It’s always been my contention that you cannot expect children to be mind readers.

Wouldn’t it have been fun to be a fly on the wall (to see the reaction of the children and the adults in attendance), when a Nun in Michigan made certain there were no shades of gray in her rules and regulations:

GROSSE POINTE PARK, Mich. - Sister Kathy Avery won’t put up with swearing on the playground at her school, and she’s not above repeating the offending language to make sure everyone understands which words she won’t tolerate.

The principal of St. Clare of Montefalco Catholic School had students stay after a Mass last month and informed the fifth- through eighth-graders that she has a zero-tolerance policy for cursing.

Just in case anyone wasn’t sure what she was talking about, Avery read off a list of the very words and phrases that she was banning.

I’m sure she will take some grief for this, but how else were the children to know exactly what would constitute offensive language especially when the following were included in the list:

Cuss words aren’t the only things that set Avery off. She’s also banned the words “stupid” and “boring.”

Good for this Nun for setting clear boundaries which children and adults alike can understand.

It leaves me wondering though, is the punishment the same for a “cuss word” vs. the word “boring”?

Somewhere down the line, I’m sure someone at the school will learn the answer to that question.

My ten year old granddaughter has been dabbling in poetry for the past couple of weeks.

Here’s one she wrote on the spur of the moment and then had to present it to the school board last night since the teacher who volunteered her to do a presentation of a social studies project was not there and did not send the project for Ashley to present.

Instead she flew by the seat of her pants and used this poem.

Update: I was copying and pasting from a pdf file and it copied some text that wasn’t supposed to be there and left out text that was supposed to be there.

Thankfully her Mom emailed me with the correct words in the correct places.

Have you met anyone of either political persuasion who is eager to go to the polls in November?

How about anyone who is eager to support any candidate for president in either of the two major parties?

Is it because this endless campaign has been going so long we are fatigued by it and the second half hasn’t started yet?

Is it apathy or is it that we just don’t have anyone who is as great as some of our past presidents and we can’t get excited over the choices?

I’ve been voting since Nixon ran in 1968 and I can’t remember a time that I haven’t looked forward to the election because I was optimistic about the future and the candidate I was supporting.

I’m not so optimistic about the future now. Maybe the realities of life have jaded my outlook. Maybe it’s the tone in Washington that has finally completely made me not care about politics.

I’ll do my civic duty and vote in the primary in my state and if a candidate acceptable to me is nominated I’ll vote for him, but I feel more like it’s a job than an honor to help select the next President of the United States.

We’ll never have another Lincoln because you have to be independently filthy rich or have filthy rich backers to get elected these days.

We came out of eight years of having a president who respected nothing, including himself, much less the office he held. He desecrated that office every day with his pizza parties and casual attire in such a lofty position. He desecrated it by selling off the Lincoln bedroom.

Every time he opened his mouth a lie dropped out of it and yet he is worshipped as a model by so many who have forgotten so quickly or never knew to begin with.

A decent man who tried to work with the lifers in Congress has been vilified by our own national press, and none of the big three alphabet networks or the major newspapers has any room to deny it.

I know a man in France who actually believes President Bush is a mass murderer and should go on trial for war crimes in The Hague. Why does he believe it? Because the New York Times is a well-known and respected newspaper and this is what he has read in that paper.

If I try to tell him to read writers such as Michael Yon, who tells it the way it is, he refuses to read him and thinks things are as bad in Iraq as what the NYT has made it out to be.

Things are getting better in Iraq at the moment and it seems no one knows it except the milbloggers and those who read them.

Our presidential candidates of the left would have us believe the economy is in recession and close to depression when it isn’t. Yes, some stupid things were done with mortgages which have caused a lot of gullible and greedy people to lose their homes because of their need to have everything and have it now!

President Bush is not perfect and has made his share of mistakes, but the way he has handled the economy is not one of them. Blame the bankers and the real estate companies for the mortgage mess. Thank the president for your tax bracket and fear the Democrats for your future tax bracket, regardless of your income.

Name one bill that any president has ever passed. Not one piece of legislation has been passed by the president, but by the Congress, and not much has been passed by them in the past year. We still don’t have a budget and it’s December.

Yet these senators running for president think they have all the answers when they don’t even know the questions.

Until we stop returning the lifers things will never change for the better in our government, no matter who the president is.

Yet I’ll vote for someone, even if it means I write in someone’s name. It is my responsibility as an American citizen to vote for the best of the worst next year, but I will do it so we end up with second-worst instead of worst.

If anyone is excited about the upcoming election in almost eleven months please let us know in the comments and try to sell me on that candidate. I’m ready to buy if I see a good, honest deal.

Until then, I honestly don’t give a flip.

Today and through Christmas I will make no mention of the names
C_ _ _ _ _ _, O_ _ _ _, R_ _ _ _ _ _, G _ _ _ _ _ _ _ or H or E or the cast of, oh I don’t know, I have lost count.

It’s not easy finding news which does not include one of above or some other politically charged issue, but if you search looooong enough, it is possible.

So here goes, with the best I could find.

Impressive..That was my reaction to this story out of the UK:

London - Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims joined Britain’s equality watchdog on Monday in urging Britons to enjoy Christmas without worrying about offending non-Christians.

“It’s time to stop being daft about Christmas. It’s fine to celebrate and it’s fine for Christ to be star of the show,” said Trevor Phillips, chairperson of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

“Let’s stop being silly about a Christian Christmas,” he said, referring to a tendency to play down the traditional celebrations of the birth of Christ for fear of offending minorities in multicultural Britain.

The US could take a few lessons from our ally on this issue don’t you think?

Roe v. Wade. Do you know the facts? Take this short IQ Test related to the Supreme Court decision and find out. HT: Evangelical Outpost

In spite of its impact, true understanding of Roe and what it accomplished remains relatively vague in the public consciousness.

We can expect both sides in the abortion debate to ratchet up arguments in the coming months as we mark this anniversary. It is imperative that we, as citizens, understand the facts about what Roe does and does not do.

We have created the Roe IQ Test to measure the current awareness of Roe and its effects, as well as to provide detailed information about the ruling. It only takes a few minutes to complete the test. Your answers and results will remain 100% confidential.

Readers who are college football fans or live with one probably have heard the news that for the first time in Heisman Trophy history, a sophomore, (Florida quarterback, Tim Tebow), won this coveted award.

After reading a bit of background on this young man it made me all the happier that someone of his character walked away with the trophy.

The legend of Tebow started at Nease High School in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., where he once finished a game playing on a broken leg.

Homeschooled by missionary parents who run an orphanage in the Philippines, Tebow took advantage of a Florida state law to play for Nease, about 90 miles from the University of Florida campus.

Tebow has worked and preached at his parents’ orphanage since he was 15. He regularly speaks at schools and delivered his message of faith at a prison in Florida earlier this year.

Lots more at the link.

Whew, that was not simple and it might be short, but I managed to avoid all the self imposed forbidden topics in this post.

Have a terrific Tuesday!