Life Is Too Short
August 24th, 2006A teacher in Colorado was put on “paid leave” for displaying foreign flags in his Geography classroom. The schoolboard was worried that it was against the law for him to have those flags because there is a Law in Colorado that says you can’t have foreign flags in the classroom unless they are temporary and strictly related to the lesson, according to the Denver Post. I suppose it’s a precautionary move from the Colorado state government aimed at preventing foreign circumvention of American ideals. But, really, let’s be honest here: the Chinese government isn’t going to try to infiltrate American society and purge our youth’s minds of American pride through flags in seventh grade Geography classrooms in Colorado.
Arizona, maybe, but not Colorado! (I suspect, on a more genuine note, that this law is an attempt to prevent anyone from ever flying an Hispanic flag by request of students or out of respect to Hispanic heritage. I do know that I’ve been in classrooms that have had Puerto Rican, American, and Mexican flags co-existing, and I’d imagine that in Colorado — home of Tom Tancredo — is using laws like this to try and discourage illegal immigration. That seems to be the only mildly logical reason for such a law, unless it really is a paranoid attempt to prevent Chinese subversion. Of course, if something like that were to be their motive, they wouldn’t be the lone Guilties in the Grand Old Party of being somewhat senseless. I imagine they’d get on well with Katherine Harris,) outside of the parenthesis of course.
In a lengthy interview with Florida Baptist Witness, struggling U.S. Senate candidate Katherine Harris asserts, among other things, that the separation of church and state is a fallacy. “We have to have the faithful in government and over time,” the Witness quotes Harris as saying, “that lie we have been told, the separation of church and state, people have internalized, thinking that they needed to avoid politics and that is so wrong because God is the one who chooses our rulers.”
I keep hearing that (through the grapevine) about George Bush, and now it’s out in the distributing plant, manufactured by the beloved Katherine Harris. But, as a fellow Christian, I’ve got to wonder: since when did we start worshipping at the Supreme Court’s alter?
Here in Chicago, I often drop by Chinatown on my way to White Sox games, school, or from a random voyage downtown. There’s a Convenient train in that neighborhood that can take me anywhere in town, and by it, there are quite a few magazines and newspapers. You’ve got your typical stuff (the Tribune, Daily Southtown [”People Up North Just Don’t Get It!”]) and excellent independent stuff, too, like the Chicago Reader. Recently, I ran into a magazine that read, on the cover, Life is too Short to Live It Alone, and I looked at it. Its cover was adorable (you can see a poorly lit picture of a tired, dirty [from soccer practice] me holding the front cover, here,) and it was cute. Except that, when you open it, there’s nothing but advertising for pornography and strip clubs. Life is too short. Reading this article about Israel thinking that it might have to go alone against Iran.
If Israel wants to go to War with Iran prematurely, it’ll go it alone, for sure, and it’ll win it, too. Israel can destroy Iran in a heartbeat, much like we can. We’ve got the military in manpower and nuclear weapons, too, to destroy any foreign land overnight. I don’t condone that at all. I’m very much a believer in fighting limited wars whenever possible, meaning that we don’t burn down entire cities or firebomb the countryside unless we absolutely have to. Israel can do this of course, and has fewer moral qualms about it than I or the general American school of thought, as well, but I do hope that they wait for the world unless attacked. Iran is simply too dangerous a beast to be ignored by the World, and it’s a good sign that everyone but for China and Russia are firmly opposed to their gaining nuclear weapons. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter what they want — China will not wage war against America over Iran anymore than Russia will — and it’s important that everyone stay calm until you can’t anymore. Remember, Mahmoud Ahmaniac! is a mortal man; he won’t live forever, and it’s not worth it to wage a war to unseat him just yet. Not yet. Maybe not ever, but if Israel’s patient and tactful, it’ll never have to go it alone.
I, on the other hand, am feeling discouraged. You see, Las Vegas is closing its twenty four hour marriage office. Don’t they know that life is too short to live it alone?