"Reporting from the Front"

...a patriotic poem

If you're patriotic and support the troops, you'll probably like this poem, Reporting from the Front, by Michael Marks. It was forwarded to me by my brother David, who is a Texas police officer and former Marine currently in Iraq training commandos in hand-to-hand combat.

I was curious about the poet, Michael Marks, and decided to try to find out more about him. My search turned up this Washington Times article.

Apparently Marks is a 42-year-old resident of Leesburg, Virginia, who grew up the son of a Marine in what he calls "a very patriotic household."

He seems to have the ability to write poetry that is stirring and patriotic without being overly sappy and sentimental. More on Michael and his poems here.

"Narnia" stars in tonight's Movieguide Faith and Values Awards



This from AP's Religion Roundup:

MOVIEGUIDE FAITH AND VALUES AWARDS TO BE HANDED OUT TONIGHT
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The films that will be honored tonight
in Beverly Hills have been far more popular at the box office
than those nominated for Best Picture Oscars at Sunday's Academy
Awards.
The top nominees at tonight's 14th annual Movieguide Faith
and Values Awards Gala include "The Chronicles of Narnia: The
Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," which has earned an estimated
640 (m) million dollars so far worldwide.
Movieguide publisher Ted Baehr says the Narnia film is
nominated for Best Family Movie and could also win the
50-thousand dollar Templeton Foundation Epiphany Prize for most
inspiring movie.
Other nominees for Best Family Movie include "Madagascar,"
"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," "Chicken Little," "Dreamer,"
"Robots" and "The Greatest Game Every Played."

Comments? How do people get comments? Give me comments!

OK, I'm genuinely asking! I love getting comments to my posts, but I often get none, and sometimes just a handful. Yet I see other blogs who are in the same vicinity as I am in the TTLB Ecosystem, who consistently get 20 or so. How do you do it?

I know that in radio, controversy breeds feedback...but often the blogs that I see getting lots of comments are non-controversial and often fairly prosaic. (That statement doesn't include bloggers like La Shawn Barber and Pyromaniacs, who are often controversial and heavily opinionated, which of course, breeds comments.)

So, I'm asking. Do you get comments? How do you engender them? Do you see any kind of a pattern...any posts that tend to get more feedback?

While we're at it, if you often read my blog but have never commented, I'm asking you to come out of the woodwork here! Please leave a comment today, even if it's only to say "hi" and "yes, I'm reading"! That would make my day.