Corcoran Brothers

The mildly disturbing pc/fat da kine: (ed - I am a fat-American, hence biased)

9NEWS - Article - School sends home obesity notices with students, parent upset
Her daughter Isabel was sent home from the Centennial K-8 School on Monday with the health notice. It listed her height, weight and body mass index – a measure of body fat. Underneath the listing it had a marking next to the status “overweight.”

And the truly disturbing, shake to my libertarian core:

The Denver Post - Search of kids’ calls rings false
But what happens if officials confiscated phones and then read all the internal phone messages - many of them sent outside of school hours - to unearth “incriminating” evidence? Where do we draw the line when it comes to the privacy of students?The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado contends that officials at Monarch High in Louisville stepped over the line and committed felonies when they commandeered cellphones, perused text messages, took notes and placed so-called incriminating evidence in the students’ permanent files.

Goddamn. Colorado is making side with the ACLU. I fucking hate that! Transcribing private text messages? Lying about cause, denying parental access? I would throw a fucking fit like you would not not believe if someone tried to pull this shit with/kin-step-kid. Children in private schools surrender certain rights for the ability to attend, however by law these children have to be in school. How is it you force someone to attend, then deny them their most basic right of privacy.

You can yammer on about abortion and prayer in school and all the other bullshit never gonna change 50,000 foot view issues, but this is real time about constitutional rights. Children may have less “rights” as they are protected  more under laws, but that does not strip them of all rights. Activities outside of school do can not affect the performance and judgment of those within the school.

This calls to mind the “Jesus for Bong hits” case that went to the supreme court. If it was a school function, then yes, they can control the speech to an extent. However, outside of school activities, there is no right to suspend, expel, or otherwise punish a student for expressing, however dumbass, their own words.

Lying to parents and students about the nature of cell phone confiscation and transcribing personal messages is an affront unforgivable. I will monitor and judge my child’s messaging.

A link I found on Instapundit:

[Alan] Tudyk says the newly-released “Serenity : Special Edition” DVD has been selling so hot, that there’s talk in doing another movie.

“They had to put [the new DVD] out because they’ve been selling out of the other one [the DVD that isn't the 'Collectors Edition'] and so Universal’s like ‘So, let’s do another one’”, he says, adding “And now… there’s now a chance there’s going to be another movie”.”

I would just like to say that I don’t think I’ve done enough in this world for God to reward me by making such a thing actually happen. Hopefully, there are some beatified or saint-like Browncoats in the world whose good acts can make up the shortfall and cause divine intervention to become possible.

Sherborn teen charged with bestiality - Framingham, MA - The MetroWest Daily News
Roger Henderson II, 18, was arraigned yesterday in Natick District Court on charges of bestiality, cruelty to animals and breaking and entering in connection with an incident police say took place at Boggastow Farm on June 27.

There’s a sheep farm near here? My celtic roots are howling!

Seriously, how horrible is this. First, for the sheep. Secondly, for the kid. The farmer couldn’t handled this personally? A good old fashion ass kicking? This dude has had his life ruined. Of course, I’m not helping by posting about it, but then again, I ain’t never been caught fucking a sheep.

5 points for everyone whose first thought was, a la Billy Connolly, “yah gotta bring em to the edge of the cliff, that way they back up on ya!”

It would be too easy for someone to talk about politics.  I’ve waited a bit, and I won’t talk about politics now.  But what can one say about a man like Liviu Librescu?

Caroline Merrey is one of the students who jumped.

It was a frightening whirlwind. An average Monday in professor Liviu Librescu’s solid mechanics class that in a blink turned from reviewing homework to the unmistakable pop of gunshots outside her Norris Hall classroom.

In the flurry of students dialing 911 on cell phones, taking cover on the floor and twisting open second story windows to escape, Merrey, 22, glanced over her shoulder before jumping.

“I just remember looking back and seeing him at the door,� the Virginia Tech senior recalled of her professor. “I don’t think I would be here if it wasn’t for him.�

By Tuesday morning, newspapers from Washington, D.C., to Jerusalem shared the story of how Librescu — a 76 year-old Holocaust survivor — blocked his classroom doorway from a gunman while his students leapt to freedom.

“It wouldn’t amaze me he would do such a thing,� fellow engineering professor Muhammad Hajj said. “He’s that kind of person, willing to take care of others, protect others.�

I don’t get emotional easily, but I tear up every time I read about Domnul Librescu. Dumenezeu sa te binecuvanteze.

I like to go to Snopes.com, so I can quickly shut down rumors and chain mails that even soldiers like to send one another. I think urban legends are relatively easy to pick up on, but I like to have something to reference so people know it isn’t just me talking out me ass.

Imagine my surprise when I saw this.

Go ahead and read it. I can’t figure out how to cut and paste Snopes text.

It has all the hallmarks of bullshit. A patriotic young soldier gets slagged off by someone for no reason. Said someone trivializes his service, metaphorically spitting on his uniform. Usually, it’s a little Indian fella running a 7-11, and the poor bastard gets mistaken for a terrorist sympathizer or something.

The only thing is: Snopes says it’s true.

God damn, I want to throw something. Since I have decided to live a non-violent life when not confronted with something requiring violence, I used my rapier wit instead. An e-mail from me to the company you read about when you clicked the link (you’ll be seriously confused if you haven’t clicked yet):

SUBJECT: Possible Order

FROM: Kinshane

TO: Them

Do you ship to Afghanistan? I got back from there recently and was wondering if I could maybe send a mat or two to some buddies of mine. Alternately, they could be “sensible”, then “pull out” and leave millions of brave Afghans to be subjugated under a resurgent Taliban. I’m just checking, because I know you don’t ship to Iraq and I didn’t know if there was a difference.

I know, I know: 2 years is not “recent”. Gimme a break. I have dain bramage.

I am awaiting a response.

According to our very own Boston Herald:

Rockland sweethearts taking in a cheesy horror flick found something far harder to stomach when they pulled a blood-stained paper towel from a bag of chips they brought with them to munch on.