And watch me make the earth move!

Iranian cleric: Women who wear revealing clothing cause earthquakes

From an article by MAIL FOREIGN SERVICE
Last updated at 3:39 PM on 19th April 2010

A senior Iranian cleric says women who wear revealing clothing and behave promiscuously are to blame for earthquakes.

'Many women who do not dress modestly ... lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which (consequently) increases earthquakes,' Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi was quoted as saying by Iranian media.

Women in the Islamic Republic are required by law to cover from head to toe, but many, especially the young, ignore some of the more strict codes and wear tight coats and scarves pulled back that show much of the hair.

Iran is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries, and the cleric's unusual explanation for why the earth shakes follows a prediction by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that a quake is certain to hit Tehran and that many of its 12 million inhabitants should relocate.

Seismologists have warned for at least two decades that it is likely the sprawling capital will be struck by a catastrophic quake in the near future. Some experts have even suggested Iran should move its capital to a less seismically active location. Tehran straddles scores of fault lines, including one more than 50 miles (80 kilometres) long, though it has not suffered a major quake since 1830.

iTunes is currently playing: I Feel The Earth Move from the album Tapestry by Carole King.

NBC was happy to take money from the makers of Doritos to show us an ad during the Super Bowl in which a man takes a bite out of a Dorito and a woman's clothes fly off of her body.



They also took money for a GoDaddy.com ad in which a woman with huge, fake breasts rips her sweater open to show us what she paid for.



But NBC apparently felt that the following ad was too offensive for television.

iTunes is currently playing: That's The Way I've Always Heard It Should Be from the album The Best Of Carly Simon by Carly Simon.

... with my own eyes I'd swear it had to be a joke. It isn't bad enough that we are bombarded by rap music ringtones everywhere we go. Soon we will be assaulted by PERFUME emanating from laptop computers, too!






iTunes is currently playing: Girls Just Want to Have Fun from the album The Essential Cyndi Lauper by Cyndi Lauper.

The L.A.Times ran a story the other day about a 77 year old woman named Doris Payne who spent 50+ years stealing jewelry from retail stores.

Her formula was simple: Pick a nice store and look like you belong there. Make sure your well-cut outfit has deep pockets.

She was good, but not good enough to never get caught. In fact, she has been convicted of grand theft several times and has spent most of the last decade in prison. She should be free by the time she is 81, if she lives that long.

Her story is interesting and would probably make a good movie. But the most interesting paragraph in the lengthy article (IMO) is this:

"It took me a while to become proud of her," said Ronald, of Louisiana. Now 61, he was born when his mother was a teenager. He was raised partly by his grandparents. "I realized she was very good at what she does and had fun doing it."

So Ronald is proud of his convicted felon mother who was so busy stealing what probably amounts to hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stuff that she couldn't be bothered to raise him because, after all, SHE WAS A GOOD THIEF and she ENJOYED HERSELF while she was stealing.

Loving her in spite of her flaws would be one thing. But being proud of her?

What a world.



... is currently playing: Steal Me Blind from the album Alf by Alison Moyet.

... that you do not get to pick your family, but you DO GET TO PICK YOUR FRIENDS (and your PASTOR/MENTOR).

And nothing like tossing your grandmother under the bus if you think it will help you become leader of the free world.

"I can no more disown him [referring to the "Reverend" Wright] than I can disown my white grandmother -- a woman who helped raise me . . . but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe."

And then there is this, from the same L.A.Times piece published Wed. March 19th:

Writing on the Huffington Post website last week and in interviews with Chicago newspapers, Obama had said that when he sat in the pews at Trinity United Church of Christ, he had not heard Wright make some of his more controversial statements.

On Tuesday, saying "nagging questions" remain for some voters, Obama offered a different account.

"Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes," Obama said.

Maybe he thinks that the Huffington statement was not dishonest because he qualified it by saying he had not heard Wright's "more controversial statements". And maybe he thinks he comes across as an honest guy when he admits, in the latest speech, that he had, in fact, sat in that church and heard "remarks that could be considered controversial."

If so, he is wrong on both counts.

No, make that three things. Sorry, Senator, but there really are no "nagging questions" about this issue.

... is currently playing: The End Of A Love Affair from the album Lady in Satin by Billie Holiday.

Like last Saturday, for instance, when I saw this headline on the Washington Post web site:

"Catholics Rethink Quinceanera Craze."

I stupidly assumed that it meant that poor Hispanics were rethinking the notion of spending tens of thousands of dollars (and frequently ending up deep in debt) to celebrate their daughters' fifteenth birthdays. Ah, I thought, they are finally starting to get their priorities straight.

But no. The "rethinking" has nothing to do with the issue of whether or not to have a party they cannot afford. The Church has just convinced these parents to use this "opportunity" to push a "pro-chastity message" on their girls.

Now this might be a noble goal -- particularly when dealing with a demographic in which:

... 51 percent of Hispanic girls get pregnant before age 20, according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

But couldn't that message be pushed without spending upwards of twenty grand per kid??

Party or college education? Party or college education? Hmmm.... Is it really that hard to see which will ultimately benefit a girl more in the long run?

According to Luz Reyes, the mother profiled in this article, the party is "a prize for them being good."

Remember when "being good" was what parents expected of their kids? You didn't get a prize for doing it, you just got something unpleasant if you didn't. At the risk of sounding like my mother, it was, in many ways, a better world back then.

... is currently playing: Dress You Up from the album Like a Virgin by Madonna.

It is August at the Jersey Shore, a place that gives new meaning to the word HUMIDITY. The bozo driving the car is wearing a short sleeve t-shirt and a baseball cap. His significant other is dressed like a mummy.

I don't think God wants women to sweat to death.