Al Chet

“Do you think God will ever forgive me of the most horrible sin of all. an abortion I pray and cry out with Al Chet each day and night, and call out to Him, and I know He says, ‘I have forgiven you’ but I feel as if I cant forgive myself so how and why would He. Pray for me. Rachel.”

“Yes, Rachel. He forgave you the first time you prayed for forgiveness. He's a loving G-d and a forgiving G-d. He looks for ‘turning away’ from our sin; He doesn't want nor need us to walk in guilt for the rest of our lives. If He says that He is ‘faithful to forgive us’ and we continue to walk in shame and guilt, it's like we're calling Him a ‘liar’; telling Him that He isn't who He says He is. Remember King David? He committed murder; had to live with the consequences of his actions, but he was forgiven and went on to be blessed in his life. Allow G-d to forgive you...you're holding Him and yourself hostage. Let Him love you and bless you as you move forward. Use your hard lesson to teach others to guard themselves from falling into the same trap that you fell in. Blessings upon you, Rachel. 'May the Lord bless you and protect you. May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord show you His favor and give you His peace.’" Anonymous.

The sins for which we ask forgiveness.

http://www.chabad.org/holidays/JewishNewYear/template_cdo/aid/6577/jewish/Text-of-Al-Chet.htm

(In my belief of my own wisdom, I began a comment. But none is needed.)

What would Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain do?

“Williams ‘quoted two lines from Romans; then he made some very broad statements,’ Herman said. ‘I feel uncomfortable saying exactly what he said because I'm sure it's gotten twisted in my mind since then, but, after he read the verses, he started preaching his beliefs, I believe it was within one or two minutes that we decided to walk out.’"

(Here’s the problem: a. the preacher read from that bible thing, and then b. he started preaching his beliefs. Heaven forbid … Oops. Lord help us … Oops again. OK. Try: Somebody in a chapel service had the audacity to read from the bible and preach?)

http://orient.bowdoin.edu/orient/article.php?date=2011-09-23§ion=1&id=6

linked from http://rumfordmeteor.com/?p=3941 and maggiesfarm.

(Back in the 1970s college days, many of the longhairs proclaimed Jesus as a rebel against The Establishment. The religion established in his name, though … Well, that’s an altogether different thing. Also, statements by students and by college officials sound … stupid. The college does not teach direct speech.)

Hey! You don't have a permit for bible study!

Honest to (you know who), if this had been (that religion of peace), mainstreemmediums would be on the story like white on rice, like ugly on an ape and or something else.

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2011/09/city-fines-christians-300-for-holding-bible-study-in-their-home/

Why we aren’t there (and ‘affordable housing’ in Woodstock)

“I suspect that human capability reached its peak or plateau around 1965-75 – at the time of the Apollo moon landings – and has been declining ever since.

“This may sound bizarre or just plain false, but the argument is simple. That landing of men on the moon and bringing them back alive was the supreme achievement of human capability, the most difficult problem ever solved by humans. 40 years ago we could do it – repeatedly – but since then we have not been to the moon, and I suggest the real reason we have not been to the moon since 1972 is that we cannot any longer do it. Humans have lost the capability.”

http://pajamasmedia.com/eddriscoll/2011/09/17/crosby-still-nash-pinch/

(Several months ago I decided human political philosophies reached apogee in the 1930s. Every event since then has been but a chapter (or footnote) in the struggle between fascism, Communism, capitalism, socio-Marxism/fascism/capitalism. The only difference in the now-of-them-all is who receives the payouts, with the Big Boys unchanged. Or, “Meet the new boss.”)

Woke up at 3:30

because my right hip and leg felt funny and running in my head “Trained to live off nature’s land, trained in combat hand-to-hand.” I hate when that happens. Even had the trumpet – Ta-tut-ta-ta – after the comma. My hip and leg didn’t hurt (which is the first time in more than four years), but had that “You have to move or you’ll go crazy” feeling. If you’ve never had that, I can’t explain it. I’ve had that feeling now and then since before the first restless leg syndrome TV commercial. Yesterday was my third physical therapy session. Next week I go from twice a week to three times. Courtney the therapist has given me three stretching exercises (three reps of 10, two times a day, each) and five strength exercises (same reps). If this keeps up, I’ll do nothing but exercise, all day.

For more than four years, twice a year, I told VA docs about the pain, generally a 7 or 8 on the pain chart. I told them of the Army neurologist’s 1989 diagnosis of right side focal dystonia and my thinking that might be cause of the pain. I asked for examination for physical therapy. I got Yeah, yeah, sure, we’ll look into that. Then in May I got pi$$ed at my new VA doc and talked rather sternly when she pi$$ed me off and I got not only physical therapy, but also dermatology (after several years of asking), a neurological consult (but I only wasted the neurologist’s time) an EKG, an EEG and a brain CT scan. Who knew all I had to do was get pi$$ed off and respond accordingly?

So I got up and while fixing a cup of breakfast tea, got to thinking about cadence stuff, for some reason ‘”If I die on the Russian front,” probably because Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler mentioned “silver wings upon my chest,” and that reminded me of a day in July 1966 when the troop marched to a gym at Fort Meade to hear a speech by I think Col. Cobb and afterwards marching back to the troop area and Sgt. (I can’t remember his name) started to call cadence … “I know a girl who lives on a hill …” but he stopped because a woman was walking on the sidewalk, so he cadenced “If I die on the Russian front …” and we all started laughing. Sgt. --- was SOL on cadence rated G for General Audiences. In January, during a perimeter probe, as books on tactics put it, Sgt. --- went all goofy nuts when the VC crawled into the grass on the other side of the road and he was on the field phone – “The gooks are in front of my bunker! They’re in the wire!” – and then he was throwing grenades and his M60 firing and grenades going “KA-WHUMP! KA-WHUMP! KA-WHUMP!” Sgt. --- was throwing so fast. He was pullpinthrow, pullpinthrow and then every other bunker opened up, one through last, in sequence.

I let the dogs out and then in. Warm and humid outside. Temperature at 10 last night was 88.

Wreck kills three teens

You could see how it happened. That was the easy part – the four-way highway intersection, the Stop sign ignored or dared.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
HUGO, Okla. – Three Rattan High School students were killed Tuesday afternoon when the pickup in which they were riding was in collision with a loaded gravel truck, Oklahoma Highway Patrol officers said Wednesday morning.

The students killed were identified as Timothy G. Dawson, 17; Kimberly J. Smith, 16; and Melissa A. Allen, 16. All were from Rattan, said Highway Patrol officer Gaylon Jeffords. Dawson was a senior at Rattan High School, while Smith and Allen were juniors.

Jeffords said the accident occurred when a 1998 Ford Ranger pickup, driven by Dawson, heading west on East 1960 Road, apparently ran a stop sign at the intersection with Oklahoma Highway 147. The Ranger was in collision with a northbound Chambers Co. Gravel Co. truck, driven by Billy F. Boyd, 37, of Hugo.

Boyd, who was injured in the accident, was treated and released from Choctaw Memorial Hospital.

Funeral services for Dawson, Smith and Allen are pending with Loman Funeral Home in Hugo.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

And there you have it. A boy driving a pickup with two friends from school, a warm afternoon, and … What? He didn’t see the stop sign? He didn’t know the stop sign was there? He wasn’t paying attention?

Here’s what the accident location looked like: A normal paved intersection, stop sign east and west. Trees a distance from the highway, but not presenting visibility limitations.

Two days after the wreck, the intersection showed skid marks in the northbound lane, slightly angled to the west, indicating the driver of the gravel truck had a split second on the brakes before impact, and the same split second to try to turn the fully loaded truck. Both actions were purely reaction, of course. The truck probably was going 55 mph or more, given the terrain at the site. There was no way the truck would miss the Ranger pickup, no matter what the driver tried to do.

The area northwest of the intersection was sand, with short pine trees beyond. Thursday after the wreck, the sand had a plowed appearance, probably from remains of the Ranger pushed across the sand and toward the trees. The trees were blackened from a fire. Trooper Jeffords had not mentioned a fire, but a fire was logical, given the mass of the gravel truck smashing into and through the small pickup, crushing the pickup, rending it into small pieces, splitting the gas tank and the fuel spilling.

You have to figure the pickup was not dawdling, but traveling at least the speed limit – 60 mph. My two years’ experience with Oklahoma drivers was this: My pickup, the one with Texas plates, was the only one doing the speed limit; every Oklahoma-plated car or truck either rode my bumper or passed me at the first opportunity. You know the gravel truck didn’t dawdle. Gravel trucks went as fast, and were as dangerous, as log trucks. Most drivers of gravel trucks paid little attention to speed limits. Fifteen mph over was normal.

Not that it would have mattered how much over the speed limit the gravel truck was going when it hit the Ranger. The gross weight of the gravel truck was what, 50,000 pounds, 60,000 pounds? Or more?

The wreck was a matter of timing. For the broadside impact, both the pickup and the gravel truck had to be traveling at a specific speed, relative to each other.

You can get into the luck or fate aspect of the incident, but that does no good. It happened. The why …

Maybe the driver didn’t see the stop sign? I drove east on 1960 Road, the same road on which Dawson drove west. The terrain was level. No trees obstructed visibility of traffic on Highway 147. At more than one-third mile the stop sign was visible right of the road.

It happened. That’s all. Nothing else is explanation.

I headed back south on Highway 147. Thoughts of the gravel truck and the pickup had been my entire focus for thirty minutes or so -- images of the pickup entering the intersection, the gravel truck almost at the same place on the road, and everybody involved suddenly … Realizes what is about to happen? I don’t know. Sometimes the mind is not that quick.

A gravel truck turned in front of me, 50 yards away, a right turn into a quarry, plenty of room.

I flinched.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
The wreck happened in 1999. I did not write this then because the three high school students were too newly dead. Relatives and friends tend to anger when you write a story concerning people who die young and your focus is not what great kids they were.

Kinetic this, dude

Nobody really gives a rat’s patooie about the US bombing a little snot out of Libya. It’s not like a Republican president ordered/approved the air strikes and cruise missiles.

For one thing, the Democratic president said, Americans are not in any real danger. “Obama has also argued that the conflict does not count as ‘hostilities’ because Gaddafi’s forces are so battered that they pose little threat to American air crews.”

Let me tell you how many bullets it takes to bring down a modern multi-million-dollar airplane: Hold up one finger. Thank you.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-dismisses-congressional-criticism-of-libya-action-as-politics/2011/06/29/AGLw1xqH_story.html

From nine days ago: “Air Force and Navy aircraft are still flying hundreds of strike missions over Libya despite the Obama administration’s claim that American forces are playing only a limited support role in the NATO operation.

“An Africa Command (AFRICOM) spokeswoman confirmed Wednesday that since NATO’s Operation Unified Protector (OUP) took over from the American-led Operation Odyssey Dawn on March 31, the U.S. military has flown hundreds of strike sorties. Previously, Washington had claimed that it was mostly providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and tanker support to NATO forces operating over Libya.”

http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2011/06/defense-africom-air-force-navy-flying-libya-missions-063011/

But then there is administrationspeak: "’The US role is one of support,’ the official said, ‘and the kinetic pieces of that are intermittent.’"

http://www.mudvillegazette.com/034341.html

“Kinetic pieces” is a new phrase to describe bombs falling from American aircraft.