Random musings….

1.  According to The Daily Mirror, new mommie Angelina Jolie will have to gain 28 pounds for her lead role in the upcoming The Thomas Crown Affair. A moment, please, while I go celebrate with a pint of Chubby Hubby.

2. Michael Savage said that 99% of autistic children are simply brats who aren’t properly disciplined by their parents. From an AP story: “On his radio show last week, he said: “What do you mean they scream and they’re silent? They don’t have a father around to tell them, ‘Don’t act like a moron. You’ll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don’t sit there crying and screaming, you idiot.”’ Perhaps Mr.Savage might consider that, based on his own definition, he might be autistic. Severely so.

3. You might want to check out Facebook to see if your doctor has a profile there. According to an AP article on www.msn.com: “Erick W. Black, one of the[Univeristy of Florida] researchers, said he found pictures of [medical]students grabbing their breasts and crotches, posing with a dead raccoon and multiple photos of residents and medical students drinking heavily.Many students had joined Facebook groups that could be considered sexist, racist or downright nasty, with many using vulgar language. Some of the tamer groups included “Physicians looking for trophy wives in training” and “PIMP” (Party of Important Male Physicians).”One of Black’s favorite groups, which has 5,700 members nationwide, is “I’m a doctor and I hope my patients don’t see me on Facebook.”

4. The Lamar County school board in Mississippi is “concerned that casual contact between students and teachers would be unprofessional,” so they’re prohibiiting teachers from communicating with students via any Internet social networks.

“The only intent is to limit the personal communication between teachers and students,” Superintendent Ben Burnett told The Hattiesburg American newspaper. “We don’t need to let it cross the line between professional and personal communication.”

Horrors! Teachers and students having casual contact in writing? Crossing THE LINE between professional and personal? Are teachers going to be allowed to cheer at sporting events? Talk to students when they’re chaperoning dances? Oh, my, what about those after-school club meetings? Conventions?

By all means Superintendent Burnett, just think of the consequences if teachers and students personally communicated. They might l-i-k-e talking to one another; they might l-e-a-r-n information that could lead to s-u-c-c-e-s-s. Because, I’m sure, all those teachers and students who were truly engaged in extra-curriculars arranged their trysts on Facebook or My Space first.

S-T-U-P-I-D.