"THE WAR PRAYER"

I came across an excerpt of Mark Twain's "The War Prayer" while reading Lewis H. Latham's Essay entitled "The Road to Babylon". According to Latham, "The War Prayer" was written by Twain in 1905 as his protest to the American Occupation of the Philippines. (I promise to read more of Twain).

"Objecting to the fraudulent piety of a statesmen who don't know what they are saying, Twain wrote a story, 'The War Prayer,' in which and 'aged stranger' enters a church where the congregation has been listening to an heroic sermon about the glory to be won in the battle by young patriots armed with the love of God. Motioning the startled minister to stand aside , the aged stranger improvises a bitter peroration that makes the true meaning of the prayer."

This "prayer" has become more meaningful as President Bush and his allies are bent on going to war with Iraq. I suggest you also read Latham's "The Road to Babylon" and Conrado de Quiros' February 19 column at the Philippine Daily Inquirer, entitled " Cost" Here's the "prayer":

O Lord of God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated lands in rags and hunger and thirst, sports the fun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for refuge of the grave and denied it -- for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the source of love, and who is the ver-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset an seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.

ALL I ASK

For my friends, in and out of the country, this is all I want as a birthday gift since most of you have forgotten my special day yesterday. A DVD would do, hehehehehe.

NECK NECK NI JODECK



I received a message from Jodeck last Friday which led me to his website. This is all I can say : Jodeck is "almost" the male version of Jessica Zafra. Why almost (and in quatation)? Open his site (by clicking his picture) and probably that would answer your question.

This one is for Jodeck:
I read one of your articles, I might be an exemption because I never liked Mariah Carey

SPAM MESSAGE IN MY INBOX

I just received one of those craziest spam/chain messages in my e-mail this noon. I won't tell where it came from for it will reveal how gullible sheis. I just wonder, why would some people believe messages like this?

Dear YAHOO User,


Because of the sudden rush of people signing up to YAHOO, it has come to our attention that we are vastly running out of resources. So, within a month's time,anyone who does not receive this email with the exact subject heading,will be deleted off our server. Please forward this email so that we know you are still using this account.

WARNING WARNING

We want to find out which users are actually using their YAHOO accounts. So if you are using your account, please pass this e-mail to every YAHOO user that you can and IF YOU DO NOT PASS this letter to anyone we will delete your account.

From Mr. ALLEN SMITH
YAHOO Admin. Dept.

Our YAHOO system is getting to crowded!! We need you to forward this to at least 20 people. I know this seems like a large number, but we need to find out who is really using their account. If you do not send this to at least 10 YAHOO
members, we will delete your account. Sorry for this inconvenience.

Sincerely, Director of YAHOO Services
BOB LOPEZ

Really? And some people believed this?!! (Yes, Eric because it reach the inbox of one of your friends and she forwarded it to you.)GAD!!! Looking at my message, one could actually tell that it was forwarded to hundred recipients.

Before forwarding this message, Smart persons (or persons with common sense!) would actually asked "would yahoo be that low tech that it would rely on chain messages just to get rid of unwanted accounts?

'BUSH CAN'T THINK PROPERLY' - MANDELA



Nobel Peace Laureate Nelson Mandela is one of the latest person to lambast the US and US President George W. Bush on its policy against Iraq.

In today's issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Mandela said the real reason why US would want to go on war against Iraq, is not really because of the alleged weapons of mass destruction that Iraq possess. He said, if US is not really interested in disarming any nations who hides these weapons, because if they do, why theydid not ask Israel to do so also? Is it because Israel is an ally? Mandela claimed that the disarmament is actually not the issue, he said, US would like to control the Oil industry in Iraq.

Mandela also said that Bush does not have a forsight and "can't think properly".