Have you ever been in a really tough spot with no where to turn and not a familiar face in sight? Try a military academy. You’ve just graduated from high school and missed your graduation because you had to be at the Academy the next day. You live in NY and fly out to CO, leaving your friends and family behind. You have your clothes you are wearing and a toothbrush. But not for long. All new military clothes issued to you right down to your socks. Improssing is your induction into the military. Multiple shots in the arms, severe haircuts, 1950s eyeglasses, standing at attention, marching, memorizing things from famous sayings to names (including initials) to the bar code on hershey syrup. And no sleep. Ok maybe 4 hours a night for days on end. Strange faces, no oxygen, running, marching, standing, marching, standing. Did I say marching? 6 weeks of basic. It’s no wonder 10% of the cadets leave during this time. Where can they find some relief and a friendly face? Where they can relax and not sit at attention? Where they can speak freely? At Spire. Religion at the Academy has been a Godsend for my son (pun intended). It’s helped him get to his 3rd year and gives him a refuge from the demands and rigors of military life. I am deeply indebted to what Spire has done for my son. At a time I know I can’t be there for him, I know he is taken care of. He has the support of friends and adults to help him with his concerns and problems. Is this a bad thing? Or just a reporter trying to make life more difficult for cadets who are still marching and studying on Friday nights and ironing their sheets for Saturday morning inspection?
Yet more proof that the Developer Lobby controls the plannning process…
Traffic is so bad along the eastern rim of Los Angeles’ suburban ring that regional planners are considering the once unthinkable _ an 11-mile tunnel through a mountain range in earthquake country.
Critics question the logic of building a multibillion-dollar project in a region so prone to earthquakes that an alternate proposal for a double-decker highway was deemed too dangerous. The tunnel would begin barely a mile from a fault that produced a 6.0-magnitude earthquake about a century ago.
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Officials’ Careers May Be Affected
Its 200-plus pages are written in pure bureaucratese. And it avoids identifying any major player by name.
But this week’s report from the Montgomery County Council’s investigative arm still manages to make clear that the county’s planning system is ailing and that three officials watched as it grew weaker: Planning Board Chairman Derick P. Berlage, County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (D) and County Council member Steven A. Silverman, who heads a key committee with oversight of the planning process.
Berlage, Duncan and Silverman (D-At Large) face career crossroads as they try to shake the stigma of Clarksburg. Duncan is seeking the 2006 Democratic nomination for governor, Silverman hopes to become the next county executive and Berlage is fighting to keep his $129,000-a-year job as board chairman.
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Delegates from around the world will gather next week in Tunisia for what is known as the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). Few people are aware of WSIS’s existence, its mission or the purpose of this conference. That is unfortunate, since the principal agenda item calls for a wholesale change in governance of the Internet that could lead to a significant setback for global freedom of information.
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It would appear that at best, the Air Force is being disengenuous; and at worst, is lieing through its’ teeth.
A private missionary group has assigned a pair of full-time Christian ministers to the U.S. Air Force Academy, where they are training cadets to evangelize among their peers, according to a confidential letter to supporters.
The letter makes clear that the organized evangelization effort has continued this year despite an outcry over alleged proselytizing at the academy that has prompted a Pentagon investigation, congressional hearings, a civil lawsuit and new Air Force guidelines on religion.
“Praise God that we have been allowed access by the Academy into the cadet areas to minister among the cadets. We have recently been given an unused classroom to meet with cadets at any time during the day,” the husband-and-wife team of Darren and Gina Lindblom said in the Oct. 11 letter to their donors.
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