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Volume 14, Number 25. June28, 2009
(Once again, I must thank my eagle-eyed Webmaster, without whose help you would not be reading this. I accidentally sent last week’s column, and he caught the error (I have to wonder how many readers would have. Anyhow, THANK YOU!).
Hi, Readers! Well, yet another week has come and gone (or is coming up depending on your perspective). Cloudy with a chance of showers seems to sum up at least the past month (and next week or so - it’s getting tired, but I guess it beats eight inches of partly cloudy). The humidity certainly doesn’t help.
Anyhow, you know how they say bad things come in threes (three strikes, going down three times when drowning, three on a match, etc.). Recently it was Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson. My brother informed me that 92-year-old former newsman Walter Cronkite, called by many “the most trusted man in America” is also in grave condition. Should he pass on, it won’t be number four – it’ll be the start of another three. (UPDATE: Billy Mays just passed on today, so….)By the way, I did some quick looking and found that Roy Scheider, Jeff Healey, Arthur C. Clarke, Yves St Laurent, Dom DeLuise, Paul Harvey, James Whitmore, Bob May (robot in “Lost in Space”), Ricardo Montalban, Patrick McGoohan (“The Prisoner”), Don Galloway (Ironside), Pat Hingle, John Updike, Ivan Dixon (“Hogan’s Heroes”), Harvey Korman, Bernie Mac, Suzanne Pleshette [I had a crush on her], Cheryl Holdridge (an original Mousketeer [I had a crush on her too]),Bo Diddley, George Carlin, Allen Melvin (the Sgt Bilko show), and Levi Stubbs (an original member of The Four Tops) have also left us – I never even heard about most of them passing on – a lot of it depends of what other news is happening that day. It’s all part of life and the road we’re all traveling along, so enjoy each day – we never know.
I have been hanging around Facebook a bit too much. I enjoy playing Mafia Wars, Bejeweled Blitz, Pathwords, and a more than slightly addictive game called Chain Rxn. It’s easy-ish but also quite challenging at times (4 balls left – arrrgh)! Speaking of Facebook, it is fascinating to see where former students have ended up (good and bad). It appears a few are still children in adult bodies….
I am not a tremendous sports fan (unless my teams are winning), but I enjoy watching excellence and almost any good contest. As this is race weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, it doesn’t matter to me if Tony or Jeff or Jimmie or Kurt wins or if the winner is driving a Chevy, Dodge, Ford, or Toyota (cars that resemble what we people on the pavement drive the way Ben Stein physically resembles Shaq in that ad). My life will not change or be better in any way no matter the outcome. However, my enjoyment may be enhanced if I follow a certain driver or team. By the way, the word ‘fan’ derives either from “fancy,” the verb (or “fancier” the noun), an English term in the 1800’s that was used mainly about followers of boxing. It was gradually shortened to fance then just to fans. The word became an Americanism in the late 1880’s. Many people also believe it's a short version of the word fanatic. (fanatic itself, introduced into English around 1525, means "insane person." It comes from the Modern Latin fanaticus, meaning "insanely but divinely inspired" [Wikipedia]).
I recently forwarded an e-mail I received from my Canadian friend (aka PJ). It discussed a “When if France…” attitude (about accepting and living the mores of where you are; practice what you want at home, but…. [if you would like to be added to my forwards list, drop me an email – bermbits@gmail.com]). Anyhow, this is the kind of thing of which he wrote (from the Associated Press): French President Nicolas Sarkozy lashed out (recently) at the practice of wearing the Muslim burqa, insisting the full-body religious gown is a sign of the "debasement" of women and that it won't be welcome in France. The French leader expressed support for a recent call by dozens of legislators to create a parliamentary commission to study a small but growing trend of wearing the full-body garment in France (yup, just like our government and school administrations - form a committee). In the first presidential address in 136 years to a joint session of France's two houses of parliament, Sarkozy laid out his support for a ban even before the panel has been approved—braving critics who fear the issue is a marginal one and could stigmatize Muslims in France (or result in calls to “eliminate” Sarkozy). "In our country, we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity," Sarkozy said to extended applause in a speech at the Chateau of Versailles. "The burqa is not a religious sign; it's a sign of subservience, a sign of debasement.” In France, the terms "burqa" and "niqab" often are used interchangeably. The former refers to a full-body covering worn largely in Afghanistan with only a mesh screen over the eyes, whereas the latter is a full-body veil, often in black, with slits for the eyes. France enacted a law in 2004 banning the Islamic headscarf and other conspicuous religious symbols from public schools, sparking fierce debate at home and abroad. France has Western Europe's largest Muslim population, an estimated 5 million people. A government spokesman said that it would seek to set up a parliamentary commission that could propose legislation aimed at barring Muslim women from wearing the head-to-toe gowns outside the home.
From MetroCatholic, a vaguely related item: International Christian Concern (www.persecution.org) has learned that radical Muslims running a tea stall beat a Christian man to death for using a cup designated for Muslims. The young man, Ishtiaq Masih, had ordered tea at a roadside stall in Machharkay village, Punjab, Pakistan, after his bus made a rest stop. When Ishtiaq went to pay for his tea, the owner noticed that he was wearing a necklace with a cross and grabbed him, calling for his employees to bring anything available to beat him for violating a sign posted on the stall warning non-Muslims to declare their religion before being served. Ishtiaq had not noticed the warning sign before ordering his tea. The owner and 14 of his employees beat Ishtiaq with stones, iron rods and clubs, and stabbed him multiple times with kitchen knives as Ishtiaq pleaded for mercy.The other bus passengers and other passers-by finally intervened and took Ishtiaq to the Rural Health Center in the village. The doctor who took Ishtiaq’s case told ICC that Ishtiaq had died due to excessive internal and external bleeding, a fractured skull, and brain injuries. Nice, huh….
If you ever wondered what chutzpa is, read on: U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent announced his retirement today, but apparently he's in no rush to leave the bench. In his letter to President Obama, Kent declares that he will step down on June 1, 2010. In roughly two weeks, however, Kent will report to prison to begin his sentence for the obstruction conviction, which begs the question of why he's waiting so long to quit. It all boils down to money. As long as Kent officially remains a judge, he can continue to draw his $174,000 a year judicial salary. Kent and his lawyer, attorney are hoping that by delaying his retirement Kent can avoid the public disgrace of an impeachment hearing and continue to get paid for another year - which could be the length of time it would take Congress to impeach him anyway. Kent had originally tried to claim that he was retiring because of a disability, which would have entitled him to continue to pull his salary for life. The 5th Circuit disagreed, however, stating that the criminal investigation and public shame contributed to his inability to perform his judicial duties, not the "mental instability" and alcoholism cited by Kent. (http://blogs.findlaw.com)
Something I have said all along (from Yahoo News): An independent panel investigating contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan has a bleak assessment for how tens of billions of dollars have been spent since 2001. A report by the Wartime Contracting Commission, obtained by The Associated Press, documents poor management, weak oversight and a failure to learn from mistakes. One example cited by the report is a dining facility at a U.S. base in Iraq. The decision to build it was based on bad planning and botched paperwork (that’s a surprise), but it's too far along to stop. The price tag: $30 million. More than 240,000 private sector employees support military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. (I’m telling you, I need to run for office!)
Finally, how far is too far? The City of Bozeman, Mont., wants to know about people who apply for jobs with the city. Included on the application is this: "Please list any and all, current personal or business websites, web pages or memberships on any Internet-based chat rooms, social clubs or forums, to include, but not limited to: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube.com, MySpace, etc." That's not all: it also requires the applicant’s user names and password information for all those sites (I’d be doomed). "We have positions ranging from fire and police, which require people of high integrity for those positions, all the way down to the lifeguards and the folks that work in city hall here," said city attorney Greg Sullivan, defending the intrusive questions. "So we do those types of investigations to make sure the people that we hire have the highest moral character and are a good fit for the City" (so people on those sites aren’t?) (KBZK-TV Bozeman)
Later.
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