Strong Opinions No. 6 - Headphones!

I've heard that the most frightening thing a human being can experience is realizing that your perception of yourself is wildly different from way others percieve you. Well, contrary to my own self-view that I'm not a terribly opinionated chap, my GW compatriots have recently made it clear that I am a regular font of directed angst. They may be right--but I'm not giving up until more significant evidence appears. As it stands now, all they have on me is this:

(1) I don't like the panhandle of Florida.
(2) I am forever the enemy of whoever translated the movie "Witness" into Italian and decided it would be hilariouis to switch the word "Amish" with the word "Mormon." ("Oh, so you guys are the one's with the really long beards and no electricity, right?")
(3) I hang my head in shame whenever I see a hummer limo...
(4) I'm not exactly sure why Portugal exists.
(5) Ice Skating/Gymnastics

Frankly, that's not enough to change my mind about myself. But just to be sporting, I'll add one more to the list: headphones. Why do headphones inevitably, unavoidably, necessarily end up in an impossibly tangled mass that always takes at least three hours to unwind? You could leave them on your desk for 2 minutes and when you come back they will look like a boy scout troop used them to practice their double half-hitches. Something should be done about this. Nay, something must be done about this!! And I am not an opiniated person!

Finish reading post.

Only a Hockey Mom

http://espn.go.com/outdoors/general/news/2006/0221/2338668.html

I love Hockey!!!!!!

Finish reading post.

Do You Believe In Mildly Surprising Upsets In Sports That Nobody Watches?

So I'm sitting here on my couch watching the olympics, as I have been for the last four or five hours (I love Presidents Day), and the women's hockey gold medal game comes on. In the pre-game I find out that Sweden has upset the United States to make it to this game and apparently the US was favored. Then it happened, the foul blasphemer of a commentator had the nerve to compare Sweden's win over the US to the 1980 US win over the Soviet Union.

I don't know if the rest of you follow hockey like I do, but if you do you will understand the great offense that this caused me. The Soviet Union had dominated olympic and international play for decades before the Miracle on Ice, it's players were trained from the time they were fetuses (feti?) to play with machine-like precision. It was a bunch of college kids against the greatest hockey program in the world at that time. The US women's team has been around since '98, won a gold, a silver, and a bronze today. It is a far cry from a comparison to the 1980 USSR team.

Then there are the political overtones that don't need much mention, but that game sure ment a heck of a lot more to Americans than this one could ever mean to Swedes (especially when the Swedish mens team is still going strong).

I understand the need to hype up your programing, and I have no problem with women's hockey, but let's not go overboard. I hope you have enjoyed my post, I feel that it is the greatest piece of literature since War and Peace.

Finish reading post.

Let 'em Dance!

Back in August of 2004, when LYMA was a mere babe in the arms of its proverbial mother, I made the following post about olympic gymnastics:

"Ok, I'm no gymnastics fan, but I'll easily admit that it's one of the most athletically demanding sports out there. I mean, these people are flexible, agile, quick and really, really buff. Under Doug's post I complained about the women gymnasts to this effect: why can't these women just do their flips and twists without pretending to dance and be graceful. I do understand it's a requirement that they dance, but for me it really doesn't add much, and most of the dancing come across forced and not at all graceful."

"Let 'em dance, if they want to dance, right?? Right! But then, horror of horrors, I watched the men's floor routines. There was no music. There was no dancing. There were no wierdly protruding lower rib cages. All I saw were good old flips and twists. Now if this isn't a double standard, then I'm Mary Lou Retton. Look at Ice Skating for example - both the men and the women have to dance and fly and twist to do what they do. So which is it (here comes a "false dilemma"): are male gymnasts just too buff and cool to dance with their flips or is there a sexist expectation that men are to exhibit strength and women grace?"


Back to the "cooler" olympics. Here's my updated question on all this: why do we even need this fruity dancing business at all? Why can't we have people skate around and do their thing without the bedazzled costumes and femmy hip-twists? I admit that ballet takes an incredible amount of athletic skill; but that doesn't mean ballet is a sport. I think we just need to all come out of the closet and say that ice dancing is just art. Let's leave the rhinestones where they belong and only have real sports in the olympics.

How's that for an opinion?!?

Finish reading post.

Want to know the REAL cause of Islamic protests? It's the booming Danish flag industry

Ok, so I was watching the news on this whole cartoon thingy, and all I can see is burning Danish flags in every picture. I was in the process of shaking my head in confusion at the seemingly adolescent display, when it hit me - Where did they get all those Danish flags? I live in D.C., and I've seen all of two or three Danish flags in all my time here. It seems like every family in some of these countries had a Danish flag to spare. But wait! They couldn't possibly all have Danish flags lying around, could they? Forget diplomacy, all we have to do is shut down whoever is shipping all of these flags to the Muslim world and we will stop riots. I really think that if we can just take away all the flag-fuel for their fires, things would just work themselves out.

Finish reading post.

"Daddy, can I quit now?" Tales from "BEFORE" the Crib

Recently I was browsing through The Eternal Marriage Student Manual (for Religion234 and 235 if you're curious), and there is a chapter entitled "Birth Control." It has such great quotes as, "Birth Control is wickedness" by Joseph Fielding Smith (on page 15 if anyone wants to read that zinger). It also has the story of an anonymous President of the Church's daughter, who was in her mid-40s and after suffering a miscarraige on her 9th child was visited by her father (the Prophet) in the hospital. She asked him, "Daddy can I quit now?" His response: "Don't ask me. If you two can face Heavenly Father with a good conscience and say you have done your best then you may quit."

Elder ( later President) Benson said, " The world teaches Birth Control. Tragically, many of our sisters subscribe to its pills and practices, when they could easily provide earthly tabernacles for more of our Father's children."

The First Presidency in 1969 wrote to Church leaders saying" Where husband and wife enjoy health and vigor and are free from impurities that would be entailed upon their posterity, it is contrary to the teachings of the Church artificially to curtail or prevent the birth of Children."

Interestingly, President Smith's quotation was written about the same time that the Supreme Court decision of Griswold v. Connecticut loosened state controls on contraceptives like birth control pills (the Connecticut statute surely was intended to curb birth control); and Elder Benson's and the First Presidency's statements were a few years later, when the controversy over contraceptives was still pretty big.

Recently, President Hinckley said, "I am offended by the sophistry that the onl lot of the Latter-day Saint woman is to be barefoot and pregnant. It is a clever phrase but false.... He did not designate the number nor has the Church. This is a sacred matter left up to the couple and the Lord."

He then quotes the Church Handbook of instructions which says the same thing.

My questions are: Has the Church changed its stance on this? Does the Church create these 'policies' based on reactions to current events or perceived attacks on the family, ie. the controversy surrounding Birth Control at the time the statements were made???

Were women encouraged to stay home and produce child after child as a means to keep them from becoming involved in the Feminist movements in the 70s?

It seems odd that the Church would be so extremist in its policies, doesn't it? You must absolutely have many many children or it is contrary to the teachings of the Church..

What happened to bring the Church more to the middle? President Hinckley's quote sounds much different from the other three ( One of these things is not like the other...).

And, why, if the Church has changed its policy, would they keep these old quotes from the Prophets in a brand new edition of the book. Why is it necessary?

Why should we need to be told how many to have? Even if its not doctrine, it sure sounds like its a "custom" or part of the "culture" of Mormondom to have as many as possible.....

For example, A High Councilman came and spoke at Church the other day, he said before he and his wife were married, they set a goal to have 10, yes TEN children. He was so proud to announce that they had BEATEN that goal by 40% ( or 4 more children) so they are the proud parents of 14 children. Not that there is anything wrong with that- but is it really necessary to gloat at the pulpit?

Finish reading post.