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Author: SDG
In The Beginning Was A Weather Report
I’ve heard a lot of theories about the development of human beings, including the theory that we can thank Mother Nature for our bodies, as well as Father God for our souls (and bodies, too); but being the totally unscientific person that I am, I had never heard before that modern humans may owe their existence, in part, to a climate change:
"Climate change in Africa gave rise to modern humans.
[…]
"Climate change in Africa prodded mankind’s distant ancestors along their evolutionary path as forests gave way to grasslands, forcing early humans into an open environment where it appears stone tools and long strides first developed.
"But while most past changes in weather patterns were gradual — giving our pre-historic ancestors a chance to adapt — the pace of global warming today could overwhelm modern Africa.
"The United Nations projects that temperatures may rise by 1.4-5.8 Celsius by the year 2100."
Wednesday Photo Caption
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Happy Parent’s Day!
No, don’t bother to check your calendar for the date of Parent’s Day. It is not an official holiday (yet). However, one Maryland pre-school has decided to spay and neuter Mother’s and Father’s Days into one jolly Parent’s Day for fear of offending families with Two Mommies and Two Daddies. (Or should I say "Two Parents"?)
"A pre-school in Maryland has lost at least one customer after a student’s father working on the school’s newsletter was told he must change a ‘Happy Mother’s Day’ greeting in the publication to ‘Happy Parent’s Day.’
[…]
"The trouble began when [David] Becker [the student’s father], while typing the newsletter, changed a hand-written greeting from ‘Happy Parent’s Day!’ to ‘Happy Mother’s Day!’ After submitting the final draft, a teacher contacted Becker and said the greeting would have to be changed back to ‘Happy Parent’s Day!’
[…]
"Becker then asked the administrator: ‘Who would we be offending on Mother’s Day?’
"The response: ‘What about families with two fathers?’
"Becker then asked about Father’s Day. He says he was told: ‘You can’t say ‘Father’s Day’ either.’"
One wonders how Mother’s and Father’s Days slipped beneath the radar of the the More-Sensitive-Than-Thou crowd for so long. Next on the chopping block will undoubtedly be Arbor Day for its outrageous preference for trees to the exclusion of flowers and grass. But wait! There is already the More Sensitive Option of Earth Day.
And so it goes in our society’s continuing ever-spiraling decline into irrelevance.
Tuesday Photo Caption
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World’s Strongest Dad
Last week a co-worker sent around an email with an evil .pdf file attachment of an amazing article from Sports Illustrated. Happily, I was able to find the article reproduced on the Internet. The world’s strongest dad, in case you were wondering, is not a muscle-bound Mr. Olympian who happens to have a couple of kids. He’s a 65-year-old Massachusetts man named Dick Hoyt who has spent the last quarter-century competing with his wheelchair-bound son in marathons, climbing mountains with his son on his back, and towing his son in a dinghy in swimming competitions:
"[A]fter a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out [on his computer], ‘Dad, I want to do that.’
"Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described ‘porker’ who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried. ‘Then it was me who was handicapped,’ Dick says. ‘I was sore for two weeks.’
"That day changed Rick’s life. ‘Dad,’ he typed, ‘when we were running, it felt like I wasn’t disabled anymore!’"
And so Hoyt kept giving his son that physically-liberating experience by continuing to take his son on sporting adventures. Rick Hoyt has given back to his father by keeping his dad in such great shape that the senior Hoyt survived a heart attack doctors told him he might not have survived without the strength he’d gained from exercising. Rick does have one wish though:
"’The thing I’d most like,’ Rick types, ‘is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once.’"
GET THE (LIFE-AFFIRMING) STORY.
There are those who would say that Rick Hoyt’s severe physical disabilities meant that his life wasn’t worth living. Dick and Rick Hoyt have proved them wrong. And that’s how we’ll rebuild the Culture of Life:
One family at a time.
Friday Photo Caption
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Wildfire Fighters
Goats get a bad rap in the Bible, what with always being separated out from the sheep and sent off in shame. But in California, the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection is rejuvenating the goats’ image by turning nature’s lawnmower into wildfire fighters:
"From hilly San Francisco to more rural settings, California landowners, business and officials have hired the voracious animals to devour the grass and brush that fuels wildfires.
"Last year, more than 5,500 fires blackened over 168,000 acres in the most populous U.S. state.
"’Goats are just another tool in the toolbox for California and we try to use as many tools as possible,’ California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Michael Jarvis said in an interview last week."
The meek who inherit the land will have the goats to thank.
Thursday Photo Caption
(Nod to Rocco Palmo, writer, Vatican analyst, and blogger at Whispers in the Loggia, who uses this image as an avatar.)
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Introducing Bennifer
On the off-chance that any of you follow our national reality soap opera As Tinseltown Turns, JimmyAkin.org can save you the outlay on next week’s People magazine. (Or, if you’d rather start up another Hollywood marriage betting pool, we’ll give you the scoop you need for that, too.) The couple known as Bennifer — Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner, not Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, in case your People subscription lapsed recently — have married:
"Jennifer Garner has gone where no woman has gone before — down the aisle with Ben Affleck.
"The twosome, who are expecting their first child together this fall, exchanged vows Wednesday at the Parrot Cay resort in the Caribbean islands of Turks and Caicos.
"’They’re married and they’re expecting their first child,’ the newlweds’ reps, Ken Sunshine and Nicole King, said in a sparse but official statement.
"The surprise nuptials were attended by Garner’s Alias costar, Victor Garber, who looked on as the white-clad bride kissed her new husband following a sunset ceremony, per the National Enquirer."
Congratulations, many happy returns, stay together ’til death parts you, and all that.
Now. Will someone please tell me why this news deserved up-to-the-minute front-page coverage at Yahoo? I haven’t looked around at other news sites, but it wouldn’t surprise me if there were breathless newsflashes up on those sites too. And another question: Why is this country so shallow that we must entertain ourselves through voyeuristic peeks into the private lives of people who are paid outrageous sums of money to pretend to be other people for a living?
The Freakanomics of Tinseltown…. Now that would be an interesting economic analysis.