Harding University alumnus Micah Gifford was killed along with a squad mate by a roadside bomb in Baghdad on December 7th. Micah was a 2002 graduate of Harding and played on the football team.
Harding University press release
Redding, California newspaper report
Micah’s Myspace site
Micah Gifford Tribute Site
12/13 A note from Micah’s mom, Marsha
Requiescat in pace
The year is 2015. A portly, middle-aged man slips quietly through an alley in the early morning darkness, somewhere in midtown Manhattan. He trips over several homeless people and steps on the tail of a cat which emits a loud screech that echoes for several city blocks.
Startled, he now walks more briskly, afraid that the ruckus may have attracted the attention of the local food police. He is risking much. His career as a successful stockbroker and reputation as a solid family man would be ruined should he be discovered.
He comes to a nondescript, dilapidated building with a steel door.… Read the rest
Three of the four funerals for the victims of last week’s bus crash have taken place.
The Huntsville Times has stories on the funerals of Nicole Ford, Tanesha Hill, and Christine Collier. Crystalle McCrary’s funeral will take place today.
Protesters from “that church” are in Huntsville and are picketing the funerals. The Huntsville Times’ response to their presence was a mere mention in the Nicole Ford story. Huntsville Mayor Loretta Spencer confined the protesters to a small, cordoned-off space 100 yards away from the funerals. She then proceeded to park city buses in front of the self-appointed prophets so that those arriving at the funerals couldn’t see them.… Read the rest
I’ll be leaving in a little while to spend Thanksgiving with my mother and sisters in Virginia, so I wanted to wish all of you a wonderful holiday and Godspeed in your travels.
I’m not sure what my blogging status will be in Virginia, but I will be continuing to track some stories related to the recent tragic school bus crash here in Huntsville. It will be a difficult time for our community over the next few days as we attempt to hold in tension our thankfulness that things weren’t any worse, our grief for the four young girls who lost their lives and our ongoing concern for the injured.… Read the rest
I had heard at lunch that another victim of yesterday’s bus crash was on life support and not expected to make it.
Unfortunately, I just read that there are now four fatalities with the passing of 17-year-old Crystal Renee McCrary a short time ago. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family and friends as well.
Our city is still reeling from the aftershocks of yesterday’s tragic school bus accident on I-565. A city school bus carrying 43 Lee High School students to a local technical training center plunged off an overpass near downtown after being clipped by another car driven by a Lee High student passing on the right.
The bus skidded along the guardrail and apparently hung there briefly before falling onto the ground below. The bus hit nose first and then rolled, the students in the back of the bus falling forward onto the students in the front. Two students, Christine Collier and Nicole Ford, died at the scene.… Read the rest
“This lawsuit is the equivalent of the Catholic Church suing Michelangelo for painting the Sistine Chapel.”
–Keith Dunnavant, author Coach: The Life of Paul “Bear” Bryant
The bubbas-turned-pundits have been wracking their Bud-addled brains trying to figure what’s wrong with the Crimson Tide. Presently, Alabama is on the fast track to a less-than-acceptable .500 season unless they can turn things around and knock off archrival Auburn this coming weekend in Tuscaloosa. After Tiger losses to Arkansas and now Georgia, hopes are up a wee bit that Auburn might be beatable. But they might be sky high were it not for that little fact that in order to win football games one must actually score touchdowns when in possession of the ball inside the twenty.… Read the rest
Another beauty from the “Where Have We Heard That Before” collection:
“We intend to lead the most honest, the most open and the most ethical Congress in history.”
–Nancy Pelosi
(yawn) I knew I should have stayed in bed this morning.
can be summed up nicely with a favorite quote from a favorite movie:
“There! I have you! You’re completely dished. Do you not know that in the service… one must always choose the lesser of two weevils?”
Anybody got a clothespin I can borrow?
I am not a strong political partisan; I think I’ve made that abundantly clear in a previous post. Yet over the past week, my senses have been assaulted by those who are, people who believe that they alone possess capital “T” Truth and are, without a doubt, politically correct.
I’ve watched a constant stream of venomous TV ads (one Democrat suggested that his Republican opponent’s ineptness resulted in a little girl’s leukemia). I’ve listened to the sound of my phone ringing off the hook, followed by the inevitable voice message promising that if I elect conservative so-and-so, then the “good old days” will return in all their clear-cut, black and white predictability.… Read the rest
It’s been quite a week. If you’re like me, you might be feeling a little world-weary.
We’ve had increased violence and more death in Iraq, more nuke aspirations in the Middle East, a ratcheting up of pre-election rhetoric and shenanigans, a “botched joke,” and now a nationally renown evangelical leader who admits that he bought meth but “never used it” and called a gay “escort” for a “massage” but “no sex.” And if all that weren’t enough, we only had 10 trick-or-treaters stop by our house.
Enough quotation marks already! All in all, it’s enough to make you want to crawl back under the covers.… Read the rest
USA Today’s Mike Lopresti nails it on the head this morning.
One game is not enough. Not even close. Donna Shalala, we expect more from you.
If you’ve been on another planet or under a rock the past few days, here’s the video.
So which is more disturbing: the actual fight, the crowd reaction, or the remarks of commentator Lamar Thomas (who was fired from his broadcaster’s job Monday)?
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Update 10/18
… Read the restIt’s time for the feeding frenzy to stop. These young men made a stupid, terrible, horrible mistake and they are being punished. This university will be firm and punish people that do bad things.
As humans, we can merely sense the existence of a higher truth, a greater coherence than ourselves, but we cannot see it face to face. That is either funny or sad, and humans stagger from one option to the other. Neither beasts nor angels, we live in twilight, and we are unsure whether it is a prelude to morning or a prelude to night.
There is much in this article by Andrew Sullivan which rings true to me.
Very much indeed.
The stack of books on my nightstand is about to get one louder, uh, I mean higher. My blogging friend Nancy French has a new book coming out October 9th–A Red State of Mind: How a Catfish Queen Reject Became a Liberty Belle. If that down home and intriguing title doesn’t grab you, maybe the paperdoll cutout with the big hair will:
You gotta admit, that took some guts. The book chronicles the adventures of a conservative, evangelical former beauty queen reject from Paris, Tennessee as she plunges headlong into the deep, Blue State waters of New York City and Philadelphia.… Read the rest
I normally try to keep my eyes focused on the humorous, upside of things; it’s one of the ways I keep my sanity. Besides, there are plenty of other places to which you can go that do a great job of chronicling and dissecting the bad and the ugly.
But the events of the past week are weighing heavy on all of us this morning, and yesterday’s news of the massacre which took place at the one-room Amish school house in Pennsylvania only adds to the crushing burden. There are simply no words. We can only hang our heads and weep at the insanity and horror of it all.… Read the rest
