Ordnance found on a York city street!
It seems that the police were summoned after a man discovered live ordnance in a puddle of water. From The York Press,

A STARTLED man has told how he found a bullet lying in a York city-centre street.

Tim Stark said he was unloading items into the MOR Music store where he works in Fossgate yesterday morning when he spotted what he believed to be a live .22 bullet gleaming in a puddle.

That’s right – the ordnance was a lone .22LR cartridge, such as is used to “plink” empty cans, shoot gophers, etc.

This, my friends, is what happens when you vilify (and confiscate) firearms.

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I’ll bet they made no bones about shooting the whole 9 yards
An Engadget post about the iPad 2 generated some interesting comments, especially regarding just how broad the knowledge base is of some of its readers. While we live in a Google-rich world, with every bit of information seemingly at the tips of our fingers, it seems that some individuals have issues with commonly used idioms.

First, the original post,

Ignore the fact that the iPad 2 is likely just a few weeks away — we’re talking about the here and now. You’ve read our $0.02 on a few of these, but why not throw a few opinions of your own in comments below?

Then, some of the comments that resulted,

just to let you know the phrase is “two sense” not “two cents”

…

the phrase, dear Mike, is “to sense” meaning get yourself some sense before making nonsense corrections.

…

No, its definitely $.02 as in 2 cents

…

What kind of bonehead are you? Obviously, the correct phrase is “too scents!”

…

That doesn’t make any sense! The phrase is “my two cents” it’s originally from an English saying “my two pennies worth”. Get your facts straight before you start correcting people.

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Choosing pets over children – sad article of the week
While the myth of adolescence may certainly be a reality, it seems we have created a generation of self-indulgent perpetual adolescents, intent on driving themselves into the realms of PD James’ Children of Men.

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Rob Bell, oops
Perhaps it was a brilliant publicity stunt, which succeeded in getting a whole lot of free exposure. But I’m wondering if they’ve not shot themselves in the foot for any future work?

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I apologize, really
I truly believed that the people of California would not re-elect Elmo-loving Boxer (m’am).

From HotAir, a link to this jello,

A coalition of progressive Christian leaders has taken out a full-page ad that asks “What would Jesus cut?” in Monday’s edition of Politico, the opening salvo in what the leaders say will be a broader campaign to prevent cuts for the poor and international aid programs amid the budget battle raging in Washington.

What would Jesus cut? Seriously? For starters, I think he’d trim it down to five loaves and two fish.

Where “cutting back” = “sticking our hands deeper into your pockets”
Ain’t it just like the government, when faced with a budget crisis, to look at more ways to tax the people? From E-Commerce,

With the state and local revenue shortfalls, I suspect we will see more state governments demanding Internet sales taxes. Since the original Ban on Internet sales taxes was to foster the growth of the Internet, that mission seems to be completed.

That may mean that we, as consumers, will eventually find everything more costly on the Internet, as Internet sales taxes are permitted and sought on more and more transactions.

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Man kills 4 – uses a high capacity knife
Maybe we should ban public access to kitchen knives? Don’t laugh.

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Got an iPhone? Watch this video
Password bypassed and into the phone in 6 minutes. Moral of the story: besides wiping your data, if your phone is stolen, have recovery backup systems built into your information-rich cyber accounts.

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Geek News of the Week
NASA releases images of man-made crater on comet.

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PSP-playing is dangerous to your health
At least when you’re in a subway station. Lucky for the reality-distracted gamer that a reality-based hero was around.

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On calling evil good
California SB48 – an excerpt (bold emphasis added),

51204.5.  Instruction in social sciences shall include the early
history of California and a study of the role and contributions of
both men and women,  black Americans, American Indians,
Mexicans, Asians, Pacific Island people, and other ethnic groups
  Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans,
Pacific Islanders, European Americans, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
transgender Americans, and members of other ethnic and cultural
groups,  to the economic, political, and social development of
California and the United States of America, with particular emphasis
on portraying the role of these groups in contemporary society.

High School teacher Natalie Munro has, evidently, caused quite a stir recently with her blog posted rants about the many shortcomings of her students and her students’ parents. From the National Post, ‘Frightfully dim’: Teacher suspended for blog insulting students,

Although she didn’t name her school or any students, she used her real first name and initial and had a photo of herself. In a completely unsurprising turn of events, school officials found her out.

Parents, administrators and students alike weren’t too impressed with how she described her pupils:

• “A complete and utter jerk in all ways”
• “Although academically okay your child has no other redeeming qualities”
• “I hear the trash company is hiring”
• “I didn’t realize one person could have this many problems”
• “There’s no other way to say this, I hate your kid”
• “Rat-like”
• “Dresses like a streetwalker”
• “Frightfully dim”

Indeed, such candidly negative descriptions of one’s students seems to exemplify virtues contrary to what one would expect from a teacher. Although, I wonder if Munro’s crime was not so much that she has negative feelings about some of her students as that she committed those feelings to print (cyber-print, as it were). How many of Munro’s colleagues have similar feelings about some of their students? For that matter, how many students have negative feelings about some of their teachers? Yeah. You know what I’m talking about.

Could it be, however, that those criticizing Munro are over-simplifying the problem at hand? Consider what Susan Cairn stated on her blog Quiet,

I want to talk about Munro’s view of quiet and shy students. Here, according to her blog entry of January 21, 2010, is what she wished she could put on their report cards:

• “A kid that has no personality.”
• “She just sits there emotionless for an entire 90 minutes, staring into the abyss, never volunteering to speak or do anything.”
• “Shy isn’t cute in 11th grade; it’s annoying. Must learn to advocate for himself instead of having Mommy do it.”

Munro seemed to have no understanding of how tough a place the typical American high school can be for introverts — like an all-day cocktail party without any alcohol. She believed that these kids should suck it up and act like everyone else. And she was right, to a certain extent; we all need to fake it a little, extroverts too. I’ve met many introverted kids who are thriving and happy, and most of them have learned how to adopt an extroverted persona when need be.

It seems that what we have here is a classic example of the diversity of the human psyche. Contained within a typical classroom are students (and teachers) of various personality types, learning styles, and intelligence levels, who also bring with them the baggage of life – both the good and the bad. If this complexity exists, then it should be no surprise that it manifests itself in equally complex ways.  Thus, a “kid that has no personality” may indeed not have a personality, or he may have mental issues, or he may be extremely apathetic, or he may tend towards not publicly displaying emotion, or any combination of the above.

Is Munro unable to discern the simple fact that humans have differing personalities? It does seem difficult to comprehend that one who is used to seeing classrooms full of new students, each year, would be so myopic. In our own home school household we have seen this clear distinction in differing learning styles, as related to personality differences, with a total sampling of only 2!

If, in fact, Munro is an extrovert who has her blinders on with regards to the diversity of human personality traits, then it would be in her best interest to educate herself on this subject – to expand her horizons – indeed – maybe she should think outside the box.

Yet, before we dismiss Munro’s opinions of her students, and condemn her for having the audacity to express them, could it be she has thought outside the box and is now alerting us to another problem in our midst? Could it be that, within the walls of our public schools, there are students who are lazy, whiny, apathetic, and disrespectful?

From News.com.au,

“My students are out of control,” Ms Munroe, who has taught 10th, 11th and 12th grades, wrote in one post.

“They are rude, disengaged, lazy whiners. They curse, discuss drugs, talk back, argue for grades, complain about everything, fancy themselves entitled to whatever they desire, and are just generally annoying.”

And from Yahoo!News,

“They get angry when you ask them to think or be creative,” Munroe said of her students in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday. “The students are not being held accountable.”

Munroe pointed out that she also said positive things, but she acknowledges that she did write some things out of frustration — and of a feeling that many kids today are being given a free pass at school and at home.

“Parents are more trying to be their kids’ friends and less trying to be their parent,” Munroe said, also noting students’ lack of patience. “They want everything right now. They want it yesterday.”

Some may say, in response to the last two article quotes, “well, that’s not news”. Yes, it is not news that today’s students are “out of control”. Yet, it would be too easy to scapegoat the reason why: drugs, being coddled, lack of federal money, teacher’s unions, extrovert / introvert, parents, lack of parents, the myth of adolescence, learning styles, technology, affluence, etc. Rather than a single reason, could it be “all of the above”?

I think that with a problem rooted in complexity, the solution will reflect a similar complexity.

• Teachers need to exercise patience with problem students, learn how differing personality styles affect differing learning styles, and display a genuine interest in their students – among other things.
• Parents need to get involved in the lives of their children, not cater to their children, discipline their children, and love their children with a tough, yet gentle, love – among other things.
• Students need to grow up, exercise respect, study, work, and think – among other things.
• Society needs to stop blessing adolescent activities as normal, stop treating young adults as children, stop putting the notion of “self-esteem” on a pedestal, stop throwing money in the wrong direction, and start demanding results from students, parents, and teachers – among other things.

Technology tracks truancy
In Anaheim, the school district is using GPS technology to keep track of habitually truant students.

“The idea is for this not to feel like a punishment, but an intervention to help them develop better habits and get to school,” said Miller Sylvan, regional director for AIM Truancy Solutions.

Things sure have change from when I was in school! Back then there wasn’t a feel-good “let’s not make this a punishment” mentality regarding school truancy – if you weren’t at school when you were supposed to be, then the next time you were, you also found yourself sitting in the Vice Principal’s office.

Not all parents were supportive.

“I feel like they come at us too hard, and making kids carry around something that tracks them seems extreme,” said Raphael Garcia, whose 6th grader has six unexcused absences.

…

“This makes us seem like common criminals,” Garcia said.

…

Juan Cruz’s mom, Cristina, said she supports the program and hopes it helps her son get to school – and stay there.

“I understand that he’s been missing class. He’s one of six children, and we can’t always keep an eye on him,” she said in Spanish. “I think this is a good idea that will help him.”

So much for expecting the parents to be in control of their children.

I guess it takes a government to run our lives.

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You’ve lived worked long enough, there, buddy
A survey suggests that an aging workforce, bolstered by those who put off their retirement, will end up hogging jobs.

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So long, bookstores, we hardly knew you
Al Mohler comments on the impending demise of the brick and mortar bookstore.

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Concealed Carry on Campus in Texas
Ever notice how virtually all mass shootings take place in so-called “gun-free” zones.

Justin Bieber, in an interview with Rolling Stone (yes, I’m really noting and linking to this item), gives one of the best anti-government healthcare arguments ever. He said,

Canada’s the best country in the world. We go to the doctor and we don’t need to worry about paying him, but here, your whole life, you’re broke because of medical bills.

Think about that. We go to the doctor and we don’t need to worry about paying him…

Herein, despite all the wisdom of a 16 year-old, lies the mindset of those who believe in government healthcare, namely, that of getting something for nothing.

Ignorant 2nd Amendment related comment by a pundit (# 1)

But whether you think a ban on police-style assault weapons such as the one Jared Lee Loughner used in Tucson is good policy or not, it is curious to see that Republicans are not even bothering to make legitimate arguments against such proposals.

Note: The Glock 19, used in the Tucson shooting, is not a police-style assault weapon (whatever that means). It is a semi-automatic handgun, used by military, police, and civilians in both law enforcement, self defense, and sport shooting.

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Ignorant 2nd Amendment related comment by a pundit (# 2)

Even the most conservative jurists held for decades that the Second Amendment was meant to protect state militias rather than an individual right to own weapons.

Note: Reference the Militia Act of 1792 (several years after the Bill of Rights, by the way). Regardless, the means to have a well regulated militia is by the enumeration of a right to the people.

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Ignorant 2nd Amendment related comment by a pundit (# 3)

Members of the narrow majority on the Supreme Court who believe that the Second Amendment establishes an individual right to bear arms would not hold that the Constitution protects one’s right to own a nuclear submarine.

Note: Darn! I’d been hoping to get one of them there nucular subs.

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Ignorant 2nd Amendment related comment by a pundit (# 4)

No one has argued that gun laws were the reason Loughner carried out his attack. What they suggest is that someone who wants to carry out an attack might be less able to do so without legal access to automatic weapons.

Note: Agreed. And the public has very little legal access to automatic weapons (which is probably why we use semi-automatic weapons).

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Why the euphoria over Egypt’s change in power?
Usually, a buyer wants to know what it is he’s purchasing before he buys it… So, Mubarak steps down, and there’s dancing in the streets, Obama applauds the Change, pundits drool over how Obama was – somehow – the catalyst. Yet no one is sure exactly who or what will replace Mubarak (other than the military, which is essentially what was there before).

Now, with Mubarak thumbing his nose at the president, the Obama administration may manage to achieve what only few governments in history have done: alienate their enemies as well as their friends. Worse, Obama’s actions have regionalized the Egyptian conflict. KSA has belayed Mubarak on the sheer cliff that he dangles from. It has forced a public confrontation between Mubarak and his regional allies and the unrest sweeping the Arab world. If Mubarak goes spinning into the abyss, the House of Saud will find itself pulled right after it.

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Border States tired of waiting for the Feds to act
Interesting. In New Mexico, the first female Hispanic governor in the U.S., Susana Martinez (R), issued an executive order directing police to ask the immigration status of criminal suspects, thereby ending the state’s sanctuary policy.

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Finger Motion Car Stereo Control

A new device is being presented to technologists this week that lets you control your car stereo by finger movements while your hands are still gripping the steering wheel.

Oh… I foresee some unexpected road rage incidents in the works if any of your finger movements, intended to turn up The Beatles, are misinterpreted by the driver next to you.

Within hours, maybe minutes, of the shooting of Rep. Gabby Giffords, Liberal pundits began to point fingers at right wing extremists which, apparently, applied to Sarah Palin, the 2008 Republican candidate for Vice President. Of particular concern was the “cross-hairs” image, used by Palin to establish which Democrats to target in upcoming elections. Evidently and, coincidentally after-the-fact, such violent imagery and rhetoric was said to have led to the carnage in Tucson. The cross-hairs image was referenced by Barbara Walters (on The View) when she stated,

“…and certainly cross-hairs are very scary…”

I wonder how scary Ms. Walters thinks a depiction of the President getting assassinated is?

Back in 2006 I wrote a blog post, for RedBlueChristian.com, about a docudrama depiction of the assassination of President George W. Bush. Note that the TV movie was produced in the U.K. Per The London Standard,

Held up by a secret service bodyguard in his dying moments after being shot in the stomach, this is President Bush being assassinated.

Surrounded by a crowd of panicking onlookers, the American leader is pictured just seconds after being gunned down by a sniper following an anti-war demonstration.

Of course, this 2006 docudrama is just a drop in the bucket of violent left-wing rhetoric – rhetoric which typically goes unreported by the mainstream media.

Regardless of the political affiliation of our elected officials, let us remember to treat them all with the respect and dignity they deserve, especially when they are maligned by those who truly would hope to do them harm.

From way back in the year 2000 CE (which, by the way, converts to AD 2000), the Independent ran the following story, Snowfalls are now just a thing of the past,

Britain’s winter ends tomorrow with further indications of a striking environmental change: snow is starting to disappear from our lives.

Sledges, snowmen, snowballs and the excitement of waking to find that the stuff has settled outside are all a rapidly diminishing part of Britain’s culture, as warmer winters – which scientists are attributing to global climate change – produce not only fewer white Christmases, but fewer white Januaries and Februaries.

…

However, the warming is so far manifesting itself more in winters which are less cold than in much hotter summers. According to Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia,within a few years winter snowfall will become “a very rare and exciting event”.

“Children just aren’t going to know what snow is,” he said.

Now? From last December, on FoxNews, Anger Rises as Snow, Ice Snarls Britain,

Winter storms forced British government ministers and bank executives to postpone their meeting Monday on the politically touchy issue of bank bonuses. The Department of Business, Innovation and Skills did not announce a new date but said it hoped the meeting could be rescheduled later this week.

Forecasters have said Britain is experiencing some of the most severe winter weather in a century, with continued freezing temperatures and snowfall accumulations expected Monday afternoon and evening.

I recall a co-worker telling me a story of when he went on a school fieldtrip, in the late 1960s / early 1970s, to a nature preserve. This time was the genesis of the Earth Day movement, and at this particular preserve the school kids were told of the impending doom that awaited mankind. One statement that remained with him was the admonition / prediction that, if they didn’t take care of the earth, then their grandchildren wouldn’t know what a tree was.

As Christians we should be all about cherishing and managing the environment God has not only created, but given to us to take care of. Yet we should never fall into the trap of thinking we have the power or ability to save that environment – the laws of physics simply prove us wrong. Worse still, we should be wary of ever slipping into a modern-day worship of Mother Earth.

The book of Genesis has made clear where and from whom our environment has come.

Hmmmm…
Dance the night away, I guess.

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$4.65B profit? Corporate greed!
Yet, no outrage? Oh, right – they aren’t “Big Oil”.

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College = Time to party?
Despite what some of my acquaintances think, I still posit that this is a relatively new phenomenon (i.e., within the last 30 years). When I attended university, in the late 70s, we knew where the party schools were and which majors were party majors. And “Spring Break” was not the orgy it is now. However, the party / socialize mentality seems to be quite ubiquitous nowadays.

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Do you really have 1,538 friends?
Facebook may ask you to identify your friends, via FB photos, for security access to your account. Better check the mug of the friend of your cousin’s kid that you met last summer while on vacation. I’m just sayin’.

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Kids and technology
Yes, preschoolers are more adept at using technology than tying their shoes (unless their shoes lace with velcro). Homeschoolers have long known that kids are capable of learning at a very young age (though they may not be ready).

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Ink from the Cloud
Cool!

If this is okay
then,

this should be as well…

and this too…

and, lastly, this also.

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Be careful how you hold your cellphone when you’re in public
It just might be considered a weapon.

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One soldier, with a knife, against 40 armed thieves
Result: Thieves – 3 dead, 8 injured. Soldier – a serious wound on his hand. This is one reason why the notion that banning objects, such as 30 round magazines, with the intention of curbing acts of evil, is flawed. Humans have the uncanny ability to utilize available tools, combine them with courageous virtue – or evil desire – and act.

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Why you should be concerned about something like Pod Slurping.

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Abortion and the Argument from Inhuman Sociopathy
Joe Carter pulls no punches in this critique.

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Geek News: 25 years since Voyager 2 passed by Uranus
From JPL,

“The Uranus encounter was one of a kind,” said Suzanne Dodd, Voyager project manager, based at JPL. “Voyager 2 was healthy and durable enough to make it to Uranus and then to Neptune. Currently both Voyager spacecraft are on the cusp of leaving the sun’s sphere of influence and once again blazing a trail of scientific discovery.”

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ID Theft not all it’s cracked up to be?
From Consumer Reports,

You have a low likelihood of becoming a victim of true identity theft, and even if you are unlucky, your finances will probably not suffer. Don’t waste money on expensive services offered by credit-reporting bureaus and other ID theft protection companies. Most of their products are unnecessary or ineffective, or they duplicate things you can do yourself, for free.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg evidently feels the need to patrol outside his jurisdiction, not only leaving the confines of NYC limits, but outside his home state. Not content with snooping around his northeast locale, he’s ventured to the American Southwest, taking on Arizona.

From CNN, Undercover investigators buy guns without background checks,

Undercover investigators purchased semiautomatic weapons at an Arizona gun show, despite telling vendors that they probably could not pass background checks, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told reporters Monday.

“We have demonstrated how easy it is for anyone to buy a semiautomatic handgun and a high capacity magazine, no questions asked,” Bloomberg said.

One has to wonder what Arizona law enforcement thinks about New York City investigators conducting sting operations in Arizona?

Perhaps Arizona Governor Jan Brewer should organize sting operations to find out how easy it is for a New York State Attorney General and Governor to be linked to a prostitution ring, or for a physician (in neighboring Philadelphia) to kill unborn children, or… how easy is it to take down a couple of skyscrapers?

Better yet, why doesn’t Bloomberg just mind his own business in his own jurisdiction?

School officer shooting – a hoax
Oh, this is just icing on the cake for homeschoolers. Remember the school officer shooting that resulted in a pee-deprived 5 hour LOCKDOWN, for up to 9 schools, in a 7 square mile area? Well it appears that the “shooting” was orchestrated by the officer who was “shot”.

Keep incidents like this in mind whenever someone advocates that ordinary citizens should have sensible gun-control laws foisted on them, because we can only trust those who have been trained to be responsible with firearms. Incidents like these do not indicate that all law enforcement is bad, but merely that they are human.

If you think parents were peeved before…

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It was green in every way – except that of money
Huntington Beach’s [California] first ‘green’ home is seized by bank.

The first ‘green’ home in Huntington Beach, debuting to much fanfare a little more than a year ago before having its asking price chopped dramatically and becoming a short sale, has gone back to the bank.

You’d think someone like… Robert Redford, might have cared enough to pick it up.

I suppose that some enviros have yet to understand the concept of free market economics.

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Green in name, but not in deed? Must be due to Big Oil Greed?
And in the same Huntington Beach, we have a middle school protest over the installation of solar panels on school property. Why? Because said panels will be installed by – shudder! – Chevron.

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Hey, Wally?
For some lighter Huntington Beach news, it seems that The Beaver just got married in the H.B.

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A common sense lib
From the Huffington Post,

As a liberal Democrat, I worry about the damage we might do by rushing toward a fresh raft of gun-control laws. It’s very hard to demonstrate that most of them — registration, waiting periods, one-gun-a-month laws, closing the gun-show loophole, large-capacity-magazine restrictions, assault-rifle bans — have ever saved a life. It’s a hard thing to accept, but in a country of 350 million privately owned guns, the people who are inclined to do bad things with guns will always be able to get them. One might as well combat air crashes by repealing gravity.

So… where’s my blessing?
I’m particularly touchy on # 2, although it does take some of your own understanding to grapple with # 6.

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Grandma would command a lot more respect in one of these babies!

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Estimates vary, but do the math
The country has gotten riled up over a lone madman using a firearm to kill 6 people, somehow coming to the conclusion that we need to implement stricter gun control laws. Consider that if 0.001% (that’s one thousandth of one percent) of the firearm owners in the U.S. decided today to shoot and kill 6 people, we’d have 4,800 people killed. Seems to me that, under current laws, over 99.99% of firearms owners in the U.S. pretty much keep control of their actions.

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Now this is cool
One thing, though… might it be done to our infrastructure as well?

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Another advertisement for the home school industry.

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Global Warming Denier?
From the New Mexico Independent, Martinez picks former astronaut, global warming denier to head energy, natural resources department. Alternate title, “Martinez picks first and only scientist to walk on the moon, global warming realist to head energy, natural resources department”.

Imagine thousands of young adults kept locked in various rooms, separated from their parents, and some with no access to food, water, or the opportunity to relieve themselves, for up to 5 hours.

That’s what happened to several Los Angeles Unified School District high schools a few days ago after a school police officer was shot and wounded.

From the L.A. Times,

Thousands of students were kept in classrooms without food, water or access to restrooms longer than necessary, the Los Angeles school district’s police chief acknowledged, as officials coped with complaints from parents frustrated once more with the district’s handling of an emergency situation.

Not to worry, though, for even though the lockdown encompassed 9 different schools in a 7 square mile area (for one person shot, mind you), the police department is sympathetic to the predicament the students faced.

“That is not the time to attempt to deliver food to 3,500 students — during the search for an armed assailant,” said LAPD Deputy Chief Kirk Albanese.

Well… surely the school district must have a bit more sympathy?

“Yes, parents are upset that their children at El Camino perhaps weren’t allowed to use the bathroom,” Siegel said, “but safety of the students is our top priority”.

Safe, if not thirsty, hungry, and doing the “I gotta pee so bad!” dance. Yet some classes did improvise by, as one parent put it, “peeing into trash cans”. Some schools have gone so far as to implement the use of “Lockdown Kits”,

In fact, a 5-gallon pail is part of a “lockdown kit” that is supposed to be accessible to every classroom. The pail with a removable lid is “solely for the purpose of this kind of situation,” said district spokesman Robert Alaniz.

Other elements of the lockdown kit include toilet paper and a portable toilet seat. There’s also a flashlight, polyethylene bags, blankets, a pocket radio, bandages, tissues, disposable vinyl gloves, assorted batteries and duct tape.

Every new teacher is supposed to receive training in using the kit, which includes a recommendation that teachers supply a sheet that can be draped to provide privacy, said Bob Spears, the district’s director of emergency services.

What’s that? A “recommendation” that the teacher supply a sheet that can be used to provide some bit of privacy?

It seems to me that about the only other place you hear of a “lockdown” occurring is… that’s right – a prison.

Rest assured. If our home school ever goes into lockdown mode, there will be more in the lockdown kit than mere toiletries.