8 Kislew 5767 * 29 November 2006: Square Dance Day

Greetings.

Literature relevant to today’s quasi-holiday: Flatland by Edwin Abbott Abbott. (I know: Boo!)

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Cough cough wheeze (1976)”
  
• “Violent video game effects linger in brain” (Submitted by Barry, who got it from Nancy.)
  
• “School Board decides to open its meetings with prayer” (This shows the sort of incompetent politicians we have around here. For one thing, it’s unnecessary since everyone on the school board is entitled to pray for Divine guidance and help—and I sincerely hope they do so. But having a group prayer is just asking for trouble. Constitutionally, the government is not supposed to be encouraging (or discouraging) the practice of any religion, either in general or particular; the group prayer is therefore unconstitutional. Atheists may rightly complain that religion is being shoved down their throats. Furthermore, I am unaware of any universals for religion (including the existence of a deity), so a group prayer, even one made vague in an attempt to be “nondenominational”, is going to inevitably be incompatible with some religion; thus the prayer will favor one religion over another, which is also unconstitutional. If anyone reading this is on the Charleston County School Board, you need to concentrate on your job of running the schools properly rather than trying to get everyone to pray.)
  
• “Science a la Joe Camel”
  
• “The Girl of Qatif”
  
• “Jordan says no to Palestinian refugees” (Two things: 1) The last war with Jordan was about 40 years ago. These people are not refugees at this point. 2) A lot of these people are Jordanian citizens who were dishonorably abandoned behind enemy lines or their descendants. Every king of Jordan since then who refuses to take in his own people but rather forces them to suffer from a jihad which they have no hope of winning is acting most dishonorably. If the king of Jordan wants to fight this jihad, let him come to Israel himself and blow himself up like a real jihadi rather than sit at home in comfort, forcing other people to fight the jihad while he pretends to be at peace with Israel.)
  
• “Prehistoric fish had bite stronger than a T-rex”

Today’s weird thing is 10 Minute Mail, which gives you an E-mail address which is valid for ten minutes. This is very useful if you want to get something on-line which requires giving an E-mail address, but you do not want to give out personal information. Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron