This Easter sucked for three reasons 1) Church 2) Burglary 3) Howard Stern.
Well, I need to qualify. Easter was 1) Exhausting and awkward 2) Angering and Disappointing and 3) Insulting to the constitution.
1) Church
The church service was really nice. For the first two hours. The remaining 2 hours, I wanted to leap from the choir loft and end my misery.
The service started at 11:30 at night. I didn't get home until 3:45 am. Yowza! The worst part is - the church doesn’t have pews. The priest though that pews were for lazy people, and had them all removed. People were expected to stand the whole time. Yipes.
2) Burglary - Lindsey call me this morning and asks me "You didn't happen to take the server home this weekend, did you?" Um, no. "Oh, crap. Then we were robbed."
Yup - someone kicked down the door to the office and made off with our server. Our entire student files, all of our class schedules - gone. The worst part is, the cops didn't take any prints or do anything other than fill out a report - the burglar is going to get off scot-free on this one. Grrrr!
We reported the server stolen to Dell, so if anyone calls Dell looking for help setting the thing up, Dell will call the cops. Other than that, there's nothing to do but sit on our thumbs and wait for a new server.
Here's the good side:
1) the burglary happened when there were no teachers or students in the building, so no one got hurt. The other office hat was robbed is leased by a woman who always brings her baby to work with her. They weren't in the building either, thank goodness.
2) Insurance will cover the server. We should get a new one within a week, if all goes well.
3) We have time to vacuum the office.
Here's the poopy side:
1) We are so dependent on our server that there's not much we can get done without it.
2) The burglar totally obliterated the door. I'll be picking wood shards out of the carpet for a while.
3) Someone's going to get away with stealing a $5000 server.
3) Howard Stern Howard has been dropped by Clear Channel permanently after receiving nearly 500K in fines from the FCC. The charges stem from his usual perverted radio show which (I admit) is not everyone's cup of tea. However, I think that his firs amendment rights have been violated. Because the FCC does not like what Stern has to say (he is no more graphic than cable tv or the evening news, in my opinion) they have forced him off the air. Even if I find Stern's material objectionable, I don't think he should be pulled from the air simply because I don't like what he has to say. Sounds like fascist censorship to me.
What do you think? At what point does the FCC move from radio watchdog to legislator of morality? And is that a good thing or a bad thing?
I don't like Howard Stern's show. So I don't listen to it. That seems simple enough to me.
Howard wasn't exactly taken off the air by facists. Clear Channel was fined and decided they didn't want to pay that much for his show. I admit, this is borderline censhorship - unecessary and unfair.
I'm the type of person that says I don't like Howard but listen to him all the time anyway. If I were a parent, I would sefinitely skip his show. I'm capable of censoring wha I listen to. I don't appreciate the FCC making that decision for me.
Remember John, Clear Channel was behind the Janet Jackson Superbowl thing. I don't buy the sanctimonious "he's too indecent for us to keep on the payroll" hoodoo.
Posted by: Jen at April 13, 2004 12:59 AMMaybe don't listen to anything that is owned or operated by Clear Channel? Oh! Ok just turn off the radio and TV - :)
I don't know if I'm more concerned that you *have* an office hat or that someone leases the hat. :)
Sorry about your server :(
Posted by: susan at April 13, 2004 6:59 AMRight, that's what I meant. If someone doesn't like a show, don't listen.
I agree that Clear Channel did not take him off because they are pure and clean. It was about money (they're in it for a profit). The FCC is not directly censoring but making it economically difficult which indirectly censors Stern (and has changed the range of material that I can sell).
Okay, but Clear Channel has only dropped him from six of their gazillion markets. It smacks of tokenism.
Susan...office hat...it would accessorize perfectly with a shark stick! :D
Posted by: Jen at April 13, 2004 8:45 AMJen--why was the church service so long???
Posted by: JennySmith at April 13, 2004 9:48 AMOur liberty cannot be guarded but by the freedom of the press, nor that be limited without danger of losing it." --Thomas Jefferson to John Jay, 1786.
"I am... for freedom of the press, and against all violations of the Constitution to silence by force and not by reason the complaints or criticisms, just or unjust, of our citizens against the conduct of their agents." --Thomas Jefferson to Elbridge Gerry, 1799. ME 10:78
"It is so difficult to draw a clear line of separation between the abuse and the wholesome use of the press, that as yet we have found it better to trust the public judgment, rather than the magistrate, with the discrimination between truth and falsehood. And hitherto the public judgment has performed that office with wonderful correctness." --Thomas Jefferson to M. Pictet, 1803. ME 10:356
"[If a book were] very innocent, and one which might be confided to the reason of any man; not likely to be much read if let alone, but if persecuted, it will be generally read. Every man in the United States will think it a duty to buy a copy, in vindication of his right to buy and to read what he pleases." --Thomas Jefferson to N. G. Dufief, 1814. ME 14:128
Posted by: John at April 13, 2004 11:10 AMJenny - the priest decided to chant nearly the entire book of...erm...matthew, I think. I do know he read for a long time in greek, english, russian, and spanish.
Ay, chihuahua.
Posted by: Jen at April 13, 2004 9:47 PMoh god that service sounds horrible, more like a good friday service focusing on suffering than a celebratory easter service. and who can carry a heavy server like that?? a burglar with a friend and a truck i guess.
Posted by: kat at April 19, 2004 9:07 AM