Martin World News

Well, It's been rough sledding, looking for MWN stories the last week.  For some reason, the low-information crowd has been keeping their collective heads low (well, lower than the between-the-cheeks norm anyway) So it's taken me a while to build up the requisite bank to make it worthwhile.  Perhaps I should get out more...

Thanks to a FB friend posting this...

ITEM: Let's start out in the land of stupid things to say.  Contestant # 1 Comes to us via the News Sentinel, via Bobby G.'s blog.  Our local school superintendant is the highly overpaid minority hero Dr. Wendy Robinson.  In an interview concerning the latest lip-service plan to improve education in what we lovingly call the FWCS (which does NOT stand for "For Whatever Child Survives"), she was quoted to my utter flabbergastation: 

“What we need our teachers to understand is that student behavior doesn’t impact learning,” Robinson said.

In what universe is THAT the case?  So a misbehaving, totally inattentive, disruptive student has ZERO effect on the learning of themselves or others.  As I told Bobby, this woman is undoubtedly the product of an educational system very much like the one she is trying to foist upon FWCS (which does NOT stand for "Few Wild and Crazy Students").

ITEM: Quote #2 comes from the heated debate between the modern Einstein Bill Nye The Science Guy and Ken Ham of the Creation Museum in Petersburg, KY.  Now, let's go into this with a disclaimer:  You know my take on science in this theater (or would if you go back to Sunday's post);  but I'm also not convinced that the Bible requires us to believe the young earth theory (6,000 years from creation to now).  Even given both, I was amazed and amused when Laurie pointed out this Nye line:

‘‘If we accept Mr. Ham’s point of view ... that the Bible serves as a science text and he and his followers will interpret that for you, I want you to consider what that means,’’ Nye said. ‘‘It means that Mr. Ham’s word is to be more respected than what you can observe in nature, what you can find in your backyard in Kentucky.’’


1.  The battle should be whether to believe the Word Of God, on which Ham bases his interpretation.  If Ham put up his interpretation as the true Word, then he failed and Nye wins a victory here.

2.  The Bible most assuredly is NOT a science text.  It directs you to the concept of seeing God IN NATURE... that those observations, if you are open minded, will lead you to God.  As I said Sunday, there is little in Big Bang theory refuted by the Bible, and I doubt whether Nye could comb a Kentucky backyard and find evidence to refute God.  If Ham worked from this principle, he'd have cleaned Nye's test tube.

Long story short, the Bible sets a clock at Adam's creation.  However, there is much room for debate over the six "literal or figurative" days of creation that came before.  Some even throw in room for a whole fallen civilization between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. (Google "gap theory" if you like.)  God doesn't stress on it, His point is He made Creation, He made man, man fell, and He then set into motion a plan for man's Salvation.  None of the rest has an impact on that plan- whether you believe your oldest ancestor was pumped out by a monkey or not. (Personally, I've never heard of a monkey birthing a human, so I'm necessarily skeptical, and no "evidence" Bill can give me that it did happen is any more provable than my belief that it didn't.)

ITEM: Dumb comment #3 comes from the bridge of the Enterprise.  Marina Sirtis (Counsellor Troy) had a well publicized dealy on twitter during the Super Bowl, in which she suggested Fox was less than "classy" in allowing poor President Obama to get grilled by Bill O'Reilly in the pre-game.  When a poster asked what O'Reilly should have done rather than ask on his failing policies, Sirtis replied, "Wrong time and place."  Maybe so, maybe no; but soon later, she erased her own line of distinction with:

"Another way of looking at the result. Latte drinking liberals kicked cowboy a**!"


Uh-huh.  Somebody then pointed out that "tends to happen when you have the worst President in US History."  To which she replied:

You mean the President who reduced Bush's debt,brought us out of the recession,saved the car industry & is bringing troops home?

Not to mention the one who has foisted on us a health care plan the CBO calls a job killer, is seeking through raising the minimum wage to send countless thousands more jobs overseas, and allowed a US ambassador to be slaughtered while his Sec/State refused to save him.  Or to mention that the saving of the car industry is up for debate, and the recession being over is a semantic point at the very best.  As I said on the FB post I found this, "That'll happen when you spend too much time in space banging Klingons."

"No!  I don't care what you do, Obama's actions are without honor... is that a hickey you're giving me?"

ITEM:  Let's move on to the Sochi Olympics.  Apparently the Russians planned nine hotels for the media to be built... with two days to go, three of them are incomplete.  Others aren't quite up to standard, as one reporter tweeted:

Stacy St. Clair @StacyStClair   

My hotel has no water. If restored, the front desk says, "do not use on your face because it contains something very dangerous." #Sochi2014

10:02 PM - 3 Feb 2014

 

Less than an hour later, she returned...

 

Stacy St. Clair @StacyStClair   

Water restored, sorta. On the bright side, I now know what very dangerous face water looks like. #Sochi #unfiltered

 

"Sergei, you idiot!  You switched the water lines with the Bud Light kegs!!!"

 

 

ITEM:  Speaking of A) Sochi and B) beer, a company in Scotland called BrewDog is sending Vladmir Putin, in honor of his anti-gay legislation, an anti-gay beer.  Named "Hello, my name is Vladmir", it features a "not for gays" logo, pictures of Putin tarted up like a drag queen, and limonik berries, a Russian ingredient alleged to enhance virility in men.

 

 

"BrewDog, which says its mission is to "upend the status quo in whatever form it occurs," mailed a case of the limited edition beer to Putin himself and on Tuesday started to offer it at bars in British cities, Stockholm and Sao Paulo, as well as over its website. The beer retails for £2.89 ($4.70) per bottle, with 50 percent of profits going to gay-supportive charities."

 

 

BrewDog founders salute Putin.

ITEM: Speaking of Putin, Katya Romanovskaya is a satirist and critic of the Grand Poobah of Russia.  As such, she's used to some pushback from the government for her efforts.  However, last Monday, she got some unexpected pushback...

 

Yep, that is an intricately carved, wooden, 200-lb. weenie complete with juevoes.  While no one has yet exposed themselves over the prank (ouch), the site New Republic has its suspicions...

 "This is the kind of cockamamie (sorry) prank that reeks (sorry) of Nashi, the pro-Kremlin youth group founded after Ukraine's Orange Revolution in 2005."

 

 

ITEM:  I had another story, but the domain it was reported on expired minutes before I clicked on it.  BELIEVE IT OR NOT. (Actually, 8 hours and 20 minutes before, but you get the point.) 

 

ITEM:  When I say, "I struggled to find good stuff,"  I meant it.  Witness this headline from the UlanBator Post:

 

Mongolia’s biggest coal event coming in February

 

"So, what do you do for fun around here, Ghengis?"

"Oh, we're going to the Big Coal Event!"

 

ITEM: A Japanese composer so well-loved that he's known as the Japanese Beethoven announced that everything he's composed since 1996- including his most popular work, Hiroshima Symphony- was composed by a ghostwriter or writers.  Mamoru Samuragochi, a deaf composer of classical music and soundtracks for video games, is believed to have given "his ideas and vision" for the pieces to the sub.  Perhaps he will now be known as the Japanese Milli Vanilli.

 

Roll over, Beethoven, tell Tchaikovsky the news... wooooo!

 

Samuragochi “says it is totally inexcusable and he deeply regrets (what happened),” (his) lawyer said. “He is mentally distressed and not in a condition to properly express his own thoughts.”

 

 

Perhaps he could find a ghost-apologizer.

 

ITEM:  The Bulletin of the World Health Organization says that there is a direct correlation between sales at fast food restaurants and obesity.  The study, in 25 nations over fifteen years shows an increase in the average annual growth of fast-food purchase over the time period of 8.12%, compared to a 9.77% annual growth increase in BMI.  Interesting as this is, is the conclusion the study drew from it:

 

"If the state does not start more tightly control the economic process, the invisible hand of the market will continue to create conditions for the spread of obesity worldwide, with catastrophic consequences for human health and productive economic development," - said the head of the research team, Dr.Roberto De Vogli of the University of California, Davis, in the United States, who led the study.

 

So there you have it, true believers- this proves that obesity can only be fought effectively by communism!  And you have empirical proof of that- somewhere between 3 and 8 million people starved to death in the Soviet Union in 1932-3.

 

ITEM: If all else fails, check Poland.  The Deputy chair of the Polish Boxing Association got into an argument with a referee at a regular meeting.  The DC, a "Mustafa K" (make your own judgments), then STABBED the ref 3 times in the stomach and fled home, where he was arrested.  And you thought we were bad for throwing stuff at them...

 

ITEM:  And in closing, here's a few more of those "65 facts that will blow your mind":

 

"poooof...."

9- Remember all those AOL cds we used to get in the mail?  At one point in the 90's they made up 50% of all cds manufactures.

 

14- A man changed his name to Tim Pppppppppprice to make it more difficult for telemarketers to pronounce.  I never knew even knowing your name was a requirement for telemarketers.

 

21- In the mid 1980s, Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas was the voice of Charlie Brown's sister Sally.

 

When I come to the club, step aside
 Part the seas, don't be havin me in the line
 V.I.P. cause you know I gotta shine
 I'm Fergie Ferg and me love you long time

29- Sean Connery turned down the Gandalf role in Lord of the Rings. "I read the book. I read the script. I saw the movie. I still don't understand it."

 

36- If your dog's feet smell like corn chips, you're not alone. The term "Frito Feet" was coined to describe the scent.

 

Fritos?  I thought they smelled like French Fries...