Category: news item

  • Taking “kissing up” to a new level

    KissingI suppose this isn’t really all that funny, but it struck me as odd. A local elementary school principal was caught kissing a parent in the school gym and suspended from school. Now that is what I call a parent/teacher conference! [Here’s the story]

  • Abortion Laws Challenged

    Abortion_lawI’m not sure if this will stand up in the court system, but the State of South Dakota has passed a law banning nearly all abortions in their state. This will be an interesting fight worth keeping our eyes on. Of course, if it goes to the Supreme Court it will be even more interesting with two of Bush’s appointees on board. [See story]

  • Detroit Weather

    So yesterday it was in the mid-40s here in Detroit. And we were told to expect one last day of nice weather before winter came back. I went to bed last night hoping for mild temperatures today.

    Of course, we woke up to 3 inches of wet and heavy snow. Bummer. I love winter, but cabin fever has set in and I’m ready to get out in the nice warm sunshine of Spring.

  • Haitian Elections

    Haiti_electionWe’ve not heard from our people on the ground in Haiti, but new reports have yesterday’s national elections as "satisfactory." For Haiti, that’s excellent.

    In a similar story I was listening to NPR in the car yesterday when a senator was talking about his failed 1988 run for President of the United States. When they asked him how he handled his failuure their and his upcoming running on the Republican ticket he said, "You have to keep it all in context. In most countries if you are defeated in an election you are likely to get killed, in the US your party gives you a pension." Good point.

  • At the Starbucks

    StarbucksI spent most of last night at the Starbucks on Hall Rd since there were a gaggle of high school females at my house. I ended up staying there for about 5 hours. During which time I watched a movie, Omagh, and mostly just chatted online with friends, worked on some stuff for YMX and people watched.

    Omagh On Omagh. This was a town fairly close to where I spent my summer in Fivemiletown, Northern Ireland. We went there on our day off, and I knew that it had a severe bombing. I had no idea that this is a lot like visiting the WTC area of New York. On October 15th, 1998 a bomb went off in the central shopping area of Omagh while children were going to and from school, people shopping, on and on. It was eery to see places and realize that I was there. I don’t know if the film was shot in the exact location, but it if was I stood right there, and went in that shop where the bomb went off.

    On people watching. This was a big eye opener for me. When we were in Fivemiletown we marveled at the way students congregated in key areas. As we tried to draw a parallel to this in the States the only thing we could come up with was football and basketball games. Now I know another place… Starbucks. For hours and hours tons of high school students filtered in, hung out, and filtered out. I have to look into that more. Wow. But more than that, there were all sorts of characters to watch. People like me on laptops. Ladies reading books about mystery. Young workers collecting checks. First dates. Business meetings. Old friends spotting each other over mochas. The occasional panhandler. And swarms of people either just going to or just finishing a movie. It is weird that I can concentrate so well among the noise of those places, but I can get more done in a few hours there than I can in an entire day in my office.

  • The mine lie

    MinersWe all awoke today to the tragic news of what happened in West Virginia. To make matters worse, there appears to have been a terrible rumor or misinformation. [Watch CNN video]

    Listening to a later man talk on CNN this morning it seemed clear that there was a awful combination of hoping for the best and a lie by someone at the church. It made for a terrible scene when the families members went from waiting for their loved ones to come to them on the porch of the church, singing "Amazing Grace" and "I’ll Fly Away" to hearing the governor and the CEO of the mining company tell them that their loved ones were gone, that there was only one survivor. Absolutely saddening.

    The federal government has already said that they will include the misinformation in their investigation of the tragedy.

  • lightning strikes one of my friends!

    LighteningSo I just found out one of my friends got hit by lightning while walking around at Roberts College.

    Two lessons to learn here… first, skip class on Wednesday’s. Second, don’t go outside with an umbrella for any reason other than golf.

    [Here’s the article]

    (Rochester, NY) 11/09/05 – Four women were struck by lightning Wednesday.

    Three college students and another woman were struck by a bolt of lightning while walking across campus at Roberts Wesleyan.

    A spokesperson for the college said there was the sound of a loud crash when lightning struck Cox Hall.

    All four were carrying umbrellas when lightening struck.

    They were all examined by a school nurse and checked out at the hospital as a precaution—they’re all OK.Dsc05868

    She says she is fine… but look at this recent picture.

    Val, I dunno… I think you need to go back to the doctor. Seriously, praise God you weren’t hurt.