Even More TV Shows You Won't See This Fall

Well, my friend in the television industry has written me again, this time with a short list of shows that were rejected by the networks. See what you think.

1) Cheney's Wheel O' Fun.

In this fun and exciting game show, contestants spin a wheel to see if Dick Cheney shoots them, invades them, or drafts them. Survivors win fabulous prizes.

2)Hillary and Obama

In this fun quasi-political sitcom, Hillary and Obama both get elected mayor of the same small town. Hijinks ensue when Hillary tries to talk black and Obama white.

3)Are You Smarter than Tech Support?

Another game show where contestants randomly draw a computer problem from the Pot O' Trouble then call the mystery support number. If the contestant can understand "Bob" and fix their problem they win.

Profiling Run Amok

AP) He may look young for his age, but 77-year-old Swedish retiree Per-Eric Henricsson was not flattered when his local supermarket asked him to show ID to prove that he was old enough to buy a case of beer.Now, Henricsson has asked the National Association of Senior Citizens for help in pressing the ICA supermarket in Gallivare, northern Sweden, to stop carding the elderly.

"It is ridiculous. I have been a customer at ICA for more than 40 years and they know me," Henricsson told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

The minimum age for buying low-alcohol beer and cider in Swedish supermarkets is 18. Beer with higher alcohol content, wine and spirits are sold in government-operated liquor stores, where 20 is the age limit.Henricsson had planned to buy a case of beer for a social gathering of the local senior citizens group he leads when the cashier asked for his ID. He said he was so insulted by the request that he refused to make the purchase and left the store.Supermarket manager Lars Hakan Olofsson said the cashier followed the store's policy to demand ID from all customers buying alcohol because it is difficult to guess people's ages."

I want to make it easier for my staff," he said, adding that several other supermarkets in the area have similar policies."

Have we seen the death of common sense?

Turn of the Century 8th grade exam

Been a lot of talk about education lately.

This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 from Salina, KS. It was taken from the original document on file at the Smoky Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina, KS and reprinted by the Salina Journal.

8th Grade Final Exam: Salina, KS - 1895

Grammar(Time, one hour)

Give nine rules for the use of Capital Letters.
Name the Parts of Speech and define those that have no modifications.
Define Verse, Stanza and Paragraph.
What are the Principal Parts of a verb? Give Principal Parts of do, lie, lay and run.
Define Case, Illustrate each Case.
What is Punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of Punctuation.
- 10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.

Arithmetic(Time, 1.25 hours)

Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.
A wagon box is 2 ft. deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?
If a load of wheat weighs 3942 lbs., what is it worth at 50 cts. per bu., deducting 1050 lbs. for tare?
District No. 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals?
Find cost of 6720 lbs. coal at $6.00 per ton.
Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.
What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft. long at $20 per m?
Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.
What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance around which is 640 rods?
Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt.

U.S. History(Time, 45 minutes)

Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided.
Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus.
Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War.
Show the territorial growth of the United States.
Tell what you can of the history of Kansas.
Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.
Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe?
Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, and 1865?
Orthography(Time, one hour)
What is meant by the following: Alphabet, phonetic orthography, etymology, syllabication?
What are elementary sounds? How classified?
What are the following, and give examples of each: Trigraph, subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals?
Give four substitutes for caret 'u'.
Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e'. Name two exceptions under each rule.
Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each.
Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: Bi, dis, mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, super.
Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: Card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last.
Use the following correctly in sentences, Cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane, vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.
Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication.

Geography(Time, one hour)

What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?
How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas?
Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean?
Describe the mountains of N.A.
Name and describe the following: Monrovia, Odessa, Denver, Manitoba, Hecla, Yukon, St. Helena, Juan Fermandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco.
Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S.
Name all the republics of Europe and give capital of each.
Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude?
Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers.
Describe the movements of the earth. Give inclination of the earth.

Imagine a college student who went to public school trying to pass this test, even if the few outdated questions were modernized.

What is wrong with the public education system, that results have fallen so far? Even adjusting for inflation, modern schools receive far more money per student. In fact, the amount of money spent per student has increased by an inflation-adjusted $1000 per decade for fifty years, yet results have steadily fallen. Perhaps money isn't the problem. Not lack of it, anyway.

From the "Well, Duh" files

Report finds sex always on men's minds

NEW YORK, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- "Researchers at the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction at Indiana University say most men are always thinking of sex.

A study released Tuesday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Scientists found 54 percent of men and 19 percent of women admit they think about sex every day -- or several times a day -- in a society where they are bombarded with subconscious erotic images. "

Question: did we really need researchers and a study to come to this conclusion? One might as well have a study to determine if the sun comes up in the morning.

Can a Christian be a Democrat?

As November approaches, those of us who vote are faced with a variety of choices. Which party or candidate best reflects the values and beliefs that we hold to be true? Do we vote for the lesser of two evils and if so how do we define which evil is more palatable than the other? More importantly, as Christians, how do we apply our belief system to the political one? Can or should politics be separate from our religion and is separation of church and state simply a vehicle we use to avoid facing hard realities?

For the purpose of this discussion, I am focusing on the Democratic Party because here we find entrenched positions that we could argue are in direct contradiction with scripture. Read the following text taken from the Democratic Party Platform for 2004.

We will defend the dignity of all Americans against those who would undermine it. Because we believe in the privacy and equality of women, we stand proudly for a woman's right to choose, consistent with Roe v. Wade, and regardless of her ability to pay. We stand firmly against Republican efforts to undermine that right. At the same time, we strongly support family planning and adoption incentives. Abortion should be safe, legal, and rare.

Obviously, there can be little debate that the Democratic Party supports abortion, but what if anything does the Bible say about abortion?

"I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother's belly." (Psalm 22:10)

"Did not He that made me in the womb make him? and did not One fashion us in the womb?" (Job 31:15)

"Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is His reward." (Psalms 127:3)

"Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." (Jeremiah 1:5)

"For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy." (Luke 1:44)

I think the quote from Jeremiah is particularly significant. For if God knew us before we were even conceved than obviously every child aborted is one known to God.

Another position taken by the Democratic Party is one regarding gay rights. Most of the movement towards legalizing Gay marriage has occured in Democratic states. The Bible of course, addresses this issue.

"So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created He them.""And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. . . Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. " (Genesis 2:22,24)

"And He answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that He which made them at the beginning made them male and female . . " (Matthew 19:4)

"But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female." (Mark 10:6)

"If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them." (Leviticus 20:13)

"And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet." (Romans 1:27)

So, are we right to say the Democratic Party holds positions that are in direct condratiction to the teachings of the Bible? And we've not even touched on prayer in school, the display of the Ten Commandments etc.

Now a question. And the question may suprise you and I must admit to using a little misdirection to arrive at this point because this post has nothing to do with Democrats at all but with how we interpret the Bible.

So now the question: In your opinion, is the Bible the complete, infallable word of God?I don't know what political views each of you holds and, truthfully, I'm not making an argument for either party (although I did pick on the Democrats because some of their positions are more contrary to scripture..or are they?) because we can argue that the Bible is in opposition to various positions of both parties. So the question is if the scriptures referenced above are the inspired word of God, how do we apply them to our political positions? And if all scripture is not infallable, how then do we decide which sciptures to recognize and which are open to interpretation?

Our entire faith as Christians is dependent on the truth of the Bible and its accuracy. Can we pick and choose or without complete infalability is our relegion nothing more than a collection of stories destined to one day be included among the many myths of our species with Jesus relegated to the status of a Zeus or an Apollo?

TV Shows You Won't See This Fall

Well, my friend in the television industry has written me again, this time with a short list of shows that were rejected by the networks. See what you think.

1) "Pimp My Medicaid Scooter" This exciting show takes an elderly persons battery powered scooter and "pimps" it out making it all the rave of the retirement home. In the first episode a scooter is equipped with a plasma tv, XBox 360 and a hydraulic lift system.

2) "The Bachelor: San Quentin" 25 lucky prisoners vie for the attention of a death row inmate in a quest to become his "bitch". Be sure to watch the first controversial episode filmed in the boiler room.

3) "Metrosexual Man" This crime drama stars a man who doesn't drive a fast car, use a powerful handgun or beat the suspects with a phone book to get a confession. Instead he uses his sense of fashion and his ability to understand what women "really" want to solve a variety of crimes.

I can't imagine why these shows won't be making it onto our screens this fall. But who said the networks had any sense of taste anyway.

Don't Bet Your Rosary

Pope Expresses 'Deep Respect' for Islam

By Philip Pullella and Stephen Brown

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict said on Wednesday that his use of medieval quotes portraying a violent Islam did not reflect his views and were misunderstood, but he did not give the clear apology still demanded by many Muslims.

The leader of the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics, whose speech last week has provoked al Qaeda groups to declare war on the Church, Iraqis to burn the Pope's effigy and Turks to petition for his arrest, said he had not meant to cause offence.

Speaking amid tighter security at his weekly general audience in St Peter's Square, the Pope repeated the thrust of remarks made on Sunday that his words had been misunderstood and expressed "profound respect" for Muslims

Does anyone really believe the Pope respects Islam. And by the way, when did Joe Pesci become the Pope? I can hear the Pope now: "So Achmed you think I'm funny? You think I'm a clown, I make you laugh. Tell me whats so funny Achmed! You tell me what's so freaking funny!"