Random Thoughts From Marybeth

I'm Not Understanding This At All

Hot Air links to a MSNBC video of teabagging jokes. I understand the sexual reference but I must have led a sheltered life because I don't connect it with any real life activity, only a gaming one. And in gaming, you shoot the opponent (at close range) and then add an "in your face" (excuse the pun) domination.

So every time someone gets their giggles by calling Tea Party members teabaggers, I see it as them saying the Tea Partiers are superior in a way that humiliates their opponents.

Confusing Buffet Lines With Bread Lines

A fellow cruise ship passenger on a shore excursion in Cozumel.
He also had "commie" tattooed across his belly.

President's Jet Terrorizes NYC

The event was intended to update a stock photo of the presidential plane that is used for distribution to media and others, according to a person familiar with the matter who was spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. The photo, featuring the Statue of Liberty, is to replace one of the aircraft flying near Mount Rushmore, the person said.

Next time they should try Photoshop.

Voting Isn't a Coup d'État

Comments about yesterday's tea party protests have been interesting. I heard one reporter on public radio characterize some protestors who wanted to elect new representatives in the place of incumbents as "wanting to overthrow the government".

Putting the "Twit" in Twitter

The trouble with Meghan McCain.

As Long As They're Really Sorry

The Crown Prosecution Service is to apologise to the family of a woman who was murdered by her husband.

Malik Mannan, 36, was found guilty of stabbing Sabina Akhtar, 26, to death at their home in Longsight, Manchester, in September last year.

She had earlier reported him to police for threatening to kill her. Mannan was ordered to stay away from Ms Akhtar, but repeatedly breached his bail.

The CPS said it was "wrong" not to charge Mannan earlier.

Is that supposed to make anyone feel better? (Besides the people making the apology.)

Student Protest

NYU students took over the food court to protest, um, something. Actually a whole list of things that began with asking for amnesty for protesting, NYU financial information (including employee wages or salaries) and ended with scholarships to Palestinian students and aid to Gaza.

Watch the video of the end of the protest.

After you've watched, please explain to me the difference between water bottles and "corporate water".

More on Gawker.

Epic Fail

Pupils are being rewarded for writing obscenities in their GCSE English examinations even when it has nothing to do with the question.

One pupil who wrote “f*** off” was given marks for accurate spelling and conveying a meaning successfully.

The question that was being asked was, "“Describe the room you’re sitting in". Although I think the student's language was inappropriate, I can understand the sentiment in response to such an insipid question.

Politicians Endorsing Junk Science

A proposed New York law, sponsored by Suffolk County Assemblyman Marc Alessi, would establish a "philosophical" exemption to mandatory childhood vaccinations.

I want a "philosophical" exemption to protect my children from exposure to willful stupidity.

Reading Comprehension

My Kindle began acting weirdly on a recent trip. The screensaver stayed on when I tried to wake it up, it even stayed on when I turned the power completely off.

When I got back home, I contacted Amazon support about this. My message to them was almost exactly what is in bold above. This was their reply:

Hello from Amazon.com.

Thank you for writing to us about the problem you're having with your Kindle screen.

The flash you see when you turn the page is a normal part of the display refresh process. Kindle uses an electronic ink display that has a slightly longer refresh time than back-lit displays but uses less battery power.

Please check to make sure your battery is fully charged or that your Kindle is plugged in using the power adapter. If your Kindle is low on power, the screen may not refresh properly.

If your Kindle rests on one screen for an extended period of time, you may experience ghosting. Often, paging back and forth through a book or the selections on your home screen will help refresh the display.

You may also wish to restart your Kindle to fully refresh the screen:

1. Press the Home key to visit Kindle's Home screen
2. Select "Settings" from the Home screen menu
3. Select "Restart" from the Settings menu

Or you may simply power the Kindle off for 5 minutes.

If this problem persists, please contact us for hardware support at 1-866-321-8851 so we can better determine how to assist you.

Thank you for using Kindle and for shopping at Amazon.com.

Few things make me angrier than being spoken to as if I were stupid. I never questioned the "flash" of "ghosting" and I don't believe that the screen continuing to show a screensaver when the power is completely off is normal.

I told them I couldn't wake it up when it was on so I don't know how they expected me to follow their instructions to refresh the screen. Turning the power off wasn't going to solve anything. I had turned the power off, that's how I knew that the screensaver stayed on even when there was no power.

Clearly they either didn't really read the message I sent describing the problem or it's a rare enough one that they assume since they hadn't heard of this before, I'm too stupid to know what is really happening.

The Kindle is working fine now. I plugged it into the charger and it fixed the problem. I'm glad it took care of it but don't understand why it would. I charged it up fully before the trip, didn't use it for more than a couple of hours, and it still showed a full charge the last time I looked at the screen before it froze up.

It did have one other problem before the screen freeze. Although I know I was in a Sprint area (my phone worked) the Kindle was telling me that it couldn't connect to the store. I went into the "settings" section, didn't change anything, and then it was able to connect.

My son downloaded a book and a couple of samples, read a bit, and then the next time we looked at it, the screen was frozen.

This is the first time since I got the Kindle in early December that I have had any problem at all with it and even now, my biggest complaint is not with the Kindle but with the way their support person ignored what I said was the problem and talked to me as if I didn't know what was going on right in front of me.

For the Sake of Their Other Customers' Health, I Hope the Store Doesn't Apologize

A two-year-old girl was branded a thief by Woolworths staff after she helped herself to a pic 'n' mix sweet during a shopping trip

Isra Khan was with her mother Aishah, 23, when she grabbed the 20p false tooth-shaped sweet from a shelf and popped it into her mouth.

But within moments a member of staff at the store in Blackburn, Lancashire had stormed over to Mrs Khan and, in front of stunned customers, said: 'That's theft.'

The mother thinks that the employee is the one who behaved badly. She doesn't seem to think that there's anything really wrong with her child reaching into a display of unwrapped candy and complained that it was only a "20p sweet" and she didn't know that taking it was wrong.

I don't think that age two is too young to be taught to look and not touch but if this woman thinks her child is too stupid to learn this then why didn't she make sure the children weren't within reach of temptation? Also, one piece of candy may not cost much but if everyone who came in the store felt that way and took a piece it would begin to add up.

When the article quoted her as saying, "'I've got three children aged three and under and you can't have your eyes on each of them every second," I did not think to myself that one must have self control to teach it. Honestly. Never crossed my mind.

NYC Emailer Smells

Glenn Reynolds publishes part of an email:

no shit Mccain leads democrats in TN. Like that is even a question.

Its a fucking southern red neck state. Obama or Hilary would never win that backwater hole.

we in nyc laugh at the south and think you people are pathetic.

It must be tough to think of yourself as so cosmo and still live in hell.

And when you visit NYC we sense your backwaterness. We can smell it a mile away.

When people like this person travel south we don't need any special detective senses; their rudeness and arrogance are overwhelmingly obvious.

Geographical location doesn't make you superior and behaving as if it did is parochial*.

*Having the restricted outlook often characteristic of geographic isolation: insular, limited, local, narrow, narrow-minded, provincial, small-town.

I Get Distracted and Miss the Message

The AMA has an ad campaign about how one out of seven people don't have health insurance. They lost my attention when they got to the part about "a son with a heart ailment". It's not that I don't have sympathy for a family with that kind of medical problems, it's that I was wondering why they even bothered to put a bike helmet on the kid if they weren't going to have him wear it correctly. (They = the AMA and the ad company.)

Okay, I'm cynical enough already that my first thought when I saw this commercial was that the AMA wanted us all insured so that doctors could be sure of being paid. Dumb crap like the bike helmet being worn incorrectly is just an extra annoyance. It looks as though someone wasn't paying attention.

Are Bears Smarter Than Californians?

People buy homes near wilderness areas to get closer to nature and are surprised when nature wants to get close to them.

Loves Dogs

A British performance artist has eaten part of a corgi -- the breed of dog Queen Elizabeth II favors as pets -- to protest the alleged mistreatment of animals by the royal family.

Mark McGowan dined on corgi meatballs Tuesday at a table set up on a London street in hopes of drawing attention to media reports that Prince Philip, the queen's husband, had beaten a fox to death during a hunt. The event was broadcast over a live radio program.

I'm just not following the train of thought that went from suspected animal abuse to "I think I'll eat a dog."

I'm Super Serial

An article in the National Post (Canada) discusses how frequently students are shown the film "An Inconvenient Truth" in school. If this were presented as a lesson in critical thinking - watch the movie, research what is right and what is misleading in it - I would be all for students seeing it. If there is no research or discussion, or the discussion is one-sided, they might as well show another movie that the kids would enjoy for its entertainment value only.

Ignorance of the Law is No Defense (Flagrant Disregard and/or Outright Stupidity Aren't Either)

For many people, a 45-day jail sentence would be a wakeup call to act more responsibly. (For alot of us, the first warning would have been enough.) For Paris Hilton it seems it's just another chance to shift the blame.

In her first public comments since she was handed a 45-day jail sentence for a driving related offense, celebrity heiress Paris Hilton has described her punishment as cruel and unwarranted.

She also fired her spokesman, veteran publicist Elliot Mintz, whom she blamed for getting her into the mess.

Whether or not he perjured himself by testifying that he gave her misinformation is between him and his conscience...I would have included Paris and her conscience too but I'm not sure she has one. She is the one who drove after drinking, she is the one who drove at night without headlights, she is the one who was driving without license plates on her car, and she is the one who failed to attend the court-ordered alcohol education program. She received a warning, signed it, and stuck it in her glove compartment. If she truly believed that her publicist was right (again, assuming their testimonies were truthful) that she was allowed limited driving and the police department was wrong, shouldn't the first thing she should have done was to call her lawyers and have them clear up the problem?

I Was Looking For a Book About Lebanese, Really!

A Bentonville, Ark., man is seeking $20,000 from the city after his two teenage sons found a book on lesbian sex on a public library bookshelf.

He also wants the library director fired.

Earl Adams said his 14- and 16-year-old sons were "greatly disturbed" after finding the book, titled "The Whole Lesbian Sex Book." Adams said the book caused "many sleepless nights in our house."

Books in libraries are arranged by subject so what were they looking for when they found this book? My guess the disturbance and sleepless nights have more to do with getting found out than with what they read.

Want to know if your library has this (or another) book? WorldCat lets you see if a book or other material is available at a library near you.

By His Logic...

Yesterday Michelle Malkin blogged about a columnist who published a list of concealed carry permit holders. The column included this as a reason for sharing this information - "Because the government handles the permitting, it is everyone's business."

If the fact that there is government involvement makes the list worth publishing, I'm looking forward to newspaper publishing a list of all the state's citizens who receive some type of government aid. The people have a right to know!

Spirits Not That Tuned In To Reality

Some conservatives think the president is too easy on illegal immigration but it seems the Mayan spirit guides have another opinion.

'That a person like (Bush), with the persecution of our migrant brothers in the United States, with the wars he has provoked, is going to walk in our sacred lands, is an offense for the Mayan people and their culture,' Juan Tiney, the director of a Mayan nongovernmental organization with close ties to Mayan religious and political leaders, said Thursday.

...Tiney said the 'spirit guides of the Mayan community' decided it would be necessary to cleanse the sacred site of 'bad spirits' after Bush's visit so that their ancestors could rest in peace.

If they are really interested in cleaning, here's a project for them.

Timing is Everything

Watch for the car coming up in the fourth lane from the left.

I Was Wrong, You Need to Apologize

An Islamic civil rights group is calling for an investigation to determine why 40 Muslims were not allowed to board a flight from Germany to Detroit after their pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

Northwest Airlines officials said the passengers arrived too late to catch the flight, but some of the Muslims, appearing at a press conference yesterday with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), called it religious discrimination.

The Muslims arrived at the Frankfurt airport at 7:30 a.m. Jan. 7 on a charter plane from Saudi Arabia. They did not show up at the ticket counter until about 20 minutes before the Detroit-bound Flight 51 left at 10:20 a.m., said Dean Breest, a Northwest Airlines spokesman.

Why don't I have an organization that demands apologies for me when I'm unable or unwilling to follow the rules everyone else must obey?

Fair or Not?

Toys "R" Us Inc. has come under fire for denying a Chinese-American infant a $25,000 savings bond prize in a contest for the New Year's first baby because the girl's mother is not a legal U.S. resident.

...Some Chinese-American advocates say the company's decision smacks of second-class citizenship.

Uh, no. That would be non-citizenship.

Even though the contest rules stated that the mother had to be a legal resident of the U.S. they still held a random drawing to decide among the first three babies entered in the contest.

Do You Think People in Colorado and the Plains States Agree?

So far the winter weather here has been mild. My daughter came home from school yesterday and told me that her teacher said the reason for this is global warming.

Voice of God ET

I like the History Channel but usually change the station when the UFO shows come on. Recently I was watching when "UFOs in the Bible" was broadcast and actually waited a few minutes before looking for another program. I was trying to decide which was more impressive, God leading Moses or aliens traveling across the vast expanse of the universe to help the Jews.

That's Just Dumb

High IQ link to being vegetarian - A Southampton University team found those who were vegetarian by 30 had recorded five IQ points more on average at the age of 10.

Five whole points. Men who were vegetarians scored 106 compared to 101 and women vegetarians scored 104 compared to 99 for non-vegetarians. These are what the BBC considers high scores? A score of 100 is "average" and measurements of IQ are presumed to have a five point margin of error. So, other than showing that the BBC considers IQs within the average range to be "high", I'm not sure what the point of the article is.

Just so you know what passes for intellectual thought at the BBC - "Twenty years after the IQ tests were carried out in 1970, 366 of the participants said they were vegetarian - although more than 100 reported eating either fish or chicken."

He Said, She Said

Chavez said, "Israel often criticizes Hitler ... but they have done the same thing, perhaps even worse."

Marybeth says, "Chavez is an idiot."

Caracas pulled the Venezuelan charge d'affaires out of Israel in early August to protest its operations inside Lebanon, with Chavez charging that Israel "had lost its mind".

I don't agree with that statement either but I have to add that the phrase "it takes one to know one" comes to mind.

Maybe He Just Had a Bad Trip

Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck, just back from his summer vacation, urged fellow Germans Thursday to give up their holidays and save the money for their retirement.

According to the article, "German politicians enjoy healthy pensions" so I guess Steinbrueck doesn't have to make a choice between a vacation now or a comfortable retirement later. The taxpayers who make his vacations and his retirement possible might be thinking that the latter can't come too soon.

Fasting Nuts Segregate Fruits and Vegetables

CodePink "has issued a nationwide call for people to go on at least a partial hunger strike, if only for a few hours, to show their opposition to the war in Iraq."

If they consider not eating for a few hours a sacrifice, they either have a very high metabolism or might want to give a little thought to their normal eating habits.

I checked for more information from codepinkalert.org which sent me to troopshomefast.org which sent me to another site that has a place where you can search for people in your state who joined the fast (just enter the state or narrow it more by adding the city.) Going back to the troopshome site, I didn't find anything about the "few hour fast" but I found some fasting tips.

One (for long-term fasts) that I found particularly odd was "[i]f you decide to make your own drinks from fruits and vegetables, make sure not to mix the two (make drinks only out of fruit or only out of vegetable)." I couldn't think of a health reason not to mix the two so I Googled for an answer. The only things I found were from "Real Magick: The Occult Library" and "Gaia Garden Herbals: Detoxification". Neither would be first (or anywhere) on my list of places to check for health information but I was hoping for a reason, even a poor one. No luck, while both said not to mix fruits and vegetables neither gave a reason.

Unbiased or Unhinged?

Both of my mother's parents died when I was young. I regret that I didn't have a chance to know them better and learn more about their lives but when I read articles like this, I am also sorry that I didn't have the chance to thank them for leaving England and moving to the U.S.

Teaching packs entitled 9/11: The Main Chance, which invite pupils to imagine organising a terrorist attack, have been distributed to schools running the Government’s much-vaunted citizenship classes.

One worksheet asks the pupils to imagine what terrorist targets there are in their neighbourhoods. They have then to suggest what weapons and methods should be used to ensure the most effective results.

At the end of the worksheets, which are funded through the Government’s neighbourhood renewal programmes, a number of links to other terrorism-related articles are listed including one on food terrorism and how fast-food chains, for example, could be attacked. Another article is headlined “How safe is our water?” A series of links to websites on the September 11 atrocity, in which 2,986 people were killed when al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked and crashed four planes, are also listed on the worksheets.

Many of the sites propound outlandish conspiracy theories on the atrocity including the suggestion that the American military shot down flight United 93.

Another link takes pupils to a website which suggests that Dick Cheney, the US Vice-President, directed the attacks, while another “news” website the worksheets encourage pupils to visit includes references to images of Satan appearing in smoke over the Twin Towers on September 11.

Tim Window, one of the creators of 9/11: The Main Chance, said that the packs had been used with great success at a pupil referral unit he works at in East London before they were introduced across the borough of Waltham Forest.

Mr Window denied that the packs were culturally insensitive and said that they were about teaching pupils to bring “impartial and unbiased information” to a subject.

If You Don't Want the World to Know, Don't Post It Online

An art teacher in Texas was escorted out of class after topless photos of her were found online. She was told that she had become an ineffective teacher.

Austen Clements, one of Hoover's students, noted that many artists have nude pictures, including Georgia O'Keeffe.

"If Georgia O'Keeffe wanted to teach at Austin High, I don't think they'd say, 'No, you have nude pictures online,"' Clements said.

I think that if Georgia O'Keeffe wanted to teach at the school the proper response would be, "I'm sorry, we prefer that our teachers have a pulse."

The CNN article referred to the photographer as the teacher's partner. It's difficult to determine anymore whether "partner" is a personal or business relationship but if it's the former I wonder if the fact that the photographer is named Celesta is an unspoken reason that contributed to the teacher's dismissal.

Good Defecation Dynamics

I read about it first at Nanny Knows Best and found more here. Do people really need the government to tell them to "Keep your mouth open as you bulge and widen"?

There is No Magic "Clean Up" Fairy at School (She's Still at Home with Dad)

Michelle Malkin has photos of vandalism at UNC-Chapel Hill's ROTC armory.

No doubt the others who blog about this are writing about the intolerance of the painted messages. I'll leave that to the others and complain about the rest of the mess.

One of the photos shows a pool of paint and several paint cans. I'm waiting for one of the UNC environmental groups to denounce the vandals for improper disposal of paint.

There was also an email message - "Stop these recruitment centers that target poor people and people of color to fight to maintain the power structure that (literally and figuratively) imprisons us daily."

Speaking of targeting, who do they think is most likely to have to clean up their mess? Someone who may or may not agree with the protesters but certainly isn't among the highest paid school employees and doesn't need the extra work of cleaning up the mess.

Self-centered little prats.

Auto Double Check Those "Facts"

The bickering between the Left and Right can get tiresome at the best of times but sometimes it can also provide great entertainment.

This particular episode began when a group at UC Santa Cruz issued a press release with the names and contact information for the group's leaders. Michelle Malkin posted that information on her blog and was attacked by the Left for doing so. Nevermind that the same information was also on some Indymedia sites (you could still see the cached versions yesterday but they're gone today although the Google exerpt in the search listings still shows that information.)

Indymedia (you know, the same site that published the same information) now has a list of addresses belonging to rightwing bloggers. Or not.

Texas Rainmaker checked the addresses and found them to be auto parts stores and repair services. (Link via Right Wing News.) Now, that's entertainment.

Dumbest Headline I've Read Today (So Far)

Moms Debate: To Stay Home or Work?

As if not going out and earning a paycheck is the same as not working.

Scare Call

It's been a long time since I've had a call from a "political awareness" caller-bot but the one I got today makes up for the wait. (I don't like the calls but I do like blogging about them.)

This call told me how Representative Geoff Davis of Kentucky is supporting the Dubai port deal. Not only would this endanger me, it would lead to outsourcing of jobs!

I wish I could remember the name of the group who made the call. They did give me Davis' phone number so I could call him and tell him what I thought about the port deal. I doubt I'll make the call but if I do, it will be to say thanks for not falling victim to the Chicken Little-type over reaction that so many other politicians have.

It's Not About the SOTU, It's About Me!

Yesterday evening just before the State of the Union Address, Cindy Sheehan was removed from the gallery for wearing a protest t-shirt. Truthout has Cindy Sheehan's version of her arrest.

She begins by telling us how busy she was that day and how she hadn't really planned on attending. It sounds as if her wearing the t-shirt was just a matter of a lack of time for preparation.

Or stupidity.

I was never told that I couldn't wear that shirt into the Congress. I was never asked to take it off or zip my jacket back up.

Who knew that t-shirts weren't appropriate attire? I mean, everytime I see the Senate on C-SPAN they're all, um, well they're all in business attire...but this is different, it's a special occasion. Removing the shirt at that point would not have been wise. There are some things that even Senators don't deserve to be exposed to.

But then she says, I wore the shirt to make a statement. The press knew I was going to be there, and I thought every once in awhile they would show me, and I would have the shirt on. I did not wear it to be disruptive, or I would have unzipped my jacket during George's speech. If I had any idea what happens to people who wear shirts that make the neocons uncomfortable, that I would be arrested ... maybe I would have, but I didn't.

So it really wasn't a lack of time because her decision to attend was a last minute thing. She wanted to be seen on TV wearing that shirt but played her hand too early.

Update: The wife of Rep. C.W. Bill Young, R-Indian Shores, told a newspaper that she was ejected during the State of the Union address for wearing a T-shirt that says, "Support the Troops Defending Our Freedom."

While I prefer her message to that of Sheehan's (2245 Dead), I still believe that this was not the appropriate time or place for wearing a t-shirt of any kind. For those that think we shouldn't concern ourselves with rules of etiquette, sloganeering and protesting in the Capitol is also against the law.

That's Dumb

CNN Money has the 101 Dumbest Moments in Business for 2005. Below are some of my favorites:

16. A bad idea for an ad but I bet it would make a top selling poster - Mary Foerster, spokeswoman for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems says, "We consider the ad offensive, regret its publication, and apologize to those who, like us, are dismayed with its contents." about an ad in the Sept. 24 issue of National Journal that depicts the CV-22 Osprey in an assault on a mosque accompanied by copy that reads, "It descends from the heavens. Ironically it unleashes hell."

20. British regulators block an ad showing women drinking sparkling wine and trying to hook a good-looking man with a fishing pole because it associates drinking with sex. It's remade using a less attractive man. The girls all look prettier at closing time and the men all look better after a few glasses of wine.

20. WPP Group's worldwide creative director, Neil French, says there aren't more female creative directors "because they're crap" and they eventually "wimp out" and "go off and suckle something." He later resigns. It isn't so much his being an idiot that I found interesting but the Wikipedia entry list of his other career choices before he went into marketing: matador, pornographer, debt collector and as well as the agent of the heavy metal band Judas Priest.

34. A Wal-Mart ad asks, "Should we let government tell us what we can read? Of course not ... So why should we allow local government to limit where we shop?" The ad is illustrated with a vintage photo of Nazi supporters throwing books into a bonfire. Wal-Mart later apologizes, saying it had not appreciated the photo's "historical context." In spite of comparing the local government to Nazis, Wal-Mart is sitll vilified by many on the Left. There's just no pleasing some people.

43. Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy, "We're grabbing that word and saying, of anybody, we own the word 'share.'" And I guess these are part of his company's code of conduct.

53. I don't think that word means what you think it means. San Francisco radio station KYCY announces it's switching to an all Podcast format. The "podcasts" are to be broadcast over the airwaves but are not made available for downloading.

87. BBC television decides to do a documentary about Bob Marley and sends an email to the Bob Marley Foundation asking for an interview. Their previous documentary was about Queen. Something tells me that Freddie Mercury and Bob Marley were equally uncooperative about granting interviews.

You Could Be an Artist!

Man Claims Public Urination Was Performance Art

God's Not Mad but Ray Nagin Might Be

According to New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin, God is mad at America for being in Iraq.

From the looks of this list of major hurricanes, typhoons, cyclones, and other storms, God has been quite peeved with several countries. If storms are divine retribution then Bangladesh must be the country that He finds most irksome.

It would be nice if our weather was limited to warm sunshine and gentle rains but it doesn't work that way. In some places, at some times the warm sunshine becomes arid unrelenting heat and the gentle rains become violent killing storms. God isn't punishing anyone but if you elect politicians who fail to plan for emergencies or fail to carry out plans then you may just end up punishing yourself.

Wouldn't a Bolt of Lightning Been More Effective?

Robertson suggests God smote Sharon: Evangelist links Israeli leader's stroke to 'dividing God's land'

An old man has a stroke and it's punishment from God?

According to The Associated Press, Robertson spokeswoman Angell Watts said of people who criticized the comments: "What they're basically saying is, 'How dare Pat Robertson quote the Bible?'"

No. What I'm saying is, how can Robertson presume to know the mind of God?

I'll Be Watching NUMB3RS Anyway

NBC is introducing a new show tomorrow night, The Book of Daniel. Two affiliate stations have decided not to air the show due to complaints about portrayal of Christianity.

The network stands by the series, according to Vivi Zigler, executive vp current programming at NBC Entertainment, who cautioned not to judge the series on the basis of promotions for the show.

"People are reacting based on not having seen it," she said. "They're seeing the advertising, not seeing what the core of the show is."

Isn't advertising supposed to make a product more appealing? It sounds as though she is saying that the commercials for the show misrepresent it as being more offensive than it really is.

Update: More about the show from the San Francisco Chronicle here. It does a good job of covering all the things that many people have found offensive about it but the article neglects to mention the one thing that will irritate everyone else...are you sitting down...it has to do with the gay son...no, it's not his sexual preference...he's (gasp) a Republican! A TV show character who is a Republican and isn't also (as far as I can tell from the articles about the show) a neo-nazi, psychotic killer, or _____________ (fill in your favorite stereotype).

But It's Haaaard!

Dear High School Seniors,

If the SAT is so long that it is a burden to take, maybe you need to rethink your plans for college.

It's true that 3 hours and 45 minutes is a long time for a test but it is about the same amount of time you would spend in one day at a part-time job. If you can't handle concentrating that long, how will you cope with college and the careers that a college degree will open up for you?

If you think that the addition of a 45-minute writing section makes the whole test time too stressful, then I both envy and pity you. I'm envious that so little has been demanded of you that spending just under four hours showing what you learned in school is considered so stressful. I feel sorry for you for the same reason.

It may be long, it may be tedious, but this test isn't a surprise. You have (or should have) been preparing for it all during high school. Compared to the things that can happen with no warning once you're out on your own, this is simply an inconvenience.

Amateur Comic's Joke Bombs

Southwest flight aborted near LA after bomb 'joke'

A man aged 25 to 30-years-old was taken into custody after joking about having a bomb in his luggage. Las Vegas, the destination of the flight, is probably sad to see this happen. Anyone stupid enough to joke like this man did would be dumb enough to lose all his money and take out loans for more to lose the first night there.

Maybe If She Wore an Armband...

Yesterday I wrote about a student at a local university who has been wearing a neo-Nazi armband to classes. Several students and (it would seem) the university consider this free speech.

Today I read an article about Ann Coulter's speech at the University of Connecticut that was ended early because of heckling from the crowd.

Coulter's appearance prompted protests from several groups, including Students Against Hate and the Puerto Rican/Latin American Cultural Center. They criticized her for spreading a message of hate and intolerance.

Does this make sense to anyone?

Presumed Guilty

Air New Zealand and Qantas have banned men from sitting next to unaccompanied children on flights, sparking accusations of discrimination.

The airlines have come under fire for the policy that critics say is political correctness gone mad after a man revealed he was ordered to change seats during a Qantas flight because he was sitting next to a young boy travelling alone.

Adults who prey on children are the among the lowest of the low but presuming that any random man who is seated next to a child is dangerous is just plain wrong. As a woman, it's not offensive, but certainly unappealing, to think that I could be placed next to children to be an unofficial babysitter.

If airlines are going to accept unaccompanied children as passengers, it's up to them to care for the children without discriminating against or placing a burden upon other passengers.

Unless they want to upgrade me to first class. Then I'll be happy to watch over the little darlings. I'll even bring a book to read aloud.

First Europe, Now Venezuela

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has urged families not to mark Halloween, calling it a US custom* alien to the South American nation.

...Mr Chavez said Halloween was part of the US culture of "putting fear into other nations, putting fear into their own people".

I know what he means. I'm already trembling in fear just thinking about the army of little Spidermen, Princess Barbies, Jedi, Power Rangers, ninjas, and pirates that will be coming round this evening. I'm afraid I won't have any of my favorite candy left over and be stuck with raiding the stuff my kids bring home.

*Halloween began as a Celtic custom and was brought to the U.S. in the 1800s by Irish immigrants. It's now a celebration for the candy industry ($2 billion in annual sales for the holiday).

Who Needs Cromwell's Help?

Prince Charles adds one more item to the list of things that make one question his place as a (future) monarch.

From Outside the Beltway - Prince Charles is coming to the United States this week to argue that Islam is better than we think.

The Prince, who leaves on Tuesday for an eight-day tour of the US, has voiced private concerns over America's "confrontational" approach to Muslim countries and its failure to appreciate Islam's strengths.

It's so considerate of him to come here and explain things to ignorant Americans. Has it occured to him that our "confrontational" approach to terrorists is not a response to Islam but rather their hijacking of the faith? Instead of explaining to us that there are millions of law-abiding Muslims, explain why these millions are not voicing outrage that terrorists are using their faith as an excuse for murder and oppression.

"I had rather have a plain, russet-coated Captain, that knows what he fights for, and loves what he knows, than that which you call a Gentle-man and is nothing else" - Oliver Cromwell

Weird AND Stupid

A former nursing home worker has filed a $9 million federal lawsuit against an upstate county, claiming she's suffered mental anguish and needs anti-anxiety medication after being forced to prove she was wearing a bra at work.

Karen Tenney claims in the lawsuit against Essex County that a supervisor at the Horace Nye Nursing Home where she worked placed her hand on the back of Tenney's sweater to feel for a bra clasp.

When a clasp wasn't found, Tenney, a dietary aide, pulled up her sweater to show she was wearing a black sports bra. The move triggered other workers inside the dietary unit to show off the bras they were wearing.

The supervisor should have handled this privately but it's still not worth $9 million.

The Brady Campaign Must Think Brits Are Fools

Florida tourists warned that locals could shoot them

The Brady Campaign to Control Gun Violence, based in Washington DC, has pledged to "educate" tourists by placing adverts in US cities, and in key overseas markets such as Britain.

"Warning: Florida residents can use deadly force," says one of the adverts. Another reads: "Thinking about a Florida vacation? Please ensure your family is safe. In Florida, avoid disputes. Use special caution in arguing with motorists on Florida roads."

The warning might be valid for anyone who was planning on going to Florida to commit a violent crime. Regular tourists, no.

Cindy and the Other Woman (Rita)

Cindy Sheehan commenting on Daily Kos: i am watching cnn and it is 100 percent rita...even though it is a little wind and a little rain...it is bad, but there are other things going on in this country today...and in the world!!!! (Did she misunderstand when she heard someone say that capitalism is bad and think that they meant capital letters?)

So what do you do when you aren't getting the attention you think you deserve? Get arrested!

Interviewer Makes Ass of Self

The radio was on the local public station when I picked up Trevor from marching band practice yesterday evening. As we drove home they were airing an interview with a woman who had left New Orleans after the hurricane. I wasn't paying much attention at first. It was the typical interview - bad there, better here.

He started talking about whether her family planned on going back and repair/rebuild. Then he began questioning whether they had insurance and talked about the financial paperwork and red tape that returning would bring. He said something about how it would all be confusing, even to someone with an MBA.

This is when I began paying more attention. She told him that her sister has an MBA and she is just three hours away from earning hers. Trying to recover (but digging in deeper), he supposed that her neighbors weren't as fortunate to have well-educated people in their families.

She educated him. Her neighborhood (9th Ward), she told him, is one of black professionals. Well-educated. Business leaders.

I haven't yet decided if the interviewer assuming that since she is black and an evacuee that she must be poor and uneducated is racist, elitist, or just plain ignorant. I don't want to make assumptions like that about someone I don't know.

If You Only Buy Books for Dummies...

I get several emails that pretend to come from well-known companies but are really scams every day. Most just get deleted but this one was so bad it made me laugh, especially the part where they have Xs for the whole credit card number (for my security, of course). Who's the target here? People who buy books but don't have a basic grasp of language and grammar?

Dear Amazon member,

We regret to inform you that your Amazon account was been suspended for a period of 3-4 days,after that it will be terminated.
During our regularly schedule account maintenance and verification we have detected a slight error in your billing information on file with Amazon.
This might be due to either following reasons:

- A recent change in your personal information (i.e. change of address)
- Submitting invalid information during the initial sign up process.
- An inability to accurately verify your selected option of payment due an internal error within processors.

Your credit card on file with Amazon

Card number: XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX (Not shown for security purposes) Expiration date: XX/XX

Please sign in to your Amazon account and update your billing information:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/css/homepage.html (Ed. - actual link goes to - http://phaeton.webserversystems.com/~euro/amazon/amazon/index.html)

If your account information is not update, your account on Amazon will be terminated.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you for your time!
Amazon.com Security Departament

Information about email spoofing from Amazon.com.

Free Speech is a Right, Not a Privilege

The shock, the outrage! Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit said "that demonizing the ACLU is a bit silly". And he admitted to working with them! Now some blogs are dropping their links to him.

Now, I will admit that I think that some of the people and groups that the ACLU has represented are bad people. Even evil people. I have mocked them for it. I have expressed wonder that they can stand to associate with these people. I also know that if I or anyone in my family were arrested over a free speech issue one of the first calls I would make would be to the ACLU.

You don't have to like everything the ACLU does or everyone they represent to appreciate the value of what they do. I couldn't do it, but as long as they're out there making sure that some wacko nut case (technical term for "ACLU client") has the right to speak about whatever idiocy he's promoting, I know that my right to speak out against him, or even ignore him, is secure.

I think it's better to let people who want to say things that are stupid, evil, or just plain wrong say them in public. It gives the rest of us a chance to point out how and why these things are stupid, evil, and wrong. Suppressing speech doesn't stop it, it just makes bad ideas harder to fight.

Vile and Disgusting II

Westboro Baptist Church members have been protesting at funerals again.

The Rev. Fred Phelps, founder of Westboro Baptist in Kansas, contends that American soldiers are being killed in Iraq as vengeance from God for protecting a country that harbors gays. The church, which is not affiliated with a larger denomination, is made up mostly of Phelps' children, grandchildren and in-laws.

The church members carried signs and shouted things such as "God hates fags" and "God hates you."

Isn't there a point where their right to free speech crosses the line and becomes harrassment?

As for their gospel of hate, they may want to reread 1 John 4:8 - He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

Previous related post here.

Maybe They Just Don't Like Idaho

The California Attorney General has filed a lawsuit "has filed a lawsuit to force top makers of potato chips and french fries to warn consumers about a potential cancer-causing chemical found in the popular snacks."

The suit asks manufacturers [see extended entry] of these products [potato chips and similar potato products] to identify the dangers of high levels of acrylamide, a chemical that studies have found is created when starchy foods are cooked at high heat.

Studies found that starchy foods cooked at high temperatures contain low levels of acrylamide. High doses of this appear to cause cancer in laboratory animals. It has not been shown to have the same results on people who consume it at much lower levels.

Acrylamide is found in baked, fried or roasted foods including french fries, potato chips, "roasted asparagus, canned sweet potatoes and pumpkin, canned black olives, roasted nuts, coffee, roasted grain-based coffee substitutes, prune juice, breakfast cereals, crackers, cookies, breads, and toast."

Basically California is asking that potato products with a low level of acrylamide carry a warning about high levels of acrylamide. Other products and potato products made by smaller companies doesn't seem to be part of the lawsuit.

I know that because I'm from a red state in the south that it's God's will due to natural selection I'll never be as smart as those California folks. When they want to get something done, they don't let facts or lack of evidence get in the way. I might have said "don't feed your pet solely on a diet of potato chips and french fries", but I wouldn't have even done that, it seems fairly obvious already.

Defendents in the lawsuit:

Burger King Corporation, french fries
Cape Cod Potato Chips, Inc./Lance, Inc. (parent company), Cape Cod potato chips
Frito-Lay, Inc./PepsiCo, Inc., Lay’s potato chips/Lay’s baked potato chips
H.J. Heinz, Inc., Ore-Ida frozen potato products
Kettle Foods, Inc., Kettle Chips
KFC Corporation, KFC Potato Wedges
McDonald’s Corporation, french fries
Procter & Gamble Distributing Co./Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Co., Pringles
Wendy’s International, Inc., french fries

The Truth Hurts

A woman was offended when her doctor told her that she needed to loose weight. She filed a complaint. The New Hampshire Attorney General's office suggested "that he attend a medical education course and acknowledge that he made a mistake."

The article only gives his side of how the conversation with the patient went - You need to get on a program, join a group of like-minded people and peel off the weight that is going to kill you.

That doesn't sound offensive but who knows what he actually said. Even if it wasn't put diplomatically, how can a doctor giving standard, accepted health advise be considered "a mistake"?

Ministry of Reshelving

If you can't find a copy of 1984 in the fiction section of your local bookstore it may be that the books have been reshelved by the Ministry of Reshelving. Try looking in the sections for current events, politics, history, true crime, or current non-fiction.

Photos of the reshelved books are being posted at Flickr.

This idea opens up many possibilities. I'm sure it wouldn't take long for those at the other end of the political spectrum to think of a few titles that could be relocated. I don't think this is going to happen though. Why create more work for the bookstore employees?

The Ministry of Reshelving has asked that people do this only once per bookstore. In a radio interview, one person said that they weren't unsympathetic to bookstore workers but since they already have to reshelve so many books each day, a few more wouldn't matter.

Maybe it won't matter but I think that it isn't my place to create time-wasting, nonproductive work for someone else.

Austin Community College

A decorated Marine enrolling in college was shocked to learn his Texas driver's license, car registration and bank records weren't enough to get the lower resident tuition rates.

Carl Basham said officials at Austin Community College recently told him that he lost his Texas resident's status because of the years he spent out of state on two tours of duty in Iraq.

Not having the in-state designation would mean paying around $2600 a semester in tuition, instead of about $500.

The school's response surprised the 27-year-old Beeville native, who is registered to vote in Travis County, has a Texas driver's license and does his banking in Austin.

Officials at the college said that Basham didn't meet state requirements as determined by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. A school spokeswoman says privacy laws prevent prevented her from commenting on his case.

According to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board members of the military are "presumed to maintain the same domicile that was in effect at the time of entering service" (pdf link). This might make a difference if he had gone to Texas from another state but since the article refers to him as a Beeville (TX) native that doesn't seem to be the case. There are more rules governing military but without more information it's hard to tell which, if any, apply here.

If only he had gotten arrested instead of enlisting. Inmates of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice are considered residents for tuition purposes.

FedEx is Stupid

From a Wired News article: This guy built some furniture out of FedEx boxes. He took pictures and posted them on his website.

I think most people would look at this and think, wow, those are some strong boxes. They would remember this the next time they needed to ship something. FedEx looked at the site and told the guy to take it down. They claimed it was a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, that he "clearly intended to operate a business from his website because he used the .com domain suffix, and that his site violated the Terms of Use of fedex.com.

fedex.com is provided solely for the use of current and potential FedEx customers to interact with FedEx and may not be used by any other person or entity, or for any other purpose.

If they were concerned that he might sell something from the site, they should have written and asked what his intentions were. As it is now, those "potential FedEx customers" might be thinking about whether or not they want to do business with a bully who turned what could have been good publicity into bad.

Beer Money

In April, Anheuser-Busch Co. -- based in St. Louis, Missouri -- wrote a $5,000 check intended for the state Republican Party.

Instead, the envelope was addressed to the state Democratic Party, which promptly deposited the money.

...Democrats say they have sent a refund check back to Anheuser-Busch: "Nobody should expect us to write a check to the Republican Party," said Lachlan McIntosh, the Democratic Party's executive director.

The article doesn't answer my question, what bank would allow someone to deposit a check made out to someone else without that other person's (or in this case party's) endorsement?

And yes, Mr. McIntosh, unless there was a reason other than childish petulance, I would expect someone who had received a check by mistake to immediately forward the funds to the person/party for whom they had been intended as soon as the mistake was discovered.

Vile and Disgusting

"Members of the Rev. Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., are picketing military funerals."

"The first sin was being a part of this military. If this young man had a clue and any fear of God, he would have run, and not walked, from this military," said protester Shirley Phelps-Roper. "Who would serve a nation that is godless and has flipped off, defiantly defied, defiantly flipped off, the Lord their God?"

One protester had an American flag tied to his belt that draped to the ground. He was holding a sign that read, "Thank God For IEDs," which are explosive devices used by insurgents to blow up military convoys.

Phelps-Roper is the daughter of Fred Phelps. Her father began as a lawyer and civil rights activist but is now best known for being an idiot. (My blog, my opinion.)

Wikipedia entry for Westboro Baptist Church.

Photo of Shirley Phelps-Roper at an anti-gay protest.

"I'm Sorry You Misunderstood" Isn't an Apology

Michelle Malkin posted a copy of a letter that Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll is sending to the family of the marine whose funeral she attended. From the letter, I gather she was not only not invited to attend, she also got there late or just as the services started. ("I unfortunately, did not arrive at the church services for SSGT Goodrich’s funeral in time to offer my personal condolences to you.") I don't know if her tardiness is part of her typical behavior or if she was just trying to avoid leaving enough time for her to get tossed out be politely asked to leave before the service began.

An apology should say, "I was wrong. I'm sorry." Does anyone care whether she was "incredibly upset" when she heard the press report? Or that she is saddened and upset that they misunderstood her intentions? Blaming the family for not interpreting her meaning correctly isn't an apology.

I try to teach my kids that an excuse isn't the same thing as an apology. If they have misbehaved or there is a misunderstanding, I may want to hear what led up to it but when they are apologizing (usually to a sibling) that information is irrelevant. Say you're sorry. Say it wasn't your intention for this to happen. Whatever you say, take responsibility for the result of your actions.

The post also notes that the Lt. Gov. won't be responding to constituents who have complained. Excuse me? I thought she worked for them. Try not responding to your employer's complaints about your behavior sometime and see how well that works.

CBC: Can't Begin to Comprehend

CBC Watch reprints a memo that was distributed to CBC staff about the use of the word "terrorism".

Avoid labelling any specific bombing or other assault as a "terrorist act" unless it's attributed (in a TV or Radio clip, or in a direct quote on the Web). For instance, we should refer to the deadly blast at that nightclub in Bali in October 2002 as an "attack," not as a "terrorist attack." The same applies to the Madrid train attacks in March 2004, the London bombings in July 2005 and the attacks against the United States in 2001, which the CBC prefers to call "the Sept. 11 attacks" or some similar expression. (The BBC, Reuters and many others follow similar policies.)

Terrorism generally implies attacks against unarmed civilians for political, religious or some other ideological reason. But it's a highly controversial term that can leave journalists taking sides in a conflict.

Don't take sides. People might think you are biased against mass-murdering terrorists. Even worse, they might think you have morals.

Rather than calling assailants "terrorists," we can refer to them as bombers, hijackers, gunmen (if we're sure no women were in the group), militants, extremists, attackers or some other appropriate noun.

I've got some appropriate nouns (with very descriptive adjectives too).

I've Got an Idea for a Label

A consumer group wants to put warning labels "on soft drinks to alert consumers that too much of the sugary beverages can make people fat and cause other health problems."

Soft drinks. Soda pop. If you really need a label to tell you that it isn't a healthful drink maybe you shouldn't be allowed out without a "stupid" label.

Loose Cannon Ball Express

Recently I said that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes were not news. I still think that their courtship belongs more in the tabloids than it does on prime time news but I'm beginning to reconsider whether or not Cruise is newsworthy. I think he is...kind of like a one man train wreck.

It's horrible watching destruction like that but so hard to look away.

Part of me wants to give him the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps he is so anti-medication because he is reacting to a culture around him which believes there's a pill to cure everything. Obviously drugs can be misused and abused but that doesn't mean the same drugs can't have benefits when used properly.

The other part of me wishes he weren't so against psychiatry and psychiatric medication because, in my unprofessional opinion, he could use their help. Acting manic and confrontational isn't a rational way to convert people to your way of thinking.

Maybe he's afraid a doctor would ask him if his real problem with Brooke Shields isn't her use of antidepressants but that she's 5" taller than he is.

I Thought Children Quit Throwing Food When They Grew Up

Obviously growing up isn't the same as maturing.

Pie throwing has to be one of the stupidest ways to protest something. Assault is a bad idea to begin with, but wasting a perfectly good pie too? Not good at all.

Medlin said he threw the pie as a protest of what he calls "superficial dialogue with no real chance for debate."

Not that protesting with food is a totally bad idea. I think that if I wanted to protest a speaker I would have everyone in my group bring cotton candy. If we thought the speaker's statements were all fluff (superficial dialogue) we could wave our cotton candy in the air. The rest of the time, just having the group sitting/standing there eating cotton candy would show we think the speech has no more to offer than a carnival sideshow. (I'm not implying that I would have protested William Kristol's speech, my complaints about lack of substance would probably be aimed at someone from the other end of the political spectrum.)

At least with my idea I could have my cake cotton candy and eat it too.

The pie-throwing protestor was arrested again on Saturday following a protest against the expansion of I-69. (More on this protest which included spray painting slogans on the statehouse.)

Michelle Malkin has comments on the pie throwing and a link to the video.

Lake Disappears

Just imagine if the U.S. had the power and technology that some people believe we do.

At least no one is blaming global warming. Yet.

****

We're having thunderstorm warnings where I live and there are tornado warnings elsewhere in Kentucky. Will someone please call Karl Rove and tell him the weather machine needs adjusting?

GIGO

A few people will be racking up some frequent flyer miles at bargain rates. U.S. Airways mistakenly sold tickets for a few cities at $1.86 plus fees. They're blaming this on a "computer glitch".

It made me think about how willing people are to blame errors on computers. We didn't make a mistake, it's the computer's fault! Would this work with any other machine? If it's a nice day and I somehow drive to the park instead of work, will my boss believe that it was due to a "car glitch"?

At Least It's Not My Tax Money

Sir Ian Blair, the new Metropolitan Police Commissioner, has ordered that the force's motto be changed, at a cost of many thousands of pounds, because the old one featured joined-up writing that "discriminated against short-sighted people".

I'm myopic and would like to argue with him on his use of the term "short-sighted". I may not be able to see well at a distance without glasses or contact lenses but as long as I can recognize a police car, that's enough. I don't really care what the logo says (he also changed the motto from "Working for a safer London" to "Working together for a safer London") or if I can read all the print. Spending the money on this rather than on salaries, training, or anything that would actually help the officers do their jobs is what I would call "short-sighted".

I'll assume that our different uses of this term are a British/American thing but I still think it's an assinine way to spend their funds. Do you really need a change in the logo/motto to tell you that this is a police car?

(Original photo from FreeFoto.com. It has been cropped and resized for faster page download.)

eBay Warning Email

Or not. It appears to be from "nobody" (see the extended entry). If you receive an email like this, don't fall for it. It's a big enough problem that eBay even has a Spoof Tutorial.

I've received a few spoof emails and I thought it was fairly obvious that they weren't from eBay but I also know that there are people who have been fooled by them. If you receive an email asking you to verify information, assume it's a spoof. If you want to make sure that the company (eBay users aren't the only targets of this type of email) really doesn't need information from you, go to that company's site the way you normally do - NOT BY CLICKING THE LINK IN THE EMAIL. If you still aren't sure, find the contact info on the site and ask them to verify the need for information.

Here is the email I received. My comments are in brackets [].

Dear eBay Member,

Due to recent account takeovers and unauthorized listings [Done by people who send out spoof emails like this one], eBay is introducing a new account verification method. From time to time, randomly selected accounts (seller and/or buyer) are subjected to an advanced verification process based on our merchant accounts/bank relations and customers credit card. eBay may also request in an email message scanned/faxed copies of one or more photo ID's. [Note to scum sucking person who is trying to steal account info - "ID" isn't possessive so you don't need an apostrophe.] Your account confirmation may go wrong if your credit card/bank account is expired, or if you have changed your credit card number, billing address etc. without notifying us about the change. Subject of this verification process are also the accounts that have unpaid dues to eBay.
Your account is not suspended, but if in 48 hours after you receive this message your account is not confirmed we reserve the right to suspend your eBay registration. If you received this notice and you are not the authorized account holder, please be aware that it is in violation of eBay policy to represent oneself as another eBay user. [Gee, what does the law say about representing oneself as eBay security?] Such action may also be in violation of local, national, and/or international law. eBay is committed to assist law enforcement with any inquires [Don't you mean inquiries?] related to attempts to misappropriate personal information with the intent to commit fraud or theft. Information will be provided at the request of law enforcement agencies to ensure that perpetrators are prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Note: If this is the second time you receive this notice, it might be because you have made a mistake when you entered your details or that the account was not updated at all. [I received the same email sent three minutes apart...does that count as a "second time"? Don't hold your breath waiting for me to respond.]

To confirm your identity with us click here:
http://signin.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayIsession.dll?userconfirm&ssPageName=h?-fom:sin_US [Actual link you can see with mouse over - http://www.cryptography.ch/image/ebay/index.html]

We apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause you and we would like to thank you for your cooperation as we review this matter.

Respectfully,
Trust and Safety Department
eBay Inc.

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What Not to Wear to School

Two news stories where students weren't allowed in the schools because of what they were wearing:

Boy in a Santa suit asked to quit dance (link via Political Correctness Watch)

A seventh-grade boy was not allowed to attend a school party because he was dressed as Santa.

"It was a holiday party," said Muscara [the school principal]. "It was not a Christmas party. There is a separation of church and state. We have a lot of students that go to Hampton Academy Junior High that have different religions. We have to be sensitive to that."

Let's all take a moment to be sensitive to the idea that this prinicpal is an idiot who doesn't really understand "separation of church and state".

His parents are asking for an apology - "The last time I checked, Christmas was the celebration of the birth of Christ and not Santa Claus," Leslie said. "I want them to make an apology to my son. My son was humiliated."

Confederate flag prom dress sparks suit

A girl was kept from attending her prom because she was "wearing a red dress styled as a Confederate battle flag." She was told before the dance not to wear it but says she had no other, so she wore it anyway hoping administrators would change their minds.

They didn't, the prinicpal and two police officers met her outside the school. She's bringing a lawsuit asking for over $50,000.

Both students were given the option of attending after changing their clothing. The boy did so but his principal showed a careless lack of regard for the boy's safety by sending him out of the school after he had been dropped off by his mother. The school had already had a PTA sponsored Santa breakfast so the demand that the boy change seems arbitrary.

There was no mention of the costume being a possible security issue. Because the Santa beard covers much of the boy's face, I would have accepted that as a reason to request its removal...but I don't see any cause to demand that he change completely.

As for the girl attending the prom...the whole thing seems a bit off to me. How did school officials know she was planning on wearing that dress? Did she bring it to their attention ahead of time, knowing it would be controversial? I have a hard time believing the principal and police officers meet all students as they come in.

She says she designed it to show pride in her southern heritage. To me, it sounds more disrespectful of the flag she claims to be honoring.

From what I've read about this case, I tend to side more with the school. I don't necessarily agree that she shouldn't have been allowed to wear the dress but once she was told that it wasn't permitted, she should have either accepted that decision, or, choosing to wear it anyway, accepted the consequences.

It does make me wonder where you draw the line at what could offend others. Some people view the Confederate flag as a symbol of the South. Others see it as a symbol of slavery. Some see clothing that bears arms, legs, midriffs, cleavage, or other body parts as fashionable. Others may be offended. Once you begin disallowing something out of fear of offending someone, where do you stop?

University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point

(Link via Right Wing News)

If a high school student wrote something about assaulting and killing students the likely results could include arrest and expulsion. The context doesn't matter. After Columbine any speech of this type is presumed to be a threat.

When someone at a college - no, not a student, a lecturer named Pat Rothfuss - writes about "punching smug-looking Republicans in the mouth", "key every car you see with a Bush bumper sticker", and "why don't you go on a killing spree?..." it's called humor.

"His columns make fun of a variety of people and groups, he said, and oftentimes students find the column hilarious until their group is the target of the column's satirical ridicule."

What is this, the Henry Higgins defense? ("The question is not whether I treat you rudely, but whether you ever heard me treat anyone else better." - Pygmalion)

I'm not questioning his right to free speech, nor do I think that students need to be protected from opposing opinions. I do wonder about the wisdom of a university that allows a member of its faculty to make students a target of "satirical ridicule".

If you are a high school senior or a parent of one and you agree with the ideas Rothfuss stated, then UWSP may be the school for you. On the otherhand, if you are conservative and prefer intellectual stimulation to ridicule, you may want to look elsewhere.

Update: Allan tells me a similar thing happened at the university nearest to where I live, my alma mater, the University of Louisville.

What can I say? I don't watch much local news and don't often read the Courier-Journal. Especially this past week....

In an interview last week, McTighe acknowledged that he made comments Nov. 4 similar to those cited in a conservative student newspaper and on the association's [American Family Association] Web site that conservative voters should be shot with automatic rifles.

But he said that the comments were later taken out of context and that he was not calling for violence.

I can't wait to hear that explanation.

There are differences in the two events. The comments attributed to McTighe appear to have been made to just his class. Rothfuss' were made in a student newspaper.

UofL President James Ramsey said, "The quote attributed to Professor McTighe is unacceptable and not an issue of academic freedom." McTighe's contract has been withdrawn for the spring semester pending a review. Rothfuss' response was another satirical article and UWSP has done what?

People who teach are in a position of trust. Some will abuse that by using it as a forum for pushing their opinions. What is telling is how the school reacts.

PC Police Cancel Halloween Parties

A school district has cancelled Halloween parties this year. If you're thinking that the district is probably in the southern U.S. and is concerned about Halloween being the "devil's day" guess again.

The district is in Washington state and listed three reasons for cancelling school parties:

1. They waste valuable classtime.
2. Some families can't afford costumes and this would be embarassing for the children.
3. Children dressed in witch costumes might be offensive to real witches.

They made the announcement on Wednesday and I have doubts about how valuable any classtime is going to be while the kids are resentful that their expected parties have been cancelled.

Parties usually take about half an hour. The kids have a chance to relax and socialize. Guidance counselors talk to classes about getting along with each other so what's wrong with actually allowing the students an opportunity to interact outside the normal classroom structure? It's only a waste of time if you lack the vision to see the possiblities.

Objections 2 & 3 could have been handled by having the children design their own costumes in art class. Some construction paper, tissue paper, crepe paper, yarn, and whatever other supplies are handy could be used to create unique costumes. It doesn't have to be perfect, just fun.

The schools could limit the types of costumes:
Harvest/fall related - scarecrows, pumpkins, or a tree with multi-colored leaves.
Animals - This could be done simply by making a mask, ears, and tail. It would also be easy to tie into different areas of study.

Of course, that would require imagination, something this district's administration seems to be lacking. Maybe imagination isn't politically correct.

Because You're Too Dumb to Think for Yourself

Jonathan Freedland of The Guardian says, "US policy now affects every citizen on the planet. So we should all have a say in who gets to the White House"

In order to give a voice to UK citizens, they are emailing out the names and addresses of voters registered in Clark County, Ohio. Actually, they'll give them out to anyone. The program doesn't check the IP location of the person requesting the name and address nor does it only send them to email addresses with a .uk extension.

I got one for someone living on Allison Avenue in Springfield, Ohio.

The person who writes the best letter can win a trip to Clark County. To be eligible for the prize you must be a UK resident and must follow the terms and conditions set forth in the email. For example:

"2. Your letter must be courteous and polite. It must not contain any material which is obscene, libellous, offensive, illegal or which may bring the Guardian into disrepute."

Some of us might argue that The Guardian's attempt to influence voters in the U.S. already brings them into (further) disrepute.

Here is an excerpt from one letter:

I would also be alarmed by your president's breathtaking disregard for the environment, demonstrated by his pulling out of the Kyoto agreement to stem global warming, a phenomenon that may well be the cause of the freak hurricanes that lashed Florida in recent weeks.

Yep, that's right. George W.Bush is to blame for the hurricanes. Don't tell Jeb, it would totally ruin any plans the family might have to get together for Thanksgiving.

John Le Carré is sending a letter. I wonder how long before it shows up on eBay.

According to the Springfield News-Sun (reg. req. so the article is also in the extended entry):

Linda Rosicka, director of the Board of Elections, said The Guardian paid $25 for a “flat file,” a list of all registered voters in the county. Purchasers can extract whatever segment of voters they want, she said, and anyone can buy the list. “We’re still waiting for their check,” she said of The Guardian. Normally, the lists are pay-in-advance, she said."

Makes worrying about providing personal information on the Internet kind of pointless when your local election board is selling the same information to anyone who asks for it.

Not only is it presumptuous for them to attempt to influence American voters, they stole the idea.

Brits want to give you some advice
Thursday October 14, 2004
by Michelle Everhart

Readers of a British newspaper have been invited to write Clark County voters with the aim of persuading the undecided to vote for either George W. Bush or John Kerry.
The 400,000-circulation Guardian, a London-based newspaper, published an article explaining to its international readers that although they have no vote in the U.S. presidential election, they can make a difference.
“ ... We’ve zeroed in on one of the places where this year’s election truly will be decided: Clark County, Ohio, which is balanced on a razor’s edge between Republicans and Democrats,” the article reads. It can be found on the Internet at guardian.co.uk, under the heading “My fellow non-Americans...” by Oliver Burkeman, who is based in the newspaper’s New York City bureau.
The newspaper is encouraging its readers from “Basildon to Botswana” to write Clark County residents who do not have a declared party, “which somewhat increases the chances of their being persuadable.”
Features editor Ian Katz said the unique idea stemmed from many foreigners’ feelings of helplessness while they watched the unfolding of the U.S. election — an election they feel will have a strong impact on the entire world.
“The United States is the most powerful country by far,” Katz said from London. “Domestic decisions are in fact huge decisions that could affect everyone in the world. In many ways this election will have more impact in our countries than our own political elections do.”
See GUARDIAN on Page 4A
Editors looked at counties from Florida, Missouri and Ohio and picked Clark County because there are enough undeclared registered voters to accommodate the desired number of potential letter recipients, Katz said.
The Clark County Board of Elections shows 50,754 undeclared voters, but Katz said they received about 36,000 names and addresses.
Linda Rosicka, director of the Board of Elections, said The Guardian paid $25 for a “flat file,” a list of all registered voters in the county. Purchasers can extract whatever segment of voters they want, she said, and anyone can buy the list.
“We’re still waiting for their check,” she said of The Guardian. Normally, the lists are pay-in-advance, she said.
Rosicka also said she has received calls from Fox News, NBC and ABC, further verifying Clark County’s importance in the election.
Clark County voters also are in the electoral spotlight because of the close presidential election in 2000, when Democratic candidate Al Gore beat George W. Bush by just 324 votes.
The article and Katz acknowledge the plan could backfire, stating, “Anyone might be justifiably angered by the idea of a foreigner trying to interfere in their democratic process.”
Katz said that he does not want Clark County residents to think the newspaper is meddling in the election but simply conveying outsiders’ concerns over the potential outcome.
The Guardian, a traditionally liberal newspaper, makes no attempts to hide that it would like Bush out of office. British newspapers, unlike those in the United States, generally are openly partisan and tailor news coverage as well as editorials around their ideological preferences.
For the letter-writing campaign, however, the editors and reporters tried to craft the message as neutrally as possible, Katz said. The web site is careful to state that each letter-writer is free to support whichever candidate he backs, while noting a poll it conducted showed 47 percent of Britons back Kerry and 16 percent support Bush.
The system is designed so each voter’s information, all public record, is given to only one person participating in the process. This is to prevent one voter’s mailbox being crammed with letters from abroad.
“We don’t want anyone to feel violated,” Katz said. “We don’t give out any details but what is already public record, and we encourage people not to share the information.”
As of 5 p.m. London-time — 1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time — 3,000 people requested information on a Clark County voter, although it appears not all of them plan to write letters.
The newspaper already received e-mail letters from people upset about the campaign, even some from Ohio telling the newspaper to get lost, Katz said.
“We’ve gotten a lot of angry Republicans,” he said. “We figured there would be attempts to sabotage it.”
Despite some complaints, Katz said they also have some people copying courteous and reasonably intelligent letters to the newspaper saying “good on you” for its efforts.
The Springfield News-Sun also received about a dozen e-mails, starting early in the day, about the Guardian campaign, from places as diverse as New York, New Jersey, Georgia, Alaska and Switzerland, almost all of which expressed some degree of outrage.
A woman in New York City e-mailed that she had requested Clark County addresses under her six separate accounts. “I intend to immediately delete the e-mails should I ever get them. Thus, I may have saved six Ohio voters from being annoyed by Britishers with an axe to grind,” she wrote.
Katz said they decided to go with postal mail, rather than e-mail, because the former is more personal.
The newspaper also encourages letter writers to include their name and address with the hopes of recipients replying and maybe even creating pen pals, Katz said.
The campaign is more than just a way for foreigners to state their views to locals. It also is a contest. The four most persuasive letter writers will win a trip to Ohio along with Guardian journalists to visit Clark County and campaign at the end of October.

We Don't Need No Education...Thought Control is Another Matter

A case for homeschooling. (Link via Bryon of Slings and Arrows)

A teacher in New Jersey had a small bulletin board near the American flag in her classroom. The bulletin board had a poster of the Declaration of Independence and pictures of U.S. presidents, including our current president George Bush. During a back to school night three parents confronted the teacher and insisted she either add John Kerry's picture or remove the photo of President Bush. The teacher refused so the school's principal threatened her job.

Other parents are unhappy about the way she was treated. (At least there are some sane people there.)

Having a picture of the president as part of a display with other pictures is not partisan. John Kerry is not the president, his picture does not belong there. The display was not about the current election. (I was going to say that it's not as if middle-schoolers can vote anyway, but with parents like that, the kids may have been held back enough so that they are 18 by now.)

It shouldn't be up to bullies to decide what or how educational materials may be presented in the classroom. What do they want next? If Kerry were to be elected would these parents want the children to spend each morning memorizing poems praising our "beloved leader"? (There's something to make your brain lock up, a personality cult built around a man with little personality.)

HoQ

A Portland, Oregon weekly newspaper has found a core group of Kerry supporters. Klingons.

According to the poll of eight local Klingons, a whopping 75 percent support the Democratic nominee.

Two Klingons polled--or 25 percent--said they planned to write in Satan.

Bush scored an abysmal zero percent in the poll.

These aren't kids, three of the men(?) interviewed are ages 33, 38, and 40.

The group's second choice would be Satan. I doubt anyone will ever confuse any of their get-togethers with a MENSA meeting. I can understand the fun of role playing but when you know more about a make believe world than you do about your own (I'm making an assumption based on some of their comments), you might consider coming out of the basement.

S89 and HR 163 and the Draft

Michelle Malkin posted about college students receiving emails warning them that they may be drafted. According to the email, the Bush administration is trying to get this legislation passed (S89 and HR 163).

Wow, those evil Republicans are at it again! Except...

Neither bill is new. Both were introduced in January, 2003. No action has been taken on either bill since 2003.

S89 was sponsored by Senator Hollings. He is a Democrat.

H. R. 163 was introduced by Representatives Rangel, McDermott, Conyers, Lewis (GA), Stark, and Abercrombie. All are Democrats.

The Bush administration opposes the bills.

If you get one of these emails you should be mad, just make sure you're mad at the right people. Whoever is sending out the emails thinks that you are easily manipulated and that you won't check the facts. Now, that's something to be mad about.

If you fall for it, the only draft you need to worry about is the wind rushing in your ears to fill the space where your brain ought to be.

(Read Snopes.com)

Kennedy's War on Bush

I was watching Robert Kennedy Jr. on C-SPAN recently. He was promoting his book which blames the Bush administration for taking "corporate cronyism to such unprecedented heights that it now threatens our health, our national security, and democracy as we know it."

I didn't watch the whole show. He kept saying that people who disagreed with him had an agenda. He would follow that statement with "as I said in chapter __ of my book...". The irony of these two statements was too much to take for long.

During the part I did watch, much of his time was spent blaming President Bush for the rise in asthma rates in children. Kennedy said that three of his six children have asthma. This sounds more like an interesting case study for a geneticist than an indictment against the current administration.

He also mentioned that one in four children in Harlem have asthma. John Kerry also mentioned this during his acceptance speech.

Senator Clinton has pledged to work to improve conditions there. I give her credit for recognizing that there is more than "one simple cause" for asthma and for trying to take care of it at the state level.

Kennedy ignored the fact that asthma levels appear to have plateaued and earlier statistics showing an increase in rates may have been partially due to diagnostic transfer (change in diagnostic criteria or labeling other respiratory illnesses as asthma).

He also failed to mention that Scotland has the worst rates of child asthma in the world. Too hard to blame that one on Bush, I guess.

The cause of asthma is unknown. Some theories include bateria, cockroach allergies, and improved hygiene.

Outdoor pollution is a trigger but not the only one. Others include stress, cold air, swimming pools, polyvinylchloride exposure, foods, pollen, mold, fumes, smoke, and exercise.

Tell Me Again How You Think He's the Smart One

It's always a good day when your competition does your job for you. This is an archived copy on Diggers Realm. The original version on the Kerry Website has gone missing.

Perhaps it's in someone's pants.

The printer-friendly version even works.

Ignoring a Threat Doesn't Mean It's Not There

He (Kerry) called the president's coalition in Iraq "the phoniest thing I ever heard" and played up the money spent on Iraq that could have gone to domestic needs.

"This president rushed to war without a plan to win the peace, and he's cost all of you $200 billion that could have gone to schools, could have gone to health care, could have gone to prescription drugs, could have gone to our Social Security," he said.

To suggest we should have spent this money on domestic causes while ignoring a real threat seems short-sighted to me and makes as much sense as it would have for a Florida resident to go out shopping for new lawn furniture last week.

Pixar Anti-PR

I was looking at my stats and saw that someone (using IE 5.23, Macintosh MacPPC, IP 138.72.18 on Sep 01 2004 11:12:56 am) from Pixar.com found this post while searching for "Republicans are losers".

I assume this was not someone who works in their public relations department.

Urgent Safeharbor Department Notice

I got an email that claimed to be from eBay saying that I needed "TO VERIFY YOUR EBAY ACCOUNT REGISTRATION INFORMATIONS". The email included a warning "If we do not receive the appropriate eBay account verification within 48 hours, then we will assume this eBay account is fraudulent and will be suspended."

Funny, thing is the URL it sends me to is http://211.202.3.208/. (See Whois.) This IP location is in Greece and the site is registered to someone in Korea...not to eBay.

I did not share my "informations" and forwarded the email to spoof@ebay.com instead.

Update: eBay replied to my email. (The reply email is in the extended entry.) They confirmed my belief that the email was not sent by them and said that they have "reported this email to the appropriate authorities." Then they went on to warn me against giving out sensitive information requested by email. No kidding. I really didn't doubt that the email was fake, I forwarded it to let them know about this attempt to get user information.

Hello,

Thank you for writing to eBay regarding the email you received.

Emails such as this, commonly referred to as "spoof" or "phished"
messages, are sent in an attempt to collect sensitive personal or
financial information from the recipients.

The email you reported was not sent by eBay. We have reported this email
to the appropriate authorities.

In the future, be very cautious of any email that asks you to submit
information such as your credit card number or your email password. eBay
will never ask you for sensitive personal information such as passwords,
bank account or credit card numbers, Personal Identification Numbers
(PINs), or Social Security Numbers in an email. If you ever need to
provide sensitive information to us, please open a new Web browser, type
www.ebay.com into your browser address field, and click on the "site
map" link located at the top the page to access the eBay page you need.

If you have any doubt about whether an email message is from eBay,
please forward it immediately to spoof@ebay.com. Do not respond to it or
click any of the links. Do not remove the original subject line or
change the email in any way when you forward it to us.

If you have already entered sensitive financial information or your
password into a Web site based on a request from a spoofed email, you
should take immediate action to protect your identity and all of your
online accounts. We have developed an eBay Help page with valuable
information regarding the steps you should take to protect yourself.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/confidence/isgw-account-theft-reporting.html

To review eBay's new tutorial about Spoof Emails, please see the
following Web page:

http://pages.ebay.com/education/spooftutorial/

Once again, thank you for alerting us to the spoof email you received.
Your efforts help us ensure that eBay remains a safe and vibrant online
marketplace.

Regards,

Ian
eBay SafeHarbor
Investigations Team
______________________________
eBay
Your Personal Trading Community (tm)

*******************************************

Important: eBay will not ask you for sensitive personal information
(such as your password, credit card and bank account numbers, Social
Security numbers, etc.) in an email. Learn more account protection tips
at:

http://www.pages.ebay.com/help/account_protection.html
_____________________________________________

For our latest announcements, please check:

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/announce.shtml
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In order to better serve you, we'd like to occasionally
request feedback on our service. If you would rather
not participate, please click on the link below and send
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Surreal Time

I was flipping through the TV channels and came across Real Time With Bill Maher (a repeat of the Aug. 13 show). Normally I would have kept going but I decided to try to watch it since Michelle Malkin was one of the guests. (I like her writing enough to have selected her blog for Blog of the Month so I wanted the chance to hear her talk. I wasn't disappointed.) The other studio guests were Rep. Rahm Emanuel and D.L. Hughley. Video guests were Gary Hart and Maureen Dowd.

I don't remember ever seeing Dowd on TV before. Does she always look and talk as though she were stoned? Her eyes looked half closed, her voice was slow and spacey, and, at least in the beginning, she didn't really answer the questions but either rephrased what she had been asked or rambled. If she's always like that, it's no wonder she chose the print media.

When they began discussing Porter Goss, the first comment Bill Maher made was about the man's name. He said it sounded like someone from Friends or The O.C. Maybe Maher would have liked it better if his name had been something more ordinary...Rahm Emanuel, for example.

I'm not making fun of Emanuel's name. Really. I didn't agree with the things he said and when he was talking about terrorist attacks in the U.S. he somehow forgot about the 1993 WTC bombing but he was there to deliver talking points for the Democrats and did that as well as could be expected.

Hughley could have contributed more by remaining silent. I'm not sure what his contribution was supposed to be unless it was to make sure that there was someone there who's a bigger ass than Maher.

Maher talked about how President Bush doesn't read newspapers. Well, you know, neither do I. The idea that newspapers are the first and best source of news strikes me as a holdover from the last century. The group seemed to agree that it was bad for the president to get news only from the people around him. I'm not sure that I see that getting news through your trusted advisors is any worse than getting it filtered through the editors of the Washington Post or any other newspaper.

Two Question Poll By ITC

When the phone rings I have to race our cats to try and get there first. I don't know why they are so attracted by the ringing. They've never gotten a phone call but always seem optimistic that the next call is for them. Or maybe it's because they've never had a call that they like it.

I should have let them answer the last call. It was a poll that was being conducted by an organization called ITC.

It was a short poll. Two questions. The first asked, if I have already decided who I'm voting for, will I vote for John Kerry and John Edwards (press one) or George Bush and Dick Cheney (press two). The second question was, if you're voting for John Kerry, are you voting to support the Democratic party (press one) or voting against George Bush (press two). (I don't recall the exact wording of the questions but this was the gist of it.)

I didn't answer the second question because I hadn't indicated that I was going to vote for Kerry after the first question. The robo-caller repeated the question two more times. Maybe it thinks Kerry supporters need extra time to find the one and two on the keypad.

What I thought was interesting about this was that there was no option for voters who are neither voting for the party or against Bush but are voting because they like the candidate. Note that I said it was interesting, not surprising.

I don't know who was behind this poll but whatever data they end up with is worthless. It was an automated call and I never spoke to a real person who could confirm that I'm a registered voter. If the replies are not all from registered voters, what's the value of it?

If Only

There is an article on PrisonPlanet.com with the title Staged Capture of Bin Laden Coming Soon. According to this, not only do we have bin Laden but we have had him since "a few months before Clinton signed an executive order mandating bin Laden to be killed on sight."

It is all part of a plan for the current administration to announce his capture (and death) "right before the 2004 election."

I have to say it is very sweet of Bill Clinton not to mention that bin Laden was captured during his presidency. But, that is so like him...not wanting to be in the spotlight, not wanting to get credit for a major accomplishment.

The article also says, "It's important to note that by blowing the whistle on this, it may cause them to change the script and not announce the capture of bin Laden."

So, if bin Laden is captured, it proves we've had him for years and if he's not captured, that also means we have him?

Not a Mother's Day Present

Planned Parenthood has an online store where people can purchase t-shirts to show support of the organization. A new shirt has been added to the collection.

The T-shirt delivers a message that is intended to confront and subvert the sense of shame surrounding abortion that has been so deliberately created by the anti-choice movement. "I had an abortion" is a statement that breaks a silence, and not a cavalier declaration.

Other examples of how seriously they take their mission include condom lollypops (scroll down) and chocolates shaped like birth control pill packs. Oh, wait, that's not cavalier, they're just marketing to children.

The anti-choice movement never yields in publicly discussing abortion. As part of their rhetoric, many anti-choice activists declare that they had abortions. Their motive is to place a scarlet letter in our minds and then to re-criminalize abortion; ours is to spark discussion and cast off shame.

I don't see the logic here. Are they saying that discussing abortion is okay as long as you're for it?

Women who have abortions are the same women who have children, and they make both of those decisions with thought and heart and moral deliberation.

I can think of one obvious difference between them, the women who have children are mothers. It's hard to take their statement that abortion is a moral decision seriously when one reason they give for an early rather than later abortion is, "They also cost less." (The other reason was safety.)

Anti-choice forces have never worked harder to shame women into silence about the realities of their lives. It is our duty to empower women who wish to share their experience with the venues to do so — free from the stigma, prejudice, and censorship others wish to impose.

I'm even more confused. How can it be prejudice (An adverse judgment or opinion formed beforehand or without knowledge or examination of the facts) if, as they stated above, "many anti-choice activists declare that they had abortions"?

If this becomes popular maybe they could expand the line and sell an "I had a Vasectomy" t-shirt. It could become the must-have shirt for men going to single's bars.

If It Feels Good...

While Conor, Emma, and I were sitting at a table near the pool's snack bar today a woman was at the window placing her order. She had a young girl (about 6-years-old) and a small boy (about 3-years-old) with her. The boy began making loud screeching squeals. It was a horrible, high pitched sound...try to imagine nails on a chalkboard at civil defense siren volume.

The little girl told her brother to stop it. Being a normal child, he ignored his sister. She asked her mother to make him stop making the noise. Their mother told the girl that she wasn't going to stop him because he was enjoying himself.

That's a fine philosophy for child rearing. Forget how your actions effect others, just as long as you're happy. Teach your children that and the only people who will be happy a few years from now will be the criminal defense attorneys that you hire to defend your precious little darlin'.

M is for Megalomania

Michael Moore not only thinks that he knows what is best for the U.S. and Iraq (Saddam would still be killing and torturing Iraqis) but he also seems to believe that he knows what is best for the entire world.

According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Michael Moore "is hoping the global release of his documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 will usher in "regime change" in Australia."

Telling Canadians how they should vote wasn't enough. "Moore said his polemical movie should encourage people in all those democratic countries that have supported the US-led war in Iraq to vote their leaders out of office."

I wonder if, when he opens a bag of M&Ms, he thinks they have all been personalized for him.

The article quotes Moore as saying (about Blair's alliance with Bush) , "Maybe someday, someone could do some examination, put him under hypnosis." Funny, that is just what I was thinking should be done with Moore. That and some really good medication.

Even though I'm conservative there are times when I read about an idea put forth by liberals that I have to admit doesn't totally suck. Sometimes the ideas are even good ones (but I usually disagree when it comes to how to implement the ideas). I find it hard to give any weight to ideas or opinions by people like Moore who are unwilling or unable to see any good being done by people who aren't marching in lockstep with them.

The Dog Only Listens in French, He Speaks Dog

Paul has written about Canadian schools and their French/English language regulations. That's why I wasn't really surprised by this:

A blind Quebec student, who was denied entry to English classes at a Canadian university because his guide dog responds only to French commands, will be allowed to attend class, the school said on Wednesday.

Yvan Tessier was turned away from an English immersion course at the University of New Brunswick because he would be forced to give his dog, Pavot, instructions in French.

Students in the course are expected to communicate only in English, at all times, during the intensive five-week course. That was to include talking to the dog, but the university relented, saying in a statement that Tessier will be allowed to use "essential commands in his native French language to his guide dog."

Earlier, Tessier said he would file a complaint with the human rights commission if the university stuck to its decision.

I'm sure they weren't concerned about a possible complaint, the university just saw that their requirements forbidding speaking French to the dog were absurd.

Yeah, right.

School Rules

School bans sack lunches, baked goods

Sack lunches have been banned from the school for the remainder of the school year with one exception: parents will be allowed to take a sack lunch to their child.

And I thought some of the rules at my kids' school were stupid.

Grab Your May Pole

Masturbate for Peace

While they have some catchy slogans, I can't see how this really helps.

Remind me not to shake hands with anyone from the anti-war crowd.

It's Not What You Want Anymore

In Ohio, Supreme Court Considers Right to Procreate

Sean Talty fathered seven children with five women and fell $40,000 behind on support payments, once going two years without making a payment.

When he appeared in Common Pleas Court on felony charges for not paying child support, Talty found himself before one fed-up jurist: Judge James L. Kimbler ordered the 32-year-old Akron resident to take "reasonable efforts" not to get anyone pregnant for five years -- or go to jail.

Now the Ohio Supreme Court is having its time wasted listening to this jerk's whining hearing arguments on this case. According to his lawyer, J. Dean Carro, "There's no limit in the constitution on the number of children you can have. If he were a man of means, he would have paid it up. He doesn't have any money. He's supporting the kids to the best of his ability."

Bioethicists say the legal system shouldn't interfer in a person's reproductive rights. We're not talking about a stable, married couple who has had trouble making ends meet but a man who has fathered seven children with five different women. I don't see how telling this man to keep his pants zipped is leading us down a slippery slope where the government could end up requiring a woman to abort a "child would be born with spina bifida or cystic fibrosis." Instead of thinking of the ethics of telling him to have some self-control or at least use birth control, consider whether it is ethical for his children to not get the full support that is due them.

He has married two women, he has two children with the most recent wife and she says she wants more. If you want a housefull of kids, you need to make a better choice in who the father will be. Don't pick someone who already is obligated to support five children along with your two.

He wants, she wants, the lawyers want...they're all missing the point. Once you have a child what you want comes second to what the child needs.

Bob and Mike Show

Bob Woodward: “The President still believes, with some conviction, that this [the Iraq war] was absolutely the right thing, that he has the duty to free people, to liberate people, and this was his moment.” Mike Wallace: “Who gave George Bush the duty to free people around the world?” Woodward: “That’s a really good question. The Constitution doesn’t say that’s part of the Commander-in-Chief’s duties.” Wallace: “The President of the United States, without a great deal of background in foreign policy, makes up his mind and believes he was sent by somebody to free the people — not just in Iraq, but around the world?” Woodward: “That’s his stated purpose. It is far-reaching, and ambitious, and I think will cause many people to tremble.”

It's not as if he were the first President to think so.

And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man."

A few other countries thought so too.

More Stupidity

I was listening to the radio while I was driving today. It was a local talk show discussing changing eating habits to improve health. The guest was saying that we should quit eating red meat because it's full of saturated fat and "saturated fat kills."

Water kills, should I give it up too?

On a side note, I used to know someone who always ordered any beef well-done so that it wouldn't be "red" meat.

Please Try to Keep Your Whacko Propaganda Straight

I've read in the news that many Palestinians are angry with the U.S. and Bush and are holding America responsible for Rantisi's death. The reason for this, they say, is that Bush gave the go ahead to Israel for Rantisi's killing.

This is where I get confused.

What happened to the moonbat idea that the U.S. is a Zionist puppet? I've never heard of the puppet telling the puppetmaster what to do.

Let's try this idea...the U.S. and Israel are allies but are also separate and independent in making decisions. Neither country wants to be the target of fanatical murdering terrorists. Removing someone whose purpose in life is to destroy you, your country, and all of the people in it is a rational reaction. Defending itself is a country's obligation, not something for which it needs to seek approval.

Yeah, that makes much more sense.

I Would Hate to See the Runners Up

Tell me again how there's no liberal bias in the media.

Steve Sack won the Society of Professional Journalists' 2003 Sigma Delta Chi Award for editorial cartooning, SPJ announced today.

Sack, who was a Pulitzer Prize finalist this year, is with the Minneapolis Star Tribune and Tribune Media Services.

SPJ named 49 winners from more than 1,350 entries.

Examples here.

Air America

Air America has a site where you can get information about the shows and listen online. Shows include The O'Franken Factor and Morning Sedition. How clever! How original!

AirAmericaRadio.com. Does anyone else think it's funny that they registered their domain name through an Australian company?

ICANN Registrar: MELBOURNE IT, LTD. D/B/A INTERNET NAMES WORLDWIDE

I'm not saying that's a bad thing, just funny. Of course, the owners of Air America Radio and Progress Media Inc. may not know what domain company they were registered with, it may all have been handled by their hosting company, Verio (based in Colorado, owned by Nippon Telephone and Telegraph.)

RushLimbaugh.com was registered through Network Solutions and is hosted by Premiere Radio Networks (owned by Clear Channel Communications.)

No, I don't see anything amusing about that one, I just wanted to be fair.

Healthy Habits?

If I haven't changed my diet yet to include more fresh fruits and vegetables, don't think I'm going to change it to include this.

Picking your nose and eating it is one of the best ways to stay healthy, according to a top Austrian doctor.

Innsbruck-based lung specialist Prof Dr Friedrich Bischinger said people who pick their noses with their fingers were healthy, happier and probably better in tune with their bodies

..."And eating the dry remains of what you pull out is a great way of strengthening the body's immune system.

Saying "No" to Tyranny

Yesterday I had three barf-spewing ill children at home. Conor and Trevor felt well enough to go to school this morning and a little after 10:00 Emma decided that she too was well enough to go.

On the way there Emma was telling me about a girl in her class who tells people that they have to play what she wants during recess or she won't be their friend. I told Emma that this wasn't friendship, it was just a way for the girl to bully people into doing what she wanted. Someone like that won't be a real friend and will always have more demands.

I was listening to the radio (The Connection) on the way back home from school. The topic was terrorism and whether the war has made it more difficult or easier for Al Qaeda to recruit.

I didn't hear much of the program but I did hear a caller talk about how Ahmed Yassin was a hero to many people and that the U.S. needs to rid itself of "Zionist bondage" if we want to get along with Muslim countries.
I fail to see how our association with Israel is "bondage" but surely giving in to demands by others over with whom we may associate would be placing us under their control.

If we were foolish enough to turn our back on an ally, then what? It wouldn't be the end of their demands, just the beginning.

So, you terrorist-praising-lunatic Mr. Caller, my answer to you is "no"...or rather, when you remove all the vulgarisms and obscenities, that's what is left.

Have I mentioned that I loathe bullies?

Choices

Worries About Suitability Knock '1776' From Curriculum

The film version of "1776," based on the Broadway musical about the crafting of the Declaration of Independence, has been banned in Fairfax County middle schools because of sexual innuendo in a conversation between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

Jefferson is balking at staying in Philadelphia to write the declaration and protests to Adams: "I've not seen my wife in six months."

Adams responds, "You write 10 times better than any man in Congress, including me. For a man of only 33 years, you possess a happy talent for composition and a remarkable felicity of expression. Now, will you be a patriot . . . or a lover?"

Jefferson, clearly preferring the latter, says he "burns" for his wife, at home in Virginia.

As everyone knows, Jefferson gave in and penned the nation's divorce decree from the British. But some Fairfax students won't see the fictional account of that history, now that the county's social studies coordinator has reviewed the film at the request of a middle school principal and deemed it inappropriate.

I've never seen the film so I can't really judge how appropriate I think it would be but I would like to think that high school students would understand that the movie is a fictional interpretation of an historical event.

We wouldn't want students to pick up any wrong ideas...like thinking that sometimes other obligations take precedence over lust.

Pokemon

This site talks about the dangers of role-playing games like Pokemon and Magic.

According to this, role-playing blurs the line between fantasy and reality. I guess that's true. It's been a few years since my kids wanted Pokemon cards but there are still many nights at bedtime that I wish I had a Jigglypuff. (For those of you who may be unfamiliar with that Pokemon, its song puts everyone to sleep instantly.)

Link to site found via The Presurfer.

Wisdom of Hans Blix

Blix questions terror intelligence

Speaking on Sunday (March 7), the former United Nations chief weapons inspector warned against reacting to fears rather than sound intelligence.

His comments come just days after Tony Blair warned of the "mortal danger" of not understanding the threat posed by a new breed of religious fundamentalist terrorists.

"I think we still over-estimate the danger of terror," Blix told BBC1's Breakfast with Frost programme.

"There are other things that are of equal, if not greater, magnitude, like the environmental global risks.

On March 9 Blix was in Barcelona, Spain where he received a peace prize, recognizing his efforts in trying to find a peaceful solution to the Iraq conflict from the United Nations Association of Spain. While there he commented on the U.S. and British governments.

"The governments were like the witch hunters of past centuries. They were so convinced that there were witches in Iraq that every black cat became proof of it."

"The tendency was to view any evidence in a more serious light than was the reality. It's clear that the Sept. 11 attack on the United States drove the analysis," he added.

One wonders what it will take before he thinks terrorism is a serious threat.

Pedophiles and Child Molesters

Clayton Cramer writes about an article in the New Jersey Express-Times. The article is about pedophiles and their efforts to separate themselves from being labeled as child molesters.

"Most pedophiles lead a terrible life," Markussen said. "They can't tell anybody about their feelings. They have to fake interest in adults. Many live in social isolation which leads to weirdness."

Leads to weirdness?

Cramer points out that all of this sounds similar to the information put out 30 years ago to promote acceptance of homosexuals.

I've learned to never say never but I don't see pedophilia becoming accepted no matter what kinds of PR they put out. Children tend to have parents. Parents tend to want to protect their children even if it is a "a romantic and emotional, but not always sexual" relationship. You can't convince me that a romantic relationship with a child is going to be anything but destructive for the child.

I don't care if they call it an "orientation". If someone tried this with any of my kids, I would want to hunt them down and shoot them. Consider that my "orientation".

Not the Sharpest Crayon in the Box

Liberals say that conservatives are naturally less intelligent than they are. Here's an example of keen political thought that we're too stoopid to think of.

"But I'm a Democrat. They could put my grandson's gerbil up against George Bush and I'd vote for him. I do like John Kerry. I admire him and think he can give George Bush a run for his money."

Imagine how happy she must be to have the chance to vote for a rat John Kerry instead of a gerbil.

Soldier Arrested

Soldier Accused of Trying to Aid al-Qaida

A National Guardsman was arrested Thursday and accused of trying to provide information to the al-Qaida terrorist network, the Army said.

Defense officials speaking on the condition of anonymity said Spc. Ryan G. Anderson, 26, signed onto extremist Internet chat rooms and tried to get in touch with al-Qaida operatives, offering the organization information on U.S. military capabilities and weaponry.

It is unclear how the government got wind of his alleged offer, but authorities began monitoring his communications, the officials said. It does not appear he transmitted any information to al-Qaida, the officials said.

Anderson, from Lynnwood, became a Muslim during the last five years, officials said.

...Anderson is the second Muslim soldier with Fort Lewis connections to be accused of wrongdoing related to the war on terror.

Dante placed traitors in the ninth circle of hell because the betrayal of people to whom you have ties is one of the greatest evils.

I Never Thought I Would See...

...a house more cluttered than mine.

Clueless

Yesterday was allowance day. (My kids who have no concept of what day or time it is normally never seem to have a problem remembering what day they get money.) Trevor wanted to go to EB to look for a game. He started bugging about it yesterday and I finally agreed to take him today.

After going to EB we went to Blockbuster and the grocery. Blockbuster was fun because I got to see some woman make an ass of herself. The fun part of that was that it wasn't me.

Blockbuster has a roped off area for people to queue up to wait for the next open cash register. This woman had formed her own line just to the side of everyone else. I don't know what she thought the rest of us were doing or if she even noticed the long line forming to her right.

When they asked for the next person in line and someone from the real line went up there the woman got mad and flung her rental box onto the counter, knocking things onto the floor. She stormed out of there too fast to hear the rest of us laughing at her.

It's been a slow weekend, I take my entertainment where I can find it.

Beware of Cat

A couple of days ago I wrote about a man who was suing the city of Escondido for violating his civil rights.

A jury Friday rejected a disabled man's claims that Escondido violated his civil rights after a cat librarians had adopted attacked his assistance dog.

...No jurors were willing to speak about the decisions.

They probably were afraid they couldn't talk about it with a straight face and didn't want it to look as though they hadn't taken the responsiblity of jury duty seriously.

"I noticed this black and white cat laying on the counter," Espinosa testified. "I was surprised because I hadn't seen any sign outside."

I wonder what the cat was laying...eggs, maybe? Now that would be real news. Perhaps he meant lying on the counter.

Old Fart

A former West Salem School District board member who is protesting the contents of an elementary school library book said he took the matter directly to the board because the district's complaint policy process takes too long. Maynard Carlson read a copy of the book Walter the Farting Dog to the board on Jan. 13. Carlson said he found out about the book after his elementary school grandson brought it home from school. He said he objected to the flatulence topic and said the words "fart" and "farting" are used 24 times in the book.

It is nice when a story for children keeps them quiet and listening for a bit. If it helps make them interested in learning to read, that's a bonus. It sounds as though this book does both. If you have children, or have spent any time around them, you know they will always prefer an "improper" story.

I had never heard of this book before I read this article, now I think I may have to buy it. (Not for my kids, for me!)

Dog Attacked by Cat, Embarrassed by Owner

Richard "Rik" Espinosa, a former radio and newspaper journalist, is seeking $1.5 million in damages because his assistance dog was attacked by a cat who lived at the library.

In 2000, the cat blocked his entrance to the library and scratched his dog.

The San Diego Uniion-Tribune reports:

In the opening statement of a trial in the case, Espinosa told the 10- woman, two-man jury the cat "blocked my access into that building. My civil rights were violated and, in turn, your civil rights were violated."

Librarians got rid of the cat in May 2001 after its third attack on a dog, according to the North County Times.

Espinosa, acting as his own attorney in the case, addressed the jurors nervously.

Espinosa said he rescued Kimba from a pound in Tulsa when the dog was 4 months old and kept it as a pet.

He began suffering panic attacks from the smoking of his co-workers seven years ago, and returned to San Diego County with the dog, he said.

The attacks became so severe, he said, he would order underwear from a catalog, rather than face public humiliation at a laundry.

Eventually, he came to believe Kimba would warn him of impending panic attacks by bringing him a ball, making him an "assistance" dog, he told jurors.

"My disabilities are real," Espinosa said. "I have a lot of them. I have worked through some of them."

Besides the panic attacks, the plaintiff said he suffers from clinical depression and Post Traumatic Stress "syndrome."

Steve Nelson, an attorney for the city of Escondido, said library employees were unable to ensure access for the disabled plaintiff the day of the attack because he left immediately.

More information comes from the North County Times where Espinosa had worked at one time as a staff writer.

Espinosa says he's allergic to cats and couldn't risk pulling 12-pound L.C. off Kimba. So, the man said, he dragged his dog backward, injuring his own back and suffering a panic attack in the process.

Espinosa's throat tightens and his voice shakes when he recalls the details of the "mauling." He points out scars on Kimba's furry face.

Also hard to handle, he said, is that everyone has laughed about his "wuss dog that got beat up by a cat."

Before the jury hears word one of the trial, there are still 29 pieces of evidence that the two sides are wrangling over.

Among the items that Espinosa wants the jury to see is a photograph of him with boxer Muhammad Ali. Nelson said the picture is not relevant to the case; Espinosa said the photo gives him credibility.

It also strengthens his argument, Espinosa said, since he believes the cat is like the famed pugilist: a tiger in the ring, a pussycat outside of it. L.C.'s ring, the Palomar Mountain resident said, was the library on South Kalmia Street.

At the court's urging, Espinosa has scaled back his original list of 117 witnesses to just 20, including the city mayor, Nelson said.

The cat was removed from the library after the third time it attacked a dog and lived at the home of a library staff member until its death in October last year.

Why aren't they showing this one on Court TV? Heck, I'd even be willing to pony up a few bucks to watch it on Pay Per View.

Stupidity in Schools

Not the students, the school administrators and lawyers.

Clayton Cramer links to an article about Nashville schools ending the posting of honor rolls. It seems some underachievers are embarassed.

If my kids came home complaining about being teased or saying they were embarassed for not making the honor roll, I would agree that something needed to be done about it. That "something" would not be to make the school remove the honor roll, it would be for my kids to work harder.

Imprecise News

- A couple of nights ago the TV new announcer said that the problem with the Mars Rover is either "a software or a hardware problem". I'm glad they've been able to narrow it down. I guess they've ruled out alien interference. Couldn't he have just said the cause of the problem is unknown? My impression was that he was trying to sound technically savvy but to me he just sounded dopey.

My theory was that it had picked up signals from Earth carrying the Dean "I Have a Scream" speech then spent Tuesday trying to make sense of it and decided to reply in kind with gibberish and beeps. Equally dopey, but I'm not announcing it on the evening news.

- That same evening I was listening to the radio when the announcer said the temperature would get cooler.

It was already cold. The temperature was in the mid-teens and getting colder. A spring breeze cools. An arctic air coming into the midwest makes it miserably cold. Maybe she just transferred here from Siberia and isn't used to our weather yet. Oh, well, it was public radio and I've given up long ago on getting any accurate information from them.*

These are just two examples and neither one really significant. I've heard worse, these just struck me since I heard them both during the same evening.

If someone's job is to deliver information, they should be as accurate and clear as possible. English is a wonderful language. It has adopted and adapted words from many other languages. In many cases there will be words that represent an idea, each with slightly different shades of meaning. There's no reason to use the word "cool" when you really mean "soul-sucking cold".

*Public radio does have a few shows I like including Car Talk and Science Friday. Not that Science Friday is unbiased in it's pieces either.

This hour, we'll take a look at New York City in the year 2050, after a century of human-induced climate change. What will a warming planet mean for this city and its people? Plus, can sustainable design--from green office buildings to green roofs--ensure a better future for the Big Apple?

A discussion of climate change is fine. It shouldn't begin with the premise that global warming is caused by humans. Causation is too complex and there are many alternate theories. Just because one theory is popular doesn't make it correct.

I decided to add this part because of an old article about NPR requiring permission to link to their site. I'm in a mood and felt like flouting their rules but it seems that they've ended that (unenforcable) policy. The permission request form is gone, instead they have this:

NPR encourages and permits links to content on NPR Web sites. However, NPR is an organization committed to the highest journalistic ethics and standards and to independent, noncommercial journalism, both in fact and appearance. Therefore, the linking should not (a) suggest that NPR promotes or endorses any third party's causes, ideas, Web sites, products or services, or (b) use NPR content for inappropriate commercial purposes. We reserve the right to withdraw permission for any link.

So, just so you know, I'm not implying that they agree with any of my opinions. Judging from what they say there about being "committed to the highest journalistic ethics and standards". I would say that their opinion and mine are, in most cases, completely different.

Sex, Anger, and Confusion

MLK Day speaker angers gay activists

“God said in the beginning he created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve,” Koger said. “If you don’t got a womb, then you’re a man.”

Koger said in an interview later that she raised the issue because she opposes gay rights and thinks King’s holiday should not be used to support the issue.

I agree with the second part, if an event is planned to honor King then other groups, regardless of what agenda they're pushing, shouldn't be using it to get attention. I felt the same way about this when I wrote about Dean going to the Iowa King remembrance.

The first part, "If you don’t got a womb, then you’re a man.” Does this mean that women who have had hysterectomies are men? Kind of a high price to pay to get to use the shorter bathroom lines at sporting events.

Link to the article found via Backcountry Conservative.

Harry Gets Political

The first two Harry Potter movies were directed by Chris Columbus. The third, which opens in theaters on June 4, was directed by Alfonso Cuarón. Entertainment Weekly has an interview with him:

EW: Why HP?
AC: The moment I read the book, I was hooked. It's a myth for our times. You read about Fudge and the Ministry of Magic--that's Tony Blair! And Guantánamo is not that different from Azkaban. There are Dementors over there, too.

...EW: So you're having fun?
AC: Loads. Though after so many bluescreens, you just snooze. The other day, I joked, "Give me a sex scene! Somebody, please: Get naked!"

Mike Newell is directing the fourth movie.

Update: Ith of Absinthe & Cookies doesn't seem impressed with Cuarón's comments either.

But What Am I?

If MoveOn supporters and their ilk think that Bush is Hitler, what does that make me?

Certainly they are free to make whatever comparisons they want. Freedom of speech isn't limited to rational thinking people. I don't see any logical connection between Bush and Hitler but I do see a logical connection where, if they think Bush is Hitler, then it's reasonable to assume that they must think I and all other Bush supporters are Nazis. I find this very offensive.

As If We Needed Proof

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
Albert Einstein

Plain English?

By now I'm sure that you have heard that Donald Rumsfeld was named as the Foot in Mouth award winner for this statement:

Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don't know we don't know.

This makes perfect sense to me but that isn't the problem that I have with this award. It's the name of the award. The idiom, putting your foot in your mouth, means to say something that causes embarassment. For example, let's say we're at a party. We have just been introduced. On the other side of the room is some woman making a fool of herself. I make some catty comment about her (remember this is hypothetical, you know I would never do that) only to find out that she is your girlfriend/sister/best friend/whatever. I have just put my foot in my mouth.

So why is the Plain English Campaign calling this a foot in mouth statement? If a speaker assumes you are able to follow a logical statement and don't need to be talked down to then the embarassment should be yours, not his.

Grinches

A small town in New Zealand has banned children from sitting on Santa's knee because organisers fear liability if anything goes wrong....
The town has also declared that vying for lollipops in a free-for-all would be too dangerous for the children.

Assuming Santa has passed a background check, the worst that would be likely to "go wrong" is that he may end up with a damp lap from an overexcited child. No fear of overexcitement here, nor much fun.
As a parent, I understand the need to protect children from predators, but this is absurd.