Work Hard!

The harder you work, the better your neighbors can eat!

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With All My Heart

I hope my kids have specialties. I want them to be broad and liberal-minded, but I want them to have things they love and enjoy. But I hope it feels a lot less creepy than this video. Apparently there’s a whole subculture of youth in the Yankee Candle movement.

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Let Your Passion Be Single

…but not on basement Main Streets.

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Another Wrenching Story from the NYT

Two downers in one day…

This miserable story of forsaken love is listed in the Celebrations section of the NYT. The engagement notice is a tale of deep woe and ugliness.

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Thrifty or Cheap?

The LA Times story about one of the tightest wads in America.

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Examples in Extra-Awful

I hope I don’t have to make a category for this, because it makes me vomitous…

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God Jeweled This Tree

The Brazilian Grape Tree is a wonder in so many respects, including the stunning beauty of it.

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National Debt Road Trip

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When The Gestapo Has Chronological Snobbery

This might be a different story if there were an epidemic of children chewing books, but, this is full-on inanity. Here is a story of what the government is doing to outlaw the sale of children’s books published before 1985.

I’m subversive enough to leave the books lying around where kids might ‘accidentally’ read them.

The New Book Banning

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The Start of the Storm or Just Another Logical End of Relativism

This week, the council made it official, saying it was banning the punctuation mark from signs in a bid to end the dispute once and for all.

Councilor Martin Mullaney, who heads the city’s transport scrutiny committee, said he decided to act after yet another interminable debate into whether “Kings Heath,” a Birmingham suburb, should be rewritten with an apostrophe.

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“I had to make a final decision on this,” he said Friday. “We keep debating apostrophes in meetings and we have other things to do.”

No More Street Sign Apostrophes in England’s Second-Largest City

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Human Mole Dies in His Own Home

Weird news from England:

The compulsive hoarder is believed to have become disorientated inside the walls of rotting trash and unable to find a way out — then collapsed with dehydration.

Some people do this spiritually, hoarding all sorts of pet sins that prevent them from freedom that is offered by the Gospel.

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The Biggest Monopoly in the U.S. is Government Education

Here is an interesting article on what happens when a public school teacher takes to the free-market, to the benefit of his classroom.

Mr. Farber has demonstrated that free-market solutions are superior to any that can be provided by government. This also provides a prime example of one of the fundamental flaws with government funding. Government-funded organizations inherently rely on thinking in which decisions are made from the top and imposed on the lower levels. This stifles the ingenuity of the people who have firsthand experience actually doing the work and defers decision making to bureaucrats and committees.

If we are to believe that monopolies are bad because they do not have the best interest of the consumer in mind and have little incentive to improve their product, then why are we to believe that a government monopoly over schooling is good?

It can be reasonably argued that this particular government monopoly is worse than private-sector monopolies, because citizens are forced to pay even if they do not consume the service.

The whole article: Free-Market Education

HT: Joseph Markey

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What About this Makes Sense?

Before I loaned a book away today, I checked to see if I had anything between the pages. In the book I found this article that I clipped out of the London Daily Mail when I was in London (4/23/04  – p. 16). This is such high-level knuckleheadeness, it is dizzying.

White Line Blackout on Road

CENTRAL white lines are to be removed on a road in a bid to cut the number of crashes.

Experts in Bath want to test if the lack of markings will make drivers more cautious because the highway will appear more dangerous.

Transport consultant Ben Hamilton-Baillie has been called in to carry out the trial, which could be repeated across the city if it is successful. He said growing ‘clutter’ on Britain’s roads is tending to make drivers abdicate responsibility for their driving.

‘No one has questioned why we have white lines or whether they work,’ he said. ‘They’ve become a habit. The more you introduce rules and regulations, markings, signs, and speed cameras, the less your brain allows you to concentrate on your surroundings.’

Brilliant! Ben talks like he’s 50 but sounds like he’s 5. Hope that worked out for them.

This is how it works in India:

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The Emperor’s New Ceiling

Wow. This guy must be some salesman. $23 million to spray paint their ceiling and take some press photos in Switzerland.

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Maybe They Could Order Him to Paint the Combination on the Shed

Gardener Ordered to Remove Barbed Wire Fence on Grounds It Could ‘Wound Thieves’

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Is It Any Wonder What State This Happened In?

Fox News reports that Fox kills fox who totals Fox’s car. Note the phrase, “Thinking the animal was dead…”

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China Banning Bibles at the Olympics

The country of China is “recommending” that Olympians and guests coming to the 2008 Olympics bring no more than one Bible per person into the country.  Here’s the official policy.  It’s like the parched man, lost for days in the desert, running from the approaching Culligan truck.  No?  I laugh at my own analogies, too.

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This Week’s Sign that the Apocalypse is Upon Us

 

A German student has invented braille tattoos. Until now, those without sight haven’t been able to appreciate the skilled artwork behind body inking, but Klara Jirkova wants to change that.

The University of the Arts Berlin student created the raised tattoos resembling braille bumps. Now you can modify your body to let the blind feel your statement through their sense of touch.

The raised bumps consist of implants under the skin, and could include individual beads or a small tablet of embossed text. The beads can be relatively small, but not as small as standard braille text as the body’s muscles would absorb and they would be lost to touch.

The embossed tattoos come made in surgical stainless steel, 316L, titanium or a specially formulated plastic.

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Clinton or Marx?

Wow!  Have you seen what Mrs. Clinton is saying?  This is the fast track to destruction.

Here are her comments.  Read the first few paragraphs.

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Uh-huh

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Happy is the Man that Hath His Quiver Full of Children

…as opposed to this irritating schmuck.

Enfants terribles

Would your life be better without children? Corinne Maier says yes in her new book, which has scandalised the parents of France. She explains her reasons

Emma Tucker

I’m on my way to Nîmes to interview Corinne Maier, who has written a book called No Kid: 40 Reasons Not to Have Children.The book is surprisingly funny and is making me smile as I read it in the departure lounge at Luton Airport, surrounded by a good many badly behaved, tiresome examples of why this outspoken French writer might be on to something.

“Open your eyes,” she tells French women. “Your children will be baby-losers, destined for unemployment, insecure or low-grade work . . . They will have a life even less rigol-ote (fun) than yours, and that’s saying something. No, your marvellous babies have no future, as every baby born in a developed country is an ecological disaster for the whole planet.”

I’m only a few pages in and already I’ve clocked that this is war – war with Europe’s most fecund country, which last year had a higher birthrate than any of its neighbours – an announcement greeted like a sporting triumph by the country’s media.

“Why was this a victory?” asks Maier. “Perhaps because it is the only thing France has left to mount on a podium.” There’s no doubt about it. Maier, whose book has been at the top of the French bestseller lists all summer, is on a crusade to puncture France’s love affair with b�b�.

“Children are there to stop you enjoying yourself. It’s a child’s hidden face. Believe me, he will be very inventive in this area. He will be ill when you (finally) arrange a night out, he will bug you when you celebrate your birthday with your friends, he will hate it if you bring someone he’s never met back for the night, and beyond that you won’t dare tread for fear of traumatising him for life.” She goes on to list the things you will almost certainly have to give up after having children. They include: a full night’s sleep, a lie-in, deciding to go to the cinema on the spur of the moment, staying out later than midnight (babysitters have to be relieved), visiting a museum or exhibition (children start mucking about after five mintues), taking your holiday anywhere other than destinations where there is a beach and a kids’ club, taking a holiday during term-time and smoking in front of your children, now deemed a “crime against humanity”.

more (including a list of 20 of the reasons if you can stomach this tripe)…

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Pearls Before Breakfast. Pearls Before Swine.

Here is a great story of an experiment done by the Washington Post.  They took the best classical musician in America and had him play his $3.5 million violin in the DC subway system to gauge reaction.

I’m not an Immanuel Kant fan (though I can sing his categorical imperative to several styles of music), but thought his notion that, “the viewing conditions must be optimal,” to maybe be the most poignant lesson for Christians:  our minds must always be ready to be instructed by God; our eyes should always be ready to see Him; our feet and hands, ready to do his bidding; our hearts, bent toward his will.  God puts His splendor and majesty on display before us every day and every night.  How ho-hum are we about His creation and His supremely excellent ways?

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The “Goddess” Was an Average Student.

Wow.  What a an educational system!  Even their gods can’t excel in school.

Nepal’s ‘Living Goddess’ Stirs Controversy

By Gopal Sharma, Reuters

BHAKTAPUR, Nepal (July 27) – As goddesses go, this 10-year-old Nepali girl has modest ambitions.

“I want to become a photographer,” said the shy Sajani Shakya as she jumped from the couch and grabbed an envelope with photographs of her recent visit to the United States.

Sajani hit world headlines this month as some religious authorities threatened to strip her of her “living goddess” title after she visited the United States to promote a British-made film about her life.

Nepali priests had enthroned Sajani as the Kumari or “living goddess” of Bhaktapur eight years ago — a position worshipped by thousands of Hindus and Buddhists alike in a deeply religious nation.

But some religious leaders were unhappy over the girl’s U.S. trip, saying she had defied time-honored traditions. Authorities say they are yet to take a final decision on whether to strip the girl of her divinity.

In the meantime, Sajani enjoys the more everyday pleasures of many kids — toys, dolls, and instant noodles for food.

Unaware of the controversy over her tour, the bright-eyed Sajani, wearing a white and blue dress, played with a toy camera on a sofa in her first-floor bedroom which can be reached only through a doorway so low one has to stoop to enter.

“This is the White House,” she said showing a picture taken by her in the U.S. capital.

In Washington, Sajani visited the Capitol, met with Nepalis living in the United States, toured a school and met American children.

British film makers say the trip gave the girl an opportunity to share her culture with others.

INCARNATIONS

Under the living goddess tradition followed for centuries in the three ancient cities in the Kathmandu valley, young girls are selected by priests to serve as incarnations of Kali, the Hindu goddess of power.

They remain in their “divine” role until menstruation when they must retire and rejoin the family. A new girl is then chosen.

In Bhaktapur, Sajani lives a normal life with her parents in the house a few paces from the historic Durbar Square among narrow streets paved with red bricks.

“I have been fortunate to have her selected as the Kumari,” her 43-year-old father Nuchhe Ratna Shakya said, sitting on a bench in the inner courtyard of a two-storey brick-and-wood house in the old quarter of Bhaktapur, near Kathmandu.

“It has brought good fortune and luck to the family. We feel great about her,” said Shakya, who says he managed to get a job in a biscuit factory after his daughter was selected.

There are other living goddesses in Nepal.

The main Kumari lives in an ancient temple in Kathmandu and sticks to tighter religious schedules than her counterparts in Bhaktapur and the neighboring town of Patan, which also has its own virgin goddess.

“She lives like a normal child with us except for two weeks during Dasain,” said Sajani’s mother Rukumani, referring to the biggest Hindu festival which is normally celebrated in October.

“She likes to eat instant noodles and biscuits and loves playing with toys and dolls.”

She must not eat chicken or eggs but goat meat is allowed.

At home she plays badminton with her siblings in the courtyard in front of her house.

DIVINE ROLE

During the festival, Sajani, her eyelids painted black, wears a red costume and sits on a painted wooden throne that rests on the back of the images of two lions.

Devotees bow their heads towards her feet and she blesses them from the throne, with the heads of Hindu deities and a serpent god carved in wood looming overhead.

Some human rights activists have challenged the practice of nominating goddesses in Nepal, telling the nation’s Supreme Court it was an abuse of the girls’ human rights.

A government appointed panel of cultural experts is looking into the charges.

But Rukumani said she felt “great” to see Sajani in her divine role.

Teachers at the Mount Valley Secondary School where Sajani is a grade four student said the “goddess” was an average student.

“She never picks any quarrel with other children. She is shy but is not particularly brilliant,” science teacher Ratna Mallik said.

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Did Paul Do Pilates?

If you are a runner, you are prone to get bad knees.

If you walk, you’re much more liable to get hit by a car than if you’re at home flipping channels.

Lifting weights causes muscle tears.

Eating health food causes grumpiness and malcontent.

AND NOW THIS! Ergh!  Should I throw away my Z-BEC?

How about we just get back to following the Solomon’s summary admonitions in Ecclesiastes to enjoy life while we have it (2:24-26; 9:7-10)

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The Right to Watch the Simpsons

While this is an idictment, it should also be an exhortation to ponder our foundations.

First Amendment: the right to watch ‘The Simpsons’

By Gerry Doyle
CHICAGO TRIBUNE March 2, 2006CHICAGO – A survey released yesterday showcases a bit of data that should surprise nobody: Americans know more about “The Simpsons” than they do about the First Amendment. The study, conducted by the McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum, focuses on the First Amendment and found that less than 1 percent of the respondents could identify the five protected rights – freedom of religion, speech, the press, assembly and to petition the government.

On the other hand, about 20 percent of respondents could name Bart and Homer and all the other three members of the animated Simpson family.The random telephone survey of 1,000 U.S. adults was conducted by the marketing research firm Synovate Jan. 20-22. The survey has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

“There was a depth of . . . confusion that we weren’t expecting,” said Dave Anderson, executive director of the museum, which will open April 11 in Chicago. “I think people take their freedoms for granted. Bottom line.”

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Teacher Fired

Don’t point that marker at me!

Story

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That’s Preposterous

I’ve started a new category of posting called Preposterous!.  Though I don’t wish to make a dinosaur hill (though i like the  word preposterous because it sounds so dinosaurish) out of the outrageous things we find in our society, there is a place for doing a bit of chronicling of these that seem so ridiculous.

I mean preposterous to be 1) beyond all reason and 2) so senseless as to be laughable.  You may feel free to offer contributions to this category.

Our first contribution comes from Christine Brennan writing in the USA Today.  She documents a case where morals matter less than muscles. 

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/brennan/2006-09-13-preps_x.htm

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