Back in February I started a forum project focusing on the 1970’s and 1980’s. It was called Our Generation.
Today I announce the end of that forum.
Simply no one visited or contributed.
That’s the Internet I guess.
Passing on “War of the Worlds”
At the end of June, uber Director Steven Spielberg and ultra uber actor Tom Cruise come to the theaters with a remake of the HG Wells novel “War of the Worlds”.
In case you aren’t aware of the material, aliens invade Earth and Earth loses the war. A plot twist then has the aliens dying off and the Earth is free once more.
After seeing the trailers recently, I have decided to take a pass on the movie.
It isn’t because of the people involved. I enjoy the movies from both Spielberg and Cruise. The reason I am not going to see “War of the Worlds” is because it is too possible of a reality.
I can’t imagine anyone who watched the plane flying into the south tower of the World Trade Center on 9/11/2001 and then watching both towers collapse live enjoying a movie that shows a lot of major death and destruction – even computer generated. I know I can’t – not anymore.
I want to watch a movie as an escape and “War of the Worlds” isn’t an escape for me. Especially with the current war in Iraq.
I’m sure there is some political motive behind the movie as there was in the Wells novel and I applaud that but the fake mayhem just pales in comparison to real life.
So, I think I will spend my movie dollars to continue my Lindsay Lohan fixation and see “Herbie: Full Loaded” which opens June 22nd.
New blog about the Secular Left
Once again, proving I have no active social life, I have spent my holiday weekend creating another project where I can rant.
It all started when someone posted an article about a term called “Secular Left” that conservatives and the religious right are now using in their name calling program for those who disagree with them.
In the article called Sticks and Stones and the “Secular Left”, author David Benjamin comments about the first time he heard the term while watching “Meet the Press” on May 8th. Conservative talking head Mary Matalin used the term in describing the opposition during the manufactured filibuster crises over Bush’s judicial nominees.
Benjamin wrote:
“Civil liberties,” a term that embraces such basic American prerogatives as privacy, consumer rights, freedom of speech, freedom of the press and, yes, freedom of religion, are seen today as the purchased privileges of a “liberal elite.” This distortion is the linguistic legacy of the same American right wing that now cubbyholes its foes as the “secular Left,” and seems happy to gather at the river under the big (revival) tent of the religious Right.
“Secular Left.” Yeah, maybe it’s just a couple of words. But it’s coming from the people who today, in American politics, get to make up all the words, and then make everybody else repeat them endlessly, like “Hallelujah,” and “Praise the Lord.” And the only opposition is a tongue-tied cluster of Democrat/ liberal/ progressives whose only articulate utterance in the political and semantic struggle of the last decade has been a strangled bleat that sounds a lot like “Uncle!”
I agree with him and I decided to do something about it.
Using a portion of my meager salary I purchased the domain secularleft.us and put up a blog to defend not only secular humanists, and atheists, but also anyone with a secular bent who disagrees with the conservatives and their buddies the religious right on matters of church vs. state.
Opening today http://www.secularleft.us will be a counterpoint to the shrill sounds of the right. I intend to expose the lies and myths they express about those who choose the secular path and I don’t plan to be nice about it.
Today’s entry deals with the ruling the US Supreme court made today regarding religious practices in prison.
Feel free to stop by for a visit.
Cell phones in Findlay High School causing trouble
Back on May 9th a group of Findlay High School students approached the school board to ask for a change in the cell phone policy at school.
It seems that FHS as a zero tolerance for cell phones on campus and if found they are confiscated and returned at the end of the day. If the same person is found with one again then a parent or guardian has to come to school to pick it up.
Cell phones are like a part of the body of most teens these days. They are always talking, texting, or now taking pictures to share. Schools do have a reason to control the use of the phones during school hours for the same reason you can’t have a boom box. The phones not only can disrupt class but they can also be used to cheat.
When I heard about the issue I sided with the current policy.
In my younger days calculators were just being made affordable for most students. At first they were banned from school. It was considered cheating if you used one. But then they found out that calculators can help marginal students in math since most of the trouble is doing basic math functions. The policy changed and calculators were allowed but if you had a fancy one that could save formulas you had to bring them to the teacher before a test and he/she would reset the machine to wipe out any attempts to cheat on the test.
The problem with cell phones is, that unlike calculators, they have NO educational value.
The students suggested changing the policy to allow them to bring them as long as they are off and kept in their lockers during the day.
Sounds reasonable.
Then I read a follow up story in today’s Courier.
It seems that some students still bring the phones to school and some even use them during the day, fully knowing that it is against the rules.
But that wasn’t the kicker.
It seems that the administration is searching the phones they confiscate and punishing any rule violations contained on them like bad language in text messages and pictures showing underage drinking.
The kids are pissed. They feel that their privacy is being violated.
I think the kids had a good argument – if it wasn’t in school. Students have no privacy in school. When I was there in the mid 80’s we had a couple of school wide locker searches. Each class had to open their lockers and a staff member would look through them and punish any violation they found. One time they even brought a drug sniffing dog.
Cell phones are not school property but you really can’t blame the administration for searching them especially because they aren’t allowed in the first place.
As a teacher is quoted in the Courier article:
“Doesn’t there have to be some respect for the rules?”
Originally posted on the blog “Hancock County Politics Unfiltered”
Democrats: We like anal lube. Really.
Once again the Democrats bent over and became spokespeople for anal lube:
Senators Avert Showdown Over Filibusters
By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent
Under the terms, Democrats agreed to allow final confirmation votes for Priscilla Owen, Janice Rogers Brown and William Pryor, appeals court nominees they have long blocked. There is “no commitment to vote for or against” the filibuster against two other conservatives named to the appeals court, Henry Saad and William Myers.
The agreement said future judicial nominees should “only be filibustered under extraordinary circumstances,” with each senator � presumably the Democrats � holding the discretion to decide when those conditions had been met. Officials said the pact was intended to cover the Supreme Court as well as other levels of the judiciary.
What this means is the Dems lose the fight over the most contentious nominees and gained a “maybe” the Republicans won’t drop the bomb on the filibuster in the future.
If I was the Democratic leader I would have dared them to do it and when they did make sure the Dems never voted on another piece of legislation for the rest of the term. Instead of Yay or Nay each one would be asked to vote “present”.
That way when the elections came around the Dems could say we stood up for our party and the Republicans are responsible for every thing passed that term.
Now once again the spines are no where to be found.
If find any please send them to the DNC, 430 S. Capitol St. SE Washington, DC 20003