I was reading the news today and found an article that talks about Cindy Sheehan, a woman from Berkeley, California who had a son in the military. Her son was deployed to Iraq where he was killed in action supporting the military efforts of our country. Some time later she set up a small camp outside of President Bush’s vacation home in Crawford, Texas as a way to protest the war in Iraq. She garnered national media attention for her durability during her protest.
The article I stumbled on mentioned that someone set up a memorial monument carved out of sandstone to honor this woman for her efforts in trying to have our troops removed from Iraq. If I understand it correctly they want an end to the killing overseas.
Quick question
If there is to be an end to any killings, how is that going to be achieved? There are two possibilities. The first is to just let the zealots that are murdering innocent men, women and children to continue to do their deed. As this activity progresses they will run out of people to kill and will either kill themselves, start killing others outside their country or stop killing. Problem solved, right? That is until they start stealing our airplanes and flying them into our skyscrapers. Or until they start bombing our embassies in other countries. No wait, that is acceptable because it doesn’t involve anyone’s son.
The next possibility is to actually assist those people that are being slaughtered by defending them with the same amount of force that is being used against them. Call me silly, but when the United States of America liberated Afghanistan, women were allowed to walk outside, with their faces uncovered even, people were not taken to the soccer stadium and shot in front of their families “because it is too late to stop it, they are expecting an execution”, children were not murdered in front of their parents to show them a lesson. Defending that country was a good thing for their country. It looked awful when we saw it on TV and when we heard about all the US soldiers that were dying over there. But the pain we inflicted on those murderous savages that imprisoned that entire country was enough to bring freedom to that country. Our troops did a good thing over there.
An army of one
Another thing I find appalling with those that protest against the conflicts in the Middle East is that they have lost sight of the fact that our armed forces are essentially staffed with volunteers. These men and women were not forced to join the military. They chose to take up arms in the defense of our country and what our country defends. They chose to protect freedom at the cost of their very lives. They knew what they were getting into when they signed up. Why does this shock so many people?
Police officers know that when they become officers of the law that there is a potential for them to have to offer their life in the enforcement of the law. Firefighters know that there is a chance that they may have to risk their life in order to save another life. That is why they are heroes. That is why our US soldiers are heroes. Because even though they know that they face a good possibility of pending death, they perform their duties without regard to self. That speaks a lot louder to me than some protest.
It is my opinion that this country should rally around our troops, our government and our country. Am I saying that everyone should be happy that our troops are dying? No. Am I saying that everyone should approve of what is going on or who is leading the charge? No. What I am saying is that regardless of our differences in opinion, spiritual beliefs, political ideals or sociological positions, we as a group of States, United, should do everything we can to bring encouragement and support to our troops. What they are experiencing right now is being overshadowed by a group of people that don’t like the fact that our president chose to utilize our defense resources.
I will pray for Cindy Sheehan, for the loss of her son and the many other men and women that sacrificed their all for the defense of this country and countries abroad. What our troops and government need right now is to know that we love them and want them to be safe in handling their business.
Happy Thanksgiving to all! On this Thanksgiving, 2005, I want to be able to look back on the past year and reflect on those things that I am thankful for. This would take an exceptionally long time seeing as there are some many things that I am thankful for. But there are a few that I would like to highlight here. So lets get to it, shall we?
Family
First and foremost, I am thankful for my wonderful family. My wife of ten years, my nine year old daughter (who has just started her own blog by the way), my eight year old daughter, my five year old daughter, my two year old daughter and my five month old son. There are no words to express the feelings that I have toward them. There really is no way for to convey the meaning that this small group of people has to me or the impact they have on me. They are the reason that I do the things that I do, I feel the way that I feel and I love the way that I love. My life is complete because they are a part of it. I thank God for my family every day.
I am also thankful for my extended family. My brother and sister, and their families. In all, there are 17 of us within my house, my brother’s house and my sister’s house. They mean a tremendous amount to me as well so I am very thankful for them.
Health
What good is a family if are not alive to experience them? I thank God for every breath I take and every minute that I am alive. Being healthy is something that I am very thankful for.
Provision
Sometimes I look on the things that I have, the possessions, the material items, the things that I spend my money on, and I think “God must like me best”. I am thankful that my God is a God of abundance and overflowing. I am thankful that in the same way that our God cannot “overdo” His love for us we cannot “overdo” our praise to him. Life is good and I am thankful.
There are so many more things that I am thankful for. I cannot seriously sit here all day and write about it. I would irritate my family and crash my server with all the gratitudes. But if nothing more, I just want to be able to say that, though there are dark times and sad times and times where it appears that there is nothing to be thankful for, if you wake up on any given day, you can do so with thanks in your heart.
God bless you on this Thanksgiving Day, 2005.
Paul S. Owen, Lead Developer and one of the most active contributors to the phpBB project has resigned his position with the project. More information can be found in the general discussion forum at phpBB.com.
I am not sure about you, but I believe this is major news in the PHP development community. Why? Because one of the lead developers of the best free community application and the best PHP learning tool has left the project, that’s why.
When I was learning PHP, after reading Kevin Yank’s “How to build a database driven website using PHP and MySQL”, the first thing I did was download phpBB. I tore it apart. I looked at the logic, the use of OOP, the coding standards, the heavy use of as many native PHP functions as possible, it’s RegEx function use, it’s simplicity… and I found out that just about everything you need to build a great application was housed within this application. In fact, many of the development principles I follow today stem from phpBB and Paul’s code.
This is indeed a loss to the PHP community and to phpBB users everywhere. However, a fellow’s gotta do what a fellow’s gotta do so I wish Paul the best of luck in whatever he chooses to do. And I thank him. Without his vision I would never have learned to code as I do today.
For those of you men out there that are married, listen to your wives. If for no other reason than just because you love her.
My wife sent this to me. I thought it was valuable so I want to share it. If you are the owner of this text or if I happen to violate any copyright laws please let me know in the comments.
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“Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, ‘Woe to those who call evil good’ but that is exactly what we have done.
- We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values.
- We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.
- We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
- We have killed our unborn and called it choice.
- We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
- We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem.
- We have abused power and called it politics.
- We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it ambition.
- We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.
- We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.
Search us,Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Amen!”
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Commentator Paul Harvey aired this prayer on his radio program, “The Rest of the Story,” and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired. With the Lord’s help, may this prayer sweep over our nation and wholeheartedly become our desire so that we again can be called “one nation under God.”