Vote No for Texas HJR6 Nov. 8th

A 'conservative Christian' friend of mine sent me the following chain-e-mail today:

FOR TEXANS - VOTE YES for the HJR6 on NOV. 8th - Please Read:
> If you get this and you are not a Texan-please forward it onto people
>who are Texans and encourage them to go to the polls and VOTE on Nov.
>8. And other states need to watch for this. This is how Roe V. Wade
>got voted in-Christians were complacent and didn't realize what was
>going on-and being voted on. SO PLEASE MARK YOUR CALENDARS-and go vote
>on NOV. 8!!! HJR 6 - Will be on the November 8, 2005 Ballot
>
>Please forward this email to every Christian that you know. It is
>important that the Christian voters of Texas speak loud and clear in
>November, by SUPPORTING and voting YES to HJR 6. Of course you may be
>wondering why you have not heard of this proposed amendment before? The
>answer is simple. There is a grassroots effort in our Texas gay
>communities to keep conservatives in the dark. Since there will not be
>any big elections this November, the probability of people getting out
>to vote are slim. The gay community is planning to use our complacency
>against us. While we are not voting, they will be!
>
>Please encourage everyone you know, to get out and vote on November
>8th, in support of HJR 6. Educate your friends, family, and church
>members on the content of this amendment. I have enclosed a summary. We
>as Christians and as Texans need to send a message once and for all.
>While researching this amendment, the websites against it far
>outnumbered the ones in support of it. That is what prompted me to
>write. Pass this along. PRAY!!! that the believers in Texas will rise
>up to vote in support of this resolution. ACT!!! We are in need of
>Christians to educate the community of HJR-6.

I replied as follows:

Mike,

I was really disappointed by this email, Mike. In addition to it being flat-out hateful, I kept looking for the punch-line-that-never-came. Besides, I’m already married. How does this threaten me? If homosexual couples want to engage in:

-insurance benefits
-the ability to visit each other in the hospital
-the ability to write a binding will
-the almighty tax break for breeders
-monogamy
-shared bills
-laundry
-bitchy arguments over how to fold the laundry
-why don’t you take out the trash for a change
-I don’t want another damned cat
-your dog ate the drapes
-who is this whore that keeps calling you late at night
-I’m going to my mother’s house, you evil bastard
-etc

…then why not let them? Maybe they wouldn’t be so “gay” if they got that little taste of eternity called marriage.

Thanks for reminding me to vote, though. I’ve already marked my calendar, and I intend to forward this message to all of my friends who live by the tenets of the Judeo-Christian faith as opposed to people I know that claim to act like Christians.

One more thing, rather than worrying about who is marrying whom, let’s address the issues that really destroy marriages like Vegas weddings, no-fault divorces, child abuse, spousal abuse, etc.

See you at church, tomorrow,
Aloysius

My Daughter's Halloween Costume

Go here:

http://shop.starwars.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=2702;category_id=332;pcid1=;pcid2=

I am an inveterate nerd. Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa.

RIP Little Buddy

Sigh.

Actor Bob Denver, knownfor his role as Gilligan of "Gilligan's Island" and Maynard G. Krebs of "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis," died this past Friday at age 70.

I really liked "Gilligan's Island," and still do. Of course, my favorite character is Professor Roy Hinkley. Russell Johnson is still alive as far as I can tell. Dawn Wells and Tina Louise (Mary Ann and Ginger) are still alive, too. Mr. Howell (Jim Backus) died in '89, the Skipper (Alan Hale) died in '90, and Mrs. Howell (Natalie Schafer) died in '91. Charles Maxwell, the voice on the radio, died in '93.

I'm going to go watch some television now.

GAAAAAAAH!

Week two of the school year, and already I jeopardize my job. Why do I do it? Must be the way my asshole puckers when I get these kind of messages from my students:

"hello mrbosch.

i am working on my hitler speech research
and dear lord.
he made tons and tons and tons of speeches.
i was wondering if you had any insight on
perhaps his best one for me to start off on.

your favourite 7th period student
Leah zeppelin."

It's worth pointing out that she sent that message to me through the school district's website, the one that is regularly scrutinized for inappropriate content.

My response was strictly PC, naturally. I warned her about historical apologists and spooky websites that pretended to be unbiased. I don't really know that much at all about Nazis aside from their tendecy toward being limp-dicked goat-fuckers. I suppose I should be honored that she came to me for help with the assumption that I knew about all things rhetorical.

Pardon me, now. I'm going to go sit somewhere quiet and attempt to get over my shuddering case of the jibblies.

700 lb. Xmas Gifts

Penguin Classics has released, via Amazon.com, their Complete Library. For a mere $7989.50, you can have delivered for free your new library of 1,082 titles. That's a savings of over $5k off the cover price! And the shipping's FREE!!! According to NPR, they've sold 10 so far.

Unfortunately, some true classics did not make the cut due to copyright laws. For example, The Great Gatsby and all of the Faulkner novels did not make it because the respective estates still hold the rights to publication. However, there are a lot of really neat novels on the list. As an English teacher, it's fun to peruse the list and realize that, dang, I actually did read a lot of stuff in school.

Now if I could recall it all....

NPR coverage here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4814140
And ordering info here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0147503078/qid=1124942195/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-8710987-4254511?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

What did you do with Chet?

Okay, so I just now tried to go to my good friend Chet's website, miscellaneousheathen.com , but I got some photographer's website instead. Sticking a www in front of it says that the site is FORBIDDEN!

Strange things are afoot in Houston.

Where is the Central Scrutinizer when we need him?

The following message was forwarded to me by my school's librarian. I'm still trying to decide whether or not she forwarded it to me as a joke:

Dear Teacher,

With the generous help of our donors and your local businesses, the Ayn Rand Institute is providing free classroom sets of Ayn Rand's novels, Anthem and The Fountainhead, along with teacher's guides and lesson plans, to high schools in the US and Canada.

Anthem tells of a dark world of the future, a society so collectivized that even the word "I" has vanished from the language and one man’s defiance of that society. Anthem’s theme is: the meaning and glory of man’s ego. Anthem is appropriate for grades 9 and 10.

The Fountainhead is the story of an innovative, uncompromisingly independent architect, Howard Roark, and his battle against a tradition-worshipping society. Its theme is "individualism versus collectivism, not in politics, but in man’s soul." Ayn Rand presented here for the first time her projection of an ideal man. The Fountainhead is appropriate for grades 11 and 12.

If you are a teacher, and you would like to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity to teach Ayn Rand's novels in your classroom, please visit http://www.aynrand.org/education_classroom_books and complete our online form.

Forward to a Friend

Marilee Dragsdahl
Education Department Manager
The Ayn Rand Institute
2121 Alton Parkway, Suite 250
Irvine, CA 92606
Phone: (949) 222-6550 ext. 209
Fax: (949) 222-6558

There's a Scientologist Celebrity Centre here in Dallas. http://www.scientology-ccdallas.org/ I bet they'd be willing to send me a free class set, too. The only catch to getting free copies from the Randroids is that I actually have to teach the material if they send it to me.

A little bit of Googling has dredged up some lesson plans on Intelligent Design from these kind pseudo-scientists: http://www.rael.org/

Perhaps I could offer my students the connection between science of Yoga, the theology of all major religions, and the mysteries of UFOs? http://www.aetherius.org/

Interestingly enough, the founders of Unarius bring up the age-old AP essay question: why are whack-jobs always famous people in previous lives?

• "...Ruth Norman (Uriel) is of a vast development, a Universal Radiant Infinite Eternal Light. She has long worked for the benefit of mankind, by the side of Raphiel and others of the Unarius Brotherhood, throughout many, many lifetimes of great significance in the history of Earth and other worlds. Her previous lifetimes, as Socrates, Peter the Great, Charlemagne, Queen Elizabeth I, [ed. emphasis added] and Queen Maria Theresa have shaped the future for many countries--all a part of a one-million year progressive plan for the healing of mankind on Earth, which was set in motion by the Spiritual Hierarchy of the Unarius Brotherhood. Her inspirational example continued through her lives as Hatshepsut, Akbar of India, Quetzalcoatl, Atahualpa--the last Inca of Peru, and many others... Perhaps most significant to 20th-century man is the true story of Uriel's incarnation as Mary of Bethany, the betrothed and 13th disciple of Jesus of Nazareth--a prior incarnation of Dr. Ernest L. Norman. This story is related in Uriel's short autobiography, My 2000-Year Psychic Memory as Mary of Bethany."

More at http://www.unarius.org/bio.html . A lot more.

How can I possibly take over the world when so many people have already jump started their own plans?