Outrageous News: Younger Brother Taller than Sister

This is the most outragoues news I've heard all week, and I can't believe it hasn't been plastered all over the news yet. A boy named James (whose last name is withheld for security reasons) is taller than his older sister. That's right---taller!!

And he shaves.

Edmond the Hun

New Pope Reveals Unanswered Prayers

Benedict XVI, the new pope, said that he prayed that he would not become the new pope. I find this interesting. Does this mean that the new head of the Catholic church---the one who is supposed to pray for the people---his prayers go unanswered? I might be worried if I was Catholic. But then I only have an admittedly shallow understanding of Catholicism. Maybe they don't believe that the pope is the one who speaks to God for them.

And it could also be a revelation of simple humility. And, besides, Jesus himself asked God to take away the cup. I'm not saying all Catholics are doomed or anything. But I just thought it was ironic that the one who I think is supposed to pray for the people---his prayer went unanswered.

On an unrelated note, I feel sorry for the guy. I've heard that they mainly picked him to be a "transition" pope, hoping that he'll only last a couple years until they can pick a new one for a longer reign. Or something like that. Or maybe that's just speculation. But at an age of 78, the odds may be against him for a long reign anyway.

Edmond the Hun

Hello Sunday

Well, I'm almost positive that I made an A on the history test. I didn't break the triple jump record again, and Ben actually broke mine by a half-inch, but that's OK. We have another meet this Saturday. And I did finish the music for the play. Well, not technically "finish" everything, but enough to record seven tracks that will work for the production this weekend.

So, 2 out of 3's not bad.

Anyway, I'm still following the news but there just hasn't been anything that's caught my attention that I feel like commenting on. If you come across something outrageous, just let me know.

Until next time,

Edmond the Hun

Hello Tuesday

It's been a week since I last blogged. I'm becoming quite the Renaissance man (or quite the too overworked and busy person, depending on your point of view. In the next week or two I will be attempting to again break the school triple jump record, finish the score for the school play Little Women, and get an A on a college credit history test made by a principal who has no time to be a teacher and only shows up to class 65.1% of the time (I'm keeping track).

So forgive me if my posts are sporadic, or if I don't update that new weekly sidebar this week. But I only have two faithful followers anyway (thanks a lot, guys!) and they're as busy as I am, so the world out there will probably keep running.

Edmond the Hun

Dying Freedoms: Boy Scouts and the ACLU

The ACLU has a new bone to pick: they're upset at the publicly sponsored Boy Scouts whose pledge includes the word "God." They claim it breaks the constitutional separation of church and state. Now I don't fully understand how the Boy Scouts work, and how they're sponsored and all, and how if the government or public something or other stops sponsoring them, they'll have to inconveniently find new sources... I don't get all the logistics, but that's not as important as the main issue here.

I'm sick of repudiating the non-existent constitutional separation of church and state (it'd help if someone who disagreed with me would read this thing). The First Amendment says, "Congress shall establish now law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." That's not exclusively separating church and state. It's saying Congress can't mess with the free practice of religion.

By the sponsorship of Boy Scouts that happen to include "God" in a pledge, Congress is not passing a law respecting a religion. It's not passing a law at all! The Boy Scouts can say whatever the Zeus they want---so what if they say "God." If you're offended, don't join the Boy Scouts! You don't have a constitutional right not to be offended!

Why hasn't the ACLU gotten in an uproar about government buildings putting the flags half-mast for the dead pope? That's against your alleged separation! I don't even undestand that---even conspiracy theories and liberal agendas doesn't explain why they pick on one subtle religious practice over an explicit one! Unless they don't view a symbolic Catholic leader as a threat. Who cares if they government honors a religious figure? He doesn't pose a threat to their goal of eliminating God from America, because scores of "Catholics" don't really care about God. But if you actually use the word "God," ah, now they're gonna come get you.

The ACLU is applying both a double standard and outright falsehoods. But what's new?

Edmond the Hun

The Pope Is Dead

Get over it. No one cares.

Wait, let me be politically correct, so the liberals don't attack me (actually, I wouldn't mind the publicity)---there's a lot of people that don't care.

Don't believe me? Then explain why Sin City was the top grossing movie this weekend. It's an extremely violent R-rated movie that's also full of sex, nudity, and provocatively dressed woman. And explain why Beauty Shop came in second. It involves women in a beauty shop talking about sex and, uh, other stuff. Watching either of these two movies isn't exactly the best way to honor the pope.

I'm sure there are some practicing Catholics who are saddened by the fact that an 84-year-old pope died so now they can replace him with another guy. Don't get me wrong, John Paul II was a great guy and all. My frustrations have nothing to do with the character of the man himself---I'm instead bothered by the various reactions to it. And lots of people just don't care.

But for some reason the media doesn't seem to realize that. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch devoted the first ten pages to nothing but the pope and advertisements. Ten pages! And about seven more in the succeeding editorial section. This is ridiculous! That left about two pages for Iraq and anything else. And this wasn't confined to my locality, either. A recent analysis has discovered that overall the news media of the world wrote 35,000 new stories about the pope the day after his death, compared with 3500 to Bush's re-election!

And this pope-crazy media is shoving out other news. I haven't seen anything about the Minutemen patroling the border. You probably don't even know what that is. I hardly know what it is, because I haven't especially gone looking for it---the only way to get good news around here is to go especially looking for it.

The Minutemen are a bunch of civilians voluntarily watching the US's southern border to arrest illegal immigrants. Illegal immigration from Mexico is a huge problem that most people aren't even aware of. These guys have made a few arrests. Don't know how effective that is, but it's better than nothing. Kudos to our volunteer citizens. But somehow this isn't making the papers, or the one I get, at least.

Who knew that I'd connect the pope, sex movies, and Mexican immigrants in one post? Well, I did. I'm fed up with hypocrites who mourn the pope's death and go watch immoral movies. And I'm fed up with the media using the death of an old famous guy to overshadow more relevant news.

Edmond the Hun

How to Contact Your Representatives

I finally did it! For the first time ever, I, Edmond the Hun, have contacted two of my representatives, and told them that I did not support one of two bills. It's really easy. Here's how to do it:

1. Find the website of your state's Congress. This can be done by a simple google search. For example: searching "Missouri State House" at www.google.com quickly gets you to: www.house.state.mo.us

2. Figure out who the representatives are in the house and senate for your district. In Missouri's page, at least, this can be done by typing in your zip code. Besides the normal six-digit code, you need the rarely-seen four-digit extension that comes after it. If you don't know those extra digits, there's a nice little button that opens a pop-up window, where you type in your address and it gives you all ten digits. Plug those in and it'll tell you who represents your district in the Missouri House, Missouri Senate, as well as the House in Congress.

3. Click on the representative's name, and it leads you to a brief facts page about him. If you're lucky, somewhere in the page is a link that says "e-mail." It will either take you directly to your e-mail or give you other simple steps to follow. If they don't have e-mail, you might have to write them a letter the old-fashioned way. But my two representatives both had e-mails.

4. Then, all you gotta do is tell them what you want to say.

I'm still waiting for a reply from my two representatives. I'm not on the up-and-up about how Missouri's Congress works (two years since Government class, you know) so those bills I don't support may not even be up for voting yet, and my representatives may not have even come across them yet, or they may never. But it couldn't hurt to give them my opinion.

I encourage you to follow these steps and contact your representatives too and tell them what you think about current bills, or even to suggest new bills that you think should be passed. In other words, take an active part in politics (that's a scary phrase).

Edmond the Hun

Missouri Politics: Changing the Feeding Tube Rules

There are three bills floating about somewhere in the legislative process of Missouri's Congress---bills to prevent a Terri Schaivo 2. One bill is obviously the wrong way to do it, one is unjustly
biased, and one is simple and different but I don't see anything wrong with it. I never thought

I'd be getting this active in politics and all, but I really am going to try to contact my representatives and tell them whether or not I support these three bills. If I do so, I will tell you how to easily contact them and encourage you to do the same.

(Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Saturday, April 2, 2005, page 10)

Bill #1: HB 905, Removing All Rights

HB 905, filed by Republican representative Cynthia Davis, would "take away a legal guardian's right to remove a patient's feeding tube. The proposal would also let patients signal to doctors that they do not want their feeding tubes removed."

Now there's nothing fundamentally wrong with the whole signaling bit, although it can be a little vague about the intentions of actions from patients who can't really communicate with you. My problem is with the categorical rejection of a legal guardian's right to remove a patient's feeding tube. What if you know your great-grandmother told you that she would never want a feeding tube, but you couldn't honor her wishes because of this proposed law?

Yeah, Edmond, you might say, but Michael said his wife told him that and I don't believe him. Well, I propose changing the law so that the authority of a legal guardian can be transferred if another family member brings a case against the validity of the guardian's intentions. That would have stopped Michael, but not the simple uncorrupted people who want to put disabled family members out of their misery. There's nothing wrong with a legal guardian's decision to remove a patient's feeding tube if they say the patient told him their wishes or they believe that's what their wishes are, and if no family members dispute that, and if there are no selfish or corrupt reasons for the guardian's decision to remove the feeding tube. The rights of innocent civilians shouldn't be unnecessarily curtailed to stop the corrupt civilians when there are other ways to do that.

I do not support HB 905 and will try to contact my representatives and tell them so (that's a new thing for me, but something all citizens should do).

Edmond the Hun

Bill #2: SB 547, Unconditionally Favoring Life

b, filed by Republican senator John Loudon, would "change the laws regarding a legal dispute over custody of a person in a persistent vegetative state. Loudon's proposal would give custody to whichever party wants to continue care."

This says that whenever there's a dispute, completely ignore the patient's wishes or perceived wishes, ignore the character of those involved in the dispute, and just keep the patient alive, because, uh, because, we said so. Consider a polar opposite case: Joan Doe wants to keep her brain-dead feeding-tubed husband, Joe, alive, while the husband's parents want to let him die, because Joe has told many people that he would not want to be kept alive like that---so many that no one disputes it. Joe's a millionaire. Joe and Joan didn't get along in recent years, and Joe left Joan practically nothing in his will. Joan wants to keep him alive against his well-known wishes because when he dies, she loses his money. But because Joe doesn't have a living will and because there's a dispute, due to this law Joe's custody would be given to Joan. It's an extreme and fabricated example, but it reveals the fundamental problems with this proposed law.

It's not wise to base legal authority and custody by the position of the people involved---to unconditionally say the life side is the right side. Again, I propose legal authority based on character and intention. If the Does went to court with my proposed law, Joan would lose custody because the husband's parents could bring a convincing case that Joan had selfish and corrupt reasons for her position.

I do not support SB 547 and will also try to contact my representatives and tell them so.

Edmond the Hun

Bill #3: HB 894

HB 894, filed by Republican representative David Sater, would "allow people to make such health decisions when they renew their drivers licenses. The bill... would allow a person to decide whether they would want a feeding tube and also select a guardian to make health decisions. A person's preference would be indicated on his drivers license."

Now I don't see anything wrong with this proposed law. I've never heard of putting these crucial decisions on a drivers license, but I can't say that it's a bad idea. And while people are "allowed" to do that, I don't see in the wording that they are required to do that. It's like the fast-food version of a living will. If you want to talk about yourself in a vegetative state along with your drivers license, then go right ahead. If you don't want to be forced to come to a decision right then, there's no pressure, either.

(I'm thinking of all the teenagers. "Congratulations, Matt, you passed. Now, if you're in a vegetative state do you want a feeding tube or not?" "What? Huh? Vegetables? Uh, I don't like vegetables...")

I don't like the idea of people being forced to make a decision about something as important as this, and it could encourage trivial or non-thought-out responses ("Come on, Matt." "Uh... okay... um... sure, why not?") But as long as they don't have to make a decision, I don't have a problem with making it easier for people to concretely spell out their wishes.

While I do not pretend to have a complete understanding of HB 894, I currently support it and will tell my representatives so.

Edmond the Hun

April Fools!

Just kidding - the three following posts are all april fool's jokes! Although I wouldn't be surprised if the ACLU did something like that. And I don't know how Terri stayed alive that long. And there are fears that the price of oil barrels will go from $55 to $100, which could easily translate over here into over $3 a gallon. But that might not even happen, and if it does, probably not $4. But then what do I know about gas pricing logistics?

Anyway, the gas price one has the most chance of actually happening, and the Terri one is so ludicrous that I hope you didn't believe it. Have a happee April!

Edmond the Hun

The ACLU and April Fool's Day

The ACLU has long been a champion of extreme and dumb liberal rights. Now Ron Greenwood, their spokesman, has spoken out against the informal celebrating of April 1 being April Fool's Day. They say that it discriminates against people who are gullible, and they want to make it a crime to recgonize April Fool's Day. Senator John Edwards is sponsoring a bill to make this a law.

What the Zeus? I think that's going a little overboard. I don't like being paranoid all day, but it's only one day of the year. Come on, people!

Edmond the Hun

Gas Prices Still Soaring

The Arabs in the Middle East are sick of rising protests over rising oil prices, so they decided to limit production. Oil barrel prices are expected to double within the week, and oil prices may soon top $4.00 a gallon. This is ridiculous! Why can't we just drill our own oil in Alaska? The hydrogen car stuff is going too slow. If gas prices rise any farther, I wouldn't be surprised if people march on Washington or something drastic like that.

Edmond the Hun

Terri's Still Alive!

Yes, that's right. Terri Schaivo is still alive. The doctors have been secretly reinserting her feeding tube during the night. They paid the media networks to release news of her death so they could take her away from Michael. It's a deceptive and risky plan, but it might work. I thought this sounded a little far-fetched, especially considering today's date, but think about it---she's been without water for two weeks! How can anyone possibly survive that long? What else could explain it? I just wish this whole thing would be over...

Edmond the Hun