John Colton's blog

Yet another sign of the impending apocalypse...

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Santas warned 'ho ho ho' offensive to women Wed Nov 14, 9:45 PM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071115/od_afp/lifestyleaustraliachristmasoffbeat

SYDNEY (AFP) - Santas in Australia's largest city have been told not to use Father Christmas's traditional "ho ho ho" greeting because it may be offensive to women, it was reported Thursday.

Sydney's Santa Clauses have instead been instructed to say "ha ha ha" instead, the Daily Telegraph reported.

One disgruntled Santa told the newspaper a recruitment firm warned him not to use "ho ho ho" because it could frighten children and was too close to "ho", a US slang term for prostitute.

"Gimme a break," said Julie Gale, who runs the campaign against sexualising children called Kids Free 2B Kids.

"We are talking about little kids who do not understand that "ho, ho, ho" has any other connotation and nor should they," she told the Telegraph.

"Leave Santa alone."

A local spokesman for the US-based Westaff recruitment firm said it was "misleading" to say the company had banned Santa's traditional greeting and it was being left up to the discretion of the individual Santa himself.

Here's a touching article, from the Washingtonian Magazine: "My Son the Mormon", by Ann Cochran.
http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/people/3966.html

The Bishop in the article, Brad Colton, is my cousin. The son's church teacher, Randy Cone, was my own seminary teacher one year.

Wow, I was speechless.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071106/ap_on_fe_st/odd_detention_for_hugging

Ill. student gets detention for hugging Tue Nov 6, 5:56 PM ET

MASCOUTAH, Ill. - Two hugs equals two days of detention for 13-year-old Megan Coulter. The eighth-grader was punished for violating a school policy banning public displays of affection when she hugged two friends Friday.

"I feel it is crazy," said Megan, who was to serve her second detention Tuesday after classes at Mascoutah Middle School.

"I was just giving them a hug goodbye for the weekend," she said.

Megan's mother, Melissa Coulter, said the embraces weren't even real hugs — just an arm around the shoulder and slight squeeze.

"It's hilarious to the point of ridicule," Coulter said. "I'm still dumbfounded that she's having to do this."

District Superintendent Sam McGowen said that he thinks the penalty is fair and that administrators in the school east of St. Louis were following policy in the student handbook.

It states: "Displays of affection should not occur on the school campus at any time. It is in poor taste, reflects poor judgment, and brings discredit to the school and to the persons involved."

Coulter said she and her husband told their daughter to go ahead and serve her detentions because the only other option was a day of suspension for each skipped detention.

"We don't agree with it, but I certainly don't want her to get in more trouble," Coulter said.

The couple plan to attend the next school board meeting to ask board members to consider rewording the policy or be more specific in what is considered a display of affection.

"I'm just hoping the school board will open their eyes and just realize that maybe they shouldn't be punishing us for hugs," Megan said.

Halloween came and went. The kids had some great costumes, Leslie as a box of popcorn, and Emily as spaghetti & meatballs:


Unfortunately, only Leslie got to use her costume because Emily was very sick for a few days (the costume picture was taken just yesterday). Leslie was a nice sister, though, and took an extra trick-or-treat bag and asked all the people for candy for her sick sister.

Lots of people complimented Leslie on her costume!

Here are some quotes I appreciated from last month's LDS General Conference.

1. "In the service of the Lord, it is not where we serve, but how" - J. Reuben Clark, quoted by Elder Packer.

2. "He that hath eternal life is rich" - D&C 6:7 (and D&C 11:7), quoted by Elder Falabella.

3. "[The gospel] answers the most complex questions in life, yet even a young child can comprehend and apply it" - Elder Uchtdorf

4. "Enduring to the end is exalting and glorious, not grim and gloomy" - Elder Uchtdorf

5. "We taste the sweet, yet sample the bitter: this is mortality" - Pres. Monson

6. "The measure of our love is a measure of the greatness of our souls" - Elder Wirthlin.

7. "When we love the Lord, obedience ceases to be a burden" - Elder Wirthlin

8. "Popularity according to the world’s norms is a very perilous scale to use, to measure what’s right, or even what’s not dangerous" - Elder Clayton

9. "Ours is a quest for purity" - Elder Clayton

10. "Today is the time to prepare, not during the crisis" - Elder Gonzales

11. "He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city" - Prov 16:32, quoted by Pres. Hinckley

12. "Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry, for anger resteth in the bosom of fools" - Eccl 7:9, quoted by Pres. Hinckley

13. "Control your tempers, put a smile on your face, speak out with words of love and peace, appreciation and respect" - Pres. Hinckley

14. "We must live by faith, not by fear" - Elder Cook

15. "If mothers are not pointing their children to the temple, they are not pointing them to desired eternal goals" - Sr. Beck

16. "The Holy Ghost 'converts [us] from carnality to spirituality' " - Pres. Romney, quoted by Elder Bednar

17. "Revelation comes on the Lord's timetable; this means we must often move forward in faith" - Elder Hales

18. "The more your character is fortified, the more enabled you are to exercise the power of faith for yet stronger character" - Elder Scott

19. "[Teachers must] speak out of their hearts rather than out of their books" - Pres. Hinckley, qutoed by Br. Judd

20. "No man can be a true latter-day saint, who is unneighborly, who does not reach out to assist and help others" - Pres. Hinckley

It's a bit long to paste the whole thing here, but I found this article a very interesting read, especially the letter from the soldier who said he would listen to Physics podcasts while patrolling around Iraq.

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2007/10/26_iraqletter.shtml

Can you believe this?

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071031/ap_on_fe_st/odd_road_mayhem

Judge: Speeding not 'as bad' in miles By SHAWN POGATCHNIK, Associated Press Writer


DUBLIN, Ireland - When police caught driver David Clarke flying down a road at 180 kilometers per hour this month, he looked likely to lose his license.

But a country judge reduced the charge and let the 31-year-old information technology worker stay on the road after concluding the speed did not look as bad when converted into miles, or 112 mph.

"I am not excusing his driving. He should not have been traveling at that speed," District Court Judge Denis McLoughlin said in his verdict, delivered Tuesday in County Donegal, northwest Ireland.

McLoughlin suggested it was relatively safe to have shattered the legal road limit at the time, citing good weather, light traffic and the road's unusual straightness.

McLoughlin was quoted as saying the speed seemed "very excessive," but did not look "as bad" when converted into miles. He lowered the charge from to driving carelessly, and fined him euro1,000 ($1,450); if convicted of the tougher charge of driving dangerously, Clarke would have lost his license.

The episode underscored Ireland's slow mental conversion to metric. Ireland switched its speed limits from miles to kilometers in January 2005, but most cars still display speeds principally in miles.

Clarke, a Dubliner, had been traveling to a Donegal wedding Oct. 13 when he was clocked by a police checkpoint going 180 kph (112 mph) in a 100 kph (62 mph) zone.

Law enforcement on Ireland's roads is notoriously lax, and judges frequently acquit offending drivers because of loopholes and vagaries in the law.

Over the past week, the government has been forced into an embarrassing U-turn over its plan to close the biggest loophole of all — a law that allows people to fail a first driving test but still receive a license and drive unsupervised.

The government had made Tuesday a deadline for police to begin citing some 150,000 people for driving alone despite failing the test, but pushed the deadline back to mid-2008 after test-flunkers complained they would lose their jobs if barred from the roads.

One in six Irish drivers has never passed an on-the-road test, according to Transport Department statistics.