- Church must pay:
A federal jury in Baltimore, Maryland, Wednesday awarded $10.9 million to a father of a Marine whose funeral was picketed by members of a fundamentalist church carrying signs blaming soldiers’ deaths on America’s tolerance of homosexuals.
It’s low grade to protest at just about any funeral, much less ones of killed soldiers. I suspect the public was overwhelmingly on the Marine’s family in this case. But I wonder about the jury’s basis for the award. $2.9 million for compensatory damages? $8 million for punitive damages? That’s a hefty price for a public demonstration. Better to err on the side of caution when it comes to punishing speech.
- Ewww:
Ashley Olsen has a new, older man. The 21-year-old twin showed up to the Rose Bar at the Gramercy Park Hotel Monday night with Tory Burch’s ex, Lance Armstrong, 36. Our bar spy said, “They came together with a group of friends. Ashley drank red wine, sat on his lap and they were making out all night. They left together around 2 a.m.”
I know we all have different tastes, and perhaps my non-attraction to the Olsen twins is coloring my view here, but 36 and 21? Can’t Lance, a public ambassador, find someone closer to his own age?
- A principal at a Massachusetts high school implements several measures, including a yoga class, in an effort to reduce student stress. The rightist reaction is predictably pathetic:
Bit by bit, the dumbed-down cult of mediocrity, secular extremism, and multicultural madness has infected American public education. Instead of concentrating on the basics and then teaching children to manage and conquer their “stress” through internal discipline, we’re removing every last source of possible damage to their egos.
I’m not sure what this has to do with multiculturalism or “secular extremism.” Whatever.
If you want to fault something, fault the method, not the objective. I think a more effective use of school time would be to do something involving exercise, since kids don’t get enough of it these days. That will combat stress and obesity. - Heh.
Two economists find themselves locked in a basement. They’re not sure what time it is, because it’s dark and they can’t read their watches. They think it’s nearly dinner time, cause they’re starting to feel hungry. But they’re not worried; they are not starting to panic – because they know that their demand will create sandwiches for them!
It’s just a matter of time before we’ll have a lot of new oil created.