Scrutator: The Earth Moves

I guess if I want to feel the earth move under my feet I should head to California! How cool is it that there were no serious injuries? Well, not physically anyway. Maybe professionally?Shouldn't she (an astrologer) have known the earthquake was coming? Listen to the horoscope she is reading! I guess she isn't as psychic as psychotic? psychic - psychotic, there's but an ot of difference.

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Monday I told you about a mother who has had to deal with a kind of bigotry and prejudice that Zach and I have not fully experienced. That's not to say Zach doesn't experience more than his share of painful experiences because of people who think it's ok to take advantage of him. Tuesday night (2:00 a.m. to be exact) Zach decided to go to the store to get himself a pop. On his way back a couple of guys (who claimed to be 18) called Zach over to them and asked to bum a cigarette. Zach said he only had one but offered to share it. In the process of lighting the cigarette and handing it to one of the guys, the other slugged him in the side of the head while the the one taking the cigarette grabbed him and pulled him off his bike. They then hopped on his bike and took off. The police here are notoriously slow at night (could that be why so much crime takes place at night?), and once Zach managed to get someplace to call 911 (he left his cell phone at home!!!!) it took over an hour for the police to arrive. So, he is understandably upset. I'd like to get my hands on these scum! I guess I'm going to have to take a chance and get Zach some self defense classes. I haven't yet because I fear that he won't know a good time to use it from a bad time, but he needs to be able to protect himself. This is getting ridiculous.

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Hmmmmm, who could have predicted that gas prices in Idaho would not decrease at the same pace as the rest of the nation? Idaho gas prices are not falling alongside the national trend according to the Times News Wednesday! They report that

usually, Idaho gas prices are pretty consistent with national trends, but over the past two weeks there's been a bit of a disconnect.

Apparently they didn't care to listen to what Dave Carlson of AAA or Troy Willie of Oasis Stop 'N Go Stores had to say about the problem in their own news article. Both mention several possible causes of the problem, all of which would and have been common occurrences for us. But who could have predicted this attitude from the press and public? Oh, wait! I did! Maybe I'm Psychotic.

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I've reconsidered my desire to go to China to see the solar eclipse. Apparently, beheadings once took place in China due to eclipses. Granted, it was a long time ago and I am not an astrologer (like the one in the video clip above), but still, I do like my head attached at the shoulders.

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I visited the new LDS Temple with Megan and Steve Saturday. It was very bright and light. There was a lot of art on the walls. One room has a mural of Shoshone Falls on all walls, it is pretty cool. There were some original works of Idaho framed and hung on the walls in hallways, but too many works of Jesus were prints. I had hoped to see original works. I guess there are too few artists painting good religious pieces these days. I got a brochure and I am posting it here for your enjoyment.









The chandeliers were quite beautiful, and I usually don't get impressed by chandeliers.

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Wow! When I got home from work Tuesday night I thought about my poor scrutator post and wondered what in the world I would write about. Nothing at all seemed interesting. But here it is! I found something to write about so that I could publish this weeks totally unmoving scrutator.

Scrutator: A Little Here, A Little There

This week I would like to start with a couple of updates. First, I wrote about autism treatments in a previous scrutator. This week I read a post written by an autistic man. Joel talks about the kinds of treatments autistics need in order to navigate this world more effectively. It is an enlightening read, and it is written by an adult autistic man who should know what types of supports he needs in his life. They all seem pretty reasonable to me.

Last week I wrote about churches and the people who are picketing the opening of the Mormon Temple. The Times News has written a story about the protesters at the temple, and has written a follow-up editorial. What is really strange here is that the usual atheist crowd is conspicuously silent in the comments. All of these christian (mormons are christians, they do believe in christ) religions are bickering over who is right and who is wrong. Not one of them can present any real evidence for their beliefs. It's like constructing buildings for the express purpose of begging santa for presents, then arguing with other santa believers about whether santa has 8 or 9 reindeer, picketing each other with information about how santa won't bring the 8 reindeer believers presents because they don't believe in rudolf. Folks, there is no santa - there is no rudolf. I'm sure you can figure out where this is going.

The latest message coming from the catholic front is to stop planned parenthood from disseminating information to young people. The email states:

Ok so some pro-lifers may take things too far or seem a little freaky but after
watching these links to the Planned Parenthood site for teens (still children),
can we have any doubt that we need to start standing up for our children's right
to be at least somewhat wholesome and to regard sexuality with respect. I am
blown away. Who wants their children to watch this stuff and who wants their
children to treat sex and intimacy with such a disgusting attitude. Find a
way to stop planned parenthood from using OUR tax money to promote this kind of
disrespect and filth. This is only just shy of pornography.

They then link to the Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamet site where several little skits are provided to inform young people about sexually transmitted diseases and how to prevent them. "I Didn't Spew" and "Down There Song" are apparently the most reviled skits.

You know, folks, if parents would teach their children about sex, they wouldn't need to learn it from their peers, and we wouldn't need sites like this that try to redirect that shoddy sexual learning! Unless you live in a cave, you know that kids talk like this. After all, where do you think planned parenthood came up with the interesting vocabulary?

I think it's kind of cute, and it is educational above all else.

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The minimum wage increased again on Thursday. The same debate is still brewing, but this time the plummeting economy is in the mix.

Richard Vedder, an Ohio University Professor, thinks that this increase has come at a terrible time and that it will hurt the poor unskilled minority workers it is intended to help. I have to wonder where he thinks minimum wage workers work. They work at fast food restaurants, gas stations, grocery stores, retail stores. I don't really see these businesses going out of business because of a housing crunch.

Arindrajit Dube, labor economist with UC Berkeley Institute for Research on Labor and Employment doesn't believe there will be any job losses, because we haven't seen job losses yet due to variability in minimum wage rates. As a matter of fact, most experts agree that the minimum wage increase will act as the best stimulus relief package to date. The people who work at minimum wage jobs are the people who spend their money - and usually all of it - on things like food, shelter, gasoline and retail items. Their wage increase will benefit the companies they work for, not hurt them.

Minimum wage still needs to be increased to make up for 40 years of stagnation. Once it catches up, mechanisms need to be put in place that ensure inflation rate increases every year. Leaving it up to businesses obviously doesn't work. It is a sorry commentary on our nation that people can work two and three jobs and still fall under the poverty guidelines.

It's sad that we have to force employers to do what is right, but they have left us no choice. Being forced to victimize low wage earners in the US and abroad is not acceptable. We need to figure out how to stop allowing 20% of people from earning more than 50% of the money.

I really hate capitalism. It uses and abuses people. It robs people of happiness.

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A solar eclipse will take place on August first. Anyone want to go to Russia, Mongolia or China to see it with me? You have to pay for the trip of course, as I am poor.

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No wolf hunts! I'll never understand the way ranchers have opposed re-introducing wolves up here in the north-west, but I'm glad they're back. I was so disappointed that they were delisted and that states were going to allow hunts. But, it's ok for now, they will be back on the endangered species list until it is know how healthy the population really is. Come on, folks, they've only been here a few years. Nothing really bad has happened. When they eat your sheep, you get reimbursed. Wolves are prettier than sheep.

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And that's all I have for this week's scrutator.

Scrutator: Standards

Andrew S. Tanenbaum once said "The nice thing about standards is that there are so many of them to choose from." I couldn't describe the topic of this week's scrutator better myself. So I didn't.

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The mormon temple is now finished and open. For a while, they are allowing the public to tour the building. Then they will have some kind of cleansing ceremony and only some mormons will be allowed in. Megan wants me to go see it with her on Saturday. I figure it will be fun! A lot of expense went into this building. I wonder if mormons are the only religion left who believe their places of worship should be the best and most beautiful buildings. Of course, not all mormon churches are exquisite. Their churches are generally better looking than some of the other religions' around here, but they do a fabulous job on their temples. In fact, the temple inspired me to tour Twin Falls and take pictures of all the churches (all I could find anyway), and post them here. Some are dumpy little buildings, and some are rather pretty. And some are warehouses that have been prettied up like cheap whores.

The temple is a heck of a lot better than the warehouses some of the churches around here started building. Calvary chapel and amazing grace fellowship come to mind there. They both have made some entrance detail that improves curb appeal, but they are still just warehouses. The lighthouse christian fellowship doesn't even bother to build. They move into abandoned stores. That is why I didn't bother to get a photo of them. (Not on purpose anyway, I think they are the folks picketing in front of the mormon temple).

The temple reminds me of the days of old when the catholic church spared no expense in the artistry of their churches. They employed the best artists of their time to adorn the walls with amazing beauty. I've never seen one in person, but I'd like to. Our catholic church was the most beautiful church in town until the temple was built - at least in my opinion. I still think it is beautiful, and if it had gargoyles instead of cherubs, it would still be in my mind. It would be even better if you could still see the stained glass windows from outside, and still had real bells in the bell tower. I can still remember hearing the bells ring on clear mornings.

The united methodist church is beautiful too. They built onto it, which spoiled the effect, but the stained glass is pretty. The first baptist church has pretty windows too. It isn't my favorite style of building, but it is also pretty. The one thing the catholic church, united methodist church and first baptist church have in common is their age. They were all built during the early years of Twin Falls's existence. Churches were still something people took pride in. The buildings celebrated what was beautiful in the hearts and minds of people. It's nice to see that some religious groups still see that as important.






I went to a lot of work to make these pictures into thumbnails! I still think blogger should add thumbnail to picture size. You can mouse over the thumbnail to see the name of the church, and click on the thumbnail to see the full sized image.

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On the 4th of July I wrote about the whining taking place by Brandi Swindell and Bryan Fisher. Apparently, they have received enough donatons from their religious friends to take care of the matter.

They are paying the fine! Hopefully that means I won't have to listen to the whining any more!

The catholic church has a ten commandments monument in front of their church. I didn't know it was there until I saw it in the picture. Very observant, aren't I? (My gaze always went to bell towers and windows).

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I didn't intend to make this whole week about religion. It's just religion has been on my mind a lot lately. The nice thing about religions is, like standards, there are so many to choose from, or reject as you wish. I don't get picketing the temple, however. Mahatma Gandhi said "the various religions are like different roads converging on the same point. What difference does it make if we follow different routes, provided we arrive at the same destination.?" I guess what the protesters think is that the destinations are different. They don't know, though, do they? It's all faith. I guess that's the problem with faith - people keep hurting each other because they have different ideas about something there is no evidence for.

That and so many other ideas are being marinated in my mind, and hopefully it will culminate in another acquisition post. This one I am trying to do research on, but so far I'm not finding what I'm looking for. I still have a month before school starts to get it done, though - fingers crossed.


That does it for this weeks ex-communicated Scrutator. Enjoy the church pics!