| Look to the right on the Gun Totin Chaplain Amazon.com Detail page(link above) and sign up for the Alert Me email on the right of the page to let you know when the book will be available.
| |
Look to the right on the Gun Totin Chaplain Amazon.com Detail page(link above) and sign up for the Alert Me email on the right of the page to let you know when the book will be available.
| |
| Look to the right on the Gun Totin Chaplain Amazon.com Detail page(link above) and sign up for the Alert Me email on the right of the page to let you know when the book will be available.
| |
|
To celebrate the heart of Christmas is to forget ourselves in the service of others.
Henry C. Link
Article for Wednesday, December 13, 2006:
Hope and Fantasy
Do give books - religious or otherwise - for Christmas. They're never fattening, seldom sinful, and permanently personal.
-Lenore Hershey
Christmas is the one time of year when people of all religions come together to worship Jesus Christ.
- Bart Simpson "The Simpsons" 1989
Most Texans think Hanukkah is some sort of duck call.
-Richard Lewis (comedian and Jew)
|
Article for Thursday, December 14, 2006:
The documentary: Outfoxed
Article for Tuesday, December 12, 2006:
Lessons from Pericoles' Oration
For the Troops and Their Families This Holiday Season(Links to Help)
I sometimes think we expect too much of Christmas Day. We try to crowd into it the long arrears of kindliness and humanity of the whole year. As for me, I like to take my Christmas a little at a time, all through the year. And thus I drift along into the holidays - let them overtake me unexpectedly - waking up some fine morning and suddenly saying to myself: "Why, this is Christmas Day!"
David Grayson
Of course, this is the season to be jolly, but it is also a good time to be thinking about those who aren't.
Helen Valentine
Article for Monday, December 11, 2006:
On a Hillside in Lafayette, California
He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree.
Roy L. Smith
Remember
This December,
That love weighs more than gold!
Josephine Dodge Daskam Bacon
| |
Are you willing to forget what you have done for other people, and to remember what other people have done for you ... to remember the weakness and loneliness of people who are growing old ... Are you willing to believe that love is the strongest thing in the world ... stronger than hate, stronger than evil, stronger than death... Then you can keep Christmas! But you can never keep it alone.
Henry van Dyke
|
|
(Joshua Roberts/Reuters)
|
The Iraq Study Group has done a good job.
They have covered the territory in all directions(Iraq Study Group Report, Washington Post).
Unfortunately, they are not magicians, angels, or miracle workers.
Iraq cannot be reduced to a study group. Our choices are bad and worse. We have unleashed the very terrorists that we wanted to eliminate.
Iraq is simply in chaos, i. e., anarchy or civil war, take your pick. It is a lethal barroom brawl.
The police are criminals, the criminals are police. It is Shiite against Sunni (5 thousand year old conflict), Shiite against Shiite and insurgents and fanatics of every sort declaring jihad against everyone.
Who Really Controls Baghdad
A recent, Newsweek magazine, devoted most of its issue to the Prince of Baghdad, Moqtada al-Sadr, the cleric who more or less controls the Mahdi Army. The Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki who the Prez says is our man in Iraq (sounds eerily familiar to New Orleans,Brownie, you are doing a hecka of a job.) is controlled by Al Sadr.
Al Sadr's Mahdi Army is probably better than the Iraqi Army. Are we getting the picture here? To sit around flailing the air and beating our chests is simply a waste of time. What do we do?
Even given my respect for John McCain, one thing we should not do is to increase our troop levels. It is simply stupid. First of all, where are we going to get more troops? The same troops who have been in the crossfire would have to return.
ONE BASIC CHOICE
Get out, no other choice. All along, I've said, we can't leave and we can't stay; but, now, we have to accept the fact that we simply cannot stay. We have to face the reality of the fanaticism of the Islamic terrorists. Simply, you cannot reason with those who would kill themselves, their families, their own people. It cannot be done. All we can do is structure the situation to move out.
Will we see a blood bath? Well, if so, the situation will not be any different than what it is now: the Shiite will control the country, by in large. The Sunni's will resist as best they can until they get beaten down, and who knows about the Kurds-they just better have their own Army.
A BASIC PLAN
Let's figure out how to position enough Special Operations troops around to keep a semblance of presence for awhile, rotate the troops out, and don't replace them. Our military leadership is smart. What about this as an idea?
As a prelude to gradual withdrawal, seal off the borders, thus keeping most of the outside terrorists at bay. Remove our troops from Baghdad; let the Iraqis give it a try in handling the city.
OUT is the only course of action given the total lack of sacrifice asked of Americans up to this time; and they are not about to want to "give at the office."
Up until now, as someone has said, "we've carpet bombed America with fiction about Iraq and so let's use the Iraq Study Group report to finally face reality." KT
| |
AFP
|
In Lafayette, California, a sleepy little bedroom community near San Francisco, Jeff Heaton and some war protest groups... have planted crude wooden crosses on a hillside to memorialize American soldiers killed in Iraq. Those who oppose the effort say that it is not supporting the troops.
When I was a Church pastor, I once wrote an article for my Church bulletin that the national Church organization wanted to use but I said "No"; I couldn't take a chance that it might be interpreted that I did not support the troops while they were still fighting.
I've changed my mind now. The best way to support the troops, in my opinion, is to bring attention to the fact that we have grossly mismanaged the war in Iraq. If it takes a conscientious objector of the Vietnam War and some of his friends to put up a few hundred crosses, fine with me(They have only 400 crosses up so far, not the nearly 3000 needed). Even with reality slapping us "up side the head big time", the buzz phrases like "cut and run", "stay the course", and "finish the job", continue. Sorry ass politics!
In Vietnam, we learned quickly, political thinking can be so stupid with reasoning like "we can't win unless we are willing to stay for 20 years. In Iraq, we can't beat the fanatics, if we stay through eternity.
In Vietnam, we fought like mad to take some ground and give it up the next day. Politics! So, finally you get where only one philosophy exists which is looking after yourself and your troops and trying to get the hell out.
I applaud Jeff Heaton's efforts for putting up the crosses. At least he is involved, more than we can say for most Americans. KT
Good Support The Troops slideshow or "minivideo. Make sure your sound is on and volume high enough.(The song "Homeward Bound" sung by Brigham Young University Choir plays in background.)
| |
| Lessons From Pericles' Funeral Oration
|
(AFP/File/Mauricio Lima)
|
Pericles' Funeral Oration for the dead soldiers of Athens says lots to us today while we are at war. His words may be more important once the war is over.
Pericles begins his oration saying that a society expects that its citizens must go to war. He goes on to say, in so many words, that society, however, must look after those who survive the war, must provide for the widows, and must educate the children.
What about the differences between today's soldier and those in Pericles' time. In Pericles' time, men from all backgrounds were obligated to serve. Today, I think, soldiers are somewhat exploited especially in regards to the voluntary Army, i.e., the underclass are exploited.(ref:Milt was wrong about the draft; Charlie Rangel and The Draft)
The difference was Pericles knew that every Athenian male who was fit was going to fight. It was what an earlier American knew too. It was an obligation. KT
| |
A good way to follow the example of Pericles in his funeral oration and look after the troops and their families especially during this holiday season:
Homes For Our Troops (Providing handicap accessible homes for our severely wounded veterans.)
Fisher House (Supporting America's military in their time of need, they provide "a home away from home" that enables family members to be close to a loved one at the most stressful time -- during hospitalization for an illness, disease or injury.)
Soldiers' Angels (started by Mom whose son was in Iraq but now home-send care packages.)
|
Operation Iraqi Children (help our soldiers help Iraqi children.)
Sempi Fi Fund (helps Marines injured during battle and training )
Treats For The Troops (Jeanette Cram bakes cookies for the troops. This is volunteer, not a business. Has been baking cookies for the troops since the 1990 Gulf War. 167, 921 cookies thus far and still baking. )
Operation Paperback (Send gently used paperback books to troops. )
Operation Gratitude (Send care packages-185,547 sent thus far. )
Noanie.com (Great support link resource website to help our troops and loved ones. )
|
|
Outfoxed : A documentary about Rupert Murdoch's Fox News
|
Talk about enlightening, the documentary, Outfoxed is eye opening. It is incidently about Rupert Murdoch who is Fox news.
I don't watch Fox News but have read about how biased it is. Other than Rush Limbaugh, I don't know anyone who I care less for than one of Fox's staples, Bill O'Reilly .
How people could put up with O' Reilly and his rudeness is amazing. Footage of O' Reilly telling his guests to "Shut Up" is seen in the documentary. What kind of person would appear on his show to be insulted?
I always wanted O'Reilly to meet up with Woodrow Call of the cowboy movie, Lonesome Dove.
There's a scene in Lonesome Dove where Call beats the "beejingles" out of this Army scout because he bullies and hits some of Call's young cowboys. After Call nearly kills him, he says to the gathered crowd. "I can't stand rude behavior." Bill O'Reilly is the epitome of it.
A few weeks ago, I saw O'Reilly walking with the President and thought, what have we come too? A guy who talks dirty to his producer and eventually buys her off and we listen to him. Please! KT ( Bill O'Reilly and Producer settle suit)
| |
|
New Book: VietVet Memoir 
Commentary
