Ontario Empoblog

Back on Monday, DadTalk posted (note that I correctly linked this time) information about AdvoCare's KickStart Spark drink, a kid's "nutritional supplement" that includes caffeine as one of the "nutrients." I posted some additional information here in this blog (plus some other junk which is of minimal interest to my above-average readership). Well, DadTalk has returned with a new commentary, in the form of a response to AdvoCare's response to the New York Times article that started the brouhaha in the first place. Here's a sample (go here to read the entire response). AdvoCare's comments are italic , DadTalk's are bold . [C]affeine is not a banned substance by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the International Olympic Committee or the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). It is a regulated ingredient, and AdvoCare fully supports such regulations. If caffeine is regulated, why should we be giving it to kids at all? The Sar...

Rut roh : The White House on Friday criticized former Education Secretary William Bennett for remarks linking the crime rate and the abortion of black babies.... Bennett, on his radio show, "Morning in America," was answering a caller's question when he took issue with the hypothesis put forth in a recent book that one reason crime is down is that abortion is up. "But I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could, if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down," said Bennett, author of "The Book of Virtues." He went on to call that "an impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down. So these far-out, these far-reaching, extensive extrapolations are, I think, tricky." Well, the Communists weighed in: William Bennett has clearly shown that not all racist pigs in today's society feel the urge to ...

Jason Cage, a radio deejay at Little Rock, Arkansas station , has asked female listeners to call in and contribute names to a "Do Not Date" list. Here are some samples : Justin L - Hot Springs - Cheats on you with your own SISTER! Steven S. - Little Rock - Thinks a night out means going to his moms house. Hunter T. - North Little Rock - Never Showers Mark F - Little Rock - WILL CHEAT ON YOU WITH ANOTHER MAN!!! Tyler H - Little Rock - Loves the freshman girls even though he's 26 and not in school!!! In Little Rock, are there 26 year olds who ARE in school? Joe F - North Little Rock - MAKES LIL KIM LOOK LIKE A VIRGIN!@! Sam - Conway - Hooks up with 6 women at one time (CAGE NOTE : Sam is my new hero) Dustin - Sheridan - He's a Stupid Redneck! As opposed to a smart redneck. Cody W - BeeBe - Makes out with his SISTER! Chris – Little Rock – Tries to control everything you do Ricky – Little Rock – Still wets the bed Anthony – Pine Bluff – Pulled an R Kelly Jason also ...

My Adelphia cable lost Channels 4 and 7 last night at 8:20 pm, so I missed a good chunk of Martha Stewart's Apprentice show. Via sirlinksalot.net , I discovered a Martha Stewart Apprentice blog and read the results here . Here's part of what I missed: After realizing that most customers were having "sticker shock", Primarius removed the prices from their displays and flowers started moving. In the end Matchstick Sales were brisk, but had sales of less than 1/2 of Primarius'.... Primary Factors in the loss: Chuck's lack of leadership and Jim's controlling manipulations.... Conference Room: Matchstick- Chuck with Jim and Dawn.... Jim repeatedly lied, boldly, saying that Chuck didn't have a melt-down and didn't quit. He very aggressively attacked Dawn about her lack of contribution to the team.... Fired: Chuck -- Chuck was in over his head, recognized it, attempted to address it constructively, and was manipulated into staying. Then, due to Jim's...

Abram quotes from the Washington Post and adds his own comments: "What [DeLay] and Hastert wanted was a timeserver, someone to hold the job but with no ambitions to stay in it. And they had someone in mind. This week, an aide to the speaker approached Rep. David Dreier about his role in a post-DeLay caucus. Dreier, a congenial Californian who has loyally served the GOP leadership as Rules Committee chairman, expressed interest in helping Hastert. "There was one big problem: When DeLay's indictment was unsealed yesterday, conservatives in the GOP caucus immediately erupted in anger over rumors that the selection of Dreier, whom they regard as too moderate, was being presented as a fait accompli." "Too moderate"? Could be. Or that could be the polite way of saying "too gay". Or perhaps "too ethical". Or "too weak". "As the conservatives met to vent frustrations and plot options, Hastert was changing course in a separate mee...

Check this out from Geoff: A meme is essentially a viral idea. A meme has some intrinsic property that charms/captures a host (i.e. someone’s mind) and encourages the host to spread it: for example, the All Your Base Are Belong To Us meme...had a core component of wonderfully wacky Engrish. Jeffrey Ray Roberts was so charmed by it he produced a song, and someone in turn produced a video. The video was a success; friend told friend of it, and (here’s the point) its spread could be compared to that of a virus. The more you were in contact with someone infected by the All Your Base meme, the more likely they’d tell you about it. Boom: exponential growth, baby.... You can probably see where I’m going with this by now: Christianity is a meme. A damn virulent one. Why? Let’s step through it. Christianity is very effective in that it has lots of built in mechanisms to encourage people to join, and to spread the virus. Remember my four common components of a successful major religion. First, ...

Let's look at both. This is a followup to a previous post, and another . Let's start at WhatIfSports (credit jwelsh1023): [S]ome creative people, we're not sure who was first - started the trend of doctoring regular Internet culture images with the phrase, and trading them among friends. Quickly, people joined suit, and a whole culture of image manipulators began designing their own versions. Some good, some great, some lame... but almost all, very creative image manipulation. At some point, Kansas City computer programmer and part-time deejay Jeffrey Ray Roberts sampled the quote and added an annoyingly catchy dance track. "I did it for the sheer inside-joke value," he says. "Everyone was trying to one-up each other." Next came a two-minute music video, and soon "All your base!" was being yelled out of dorm windows on campuses around the country.... San Francisco State University weighed in several years ago: Jeffery Ray Roberts of suburba...

He did , so I did . Again . Remember when I went here ? Gabber is a type of techno music that is harder, darker and faster than most, and is characterized by having unintelligible sounds. I'd never actually heard gabber until I saw this Web site, created by a group of graphic artists and musicians called The Laziest Men on Mars . The Flash presentation starts with a Japanimation-esque intro, where some evil dude with a half-metal face tells the crew of a space ship "ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US" in a computerized voice. Then a song, "Invasion of the Gabber Robots," plays over a show of dozens of photos that have all been digitally altered with the evil guy's catch phrase. It's written on a fortune cookie slip, on the warning label of a pack of cigarettes ... it's lit up in giant squares as a Wheel of Fortune puzzle. You have to see it to understand it, and even then, you probably won't. From the Ontario Empoblog

And I briefly mentioned Brenda Spencer in KOER also. Here's why : Brenda Spencer, who has spent 25 years in prison for killing two people and wounding nine others in one of the nation's first schoolyard shootings, was denied parole again yesterday. This was the fourth time Spencer, 43, has appeared before the state parole board asking to be considered for release. She was convicted of first-degree murder and assault for the 1979 shootings at Cleveland Elementary School in San Carlos. She will not be eligible for a new parole hearing for four years. Spencer was 16 on Jan. 29, 1979, when she used a .22-caliber rifle, a Christmas gift from her father, to shoot at children from a window of her home across the street. Principal Burton Wragg, 53, and custodian Michael Suchar, 56, were killed. Police Officer Robert Robb was shot in the neck as he, like Wragg and Suchar, tried to help the children. Eight students ranging in age from 7 to 10 were wounded. During a hearing at the Califo...

I alluded to this in KOER, and should discuss it more fully here. As of right now, KWRM is only scheduling its "Controversy" sports program for one day a week - Fridays from 6pm to 7pm. I have audioblogged about this show in the past, and regret its limited schedule. From the Ontario Empoblog

DadTalk reports : Would you give your 4-year-old a cup of fully caffeinated coffee? How about Red Bull?... If you haven’t guessed, there is NO WAY IN HELL I’d ever give [my young son] caffeine – except for a little chocolate – while he’s a youngster. But that’s exactly what AdvoCare wants me to do, reports The New York Times. AvoCare’s drink KickStart Spark, which reportedly tastes like Kool-Aid, is an attempt to get athletes ages 4-11 to consume more caffeine in a single serving than the 45 milligrams adults receive from a single cup of coffee. Considering as an adult I can barely handle 5-10 milligrams of caffeine each day, I can only imagine what the 60 milligrams a serving does to a toddler. Once youngsters are fully addicted, they can upgrade to Spark, a sister drink for kids 12 and up. This drink contains a whopping 120 milligrams of caffeine, which is equal to almost three cups of coffee. “It’s not just a caffeine delivery system; it has many more nutritional properties,” comes ...

From the Daily Bulletin : A woman walked into a Taco Bell, stripped off her clothes in the restroom, walked out and then began throwing items in the restaurant, police said. Police came to the business in the 800 block of North Mountain Avenue at 7:53 p.m. and took the woman to a hospital for a mental evaluation, said Ontario police Lt. John Evans.... No injuries were reported. From the Ontario Empoblog

In a blog about the Tom DeLay indictment and temporary (?) resignation from his House leadership post, Michelle Malkin says the following: Rep. David Dreier is being recommended as DeLay's temporary replacement. Left-wingers have already launched a disgusting and cowardly smear attack on Dreier (hat tip: Jonah Goldberg). Shame on them. Breitbart says : GOP congressional officials said Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., will recommend that Rep. David Dreier of California step into those duties. Some of the duties may go to the GOP whip, Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri. The Republican rank and file may meet as early as Wednesday night to act on Hastert's recommendation. Worship the Glitch has compiled Dreier ratings ( emphasis mine): Rated 0% by NARAL, indicating a pro-life voting record. Rated 27% by the ACLU, indicating an anti-civil rights voting record. Rated 100% by the US COC, indicating a pro-business voting record. Rated 33% by CURE, indicating anti-rehabilitation crime votes....

Starting with Celebrity Smack : Hilary Duff Looks Sick Her skin is pale, her eyes hollow, not to mention that she has NO body to speak of anymore.... Celebrity Smack also includes a picture. From Blue Kat : Hillary Duff was a sweet-faced teen starlet. She had the makings of a great beauty, should she survive the usual peer pressure and teen angst to be perfect; who seemed to be comfortable in her own, non anorexic skin. Well, it seems that young Ms Duff has succumbed to just that pressure.... Blue Kat includes before and after pictures. And then there's this post, but I can't tell if it's a parody or real: okay the point is...at first i was thinking "at the beach im gonna forget all about this whole thing and still be worrying about my weight and what i eat but just have fun and starve" now i see it as "im DETERMINED to lose weight when i get back so i am going to be EXTREMELY careful while im there so i can have fun and stay out on the beach so i try not t...

From AP/Yahoo : Nicole Kidman says she didn't have to go far to research her role as a psychiatrist for the upcoming movie, "The Visiting." "I have a father who is a psychologist, so my life has been research," the Oscar-winning actress told AP Radio in a recent interview. Unlike her ex-husband Tom Cruise, who went on a rant against psychiatry in a "Today" show interview earlier this year, Kidman said she thinks psychiatry is a worthwhile profession that can help people.... So what does Katie Holmes' father do ? Katie's father, Martin Holmes, is the senior partner in a large and respected Toledo, Ohio, law firm. His son, Martin Jr., has recently joined the firm. He's a Harvard graduate. Katie's mom, Kathy, is frequently cited in Toledo for her charity work.... Actually, this one should fly. We know that Scientology likes lawyers . And they sponsor charities . And according to Katie's uncle, Martin loves Tom: Richard Holmes, Kat...

From the Philosophy page for Northlake Christian School in Covington, Louisiana: By its Mission Statement, Northlake Christian School (NCS) "exists to assist the Christian community." With this declaration, we have affirmed that we serve not primarily as an evangelical institution but, instead, serve "Christian" families.... So it's probably no surprise that the school's doctrinal statement doesn't address the Great Commission, though it does include the following statement: ...that for the salvation of the lost and sinful man, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and regeneration by the Holy Spirit are essential (Rom. 3:19,2 3; John 3:16-19; John 5:24; Eph. 2:8-10; Titus 3:5-6); This suggests a question... From the Ontario Empoblog

Jennifer : My friends, this should not be. I do not agree with the homosexual lifestyle. But I also do not agree with shunning and ostracizing those who follow that lifestyle, and especially their innocent children! These school administrators should be praising the Lord that these women wanted their daughters to have a Christian education! Jesus said, "Healthy people don't need a doctor -- sick people do. I have come to call sinners, not those who think they are already good enough." Mark 2:17 He also said "If anyone causes one of these little ones who trusts in me to lose faith, it would be better for that person to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around the neck." Matthew 18:6 I've got a good mind to mail Mr. Stob a millstone. Mrs. Muddy : All I can say is that this "Christian" school's administration is full of a bunch of jerks! And THAT'S putting it very nicely. I read a similar story about a year ago where a girl wa...

From CARM : [W]e need to recognize the Great Commission as something more than a recommendation from Jesus. It is not an option. It is a command....Are we being fishers of men or keepers of the aquarium? Are we being obedient or comfortable? From the Ontario Empoblog

From David Sikkink : Important differences among Christian schools are submerged in accounts that see them as organized and run simply according to religious dogma. One reason is that the religious dictates themselves vary more than is generally understood.... It appears that the Bible can justify very different schooling strategies. For example, for deeply religious reasons, some conservative Christian schools require that parents share the religious orientation of the school, while other Christian schools invoke biblical commands to support admissions policies that do not include religious qualifications.... This was a topic of discussion in the Sharper Iron Forums : tlangeMarch 8th, 2005, 01:59 PM This has been a controversy for a while. There are some that believe a Christian school should be open to anyone who meets the admission standards, etc. because there is a great possibility to reach children and families with the gospel. ( I was saved through the ministry of a good Christi...

Forget about the "moral life" part - Ontario Christian does not want to evangelize. Take a look at this excerpt from their admissions policies : Ontario Christian Schools actively seeks Christian and Catholic families who desire to have their student(s) taught from a Christian perspective as well as maintaining high academic standards. We do require that OCS families are attending a church regularly to complete the home, church and school triangle. In short, Ontario Christian Schools does not seek non-Christian families who do not attend church. Very...um... defensive . And that's not a good thing. From the Ontario Empoblog

First, let's start with an article in today's Daily Bulletin : The family of a student expelled from Ontario Christian High School because her parents are lesbians protested in front of the campus Monday and said they are considering legal action. About 20 people, including lesbian couple Tina Clark and Mitzi Gray, and two of their three daughters, waved signs from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. challenging the school's expulsion of their 14-year-old daughter Shay Clark. "We want to get the policy changed and bring awareness that there is a school in this community that discriminates," said Shay, who is not seeking a reversal of the decision. "The whole purpose of Christianity is to bring people into the church, not turn them away." School officials did not respond to inquiries but released a statement saying the "family does not meet admissions criteria" because of the parents' participation in a homosexual relationship.... A number of parents said t...

From the NIV (Mt 16:17-19) as found at bible.gospelcom.net : 17 Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter,[a] and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades[b] will not overcome it.[c] 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be[d] bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be[e] loosed in heaven." Footnotes: a. Matthew 16:18 Peter means rock. b. Matthew 16:18 Or hell c. Matthew 16:18 Or not prove stronger than it d. Matthew 16:19 Or have been e. Matthew 16:19 Or have been Gates of Hell Parts One , Two , Three , Four From the Ontario Empoblog

From the NIV (1 Cor 6:8-10) as found at bible.gospelcom.net : 8 Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers. 9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. Gates of Hell Parts One , Two , Three , Four From the Ontario Empoblog

From AP/CNN : The woman who says she gained the trust of suspected courthouse gunman Brian Nichols by talking about her faith in God discloses in a new book that she gave him methamphetamine during the hostage ordeal. Ashley Smith did not share that detail with authorities after she talked her way out of captivity. In her book, ``Unlikely Angel,'' released Tuesday, Smith says Nichols had her bound on her bed with masking tape and an extension cord. She says he asked for marijuana, but she did not have any, and dug into her crystal methamphetamine stash instead.... Gates of Hell Parts One , Two , Three , Four From the Ontario Empoblog

Excerpts from an AP/Yahoo story : Police Superintendent Eddie Compass resigned Tuesday after four turbulent weeks in which the police force was wracked by desertions and disorganization in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath.... As the city slipped into anarchy during the first few days after Katrina, the 1,700-member police department itself suffered a crisis. Many officers deserted their posts, and some were accused of joining in the looting that broke out. Two officers Compass described as friends committed suicide. Neither Compass nor Mayor Ray Nagin would say whether Compass was pressured to leave.... New Orleans evacuees at a shelter in Baton Rouge disagreed over the chief's legacy and whether he should have resigned. "It's about time," said Larry Smit, 52, who owns a construction company. "Get rid of all of them. They ain't doing anything." But truck driver James Dordain, 41, said Compass had been doing a good job with an understaffed department and...

PressThink is one blog that realizes that there are multiple governments. Here are a few brief excerpts from a post entitled "From Deference to Outrage: Katrina and the Press." I was away from blogging when Hurricane Katrina hit and New Orleans went down, but people kept sending me stuff. The article most often sent to me was a commentary by Matt Wells of the BBC, “Has Katrina saved US media?” Possibly it has, he said: “Amidst the horror, American broadcast journalism just might have grown its spine back, thanks to Katrina.” The “timid and self-censoring journalistic culture” in the U.S. is normally “no match for the masterfully aggressive spin-surgeons of the Bush administration,” Wells wrote. “But last week the complacency stopped, and the moral indignation against inadequate government began to flow, from slick anchors who spend most of their time glued to desks in New York and Washington.” Other observers made the same point: national journalism was awakening after a per...

Perhaps the Katrina 11 were on to something, although the 400-plus who approved the Katrina aid bill will argue that they didn't approve this : The handling of the first federal disaster relief money to arrive in the wake of Hurricane Katrina was riddled with improprieties, Louisiana's three top fiscal watchdogs say. The process that granted $219 million in aid was fraught with irregular accounting, sloppy records and little oversight, they say. State and local agencies will receive another $457 million this morning. State Treasurer John Kennedy, Legislative Auditor Steve J. Theriot and state Inspector General Sharon Robinson stopped short of calling it fraud. But each says the way the money was awarded on Sept. 16 was so shoddy that the allegation may rise in the years that come. All three blame the Federal Emergency Management Agency for failing to follow its own procedures and tossing out packets of money with little accounting.... The seven packets of applications for the ...

Culver City News puts it this way: As Katrina's flood waters recede, government contractors are flowing into the Gulf Coast and reaping billions of dollars in pre-bid, limited bid, and sometimes no-bid contracts.... CorpWatch cites the following: "You are likely to see the equivalent of war profiteering -- disaster profiteering," said Danielle Brian, director of the Project on Government Oversight, a nonprofit government spending watchdog group. She notes that Joe Allbaugh, President Bush's former campaign manager and a former head of FEMA is now a lobbyist and consultant to both the Shaw Group and Halliburton. (Melissa Norcross, a Halliburton spokeswoman, said Allbaugh has not, since he was hired, "consulted on any specific contracts that the company is considering pursuing, nor has he been tasked by the company with any lobbying responsibilities.") Many, including Senator Richard Durbin, "are worried because we hear about no-bid contracts in the Kat...

I've been blogging steadily since October 2003, and during that time several bloggers have stopped blogging, only to re-emerge in some way, shape, or form. For example, one blogger disappeared within the last couple of months, and I removed the blogger from my blogroll. Now the blogger is back, but not advertising, so I won't officially advertise the blogger's return, but for those who are in the know, the "Yay for me" blogger is back. Incidentally, I can't remember the name of the deejay that made the title (or something like the title) popular. It will come to me someday. From the Ontario Empoblog

From Paul Belien : Last week the Danish Supreme Court ruled that the Lutheran Church does not have the right to excommunicate people who believe in reincarnation. In 1994 Steen Ribers, a church custodian from Copenhagen, was excommunicated by the church for publicly promoting reincarnation. Ribers went to court. The Supreme Court now says that he has the right to preach reincarnation while serving as church custodian.... From jp.dk : ...The verdict overruled the Eastern High Court's decision from 2004, which confirmed the National Church's decision to exclude church custodian Steen Ribers for publicly promoting an idea considered blasphemous by his minister, his bishop, and the Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs. Ribers became somewhat of a celebrity in 1993 when he began giving public talks and lectures about his version of Christianity, which includes the belief in reincarnation. He was elected into the parish council of Sankt Andreas Church in Copenhagen, where he was hired ...

Erupting in the Communist portion of the blogosphere (as opposed to the baby seal clubber portion - does my linking to this make me a fellow traveler?). From Stinkin' Desert Guy : Rumors are swirling that George Weasel Bush is back on the bottle. Given his performance when sober I'm not sure it will make much difference one way or another. From shrimplate : So why is all this occuring? Why does our debt pile up, while our soldiers die endlessly, while our leaders let down those they are sworn to support? Well, maybe it's because our President is a drunk. We would not need rumors if the mainstream media were doing its job. Unfortunately, Bush has never been thoroughly confronted about his admitted problems with alcohol and cocaine, among perhaps other things. And it is not known that he has ever sought treatment for these dysfunctions. A Political Misery, before quoting from some non-mainstream media, has this to say: Boozin bush Belting Bracers Before Bungling Bigtime? It ...

People who complain about "the government" fail to make the distinction between federal, state, and local government. Here's a story about the National Guard: As we entered the center of the City, we finally encountered the National Guard. The Guards told us we would not be allowed into the Superdome as the City’s primary shelter had been descended into a humanitarian and health hellhole. The guards further told us that the City’s only other shelter, the Convention Center, was also descending into chaos and squalor and that the police were not allowing anyone else in. Quite naturally, we asked, “If we can’t go to the only 2 shelters in the City, what was our alternative?” The guards told us that that was our problem, and no they did not have extra water to give to us. (source: A Political Misery ) And who heads the Louisiana National Guard? Guess . From the Ontario Empoblog

By the way, on Tuesday night I visited both the Virgin Megastore on Market and the Borders by Union Square. Neither had the import of "Destroy Everything You Touch." Haven't checked amazon . From the Ontario Empoblog

A video of Raymond van het Groenewoud's "Weg Met Amerika." More from Beth and Doug (not the Redskins QB) and Luc Saint Kansas . Lemme quote from Luc: "Down with America" is the title of a recent song by the popular Belgian musician Raymond van het Groenewoud. Written in Dutch and published by EMI , "Weg met Amerika" ("Down with America") will be available in record shops as of next week, and was played on Belgian state radio last Thursday and Friday.... Incitement to hatred against people based on (i.a.) nationality is a crime in Belgium. In practice however, this law is only enforced when Arab, muslim or African minorities are criticized. Hate speech against the Americans or the British remains unsanctioned, as was recently shown when the leftist newspaper De Morgen published an article that complained about the British, "with their unique mixture of wantonness and arrogance, their pathetic addiction to drink, their bad taste, and ac...

First, here's part of what musicalsushi wrote : So I've only heard it once... ...but a pleasingly large number of my friends are raving about Ladytron's new single, Destroy Everything You Touch. I'm sure there's a reason for the buzz.... Naturally, I'll be buying it when it's released on Monday. I hope anyone reading this will buy it too - Ladytron purchases are rarely regretted. I ended up replying: I got an e-mail from ladytron.com advertising that the single was going to be released on 19 September. I'm out of town, but I actually spent part of 19 September looking for a music store. Didn't find one... ...and then realized that it wouldn't make any difference. The "z" in "realize" should give you a clue as to why. It seems ladytron.com e-mails don't target the specific market, and DEYT is only available in the USA as an import. Wait for the album, I guess. Now I'll provide the sordid details to my audience. As you k...