Wish I had found this yesterday...


"Tomorrow, churches all across America will incorporate the Hymns of Americana into Her worship hour. “My Country Tis of Thee,” “America The Beautiful,” and “Battle Hymn of the Republic” will all be sung with as much gusto as “How Great Thou Art,” “Amazing Grace,” and “God of Wonders.”

Worship of God will be replaced by worship of America...."

Read the rest here.

You can read about the exploits of our Kansas Mission Trip over at our Parent's website...

Click here to go there...

    One of my positions when I worked at Best Buy was Inventory Manager.  I would oversee all shipping and receiving, as well as inventory control for the store.  Every so often, someone would come up with a "better" way to unload the truck, or they'd talk about how many trucks they had unloaded.  One of my friends there, a guy named Bryan, would look at this person and say, "I've forgotten about more trucks than you'll ever unload".  It turns out that the saying was a paraphrase of a quote by a guy name Salatheil Lovell.  Lovell was was a British judge, Recorder of London, an ancient and bencher of Grey's Inn, and a Baron of the Exchequer.  Here's his situation and quote...

"Lovell sat on the bench for five years, but was old and incompetent. He was ‘distinguished principally for his want of memory, and his title of recorder was converted into the nickname of the Obliviscor (forgetter) of London'.

Lovell's grandson, Richard Lovell Edgeworth, in his memoirs, provides an impression of Salathiel:

"My grandfather, the Welsh judge, traveling over the sands near Beaumorris, as he was going circuit, was overtaken by the night and by the tide: his coach was set fast in quicksand; the water soon rose into the coach, and his register, and some other attendants, crept out of the windows and mounted on the roof, and on the coach-box. The judge let the water rise to his very lips, and with becoming gravity replied, to all the earnest entreaties of his attendants, 'I will follow your counsel, if you can quote any precedent for a judge's mounting a coach-box'"

Referring to the extent to which Lovell, by the end of his life, had lost his memory, Edgeworth relates an anecdote told by his father of a lawyer pleading before Lovell being so rude as to say "Sir, you have forgotten the law", to which Lovell is reputed to have answered "Young man, I have forgotten more law, than you will ever remember"

I love it...

I'm wondering what MFP is doing right now.  I'm wondering what it is/was like doing that first patrol. 


<Insert ridiculously inadequate song lyrics here>

    There is water everywhere here, but we are high and dry.  There has been wall to wall coverage of the flooding here in Eastern Iowa on tv.  Yesterday, I drove down 380 through Cedar Rapids to take a look, it was pretty amazing to see.  There is a small creek at Thomas Park near us (closer than the Cedar River downtown anyway) that overran it's banks, but it too is far away.  We are in no danger of flooding.

    Camp at NEICSC was a good time.  After Sunday, we had warm and sunny weather, but getting home was a treat due to all of the road closings.

    Phil left for Iraq yesterday.  I'm glad we spoke for a few minutes before he got on the plane.

    That's all there is to report for now.



This is what Cedar Rapids looks like...