DAMN RIGHT I would have shot him! This isn't New York, or Chicago, or LA! This is a war, where the terrorists arm dead bodies with explosives. These are people that support homicide bombings.

What would you expect a Marine to do, walk up and see if this terrorist was going to explode?
"Kill or be killed," that's the motto you have to live with in this situation. Our military didn't go over there to be terrorist fodder. And shame on you for thinking other than that.

These people cut the heads off of THEIR prisoners while they are still alive, screaming in pain. And their prisoners aren't even armed!

I know a few folks that voted for Jimmy Carter strictly because he claimed to be a Christian.

I've recently heard that many Catholics are starting to support John Kerry since he's started including his "Pride" of being a Catholic into his campaign.

People should support whoever they feel is the best person to run this country, but consider this: The terrorists that took over the US embassy in Tehran, released all hostages the day Ronald Reagan took office. Both Reagan and Carter were Christians.

What was the difference?

There are four types of voters this election year;
1) Pro-Bush
2) Pro-Nader
3) Pro-Kerry
4) Anti-Bush

I can respect the first three types of voters, as they are voting for the candidate that they believe is the best person to run the United States.

The last type is nothing more than an angry group of people that hate President Bush, and would vote for anybody if it meant getting Bush out of office. And that's scary. Very scary.

It's all very interesting. Last night, my family and I had the honor to open our home to one of our countries soldiers, a young man that graduated high school with our oldest daughter.

He is just back from Iraq, full of stories and experiences. Very little of what he shared sounded even vaguely familiar, because it bears little resemblance to what the media reports here in the US.

When I mentioned this to him, he told us that his platoon had a reporter and photographer embedded with them for a period of time. After several missions, He and his fellow soldiers were able to read the story written by the reporter. He said it was a topic of sarcasm among the platoon, because the report bore little resemblance to the actual events.

None of this is really surprising, but what's sad is that people will read the embellished reports, thinking this is the truth, then basing their opinions about the war on it. And that's just wrong.

Welcome home, Ben. And thank you........

So every one is upset by the Abu Ghraib abuse! This situation is of course, wrong. The people involved need to be punished, from the officer in charge on down. For any person, military or not to claim they were just "following orders" in committing these atrocities is ridiculous. This is an attempt to justify bad behavior, and is typical of today's attitude of not taking responsibility for what they did.

It's also typical military. Just watch and see who does the time for the crime, and don't be surprised if it's all enlisted personnel. In 1977, while providing technical support for a combined Navy/Marine Corps exercise on the Philippine island of Mindanao, I saw this first hand.

Who planned and oversaw the exercise? An Officer.
Who decided not to bring rifles ashore? An Officer.
Who okayed the use of the pick-axe handle in place of rifles? An Officer.
Who should also have been blamed? An Officer. It didn't happen.

First off, I don't condone what happened at Abu Ghraib. With that said, let's put this in perspective.
-Saddam Hussein tortured, raped, and killed his own people.
-The Germans, during WWII, committed genocide, medical experimentation, and torture.
-The Japanese, during WWII, tortured, raped, performed medical experimentation, mutilated corpses, and practiced cannibalism.

Pretty wild stuff in comparison, yet you don't hear folks getting worked up over any of that.

I wonder why.........

We got an unexpected funeral notice in the mail Saturday, for the father of some friends. We knew him, as he attended our church in Salem, and occasionally came down to Eugene to visit his son's church, where we occasionally visit.

He was a great man, and led a Godly life. He never met anyone he didn't like, and was always happy to see you. He had a problem with his lungs, which had gotten worse over the last few years. While in the hospital, before passing away, he told one of his son's that he was in a win-win situation. Either God would give him new lungs, or he would go home to Heaven.

So, as his son said at the memorial service, he has been promoted. Enjoy your new home, Roy.

It is always amazing to me to sit in a memorial service for someone such as this man, and experience the love of those who knew him. This wasn't one of those services where everyone was wailing, and inconsolable. It was instead, a celebration! It was a celebration of a man's life, and of the faith that he had. Yes, it was sad that he won't be among us any longer, but for those who believe in Heaven, there is hope that they will see him again.

The family, and friends, remembered him through anecdotes, and a slide show of his life. They read portions of diaries that he kept throughout his life, and notes he had scribbled in his Bible.

I left that service not filled with sadness, but gladness. Glad that this person's life had touched mine, that I had a chance to know him. Hopefully, I will be a better person because of it.

As personal computers started to make their climb from hobbyists workbenches in the 70's, to retail stores in the 80's, the greek prefix "gig-a" has had it's pronounciation changed from "jig-a" to "gig-a".

I suppose this is a (computer) cultural thing. And since english is such a living language, always adapting, changing, and redefining, it probably makes sense.

But does that mean that english words derived from greek, such as "gigantic," should also follow suit? If so, then the pronunciation of "gigantic" would move from "jy-gantic" to "gig-antic".

I think I'll stick with the "j" sound.

9/11 Hearings.......It's supposed to be a "Fact Finding" commission, but from what I've seen so far, they are more about making accusations and suppositions than actually finding the facts.

When it's all done and said, I can't imagine we'll know anymore than we already do. All that time and money being spent here is nothing more than placing the blame, finger pointing, between political parties.

Watched a documentary on forest firefighters, and how some were trapped when the weather changed, losing their lives. I started thinking about a refuge chamber that could be dropped by a helicopter or sky crane onto any terrain (typically a hillside). The chamber would be cylindrical, allowing it to orient on any incline, and it would have an outrigger that would prevent it from rolling down the hillside. It would be insulated so that the internal temperature would remain livable despite the external temperature. There would be a hatch for the firefighters to enter through. It should allow enough room for a twelve person team, or six people sitting across from each other.

Other options that could be added would be gel cell type power, an oxygen rebreather, air filtering, low power lighting, cooling (peltier?), location beacon, first aid needs.