Senator Chappaquiddick

Just over thirty-six years ago a crime was committed. A United States Senator went to a party at a hotel. He met a lovely young woman (not his wife) and after a few drinks, drove off to a more private place to be with her. Witnesses saw the Senator driving with this lovely young woman.

While driving to Chappaquiddick Island, this Senator was drunk and drove off the side of a bridge where the car landed in about four feet of water. The Senator got out of the car, got back up on the road and left the woman behind where she drowned. She may have been alive for over two hours after the accident. The only thing that makes sense is that the woman was injured and could not free herself, and thereby died in a wrecked car, in about four feet of water. This was not a swift moving river or other exceptionally dangerous body of water, but it was certainly deadly to this young woman.

The Senator then tried to make it look like he was not involved at all in what happened. He went back to his hotel, changed into dry clothes, began knocking on doors of other hotel guests asking if they had seen the young woman and tried to start the story that she had driven off by herself. The Senator did not report the accident until the next morning when he had finally sobered up and after this young woman was certainly dead.

The local police and prosecutor failed to prosecute the Senator. This Senator is still serving in the Senate. Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachussetts killed Mary Jo Kopechne that night and it is a crime.

It is one thing to come upon the scene of an accident and fail to help people there. As an average Joe, you are not required to render assistance. On the other hand, if you (1) create the hazard, (2)someone is affected by it, and (3)then you do nothing to help the person in the hazard, you are legally responsible for what happens to that person. Ted Kennedy is in the second category here. He caused the hazard and placed Mary Jo in it at the same time. He then waited several hours before reporting the accident (you don't want to be found guilty of DUI after all) and Mary Jo died because of it.

I have written to Senators Hatch, Bennett, and Lieberman to ask them to at least attempt to return a modicum of honor to the Senate by removing Ted Kennedy.

If you want more details or other information about the Kennedy family, please visit an excelent site www.ytedk.com/

Is Soccer a Communist Sport?

This is from James Taranto's Best of The Web Today, on August 25, 2005 quoting reader Eddie Staples:

While I certainly sympathize with your attitude toward this "sport" implicit in the name you give it, I think the appropriate disdain can only be shown by calling it what it really is: communist football. Consider:

No one understands the rules.

Workers are prohibited from using the tools that would let them be more productive (hands).

From time to time petty bureaucrats (officials) interfere with play in such a way as to limit production.

Players, coaches, officials and fans are all fully involved (employed) and yet output is miniscule.

Any production is met by celebration all out of proportion to its objective value.

Followers are slavishly (religiously?) devoted to the system and their own brand of it and resort to violence at any criticism of either.

Bravo.

Dressing Modestly

Thanks to Rebecca Hagelin, author of Home Invasion! Protecting Your Family in a Culture that's Gone Stark Raving Mad, she has provided a list of clothing retailers that have a fair amount of modest clothing.

Here they are:

Land's End

L.L. Bean

Modest Apparel USA

Modest by Design

Also, some great language in explaining the importance of modesty and how it affects the behavior of men and women, quoting verbatim from Rebecca Hagelin's Townhall.com Column on August 23, 2005:

Women and girls who decide to dress modestly often have another surprise in store -- men and boys treat them differently. In the book “Dressing with Dignity,” former model Colleen Hammond explains why:

“I believe it is because, subconsciously, men can read women’s body language. If they see a woman who dresses with dignity and carries herself with grace and femininity, they pick up on that. They take it as a sign to approach her with the respect, reverence and honor a woman ought to have.”

Exactly. And if a girl dresses like a streetwalker, they pick up the opposite message. Is that the signal we want our daughters to send?

I’ll close with something Muhammad Ali’s daughter says her father told her:

“Where do you find diamonds? Deep down in the ground, covered and protected. Where do you find pearls? Deep down at the bottom of the ocean, covered up and protected in a beautiful shell. … Your body is sacred. You’re far more precious than diamonds and pearls, and you should be covered, too.”

So hang in there. You’ll be glad you did.

I can't say it any better than that.

Negotiating with my daughter

I have a four year old daughter with great language skills and excellent positional non-flexible negotiating skills.

She has this ability to stake out her position on something, like "I want a popsicle". She tells me that I she wants a popsicle. I tell her no, or later, or something other than yes and her immediate response is "No Way!" It is sorta cute and I often tell my wife that our daughter must have learned it from her.

Then I noticed that our darling daughter will ask me something and I say no, then she says pretty please and my answer is still no. I suppose that may be fueling her No Way response.

I am positive her negotiating skills will improve with time, but it still is pretty cute to hear her emphatic "No Way" from time to time.

My New Blog

Hi,

My very wonderful wife set this up for me because she LOVES ME and thinks I should be blogging or something in order to get me to do something useful with my plentiful time. I don't know what I will do with this space yet, but I will write some stuff from time to time. Maybe I'll post my notes from the classes I teach on Sundays or maybe not.