not 'American'.

Besides, my point really is that they are WAY off on the distance she is from the ranch.

[ScrappyDem]

15. About the ONLY one---n-t

[Placebo]

5. maybe they're thinking like the military...

ya know...."a klick from here"...etc...

just sayin'

[tocqueville]

7. they are wrong anyway

because I don't think she is half a mile from the entry of the ranch, but probably farther than that

[cliss]

16. 'Vows to follow Bush'

And you know what? I bet she will. She's going to hound this man, and the longer he waits the worse it will be.

If Cindy Sheehan was a race horse or a stock, I'd bet on her.