I think initiation rituals can be very valuable. Requiring frosh or rookies to go through a series of steps before they are accepted as full-fledged members of the team is healthy. It is axiomatic that to suffer together is one way to build community. But not all suffering is the same. Forcing the frosh to run extra laps or do extra push-ups or go through a weekend of brutal fitness camp can build community and fellowship just fine — all without a drop of alcohol and without a single lap dance. Requiring frosh to put on silly skits that don’t involve vulgar humor, nudity, or intoxication (or asking them to memorize all the verses of an ancient school fight song) can have a similar bonding effect. The problem is not with the nature of sports teams/fraternities/sororities, or with initiation rituals — the problem is with a culture that connects that valuable process of initiation to ritualized sexual degradation and binge drinking.
Even though critics at the Cannes Film Festival grew restless while watching it (more about that here), "The Da Vinci Code" will be #1 this weekend at the box office, though its difficult to tell how much money it will make. "Mission: Impossible III" made some good numbers two weeks ago, but didn't do as well as expected. Will "TDVC" be the same way? That remains to be seen."Having tried exceptionally hard to make our relationship work given the daily pressures surrounding us, it is with sadness that we have decided to go our separate ways.
"Our parting is amicable and both of us still care about each other very much but have found it increasingly difficult to maintain a normal relationship with constant intrusion into our private lives, and we have actively tried to protect the privacy of our child.
"Separation for any couple is difficult enough, but to have to go through this so publicly, especially with a small daughter, is immensely stressful.
"We hope, for the sake of our baby daughter, that we will be given some space and time to get through this difficult period."
"I can't tell you how much anger there is at the Republican leadership," Mr. [Richard] Viguerie [a conservative direct-mail pioner] said. "I have never seen anything like it."
In the last several weeks, Dr. James C. Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family and one of the most influential Christian conservatives, has publicly accused Republican leaders of betraying the social conservatives who helped elect them in 2004. He has also warned in private meetings with about a dozen of the top Republicans in Washington that he may turn critic this fall unless the party delivers on conservative goals.
And at a meeting in Northern Virginia this weekend of the Council for National Policy, an alliance of the most prominent Christian conservatives, several participants said sentiment toward the White House and Republicans in Congress had deteriorated sharply since the 2004 elections. (NY Times)
A hay fever sufferer, Steven McBride, owner of VisualMax, an interactive marketing company, found himself lost and "winging it" during a conference call with a client. "I was bridging over from Allegra to Zyrtec because the Allegra wasn't working," Mr. McBride said. "I was also taking Sudafed for nasal decongestion. It's a mixture that doesn't let you sleep well and cuts into concentration."
Health care professionals have recommended animals for psychological or emotional support for more than two decades, based on research showing many benefits, including longer lives and less stress for pet owners.
But recently a number of New York restaurateurs have noticed a surge in the number of diners seeking to bring dogs inside for emotional support, where previously restaurants had accommodated only dogs for the blind.
"I had never heard of emotional support animals before," said Steve Hanson, an owner of 12 restaurants including Blue Fin and Blue Water Grill in Manhattan. "And now all of a sudden in the last several months, we're hearing this."
The increasing appearance of pets whose owners say they are needed for emotional support in restaurants — as well as on airplanes, in offices and even in health spas — goes back, according to those who train such animals, to a 2003 ruling by the Department of Transportation. It clarified policies regarding disabled passengers on airplanes, stating for the first time that animals used to aid people with emotional ailments like depression or anxiety should be given the same access and privileges as animals helping people with physical disabilities like blindness or deafness. (NY Times)
As I have written before, I work as a crisis therapist for a hospital in Indianapolis. Only once, since I have worked at the hospital, has someone come and sought admission while having her emotional-needs dog in tote. The doctor denied the admission because the person said she didn't want admission if the dog couldn't be with her.
The article mentions that American and Delta airlines have allowed "emotional support goats" on flights. Sure, people can easily form attachments to dogs and cats, but how does someone form such a strong emotional attachment to a goat that he believes he can't go anywhere without? And, what if that goat reacts negatively to strangers, which it would surely run into if the owner believes he must take the goat everywhere he goes?
A recent analysis of clinical trial data on nearly 15,000 patients treated with both Paxil and dummy pills revealed a higher frequency of suicidal behavior in young adults treated with the drug, according to the letter.
The FDA reported that there were 11 suicide attempts -- none resulting in death -- among the patients who received Paxil in the trials. Just one of the dummy pill patients attempted suicide.
Given that small number, the results "should be interpreted with caution," the FDA said. Eight of the 11 attempts were made by patients between the ages of 18 and 30. All trial patients suffered from psychiatric disorders, including major depression.
The percentage of working-age Americans with moderate to middle incomes who lacked health insurance for at least part of the year rose to 41 percent in 2005, a dramatic increase from the 28 percent in 2001 without coverage, a study released on Wednesday found.
Moreover, more than half of the uninsured adults said they were having problems paying their medical bills or had incurred debt to cover their expenses, according to a report by the Commonwealth Fund, a New York-based private, health care policy foundation. The study of 4,350 adults also found that people without insurance were more likely to forgo recommended health screenings such as mammograms than those with coverage, and were less likely to have a regular doctor than their insured counterparts.
The report paints a bleak health care picture for the uninsured. "It represents an explosion of the insurance crisis into those with moderate incomes," said Sara Collins, a senior program officer at the Commonwealth Fund. (Associated Press)
Veteran Rep. Curt Weldon has a proclivity for calling out shady government doings that have him in mind as a principal target. A year ago, for example, after the No. 2 Republican on the House Armed Services Committee published “Countdown to Terror,” a frontal assault on the CIA’s track record before Sept. 11, he claimed that Clinton administration veterans with ties to the agency were out to get him.
So it’s not surprising that as Weldon girds for the most difficult re-election bid during his two decades representing the Philadelphia suburbs, his campaign is alleging that the CIA is probably abetting the opposition. Last month, his campaign manager Michael Puppio Jr. announced that Weldon’s expected Democratic opponent, Joe Sestak, a former Navy vice admiral, had taken campaign contributions from Mary McCarthy, the CIA operative recently fired for allegedly leaking secret information to the media. McCarthy, who was specifically accused of being a source for The Washington Post’s Pulitzer Prize-winning story on secret CIA prisons overseas, has denied that charge through her lawyer. (Congressional Quarterly)
Blogger reviews:
I found it rather interesting that Michael Moore, who made an entire film from the tragedy of September 11(*), has given no link to "United 93." For several weeks Moore linked to this movie, which centers on the terrorist actions of a purported freedom fighter.
* - I know that some will accuse me of being unfair to Moore, and his film was actually a diatribe against the (in)actions of the Bush administration, and not specifically all about September 11. Maybe that's a fair accusation, but it seems rather odd that he would talk so much about his concern for the 9/11 families and the troops in Iraq and yet not link to a movie that pays honor to some of the 9/11 heroes.
| You Are 50% Weird |
 Normal enough to know that you're weird... But too darn weird to do anything about it! |
| You Are Lightning |
 Beautiful yet dangerous People will stop and watch you when you appear Even though you're capable of random violence You are best known for: your power Your dominant state: performing |
I'm beautiful all right, but everything else is off the mark.
Well.... perhaps I'm a little bit dangerous.
| You Are Teal Green |
 You are a one of a kind, original person. There's no one even close to being like you. Expressive and creative, you have a knack for making the impossible possible. While you are a bit offbeat, you don't scare people away with your quirks. Your warm personality nicely counteracts any strange habits you may have. |
In a challenge to the ethics of conservative Ohio religious leaders and the fairness of the Internal Revenue Service, a group of 56 clergy members contends that two churches have gone too far in supporting a Republican candidate for governor.
Two complaints filed with the tax agency say that the large Columbus area churches, active in President Bush's narrow Ohio win in 2004, violated their tax-exempt status by pushing the candidacy of J. Kenneth Blackwell, who is the secretary of state and the favored candidate of Ohio's religious right.
The clergy members said the churches improperly held political activities and allowed Republican organizations to use their facilities.
The goal of the challenge is "for these churches to stop acting like electioneering organizations," said the Rev. Eric Williams, pastor of North Congregational United Church of Christ. "I don't want to harm or demonize these churches. I want these churches to act legally." (WaPo)
The two churches in question are World Harvest Church and Fairfield Christian Church. Although the article identifies Russell Johnson as the pastor of Fairfield Christian Church, it fails to recognize the pastor at World Harvest. This omission is fairly peculiar considering that the WHC pastor is Rod Parsley (see - he even made it into Wikipedia!), a nationally known author and preacher who appears regularly on the Trinity Broadcasting Network through his show Breakthrough. He has been to events with Senator Zell Miller and Columbus mayor Michael Coleman besides appearing with Blackwell. Parsley has talked openly about his belief that Christians should be involved in politics, but those politics seem to be what appeals to Christians on the political right (abortion, marriage) as opposed to what appeals to Christians on the political left (poverty, social justice).
Parsley is probably as Pentacostal as a person can get. It is difficult to determine when watching his show (which is often a recording of a service at WHC) whether he is being a preacher who is concerned about truth, or a showman - or some bizarre mixture of both.
(H/T: Justin Taylor)
"I opened it up and didn't know what to do with it," Nesta said. "I sure wasn't going to eat it, and I liked my fellow soldiers too much to share it with them."I would have just re-gifted it. Isn't that what everyone does with fruitcakes?
As best he can remember, he packed the cake with the rest of his belongings and shipped it home to Waukesha when he left the military a few years later. He recently rediscovered the boxed fruitcake in the attic of his mother's home in Waukesha. (AP)
You scored as Karl Barth. The daddy of 20th Century theology. You perceive liberal theology to be a disaster and so you insist that the revelation of Christ, not human experience, should be the starting point for all theology.
Which theologian are you? created with QuizFarm.com |
Prosecutors filed first-degree murder charges Monday against a grocery store clerk accused of killing a 10-year-old neighbor after writing about a bizarre scheme to consume human flesh.
Kevin Ray Underwood remained in an Oklahoma jail cell under a suicide watch. He was arraigned Monday afternoon in the slaying of Jamie Rose Bolin.
--------------
Underwood's Internet blog allegedly revealed his bizarre intentions. Underwood, 26, wrote, "If you were a cannibal, what would you wear to dinner?"
"My fantasies are getting weirder and weirder," he wrote in another entry. "Dangerously weird. If people knew the kinds of things I think about anymore, I'd probably be locked away." (CNN)
During the last three decades, the resort community on Florida's Gulf Coast has been overrun by the black, spiny-tailed, nonnative lizards that demolish gardens, nest in attics and weaken beach dunes with burrows.
Last month, Lee County commissioners agreed to create a special tax for Boca Grande to cover costs of studying the infestation on the barrier island of Gasparilla, where scientists estimate there are up to 12,000 iguanas on the loose, more than 10 for every year-round resident.
The frustration here has led to frenzy. Bonnie McGee keeps a pellet gun by her door ready to take on the slithering enemy.
"They eat your flowers and their feces is everywhere," she said, adding that she's killed dozens. "Some people toss them in the canal and the hermit crabs feed on them." (CNN)
Prince Harry is graduating from Sandhurst as a commissioned officer in the British Army. The Queen, Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Charles and Camilla and his brother William will be at the ceremony. The 21-year-old, who last week joined Army pals at a lap dancing club near Slough, will join the Household Cavalry's Blues and Royals.
At its peak a decade ago, the Christian Coalition deployed a dozen lobbyists on Capitol Hill. Today, it has a single Washington employee who works out of his home. Its phone number with a 202 area code is automatically forwarded to a small office in Charleston, S.C.
The Christian Coalition is still routinely included in meetings with White House officials and conservative leaders, and is still a household name. But financial problems and a long battle over its tax status have sapped its strength, allowing it to be eclipsed by other Christian groups, such as the Family Research Council and the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention. (WaPo)
People blog for lots of different reasons, and blogging is still burgeoning and developing. Don't cave into nostalgia for a Golden Age, especially one that got its golden glow from the horror that was 9/11. Things were bound to change and shake around, and some bloggers that you liked then may put you off now. But there are always a million new bloggers, and blogging is a beautifully fruitful format. The great power of blogging is the way it releases the creativity of the individual mind. That sense of not being able to predict your own opinions and observations -- that feeling of writing to discover your own ideas and interests -- is the great intrinsic value of blogging. There will always be millions of individuals blogging for the sheer joy of self-expression. Find them.
The launch of a version of Playboy magazine in Indonesia has sparked a heated reaction in the world's most-populous Muslim nation. Muslim leaders condemned the publication as "moral terrorism" that destroyed the nation's way of life. But some readers were unimpressed by the toned-down content. One radio caller said he had been deceived as there were no nude women.
Indonesia had seen a number of street protests ahead of Friday's launch. The launch edition carried pictures of women with shots of midriffs, thighs and cleavage. But some readers complained that a number of other magazines already on sale in the country were more revealing. (CNN)
For 2,000 years Judas has been reviled for betraying Jesus. Now a newly translated ancient document seeks to tell his side of the story.
The "Gospel of Judas" tells a far different tale from the four gospels in the New Testament. It portrays Judas as a favored disciple who was given special knowledge by Jesus -- and who turned him in at Jesus' request.
"You will be cursed by the other generations -- and you will come to rule over them," Jesus tells Judas in the document made public Thursday. (CNN)
Ellie, 14, at once voted for the jump to CBS, pointing out that mealtime was certainly no problem because, thanks to her mother's unusual schedule, they had been eating "early-bird dinners" for their entire lives, while almost everyone else they knew did not sit down to eat until 7 or 7:30.
When Ms. Couric turned to Carrie, 10, she got an equally quick response. Carrie said she would choose CBS as well, because that would make her mother "the first woman in that job by herself."
After decades of decline in the simple ritual of family dinners, there is evidence that many families are making the effort to gather at the dinner table. A random nationwide survey by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University found a recent rise in the number of children ages 12 to 17 who said they ate dinner with their families at least five times a week, to 58 percent last year from 47 percent in 1998.
Getting everyone around the table can be a huge juggling exercise for overworked parents and overscheduled children. But many parents are marshaling their best
organizational skills to arrange dinners at least once a week."There's definitely an awareness that was not there a few years ago," said Miriam Weinstein, author of "The Surprising Power of Family Meals: How Eating Together Makes Us Smarter, Stronger, Healthier and Happier" (Steer Forth Press, 2005). "All the factors that have been working against family dinners are still in full force, but it's very much a subject on people's minds." (NY Times)
The benefits of family dinners have been heralded for years by social scientists. A number of studies show that children who eat dinner with their families regularly are less likely to get involved with drugs and alcohol than those who do not. They also tend to get better grades, exhibit less stress and eat better.
The study by the Columbia center showed that compared with teenagers who have five or more family dinners a week, those who have two or less are three times as likely to try marijuana, two and half times as likely to smoke cigarettes and one and half times as likely to try alcohol.
Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), a primary architect of the Republican majority who became one of the most powerful and feared leaders in Washington, told House allies last night that he will give up his seat rather than face a reelection fight that appears increasingly unwinnable.
The decision came three days after Tony C. Rudy, his former deputy chief of staff, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and corruption charges, telling federal prosecutors of a criminal enterprise being run out of DeLay's leadership offices. Rudy's plea agreement did not implicate DeLay in any illegal activities, but by placing the influence-buying efforts of disgraced Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff directly in DeLay's operation, the former aide may have made an already difficult reelection bid all but out of reach.
DeLay, who will turn 59 on Saturday, did not say precisely when he would step down, but under Texas law he must either die, be convicted of a felony, or move out of his district to be removed from the November ballot. DeLay told Time magazine that he is likely to change his official residence to Alexandria by the end of May. He said he informed President Bush of his decision yesterday afternoon. (WaPo)
Taking product placement to new heights, the show — called a "kidsical" for combining traditional children's-theater interaction with Broadway-caliber costumes and 12 original songs — is Mattel's latest effort to buttress a brand battered by competition in recent years. Nowadays, a doll is never just a doll but a multimedia experience, so perhaps it was inevitable that Barbie, whose Web site and DVD's already top the charts with the under-6 set, would join Dora the Explorer, the Rugrats and Winnie the Pooh on stages around the country. (NY Times)
During my last night of captivity, my captors forced me to participate in a propaganda video. They told me I would be released if I cooperated. I was living in a threatening environment, under their control, and I wanted to go home alive. So I agreed.
Things that I was forced to say while captive are now being taken by some as an accurate reflection of my personal views. They are not. The people who kidnapped me and murdered Alan Enwiya are criminals, at best. They robbed Alan of his life and devastated his family. They put me, my family and my friends - all those around the world - who have prayed so fervently for my release - through a horrific experience. I was, and remain, deeply angry with the people who did this. (Seattle PI)
