Has the world gone mad?

Today was a great day, until I read the newspaper. We traveled to DC to see the National Geographic Terra Cotta Warriors exhibit. It was unbelievable. Even though it was chilly, the flowering trees were out everywhere and the sky was blue.

By the time we got back into Maryland, it was raining and the wind was blowing a gale. But even that was ok.. and I heard that the stock market was way up today, and that was good. Then I made my mistake, I opened the paper to check the obits and make sure that I was still alive.. and found these stories:

01. The father of a marine who died in Iraq has been ordered to pay the legal costs for the anti-gay protesters from Kansas who picketed his son's funeral. Freedom of speech? I believe in it, but to do what these professed Christians have done to this poor family is reprehensible. I think that it is time for the Southern Poverty Law group to get involved in the activities of this hate group.

02. Nine alleged members of a so-called Christian militia have been charged with plotting to kill and slaughter scores of people at the funeral of a police officer. Thank God they have been caught before they could do this mayhem.

03. Two teen-age female suicide bombers have killed 38 people in the Moscow subway system. DC Metro employees and the police are stepping up their protective activity to avoid such activity there.

04. A 12 year-old boy will be charged as an adult in the shotgun killing of his father's pregnant fiancee when he was 11. (Are you getting depressed yet?)

05. A Frederick man has been found guilty of tossing a puppy off a bridge because he was angry at her owners for ordering him off their property.

06. Crowds of Hindus and Moslems are attacking each other with stones and clubs in Southern India.

07. An editorial by a man who calls the recently passed health care reform bill a disaster shows by his words that it is easy to criticise without learning about what he is criticising.

08. Three people were quoted on their view of the health care reform bill:

Lady in her 50's: says that health care needs to be overhauled, but not by the people in Washington... Me: well, then who is going to do it? The Insurance companies?

Lady in her 40's: says that the government can't even run the Post Office.. Me: Well, the Government doesn't actually run the Post Office any more..

Man in his 70's: says it stinks.. not happy with BO.. Me: He's got his.. Medicare or Medicaid, so to hell with everybody else.

Already, one feature of the reform should make all parents happy.. and it has already gone into effect: children may now stay on the health plans of their parents until the age of 26! That provision would have saved me thousands of dollars a few years ago.

OK.. enough of this.. let's see if there is anything pleasant in the newspaper:

01. Giant Food in Westminster, Maryland will be installing gas pumps. Sounds great to me. Gas and go shopping.

02. A burglar worked so hard getting his loot ready to carry out of a house, that he fell asleep on one of the beds and awoke to the welcome of a policeman.

03. Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife are enjoying themselves in New York City.

04. Apple will soon release its iPad multimedia tablet in competition with Amazon's Kindle. Hopefully, this will bring down the prices for these e-book items.. also, the iPad will do more than just allow you to read a book the old way, but should allow video and interactivity. This should expand our minds.

05. The iPhone may be coming to Verizon sometime soon. I haven't wanted to work with the iPhone because of its current link up with AT&T, a company that I had lots of problems with over the years.

Let me end by telling you two jokes that I heard today.

A 50-ish lady was being examined by a young doctor when she started screaming and ran from the examining room. An older doctor stopped her and asked what had happened. He then went into the examining room and confronted the younger doctor.

"You know that she is a grandmother, why did you tell her that she was pregnant?"

"Does she still have the hiccups?"
.......

A 16 year old boy wanted to learn to drive. His father said that he could learn to drive if he would bring all his grades up to A's and B's, begin to study the Bible, and get a haircut.

A few months later, the boy came to his father and said, "My grades are all A's and B's now, and I have been studying the Bible everyday for months."

The father said: "The grades are great and I'm glad about the Bible study, but what about your long hair?"

The boy said: "From what I read in the Bible, Sampson had long hair and so I think did Jesus."

The father said: "Yes, and they walked all the time too."

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