#34961: charlie wagner — 08/11  at  02:29 PM
He feels their pain.

George Bush said:

"I understand the anguish that some feel about the death that takes place,"

Let us pray.

"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle-be Thou near them! With them, in spirit, we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it-for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.

Read the entire piece at:

http://charliewagner.blogspot.com/2005/08/war-prayer.html

#35001: — 08/11  at  08:54 PM
...and Lord, please buy them proper body armor.

#35018: Socar — 08/12  at  04:14 AM
Why have science weblogs? So skyvey berks like me have something to read while they're supposed to be working.

Come to think of it, I ought to be working right now.

#35021: charlie wagner — 08/12  at  05:35 AM
Bob Herbert wrote about Specialist Craig Peter Olander Jr in The New York Times on August 8:

"He is also filled with turbulent emotions related to the insurgents that he killed. "I had no hesitation about pulling the trigger," he said. "But the aftermath is what hurt. Before I joined the military, I valued life very much, so taking it was hard. It's confusing trying to figure it out, you know, because sometimes I feel rage toward them.

"But then it becomes a very religious thing, because I wonder, you know, since I've taken these lives, if I'm going to be accepted into heaven. You know, have I done the right thing?"

I think there probably should be a lot of people wondering this too. From the President on down....

#35032: coturnix — 08/12  at  08:34 AM
Why have a science blog? So you have something to submit to Tangled Bank every two weeks, that's why!

I like that post a lot, but it misses another function, that is, the use of the science-blog in education: not just the thousands of random visitors, but actually students in the classroom.

#35220: coturnix — 08/12  at  08:24 PM
This is so poorly written that I do not know if they are describing something we already knew for decades, or something new but wishy-washy, or something we should pay attention to:
http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/050806_learnfrm.htm