Punxsutawney Phil Returns

There is a German tradition that holds that if a hibernating animal, the illustrious groundhog, sees its shadow on Feb. 2 — the Christian holiday of Candlemas — winter will last another six weeks. If no shadow is seen, legend says spring will come early.

The groundhog has spoken. And it's bad news .... Yep ... Another 6 weeks of winter!

Not the biggest surprise considering the dreary, cold, snow/rain/sleet action we got going on now here ...

Inundation of Information

Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

T.S. Eliot

How much time have I spent thinking of the inundation of information that is at my fingertips every day? That has been at my fingertips for years, starting with Myspace and now with Twittering? Do you remember when Facebook became the new Myspace, then Blogs gained over Facebook, then Twittering became the new Blogging, and now everybody’s Tweeting? What’s next?

What do I do with the eleventy-two ways I have to connect with 750 of my “best friends” these days? Do I really know 750 people?! And if I vaguely remember them from ten years ago, am I supposed to write on their wall? Or is accepting their friend request enough of a hello? How do I sift through all of the chatter and noise? How do I find the depth? The life? The human behind the 140 characters? How do I cull out what’s important and leave the rest? How do I flippin’ know when to stop reading?

And, seriously, how do I know when I need to stop chattering?

Baloon Boy: Aftermath

I have to admit I was all taken in on the balloon boy thing. What a story .... With the happy ending we all love to see! I believed in Balloon Boy. Or, rather, I believed that his parents believed that he was in the balloon. And I hoped that they were wrong, that he was hiding under the bed, or in a box. And I was happy - genuinely happy - when I learned that, in fact, he was. Alas ....

IT WAS A HOAX!!!!!!

How naive could I have been? Undoubtedly, my own fond childhood memories coupled with a pretty good set of parents has mislead my thinking on the aims of other families. Did I actually think that lil Falcon Heene was throwing up for no reason on the morning show? (Just nervous I suppose ...) However ... The lies and scam that his parents perpetrated would make anyone vomit. It makes me sick thinking about it. So much for the piety of parenthood. Fame, money and the lure of reality television trumps holding a regular job any day of the week.

Heaven help us. But most of all, help Falcon Heene and his brothers.

Is Sexting To Blame?

This story is incredibly sad. Teenagers can be so cruel to one another. I wonder how her ex-boyfriend feels now. How are all of the girls that called her vulgar names feeling at this moment ...

Teen Commits Suicide ~ Is 'Sexting' To Blame?

We're saddened by a story about a teen who hanged herself in her bedroom after an ex-boyfriend disseminated a nude cell-phone photo of her around their Ohio community. Jessica Logan, 18, was harassed daily by other girls calling her "slut" and "whore" and throwing objects at her.

Making It Through

She finished high school last year and went on national television with her face and voice distorted to warn other girls about the potential consequences of taking naked photos of themselves, a mistake Vanessa Hudgens later made.

But two months later, after attending a funeral for another teen who had committed suicide, Jessica went home and took her own life.

A Common Mistake

An oft-cited survey says that 39 percent of teens have sent similar photos of themselves ... and 15 percent of high-school boys say they disseminate the pics after a breakup.The "Today" show had an "Internet security expert" on hand to warn of the dangers of "sexting" and urge parents to check their kids' cell phones. But isn't the real problem old-fashioned high-school cruelty?

Full article here:

http://www.lemondrop.com/2009/03/06/teen-commits-suicide-is-sexting-to-blame/?icid=200100397x1219749344x1201339776

The thing that leaped out at me was that 39% of the teens have sent similar or nude photos of themselves! Wow!!! The problem isn't having cell phones, the problem is that somewhere along the way girls think that they have to use sex and their sexuality to keep a boy's interest. Somewhere along the way, girls are thinking their only marketable commodity is their bodies. It doesn't matter if your kids have cell phones or not, they will find a way to do other things that could ruin their lives. This is the problem with society, always looking for something to blame rather than taking responsibility for their own actions.

Life is a mixed bag -- you always have the bad stuff and the good stuff. I could go on, at length, about all the stupid stuff I did when I was a teenager. Or I could go on about the good stuff. With the bad stuff, hopefully, it fades away. It becomes like fragments. Little pieces of stories that don't always agree with each other. The good stuff we keep. The thing is that I think we need forgetfulness in order to function. "Forgive and forget." We all need grace for our "pasts." Even the Bible says that when God forgives us, He “remembers our sins no more" ( Jeremiah 31:34).

But we're running out of forgetfulness. Here's the thing: in the process of recording everything, we're making our lives more static than they've ever been before. I'm not that kid of 18 who was apathetic and hated school anymore. The teenagers taking pictures of themselves performing sex acts are going to have to live with those pictures their entire lives. There's no more forgetting.

Men and Women Sin Differently?

An interesting little article I came across … Just in time for Lent!

Two sexes ’sin in different ways’

Women are prouder than men, but men are more lustful, according to a Vatican report which states that the two sexes sin differently. ‘

A Catholic survey found that the most common sin for women was pride, while for men, the urge for food was only surpassed by the urge for sex. The report was based on a study of confessions carried out by Fr Roberto Busa, a 95-year-old Jesuit scholar.

The Pope’s personal theologian backed up the report in the Vatican newspaper. “Men and women sin in different ways,” Msgr Wojciech Giertych, theologian to the papal household, wrote in L’Osservatore Romano. “When you look at vices from the point of view of the difficulties they create you find that men experiment in a different way from women.”

Msgr Giertych said the most difficult sin for men to face was lust, followed by gluttony, sloth, anger, pride, envy and greed. For women, the most dangerous sins were pride, envy, anger, lust, and sloth, he added.

Full article here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7897034.stm

“The report was based on a study of confessions carried out by Fr Roberto Busa, a 95-year-old Jesuit scholar..” Hmmmmm … Are you kidding me?

What do you think? I would say in a general way that there probably is some truth to it …

One pill makes you smaller ...one makes you tall ...

I found this article interesting on a number of levels ...

Pill to erase bad memories: Ethical furore over drugs 'that threaten human identity'

By David Derbyshire

A drug which appears to erase painful memories has been developed by scientists.

The astonishing treatment could help sufferers of post-traumatic stress disorder and those whose lives are plagued by hurtful recurrent memories. But British experts said the breakthrough raises disturbing ethical questions about what makes us human.

Experiments on animals had already shown that the drugs - beta-adrenergic receptor blockers - can interfere with how the brain makes and remakes memories of frightening events. Beta blockers appear to work because each time someone recalls a powerful emotional memory the memory is 'remade' by the brain.The drug interferes with this re-creation of the stressful memory - and prevents the brain renewing it. In theory, it could eradicate memories of traumatic events that happened years ago. It might also help patients overcome phobias, obsessions, eating disorders and even sexual hang-ups.

Paul Farmer, chief executive of the mental-health charity Mind, said he was concerned about the 'fundamentally pharmacological' approach to problems such as phobias and anxiety. He told Channel 4 News that the unintended consequences 'could include the eradication of positive memories'.

Professor Neil Burgess of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience told the programme that wide-scale use of the drug was a long way off.

'All they've shown so far is that the increased ability to startle someone if they are feeling a bit anxious is reduced,' he said.

The ability to remove memories has been the stuff of science fiction for decades.

In the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which starred Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey, a couple used a technique to erase memories of each other when their relationship turned sour.

The full article here:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1145777/Pill-erase-bad-memories-Ethical-furore-drugs-threaten-human-identity.html

Geee .... Would you take such a pill? I can see it may work for a distressed victim of a rape for example, but what of all the other "side effects"? Even of you leave criminals aside - who could use it on themselves to avoid punishment or on their victims to erase their memories - bad and good memories make us the persons we are today. How comes the answer to everything nowdays is 'here, have a pill'. I think there are already so many other, healthier ways around bad memories. I also think many would agree that though some memories aren't sweet, they shape the person you are, by erasing these would be like losing part of yourself.

Back to Dunkirk???

An article I stumbled across ...

Christians called to abandon public education

Posted: December 28, 20089:15 pm Eastern© 2009 WorldNetDaily

You've heard all about the disputes: "Silent Night" banned at the "holiday" program, artistic references to the Bible censored and faith-inclusive children's programs facing discrimination.
Now some people are fed up with public school treatment of Christianity and have launched a campaign calling for a rescue of kids from government education programs – a "Call to Dunkirk."
The name Dunkirk is famous for the hundreds of thousands of World War II allies saved in May 1940 when a flotilla of pleasure boats, fishing craft and others rescued the soldiers from the beaches near Dunkirk, France, where they were trapped by an advancing German army.
Full article here:
http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=84603

YouTube video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRGZLSVph3A

Looking at the video I would have to say that was one of the most offensive propaganda videos I think I have seen in a long time!. Equating public school teacher to Hitler (with convenient Hitler film clips to boot!), Stalinist collective farms, calling public schools "soul killing government indoctrination centers," is a bit much, don't you think?

My thoughts? Well-run Christian schools and quality home-school programs are certainly a viable option for Christians. If one perceives that the public schools become a tool of social engineers to teach anti-Christian messages, then Christian parents may find that removing their children from public schools to be the only option. However I think the problem with the public schools is the lack of parental responsibility for the academic and behavioral advancement of their children. It is no wonder that so many Charter, and Home Schooled children do better than our public schools, they have greater parental involvement and ability to only educate those students they desire. The point of the Social Engineers is valid problem, but NOT the main problem. I would submit that neglecting parental responsibilities IS Anti-Christian.

The mechanism exists for school accountability through school board elections, PTA's, and state and federal grievance procedures. This again has been neglected by the all to often "Too busy to get involved" parent. the problem is that our schools are merely the symptom of a societal breakdown and not the cause. It does however become a vicious cycle, but I believe we should "fix" the society and then the educational system will follow. Their "successes" with certain charter schools only reinforces what the problem is. It is NOT a viable alternative without a quantum shift in our culture back to parental responsibility which schools and homes have NOT supported.

I believe that as Christians we should become more involved with our schools not less! Even using the World War 2 metaphor .... We came back to take the land, not just withdraw from it!

Any thoughts?