The race isn’t over until you actually cross the finish line. A good lesson to us all, no? Watch how disgusted this guy is with himself, and rightfully so.
http://www.5min.com/Video/How-to-loose-a-race-in-the-last-second-11917
Wish I could embed it but Word Press isn’t having it. Just follow the link above.
Josh
Massachusetts law makers are actually debating the issue of a parent’s right to spank their own child.
This topic really sets me off. There may be readers here that I know personally, that choose not to spank their kids and they are about to find out what I think about it and their kids, but I feel so strongly about it, that I have to overlook that. Let’s take a look at the Bible on the topic:
Prov. 29: 15.
15 The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.Prov. 13: 24
24 He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.2 Sam. 7: 14
14 I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men.
Children need to know they are loved. In no way is spanking meant to show anything but love for a child. It is not in the vein of punishment for spite that I am in support of, it is punishment in the vein of teaching. If a child of yours was to disobey a rule that you have established for their own protection, i.e., “No heelie-skating in the street or in parking lots”, they might be killed or seriously harmed. Such was almost the case about a week ago when a car slammed on its brakes to a stop right in front of my bewildered daughter, who had just broken the rule mentioned here.
If I don’t show her how serious that disobedience was, and what could have happened, then I am not being a good enough parent, and perhaps should be on trial for that.
What punishments do you remember from your own childhood? For me, it is by far the ones that hurt my rear end the most. Sure, there were other punishments such as restrictions, and they were not fun at all, but I honestly do not remember any of those instances as vividly as the spanking of a loving parent with the Jokari paddle. Yes, I even remember the name of the paddle, so effective was this punishment. It is a very dense, layered, heavy, thick, menacing, albeit ergonomic, paddle from a tethered ball game named Jokari. (see pictures)
I rarely made the same mistake (I mean the big ones, here…we’re not perfect, any of us) twice, thanks to this paddle.
Did I hate my parents for it? Not one bit. Did I think for a minute that they hated me for my mistakes? It never crossed my mind for a second. Did I actually enjoy getting spanked? Heck no! I remember that, if I had time, I would run and put on extra pairs of underwear to dampen the blow, but it always hurt, more in my chest than on my rear, because I knew I let my parents down.
But I tell you right here and now, it takes a “drastic” measure such as this to get the point across to adolescents. Spanking wouldn’t work on adults, yet this law they are debating would not allow parents to spank their kids until they are 18 years old. Is it just me or does that seem completely bizarre and backwards? Who spanks an 18 year old son or daughter?
Let’s also take a look at sports groups and the military. They both employ training methods that require physical punishments for bad behavior or lack of performance. The terms “Drop and give me 20″, or “Give me 100 down-up-downs” don’t make worse athletes or soldiers, they make better ones. The punished involved in these scenarios will try much harder to not make the same mistake to avoid the same punishment again.
What about the parents who decide not to spank their children? All I want to know is this, and I want you to dig way down deep and answer this one truthfully: Are you happy with the majority of your child’s behavior? Do you consider your child to be consistently disrespectful and rude or are they consistently courteous and respectful? Don’t get me wrong, spanking a child does not make them instantly perfect, not by a long shot. I still have to remind our kids daily of things they tend to forget about. And when they break one of the major rules (mostly centered around dishonesty), that’s when everything needs to stop and they need to be spanked and talked to.
Yes, I mention that they also need to be talked to, or the spanking is almost for nothing. They must understand why they are being spanked. They also need to know that they are still loved, no matter what. Perhaps the person championing the anti-spanking act is someone who has experienced abuse of this very important role. There is such a thing as spanking too hard and too much, and perhaps they wish to facilitate the enforcing of this rule by not allowing it at all. I am willing to try to see their side on this if it made sense, but so far it is ludicrous and takes away from family unity.
And now the big target I paint on my own back: Those of you that I know that do not spank your children, simply because you think spanking is wrong? Your children are brats. They are rude to me and others and it always gets under my skin when I have to bite my tongue when they offend (I also feel strongly that people should not overstep the boundaries of parenthood by discipling other’s children). Especially in my own house and when it affects my children. Do you know how hard it is to get my child to stop mimicking your rude child? No, I will not hold it against you that you made this decision, but I am finally speaking out, saying something about it. My kids are not better than your kids and neither is the opposite true. That is not the issue. The issue is that your methods aren’t working and it is affecting my family.
I’m all for trying to stop abuse in the home, but we can’t let legislators take away the thing that made us who we are today: the personalized and effective physical punishment of a loving parent. I will not raise my children with my hands literally tied by the government. The government shall not interfere in my family’s personal affairs, whether it be in the home with this proposed law, nor with mandatory “tolerance” classes at school, for things our family is taught to abhor. But that is another blog.
Josh
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,312940,00.html
Kevin DuBrow, singer for Quiet Riot found dead at 52 years old.
I just saw this on Fox News’ website. Details are non-existent at this point, but I wanted to get the word out.
I can remember hearing the Metal Health album in 7th grade and being completely blown away. Their sound changed Rock music forever and helped create the Metal movement.
Long Live Metal
You have to see this. I am truly amazed. The subject is a favorite, of course, but still, what great skill to be able to do this with charcoal (I think).
It was 10 years ago this week that my first fanfare for orchestra, Kolob, was performed for the first and only time. I have recently digitized the performance and it is now available on youtube for all. Below are the notes as written on youtube.
This is the world premiere (I know, sounds so official) of KOLOB, a fanfare for orchestra by me, Joshua Haley. It is my first large-scale composition for orchestra, and definitely the first one that I was able to have performed. The University of Hawaii at Manoa Symphony Orchestra (of which I was a member for years on bass) was kind enough to rehearse and perform this piece.
It was performed as shown here at Kahala Mall center stage, in Honolulu, Hawaii on November 11, 1997. Theresa McCreary, the 1st chair cellist, served as guest conductor for Henry Miyamura.
I make no apology for using inspiration from John Williams and his wonderful works. He was the key inspiration for this fanfare, as well as completing my college composition assignment! :p
I must tell you, a LOT of work goes into getting to this point. It’s one thing to have the piece written, another to have all of the parts properly formatted and printed, and then be lucky enough to have an orchestra perform it for me.
I had a dat recorder and a video camera at this performance to get proper recordings, and guess what? Neither worked properly! I went through days of discouragement until I found out that a parent of one of the bass players recorded it on his camcorder and was willing to let me make a copy. Thus the focus on one of the bass players for a time in this video.
Enjoy! Feedback appreciated.
Josh
Do not attempt to adjust your TV screen. Your national and local news anchors and reporters are all off doing outlandish crazy things to get your attention this month.
Yes, it is time for November sweeps gain. The Nielsen rating system uses certain months to analyze who watched what station and when, so they can give the stations the report, then the stations can show the report to advertisers and brag about how many people love to watch their station, then charge the advertisers more money.
Conversely, if ratings are low, advertising revenues go into the toilet, so it behooves each broadcasting company to make sure they have a good month during November (there are other months too, like May and February, but November leads into the Christmas season, which is the super-retail season, so it tends to matter that much more.
The result is what you see right now on your TV. Matt Lauer reporting live from Greenland/North Pole, with cohorts in the Antarctic and equator, all collaborating live with Meredith Vierra in New York (Today Show, btw) to explain to us “dumb masses” why we need to live without lights and gasoline and how the earth is melting. All of this is part of NBC’s initiative to make this week or month “green”, bringing global warming awareness to all who watch TV.
I also noted that NBC is using their real name more now, “NBC-Universal”, as in , Universal Pictures the studio. Interesting they don’t bring focus on the parent company name, General Electric (GE).
I guess it would sound a bit bit odd taking energy saving tips from a company with a name that contains the word “Electric”, huh? So they go with Universal and call this a Universal initiative. Whatever. Have fun with that.
All this means is that I will have a green peacock symbol
at the lower left while watching Bionic Woman and Heroes, rather than the rainbow-colored one. By the way, watch for all kinds of crazy plot twists and turns in all of your favorite shows this month. These stunts are also meant to attract more viewers to pad the numbers.
Now, as a consumer, I would prefer the TV stations step it up ALL the time, not just during Nielsen-critical months. It’s almost as if I wish I had a large-scale time-shifting TV, like a Tivo that shifted months, not just days. That way, we can go about our busy lives in November (tell me your month isn’t simply jam-packed??) then watch all of the exciting TV shows whenever we get around to it, say January or so.
True, you can already do this if you try hard enough and have a Tivo with endless amounts of hard drive storage, but c’mon…I want to know what happens to Katee Sackhoff’s bionic character as soon as possible! (Side note: Sackhoff is WAY hotter and more interesting than the actual Bionic Woman (WhatsHerName) …which is sad. 
Worse even, is that her younger sister, played by Lucy Hale is way cuter than her, too. But I digress…)
Another stunt to watch for is Tuesday when Dr. House ends up having to go help the CIA diagnose someone who is dying/dead from a possible bio-terrorist attack.
OK, maybe that sounds sort of cool, but seriously, that’s not your typical House episode, now is it? Just watch and you’ll see how crazy all of the writers get (urged by the networks, of course) on all of your favorite shows (assuming they all still have jobs this week…Oh, and by the way, the writers know that this is sweeps month and know that it would be a harder blow to the networks to go on strike during this critical ratings review month).
Oh, and you won’t be seeing a single rerun for the entire month, IF the strike ends like….now.
New rules from the government this year to somehow save energy…rather than ending Daylight Savings Time last Sunday, it will be this Sunday.
Just a friendly reminder! Go here for more details.
Image courtesy of
StandardTime.com
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