Is This Blog On? version 2.0

The guest bloggers are killing Protein Wisdom. Don’t bother clicking. It’s not loading today.

Name some good songs to RUN to. I find running needs entirely different songs from, say, an elliptical trainer. System of a Down is great for that. Too angry for running though.

*Note: suggest Madonna and you will be banned.

Right here, next to the computer.

I gotta go. Let things air out.

I agreed (since I didn’t exactly volunteer) to teach a Catechism class for my church. The church was (obviously) desperate. Anyway, I got stuck blessed with fourth graders. I don’t want to say that they are little terrors, but they talk incessantly, giggle, fall off of their chairs … you put it together. Not to appear sexist, but I have a class made up primarily of boys. Whose idea was it to give the new gal a class of boys? Trial by fire, I guess.

Today, I really have to get them under control, or I fear all is lost. I ‘m thinking I have to come up with a game or something that we can regularly play if they get the “work” part of the class done in time. Any ideas? Any advice is welcome.

The new fall television season is upon us, and I thought I’d list the new additions I plan on watching :

That ought to sum it up. I hate new shows, and I never watch them. Through the process of attrition, this would eventually lead to watching zero tv. That’s not entirely how it works, because occasionally I’ll hear someone talking about a show, and I might check it out. That’s what happened with House. And, many moons ago, with Buffy. Sometimes, I check them out, watch for a few weeks and then decide I really don’t like them; Desperate Housewives. To be honest, my goal is to watch less TV, not more, which is why I don’t even start with new programs. That leaves me with:

24
Battlestar Galatica (which has a rather short season)
House

These are (pretty much) the only shows I TiVo. Everything else depends on how desperate I am to watch something (anything.) Last night I ended up watching the last forty-five minutes of Bridget Jones’ Diary.

Never mind the violence occurring today, let’s focus on what the Catholic church used to do:
 Pope Benedict XVI’s reference to dark aspects in Islam’s history also has opened up another type of backlash for his church: fresh examinations of its past as conqueror, inquisitor and patron of missionaries whose zeal sometimes led to conflict with other faiths.

Right, let’s dig into these past issues, because, you know, no on is going to declare a fatwa and go on jihad if we criticize Christians.

“No religion is without their unholy periods,” said the Rev. Khalil Samir, a Vatican envoy for interfaith links in Lebanon. “To admit this is an important step to real understanding and dialogue.”

Except, Islam will admit no such thing, of course.

In recent decades, Islamic groups and others have increasingly targeted Christian missionaries for allegations of forced conversions and as symbols of Western interference

Well, of course that is because there is no other God but Allah, and Mohammed is his Prophet. Duh.

I find that the endorphins don’t kick in until after mile THREE (when I was younger, it used to be after mile two.) Of course, if I only run three miles, I completely miss the whole positive vibe of running. It’s just one long, sustained effort to keep moving.

But, last night I went to four. Yea me.

That the average home has more TVs than people.

We’ve got 7 people and 2 tvs. Actually, we have three – we bought a small one for the PS2, but it only occasionally gets used since the kids prefer to use the larger tv in the basemen.

Typhoid fever is an infectious feverish disease with severe symptoms in the digestive system in the second phase of the illness.

Sounds good so far.

Classic typhoid fever is a serious disease. It can be life-threatening, but antibiotics are an effective treatment. The disease lasts several weeks and convalescence takes some time.

Do you think they have antibiotics in the caves of Afghanistan or Pakistan? Because I’m guessing that might be tricky.

The disease is transmitted from human to human via food or drinking water, and it is therefore mainly hygiene and sanitary conditions that determine its spread. It is primarily for this reason that it is no longer so commonly seen in Europe.

Bad hygiene you say? Well, I, for one, am shocked at the very suggestion.

You can read all the details here, but here is where it starts to get good:

2nd phase: in the second to third weeks of the disease, symptoms of intestinal infection are manifested and the fever remains very high and the pulse becomes weak and rapid. In the third week the constipation is replaced by severe pea-soup-like diarrhoea. The faeces may also contain blood. It is not until the fourth or fifth week that the fever drops and the general condition slowly improves

Unless, of course, you never got those antibiotics.

Intestinal perforation or profuse bleeding from the intestinal mucosa may occur if typhoid fever is left untreated.

Ouch, that sounds bad.

If Osama turns up dead, you can all thank me, because I have been faithfully praying to God to strike this evil man down. Or, should I say, you can Thank God. And go to church and show him a bit of gratitude.

Mark Steyn reviewing a new book by Lawrence Write on the development of the current jihadists we fae:

In an Islamist grievance culture, the tower doesn’t have to be that tall to loom. The tragedy in Wright’s book is that across little more than half a century a loser cult has metastasized, eventually to swallow almost all the moderate, syncretic forms of Islam. What was so awful about Sayyid Qutb’s experience in America that led him to regard modernity as an abomination? Well, he went to a dance in Greeley, Colo.: “The room convulsed with the feverish music from the gramophone. Dancing naked legs filled the hall, arms draped around the waists, chests met chests, lips met lips . . .”

In 1949, Greeley, Colo., was dry. The dance was a church social. The feverish music was Frank Loesser’s charm song Baby, It’s Cold Outside. But it was enough to start a chain that led from Qutb to Zawahiri in Egypt to bin Laden in Saudi Arabia to the mullahs in Iran to the man arrested in Afghanistan on Sept. 11. And it’s a useful reminder of how much we could give up and still be found decadent and disgusting by the Islamists. A world without Baby, It’s Cold Outside will be very cold in