Day: May 16, 2007

May is National Military Appreciation Month. Participate!

Trish

Military Times has put together a wonderful resource so we can all share in National Military Appreciation Month. There’s a great multimedia gallery, where you can view amazing, and often very moving, pictures and film clips. You can also submit a salute to a specific service member, everyone in the military, the families waiting for them to come back, or all of the above.

Take a few minutes to post your own salute. If you need inspiration:

“I salute my brother, my hero, Rick for all the courage and maturity he has displayed in the army these last four years. He is currently stationed at ft. bragg, NC and he already did one tour in Iraq in 2005.. For all of other deployed military men and women, i pray for your safe arrival home. God bless our troops. Without our military, our country couldn’t survive. Ricky, I love you. i can’t wait until you come home. You’re my older brother, my protector, and my HERO.”
— Lisa
Branchburg, NJ

“Thank you for all that you do to keep our nation safe!”
— Rob
Virginia

“I would like to say a special thank you to my son, Kyle DeMitry, who is in the Navy and my daughter-in-law, Suzi DeMitry, who is in the Army. I am so proud of you both! I would also like to say thank you to all those serving in the states and abroad, thank you for keeping us safe and free. We owe you everything!!!!”
— Anita
Salisbury, NC

Also, do what I did a couple of weeks ago. If you see someone in uniform dining out or getting a cuppa joe, pick up the tab. It’s a tiny way to say thank you to people who are willing to do something most of us aren’t, but that we trust someone else will.

Hold Off on Packing the Suitcase for Europe, Wolfie

Trish

ABC News, which always seems to get these little scoops right, is reporting that Paul Wolfowitz is toast.

World Bank officials say the bank’s board is completing an “exit strategy” that will allow World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz to resign this afternoon and “still save some face” over the issue of his efforts to seek a promotion and pay raise for his girlfriend at the bank.

The officials say the bank’s board will accept Wolfowitz’s resignation but will also acknowledge that the World Bank’s Ethics Committee bears “some responsibility” for giving him bad advice on the issue of his girlfriend.

The decision is likely today, officials say, because Wolfowitz had been scheduled to leave tonight for a European trip.

Falwell Farewell: Rev. Jerry’s Ten Most Un-Christian Statements

Jon Ponder

My colleague Buck has been leading a prayer vigil for the past year or so urging the Lord to “call home” prominent televangelists. Now that Jerry Falwell has been the first of the big-time grifters to get the call, here’s a list of some of the things he said here on earth that might mean he is finding the afterlife a wee bit warmer than he expected. (H/t to Trish for spotting the fond farewell from Tinky Winky above.)

1. 9/11 was caused by gays, feminists, pagans, the ACLU and PFAW
September 2001:

“I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say ‘you helped this happen.'”

2. Tinky Winky is gay
February 1999:

“He is purple – the gay-pride colour; and his antenna is shaped like a triangle – the gay-pride symbol.”

3. Mohammed was a terrorist
June 2006:

“I think Mohammed was a terrorist. He – I read enough of the history of his life written by both Muslims and — and — non-Muslims, that he was a – a violent man, a man of war.”

4. Secularists hate Christ
December 2004:

“Well, the fact is that lawyers today, over 3,000 of them in America — Christian lawyers, constitution, conservative lawyers — have offered their services at no charge, pro bono, to certain groups of constitution firms to do war with the ACLU, with the secularists, with Americans United, and all who hate Christ and want to drive God from the public square.”

5. Archbishop Desmond Tutu is a phony
September 1985:

“I think he’s a phony, period, as far as representing the black people of South Africa.”

6. The Antichrist is a Jewish man alive today
1999:

“If he’s going to be the counterfeit of Christ, he has to be Jewish. The only thing we know is he must be male and Jewish.”

7. Gay sex equals bestiality
November 2004:

“So here we have now same-sex marriage. What’s next, polygamy? … Why not? And why not bestiality?”

8. Flag burners should be whipped
September 2006:

“You know when I see somebody burning the flag, I’m a Baptist preacher I’m not a Mennonite, I feel it’s my obligation to whip him. In the name of the Lord of course. I feel it’s my obligation to whip him, and if I can’t do it then I look up some of my athletes to help me.”

9. Bush critics should be beaten
September 2006:

“But, as long as at 72 I can handle most of the jobs I do it myself, and I don’t think it’s un-spiritual. When I, when I, when I hear somebody talking about our military and ridiculing and saying terrible things about our President, I’m thinking you know just a little bit of that and I believe the Lord would forgive me if I popped him.”

10. Christians must be the most intolerant people in the world
March 2006:

“I want my people to be the most intolerant people in the world.”