Reviews Category
We don’t just report off-beat news, breaking news and digest the best and worst of the news media analysis and commentary. We give an original take on what happened and why. We add lols, satire, news photos and original content.
Marilyn Monroe: The Last Sitting in a Gif
SIX weeks after Bert Stern took these pictures in June 1962, Marilyn Monroe died.
The set became known as The Last Sitting. Sten and Monroe spent three-days at the Bel Air Hotel in Los Angeles. He took 2,500 photos.
Said Stern, who died in June 2013:
“It was a one-time-in-a-lifetime experience to have Marilyn Monroe in a hotel room…”
In the point-click-and-publish digital age, Monroe would never have looked so good:
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Posted: 3rd, July 2013 | In: Celebrities, Flashback | Comment
Arsenal: Gervinho out, Marouane Fellaini in and buying Tin to polish into someone else’s silver
TRANSFER Balls: A look at Arsenal’s moves in the footballing flesh markets, according to the media experts:
The massive £75m spending spree has begun. The Arsenal website says the Gunners have secured the services of Yaya Sanogo…for free! Says Arsene Wenger of the young Frenchman:
“Sanogo is a good young signing for us.”
Because he’s free and has name that sounds like a German orgasm…
“He has shown that he has potential with his recent performances for Auxerre and also for the France Under-20 side.”
And he’s free…
“We are looking forward to Yaya joining us and continuing his promising development.”
And the bit about his being free.
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Posted: 2nd, July 2013 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)
The sickening thrill of the Vietnam Selective Service lottery
FLASHBACK to The Vietnam War: Draft Director Curtis W. Tarr spins a plexiglass drum containing capsules with birth dates and orders of assignments for men born in 1953 at the beginning of the fourth annual Selective Service lottery in Washington. Tarr, the man who developed the lottery for the draft during the Vietnam War, died Friday of pneumonia at his home in Walnut Creek, Calif., his daughter Pam Tarr said Wednesday, June 26, 2013. He was 88.
Was everyone equal in this macabre lottery?
During the early part of the Vietnam war, males could be exempt from serving in the military (and being sent to war) by attending college. Eventually this practice was ruled unfair (to people who couldn’t afford college), so the college exemption was eliminated.
What was in the drum?
The draft lotteries were classical ball and urn experiments: blue plastic capsules containing birth dates were selected from a large glass container. The results were controversial because some believed that the balls were not sufficiently well mixed, and that consequently, the samples were not truly random.
What happened?
A lottery drawing – the first since 1942 – was held on December 1, 1969, at Selective Service National Headquarters in Washington, D.C. This event determined the order of call for induction during calendar year 1970; that is, for registrants born between January 1, 1944, and December 31, 1950. Reinstitution of the lottery was a change from the “draft the oldest man first” method, which had been the determining method for deciding order of call.
There were 366 blue plastic capsules containing birth dates placed in a large glass container and drawn by hand to assign order-of-call numbers to all men within the 18-26 age range specified in Selective Service law.
With radio, film, and TV coverage, the capsules were drawn from the container, opened, and the dates inside posted in order. The first capsule – drawn by Congressman Alexander Pirnie (R-NY) of the House Armed Services Committee – contained the date September 14, so all men born on September 14 in any year between 1944 and 1950 were assigned lottery number 1. The drawing continued until all days of the year had been paired with sequence numbers.
Did it become less biased?
To make the process “truly impartial,” Tarr introduced a “double-draw lottery” that employed two drums — one with red capsules assigned 365 different birth dates and another with green ones numbered from 1 to 365. First a birth date was drawn, then a priority number; when paired, they determined the order eligible men would be called up.
Worked out by mathematicians, the procedure appeared to result in “true randomness,” The Times said in 1970 after the second lottery had been held. No month had been exhausted of dates until the 335th drawing. The No. 1 priority date, July 9, had been the 11th capsule drawn.
What was it like being chosen?
EDT writes “I had graduated high school in 1970, was in community college. I was always raised to believe that you owed your country service. My brother was about to be drafted. I never really worried about VietNam. I enlisted with my brother under the Buddy System, in March 1971.
After Basic, my brother applied for a recruiter job back home for 30 days. I was sent on to Ft. Sam Houston for Medic training. He later applied to go to Nam and I applied to go to Germany. Well, as fate would have it, I went to Nam and he to Germany. I was a medic, worked in the Operating Room. I was in Nam until August, and I was a changed person when I came home. I wanted nothing from the Government and didn’t involve my self with the US Government for 35 years. But here recently , I’ve been going to the VA Hospital for help with PTSD, and I am now collecting a disability check.
I’ve never felt cheated by my experiences in Nam, nor did I ever try to make something of myself. Life is to live, and too fragile to be hemmed in by an office or a plant. I worked as a delivery driver for 22 1/2 years at JCPenney–nothing too complicated. I lost my family to PTSD, but am now married to a wonderful gal who is helping me get the help from the Government that has been earned by my experiences. My draft number, I think it was up around 300 or so ……grin…..but I don’t regret what I did. I’m proud I served and helped my fellow soldiers the best I could. In the 40 odd years since, I’ve seen a lot of folks come and go. Keep smiling. ”
…
EST writes “I was a a senior at UGA scheduled to graduate from Business School in the fall of 1969. My brother graduated from Fla. State with an accounting degree the year before, was immediately drafted and within 12 months was in country and avoiding firefights. He was with an Americana Division recon patrol based at fire base Mary Ann in NW Vietnam. He sent me a letter pleading for me to get into an Army reserve or National Guard unit, which he assumed would give me a better chance of survival. He knew from our childhood army games and teenage BB gun fights that I was a pretty easy “kill”.
Our fraternity had scheduled a “lottery party” on the night of the lottery but it slipped my mind completely. I had actually gone to the UGA library to handle some homework (proving to myself in later years that I actually did visit the place). I got to my car (67 blue GTO – what a beauty) turned on the radio, and the second date that was announced was my birthday for draft #176. In my home county of Fulton, that was not going to cut it.
Two memories remain in my recollection of the feeling at the Pi Kappa Phi house that night. One was that the winners did not celebrate too much because we were all really concerned about the low-number brothers that we feared were going to war. Most of our ROTC and bigger boys got the coveted high numbers. There were mixed emotions that night. At our school there had up to that point been no campus demonstrations or open talk of not going if called to serve. That never came up. It was just a given that you go and serve your country if asked.
My last fall quarter was wonderful. My girlfriend had graduated earlier in the year and had a good job back in Atlanta working for Coke. She would come up on weekends or I would go home. After my last intermural touch football game that fall quarter I knew the good times were about over. I remember looking over all the young brothers and their dates at the house dining room. They were so full of life. Wishing I could stay with them a little longer I knew my life was about to get real serious, real fast.
I was I-A and had passed my military physical. I still had the option of joining the Navy for 4 years rather than serving in the Marines or Army infantry for 2 years as a draftee. I would decide that move when the orders came to report for duty. One weekday morning before Christmas, I got a hurried call from my fraternity brother John Johnson. He was at Dobbins AFB just up the road telling me that the Marines were taking a few good men into their Air Wing Reserve unit. He and Spunky Good were already signed up, and were filling out the paperwork. I told him I was on that unit’s list and every other Reserve list in the state. He said it didn’t matter, they were taking the next two or three guys through the door. I must have hit 90 on I-285 but got there in time. I very much to this day appreciate that phone call.
My brother made it home alive with several Bronze stars for heroism. It would be 13 years before he got married to start his wonderful family. I served 6 safe and secure years working weekends on F-8 jets for the Marine Corps. I was able to start a career, and start my family immediately. My wife and I were so lucky and fortunate. Several of my fraternity brothers and high school classmates did not make it home from that horible war. Some came home very much injured from their honorable service. Their lives were forever injured as well.”
…
EDT writes “I spent three years in the Army which was probably a good thing because I didn’t have a clue of what to do with the rest of my life. Within a year of my discharge I was accepted for a federal job and retired in 2004 after 31 years of USG service, most of it spent overseas.
I still remember that night watching the lottery in 1969 and the tears and fear I felt. I have never since then felt such a lonely feeling. My last day as a civilian I had my father take me to a movie theater and, by myself, watched the Godfather. To this day I feel that if there was a draft today our wars would be finished much earlier.”
More memories of the draft here.
Some of those who refused are here:
Newsman examines sign hanging from single strand of barbed wire that is only separation between minimum security federal prison at Allenwood, Pennsylvania March 7, 1969, and the outside world along one border of the sprawling prison camp. Security is so minimal that barbed wire is stretched only to keep camp’s cattle herd from straying. Camp has been described by a civil rights lawyer as a detention camp for draft resisters. Of its 346 inmates about 90 have been convicted of Selective Service violations. (AP Photo/Bill Ingraham )
These five members of the Clarke County Selective Service Board pose in Athens, Ga., March 30, 1971, after announcing their resignations in protest of Lt. Williams Calley’s conviction at Ft. Benning, Ga. From left to right are John Nelly, Daniel B. Amaker, George H. Pugh, Roscoe Hansfort and William F. Condon. The letter of resignation said, “We find the conviction of Lt. Calley to be unacceptable and cannot in good conscience continue to make decisions that will effect the lives and well-being of our young men.” (AP Photo)
This is an April 1970 photo of the Rev. Daniel Berrigan, center, who was convicted for burning Selective Service records to protest the Vietnam War. (AP Photo)
The Rev. Daniel Berrigan, right, and defense lawyer William M. Kunstler talk with newsmen after Fr. Berrigan and eight other Catholics were sentenced to two years to three-and-a-half years in prison in Baltimore, Md., on Nov. 9, 1968. Fr. Berrigan was convicted for burning Selective Service records to protest the Vietnam War. (AP Photo)
Six draft protesters are hauled into a police wagon after police cut them loose from the Selective Service office, where they had chained themselves in Portland, Ore., on Oct. 19, 1967. (AP Photos)
This is a June 20, 1969 photo of Ken Love burning what he claimed was a draft card and his Students for a Democratic Society card in Chicago. (AP Photo)
Judith Hillenbrand, New York State’s representative on the Youth Advisory Committee of the Selective Service System, picks a capsule in Washington, D.C. night of Dec. 1, 1969 for the birth-date drawing of the 1970 draft lottery. Opening the capsules at right is Helen F. King. Man in background is unidentified. (AP Photo)
All hail the life-sized Dexter cake!
DEXTER’S ‘dark passenger’ allows him to throw off the shackles of humdrum like in the ‘burbs and go around stabbing folk through the heart while they’re wrapped in clingfilm. Of course, he’s not real and we can’t hope to emulate him… until now!
Thanks to a life-sized cake replica of the TV serial killer, we can now stab Dexter Morgan! Then we can eat him like we’re Jeffrey Dahmer or something!
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Posted: 2nd, July 2013 | In: Reviews, TV & Radio | Comment
Win: Global warming threatens the bird-eating big-headed ant
GLOBAL warming isn’t all bad news. Although fans of massive hungry ants will be upset:
An aggressive ant species so vicious that in groups it can eat bird hatchlings alive may see its territory decline in the coming decades as climate change takes its toll on its habitats.
Pheidole megacephala, more popularly known as the big-headed ant, has been classified as one of the world’s 100 most invasive species, found in every continent except Antarctica. A recent model, however, predicts global warming will slow the ants’ march significantly by 2080.
Nail salon pedicurist refuses to see fat woman’s feet
YOU marvelled at the woman too fat to tan. Now read about the woman too fat for a pedicure.
To Hot Springs, Arkansas, where Rachel Bascue has been refused a pedicure at Regal Nails Salon because of her size.
One day earlier, Rachel’s mother had also been refused a pedicure at that salon for the same reason.
This time, however, Rachel taped the visit. We hear a staff member tell her:
“The chair under 250. You cannot fit.”
Another tells her:
“I’ve tried to tell you too many times. It’s not fit for you. It’s dangerous. It is for your own benefit.”
Ms Bascue said she suffered emotional abuse:
“I have been talked about and made fun of, but this is the first time I was made to feel like a freak.”
The nail salon did not point out that she was wearing two different shoes…
Posted: 2nd, July 2013 | In: Reviews, The Consumer | Comment
Good cops in bad t-shirts – when police revel in violence
THE police in the US of A are armed. They are able to dispense ultimate justice at the flick of a trigger finger. This makes them powerful. It should make them cautious and respctful of their badge. However, it can also make them gung-ho, threatening, bellicose and militaristic.
Radley Balko is author of the forthcoming book, Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces. He’s compiled examples of slogan-heavy T-shirts sold and won by police officers. These include T-shirts that see men as quarry and children as animals:
An anonymous public defender sent Gothamist this photo of an NYPD warrant squad officer wearing a t-shirt with a pretty quote from Ernest Hemingway.
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Posted: 1st, July 2013 | In: Fashion, Key Posts, Reviews | Comment
Car time capsule up for sale in Nebraska – the Lambrecht Chevrolet story
THIS is your chance to buy a nearly-unused classic car. Lambrecht Chevrolet of Pierce, Neb., (prop. Ray and Mildred Lambrecht) shuts its doors after 50 years business. The Lambrechts never did sell all the cars they owned, many taken in part exchange. Land is cheap. Space is not at a premium. So. They kept around 500 of them. And now these cars – many have less than 10miles on the clocks – are for sale.
Cars like the 1956 Chevrolet Cameo with mile on the clock and a 1978 Corvette that’s done five miles.
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Photos of the Birmingham recycling plant fire sparked by a ‘lucky’ Chinese lantern
A CHINESE lantern is thought to have triggered the West Midlands’ biggest ever fire. The symbol of romance lanced on a recycling plant in Smethwick, Birmingham. It set alight 100,000 tonnes of plastic.
Eleven firefighters have been hurt.
Steve Vincent, from West Midlands Fire Service, tells us:
“A Chinese lantern was spotted on CCTV floating across and into the site and starting a fire in plastic bales.”
As this shop says:
Authentic Chinese Sky Lanterns or Flying Chinese Lanterns have been used for thousands of years and traditionally released to bring good luck and prosperity.
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Wind turbines murder the Bird of the Century
WOW! Looks at that bird in the Outer Hebrides. It’s that a White-throated Needletail? It’s only ever been spotted in the UK 8 times.
The White-throated Needletail isn’t seen very often in the UK. In fact, the bird, which is the world’s fastest flying bird, hasn’t been spotted in Britain since 1991. That’s why it was such a treat for birdwatchers when the rare bird showed up today in Northumberland.
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Man stole TV to frame hamster girlfriend loved more then him
ANDREW Walsh, 30, wasn’t pleased when his girlfriend told him she loved her hamster more than him. The hamster was not some high-street sex aide, but an actual hamster called Harry.
Walsh plotted to remove the other man form the picture. When his lover, Julie Hanson, was out, Walsh broke down the door to her home in Blackpool, Lancashire, to “give Harry his freedom”.
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Chicken in a basket saves leopard trapped in well
HOW do you rescue a leopard trapped in a dry well?
Indian foresters at Elanelli knew. They used chicken in a basket.
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Saudi Arabian women conference features one women – can you spot her?
YOU are looking at a photograph of the conference on ‘women in society’ staged at Qassim university, Saudi Arabia. No. It’s not a meeting of Union leaders, business gurus or a Surrey golf club. It’s those male Saudis, the people Estern men look to for guidance and a glimpse of what might have been…
Of course, there might be one woman in the room. Can you spot her?
Posted: 30th, June 2013 | In: Reviews | Comments (6)
The news business dies without its photographers
DO you recognise this photograph?
It was taken on Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima, at 12.15pm on February 23, 1945. Joe Rosenthal used a Speed Graphic camera set between f8 and f11 with a shutter speed of 1/400th of a second.
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Notes to clarify the terms in the The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill
NOTES to clarify the terms in the The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill:
“‘Husband’ here will include a man or a woman in a same sex marriage, as well as a man married to a woman. In a similar way, ‘wife’ will include a woman married to another woman or a man married to a man…
“The term ‘husband’ will in future legislation include a man who is married to another man (but not a woman in a marriage with another woman); and ‘wife’ will include a woman who is married to another woman (but not a man married to another man) unless specific alternative provision is made“
Clear?
2004: Chris Morris and Alan Partridge discuss the deaths of JFK, Princess Diana and September 11
IN 2004, The Day Today in 2004, Chris Morris & Alan Partridge were discussing the death of JFK and Princess Diana.
And what happened on September 11, with Peter O’Hanrahanrahan live from the World Trade Center:
Posted: 30th, June 2013 | In: Flashback, TV & Radio | Comment
Gay Pride London 2013 – in photos
GAY Pride London 2013 was an entertaining show. It’s better than the event’s equivalent in Moldova, where bigots attacked the parade. In St Petersburg, the soon-to-sanctioned Russian law banning “homosexual propaganda”, led to anti-gay activists lobbing stones at priders.
In London and elsewhere in the UK, anti-gay activists have slapped up stickers sporting the legend “gay free zone”. Below is written “AND FEAR ALLAH: VERILY ALLAH IS SEVERE IN PUNISHMENT [EMQ: 59:7]“. In Uganda, plans to execute gays have been watered down, a bit. And Israeli MP said “homosexuals caused Israel’s last earthquake”.
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Welsh government to send locals into prostitution
TIMES are hard in Wales. With that, a Welsh government-backed careers website offered advice about jobs in the sex industry. People have to pay the bills right?
Business Wales published tips on how to become a stripper or run a lap-dancing club and advised young people that they could “expect to earn an average £232 per evening”, which is better than flipping burgers right? They also noted that one could expect an annual income that “can range from £24,000 to £48,000”.
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The Oxford Muslim child rape gang were brainwashed by Tory MPs and the liberal elite
NEWS in the Times is that “Muslims across Britain joined together in an unprecedented show of unity yesterday when a sermon condemning the grooming and sexual abuse of children was delivered in hundreds of mosques”.
This is recognising a problem that the police and the liberal elite buried. It’s in response to the story of gangs of men, predominately of Pakistani heritage, raping underage white girls. This week, seven men were given lengthy prison sentences for raping six girls aged between 11 and 15. They doped the girls on booze and drugs before ordering them to perform sex acts. For their added pleasure, the men burnt, beat and used their victims as toilets.
Five of the men are of Pakistani origin. The other two hail from East Africa. The BBC notes:
The girls were mostly chosen because their unsettled or troubled lives made them easier to manipulate.
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Posted: 29th, June 2013 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)
Hunt is on for foreign Centaur pooing in a Somerset car park
“Obviously we get dog walkers and different things like that up here but to be honest, by the size of it – unless it was a huge dog the size of a horse – it’s not a dog. It has got to be human because it is a fair pile and it’s got toilet paper – and I don’t see many dogs going around with a loo roll. It’s been going on long enough now. We want to know who is responsible.”
Posted: 29th, June 2013 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment
Melissa Nelson photos: Iowa court looks again at woman sacked for being too attractive
THE Iowa Supreme Court will look again at Melissa Nelson. And look again. And again. Nelson is the married mother of two fired for being “irresistible“.
For 10 years Melissa Nelson worked as a dental hygienist at Dr. James Knight’s surgery. And then he sacked her. Why? She claims it was because she was perceived as a threat to his marriage.
She filed a sexual discrimination lawsuit. In December 2012, the Iowa State Supreme Court ruled that Knight broke no laws. Stuart Cochrane, an attorney for James Knight, told media:
“We do think the Iowa Supreme Court got it completely right. Our position has always been Mrs. Nelson was never terminated because of her gender, she was terminated because of concerns her behavior was not appropriate in the workplace. She’s an attractive lady. Dr. Knight found her behavior and dress to be inappropriate.”
But now they are going to revisit that decision.
Nelson is hopeful. Nelson’s attorney, Paige Fiedler, tells ABC News:
“I can tell you she was surprised and delighted by the news that the Iowa Supreme Court has withdrawn its earlier ruling,” “Not only does this breathe new life into her court case, it eliminates what many of us believed was a harmful legal and misguided precedent.”
The court heard that Knight allegedly said of Nelson’s sex life:
“That’s like having a Lamborghini in the garage and never driving it.”
She told the court:
“I was very surprised after working so many years side by side I didn’t have any idea that that would have crossed his mind.”
Knight started commenting on her clothing being too tight or distracting.
“Dr. Knight acknowledges he once told Nelson that if she saw his pants bulging, she would know her clothing was too revealing.”
Six months before the sacking, the pair had gotten into texting each other. In one text, Nelson asked her “how often she experienced an orgasm”.
Nelson did not respond to the text. She said it made her feel uncomfortable.
Knight’s wife, Jeanne, learnt of the text. She works at the same surgery. She told her husband to sack Nelson.
The couple then consulted with a senior pastor at their church and he agreed that Nelson should be terminated in order to protect their marriage, according to Cochrane, Knight’s attorney.
Nelson says that if she were a man she’d still have her job. We’d argue that were Nelson a man, she would not have been hired in the first place…
After Leveson: biggest hackers are lawyers and insurers
IT turns out that the biggest hackers are not the journalists but…lawyers.
The Independent reported:
“Some of Britain’s most respected industries routinely employ criminals to hack, blag and steal personal information on business rivals and members of the public, according to a secret report leaked to The Independent. The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) knew six years ago that law firms, telecoms giants and insurance were hiring private investigators to break the law and further their commercial interests.“
The Times is predictably piqued:
“SOCA’s report suggests criminal activity by people who have not yet been brought to justice. Perhaps the Metropolitan Police could now redirect some of the 91 officers investigating newspaper hacking towards these other hackers. How busy can they all be?”
“So, legal profession did more phonehacking than journos. That kills Leveson. as this was always about crime, not press regulation.”
And then this:
“Interesting that theGuardian so vigorously supports
#Snowden criminal hacking. Same paper that wants journalists jailed for it in UK.”
Man hooked stolen lawnmower to push bike and rode off
KEEP-Fit nutter of the day is Michael Scott Barwick, 53. He stole a lawnmower from a car port in Sarasota. He then tied it to a bicycle and rode away.
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Men of the People: when pasty-faced politicians who pretended to be just like the rest of us fail
WHAT has George ‘lifelong Chelsea fan’ Osborne learned this week? That passing yourself off as a man of the people is trickier than it seems.
The Old Pauline has had his fingers burned before of course, after he adopted a Tony Blair style ‘mockney’ accent when speaking to ‘ordinary’ voters, and was rightly ridiculed for his presumptuousness.This week he tweeted a picture of himself burning the midnight oil with just a burger and fries for company. It has predictably came back to bite him on the arse, now that said snack has been revealed as a ‘posh’ burger costing just shy of ten quid.
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Posted: 28th, June 2013 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, Politicians | Comment
Epic Fail: Anti-gay Christian group produces suggestive logo (‘On our knees for America’)
IS this an epic fail? The anti-gay mariage, anti-gay, sex-obsessed Christianist group Call 2 Fall have produced a new logo:
Declaration comes straight from the pages of Scripture:
If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14).
The journey back to God, to His forgiveness and favor, begins on our knees in humility and repentant prayer. Consider the words of the Declaration prayerfully:I will answer God’s call to fall on my knees in humility and seek His face in repentance so that He might forgive my sins and heal our land.
Adding:
The Call2Fall is nothing fancy. It is not a slick new program. No big production is necessary. It is simple. We are just talking about a definite time during worship on Sunday, June 30, 2013 when we get on our knees and faces before the Lord in repentant prayer, pleading with God to reshape our lives, renew our land, and send times of refreshing (See 2 Chronicles 7:14; Acts 3:19).
We’re “On our knees for America”.
Want to see the logo? Here is it:
I’m in! All the way!
