Australian thief battered in fish shop – Yahoo News
CANBERRA Reuters – A man who attempted to rob an Australian fish and chip shop found himself on the losing side when the angry shop owner threw fish batter and hot oil at him.
ADVERTISEMENT
“The hot oil missed but the batter hit the offender and he fled empty handed,” South Australian police said in a statement.
The Democrats Contempt Play – TIME
Conyers, in his own nod to civility, warned three often-outspoken members of his own caucus to respect the civil tone of the hearing before they made their remarks. Indeed, nary a member on either side raised their voice and the panel had occasional moments of laughter, as whenRepresentative Chris Cannon accidentally voted against his own amendment in a voice vote.
Oh, they’ll love this in Utah. What a maroon.
The Salt Lake Trib has a surprisingly robust editorial on the passing of Tammy Faye Bakker Messner. I’ve never approved of televangelists whose conspicuous consumption while spouting the so-called “prosperity gospel” seemed out of keeping with the Biblical message of helping the poor – it was too much like helping themselves to as much cash they could cadge from a gullible public. But even so, “nil nisi bonum” and all that.
Although, I’m pretty taken with the image of Tammy Faye’s spackle – you know, that stuff she laid on with a trowel.
Salt Lake Tribune – Tammy Faye Messner: Epitomized the showbiz-ification of Christianity
Regrettably, Tammy Faye Bakker’s downfall discredited neither the prosperity gospel – which holds that God wants you to get rich and that wealth is a sign of favor – nor the burlesque style of televangelism, which continues to, well, prosper. Diamonds, like the Almighty, are forever.
In the end, not even her wigs, wealth, spackle and relentlessly upbeat personality could mask the pain of mortality. The cancer-ravaged Messner looked and sounded like a wraith in her poignant CNN interview that aired hours before she died. The power of positive thinking was no defense against the grave’s assault on her gaudy artifice. The gruesome final television moments of the prosperity gospel’s giggly paragon ironically revealed the grim truth in Flannery O’Connor’s line: You can’t be any poorer than dead.
[tags]Tammy Faye, spackle[/tags]
Young woman buys cute cheap Chinese flipflops at Walmart, wears for a few hours, suffers painful burns for weeks.
Pot crops, campsite found in preserve — chicagotribune.com
n a Cook County forest preserve, about 200 yards from a highway commuters hum along every day, authorities uncovered an elaborate marijuana-growing operation, with 6-foot-tall plants nearly ready to harvest and campsites stocked with beer, canned food, insect repellent and, on one cot, a copy of High Times magazine.On Tuesday, as an Illinois National Guard helicopter circled above the Crabtree Nature Center Forest Preserve near northwest suburban Barrington, federal agents joined local police in chopping and burning as many as 30,000 marijuana plants found last month when a Forest Preserve District intern researching foxes encountered three men and an irrigation system.
Marijuana crops have been found on public land before, but nothing of this scale, said Richard Waszak, chief of the Cook County Forest Preserve police. Officials described the find as “one of the nation’s largest illegal cannabis cultivation schemes.”
Holy crap! We’ve been to that forest preserve – it’s not close, but within pretty easy reach.
BBC – Radio 4 Document – Greenham’s Hidden Secret
The link from Boing Boing looked pretty intriguing, so I’m giving this a listen. Contrary to BB’s original headline, W’s grandad probably wasn’t a leader, although he later expressed admiration for Herr Hitler.
10 virtually instant ways to improve your life – lifehack.org
Oy, I do this all the time.
Some of this too, but usually in the interests of telling a more interesting “my side of the story.” Yeesh.
Why, I oughta… shoulda… coulda… hmm.
Cripes, another bad habit. Even unsaid, I know it’s not good. Granted, I’m “typing” people as doofi or weirdos or inane babblers, and not harassing members of minority groups, but still.
Not so much of a problem with this one. I do tend to do too much re-work on files and records, though. Not really with jobs and people, I’m usually pretty satisfied with “good enough.”
Okay, this is another one. I’m starting to think this is the shape of things to come.
I think I don’t like you very much anymore, Lifehack. Why are you so meeeeeean?
But it’s how I feeeeeeeel, it must be truuuuuuue (Shut up, I know I do this too).
Boy, I must be an incredible bummer to be around. Sucks to be me.
But if I let go, I’ll faaaaaaaall. Nooooooooooo!
Wow. The funny thing is that a couple of weeks ago I came to the conclusion that I need to let go of some negative habits and thoughts and pre-conceptions. However, the thought of becoming a positive, upbeat, well adjusted, self-confident “people person” kind of makes me… ill. And it’s not easy giving up the negative habits, because they’re much more interesting than the happy-talk thoughts.
I dunno. Maybe I’d get a lot more done, but I’d be a lot more annoying. Perhaps the sensible middle ground suggested by the Lifehack list can work, but it’s a lot to ask to make that much change.
The Christian Post has news that Dr. James Dobson, of Focus on the Family has officially renounced Harry Potter and all the associated “Harry Potter products.” “‘In a story about Christians’ views on the Harry Potter books and films, reporter Jacqueline Salmon wrote that ‘Christian parenting guru James Dobson has praised the Potter books,’’ the statement read. ‘This is the exact opposite of Dr. Dobson’s opinion – in fact, he said a few years ago on his daily radio broadcast that ‘We have spoken out strongly against all of the Harry Potter products…’’
Your humble news editor-of-the-day, having spent all night Friday in line with his family for the last book of the series, wonders if Dr. Dobson has actually read them…Without giving too much away, the final book makes it clear to most that JK Rowling is writing within the model set by the Oxford “Inklings” of the last century. The works as a whole seem very much in the tradition of Pilgrim’s Progress. The final work has images of christian morality, teaching and theology that rival the works of C.S. Lewis in the Narnia books in terms of their explicitness.
I think Dobson hasn’t actually read them, either. There is one entire chapter that is quite, quite metaphysical. And there are some quiet little statements of faith in all the bits of information and epitaphs and mottoes that Harry and his friends encounter while searching for ways to accomplish the mission Dumbledore gave them in the previous book. Nothing to hit you over the head and make you think “Oi! that bit there is a blatantly Christian clue, that is!” or “hey, that sounds pretty karmic” or even “That part with the non-violent passive resistance sounds kinda Buddhist, ” but it’s there. It’s just a matter of fact thing – the school has always had Christmas and Easter holidays, and the kids come from a variety of backgrounds and faiths (there’s at least one Wizarding family named “Goldstein,” and of course there are the Patil twins). It’s clear that sometimes people attend church or other services, but there’s no particular importance attached to this.
Perhaps this is one reason Dobson and his ilk have problems with this kind of fiction.
Another reason may be that fiction and works of imagination must be ruthlessly put down so they won’t be confused with or held in equal stature with matters of faith and Holy Scripture.
It all comes down to imagination again – it’s possible for religious people to write and enjoy works of imaginitive fiction, not to mention the odd pint or two with the Inklings down at the “Bird and Baby” but not everyone can make that leap of faith.
[tags]Harry Potter, James Dobson, Christianity[/tags]
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7)
I feel as if I’ve broken the surface of a deep, still pool – I’ve been submerged in the latest and last book in the Harry Potter series, and a few minutes ago I read the last chapters, the last paragraphs, the last words, the last page. And now I’m breathing deeply and taking a look around me for the first time in a while.
It’s not that I’ve spent the entire weekend with my nose buried in a book – I did end up spending some time at the rummage sale yesterday at Holy Moly, which was very successful, and in spite of my freaking out over missing one deadline for print classified ads, the turnout the first morning was greater than it’s ever been in the history of St Nick’s, apparently. And I’m relieved and happy for the committee that put in so much hard physical work gathering stuff and figuring out how to store it, that their hard work didn’t result in a disappointingly small number of bargain-hunters (who were there waiting with clutching claws for the opening on Friday morning in their hordes, thank God). I ended up going over after the concrete guys laid the driveway, and stood around helping out where I could and packing up unsold stuff for donation or storage for next year’s sale. Also, I’ve got several big garbage bags’ worth of summer clothes that we’re donating to a work-friend for a Haitian orphanage charity that she supports.
So last night, we went out to dinner at Kampai, because we’d missed out on sushi before a few nights previously, and on the way back David teased me that there was no need to stop anywhere for any old…book. Teased me that it would be sold out, teased me that we should stop at a Christian family bookstore, that sort of thing. And then we stopped at Borders, and there weren’t any crowds because that was over and done with, and walked in the door to see a long table set up with about 3 dozen neatly stacked copies of “Deathly Hallows,” and also on the table was a box of tissues, ready for use by sobbing fans who no doubt had plopped themselves down and started reading.
I’m always sorry to see the ends of things I care deeply about – it may sound strange, but much of my adult life has been lived mostly inside my head, in beloved books and favorite shows and movies. I have my “real” life, and my “not-real” life, and every now and then, something new and different and enthralling is discovered that dominates my “not-real” life, or at least has a kind of “time-share” with the other enthusiasms that have become a part of my “not-real” life.
The Harry Potter books are kids’ books for everyone, because they reach the essential child that lives in every adult. They won’t appeal to everyone, but they will appeal more to people for whom imagination is an important part of their inner life.
I can’t really speak to the criticisms that “Harry Potter is Satanic” or any of that “occult” claptrap. I can’t cite chapter and verse, but I’ll tell you one thing: the values in Harry Potter, and the underlying themes, are familiar to anyone who’s read Holy Scripture, but they’re subtly changed. The entire series is centered on the eternal struggle between Good and Evil, that the weak and the downtrodden should be protected from tyrants, and that self-sacrifice for the sake of others is the highest and most powerful act of Good.
In church today, the Old Testament reading was from Amos, a simple man who last week was a simple herdsman and dresser of sycamore trees, and this week was asked again by the Lord:
This is what the Lord GOD showed me– a basket of summer fruit. He said, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.”
A simple guy, who was called to do great things, who would much rather have been back taking care of his sheep and his sycamore trees, was Amos. Also, he was kind of a plodder and a bit literal, if you ask me, but solid and worthy in the end. I realized tonight in reading that the Neville Longbottom character was a bit like old Amos – he really was only good at Herbology, but found unknown and unguessed reserves of leadership and resolve and ability as the books progressed.
There are other characters whose motivations and deeds could be pretty successfully compared and contrasted with Bible figures, and also with mythical heroes, too.
No spoilers here, though. David’s been given the book now that I’ve finished it, and he’s already nose-deep in it and occasionally chuckling or muttering “Hmm! that’s interesting…” as he goes. He’s only just started it. As soon as he’s finished, we’ll have to get together with Steve to discuss the details in the book – it’s not so much that loose ends are tidied up, as that the hidden interconnections between everything that went before are finally revealed.
There are underlying themes that I want to sink my teeth into and worry a bit… the ones about tyranny and groupthink and how fear can make an enemy seem more powerful and all-knowing than they really are, and how that fear can be exploited by a cynical few in order to stay in power.
And I may just have to re-read all the books again in order now. Which I’m sure was Ms. Rowling’s intent from Page One, Book One.