“I have no doubt, none at all, that we are
in the midst of a global warming, or,
as I prefer to call it, spring.”

- Dick Cheney

Update:

One of the things about blogging is that occasionally you can do a little self-indulgent interior-monologuing:

We were bombing down the interstate the other day, the Mall Diva in the driver's seat, cruise control, good visibility and dry pavement laid out straight in front of us just the way the engineer drew it up. We were going fast, perhaps a little faster than allowed, but the road appeared to roll by languorously with the green highway signs occasionally marking progress as the numbers to our expected destination got steadily smaller.

Life is often like that. It goes by fast, but you get so used to it that you hardly notice. The signposts — birthdays, events — come and go pretty much as expected, letting you know you're getting closer to whatever is ahead, and large sections of it (at least when you get to be my age) are flat and straight. Every so often, though, you come to a curve; a big, sweeping change of course. You're still on the same highway, still going the same place, it's just that this is "the way" and you follow it as the compass (and sometimes your tummy) swings around. It's not unexpected, if you check the map you'll see that the curve is clearly marked, but you might be surprised to find that you've come so far, so soon.

It just takes the slightest turn of your hands to stay on course; similarly a simple thing, such as a short conversation, can mark a turning point and the familiar road starts to look a little different. Our family swept into one such curve the other day. I'm talking about life, not the highway, but the natural inclination is still to let off the gas a little, slow down, maintain control — if I were in the driver's seat, that is.

All in all, it's a good thing, but — sorry to be a tease — I can't write any more about it at this time. Actually, I think I'm going to write plenty (this, for example) as I sense that a very philosophical vein has been tapped; it's just that I don't expect to post any thing further about this particular subject for some time. Everyone is well, everything is secure — did that last sign say anything about there being a rest area up ahead?

DOCTORS have warned people to monitor their drinking this New Year's Eve. Failing to imbibe sufficiently may lead to long-term psychological trauma from spending long periods attempting to communicate with drunken dribblers.

Sober partygoers also face the risk of serious rib and lung damage. Research shows that just as drunks are more likely to survive falls from great heights because they are so relaxed, they are also more likely to escape unscathed after being hugged by sobbing overweight buffoons wearing paper hats.

Drunks, however, are more likely to fall from great heights in the first place, which may have skewed test results. Scientists have called for double-blind studies to be undertaken, as opposed to just blind-drunk ones.

Auld Lang Syne is, of course, a Scottish song, written by 18th-century poet Robert Burns. Roughly translated it means "Old Long Sign" and is about a raucous New Year's Eve that Burns spent in the Welsh village of Llanfair pwllgwyngy llgogerych- wyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.

So seriously do the Scots take New Year's Eve that they have January 2 as a public holiday. They give their marathon celebrations a special Scottish name, Hogmanay, which is Glaswegian for hiccup.

But the Scottish capital Edinburgh is reeling from a lack of bookings this year, London's Guardian newspaper reports. For once the city's hotels are not booked out.

Hogmanay organisers say the lack of interest is due to gales that forced the last-minute cancellation of the city's street party twice in the past four years. When you've got a street full of men in kilts, the last thing you want is strong winds.

A CHICKEN fast-food outlet's ad featuring a pole-dancing mum has become the most complained-about ad in Australian TV history.

It broke the previous record-holder, an ad for mints in which a bare-chested man had long, erect nipples. The record-holder before that had been a beer ad depicting a tongue that left its owner's body in search of a stubbie. The combined effect of consuming chicken burgers, mints and beer can be seen on certain special interest pay-per-view channels.

The pole-dancing commercial attracted 300 complaints about the level of nudity and the depiction of mums as erotic dancers, The Sydney Morning Herald reported last week.

The Advertising Standards Bureau dismissed the complaints, saying pole dancing had become a mainstream activity.

The board was split on the issue of nudity and had to watch the ad over and over again to make up its mind.

Perhaps we're missing the main injustice here. Three hundred complaints is a lot but there would have been plenty more if chickens could write.

As he crossed a field while walking his dog near his home in Brighton, England, in October, police Inspector Chris Poole, 50, was attacked by about 50 cows. He spent 11 days in the hospital, recovering from the butting and stomping, which cost him four broken bones, a severed artery and a punctured lung. [BBC News, 10-29-07]

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Tiger Lilly,
Reverend Mother, Mall Diva and Night Writer!

"The Eternal Being, who knows everything and created the whole universe, became, not only man, but before that a baby, and before that a foetus inside a woman's body. If you want to get the hang of it, think how you would like to become a slug or crab."

— C.S. Lewis, from Mere Christianity

It was on this day (December 15) in 1791 that the Bill of Rights was adopted by the United States, thanks in part to a man who hasn't gotten a lot of credit, George Mason. He was a lifelong friend of George Washington's who wasn't interested in politics, but when Washington was named Commander of the Continental Army, George Mason reluctantly took over his friend's seat on the Virginia legislature. And then Mason was assigned by chance to the committee to write the new state constitution.

Mason had read the philosopher John Locke, and he liked Locke's idea that all people are born with certain rights, and that government's purpose should be to protect those rights. George Mason believed that the best way to protect those rights would be to list them in the constitution itself. And so he put together Virginia's "Declaration of Rights," the first government document in history that specified the absolute rights of individuals. Mason's ideas about rights and freedom influenced a 25-year-old legislator named James Madison, who passed them along to his friend Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson would go on to use Mason's ideas in his own draft of the Declaration of Independence.

Mason was asked to participate in the Constitutional Convention after the war, but he disagreed with the other delegates on numerous issues, especially slavery, which he thought should be outlawed in the new constitution. He fought for the inclusion of a list of rights, like the "Declaration of Rights" in the Virginia Constitution, but his idea for a bill of rights failed by a wide margin.

And so, when it came time to sign to the new U.S. Constitution, George Mason was one of the only men there who refused. He said, "I would sooner chop off [my] right hand than put it to the Constitution as it now stands." His decision ruined his friendship with George Washington. The two men never called on each other again. But he hoped that his protest would encourage an eventual passage of a bill of rights, and it did. His former protege, James Madison, introduced the Bill of Rights into the first session of Congress in 1789, and Madison used Virginia's Declaration of Rights as the model.

Even with the Bill of Rights, the U.S. Constitution didn't provide full citizenship to blacks or women, among others, and it has had to be amended again and again over the years. But when we think of what it means to have a free country, most of our ideas about the meaning of freedom come from those first 10 amendments, adopted on this day in 1791, which include the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures, and the right to a fair trial. George Mason died in 1792, a year after those freedoms and rights became law.

Several former missionaries have accused YWAM (generally pronounced "Why-Wam") of being a cult that uses brainwashing methods.

Rick Ross, founder of the Ross Institute of New Jersey, which tracks cults, does not agree.

"Youth With a Mission is not a cult," he said. "However, I have received very serious complaints about Youth With a Mission from former staffers, family members and also others concerned, such as Christian clergy."

Rev. Jonathan Bonk, the director of the Overseas Ministries Study Center in New Haven, Conn., said that missions like those YWAM offers appeal to those looking for something other than the consumerist lifestyle.

"They want to be attached to a cosmic project that gives their little lives some kind of sense of purpose or meaning," Bonk said.

Update: