Thanks to Michigan Mom for this one.
Showing newest 54 of 78 posts from September 2009. Show older posts
Showing newest 54 of 78 posts from September 2009. Show older posts
Wednesday, 30 September 2009
Americans view of religion
Atheists just slightly ahead of Scientologists! Oh dear...
Thanks to Michigan Mom for this one.
Thanks to Michigan Mom for this one.
Rightwing Corner
Welcome to another edition of Rightwing Corner, where I let a conservative reader speak freely. Just think of it as the blog equivalent of Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park, London. Anyone can stand up there and say whatever flies into their brain. If you want to feature in the next Rightwing Corner, send me your rant.
Greetings, moviegoers, from the Grand Old Porch of Uncle Cy's Cabin. This week, I'm afraid Bruce and I have to raise a red flag of alert on a seemingly innocuous children's movie, Roxy Hunter and the Myth of the Mermaid.
If your children love Jesus, and the next word they think of when they hear the name Ronald is Reagan and not McDonald, you will want to protect them from the subtle but powerful leftist messages that use this supposed children's adventure movie as a vehicle of indoctrination.
What's wrong with this movie? To sum it up, it contains implied atheism, an instance of full off-stage nudity, an instance of implied on-stage nudity, multiculturalism, and a confusing message about the proper role of homosexuality, numerous instances of lack of honoring of one's parents, heavy stereotyping of male Asians, Indians, American heterosexuals, and typecasting of capitalism as evil and destructive of the environment.
Set in the town of Serenity Falls, which has no church and does not observe Sunday, the story revolves around the attempts of tenish year old Roxy Hunter to solve the mystery of a naked amnesiac who is discovered one morning in front of the town's sushi restaurant. Major players in the drama are Roxy's mother Susan, Susan's boss and love interest Jon, Jon's rival and Susan's infatuation Kip, the town librarian Mr. Tibers (yum), Roxy's fiance and houseguest Max (a boy genius), and Roxy's bumbling Indian medical student friend Rama. Pleasing cinematography fails to hide the more sinister aspects of the film as the story unfolds.
Of greatest concern to Bruce and I was the torrid relationship of Kip and Jon; Jon as assistant manager of the town bank has become comfortable with the affections of Ms. Susan Hunter. Kip comes to town in a flashy red car with pockets full of money and vies for Susan's attention, leading to three scenes in which this challenge to Jon's claim is explored. Simply put, Bruce and I are confused as to why this was part of the story. The veneer of heterosexuality covering these two actors is as thin as the tissue in an airport restroom. Two of the scenes feature Kip and Jon simpering and making googoo eyes at each other while engaged in what is supposed to be manly repartee over who most deserves Susan.
The sexual chemistry between these two Valentinos erupts into physical passion when Kip challenges Jon to a game of wastepaper basketball. It's a sweaty scene that ends in Jon knocking Kip to the floor after Kip "fouls" him; the sexual innuendo is thick. In itself Bruce and I can see a certain amount of charm in this but we both agree it isn't children's fare.
Here's our question to Nickelodeon: Is it appropriate to portray obvious male homosexuals as interested in a cute and lovely young woman with a young daughter? Is Nickelodeon promoting mixed marriages with this message?
We won't hold our breath until we get an answer from the left coast. To Nickelodeon we say leave homosexuality where it belongs, in public tearooms and private bedrooms. And to you, dear moviegoers, we say leave this one on the shelf and take home "Golddiggers: Secret of Bear Mountain" with Christina Ricci and Anna Chlumsky. It's a lot more wholesome and adventurous and we are certain your Jesus loving children will appreciate it more; they won't be left feeling confused either, all the messages in Bear Mountain are clear and conservative.
Cyrus V. Witherspoon
Greetings, moviegoers, from the Grand Old Porch of Uncle Cy's Cabin. This week, I'm afraid Bruce and I have to raise a red flag of alert on a seemingly innocuous children's movie, Roxy Hunter and the Myth of the Mermaid.
If your children love Jesus, and the next word they think of when they hear the name Ronald is Reagan and not McDonald, you will want to protect them from the subtle but powerful leftist messages that use this supposed children's adventure movie as a vehicle of indoctrination.
What's wrong with this movie? To sum it up, it contains implied atheism, an instance of full off-stage nudity, an instance of implied on-stage nudity, multiculturalism, and a confusing message about the proper role of homosexuality, numerous instances of lack of honoring of one's parents, heavy stereotyping of male Asians, Indians, American heterosexuals, and typecasting of capitalism as evil and destructive of the environment.
Set in the town of Serenity Falls, which has no church and does not observe Sunday, the story revolves around the attempts of tenish year old Roxy Hunter to solve the mystery of a naked amnesiac who is discovered one morning in front of the town's sushi restaurant. Major players in the drama are Roxy's mother Susan, Susan's boss and love interest Jon, Jon's rival and Susan's infatuation Kip, the town librarian Mr. Tibers (yum), Roxy's fiance and houseguest Max (a boy genius), and Roxy's bumbling Indian medical student friend Rama. Pleasing cinematography fails to hide the more sinister aspects of the film as the story unfolds.
Of greatest concern to Bruce and I was the torrid relationship of Kip and Jon; Jon as assistant manager of the town bank has become comfortable with the affections of Ms. Susan Hunter. Kip comes to town in a flashy red car with pockets full of money and vies for Susan's attention, leading to three scenes in which this challenge to Jon's claim is explored. Simply put, Bruce and I are confused as to why this was part of the story. The veneer of heterosexuality covering these two actors is as thin as the tissue in an airport restroom. Two of the scenes feature Kip and Jon simpering and making googoo eyes at each other while engaged in what is supposed to be manly repartee over who most deserves Susan.
The sexual chemistry between these two Valentinos erupts into physical passion when Kip challenges Jon to a game of wastepaper basketball. It's a sweaty scene that ends in Jon knocking Kip to the floor after Kip "fouls" him; the sexual innuendo is thick. In itself Bruce and I can see a certain amount of charm in this but we both agree it isn't children's fare.
Here's our question to Nickelodeon: Is it appropriate to portray obvious male homosexuals as interested in a cute and lovely young woman with a young daughter? Is Nickelodeon promoting mixed marriages with this message?
We won't hold our breath until we get an answer from the left coast. To Nickelodeon we say leave homosexuality where it belongs, in public tearooms and private bedrooms. And to you, dear moviegoers, we say leave this one on the shelf and take home "Golddiggers: Secret of Bear Mountain" with Christina Ricci and Anna Chlumsky. It's a lot more wholesome and adventurous and we are certain your Jesus loving children will appreciate it more; they won't be left feeling confused either, all the messages in Bear Mountain are clear and conservative.
Cyrus V. Witherspoon
Tuesday, 29 September 2009
A vicar's musings
Ever since the Sherborne St John village vicar wrote sexist claptrap in one of his columns and provoked rage among villagers, he has tried to adopt a lower profile, I've noticed.
The only problem is that it makes his writing boring. Here is this month's attempt to link something mundane to the sublime. (He starts out a bit tentative with the thing he wants to link to God, as if he's not sure it's going to work. He puts a few sentences out there and edges closer and closer to drawing a lesson for us out of it. Then when he makes the link -- "But there is one who can" -- he is so happy; you can feel the style of the writing change as he gallops towards the final Bible verse and the point has been made.)
"The problem is that we all keep too much stuff. And the reason we do that - or at any rate why I do that - is that every time we throw something out a decision is involved. It’s much easier to just keep it - that involves no decision at all. But to throw something away you have to get over the “it might just be useful” barrier.
Actually, for me, it’s a matter of moving into “chuck it” mentality (“If in doubt, chuck it out”) - and then you do start getting rid of stuff.
And it is incredibly liberating and satisfactory to do so. Every time you fill a wheelie-bin or you go to the dump or you give something away (if it still has a use) you have done something positive in terms of clearing out the clutter.
There is of course a parallel with our lives. For let us be honest, they too tend to be full of clutter. Who can deal with that? Who can take away from us the accumulated rubbish of the years? Unlike the junk in my study we cannot touch one moment of our past lives. We cannot get rid of that thing we said or did that was selfish and wrong. We cannot deal with our past sins. We cannot expunge that sense of guilt that creeps up upon us unexpectedly in those occasional unoccupied moments.
But there is one who can. God offers forgiveness through his Son Jesus Christ to all who believe. At the cross he bore the sin of the world. As has been said, when he died all the dustbins of all the sins of all the world were poured out on him. His death is sufficient to deal with our sin and guilt. And the experience of forgiveness is a wonderful thing, as King David says:
Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit."
The only problem is that it makes his writing boring. Here is this month's attempt to link something mundane to the sublime. (He starts out a bit tentative with the thing he wants to link to God, as if he's not sure it's going to work. He puts a few sentences out there and edges closer and closer to drawing a lesson for us out of it. Then when he makes the link -- "But there is one who can" -- he is so happy; you can feel the style of the writing change as he gallops towards the final Bible verse and the point has been made.)
"The problem is that we all keep too much stuff. And the reason we do that - or at any rate why I do that - is that every time we throw something out a decision is involved. It’s much easier to just keep it - that involves no decision at all. But to throw something away you have to get over the “it might just be useful” barrier.
Actually, for me, it’s a matter of moving into “chuck it” mentality (“If in doubt, chuck it out”) - and then you do start getting rid of stuff.
And it is incredibly liberating and satisfactory to do so. Every time you fill a wheelie-bin or you go to the dump or you give something away (if it still has a use) you have done something positive in terms of clearing out the clutter.
There is of course a parallel with our lives. For let us be honest, they too tend to be full of clutter. Who can deal with that? Who can take away from us the accumulated rubbish of the years? Unlike the junk in my study we cannot touch one moment of our past lives. We cannot get rid of that thing we said or did that was selfish and wrong. We cannot deal with our past sins. We cannot expunge that sense of guilt that creeps up upon us unexpectedly in those occasional unoccupied moments.
But there is one who can. God offers forgiveness through his Son Jesus Christ to all who believe. At the cross he bore the sin of the world. As has been said, when he died all the dustbins of all the sins of all the world were poured out on him. His death is sufficient to deal with our sin and guilt. And the experience of forgiveness is a wonderful thing, as King David says:
Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit."
Good drinking and bad drinking
My friend Mrs. Williams came to stay with us last night after a hard day at the Foreign Office in London. I'd had a bad day too, so even though we never drink on Monday nights, we opened the only cold thing in the fridge, a sparkling rose. (How did it get there? We didn't buy it. Someone must have brought it over, and we completely forgot about its existence.) Mel can't stand rose so I put some Creme de Cassis in it, and we christened our new drink Kir Roses.
After a glass or two, Mrs. Williams and I felt much better about life.
Letters to the Editor
I looked at the Times letter page yesterday. One was about an alcoholic chef who died at 65. He apparently spent a lot of his time drunk and many columnists lauded this approach to life -- the 'do what you want, enjoy life while you can, to hell with what other people think' approach.
A letter writer disagreed:
"Those who saw him in a recent documentary will also have witnessed the cringe-making dinner scene that anyone who has endured a relationship with an alcoholic will recognize. Surrounded by 'enablers' who dared not tell him to stop, he drank and dribbled, rambled and swore, using offensive language to everyone in his speechless audience, including his long-lost daughter. There is nothing 'heroic' about that. There is a world of difference between a couple of glasses in front of the telly or dancing over-enthusiastically to Queen at a dinner party to letting alcohol poison your life to the extent that you are prepared to wound and alienate family and friends for ever."
Eliz again: This is so true. I have sat at many a scene like this with my father and a neighbor I had once. I never knew what to do when they got drunk so just endured it. But now I am sorry that I didn't just get up and walk out. Live and learn, I suppose.
After a glass or two, Mrs. Williams and I felt much better about life.
Letters to the Editor
I looked at the Times letter page yesterday. One was about an alcoholic chef who died at 65. He apparently spent a lot of his time drunk and many columnists lauded this approach to life -- the 'do what you want, enjoy life while you can, to hell with what other people think' approach.
A letter writer disagreed:
"Those who saw him in a recent documentary will also have witnessed the cringe-making dinner scene that anyone who has endured a relationship with an alcoholic will recognize. Surrounded by 'enablers' who dared not tell him to stop, he drank and dribbled, rambled and swore, using offensive language to everyone in his speechless audience, including his long-lost daughter. There is nothing 'heroic' about that. There is a world of difference between a couple of glasses in front of the telly or dancing over-enthusiastically to Queen at a dinner party to letting alcohol poison your life to the extent that you are prepared to wound and alienate family and friends for ever."
Eliz again: This is so true. I have sat at many a scene like this with my father and a neighbor I had once. I never knew what to do when they got drunk so just endured it. But now I am sorry that I didn't just get up and walk out. Live and learn, I suppose.
Monday, 28 September 2009
Julia Childs' opinion of England
I am reading Julia Childs' "My Life in France." It's such an interesting book and wonderful to see how much she loves Paris. On one page, she takes a trip to England, and boy, does she let her opinion rip!
Here's what she says:
"One evening we stopped at a charming Tudor inn, where we were served boiled chicken, with little feathers sticking out of the skin, partially covered with a typical English white sauce. Aha! At last I would try the infamous sauce that the French were so chauvinistic about. The sauce was composed of flour and water (not even chicken bouillon) and hardly any salt. It was truly horrible to eat....
I admired the English immensely for all that they had endured, and they were certainly honorable, and stopped their cars for pedestrians, and called you 'sir' or 'madam,' and so on. But after a week there, I began to feel wild. It was those ruddy English faces, so held in by duty, the sense of 'what is done' and 'what is not done,' and always swigging tea and chirping, that made me want to scream like a hyena."
Disagree with what she says or not, I think her writing is fantastic.
Here's what she says:
"One evening we stopped at a charming Tudor inn, where we were served boiled chicken, with little feathers sticking out of the skin, partially covered with a typical English white sauce. Aha! At last I would try the infamous sauce that the French were so chauvinistic about. The sauce was composed of flour and water (not even chicken bouillon) and hardly any salt. It was truly horrible to eat....
I admired the English immensely for all that they had endured, and they were certainly honorable, and stopped their cars for pedestrians, and called you 'sir' or 'madam,' and so on. But after a week there, I began to feel wild. It was those ruddy English faces, so held in by duty, the sense of 'what is done' and 'what is not done,' and always swigging tea and chirping, that made me want to scream like a hyena."
Disagree with what she says or not, I think her writing is fantastic.
Boobs so pert that perverts love 'em
Check out this vintage ad. This small-boobed woman's bra is so good that perverts check her out with their telescopes from across the street.
The door but one
I was trying to talk British today, and when my husband asked me where something was, I said, "the door but one" because I hear people use expressions like this and was just parroting it. Then I realized that I don't really know what it means. It's used in old British movies like A Christmas Carol so I've heard it used there too -- but what does it really mean?
"It's not the one next to it," my husband explained, "but one over."
I scratched my head. Then he began to point to cabinet doors. "See this?" he said. "This is the first one. This is the second one. The third one is the 'next but one' by which I mean, one less."
Do you get it?
"It's not the one next to it," my husband explained, "but one over."
I scratched my head. Then he began to point to cabinet doors. "See this?" he said. "This is the first one. This is the second one. The third one is the 'next but one' by which I mean, one less."
Do you get it?
Sunday, 27 September 2009
Cheating at croquet and a fab blog review
We played croquet in the back yard this afternoon as it was another beautiful autumn day. I am so bad at croquet, so I cheated by moving the ball with my foot when no one was looking. No one minded as I am such a poor player that I was never a threat to beat anyone anyway.
My blog is reviewed
My blog was reviewed on another site. Here's what they said:
Style: (2 out of 2pts)
Gently eclectic. A truly open-minded, welcoming and generous-spirited hostess who refuses to allow any imposition to overwhelm.
Specialisms: (1.5 out of 2pts)
General discussions of everything - explorations of all aspects of life from trapped butterflies to family life and cross-cultural observations to heavyweight discussion of international or political issues. Loses half a mark for being hard to pin down.
Interactivity: (2 out of 2pts)
Highly active discussion threads bringing together people from across the political spectrum and from across both sides of the Atlantic. Regularly uses Facebook to canvass opinion on interesting subjects.
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Total rating: (8.5 out of 10pts)
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Quote this: "A disconcertingly hypnotic genius of a blog: always refreshing, always reassuring and always a joy to read!"
Blog review
Your oldest food
'Fess up -- your oldest food. What is the oldest thing in your pantry that you meant to use but didn't AND IT'S STILL SITTING THERE YEARS LATER.
Here's my list:
A can of asparagus spears -- 3 years old
Envelopes for sauces that I mean to make -- expired 2006
Can of pureed pumpkin that is rusting on the top -- 2004
My friends' lists:
Martin Searle
Disappointingly little, as I live with a 'use by date' obsession freak. I'm for ever rescuing bits of food from being thrown out, on the grounds that I reckon that if you can scrape most of the mould off, and it doesn't smell TOO bad, it's still edible. So the worst i can find is a rather old packet of Ryvita berry bars, and a very old jar of Walkerswood jerk seasoning, which must have been forgotten about, as we've bought and used several jars since.
Eileen Tuuri
Gaah! Do herbs count? Most of our foodstuffs were sacrificed to the US/Canada border patrol gods in our move to BC - very strict about that - but my herb/spice cabinet snuck through unscathed, and it includes some rosemary I harvested and dried from my garden in San Jose before daughter was born...and she's now 15. Other than that...probably a can of local Oregon Coast salmon that came up with us upon our move in 2005 but has yet to be breached.
Laura Harding Howard
Shredded and pickled red cabbage in a jar (2.5 years), squeezy burger relish unopened in pantry (in pantry for nearly 3 years) and a mummified pack of sundried tomatoes that's so old they would probably have to be rehydrated a little before biting into them (I'll throw those away now, shall I?)
Here's my list:
A can of asparagus spears -- 3 years old
Envelopes for sauces that I mean to make -- expired 2006
Can of pureed pumpkin that is rusting on the top -- 2004
My friends' lists:
Martin Searle
Disappointingly little, as I live with a 'use by date' obsession freak. I'm for ever rescuing bits of food from being thrown out, on the grounds that I reckon that if you can scrape most of the mould off, and it doesn't smell TOO bad, it's still edible. So the worst i can find is a rather old packet of Ryvita berry bars, and a very old jar of Walkerswood jerk seasoning, which must have been forgotten about, as we've bought and used several jars since.
Eileen Tuuri
Gaah! Do herbs count? Most of our foodstuffs were sacrificed to the US/Canada border patrol gods in our move to BC - very strict about that - but my herb/spice cabinet snuck through unscathed, and it includes some rosemary I harvested and dried from my garden in San Jose before daughter was born...and she's now 15. Other than that...probably a can of local Oregon Coast salmon that came up with us upon our move in 2005 but has yet to be breached.
Laura Harding Howard
Shredded and pickled red cabbage in a jar (2.5 years), squeezy burger relish unopened in pantry (in pantry for nearly 3 years) and a mummified pack of sundried tomatoes that's so old they would probably have to be rehydrated a little before biting into them (I'll throw those away now, shall I?)
Saturday, 26 September 2009
Visiting Reading for the weekend -- what a strange idea
We have some friends in Wales who came to visit this weekend. That put me in sort of a dilemma. What on earth do you do in Reading to entertain visitors? NO ONE comes to Reading for weekend visits. Who would want to do such a thing? These people live in Wales -- it's green and beautiful -- why would they leave that idyllic landscape for Reading?
(I discovered that they have a big bash to attend in Maidenhead so that's why they ventured out.)
The only thing I could think to do with my visitors was to drive past Reading Gaol and say, 'Oscar Wilde was incarcerated here. The Highlights of Reading Tour has now concluded.'
I had to contact my friend Madeleine who knows everything there is to know about Reading, and she suggested I take them to Henley for a walk along the Thames and a visit to a country pub.
Here is a pic of our walk. So beautiful....
Luckily for us it was a beautiful autumn day. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, life was good.
(This is my friend Ann at the pub.)
(I discovered that they have a big bash to attend in Maidenhead so that's why they ventured out.)
The only thing I could think to do with my visitors was to drive past Reading Gaol and say, 'Oscar Wilde was incarcerated here. The Highlights of Reading Tour has now concluded.'
I had to contact my friend Madeleine who knows everything there is to know about Reading, and she suggested I take them to Henley for a walk along the Thames and a visit to a country pub.
Here is a pic of our walk. So beautiful....
Luckily for us it was a beautiful autumn day. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, life was good.
(This is my friend Ann at the pub.)
Opting out of rat race can have consequences
I used to get so irritated by a magazine that was always telling women to get off the corporate treadmill and follow their bliss to open up their own small businesses. The women were happier with their new work, of course, but they lost their pensions and health insurance and nice salaries -- I always thought it was sort of irresponsible to write these articles that gullible women might read and chuck in their careers. Now I read a story that the New York Times did something similar six years ago and have published a follow up about how dire the situation is for some of the women who did that but now they need to work because of the recession:
Six years ago, The New York Times gushed about well-off women who quit work to stay home—without examining the economic risks. Only now is the paper setting the record straight.
Guess what The New York Times has just discovered? Women who quit their careers to stay home can face financial challenges if a recession hits and their husbands lose their jobs! And—gasp!—when these women try to re-enter the labor force after a timeout, it’s hard for them to find work, and they earn far less than they did when they left!
For the major media that romanticized opting out as the soothing solution to the stress of juggling work and family, the devastation that choice has left in its wake represents merely another story. But for the women who got sold a bill of goods and gambled their futures without understanding the risks they were taking, losing that bet turned out to be the biggest mistake of their lives.
In this case, however, the paper of record bears an unusual responsibility for setting the record straight—something it has taken an extraordinarily long time to do. Six years ago the Times published a Sunday magazine cover story that discovered what it deemed a happy new trend among affluent women and coined a catchy phrase—the Opt-Out Revolution—to describe the cushy lives of women who quit their careers to become full-time mothers. In what seemed an astonishing oversight, nowhere in that 2003 cover story did the Times investigate the economic challenges that the privileged Princeton graduates it portrayed might face should they ever lose their husbands—or their husbands lose their incomes.
Six years ago, The New York Times gushed about well-off women who quit work to stay home—without examining the economic risks. Only now is the paper setting the record straight.
Guess what The New York Times has just discovered? Women who quit their careers to stay home can face financial challenges if a recession hits and their husbands lose their jobs! And—gasp!—when these women try to re-enter the labor force after a timeout, it’s hard for them to find work, and they earn far less than they did when they left!
For the major media that romanticized opting out as the soothing solution to the stress of juggling work and family, the devastation that choice has left in its wake represents merely another story. But for the women who got sold a bill of goods and gambled their futures without understanding the risks they were taking, losing that bet turned out to be the biggest mistake of their lives.
In this case, however, the paper of record bears an unusual responsibility for setting the record straight—something it has taken an extraordinarily long time to do. Six years ago the Times published a Sunday magazine cover story that discovered what it deemed a happy new trend among affluent women and coined a catchy phrase—the Opt-Out Revolution—to describe the cushy lives of women who quit their careers to become full-time mothers. In what seemed an astonishing oversight, nowhere in that 2003 cover story did the Times investigate the economic challenges that the privileged Princeton graduates it portrayed might face should they ever lose their husbands—or their husbands lose their incomes.
Friday, 25 September 2009
The total collapse of Capitalism
Do you want to get depressed in time for the weekend? Check this guy's economic assessment for our future -- the total collapse of capitalism!
Total Collapse of Capitalism
In this month's issue of The Gloom, Boom & Doom Report, Marc Faber issued one of the gloomiest, most depressing takes on the financial crisis and its impact. Faber said that the future, "will be a total disaster, with a collapse of our capitalistic system as we know it today, wars, massive government debt defaults and the impoverishment of large segments of Western society."
Faber added that he has a "high confidence prediction" that "total collapse will come." Yikes.
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/25/marc-faber-capitalistic-s_n_299720.html
Total Collapse of Capitalism
In this month's issue of The Gloom, Boom & Doom Report, Marc Faber issued one of the gloomiest, most depressing takes on the financial crisis and its impact. Faber said that the future, "will be a total disaster, with a collapse of our capitalistic system as we know it today, wars, massive government debt defaults and the impoverishment of large segments of Western society."
Faber added that he has a "high confidence prediction" that "total collapse will come." Yikes.
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/25/marc-faber-capitalistic-s_n_299720.html
Don't make any plans for 2013
In a recent poll, 8 percent of respondents in New Jersey admitted to thinking that Barack Obama is the antichrist. As in, they think the president is the Beast of Revelation, he whose coming portends the rapture, the battle of Armageddon, and the end of the world as we know it. Thirteen percent weren't sure, perhaps waiting for more and better evidence to arrive via chain e-mail.
If you're shocked by those stats, remember just how many Americans think the apocalypse is right around the corner. In a poll from earlier this decade, 17 percent said they expected the world to end in their lifetime. Perhaps that's why, even though Jesus may have admonished that no man knows the day and hour, so many people can't resist making a pseudo-educated guess about the day and hour.
One of the more popular theories making the rounds lately has centered on the Mayan calendar, which runs out in 2012. You get the drift -- don't make any plans for 2013.
from Salon.com
If you're shocked by those stats, remember just how many Americans think the apocalypse is right around the corner. In a poll from earlier this decade, 17 percent said they expected the world to end in their lifetime. Perhaps that's why, even though Jesus may have admonished that no man knows the day and hour, so many people can't resist making a pseudo-educated guess about the day and hour.
One of the more popular theories making the rounds lately has centered on the Mayan calendar, which runs out in 2012. You get the drift -- don't make any plans for 2013.
from Salon.com
A wonderful concert
I had a great concert last night. I was backstage at the Albert Hall, and one of other the singers came up to me and said, "Happy Birthday to your mother," because she'd read what I wrote yesterday about how it was my dead mother's birthday and I wished she could hear me sing. I was glad to hear her say that yet embarrassed at the same time that I'd written something so personal.
But I keep thinking how short life is, and who cares what I write on the Internet? It fades into insignificance so quickly -- it's like I never wrote a thing at all.
Anyway, my seat at the concert was right behind the percussion section -- and this on an evening they were doing the 1812 Overture. You can imagine the state of my eardrums this morning.
We were thinking we were about to sing when all of a sudden the band of the Coldstream Guards appeared behind us and played an introductory piece. It was so cool.
Wish you all could have been there. We sang some of my mother's favorites like Panis Angelicus. And the very last piece was the 1812 Overture, and they let off real fireworks in the Albert Hall. I have never seen anything like it. Fireworks bursting over our heads in the concert hall. We were stunned into silence then burst into happy applause.
Also, Sarah Chang played the violin last night. She was wonderful. Here she is:
But I keep thinking how short life is, and who cares what I write on the Internet? It fades into insignificance so quickly -- it's like I never wrote a thing at all.
Anyway, my seat at the concert was right behind the percussion section -- and this on an evening they were doing the 1812 Overture. You can imagine the state of my eardrums this morning.
We were thinking we were about to sing when all of a sudden the band of the Coldstream Guards appeared behind us and played an introductory piece. It was so cool.
Wish you all could have been there. We sang some of my mother's favorites like Panis Angelicus. And the very last piece was the 1812 Overture, and they let off real fireworks in the Albert Hall. I have never seen anything like it. Fireworks bursting over our heads in the concert hall. We were stunned into silence then burst into happy applause.
Also, Sarah Chang played the violin last night. She was wonderful. Here she is:
Thursday, 24 September 2009
Teens answer questions
The following questions were set in last year's GCSE examination in Swindon, Wiltshire ( U.K. )
These are genuine answers (from 16 year olds)
Q. Name the four seasons
A. Salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar
Q. Explain one of the processes by which water can be made safe to
drink
A. Flirtation makes water safe to drink because it removes large
pollutants like grit, sand, dead sheep and canoeists
Q. How is dew formed
A. The sun shines down on the leaves and makes them perspire
Q. What causes the tides in the oceans
A. The tides are a fight between the earth and the moon. All water
tends to flow towards the moon, because there is no water on the moon, and
nature abhors a vacuum. I forget where the sun joins the fight
Q. What guarantees may a mortgage company insist on
A. If you are buying a house they will insist that you are well
endowed
Q. In a democratic society, how important are elections
A. Very important. S.ex can only happen when a male gets an election
Q. What are steroids
A. Things for keeping carpets still on the stairs ...................................(Shoot yourself now , there is little hope)
Q. What happens to your body as you age
A. When you get old, so do your bowels and you get intercontinental
Q. What happens to a boy when he reaches puberty
A. He says goodbye to his boyhood and looks forward to his adultery ............ (So true)
Q. Name a major disease associated with cigarettes
A. Premature death
Q. What is artificial insemination
A. When the farmer does it to the bull instead of the cow ..............................
Q. How can you delay milk turning sour
A. Keep it in the cow (Simple, but brilliant)
Q. What is the fibula
A. A small lie
Q. What does 'varicose' mean
A. Nearby
Q. What is the most common form of birth control
A. Most people prevent contraception by wearing a condominium ................(That would work)
Q. Give the meaning of the term 'Caesarean section'
A. The caesarean section is a district in Rome
Q. What is a seizure
A. A Roman Emperor ........................................................(Julius Seizure, I came, I saw, I had a fit)
Q. What is a terminal illness
A. When you are sick at the airport ......................................(Irrefutable)
Q. Give an example of a fungus. What is a characteristic feature
A. Mushrooms. They always grow in damp places and they look like
umbrellas
Q. Use the word 'judicious' in a sentence to show you
understand its
meaning
A. Hands that judicious can be soft as your face ........................(OMG)
Q. What does the word 'benign' mean
A. Benign is what you will be after you be eight
Q. What is a turbine
A. Something an Arab or Shreik wears on his head
These are genuine answers (from 16 year olds)
Q. Name the four seasons
A. Salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar
Q. Explain one of the processes by which water can be made safe to
drink
A. Flirtation makes water safe to drink because it removes large
pollutants like grit, sand, dead sheep and canoeists
Q. How is dew formed
A. The sun shines down on the leaves and makes them perspire
Q. What causes the tides in the oceans
A. The tides are a fight between the earth and the moon. All water
tends to flow towards the moon, because there is no water on the moon, and
nature abhors a vacuum. I forget where the sun joins the fight
Q. What guarantees may a mortgage company insist on
A. If you are buying a house they will insist that you are well
endowed
Q. In a democratic society, how important are elections
A. Very important. S.ex can only happen when a male gets an election
Q. What are steroids
A. Things for keeping carpets still on the stairs ...................................(Shoot yourself now , there is little hope)
Q. What happens to your body as you age
A. When you get old, so do your bowels and you get intercontinental
Q. What happens to a boy when he reaches puberty
A. He says goodbye to his boyhood and looks forward to his adultery ............ (So true)
Q. Name a major disease associated with cigarettes
A. Premature death
Q. What is artificial insemination
A. When the farmer does it to the bull instead of the cow ..............................
Q. How can you delay milk turning sour
A. Keep it in the cow (Simple, but brilliant)
Q. What is the fibula
A. A small lie
Q. What does 'varicose' mean
A. Nearby
Q. What is the most common form of birth control
A. Most people prevent contraception by wearing a condominium ................(That would work)
Q. Give the meaning of the term 'Caesarean section'
A. The caesarean section is a district in Rome
Q. What is a seizure
A. A Roman Emperor ........................................................(Julius Seizure, I came, I saw, I had a fit)
Q. What is a terminal illness
A. When you are sick at the airport ......................................(Irrefutable)
Q. Give an example of a fungus. What is a characteristic feature
A. Mushrooms. They always grow in damp places and they look like
umbrellas
Q. Use the word 'judicious' in a sentence to show you
understand its
meaning
A. Hands that judicious can be soft as your face ........................(OMG)
Q. What does the word 'benign' mean
A. Benign is what you will be after you be eight
Q. What is a turbine
A. Something an Arab or Shreik wears on his head
It used to be my mother's birthday today
I'm singing at a concert tonight on what used to be my mother's birthday. She died over a year ago. I don't know where she is now, but I'll sing extra loud just in case she can hear me.
This is one of the pieces the Philharmonia Chorus is singing at the Albert Hall tonight -- Handel's Zadok the Priest. It's beautiful but all those high notes are hard for me to sing. My vocal chords need more stamina.
My Day so Far
Such luxury to wake up late to an empty house (except for the cat) because I took the day off for the concert. I said Happy Birthday to my mother then feasted on a
a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on white bread and ate Pringles. And I had a real Coke. A very sinful meal for me but such fun.
Need to force myself to go for a quick run in the park by my house but it's hard. The sun's out today so I'm hoping for time to sit out there and read a little before I have to drive into London.
Late Morning update
I put my Ipod on the Byrds classic album from the '60s, one of my mother's favorites, and ran in the park. Then I came back and made a donation to the MS Society (my mother suffered terribly with Multiple Sclerosis). I feel like I celebrated her birthday as much as I can given that the birthday girl has departed this world.
This is one of the pieces the Philharmonia Chorus is singing at the Albert Hall tonight -- Handel's Zadok the Priest. It's beautiful but all those high notes are hard for me to sing. My vocal chords need more stamina.
My Day so Far
Such luxury to wake up late to an empty house (except for the cat) because I took the day off for the concert. I said Happy Birthday to my mother then feasted on a
a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on white bread and ate Pringles. And I had a real Coke. A very sinful meal for me but such fun.
Need to force myself to go for a quick run in the park by my house but it's hard. The sun's out today so I'm hoping for time to sit out there and read a little before I have to drive into London.
Late Morning update
I put my Ipod on the Byrds classic album from the '60s, one of my mother's favorites, and ran in the park. Then I came back and made a donation to the MS Society (my mother suffered terribly with Multiple Sclerosis). I feel like I celebrated her birthday as much as I can given that the birthday girl has departed this world.
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
The last funny medical note from my daughter
My daughter gives up her summer job of transcribing medical notes this week so I have received my last update from her yesterday. I'll miss those notes -- they gave me such a laugh over the summer.
Katie is doing a neuroscience degree this year then goes back to her regular medical school courses next year.
Here's what she sent me. This was written by a doctor in 1960:
"Obviously he has been suffering from homosexuality for the last three years or more."
Katie is doing a neuroscience degree this year then goes back to her regular medical school courses next year.
Here's what she sent me. This was written by a doctor in 1960:
"Obviously he has been suffering from homosexuality for the last three years or more."
Women really can't keep a secret: Gossip will be shared in just 47 hours
I don't think it even takes me 47 hours to blab!
The average woman cannot keep a secret for longer than 47 hours, a study has revealed.
Researchers found that women are overcome by a burning desire to share gossip as soon as they hear it.
They will typically spill the beans to at least one other person in an average of 47 hours and 15 minutes.
The study of 3,000 women aged between 18 and 65 also found four out of ten admitted they were unable to keep a secret - no matter how personal or confidential the news was.
More than half admitted that alcohol could prompt them to dish the dirt. Boyfriends, husbands, best friends and mothers were most likely to be initial recipients of the information.
Michael Cox, UK Director of Wines of Chile which commissioned the research said: 'It's official - women can't keep secrets.'
I wrote on my Facebook page that I didn't need no 47 hours to start blabbing and asked how long it would take them to spill goss, and my friends commented:
Sarah Louise Cook
Phew, thank goodness you told me as I have the HOTTEST gossip that I was going to tell you!! Because I can share as long as you DON'T repeat!!! ;-) x
Tammy Pruitt
Depends on how juicy it is!
Jeanne Bernard
You are too funny. Just wait till I leave England, after I go and visit you, till you blab about me.
Jennifer Butt
I can take it to the grave if it was told in confidence. : )
Karin Malchow
Dislike plugging myself, but that doesn't stop me. My take on the subject: http://tiny.cc/DnRme
Steve Borthwick
Everyone loves a good gossip including men, so I'm not convinced this is biased by gender, but you didn't hear that from me... right!
Barbara Woolworth Hutton
Oh, gosh, who really tells the truth in these studies? If you want a secret kept, DON'T TELL IT, especially to proven blabbers (which, we must assume, is everyone.) If you think about it, "keep a secret" is an oxymoron: if it's really a "secret," then it wouldn't be shared anyway by the source, so the "keeping" part is meaningless. "Keep a confidence" might be a more accurate term?
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1213855/Women-really-secret-Gossip-shared-just-47-hours.html#ixzz0RGzKfUJh
The average woman cannot keep a secret for longer than 47 hours, a study has revealed.
Researchers found that women are overcome by a burning desire to share gossip as soon as they hear it.
They will typically spill the beans to at least one other person in an average of 47 hours and 15 minutes.
The study of 3,000 women aged between 18 and 65 also found four out of ten admitted they were unable to keep a secret - no matter how personal or confidential the news was.
More than half admitted that alcohol could prompt them to dish the dirt. Boyfriends, husbands, best friends and mothers were most likely to be initial recipients of the information.
Michael Cox, UK Director of Wines of Chile which commissioned the research said: 'It's official - women can't keep secrets.'
I wrote on my Facebook page that I didn't need no 47 hours to start blabbing and asked how long it would take them to spill goss, and my friends commented:
Sarah Louise Cook
Phew, thank goodness you told me as I have the HOTTEST gossip that I was going to tell you!! Because I can share as long as you DON'T repeat!!! ;-) x
Tammy Pruitt
Depends on how juicy it is!
Jeanne Bernard
You are too funny. Just wait till I leave England, after I go and visit you, till you blab about me.
Jennifer Butt
I can take it to the grave if it was told in confidence. : )
Karin Malchow
Dislike plugging myself, but that doesn't stop me. My take on the subject: http://tiny.cc/DnRme
Steve Borthwick
Everyone loves a good gossip including men, so I'm not convinced this is biased by gender, but you didn't hear that from me... right!
Barbara Woolworth Hutton
Oh, gosh, who really tells the truth in these studies? If you want a secret kept, DON'T TELL IT, especially to proven blabbers (which, we must assume, is everyone.) If you think about it, "keep a secret" is an oxymoron: if it's really a "secret," then it wouldn't be shared anyway by the source, so the "keeping" part is meaningless. "Keep a confidence" might be a more accurate term?
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1213855/Women-really-secret-Gossip-shared-just-47-hours.html#ixzz0RGzKfUJh
Tuesday, 22 September 2009
Baby Bush: The Worst President in History?
This article is by Doug Casey, a libertarian.
Is it possible that Bush was actually the worst president ever? I’d say he’s a strong contender. He started out with a gigantic lie — that he would cut the size of government, reduce taxes, and stay out of foreign wars — and things got much worse from there.
Let’s look at just some of the highpoints in the catalog of disasters the Bush regime created:
No Child Left Behind
Forget about abolishing the Department of Education. Bush made the federal government a much more intrusive and costly part of local schools.
Project Safe Neighborhoods
A draconian law that further guts the 2nd Amendment, like 20,000 other unconstitutional gun laws before it.
Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit
This the largest expansion of the welfare state since LBJ and will cost the already bankrupt Medicare system trillions more.
Sarbanes-Oxley Act
Possibly the most expensive and restrictive change to the securities laws since the 30s. A major reason why companies will either stay private or go public outside the U.S.
Katrina
A total disaster of bureaucratic mismanagement, featuring martial law.
Ownership Society
The immediate root of the current financial crisis lies in Bush’s encouragement of easy credit to everybody and inflating the housing market.
Nationalizations and Bailouts
In response to the crisis he created, he nationalized Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and passed by far the largest bailouts in U.S. history (until OBAMA!).
Free-Speech Zones
Originally a device for keeping war protesters away when Bush appeared on camera, they’re now used to herd.
The Patriot Act
This 132-page bill, presented for passage only 45 days after 9/11 (how is it possible to write something of that size and complexity in only 45 days?) basically allows the government to do whatever it wishes with its subjects. Warrantless searches. All kinds of communications monitoring. Greatly expanded asset forfeiture provisions.
The War on Terror
The scope of the War on Drugs (which Bush also expanded) is exceeded only by the war on nobody in particular but on a tactic. It’s become a cause of mass hysteria and an excuse for the government doing anything.
Invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq
Bush started two completely pointless, counterproductive, and immensely expensive
wars, neither of which has any prospect of ending anytime soon.
Dept. of Homeland Security
This is the largest and most dangerous of all agencies, now with its own gigantic campus in Washington, DC. It will never go away and centralizes the functions of a police state.
Guantanamo
Hundreds of individuals, most of them (like the Uighurs recently in the news) guilty only of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, are incarcerated for years. A precedent is set for anyone who is accused of being an “enemy combatant” to be completely deprived of any rights at all.
Abu Ghraib and Torture
After imprisoning scores of thousands of foreign nationals, Bush made it a U.S. policy to use torture to extract information, based on a suspicion or nothing but a guard’s whim. This is certainly one of the most damaging things to the reputation of the U.S. ever. It says to the world, “We stand for nothing.”
The No-Fly List
His administration has placed the names of over a million people on this list, and it’s still growing at about 20,000 a month. I promise it will be used for other purposes in the future.
The TSA
Somehow the Bush cabal found 50,000 middle-aged people who were willing to go through their fellow citizens’ dirty laundry and take themselves quite seriously. God forbid you’re not polite to them.
Farm Subsidies
Farm subsidies are the antithesis of the free market. Rather than trying to abolish or cut them back, Bush signed a record $190 billion farm bill.
Legislative Free Ride
And he vetoed less of what Congress did than any other president in history. The only reason I can imagine why a person who is not “evil” (to use a word he favored), completely uninformed, or thoughtless would favor Bush is because he wasn’t a Democrat. Not that there’s any real difference between the two parties anymore…
As disastrous as he was, I rather hate to put him in competition for “worst president” in the company of Lincoln, McKinley, Wilson, the two Roosevelts, Truman, Johnson, and Nixon. He is simply too small a character — psychologically aberrant, ignorant, unintelligent, shallow, duplicitous, small-minded — to merit inclusion in any list.
My Facebook friends comment about this article:
Steve Borthwick
Worst president, yep, probably. How about worst voters or worst set of issues to vote on, or maybe worst opposition party? Someone put him there (twice!) after all, you have to ask why they did that?..
Mon at 1:31pm · Delete
Thomas F. Dillingham
For all the reasons Casey mentions--it's bad enough that he was a continuing national embarrassment, but even I can sympathize with the agony of people who actually believe in "free markets" and the libertarian concept of "freedom" (meaning I get to keep as many guns as I want and you can't tell me not to play with them) when they see that he was a constant inarticulate and confused "champion" of those same values, though it turns out those were only among the few words in his vocabulary that he could consistently fit into more or less complete sentences.
Williams Wells
Lincoln was by far the worst. Think about it. What other president came close to being responsible for the deaths of more than 550,000 Americans.
Barbara Woolworth Hutton
You tell 'em, Mr. Wells! Although, reading Winston Groom's *Vicksburg 1863* (excellent, highly recommended) a clearer picture of Lincoln emerges---he and other moderates strongly supported PAYMENT by the US government to the South to compensate for the huge economic loss they would suffer from abolition, and he stated this in every speech he made, including his 1861 inaugural address. Had he been able to convince the more radical abolitionists (many of whom were on his Cabinet) and put in place his plan to slowly let slavery die (no new slave purchases, no new slave states admitted to union) then perhaps the devastating war could have been avoided. Like many Southerners, I will never be a Lincoln fan, but the book did give a better insight than I'd had before. (Of course, I blame the South, too, for not engaging in better negotiations, and being too quick to grab their guns!)
Thomas F. Dillingham
When examining conservative thinking, it is always interesting to figure out exactly to what point in the past one is urged to return in order to "conserve" a desirable condition or social institution. So are we to conclude that a return to the time when a man's property (no matter what kind) was his own and he deserved proper compensation for it if he were to "lose" title to it? So the good old days would be when we would generously pay off slaveowners or simply assume that slavery was in some way a fading or dying institution (however peculiar) and we could simply step aside and watch peacefully while it faded, ignoring the situation of the slaves, since they were, after all, property and had no legal say in the matter? We all know that Lincoln (like Jefferson before him) shared some of the common confusions of his time, but as good thinking conservatives, should we re-adopt those out of loyalty to the good old times past? Or what, exactly?
Is it possible that Bush was actually the worst president ever? I’d say he’s a strong contender. He started out with a gigantic lie — that he would cut the size of government, reduce taxes, and stay out of foreign wars — and things got much worse from there.
Let’s look at just some of the highpoints in the catalog of disasters the Bush regime created:
No Child Left Behind
Forget about abolishing the Department of Education. Bush made the federal government a much more intrusive and costly part of local schools.
Project Safe Neighborhoods
A draconian law that further guts the 2nd Amendment, like 20,000 other unconstitutional gun laws before it.
Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit
This the largest expansion of the welfare state since LBJ and will cost the already bankrupt Medicare system trillions more.
Sarbanes-Oxley Act
Possibly the most expensive and restrictive change to the securities laws since the 30s. A major reason why companies will either stay private or go public outside the U.S.
Katrina
A total disaster of bureaucratic mismanagement, featuring martial law.
Ownership Society
The immediate root of the current financial crisis lies in Bush’s encouragement of easy credit to everybody and inflating the housing market.
Nationalizations and Bailouts
In response to the crisis he created, he nationalized Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and passed by far the largest bailouts in U.S. history (until OBAMA!).
Free-Speech Zones
Originally a device for keeping war protesters away when Bush appeared on camera, they’re now used to herd.
The Patriot Act
This 132-page bill, presented for passage only 45 days after 9/11 (how is it possible to write something of that size and complexity in only 45 days?) basically allows the government to do whatever it wishes with its subjects. Warrantless searches. All kinds of communications monitoring. Greatly expanded asset forfeiture provisions.
The War on Terror
The scope of the War on Drugs (which Bush also expanded) is exceeded only by the war on nobody in particular but on a tactic. It’s become a cause of mass hysteria and an excuse for the government doing anything.
Invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq
Bush started two completely pointless, counterproductive, and immensely expensive
wars, neither of which has any prospect of ending anytime soon.
Dept. of Homeland Security
This is the largest and most dangerous of all agencies, now with its own gigantic campus in Washington, DC. It will never go away and centralizes the functions of a police state.
Guantanamo
Hundreds of individuals, most of them (like the Uighurs recently in the news) guilty only of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, are incarcerated for years. A precedent is set for anyone who is accused of being an “enemy combatant” to be completely deprived of any rights at all.
Abu Ghraib and Torture
After imprisoning scores of thousands of foreign nationals, Bush made it a U.S. policy to use torture to extract information, based on a suspicion or nothing but a guard’s whim. This is certainly one of the most damaging things to the reputation of the U.S. ever. It says to the world, “We stand for nothing.”
The No-Fly List
His administration has placed the names of over a million people on this list, and it’s still growing at about 20,000 a month. I promise it will be used for other purposes in the future.
The TSA
Somehow the Bush cabal found 50,000 middle-aged people who were willing to go through their fellow citizens’ dirty laundry and take themselves quite seriously. God forbid you’re not polite to them.
Farm Subsidies
Farm subsidies are the antithesis of the free market. Rather than trying to abolish or cut them back, Bush signed a record $190 billion farm bill.
Legislative Free Ride
And he vetoed less of what Congress did than any other president in history. The only reason I can imagine why a person who is not “evil” (to use a word he favored), completely uninformed, or thoughtless would favor Bush is because he wasn’t a Democrat. Not that there’s any real difference between the two parties anymore…
As disastrous as he was, I rather hate to put him in competition for “worst president” in the company of Lincoln, McKinley, Wilson, the two Roosevelts, Truman, Johnson, and Nixon. He is simply too small a character — psychologically aberrant, ignorant, unintelligent, shallow, duplicitous, small-minded — to merit inclusion in any list.
My Facebook friends comment about this article:
Steve Borthwick
Worst president, yep, probably. How about worst voters or worst set of issues to vote on, or maybe worst opposition party? Someone put him there (twice!) after all, you have to ask why they did that?..
Mon at 1:31pm · Delete
Thomas F. Dillingham
For all the reasons Casey mentions--it's bad enough that he was a continuing national embarrassment, but even I can sympathize with the agony of people who actually believe in "free markets" and the libertarian concept of "freedom" (meaning I get to keep as many guns as I want and you can't tell me not to play with them) when they see that he was a constant inarticulate and confused "champion" of those same values, though it turns out those were only among the few words in his vocabulary that he could consistently fit into more or less complete sentences.
Williams Wells
Lincoln was by far the worst. Think about it. What other president came close to being responsible for the deaths of more than 550,000 Americans.
Barbara Woolworth Hutton
You tell 'em, Mr. Wells! Although, reading Winston Groom's *Vicksburg 1863* (excellent, highly recommended) a clearer picture of Lincoln emerges---he and other moderates strongly supported PAYMENT by the US government to the South to compensate for the huge economic loss they would suffer from abolition, and he stated this in every speech he made, including his 1861 inaugural address. Had he been able to convince the more radical abolitionists (many of whom were on his Cabinet) and put in place his plan to slowly let slavery die (no new slave purchases, no new slave states admitted to union) then perhaps the devastating war could have been avoided. Like many Southerners, I will never be a Lincoln fan, but the book did give a better insight than I'd had before. (Of course, I blame the South, too, for not engaging in better negotiations, and being too quick to grab their guns!)
Thomas F. Dillingham
When examining conservative thinking, it is always interesting to figure out exactly to what point in the past one is urged to return in order to "conserve" a desirable condition or social institution. So are we to conclude that a return to the time when a man's property (no matter what kind) was his own and he deserved proper compensation for it if he were to "lose" title to it? So the good old days would be when we would generously pay off slaveowners or simply assume that slavery was in some way a fading or dying institution (however peculiar) and we could simply step aside and watch peacefully while it faded, ignoring the situation of the slaves, since they were, after all, property and had no legal say in the matter? We all know that Lincoln (like Jefferson before him) shared some of the common confusions of his time, but as good thinking conservatives, should we re-adopt those out of loyalty to the good old times past? Or what, exactly?
The people of Walmart
I miss people back home and going to Walmart but now I don't feel so far away when I have this website to go to -- The People of Walmart
I feel like I'm standing in line with them again when I scroll through these pics. Take a look and tell me if you know any of these people personally.
I feel like I'm standing in line with them again when I scroll through these pics. Take a look and tell me if you know any of these people personally.
Monday morning in Antwerp
This is in Antwerp, Belgium, at the Central Railway Station where on a Monday morning, with no warning to the passengers passing through the station, a recording of Julie Andrews came over the public address system. As the bemused passengers watch in amazement . . . .
My home state in the news again
U.S. states whose residents have more conservative religious beliefs on average tend to have higher rates of teenagers giving birth, a new study suggests.
The relationship could be due to the fact that communities with such religious beliefs (a literal interpretation of the Bible, for instance) may frown upon contraception, researchers say. If that same culture isn't successfully discouraging teen sex, the pregnancy and birth rates rise.
Mississippi topped the list for conservative religious beliefs and teen birth rates, according to the study results, which will be detailed in a forthcoming issue of the journal Reproductive Health.
More bad news about my state -- the New York Times has attacked it
Mississippi is trumpeting its success at rebuilding since Hurricane Katrina decimated its Gulf Coast counties four years ago. But that progress has largely bypassed people like James Johnson, an impoverished and arthritic 74-year-old who has been sleeping on a thin cushion in a FEMA trailer, searching for help to rebuild his shattered home.
Mr. Johnson finally got some good news recently when a group associated with the Presbyterian Church committed to build him a new home. But the years of worry and discomfort have taken a heavy physical and emotional toll on this fiercely independent man.
This is not what Congress envisioned when it approved an initial $5.5 billion in disaster relief for Mississippi. It was disaster aid. The law required states and localities to spend 50 percent of the money on low- and moderate-income families. Over time, however, the state managed to get waivers and found other ways to spend the money on different projects.
In Mr. Johnson’s case, the problem was too narrow a definition of disaster relief. According to a startling new report by the Steps Coalition, a watchdog group, Mr. Johnson and thousands of other homeowners were shut out of the state’s assistance program because their homes were destroyed by wind rather than water.
While many Mississippians languished without help, the Bush administration’s Department of Housing and Urban Development allowed the state to shift $600 million of the recovery money to the refurbishment and expansion of the Port of Gulfport — a pet project of local politicians that was conceived long before Katrina.
Some members of the House have called on Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi to restore the money to affordable-housing projects in what is, after all, the poorest state.
Congress may not be able to block the Gulfport project. But it needs to make sure that federal disaster aid is never hijacked this way again — and that money intended for affordable housing is spent on it.
The relationship could be due to the fact that communities with such religious beliefs (a literal interpretation of the Bible, for instance) may frown upon contraception, researchers say. If that same culture isn't successfully discouraging teen sex, the pregnancy and birth rates rise.
Mississippi topped the list for conservative religious beliefs and teen birth rates, according to the study results, which will be detailed in a forthcoming issue of the journal Reproductive Health.
More bad news about my state -- the New York Times has attacked it
Mississippi is trumpeting its success at rebuilding since Hurricane Katrina decimated its Gulf Coast counties four years ago. But that progress has largely bypassed people like James Johnson, an impoverished and arthritic 74-year-old who has been sleeping on a thin cushion in a FEMA trailer, searching for help to rebuild his shattered home.
Mr. Johnson finally got some good news recently when a group associated with the Presbyterian Church committed to build him a new home. But the years of worry and discomfort have taken a heavy physical and emotional toll on this fiercely independent man.
This is not what Congress envisioned when it approved an initial $5.5 billion in disaster relief for Mississippi. It was disaster aid. The law required states and localities to spend 50 percent of the money on low- and moderate-income families. Over time, however, the state managed to get waivers and found other ways to spend the money on different projects.
In Mr. Johnson’s case, the problem was too narrow a definition of disaster relief. According to a startling new report by the Steps Coalition, a watchdog group, Mr. Johnson and thousands of other homeowners were shut out of the state’s assistance program because their homes were destroyed by wind rather than water.
While many Mississippians languished without help, the Bush administration’s Department of Housing and Urban Development allowed the state to shift $600 million of the recovery money to the refurbishment and expansion of the Port of Gulfport — a pet project of local politicians that was conceived long before Katrina.
Some members of the House have called on Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi to restore the money to affordable-housing projects in what is, after all, the poorest state.
Congress may not be able to block the Gulfport project. But it needs to make sure that federal disaster aid is never hijacked this way again — and that money intended for affordable housing is spent on it.
Monday, 21 September 2009
What do you want to do when you don't have to work anymore?
When you have enough money to give up working, what do you want to do? I think about it everyday when I am stuck in traffic getting to the office. My husband and I change our minds about what we want to do almost daily, which aggrieves some friends and relatives.
Last Easter we visited California and decided to retire there. (We're not waiting to 65 though to give up the rat race -- that's why I think about it now) One of my brothers has sent me many reasons not to go there, but he doesn't realize that we've already changed our minds so he doesn't have to argue against it.
I thought maybe we'd go to my childhood town of Natchez, Mississippi, but it is so full of Christian Republicans! I love to visit them but I don't want to spend the rest of my life arguing with them. That would send me into dementia early.
We have to keep a place in England, that's a certainty, as long as the US doesn't have healthcare reform. I wouldn't want to risk getting a chronic condition and having to pay for medicine or be denied treatment or insurance over there.
I've already been denied insurance cover when I was only 22 because they projected I was going to get Multiple Sclerosis like my mother -- so we had to pay cash for a tonsillectomy I'd had when I thought I had a policy.
So we keep a place here and go out to the US in the winter when it's miserable in the UK.
My husband's latest idea? To move to Las Vegas. It's hot and the property is cheap. And it has direct flights from the UK that you can always get a deal on so all you UK readers could come visit me.
Last Easter we visited California and decided to retire there. (We're not waiting to 65 though to give up the rat race -- that's why I think about it now) One of my brothers has sent me many reasons not to go there, but he doesn't realize that we've already changed our minds so he doesn't have to argue against it.
I thought maybe we'd go to my childhood town of Natchez, Mississippi, but it is so full of Christian Republicans! I love to visit them but I don't want to spend the rest of my life arguing with them. That would send me into dementia early.
We have to keep a place in England, that's a certainty, as long as the US doesn't have healthcare reform. I wouldn't want to risk getting a chronic condition and having to pay for medicine or be denied treatment or insurance over there.
I've already been denied insurance cover when I was only 22 because they projected I was going to get Multiple Sclerosis like my mother -- so we had to pay cash for a tonsillectomy I'd had when I thought I had a policy.
So we keep a place here and go out to the US in the winter when it's miserable in the UK.
My husband's latest idea? To move to Las Vegas. It's hot and the property is cheap. And it has direct flights from the UK that you can always get a deal on so all you UK readers could come visit me.
I rescued a butterfly
Yesterday I went to the washing machine to do yet another load of laundry and saw a butterfly sitting there. How lovely it was flitting its wings on the white shiny top.
But then it got distressed -- it could find no way out of the Hell of my utility room. I opened a door and invited it to go outside but it couldn't figure out that the freedom of the world was right behind it, if only it would turn around. It thought the world was the closed pane of glass in front of it - the butterfly kept flying against the glass, growing tired and discouraged.
I had to intervene and show the butterfly the path to happiness. I grabbed it in my hands then opened them outside and released the butterfly to bliss again.
If you spend part of a day rescuing a butterfly, I call that a wonderful day, no matter what else might happen later.
Going back to segregation?
It makes me sad to read things like this in the paper. It sort of reminds me of how polarized America was before the invasion of Iraq. I hate to see our nation so divided.
Last week, a video of a school bus beating showing two African American children assaulting a white student began circulating the internet. Despite claims b authorities that the attack was not necessarily racially motivated, hate radio host Rush Limbaugh jumped on the story and claimed that in “Obama’s America the white kids now get beat up.” Yesterday, Limbaugh proposed a solution to this problem — a return to segregated busing:
LIMBAUGH: I think the guy’s wrong. I think not only it was racism, it was justifiable racism. I mean, that’s the lesson we’re being taught here today. Kid shouldn’t have been on the bus anyway. We need segregated buses — it was invading space and stuff. This is Obama’s America.
Last week, a video of a school bus beating showing two African American children assaulting a white student began circulating the internet. Despite claims b authorities that the attack was not necessarily racially motivated, hate radio host Rush Limbaugh jumped on the story and claimed that in “Obama’s America the white kids now get beat up.” Yesterday, Limbaugh proposed a solution to this problem — a return to segregated busing:
LIMBAUGH: I think the guy’s wrong. I think not only it was racism, it was justifiable racism. I mean, that’s the lesson we’re being taught here today. Kid shouldn’t have been on the bus anyway. We need segregated buses — it was invading space and stuff. This is Obama’s America.
Sunday, 20 September 2009
Greyhound buses are coming to England
Yay, just what we need here in England. A bunch of Greyhound buses. Hope the English can cope with this.
Here's the story:
Greyhound buses coming to England
And now the Greyhound bus is coming to Britain – its Scottish owner, FirstGroup, introducing services between London and Portsmouth or Southampton. Pampered with leather seats, Wi-Fi and free newspapers, UK passengers will travel in a style unrecognisable to the 22 million people who take Greyhounds in the US and Canada each year. The luggage holds, meanwhile, come crammed with nearly a century of American transport nostalgia.
Celebrated for decades in song, film and literature, the Greyhound bus became a symbol of freedom, not just to travel physically but also spiritually. Penniless dreamers jumped on them to escape small town life for the big city, and backpackers got their glimpse of America on them for just a dollar a day. Writers needing to get rid of a character in a hurry need only relocate them to a Greyhound bus station, and the reader understood: they weren't comin' back.
The Greyhound story is appropriately American Dream-like. The line was founded in Hibbing, Minnesota, in 1914 by Carl Wickman, a Swedish immigrant, who had been laid off from mining and became a bus salesman. Unable to find a buyer for the first seven-seater Hupmobile he received, he turned it into a bus, ferrying his former workmates between the mines and their homes. Within four years, Wickman had expanded his fleet to 18 buses – they got their name from their grey livery – and by 1927, his buses were crossing the continent from Los Angeles to New York.
He still uses a rotary telephone
I wrote a fan letter to a journalist in Vicksburg, Mississippi, who writes lovely pieces about longtime residents of the town and highlights their quirks and eccentricities beautifully.
I asked a pal for his e-mail address. He doesn't have one, she told me. You'll have to write a letter. WRITE A LETTER? I barely remember how to write, I thought. I type all day long at the office, and never write anything down in longhand.
But I went ahead and wrote a real letter. A few weeks later, he sent back a reply. I was enchanted. Do you know how many years it has been since someone used paper and pen to transmit information to me? Sure people still send cards but they are not used to convey anything new, are they, since you've probably already emailed, Facebooked, texted or phoned before that.
The content of the letter was even better than the thrill of opening an envelope and unfolding a sheet of paper. Here's part of what he said:
"Your extra effort to reach me in the old-fashioned way did not go unnoticed. The only thing I have that is modern is a typewriter. Next to me is a rotary telephone. I also own a phone booth from 1910."
Then he went on to say that he likes to celebrate people in his articles -- those who are not celebrated or perhaps have been forgotten. "Some Russian said that life is like a cake with different slices. Everyone has a story."
I was so thrilled with the experience of receiving a real letter that I'm going to write him back immediately to see if he'll send me another one.
Saturday, 19 September 2009
Just World Phenomenon
Thanks a new commenter who brought up this interesting theory that I never heard of before. It might explain why some of our commenters seem unable to accept reality sometimes. :)
"The just-world phenomenon, also called the just-world theory, just-world fallacy, just-world effect, or just-world hypothesis, refers to the tendency for people to want to believe that the world is "just" so strongly that when they witness an otherwise inexplicable injustice they will rationalize it by searching for things that the victim might have done to deserve it. This deflects their anxiety, and lets them continue to believe the world is a just place, but at the expense of blaming victims for things that were not, objectively, their fault."
"The just-world phenomenon, also called the just-world theory, just-world fallacy, just-world effect, or just-world hypothesis, refers to the tendency for people to want to believe that the world is "just" so strongly that when they witness an otherwise inexplicable injustice they will rationalize it by searching for things that the victim might have done to deserve it. This deflects their anxiety, and lets them continue to believe the world is a just place, but at the expense of blaming victims for things that were not, objectively, their fault."
Thoughts from an abortion doctor
I thought this article below was very interesting. I think every woman should have the right to get an abortion, btw.
Who Gets Abortions and Why?
Did you know that half of the abortions done in the US are done because of birth control failure?
We all know that anti-abortionists aren’t really “pro-life,” they are “pro-forced birth.” They make huge assumptions about who the women are who actually have abortions. They think that all the women who have abortions are just young flaky women who have no concern for the life of the embryo/fetus they are aborting. They couldn’t be more wrong.
Most of the women seeking early abortion are either very young or in the late part of their reproductive life. The youngsters are often coerced into unwanted pregnancies by their partners, or they didn’t think or know that they could get pregnant. Some of the older women think they couldn’t get pregnant because they were “too old.”
The decision to have an abortion is an agonizing decision, that few women choose lightly. They will be criticized for whatever decision they make. What kind of terrible mother could kill her own child? What kind of terrible mother could give her child away to strangers? What kind of terrible mother would keep a child she can’t afford to care for?
The “pro-coerced birthers” think that these are immoral women who should be punished for their (sex) sins with an innocent child. Then they complain about “welfare mothers” who need money to support their children. Those “precious babies” become children who they don’t want to feed. Aren’t Christians supposed to provide charity for those who need it? Worse then that, they don’t want to use federal funds to provide effective contraception or abortions for poor women. They just want to keep punishing women. Of course, if it’s one of their own, she just “made a mistake, she’s really a good girl.” Abortions happen in the fundie community too, don’tcha know.
Read the full post here:
Thoughts from an abortion doctor
Who Gets Abortions and Why?
Did you know that half of the abortions done in the US are done because of birth control failure?
We all know that anti-abortionists aren’t really “pro-life,” they are “pro-forced birth.” They make huge assumptions about who the women are who actually have abortions. They think that all the women who have abortions are just young flaky women who have no concern for the life of the embryo/fetus they are aborting. They couldn’t be more wrong.
Most of the women seeking early abortion are either very young or in the late part of their reproductive life. The youngsters are often coerced into unwanted pregnancies by their partners, or they didn’t think or know that they could get pregnant. Some of the older women think they couldn’t get pregnant because they were “too old.”
The decision to have an abortion is an agonizing decision, that few women choose lightly. They will be criticized for whatever decision they make. What kind of terrible mother could kill her own child? What kind of terrible mother could give her child away to strangers? What kind of terrible mother would keep a child she can’t afford to care for?
The “pro-coerced birthers” think that these are immoral women who should be punished for their (sex) sins with an innocent child. Then they complain about “welfare mothers” who need money to support their children. Those “precious babies” become children who they don’t want to feed. Aren’t Christians supposed to provide charity for those who need it? Worse then that, they don’t want to use federal funds to provide effective contraception or abortions for poor women. They just want to keep punishing women. Of course, if it’s one of their own, she just “made a mistake, she’s really a good girl.” Abortions happen in the fundie community too, don’tcha know.
Read the full post here:
Thoughts from an abortion doctor
Friday, 18 September 2009
When love dies
I'm sick today so sorry not to be around more responding to your fab comments. I just got out of bed to let the window cleaners into the back garden and make some fab hot chocolate out of a bar of Spanish dark chocolate. Mmmm good.
Anyway, my daughter is in front of the TV playing Guitar Hero relentlessly. She and her boyfriend parted ways, and you know how you have to get rid of all a guy's stuff when Love is Dead? Well, this is a 21st century type of problem -- he has all the high scores on our copy of Guitar Hero, and we have to get rid of them, otherwise his name appears every time someone plays. We can't delete them or we lose all of our family scores. So she has to get good enough to wipe his scores out so his name is then buried and lost to our family's collective memory forever.
A modern problem or what?
Anyway, my daughter is in front of the TV playing Guitar Hero relentlessly. She and her boyfriend parted ways, and you know how you have to get rid of all a guy's stuff when Love is Dead? Well, this is a 21st century type of problem -- he has all the high scores on our copy of Guitar Hero, and we have to get rid of them, otherwise his name appears every time someone plays. We can't delete them or we lose all of our family scores. So she has to get good enough to wipe his scores out so his name is then buried and lost to our family's collective memory forever.
A modern problem or what?
Girls still think computers are boring
A shame but it's true -- that's why there are so few women in my department at Nokia.
A new study conducted in Australia indicates that girls still think that IT is boring. The study of attitudes to technology and career skills follows an earlier one conducted by the Victorian Government in 2001. The 2001 study showed that 36 per cent of girls, compared with 16 per cent of boys, found information and communication technologies boring.
According to educator Dannielle Miller things have not got better after nearly ten years. Miller, the chief executive of Enlighten Education, a company she helped found to foster education and self-esteem among young girls, says a big proportion of future job opportunities will be involved in the IT field. She said that there will be a generation of young women who have been excluded from that knowledge then there is going to be a stark gender divide which will be quite problematic.'
Miller who penned a book The Butterfly Effect, which examines the pressures placed on teenage girls and acts a guide for parents wishing to connect with their daughters, said girls really do understand maths but society didn't want them too.
She said that teachers need to tap into female strengths and dispel discouraging stereotypes. 'Girls tend to be social learners and like to discuss problems, but they might have minimal opportunity to do that in computer subjects.
A new study conducted in Australia indicates that girls still think that IT is boring. The study of attitudes to technology and career skills follows an earlier one conducted by the Victorian Government in 2001. The 2001 study showed that 36 per cent of girls, compared with 16 per cent of boys, found information and communication technologies boring.
According to educator Dannielle Miller things have not got better after nearly ten years. Miller, the chief executive of Enlighten Education, a company she helped found to foster education and self-esteem among young girls, says a big proportion of future job opportunities will be involved in the IT field. She said that there will be a generation of young women who have been excluded from that knowledge then there is going to be a stark gender divide which will be quite problematic.'
Miller who penned a book The Butterfly Effect, which examines the pressures placed on teenage girls and acts a guide for parents wishing to connect with their daughters, said girls really do understand maths but society didn't want them too.
She said that teachers need to tap into female strengths and dispel discouraging stereotypes. 'Girls tend to be social learners and like to discuss problems, but they might have minimal opportunity to do that in computer subjects.
Thursday, 17 September 2009
Angry at me for over a year, and I didn't even know
I had such a shocking note from a relative the other day. She wrote: "I am still angry about you not telling me your mother died."
Imagine being angry with me for over a year, and still angry, and me not knowing. It upset me to receive a note like that but today my sister-in-law sent me something that put it all into perspective:
HUMBLING, ISN'T IT?
NOW, HOW BIG ARE YOU?
AND HOW BIG ARE THE THINGS
THAT UPSET YOU TODAY?
KEEP LIFE IN PERSPECTIVE
Me again, still thinking about the note I got:
What is the protocol here? Is it the job of a grieving person to inform everyone about a death or face a furious note a year later? I thought a person heard about a death and sent a note to the grieving people left behind.
Imagine being angry with me for over a year, and still angry, and me not knowing. It upset me to receive a note like that but today my sister-in-law sent me something that put it all into perspective:
HUMBLING, ISN'T IT?
NOW, HOW BIG ARE YOU?
AND HOW BIG ARE THE THINGS
THAT UPSET YOU TODAY?
KEEP LIFE IN PERSPECTIVE
Me again, still thinking about the note I got:
What is the protocol here? Is it the job of a grieving person to inform everyone about a death or face a furious note a year later? I thought a person heard about a death and sent a note to the grieving people left behind.
Singing advice
I went up to London for rehearsals last night. We have a big concert at the Albert Hall next week and are performing all those loud crowd-pleasers like Carmina Burana and Zadok the Priest. All the pieces have long lines of really high notes that don't come easily to a singer, and we have to blast the sound out too.
So I lost my voice before the second half of the rehearsal. I sang a note but it came out like a croak and had no recognizable tone. Embarrasing. And, of course, all the other singers around me have golden strong voices that never fail.
Today I have had to get advice on what I should do to strengthen my voice so I don't lose it so quickly. Here's a vocal teacher's advice:
How to strengthen your singing voice
The very best thing I can suggest to you is to never-ever-never perform on a "cold voice". That also includes rehearsing your material. You MUST warm-up your entire range first! In other words, you have to get ready to get ready.
That happens with scales. It's always about scales. Without them, every musician is lost.
Keeping yourself well-hydrated is always a good idea. But, it will not make you a better musician nor will it strengthen your range. Don't bother with honey for your throat. Honey is nothing but sugar and will only make you fat.
From your lowest note to your highest note, run a variety of scales for no less than 15 minutes – everyday! Make that – everyday of your life, for as long as you choose to remain a performing artist.
Teachers more religious than other graduates
The highly devout steer toward college majors in education and the humanities, a new study finds.
But while the teachers-in-training tend to become more religious over their college careers, religiosity wanes for those majoring in the humanities.
"Education majors are clearly safe havens for the religious," said study researcher Miles Kimball, an economist at the University of Michigan. "Highly religious people seem to prefer education majors, tend to stay in that major, and tend to become more religious by the time they graduate."
Kimball's findings, announced this week, come from a survey of more than 26,000 individuals who graduated from high school between 1976 and 1996 and took part in the Monitoring the Future Study. Participants were interviewed in their senior year in high school and every two years or so following the initial survey until respondents turn 35.
Questioning authority
While importance of religion changed for those in the humanities and social sciences, students majoring in biology and physical sciences remained just about as religious as they were when they started college.
The researchers suggest college majors can influence religiosity in at least two ways: For one, professors and literature in certain fields might stress one philosophy or another that either boosts or deflates religion. In addition, these same values could be reinforced as students interact with others in their discipline.
The humanities and some social sciences tend to have a strong postmodernist focus, Kimball said. Such questioning of authority can be at odds with religious faith and could explain the flagging importance of religion that occurred over time for these majors.
"By far, the majority of religions do have a notion of absolute truth," Kimball told LiveScience. "And so questioning authority is going to matter, including the authority of the bible and religious texts."
As for education, Kimball said, "A lot of people in education majors are headed toward being K-12 teachers." He added, "They're going to be thinking about how do we educate children, and the idea of trying to teach morals and ethics and character is an obvious thing to think about as you're trying to educate children." Such a focus on morals could lend itself to focusing on religion as well.
from Live Science
But while the teachers-in-training tend to become more religious over their college careers, religiosity wanes for those majoring in the humanities.
"Education majors are clearly safe havens for the religious," said study researcher Miles Kimball, an economist at the University of Michigan. "Highly religious people seem to prefer education majors, tend to stay in that major, and tend to become more religious by the time they graduate."
Kimball's findings, announced this week, come from a survey of more than 26,000 individuals who graduated from high school between 1976 and 1996 and took part in the Monitoring the Future Study. Participants were interviewed in their senior year in high school and every two years or so following the initial survey until respondents turn 35.
Questioning authority
While importance of religion changed for those in the humanities and social sciences, students majoring in biology and physical sciences remained just about as religious as they were when they started college.
The researchers suggest college majors can influence religiosity in at least two ways: For one, professors and literature in certain fields might stress one philosophy or another that either boosts or deflates religion. In addition, these same values could be reinforced as students interact with others in their discipline.
The humanities and some social sciences tend to have a strong postmodernist focus, Kimball said. Such questioning of authority can be at odds with religious faith and could explain the flagging importance of religion that occurred over time for these majors.
"By far, the majority of religions do have a notion of absolute truth," Kimball told LiveScience. "And so questioning authority is going to matter, including the authority of the bible and religious texts."
As for education, Kimball said, "A lot of people in education majors are headed toward being K-12 teachers." He added, "They're going to be thinking about how do we educate children, and the idea of trying to teach morals and ethics and character is an obvious thing to think about as you're trying to educate children." Such a focus on morals could lend itself to focusing on religion as well.
from Live Science
Wednesday, 16 September 2009
Thank God for Mississippi
Sad but true. No matter how bad things get in one state, people think it's always worse in my home state of Mississippi.
From Slate today:
When Rep. Joe Wilson embarrassed his home state by calling President Obama a liar on national television, pundits in South Carolina seemed less surprised that one of their leaders would say such a thing than that Wilson was the one who said it. A columnist for South Carolina's leading newspaper, the State, wrote that when she heard the heckler identified as a South Carolina Republican, "He wasn't on my top three list of suspects." For a state to distinguish itself as one of the crank capitals of American politics, it helps to have a deep bench.
In the same way that residents of underperforming states used to console themselves with the saying "thank God for Mississippi," people in other states that have felt the sting of political humiliation can start thanking their lucky stars for South Carolina. There's a new champ atop the late-night joke charts, providing a welcome respite for beleaguered citizens from Boise to Baton Rouge.
From Slate today:
When Rep. Joe Wilson embarrassed his home state by calling President Obama a liar on national television, pundits in South Carolina seemed less surprised that one of their leaders would say such a thing than that Wilson was the one who said it. A columnist for South Carolina's leading newspaper, the State, wrote that when she heard the heckler identified as a South Carolina Republican, "He wasn't on my top three list of suspects." For a state to distinguish itself as one of the crank capitals of American politics, it helps to have a deep bench.
In the same way that residents of underperforming states used to console themselves with the saying "thank God for Mississippi," people in other states that have felt the sting of political humiliation can start thanking their lucky stars for South Carolina. There's a new champ atop the late-night joke charts, providing a welcome respite for beleaguered citizens from Boise to Baton Rouge.
Why men are never depressed
Men Are Just Happier People--
What do you expect from such simple creatures?
Your last name stays put.
The garage is all yours.
Wedding plans take care of themselves.
Chocolate is just another snack.
You can be President.
You can never be pregnant.
You can wear a white T-shirt to a water park.
Car mechanics tell you the truth.
The world is your urinal.
You never have to drive to another gas station restroom because this one is just too icky.
You don't have to stop and think of which way to turn a nut on a bolt.
Same work, more pay.
Wrinkles add character.
Wedding dress $5000. Tux rental-$100.
People never stare at your chest when you're talking to them.
New shoes don't cut, blister, or mangle your feet.
One mood all the time.
Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds flat.
You know stuff about tanks.
A five-day vacation requires only one suitcase.
You can open all your own jars.
You get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness.
If someone forgets to invite you, he or she can still be your friend.
Your underwear is $8.95 for a three-pack.
Three pairs of shoes are more than enough.
You almost never have strap problems in public.
You are unable to see wrinkles in your clothes.
Everything on your face stays its original color.
The same hairstyle lasts for years, maybe decades.
You only have to shave your face and neck.
You can play with toys all your life.
One wallet and one pair of shoes -- one color for all seasons.
You can wear shorts no matter how your legs look.
You can 'do' your nails with a pocket knife.
You have freedom of choice concerning growing a mustache.
You can do Christmas shopping for 25 relatives on December 24 in 25 minutes.
No wonder men are happier.
What do you expect from such simple creatures?
Your last name stays put.
The garage is all yours.
Wedding plans take care of themselves.
Chocolate is just another snack.
You can be President.
You can never be pregnant.
You can wear a white T-shirt to a water park.
Car mechanics tell you the truth.
The world is your urinal.
You never have to drive to another gas station restroom because this one is just too icky.
You don't have to stop and think of which way to turn a nut on a bolt.
Same work, more pay.
Wrinkles add character.
Wedding dress $5000. Tux rental-$100.
People never stare at your chest when you're talking to them.
New shoes don't cut, blister, or mangle your feet.
One mood all the time.
Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds flat.
You know stuff about tanks.
A five-day vacation requires only one suitcase.
You can open all your own jars.
You get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness.
If someone forgets to invite you, he or she can still be your friend.
Your underwear is $8.95 for a three-pack.
Three pairs of shoes are more than enough.
You almost never have strap problems in public.
You are unable to see wrinkles in your clothes.
Everything on your face stays its original color.
The same hairstyle lasts for years, maybe decades.
You only have to shave your face and neck.
You can play with toys all your life.
One wallet and one pair of shoes -- one color for all seasons.
You can wear shorts no matter how your legs look.
You can 'do' your nails with a pocket knife.
You have freedom of choice concerning growing a mustache.
You can do Christmas shopping for 25 relatives on December 24 in 25 minutes.
No wonder men are happier.
Tuesday, 15 September 2009
Decorum is dead! Long live the outburst!
Love this article on Salon.com:
It’s been a year of shocking and deeply saddening deaths. Michael Jackson. John Hughes. Jim Carroll. And the unexpressed thought.
The silent sentiment, which survived from the dawn of consciousness to the birth of Twitter, will be missed. Among its contributions to civilization are the stiff upper lip, the novels of Henry James, and the song "Jesse’s Girl."
It had been languishing for years, hobbled by the blogosphere, Fox News, and in particular the recent spate of town hall meetings. But in the last several days, it received a number of severe blows from which it could not recover.
On Tuesday, reality star and Ed Hardy enthusiast Jon Gosselin went on "Good Morning America" to announce that he loves his 22-year-old girlfriend more than he loved his estranged wife, Kate, throwing in that he now "despises" the mother of his eight children.
That same day, Los Angeles' KCAL-TV aired a tape of married "family values" Assemblyman Michael Duvall in front of an open microphone at a Sacramento hearing, mouthing off to a colleague about his sexual conquests. Because, there is no point in getting a little side action if you can’t brag to anyone within earshot, "So I am getting into spanking her ... Yeah, I like it ... I like spanking her. She goes, I know you like spanking me, I said yeah, that's 'cause you're such a bad girl." Displaying remarkable endurance in the field of TMI, Duvall went on in this vein for quite some time.
Duvall resigned on Wednesday, the same day that South Carolina Republican Rep. Joe Wilson found himself with an impulse that he too could not control. Brimming with outrage during a healthcare speech by the president, blurted the now-famous words “You lie!” Though his display was the vocal equivalent of John Hancock’s signature, let us not ignore the other rumbly voices among our elected officials that night, forced by the sheer magnitude of their righteous indignation to boo while Obama spoke.
Saturday night, Serena Williams, tennis great and part-time hothead, earned herself a $10,500 fine for losing her shit with a line judge during a U.S. Open match. When the judge called a foot fault, Williams responded by, among other things, offering to "shove this ball down your f------ throat."
After Williams’ tirade, personal and professional decorum as we know it was placed on life support.
Finally, last night, Kanye West delivered the coup de grâce at the MTV Video Music Awards. The end, ultimately, came quickly and loudly. As Taylor Swift clutched her award for best female performance, Mr. West leapt to the stage, because he had an opinion that ergo needed immediate transmission to the entire world, and took the microphone from Miss Swift. "Yo, Taylor," he said. "I’m really happy for you, I’m going to let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!"
It’s been a year of shocking and deeply saddening deaths. Michael Jackson. John Hughes. Jim Carroll. And the unexpressed thought.
The silent sentiment, which survived from the dawn of consciousness to the birth of Twitter, will be missed. Among its contributions to civilization are the stiff upper lip, the novels of Henry James, and the song "Jesse’s Girl."
It had been languishing for years, hobbled by the blogosphere, Fox News, and in particular the recent spate of town hall meetings. But in the last several days, it received a number of severe blows from which it could not recover.
On Tuesday, reality star and Ed Hardy enthusiast Jon Gosselin went on "Good Morning America" to announce that he loves his 22-year-old girlfriend more than he loved his estranged wife, Kate, throwing in that he now "despises" the mother of his eight children.
That same day, Los Angeles' KCAL-TV aired a tape of married "family values" Assemblyman Michael Duvall in front of an open microphone at a Sacramento hearing, mouthing off to a colleague about his sexual conquests. Because, there is no point in getting a little side action if you can’t brag to anyone within earshot, "So I am getting into spanking her ... Yeah, I like it ... I like spanking her. She goes, I know you like spanking me, I said yeah, that's 'cause you're such a bad girl." Displaying remarkable endurance in the field of TMI, Duvall went on in this vein for quite some time.
Duvall resigned on Wednesday, the same day that South Carolina Republican Rep. Joe Wilson found himself with an impulse that he too could not control. Brimming with outrage during a healthcare speech by the president, blurted the now-famous words “You lie!” Though his display was the vocal equivalent of John Hancock’s signature, let us not ignore the other rumbly voices among our elected officials that night, forced by the sheer magnitude of their righteous indignation to boo while Obama spoke.
Saturday night, Serena Williams, tennis great and part-time hothead, earned herself a $10,500 fine for losing her shit with a line judge during a U.S. Open match. When the judge called a foot fault, Williams responded by, among other things, offering to "shove this ball down your f------ throat."
After Williams’ tirade, personal and professional decorum as we know it was placed on life support.
Finally, last night, Kanye West delivered the coup de grâce at the MTV Video Music Awards. The end, ultimately, came quickly and loudly. As Taylor Swift clutched her award for best female performance, Mr. West leapt to the stage, because he had an opinion that ergo needed immediate transmission to the entire world, and took the microphone from Miss Swift. "Yo, Taylor," he said. "I’m really happy for you, I’m going to let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!"
A chicken strolling by the KFC drive-through window
This chicken walks to the Kentucky Fried Chicken drive-through window in Vicksburg, Mississippi (where I went to high school), every so often for a visit. The staff all know him. Is that cool or what? He's not even worried!
Friends in Facebook comment:
Lisa Raspopovich
Hehe I think its confidence stems from the fact that KFC does not do free-range birds.
Steve Borthwick:
Lisa you beat me to it; I was going to say he's not pumped full of steroids and so
is perfectly safe or perhaps he knows the secret recipe?
Jeanne Bernard
Actually I do like this chicken. The ultimate in cool.
Eileen Tuuri
Indeed. The Zen Chicken.
Steve Borthwick
Is anyone else reminded of the Chinese student standing in front of the tank in Tienanmen sq. maybe its a protest?
Friends in Facebook comment:
Lisa Raspopovich
Hehe I think its confidence stems from the fact that KFC does not do free-range birds.
Steve Borthwick:
Lisa you beat me to it; I was going to say he's not pumped full of steroids and so
is perfectly safe or perhaps he knows the secret recipe?
Jeanne Bernard
Actually I do like this chicken. The ultimate in cool.
Eileen Tuuri
Indeed. The Zen Chicken.
Steve Borthwick
Is anyone else reminded of the Chinese student standing in front of the tank in Tienanmen sq. maybe its a protest?
She said she'd talk to me in my dreams
The last time I saw my dying mother, I was distraught because I was worried I'd never see her again. She told me not to worry. "I will talk to you in your dreams," she promised.
But you know, I never see her in my dreams. I keep waiting for her to speak to me but she never does. This past weekend, though, she finally appeared. In my dream, I was picking her up from work, and miraculously, she didn't have Multiple Sclerosis and wasn't in a wheelchair but was walking and talking like anyone else.
You'd think she would have been glad to see me and told me some secret wonderful things that I would wake up remembering and become a better person for knowing. Maybe she would tell me that I had been totally wrong and there was a heaven with Jesus in it.
But no, she didn't say anything but thanks for the ride and acted like there was nothing unusual in me picking her up to see my grandfather (dead 25 years and one of my favorite people ever). I dropped her off and that was that.
Mom, really, is that the best you can do?? I'm going to be doing a lot more sleeping as the winter approaches so will expect some more visits, and please say some deeply profound things that I can cling to after I wake up.
Monday, 14 September 2009
The other side of a vicar
My friend Richard Elphick does vicaring things at a village church near me. Here he is about to take the service where my friends the Blakeleys renewed their wedding vows last week.
Here he is with Karen and Chris at the church:
But boy, did I see the other side of him last night at my friend's birthday dinner. He relaxed and went secular with a nice beer:
Here he is with Karen and Chris at the church:
But boy, did I see the other side of him last night at my friend's birthday dinner. He relaxed and went secular with a nice beer:
Darwin and his 'half-baked theory'
My friend Steve did a post American Anti-Idol about the new Darwin movie that won't be shown in the US. Here's another opinion:
Americans are, sadly, a dream deferred. We pretend that we're the next generation of human social evolution, but, really, we're not. That's why we're arguing and griping over a movie about evolution.
Despite the fact that On The Origin of Species has won a Toronto film festival award and debuts in Britain this week, U.S. distributors have declined to take up the flick, which chronicles scientist Charles Darwin's crusade to bring modern science, common sense and progress into all of our lives. And, yes, diehard Christians are to blame:
Movieguide.org, an influential site which reviews films from a Christian perspective, described Darwin as the father of eugenics and denounced him as "a racist, a bigot and an 1800s naturalist whose legacy is mass murder". His "half baked theory" directly influenced Adolf Hitler and led to "atrocities, crimes against humanity, cloning and genetic engineering", the site stated.
The film, which stars Paul Bettany and his wife, Jennifer Connelly, has sparked fierce debate on US Christian websites, with a typical comment dismissing evolution as "a silly theory with a serious lack of evidence to support it despite over a century of trying".
The movie, made by filmmaker Jeremy Thomas, concerns Darwin's own personal struggle within his scientific efforts, yet, for some reason, Americans are holding up the flick's release. Because, you know, over a century after evolution's discovery, England's offspring can't wrap their heads around a little thing called progress.
It's sad, really, for we always make hay over the fact that we're highly-evolved politically, yet, in reality, we're a bunch of backward brutes who can't see things from a different angle. Disgraceful, really...
Americans are, sadly, a dream deferred. We pretend that we're the next generation of human social evolution, but, really, we're not. That's why we're arguing and griping over a movie about evolution.
Despite the fact that On The Origin of Species has won a Toronto film festival award and debuts in Britain this week, U.S. distributors have declined to take up the flick, which chronicles scientist Charles Darwin's crusade to bring modern science, common sense and progress into all of our lives. And, yes, diehard Christians are to blame:
Movieguide.org, an influential site which reviews films from a Christian perspective, described Darwin as the father of eugenics and denounced him as "a racist, a bigot and an 1800s naturalist whose legacy is mass murder". His "half baked theory" directly influenced Adolf Hitler and led to "atrocities, crimes against humanity, cloning and genetic engineering", the site stated.
The film, which stars Paul Bettany and his wife, Jennifer Connelly, has sparked fierce debate on US Christian websites, with a typical comment dismissing evolution as "a silly theory with a serious lack of evidence to support it despite over a century of trying".
The movie, made by filmmaker Jeremy Thomas, concerns Darwin's own personal struggle within his scientific efforts, yet, for some reason, Americans are holding up the flick's release. Because, you know, over a century after evolution's discovery, England's offspring can't wrap their heads around a little thing called progress.
It's sad, really, for we always make hay over the fact that we're highly-evolved politically, yet, in reality, we're a bunch of backward brutes who can't see things from a different angle. Disgraceful, really...
Letters from Burma
My next book club book is Aung San Suu Kyi's Letters from Burma. I've been having mental burnout lately though and only want to read detective novels these days. I started reading her letters with hope. She's a great person, isn't she, so surely her writing is the same?
In one letter, she goes to visit a holy man. She writes: "The Hsayadaw himself goes out every day to encourage the workers and give them snacks...the sight of his serene face and this tangible proof of his concern for them seems to spur on the workers to greater efforts."
It sounded a bit propaganda-ish to me. I was trying to think what it reminded me of, then I remembered. It was like the prose from Lenin's Smile, a Russian children's book from the Communist era that my friend Elizabeth from Detroit ordered for me when we were in college.
Here's a snippet from that book:
Dear Grandpa Lenin,
We are proletarian children who live in a children's home named after you. We are studying your behests, your struggle for the happiness of the working people and all proletarian children in order to continue the cause of building Communism which you began.
In one letter, she goes to visit a holy man. She writes: "The Hsayadaw himself goes out every day to encourage the workers and give them snacks...the sight of his serene face and this tangible proof of his concern for them seems to spur on the workers to greater efforts."
It sounded a bit propaganda-ish to me. I was trying to think what it reminded me of, then I remembered. It was like the prose from Lenin's Smile, a Russian children's book from the Communist era that my friend Elizabeth from Detroit ordered for me when we were in college.
Here's a snippet from that book:
Dear Grandpa Lenin,
We are proletarian children who live in a children's home named after you. We are studying your behests, your struggle for the happiness of the working people and all proletarian children in order to continue the cause of building Communism which you began.
Sunday, 13 September 2009
Happy Birthday Mikey
My son's 16th birthday today. The only reason my toddler daughter let me have him was because she thought he would be a fun playmate for her. When she found out he would just be a crying newborn who lay around in his crib all day, she was so annoyed.
Happy Birthday Mikey. I know you don't like your photos to go on my blog so will refrain for now (until you change your mind).
PS
Just took this pic at lunch that I must put up. The waiter made Mikey a balloon birthday crown:
America's Best Christian
Check out this funny website that Tom D told us about in the comments section.
Landover Baptist. Where the Worthwhile Worship. Unsaved Welcome
One of the site's contributors is Betty Bowers, America's Best Christian.
This is from her profile:
Greetings, my fellow computer-owning Christians — and even all you unsaved techno trash out there who will read any blog in order to avoid doing your little job. My name is Mrs. Betty Bowers and — as you already know — I'm America's Best Christian. While some might regard such a seemingly lofty title somewhat onerous to live up to, both piety and superiority are completely effortless to me, which is, no doubt, why I was conferred such an honor in the first place.
As an American Christian, I have devoted my life to hectoring my Invisible Savior with requests for lots of cool stuff. It's a time-consuming hobby I call "prayer." I ob assertive hints into passing cloud formations for better promotions, bigger cars, smaller hips, higher game scores and more luxurious luxury goods. This is all necessary because my Savior is infuriatingly forgetful and will otherwise squander attention on the much more easily satisfied so-called "needy."
When not asking for things from Jesus, I tirelessly devoted myself to wringing every last dollar out of His name that is humanly possible without risking my tax-free status, appearing without undergarments on YouTube or becoming a Catholic.
I am the founder of Bringing Integrity To Christian Homemakers, which is a bit like Concerned Women for America, only slightly less concerned and with better shoes. I also oversee America's most successful Ex-Gay ministry (almost 2 saved souls out of over 150,000 dues-paying members — praise!) called BASH: Baptists Are Saving Homosexuals. Be a man, girl!
You can visit my website here: http://www.bettybowers.com
So close to Jesus, one spritz of a quality fragrance gets us both,
Mrs. Betty Bowers
America's Best Christian
Landover Baptist. Where the Worthwhile Worship. Unsaved Welcome
One of the site's contributors is Betty Bowers, America's Best Christian.
This is from her profile:
Greetings, my fellow computer-owning Christians — and even all you unsaved techno trash out there who will read any blog in order to avoid doing your little job. My name is Mrs. Betty Bowers and — as you already know — I'm America's Best Christian. While some might regard such a seemingly lofty title somewhat onerous to live up to, both piety and superiority are completely effortless to me, which is, no doubt, why I was conferred such an honor in the first place.
As an American Christian, I have devoted my life to hectoring my Invisible Savior with requests for lots of cool stuff. It's a time-consuming hobby I call "prayer." I ob assertive hints into passing cloud formations for better promotions, bigger cars, smaller hips, higher game scores and more luxurious luxury goods. This is all necessary because my Savior is infuriatingly forgetful and will otherwise squander attention on the much more easily satisfied so-called "needy."
When not asking for things from Jesus, I tirelessly devoted myself to wringing every last dollar out of His name that is humanly possible without risking my tax-free status, appearing without undergarments on YouTube or becoming a Catholic.
I am the founder of Bringing Integrity To Christian Homemakers, which is a bit like Concerned Women for America, only slightly less concerned and with better shoes. I also oversee America's most successful Ex-Gay ministry (almost 2 saved souls out of over 150,000 dues-paying members — praise!) called BASH: Baptists Are Saving Homosexuals. Be a man, girl!
You can visit my website here: http://www.bettybowers.com
So close to Jesus, one spritz of a quality fragrance gets us both,
Mrs. Betty Bowers
America's Best Christian
Saturday, 12 September 2009
She just doesn't like her picture to be taken
We kidnapped my friend Karen Firbank last night to go out and celebrate her birthday. She absolutely hates to have her photo taken so look what she did when I tried to take it anyway:
I'll outsmart her next year somehow.
We had a great time at her birthday dinner at an Indian restaurant we all know and love. Before that, we had Kir Royales (my new favorite drink) at K's house. I have never known anyone before who actually owns and uses a candelabra:
That's Karen the birthday girl, me and my friend Elise.
During dinner, my daughter Katie (left) was getting TERRIBLE advice from my friends.
They were telling her not to listen to my advice, to go off and become independent and to do her own thing in life.
Hey, these are supposed to be my friends?
Just kidding, Katie you get on out there and live your life. I'll be here if you need me though.
I'll outsmart her next year somehow.
We had a great time at her birthday dinner at an Indian restaurant we all know and love. Before that, we had Kir Royales (my new favorite drink) at K's house. I have never known anyone before who actually owns and uses a candelabra:
That's Karen the birthday girl, me and my friend Elise.
During dinner, my daughter Katie (left) was getting TERRIBLE advice from my friends.
They were telling her not to listen to my advice, to go off and become independent and to do her own thing in life.
Hey, these are supposed to be my friends?
Just kidding, Katie you get on out there and live your life. I'll be here if you need me though.
Artificial sweeteners pile on pounds
Artificial sweeteners do nothing to help weight loss and could actually cause us to pile on the pounds, scientists say.
Our bodies are unable to distinguish between the calorie-free sugar substitutes widely used in the food industry and the real thing, research suggests.
Artificial sweeteners behave in a similar way to sugar, by activating sensors in the gut which are key to the absorption of glucose.
As a result, the body processes extra sugar – and all the calories that go with it. For the dieter, it means little or no weight loss. Over time, it could even lead to extra pounds being put on.
Researcher Soraya Shirazi-Beechey said: ‘If someone wants to lose weight, I don’t think artificial sweeteners are going to help.
‘My recommendation is to eat natural foods, but to eat less of them.’
The Liverpool University professor studied the processes in the small intestine by which the sugar or glucose from food is absorbed into the bloodstream.
She identified specific cells which detect sugar, releasing hormones essential for its passage through the lining of the gut and into the blood, where it is either burned off or is converted into fat.
Crucially, these cells release the hormones when confronted by artificial sweeteners. This primes the gut to absorb real sugar.
Prof Shirazi-Beechey said: ‘Artificial sweetenerscan also activate the glucose sensor and increase the capacity of the intestine to absorb more sugar.
‘You drink diet cola to stay slim but the reverse is true, because the artificial sweeteners can activate the sensor, so you are taking more glucose from your diet.’ Drugs which control the sugar sensor cells, leading to more or less entering the bloodstream, could help treat diseases such as diabetes and obesity.
Our bodies are unable to distinguish between the calorie-free sugar substitutes widely used in the food industry and the real thing, research suggests.
Artificial sweeteners behave in a similar way to sugar, by activating sensors in the gut which are key to the absorption of glucose.
As a result, the body processes extra sugar – and all the calories that go with it. For the dieter, it means little or no weight loss. Over time, it could even lead to extra pounds being put on.
Researcher Soraya Shirazi-Beechey said: ‘If someone wants to lose weight, I don’t think artificial sweeteners are going to help.
‘My recommendation is to eat natural foods, but to eat less of them.’
The Liverpool University professor studied the processes in the small intestine by which the sugar or glucose from food is absorbed into the bloodstream.
She identified specific cells which detect sugar, releasing hormones essential for its passage through the lining of the gut and into the blood, where it is either burned off or is converted into fat.
Crucially, these cells release the hormones when confronted by artificial sweeteners. This primes the gut to absorb real sugar.
Prof Shirazi-Beechey said: ‘Artificial sweetenerscan also activate the glucose sensor and increase the capacity of the intestine to absorb more sugar.
‘You drink diet cola to stay slim but the reverse is true, because the artificial sweeteners can activate the sensor, so you are taking more glucose from your diet.’ Drugs which control the sugar sensor cells, leading to more or less entering the bloodstream, could help treat diseases such as diabetes and obesity.
Friday, 11 September 2009
Psychics can't really find people
from Live Science:
Jaycee Dugard, the woman who was abducted at the age of 11 in 1991, was recently discovered living in a virtual prison in the back yard of a couple's come in Antioch, Calif., as has been widely reported. She had been there for 18 years, confined and horrifically abused, even giving birth to her rapist's children. They were kept prisoner and isolated, never having attended school or seen a doctor.
Amazingly, a Reno psychic is now claiming the case proves the accuracy of her abilities.
Dayle Schear, who was paid by Jaycee's parents to help locate their daughter, says she told Jaycee's mother not to give up searching for her daughter: "I looked her in the eyes and I said... eventually she'll walk through the door, you're going to see her again."
Schear also claims that she correctly described the general area where Jaycee was being held. The psychic's "information" is typical of what happens when missing persons are eventually found, dead or alive. Psychics come forward years later after the person was found to make retroactive claims about how they "knew" certain pieces of information.
Yet the psychics conveniently ignore the fact that their information was either wrong or so general and vague that it was useless. If Shear's psychic powers told her that this poor girl was being kept in the most horrific conditions — being subjected to continual sexual and physical abuse for nearly two decades — then it's puzzling that Jaycee was not found 18 years ago.
What police and searchers need is not general, vague "I told you so" information after the missing person has been recovered through police work, but accurate, useful information that leads police to the victim.
One common trick psychics use to make themselves appear accurate is to give very vague information open to later interpretation (most missing persons are likely to be found "near water," even if it's a lake, puddle, river, drain, etc.). When bodies are found it is always through accident or police work.
Despite repeated claims to the contrary, there is not a single documented case of a missing person being found or recovered due solely to psychic information. In February 2004, Court TV launched a series about psychic detectives investigating cold cases "Haunting Evidence." The show was cancelled after three seasons, without having solved a single case.
The fact of the matter is that right now — as you are reading these words — it is virtually certain that somewhere in the world, one or more children are being held in exactly the same unimaginable conditions as Jaycee. Some may die in captivity and be disposed of like trash; others will eventually be freed after untold physical and psychological damage.
Yet there are thousands of self-proclaimed psychics and psychic detectives in the world who claim to be able to find missing persons. Some are rich and famous, such as Sylvia Browne, Allison DuBois (inspiration for the NBC show "Medium"), Noreen Renier, and Carla Baron; others are known only locally. If they have the powers they claim, perhaps they should take a break from their TV appearances and lucrative lecture circuits to actually help find these and other desperate missing persons.
Jaycee Dugard, the woman who was abducted at the age of 11 in 1991, was recently discovered living in a virtual prison in the back yard of a couple's come in Antioch, Calif., as has been widely reported. She had been there for 18 years, confined and horrifically abused, even giving birth to her rapist's children. They were kept prisoner and isolated, never having attended school or seen a doctor.
Amazingly, a Reno psychic is now claiming the case proves the accuracy of her abilities.
Dayle Schear, who was paid by Jaycee's parents to help locate their daughter, says she told Jaycee's mother not to give up searching for her daughter: "I looked her in the eyes and I said... eventually she'll walk through the door, you're going to see her again."
Schear also claims that she correctly described the general area where Jaycee was being held. The psychic's "information" is typical of what happens when missing persons are eventually found, dead or alive. Psychics come forward years later after the person was found to make retroactive claims about how they "knew" certain pieces of information.
Yet the psychics conveniently ignore the fact that their information was either wrong or so general and vague that it was useless. If Shear's psychic powers told her that this poor girl was being kept in the most horrific conditions — being subjected to continual sexual and physical abuse for nearly two decades — then it's puzzling that Jaycee was not found 18 years ago.
What police and searchers need is not general, vague "I told you so" information after the missing person has been recovered through police work, but accurate, useful information that leads police to the victim.
One common trick psychics use to make themselves appear accurate is to give very vague information open to later interpretation (most missing persons are likely to be found "near water," even if it's a lake, puddle, river, drain, etc.). When bodies are found it is always through accident or police work.
Despite repeated claims to the contrary, there is not a single documented case of a missing person being found or recovered due solely to psychic information. In February 2004, Court TV launched a series about psychic detectives investigating cold cases "Haunting Evidence." The show was cancelled after three seasons, without having solved a single case.
The fact of the matter is that right now — as you are reading these words — it is virtually certain that somewhere in the world, one or more children are being held in exactly the same unimaginable conditions as Jaycee. Some may die in captivity and be disposed of like trash; others will eventually be freed after untold physical and psychological damage.
Yet there are thousands of self-proclaimed psychics and psychic detectives in the world who claim to be able to find missing persons. Some are rich and famous, such as Sylvia Browne, Allison DuBois (inspiration for the NBC show "Medium"), Noreen Renier, and Carla Baron; others are known only locally. If they have the powers they claim, perhaps they should take a break from their TV appearances and lucrative lecture circuits to actually help find these and other desperate missing persons.
9/11
Where were you when you heard about the plane crashes in New York City? I had just been released from the hospital and came home, flopped down on the sofa and turned on the TV. I couldn't believe what I saw. I was already sick but this added a heavy weight on to that.
I was stuck in England with no American friends, and I longed to be with some Americans at that moment. That was my overwhelming feeling -- of isolation -- something horrible was happening to my country and I wasn't there and had no one to share the experience with.
Punkahs
I'm going to Natchez, Mississippi, next spring to relive my childhood in the city of antebellum homes. I was looking at a book about the homes, and saw these enormous fans over their dining tables that looked just the thing for a hot summer in 1860.
They are called punkahs. A punkah (Hindi pankha) is a type of fan. In its original sense the punkah was a portable fan made from the leaf of the palmyra.
In the colonial age, the word came to be used in a special sense by Anglo-Indians in British India for a large swinging fan, fixed to the ceiling, and pulled by a coolie, called the punkah wallah, during the hot weather.
The date of this invention is not known, but it was familiar to the Arabs as early as the 8th century. The punkah was not commonly used in India before the end of the 18th century.
They are called punkahs. A punkah (Hindi pankha) is a type of fan. In its original sense the punkah was a portable fan made from the leaf of the palmyra.
In the colonial age, the word came to be used in a special sense by Anglo-Indians in British India for a large swinging fan, fixed to the ceiling, and pulled by a coolie, called the punkah wallah, during the hot weather.
The date of this invention is not known, but it was familiar to the Arabs as early as the 8th century. The punkah was not commonly used in India before the end of the 18th century.
Thursday, 10 September 2009
Debeard some mussels for a quick and easy meal
I just got this amusing email from my friend Jax:
Don't you just hate these pretentious cookery writers, E, "a quick and easy supper!" Like everyone has mussels in their fridge to just rustle together in 30 minutes!
Here's the recipe that annoyed her:
Want a fast and yummy supper? You can't go wrong with mussels
In terms of quick and yummy suppers, you can't really go wrong with mussels: cheap, yummy and they produce their own stock in a matter of minutes. In this recipe, the rice is cooked in said stock, which is the making of this carbed-up version of moules marinère. A very easy throw-together.
Eliz: Oh yeah, there's nothing easier than debearding mussels at the end of a long day at the office when you're starving and need a fast meal.
500g mussels
1½ tbsp butter
2 shallots or 1 small white onion, finely diced
3 cloves garlic
1 chilli, sliced
250ml white wine
150g quick-cook, long-grain rice
Big handful of baby spinach or rocket, washed
Zest of 1 lemon
Salt and pepper
First, debeard the mussels: take hold off the matted stringy bit and tug it down firmly towards the pointy end of the shell so that it comes away. As you're doing this, run the mussels under cold water, discarding any open ones.
Heat the butter over a medium flame in a fairly large pan. Chuck in the onion and garlic and sauté gently, with a lid on, for a few minutes until golden and softened. Then add the chilli and fry for a minute more.
Tip in the mussels, roll them around in the onion, then pour in the wine. Stir, put a lid on, and cook on a high heat for around three to five minutes.
Once the mussels have opened, lift them out with a slotted spoon, on to a tray. Add 200ml water to the pan, and tip in the rice. Stir, put the lid back on, bring to the boil, then simmer on a low to medium heat. It will take about 12 minutes for the rice to cook.
Meanwhile, pick the mussels from the shells. Discard the shells but be sure to save any onion bits and liquid in a bowl, with the mussels themselves. Once the rice is nearly cooked (after about 10 minutes), tip the mussels, plus any onion and liquid, back into the pan.
When the rice is completely cooked, and the mussels have warmed through, turn the heat off and stir in the spinach (or rocket) till just wilted, along with the lemon zest and seasoning.
Don't you just hate these pretentious cookery writers, E, "a quick and easy supper!" Like everyone has mussels in their fridge to just rustle together in 30 minutes!
Here's the recipe that annoyed her:
Want a fast and yummy supper? You can't go wrong with mussels
In terms of quick and yummy suppers, you can't really go wrong with mussels: cheap, yummy and they produce their own stock in a matter of minutes. In this recipe, the rice is cooked in said stock, which is the making of this carbed-up version of moules marinère. A very easy throw-together.
Eliz: Oh yeah, there's nothing easier than debearding mussels at the end of a long day at the office when you're starving and need a fast meal.
500g mussels
1½ tbsp butter
2 shallots or 1 small white onion, finely diced
3 cloves garlic
1 chilli, sliced
250ml white wine
150g quick-cook, long-grain rice
Big handful of baby spinach or rocket, washed
Zest of 1 lemon
Salt and pepper
First, debeard the mussels: take hold off the matted stringy bit and tug it down firmly towards the pointy end of the shell so that it comes away. As you're doing this, run the mussels under cold water, discarding any open ones.
Heat the butter over a medium flame in a fairly large pan. Chuck in the onion and garlic and sauté gently, with a lid on, for a few minutes until golden and softened. Then add the chilli and fry for a minute more.
Tip in the mussels, roll them around in the onion, then pour in the wine. Stir, put a lid on, and cook on a high heat for around three to five minutes.
Once the mussels have opened, lift them out with a slotted spoon, on to a tray. Add 200ml water to the pan, and tip in the rice. Stir, put the lid back on, bring to the boil, then simmer on a low to medium heat. It will take about 12 minutes for the rice to cook.
Meanwhile, pick the mussels from the shells. Discard the shells but be sure to save any onion bits and liquid in a bowl, with the mussels themselves. Once the rice is nearly cooked (after about 10 minutes), tip the mussels, plus any onion and liquid, back into the pan.
When the rice is completely cooked, and the mussels have warmed through, turn the heat off and stir in the spinach (or rocket) till just wilted, along with the lemon zest and seasoning.
A place for sexual congress but not for sleeping
I don't know why married people have to sleep in the same bed. The older you get, the harder it is to sleep -- especially when the man snores all the time (but denies that he does).
I think more people would sleep apart if it wasn't considered to be the beginning of the end of a relationship ('they don't sleep together anymore'). I get so tired of not being able to sleep that sometimes I move into the spare room but then I start feeling guilty and move back. One of the kids will always say something like, "You aren't sleeping in the same room anymore?" and I feel like I should move back into the marital bedroom.
"Couples should consider sleeping apart for the good of their health, an expert has said.
Getting a decent night's sleep is more important than cosying up between the sheets to please your partner, says Dr Neil Stanley.
Research evidence suggests that sharing a bed is bad for sleep, he told the British Science Festival.
One study found that if one partner moved in his or her sleep there was a 50% chance of it disturbing the other.
Another revealed that the longer couples had spent together, the more likely they were to have separate rooms. By the time they were aged in their 70s, 40% were choosing to sleep apart.
Other research showed that men were likely to prod their snoring partners awake, while women tended to put up with the noise - as they struggled to sleep.
Dr Stanley, who set up one of Britain's leading sleep laboratories at the University of Surrey, said poor sleep was linked to depression, heart disease, strokes, lung disorders, traffic and industrial accidents, and divorce. Yet sleep was largely ignored as an important aspect of health.
"If you want to live a happy and healthy life, diet and exercise are important but so is sleep," said Dr Stanley, speaking at the University of Surrey in Guildford.
He said the modern tradition of the marital bed only began with the industrial revolution, when people moving to overcrowded towns and cities found themselves short of living space.
Before the Victorian era it was not uncommon for married couples to sleep apart, he argued. In ancient Rome, the marital bed was a place for sexual congress but not for sleeping."
I think more people would sleep apart if it wasn't considered to be the beginning of the end of a relationship ('they don't sleep together anymore'). I get so tired of not being able to sleep that sometimes I move into the spare room but then I start feeling guilty and move back. One of the kids will always say something like, "You aren't sleeping in the same room anymore?" and I feel like I should move back into the marital bedroom.
"Couples should consider sleeping apart for the good of their health, an expert has said.
Getting a decent night's sleep is more important than cosying up between the sheets to please your partner, says Dr Neil Stanley.
Research evidence suggests that sharing a bed is bad for sleep, he told the British Science Festival.
One study found that if one partner moved in his or her sleep there was a 50% chance of it disturbing the other.
Another revealed that the longer couples had spent together, the more likely they were to have separate rooms. By the time they were aged in their 70s, 40% were choosing to sleep apart.
Other research showed that men were likely to prod their snoring partners awake, while women tended to put up with the noise - as they struggled to sleep.
Dr Stanley, who set up one of Britain's leading sleep laboratories at the University of Surrey, said poor sleep was linked to depression, heart disease, strokes, lung disorders, traffic and industrial accidents, and divorce. Yet sleep was largely ignored as an important aspect of health.
"If you want to live a happy and healthy life, diet and exercise are important but so is sleep," said Dr Stanley, speaking at the University of Surrey in Guildford.
He said the modern tradition of the marital bed only began with the industrial revolution, when people moving to overcrowded towns and cities found themselves short of living space.
Before the Victorian era it was not uncommon for married couples to sleep apart, he argued. In ancient Rome, the marital bed was a place for sexual congress but not for sleeping."
All marriages are not equally beneficial to health
From Live Science:
Across America, as a result of the $150 million now available annually since 2006 through the federal Healthy Marriage Initiative, curious educational campaigns have popped up extolling the virtues of marriage.
One such campaign, Marriage Works USA, has placed messages on billboards, buses, radio and television in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area. These campaigns depict a simple love-marriage-baby-carriage scenario with messages such as "married people earn and save more money" and "married people enjoy better health."
It's enough to make a sociologist wince. Such claims are gross exaggerations if not alltogether false, and they can be detrimental.
Marriage complex
The best response I've seen to the "marriage works" message has been from a gay couple who climbed a Baltimore billboard to graffiti the words "Let us do it."
Sociologists aren't against marriage. At issue is the complexity of the topic, as highlighted regularly in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior (JHSB). The group behind Marriage Works USA, Campaign For Our Children, in fact uses JHSB and other journal articles to support its claims. But even a cursory reading of these articles reveals how little support they truly provide.
For example, the campaign references the March 1988 JHSB article "Single Motherhood and Children's Health." This study merely finds that single mothers are more likely report poorer health for their children than mothers with a partner. The study does not conclude that marriage is superior to cohabitation, nor does it assess the actual health of children. This potential for poor health is more aligned to poverty than marital status.
Half the facts
Similarly, facts are drawn from the 1999 article "The Gender Gap in the Economic Well Being of Nonresident Fathers and Custodial Mothers" in the journal Demography. But here the authors found that 20 percent of their female subjects actually experience a better standard of living after divorce. Factors depend on how much of a physical, emotional and financial drain the former husband was, implying that "marriage works" only sometimes.
The lead author, Suzanne Bianchi, co-author of the award-winning 2006 book "Changing Rhythms of American Family Life," later found that single mothers with the same educational and economic background as married mothers spend equal amounts of quality time with their children.
Most bizarre is the Marriage Works reference to the 1997 study "Unobservable Individual Effects: Marriage and the Earnings of Young Men" in Economic Inquiry. It's not wise to stop reading after the first line in the introduction, "Married men earn more than non-married men." By the fourth line it becomes evident that the paper sets forth to disprove this misconception, enabling the authors to conclude, "Our findings cast doubt on the interpretation that marriage enhances productivity through specialization."
Other studies point to the detrimental affects of divorce on women and children. So, marriage didn't work.
The other half
Among myriad studies not referenced in any "marriage works" campaign is the March 2006 JHSB article, "You Make Me Sick: Marital Quality and Health over the Life Course," in which the authors conclude, if you haven't guessed from the title, "all marriages are not equally beneficial to health."
Similarly, in the June 2007 JHSB article "Depression and the Psychological Benefits of Entering Marriage," the authors state, "These findings call into question the assumption that marriage is always a good choice for all individuals."
Part of the confusion is cause and effect. Higher social status leads to better health, and those of higher social status are more likely to get married. But this doesn't imply that marriage is the ticket to health and wealth. Some of those not marrying might be incarcerated or otherwise not the best catch.
Marriage works again and again
The 2009 book "The Marriage-Go-Round" by sociologist Andrew Cherlin delves in to some of these issues. Marriage can work, but the sole message should not be to get married, Cherlin says.
His research has uncovered how the United States has more marriages and remarriages, more divorces, and more short-term cohabiting relationships than other developed countries. This can have a negative impact on children's health. The best thing for a single mother might be to slow down and not marry rather than enter into a series of bad relationships.
The "marriage works" facts hold up only if you replace with word "married" with "people who don't go through one or more nasty divorces or have a series of unstable relationships." I'm all for simplifying messages. But forcing young people into marriage with false hopes can cause more harm than good.
Across America, as a result of the $150 million now available annually since 2006 through the federal Healthy Marriage Initiative, curious educational campaigns have popped up extolling the virtues of marriage.
One such campaign, Marriage Works USA, has placed messages on billboards, buses, radio and television in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area. These campaigns depict a simple love-marriage-baby-carriage scenario with messages such as "married people earn and save more money" and "married people enjoy better health."
It's enough to make a sociologist wince. Such claims are gross exaggerations if not alltogether false, and they can be detrimental.
Marriage complex
The best response I've seen to the "marriage works" message has been from a gay couple who climbed a Baltimore billboard to graffiti the words "Let us do it."
Sociologists aren't against marriage. At issue is the complexity of the topic, as highlighted regularly in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior (JHSB). The group behind Marriage Works USA, Campaign For Our Children, in fact uses JHSB and other journal articles to support its claims. But even a cursory reading of these articles reveals how little support they truly provide.
For example, the campaign references the March 1988 JHSB article "Single Motherhood and Children's Health." This study merely finds that single mothers are more likely report poorer health for their children than mothers with a partner. The study does not conclude that marriage is superior to cohabitation, nor does it assess the actual health of children. This potential for poor health is more aligned to poverty than marital status.
Half the facts
Similarly, facts are drawn from the 1999 article "The Gender Gap in the Economic Well Being of Nonresident Fathers and Custodial Mothers" in the journal Demography. But here the authors found that 20 percent of their female subjects actually experience a better standard of living after divorce. Factors depend on how much of a physical, emotional and financial drain the former husband was, implying that "marriage works" only sometimes.
The lead author, Suzanne Bianchi, co-author of the award-winning 2006 book "Changing Rhythms of American Family Life," later found that single mothers with the same educational and economic background as married mothers spend equal amounts of quality time with their children.
Most bizarre is the Marriage Works reference to the 1997 study "Unobservable Individual Effects: Marriage and the Earnings of Young Men" in Economic Inquiry. It's not wise to stop reading after the first line in the introduction, "Married men earn more than non-married men." By the fourth line it becomes evident that the paper sets forth to disprove this misconception, enabling the authors to conclude, "Our findings cast doubt on the interpretation that marriage enhances productivity through specialization."
Other studies point to the detrimental affects of divorce on women and children. So, marriage didn't work.
The other half
Among myriad studies not referenced in any "marriage works" campaign is the March 2006 JHSB article, "You Make Me Sick: Marital Quality and Health over the Life Course," in which the authors conclude, if you haven't guessed from the title, "all marriages are not equally beneficial to health."
Similarly, in the June 2007 JHSB article "Depression and the Psychological Benefits of Entering Marriage," the authors state, "These findings call into question the assumption that marriage is always a good choice for all individuals."
Part of the confusion is cause and effect. Higher social status leads to better health, and those of higher social status are more likely to get married. But this doesn't imply that marriage is the ticket to health and wealth. Some of those not marrying might be incarcerated or otherwise not the best catch.
Marriage works again and again
The 2009 book "The Marriage-Go-Round" by sociologist Andrew Cherlin delves in to some of these issues. Marriage can work, but the sole message should not be to get married, Cherlin says.
His research has uncovered how the United States has more marriages and remarriages, more divorces, and more short-term cohabiting relationships than other developed countries. This can have a negative impact on children's health. The best thing for a single mother might be to slow down and not marry rather than enter into a series of bad relationships.
The "marriage works" facts hold up only if you replace with word "married" with "people who don't go through one or more nasty divorces or have a series of unstable relationships." I'm all for simplifying messages. But forcing young people into marriage with false hopes can cause more harm than good.
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