My collective impressions of the new controls.

I love Apple Computer and all, but have some people in Cupertino, CA lost their minds?

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A California teacher has been barred by his school from giving students documents from American history that refer to God -- including the Declaration of Independence.

Steven Williams, a fifth-grade teacher at Stevens Creek School in the San Francisco Bay area suburb of Cupertino, sued for discrimination on Monday, claiming he had been singled out for censorship by principal Patricia Vidmar because he is a Christian.

"It's a fact of American history that our founders were religious men, and to hide this fact from young fifth-graders in the name of political correctness is outrageous and shameful," said Williams' attorney, Terry Thompson.

Vidmar could not be reached for comment on the lawsuit, which was filed on Monday in U.S. District Court in San Jose and claims violations of Williams' First Amendment rights.

Williams asserts in the lawsuit that since May he has been required to submit all of his lesson plans and supplemental handouts to Vidmar for approval, and that the principal will not permit him to use any that contain references to God or Christianity.

Among the materials she has rejected, according to Williams, are excerpts from the Declaration of Independence, George Washington's journal, John Adams' diary, Samuel Adams' "The Rights of the Colonists" and William Penn's "The Frame of Government of Pennsylvania."

"He hands out a lot of material and perhaps 5 to 10 percent refers to God and Christianity because that's what the founders wrote," said Thompson, a lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund, which advocates for religious freedom. "The principal seems to be systematically censoring material that refers to Christianity and it is pure discrimination."

They banned the Declaration of Independence?

What!?

I'm not a particularly religious person, but when does "political correctness" cross that line into censorship?

I always hated that "1918" chant Yankee fans always used against the Red Sox.


I'm glad that we never have to hear it again! Because in case you forgot...
But (secretly) I did have to hand it to them, it was a great sports taunt. It got right to the point and told you that in the last 86 years the Sox had won exactly 1 cup of Jack Squat and the Yankees had won it all like a bazillion times. Grrrr.....

Anyway, I was online reading about World Cup fans in Europe and this article was talking about some of the chants that occur during some of the FIFA games. In an England-Spain match last week the English fans sang this lovely taunt to their Spanish hosts: "One Armada and NO World Cups".

It is in reference to when the Spanish Armada was defeated by the English in 1588 and the fact that Spain has never won the World Cup.

Damn. These guys are OLD SCHOOL. I mean REALLY OLD SCHOOL.

What do you mean your fans' taunts go back 400+ years to 1588?

Makes those Yankee fans' "1918" chant look pretty weak.

I woke up this morning and there was 3" of snow on the ground. I mean it was snowing when I went to bed, but it was that light, fluffy, never-gonna-stick-and-be-gone-by-morning type of snowing.

Let me take a look out the window. (Trips on boot in middle of floor and almost breaks face on way back to desk.) Yup, it's still there. In fact, it's still coming down. (Shakes head in disbelief.)

So much for the "light dusting" the local weather idiots forecasted.

November is always a weird time of the year for me. I usually spend the whole month in denial of the fact that, for the most part, any sort of good weather is not coming back for another 6 months.

Maggie is getting baptized this Sunday. Lori and I are going to be her godparents. This is a new role for me.

What's the first thing that comes to mind when you see this picture?

Congratulatons to Ray Bourque,
Hockey Hall of Fame class of 2004

The majority of this country has spoken, and it has decided that George W. Bush gets another 4 years as President.

Bush got over a million votes here in Massachusetts. That's a hell of a lot more votes than I thought he would get.

The Kerry/Edwards team held a big (rainy) election night rally in Copley Square to watch the vote count with all kinds of celebrities and MTV entertainment. The weird thing is that John Kerry didn't even show his face at the event! John Edwards came out for like a minute at 2:30am vowing to "fight for every vote". I'd be one pissed Kerry supporter if I had been waiting since 8pm in the cold rain to cheer on my hometown Presidential candidate and all I get is a brief statement from the VP candidate in the middle of the night.

Word on the street is that Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney may be tapped to replace John Ashcroft as U.S. Attorney General.

I went as Red Sox team physician Dr. Bill Morgan to a Halloween party last Saturday.

I had Curt Schilling's bloody sock and everything.

What is with the New England Patriots? A loss? Are you kidding me?