Retired Marines Should Be Called 'Former Enlisted' or 'Former Commissioned Officers'

" Once a marine, always a marine – even if you’re 80 years old, live in a senior living community and enlisted back when “I Love Lucy” hit the airwaves.

That’s the general point of view shared amongst Marines past and present, all of which firmly believe that while police officers can be ex-cops and firefighters ex-firefighters, a Marine is always a Marine, regardless of the calendar year.

"The expression "once a Marine - always a Marine" is hammered into every recruit who makes it through boot camp at either Parris Island or San Diego.," said FOX News contributor retired Marine Corps Col. Oliver North. "It is an expression derived from the Marine Corps motto "Semper Fidelis" which means "Always Faithful" in Latin.

North said passing boot camp requires recruits to embody 10 major attributes of dependability, courage, decisiveness, endurance, initiative, integrity, judgement, proficiency, selflesness and loyalty.

"If one is - 'Always Faithful' - to this 10-Point Marine credo, it is therefore impossible to be an "ex" Marine," said North."

Remaining article right here.

Sometimes I have to remind myself not everyone knows this - especially when I get called "Ex-marine" My supervisor during my chaplain training wrote it into one of my evaluations, and worse, attributed the quote to me! Something like "M. says that even ex-marines..." I believe I blogged about it last year if you are really interested in that story. Summary, I never said that and was very clear about it.

I suppose this entry is more of a headsup for the uninformed than anything. I dont have anything to add really. While I think of myself as a chaplain, and a dad as of the past few months, and a piano player, fencer, etc. the very core is marine. Always.

I will admit I did have a bit of a hard time equating myself to old leathernecks that really went through the grinder. Marines that stormed the beaches of Iwo Jima or fought in the Chosin Reservoir in North Korean, or through the jungles of Vietnam. My service record is not nearly that impressive (from my once view). That is, until I had a conversation from a WWII devildog who was probably as hard, tough and real as it gets (and just a fantastic man). He gave me a short interview when I confessed I never thought of myself on equal footing as he:

"You went to boot camp right?"
"Yeah"
"You got out honorably right?"
"Yeah"
"Would you have gone where they asked?"
"Of course"
"Don't ever let anyone say you aren't my equal then."

Made me feel warm and fuzzy, in that hoorah sort of way.

Liechtenstein Successfully Tests Teeny Tiny Nuclear Bomb

Liechtenstein Successfully Tests Teeny Tiny Nuclear Bomb

Airplane Riddle

Imagine an airplane sitting on a runway. It is your standard, normal airplane. The run way is by some amazing contraption, an infinitely long conveyor belt. As the pilot begins to throttle up, whatever speed the plane would be/is moving forward, the conveyor belt begins to move backwards.

Does the plane ever take off?


Highlight between the dashes below for the answer:
- Yes. And if you still say no, stop thinking about the plane as a car -

Kolasis

Sheep and the goats get seperated in Matt 25:46, and often used as a reference for the classical view of hell, damnation, some saved / lost, etc. "Eternal punishment" is kolasin aionan in the Greek.

A Greek scholar by the name of Willian Barclay made a statement to the effect that kolasis, in all of Greek secular literature, never meant anything but remedial punishment.

That is, one that corrects, and is not merely vengence. That then would seem to imply that the writer of Matt 25:46 had something other in mind that just torture (which could have better been expressed with timoria).

Greatest Faith

Two things I'd like to jot down that a fellow chaplain pointed out to me today.

First, Matt 8:5-10, the story of a centurion that approaches Christ, asking that his servant be healed. Secondly, Matt 15:21-28, a Canaanite woman comes to Jesus, asking that her daughter be healed.

Things to note:
1) Both were well outside the Jewish circle
2) Both were approaching Jesus on behalf of another
3) Both were the only ones in the Gospels to be exaulted above all in regards to their faith.

This last point is key. Imagine being a Jew at the time, or one of the priests, or even one of Jesus's disciples, and have someone - well on the outside - be labeled has having the greatest faith. Its quite a thought to ponder, and I believe is still applicable today.

Secondly, and this started off a little humorus, but in the Gospels, there are basically 4-5 (pending how you want to sort) of the apostles that receive the most time in the text. Jesus seems to talk to them a lot, teach them constantly, and they seemingly play major roles. They are - what many would say - Jesus's inner circle; his "elite" learners.

But what if they weren't really the gifted ones? What if, as it was asked to me, they were "the remedial group?" That is, what if the reason they are focused on time and time again, was because they were the ones not getting it? The disciples that we hear nothing about other than a scant blurb, for the most part got it. They didn't need the lessons repeated constantly, or ask questions that had just been answered.

Just to end with an illustration, if we pretend we have a class of 12 students, and the teacher gives a lesson, and then say 6 of the class go right to work, and have little interaction with the teacher and complete their work, we assume that they caught on early. Now, in the same class, while they are doing their work, another 6 keep raising their hand, asking questions, and having the instructor look at their papers and say "No, you aren't doing this right. Try again." we naturally assume they weren't exactly leading the pack.

Just some food for thought.

God as a kid tries to make a chicken in his room

Always loved that Far Side.

CompUSA

Start of the article:

"Terry Heaton visited a nearby CompUSA store March 22 and found out upon arrival that the store was having a closing liquidation sale.

“I went to the store to buy a new laptop,” he told FOXNews.com. “I didn’t know they were closing that particular store.”

While his initial mission was to buy a new laptop, by the end of his trip, he had an almost $3,500 tab that included a supposed new camera for his stepdaughter. But when she eventually opened the gift from him, there was no camera to be found...."

Full text:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,278258,00.html

Even though CompUSA eventually decided maybe they should be nice to the guy, this story deserves a big WTF.