LS Man

Thank Heavens For Little Girls and Cows!

Julah in Tejakula, Buleleng in the country of Jakarta provide us with today’s “I am speechless” story: The cow, which is five months pregnant, was thrown out to the sea about 3 kilometers from land Monday. The villagers believe the animal was impregnated by a village elder.  During the ritual the man, who was caught red-handed having sexual intercourse with the cow two months ago, joined the boat trip in order to throw away his clothes to symbolize him discarding his sins. Julah customary village head Ketut Sidemen said the ritual, called gamya gamana, or freak weeding, and had been conducted there for generations. The decision to perform the ritual was made a local residents meeting. In line with customary regulations, the perpetrator, identified only as PS, 70, was sanctioned to fund the expensive ceremony, which aimed to cleanse him of any bad influences. Luh Ketut Suryani, a professor and activist, deplored the sancation against PS. She said drowning a cow was baseless because sexual intercourse between a human being and am animal could not cause pregnancy due to the different chromosomes and genes of the two. "The cow is not guilty, why shoud it be drowned? Why don't just use a symbol like what was done by the perpetrator?" she said. Suryani's said she was concerned dealt with the financial situation of the owner, who lives below the poverty line. "The cow, which has a high price, had to be thrown away. It will be a pity for the owner, who is already poor and is now forced to lose his priceless belonging." -- JP/Alit Kertaraharja  This story is so disturbing because the writer, Alit Kertaraharja, can’t use a spell check or proof his story before he submits it to the Jakarta Post. There is a picture with this article and I suggest you don’t look at it. Download sinful_cow.bmp In an unrelated, but equally horrendous article from the same paper: A Muslim boarding school head, 43-year-old Pujiono Cahyo, known also as Syech Puji, married 12-year-old Lutfiana Ulfa at his home on August 8. He told reporters Friday that the wedding ceremony, held at 3 p.m. local time, was witnessed by thousands of guests. "The wedding was carried out openly. If people want to comment, please do. I don't care about the legal threats because I have my own basic reasons. I know the limitations. If she hasn't menstruated, I won't have sexual intercourse with her," said Puji. Puji is the director of PT Sinar Lendoh Terang and owner of the Miftahul Jannah boarding school, an impressive building along the highway between Semarang and Yogyakarta. Apparently his first wife, 26-tear-old Umi Hani, was the one who suggested he marry again. "She was the one who proposed it. Then, a campaign team went looking for a prospective wife. So, not only politicians have campaign teams," he added jokingly. He said he met Ulfa's parents for their consent and that Ulfa had also agreed to the marriage. "So, what have I done wrong? My reasons stem from a book titled Aisyah Saja Nikah Muda (Aisyah Herself Married Young), written by Ummu Aisyah." Puji revealed his intention to marry for a second time to reporters on Sept. 26, when he distributed Rp 1.3 billion (US$140,000) in tithes for the poor during the Ramadan fasting month. An ulema at the Soko Tunggal Islamic boarding school in Semarang, Nuril Arifin Husein, strongly criticized Puji's marriage to the girl. "If he claims to be a syech, which means professor, he should be a role model for the community. In Islam, a marriage should be a union of the same stature. What he has done is clearly against Islamic law," said Nuril. "However, Prophet Muhammad only had intercourse with Aisyah when she had reached 18, meaning she was an adult. If Puji has sex with an underage girl, he will have violated religious and existing laws," he said. Sri Mulyanah from Central Java Women's Empowerment and Children Rights and Family Planning Agency, said Puji violated the 1974 Marriage Law which requires a minimum age of 16 for a woman and 19 for a man in a legal marriage. "If we look at the marriage and child protection laws, what Puji has done is definitely against the law. We will immediately discuss the issue with the relevant agencies and observe the case from various aspects. Later, we will decide on the appropriate action," she said. Sri said children were entitled to the right to live, grow and develop while being provided with protection and participative rights. The gentleman won’t have sexual intercourse with the little girl unless she has menstruated. That gives them less than a year to try to stop this madness. I can only assume the cow had menstruated.

Fritz Ain't No Felix!

On my way home this evening I saw a billboard with the message: Abstinence is 100% Effective. What is wrong with people? We are biologically based organism, commonly known as mammals. To expect a mammal to abstain from, I presume, sex is like asking a person not to blink when a puff of air is aimed directly at their eye. This doesn’t apply to the British, of course, because they are British and can control themselves. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Roy mounted Trigger and I read the following article from the BEEB: The Roman Catholic Church has issued guidance for future priests to have psychological tests to weed out those unable to control their sexual urges. The article clearly defines the intentions of the Roman Catholic Church: The guidance says the voluntary tests should also aim to vet for those with "deep-seated homosexual tendencies". Among other traits that might make a candidate unsuitable for the priesthood, the advice lists "uncertain sexual identity," "excessive rigidity of character" and "strong affective dependencies". The document also makes reference to heterosexual urges. Seminarians should be barred if testing makes it "evident the candidate has difficulty living in celibacy: That is, if celibacy for him is lived as a burden so heavy that it compromises his affective and relational equilibrium", it says. The advice stipulates priests must have a "positive and stable sense of one's masculine identity." Having adults abstain from sex seems to be futile, however, that ought not to deter us from imposing these kinds of sanction on the young. Prior to her unceremonious departure from her position as Surgeon General, Dr. Elders proposed teaching young people how to masturbate: In 1994, she was invited to speak at a United Nations conference on AIDS. She was asked whether it would be appropriate to promote masturbation as a means of preventing young people from engaging in riskier forms of sexual activity, and she replied, "I think that it is part of human sexuality, and perhaps it should be taught." This remark caused great controversy and resulted in Elders losing the support of the White House. White House chief of staff Leon Panetta remarked, "There have been too many areas where the President does not agree with her views. This is just one too many." Elders was fired by President Clinton as a result of the controversy in December of 1994. And this from a president who used to use an intern as a human humidor. The only problem I had with Dr. Elders’ response was the notion that masturbation ought to be taught. Movies like Fritz the Cat can take care of that. What is wrong with us?

Maybe He Will Kill Some Of The Players!

Charles Barkley makes an inappropriate comment about the apparent suicide attempt of another basketball player who had tried to coach the New York Knickerbockers basketball team. Although in poor taste, Mr. Barkley’s comment was meant to refer to Mr. Thomas’ coaching ability rather than the state of his mental health: In discussing ways in which the Knicks should be improved this season, Barkley said, "I think they have a better coach. This coach probably won't try to kill himself."

Do great athletes become great coaches, once they hang up their athletic supporters or their sporting brassieres? At this moment, the English rugby team and the Argentine national soccer team are about to be coached by great players who have become coaches. Historically, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan and Isiah Thomas didn’t fare well as coaches while some others such as Mike Ditka did. This equation has many variables. What determines a great player? What determines a great coach? Is it just about winning or is there something more to consider? Coaching and playing are two different things, obviously. To assume that just because one was a great player, however that is defined, one will be a great coach is a fallacy. Last weekend, the new head coach of the San Francisco football team sent one of his players to the locker room in the middle of the game and apologized to the fans for the performance of his team. Mike Singletary has been coaching, and has learned how to coach. He has been an assistant on many teams and has learned from other coaches. I believe he will be successful.

Coaching and teaching are very similar. Just because one knows how to play a game or the content of a specific subject, that doesn’t make the person a good coach or teacher. One has to learn how to coach or how to teach. In my estimation, both of them are the hardest jobs to do successfully. Part of my job is teaching teachers how to teach. There is a process to teaching and coaching and then there is a product. Invariably, the process will result in the product. If I teach you well, you will learn. If I teach you well and you don’t learn, then I am not teaching you well. The same mindset applies to coaching. There is an art to teaching and coaching and there is a science. The latter must be solid, which will allow the former to make all the difference.

I will be following the careers of Martin Johnson, Diego Maradona, Mike Singletary and a whole bunch of teachers closely.

Our Penchant For Ill-Timed Investments!

I was miscommunicating with an old friend yesterday and as we hung up he told me he was going back to making money in today’s financially uncertain times. He is a wee bit different than me in that he has business acumen and I have business denseness. Later on, the postie brought the Fall 2008 Wharton Alumni Magazine to my house. Apparently the previous owner was an alumnus of University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. The main article is entitled Profitability – for Good, How business is the best chance for solving the world’s problems. Now I have to read many articles and psycho-educational assessments of students in my line of work. I figured I could read the main article and next time I talk with my friend, I could drop a few business words which, I am certain, would impress him to no end. The article started fairly comprehensibly. Countries have a product, say bird dung, or guano to impress my friend, and they sell it to other countries as fertilizer. Case in point would be the Republic of Kiribati, which deposited all the royalties in an investment fund. They knew that the supply of guano was exhaustible and sooner or later there would be no guano left to even run a fan. It seems that these “elders” were wise as the fund now has $500 million in assets and is nearly 10 times larger than the country’s gross domestic product. I would think that the country domestic product wouldn’t be gross any longer since they have run out of guano, alas I may be digressing. In business denseness terms, it seems that if you have something someone needs, sell it to them and use the money to earn more money by having business acumen. This is small compared to Abu Dhabi, which also is dabbling in an exhaustible product such as oil, but sits on about $875billion. That is quite a seat. The article then addresses a range of funds from many countries and discusses how best to practice managing public investment funds. So far so good, and if my friend is reading this right now, the only impressive words so far have been exhaustible and guano. The rest of the article made a wee bit of sense also. Matching the risks one takes with one’s obligations seems to be sound advice: “Your appetite for risk should depend on the cash flow patterns of your expected liabilities.” Even I can understand that, apparently Fannie Mae didn’t. Having lots of money is too tempting, the article continues to delineate, this is my own word and very impressive in any and every circle of people. Since this is public funds and involves the government, invariably decisions lead to political “carping” and “caterwauling.” Confounding this is the fact that the actual money managers feel a need to operate clandestinely so that they are not in danger of being pre-empted. So we have all the elements of the perfect storm, a great deal of money, managed by government people, and in a clandestine fashion. No wonder we are in the mess we are in, our guano has hit the fan.

Now if the Wharton school is writing about this in their magazine, the chances are they are teaching their IV league students these concepts and warning them about these pitfalls. I hope these clever boys and girls graduate soon and take over government jobs and right the ship. I wonder where the current players in this play went to school.

Why Can't Kids Vote?

It is getting close. Worrying about clothes or ethnic origins may become less important than a clear vision, communication and leadership skills and the ability to make very important decisions under duress. Whether people vote along party lines, or actually consider each candidate's tendencies and abilities etc. we are coming to the wire. Horse racing metaphors are apt because it is a race and most of us are going to bet on one horse and hope that he wins when the dust settles. Below are the sentiments of some people:

"I want to see drastic change from the Bush Administration in terms of foreign policy and especially the environment."

"I want to make a difference. I want my voice to be heard. I want to choose the right men to run our country."

"I feel I should take part in my future."

"I want to conquer the fascist American regime."

"The country is facing hard times economically as well as with public opinion, and this election will have major ramifications for my life."

"I want the country to know who I want and don't want to run it."

"America is in trouble and the fate of the country rests in the hands of the next President that's elected."

"It is important to vote. Every vote counts. Even though kids can't vote yet, everyone should be aware."

"America's economy is in a recession. Major necessities for life are becoming so expensive that people can't afford to live. We need a President who knows how to run a country so it is a model for others."

"I want my voice to be heard. I would love to be part of the election and know that my opinion counts towards a change in our country for the better."

"I would vote so I could finally see an end to the war in Iraq. Too long has our government milked this pointless war. It has to stop!"

None of these people can vote, however, because they range somewhere between fourteen and seventeen years in age. I don’t recall reading any “adult” comments that were more apropos to the fundamental issues than these comments. Perhaps you have. I think we ought to only let the kids vote. They haven’t become blasé or deeply entrenched in a particular way of thinking. Their minds are still forming. Senator McCain could become someone’s BFF if she would vote for him in the presidential election and Senator Obama would face book with someone if he wanted “hope to happen.” I can tell you this, at my school kids know the issues and understand the predicament this country is in. Some of them are affluent and some take the long way home. Some have been influenced by their parents and others think clearly for themselves. Just a thought.

Financial Mess!

This video will take about eight minutes of your life to watch. But it well worth it and despite the fact that it is supposed to be comical, it may make you rather sad or even angry.

http://brasschecktv.com/page/187.html

If We All Lend A Hand, There Is No Need For Fists!

On an October evening in 1968 the finals of the men’s 200 meters were contested in the Olympic Games held in Mexico City. I will let Merlene Davis’ account, written by her in July of this year, take over from here: I recall sitting in front of the only TV set in the house, watching as Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who had come in first and third in the 200-meter Olympic finals in 1968, stepped on the stand to accept their gold and bronze medals.
The two African Americans were favored to win the race. The surprise initially was that Carlos fell to third.
The social climate wasn’t easy in America at that time. Protests against the Vietnam War and against the lack of Civil Rights for blacks were everywhere. The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., had been assassinated, as had Bobby Kennedy. The loud voices for equality were silenced.
I was a senior in high school, looking forward to finding my way to a campus where I could join demonstrations and add my voice to those crying out for freedom. College campuses and big cities were where the protests were, and I wanted to be a part of all that.
It never once occurred to me that a protest could also happen during the Olympics. That just wasn’t done. The Olympic Games were about athleticism, not politics or social justice.
So when Smith and Carlos bowed their heads during the playing of the national anthem, and raised their gloved fists in a silent protest that was louder than any other I had ever witnessed, I think I forgot to breathe.
I know my father did. I can’t remember if my mother was in the room or not. My father and I shared a love of sports that she couldn’t identify with. But if she were in the room, she, too, was silent.
No one breathed. Those young men were asking for swift and harsh retribution for their actions. They were shaming America by standing on a podium just south of her border in Mexico. That’s how most in the media interpreted those raised fists, any way, as if the discrimination against and lack of equality for blacks weren’t already embarrassment enough.
I don’t remember my father saying anything, but he watched and listened intently. Having seen black people bitten by dogs, power-washed by fire hoses, and dug out of shallow, hurriedly-dug graves on the national news, my father’s intensity was telling. This was new and very, very dangerous.
Smith and Carlos are still alive and well, telling stories that vary widely about whose idea it was and who let whom win that race. It says something that 40 years later those two old men are bickering about such things instead of complaining about their fate. They survived a protest they both still deem necessary and right.
There is a documentary, “Fists of Freedom,” showing on HBO at 7 p.m. on July 9 about the era and the courage it took to raise those fists. It first aired in 1999.
We who lived that history will see the raised fists this time around through the sharper perspective that distance always gives us. Our children, however, might wonder what all the fuss is about. We need to watch it with them and not allow fear to silence us this time.
What a difference 40 years has made.

Equally interesting is the story of the Australian silver medalist, Peter Norman. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7674157.stm The Peter Normans of this world get it. Download salute2.jpg There is a better picture of the monument in San Jose State University. Download sjsu-statue.png I like the fact that Mr. Norman’s space on the podium is empty. Other people who also get it can stand on the empty space, which really isn’t empty at all even if no one is standing on it.

 

Caligula May Have Been Ahead Of His Time!

The antics of boys. Boys will be boys. Group mentality, which no individual can take responsibility for. Peer pressure. Immaturity of young males. The phrases used to describe the collective behavior of people, specifically young males, goes on and on.

About one hundred Australian graduating high school students construct g-strings out of their school ties, don them, and begin a “rampage” through the school and the local town. On their attire I give them full marks. Imagine, if you will, wrapping your school tie around your genitalia, not the new Italian airlines in which exotic dancers are employed as stewardesses significantly diminishing the number of devout Moslems from boarding the plane while at the same time enticing rich executives back into the skies, and running anywhere. For the few people not familiar with the male genitalia, everything hangs down to a certain degree depending on dimension unless it is really really cold. The garment, as I know it, is not conducive to any kind of vigorous activity. And one would probably need a b-string, two puns intended. Download g-string.bmp As always I digress.

So they dress up and act like, in the words of my old housemaster, silly buggers. The problem is that nowadays every silly bugger wants to be a sillier and a bigger bugger than the last silly bugger. And why? We, the collective all of us, like that. Somewhere inside of us, we are either desensitized or bored or something. So it takes more outrageous stuff to entertain us. Just take a look at the reality shows, the survivor shows a genre unto itself and the movies. Even in athletics we like to see extreme stuff. So it isn’t surprising that boys will be boys who have to outdo other boys as long as we are interested in it and want to read about it.

I'm On The Outside, I'm Looking In!

Forever, or as long as I can remember which is my forever, members in my profession have tried to make the world fair for people with distinct differences from the “norm” as it is defined today, different from yesterday and perhaps tomorrow. We are all different from one another, but for the most part we are close enough to just warrant the odd snide remark or, worse, serious teasing by people closer to the “norm du jour.” Somehow, those people elect themselves the last bastions of their norm and feel an intense need to protect it, lest it become diluted or infected with the not so perfect. The people who are profoundly different from us end up receiving a systematic and terribly torturous treatment. These differences invariably are due to characteristics that are uncontrollable such as skin color, gender or disability. The mission, then, is to end discrimination based on characteristics which can’t be controlled by a person. Nobody would have a problem, and indeed people would be encouraged to discriminate against others based on undesirable characteristics, which can be controlled. The whole notion of resisting peer pressure falls into this category.

There has to be a distinction between equal and what is fair. The equality is based on the premise of Brown versus the Board of Education, a landmark case decided in Kansas but constituted from many cases spanning from Delaware to South Carolina and including Washington DC, which ended segregation in public school by stating simply that two educational systems that are separate cannot be equal. If any two things have characteristics that separate them from each other, then by definition they cannot be equal or they couldn’t be separate. The notion of fairness requires an extension of the concept of equity. The foundation of equity ensures that everyone has equal access to everything, however, some people may need more than others or they may need something different. The notion of equity ought to ensure that all people get what they need, but not exactly the same thing. If a person is having a heart attack not everyone must have CPR, just the person who is in distress. It would be ridiculous to refuse this intervention to that person because that person is receiving something that no one else is, at least I hope so. Everyone ought to have an equal chance to receive what they need.

Now that she's royalty, Anne Jennings dances down the hallways, bursts into excited giggles and hugs her BFFs, or "best friends forever," without warning. Of course, she did pretty much all those things before being named homecoming queen at Libertyville High School, but somehow, life has become more magical.Download ms. Anne Jennings.jpg As a 17-year-old with Down syndrome, the senior "has been walking on air" since being crowned this month. "Before, I was just plain me," said Jennings, selected by student vote out of 17 nominated girls. "When I was queen, it changed. It's amazing. Everyone loves me. I love me." Her mother's videotape of the Oct. 3 school assembly when her daughter was crowned says it all. After Jennings learned that she was among the top five members of the court, the video images began shaking. By the time the crown was placed on Jennings' head, the background noise boomed with the sounds of students cheering wildly. Jennings shares lunch, gym and keyboarding classes with the "normies," as she refers, with affection, to her mainstream peers. After graduating from Libertyville High next spring, she plans to enter Hawley Transition School in Mundelein, where she will learn independent-living skills such as how to manage money, use public transportation and keep a job. She hopes to attend college after that, and marry her boyfriend, who took her to the homecoming dance, she said. She relives that weekend every time she looks at the pictures, with her smiling in a black dress and shawl.

That is all, just the same chance as everyone else.

It Is Beginning To Look A lot Like Christmas, Down In Tiggywinkles!

If this doesn't warm the cockles of one's heart, one may have an errant fish up there. Download wee_rudy.doc