This Story Stinks

Lots of things the government does stinks to high heaven, but a story I read today on Dan Mitchell's excellent blog, International Liberty, sets a new standard on the "malodorous" scale. It's a story about farting, of all things.

This is a polite blog for the most part, but you'll have to beg our pardon for releasing this story. (Pun intended) It's really a story about how goofy, and even dangerous, it gets when government employees - in this case teachers - over-react to the kind of thing that wouldn't even get the disciplinarian involved back when I was in school. Teachers used to handle this kind of stuff with a dunce cap in those days, but I digress.

It seems that a student used some "country" nomenclature to describe what he had done in the library when nature called and it resulted in eleven different government agencies responding to the "emergency" and his arrest for his doodling about "dropping a bomb" among the books. Here is the way the tale appears on Dan's site:

"Harold Wayne Hadley, Jr., 19, was arrested at a Mississippi junior college after he allegedly wrote a note on a piece of toilet paper on Tuesday, containing the word ‘bomb,’ according to Weirdnews.net. The note prompted 11 emergency agencies to respond to the school, but there was no bomb. Hadley and his family contend that he was only explaining the joy of flatulating in the library. “He was in the restroom doodling on some toilet paper … we are from the country, and he calls passing gas, bombs,” said Hadley’s aunt, who wouldn’t give her name to WDAM. ”[He] put ‘I passed a bomb in the library,’ talking about passing gas, and somebody came in and found it, gave it to a teacher that recognized his hand writing and it blew all out of proportion.” …Hadley was arrested and held on $20,000 bail. If convicted of threatening to blow up the school, he faces 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine,according to WAPT."

I'm guessing he won't get a guilty verdict or even face trial once the authorities smell the coffee instead of the gaseous stupidity of their over-reaction. In his piece, Dan goes on to address a lot of very valid questions about the actual issues this whole mess brings up, so I'll let him raise a stink about it over at his blog and I suggest you read the rest of it because like all the of his posts, it's terrific.

Which brings up a perfect segue for my next request. Although many of you already know, for those you who drop by here only occasionally, I have started a new blog and invite you to click on the link and help me launch it. It's called Cheeky History and if you enjoyed the style I wrote this article with you might enjoy it. It's a non-political spot where you can spend about thirty seconds a day learning some tidbits about "what happened on this day in history" with my own cheeky spin on them.

I'm having some fun writing the blurbs and I'm hoping folks might enjoy reading them. If you do, by all means leave a comment and let me know. If you think it stinks as much as what happened in the story above, well, just do what you usually do when you are in the library and someone "drops a bomb", make a squinchy face and leave as fast as you can.

Cheeky History - The New Blog Feature

2/12/12

In 1809 on this day a man evolved from a monkey and entered into this world.  His parents named him Charlie. In adulthood, Mr. and Mrs. Darwin's bouncing boy went on to have a theory about how animals got to be the way they are and it changed the world. Along the way his theory pissed off a lot of religious people and a controversy started that continues to this day. He got so famous they named an award after him.

I'm of the minority opinion (again) because I could never understand what all the fuss was about. It always seemed to me that if a guy was powerful enough to create all the heavens and everything in them, he probably could fashion the method of creating new species in any manner that caught his fancy.

Oh yeah, and Abraham Lincoln was born on this day too. And so was a dancer named Anna Pavlova, whose dog couldn't stop drooling whenever she busted a move. Oops! The dog actually belonged to some guy with a similar name. My bad.

The above is yesterday's entry to the new blog feature. It's just an introduction to my newest brainstorm. One I hope will be fun and lighthearted and mostly non-political. Imagine, a whole new audience made up of those who are weary of politics! Even Democrats and liberals might enjoy it.


I'm having fun toying with the ideas and even thinking of making a new blog out of it. So please let me know what you think by taking the poll on the right or drop me an email. I hope you enjoy it.

History, Music and Redemption

Whether it's good ideas, interesting writing, witty humor, important information or videos which deliver some or all of those things, a great blog post is made from great content. On this site I do my best to deliver those things. Sometimes I even succeed.

I write about and post things that I see, hear or just think about. Things I think are important. Many of them concern ideas about freedom or people and events that somehow connect to freedom issues. Some might say this is a political site, but even though it's hard to escape from politics in these times of tumult, I hope it's more than that.

History is one of my loves. So is music. And like so many others, I'm fascinated by the battle between good and evil. So when all three of those things come together in one place, it's impossible to resist sharing them.

One of my favorite musical pieces is the hymn, Amazing Grace. And the history behind it's creation is an incredible story of good, evil and redemption. It's a story I only learned a few years back, long after I fell in love with the melody and power of the song.

The story of John Newton, who wrote the words, is as inspirational as they come. If you don't know the history, do yourself a favor and follow the link, you won't regret it. His fall from grace and final return to receive it again is classic. But as it now turns out, (and as is often the case) I only knew half the story.

The other half of the story concerns Negro Spirituals, the black keys on the piano, the "slave scales" and the writer of the music itself. Someone known only as "Unknown." I will never listen to the hymn the same way again. For me, it used to be special, now it is delicious.

After watching the video below, I can almost feel the pain and suffering of the groaning victims of slavery and the different kind of pain and ultimate redemption of one of those who perpetrated it upon them.

If you feel it too, then this will be better than the usual post on this blog. I hope it will be a great post because of the great content.

Many thanks to Bobbie Rendleman for posting the video link on Facebook.