More About the News

Dear Readers,

This post has the links to a few interesting news articles I’ve found recently with some of my thoughts about them.

I’ve written a bit before about how language is slippery, rhetoric is tricky, and about how just “saying exactly what you mean” is more difficult than it sounds. That’s why I’m glad for other forms of communication, like art, dance, body language, spiritual communication, etc. This article talks about how the military is trying to get their soldiers to be all telepathic. It’s pretty cool. Like X-Men powers!

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/05/pentagon-preps-soldier-telepathy-push/

Seriously, I like the idea of our tax money funding awesome stuff like telepathy for soldiers rather than stopping global warming or building a suicide prevention wall or letting street lights shine all day.

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/LAs-Big-Burn-Exposed.html

The next article is particularly interesting to me because I’m hopefully going to be a teacher in a public school setting soon. (I haven’t landed a job yet, but there’re still a few months until school starts) The article’s about these tenured public school teachers who get accused of sexual harassment or other bad things. They can’t get fired very easily because they have tenure, and their case needs to be reviewed (by the school board, I think) before they’re found guilty, but they can appeal the decision, so, the process of firing a tenured teacher can end up taking years.
The frustrating thing is that during the years that the investigation is being conducted, the teacher remains on salary, but they don’t do anything, and they’re not allowed to get another job. I suppose they could get an under-the-table job, or volunteer somewhere, though. But if they’re on salary for doing nothing, where’s the motivation for them to work?

It’s another article that might get you upset about wasteful spending and upset about governmental bureaucracy. It seems like there should be a more sensible, quicker way to streamline everybody’s efforts so that as little money and energy as possible are wasted. My solution is to clone Mitt Romney and put Mitt Romney clones in charge of everything. I would even give the Mitt Romney clones lots of weapons of mass destruction, just because I trust them so much.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-teachers6-2009may06,0,3038809.story

This next article is about some “missing link” fossil that some scientists found and they’re saying that it proves evolution true. The news article says that it’s finally settled that humans evolved from animals. Well you know what I say to those scientists? Ala-quiffert! Yeah right! Whatever!

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Missing-Link-Scientists-In-New-York-Unveil-Fossil-Of-Lemur-Monkey-Hailed-As-Mans-Earliest-Ancestor/Article/200905315284582?lpos=World_News_Carousel_Region_0&lid=ARTICLE_15284582_Missing_Link%3A_Scientists_In_New_York_Unveil_Fossil_Of_Lemur_Monkey_Hailed_As_Mans_Earliest_Ancestor

The part of the article I like the least is: “Sir David Attenborough said Darwin ‘would have been thrilled’ to have seen the fossil- and says it tells us who we are and where we came from.”

Those bones in the ground tell us who we are and where we came from? That’s not what I believe. I choose to believe that “Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:/ The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star,/ Hath had elsewhere its setting,/ And cometh from afar:/ Not in entire forgetfulness,/ And not in utter nakedness,/ But trailing clouds of glory do we come/ From God, who is our home” (from Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood by William Wordsworth) Of course we could argue about the potential compatibility of faith in God and belief in evolution.

Darwin, Freud, Nietzsche… grrr… “All them scientists. They say they’re working for us, but what they really want is to RULE THE WORLD!!!” (That’s a quote from Young Frankenstein, a movie directed by Mel Brooks.)

Hmmm… what else has been going on in the news?

Obama talked with Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu recently about peace in the Middle East. Hopefully his peace talks will solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But unfortunately I think the fighting and animosity over there is going to continue until the Battle of Armageddon happens and Jesus comes back.

Also, I’m a little ashamed to say that I’ve spent quite a bit of time recently following the Carrie Prejean-Perez Hilton-Donald Trump scandal. It’s trashy news, I know, but I like it. It’s like MTV for the news!

It reminds me of when Rosie O’Donnell and Donald Trump were fighting in the news. Remember that? Ha ha ha. The seedy, shallow part of me likes watching slightly gentrified Jerry Springer stuff. But the Rosie O’Donnell and Donald Trump thing wasn’t really news, you know? And now this Miss California thing, it’s… uh… it’s not really news. It’s sort of news, but it’s sort of not news, you know?

Anyway, here’s my opinion about Miss California. (because I’m sure you want to hear it! I really do think there’s a shortage of opinions about Miss California in this world. I’m doing my part to spread awareness.) In a way I want to defend her, because I agree with her stance on gay marriage, and she really seems like a good gal, (and, let’s be honest, she’s a looker!)

I also want to defend Prejean’s crown because I think that some liberals are using this scandal to attack Christianity and traditional family values. To be more particular, Keith Olbermann was especially mocking of Christianity and Prejean in this You Tube clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwkTAzcToic You probably shouldn’t waste your time watching it like I did, though. I’m sure you have more important things to do, but my point is: They’re being so mean to her!!!!

but uh… I don’t think Miss California and I will become pen pals any time soon. Prejean and I are different types of Christians. I don’t want to defend her too much but I don’t want to criticize her too much, either.

I wouldn’t think that good Christians would dress so immodestly. Of course those semi-nude pictures of her that came out were a mistake she made when she was younger. And I feel like giving her the benefit of the doubt when she says that she didn’t know those pictures were taken- that it was a windy day and the photographer was a meany-pants who released the pictures without her permission.

I guess good Christians can get breast implants, though.

Also, she said in a press conference with Donald Trump recently that she was thankful for men like Donald Trump who organize beauty pageants to “empower women.” Well, I guess that’s not exactly what she said… Here, look, I took the effort to transcribe a little bit of what Ms. Prejean said in a press conference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8vMb4cs6IM She said, “Second of all, I would like to thank the Miss California Organization for their support thus forward [sic] and um, again believing in me and believing in, in women, and the empowerment of women and how women can really make a difference in the world.”

(By the way, Prejean has also been criticized for not speaking too well, the same way Sarah Palin was criticized for not speaking too well. But you know who else didn’t speak too well? MOSES!!! I rest my case.)

My problem with Miss California’s statement is that I’m not sure that beauty pageants empower women. What do you think? I suppose they could help girls get attention and praise, and make them feel good about themselves… and the winners do things for charity and I suppose could act as good role models for people… and in a way beauty pageants are a celebration of interior and exterior beauty, which is a wonderful thing to celebrate.

But beauty pageants could also make a lot of girls feel ugly, untalented, and unwanted. And beauty pageants have a tendency to make people focus on shallow things. The media constantly bombards women with images of the “perfect female body,” and so girls think that if their bodies don’t conform to that practically unattainable mold, they’re unloved. I believe that advertising, which is more prevalent today than it has ever been before, distorts our ideas of human beauty. The amount of image manipulation that goes on in magazines, movies, TV shows, pornography, etc. is crazy, and I really do think that stuff like that leads to eating disorders, self-esteem issues, and other negative stuff.

So personally I wouldn’t mind if beauty pageants went away and never came back. I’ve never been a fan of them. But on the other hand, my attitude is, hey if people want to do beauty pageants, I guess they can do beauty pageants. It’s a free country. I don’t want to be involved, though. I suppose as long as people don’t get crazy obsessed with beauty pageants, they might be alright. Oh, but I also maybe think that child beauty pageants should go away. Those can get disturbing.

You know the thing about Carrie Prejean is that she’s a model and she’s a Christian, but she’s not necessarily a model Christian.

Ha! I am so clever!

Sincerely,
Telemoonfa