AH - the PLOT THICKENS

OK - I am trying to remember how to do everything on the multiple computer systems we have and I am pretty sure I have either been locked out of an upgrade or I am having a brain freeze. Could I have forgotten how to do the reject of reports...no, that couldn't be it, right? Me? Forget something? Make a MISTAKE? Never, I say, never!

It was brought to my attention the other night by another member of my 12 step group that the LOM who went ballistic on me awhile back at The Hive once claimed to be a Viet Nam Vet having a flashback...until it was proven he had never even served in the military in peace time.

Now, listen...I cannot prove that and so we cannot post my suspicions on The Hive. I have to tell you, though, that after what I went through with Rick 8 or 9 years ago this kind of thing just tans my hide. It is bad enough when someone lies, but there is a special kind of hell reserved for those who lie about being a combat veteran.

I think, and I could be wrong (what? ME WRONG?) that it is especially heinous to lie about being in combat because of the special honor and deference due to those men and women who DO serve in combat. Military service in and of itself is strenuous enough. Going deliberately into harms way, having to evaluate every person you see to determine them to be friend or foe, dodging bullets, sleeping in mud or dust, being rained on or marching in searing sun while someone you do not know is trying to kill you - that takes a special type of human being. So, to my way of thinking, those who pretend to have done what so many people did without WANTING to are big piles of human jello stuffed into skin suits.

HEY - has anyone seen the movie "Grace is Gone"?

Well, go see it...OK, I mean go rent it...or watch for it on one of those movie channels. I saw it over the weekend and it is brilliant...yes, it stars John Cusack but that is not why it is brilliant. The topic is timely, it is respectful of our military while asking us to question our willingness to march into war and it is a tear-jerker. The two children in the movie are fabulous. The scene where he challenges his eldest daughter to smoke a cigarette after catching her trying to be cool with an 'older' boy is priceless - and the entire movie makes you want to stand, cheer and then pray for those who have made the ultimate sacrifice, and for their families left behind to endure this veil of tears.

It is Tuesday morning. I am exhausted and ready to go home...two more hours....let me get there safe, St Michael the Archangel, and if my suspicions about the LOM are correct then please let him be healed by the power of the Holy Spirit. I ask this in the name of Jesus.

AMEN.