kc bob

American Sniper | ★★★★★★★★★☆

I cried as the movie ended. I deeply resonated with this American hero. My son spent 28 months on the front lines in Iraq. This movie told a story of what serving in the Iraq War looked like. It is a hard movie because the viewer is confronted with how much our soldiers sacrifice and how little we think about them.

I think that Bradley Cooper did a wonderful job playing Chris Kyle, a decorated Navy SEAL who was known among his SEAL brethren as The Legend and to his enemies as al-Shaitan, “the devil.” Here is Kyle's perspective in his own words.

"It was my duty to shoot the enemy, and I don't regret it. My regrets are for the people I couldn't save: Marines, soldiers, buddies. I'm not naive, and I don't romanticize war. The worst moments of my life have come as a SEAL. But I can stand before God with a clear conscience about doing my job."

The movie was a bit long but worth the viewing. It helped me to engage a bit with the struggles of our soldiers while at the same time it presented an unflattering image of war. On a scale of ten, I give it ★★★★★★★★★☆.

Catch my other mini-reviews by selecting the Movies link in the menu bar above.

US Presidents on War

Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind. -John F. Kennedy

Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war. -John Adams

I have never advocated war except as a means of peace. -Ulysses S. Grant

Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die. -Herbert Hoover

War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today. -John F. Kennedy

My first wish is to see this plague of mankind, war, banished from the earth. -George Washington

It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world. -Thomas Jefferson

Don't forget what I discovered that over ninety percent of all national deficits from 1921 to 1939 were caused by payments for past, present, and future wars. -Franklin D. Roosevelt

There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America. -Barack Obama

Turkey 101

Interesting 'facts' emailed to me by Johnny's Pizza of all places.

I had no clue that people will eat one to two pounds of the stuff on Thursday. 600 million pounds is a boatload of bird.

Can you imagine having the turkey as out national bird? Sometimes I think the image fits more than the eagle.

This year we are, for the first time ever, going out to eat on Thanksgiving with our adult kids.

What are your plans for Thanksgiving?

Gobble! Gobble!

... originally posted in 2010

Clown U and the Thanksgiving Parade

Clowning around is serious work! I spent a recent Saturday morning at “Clown U”, the training session for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade clowns. It was held at the Big Apple Circus at Lincoln Center and is a crash course in clowning (which is a lot harder than it looks).
...
The clowns are volunteers, and not just anyone gets to do the job. The clown ranks are made up of Macy’s employees, as well as employee friends and family members. Employees can recommend potential clowns, which is how Betty Regan joined the group this year. Betty told me it’s been a dream of hers for decades. How long? “Fifty years”, she said. “I’m so excited.” Her kids gave her the gift of being a Macy’s Clown this year for her 83rd birthday. “They searched, they were working on it all year.” Betty said she saw her first parade when she was six or seven years old, but wasn’t able to go every year. “We didn’t go often when I was a kid…we had too many kids. I really got crazy about it when I got to be about 55. Everybody I saw (I’d ask) do you work for Macy’s?” Betty told me people ask her why she wants to be in the parade. “I think it’s not a very good question, because I thought everybody wanted to be in the parade!”

... excerpted from an article by Tonya J. Powers ... read it here.

The Note on Justine's Car

To person that left this on my car last week at Mitcham Shopping Centre - I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis when I was 35. Not just MS but the worst one that never goes away and is slowly crippling my life. My kids have had to deal with things that kids shouldn't ever have to deal with and all of our futures are forever changed. On the day you saw me I was having a good day, I was walking with my daughter unaided having a nice day. Thank you for ruining that. You made me feel like people were looking at me, the exact way I feel when I can't walk properly. I am sick of people like yourself abusing me on my good days for using a facility I am entitled to. A disability doesn't always mean a person has to be wheelchair bound but lucky for you I one day will be. Right now my focus is to walk into my best friends wedding next September and not have to be pushed. I will be 42. Before you ruin another persons day remember you don't know everything and just because you can't see it it doesn't mean a person isn't struggling to put one foot in front of the other.

-shared on Facebook by Justine Van Den Borne

Unkind on Random Act of Kindness Day

Did you know that today is a day that encourages the doing of a random act of kindness. Sadly, I blew an opportunity already this morning when I charged ahead of a young gal and her small kids at the bagel shop. If only I knew that today was the day I was supposed to be kind. :(

Guess that is the troubling point. Today impatience got in the way of kindness. Other days selfishness trumps kindness. So many obstacles to kindness. Small wonder that I need to be reminded to do something kind.

What things do you think get in your way when it comes to being kind?

Perhaps if we become self aware we will be kinder and do kind things?

Royals Fever

The party has already started in Kansas City! Tried to get Ann to therapy at the Rehab Institute and had to turn back as the streets were locked up solid. So cool that so many people (100s of thousands) are already downtown waiting for the Royals parade. Loved seeing so many families with little kids walking towards the parade route. Looked out my deck and saw folks walking across the Broadway Bridge heading towards the parade route. Not even traffic jams and the Missouri River can keep these fans away. The city is burning up with Royals fever! Even those of us watching at home are burning up with World Series excitement!

Royals crowned Champions of Baseball

Our city is lit up. Fireworks going off after midnight this morning. 30 years after we won the series in 1985. Sweetness.

Tapped Out

Half of all bottled water is just tap water

According to the Beverage Marketing Association, a trade group, nearly 50% of all bottled water sold in the U.S. is just tap water that's been purified. The regulated standards for bottled water and tap water are actually very similar. The biggest difference is that bottled water is produced specifically for "human consumption."

But with that said, tap water is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ensure that it's safe to drink, and many experts say tap water is actually regulated more tightly than bottled water. There's just no fancy label on your faucet. Plus, tap water typically contains fluoride, which helps maintain strong teeth and prevent tooth decay, and fluoride is often removed from bottled water during the purification process. Mored info here.

It's time to Turn back Time

I am not a fan of "falling back" an hour this weekend (2am on Sunday). I do not like losing an hour of late afternoon daylight to get an extra hour of it in the early morn.

And yes, I know that we are going back to "standard time". I just don't care for it and wish that we would keep daylight savings time all year round. Seems like a good idea to me.

But I know that everyone does not agree with me. Some places in America and, I assume, other parts of the world do not change their clocks in the Spring and Fall.

Another aspect of this practice is that this signifies, to me anyways, the beginning of the nastier part of the year in Kansas City. Not winter yet but there is a chill in the air.

So what do you think? Do you like Daylight Savings?
Or would you prefer that we not turn back time?

Mets Memories

Bill and Bob

I think it was in 1962 or 63 that my older brother Bill first took me to a Mets game. I was 13 or so and really loved taking the Ferry and the Subway to the Polo Grounds in upper Manhattan. But even more I loved being with Bill whether it was a Mets or Yankees game.

These are the things I think about as the NY Mets come to KC this week to play the Royals in the World Series. How I wish my brother, a guy who cheered for his Mets since those early days, was still with us. It would be great fun to talk smack with him about his team and my team. But perhaps Bill will be watching the series from heaven? If he is, I hope that he is not trying to convince God to root for the Mets. ツ

Do the Opposite

Kelli Standish is one of the most inspirational people that I know but have never met - some of you know what that means. Today she shared this on Facebook and she said it was okay to share here.

I am a firm believer in doing opposite things. When a spine surgeon told me I might not be able to travel or even walk again, I went out that night and bought luggage. When a rheumatologist told me my pelvis was almost completely fused by disease, I scheduled a zip lining adventure in the jungles of Costa Rica. When a handyman told me I wasn't capable of dealing with my leaking toilet, I pulled the whole thing out, repaired the break in the line beneath it, and replaced it with a new one.

So last night, when I was at one of my darkest moments in my life, feeling utterly forsaken by God and wishing for death due to all the rejection and emotional pain in my divorce, I decided another opposite thing was in order. Tonight I made myself get dressed up and go to church, and then I reached out to a work acquaintance and asked her if she'd like to get together.

The music and message at church was powerful and uplifting, and my work acquaintance said yes to dinner. We had a fantastic time, eating with our hands, sharing stories, and drinking cup after cup of glorious Ethiopian spiced tea.

So wherever you are in your life, whatever dark thing you're facing, do something opposite. You won't feel like it. You won't have the energy or time or money or bravery or health for it. Do it anyway. Opposite things make room for hope and fresh air and momentum. Opposite things disrupt darkness.

Kelli does not blog much any more but you can find her posts at kellistandish.com.

Naturalism vs Supernaturalism

Love these thoughts (below) offered on this (above) CS Lewis quote by Scott Parnell, a friend of a Facebook friend ...

"It's from "miracles," which is his transcendental argument for the plausibility of the miraculous.
This is in his section refuting Naturalism."

"In his book he takes both the Naturalist and Supernaturalist perspectives and pits them against each other. The naturalist, in his understanding, is one who assumes that everything that exists, exists within a closed system with no perpetual external cause/force--what we would commonly call atheism. In this perspective, reason has to be a byproduct of the evolutionary process, and thus the byproduct of biochemistry of the brain. Thus, thought is simply the meaningless consequence of how atoms line up in our brains.

Lewis' claim is that simply because elements line up in a certain way, does not make something true--it requires an inherent order so as to interpret the biochemistry. The inherent order of "reading the biochemistry" is indicative of a design (not his words, but mine)."

-Scott Parnell is a student at Virginia Theological Seminary

Pages