Month: December 2005

Can you guess what happened after this photo op?

Baisers d’âne. It’s the price one must pay to interpret the constitution.

Filed under today’s “Duh” category – Sending threats via text message is a stupid thing to do.

A 16-year-old Santa Teresa High School student was arrested after police said he sent text messages to a teenage girl threatening to kill her and her friends at Orchard Elementary School.

The boy sent the text messages to the 13-year-old girl’s cell phone Tuesday afternoon, said San Jose Police Officer Enrique Garcia.

In the message, he reportedly said he was going to the school to shoot the girl and her 13-year-old friend and anyone else who got in his way, Garcia said.

The girl and two friends reported the incident to the school Wednesday and the boy was taken into custody at Juvenile Hall, where he was booked on suspicion of making terrorist threats.

The cell phones were seized as evidence.

Good!

This kind of thing drives me batty. The whole ‘kid with a cell phone glued to an ear’ fad has run amok. Even the name ‘cell phone’ is a misnomer. Most teens I see with cellular phones are using them to take pictures of themselves, listening to the latest ringtone they downloaded for $1.99 (ripoff), or sending useless text messages that eat up bandwidth. And if they do make a phone call, it’s to a friend they see in person 1000 times per day already.

And parents don’t know why their kids are doing poorly in school.

If I had my way, elementary, middle school, junior high and high school students would be forced to check in and store their cell phones when they arrive at school and get them back when they leave. I would bet that average test scores would rise as a result.

This is the most obscene thing I’ve seen in a long time.

Is this really Canada?

Nova Scotia town bans use of names like ‘holiday’ tree and the phrase ‘happy holidays’. From here on out, it’s Merry Christmas.

Still smarting from a much-publicized bureaucratic bid to rename a famous Nova Scotia Christmas tree a “holiday” tree, leaders in this town of 1,300 say they’re sick of state-sanctioned attempts to secularize the Christian holiday.

Earlier this week, councillors passed a motion banning the use of other names to describe Christmas, chief among them “holiday,” which is a huge pet peeve of Mayor Lloyd Jenkins.

“We’re getting fed up with the term,” Mr. Jenkins said in an interview. “And the holiday tree was just the climax.”

Way to go, eh?

Over at The Will to Exist, Sgt. Trevor Snyder pleads with Americans to listen to President Bush and not pressure government to set a timetable on the withdrawal of coalition forces from Iraq.

“It’s sad that so many Iraqis and others are dying over here. However, when you discover you have cancer the treatment is always the same – attack it at the source. You don’t wait for it to spread. And when is the last time you heard a doctor putting a limited timetable on cancer therapy? I can picture it in my mind. “Mr. Smith, we have seen some progress with your tumor. It’s shrinking. But we need to move on now. The timetable for treating you has passed. Good luck.”

That’s a great analogy.

Go read the whole thing.

Mister Snitch details blogging styles and traffic stats today over at his place. He’s got a good grasp of the blogosphere, and the analysis is insightful. If you blog, go check this out and see if Snitch has nailed your style.

President George W. Bush has received a summons to report Monday for jury duty in Crawford, Texas.

I can hear it now.

“Umm, Juror # 286, what is your verdict?”

“Thank you very much. We must never forget the most vivid events of recent history. On September the 11th, 2001, America felt its vulnerability — even to threats that gather on the other side of the earth. We resolved then, and we are resolved today, to confront every threat, from any source, that could bring sudden terror and suffering to America. Many Americans have raised legitimate questions: about the nature of the threat; about the urgency of action — why be concerned now; about the link between the development of weapons of terror, and the wider war on terror. These are all issues we’ve discussed broadly and fully within my administration. So now, as the Commander-in-Chief of the armed services in this great nation, and the undisputed leader of the free world, I firmly believe and feel a strong obligation to say what I’m about say.”

“I believe that Brother Bobby Joe-Bob McDuffey Jr., is guilty of traveling 10 miles-per-hour over the allowable posted speed limit of 30 MPH.”

“Thank you all, and may God Bless the United States of America.”