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"It's too bad stupidity isn't painful."
Volume 15, Number 5, January 31, 2010
Greetings, and thanks for joining me for another week. Starting us off are a few news stories you may have missed. First, how far does Political Correctness go? Waayyy too far. When it comes to hiring staff, there are plenty of legal issues employers need to watch out for these days, so recruitment agency director Nicole Mamo thought she did the right thing and was extra careful to be sure the ad for hospital workers did not offend anyone in the areas of race, age, or sexual orientation (unfortunately, I believe everything can be deemed offensive to someone). Sorry to say, what she didn’t think about was discriminating against useless people. She was notified she couldn’t use the terms ‘reliable’ and ‘hard-working’ because those words might offend people who aren’t either. “In my 15 years in recruitment I haven't heard anything so ridiculous,' Mrs Mamo said yesterday (at least somebody is thinking). “If the matter wasn't so serious I would be laughing out loud.” I’m not laughing at all. (www.dailymail.co.uk)
Next, how low can people go? Way too low (IMHO)! Reid Peppard feels excitement when she sees a dead animal lying on the side of the road. To her, it isn't just a rotting carcass, but a thing of beauty. Peppard's London-based fashion line, RP/Encore, uses taxidermy to turn dead creatures, namely rodents and vermin, into wearable accessories. (I am not sure which is worse – what she does or the people who buy and wear what she makes.) Many have serious issues with just how "wearable" her pieces are, however, which range from dead rat headpieces to pigeon feather necklaces. Peppard was studying fine arts at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London when she became interested in taxidermy. For her, it seemed a natural marriage to combine her skills as an artist and taxidermist, and she sees her work as walking the line between fashion and fine art. Peppard, who is a vegetarian, uses animals that are "victims of roadkill, pest control, or natural death," with the occasional use of a feeder rat. (www.huffingtonpost.com)
Finally, expectations! I suppose I should know who Chris Matthews is (I do know he’s on TV), but maybe I learned all I need to know about him from the following quote about Obama following the State of the Union address: "I was trying to think about who he was tonight. It's interesting: he is post-racial, by all appearances. I forgot he was black tonight for an hour. You know, he's gone a long way to become a leader of this country, and past so much history, in just a year or two. I mean, it's something we don't even think about. I was watching, I said, wait a minute, he's an African American guy in front of a bunch of other white people. And here he is president of the United States and we've completely forgotten that tonight — completely forgotten it.” Yeah, and he’s ‘clean’ too.
With friends like these…. A northeastern Pennsylvania couple is charged with stealing a bank card from a friend who died on their couch and running up more than $1,000 in charges. Twenty-five-year-old Michael Wheaton and 20-year-old Sabrina Tomcho are charged in Luzerne County with using a bank card belonging to 40-year-old Kimberly Rose Lacey a day after she died. Lacey's husband, Matthew Lacey, says his wife died on a couch in Wheaton and Tomcho's residence. Investigators believe the couple went through Kimberly Lacey's purse while emergency workers tried to help her. Police say the couple admitted using the card at several stores starting the day after Lacey’s passing. Wheaton and Tomcho waived preliminary hearings on theft and access device fraud charges. (www.cbs3.com)
Ay, ay, ay (pun intended)! “The accident happened because I had one eye on the truck in front, one eye on the pedestrian, and the other on the car behind.” That is alleged to have been written on an insurance claim form.
‘Parent of the Year’ Candidate (or really tough love): Police have arrested a Georgia woman who they say forced her son to kill his pet hamster with a hammer as punishment for earning a bad grade. Meriwether County sheriff Steve Whitlock told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the 12-year-old boy told his teacher about the killing. The teacher reported it to the Division of Family and Child Services, who contacted police. The pet's death allegedly took place at the family's Warm Springs home. Whitlock said 38-year-old Lynn Middlebrooks Geter faces one charge each of animal cruelty, child cruelty and battery. He said she was arrested last week and remained in the Meriwether County jail.
(Mostly) Real Headlines Just Begging to be Read (one is fake – guess - answer is further down) (1) “Doctor's Office Hit By Meteorite.” (2) “Nine-Year-Olds Battle In Epic Hockey Fight.” (3) “Celtics Forward Tells Fan To Suck Something.” (4) “Woman Charged With DWI 3 Times In 1 Week.” (5) “Farmer Kills 51 Cows, Commits Suicide.” (6) “Over 100 People Hospitalized After Drinking Holy Water.” (7) “GOP Candidate: People On Public Assistance Are Like 'Stray Animals.'” (8) “Pope Announces Plan To Build Moon Vatican.” (9) “Haggis Allowed In The U.S. After 21-Year Ban.” (10) “John Caudle, 14, Kills Parents Over Chores, Say Colo. Police.” (10) “Raped Teenager Receives 101 Lashes For Getting Pregnant.” (No, she wasn’t the daughter of a true Conservative – she is a 16-year-old Bangladeshi girl.) (11) “World's Second Pregnant Man Due Next Month.” (I just can’t quite get my head around that last one….) (12) “Peruvian doctors amputate wrong leg, then right one.”
Getting what you pay for: “Fake Perfume Shown To Contain Urine, Bacteria, Antifreeze.” That headline stands alone and says it all (on the other hand, do we really know what real perfume contains? That may not be much better. Check out ‘ambergris’ for example).
Just last week, in Southern California, a very good dictionary (they’re not all the same, you know – anybody can use the name ‘Webster’s’) was pulled from a school because of some “objectionable” content. Now, this week, in Virginia’s Culpeper County, public school officials have decided to stop assigning a version of Anne Frank's diary, one of the most enduring symbols of the atrocities of the Nazi regime, after a parent complained that the book includes “sexually explicit” material and homosexual themes. The ALA has documented only six challenges to "The Diary of Anne Frank" since it began monitoring formal written complaints to remove or restrict books in 1990. Most of the concerns were about sexually explicit material. One record dating to 1983 from an Alabama textbook committee said the book was "a real downer" and called for its rejection from schools. No wonder “they” don’t want kids reading Fahrenheit 451.
Reuters carried a Bit that caught my eye: A Polish priest has installed an electronic reader in his church for schoolchildren to leave their fingerprints in order to monitor their attendance at mass, the Gazeta Wyborcza daily said. The pupils will mark their fingerprints every time they go to church over three years and if they attend 200 masses they will be freed from the obligation of having to pass an exam prior to their confirmation, the paper said. The pupils in the southern town of Gryfow Slaski told the daily they liked the idea and also the priest, Grzegorz Sowa, who invented it. O-kay….
Finally, what we’ve come to (or are close) – Absolutely No Child Left Behind (no matter what – after all “All animals are equal” but as we see in real life [not school], some really are more equal than others)! To help bring about all students’ success, Manitoba, Canada's, New Democratic Party has urged teachers not to lower student grades when assignments are turned in late as part of the province's unwritten "no fail" policy, which is opposed by 76 percent of province adults (why should they matter?). Such reduced grades are not "an accurate indicator of what the student has learned or achieved," former education minister Peter Bjornson argued in a letter, which is apparently being supported by other NDP politicians. "Marks should reflect the student's achievement," Bjornson continued, "and should not be distorted as a result of work habits, attitudes or behaviors." Gee, what a novel idea – judging by competency! (Winnipeg Free Press)
(The phony headline is #8 “Pope Announces Plan To Build Moon Vatican.”)
Later.
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