High Scool Daze

High School starts for Beth in only a few short months and last night was the parent orientation to Freshman (Freshperson?) year. We got to meet the principal of the school and a couple of the guidance counselors. The idea of my little girl going into High School is a bit shocking. Only four more years to college and then career, marriage, children, etc. My little girl is growing up fast. It is a little sad in two ways. First, Beth is probably not going to appreciate how great high school can be. it is a time of growing up and becoming an adult without having to worry about real adult responsibilities and pressures. But without the ability to look back on it, Beth has nothing to compare it to. "I can't wait until I'm out of school!" Trust me on this one, Beth. You can wait. The second sad thing is that it is unlikely that Mikey will ever have the high school experience. His disability (the autism part of his disability) is simply too profound for him to be integrated into a regular school program. But Mikey will have his own experiences and we can only hope that they are as wonderful for him as we hope high school will be for Beth.

The religion of peace

I hate to say I told you so but... The West and it's belief in justice, freedom, and equality is at war with Islam which believes in injustice, death, and destruction. Fortunately the only people getting killed so far are the rioters. Update: A Catholic priest was murdered in Turkey

The cartoons can be seen at Human Events Online.

Think hard about this... Iran possessing nuclear weapons!

A selection of signs from the protests: "Freedom Go to Hell"; "Be Prepared for the Real Holocaust"; "Europe, You Will Pay; Your 9/11 Is on Its Way"; "Behead Those Who Insult Islam"; "Butcher Those Who Mock Islam"; "Exterminate Those Who Slander Islam"; "Annihilate Those Who Insult Islam"; "As Muslims We Unite & Are Prepared to Fight"; "This Is the Beginning of the End for You Disbelievers."

See Michelle Malkin for more.

Update: I was reading the Sunday NY Times Book Review section when I came across this little gem from someone by the name of Lucy Ellmann (apparently a novelist) in a review of a book, The Thin Place by Kathyrn Davis: "I should declare immediately that I resent and fear Christinaity, not only for its sexism and incitement of violence but for its deadening effect on the imagination." OK, so the religion that led to the modern day world of freedom and justice is "feared and resented"? Apparently Ms. Ellmann is an idiot. If she is looking for a religion to fear and resent she should look at the ruins at the south end of Manhattan or try reading a newspaper (but not the NY Times which has refused to publish the cartoons).

Update: This was in the NY Times editorial section: "The New York Times and much of the rest of the nation's news media have reported on the cartoons but refrained from showing them. That seems a reasonable choice for news organizations that usually refrain from gratuitous assaults on religious symbols, especially since the cartoons are so easy to describe in words." Let's be clear about what hog-wash this is... the NY Times had no trouble with publishing pictures of the painting of the Virgin Mary with elephant dung on her even though most Catholics saw the painting as a "gratuitous assaults on religious symbols". This is about cowardice and the NY Times has demonstrated that it has plenty of that.