Why Do I Bother?

I read about this over at “Southern Expressions” and I had to make a stink over here too.

LEXINGTON, Massachusetts (Reuters) - The crown prince rejects a bevy of beautiful princesses, rebuffing each suitor until falling in love with a prince. The two marry, sealing the union with a kiss, and live happily ever after.

That fairy tale about gay marriage has sparked a civil rights debate in Massachusetts, the only U.S. state where gays and lesbians can legally wed, after a teacher read the story to a classroom of seven year olds without warning parents first.

A parents’ rights group said on Monday it may sue the public school in the affluent suburb of Lexington, about 12 miles west of Boston, where a teacher used the book “King & King” in a lesson about different types of weddings.

“It’s just so heinous and objectionable that they would do this,” said Brian Camenker, president of the Parents Rights Coalition, a conservative Massachusetts-based advocacy group.

Camenker said he believes the school, Joseph Estabrook Elementary, broke a 1996 Massachusetts law requiring schools to notify parents of sex-education lessons. “There is no question in my mind that the law is being abused here,” he said.

This article from Reuters is worth a read. I try to avoid political topics here, but this kind of thing just gets to me. Read it for yourself.

Technorati Tags: gay marriage, civil rights, King & King, sex-education

Tags: Dirty Dogs by Jeffrey
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My first class starts on Monday. It’s just an orientation class that basically teaches you how to take classes online, but I’m still excited to get started. Every day that I go to work I get more and more motivated to get this degree finished so I can move on. I’m looking forward to bigger and better things … like a starting salary about one and a half times what I’m making now. Wish me luck.

(aside …) Mel and I are getting bikes tomorrow morning. Whee.

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Tags: School by Jeffrey
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Please click on the image to the left or at the top of the right column to visit my latest renter from Blog Explosion. She’s a writer of young adult cotemporary and horror fiction and runs a pretty nice blog to boot. Tell her I sent you.

Tags: Renters by Jeffrey
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Another weekly horoscope from “The Onion“. At least until they tell me to stop it.

Gemini May 21 - June 21

Most experts agree that language is what separates humans from other animals, but as you well know it is in fact our ability to choose bestiality.

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Tags: Just For Fun by Jeffrey
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traffic jam

I spent the day working with my father in his wood shop yesterday. We’re trying to get it cleaned up and organized so he can get around in there without killing himself. Chris is helping too, actually he’s helping a lot more than I am since he lives so much closer to my parents. We’ve gotten quite a bit accomplished in the last couple weeks.

Around 4:00 or so I remembered that I was supposed to meet a friend, Bryan, for dinner. My phone had died so I wasn’t able to get his phone call letting me know that he was ready at 3:00. Getting from my parents house to mine requires the use of 2 freeways, I5 and I205. On the way I called Bryan to let him know that I would hurry home and see him as soon as I got changed, but about 5 minutes later I had to call him back because I got stopped on the on-ramp to I205. Traffic was at a standstill for no apparent reason. I205 can get busy at rush hour, but it was still a bit early for that. The on-ramp is pretty long from I5 to I205 and curves around under I5 before you get there so I was unable to see very far ahead. I could only assume that there was an accident ahead as these are common on I205.

Inch by inch I crawled along the on-ramp. I got up to 5 miles an hour at one point before having to lurch to a stop again. This continued for about 3 miles until I saw up ahead some flashing lights. It took some time to reach a point where I could actually see what was going on, but the close I got the less it looked like an accident at all.

When I finally reached the scene there was a semi pulled over to the side of the freeway with a police car behind it with the lights on. It wasn’t an accident at all. The trailer doors were open, but it looked very much like a routine stop for speeding or something like that. The officer and the truck driver were standing at the back of the truck having some conversation about whatever the problem was. No injuries, no smashed vehicles, no blood and guts, nothing. Now I’m pissed for three reasons.

First, I missed my dinner with Bryan. He’s been away for a few days and I really enjoy spending time with him, but our schedules limit the time we can spend together.

Second, and this is a bit morbid, there’s nothing cool to see here. If I’m going to wait in traffic, inching along like the line to a popular roller coaster, I want to see some attraction at the end of the line.

And third, what the hell are people driving so slow for?! As soon as we passed the truck traffic sped up to its normal pace. I mean immediately. There was absolutely no reason for people to be driving like this. Seriously, if you are one of those people get off the road. Take the bus. You are forbidden to drive anymore. No, really.

argh.

Technorati Tags: Traffic, I5, I205, accident, freeway, police

Tags: Family, Gripes by Jeffrey
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My brother and his wife cooked dinner for us today, Easter. It was very good. He marinated 3 butterflied legs of lamb in different marinades then grilled them today. I love lamb.

It was also nice to see the whole family together today. That doesn’t happen very often these days. It almost didn’t happen today in fact since I usually work on Sundays, but a fortunate accident made it possible. Saturday I went into work as I always do. I unloaded all of my gear and went to sign in when the person who covers our vacation time off showed up. It was unexpected since I wasn’t aware that anyone was on VTO (vacation time off) that day. He approached me with a confused look on his face and said, “what are you doing here?” It seems that I had signed up for Saturday and Sunday off this week and had completely forgotten about it. It took me about 2 minutes to load up again and get the hell out of there. A bit embarrassing though. I’ve never done that before.

While it was nice to spend time with my family, it was even nicer to spend some time with my wife who has been away the last couple days visiting her family. We went to see a movie, “Inside Man” with Denzel Washington, and came home to eat grapes, drink wine, and play a game of cribbage. Our 3rd anniversary is coming up next month. I am still so much in love with her in spite of the fact that she recently pointed out a new gray hair where there shouldn’t be one. Use your imagination.

Technorati Tags: Easter, lamb, family, vacation, wife, gray hair

Tags: Easter, Family, Love and Marriage, Work by Jeffrey
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