Say What??

Just a second.  Watch this first.

I didn't see what I just saw, did I?  Is this how our schools are now?  I know I have been out for a few years now, but we can't be that bad, can we?

Here's a Canadian translation of what she said.

Firstly, some Americans don't know where America is on a map because they don't have maps. This is because we don't teach them the value of studying the geographic structure of our planet. Furthermore, the same people who have trouble locating our country on a map wouldn't be able to find South Africa or Iraq either. This also illustrates our failure in educating our own countrymen and women.

Education is so important, in the first case, because it allows us to help ourselves — to make a better country for us to live in. But, also, education at home means that we'll be able to help people in places like South Africa and Iraq. Without education, we risk our future.

Hamas Cartoon

Some people are upset that Hamas is using a lion in their latest children's political cartoon.  I watched the clip and don't see the resemblance to Simba or the Disney's The Lion King.  From a standpoint of using images to motivate the audience, this is along the same lines as the LBJ "Daisy Girl" video. 

Here, though, I did find two very interesting things.  See if you can find them.

 

 The first interesting thing was the targeting of the mosque.  I don't know enough about it to know if the mosque was the Dome of the Rock mosque on the temple mount or not, but that's what I thought of.  Many have said that the mosque will eventually go so that the next Jewish temple can be built there.  I didn't think that one Muslim group would blame another for attempting to attack it.  But seeing this video, I wouldn't be surprised to see Hamas attack it and then blame it on Fatah.

The second interesting thing I saw was that Israel was pictured as a dry (cracked) bone that the lion of Hamas shoves out of the way to deal with the new problem of Fatah.  Ezekiel 37 anyone?

Mixing Holy and Toys

Sometimes even the best intentions get misunderstood when crossing cultural and religious boundaries.  I would not have a problem kicking a soccer ball with Jesus' name on it, or a Bible verse, or something like that.  Perhaps I should.  Would something like that be lowering the holiness of God to a toy?  Or would that be a great thing to play with - a constant reminder of keeping God's word in our hearts and minds?  For me the jury is still out.  I would appreciate some feedback on the issue.

Some other people, however, have already made up their minds.  I learned something new today.  The Saudi flag contains the inscription of the pillars of Islam, which came from the Koran and contains Allah's name.  That means having the Saudi Arabian flag on a soccer ball is blasphemous.  Again something new that I learned today.  Unfortunately, someone else learned it the hard way.  Around 100 people protested in Afghanistan over the US military distributing soccer balls containing the Saudi flag.

Hopefully, the peaceful demonstration will be the end of the issue.  Big error on the U.S. part - steps should be made to correct it.  A worse error would be violence by some extremist group in retaliation.  No ill will was intended; hopefully most see it that way.

Californians May Decide If Winner Still Takes All

 I really like this proportionality rule being proposed.  I can assure you that my vote is ready to be cast in support of this proposition.  Although we don't have a direct election of the President (I'm all in favor of that, but it would take a Constitutional amendment), I do think that the voices of thousands of people get drowned out by the winner take all system.  Why should all of the votes be cast for one person who wins only by 50% plus one?  This is how you end up with a presidential winner who didn't get the most votes. 

Well, that plus the electoral college that favors small states.  A voter in Wyoming has more power than one from California.  Wyoming has 3 votes for 450,000 people (6.667 x 10^-6 votes per person).  California has 53 votes for 35,000,000 people (1.514 x 10^-6 votes per person).  Doing the math, the voter in Wyoming counts for 4.40 times more than the voter from California.  That means that a Californian has to get four other people to vote with him/her in order to be equal to the vote of the person from Wyoming (are they called Wyomingans?) .

It needs to be one person, one vote.  That's the fair (and currently un-American) way.

Fly to the Stars!

Google Earth 4.2 now has Google Sky. It allows you to view the night sky and "fly" to the stars and galaxies.  Here's a video that shows the latest features!

Under the Sea

I recently bought an underwater digital camera and here are the first images from it. More can be found at my Flickr site.

Fiery Surface

The sun shines a lot down here in the Caribbean, which heats up the water and allows the coral to thrive.

Sea Star

This sea star was right near the shore.

Going Down

This wasn't a scuba dive but just a skin dive

Cool Coral Shot

A little out of focus, still have to learn the camera!

Two Fish

I was trying to get more fish in this shot but most swam away.

Small School

This one was much better.

Fish Among the Coral

Well, it's time to go off and find some more!

Cool Picture

I know it's been a while since I've posted.  It may be some time before anything of real interest gets posted:  for the next 8 weeks I'm taking an online English course so I can finally finish my AA.  Since that already involves lots of writing, I doubt that I'll be placing much on here.

But anyway, the APOD for today looks really cool!

 

Sad Day for TV News

 Today is a sad day, not just for LA, but also for television news.  Hal Fishman, at the age of 75, is dead.  With his television career nearly twice as long as I've been alive, he touched many homes and was the face of the news for as long as several of us can remember.

You can see several tributes to him on the KTLA news site.

Diving and Stars

Diving

I'm taking my PADI Open Water Diving course.  Today I was in the swimming pool doing my confined water dives.  I spent 6.5 hours at the pool.  Needless to say I am wearing after sun lotion.  But it should be worth it.  This week I'll do my open water dives.

Stars

I have always liked astronomy.  I'm still going to find a way to keep it up.  Perhaps I'll buy a telescope.  Anyway, here are two images I wanted to share. 

The first one is the M8 region.

And this next one is not really a photo of stars.  Almost everything in this image is a galaxy of stars.

If you like these images, you can view the astronomy picture of the day at APOD.

Current Book I am Reading

I am currently reading "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins and I find myself agreeing with him. NO, not that I am becoming an atheist! I agree with many of his observations about "believers" and the way that their beliefs impact (or rather NOT impact) their life. Furthermore the "reasons" that they attempt to argue for faith are weak. I love apologetics and reasoning with people - this will help me answer some questions that previously I was unable to and it helps me solidify my own beliefs.

Christians in Afghanistan

Check out this article.  It is pretty good. 

Michelle Malkin on Christians in Afghanistan on National Review Online