The principal of Sewells Point Elementary School has apologized to parents for a teacher’s classroom exercise last week that cast her black and mixed-race fourth-graders as available for sale.

The apology came after the teacher separated the students from their white classmates and auctioned them, division spokeswoman Elizabeth Thiel Mather said. The exercise was part of an April 1 class on the Civil War.

In an April 6 letter sent to parents of students in the class, Principal Mary B. Wrushen wrote: “I recently became aware of a history lesson that was presented to the students in Ms. Jessica Boyle’s fourth grade class. Although her actions were well intended to meet the instructional objectives, the activity presented was inappropriate for the students.

What was this woman thinking?  My God.

[note: It's amazing what information you can find by googling someone.  Actually, it is quite scary.  I googled her to see if I could come up with any other information on the incident, but instead I found old social network sites, her alma mater, etc.  Really scary what someone can find.]

Predictably, the idiot’s actions pissed off another set of idiots a half a world away, and now twenty innocent people are dead.

Today’s violence came after two or three hours of protests over the Florida Quran burning, which was broadcast online. Demonstrators started throwing stones at the UN compound then attempted to climb its walls and attacked guards. In addition to as many as 20 UN workers being killed, at least four protestors died. The UN’s chief of mission in the city was injured but survived the attack.

Afghanistan saw several protests when Mr. Jones previously planned to burn the Koran on the anniversary of 9/11 last year. The controversial pastor of Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla., decided not to go through with it at the time, largely due to a phone call from top Afghanistan commander US Gen. David Petraeus, who warned that the defamation of the Quran would likely cost the lives of US service men and women Afghanistan.

Jones decided to go through with the burning on March 20 after serving as judge in a “trial” of the Muslim holy book. He found it “guilty” of “training and promoting terrorist activities … death, rape, torture of people worldwide” and crimes against women and minorities.

Terry Jones knew what the ramifications of this action were going to be.  He had been warned by President Obama, David Petraeus, and most of the reality based world.  He choose not to listen and this led to the deaths of twenty people.  Jones is not a murderer, but he is definitely a conspirator.

Below is the video of his Koran burning.  Two things to watch out for:

1. Notice the mock trial at the beginning.  I’ve thought for awhile that extreme Evangelical Christianity has a certain element of infantilism that isn’t based in any reality or even in the more mainstream versions of Christianity.  I felt like I was watching a bunch of adults taking part in a child’s tea party.  It was surreal.

2.  You can’t tell me that an element of racism wasn;t involved in this “production.”  At 3:25, notice the female voice in the background going “alalalalalalalala” in an imitation of what she must have thought was some sort of Muslim war chant.

The Internet, however, has allowed like minded absurdists with crazy ideas and stupid notions to get together and confirm each other ideas and notions as something other than inane drivel.  When that happens?  You get some really sick stuff.

That brings me to this collection of Facebook posts made in response to the horrific Japanese earthquake and resulting tsunami.  I would post the picture, but the number of crazy ideas and stupid notions posted required a file so large that it wouldn’t fit on my blog.  So enjoy.

[hattip: Civil Commotion]

While the judge did not get off unpunished, the fact he is still allowed to stand in judgement of others with such disregard or ignorance of the rule of law defies logic.

A judge in Dickson County, Tenn., had officers pull a spectator out of his courtroom “on a hunch,” held him in custody and made him submit to a urinalysis for drugs, the man claims in Federal Court. Benjamin Marchant claims that General Sessions Judge Durwood Moore admitted that he “routinely drug-screens ‘spectators’ in his courtroom if he ‘thinks’ they may be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.” Moore allegedly called it the “routine policy of the court.”

“My father was a Baptist minister. I’m a Christian man. I have problems with people who don’t believe in God,” said Edgerton, a former local NAACP president and founder of Southern Heritage 411, a group that promotes the interests of black Southerners.

2 points to make about that quote.

1) Good for you. Your father was a Baptist minister. You are a Christian. You have a problem with me. That’s great. My father was a sane man. I’m an sane man. I have problems with people who have a tenuous grasp on reality.

2) Since when is Southern Heritage 411 a group that “promotes the interest of Black Southerners?” Really? Go to their site and show me anything to do with the advancement of the interests of Black Southerners. Anything.

Just now is the height of the Southern Baptists’ annual Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, and today is the anniversary of her birth in 1840. A missionary to China, she is routinely described as “the nearest thing Protestants have to a saint.”

Famously, she broke off her engagement to the scholar Crawford Toy because he doubted the literal truth of Genesis, and she has ever since been held up as the exemplar toward which all believers should strive. Budding pastors are encouraged to cite her example to their congregations, to steer, and be steered, by it.

Almost never do they remark that acute loneliness was the central theme of her life, a constant refrain in her letters home.

GAP-(some really whoppers)

…Don’t you guys understand that taking Christmas out of your store is discriminating against most Americans?

I agree that the ads, in the interest of being “inclusive” are actually offensive to people of faith. …

WTF!!!!!

…offensive that they would compare the BIRTH of our SAVIOR to other “holidays”….

How dare they!!!

Just heard about Gap deciding against Christmas. They are comparing Christmas to cults and witchcraft and encouraging folks to celebrate the “holiday” in whatever manner they see fit. Come on, Gap, take a stand for what is RIGHT – you benefit from our Christmas dollars for Christmas gifts. Because of their stand on Christmas, I won’t be buying anything from Gap this year. Come on Gap! Celebrate Christmas! Jesus died for EVERYONE!

Their adds(sic) offend me – Christmas is lumped into all of the other “winter celebrations” like Kwanza, Hanukkah, winter solstice…

The horror of having to be compared to cultish holidays like……Hanukkah.  The horror.  The absolute horror.  How will they ever survive?

Best Buy (Muslims beware)

At a Cairo or Bagdahd Best Buy, I would understand a recognition of a Muslim holiday of sacrifice. However, in AMERICA, it is Pilgrims and Christians who sacrificed for THIS country …

Because no Muslim, or Jew, or Hindu, or Atheist has ever sacrificed for this nation. FYI, the Pilgrims were Christian.

As a USMC vet and college professor my wife and I have been excited to go to Best Buy and purchase a new sound system for our home. Now that I have reviewed the Christmas and Christian offensive language they use to draw in customers they have lost our business now and in the future. I hope more people will begin to see the real light and spend their money where Christmas is honored. Dr.T.

Christian offensive language? Best Buy acknowledged the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha which celebrates the horrific act of Abraham sacrificing his son on orders from the man in the sky. Isn’t that story in the Christian Bible as well?

Best Buy included the Muslim greeting for their day of sacrifice with their Thanksgiving flyer. I wrote and told them it was offensive to Christians and plain old Americans. They responded that their customers and employees represent a variety of faiths and denominations and they choose to greet customers and employees in ways that reflect their traditions.

Do these people not realize or accept that we live in a pluralistic society where people of many faiths(or none), ethnicities, races, and mindsets live. Not everyone chooses to live the way they live and there is nothing they can do about it. You can lash out like a child–which seems to be these people’s response– or act like an adult and get over it.

My advice….Get over it.