I've Been Away and Distracted.

THIS, IN SOME WAYS, HAS BEEN a struggle in which to keep up. This is largely (although not completely) due to the lack of feedback I feel I have been receiving from my readers. It has also been partly due to my lack of "inspiration" as cliche as that may sound -- my lack of a center focus of which to write. ..But hopefully, as I find myself trekking back to school, I will be able to find my focus again and write for the sole purpose of writing. Again, many that know me know that my favorite movie from my childhood (not to make many of you begin to feel old) is "Throw Mama Off the Train" (despite me not being a great Billy Crystal fan). This is a story of a failing but still aspiring writer, and as he begins to seek advice from his mentor and professor, the only advice the creative writing professor (Billy Crystal) can give the student (Danny Devito) is that "Writer's write." I hope that these simple words will help me as I attempt to rekindle my long lost passion.

If I Could Only Count the Times. . .

IF I COULD ONLY COUNT THE TIMES that I have been turned down away from a store because they were closing early or for the night. . . ! I sometimes wish I had these celebrity connections so they could publically apologize to me for their wrongs.

Time To Grow

THE CURRENT GENERATION OF CHILDREN can be adequately described as being the generation that simply hasn't been spanked enough. I may now appear to be acting somewhat insensitive to the needs of children, but I think many times people just forget what it was like to be that age. Nearly every generation has been raised in a time of war. For myself, it was the Gulf War, for my parents it was the Korean War, and for my grandparents it was the Second Great War. War has constantly surrounded us and I feel there has been too much emphasis on catering to the needs of young children regarding how to deal with war time.

Growing up in general is a difficult time. Children, like all of us did at one time, are exploring and dealing with complicated feelings regarding different situations. During my generation, we didn't have Dr. Phil telling our parents how to raise us -- it was trial and error. My parents and my peers parents simply did the best they could. I can't complain how I turned out, and for the most part, my peers can't blame their parents for how they turned out. I feel too much emphasis has been placed on the well-being of the children and not enough emphasis has been placed on teaching children the value of accepting responsibility for their personal actions.

Okay -- so I may just have a bad taste in my mouth. Last night, I was watching the second disc of the 5th Season of the Sopranos. I found myself doing other things when I had reached the peak of my patience level when I saw how the 16 year old boy, Anthony Jr., was treating his parents. At this point in the series, Tony and his wife are seperated, and Tony feels the need to spoil AJ with drums, tutors, and a brand new car during his time of distress. Granted, this is just some HBO series, but I found this to be a great representation of today's society. Again, not to sound redundant, I do understand that growing up is a difficult time. And given, I haven't had to deal too much with the concepts of seperation and divorce. Nonetheless, as any teenager, I had to deal with growing pains, and I was not given presents to ease them.

Sometimes I feel that our society just needs more parents being parents. It is during other times that I feel parents need to ease up and just let their children grow. It is the sad truth, but this is the world we live in. We can't continue to shelter it from them. Our job is to help them through it, but definitely not to constantly "baby" them through it.

"Creating a New Terrorist"

WITHOUT A DOUBT THAT is what this country is doing in Guatanamo Bay, Cuba. It seems that with every attempt we have made at trying to get the captives to speak, we are further driving them and their home countries away from siding with the United States. Although there has been no concrete evidence besides that of hearsay of flushing a Koran down the toilet, when word had emerged that something of this nature had occurred, riots broke out in which people died. Sometimes I can't help but believe that the United States has a hard time noticing cause and effect. All one must do is reflect on the Vietnam War to see where this war is going as well.

Washington Post reports:
White House press secretary Scott McClellan said . . ."The United States is leading the way when it comes to protecting human rights and promoting human dignity."

When I look at all that has taken place, this idea does not cross my mind. Placing ink on male genitals and saying it is menstrual fluid, making Muslim men stand naked in front of women interrogators, and throwing religious caps in the trash are all instances that I don't want to represent our strong stance for "protecting human rights and promoting human dignity." These are not the things I want others to reflect on when I ask them to "pray for our troops."

My Lack of Posts

Politics, In the News, Current Affairs
TRULY THERE ARE TOO MANY EXCUSES for my lack of posts in the preceding weeks, but my goal is to quickly change this -- thanks to the Gnome for cordially bringing it to my attention.

In other news, a stem cell bill was passed by Congress here in the United States to use federal money for the purpose of stem cell research. (I do not know if too many people can remember what hell some of the states were going through as they were not allowed to use equipment bought by the federal government to press their state agendas on stem cell research.) The stipulations of the bill will only allow for the "use [of] federal money to study stem cells taken from adults and umbilical cord blood, instead of using human embryos." Hopefully, this agreement will prove successful in calming the screams of the pro-lifers, but still allow for the progress we so desperately need in finding the cures for a few of the diseases that seem to run our busy lives.

A Little Overly Conservative? Nahhh. . .

Tests of Morality (via Althouse)

"Your Moralising Quotient of 0.47 compares to an average Moralising Quotient of 0.38. This means that as far as the events depicted in the scenarios featured in this activity are concerned you are less permissive than average.

Your Interference Factor of 0.40 compares to an average Interference Factor of 0.20. This means that as far as the events depicted in the scenarios featured in this activity are concerned you are more likely to recommend societal interference in matters of moral wrongdoing, in the form of prevention or punishment, than average.

Your Universalising Factor of 0.50 compares to an average Universalising Factor of 0.54. This means you are less likely than average to see moral wrongdoing in universal terms - that is, without regard to prevailing cultural norms and social conventions (at least as far as the events depicted in the scenarios featured in this activity are concerned)."

I did find this to be a little ridiculous; it's a shame how far some of these schools are going in the name of safety. I still have mixed feelings on the subject.

. . .And yet another story by Jon Lowder depicting how out of control some school regulations are becoming explains how a seventeen year old boy receives a phone call on his cell phone from his mother who is in Iraq. He is reluctant to hang up when his teacher asks him to and is taken to the office after having become "disorderly".

The most ridiculous part of the article:

Parham said the teen's suspension was based on his reaction to the teacher's request. He said the teen used profanity when taken to the office.

"Kevin got defiant and disorderly," Parham said. "When a kid becomes out of control like that they can either be arrested or suspended for 10 days. Now being that his mother is in Iraq, we're not trying to cause her any undue hardship; he was suspended for 10 days."

A chain reaction because a teacher couldn't allow the young student to accept a phone call from his mother? ..As if the 10 day suspension isn't going to cause her grief.

More Fascinating News About Day-light Savings Time

I hadn't realized that not every state was subject to daylight savings time, but apparently, not all of Indiana had been. More here on the passing of the day-light savings bill.

Thursday night, though, Grubb knew this battle was over. But not his fight. Even proponents expect they will be fending off attempts to repeal daylight-saving time as soon as January, when lawmakers return.

Choking back tears, Grubb asked supporters to study the time change's impact on Hoosiers.

He asked for their promise that "if this doesn't work, you've got to come back and help me fix it so it doesn't hurt my part of the state."

As far as I know -- it's worked for the rest of the nation.