10 things we didn’t know last week

BBC has this list and all the details on each of the news stories here.

Snippets from the week’s news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. Heavy metal in Morocco is regarded as devil-worship.
   
2. Monkeys notice bad grammar.
3. Trousers used to be called unmentionables.
   
4. Neil Armstrong took Dvorak’s New World Symphony and theremin music to the moon.
   
5. The best place to put a wind turbine is in Orkney Islands.
   
6. Dinosaurs were couch potatoes.
   
7. Ice fallen from the sky is due to leaking plane ventilation systems.
   
8. Clothes could take photos.
   
9. Ringo Starr’s mum wanted him to work in a bank.
   
10. Sir Jimmy Savile once saved the day by directing traffic.

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Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Moratorium

The people pictured here are New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Lt. Dan Choi.

Lt. Dan Choi, an Arab linguist who graduated from West Point is slated to become the latest service member to lose his job because of the DADT policy. Choi, who served for 15 months in Iraq, has helped make the ban on gays a front-and-center issue. Once his discharge becomes official, he’ll become the 266th service member to be kicked out since Obama took office.

New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is considering bringing the battle over “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” to the Senate this week, by introducing an amendment that would put an 18-month moratorium on the discharge of gays serving in the military.

Read more here and here.

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What defines a ‘true’ Conservative?

I’m trying not to be snarky here, but I once was (a few years ago before bush the lesser!) a conservative and today I feel betrayed, so my disappointment and (sometimes) anger might come out snarky.

I was reading the latest installment about the Young Republicans election of their new chairman written by John Avlon, “Bullying Behind GOP “Racist” Win, and he states, “The Young Republicans faced a stark choice at their convention in Indianapolis yesterday as they chose their next leader: a center-right twentysomething interested in greater outreach, or a self-described “true conservative” who is almost 40 and spent last week dealing with Daily Beast reports about her beliefs, which are, at best, often hateful, and at worst, downright racist. The delegates, in a vote of 470 – 415, chose the latter.”

Calling the newly elected chairman a “true conservative,” made me wonder anew what that title means. I suspect it has a different meaning for different people and that just might be one of the biggest challenges facing The Republican Party today!

Sunday, 07/12/09, Public Square

May your Sunday be as serene as this path.  This beautiful path looks cool too and if you’re in Kansas, you’re looking for someplace that is cool!

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