Kobayashi Maru

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbtkhB3cFGs[/youtube]

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It’s funny to me that we all say “Canadian Thanksgiving” up here.  Down in the states I have never heard someone say, “hey dude, Happy American Thanksgiving!”  It’s just Thanksgiving.  But here, it’s Canadian Thanksgiving.  In the States we do the whole Pilgrims thing and go back to the origins:

A collective prayer of thanksgiving was led by Captain John Woodlief in the Virginia Colony on December 4, 1619 near the current site of Berkeley Plantation, where celebrations are still held each year in November. Woodleif addressed the 38 men with: “Wee ordaine that the day of our ships arrivall at the place assigned for plantacon in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually keept holy as a day of Thanksgiving to Almighty God.” 

In Canada, the history is a bit different.

The history of Thanksgiving in Canada goes back to an explorer, Martin Frobisher, who had been trying to find a northern passage to the Orient. In the year 1578, he held a formal ceremony, in what is now the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, to give thanks for surviving the long journey. This is considered the first Canadian Thanksgiving, and the first Thanksgiving to have taken place in North America. Frobisher was later knighted and had an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean in northern Canada named after him — Frobisher Bay now known as Iqaluit.

At the same time, French settlers, having crossed the ocean and arrived in Canada with explorer Samuel de Champlain, also held huge feasts of thanks. They even formed ‘The Order of Good Cheer’ and gladly shared their food with their First Nations neighbours.

After the Seven Years’ War ended in 1763 handing over New France to the British, the citizens of Halifax held a special day of Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving days were observed beginning in 1799 but did not occur every year. After the American Revolution, American refugees who remained loyal (United Empire Loyalists) to Great Britain moved from the United States and came to Canada. They brought the customs and practices of the American Thanksgiving to Canada. The first Thanksgiving Day in Canada after Canadian Confederation was observed as a civic holiday on April 5, 1872 to celebrate the recovery of the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) from a serious illness.

Starting in 1879 Thanksgiving Day was observed every year but the date was proclaimed annually and changed year to year. The theme of the Thanksgiving holiday also changed year to year to reflect an important event to be thankful for. In the early years it was for an abundant harvest and occasionally for a special anniversary.

After World War I, both Armistice Day and Thanksgiving were celebrated on the Monday of the week in which November 11 occurred. Ten years later, in 1931, the two days became separate holidays, and Armistice Day was renamed Remembrance Day.

On January 31, 1957, the Canadian Parliament proclaimed: A Day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed … to be observed on the 2nd Monday in October

And so, there is some original history to the Canadian Thanksgiving, but those darn draft dodgers Britain Loyalists who came up across the boarder imported the American customs and practices.  There is some inherent amusement in that.  How on earth would a bunch of loyalists feel now if they knew that they had been among the first to become evangelists of America.  They aren’t known for taking British customs with them, but American.  They ran away and took with them that which they were trying to get away from…now if that isn’t worthy of giving thanks for, then I don’t now what is!

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving everyone!

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International Bloggers Day for Burma

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Freeze tag

Blob tag

Roundup

Bulldog

Marco Polo

Hide and seek

Dub-dub-in

Hide N’ Tag

Kabuki

Kill the Dill with the Pill

Ghost in the graveyard

Line tag

Darebase

Manhunt

Ringolevio

Scrap Tag

Tunnel Tag

TV tag

Cops and Robbers

Fox and Hounds

ardines

Arrow tag

Sharks and Minnows

Zombie tag

Suirai-Kancho

Tornado Tag

Hurricane Tag

Thorn Tag

Alien Tag

Lava Monster

Battle Tag (War Tag)

Everybody’s it

Shadow Tag

Color Tag

Red Rover

Under hökens vingar kom

No Touch Gravel

Virus

Warp Tag

Electric Tag

Murder in the Dark

Tag Bob Down

Blind Man’s Bluff

Monsters

Inverted Tag

Elbow Tag

Maniac

Hide and Seek Tag

Troll Tag

I simply have to link you to another blog for this. Fedorable over in greenish-black ops now has his own blog. In addition, his blog is fairly good. This particular post is, however, downright disturbing. It deals with a Forbes article about a Colorado school banning playing tag on the playground. I shite thee not. Playing tag (or any “chase game”) is banned and they are not the first school to do it! This has been going on since 2002 - that is the first instance I can find on line at FoxNews. I am obviously way behind the times on this, but I felt that it needed my attention anyways. Because frankly, I wanted to know what my opinion on it was too.

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Now seriously, I would expect this in Canada. In fact, Badger’s younger child, Thing 2, saw it happen in his school up north a couple of years ago. This passed with nary a comment…well, Badger did mock the hell out of the principal, but he was the only one and that’s cause he has some American blood in him cause his birth father was an american porn star / hell’s angel. But in Canada they banned it because it simply showed that some kids were faster than others and it made the ones who were caught feel “slow” and that is politically incorrect. The correct term is “expeditiously challenged” and one does not do things that point such things out - even if they are true. SO now all the kids walk around the playground believing firmly that they are as fast as every other kid. (But the bad kids walk around thinking that they are faster than the others. It’s all about the criminal mind now.) But by all outward appearances, everyone is equal.

I think this is inherently stupid. Of course some people are faster than others, and yes, this by definition makes some people (glup) SLOW. Next they are gonna make all the kids wear paper bags on their heads so they don’t compare their outward appearance to each other, cause God forbid that little Johnny is better looking than little Billy. I have no idea how they are going to deal with girls developing breasts before others…cause that’s gonna start a whole new game of tag. When did we as a society lose our collective minds. Now, understand that I am fully aware of the maxim, “None of us is as dumb as all of us” when it comes to group think. But seriously, how did a group of people think this was a good idea. I want to go on record saying that I am not a proponent of bullying, I do not support it, I do not encourage it and I do not like it. But I can say the same about taxes and getting fat, and yet both of those march on with time and no one seems to be able to stop them. That being said, it happens. We all know it does. But to ban games like TAG because it makes a kid feel “uncomfortable” is asinine. That’s paramount to not allowing people to buy towels so they will stop getting wet. That is not the correct cause and effect correlation - and in fact, will only serve to tick off the silently powerful, often talked about but seldom seen, towel lobby.

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Tag is not bullying. Like Fedorable so eloquently said, if you don’t want to be chased in tag - don’t run! And then don’t chase the next person. That in and of itself will effectively kill the game. This is not rocket science. If kids (or their parents who ought to be talking with them about it) can’t figure this out, then they ought not to worry about possibly being bullied because they are slow, they oughtta focus on the fact that they will be bullied because they are stupid. (if you can read that last sentence with a Southern drawl, you will get the full effect of its meaning)

One would think that at an institution of learning they could figure out something that was not quite so reactionary and a little more, well, um, thoughtfully considered. It is possible that thinking (especially critically) is no longer considered of value at places like schools. Because really, if you start discussing ideas, it might become apparent that some people are smarter than others and then we would have to ban discussions as well. Otherwise some of the dumb people would get their feelings hurt. And that would lead to low self-esteem. (cause the only thing worse than an idiot is an idiot with low self-esteem)

I am interested in your thoughts on this. Even if they are different than mine. Of course I might make fun of you, so if that would run the risk of damaging your psyche, then maybe you should just pretend that you agree with me. It’s safer for everyone that way.

I leave you with a quote from Burt Prelutsky:
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“I would like to know the name of the buffoon who first decided that competition was a bad thing. Who was the silly goose who woke up one morning with the goofy notion that kids shouldn’t keep score in their games so that the members of the losing team wouldn’t suffer from low self-esteem? And what fathead decided that high schools shouldn’t have valedictorians because all the other seniors would feel like a bunch of underachievers? No doubt it was the same idiot who determined that a level playing field didn’t really mean equal opportunity, but equal results.” —Burt Prelutsky

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I have spoken about my thoughts on teaching before.  But never as eloquently as this guy.  Hence, it is with great pleasure that I give you Taylor Mali…
[youtube]RxsOVK4syxU[/youtube]

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So Sam AND AJ decided that I should be tagged. Not sure how I feel about any one person tagging me, but two within a couple of days of each other is downright scary. I am not sure that getting to know me that well is really that interesting…

But since both of them shared so much about themselves, how can I not? Well, sure there are lots of ways I can not. But I shall forgo those options and so do this cursed thing.
And, of course, they have RULES for this…I am not really a “rule guy” so much. Give me a moment as I figure out how to get around some of them, just for the fun of doing so…

Here’s how it works:

1: People who are tagged, write a blog post about their own 8 random things, and post these rules.
2: At the end of your post you need to tag 8 people and include their names.
3: You may need to leave them a comment and tell them they’re tagged, and to read your blog

SO, those are the rules and I know now put proverbial pen to virtual paper and begin:

1. If idols were allowed, William Shatner would be mine. Seriously. This man is a genius. Boston Legal might be the funniest show on television - though since we’re being so honest here, I would rather be Alan Shore than Denny Crane…mostly because of the mad cow…

2. My favorite author is Stephen King. (Just barely ahead of Anne Rice mostly because of volume of work.) He is pound for pound, the most talented story teller of the modern era. I have no idea why we would compare him on a weight basis, but I did. And the modern era is comprised of the years that I have been actively reading.

3. My wife, the lovely and talented Ferf, kicked me to the curb 3 times before I wore down her resistance and coerced her into marrying me. When I actually popped the question (after like 6 years of abuse dating) I had a sniper on a nearby rooftop with instructions to shoot one of us (either one, I didn’t care at that point) if she said no.

4. I absolutely love traveling. Not more than my family mind you - the Muppet is center of all that is good and right - but if she weren’t around, I and Ferf would still be working overseas and very rarely coming back to countries that are mis-labeled as “developed”.

5. Theology be damned - there will be Taco Bells in heaven!

6. I want to go to law school. In fact I have purchased all of the materials to take the LSAT. Always have wanted to go. Turned down offers to after I graduated with my BA for strange and wonderful reasons, and am glad that I did. But I think the time will come where it is what I do.

7. I am a strange and wonderfully convoluted mix of conservativism and liberalism. If forced to choose, I would tell you to kiss my arse and refuse. Both are wrong and yet both have some truth in them - like any two church denominations you could pick.

8. I think teaching is the single greatest thing anyone can do - whether they are a professional teacher or not. In fact, you get bonus points for doing it outside of an occupational position. There is no greater feeling in the world than seeing the light go on for someone.

9. Piss on the rules - I love debate and will engage in it ANYTIME (but when in that mode I believe in emotionally crushing the opposition - not just winning); not going to church on Sunday mornings for the last few months has been AWESOME and it is scary how much I don’t look forward to going back and yet I will cause part of me wants to; one of the most impactful (Badger, Goddess, look at the link - I know it’s not a real word and I don’t care) statements ever said to me came from a Baptist preacher who said “Sometimes you can make a bigger impact for the Kingdom of God with a beer in your hands than a Bible”; although I do have one book published, I would love to be a full-time author;

and finally, to quote Bull Durham (one of the greatest baseball movies of all time - yeah I said it and I mean it) “I believe in the Church of Baseball. I’ve tried all the major religions and most of the minor ones. And the only church that truly feeds the soul, day-in day-out, is the Church of Baseball. There are 108 beads in a catholic rosary and 108 stitches in a baseball. Knowing that, how can you not give Jesus a chance.”

There, I have finished the thing. I now have to pass this along like a venereal disease to some of my friends. Of course, those that I would tag don’t blog - or more likely, don’t read mine. Still, Badger, BMac, Goddess, Coastal, OSOK, Champagne, I CHOOSE YOU!! (wow that sounded strangely like I was in a pokemon cartoon.)

SO there you go. Sam, AJ curse you and your infernal tags!

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Ever read the Wittenburg Door? Here’s a piece by Ole Anthony, Issue #198, March/April 2005

Maybe you’ve heard about the Dallas Project, a program we started in 1987 to address the problem of homelessness.

But then again, it’s more likely that you haven’t. It’s been a big bust.

Actually, it’s only our effort to get other groups involved that’s busted. The methodology itself of a small group of people taking responsibility for a homeless person or family does work. We’ve experienced it for 20 years.

But it’s a hard sell.

The Dallas Project concept is that if every church, synagogue, mosque and temple in America were to take in just one or two homeless persons or families, homelessness in America would be eradicated overnight.

This method is effective precisely for the reason that welfare programs do not work: the interaction is human, not programmatic. Rather than further alienating welfare “clients,” we draw them into a caring community, which is what they desperately need both psychologically and spiritually.

When our community agreed this was a priority, it was a transforming moment for us. Some of our families have had a succession of people living in their homes for years. Hundreds of needy folks have received help.

But more importantly, their presence has provided a way for us—and our kids—to escape the selfishness that permeates our culture, and ourselves.

Still, only a few Dallas churches picked up on this idea. For the most part, congregations politely said “No thank you” and went back to whatever they imagined their real mission was.

Except for the occasional Thanksgiving meal or handout, most congregations feel the homeless and the poor are the responsibility of government and social welfare professionals.

This attitude reminds me of an incident that has recurred over the years around our neighborhood. A stray cat wanders by. Someone feeds it with no intention of taking responsibility for it, then later is surprised to find the cat crying outside their door. This infuriates me, because it reminds me of people who run into a homeless person or someone with a need, then give him a few dollars and send him away. Or worse, they bring them to us, or drop them off at some “agency.”

This is not much different than the example in James of the man who tells the poor “Be warmed and filled” without doing anything for them. Sure, the kitty is glad to get some food at the moment. The homeless person is grateful for the handout, no doubt. But both of them really need something different.

I’m ashamed to say that occasionally we’ve had to force a congregation to take responsibility.

One woman and her four young children had been living in fear on the streets for almost two years when she came to us. She was in her 30s, attractive and well educated. The problem was that her husband had been severely abusive to her. He was a former policeman and had access to databases through which he could track her down if she applied for any type of assistance.

After they had been with us for several weeks, she happened to mention her church in a prosperous area of the city. I was dumbfounded. Why was she homeless if she was part of a church community?

I called her pastor, but he was only mildly interested in helping. I was so furious that I didn’t trust myself to say anything.

I immediately called the leader of the church’s denomination. He took my call immediately and I explained the plight of one of his flock. I then asked him if he was familiar with our work. He said that he was, and gushed about how much he appreciated what we were doing to expose religious fraud, etc. We discussed what her local church had proposed and he seemed satisfied with that solution.

I then told him that unless his denomination provided a safe and secure place for this young woman to raise her children, he would have more negative publicity about his denomination than the worst televangelist.

Within a couple of weeks, a district court legally changed her name and social security number so her ex-husband could no longer find her, the denomination bought her a home, and a church adopted her and her family. The national church body also established a fund for her and her children.

That was a happy ending. But we shouldn’t have to engage in that kind of manipulation. So here’s the deal:

Since religious people seem to think that the poor are solely the government’s concern, I have a modest proposal (with apologies to Jonathan Swift). Nationally, there are more than 1.3 million churches, synagogues, mosques, temples and other 501(C)(3) organizations, most of which have meeting human need in their charters. Donations to them are tax deductible. At any given time there are about 600,000 homeless people, most of them in big cities.

Let each city council reinstate their anti-vagrancy and panhandling laws. But instead of placing the violators in jail, take them to the nearest abandoned military base. (Surely some of the billions of dollars the government is already spending on the homeless could be used to repurpose these facilities to include drug and alcohol treatment centers and medical facilities). Each of the 501 (C) (3) organizations in the area would be placed on a list and assigned one or more of the persons or families who are in custody, assigned proportionally according to each group’s income.

Groups of 10 to 20 people in each organization would be responsible for the welfare of that individual or family. They would provide housing, help them find a job and medical, dental or legal assistance or face revocation of their charitable tax exemption by the IRS.

Don’t like my proposal? Think government shouldn’t intrude into these matters? Then instead, let’s all start obeying the clear words of Jesus to love our neighbor as ourselves.

I suppose that we could read this and go - “Yeah!” and then go back to our lives. Or you can go to your pastor (unless of course you are the pastor, and then just go to your mirror) and ask the hard question…”Who are we specifically and holistically helping get off the street and back into society?” “Who have we provided permanent housing for in the last year. 2 years, 5 years?”

Ok, this is much too convicting and I need to go read something that makes me feel better about myself and my church and our theology in general in North America…

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I don’t normally post videos, but I have to admit that I found this fairly amusing.

[youtube]AGHty_S0TU0[/youtube]

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So this weekend, Ferf and I were loaned the DVD The Secret. Very well produced I must say. It pounds home the fact that culturally we live in the post-Di Vinci Code era. (Has anyone coined that term yet? I could be on to something…I should trademark that or something.) Everywhere you look things are overtly or covertly referencing the Di Vinci Code. In fact, we all seem more open to the idea that great things have been hidden from us throughout history. We seem able to accept that there is some kind of HUGE global conspiracy theory that has remained hidden for centuries.I mean, there have always been conspiracy theories. Some are completely baseless and fraudulent, like the protocols of the elders of Zion (I hate to even link to that cause it’s so bad) to the aforementioned Da Vinci Code to the JFK assassination to the lunar landing…OH and how can I forget the most proliferated one: Roswell and Area 51!!!

Anyway…before we digress too far into whether or not JKF was shot on the moon or in a sound stage just north of Vegas by aliens who crash landed, I really should get back to the Secret. Which is not as wide spread as the media would have you think…turns out the Badger had never heard of the Secret. So, up North at least, it is still a secret.

Some of you might have heard of The Secret when it was called The Power of Positive Thinking. That’s where I heard about it. Also, when I was a kid the principal of the little private school that I attended was a HUGE fan of Zig Ziglar and his thought for the day motivation techniques. (Because motivation doesn’t last - but neither does bathing, that’s why you do it every day!!)

By the way, I think the only reason that Zig Ziglar is so freaking successful is because he looks like Mr. Rogers and everyone trusts Mr. Rogers. Look:

Honestly, who wouldn’t do exactly what Mr. Rogers told them to do? How can you say no to him? So Ziglar rode that to money and fame. You trust him implicitly and don’t even know why. It’s true. I swear.

Anyway, all these things and more have been packaged together and re-branded as the world’s biggest secret, and to be honest, they make it way more appealing now than it ever was. Zig’s got the Mr. Rogers thing going for him, but nothing else. And Norman Vincent Peal has long since faded from the collective conscious. But this “new” thing has really tapped into something with an ad campaign that makes you want more. I was actually leaning forward as I watched the trailer on-line. Turns out that I too am a child of the post-Di Vinci Code era. I saw the snips of film that suggested Templar Knights and something in me said, “ohh, those guys were/are hiding something for sure - even if Dan Brown stole the story from Holy Blood, Holy Grail.” The amazing this is that I realized that I am a skeptical person at heart anyways, and yet I was ready to give this thing some plausibility points just because I now sub-consciously think that important stuff could have been hidden for centuries from me and dang it I DESERVE TO KNOW THE FREAKIN’ SECRET!! So, I figured, what the heck, somebody loaned it to me, it’s Sunday night and Brothers and Sisters is a re-run so Ferf will watch it with me. (What else does one do after Desperate Housewives??)

So Ferf and I climbed into bed and turned on the TV and started watching the DVD. Again, the production alone is worth watching. The people they have presenting are a cross section of folks that you have nightmares about being seated at a dinner party with - even with the author of Chicken Soup for the Soul in the mix. There are a whole bunch of them with “entrepreneur” listed as their occupation. A couple of quantum physicists and one gentleman with a freakin alphabet of letters after his name and the title of “visionary”. At that point I had flashbacks to all the people I used to run across who called themselves bishops, prophets, and finally apostles. I bet all of them would have considered themselves “visionaries” too. Can you actually give yourself that title? Isn’t there some kind of rule on that. It’s like giving yourself a nickname. I don’t think you are allowed to do that. That or calling yourself a visionary is like euphemistically saying that you are unemployed.

Q. “So what do you do?”

A. “I’m a visionary”

Q. “Yes, but what is your source of income?”

A. “UHHH Well, I am kinda between visions right now…”

Anyway, the basic premise of this Secret is the Law of … don’t you love it when folks base their stuff on some heretofore never heard of “law”. How did this thing become a law? Did George W. sign it into law? Is it a new natural law that has somehow gone unnoticed forever? Note, it is not a theorem or an abstract that needs some quality lab time to prove its validity. Nope. It’s a law. Nice to start out with such concrete certainty isn’t it? Saves a HUGE amount of time and money on research and such. Just start as a law and you are good to go. Of course, then there is not a lot of upward mobility in your future, but then hey, who cares…you’re a law. Nobody gonna argue with you!

So, back to the secret. Which by the way, is a freaking secret! Hide your monitor or something. Geez, you want everybody to know this stuff!? Then what good will knowing it be?

So the whole thing is based on the LAW OF ATTRACTION. Which basically says only the pretty people get ahead in the world. I KID, I KID. The law of attraction says that if you think about good things good will come to you and if you think negative thoughts then negative things will happen to you. So, in the immortal words of Zig Ziglar (that sound so much cooler if you hear them through a crackly school intercom system), no more stinkin’ thinkin’!! (then imagine a small women’s chorus singing “That’s Zig Ziglar’s thought for the day” through the same intercom. WOO HOO - Mr. Palmquist still lives on in the fuzzy memories of all of us who had to sit through that every day with a straight face in homeroom)

So if you imagine me being a millionaire everyday for like 2 minutes for a month, I should become a millionaire. I am up for the challenge if you are! Let’s all do it! Go ahead, close your eyes…no wait, that makes reading much to difficult. Read ahead, get the gist, and then close your eyes. Repeat in your mind over and over: “Tex is a millionaire. That dude deserves a million dollars. The universe should conspire to drop a call $1mill in his mailbox. He could do great things with a million dollars. He would seriously make a difference in the world with a MILLION DOLLARS! Seriously GIVE THE DUDE A FREAKING MILLION AND GET ON WITH IT!!”

If you do that every day for a month, I will pledge to keep you fully abreast on how that works out. I think we can do this! I believe we can do this together! Just put your hand over mine on the screen and say it with me…

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