Today is the 230th birthday of the United States Marine Corps. Eat a piece of cake for the USMC.
How to self-destruct
Terrell Owens is arguably the best wide receiver in the NFL. Even so, the team he plays for suspended him indefinitely today because he just can’t help himself. His talent on the field is undeniable. Sadly, he just can’t keep his mouth shut off the field.
During the last off season, he criticized his teammate Donovan McNabb for the way he played in their Superbowl loss last season. Then he did not report to training camp in pre-season to try and get his contract re-negotiated. This past week he said his team would be undefeated if Brett Favre were the starting quarterback instead of McNabb.
It’s amazing watching someone like this. He seems to have everything going for him in talent and skill. His performance on the field is amazing, yet he just cannot control himself to be a team player. He alienates everyone around him. Why did the 49ers so willingly let him go to the Eagles? It seems now we know.
What will happen to T.O. now? He wanted more money. That dream is gone. He’s damaged goods now. One thing is sure, he won’t be with the Eagles much longer. He has pretty much secured the legacy of a problem player rather than a Hall of Fame contender.
I just find it strangely fascinating to watch a someone self-destruct. There aren’t many Shakespearean characters with more tragic flaws.
Doom – movie review
Movie fact: When entering a building inhabited by monsters, military tactics call for splitting the unit up so that soldiers can be picked off one by one.
Doom exploits this tactic to the fullest. A science station on Mars is being over run by monsters. Marines are sent in to search for and destroy the threat.
This is easily the best video game movie adaption. Of course that doesn’t make it good. The monsters are sufficiently scary. The special effects are good. The best part was how they incorporated an important game element. On second thought, Rosamund Pike might have been the best part.
There are some plot holes. Like why do they keep splitting up after a few of their buddies have died that way? Why do the keep referring to marines as “soldiers”? (OK, so Hollywood doesn’t know the difference.)
Be prepared for a gory, “f” bomb laden, not suitable for children flick.
2 stars (Slightly more fun that a complete game of Monopoly.)
Semi-annual insanity
It is once again time to move your clocks back an hour. Why, because the government thinks we need to somehow save daylight. Except since it is fall, we apparently don’t need to save it anymore. Doesn’t really make any sense, does it?
When will we stop this foolishness and end daylight savings time?
Dishonoring the troops
Michelle Malkin points out how the New York Times misquotes dead soldiers. Cpl. Jeffrey B. Starr wrote a letter prior to his death in Iraq. Here is what the Times printed:
“I kind of predicted this,” Corporal Starr wrote of his own death. “A third time just seemed like I’m pushing my chances.”
Here is what he wrote:
“Obviously if you are reading this then I have died in Iraq. I kind of predicted this, that is why I’m writing this in November. A third time just seemed like I’m pushing my chances. I don’t regret going, everybody dies but few get to do it for something as important as freedom. It may seem confusing why we are in Iraq, it’s not to me. I’m here helping these people, so that they can live the way we live. Not have to worry about tyrants or vicious dictators. To do what they want with their lives. To me that is why I died. Others have died for my freedom, now this is my mark.”
When you see it in whole, it doesn’t sound as much as someone who regretted his duty.
Rough week for the President.
Harriet Miers withdrew her Supreme Court nomination yesterday. Acting according to plan, Democrats immediately mischaracterize it as the “extreme right-wing” (read religious right) controlling the party. Of course it was the so-called extreme right like James Dobson that were actually supporting her.
Now New York Senator Chuck Schumer says he hopes President Bush consults with the President this time. He conveniently forgot that Harry Reid, the Democrat minority leader, suggested Miers’ name prior to her nomination. How much more consulting can the president do?
Then today the vice president’s chief of staff is indicted for obstruction of justice and perjury. Ho hum. There is noticably no charge of revealing the identity of CIA employee Valerie Plame, the whole point of the grand jury investigation. It looks like Libby probably did lie to the grand jury. Unfortunate since if he did lie, he lied about something that wasn’t a crime.
What kind of catholic am I?
The results from Quizfarm.com:
| Â | You scored as Neo-Conservative Catholic. You see that the government of the United States was originally founded on recognizably Catholic natural law principles and reason in the tradition of Saint Thomas Aquinas, and the freedom of religion acknowledged in the Constitution has allowed Catholicism to flourish in this largely Protestant country. You recognize that the American system of government, even with its faults, is the most moral social order developed in history. You are committed to being a Catholic active in society.Â
Like the Liberal Catholic, your views might be too determined by American culture, and you may uncritically accept many theories that may be harmful to yourself and society; instead you may need rediscover traditional Catholic teaching. You should emphasize the love of your neighbor, especially love for the poor, in your everyday business dealings.
What is your style of American Catholicism? |
Hmmm, seems pretty accurate. I’ve even mentioned in conversations with others how the faith of American Christians in general is shaped by American culture. I don’t see that as all bad as this is the greatest nation on God’s green earth. Yet it is something to be aware of.
I do disagree that I uncritically accept theories that are harmful to myself. I suspect they are talking about thing like “tax cuts for the rich”. In Colorado, we are voting on referrenda C & D in November. The referrenda are state tax hikes. My voting against it (which some would say is against my immediate self-interest) doesn’t mean I did so uncritically.
Check out Angela
I happened across Angela Catherine’s new blog about her journey (which she is still on) to catholocism. Raised evangelical, searching for a deeper faith and a grad student. Where have we seen this theme before?
Been there, done that, have the t-shirt. Good luck Angela.
Remembering Beirut
Twenty two years ago today a muslim terrorist drove a truck full of explosives into the Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. 220 Marines, 18 sailors, and 3 soldiers died.
Here is an excerpt from President Reagan’s televised address responding to the bombing:
May I share something with you I think you’d like to know? It’s something that happened to the Commandant of our Marine Corps, General Paul Kelley, while he was visiting our critically injured Marines in an Air Force hospital. It says more than any of us could ever hope to say about the gallantry and heroism of these young men, young men who serve so willingly so that others might have a chance at peace and freedom in their own lives and in the life of their country.
I’ll let General Kelley’s words describe the incident. He spoke of a “young Marine with more tubes going in and out of his body than I have ever seen in one body.”
“He couldn’t see very well. He reached up and grabbed my four stars, just to make sure I was who I said I was. He held my hand with a firm grip. He was making signals, and we realized he wanted to tell me something. We put a pad of paper in his hand – and he wrote ‘Semper Fi.’ ”
Well, if you’ve been a Marine or if, like myself, you’re an admirer of the Marines, you know those words are a battle cry, a greeting, and a legend in the Marine Corps. They’re Marine shorthand for the motto of the Corps – “Semper Fidelis” – “always faithful.”
General Kelley has a reputation for being a very sophisticated general and a very tough Marine. But he cried when he saw those words, and who can blame him? That Marine and all those others like him living and dead, have been faithful to their ideals. They’ve given willingly of them selves so that a nearly defenseless people in a region of great strategic importance to the free world will have a chance someday to live lives free of murder and mayhem and terrorism. I think that young Marine and all of his comrades have given every one of us something to live up to.
They were not afraid to stand up for their country or, no matter how difficult and slow the journey might be, to give to others that last, best hope of a better future. We cannot and will not dishonor them now and the sacrifices they’ve made by failing to remain as faithful to the cause of freedom and the pursuit of peace as they have been.
I will not ask you to pray for the dead, because they’re safe in God’s loving arms and beyond need of our prayers. I would like to ask you all – wherever you may be in this blessed land – to pray for these wounded young men and to pray for the bereaved families of those who gave their lives for our freedom.
God bless you, and God bless America.”
Semper Fi
Broncos Rule!
Julie over at Happy Catholic is excited that her Cowboys beat the Giants yesterday and the Eagles the week before.
That’s all well and good but it is really the Broncos who have emerged as the dominant team in recent weeks. Shoot, yesterday they beat the two-time defending champion Patriots (was there really any doubt they would?).
Of course the Colts are still undefeated. In fact, the Colts are so good they may not even lose a game until they face the Broncos in the AFC Championship!