packsaddle

Basement, in a small town not far from here they celebrated at the town memorial in the center of town (a monument which is disproportionately large compared to the tiny size of the town)...and devoted exclusively to the Confederate fallen. The federal offices were closed today. State offices were open and working. I haven't looked around the South but I'd be surprised if there weren't other states similarly ignoring the day. Not long ago, there were places in the South that would not even celebrate the 4th of July (although black folks held smaller unrecognized celebrations of the 4th). Back in March I was astounded to hear Haley Barbour admit publicly that slavery was the cause of the Civil War. I suspect he lost a lot of support for that and it could partly explain his exit from running. Yes, there are many bright spots of progress in the South. And yes, there are still havens of prejudice and hate. I am probably more sensitive to them because of the things I saw when I was growing up. That just means that I don't overlook them. They're there. I think it would be wrong to forget the origin of Memorial Day. In contrast, Veteran's Day with its origin after WWI is a day to honor all who have given sacrifice without regard to race or region. And I appreciate that.

I'll continue to honor the original intent of the day by thinking of the Union soldiers who sacrificed so much to keep the country united and to free the slaves. Not too long ago, this holiday was not observed by certain Southern states...in favor of Confederate Memorial Day. Some localities still make a strong distinction. I won't forget that either. I will also continue to honor Veteran's Day on which all veterans and those in service are honored and remembered. Edited to add: from Wikipedia, "Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May. Formerly known as Decoration Day, which was first recorded to have been observed by Freedmen (freed enslaved southern blacks) in Charleston, South Carolina in 1865, at the Washington Race Course, to remember the fallen Union soldiers of the Civil War.(This message has been edited by packsaddle)

This unit has had several Islamic families. Just ask them what they think is best. They'll be glad to think about it and let you know. They may already have the answer and are waiting for you to ask.

Trevorum, the Rastafarians on this island (and perhaps elsewhere) consider(ed) Haile Selassie to be (have been) the Messiah, Jesus Christ incarnate. I just checked and there is a brief section regarding this in Wikipedia. The Rastas around here today don't push themselves on anyone (except for an occasional waft of ganja) but a few years back there was a militant element among them which led to violent repression. Although they believe in the divinity of the Messiah, they don't think of themselves in terms of 'Christian' versus 'non-Christian' and I think, neither does the Catholic church here. Some of the violent repression years ago had an attached religious element at that time, which at this time seems absent. But I'm not integrated into this society (and probably never will be) so my impressions are based on what I read and the few individuals who have spoken of these things. A few days ago I had a nice conversation with Lennox Honychurch (Oxford educated historian of the island) and I asked him about this (I have just finished an astonishing book about the completely true story of some incredibly stupid Americans and Canadians who tried to invade and take over country) and Dr. Honychurch laughed and shook his head and mumbled something about stupid people and then said it was all completely factual and absolutely true. I mean...this book is incredible...you will laugh and roll your eyes and you will do this because there is no way anyone could make up a story like this. The book is called, "Bayou of Pigs". Read it. You might even remember that you heard something about these events in the news way back then. But the people who did this were deadly serious (and apocalyptically stupid) and it gives some flavor of the society here at that time, including the role of the militant Rastas and what happened, and why. If you would like to read a really engaging and much more detailed history of the island, read Honychurch's book, 'The Dominica Story'. Tell you what, that book is really hard to find in the states and really expensive from Amazon. PM me with your address and I'll send you a copy.

I note similar things at the college level. Their constructions are sometimes sufficient but many have nearly illegible handwriting. I fault lack of practice, mostly. However, I also remember well that this was a problem back in the 1960s when my college-prep classes were shocked by stern, unforgiving, hard teachers who demanded strict performance and handed out grades accordingly. I acknowledged my English teacher in my first thesis. I still think about him. He didn't like me very much. I was terrified of him. But he left one of those strong impressions that made a huge difference. In retrospect, I know he was a good guy who really cared. He did make a difference.

[This post might seem misplaced...there was another post just before it which was deleted by one of the moderators...hence, the seeming disconnect. Otherwise there are no alterations.] Welcome to the forums, Margaret. Thanks for bringing this old thread back to life. Our unit can still easily find places where there is no signal. Lost phone somewhere way back on the trail? It got wet in the rain? Dropped overboard? The buttons stopped working? Battery's dead? No signal? Too bad. We'll call in a couple of days when we re-enter an area with a signal. (in the meantime, we can enjoy the outdoors instead) This unit will actually take signal strength into account when planning some outings - avoiding the signal, I mean. We caution boys and parents: if they take these devices and they are lost or ruined...it's not our responsibility. But we can virtually guarantee that they will be useless on the outing. They usually make the better choice. (This message has been edited by a staff member.)

I am among some persons who believe that the Messiah died and was not resurrected. In fact his bones were discovered years later buried under a latrine, according to some accounts. They still believe he was the Messiah, the actual living Jesus Christ. However, I think they would be very adverse to being called Christians and certainly do NOT refer to themselves as Christian. They are actually suspicious-to-fearful of conventional Christianity, partly because of the violence and exploitation they've received from so-called Christians. I am constantly reminded..."The purpose of religion isn't to bring people together."

"Good point, but that is exactly what people do and its called denominations. Roman Catholic, Anglican, Baptist, Lutheran, Mormon, Evangelicals, Pentecostals, etc.," ...sigh, if only there were as many flavors of ice cream. Now THAT would be heavenly.

Yeah, five more months of being bummed out, hoping for planetary cataclysm. Talk about a bummer.... Nolesrule, "...or something else just as stupid". Got THAT right! I really think he was sincere in his 'belief'. What does that say about 'belief'? We had a 'young-earth-creationist' visit campus a while back. He was a geologist, but not much of one it seemed. He had calculated the date of creation in very approximate terms. Geologists in the crowd were visibly agitated with regard to some of the claims he made. I asked him why his date didn't agree with that of the infamous Archbishop James Usher? He fumbled a little so I helped him out. I noted that the room was full of smart people, people who had taken advanced courses in topics like calculus...so if he would just give us the technical details of how he calculated that date, we could probably repeat the process and get the same date...right? He wouldn't do it. He just said he used pretty much the same methods as the Archbishop but arrived at a different date. I think by the time he finished this failure to answer a clear, very basic question, most of the audience was ready to go study Medieval literature or something instead. Of the stacks of his books he had for sale, I saw two sold...or maybe given away. Camping is never going to provide specifics. He is never going to be anything more than a self-deceived person in whom other misguided persons will place their faith. Sad.

Robert Fitzpatrick, of Staten Island, "I can't tell you what I feel right now," he said, surrounded by tourists. "Obviously, I haven't understood it correctly because we're still here." That's right, Robert. You're still stuck here with the rest of us slimes. See, this is what really gets me about all this: the unbridled arrogance of that guy and those like him who set THEMSELVES as the 'standard', the only ones who possess the 'truth'. Just because he's still here it must not have happened. Good grief! It's really all about 'them' as the so-called 'chosen'. I will give Robert part of the statement though - he sure as heck didn't understand something. (This message has been edited by packsaddle)

Welcome to the forums, Papadaddy. I read your claim to be Scoutldr but I'm naturally suspicious of such claims until proof is supplied. Nevertheless, I concur about grandchildren. Better yet, it's only a few years until you get to start it all over with brownie scouts...if you can still muscle dad out of the way. So welcome to the forums, whoever you are. Reincarnated or whatever.(This message has been edited by packsaddle)

Not to gloat except, OK, maybe just a little.... Nya, nya, nya, I'm in paradise and you guys aren't....I guess that means that the rapture really DID happen and all of you were left behind, LOL. Too bad...See ya around..NOT. Oops, or perhaps I am merely here for the time being by virtue of a microrapture - those things happen all the time. In that case I may see you soon, or maybe not. It's just so interesting this end-of-the-world prediction scam. Out of morbid curiosity I was half hoping it would happen. But then, I guess no one can prove it didn't, except that if it did the crackpot was left behind too. I suppose the question will remain open except perhaps for some women from Darfur and other remote places who are now doing quite well in another dimension somewhere. But I guess some people quit jobs and will now be on unemployment....now THAT ought not happen for them. They missed the rapture and now they should miss our largess. Maybe they can take it out of the crackpot's hide. The suspense is terrible...I hope it will last.

Coming from a point of view in which I see the results, I would just like them to read something, if for no other reason than to appreciate the power of a good book. Even if they don't read a good book until years from now. Just read. P.S. some writing skills would be nice too.

Trevorum, I can always count on you to show the hidden flaw...thanks, I think. But I was responding to BadenP's comment, "St.Paul basically says that if there is no resurrection than we have no afterlfe to look forward to after our death." To me this implies that resurrection applies more broadly to the idea that all of those who are 'saved' or something along those lines will experience something like resurrection (maybe in just about 4 days? Maybe the dead rising happens some time after the rapture, I keep getting all this mixed up - BTW the rapture already happened as far as I'm concerned) To me, the metaphorical application of the idea is that we 'live on' after our deaths through the good that we have done and through whatever contributions we've made to ideas and human experience. In a physical sense, we live on when our genetic and material being literally is taken up by other organisms (reincarnation) and by so living on, our material content, at least, is 'resurrected'. H.G. Wells gave another nice metaphorical notion to this when he noted that no life is lived in vain...when one considers even the tiniest incremental contribution to evolution, even shortened lives make a contribution. To me the idea of resurrection, in these senses, has a lot in common with reincarnation.

My answer: not my problem - each person can make that decision for themself. My question: Isn't this just a special case of reincarnation?

Video of John McCain's statement on torture today: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/12/john-mccain-torture-_n_861089.html It's worth watching.

Yeah, I got that message. I'm using a newly formatted surplus notebook with abosolutely nothing on it so let 'em attack. If I could ever get my hands on one of these perps I'd have to think hard about my opposition to torture.

Thanks Calico, I should have expected....

NJ, as a former Presbyterian, to understand them it helps to think of Darth Vader, ...SCUBA breathing sounds...."Join with me Luke, it is your DESTINY". BTW, Gingrich cheated on #2 as well. As I understand it, after he found out she had MS, he phoned her on Mother's Day to ask for a divorce. He is a lying snake. Edit: OK, snakes are noble creatures in comparison, this is strictly metaphorical.(This message has been edited by packsaddle)

When I think of how easy it seems for some of us to just dismiss any sense of personal conscience on the rationalization of 'warfare', it just makes me wonder...and sad. I wonder, why even bother with the rationalization if that is a person's inclination? But I guess for that matter some people don't bother, they actually rather enjoy doing these things to other people and war just makes it easy. I have known a few of them, persons who took the 'anything goes' attitude toward other persons. They are/were, in fact, criminals. One was executed for it. Edit: just saw Beavah's followup. One of my fellow scouts joined up in order to go to Vietnam. The rest of us recognized that there was some kind of ever-present malice in him but most of the time he was fair and fun. But once in a while he would do things that betrayed something terrible. He returned from the war once in a while and re-upped as long as it was possible. He seemed 'apart' from the rest of us when he spoke and he bragged about the thrill of killing. I have no idea how much of it was true but knowing him, it was believable. It is possible that he was responsible for some terrible things, the way he talked about women, especially. I visited the wall and looked for his name. Not there. I hope his life has taken a turn for the better.(This message has been edited by packsaddle)

I agree with Beavah's distinction. Anyway, OK, again..this time to Brent or OGE, it might help some of us to understand your argument if you would describe what conduct, if any, that you think would 'cross the line' in terms of acceptable ways to question prisoners. And then explain how we can understand your reasoning the same way you do. What I am getting from the absence of an answer is that there is no limit to what you would do to a prisoner. If this is incorrect, tell me...what is the limit? And how did you decide that limit?

jrush, I can't speak for Merlyn but I wondered about your definition as well. A belief that nothing exists is for me an impossible belief because, for example, I believe our cat exists. But I have no sense of reverence toward it. I believe this keyboard exists but...well, ok, maybe. But you get the point. Your definition lacks...well...definition. "Nothing" is a very exclusive thing. It excludes everything and some things obviously do exist.

WAKWIB, "There has been a large exodus from many mainline denominations for years for a variety of reasons." Do you have any idea where they're going? How many members does it take to be or not to be a 'mainline' denomination? Just curious.

Wow, who would have thought....? Evidently, the Presbyterian Church (USA) has changed their minds: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/11/us/11presbyterian.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha23 Presbyterians Approve Ordination of Gay People

...or by request. I remember when they first went into high gear after 9/11 but before TSA got really anal about microwaving things...the nice sexy lady asked me if I was uncomfortable being searched by a woman. I looked at her...her eyes...her...well...anyway, I said, "Is this a trick question?"