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The Dixie Chicks are superb musicians — who else can do blues, bluegrass, and everything in between credibly? If you agree (or maybe even if you don't), then you'll want to see this video of the Chicks' appearance on Bill Maher's show (courtesy of Amazon.com).
Here is Old Spice's annual list of top 100 sweatiest cities. The champ is Phoenix. According to the good folks at Procter & Gamble, "In less than three hours, residents of Phoenix collectively produce enough sweat to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool." (Yuch!) As a prize, Phoenix's mayor gets a year's supply of Old Spice anti-perspirant.
As for our own fair city: New Orleans comes in at # 12, while no less than 6 Texas cities are in the top 10. So ... Thanks, Houston (and Waco, and Dallas, and Corpus Christi, and ...).
How would you like to borrow some money at 25% interest? No, not 25% per year — 25% per month. And if you don't pay, the lender takes your car. Unconscionable — but legal in Louisiana, if this bill proposed by Sen. Edwin Murray passes. (For the interest-rate provision, click here and scroll down to page 7, § 1406.) The Times-Picayune's story about this abomination is here.
If you think this bill is immoral, or just a bad idea, let your senator and representative know. If you'd like to share your views with Sen. Murray, his e-mail address is murraye@legis.state.la.us.
Ten years ago, a group of Catholics formed the Catholic Common Ground Initiative and drafted a statement titled Called to be Catholic. Near the end of the statement is a list of principles that I'd like to share with you, after redacting to make the principles more, well, catholic. (To adapt for political discourse, substitute "America" for "the church," "Americans" for "Catholics," and "patriotic" for "pastoral.")
Man does not live on bread alone. Matthew 4:4. But this week, the Last Angry Young Man is trying to live on monkey chow alone. He's five days in now; let's see if he can hold out two more days. You can track his progress and watch daily videos on The Monkey Chow Diaries or on the LAYM's blog. (Hat tip to Real Live Preacher.)
Now the Advocate reports that an Indiana company, Blairex Laboratories, has purchased Boudreaux's Butt Paste. Let's hope that Blairex doesn't change the branding.
In the current issue of SojoMail, David Batstone writes about a recent week-long visit to northern Uganda, bordering on Sudan. He was conducting field research into slavery.
Slavery takes a tragic twist in Uganda. Children are abducted and forced to serve in a rebel group calling itself the Lord's Resistance Army. The LRA has snatched up as many as 40,000 children over its 20-year existence.
...Most of the boys are trained to be mass murderers. I realize that language is strong, but it fits. The LRA targets young children because they believe they are more easily molded into trained killers. They learn how to engage in combat with soldiers and are forced to pillage defenseless villages, often leaving countless dead in their wake.
A smaller percentage of the girls are forced to be soldiers. Most of them become sex slaves and domestic servants to the older LRA soldiers. Typically after a village raid, the commanders divide the girls up amongst themselves. Only men of a certain rank have the privilege of owning these young girls.
Batstone asks, "How do you bring about reconciliation once the terror comes to an end?" For instance:
Idah Lagum Lumoro, a counselor and camp director at a World Vision center, shared with me a heart-rending tale of a woman who had her nose, lips, and ears sliced off by the rebels. When she came to the rehabilitation camp, she was horrified to encounter the very rebel soldier who had ordered her torture. In his own defense, the young man claimed that a superior officer in the LRA had commanded him to give the order. Even though civilian witnesses present at the crime confirmed that fact, you can imagine how difficult it was for the woman to forgive this young ex-officer.
...
Lumoro explained to me that in the Ugandan culture, when a murder is committed it is not only an offense to a particular family, but against an entire clan. A stipulated restitution must be made. If that restitution is not fulfilled, then a murderous revenge will be sought against another clan. In northern Uganda today, however, nearly 90% of the population lives in internally displaced person's camps and murder has ruled for two decades. It is impossible to balance the score with traditional restitution.
How then do you end the cycle of revenge? When you're at a loss, pray.
After some lawyers in Florida couldn't agree on the site for a deposition, one of them filed a motion to have the judge decide the site. The judge denied the motion, and instead ordered the lawyers to decide the issue by playing one round of rock-paper-scissors; the winner would get to decide where to hold the deposition. The court's order is here, and the CNN.com story is here. (Hat tip to my pal Roger Hughes for this one.)
Update: May It Please the Court has a copy of the order itself.
Before you don an aluminum-foil helmet to deflect those malicious radio waves, you'd better read this study. Here's the abstract:
Among a fringe community of paranoids, aluminum helmets serve as the protective measure of choice against invasive radio signals. We investigate the efficacy of three aluminum helmet designs on a sample group of four individuals. Using a $250,000 network analyser, we find that although on average all helmets attenuate invasive radio frequencies in either directions (either emanating from an outside source, or emanating from the cranium of the subject), certain frequencies are in fact greatly amplified. These amplified frequencies coincide with radio bands reserved for government use according to the Federal Communication Commission (FCC). Statistical evidence suggests the use of helmets may in fact enhance the government's invasive abilities. We speculate that the government may in fact have started the helmet craze for this reason.
Hat tip to Earthlink for this one.
On Out of the Jungle, you'll find an informative, link-filled essay by Betsy McKenzie on the relation between law-school-induced stress and depression.
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