Quote of the day:

"you know the world's gone mad when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, the Swiss hold the America's Cup, France is accusing the USA of arrogance and the Germans don't want to go to war!"

Life is not a series of epiphanies, it is the gathering of simple threads of wisdom and weaving them through the fabric of our lives.

I want you to close your eyes and picture in your mind the soldier at

> > Valley

> > Forge, as he holds his musket in his frost bitten, bloody hands.

> >

> > He stands barefoot in the snow, starved from lack of food, wounded

> > from

> > months of battle and emotionally scarred from the eternity away from

> > his

> > family surrounded by nothing but death and carnage of war.

> >

> > He stands though, with fire in his eyes and victory on his breath. He

> > looks

> > at us now in anger and disgust and tells us this...

> >

> > I gave you a birthright of freedom born in the Constitution and now

> > your

> > children graduate too illiterate to read it.

> >

> > I fought in the snow barefoot to give you the freedom to vote and you

> > stay

> > at home because it rains.

> >

> > I left my family destitute to give you the freedom of speech and you

> > remain

> > silent on critical issues, because it might be bad for business.

> >

> > I orphaned my children to give you a government to serve you and it

> > has

> > stolen democracy from the people.

> >

> > It's the soldier not the reporter who gives you the freedom of the

> > press.

> >

> > It's the soldier not the poet who gives you the freedom of speech.

> >

> > It's the soldier not the campus organizer who allows you to

> > demonstrate.

> >

> > It's the soldier who salutes the flag, serves the flag, whose coffin

> > is

> > draped with the flag that allows the protester to burn the flag!

> >

please pray for the following men and women, and their families.

Operation Iraqi Freedom

K.I.A.

Marine Capt. Ryan Anthony Beaupre, 30, of Bloomington, Ill.

Marine Cpl. Brian Matthew Kennedy, 25, of Houston, TX.

Marine Staff Sgt. Kendall Damon Waters-Bey, 29, of Baltimore.

Marine Maj. Jay Thomas Aubin, 36, of Waterville, Maine.

Marine 2nd Lt. Therrel S. Childers, 30, of Harrison, Miss.

Marine Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez, 22, of Los Angeles.

Marine Sgt. Michael E. Bitz, 31, Ventura, Calif.

Marine Lance Cpl. David K. Fribley, 26, Lee, Fla.

Marine Cpl. Jose A. Garibay, 21, Orange, Calif.

Marine Cpl. Jorge A. Gonzalez, 20, Los Angeles

Marine Staff Sgt. Phillip A. Jordan, 42, Brazoria, TX

Marine Lance Cpl. Thomas J. Slocum, age unknown, Adams, Colo.

Marine 2nd Lt. Frederick E. Pokorney Jr., 31, Nye, Nev.

Marine Sgt. Nicolas M. Hodson, 22, of Smithville, Mo.

Marine Lance Cpl. Brian Rory Buesing, 20, Cedar Key, FL.

Marine Cpl. Randal Kent Rosacker, 21, San Diego, CA.

Marine Sgt. Nicolas M. Hodson, 22, of Smithville, Mo.

Marine Lance Cpl. Eric J. Orlowski, 26, of Buffalo, N.Y.

Marine Cpl. Evan James, 20, La Harpe, Ill.

Army Spc. Gregory P. Sanders, 19, Hobart, Ind.

Army Capt. Christopher Scott Seifert, 27, Easton, Pa.

Army Spc. Jamaal R. Addison, 22, Roswell, Ga.

Army Pfc. Howard Johnson II, 21, Mobile, Ala.

Army Reserve Spc. Brandon S. Tobler, 19, Portland, Ore.

Air Force Maj. Gregory Stone, 40, Boise, Idaho

P.O.W.

Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Ronald D. Young Jr., 26, Lithia Springs, Ga.

Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 David S. Williams, 30, Orlando, Fla.

Army Spc. Edgar Hernandez, 21, Mission, Texas

Army Spc. Joseph Hudson, 23, Alamogordo, N.M.

Army Spc. Shoshana Johnson, 30, Fort Bliss, Texas

Army Pfc. Patrick Miller, 23, Park City, Kan.

Army Sgt. James Riley, 31, Pennsauken; N.J.

M.I.A.

Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch, 19, Palestine, W.Va.

Army Spc. James Kiehl, 22, Comfort, Texas

Army Pvt. Brandon Sloan, 19, Bedford Heights, Ohio

Army Pfc. Lori Piestewa, 22, Tuba City, Ariz.

Army Sgt. Donald Walters, 33, Salem, Ore.

Army Master Sgt. Robert J. Dowdy, 38, Cleveland

Army Pvt. Ruben Estrella-Soto, 18, El Paso, Texas

Army Chief Warrant Officer Johnny Villareal Mata, 35, El Paso, Texas

Marine Sgt. Brad Korthaus, 29, Davenport, Iowa next -- previous DISCLAIMER