Oliver Wendell Holmes

“Have the courage to act instead of react.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Ray Bradbury

“Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things.”

— Ray Bradbury

OK, so with the kids starting middle school, and with the girl already having a Facebook page (she’s too young for it, in my opinion, but her mom gave her the go-ahead), I have started to explain to them the damage that cyber bullying can do. She is 11, but I can already see the “mean girls” attitudes starting to show themselves in some of her friends (as a guy, I was oblivious to this while in school, so I couldn’t say when it usually starts). When I told her (the boy was happily zoning out with some game on his iTouch), she seemed genuinely shocked by what kinds of torment is dished out “all in good fun” and the harm it can cause.

So when I came across this item this morning, it made me think immediately of what I have been trying to convey to my kids and to not let it stand unchallenged (from WTAE-Pittsburgh):

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Jennifer McKendrick, a self-employed photographer in Indian County, Pa. is a photographer who, among other things, shoots portraits for the local high school yearbook. When, by happenstance, she saw four high school seniors bullying other kids on an anonymous Facebook page that went beyond just name-calling, she decided to do something about it.

“It was beyond ‘your clothes are ugly’ or ‘you don’t have any brand clothes’ or ‘you are ugly, your hair is not right.’ It was vicious. It was talking about sexuality,” McKendrick said.

McKendrick was scheduled to take the four senior girls’ yearbook portraits but instead keeping the appointments, she took screen shots of the online comments and sent them to her clients’ parents, saying she saw their children’s behavior on the Internet and was canceling their sessions and refunding their $200 deposits.

“I got a couple responses that said ‘thank you for letting them know,’ that they were unaware what was going on and that they would take care of it,” said McKendrick.

Below is an example of a letter that McKendrick sent to parents:

“I am writing to cancel your shoot scheduled _________ due to some recent events brought to my attention. After stumbling upon a Facebook page called (name removed), I witnessed mean and cruel behavior coming from _______. I am returning your depositing of $212.00 and I’m afraid you will need to find another photographer for your daughters senior photos. I want to protect the image of my business and the mean and hurtful things she has said on there is not the type of client I want to represent my business. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and I hope you understand my reasons for doing so. Please feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss this matter any further.”

Good show, Ms. McKendrick. I hope you get much more business for taking this stand and losing four sessions. I also hope those four girls learned something, too.
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I really don’t know of anything sums up America better. It’s simultaneously preposterous, incredibly laughable, impressive, charming, ridiculous, expensive, overpopulated, wonderful . . . American.”

He has a point:
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Gene Kelly

“I got started dancing because I knew it was one way to meet girls.”

— Gene Kelly

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Well, if you are quenching your afternoon thirst with a craft beer, do you know who you have to thank for it? Think late 1970s. Think about the name “Carter.”

No, not Billy Carter. His somewhat more-successful brother, Jimmy. Yes, that Jimmy. President Jimmy Carter made your delicious, complex IPA, porter, hefeweizen or stout possible, and to a great extent, forced the big breweries to at least try to put out something better than swill.

Says Tom Phipott:

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. . . what Carter actually did was deregulate the home-brew market—he made it legal to sell malt, hops, and yeast to home brewers. That, I believe as a significant move, because the US craft-beer industry was largely started by enthusiastic home brewers who went pro.”

So, the next time to raise a frothy, mug of your favorite tasty beverage, give ol’ JC some props. “Satisfactorily done, Mr. President!”

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Malcolm Forbes

“Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.”

— Malcolm Forbes

But it didn’t all end. After the end-game battle, there are still many issues facing the wizards and witches of the magical world.

The folks over at Foreign Policy have posted a white paper, written by the director of Human Rights Watch, the executive director of the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict and the director of national security and joint warfare at the U.S. Marine Corps War College, addressing the Big Four issues:

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. . . But if history teaches us anything (consider the bitter legacy still lingering from the 17th-century Goblin Wars or the recent experience of American Muggles in Iraq and Afghanistan), it is that the defeat of Voldemort by Harry Potter may have been the easy part. Indeed, one might even say it was child’s play. The hard work of postwar stabilization still lies ahead [in] . . . four pillars of post-conflict reconstruction: security, governance and participation, urgent social and economic needs, and justice and reconciliation.”

They really get down into the weeds of post-conflict magical world, citing recent reference points in offering suggestions on how to deal with sticky questions. If you are a Potter fan, I truly do recommend taking a few minutes to read this. It might also be helpful to show your teens and tweens who have read Potter and ask them if they can see any similarities to what’s going on in our own Muggle world (there’s a lot more than you might have imagined).

And if you have even a few more minutes to spare, check out the comments… some people really do have too much time on their hands.

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Mr. Gingrich’s presidential schedule shows him campaigning in Hawaii on Saturday and Monday, thousands of miles—and a big ocean—away from Iowa and New Hampshire. . . . Mr. Gingrich’s official campaign schedule says that he will “join the Maui G.O.P. for a meeting with local activists at the Door of Faith Church” on Saturday. On Monday, he will “discuss the American founding with the students at Seabury Hall preparatory school” in Makawao, also on Maui.

Hmmm . . . everyone else running for the Republican nomination is in Iowa or South Carolina or New Hampshire—you know, king-maker states vital to a winning campaign. But not old Newt. Nope, seeing as how his campaign is going nowhere on the Mainland, he’s going to be looking for votes while he’s looking for sea shells on the beaches of Maui.

For some reason, this image came to mind:
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President Richard Nixon was never a kick-up-your-heels-kinda guy anyway. Which probably explained his preference for sturdy, no-nonsense, GOP establishment-style footwear—even for a walk along the beach.

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And if old Newtie decided to loosen up, the lucky citizens of Maui can look forward to this.
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