Since I’ve been harping on the lack of personal responsibility recently, I figured I would spotlight a couple of parents who are doing their jobs. Deep in this story about parents playing cyber-cop we find this:

Laura Johansson, 43, of Mannington, N.J., said she’s not shy about checking up on the online activities of her 13-year-old son, Erik.

“I just walk up behind him when he’s in a chat room on the computer,” Johansson said. “I’ll even get nosy and scroll back to see what they’ve been talking about.”

Because most kids use screen names in chat rooms, Johansson also insists that Erik provide her with a list of real names that correspond to the aliases. “I literally write down their names to keep track,” Johansson said.

Such vigilance is interpreted as harassment by some kids. Like Johansson, Kim Kienzle, 45, of Turnersville, Pa., diligently monitors her teenage children’s computer activities. “They bristle but that’s too bad,” she said. “We’re the parents.”

Many kids may find they have little choice but to submit to parental grilling.

Way to go Laura and Kim!!!

JustOneMinute is wondering why the Democrats don’t press Kerry more on this Form 180 thing:

Well, 2008 is a long way off, but the future is now! The Democrats would benefit greatly if they could pressure Kerry into keeping his promise to Tim Russert and signing the Form 180. How so? Picture Maureen Dowd with the following *hypothetical* lead:

The recent release of John Kerry’s military records confirmed what everyone in the responsible media already knew - John Kerry was the victim of a savage, cynical, media manipulation staged by the same folks that are now promoting Bush’s Social Security reform.

Oh, she would like that lead. And what Dem wouldn’t? The release of Kerry’s records should demonstrate quite clearly that the mainstream media behaved responsibly in largely ignoring this story, and that the Republican propaganda machine can be noisy, effective, and very, very wrong.

Where is the downside for Dems? It is too late for Kerry to lose the 2004 race. And surely, no Dem seriously believes that the release of his records could be so damaging as to hurt Kerry’s chances in his upcoming 2006 Senate run.

Humiliation of the Right, vindication for the Left, a boost for the mainstream media, another blow to Bush’s Social Security reform - it’s all good. One wonders what the Dems are waiting for. Well, unless there is some concern that Kerry’s critics were… never mind.

And the same blog has a bit more in the previous post here.

UPDATE: PoliPundit has a clock that you too can put on your blog.

Scott Ott has the scoop:

“We’re sensitive to accusations that our news coverage may have a certain slant or spin,” said the CNN source. “Our focus groups tell us that when you consume distilled spirits, that slant seems to straighten up and the spin reverses. We believe our news becomes more credible to those who enjoy these products in abundance.”

Drudge has linked to this “dangerous new trend” called Garage Jumping. Kids are jumping between parking garages 80 feet up for the thrill of it. One kid didn’t make it across, fell, and miraculously didn’t die. Now, check out this paragraph:

D’Assaro [the attorney of the family of the boy who didn’t make it] is filing a lawsuit against the city of Orlando and the private garage owner for making little effort to correct a potential deadly risk.

“There was a very, very short length of fence that was completely ineffective in preventing this from happening,” D’Assaro said.

Once again we must ask, where is the personal responsibility? Next we’re going to have to have fences on every road with tunnels under them so no one is able to jump out in front of a bus. Or only be able to buy luke warm coffee at McDonalds so no one can burn themselves… oh, wait… nevermind.

In the middle of a post discussing whether the Evolution v. Creation debate matters, Wheat and Chaff has a quote worth repeating:

It reminds me of the debate about systematic theology sometimes. Some theologians say systematic theology is bad, because you force Biblical data into an interpretive grid instead of letting the data speak for itself. My answer to that has always been that that’s what everyone does; it’s just how humans think. The difference is, if you own up to a system, then at least you have the opportunity to check your system against the data, and adjust the system if necessary. If you are unconscious of your system, you will distort all of the data to fit, while never being aware that you’re doing it. [Emphasis mine]

This applies not just to this whole creation / evolution thing, but to every single thing we view in life. I am once again reminded how critical it is to attempt to understand your own biases, the lens through which you experience the world, as you proceed on the journey … whether it’s reading a blog, grilling burgers with your neighbor, or trying to figure out why your child is sick.

Arnold Ahlert at the NY Post writes:

Since Terri [Schiavo] can breathe on her own without a respirator, the only way to ensure her demise is to remove her feeding tube. This means death by dehydration.

Dr. William Burke, a neurologist in St. Louis describes the process: “A conscious person would feel it [dehydration] just as you and I would. They will go into seizures. Their skin cracks, their tongue cracks, their lips crack. They may have nosebleeds because of the drying of the mucous membranes, and heaving and vomiting might ensue because of the drying out of the stomach lining . . . death by dehydration takes 10 to 14 days. It is an extremely agonizing death.”

LaShawn Barber, paraphrasing a Michael Savage rant:

Liberals will hold vigils for murderous thugs on death row, thugs who are receiving the due penalty of their errors, but when an INNOCENT brain-damaged woman whose husband has two kids with another woman and may have put her in this state is facing death by starvation, they’ve got nothing to say. The greatest cause is protecting INNOCENT human life. Where are the feminists? Where are the Mumia Abu-Jamal clowns?

And if you haven’t seen the St. Petersburg Times ad “censorship” issue, go here and here.

Did you know that the United States has not made any claims to Antarctic Territory, though it reserved the right to do so? The US also does not recognize the claims of other nations.

Interesting map here. Via Fark.

While I’m on the subject of random things that I’ve noticed and wondered about….

Recently, whenever Drudge wants to send a user to a New York Times story, he does not link directly to the story, but rather to the Google news listing of the story and lets the user click through for themselves.

For example, today he has:

EX-ADVISER SAYS TAPES ARE WITH BUSH COUNSEL…

Rather than

EX-ADVISER SAYS TAPES ARE WITH BUSH COUNSEL…

And I have no idea why, but there must be a reason. It’s only with NYT as far as I’ve seen. Maybe it’s the “registration required” thing… or maybe it’s something more intriguing.

Got any ideas? (Or does no one else wonder about random things like this?)

I’ve noticed something really strange. For the last couple of weeks or so the Google ads on my site have been all about Gummi Bears, Gummi Worms and Biometric ID systems. This was stumping me until I remembered that I had written this entry.

It seems odd that Google would pick up on that one post among all of the political, technical or random posts that I have written… but at least now the mystery is solved.

So if you like Gummi Worms or Gummi Bears … or if you need a Biometric ID system … “check out our sponsors on the left hand side of the page!!!” :-D

Kate, a Canadian blogger, points readers to David Frum’s brief article from a couple of days ago:

In the province of Ontario, the words “wife,” “husband,” “widow,” and “widower” are now all to be stricken from the law. The words “mother” and “father” cannot be far behind.

Ontario’s action is a reminder that same-sex marriage is not just the extension of an existing legal status to previously excluded persons. Same-sex marriage is a revolution in the definition of marriage for everyone - a revolution not just in law, but in consciousnessness.

And one effect of this revolution - and for many proponents, one of the revolution’s aims - is to make forever unthinkable the idea that husbands and wives each have special duties to one another, and that a husband’s duties to his wife - while equally binding and equally supreme - are not the same as a wife’s duties to her husband.

Once we lose that knowledge, we lose the basic grammar of marriage. It is one more reminder that in the same-sex marriage debate, we are debating not marriage’s change - but marriage’s overthrow.

Mark at Section 15 tears apart the piece. His comments are interesting, if you can filter through the haze created by his personal attacks. (Ferengi, Wingnut, Liar)

Where do I start? Frum, a low-tax, small government conservative, believes that government defines for me the nature of my relationship with my wife?! Government defines nature? There’s a conspiracy (see my emphasis above) by many supporters of SSM to apparently brainwash us by altering a legal definition to ensure only the equal application of law?

Relationships were around a long time before government. We seemed to have formed relationships and procreated anyway.

And there isn’t anything currently in marital law which affects how a husband and wife decide to define and meet mutual obligations. I honestly don’t know where Frum is getting any of this. He has his own perception of marriage, but seems to fail to understand that this is separate from the law, which, given his ivy school law credentials, doesn’t wash.

Captain Ed has some interesting commentary on the NYT’s coverage of the government overthrow / resignation in Beirut:

Instead of explaining how the Iraqi elections set the stage for the wave of demands for democratization in the Arab world, the Times instead compares the Cedar Revolution favorably to other protests — American anti-Vietnam War protests of the 1960s. No, really:

In scenes reminiscent of protests in the United States in the 1960’s, protestors rushed to get to the site of the demonstration, just yards away from Mr. Hariri’s grave, and camped through the night, waving Lebanese flags as anthems played on. Many handed flowers to the soldiers and beseeched them to cooperate with them. Despite orders to prevent demonstrators from entering the area, soldiers eventually relented to the flood of largely young protestors on Monday, and the demonstration carried on peacefully.

Yes, that connection appears so obvious to me now! Just as in Lebanon, Americans in the 1960s suffered under an occupation by a foreign government and risked their lives by demonstrating against the fascist occupation of their country. Most readers will discern my sarcasm, but apparently the irony-free denizens of the Paper of Record would truly believe that tripe. Yikes.

Related to this, Kevin of Wizbang reminds readers of the origins of the Bush Doctrine.

UPDATE: While we’re on the subject of comparing past and present conflicts, VodkaPundit compares the 1945 battle for Iwo Jima with the war in Iraq. (Via OTB). You really have to read the entire thing, but here’s a quick bite:

But Iraq and Iwo Jima still have a lot in common – and more than might be obvious even to the serious student of history. To see at long last what I mean, let’s look at the critiques.

There’s a strong chance that invading Iwo was a mistake. We didn’t need it as a forward staging area for Operation Olympic. Iwo didn’t control some resource vital to Hirohito’s war machine. In fact, we invaded Iwo Jima and sacrificed nearly 7,000 lives for… an emergency airbase.

That’s right. All of that effort, all of those injuries, all of those lives, just so that bomber crews might have a safe place to put down in case of emergency. I don’t mean to say Iwo wasn’t necessarily worth it. Every airman who found refuge there owed a debt of honor to the Marines who died there. And the propaganda value of the famous flag-raising on Iwo was priceless.

And…

We went into Iwo Jima, with the hope of maybe, hopefully, saving a few more American lives than we lost. And probably, we failed. We went into Iraq hoping to bring revolutionary change to the Arab people, who have suffered under odious regimes.

Reading the news this week, it looks like our efforts in Iraq are paying off.

And if they don’t? Then we’ll have sacrificed 1,400 or so American lives for a great dream – compared to the 7,000 lives we once sacrificed to gain landing fields we never really needed.

Every life lost in battle, whether the war is lost or won, is an almost unspeakable tragedy. But the dream our men and women are dying for today – that’s a dream worth fighting for.

Oops – did I say “dream?” From Egypt to Palestine to Syria to Iraq to Saudi to Afghanistan, our fighting men and women are making the dream into a reality.

The WHCA has weighed in in response to the Gannon / Guckert thing.

“The board felt like none of us were happy about Gannon being in the briefing room, but we all view it as the price we pay for a system that favors inclusion over keeping someone out,” Hutcheson told E&P. “While not perfect, [the current system] is geared toward letting people in.”

Also …

He also added that none of the board members at the meeting believed that Guckert was “a plant” by the Bush administration to insert “softball” questions into the daily briefings.

Via JustOneMinute, Instapundit.

First off, if you haven’t seen Google Suggest, check it out, it’s pretty incredible.

And Chris Justus has done a really great deconstruction of how they do this. If you’re interested in this sort of geekery, check it out.