Another Way per Sue

As the “war on terror” continues to create more terror, fear and pain for thousands of people in Iraq, Afghanistan, the United States and many other places in the world, I suggest you read Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson (mountaineer and resident of Bozeman) and David Oliver Relin. If you want to be inspired and are looking for ways to build global peace without violence, this riveting page-turner will lead you to many possibilities. The Web site, www.threecupsoftea.com explains this true story about “ones man’s mission to promote peace ... one school at a time.” After a failed attempt to reach the summit Pakistan’s K-2, the world’s second highest mountain, in 1993, Greg Mortenson began efforts to build a school in a remote mountain village. “By 2007, he has established over 58 schools through his non-profit, Central Asia Institute, which provides education to over 24,000 children...”I can’t help but think that had we aimed high when the Peace Corps was established in 1961 and strove to fund that corps at the level we now fund our military budget, we, the U.S., and in fact the whole world would not be in the mess we are in today.


I recently read this book, it was very good and gives one hope that thru education things will change for the better.... eventually.

"emblems of belief"

MADISON, Wisconsin (AP) -- The Wiccan pentacle has been added to the list of emblems allowed in national cemeteries and on government-issued headstones of fallen soldiers, according to a settlement announced Monday.
A settlement between the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Wiccans adds the five-pointed star to the list of "emblems of belief" allowed on VA grave markers.


There are now 39 emblems authorized. All but two are religious in the supernatural sense. There is one for Athiests and one for Humanists.
http://www.cem.va.gov/cem/hm/hmemb.asp
Can one opt to have nothing? Whats next, The Darwin Fish?
Maybe they should just cancel the whole program? Its getting expensive and wastes the V.A. time getting sued by each and every cult known to man.

Evel Knievel found God

Evel Knievel baptized during "Hour of Power" service
BUTTE, Mont. - Former motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel recently took a leap of faith.Knievel, 68, was baptized during the Rev. Robert H. Schuller's "Hour of Power" service at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Calif.Knievel spoke for about 20 minutes to more than 4,000 people who gathered inside the Crystal Cathedral for services on April 1, telling them how he'd been a sinner all his life and now things had changed.Schuller said Knievel had called him a couple of weeks earlier, telling him, "Dr. Schuller, I've accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior."Schuller, 80, said he had long admired Knievel for his "possibility thinking" in attempting motorcycle jumps that seemed impossible, but he had kept his distance because Knievel's private life was "so unashamedly non-Christian and nonreligious."He had had prostitutes," Schuller told The Montana Standard. "He'd committed adultery. I couldn't praise him for his possibility thinking, for which I admired him as much as anybody, as long as I knew he was walking in that kind of camp."

I guess he is going to need to change his name

Death Penalty per Craig

Death penaltyThe recent defeat of the second attempt to repeal capital punishment in Montana is again, unfortunate. In this Easter season, it is a good time to realize that the Lord Jesus Christ was a victim of capital punishment! That reality should end the discussion, forever.

Craig Simmons1206 Walnut #2

But, then we wouldn't have Easter would we?

My Husband is back from Iraq!

Jason, my husband came home from Iraq Thursday night the 5th of April. He has 100's of pictures and luckily no horror stories of his own. He seems happy, healthy and glad to be home. He did admit to going on alot more convoys than I had guessed. I guessed five, it was more like 20. The trucks the Seabees were driving were practically indestructable. One was hit but no one was hurt. He did also mention there were a few mortor attacks when he first arrived, but again no one was hurt.
He said the place is a godless hellhole, I need to correct him and suggest using the term God Forsaken. Its a bummer even my own husband equates being godless as a negative. I of course don't think he really thought about it, its like a cultural reflexive response similar to "lets nuke em all".

If it were truely a godless place, the Sunni's and Shiite's wouldn't be blowing each other up

Helena IR article
A detachment of Navy Seabees will trickle back to Montana over the next few weeks after a yearlong deployment in the Middle East.

The group of 37 sailors spent the last year repairing roads destroyed by IEDs, providing convoy security, and doing general reconstruction.

“They’re a forward deployable construction battalion,” said Chief John Webster, spokesman for the Navy Reserve in Helena. “They can make runways and makeshift buildings, things of that nature, to set up a forward operating base.”

Webster said the detachment left Montana last March. The group trained at the U.S. Naval Reserve Station at Gulfport, Miss., before leaving for Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait.

Webster said the detachment will return home sporadically over the next few weeks.

“We’re going to see what happens when everyone gets here,” said Webster. “We’ll see what our numbers are and have a big family day out here, sometime in late spring.”

The detachment of Seabees didn’t suffer any known casualties during the deployment, Webster said.

However, one member of Montana’s Naval Reserve, Petty Officer Charles Komppa, was killed in Iraq on Oct. 25, 2006.