Friday in the wild - May 20, 2005

In the Crusty Curmudgeon Lectionary, these are the readings for Friday Before May Long Weekend.

Cindy Swanson was fortunate (?) to be a part of history last week while on a school field trip, when she was evacuated from the Capitol building in Washington when that small plane flew into restricted airspace:

Our group of fourteen--six girls, six boys, my husband and myself--were waiting in an awning just outside the Capitol building to visit the House of Representatives gallery. We were next in line to go inside the building, when suddenly the group that had gone ahead of us starting coming back toward us. "They're telling us to leave," a woman explained helplessly, and that was when we started hearing people urgently yelling at us to "run, get out, move, run!!!"

People started running frantically off the grounds, herded by police officers and other staff members who kept shouting at us like drill sergeants--one cop even shouted loudly, "Don't you remember 9/11? This is not a drill! RUN!!!"

[Read I was evacuated out of the U.S. Capitol]

One of these days, when I've gotten all those other failed serieseses out of the way that I've started, I'm going to do one on my five "straw Calvinists" - the most common misrepresentations of Reformed theology. Meanwhile, though, Rand capably tackled one of the most common:

You don't have to be debating Calvinism too long before the "robots" argument surfaces. The idea is this: if God forordained and predestined everything for everyone, then are we not all just fulfilling a program already determined by God? Are we indeed mindless robots marching on towards glory or condemnation, depending on our programming?

No.

Calvinists do not believe that we are robots.

We are CLAY.

[Read Watch Out For Them Calvinist Robots!]

Remember ImNotSorry.net? Dawn Eden reports on a new PR strategy they are considering: in addition to posting stories from women who aren't sorry they had an abortion, how about posting stories from women who are sorry they didn't?

Just imagine - once the kids of those regretted pregnancies are old enough to read, they can log on to the Web and read their resentful moms' stories about how those mean old "pro-lifers" allowed the little parasites to see the light of day.

[Read Miss Odious Regrets]

"Stupid Commenter of the Day" goes to "left brain," who writes in Dawn's comment section:

These days if someone comes out and says that they are sorry they had an abortion, or they don't regret not having one, they are practically made a saint. Those who have an opposite opinion are more likely to be shot or bombed by the likes of Eric Rudolph, Clayton Waagner or other "pro life" individuals.

And if I believed that was anything but extremist rhetoric, I would never venture farther north on Bank St. than Slater, because it would be a bloody war zone.

P.S. While we're on the subject of abortion, does this get you mad?

Meanwhile, it's been an . . . interesting . . . week for people looking for stuff on the Web and finding me by mistake.

• there is no god called allah and Mohamed is a drunkard. This one just made me laugh. (And you have to wonder sometimes at the fortuitous chain of words that randomly brings people to your own site on the one hand, and wonder if someone else gets even more bizarre combinations.)
• emma watson's dental care. I have to give the pedophile Googlers credit. At least they're interested in the young Miss Watson above the waistline now.
• hayden christensen slash gay sex fiction. That sounds difficult, especially with all that armour.

That is all.