Raising Children Again

I wish I were just starting out raising my children ... You just said to yourself, "Self, is he nuts"? Allow me to explain.

If we were just beginning to have children I now have a fool-proof way of getting my children to eat their vegetables. I would look each of them into their tear-filled eyes and threaten to send them to live the rest of their lives in Liberia.

The quote below comes from the Atlanta Journal Constitution on 2/22/08. Notice the use of the words "overrun", "pervasive", "half", "not", "uninhabitable", "little" & "no". After you finish using these words there is not much left to lament...
"The country is overrun with weapons, malnutrition is pervasive, half of children are not in school, and many buildings are uninhabitable. There is little running water or electricity and no sewage or landline phone system."

The Liberian Tourist Bureau is left with something like...
"Come join us in Liberia. Is it is a terrible place to live but you don't live long."

Would I kid u?

Picky Me

Here I go being picky again...I can't help myself.

What ticked me off today (2/22/08) was the News Media ... again. In the Atlanta Journal Constitution there is short article on page A4 that is headlined...
"Clinton tells fans to vote early"
What's wrong with that you ask? It's the word "fans". It's not supporters. It's fans. It's like this is some kind of sporting event or game. Some of us may laugh and say it is a game but this is serious stuff. It ought to talked about (by the media, anyway) as serious stuff.

It's the same as when a politician concludes a news conference and the media refers to how the news conference came off by referring to it as a "performance". This is not a stage play. It is politics. It may be shameful but it should be treated (by the media, anyway) as serious stuff.

Don't get me started about the congregation in our churches being referred to as "audiences". Oh my gosh! I am picky.

Would I kid u?

The PolLight

There ought to be a law that a red light be surgically installed on the top of the head of any candidate running for office. The light would function as follows…
If the candidate were speaking a lie, the light would turn on.

Because of some politician’s propensity to lie unceasingly, the light would have to be rigged so that it would blink every 45 seconds. If this were not the case, voters might lose faith that the light was working properly.

Would I kid u?