Great quote from the Indianpolis area today, after Comcast went down due to a power failure.

“We’re missing ‘Will and Grace,’ ” cried Janet Cowan, who lives with her husband in the 1900 block of Skiles Street.

When told she could watch it by unplugging the cable connection and tuning to the network station, she, like others who got the suggestion, was relieved.

“You mean I can still watch the news if I unplug the cable?” said Eloise Valinet, who lives near Township Line Road and 86th Street. “Oh, thank you.'’

I’m thinking maybe unplugging the cable a bit more often would be a good idea.

Wow. What’s the world coming to when a student gets sued for making fun of the teacher? Sure, it’s not a great character quality to make fun of other people, but what kind of teacher sues a student for something silly like this?

Teacher Robert Muzzillo pursued the charges against Alex and another student after noticing a profile with his name attached on MySpace.com. The profile talks about Muzzillo liking Michael Jackson and having a “gay old time,” like the Fred Flintstone song.

Davis said he only wrote that Muzzillo lost an eye wrestling with alligators and midgets.

When the school found out that Davis was involved, he received three days in-school suspension. Then he learned the teacher had filed charges against him.

Just when you thought Clinton had started to become irrelevant, somehow his foundation has joined with the American Heart Association to make a deal with soft drink makers to sell only diet sodas in schools. No sugar for the youth of our nation, just Aspartame, great idea!

You would think this was satire, mocking the culture of irresponsibility and government silliness … but it’s not.

Tens of millions of students will no longer be able to buy non-diet sodas in the nation’s public schools under an agreement announced Wednesday between major beverage distributors and anti-obesity advocates.

The distributors, working with a joint initiative of the William J. Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association, also have agreed to sell only water, juice and low-fat milks to elementary and middle schools, said Jay Carson, a spokesman for former President Clinton.

Cadbury Schweppes PLC, Coca-Cola Co., PepsiCo Inc. and the American Beverage Association have all signed onto the deal, Carson said, adding that the companies represent “a very significant market share.” The American Beverage Association represents the majority of school vending bottlers.

“It’s a bold and sweeping step that industry and childhood obesity advocates have decided to take together,” Carson said.

UPDATE: I’ve changed the title of this post from “Government Prescribes…” to “Industry Prescribes…” because in re-reading this article, I have realized that, if it is accurate, the government had little to do with this, just the industry and some “advocates.” I guess kids’ hearts may be healthier, even if their brains become toxic.

Thank goodness the people overseeing the prison in London had the compassion on their muslim inmates to spend lots of taxpayer money to turn their toilets 90 degrees. Imagine the horror of having to go sitting sideways.

JAIL bosses are rebuilding toilets so Muslim inmates don’t have to use them while facing Mecca.

Thousands of pounds of taxpayers money are being spent to ensure lags are not offended.

The Islamic religion prohibits Muslims from facing or turning their backs on the Kiblah — the direction of prayer — when they visit the lav.

Muslim lags claimed they have had to sit sideways on prison WCs.

But after pressure from faith leaders the Home Office has agreed to turn the existing toilets 90 degrees at HMP Brixton in London.

Last time I flew, I got one of those nice little “we searched your bags” notes, but no uniform.

An airline passenger made a surprising discovery after flying from New Jersey to Florida — When she opened her luggage, she found a uniform belonging to the Transportation Security Administration.

“I couldn’t believe what was on there,” Debra Sanders said.

“Patches for homeland security, TSA all over it, and then the name tag with the number.”

In Global Deception, Joseph Klein essentially argues that U.N. has strayed far from it’s original noble mission of cooperating to solve common problems. He makes a pursuasive argument that “globalists,” including many in the U.N. beauracracy starting at the top with Kofi Annan, essentially want a global governing body funded by global taxes. Mr. Klein has chapters devoted to the U.N.’s position on taxes, gun restrictions, military action, housing, regulations regarding labor and people with disabilities, among others.

His final call examines the dangerous consequence of integrating international norms and foreign jurisprudence into the decisions of the court systems of the United States.

Much of the content of the book lends itself to an incredulous “that can’t be true,” but Klein has extensively footnoted his work, and the skeptic has the ability to research and verify. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning more about the agenda behind the current driving forces of the United Nations leadership; even if you do not agree with Klein’s conclusions, his seventeen pages of reference notes will provide you with a great deal of resources for your own further research.

Disclaimer: The publisher, World Ahead Publishing Company, gave this book to me through Stacy Harp’s Active Christian Media for review. I received no other compensation for this review.

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Other reviews can be found here.

The Witness, by Dee Henderson, was provided to me free of charge by Active Christian Media for the purposes of this review. Having never heard of Dee Henderson before, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of this book. “Christian novels” often leave much to be desired in terms of quality of plot, character development and even writing styles, but this was done well. It’s not quite John Grisham, but it was a page turner that kept me up too late a couple of nights in a row.

One thing that I found refreshing about this book was the way faith was integrated into the lives of the characters. It was done in a very real and natural way, with the characters questioning the reasons behind tragedy, struggling to deal with it as humans do, and ultimately not providing cheesy cliches full of “answers.” Very well done, Ms. Henderson!

I would recommend this book for anyone who enjoys a good mystery novel!

Other book reviews for The Witness can be found at ACM.

By now you have all seen the headlines about Daniel Edwards’ “Monument to Pro-Life: The Birth of Sean Preston,” a life size statue depicting Britney Spears giving birth.

For a bit of a different take on this, check out what the Funky Presbyterian has to say about it. He’s got a fascinating position, here’s the first bit…

Here’s what I love about it:

First it’s pro-life, which is great. Second it is a very well executed sculpture. The Pro-Life movement is of course linked with the political right, which is not known to be a friend of the arts, so to a see a pro life work that has actual artistic merit is encouraging to me as a pro-lifer and as an artist.

In addition, I especially love that the work is mildly provacative. It would have been so easy for someone to have done a nice safe sculpture of a fully clothed mother cradling her child (ala Mary Cassat or whatever). But what would be the point of that? The fact that this work is mildly provacative removes it somewhat from the sphere of the political right & especially from the “Christian” right. Let’s face it. Minature models of this statue are not going to be sold as pewter bookends in any Chrisitian bookstore, with the proceeds going to a pro-life organization. So the very nature of the work cleanses the pro-life message from the ideologue stigma often (unfairly or fairly) attached to it by more liberal opponents. Ralph Reed ain’t making naked statues of Britney Spears.

Which is the other thing I love about this piece. The fact that it is Britney Spears works fantastically on a number of levels. First, if the provacative nature of the work removes the accusation of “conservative ideologue”, identifying the woman as Britney Spears removes the whole “frou-frou- too-cool-for school-artsy-fartsy-wine-and-cheese-pretense” from a work that could otherwise be seen as merely high culture sophistication. Britney is as low culture, as pop culture as it gets. Even better, Britney is pop culture icon ten minutes past her prime, which is the worst of all possible crimes in our culture.

More…

There is some delicious irony in the fact that John Kerry avoids tomato based products or sandwiches.

Like, say, ketchup.

Interesting.

Dr. Jacques Chaoulli argued “patients will continue to suffer and die” because of waiting lists.

Wow. Must be a busy news day in Arizona. This made the paper.

It was a very small army that protested the Iraq war Friday outside the Scottsdale offices of U.S. Rep. J.D. Hayworth.

Only two peace activists stood near Raintree Drive and Northsight Boulevard, holding anti-war posters for passing cars to see.

Without knowing the first thing about actuarial processes or how insurance companies set rates, my gut reaction as that this is just more whining. If having less education or a different occupation puts you in a higher risk category statistically, it would be ridiculous for an insurance company to give you the same rate as someone with more education and an occupation that statistically carries a higher risk.

Under Geico’s guidelines, he said, a New Orleans factory worker without a high school education would pay $2,636 for insurance, 91 percent more the $1,382 that a white-collar worker with a graduate degree would pay for the same vehicle and location.

“There is clearly a disparate impact on minorities and lower income people,” Hunter said in an interview. “If it isn’t violative of the law, it should be. It strikes me as very unfair.”

In a March 14 letter to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, the CFA said Geico’s use of educational status alone to determine rates allows it to bypass prohibitions on using income as a guideline for setting rates, on the grounds that doing so is racially discriminatory.

“What is very troubling is that Geico appears to be using these guidelines as a de facto rating method,” it said. “Geico’s methodology is reprehensible because not everyone has the opportunity or can afford to pursue a four-year college degree.”

I guess some things in life are just not fair. Stop the whining. I was a 20 year old kid once and I had high car insurance rates. If I smoke I would expect higher life insurance rates. If statistically someone with a lower educational level is more likely to wreck their car (or maybe it puts them at a higher risk of not paying their premiums, or not paying them on time (basically a credit issue), which would add to Geico’s cost of managing the policy), then make them pay more for insurance. Nothing wrong with that.

Some of these alarm clocks are pretty cool. Why a post about alarm clocks? I have no idea, but the jig saw and the hide-n-seek ones were my personal favorites.

Is today April 1st? One might think so from this story.

Carey, who was also a Republican candidate for governor of California, is going to Washington at the invitation of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC). She will meet and interact with key Congressional leaders and Administration officials to discuss advancing powerful pro-business, pro-family agendas and meeting positive legislative goals.

She will join Karl Rove, senior advisor to the President, for lunch on Wednesday the 15th, and President Bush for dinner on Thursday the 16th.

Now wait a minute.

Mary Carey star of “R” rated ‘Sapphire Girls’ (2003): whose production company Mary Carey Productions in 2004 produced the X rated ‘Run Mary Run’ in which she played the lead role. “Run” described by leading movie database web site Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB.com) as “Hardcore Sex” is going to meet the President of the United States, George W. Bush?

And she’s going to be talking “pro-family” items with Karl Rove, the same Karl Rove who Senator Hillary Clinton complained was “obsessing” about her and who allegedly had a role in leaking CIA spy information?

Holocaust survivor Lou Dunst meets liberator Bob Persinger at surprise 80th birthday party.

Yesterday’s reunion capped an emotional surprise party for Dunst, whose actual birthday is Saturday. Estelle Dunst, who introduced herself as “Lou’s pushy wife,” spent more than a year organizing the event with military efficiency. Many guests belong to the New Life Club, a San Diego outfit for Holocaust survivors that Lou Dunst serves as treasurer.

“I turned 80 last week and I’m the baby,” said Gussie Zaks, the club’s president.

As the years pass and their numbers dwindle, there’s increasing concern that these tales of inhumanity and survival are being lost. Many people want to ignore this unpleasant topic.

“Sometimes we hear people say, ‘Enough with the Holocaust,’ ” Zaks said. “No, never enough.”

As the U.S. auto industry heads into a tailspin, this revelation by Jeffrey McCracken of the Wall Street Journal helps to explain at least some of the problem.

In his 34 years working for General Motors Corp., one of Jerry Mellon’s toughest assignments came this January. He spent a week in what workers call the “rubber room.”

The room is a windowless old storage shed for engine parts. It is filled with long tables, Mellon said, and has space for about 400 employees. They must arrive at 6 a.m. each day and stay until 2:30 p.m., with 45 minutes off for lunch. A supervisor roams the aisles, signing people out when they want to use the bathroom.

Their job: to do nothing.

And the costs to auto companies is staggering…

Each person costs GM about $100,000 to $130,000 in wages and benefits, according to internal union and company figures, which means GM’s total cost this year is likely to be about $750 million to $900 million.

Playing Trivial Pursuit, watching civil war movies, studying crossword puzzles or sleeping on a makeshift bed of chairs, GM is paying lots of money for nothing.

And guess who pays these extra costs? You do. It’s in the price of the vehicle.

I wonder too how much incentive this builds into making a quality product?

With U.S. car companies seeing sagging sales and profits it seems lots of folks are getting tired of paying high prices for junk.

It’s another case of corporate socialism bearing the fruit of a misguided ideology.

This is actually a funny article if it wasn’t so sad.

Wow. Listen to this.

Background.

LaShawn, what was it you were saying about government schools? ;-)

Regarding the MSM excitement surrounding the “Bush was briefed before Katrina” video, Newsbusters is pointing out that everyone seems to be confusing “breach” with “overtop.” Captain Ed and Dafydd are in on the act too.

The AP said:

Bush declared four days after the storm, “I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees” that gushed deadly floodwaters into New Orleans. But the transcripts and video show there was plenty of talk about that possibility — and Bush was worried too.

Hinderaker does more deconstructing, as does Kevin over at Wizbang.

The LA Times notes the selective AP editing.

“The AP video does not include footage of Chertoff asking Brown whether he needs any other help or of Chertoff asking whether Brown wants him to approach the Department of Defense. Transcripts show that to both questions, Brown indicated that no additional assistance was needed.”

BoingBoing is telling those of you in the UAE how to get around the censors. Here is the guide.

The UAE has also banned Michelle Malkin.

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For those of you in the UAE, here are a couple of links that should get you around the censors.

BoingBoing
BoingBoing

Pink is making waves with her song “Stupid Girls” which evidently mocks Paris, Jessica, Lindsay and Mary-Kate. As usual, there’s some great truth in the satire. The video is available on the site as well.

Here’s a snip from her MTV interview.

MTV: Everyone’s talking about your parodies of Paris, Jessica, Lindsay and Mary-Kate, but “Stupid Girls” is about more than that, isn’t it?

Pink: People are going to think, “You’re supposed to be a feminist, you’re supposed to be supporting women,” but I just can’t support that, what the majority of these women are doing — or not doing, more like. It’s just this mindless consumer culture, and it’s such a wasted opportunity. Every time I see myself lying on that hospital gurney [in that video] I sort of wince. It’s a $150 billion cosmetic industry, and what does that say about how we feel about ourselves? It’s sort of pushing this image — shop, drink, party, don’t think, shop, don’t think. I just can’t do that.

MTV: Have you read either “Backlash” [by Susan Faludi] or “The Beauty Myth” [by Naomi Wolf]? Together, they basically argue that consumerism acts to divert us. Instead of fighting for women’s rights, we’re fighting to find the perfect shoe.

Pink: Consumerism diverts us from thinking about women’s rights, it stops us from thinking about Iraq, it stops us from thinking about what’s going on in Africa — it stops us from thinking in general. I was brought up to question authority, and thank God for that. There’s a lot of questions. A lot of people are into this escapism thing and don’t want to think, and if you force them to think, you become boring. What can you do? I guess I can make videos. And it goes down a lot easier when it’s funny.

MTV: We’ve gotten so much reader response since the video debuted, from fans who love that you’ve come back, to those who’ve called you a hypocrite for making fun of your fellow celebs and who questioned whether or not your aim is to be half-naked as well.

Pink: I love the discussion that’s going on right now. It’s always nice to be missed, but I don’t feel like I ever really went away. I don’t know where I’d be coming back from. There’s always a backlash when you challenge people’s convictions and their heroes. But I don’t do all this so I can be in Us Weekly every week. I don’t do this so that people think I’m cool. I don’t do it for — it sounds ridiculous — the fame or the money. I have incredible dogs, I have incredible friends, I have a gorgeous husband who loves me. I’m good. I love to sing and put my music out there, and I hope I can always do that. But I’m not going to forsake who I am or my integrity to have these things that I can’t take with me anyway. I never said I was perfect, and I never said anybody else doesn’t have permission to make fun of me for what I do. I’m a walking contradiction. I’m a hypocrite sometimes. I’m a work in progress. But I’m working to be better. I’m seeking out smart people and responsible women, and I’m standing up for animals. I’m not making fun of a certain person, I’m making fun of an idea, and I think they’re missing the point. Sexy doesn’t have to come with the price tag of being dumb.