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Posted on 06/21/2004 12:11:25 AM PDT by JustAmy
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Victoria, the post says 9 P.M., but you're welcome to pray at 9 a.m. The first time or two I read it I thought it said a.m. also. ; ) I think we should pray at the hour that the 9/11 catastrophe began, but a time has already been chosen.
Thank you.
PAL
One million perfect days is a personal conceit.
I claim that I do not ask for much. I am only requesting one million perfect days. Not to be included in the tally are the days I have to shovel snow, or other things that would normally make one seek shelter.
I'm talking about gorgeous days in Spring and Fall, and Summer too. Perhaps even some mild and pleasant days of Winter, but mainly just beautiful days.
I only want a million of them.
(One million days, divided by 365.25 days per year equals just under two thousand, seven hundred thirty-eight years. Of perfect days. -- Like I said, I'm not greedy.)
Home from work?
What a shame!
Sick leave budgets
For weak,lazy and lame.
Water pistols are dangerous - uh - er - a good idea around a bunch of 'big' kids!
Water pistols are dangerous - uh - er - a good idea around a bunch of 'big' kids!
You have a wonderful Tuesday evening also!
Digital bugle plays taps when soldiers can't
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The playing of taps to honor America's fallen soldiers is a familiar sound, but at thousands of military funerals these days, not all is as it seems.
Instead of a bugler playing the 24 notes, a computerized chip implanted in the horn renders the heart-stirring song.
A push of a button starts the horn. It sounds a tune that not enough people in uniform can play given the pace of dying veterans and casualties from the Iraq war.
Some traditionalists object, but other people say it's an improvement upon the more widely used substitute -- someone bending over and pressing a button on a boom box to play a recording of taps.
"It's the closest and next best thing to the real thing," said Mark Maynard, director of the Riverside National Cemetery in California, where a few of the Iraq casualties have been buried. "A bone of contention with veterans organizations and families was just the sound and tackiness of the military carrying boom boxes to play taps."
And with the digital bugle -- known as a ceremonial bugle -- "You're guaranteed of it being played perfectly every time."
The Pentagon tested the method for six months, before approving it for wider use last year, and reported that most families were satisfied with the experience. It works using a small cone-shaped device inserted into the bugle's bell.
"I was worried about a digitized bugle until I saw and heard it," said Tim Boulay, chief of communications and outreach support for Veterans Affairs, who buried his father, an Army veteran, a few weeks ago. "It was indistinguishable from the real bugle.
"I was impressed," he said. "It brought tears to my eyes."
But some don't want anything short of the real deal.
Hugh Springston Jr. of Patel, Miss., wouldn't have it any other way. He recently buried his mother, a veteran, at a ceremony featuring a genuine playing of taps, and said his father will deserve the same.
A digital rendition "would make the honor seem phony," he said. "When my father goes, he'll get a gun salute. I wouldn't feel right about them having seven mannequins going out in the field shooting fake guns."
For generations, the bugle has mustered uniformed men and women from their beds, signaled meals and flag drawing. It has announced the charge on the battlefield.
The armed forces have 500 buglers able to play taps, but 1,800 veterans are dying per day. Only live buglers play the Arlington National Cemetery, the nation's premier burial ground for veterans, but honor guards at other cemeteries have had to scrape to find one.
The fake bugle has been used more often than the real one in the nearly 38,000 military funerals so far this year -- more than half are still relying on the boom box.
Military services have purchased about 4,000 bugles, said Mark Ward, the Pentagon's senior policy adviser for military funeral honors.
Sometimes the families know and sometimes they don't.
"A lot of times when using the ceremonial bugler we'll tell them beforehand so we don't give the feeling we are being disingenuous," Ward said.
Still, some people are determined to get a live bugler at veterans' funerals.
Tom Day of Berwyn, Ill., founded Bugles Across America to recruit civilian musicians to play taps at funerals.
"I saw too many boom boxes going bad, and too many reserve units and guard units not even bringing anything," Day said.
He's gathered 3,000 volunteers ages 10 to 97 who have performed at 36,000 funerals in the last three years -- including 80 percent of the funerals from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Day said even a good recorded version sounds like it's coming out of a tin can, and cemetery workers have told him some of the ceremonial buglers don't even hold the instrument to their face.
"They should at least teach these guys how to fake it," he said. "I want 'Taps' played with emotion. It's played with emotion when it's a real hornblower, it's on their lips and played correctly."
I like your rainbow poem, Bob.
c ya tomorrow!
LOL! I see. :^D
Oslo police are family-friendly.
Thanks. I now have several.
I keep them for rainy days.
Ohhhhh .... how sweet!
Thank you for that cute picture.
A Lousy Quarter
Several years ago a preacher moved to Houston, Texas. Some weeks after he arrived, he had occasion to ride the bus from his home to the downtown area. When he sat down, he discovered that the driver had accidentally given him a quarter too much change. As he considered what to do, he thought to himself, you'd better give the quarter back. It would be wrong to keep it. Then he thought, "Oh, forget it, it's only a quarter. Who would worry about this little amount? Anyway the bus company already gets too much fare; they will never miss it. Accept it as a gift from God and keep quiet." When his stop came, he paused momentarily at the door, then he handed the quarter to the driver and said, "Here, you gave me too much change". The driver with a smile, replied, "Aren't you the new preacher in town? I've been thinking lately about going to worship somewhere. I just wanted to see what you would do, if I gave you too much change."
When the preacher stepped off the bus, he literally grabbed the nearest light pole, and held on, and said, "O God", I almost sold your Son for a lousy quarter!"
What do you sell Him for?
Our lives are the only Bible some people will ever read.
OH thank you, Dubya.
That is a wonderful story. We are tested every day; how do we want others to see us? Do we live what we preach?
Thanks again.
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