What’s news to you today? Tell us about it.
I read this today and I’m glad that someone will finally be held accountable. The family of Border Agent Brian Terry deserve justice. I hope they can finally get that in some small measure, although more accomplices are still out there. And still armed, thanks to our Justice Department’s stupidity and flawed policy ideas.
From NBC
“Mexican police have detained a man accused of fatally shooting a U.S. Border Patrol agent almost two years ago in Arizona in a botched U.S. operation to track guns smuggled across the border, the government said Friday.
Federal police detained Jesus Leonel Sanchez Meza on Thursday in Sonora state, which borders Arizona, where agent Brian Terry was shot dead in December 2010, the Public Security Ministry said. The Mexican Attorney General’s Office plans to extradite Sanchez Meza to the United States, the ministry said in a statement.”
Read more here
Wandering Views 
That’s good news about Agent Terry’s killer.
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The Kid is still having problems dealing with his friends death. Yesterday I bought “Heaven is for Real”. For those of you who’ve read, do you think it would help to read it or parts of it to the Kid?
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I posted this towards the end of “Our Daily Thread (ODT) 9-7-12” last night. Perhpas it would be better here, since this is the politics thread.
Interesting read. How we ‘build that’, a letter to the editor written in response to Joel Belz’s column “He meant what he said” from the Aug. 25 issue of WORLD Magazine.
Belz’s column is worth the read too.
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KBells, I have read Heaven is for Real>/i>. I have mixed feelings about the book. I”m convinced that the guy, who was/is a pastor, had an experience that was real to him. My SS teacher doesn’t believe that anyone, before the resurrection, can die and come back. However, we have Lazarus and the widow.s son. It is not unscriptural. There is another book, co authored by Lynn Vincent tha doscisses the same phenomenon. You should read it first. I don’t see how it could hurt the Kid.
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“You should read it first” is just an opinion. Only that it is a child’s experience.
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KBells, Is the Kid maybe thinking that if his friend can die, so can he? I know he is going to a Christian School. Is the school councilor availble to talk to him? Remember he is still a little ego-centric and this is about him.
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I think KBells & I are on the wrong thread.
I don’t have any political opinions this morning.
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I still remember how shaken I was after attending my first funeral (my uncle, a farmer, died unexpectedly while we were in Iowa one summer on a family visit).
I was probably 14 but had never really experienced a funeral or a death that close. It can be traumatic. I got over it but it left a lasting memory to this day. I think it’s a rite of passage for all of us, one more step in the dreaded march to adulthood and “the real world.”
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Politics: I couldn’t help but ponder the contrast between ’08 and ’12 in watching the president the other night.
What a weird thing that was 4 years ago, the adulation and fainting and breathless swooning. It seems even crazier now, but back then it also struck me as just bizarre.
And I wonder how people like musing are handling that fall back to earth? Ouch. That’s gotta hurt.
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KBells, I often return to this poem from Little Women:
IN THE GARRET
Four little chests all in a row,
Dim with dust, and worn by time,
All fashioned and filled, long ago,
By children now in their prime.
Four little keys hung side by side,
With faded ribbons, brave and gay
When fastened there, with childish pride,
Long ago, on a rainy day.
Four little names, one on each lid,
Carved out by a boyish hand,
And underneath there lieth hid
Histories of the happy band
Once playing here, and pausing oft
To hear the sweet refrain,
That came and went on the roof aloft,
In the falling summer rain.
“Meg” on the first lid, smooth and fair.
I look in with loving eyes,
For folded here, with well-known care,
A goodly gathering lies,
The record of a peaceful life—
Gifts to gentle child and girl,
A bridal gown, lines to a wife,
A tiny shoe, a baby curl.
No toys in this first chest remain,
For all are carried away,
In their old age, to join again
In another small Meg’s play.
Ah, happy mother! Well I know
You hear, like a sweet refrain,
Lullabies ever soft and low
In the falling summer rain.
“Jo” on the next lid, scratched and worn,
And within a motley store
Of headless dolls, of schoolbooks torn,
Birds and beasts that speak no more,
Spoils brought home from the fairy ground
Only trod by youthful feet,
Dreams of a future never found,
Memories of a past still sweet,
Half-writ poems, stories wild,
April letters, warm and cold,
Diaries of a wilful child,
Hints of a woman early old,
A woman in a lonely home,
Hearing, like a sad refrain—
“Be worthy, love, and love will come,”
In the falling summer rain.
My Beth! the dust is always swept
From the lid that bears your name,
As if by loving eyes that wept,
By careful hands that often came.
Death canonized for us one saint,
Ever less human than divine,
And still we lay, with tender plaint,
Relics in this household shrine—
The silver bell, so seldom rung,
The little cap which last she wore,
The fair, dead Catherine that hung
By angels borne above her door.
The songs she sang, without lament,
In her prison-house of pain,
Forever are they sweetly blent
With the falling summer rain.
Upon the last lid’s polished field—
Legend now both fair and true
A gallant knight bears on his shield,
“Amy” in letters gold and blue.
Within lie snoods that bound her hair,
Slippers that have danced their last,
Faded flowers laid by with care,
Fans whose airy toils are past,
Gay valentines, all ardent flames,
Trifles that have borne their part
In girlish hopes and fears and shames,
The record of a maiden heart
Now learning fairer, truer spells,
Hearing, like a blithe refrain,
The silver sound of bridal bells
In the falling summer rain.
Four little chests all in a row,
Dim with dust, and worn by time,
Four women, taught by weal and woe
To love and labor in their prime.
Four sisters, parted for an hour,
None lost, one only gone before,
Made by love’s immortal power,
Nearest and dearest evermore.
Oh, when these hidden stores of ours
Lie open to the Father’s sight,
May they be rich in golden hours,
Deeds that show fairer for the light,
Lives whose brave music long shall ring,
Like a spirit-stirring strain,
Souls that shall gladly soar and sing
In the long sunshine after rain.
I love the line: Four sisters parted for an hour. None lost, but one gone before…
I don’t know if that helps you in any way but even as a child I grasped what it meant and it has been with me most of my life. The Kid’s friend isn’t gone, just gone before.
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Yes, Chas I realized too late that I had put that on the wrong thread. I thought there was a delete. By that time the free for all thread had gone in another direction. Thanks for your comments anyway. Sorry Allen.
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You too Kim. Thanks.
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Thanks for this news. I got a friendly link to this site from Debra and I am grateful. I hope to check it out often.
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KBells,
It’s fine. Don’t worry about it. You can talk about something like that wherever you want. Seeking to help explain death to a child is not always easy. Asking for help and info is a good thing. Off topic or not, you go right ahead. 🙂
Joel,
Welcome. I hope to see you around.
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Kbells
Some things are much more important than politics and this would be one of them. If you’ve not checked out sites that talk about the 5 stages of grief, you might find this useful as the kid sorts out feelings of loss and anger:
http://psychcentral.com/lib/2006/the-5-stages-of-loss-and-grief/
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I’m thinking he is in the anger stage. He has been more short tempered than usual lately. The school does have a counselor but when I asked him if he wanted to talk to someone he said he wanted to talk to me. Hubby in due home in twenty minutes and I will have back up.
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At our atheist meetup, one woman talked about how she felt she was communicating with God as a child. She could go into a mental state where she was communicating with the divine. “I really liked that feeling. I could consciously ‘turn it on’ when I wanted to.” As she grew older, it became more difficult to achieve that state. She didn’t say so, but I suspect the struggle between her rational mind (which indicates how little empirical evidence for God there is) and her possible genetic predisposition toward religious belief — a topic we all had been discussing — may have helped push her “over the edge” so to speak — toward drawing away from the “addiction” (if such it be) to “drinking the kool-ade” or enjoying the mind-altering substance being produced by her brain.
Your mileage may vary.
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My genetic predisposition has been taken to the cleaners.
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Modesty Press, you need to understand that devout Christians couldn’t care less about your vacuous meandering regarding the meetings of you and your atheist fools.
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Well, I’m actually enjoying getting to know the former Random Name.
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mumsee, I presume you smell very fresh and clean now after your genome’s trip to the cleaners. Sails, at various times in history atheists murdered Christians and Christians murdered atheists. Various atheists also murdered other atheists and and various Christians murdered other Christians. I don’t feel much in danger from you and I have no murderous intentions toward you. While humans are still murdering other humans, inch by inch we seem to be making progress toward treating each other better. We may disagree vehemently, but as Roger Williams seemed to grasp, it’s best to let God sort out who should be rewarded and who should be punished. kare2012, thank you for your interest. We are all different. I presume God intended for us to be so diverse and multi-flavored.
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Rn said to Mumsee: “I don’t feel much in danger from you …”
Ha! Ha! Cough-cough.
Said the fly to the spider. … 😀
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Some interesting thoughts over at powerline about why the polls continue to be so close (there are 2 opinions posted, part 1 and 2 — Part 1, linked below, is rather a discouraging scenario; the second part, which you’ll find on their home page, is a little more optimistic in outlook):
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/09/why-is-this-election-close.php
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ModestyPress, Christians are properly taught to both revere and respect God and to love Him with their heart, mind, and soul. Any sensible Christian would abhor your callous, narcissistic remarks about God..
Roger Williams was among the most devout of Puritan Christians. He did speak of religious freedom, though he had no respect for narcissistic atheists.
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Sails – Did you used to go by the name Llama? Sometimes you remind me of him.
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Karen, no, I wasn’t Llama. Anyhow, thanks for the inquiry.
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An article appeared in Gawker expressing sympathy for pedophiles and saying that for many pedophilia is a sexual orientation. Liberal Kirsten Powers has blasted the author. Here is a summary from Newsbusters. http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2012/09/08/gawker-editor-pedophilia-sexual-orientation-and-illness-deserving-pub
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donna j on September 9, 2012 at 11:29 am said:
Rn said to Mumsee: “I don’t feel much in danger from you …”
Donna, I believe those remarks were directed to Sails. And he is right. It is God RN should fear, whether he believes in God or not.
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Karen,
I did email Bob Buckles and ask him to invite Llama too. So they may both show up eventually. :–)
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Ricky,
Re pedophilias—we did have a conversation on WMB some months ago with an unapologetic pedophile who used some of the same arguments the world uses to try to mainstream other perversions. He also mentioned some favorable studies.
We apparently haven’t reached the bottom yet. But we’re trying.
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