From the "it's not one world" department - Online story: "JAIPUR, India – Police say a man upset over his daughter's lifestyle chopped her head off with a sword and then paraded it through his village before surrendering to authorities in western India." -- What's even sadder is that if this happened here, the ACLU would probably defend this guy for being persecuted for his religious rights. --- Online story: "Twelve jurors acquitted Roger Clemens Monday on charges of lying to Congress when he denied using performance-enhancing drugs." -- As it should be since I'm sure every juror had to compare the indignation of Congresspersons over whether someone tells them the truth versus Congresspersons telling US the truth --- Online headline: "Sandusky's Defense Lawyers Call First Witnesses" -- Huh? You'd think that more witnesses would be the last people Sandusky's lawyers would want on the witness stand... --- In an e-mail received from "The Valley Partnership", there was this picture and copy: On March 28, NCR dedicated its second Columbus, Ga. manufacturing facility in Muscogee Technology Park. This expansion will allow NCR to reach its goal of employing 870 people in Columbus. Was this right before or right after Synovus/CB&T announced its multi-million dollar purchase of ATMs from a German company? --- The Market Days on Broadway each Saturday from April to November are quite amazing and revealing. It's a cosmos of entrepreneurship at work in the American way. It's a mixture of hobbyists, working moms and dads, students, and retired people displaying. promoting, and selling products that they have made, grown, or baked to a curiously supportive audience. As I walked around the vendors, diverse in most any way you can think about, I did notice an outstanding commonality: Of all the cars, filling every parking space on Broadway, and every inch of normally 'loading only' space on the median, there were none with Obama bumperstickers. --- Online story: "President Barack Obama is telling "gay" supporters that they will have a friend and "fellow advocate" in the White House as long as he is president." -- Lets make sure that date is in January of 2013 and not 2017. When you think about it, once potUS Arpege is gone, we'll all have, as the Flintstone's theme song described it, a 'gay old time'.... and joyfully! --- Passed on by a fellow BCer: "Do you or anyone in your family eat Cheerios, Wheaties, Trix, Chex, Fiber One, Kix, Lucky Charms or any other General Mills cereal? Do you enjoy a nice bowl of HӓagenDas ice cream with a Nature Valley granola bar, perhaps after a crispy Totino’s Pizza? On a cold winter’s day, you like to sit up to a nice hot bowl of Progresso Soup? If you are one of the many who enjoy your veggies, are you a fan of Green Giant vegetables? Do you use Betty Crocker, Hamburger Helper or Old El Paso? If you answered yes to one or more of the above questions, you may want to think twice before you make your next purchase. * On the ballot in November, Minnesota residents will be voting on a constitutional amendment which defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman. The amendment is designed to protect traditional marriage. * In response to the amendment drive, General Mills CEO Ken Powell recently spoke at a gay pride event where he told the crowd that the cereal giant opposes the amendment and efforts to protect traditional marriage. The General Mills corporate headquarters is located in Minneapolis." -- You don't have to be British to enjoy this farewell to GM products...."Cherrio!" --- Being a teen got tougher in the 70's when the U.S. Supreme Court gave high school students "rights". Life became tougher for teens and especially their parents. It gets even worse when your teen turns 18 and gets in over his/her head, and the laws prohibit parents from having control of subsequent decisions. Why...why on earth would the state allow an under-aged person caught driving under the influence of alcohol be able to 'appeal' such situation, and continue driving until the appeal was heard in court. Legislators... please restore some sanity in dealing with under-aged drivers! --- L-E story: "In other business, the (MCSD) board voted to accept a balanced budget of $279,274,662 for the fiscal year 2013" -- The 1990 budget for the MCSD and its 32,000 students was $54,000,000.00, less than $1,700.00 per student.... Today, we have about the same 32,000 students in public schools, but now we spend over $8,700.00 per student. --- From above story: "Tamika Phillips was named interim director of adult education for the Muscogee County School District on Monday night. * The move will allow the school district to keep $932,000 in grant money. * The school district then received notification that if retiring director Sally Jordan was not replaced with a full-time administrator by July 1, the school district would lose its grant money. Federal guidelines require a full-time administrator." -- Well, which is it? --- Why would any board member want Phillips back as interim superintendent at a lesser salary than he was once paid? Reestablishing his value now is an admittance he wasn't worth what he was paid when he worked here before, so why bring him back at all? --- Last week, the chair complained of having to make cuts because of revenue shortfalls, but the reality is that there are no revenue shortfalls. Revenue is what comes in from taxes taken from individual citizens (only people pay taxes, not corporations) , and it's upper to the Board to distribute those revenues as best it can with the best interests of the taxpayers in mind. --- L-E editorial enigma: "Stanton the right choice to move Oxbow forward * Those credentials, and others too numerous to be listed here, make Stanton the perfect choice to serve as interim director at Oxbow Meadows Environmental Learning Center." -- Huh? Why is the L-E so giddy over Stanton being named "interim" director instead of official DIRECTOR?