HOORAY FOR THE COMMANDANT!!!!!

~ If you look closely at the picture above, you will note that all the Marines pictured are bowing their heads. That's because they're praying. The incident took place at a recent ceremony honoring the birthday of the corps, and it has the ACLU up in arms. "These are federal employees," says Lucius Traveler, a spokesman for the ACLU, "on federal property and on federal time. For them to pray is clearly an establishment of religion, and we must nip this in the bud immediately." When asked about the ACLU's charges, Colonel Jack Fessender, speaking for the Commandant of the Corps said (cleaned up a bit), "Screw the ACLU."

I doubt, seriously doubt, that the ACLU was actually out-of-line enough to object to soldiers ("federal employees") praying on some piece of US Government property... Perhaps it was Arlington National Cemetery, which has starred in a previous E-mail Broadcast ACLU as Villian Myth - According to that one, the ACLU objected to the crosses on Federal property. The ACLU website says that is a recurring urban myth.

I suspect the Praying Marines is similar crap from the same turkey. And that turkey was using the USMC to defame an organization that is sworn watchdog for our constitution, and, whatever the ACLU's faults, has championed unpopular causes on the Right as well as the Left. Anything but an honor for the Corps.

I don't know about you guys, but I'm sick of turkey. I had enough of that during the Holidays.

Tom McClellan

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Linda Price

Tom,

Years ago, I would have agreed with you that this was more than likely "crap" but with what the ACLU has turned in to in the recent years.....I wouldn't doubt the validity of it now. With some of the things they do...my jaw literally drops when I hear it. I have lost ALL respect for the organization. It's a true shame that they allowed themselves to lose the position they held and now are the butt of jokes ( and most of the time the well-deserved butt).

Just a thought.

Linda

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Helen Cariotis:

I truly believe our country is changing in ways that will make our society very different in the next decade. I don't think it will ever again be the country I remember growing up in. These changes are not what the majority of Americans want, but are being rammed down our throats by a few in power. The prayer thing is just one part of that big picture.

I have to say that I agree with Linda on the ACLU and their motives.

Just a little tip: if you ever apply for college loans, scholarships, and grants for your kids, be sure you check "other" in the box that asks about your ethnicity. OK I know this doesn't have anything to do with Marines, so I'll stop!

Helen

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Don Hockaday

Re: "I suspect the Praying Marines is similar crap from the same turkey."

Tom,

The vast majority of these urban legends are easily evaluated at Snopes, as is this one:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/cemetery.asp

I use to send this type of information back with links to the sender of the urban legend and request he/she pass it back through the chain and bookmark a list of links to check before sending virus alerts or feel-good chain letters. However, only very rarely did I have any reason to belive this was attempted, and I receive many of these. It finally occurred to me my premise was incorrect. I thought the senders believed the story to be true when apparently the senders only wanted to believe it to be true.

After about three of my replies, I find I am usually removed from the senders' urban legend list, but I still get too many, and now just ignore most of them.

The authors of these urban legends practice disinformation, usually with some sort of political goal -- which could be partisan, social or religious. The forwarders can't be accused of disinformation because they neither know nor care about the truth of it.

This doesn't seem to fit within the categories of "fiction," "non-fiction," and "fiction based on fact." It is more like a joke -- if a joke is funny, truth is irrelevant. Nobody really cares if a good ghost story is true or not; they are told as true, but nobody cares anyway.

vis: Chicken Soup for the (optional possessive adjective) Soul:
http://www.chickensoup.com/

Under "story submission" I find:

"3. Stories should be non-fiction, ranging in length between 300-1200 words."

but nowhere do I find any reference as to whether the "non-fiction" story should be true.

I am also entertained by the plethora of objections to the chicken soup series by a segment of the Christian community. I particularly like "On Truth":
http://ontruth.com/csoup.html

It is headed by

"Welcome to ON TRUTH A ministry of Dr. Cky J. Carrigan devoted to Apologetic Evangelism which seeks to equip the saints for the work of evangelism through a rigorous pursuit of TRUTH motivated by LOVE."

Dr. Carrigan makes it clear all believers, not just saints, should

"steer clear of Jack Canfield and the enormously popular Chicken Soup Series books and products" and lists the reasons for it. Among the list is no mention of the absence of any reason to think there is any truth in the stories.

Having already stepped over the line by paraphrasing the Bible in my take on modern journalism: "Ye shall know the story, and the story shall improve thy circulation" I am already soiled. So for urban legends: "Ye shall know the urban legend and the urban legend shall feel good to people like me, and annoy the hell out the others."

Don Hockaday
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All that said, people, I cannot regard the denigration of American servicemen, the desecration of their graves, and the mockery of their prayers - all in the service of a damned lie as a "joke."