i give thanks that our pilgrim friends gave the indians smallpox so that we could claim this great land.

i give thanks to fat midwestern tourists who buy lots of theater tickets

i give thanks to Gretsch for making such incredible guitars

but most of all, i give thanks to all of you for propogating a forum where i can vent my spleen and get my daily dosage of abuse


HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!

Quote:Declaration of Independence Banned at Calif School
Wed Nov 24, 2004 04:12 PM ET

By Dan Whitcomb
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A California teacher has been barred by his school from giving students documents from American history that refer to God -- including the Declaration of Independence.

Steven Williams, a fifth-grade teacher at Stevens Creek School in the San Francisco Bay area suburb of Cupertino, sued for discrimination on Monday, claiming he had been singled out for censorship by principal Patricia Vidmar because he is a Christian.

"It's a fact of American history that our founders were religious men, and to hide this fact from young fifth-graders in the name of political correctness is outrageous and shameful," said Williams' attorney, Terry Thompson.

"Williams wants to teach his students the true history of our country," he said. "There is nothing in the Establishment Clause (of the U.S. Constitution) that prohibits a teacher from showing students the Declaration of Independence."

Vidmar could not be reached for comment on the lawsuit, which was filed on Monday in U.S. District Court in San Jose and claims violations of Williams rights to free speech under the First Amendment.

Phyllis Vogel, assistant superintendent for Cupertino Unified School District, said the lawsuit had been forwarded to a staff attorney. She declined to comment further.

Williams asserts in the lawsuit that since May he has been required to submit all of his lesson plans and supplemental handouts to Vidmar for approval, and that the principal will not permit him to use any that contain references to God or Christianity.

Among the materials she has rejected, according to Williams, are excerpts from the Declaration of Independence, George Washington's journal, John Adams' diary, Samuel Adams' "The Rights of the Colonists" and William Penn's "The Frame of Government of Pennsylvania."

"He hands out a lot of material and perhaps 5 to 10 percent refers to God and Christianity because that's what the founders wrote," said Thompson, a lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund, which advocates for religious freedom. "The principal seems to be systematically censoring material that refers to Christianity and it is pure discrimination."

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case of a California atheist who wanted the words "under God" struck from the Pledge of Allegiance as recited by school children. The appeals court in California had found that the phrase amounted to a violation of church and state separation.

I thought I'd started this thread before, but alas, maybe not.

The phrase "I could care less" is one of the most annoying and wrongly used phrases in the english language to me.

Everyone except for me says it wrong.

Think about it.

If you "could care less" it means that you care. If something doesn't matter to you then you "could not care less". Meaning that you don't care at all. And therefore, your level of caring could not possibly be lower than its current level.

Why does everyone in the country insist on saying it properly?

STOP IT!

The part where they say "Carat Insight said", they really mean me but I'm not important enough to be directly quoted. Rob Friedlewyczcxz is my boss

Quote:Television gravitates to the California, New York

DAVID BAUDER

Associated Press


NEW YORK - As far as is TV is concerned, much of the country outside of Los Angeles and New York City is flyover territory.

Those two cities account for just under half of the fictional settings for prime-time television shows going back to 1948, according to a new study by a media agency. California and New York state are settings nearly 60 percent of the time - even though those states make up less than 19 percent of the nation's population.

Alex Keaton of "Family Ties" lived in Columbus, Ohio, and Mary Richards of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" worked at a newsroom in Minneapolis, but TV characters are much more likely to join the "Friends" crew for coffee at Central Perk.

"I knew a lot of shows seem to be in New York and L.A., but I didn't expect it to be so concentrated," said Rob Frydlewicz of Carat Insight, a company that studies TV trends for advertisers and conducted the research.

Of the 1,696 cable and network series where the setting was known (some, like NBC's "Scrubs," don't make clear where they're from), a whopping 601 called California home and 412 were set in New York state, the study found.

Wind-swept North Dakota has never had a prime-time show of its own, while Alabama, West Virginia, New Hampshire, Delaware and Vermont had one each.

One theory for the coastal concentration is simple: that's where most TV writers, producers and executives live, so they create what they're familiar with.

The landmarks and large populations of the big cities are also important, said Nina Tassler, CBS entertainment president.

"Both Los Angeles and New York are rich in diversity, culturally and ethnically, so you have great sources to go to for unique stories," she said.

CBS turned to New York for the third installment of its "CSI" series; the first two are in Las Vegas - suddenly a hot TV venue - and Miami. All three of NBC's "Law & Order" dramas are set in New York, and so will the fourth when it premieres in midseason.

A few years ago, NBC was able to run a stunt with its comedies called "blackout Thursday," during which each show - all set in New York - had to deal with the ramifications of a power outage.

TV's historical roots may play a part in the concentration. NBC, and to a certain extent ABC, were long considered urban networks, said Ted Frank, the network's executive vice president for current series. And since the big cities have more potential viewers, why not set a show there?

"There's a danger if the shows are all set in one place," Frank said. "I think there was a time when too many of the (NBC) shows were set in one place and they became interchangeable."

A distant third on the list of most-used settings is Chicago, where the "ER" doctors tend to their wounded.

The locales often become an indelible part of a series' identity: "Dallas" and "WKRP in Cincinnati." "Newhart" in the '80s ran a Vermont inn (its '70s predecessor was set in Chicago). "Designing Women" was based in Atlanta, and the oddballs of "Northern Exposure" lived in Cicely, Alaska. "Laverne & Shirley" capped bottles at a Milwaukee brewery, and "Roseanne" lived in Lanford, Ill.

Civic pride can result: On a pedestrian mall in Minneapolis, there's a statue of Moore's character tossing her hat in the air.

And there's evidence that such local pride also helps ratings, Carat Insight said. The ratings for three current series are more than double in the cities where they are set than in the rest of the country: ABC's "8 Simple Rules" in Detroit, the WB's "Everwood" in Denver and NBC's "The West Wing" in Washington.

When NBC was looking to spin off Frasier Crane's character from the Boston-set "Cheers," producers looked up and down the West Coast and chose Seattle in part because they couldn't recall any other show set there, Frank said.

Otherwise, settings usually aren't the first thing creators think about. Searching for diverse outposts should only be done "as long as it's organic to the show," Tassler said.

There are programs so unique to their big cities that they couldn't be imagined elsewhere: the neurotic characters of "Seinfeld" in New York, for instance, or the show-biz shallowness of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" in Los Angeles.

"As much as many people don't like to be in New York and Los Angeles, they're fascinated by the people who live in these two cities," Frydlewicz said.

probably also put ketchup on eggs and say "lol" seriously

my son was born this morning at 3:55 pm. everything went fine, it just took forever (24 hours fo fucking labor) to actually happen.

my wife's exhausted, as am I, but I'm living off adrenaline right now. Despite what you see on TV, seeing an actual birth with your own eyes - especially your own child - is probably one of the most amazing things you'll ever see in your life.

back to the hospital - thanks to everyone for their support!

Check this out

Need a light?



Oh yeah... it also has a cup tray too.

I've never seen it. But a few people talk about how messed up and depressing it was.

The way that everyone talks about it, it seems like it would be right up my alley.

Any good?

3PM

Washington Square Park