Young fools...

I have no sympathy for people who commit sexual abuse, with minors or people of the age of consent, but kids doing things like this need to give their heads a shake, for the very reasons the police state:

Teens in superhero garb confront online predators

I love art, I love illustration, I love comics, particularly now that they are collected into 'trade publications', which are most often referred to as 'graphic novels'. Having said that, I still appreciate the boundary between fiction and reality and I know that none of these characters are real, and I can't emulate them in any way in real life. More and more we're seeing people (mainly younger people) wearing fictional super hero costumes and taking the law into their own hands. Perhaps it's out of a sense of frustration with the law, a sense of powerlessness and helplessness, whatever. The fact is, they aren't these super heroes, they can't be these super heroes, and someone is going to get seriously hurt or killed trying to act like one of these super heroes. They need to get a better grip on reality, in my opinion...

---

It may not be anti-religious, but docking marks might be extreme

'God bless you' causes classroom ruckus

"Just common practice or disruptive behavior? Bay Area teacher plays judge"

I think kids today can be different. I'm old, so things were different back in the days of slates and chalk (or clay tablets and pointed sticks, as SWMBO says). If something was forbidden we might test it once in a while, but generally we'd stop doing it. Kids today seem to try to push things more. That's where the disruption might come in...

---

Ummm...

London shooting: Victim 'was holding her baby son'

"A teenager holding her 11-month-old son was injured when she came under fire from a shotgun as she chatted to two friends in west London."

And the perpetrators took off on bicycles. Bicycles? What, they're too young to drive so it would be illegal? As if shooting someone isn't? And I thought gangs were getting bad in Canada...

I'm glad the people who were shot at will be ok, and that the innocent child wasn't hurt.

---

There are so many arguments

on both sides of this issue...

Catholic Clergy Protest Pope’s Visit, and Its Price Tag

"The priests, along with dozens of left-leaning groups demanding a secular state and young people who occupied many of Spain’s main squares for months to protest the government’s handling of the economy, are planning at least one major protest march on Wednesday. "

The most important thing I would remind the clergy about is what usually happens when a secular state comes about, right OR left. History, even in Spain, proves it out. Clergy die. The secular states that come about due to 'revolution' of one sort or another are not friends of the Church or it's members and representatives.

Having said that and speaking as a Franciscan, yes, despite the effect on young people, the price tag is scandalous!

Mind you, far more money is taken in at movie theatres across the country in one weekend when a new movie is released...

---

An important article (well, maybe)...

Important if only because it is an article in on a liberal (some would say left-leaning) website...

8 Reasons Young Americans Don't Fight Back: How the US Crushed Youth Resistance

"The ruling elite has created social institutions that have subdued young Americans and broken their spirit of resistance."

...that is being quoted on conservative (some would say right-leaning) websites.

If the conspiracy-minded conservatives think that the conspiracy-minded liberals are saying something important, well, darn it, it must be!

---

Second youngest in the world!

Blogging priest will be Canada's youngest bishop

He'll only be 40 (for another day) when he's ordained Bishop. He has certainly impressed someone...

May God bless him with every gift necessary to do his work and shepherd his flock...

---

I don't know about that

God Is in Luck: Are Sociologists Correct When They Say This Is His Century?

I've never really considered the idea that God needs luck. It's almost an opposite idea from the concept of an omnipotent God. Still, things seem to be working out for Him.

I hope He's buying lottery tickets!

---

Do you remember

these wonderful mechanical automatons?

The Musée Mécanique: Good old-fashioned interactive multimedia

I can remember these sorts of toys so well. Before the days of video games and electronic toys, these sort of mechanical toys were fascinating. While we don't see them anymore, you can see vestiges of them in the mechanical coin banks that some catalogues offer as nostalgia items. These are the kinds of toys that fostered my interest in Mechano(tm) sets and things like that...

---

Narcissism? Hostility? Really?

A Generation’s Vanity, Heard Through Lyrics

The sarcasm in the title doesn't come through well at all on the intertubes. Always a problem...

The hostility surprises me a LITTLE bit, but the narcissism makes perfect sense. Who is more concerned about themselves than people going through the teen and adolescent years? Still, more and more, music isn't about any kind of 'us', but all about 'me'. (The image they use with the article is really great. 'I heart I'...)

---

Pride goeth...

before the fall...

Gang tattoo leads to a murder conviction

"Inked on the chest of a Pico Rivera gang member was the detailed scene of a liquor store slaying that had stumped an L.A. County sheriff's investigator for more than four years. It leads to a jailhouse confession from Anthony Garcia — and a first-degree murder conviction."

---

Public service? What's public service?

Sorry, older folks, but by some business strategies, you're obsolete

It seems that it's service for young people, increasingly by young people. While there are some very good younger people out there, the internet and computer technology has created a generation gap much wider than ever existed before. And it always comes down to the bottom line for businesses - they need to make record profits every year for some reason. Maybe it's to be able to give their executives multi-million dollar bonuses or something...

---

Another tool to be used

Young People Encouraged to Pray Through Art

"100,000 Following Youth Day Preparations"

The world needs art, we need art, God uses art. People are visual as well as aural and tactile. We need to use all our senses...

---

His answer

seems a little simplistic.


Modern Youth Ministry 'Unbiblical,' Ministry Leader Claims

Automobiles, while not 'unbiblical' are certainly extra-biblical. They weren't how Jesus did things in the Bible.

There's no question that the family is important. How does one get the family back without bringing back 1950's American culture, which seems to be what he would like to see..

---

An ocean-going article...

Jessica, Jesse, Joshua and the Cruel Sea

A good article on history and the dangers of letting a young girl 'live her dream'...

---

Millennials?

The Millennial Muddle

"How stereotyping students became a thriving industry and a bundle of contradictions"

Be sure to take a look at the comments, as well...

---

video game heroics

House burns in a freak accident when a car hit the natural gas line on the house. The family was warned in time because their young son and a friend were up late playing a video game - everyone else was asleep. I'm guessing if those kids had not been up - there would not have been any survivors.

---

I believe

that there's going to be a huge social cost to pay as a result of all this non-visual/non-verbal communication.

Why Gen-Y Johnny Can't Read Nonverbal Cues

"An emphasis on social networking puts younger people at a face-to-face disadvantage."

Can you believe that? By approximately the end of 2008 teens with cell phones sent and received an average of 2272 text messages a month! Still, my sarcastic side says that it makes sense if you listen to some of them speak. They're pretty unintelligible when they enter into verbal conversation...

---

Livin' in the real world

Back from Vocation

"How I decided not to become a priest"

Ah! Youthful idealism and hope! There are so many stories, and so many of us Catholics have them...

---

If her fear is sincere

and not induced by people outside herself or by adolescent rebellion or whatever, then the very fact that she even has the fear means it needs to be investigated.

Christian Teen Flees Home, Says She Fears Honor Killing By Muslim Father

"Rifqa Bary Turned Up in Florida Pastor's Home Weeks After Leaving Ohio Home"

It's not like honor killings by Muslim families are unknown in North America...

---

Ummm...

Christian Rap Artists: Don't Waste Your Life

There's more than one way to read this headline. You have to read the story to get find out what it's about. I'm kind of wondering why I'm being generous and putting a music graphic on this post...

---