meta-roj

it’s things like this that give news media a bad name among… well. people that know better.

U.S. doubts Korean test was nuclear [washington times, 2006.10.09]

A successful nuclear detonation requires a properly timed and triggered conventional blast that splits atoms, setting off the nuclear chain reaction that produces the massive explosions associated with atomic bombs.

the thing about conventional blasts is that they don’t split atoms… unless someone out there is aware of a neutron-producing conventional explosive?

it’s been here before, and i guess it’ll keep happening, so i’ll keep pointing….

a teacher has been suspended because some of her students were “exposed” to nudity in art.

Museum Field Trip Deemed Too Revealing [ny times, 2006.09.30, registration required]

“Keep the ‘Art’ in ‘Smart’ and ‘Heart,’ ” Sydney McGee had posted on her Web site at Wilma Fisher Elementary School in this moneyed boomtown that is gobbling up the farm fields north of Dallas.

But Ms. McGee, 51, a popular art teacher with 28 years in the classroom, is out of a job after leading her fifth-grade classes last April through the Dallas Museum of Art. One of her students saw nude art in the museum, and after the child’s parent complained, the teacher was suspended.

Although the tour had been approved by the principal, and the 89 students were accompanied by 4 other teachers, at least 12 parents and a museum docent, Ms. McGee said, she was called to the principal the next day and “bashed.”

sooner or later, this society will have to come to grips (literally, perhaps) with the concept that while violence is optional in the span of a human life; nudity (and sex) is not. we’ll have to deal with the fact that when we’re young, we use naked breasts for food, and when we’re old, we’ll probably have people wiping our naked asses – that sometimes nudity isn’t about sex.

and we’ll have to deal with the fact that our parents all got naked and had sweaty, passionate sex. we’ll have to deal with the fact that we get aroused and most of us do something about it. and hopefully, we’ll embrace the idea that knowledge is empowering and it’s impossible to shelter everyone from the world, so we might as well know something about it.

wrong species (i guess), but my own redheaded pecker, in honor of this year’s ornithology ig nobel laureate.

your participation is encouraged.

it’s an important statement, even in the dark.

digg it

and so, now the vanishings can begin….

our first honorary member of the democracy security association is none other than “MKEbound” who was asked to check his opinion at the airport security checkpoint in wisconsin at the general mitchell international airport.

the opinion in question:

“Kip Hawley is an Idiot”

and so, to you, mkebound, a salute from your fellow insurgents at the democracy security association.

this is a great compilation of great recommendations for your musical travels.

an interesting project emerging from the university of leicester – studying “demographic predictors of musical style preferences.”

to participate, visit this page

and remind eme to come back to this for the results.

guitar

in a stated effort to keep our schools safe (which is much, much more important than keeping them well-funded and working, it would seem), we find H.R.5295, the Student and Teacher Safety Act of 2006, which provides for warrantless searches of persons and property in all educational institutions that accept federal money:

A search referred to in subsection (a) is a search by a full-time teacher or school official, acting on any colorable suspicion based on professional experience and judgment, of any minor student on the grounds of any public school, if the search is conducted to ensure that classrooms, school buildings, and school property remain free of all weapons, dangerous materials, or illegal narcotics.

so it seems that this congress is more interested in teaching our students that they have no functional rights in the united states of america, that there is no judicial process, that they are less than full citizens, and that authority figures can demand, and execute any search at any time so long as they are doing it to “protect us.”

on the other hand, we could could teach out students that this country is founded on a document known as the constitution of the united states, which includes a series of amendments, one of which reads thus:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

perhaps, i’ve just lost touch with what is reasonable…

at least when they are detained and searched randomly as adults, they’ll be more comfortable…