Condemn or Console........which is North on our Moral Compass?

FASCINATING.  The headline is "Hundreds Attend Memorial for Wisconsin Hostage Taker"  HERE is the article.  This is the boy who held 26 classmates and his teacher at gunpoint for six hours, one can only imagine how frightened those people were and what their families went through once they knew what was going on.  The boy later killed himself in the classroom.

MARINETTE, Mich. – Hundreds of people showed up Sunday for a memorial to a 15-year-old Wisconsin boy who held his social studies class hostage before shooting himself last week, setting aside the terrifying standoff to honor him as a quiet, helpful leader who loved the outdoors.


The boy's name is Sam Hengel and I can't imagine what his family is going through now with their boy dead. 

I wonder, do you think there would have been a memorial service honoring him had he killed any of his hostages?  He had   two semi-automatic pistols and a backpack jammed with more than 200 rounds of ammunition and a pair of knives on him so it sounds like he was serious and had planned this for a while.

Is it a good sign for our society that his memory is honored and his family is consoled through this service?  Maybe.  But, is it a sign that we've lost our moral compass and, while we feel terrible for this boy who was obviously tormented, it would be better for society were it to condemn this kind of behavior? Or, maybe both.  You decide.

I'd like to know what you think.   The boy was very, very well liked, so he was obviously a good kid,  but something went very seriously awry....they say his 'emotional bucket was empty'.

Is there a way to console his family without honoring a boy who contemplated and even started the process of murdering friends?  Would the parents of a child killed by Sam Hengel felt a memorial service for him was in line? 

I'm not 100% sure how I feel, but the whole idea of this service hit me as strange..........What do you think?
geeeeZ

Sunday Faith Blog..Drew Brees

STOP THE PRESSES! :-) Z is using a FOOTBALL story on SUNDAY for her Faith Blog!  Most of you know how I feel about football, so I know this is surprising, but it sure does fit the FAITH part of my weekly Sunday blog!    Especially you Christians will love listening.....
DREW BREES is an inspiration on so many levels:





Would that more and more young people start to feel like he does, to trust as he does.  As Brees says, things can be bleak, but looking back later, they all come together........this really is moving. I hope these videos are a real blessing to you today and always.
"Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust." Psalms 40:14
Have a wonderful day.........geeeeZ

BUSINESS in America...does it have a future?

PLEASE listen to this because I shamelessly 'stole' it from my buddy Joe-Jo Politico and it'll help me feel less guilty since I know he knows this MUST BE SEEN by more and more Americans. Come to think of it, this could have been a very interesting SIXTY MINUTES or an interview with Matt Lauer on TODAY, huh? (as if the leftwing media would EVER do a piece about struggling American businessmen against raising taxes with proof of why that helps America succeed!)


Another thing not completely unrelated to the video was something Professor Heldman (the resident liberal prof from Occidental College on Hannity's show) said last night...she lamented that Americans are 'cleaning toilets and working up to 3 jobs and the lower classes like them, working THAT hard, show that our system is NOT MERITORIOUS!' I sat there numb, thinking "Wow, doesn't going to school, following the rules, working hard to succeed and running a dental office or law firm that employees 300 people count as MERITORIOUS?"
Then, in this excellent video, we see the perfect example of a guy whose merits and hard work should be paying off for him and our country but our government won't let him? Maybe they think his work isn't meritorious, either. Or they just plain don't want him to do well. It's hard to tell lately.
geeeeez

Maui, Hawaii....direct from Ms Z ... enjoy!

Happy Hannukah

I hope all of my Jewish readers have a very blessed holiday.

geeeez

Bush"VISITS"....Obama goes into "DANGEROUS AFGHANISTAN!"

I saw the wording on the Obama article I've quoted from below and thought I'd check media coverage of Bush's trips to Afghanistan and Iraq and, sure enough, the Obama-lovin' media's on duty :-)

Thursday, March 2, 2006

NEW DELHI, March 1 -- President Bush made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan on Wednesday to rally U.S. troops and boost the country's embattled president, Hamid Karzai, at a time when Afghanistan is facing a sharp rise in deadly violence that poses the most serious threat yet to the U.S.-backed government

here's another:

Bush pays surprise visit to Iraq

Mr Bush helped serve a traditional Thanksgiving meal

US President George W Bush has made a surprise visit to Baghdad to mark America's Thanksgiving holiday. The event was kept secret until Mr Bush left the Iraqi capital because of security concerns. Had word of the trip leaked it would have been cancelled.
Mr Bush spent two hours having dinner with about 600 stunned US troops at Baghdad airport before leaving Iraq.
Even they had not been told in advance that Mr Bush was coming on the visit, the first to Iraq by a US president.

And another...........

BAGHDAD, Iraq  — President Bush assured Iraqis in a surprise visit to Baghdad on Tuesday that the United States stands with them and their new government. “It’s in our interest that Iraq succeed,” he said, seated alongside newly named Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

OKAY....NOW READ THIS ACCOUNT OF OBAMA'S TRIP TO AFGHANISTAN TODAY!

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan – President Barack Obama slipped unannounced into dangerous Afghanistan on Friday for a hurried holiday season visit with U.S. troops, but plans for a face-to-face meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai were abruptly scrapped.
The White House blamed the last-minute cancellation on rough weather. Instead, the two leaders spoke by phone, Obama at the air base and Karzai in Kabul.
Obama's surprise visit, his second to Afghanistan as president, came a year after he widened an ever deadlier war and ahead of the completion later this month of a review of the 9-year-plus conflict.
Under intense security, Obama landed in darkness after a clandestine departure from the White House on Thursday, where plans of his trip into the war zone were tightly guarded. \

Bush, when he went to Afghanistan and Iraq, had a 'surprise or unannounced' visits...but Obama SLIPPED UNANNOUNCED INTO DANGEROUS AFGHANISTAN!?  

no big deal...........but it's fun to catch them in the act, isn't it? (again and again and again and again and.....)

geeeeeZ

"Progressive" INSURANCE?

SURPRISE!! No WONDER they call it "PROGRESSIVE" INSURANCE.   Check THIS OUT.  And don't buy that insurance anymore!  (oh, and check out the SNOPES disclaimers at the bottom, which they typically do when they have to admit a criticism of someone on the left is true!.. Yes, the SNOPES which they claim is unbiased :-)

Who know PROGRESSIVE was in the political sense of the word, right?  

geeeeeeZ!!

Happy Birthday to Elmer's Brother!

Elbro is a great friend, an amazing intellect, a faith inspiration, a terrific husband and father......and my blog partner.  I want to thank him for being all of the above!

Got a PET?

Do you have a pet, or one favorite pet of many, which you'd like to tell us about?  I'd love to hear you tell us what you've got and describe it a bit and WHY you love it!  Thanks..................

geeeez

December....time for the beauty of Christmas

I just had to post these photographs from Germany........Christmas is so beautiful there.  The top one, I know, is Munich, I don't know where the others are.   I hope these lovely shots get you in the Christmas mood!  I had to post them to welcome in December!  

z