Ain't Complicated

No Yore Grammer

I wonder how often as a high school teacher I heard, “Why do I need to know this stuff?”

Invariably, the subject was English (ie grammar, mechanics, etc).

I know at least four of my former students stop by here once in a while.

So read this:

Court of Appeals: Definition of “nudity” excludes children

Armstrong wrote that the language of the statute was sufficiently unclear and ungrammatical that it could be read to cover children or exclude them.

Now if only the law truly would cover the naked ones.

Hint: There’s a play on words there. Get it, huh?

Seducing Debt

Now if I can do better at implementing some debt-reduction strategies . . . .

The Great Seduction by Debt

The people who created this country built a moral structure around money. The Puritan legacy inhibited luxury and self-indulgence. Benjamin Franklin spread a practical gospel that emphasized hard work, temperance and frugality. Millions of parents, preachers, newspaper editors and teachers expounded the message. The result was quite remarkable.

The United States has been an affluent nation since its founding. But the country was, by and large, not corrupted by wealth. For centuries, it remained industrious, ambitious and frugal.

Over the past 30 years, much of that has been shredded. The social norms and institutions that encouraged frugality and spending what you earn have been undermined. The institutions that encourage debt and living for the moment have been strengthened. The country’s moral guardians are forever looking for decadence out of Hollywood and reality TV. But the most rampant decadence today is financial decadence, the trampling of decent norms about how to use and harness money.

[…]

First, raise public consciousness about debt the way the anti-smoking activists did with their campaign. Second, create institutions that encourage thrift.

Foundations and churches could issue short-term loans to cut into the payday lenders’ business. Public and private programs could give the poor and middle class access to financial planners. Usury laws could be enforced and strengthened. Colleges could reduce credit card advertising on campus. KidSave accounts would encourage savings from a young age. The tax code should tax consumption, not income, and in the meantime, it should do more to encourage savings up and down the income ladder.

There are dozens of things that could be done. But the most important is to shift values. Franklin made it prestigious to embrace certain bourgeois virtues. Now it’s socially acceptable to undermine those virtues. It’s considered normal to play the debt game and imagine that decisions made today will have no consequences for the future.

If It Feels Good

Flip-Flop Flaws

Summer is when the rubber hits the road. […] Back in 2005 some members of the Northwestern University national champion women’s lacrosse team drew flack for wearing flip-flops when they met with President Bush at the White House.

Questions of etiquette aside, flip-flops may not be the best choice for health reasons. In a study presented last week at the annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine, researchers at Auburn University found that flip-flops actually alter the way wearers walk. That change in gait can cause persistent foot and ankle pain—the kinds of problems usually associated with a fondness for Manolos and Jimmy Choos.

Justin Shroyer, a doctoral student in biomechanics at Auburn, and Dr. Wendi Weimar, the director of Auburn’s biomechanics laboratory, were tossing around ideas for a research project when they hit upon a subject that seemed ripe for exploration. “We’re biomechanists,” explains Shroyer. “We can’t go anywhere without analyzing the way someone walks.” They noticed that when students came back from summer vacation they often complained of pain in their feet, ankles and lower legs. The same students were also likely to be flip-flop fans (as is Shroyer, as a matter of fact). Could there be a connection?

[…]

After digitizing all these images and analyzing the data, Shroyer came up with some disturbing conclusions for those of us who treasure the freedom of flip-flops. He found that flip-flop wearers take shorter steps. The result is more stress on the body because you have to move more to go the same distance as people wearing other kinds of shoes. That could mean a higher risk of muscle and joint pain in the legs.

Toes are another problem area.

So there you are.

Constitutional Problems?

Tossing Obama and McCain?

Bloggers are raising questions about Illinois Sen. Barack Obama’s qualifications to be U.S. president, because of the secrecy over his birth certificate and the requirement presidents be “natural-born” U.S. citizens.

[…]

The presumptive Republican nominee for president, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., already has gone through the same type of challenge, and the U.S. Senate responded with a resolution in April declaring him to be a “‘natural born Citizen’ under Article II, Section 1, of the Constitution of the United States.”

[…]

Others say the issue isn’t quite that simple, and the matter could be resolved fully only by a constitutional amendment or a U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

I, on the other hand, was born in Oregon. 🙂

Can You Hear Me?

At least my teenagers aren’t Australians:

More than 70 percent of young Australians show early signs of hearing loss, with loud music played through headphones believed to be a major cause, a survey released Tuesday showed.

The Australian Hearing survey found that tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, was more prevalent among 18 to 34-year-olds than elderly people, even though it is seen as one of the first signs of hearing loss.

[…]

It found that while the elderly were the most likely to experience hearing loss, the next most vulnerable group was teenagers.

Australian Hearing spokesman John D’Arcy said there were responsible steps people could take to minimise the risk of going deaf from loud music.

“Set the volume of your MP3 player at a level that allows you to hear someone at arm’s length without them having to shout,” he said.

Besides our three teenagers, we have four other older children. Including our son-in-law, whose mother is Australian.

To all seven of you (only one of whom reads this blog), take heed!

And to all the rest of you who use headphones, take heed as well.

(You’re welcome.)

A Huge, Negative Experience

OK, here’s the story, with my very own headline:

Stand Up and Be Taped

The third-grade teacher who taped a disobedient child to a chair last month will be disciplined but not fired, the Oakridge School District said.

What type of action will be taken against Jill Tomchak has not been disclosed because personnel decisions are confidential, the Associated Press reports.

She had been placed on administrative leave following the May 28 incident in which a 9-year-old boy was secured to a chair with masking tape after repeatedly refusing to stay seated. The boy’s unwillingness to sit had been a problem throughout the school year.

The boy’s mother, Becky Faile, told The Register-Guard newspaper in this story that she was satisfied with Superintendent Don Kordosky’s decision and will not pursue legal action.

“We’re trusting that since Don got to hear all sides that they’re doing the right thing,” she said.

Faile said her son will stay home for the remaining four days of school, but she expects to send him back to Oakridge Elementary in the fall. Tomchak, a long-time Oakridge teacher did not return a phone call made by the Register-Guard.

Faile told the paper “we decided that would be the worst thing for Austin, to drag this out.” She said another parent contacted the media about the taping and that she “never intended it to be such a huge, negative experience.”

“I was just trying to protect my son,” she said. “When you have your child come home and tell you something like this, you want to defend him.” She said she told Kordosky that she, her husband and Austin would be willing to meet privately with Tomchak this summer to try to put the matter behind them all.

The teacher was disciplined. Why not the child? Oh, wait. He was disciplined…by the teacher. In a manner unacceptable to the parents.

So the mother sets out to defend him.

Did she punish the child, too?

The boy already had a track record for disobedience and uncooperation at school. If that isn’t disciplined out of him by his parents and his teachers, he is in for worse things in life than getting taped to a chair.

Poor little boy.

(I resisted a few urges to call him a brat.) 🙂

Written in the Stars?

A Frame of Reference for the General Election — full of boring concepts to the uninterested and uninitiated. Whether I’m an un or an in I shall not reveal. And whether you’re one or the other, consider these two paragraphs:

What does this mean for November?

Ultimately, it comes down to whether human agency can affect processes that are largely governed by macro conditions. Presidential elections are one such process. We know they are governed in part by vague, impersonal forces. To what extent are they also governed by the actions of human beings? We have seen both parties try to influence this election. Both have positioned themselves in light of what they know. Will their positionings make a difference, or is the outcome already written in the stars?

The outcome is already written.

In the heart of God.

The identity of the next President of the United States has long been known to God.

As is what He will accomplish through him (or her).

I’m curious to see whom the Almighty will set up this time.