Common Thread: In-laws

2 funny stories--one real, the other perhaps real.

1) Brother, can you spare a bride?
Mon Apr 30, 2007 8:27AM EDT
http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USDEL12620520070430
PATNA, India (Reuters) - Villagers at a wedding in eastern India decided the groom had arrived too drunk to get married, and so the bride married the groom's more sober brother instead, police said Monday.
"The groom was drunk and had reportedly misbehaved with guests when the bride's family and local villagers chased him away," Madho Singh, a senior police officer told Reuters after Sunday's marriage in a village in Bihar state's Arwal district.
The younger brother readily agreed to take the groom's place beside the teenage bride at her family's invitation, witnesses said.
"The groom apologized for his behavior, but has been crying that word will spread and he will never get a bride again," Singh said by phone.

2) That guy wasn't too smart, but this one is:
The prospective father-in-law asked his daughter's fiance, "Young man, are you able to support a family?"
The surprised groom-to-be replied, "Well, no. I was just planning to support your daughter. The rest of you will have to fend for yourselves."

Thanks for celebrating

Thanks to all who came, wrote or called for my birthday. I had a wonderful weekend. Thanks especially to my wife and family who did so much to make all the events and fun happen.
God Bless you all,
Ken

Buzzing the wrong way, again

Doesn't Buzz Hargrove realize that Stephane Dion is the most uninformed "environmentalist" politician with a title in Ottawa, and he would restrict or ban SUVs and large trucks, making it even harder on the auto and oil industries to survive in Canada?
Dumb Dumb Buzz. And people are following him. Sigh.

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/CityandRegion/2007/04/14/4012922-sun.html
Sat, April 14, 2007 By MICHAEL OLIVEIRA, CP
CAW chief tells members to back Grits to save jobs
Buzz Hargrove said the greatest threat to the auto industry is a Conservative majority in Parliament.

PORT ELGIN -- The Canadian Auto Workers union targeted Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the "insanity" of the environmental movement yesterday as delegates talked strategy with an election ever looming and an Ontario provincial vote less than six months away.
Although historically linked with the New Democrats, union president Buzz Hargrove used a national meeting of delegates to recommend strategic voting to bolster the Liberals, both federally and provincially, and cautioned against the growing momentum of Harper's Conservatives in the polls.
"You'll see the real Stephen Harper, once he gets to be prime minister with a majority in the Parliament," he warned.
With politicians increasingly absorbing green policies into their platforms, Hargrove also attacked environmentalists who want the auto sector targeted to fight climate change.
The upcoming elections are fuelling a lot of rhetoric as politicians try to "out green" one another, Hargrove said.
"Politicians are running with it now because Canadians are saying it's a key issue in the upcoming election and it just infuriates me," Hargrove said.
"We stand to lose 150,000 jobs in our auto industry if the insanity of this environmental movement is allowed to continue."
Canada is only responsible for about two per cent of the world's total greenhouse gas production and shutting down the entire country would barely make an impact, Hargrove said.
Still, Hargrove said the union is supportive of the Kyoto Accord -- as long as timetables are flexible enough for industries to meet them.
Hargrove invited Ontario's Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty to deliver a speech at the conference and said he was impressed by McGuinty's recent statement that the auto industry shouldn't necessarily phase out gas guzzlers like SUVs because, realistically, they're not going away.
McGuinty, who has said the industry should instead focus on innovation and deliver a vehicle that's big and clean, didn't shy away from promoting a green agenda yesterday -- saying the auto sector can survive while appeasing environmentalists.
"We're going to make Ontario the clean-car capital of the world," McGuinty said, hinting such an initiative would be a part of his government's climate change plan, which he said would be announced in a few weeks.
While a few delegates quietly booed when the premier's name was announced, during a question-and-answer session they chose to attack Harper for not support their industry.
Jim Freeman, a General Motors assembly line worker, said he's a New Democrat at heart, and thinks little of McGuinty, but will put his political affiliations aside to keep the Conservatives out of power.
"I've been an NDPer for 30 years and I still will be (after the election), but I understand what Buzz is talking about," he said.

It must be after Easter. They're not sure Jesus was dead.

Really. The experts used by James Cameron to prove Jesus is still dead are now drastically changing their conclusions ...
In part:
Several prominent scholars who were interviewed in a bitterly contested documentary that suggests that Jesus and his family members were buried in a nondescript ancient Jerusalem burial cave have now revised their conclusions, including the statistician who claimed that the odds were 600:1 in favor of the tomb being the family burial cave of Jesus of Nazareth, a new study on the fallout from the popular documentary shows.
The dramatic clarifications, compiled by epigrapher Stephen Pfann of the University of the Holy Land in Jerusalem in a paper titled "Cracks in the Foundation: How the Lost Tomb of Jesus story is losing its scholarly support," come two months after the screening of The Lost Tomb of Christ that attracted widespread public interest, despite the concomitant scholarly ridicule.
Finish reading at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1176152766396&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter

Joint Remembrances

As we commemorate today the 90th anniversary of the Canadian victory at Vimy Ridge during the First World War, we are saddened to hear of the loss of six Canadian heroes in Afghanistan.
Both are tragedies on the path of a good cause, where each and every participant is precious in the eyes of God and this country. Pray for the families and colleagues of the fallen, and may they not be forgotten.

From the news: (http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/National/2007/04/09/3961178-sun.html)
"It's very poignant (so near) the 90th anniversary of Vimy Ridge to have our people hurt and injured in such a way," said Master Cpl. Paul Franklin (who lost his legs in an Afghanistan suicide attack last year). "It just proves that we are at war and . . . that Canadians will always step up to the plate when we need to."
On Easter Monday, 1917, Canadian soldiers took the German stronghold of Vimy Ridge but, in just four days, 3,598 Canadian soldiers died and 7,104 more were wounded.
"We've got to persevere," Franklin said of Canada's Afghan mission. "The Afghan people have asked us to be there. It's something, I think, that's important. All the soldiers over there, everybody believes in it because we see that the fight that's there is the fight that's worth fighting."

Eulogy to our Escort

On March 19, a member of our family since the fall of 1997 hurt itself, and we were forced to make a painful decision. Here is what Debbie wrote in an email on March 22:

ESCORT, Green: 1995-2007. In St Thomas, Ontario, on Monday, March 19, 2007, the steady but elderly Escort passed away after bringing our daughter to GEMS. Born in 1995, its green colour could often be seen a mile away by 4 particular children, and many recognized it by its many fishes on its back end. The repair shop coroner pronounced it dead today after a brief examination. Organ harvesting is being explored. Green Escort is survived by Green Montana, who is younger and larger. Montana will not be looking for a new mate in the near future. Condolences are not needed, as Green Escort lived a long and fruitful life.

Actually I said donations would be gladly accepted, and I am surprised Deb did not use that opportunity. It would have cost well over $1500-2000 to get road-worthy and running, a cost we cannot afford. Looking over the paperwork, it saw many mechanics over the years, and they might not be happy the car died. We are trying to make it with just the minivan for now.

So our Escort was given up, after almost 9-and-a-half-years in our service. Purchased Sept 26, 1997 from Bridgeview Motors for $7200 plus taxes and licence, starting mileage was 25,411 miles. It died at 182,927 miles, so we got 157,516 miles (or 253,433 Km) out of it.

Wow. And thank God for good service, safety (one small rear-ender), and many good memories.

Blah blah quack! blah blah, etc., etc....

When our kids were young, there were some things I never said, just spelled. Like c-o-l-i-c.
Of course I also said "the B-I-B-L-E, yes that's the book for me" but that's a song--I was OK with my kids hearing about the Bible.
I don't know how I should treat the current GW--golden words spoken in veneration by some, gutter words spat out by others. Yes, global warming. OK I said it, don't make me do it again. Hence the title of this post. ("Quack" refers to, as Ken Blanchard points out, people that cannot think for themselves, basically.)
I am not a follower of the mantra/goldenwords/quacking of the proponents of GW, and that it's main cause is human activity. Lorne Gunter on March 12, 2007 in the National Post, talked about how sun spots can be the cause of rising temperatures on Mars, Jupiter, and even Pluto. And yes the Earth also can be included in this theory. (If you want to read Gunter's column, email me--I don't know how long a permalink to the column online will last.) I bring this up as a new study, in part from NASA, states that Mars is also warming up--and it's mainly because of the dirt. For the record, Mars has zero people there.
Actually, this picture can lead to great warming--starting in your heart:
Posted from here to warm your heart and world and maybe even help sell a few of these posters. And yes they are a set of quadruplets dressed as baby ducks--and giggling, not quacking.

LATER (May 9/07): The London Free Press has a photo gallery of the quads' first year posted here. Yes even the hardest "no kids for me" man can enjoy this.

First Toilet, now Paper!

Google wasn't done AFD with their TiSP--they also introduced Gmail Paper.
To quote from http://mail.google.com/mail/help/paper/index.html,
New! Introducing Gmail Paper
Everyone loves Gmail. But not everyone loves email, or the digital era. What ever happened to stamps, filing cabinets, and the mailman? Well, you asked for it, and it’s here. We’re bringing it back.
Click for more info, and they explain more, including that it's free! I won't spoil you with excerpts, you should see this for yourself.

"You Click. We Stack. You Get." Ri-i-i-g-h-t.

Google does AFD again--brilliantly!

Google continued its streak of April Fool's shenanigans yesterday by announcing the launch of TiSP (BETA). The new venture is a free in-home wireless broadband service that works by connecting to a sewer Internet network after being flushed down the toilet. For the first few minutes, the TiSP welcome site is pretty convincing ...

Hat tip: www.RelevantMagazine.com