Chalk Dust – April 5 2012

Chalk Dust – April 5 2012
©2012 Ross Williams

Headline: Christian Student in Egypt Gets 3 Years for Insulting Islam

Article Synopsis: Muslims went on a rampage, burned Christians’ houses and many Christians were injured.

Reaping What Ye Sow: The 17 year old student, Gamal Abdou Massoud posted his insults on Facebook. He was also convicted of passing sacrilegious cartoon around his village. The three year sentence was the maximum available.

There is no word on how many arrests for arson and assault were made among the muslims who attacked his village.

Conclusion: This is what happens when you believe that free elections are indistinguishable from freedom. When the most popular politics is the politics of authoritarianism, a free election is simply the path of least resistance to a tyranny. An elected tyranny is no better than any other.


Headline: IL High School Investigated for NFL QB Drop-in

Article Synopsis: A Springfield IL christian high school had a banquet in March at which Cleveland Browns quarterback Colt McCoy spoke about being a Christian in the NFL. Afterwards, he threw a football with several of the school’s football players. A formal complaint lodged with the Illinois High School Athletics commission accused the school of holding an out of season practice and is seeking appropriate punishment for the school.

Go to the Punch Bowl and Cut Right ... on Three: The state official who filed the official complaint is now claiming that no official complaint was filed, even though no investigation can occur without one. Whatever, dude.

Absent from this titanic issue is an explanation as to how catching a football thrown by a real-life NFL quarterback while wearing an ill-fitting leisure suit handed down by dad and in a banquet hall at the local Ramada Inn constitutes a practice. Perhaps McCoy is looking to transfer next season? The Browns didn’t do so hot as I recall last year, so maybe that is the case.

Conclusion: First ... “Colt McCoy”? That’s a made-for-porn name if there ever was one. Second, perhaps if state athletic commission officials were to spend more time masturbating to porn, they’d spend less time masturbating on their own power.


Headline: School Removes ‘God’ from ‘God Bless the USA’

Article Synopsis: A Massachusetts elementary school scheduled a concert to showcase both its students’ ability to sing off-key in unison, and their knowledge of American geography; among the songs scheduled to be performed was Lee Greenwood’s ‘God Bless the USA’. At first the school changed the lyrics to “We love the USA”, but that met with stern parental disapproval. The song has now been pulled completely from the pageant. So have all the others.

They Dost Protest Too Much: I find it interesting how many school-related news items hit the various on-line news sites, and they have to do with the same general theme. One day it’ll all be school administrators hyperventilating about too much hugging and other brainless Zero Tolerance alarmisms, and the next it’ll all be on religious extremism.

Or, in this case, religious extremism juxtaposed to IRreligious extremism. A Massachusetts elementary school is willing to conduct a musicless concert rather than to *>gasp!!!<* use a song in the concert’s theme which has the word ‘God’. Is that all it takes to inspire nose-cutting face-spiters to come unglued?

How, exactly, is this different in principle from Egypt’s Muslims who went all nanners over Facebook sarcasm and cartoons? Getting so pious over including the word ‘God’ [now there’s an irony] that the only solution is to call the whole thing off is the definition of extreme overreaction; the only thing missing was gunfire and arson. Intolerance is intolerance, it doesn’t matter who dishes.

For the record, Lee Greenwood refused to allow the use of his song with altered lyrics.

Conclusion: I suppose musicless concerts were the next inevitable step after educationless curricula and physical activity-less recess. Public school is slowly becoming an object lesson in social inertia.

Afterword: The school district’s superintendant has reversed the lame-brained edict implemented by the hands of the principal and the music teacher by implying that it was the students who originally objected to the word ‘God’ in the first place. The Superintendant’s statement says that the children “will be allowed to sing or not sing the words”.

Second Conclusion: They weren’t the issue, dinkus, nor was it their parents. Disingenuous buck-passing is disingenuous buck-passing.