The incredible entitlement of some people

never ceases to amaze me:

Christie Blatchford: Family of teen fatally struck by SUV sued by motorist for her ‘pain and suffering’

Yep. That is all.

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More news

of the lengths that free enterprise will go to part you and your money.

For men:

New Yankee Candle Scent Smells Like a 'Man Cave'

I'll take '2x4'!

Good grief. I didn't know I needed this. I guess that's why I let business direct my life...

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Probably not

Can ultra-orthodox Jews live with the web?

The Ultra-Orthodox can't live with many, many things that have come about since the industrial revolution, at least part of the time. I don't think that the internet will be that easy for them to open up to...

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This would be a change

Quiet Parties: Silent night out on the town

I don't object to a little noise. I do object to loud, raucous parties because they are usually the stage for ignorant, disgusting and sometimes violent behaviour. I stay away from those.

This would be an interesting thing to try. I'm not surprised that it really started as performance art. Those artists!

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I'm stunned

I was driving down a street today when a new car, Chrysler 300 Magnum, drove up in the lane beside me, then pulled a bit ahead in that lane. When I saw her signalling I slowed down and let her change lanes in front of me. I almost had to stop as her lane was backed up and stopped. She had a sun roof, and I saw her put her hand up through it. I thought she was going to wave to thank me. She gave me the finger! Then she pulled into the parking lot of a store beside the street and as she was pulling in she had her window rolled down and her other arm out giving me the finger. I slowed down as I got by her to see what was going on and she had the most ugly, rage-filled look on her face that I've even seen. Somehow I was responsible for something? Her children were late for soccer? Some sales clerk didn't recognize her special status as a young person and unique in and of herself? Perhaps once again the world conspired to NOT name her queen of the world? Perhaps I didn't intuitively know she wanted to be in the lane in front of me so it's my fault. I don't know.

That very ugly and nasty look, scrunched up, scowling, mouthing epithets, a look that I've very rarely seen, is the look of road rage on a person with an incredible sense of entitlement. The world is hers, you'd better not plan on being in her way...

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In other words

claiming to be an artist these days no longer means doing work of any lasting value. Or not. 'Twas ever thus...

When Bad is Good

"I think we need a new vocabulary, because now everybody wants to be an outsider,” he told the Financial Times. “When I was one, no one wanted to be one. Counterculture won some things a long time ago. Counterculture’s in control. I’m the insider. I’m the establishment." - John Waters, quoted in the article

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What you don't know,

or what you thing you know but are wrong about, may suprise you.

Amish 101: What You Probably Don't Know About the Amish

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It's the truth

A time of creeping, soft fascism...

Fascism Redux

"The increasingly fascist regimes of the 21st century are ‘soft fascist’—made up of ever-expanding thickets of regulations and ministry policies crafted by faceless nameless bureaucrats in back rooms and enforced not so much by prison camps and executions as by a system of punitive fines and fees and inspections that force us all to live our lives under the constant watchful eye of our state overlords."

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I don't doubt that they don't know how

How teens are killing the phone call: By the numbers

It's at the point now where some teens don't know what a CD us, apparently, so not know how to make a voice telephone call doesn't seem that far a stretch...

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Disparity? What disparity?

No austerity for well-heeled

A very good editorial, though I suspect that the well-heeled think we should just shut up and do what we're told.

You can tell we're in a free country. In a non-free (in this case, I guess fascist would be the closest) country, the writer would be jailed for writing this, if not executed. Here, well, the worst that might happen is that someone may try to get them fired or something.

Ah, freedom. Ask the poor about it...

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What do you think?

Is the 'drive-through' funeral service inappropriate?

I think the drive-through era is over. The only drive-throughs that seem to exist now are bank machines and fast food services. I can't think of anything more disrespectful than not taking a few minutes, a half hour or an hour from the day to pay respects to a person who has died and their family.

A drive-through viewing implies that you haven't got a few minutes in your all-important day to give to the family of someone you died. I think it's disrespectful...

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Scary in unexpected ways

10 Creepy Examples of Twilight Craziness

I think the one that bothers me the most is number 7. They all bother me, but number 7 really shows how much parents (and professionals) will do, how far they will go, to pander to the desires of their children today.

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As a fan

of the recreational use of guns, target shooting and shooting in general, part of me gets excited by something like this.

Shoot: An exercise in recreational destruction.

Then, after thinking about it for a minute, I wonder what on earth they were doing, and what good it served. My supposed knee-jerk lefty response takes a few moments to surface when I'm confronted with a childhood dream of shooting the sh*t out of inanimate objects.

Then I'm better again. *Whew!*

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I've seen lots of items

about the 11/11/11 date (tomorrow) but not a lot by the tinfoil hat crowd. While there's some interest, I would have expected more from that very vocal group. Isn't it a particularly auspicious date?

Twins turn 11 on 11-11-11

Thousands flock to Las Vegas for 11-11-11 weddings

Blink and you'll miss it! Friday sees once-in-a-lifetime moment as time and date read 11.11.11 11.11.11: Only occurs on one day every 100 years

Perhaps, because it is Remembrance (or Armistace) Day they're being particularly sensitive? Naw. Sorry, I wasn't thinking...

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A great mind

"We live in a society where wisdom is less appreciated than money. An economically driven society is fundamentally unsustainable." - Dr. Troy Rubin

Dr. Rubin is a neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins who participated at the Occupy Wall Street protest.

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Remaining faithful

to a morphing and changing language is difficult...

When a Dictionary Could Outrage

...and would normally anger quite a number of people...

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It's still not yours.

It's Not Plagiarism. In the Digital Age, It's 'Repurposing.'

The page header says 'Uncreative Writing' and they have a point.

There may be some genius in connecting the thoughts of others, but there's still no original thought from the 'author'. I'm not certain what it is, but it seems that there's some type of intellectual laziness holding sway in the world. What this seems to be is the joining up of the ubiquitous sound-bite that today's culture seems to hold in such esteem.

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An argument

Do You Suffer From Decision Fatigue?

An argument for giving into temptation?

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The tipping point

is, apparently, 10%...

Minority Rules: Scientists Discover Tipping Point for the Spread of Ideas

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Prayer...

Opinion: We Are Living in 1984

"A lot of the future described in George Orwell's novel is with us today - it's just arrived few years late"

While we are to contend with the spiritual battle with the whole armour of God, at the same time we may well be beset by the temporal powers of this world, and some of us, perhaps more than 'some', may be called to martyrdom like many Christians before us. Prayer is all we really have...

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