~No one gossips about other people's secret virtues.~
- Bertrand Russell

Shadow Shot Sunday #41

Shadows from a bright sun through my dining room window (top), on the floor of the living room (middle), through the windows of my living room (bottom).

Go see Harriet over at Hey Harriet for other participants.

theteach

Sin of the Week: LUST

Kay of Perhaps We Learn Something has a brand new meme called Sin of the Week. The first sin is Lust. Oh sure she would pick THAT one!

I assume we all know what the sin of lust is. You remember Jimmy Carter said he lusted in his heart which according to him was NOT a sin. Lusting in your heart, that is. The suggestion is that if you don't DO anything, it's not a sin.

If you believe that then you don't know the Catholic Church and its teachings. The Catholic Church teaches that if you think about, you know, boinking someone who isn't your husband or wife, you've committed a sin. Yeah, that's true!

It's called a sin of thought. You don't even get to enjoy yourself and BAM! you're on your way to hell.

The painting below shows what LUST looks like.

Allegory of Gluttony and Lust

It is a Hieronymus Bosch painting made sometime between 1490 and 1500. It is currently in the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut. In this painting there's more about Gluttony than Lust.

To tell the truth I can't tell what the heck they're doing in the painting above

Bosch did another painting called The Garden of Earthly Delights.

If you look carefully (or embiggen to see better) there's LOTS of LUSTY things going on:

(warning: don't embiggen if you don't want to see scary, sexy things)

Here's another painting of LUST:

(warning: more scary sexy things only in black and white)

Peter Brueghel the Elder
The Seven Deadly Sins or the Seven Vices - Lechery

Oh and yes, LUST is also called LECHERY. It's also called LUXURIA. I never heard of that word.

Go over to Kay's blog and see what she's done for this meme so appropriate for this time of year and in preparation for the Easter holiday.

Answer to the Ethical Dilemma...

This is my Answer to the Ethical Dilemma posed on Friday February 27, 2009.

I repeat the question:

I watched the film The Mosquito Coast last night. It starred a really young and attractive Harrison Ford. The plot briefly put is the story of Allie Fox, a brilliant inventor, who takes his family to the jungles of Equador because he believes America is failing and is about to destroy itself in a nuclear war.

He builds a very successful settlement in the jungle with the help of the natives. He invents a huge machine that makes ice. He believes ice is the basis of civilization because it cools, acts as an anti-inflammatory, fever reducer, and makes life generally more pleasant.

When 3 white men with rifles come upon the settlement and refuse to leave, Fox, in order to get rid of them, gives them a place to sleep inside the ice machine and fires up the machine while they are sleeping. His plan is to freeze them to death but the men wake up, begin firing their rifles, thus causing the machine to explode. The 3 men are of course killed and Fox and his family barely get away with their lives.

The ethical dilemma that occurred to me was

Is Fox guilty of murder?

---

First here's a definition of premeditated murder (in U.S.):

Premeditated murder is the crime of wrongfully causing the death of another human being (also known as murder) after rationally considering the timing or method of doing so, in order to either increase the likelihood of success, or to evade detection or apprehension.^[1] State laws in the United States vary as to definitions of "premeditation." In some U.S. states, premeditation may be construed as taking place mere seconds before the murder.

Premeditated murder is usually defined as one of the most serious forms of homicide, and is punished more severely than manslaughter or other types of murder - usually with the death penalty or a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

"Premeditated murder" was first brought into use in the 1963 trial of Mark Richardson, in which he was found guilty of murdering his wife Cindy Cleave. Richardson had plotted his wife's murder for three years from the time that they were married. He was found guilty of premeditated murder and sentenced to life in prison.

In the U.S, there is no Federal offense of premeditated murder.

---

Most people who left a comment believed Fox committed premeditated murder or had intent.

According to Wikipedia, MURDER as defined in common law countries, is the unlawful killing of another human being with intent (or malice aforethought), and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide.

One of the commenters suggested that Fox was acting in self-defense because he was trying to insure the safety of his family. This is what Travis responded:

"I believe the question is, does fear of a possible threat against one's own personal safety or the safety of one's community and family justify a pre-emptive strike against the source of the perceived threat.

My answer to that question has to be no.

The clear intent in the movie was to do murder to remove the perceived threat. I think that the ethical course of action was to defend the community against the threat, and react to violence rather than initiate violence.

Fox is guilty of pre-meditated murder."

---

Here's a definition of self-defense:

A person claiming self-defense must prove at trial that the self-defense was justified. Generally a person may use reasonable force when it appears reasonably necessary to prevent an impending injury. A person using force in self-defense should use only so much force as is required to repel the attack. Nondeadly force can be used to repel either a nondeadly attack or a deadly attack. Deadly force may be used to fend off an attacker who is using deadly force but may not be used to repel an attacker who is not using deadly force.

In some cases, before using force that is likely to cause death or serious bodily harm to the aggressor, a person who is under attack should attempt to retreat or escape, but only if an exit is reasonably possible. Courts have held, however, that a person is not required to flee from his own home, the fenced ground surrounding the home, his place of business, or his automobile.

---

Can Fox's actions be called self-defense? No, probably not. As Travis said you cannot respond with deadly force because of a perceived threat. At no time did the 3 men attack, threaten, or put their hands on any one in the settlement. But they did carry rifles...

---

I think it might be interesting to point out that in the United States right now the following bill is being considered by the House:

The Citizens' Self-Defense Act of 2009 (HR 17) is being considered by Congress right now - It declares that a person not prohibited under the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act from receiving a firearm shall have the right to obtain firearms for security and to use firearms in defense of: (1) self or family against a reasonably perceived threat of imminent and unlawful infliction of serious bodily injury; (2) self or family in the course of the commission by another person of a violent felony against the person or a member of the person's family; and (3) the person's home in the course of the commission of a felony by another person.

Is a reasonably perceived threat of imminent and unlawful infliction of serious bodily harm allowed to be made in the case of the Foxes because the men carried rifles? I don't know for sure. Was there anything else the Foxes could have done?

theteach

Looking at the Sky on Friday

Often cemetery statuary is vandalized as this sculpture has been. The angel is poised to slay the dragon or snake which represents the Devil. In this case the vandals broke off the bottom of the lance rendering the angel harmless.

Standing below the angel gave me an excellent view of a clear, blue sky that day!



Go visit Tisha at Crazy Working Mom for more participants in this great meme!

theteach

Can You Answer This Ethical Dilemma?

I watched the film The Mosquito Coast last night. It starred a really young and attractive Harrison Ford. The plot briefly put is the story of Allie Fox, a brilliant inventor, who takes his family to the jungles of Equador because he believes America is failing and is about to destroy itself in a nuclear war.

He builds a very successful settlement in the jungle with the help of the natives. He invents a huge machine that makes ice. He believes ice is the basis of civilization because it cools, acts as an anti-inflammatory, fever reducer, and makes life generally more pleasant.

When 3 white men with rifles come upon the settlement and refuse to leave, Fox, in order to get rid of them, gives them a place to sleep inside the ice machine and fires up the machine while they are sleeping. His plan is to freeze them to death but the men wake up, begin firing their rifles, thus causing the machine to explode. The 3 men are of course killed and Fox and his family barely get away with their lives.

---

The ethical dilemma that occurred to me was

Is Fox guilty of murder?

The film never considers this question, neither the Mother or the children react to the death of the men. While it is the case that the men refused to leave the settlement, ate of Fox's food, and eyed Fox's wife whenever she was nearby, they never did anything against anyone in the camp.

So what do you think? Did Fox commit murder? Are the Mother and children accessories? They didn't know until the very last minute that the Father was going to fire up the ice machine.

I'd love to get your reactions in the comments.

theteach

~Whoso would be a man [or woman] must be a nonconformist.~

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Mardi Gras - The Day After

Associated Press

A skid loader collects rubbish in New Orleans' Bourbon Street as the city cleans up after Mardi Gras.

theteach

Monochrome Monday on Wednesday

In real life, I assure you, there is no such thing as algebra.

- Fran Lebowitz

Did I take this photo a couple of weeks ago or is it from years ago?

Go visit Aileni at Monochrome Manics for other participants.

theteach

Give a man a fish, and you'll feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he'll buy a funny hat. Talk to a hungry man about fish, and you're a consultant.

- Scott Adams

Ruby Tuesday

Hi Everybody! It's Ruby Tuesday again!

It was raining Sunday when I saw this Dodge Daytona parked a couple of blocks from my house. The RED rear window louvers caught my eye and I stopped my car and got out to take a few photos.

The louvers are supposed to give the car a retro look which I think they do. I can't tell what year the car is but here's what Wikipedia says about the Daytona:

The Dodge Daytona was a front-wheel drive hatchback based on the Chrysler G platform, which was derived from the Chrysler K platform. The Daytona was produced from 1984 to 1993.

The Daytona was restyled for 1987, and again for 1992. The Daytona was replaced by the 1995 Dodge Avenger, which was built by Mitsubishi Motors. The Daytona derives its name mainly from the Dodge Charger Daytona, which itself was named after the Daytona 500 race in Daytona Beach, Florida.

If anybody knows anything about classic cars I'd love to know more about this car. I inadvertently forgot to take shots of the front of the car, I was so enthralled with the RED louvers. Ha!

Please don't forget to leave a comment and sign Mr. Linky. You know I appreciate it when you do!

theteach

Barack & Michelle back in 1996

Portfolio by Mariana Cook: A Couple in Chicago : Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker Portfolio A Couple in Chicago by Mariana Cook On May 26, 1996, Mariana Cook visited Barack and Michelle Obama in Hyde Park as part of a photography project on couples in America . What follows is excerpted from her interviews with them. MICHELLE OBAMA: There is a strong possibility that Barack will pursue a political career, although it’s unclear. There is a little tension with that. I’m very wary of politics. I think he’s too much of a good guy for the kind of brutality, the skepticism. When you are involved in politics, your life is an open book, and people can come in who don’t necessarily have good intent. I’m pretty private, and like to surround myself with people that I trust and love. In politics you’ve got to open yourself to a lot of different people. There is a possibility that our futures will go that way, even though I want to have kids and travel, spend time with family, and like spending time with friends. But we are going to be busy people doing lots of stuff. And it’ll be interesting to see what life has to offer. In many ways, we are here for the ride, just sort of seeing what opportunities open themselves up. And the more you experiment the easier it is to do different things. If I had stayed in a law firm and made partner, my life would be completely different. I wouldn’t know the people I know, and I would be more risk-averse. Barack has helped me loosen up and feel comfortable with taking risks, not doing things the traditional way and sort of testing it out, because that is how he grew up. I’m more traditional; he’s the one in the couple that, I think, is the less traditional individual. You can probably tell from the photographs—he’s just more out there, more flamboyant. I’m more, like, “Well, let’s wait and see. What did that look like? How much does it weigh?” BARACK OBAMA: All my life, I have been stitching together a family, through stories or memories or friends or ideas. Michelle has had a very different background—very stable, two-parent family, mother at home, brother and dog, living in the same house all their lives. We represent two strands of family life in this country—the strand that is very stable and solid, and then the strand that is breaking out of the constraints of traditional families, travelling, separated, mobile. I think there was that strand in me of imagining what it would be like to have a stable, solid, secure family life. Michelle is a tremendously strong person, and has a very strong sense of herself and who she is and where she comes from. But I also think in her eyes you can see a trace of vulnerability that most people don’t know, because when she’s walking through the world she is this tall, beautiful, confident woman. There is a part of her that is vulnerable and young and sometimes frightened, and I think seeing both of those things is what attracted me to her. And then what sustains our relationship is I’m extremely happy with her, and part of it has to do with the fact that she is at once completely familiar to me, so that I can be myself and she knows me very well and I trust her completely, but at the same time she is also a complete mystery to me in some ways. And there are times when we are lying in bed and I look over and sort of have a start. Because I realize here is this other person who is separate and different and has different memories and backgrounds and thoughts and feelings. It’s that tension between familiarity and mystery that makes for some thing strong, because, even as you build a life of trust and comfort and mutual support, you retain some sense of surprise or wonder abo ut the other person.

Mellow Yellow Monday #7

~PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR MO'S MANIC MONDAY POST~

Yellow Urn

Go over and see Drowsy Monkey at her blog Mellow Yellow Monday :)

theteach

Manic Monday - fire

A very hot song from Bruce Springsteen. And live of course!

Lyrics:
Im driving in my car, I turn on the radio
Im pulling you close, you just say no
You say you dont like it, but girl I know youre a liar
`cause when we kiss, fire

Late at night Im takin you home
I say I wanna stay, you say you wanna be alone
You say you dont love me, girl you cant hide your desire
`cause when we kiss, fire

You had a hold on me, right from the start
A grip so tight I couldnt tear it apart
My nerves all jumpin actin like a fool
Well your kisses they burn but your heart stays cool

Romeo and juliet, samson and delilah
Baby you can bet their love they didnt deny
Your words say split but your words they lie
`cause when we kiss, fire

And now here's Robin Williams doing "Fire" like Elmer Fudd:

theteach

Shadow Shot Sunday

Shadow and Sorrow
Calvary Cemetery, Queens, N.Y.

theteach

Setting things straight about Gaza refugees...

February 19, 2009
Q: Did Obama pay for Hamas-affiliated terrorists to emigrate to the United States?

Have you guys checked on this one yet? (Read e-mail below)

Apparently President Hope n'Change is lying through his pearly whites about our economy being in crisis.

Our president just signed an executive order appropriating $20.3 million of your tax dollars for "migration assistance to the Palestinian refugees and conflict victims in Gaza." It was signed on January 27th and appeared in the Federal Register on February 4th.

This is designed to allow hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza to resettle in the United States,the same people who voted Hamas into power en masse. And I'll guarantee you that a number of Hamas operatives will slip in as part of the group. The order not only provides free airplane tickets but provides for food and housing allowances, something no other immigrants get. ...

We will see more of this... because part of Obama's strategy involves pandering to the Muslim world and importing the sort of immigrants who will fundamentally change the electorate. ...

This guy is either a Muslim, or he's crazy and the 78% of American Jews who voted for him have some sort of personality disorder equating to a death wish.

A: This claim is false. The president's memorandum to the State Department would pay for refugee assistance in Gaza, not for transporting anyone to the U.S. This rumor stems from an article in the New Media Journal, a right-leaning site that describes itself as focused on "threats of aggressive Islamofascism and the American Fifth Column." (For the record, this site has posted other articles comparing Obama to Hitler and calling Islam "a pathological doctrine and a vestige of long ago barbarism.") The article in question claims that President Obama has signed an executive order allocating $20.3 million for refugees in Gaza, but that "few on Capitol Hill took note that the order provides a free ticket replete with housing and food allowances to individuals who have displayed their overwhelming support of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the parliamentary election of January 2006." Obama did indeed sign a memorandum (functionally identical to an executive order) allocating $20.3 million from the Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund for refugees and conflict victims in Gaza. ERMA allows the president to appropriate any amount up to $100 million to meet "unexpected urgent refugee and migration needs." The money drawn down from ERMA is put to use by the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration. But in this case, the money would provide humanitarian aid, not migration assistance. PRM does bring refugees from some countries to the United States, and also provides for their basic necessities when they first arrive. But a spokesperson for PRM told us that there is no resettlement program for Palestinian refugees. "We don't resettle out of the West Bank and Gaza, full stop," the spokesperson told us. Instead, PRM contributes funds to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, which provides humanitarian aid such as food, schooling and medical care for Palestinian refugees, primarily in Jordan, Gaza and the West Bank. In FY2008, UNRWA received about $80 million from the United States, its largest single-country donor. The State Department has announced that the bulk of the new ERMA appropriation – $13.5 million – will go to UNRWA. The State Department requires UNRWA to certify that U.S. funds are not supplying terrorists or terrorists in training, but it is true that UNRWA has been accused of supporting and employing Hamas sympathizers. Most recently, a January 2009 report by former UNRWA legal adviser James Lindsay concluded that the agency has shown an "increasing identification with Palestinian political views," and that "UNRWA has taken very few steps to detect and eliminate terrorists from the ranks of its staff or its beneficiaries, and no steps at all to prevent members of terrorist organizations, such as Hamas, from joining its staff." In any event, neither UNRWA nor the State Department is bringing Gaza or West Bank refugees into the United States at taxpayer expense. Nor is this the first time that a U.S. president has allotted EMRA funds for Palestinian refugees. According to the most recent report from PRM, President George W. Bush drew down emergency funds for UNRWA to the tune of $20 million in fiscal year 2002, $26 million in 2003, $40 million in 2004, $20 million in 2005 and $20 million in 2007. -Jess Henig

Sources

Williams, Paul L. "Pres. Obama Invites Hamas Terrorists to America." The New Media Journal. 7 Feb. 2009.

Lindsay, James G. "Fixing UNRWA: Repairing the UN’s Troubled System of Aid to Palestinian Refugees." Jan. 2009.

United States Department of State Migration and Refugee Assistance. "Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Fiscal Year 2009 Congressional Presentation Document." 6 Sep. 2008.

United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. "Programme Budget 2008-2009 Executive Summary." Jul. 2007.

Gootnick, David. "Department of State (State) and United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) Actions to Implement Section 301(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961." United States Government Accountability Office. 17 Nov. 2003.

Copyright © 2003 - 2009, Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania

Medical procedures and the sttimulus package

Via Factcheck.org:

Doctor's Orders?

February 20, 2009

Republicans claim that the new stimulus law says the government will tell physicians what procedures can and can't be performed. It doesn't.

Summary

Republican politicians have claimed that the stimulus bill requires that doctors follow government orders on what medical treatments can and can't be prescribed. But the bill doesn't say that.

• Rep. Tom Price of Georgia says the measure creates "a national health care rationing board." Not true. What it creates is a council to coordinate research into which treatments work best, and are most effective for the money. And in fact, the new law states quite specifically that the council has no power to "mandate coverage" and that its recommendations are not to be construed as "clinical guidelines for ... treatment."
  
  
• Betsy McCaughey, a Republican former lieutenant governor of New York, claims that the bill creates a "new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology." Not true. The office was created in 2004 by President Bush. McCaughey also says the office "will monitor treatments" and " 'guide' your doctor's decisions." But that's nothing new. Bush's initiative called for creating a health IT system to transmit information to "guide medical decisions."

Critics of comparative effectiveness research, which the government has been funding for decades, claim that it will lead to treatment being approved or denied based on costs. Proponents say it will improve the quality of care and can, in some cases, show that more costly treatments aren't as effective as less expensive alternatives.

We can't predict what will happen in the future, but we can say that several claims being made about the impact of the bill are simply opinions being passed off as facts.

Note: This is a summary only. The full article with analysis, images and citations may be viewed on our Web site:

Desktop users Mobile users

theteach

Looking at the Sky on Friday

A very ominous sky this afternoon was swallowing up a bright sunny sky as I was on the way home from teaching. Do you see that little black dot way up in the sky? It's a plane. I think if you embiggen you'll get a slightly better picture of it.



Go over to Tisha's blog, Crazy Working Mom to visit with other participants.

theteach

Happy Birthday, Mo!

"Happy Birthday, Mo!"

Hey everybody it's Mo's Birthday tomorrow!

Should I say how old he's going to be? Naw, he'll tell you if he wants to. But I'll tell you he's young, young young! When I was his age... aw no forget that, I'm not gonna lecture you guys and tell you how great it is to be young.

Anyway there's pie (Mo's favorite)



And balloons


And games like

Pin the Tail on the Donkey...



And some very sexy people:

Sexy Latin Guy in a Suit

Sexy Waspy Guy

Sexy African American Guy

*Don't click on the "Sexy Guy" links if you don't want to be surprised, ya know what I mean?

So come on over starting today at 4:00 PM EST today to wish Mo a Happy Birthday. This post will be up for the rest of the day and all day tomorrow!
Leave your wish in a comment here or go over to Mo at his Blog "It's A Blog Eat Blog World" and leave him a comment there.

And here's my birthday gift to you, Mo:


The slanket - the blanket with sleeves

All the Best, Mo, and Have a Wonderful Day!

Okay now everybody sing:

theteach

Monochrome Monday on Wednesday

south end of Grand Central Station

Grand Central Terminal (GCT) — often popularly (and erroneously) called Grand Central Station or simply Grand Central — is a terminal station at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Built by and named for the New York Central Railroad in the heyday of American long-distance passenger trains, it is the largest train station in the world by number of platforms:^[3] 44, with 67 tracks along them. They are on two levels, both below ground, with 41 tracks on the upper level and 26 on the lower. When the Long Island Rail Road's new station, below the existing levels, opens (see East Side Access), Grand Central will offer a total of 75 tracks and 48 platforms. The terminal covers an area of 48 acres.

The terminal serves commuters traveling on the Metro-North Railroad to Westchester, Putnam, and Dutchess counties in New York State, and Fairfield and New Haven counties in Connecticut.

Although the terminal has been properly called "Grand Central Terminal" since 1913, many people continue to refer to it as "Grand Central Station". Technically, "Grand Central Station" is the name of the nearby post office, as well as the name of a previous rail station on the site, and is also used to refer to a New York City subway station at the same location.

theteach

Ruby Tuesday

For this Ruby Tuesday I have photos of a place in Florida where we went to lunch called

LE TUB.

They have a thing for toilet seats, toilet bowls and tubs. Ha! And I noticed there was a little bit of RED in every shot I took!

I didn't try the KEY LIME PIE. I didn't buy a T-shirt, I had to use the ATM.



It actually was a great place with excellent hamburgers!

This was the view from where we sat (on benches not toilet seats) on a make-shift balcony:



Don't forget to sign Mr. Linky and leave a comment! Thanks everyone!

theteach