Mardi Gras is over – praise the lord, and pass the remoulade!

What did I do over Mardi Gras weekend? The question is: What didn’t I do over Mardi Gras weekend? Five days packed with parties, costumes, parades, libations and more beads and friends than you can shake a flambeau at.

In other news, the Patriots won the StuporBowl. Big surprise there. More interesting is the story of an eight year-old lad who has been wearing his Brett Favre jersey for 411 days now to establish a Guinness world record.

The mention of “Packers” and “Guinness” in the same breath should have me doubly salivating. But, after this Mardi Gras, “chicken soup” and “bed” will suffice.

Take this quiz and find out the answer to the eternal burning question: Which OS Are You?

When I mentioned that we, as a nation, are scurrying back into the Dark Ages, I didn’t mean for the government to pick a specific time period. Citing a telecom luxury tax created during the Spanish American war, Congress has presented the idea of a “3 percent telecommunications tax could be revised to cover ‘all data communications services to end users,’ including broadband; dial-up; fiber; cable modems; cellular; and DSL, or digital subscriber line, links.”

Crotchety, clueless people labeling our necessities as luxuries. When did our nation get so old? If they can’t stop something, they attempt to control it.

This attitude is reflected by our children (a good portion of them out of touch with the first amendment and basic American civics – see below) and in our foreign policy.

… an easily-controlled and manipulated public. [Say it with me …]

A University of Connecticut study sponored by the Knight Foundation reports from their massive study of 112,003 students, 7,889 teachers and 327 school principals:

36% believe newspapers should get “government approval” before publishing,
13% had no opinion, leaving 51% for a free press,
32% say the press has “too much” freedom,
10% say the press has too little freedom,
37% say the amount of press freedom is just right, and
75% thought flag burning was illegal.

From:
U.S. students say press freedoms go too far
First Amendment goes “too far,” say students in survey
First Amendment rights lost on teens

There are clearly some interesting oddities that arise from this study and its reporting:

1. Youngsters tend to pooh-pooh or fight against notions that they don’t know much about or that haven’t particularly crystallized in their heads. Rather than admit they don’t know something, they will say they are against it. This is a much more conservative attitude than being against the First Amendment itself.

2. Three in four thought flag burning is illegal, NOT that it should be illegal, as is often being wrongly reported. (Truth in reporting, people!)

3. Schools are poor quality in this country and we know as well. Everyone from Gingrich to the communists talks about it, but not one of them wants to DO anything about it.