Degrees of separation

While on my friend Pete’s blog, I stumbled across another blog that really is something else. Good stuff; here’s a sample.

Looks like he’s got a new one every day, so now I have something new to check out every morning along with my Daily Dilbert.

Tina Fey for Veep!

Truly a historic moment. Hillary and Sarah … together.  Click the image for their bipartisan joint speech on Saturday Night!

The next logical step for homeschool families

Those of us who homeschool our kids through various conservative and evangelical organizations, curricula, worldview, and social networks know that we can’t be letting the liberal elite and the secular state determine our kids’ education and resulting secular enculturation. But what happens when we see those selfsame forces at work in our church? Why, homechurching of course!

Report: More Kids Being Home-Churched

Cookie Monster and the Id

Thanks to StDogbert for the tip on this! AWESOME. “This week, NPR’s In Character takes a look at a deeply sensuous character who speaks to our most basic appetites and desires.

That’s right: Cookie Monster. (Read the rest here.)

The best part of the writeup:

“People have said this when they’ve analyzed it: It’s really like Frank [Oz]’s id, with no control over it whatsoever.”

But id, in the Cookie Monster sense at least, isn’t a dark term.

“All of his monomania … would not stop him from caring about someone else,” says longtime Sesame Street writer Norman Stiles. “He’s not gonna knock anybody over to get the cookie. He’s gonna try to get around them to get the cookie. He’s gonna beg for the cookie.”

Now, of course, there’s a bazillion lessons we can learn from this. Any suggestions?

Revelation of the Jedi

A Long Time Ago, in an Empire Far, Far Away….

It is a time of relative peace. With the legions of armies maintaing the new Order from Britain to Babylon, the Sith Lords have secured the mantle of civilization under the cloak of absolute power.

But a small group of freedom fighters, led by John of Patmos, have joined in the resistance to the Dark Lord and his evil enforcer, Darth Caesar.

Committed to overturning the Order of the Sith and ushering in the Empire of God, the Jedi and their followers throughout the Province of Asia band around a newly discovered secret book, while their leader has mysteriously disappeared…

10 Reasons …

In the spirit of “10 Reasons Why Men Should Not Be Ordained,” I give you “10 Reasons Why Public School is Better Than Homeschool,” which I discovered in my email inbox today. Hope the HSLDA doesn’t come after me.

Why Public Schooling Is Better Than Homeschooling ~
Scott Ott

1. Most parents were educated in the under funded public school system, and so are not smart enough to homeschool their own children.
2. Children who receive one-on-one homeschooling will learn more than others, giving them an unfair advantage in the marketplace. This is undemocratic.
3. How can children learn to defend themselves unless they have to fight off bullies on a daily basis?
4. Ridicule from other children is important to the socialization process.
5. Children in public schools can get more practice “Just Saying No” to drugs, cigarettes and alcohol.
6. Fluorescent lighting may have significant health benefits.
7. Publicly asking permission to go to the bathroom teaches young people their place in society.
8. The fashion industry depends upon the peer pressure that only public schools can generate.
9. Public schools foster cultural literacy, passing on important traditions like the singing of “Jingle Bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg…”
10. Homeschooled children may not learn important office career skills, like how to sit still for six hours straight, skills which are easily transferred to careers in self-service gasoline stations, church boards, or Congress (second part of this by Benedict)

Ritual of Summer

Well, the annual festival and feast of Independence Day is upon us, and like any self-respecting community that observes this important civil religious feast, we are dutifully doing our part by making sure that we prepare our Charbroil altar and sacrifice the appropriate sacred beasts kindly provided by Hormel, Johnsonville, and Purdue.

As with any sacred and holy festival, however, there are those of us who cannot afford to sacrifice and partake in the “accepted way.” But, lest the masses fear that their inability to acquire the sacred bulls or to procure access to the altar, many of our nation’s major retailers are democratizing the festival to unprecedented levels of popular access.

The following retailers now provide free altars upon which any number of sacrifices may be made:

A&P
Albertsons
BJ’s
Costco
Fry’s
Kroger
Big Lots
Brookshire’s
Hannaford
Lowe’s
Marketbasket
Path-Mark
Publix
Safeway
Sam’s Club
Shaw’s
Shop and Save
Stop ‘n’ Shop
Target
Trucchi’s
Vons
Wagner Hardware
Walbaum’s
Walgreens
Wal-Mart
Wegman’s
Winn-Dixie

Many even come with a higher rack for keeping the smaller parts warm while the main course is prepared!

“America, America! God mend thine every flaw! Confirm thy soul, with self-control, in liberty and law!”

Behind the Scenes: Roger Clemens’ Negotiations with Yankees GM Brian Cashman

I know this isn’t usually my normal blog material, but I absolutely can’t resist this. I check BostonDirtDogs.com pretty much every day, being the insane Red Sox fan that I am, and I come across this. The video is in shockwave format from the new FunnyOrDie.com video site. But I leave you with a picture to get a general idea…

 

ESPN featured the video on SportsCenter and PTI, and Michelle Bonner can’t even do the story, she’s laughing so hard. Must.See.TV.

Enjoy!

Perpetual Students

Found this entry on a friend’s blog about a 95 year old perpetual student-farmer who will graduate in May. Definitely worth a read, especially the article he references. Paired up with the story of the 102-year-old lady who holed-in-oned a few weeks ago, there are some really inspiring stories of our seniors today.

Man, I can’t wait to be old.

You go, girls!

If Microsoft made cars…

From an email just forwarded to me:

Gates vs. GM

For all of us who feel only the deepest love and affection for the way computers have enhanced our lives, read on.

At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated,

If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon.

In response to Bill’s comments, General Motors issued a press release stating:

If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics (and I just love this part):

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash…Twice a day.

2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.

3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.

4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.

5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive – but would run on only five percent of the roads.

6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single “This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation” warning light.

7. The airbag system would ask “Are you sure?” before deploying.

8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.

9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.

10. You’d have to press the “Start” button to turn the engine off.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have an Ubuntu Linux OS to install…