Be Careful Who You Vote For

I'm a conservative talk show junkie. And the National Hosts for most of the shows I listen to are out of California or at least the West Coast. So when the recall of California Governor Davis was happening in 2003 I took great interest, and so did many talk show hosts. Unfortunately hosts such as Hugh Hewitt, Michael Medved and I believe even Dennis Prager all threw their support behind Arnold Schwarzenegger, because they rationalized, "he could win" I was appalled. They had a great candidate (and a conservative one) in Tom McClintock but these 'talking heads' -in whom I generally have a great respect for- created a self-fulfilling prophecy that McClintock was unelectable. Now California has a Pro-Abortion governor who is actively trying to eliminate marriage entirely from the most populace state in the union (from CNA):

It was revealed today that Attorney General Jerry Brown and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger have stated that the terms “marry” and “marriage” have no significance in the state’s constitution and can therefore be changed.

The briefs also reveal that the attorney general and the governor agree that benefits which are currently afforded to husbands and wives could be eliminated by the California Legislature.

Schwarznegger’s August 17 brief states, “…except for the ability to choose and declare one's life partner in a reciprocal commitment of mutual support, any of the statutory rights and obligations that are afforded to married couples in California could be abrogated or eliminated by the Legislature or the electorate for any rational legislative purpose.” [emphasis added]

Hooray for our conservative talking heads! They got a RINO (republican in name only) for a governor and now we are paying the price!

(Aw Shucks, who needs marriage anyway? it's only the central core structure to all great societies. It's only the best way to bring up well adjusted children. Who needs it? Not the Kids! Not the parents! Why should the Government do anything to support the most basic unit of society, what possible good can there be in that? Nah, Lets build Sports Stadiums! People really like them.)

What is the point in electing a Republican when they are on the same side as the Democrats on the most important issues? PLEASE, PLEASE don't tell me they will do the same thing for Rudy Giuliani. So far these hosts have refrained from an official endorsement of any candidate (although Hewitt could be on Mitt Romney's campaign without making much changes to his broadcast) they have not denounced Giuliani. Conservatives need to stay away from pro-abortion, and anti-marriage candidates with a ten foot pole. Let them know they are in the wrong party, and feel free to check out catholicsagainstrudy.com

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Anne Rice on abortion

For those of you who may not know Anne Rice is a well known Catholic and Author of several novels(none of which I would recommend). Recently she endorsed Hillary Clinton for President.

It goes without saying that this begs close scrutiny, and I want to take a close look at the rationalizations used by someone who claims to be a pro-life catholic to endorse and vote for hard core abortion rights supporter. What is even more interesting is that she doesn't metaphorically 'hold her nose' in her endorsement, but apparently supports the Democratic platform on Abortion (at least more so than the Republican Pro-life one) I will do my best to proceed through her arguments, in excerpts, while still attempting to maintain the entirety of the sentiment of her argument. If you feel I am being unfair, please let me know. Any emphasis added is mine...

...I believe, for a variety of reasons, that the Democratic Party best reflects the values I hold based on the Gospels... Those values involve feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, visiting those in prison, and above all, loving one’s neighbors and loving one’s enemies.

Fair enough. I disagree wholeheartedly that the gospels are compelling the state to do these things, and that the Corporal Works of mercy does no good if not attended to by the faithful themselves, However I recognize that there is room for disagreement here and that people of good conscience can and will disagree on this issue.

I believe in the sanctity of the life of the unborn.... I feel that if we are to find a solution to the horror of abortion, it will be through the Democratic Party.

Why and How? later on she says she does not have and answer to the latter so the former question is even more perplexing.

I do not feel [abortion] can be done by rolling back Roe vs. Wade, or packing the Supreme Court with judges committed to doing this. As a student of history, I do not think that Americans will give up the legal right to abortion Should Roe vs Wade be rolled back, Americans will pass other laws to support abortion, or they will find ways to have abortions using new legal and medical terms.

This is like arguing that we should not have made slavery illegal because Americans will not give up their slaves or blacks will simply be repressed and discriminated against if we do. I know it took another 100 years for civil rights legislation, but did that make the emancipation proclamation worthless? One would think that "as a student of history" she would see the parallels, and the value (especially in modern day culture) of making evil illegal.

I have not heard convincing arguments put forth by anti-abortion politicians as to how Americans could be forced to give birth to children that Americans do not want to bear.

It it truly troubling to me to hear Anne use abortionist rhetoric like "Americans...forced to give birth". Without being uncharitable, It raises questions to me if she indeed does believe in the sanctity of life despite her admonitions to the contrary. No one is 'Forced to give birth' any more than any one is 'forced to grow older', or 'forced to breathe', or forced to raise their (born) children. The whole idea is ridiculous.

And much as I am horrified by abortion, I am not sure -- as a student of history – that Americans should give up the right to abortion.

Hold the presses! Did she really mean that? What other Evils are there Anne is not sure we should give up the right to? I am going to assume for the moment that this was simply a typo. She does not give an explanation as to what makes her unsure we should give up this "horror" (her own word) as a right.

As has been mentioned Anne does not have a solution, but she doesn't like pro-life solutions because:

I have heard many anti-abortion statements made by people who are not Democrats, but many of these statements do not strike me as constructive or convincing....I am also not convinced that all of those advocating anti-abortion positions in the public sphere are necessarily practical or sincere.... I have not heard convincing arguments from these anti-abortion politicians as to how we can prevent the horror of abortion right now, given the social situations we have.

Who has she heard that she believe to be insincere? Did she hear pro-life politicians label pro-lifers anti-abortionists, or use abortionists rhetoric? Making Abortion illegal is the first step to changing the social situation (and only the first among many), especially in a culture that cannot fathom something being wrong if it is legal.

So why is she convinced that abortionists are better suited to end abortion:

I feel we can stop the horror of abortion ... Do I myself have a solution to the abortion problem? The answer is no. What I have are hopes and dreams and prayers --- that better education will help men and women make responsible reproductive choices, and that abortion will become a morally abhorrent option from which informed Americans will turn away.

This is as close an argument that she makes why Hillary Clinton is better suited to end Abortion than any one on the pro-life side of the isle. Somehow she knows abortion can be stopped without having any clue as to how, but is convinced that the Democrats can, they can,... well they can do what ever it is that needs doing without anyone knowing what that thing is.

One can only infer she believes that somehow by educating people about how precious their right is to kill their children in utero, they will come away with the idea that they should never exercise that inestimable right. And pro-lifers will fail in any endeavour to educate the public about the evils of abortion. Now, I know someone who does need an education -- at least in logic.

It is amazing that someone can consciously vote for someone who is in favor of what they know to be infanticide, rationalize that action away with 'hopes, dreams and prayers' that the absolute opposite will happen, and then presumably still be able to sleep at night.

Lastly, as an aside, I find it particularly distasteful that she has the 'ave maria' playing as background music on the same page where she defends the evils of abortion as an american right.

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Another Word From Our Troop

My Brother-In-Law Jeremy has arrived in Qatar and sent his latest 'report'. Here is an excerpt (emphasis added):

..it was about noon when I stepped outside for my first time in the daytime heat and it took my breath away! Hot, hot, hot. One person compared it to having a giant hair dryer blowing on you constantly, as even the “breeze” is extremely hot. Another person I think more accurately described it as when you open a oven that has been pre-heated to 500 degrees and you feel the blast of heat. It is generally not a pleasant experience and even the shade does very little for you. Of course the only thing that was in our favor is that the humidity is significantly lower than Ft. Bragg for which I am ever so grateful. I am not sure if there was just a spike in the temp at that time or if I am already more acclimated to the heat, but I have not felt the insanely intense heat like I did when I first stepped out of my tent. Of course then I even felt bad, because while I was panting in the shade trying to figure out if I could survive this heat for a year a group of soldiers walked by in full “battle rattle”. It is sobering to think of the hardships that these soldiers are going through that are on the frontlines. I used to always think about how they are away from their families, or how their lives may be in danger, but it I guess I never added the thought of the suffering these soldiers go through on a day to day bases in the heat. It must surely sap their moral.

That's saying a lot considering the high morale our troops do have in the field. If they didn't believe in what they were doing there would be little reason for moral we are seeing in Iraq.

Read the full text of Jeremy's letter after the jump...

Wow! It has been a long and crazy week, but I am finally in my new home in Camp As Sayliya (a-say-lay-uh), Qatar!

My trip started last Monday I will try and spare some of the more mundane details, but basically it involved a lot of sitting around waiting, riding an airplane and riding a bus. In fact it seems like that is all I have done in the last week. We started by waiting for 3 hours outside at Fort Bragg, before we finally got picked up and brought to the airport, at the airport at Pope Air Force Base we sat for another 4 hours waiting for our flight. We finally boarded our plane, it was a big DM 11 it has 10 seats across the row. I was not fortunate enough to get an aisle or window seat, which made a 15 hour flight seem twice as long. We did stop twice though, once in Maine and again in Germany. We finally got to Kuwait around 11 PM on Tues. night (I added the 8 hours time difference). We waited at the airport for an hour or so, then had a 2 hour bus ride, then an hour and half briefing, then we unloaded luggage for about 2 hours and then loaded our luggage on another bus and took a 45 min. ride to a different camp, unloaded our luggage again and finally got to bed in a tent around 6 in the morning. I slept for 5 hours then had to get up for a meeting. So it was about noon when I stepped outside for my first time in the daytime heat and it took my breath away! Hot, hot, hot. One person compared it to having a giant hair dryer blowing on you constantly, as even the “breeze” is extremely hot. Another person I think more accurately described it as when you open a oven that has been pre-heated to 500 degrees and you feel the blast of heat. It is generally not a pleasant experience and even the shade does very little for you. Of course the only thing that was in our favor is that the humidity is significantly lower than Ft. Bragg for which I am ever so grateful. I am not sure if there was just a spike in the temp at that time or if I am already more acclimated to the heat, but I have not felt the insanely intense heat like I did when I first stepped out of my tent. Of course then I even felt bad, because while I was panting in the shade trying to figure out if I could survive this heat for a year a group of soldiers walked by in full “battle rattle”. It is sobering to think of the hardships that these soldiers are going through that are on the frontlines. I used to always think about how they are away from their families, or how their lives may be in danger, but it I guess I never added the thought of the suffering these soldiers go through on a day to day bases in the heat. It must surely sap their moral.

Later on that night we ended up waiting another 4-5 hours for another flight. This time it was only a 1 hour flight down to Qatar. Then we waited at the Qatar airport for 3 hours, we had a little problems with customs. In a box of files that I was carrying through we had quick stashed a stack of atropine needles. It is something we are forced to carry with us, but we only use it in the event of a gas attack. Well the Qatari customs officials didn’t necessarily like us bringing needles in and they confiscated our entire box, including all of our military and medical files. Thankfully we were able to rectify the situation early the next morning and someone went back to the airport and picked up the box.

We finally got to Camp As Sayliya (CAS) about 3 am and from there everything has been smooth sailing. The unit we are replacing, in an effort to speed up the replacement process, has been very efficient and well prepared and has taken excellent care of us. Yesterday (Thursday) we spent in-processing and showing us around the camp. Today they took us to the city of Doha to the mall so we can start to get a feel for Qatar and the people here. First thing we noticed is that they are wealthy! From what I understand, every natural born Qatari gets a check for somewhere around 1000-3000 dollars a month just for being a Qatari. So many Qatari’s don’t work and the people that work around here are immigrants. The mall we went to was called the Velligio. It is almost a perfect resemblance of the Venetian Casino in Las Vegas. It has a sky painted ceiling and canals that ran down the hallway with gondola rides. The stores in the mall were your average American stores like GAP and Banana Republic and a Claire’s. But everything seems to cost about twice as much.

I am still learning about all the camp has to offer and my job here. But I do understand that our overall mission is an important one in that soldiers that come here only have 4 days of Rest and Recuperation and we try to let them do as much or as little as they want in those 4 days so that they can be re-charged and go back out to the front-lines and continue doing the best job they can.

It is funny though as we generally have anywhere from 500-700 soldiers here at anytime, and although they are from all over Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan, it is something about the bond of the military that gets all of them to associate quite well and have a good time. As I am writing this e-mail in my office it is Karaoke night in the stage right next to my office. I stepped out there to see about 100 soldiers out there having a good time and now they are doing a fairly good rendition of “Sweet Home Alabama”, oh, I have to take that back, it sounds like somebody else just joined the original singer on the microphone and is not doing so hot, but at least it sounds like they are all having fun :) If anyone remembers the first two years of the war and seeing the generals do their daily briefings for the reports, that is the stage that they all sing karaoke on.

Well that’s all for now, thanks again to all of you for your prayers and support this last week during my travels

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Power Hungry Bishops?

The Catholic Church has a habit of promoting bishops from smaller to larger dioceses. Father Kenneth Baker, S.J., argues in the Homiletic & Pastoral Review that this is bad policy (emphasis added):

It frequently happens that a bishop of a small diocese is moved to a large archdiocese when that see is vacant. Question: Is this policy good for the Church?

Some years ago, when Bernardin Cardinal Gantin retired as prefect of the Congregation of Bishops, he gave a final talk in which he stated that, in the early Church, bishops were not moved from one diocese to another. A bishop was considered married to his diocese in an indissoluble union, similar to the indissoluble union between husband and wife.

The present policy is not good for the Church because it promotes ambition among certain clerics who lust for the purple and the red, who position themselves in the most positive way so that they will be promoted to a higher position. Ambition to dominate others and to have power in the Church is certainly not the mark of a humble or holy man. The bishop is supposed to be first of all a holy man, for it is his task to sanctify and help work out the eternal salvation of the members of his flock. No one can give what he does not have. If he is scheming to get ahead in the clerical world, to become a bishop, then archbishop, then cardinal, he is not humble and not holy and should not even be a bishop.

The whole article can be found for a limited time HERE
Personally I could see promoting bishops in certain circumstances, but as a matter of policy I agree with the article. Treating the church like a corporate entity is generally a bad idea.
H/T Insight Scoop

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Young Life Triathlon

Pre-Race:
The Family and I drove up to Perham Friday afternoon to stay and visit some good friends of ours. Perham is only about a 20 minute drive from Detroit Lakes (DL) which is where the Young Life Triathlon was. In fact, one of the reasons I chose the Young Life Triathlon was to spend the weekend with our friends. The night before the race my allergies were kicking into high gear and I slept poorly on a new (although not uncomfortable) bed.

The alarm went off without a hitch at 5:45 and I was out the door by 6:20. The morning was cold and overcast and windy. Arriving at DL I had plenty of time to get my gear situated and there was still plenty of space on the racks for my bike. I then checked in and got marked up. Unlike the Buffalo Tri this race was much smaller, I was in heat #4 which consisted of all short course men. The pre-race swim instructions were simply to swim around the first buoy and back counter clockwise. 'Simple enough', I thought as I looked at the first buoy which didn't seem very far.

The Swim (18:35):
I expected the swim to be about 10-12 minutes and as you can see something went terribly wrong. As I watched the first 3 heats go off I spent my time adjusting my swim cap and goggles, and did not really look at the buoy until just before our heat went off, I looked up then and noticed that it had moved significantly farther from the shore. Then we were off. There was no dolphin diving to speak of as the ground took a sharp dive and after a few stroke I found myself swimming in huge waves that were relentless. I swallowed gulps of water, but managed to keep my stroke somewhat smooth. It was as if there were speed boats running along side of us. I just kept swimming and swimming wondering when the heck I would get to that dang buoy! As I look at the results the Short Course Winner averaged only 1:59 per 100 yards. At Buffalo I averaged 1:43 and was only in the top 1/3. I noticed that this same athlete was in the Green Lake Tri a week earlier and did the Olympic distance averaging 0:47 per 100 yards. That should tell you that it wasn't just me, and even with the waves the distance must have been off.

T1 (4:33):
I was beat from the swim, and most suprizingly my legs were tired. I didn't even realize I was using my legs! I saw the family cheering me on through the transition and pushed myself through. I was bloated from swallowing lake watter and skipped the gel shot I was planning on taking, forced myself to swallow a little Gatorade Propel and got myself ready for the bike almost :30 faster than Buffalo (A small bright spot).

Bike (42:46):
By this point I am tired and discouraged, but determined to pull this thing though, so I pedal. The winds that made the lake unbearable were somewhat manageable on the bike, but certainly not helpful in any way. I started biking and no mater how hard I push my speed is just not there. I have had training runs much faster than this and I am being passed left and right. As I struggle up a hill (there was a few, but not nearly as many or as steep as Buffalo) I notice my front tire is quite low on air. Now Why didn't I check that! Must be the colder weather causing the air pressure to be lower in my tires. Nothing I can do at that point but to push through it again.

T2 (1:06):
Family cheering me on I push into T2 and transition quickly to the run :20 seconds faster than Buffalo. Smooth in and out.

Run (24:20):
Only three miles left, I am determined push through to the end. Of the three this was my best leg and I was passing more than getting passed at this point. The legs still had a bit left in them and at the turn around point I walked through the water stop and pushed it home. My time was still slower than Buffalo here, and I can only say that I suppose I did not push myself to the limit feeling poorly about my race so far, but I did not quit and my time, although not stellar, is respectable here and the best of the three legs. Final Time: 1:31:18

After doing this race and performing the way I did, I want to have another crack at a Tri yet this year. I don't know if there is time left in the season, but if I find one where my sister Audrey (who completed her first tri Sunday in St Paul and did much better than I) and I can both participate, I may have to do that to avenge this race.

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What's in a Name?

I read with dismay this article at Catholic News Agency: Dutch bishop says Christians should call God ‘Allah’

Now, Anyone who knows me knows that my number one goal in apologetics and ecumenicism is to strive towards unity. I believe we as Christians must strive for the unity that Christ called for in john 17:11 "Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one." (Note the power of the name -- we'll return to that shortly...)

And if I thought that calling God Allah might actually help bring unity to the faithful I might be inclined to entertain the idea (At least until I thought it through). However, what the bishop would accomplish if he were to get his way is to simply disguise dis-unity as unity, where none exists, and that never brings about true unity.

Let's explore exactly why changing what the name by which we call God does not actually cause unity. When a Muslim speaks of Allah, he is not praying to the trinitarian god. If a Christian were to pray to 'Allah' he is praying to the trinitarian God. This may cause the appearance of unity between the Muslim and the Christian, but unless one of the two is deeply misguided about their own religion then the dis-unity is only veiled. The uneducated person would hear this and would become confused, believe there is little difference between the religions and be more apt to dismiss them all or join one on a whim as they are 'all the same anyway'. This is a large cause of apathy in religious sects today and leads to the idea that unity is vague, or only necessary at very high levels such as 'we believe in god so we are in union of belief'. This in turn causes further dis-unity as everyone simply believes whatever they want, no need to search for truth, we have a vague notion of unity and that's good enough. Why work toward greater unity? (it's no wonder why we have 30,000+ christian sects today)

Do we really want to duplicate that with Islam?

Now, I have no problem with stressing those areas that we do agree, but changing the Name by which we call God is about the worst possible way of doing this...

The bishop apparently fails to understand the value of a name. Especially in antiquity and the names of gods. Pagans would use the name of their god -- a secret name, their 'true' name that only the priests knew -- to get at the power of the god. They only had to speak the name because the name was power; the name was the god.

A similar understanding was prevalent in Jewish culture. When Abraham asked God's name He replied, "I AM", because his name is Him. "I AM" describes God's own existance (i.e. it is Him) Later God was referred to as YHWH (transliterated from "יַהְוֶה") which is either unpronounceable or pronounced 'Yahweh' or 'Elohim'. Leviticus 24:16 was understood to mean: “Anyone who pronounces the name of YHWH must be put to death.” The only time one was permitted to pronounce the Name of God "YHWH" was during the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) by the priest while in the Holy of Holies (the inner sanctum of the Temple)

Why are we free to use God's name today? because Jesus has freed the name (His Name!) to be used by all of us! Phil 2:10 "at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth" We can call upon the power of God through the Name of Jesus, the name above all names.

Do not underestimate the power of His name and do not believe that the name that we call god by is not important.

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Don't Mess with Mom

Today is the Feast of The Assumption of Mary. Christians have been given a wonderful gift in Mary, but unfortunately many do not even realize it. Christ at the foot of the cross gave her to us through John, "Behold your Mother" and She is now the spiritual mother of all Christians. In honor of this feast day I thought I would dispense with some common myths surrounding it.

Myth 1 -- Mary never Died.
Most evidence on this points to a conclusion that Mary did in fact die, and was eveny possibly buried for a short while, however there are multiple accounts and the truth surrounding this is unknown. The magisterium of the church as not spoken one way or the other on this point. The Dogma only states that she was risen, body and soul into heaven.

Myth 2 -- Mary's assumption is not biblical
First of all it must be understood that the assumption of Mary is not anti-biblical. That is, it in no way contradicts anything in the bible. Secondly references to the Assumption can be found in scripture at least implicitly through other references of Assumption (Enoch, Elijah, and several mentioned in Matt 27:52-53) and through Revelations 11:19-12:5

"Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; . . . (v5)she brought forth a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron"

Myth 3 -- The Assumption was invented in 1950 and has no basis in church history
Pope Pius XII did dogmatically define it in 1950, however The Assumption of Mary has been believed by Christians from the very beginning. By the end of the fourth century the eastern churches had a feast to commemorate the Assumption. In fact it appears that no one was willing to argue that the body of the mother of our lord was buried and corrupted until the eighth century. And while relics of the time were sought after and plenty of saint relics and those from the apostles themselves exist, there is no record of a Marian relic, which if they existed, would have been even more precious then the former.

Now Mary reigns forever with her beloved son as queen of heaven and earth and acts as our greatest benefactor to Christ the king who would not refuse a request from his Mother!

From Pius XII's Munificentissimus Deus:

(40) Hence the revered Mother of God, from all eternity joined in a hidden way with Jesus Christ in one and the same decree of predestination, immaculate in her conception, a most perfect virgin in her divine motherhood, the noble associate of the divine Redeemer who has won a complete triumph over sin and its consequences, finally obtained, as the supreme culmination of her privileges, that she should be preserved free from the corruption of the tomb and that, like her own Son, having overcome death, she might be taken up body and soul to the glory of heaven where, as Queen, she sits in splendor at the right hand of her Son, the immortal King of the Ages.

read more about The Assumption from New Advent or here from Catholic Answers

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Prayers Needed

My 93-year-old grandfather flew up from Florida Thursday to visit some of his great-grandchildren that he has yet to meet (including his namesake: John Albert Peach) despite his care giver's advice not to travel. He had a wonderful half a day with them on Thursday, however things went down hill after that. Thursday night he was rushed to the hospital because of a Stroke and continues to be there today (Monday). The good news was that if he had not been up here when he had the stroke then in all likelihood he would not have been discovered until it was too late, and the travel in no way exacerbated the stroke (in fact it probably started prior to the travel) He continues to - slowly - recover however the amount of motion he will retain on his left side remains to be seen. Frequent trips to the hospital have been our standard operating procedure as of late and my thoughts about blogging are few.

While I take this blogging mini-hiatus I ask you to keep my Grandfather in your prayers. Thanks.

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A word from the Troops

Well at least one troop. You may have read in an earlier post that my Sister and her Husband were featured in the a local News media story covering a recent troop deployment. My brother-in-law, Jeremy is sending periodic updates and has given me permission to post them here. He will not exactly be on the front lines but it will give good insight as to what our troops are experiencing and how their morale is out in the field, and get and inside look at how the Army functions.

Jeremy will soon be sent to Qatar as he has been training at Fort Bragg for the last few months. He writes in part:

Well I am done! Done with training that is... ...Now the only thing we have left is our 4-day pass and then we sit and wait for a flight to go overseas. I am told that our flight will be around the 20 th, but I am not holding my breath, it could change to September 1st, or they could all of a sudden get us on an early flight and we leave on the 17th. So the main thing now is to get all our ducks in a row and make sure we are about 80% packed so if we do get a last minute flight we are ready to go.

I know some of you have said you get a kick out of my stories on dealing with Fort Bragg and how inept they are. But they certainly got an earful about it a couple of weeks ago. My Brigade Command Sergeant Major and Colonel decided to come down for a 1 day visit about two weeks ago. We knew they were coming for about two weeks before and so any chance we had we told the Fort Bragg people "Hey we have VIPs coming, this is their itinerary and they are going to need transportation". Oh "don't worry" was the standard reply. Guess what? The morning the Col and CSM were here they waiting for almost two hours outside their hotel room waiting for transportation. I finally managed to yell at someone enough to get them to take their own van and go pick them up. But it was a real eye opener for our COL and CSM to see just how messed up things are down here.

Well the next time I e-mail I plan on being in my new home away from home in Qatar

I will continue to update you on Jeremy's progress as he continues his Tour of Duty. I would ask anyone reading this to keep him and his family in your prayers

Read Jeremy's full letter after the jump...

Hello all!

Well I am done! Done with training that is. We completed the last of our training requirements as of yesterday and this morning we moved off the FOB and back into some nice A/C barracks. Just in time because the heat has really been cranked up around here. During our training we had temperatures in the tent around 100 in the heat of the day, now it is 90+ by mid morning and around 110-112 in the mid-afternoon. Now the only thing we have left is our 4-day pass and then we sit and wait for a flight to go overseas. I am told that our flight will be around the 20 th, but I am not holding my breath, it could change to September 1st, or they could all of a sudden get us on an early flight and we leave on the 17th. So the main thing now is to get all our ducks in a row and make sure we are about 80% packed so if we do get a last minute flight we are ready to go. But one thing is for sure and that is that we won't fly out before our 4 day pass, so I am definitely looking forward to that! Beth and Eva are flying down here and we are going to head to Myrtle Beach for a couple of days, it should be relaxing time with the family.

The training these last few weeks has actually been pretty good. My personal favorite was TCP Ops (Temporary Control Point Operations). There we learned how to setup a temporary holding area to hold, search and transport detainees. Not likely that we would ever have to do that, but just something that the Army has decided everyone needs to be trained on. We learned how to search vehicles, and people and then they do exercises where they have COBs (civilians on the battlefield) that are dressed up like Iraqis and it is very good training because you get a real feel for how the language barrier is so difficult to work with. They also showed us moves on how to subdued and control people twice our size. I didn't personally get to test out the method, but when I was in charge of the transport cell they brought over a COB that looked like Shaquille O'Neill and one of my average size soldiers had to subdue him when he started getting out of hand, so I saw first hand that the methods do work! We also did base defense operations, which is basically how to guard a base camp from attack. I was in charge of the ECP (Entry Control Point) and was shot by a sniper within about 5 min. of starting the scenario so I did nothing for the next two hours. (By the way, it was a cheap shot, I didn't even hear a shot go off, one of the trainers just looked over at me and said you have been shot by a sniper and it took me out of the scenario :( ) But it was a pretty hot day, so I was semi-thankful to not have been out in the sun playing the game for two hours. We also did urban operations, which is where they teach you how to enter, clear and search rooms. It was a long day and our trainer wasn't very good, thankfully the MN guard has some excellent trainers and most of my soldiers were already pretty squared away on urban operations. The last big event is a 4 day event, "GAC STX"(Ground Assault Convoy, something, something, something) anyway, basically we learned how to conduct convoy operations in theater. It was good training and the main event on the 4 th day is when you go out with live ammunition and drive through a course that has pop-up targets shooting at you and fake IED's going off. By the way, special thanks goes out to my Commander, LT Mangen, she was supposed to be conducting 5/25/100, where when you dismount a vehicle you do an immediate 5 meter search around your vehicle for any IEDs, then you do a 25 meter search and then you scan 100 meters. I was still in the vehicle talking on the radio when I noticed the OC/T (Observer, Controller, trainer) asking her if she saw any IEDs, she said she didn't and he was pointing at something and asked her again if she say any IEDs, she still didn't see it, so he took out an IED simulator and set it off right outside my door, let me tell you, those things are LOUD! Thankfully the OC/T decided not to kill me and let me continue on my mission, and we later went back and he showed us the IED which was thoroughly buried and almost impossible to see, so I cut LT Mangen a little slack, but I still give her a hard time about it.

I know some of you have said you get a kick out of my stories on dealing with Fort Bragg and how inept they are. But they certainly got an earful about it a couple of weeks ago. My Brigade Command Sergeant Major and Colonel decided to come down for a 1 day visit about two weeks ago. We knew they were coming for about two weeks before and so any chance we had we told the Fort Bragg people "Hey we have VIPs coming, this is their itinerary and they are going to need transportation". Oh "don't worry" was the standard reply. Guess what? The morning the Col and CSM were here they waiting for almost two hours outside their hotel room waiting for transportation. I finally managed to yell at someone enough to get them to take their own van and go pick them up. But it was a real eye opener for our COL and CSM to see just how messed up things are down here.

And for one final story this e-mail….It was a Friday a couple of weeks ago when he had nothing going on, we were just sitting around in our tents all day when I received a phone call from one of my sergeants in another training group saying that some people were looking for us because we were supposedly missing some training event. So I went to the BDOC (Base Defense Operations Center) to find out what was going on. When I got there, just outside the door were three sergeants talking about how they were upset that a unit had missed the training. So I asked them if they were the ones calling for the 347 th PSD. They said they were and wondered why we failed to show up at 1900 for a Base Defense Operations class. Well it was quite ironic that that was the class they said we missed, because only a couple of days prior LT Mangen and asked the LT in charge of Base Defense if we could do the class on Fri. he said no, she asked him again the following day and he said no again, she asked him a third time and he was adamant that we could not do Base Defense Ops on Fri. So when I found out that we "missed" the class I thought it was pretty funny. So after taking 15 min. of explaining the whole situation to them and them calling their LT and getting confirmation on the story, they finally said, your right it was our mistake, you didn't miss any training, you are scheduled for the training on 30 July. So I walked back and had just finished explaining to LT Mangen that we were in fact right and good to go when all of a sudden they came over the FOB PA system and ordered all 347 th PSD Personnel to report to the BDOC ASAP. Well that really set me off, because they had just said 10 min. earlier, that everything was good to go and none of my soldiers needed to be in class. So I practically ran back to the BDOC and asked them why in the world they would page all my soldiers when they had just told me we were good to go. They guy looks at me and he says "Oh, your with the 347 th? I thought you were with some other unit". I was upset at them, but just laughed to myself and figured it would be another good story that you guys would all enjoy :)

Well the next time I e-mail I plan on being in my new home away from home in Qatar, so take care everyone, and I will chat with you all later!

Jeremy

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Our Pope is so Cool

Hat tip: The American Papist

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It Was Ecumenical!

The CDF Document about which I wrote earlier that is. As I was previously perplexed as to why the CDF relased a document that said nothing new and I worked on straightening some of the misunderstandings regarding it. OK fine maybe it really didn't damn all Protestants, But is it Ecumenical? YES! At least that's the theory being posited on Insight Scoop:

Events may be providing an answer that should have been clear from the beginning. Perhaps the “target audience” for the CDF statement are the Orthodox (and perhaps especially the Russian Orthodox). After all, Kyrill of Moscow immediately welcomed it. Now, word comes, via Cardinal Etchegaray that a Rome/Moscow summit may be in the offing.

Let’s think about it. CDF says that the Orthodox churches are real Church – “defective” principally in that they do not recognize the Petrine prerogative of the Bishop of Rome to teach, govern and sanctify all of the particular churches. The Orthodox have no problem with that classic Roman formulation. That’s something they, and Rome, can work on in real ecumenical dialogue.

And I am prone to believe it. It seems that our cool pope Benedict XVI is doing all kinds of great stuff to promote unity in the church. It seems to be one of his top priorities and this fits the mold.

It also shows the ignorance of some of the Church members and the continuing lazy editing by our local paper The Catholic Spirit to publish letters like "Reader discouraged by new proclamation" (scroll down to the 3rd article) without so much as an explination of what the document did say. Not to mention any great insight on why the Document may have been written. I guess you need to go here to do that!

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Do Pro-Lifers have the courage of their convictions?

There has been some buzz recently surrounding this YouTube video showing Pro-Lifers hemming and hawing over the question of what punishment (if any) women having abortions should receive if abortion were outlawed. Admittedly this does not portray the right to life crowd in a positive light, however I contend that this is a product of our culture as a whole which has been educated to not think; rather than a reflection on just those on the side of life (see my TJEd Post for more on that). Also it is relatively easy to simply cut out anyone who might have given coherent answer when you are trying to put out a propaganda piece.

So what is the answer? Of course there should be punishment under the law, but the kind of punishment and if any is actually given to the woman who had the abortion depends on what common law refers to as extenuating circumstances. Was the woman under duress or otherwise pressured from a the father or someone else? Did she know that what she was doing was murder? Was she emotionally stable in her current state?

Steve at Stand to Reason aptly puts it this way:

Five minutes into the video, a pro-lifer gives the right answer: it depends. As with any other homicide, the intent and premeditation of those participating in the abortion has to be taken into account...

...It's the same with women (or doctors) who would be prosecuted for illegal abortion. The doctor might be prosecuted under a murder charge and the woman might be prosecuted under a manslaughter charge. It might be murder or manslaughter for both parties. The point is, you cannot know what the charge should be without knowing about the intentions and premeditation of the actors. Whether the woman or doctor knows the unborn is a human being may also be relevant to the legal calculation.

This does not imply that women are infants or that they are simply helpless victims as the left might have you believe. That's why we have Judges who can take circumstances into account when it comes to sentencing and don't simply look on some judicial spread sheet to cross reference your crime with the prison time listed for it.

Pro-lifers need to be able to answer these types of questions and they should be able to do so even before they have determined that abortion should be illegal, because the consequences of their actions needs to be taken into account when forming their opinions.

Now I'd like to see a similar video that asks the Pro-Death crowd what endows a baby with a right to life at the moment birth, when it had no rights whatsoever just seconds earlier. I want to know exactly what caused this fundamental change in it's nature...

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Tolkien Humor

This was just too funny, I couldn't resist posting it.

Hat Tip: From The Shattered Drum

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The Transfiguration

Today is the feast of the Transfiguration of Christ. The Compendium of the Catholic church has this to say about the Transfiguration:

What is the meaning of the Transfiguration?

Above all the Transfiguration shows forth the Trinity: “the Father in the voice, the Son in the man Jesus, the Spirit in the shining cloud” (Saint Thomas Aquinas). Speaking with Moses and Elijah about his “departure” (Luke 9:31), Jesus reveals that his glory comes by way of the cross and he anticipates his resurrection and his glorious coming “which will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body” (Philippians 3:21).

“You were transfigured on the mountain and your disciples, as much as they were capable of it, beheld your glory, O Christ our God, so that when they should see you crucified they would understand that your passion was voluntary, and proclaim to the world that you truly are the splendor of the Father.” (Byzantine Liturgy)

Spend some time in meditation on the event. There is something amazing taking place here, it is a look into future glory before impending agony. John Paul the Great added this event as the 4th Luminous mystery of the rosary so it may be appropriate to say the Luminous mysteries today.

Read about the Transfiguration on New Advent

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Politicization of a Tragedy

I knew it would happen, in fact I saw it happen less than 4 hours after the bridge collapse yesterday when Elwyn Tinklenberg, the liberal former state transportation commissioner blamed the Bridge collapse on Pawlenty and the Republicans because they voted down the gas tax. But I wasn't going to say anything, Tinklenberg may be a fool and a crass one at that without waiting 4 hours to blame Republicans, but I was hoping that he was just one bad apple (although you knew it was comming from places like the Daily Kos). This does not appear to be the case as now Star Trib's Columnist Nick Coleman (St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman's brother) is now blaming the Republicans as well. Fraters Libertas sums it up best:

It was nice to see that Nick Coleman waited until all the bodies had been recovered before using yesterday's tragedy as an opportunity to pen a crassly partisan political screed.

Oh wait, he didn't.

Class act that one is.

(Note: I previously incorrectly identified Nick Coleman as the mayor of St. Paul when it is his brother Chris who is the Mayor, This has now been corrected)

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I-35W Collapse

I am in complete shock over the I-35W bridge collapse that happened yesterday at 6:05PM. Currently there are 4 confirmed dead with approximately 20 people still unaccounted for. This is a bridge I have driven over thousands of times and in this day and age we just don't expect anything like this can happen. The 35W is a major artery going into and out of Minneapolis and officials are saying that it will most likely be upwards of two years before the bridge is replaced.

This is one glaring example of how we humans fool ourselves into believing that we are in control and that in our post-modern age nothing bad should ever happen (myself included). As I read my evening prayers last night I thought how appropriate that we read from psalm 112:

[1]Blessed is the man who fears the LORD,
who finds great delight in his commands...
[7]He will have no fear of bad news;
his heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD.
[8]His heart is secure, he will have no fear;
in the end he will look in triumph on his foes

Trust in the lord, because trusting in ourselves is vain and self-delusional. And pray for the victims of this tragedy.

I want to give Kudos to all the first responders, Police, Fire medical personnel and the Red Cross who were on scene. All reports are that they did a superb job. Also Governor Pawlenty and Mayor RT Rybak worked well coordinating the rescue efforts and were also on scene and provided information to the media for those of us who could not turn off our TV's. Congrats to all of them. If you would like to help please consider donating to the Twin Cities Red Cross they are in need of blood and money so please help out if you can.

Lastly one thing I could not get out of my head last night was the fact that a section of 35W is now laying across the TC10 Mile route that my sisters and I are signed up for. I can't imagine the cleanup going quickly as they need to determine exactly what caused the collapse. My guess right now is that they will re-route the race.

Information about the bridge can be found on Here on Wikipedia but as always be cautious of information there as information may be changing quickly. There is some good historical information there.

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A New Low

I'm just venting here, so if you don't want to listen, just move along...

I am not much of a Stock market player, I have my 401(k) and contribute a good chunk of change to it, But I do have one stock because I was able to take advantage of some IPO Stock Options with my former employer. I have since already cashed enough out to pay for my initial investment and only have 60 shares left, so this isn't life or death or anything like that. It's just sad to see my ARP stock continue to plummet. I know the Stock Market has been volatile as of late so this picture shows how ARP compares with the Dow Jones over the last month. NOT GOOD. ARP has lost over 20% of it's value while DJIA is almost even.

Should I cash out? I think I'll hold and pray it hits 30 again...

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Equipment Failure

I finally get out there today on my bike after a short 3 miles my left pedal arm starts to loosen. I was just starting to get into the ride when it happened. What could I do? I don't carry any tools with me, so got down and tightened the bolt the best I could with my fingers, turned around and limped back home, stopping every 1/4 to 1/2 mile to re torque the bolt.

Maybe I should see what type of took kits are available that can be mounted to a bike? I would hate for something like that to happen on a Race

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