A Week to Go
One week until Christmas. Things are hitting a fever pitch in the Scheske house. Yesterday: Dollar Tree with four of the children so they could buy gifts for their siblings and grandparents; breakfast with my son to recognize his status as Middle School Student of the Month; open house Christmas party; Christmas party with friends and children; help kids wrap presents; clean house. I relaxed at the end of the day with an episode of Freaks and Geeks. My brother loaned me the CD set of the series's first year, which was also its last year for some reason. It was good. I'll have to surf around and find out why it died so quickly. (Later Addendum: Low ratings, but NBC was harshly criticized. Critics say NBC didn't give it a fair chance.)
I let this one go last week, but it's not dying out:
CBS must apologize for having one of its television characters use a traditional Christmas carol to brag about his plans to sexually exploit a woman, according to the American Family Association.
On the Dec. 11 episode of "Two and a Half Men," actor Charlie Sheen is shown lighting candles and adjusting Christmas decorations, apparently in preparation for a party.
He's singing the melody of "Joy To The World," but the words have been altered to:
Joy to the world
I'm getting laid
I'm getting laid tonight.
We'll light the Yule log
Deck the halls
And then we'll play some
Jingle balls.
It's been a real long wait
This is our second date
It's Christmas Eve
And I'm getting laid.
The AFA needs to lighten up. I've never seen the show, but I asked a friend of mine, "So, is the Sheen character like Sam Malone" (the shallow womanizer from Cheers)? My friend said, "Oh, he's a lot worse than Sam was." If Sheen's character is a reprobate, nobody should be upset. That's what a dirtbag does: takes a holy song and butchers it. The mere fact that they have a reprobate do such a thing could be seen as a defense of the holy song. Either way, it's not worth complaining about it. It really hurts the AFA's credibility.
Recommended: This group is looking for 10,000,000 fasters. It's a new organization, and it's looking to make a big impact. GS07. Check it out.
Found at the GS07 website: The Charity Navigator. Spiffy site for those looking to get rid of taxable income before the end of the year.
Great story in the current issue of the National Catholic Register. "The Father Factor." Excerpt:
“When you control for marriage, the crime rates between blacks and whites show no difference,” said Patrick Fagan, the William H.G. FitzGerald Fellow at the Heritage Foundation. “The huge gorilla sitting in the center of the floor is boys without fathers.”
Another good one: "Scorn for Porn." Catholic leaders are finally understanding the symbiosis between porn and our cultural decay. Cripple porn and culture will improve. Excerpt:
Pornography Facts
– Sex is the No. 1 searched for topic on the Internet.
– 60% of all website visits are sexual in nature.
– There are 1.3 million pornographic websites – 20 times more than there were 5 years ago. More than 32 million unique individuals visited a porn site in Sept. of 2003.
– The total porn industry generates approximately $4 billion to $10 billion every year.
– Only 3% of pornographic websites require adult verification.
– The Kaiser Family Foundation found that among teens online, 70% have accidentally come across pornography on the Web.
– Pornographers disguise their sites (i.e. “stealth” sites) with common brand names, including Disney, Barbie, ESPN, etc., to entrap children.
– The majority of teenagers' online use occurs at home, right after school, when working parents are not at home.
