CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) -- A church's plan for an old-fashioned book-burning has been thwarted by city and county fire codes. Preachers and congregations throughout American history have built bonfires and tossed in books and other materials they believed offended God. The Rev. Scott Breedlove, pastor of The Jesus Church, wanted to rekindle that tradition in a July 28 ceremony where books, CDs, videos and clothing would have been thrown into the flames. Not so fast, city officials...

If I person is an ass; if a person is hurtful to others; if a person places the happiness and well-being of others below consideration; then this person is probably someone I will not like. And in many cases I would like to be able to tell this person, or tell the world, how I feel. But often that action is not socially acceptable. Why? The answer is simple: I am a white heterosexual male middle-class American. And because of this I am not “allowed” to offer criticism to anyone who is ...

"If I were in the President's place I would not have gotten a chance to resign. I would be laying in a pool of my own blood, hearing Mrs. Armey standing over me saying, 'How do I reload this damn thing?'" - Representative Dick Armey, who when asked if he had been in President Clinton's place, would he have resigned? "

Some education institutions are run by monkeys, I swear to God. Yvan Tessier wants to enroll in an English language immersion program at the University of New Brunswick in Canada. To enroll you have to sign a pledge stating that you will only speak in English during the enrollment period. Yvan has a problem with that pledge. Yvan is blind, and has a seeing eye dog, named Pavot. The problem is that Pavot is trained to respond to 17 commands in French. The school administration insiste...

From an article by Scott Norvell : Officials in Louisiana are rethinking the scheduled appearance of a comedian because he's not African American, as they assumed, but actually a white dude who appears in black make-up, reports the Lafayette Advertiser. Organizers scheduled the show by Willie Richardson in Lafayette with the understanding that he was black. Now that they know otherwise, they are rethinking the gig. Officials with the local NAACP (search) have asked that he not be ...

Recently one of the special people here had this to say about one of my articles: "...that was really special." That made me laugh, which was probably not the effect the writer was going for, but it's a good one nonetheless. You see, the word "special" has a... well, special meaning to my family, particularly to one of my brothers and me. When I was a child my mother would offer many words of encouragement. Such things as, “You can become anything that you want,” and “You’re such ...

I Love You by the Climax Blues Band When I was younger man I hadn't a care Foolin' around, hitting the town, growing my hair You came along and stole my heart when you entered my life Ooh babe you got what it takes so I made you my wife Since then I never looked back It's almost like living a dream And ooh I love you You came along from far away and found me here I was playin' around, feeling down, hittin' the beer You picked me up from off the floor and gave me a smile Y...

"I would like to be able to admire a man’s opinions as I would his dog - without being expected to take it home with me." - Frank A. Clark "

From A Dictionary of Angels: Including the Fallen Angels by Gustav Davidson. Sam(m)ael (Satanil, Samil, Satan, Seir, Salmael, etc.) - a combination of "sam" meaning poison and "el" meaning angel. In rabbinic literature, Samael is chief of the Satans and the angel of death. In the Secrets of Enoch ( Enoch II ) he is the prince of demons and a magician. Samael has been regarded both evil and good; as one of the greatest and as one of the foulest spirits operating in Heaven, on ear...

I’m not sure what my earliest memory is, but I have it narrowed down to two candidates. Both occurred while I was around two years old. Candidate One At the time my family was living on base in Virginia Beach. My parents were going to some party, and I was left with my older brothers. They are six and eight years older than me, and loved a bit of the torture for their younger bro. It was a stormy night, and they had been telling me stories about the Boogey Man. I was in a nasty f...

Recently a fellow blogger wrote about her difficulty in realizing her potential. This has inspired me to write about my experience with that same difficulty, and what decisions I made. When I first went to college it was because I was expected to. In my family you had two choices: College or Military. Since I’m an obnoxious jerk who has little respect for authority, the second option was out. I first studied Aerospace Engineering (ASE) because my older brother told me to. He had ...

Back in college I was a deliverer for Domino's pizza in a small southern college town. This job provided many opportunities for entertainment. I would often get invites to parties, "Hey! Come back when you're off work! We got lots of beer!" I would sometimes, though not often enough, get other invitations from the young ladies, "You're closed? But we are soooo hungry! We would do anything if you would bring us a pizza!" These were certainly worthwhile experiences for a young coll...

I work in a building that has a nice cafeteria staffed by a caterer. The food there is quite good, and quite cheap. One of the cooks there is a Mexican fellow of pleasant disposition. This fellow and I were talking the other day while he was cooking my chiliquilas, and he revealed to me something I found interesting. First, let me state that I do not think this fellow is an illegal considering the security checks you have to go through just to get in our building. This was a pain in th...

"Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are good is like expecting the bull not to charge because you are a vegetarian." - Dennis Wholey (1937-) "

From A Dictionary of Angels: Including the Fallen Angels by Gustav Davidson. Mithra (Mitra, Mihir, Mihr, Ized, etc.) - in Vedic cosmology, one of the shining gods, analogous to Judaean-Christian angels. King in The Gnostics and Their Remains equates Mithra with Metatron. In Persian theology, Mithra or Mihr is one of the 28 izeds (spirits) that surround the great god Ahura-Mazda. He "rises from a paradise in the east, has 1,000 ears and 10,000 eyes." Among Aryans, he is a god of l...