Stupid Does

Rating:NSS
If stupid is as stupid does, then the the dumbing down of America is working. Just take a look at people who forget their babies in the car and leave them in the heat, or women who do things such as date a married man and then marry them after they've left their first wife for woman #2! (Here's a hint. . . if he cheats on woman #1, then woman #2 should be on the look-out for woman #3.)
Teens always try stuff that make one shake the head and say, "What were they thinking?" I've known some teens who try to get a buzz by choking themselves to the point where they almost pass out, just to get the light-headed feeling. Brilliant! Why not just try blowing up a really difficult balloon--I'm sure you can get the same effect! Okay,Here's a new one. Three teens snorting powdered Crystal Light. WooHoo! A nutrasweet rush! Let me cough and sputter! Here's my question: What's next on the list of snorting--crushed astronaut ice cream? Hmm. . . that could be interesting. . .neopolitan nostrils. Yum.
I once heard a student teacher comment, "That kid is too stupid to live." I was never sure what that meant, but I have now seen some kids and realize that every day someone disproves the theory of survival of the fittest.

Aw, forget it.

Rating: NSS
So sometimes there are times where I do something stupid (stupid is as stupid does, and I does something that is stupid). I did something the other day where I made myself look slightly idiotic. We're not talking blithering idiot--just a little something where someone might say later, "Whew, that person was a crayon short of a full box." I won't elaborate on what it was that I might have done or said, but suffice it to say, it was slightly stupid.
There are some other times in my life where I've done something equally stupid, but I find it difficult to forget these times. Oh, the details may be a bit sketchy, yet the time and place and the embarrasment are still readily remembered when the memory brings it up like a long-lost high school buddy who says, "Hey, remember when?" So now I pose this question--does that make me human, or just plain crazy?

Call Day

Rating: MS
It was 9 years ago that I learned the meaning of angst. It was 9 years ago today when I heard 5 little words that changed my life. It was a district of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and a city and state. I remember thinking, "Where?"
Tomorrow, many men at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis and Wednesday at Concordia Theological Seminary in Ft. Wayne will hear other district names and other cities and states. Each of them will have their lives changed by a few words. Definitely angst.

Anniversary

Rating: S
I'm sure I'm not the only one who is remembering this day the 9th anniversary two tragic events in America's life.
The first is, of course, the shootings at Columbine. We remember this sad event and remember all the families affected by this violence. Unfortunately, on many of our campuses the underlying causes have not diminished. It is not enough to tell our children to all get along--there is more to it than that. It is education. Not learning about our difference, but learning about who we are and valuing life and understanding that is not about ourselves. That, however is a different subject for a different day.
The second is the annversary of the rape and murder of Callie Jo Larson in Waseca, Minnesota, on the same day as Columbine. We also remember her family and the 12-year-old who never got to see 13.
I wish we didn't have to remember these events, for I wish they never happened at all.

The Sequel

Rating: S
Earthquake update: We had a 4.5 aftershock at 10:14. I think we'd better remember the drill, folks. When you start to feel the earth move under your feet, head to the nearest doorway. Some say to duck under a desk or table. Nope, head for the doorway because it's built to hold things up and not fall. We're all okay here, just a little rattled. (Maybe I should rate that last line as an MS.)

Shake and Quake

Rating: S (only because earthquakes always freak me out)
I awoke at 4:30ish this morning to find my bed shaking. The dog had popped up off his bed as if something was wrong. I thought at first it was an earthquake, being the oversensitive Californian that I am, but then I thought that was not possible. After all, this is Missouri, so I figured that it was a really loud clap of thunder and the shaking was a rumble of thunder or maybe the cat decided to wash herself and I was feeling motion from that.
It was later that I found out it was a 5.2 earthquake I felt. Let me just say that I dislike earthquakes, regardless of how many I’ve felt. My husband, on the other hand wants to feel one, as he never has. Here’s the irony: He was out of town this week and missed it.

RSS-Reader Seriousness System

In the spirit of not giving offense, I will now rate my blogs with the following system just to let readers know if I’m kidding or not (it’s hard to tell, you know). S=serious (as a heart attack) MS=mostly serious (take with a grain of salt) NSS=not so serious (take with a whole container of salt) CNS=clearly not serious (lighten up, folks) Therefore I rate this blog MS.

We always knew it!

Okay, why is it that every time some person goes off the deep end and commits some crazy act of violence the news interviews the person's neighbors who say, "We never expected this from him/her. He/she was always such a quiet person"?
Just for once I'd like to see the next door neighbor say when interviewed, "We knew from the first time he burned down the house that he would end up this way; we just weren't sure when," or I'd love to hear the person's first cousin once removed say, "He was a jerk, we always knew it, I expect nothing more than this," but you never see it.
Sure, we can't probe the deep topics all the time. . .

BREAKING NEWS!!!!! (or not)

GASP! Did you know that in February 2009, your TV will stop working? NO! IT'S TRUE! Since they are switching from analog to digital broadcasting, if you do not have cable or satellite, your TV won't receive signals anymore.


HELLO! We know! You've told us a million times, and tonight when I watch the news, it will be a million and one (and I don't think that's hyperbole anymore).


So why don't you tell us that our driver's license may not be enough to get us on a plane starting in May under Real ID? Why don't you tell us things that are important instead of running the same news story twice?

Maybe, for some, not having the TV work will not be such a bad thing.

Note to some people: Chill out.

Don't Taze Me, Bro! AKA Girls Gone Feral

We knew it would come. A school resource officer had to use his tazer on a girl at Maplewood Middle School last Thursday here in the St. Louis Area. The tazed girl and another were fighting, the tazed girl resisted and ZAP--we're back to John Kerry speaking at the University of Florida.

Get real people! She's just a middle school girl, what harm can she do? Oh, wait, I forgot about the young budding movie producers who decided to do a remake of Mean Girls and filmed themselves beating up another girl.

Since when did teen girls become boxers? Forget being lady-like. I guess women's lib beat that out of us. I guess being a decent person is passe. Agression in Iraq is one thing, agression on the playground is another. Let's teach our children that they CAN act decently.

Mike Tyson Does Chile

Okay, not Mike Tyson himself, but apparently his cousin from Finland had a run-in with the police in Chile.
According to the news story, Marko Kulju wanted to take home a souvenir from Easter Island. He decided that the statues were also tourist shops a la the Berlin Wall or Eckert’s where you can just help yourself to a bit of a keepsake.
Here’s a hint, Mark-o. Keep your hands off the Moai. Just because you want a head like the heads you see on Easter Island, doesn’t mean you can play Peter in the Garden of Gethsemane and hack off an ear. I think you owe more than $17,000 and an apology and deserve more than three years’ banishment from the island.
He states that his attempted theft was, “the worst mistake of my life.” No, you’ll probably be stupid enough to have a worse one; here’s your sign. I guess they shouldn’t complain about American tourists.

A rant of a different sort.

We are talking about the dumbing down of America here. It is truly a tragedy on many levels.
(Note to readers--I'm switching my topic drastically here.)
A two-year-old boy in East St. Louis died on Tuesday, and the suspect in his death is the child's four-year-old brother. Apparently the older boy choked the younger boy when he was trying to re-enact wrestling moves that he saw on TV.
The end of the news report reads, "The victim's mother says she's convinced exposure to professional wrestling played a part in the tragic murder." Um, excuse me?
I'd like to propose that the mother played a part in this tragic murder. Why would you let a four-year-old watch WWE? They cannot distinguish TV from reality. How can a four-year-old realize that wrestling is big guys doing stage fighting, not strangling their brothers?
Meanwhile, many people are nodding their heads, agreeing that wrestling is evil. Concerned citizens all over the metro area are encouraged to take a stand to get wrestling removed from existance. It makes me think of an article I read called "TheTaliban are Coming to Your Local Supermarket." We are going to place the blame in a direction that essentially points away from the place where the blame should fall. "If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns."
Granted, I do not know the family, the boys, or the mother personally, but it seems to me that yes, professional wrestling did play a part in the tragedy, but not the main part.
My sympathies to the family on their loss. I hope we can all learn a lesson and not let the child have died in vain.

A Tribute

It is the beginning of week 3 without Issues, Etc.

I was a Johnny-come-lately to the Issues, Etc. listenership. I listened the first time a couple Novembers ago because a relative happened to be a guest on the program and asked me to listen, which I did. I then wondered what they were going to talk about later, and I became hooked. When the same relative was a guest again, I listened via the internet mainly because I wanted to hear the interview live and because I didn't know what St. Louis radio station carried the Sunday Night broadcast.

Soon I became a regular listener. I listened in the car. I listened to archived broadcasts at work. One afternoon I remember switching back and forth between Garage Logic on my computer and Issues, Etc. Then I called in with a comment. It was quite unnerving to be on the radio and hope my comment didn't sound ignorant. I once received a mug (only weeks before the show was eliminated) for an on-air comment.

I had heard a friend or two as guests on the show. I was pleased and a mite jealous when my husband was asked to be a guest. What an honor to be on Issues, Etc. I remember going with him to and from the broadcast live from University Lutheran Chapel in Minneapolis. I was excited to actually see the show live. It was a great show that day. I find it very peculiar that exactly one week after that show the bridge under which we drove to return that day collapsed. I don't think that it means anything, for it was merely coincidental. Yet where did I turn to hear commentary? Issues, Etc.

I have been mentally working on a postmodern project for some time. I often turned to Issues, Etc. as a resource library. Some excellent nuggets of knowledge came from it. I heard of books, people, and topics to use as resources.

I looked to Issues, Etc. for commentary on all sorts of matters, but I loved the show for its unabashedly Christ-centered, scriptural, doctrinal content. It always reminded me that is it about Jesus. (Another mental project is it being all about Jesus.)

Now what do I have to listen to on the drive home? Rock and roll. I like it, but it doesn't give me much to think about; it just gives me cerebreoredundogram (big, long word for getting a song stuck in one's head). I wish I could listen to Issues, Etc. again.

I'm sure this is just one more post for Issues, Etc. that you probably don't want to hear my little emotional rambling, if there is anyone out there even reading this. If no on is reading, just add it to the pile of statements about how much the show meant to us all. I know that for me, this is more than a show of politics. It is personal.