Tuition Woes- Or Tuition, Tuition, Tuition

Tuition, Tuition, Tuition. I can't get that word out of my head. It is like someone took a spear and left it lodged inside my skull, a tiny implant that beeps and whistles.

My son has been accepted to a private school that I really like. Out of all of the schools that he could attend this is unquestionably my first choice, but life is never that easy.

You see, I have the same challenge as so many other parents. How the hell can I pay for school without going bankrupt. He is not an only child. Whatever I do for him has to be done for his sister too.

I went to public school and I turned out just fine, it is not impossible that he could too. But the thing is that I am not at all impressed with the local public school, the neighborhood school. It left me underwhelmed and unimpressed, so he is not going to go there.

There is a chance that he might be able to get into a different public school, but no guarantee that this will happen.

Given the choice I prefer this private school I mentioned. I think that it meets his needs in so many ways.

All of this begs the question of when does sacrificing for your children cross the line of reality and common sense.

I Don't Like American Idol

I just don't. I don't find it funny. Ryan Seacrest is among the most irritating people I can think of and the music generally sucks. Feh on American Idol.

Bishop: Occupation a factor in persecution

"A leading U.S. Catholic bishop said Israel’s occupation is a factor in the persecution of Christians in Muslim lands.

“The failure to secure a just solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with its resulting occupation of Palestinian lands, sometimes spills over into prejudices and distrusts of indigenous Christians in Muslim nations,” said Bishop Thomas Wenski of Miami."

Has he ever heard of the crusades or considered the role colonial Europe played in creating an atmosphere of distrust.

Some of My Most Popular Posts

The following is a list of the posts that have been most widely read. It is meaningless trivia, but then again I love playing Trivial Pursuit. Go Figure. Carnivals are excluded from this list.

As a point of interest these are not necessarily my favorite posts.

Happy Holidays is An Appropriate Greeting

What The Hell Happened to Courtesy

Revenge of the Sith- Reviews

Love That Takes Your Breath Away

Pictures of the Disengagement

CNN's Interview With Mark Hamil

A funny email about anger management

Stupid Videos

It Is Not My Thong

The GermoPhobe

DNA Clears Fog Over Latino Links to Judaism

Star Wars Versus Lord of The Rings- Which has Had the Bigger Impact

She Has a Perfect Memory

I found this story to be very interesting, but I can't remember why.

"McGaugh's journey through an intellectual purgatory began six years ago when a woman now known only as AJ wrote him a letter detailing her astonishing ability to remember with remarkable clarity even trivial events that happened decades ago.

Give her any date, she said, and she could recall the day of the week, usually what the weather was like on that day, personal details of her life at that time, and major news events that occurred on that date.

Like any good scientist, McGaugh was initially skeptical. But not anymore.

"This is real," he says.

Soon after AJ took over his life, McGaugh teamed with two fellow researchers at the University of California at Irvine. Elizabeth Parker, a clinical professor of psychiatry and neurology (and lead author of a report on the research in the current issue of the journal Neurocase), and Larry Cahill, an associate professor of neurobiology and behavior, have joined McGaugh in putting AJ through an exhaustive series of interviews and psychological tests. But they aren't a lot closer today to understanding her amazing ability than they were when they started.

"We are trying to find out, but we haven't hit 'bingo' yet," says McGaugh.

His initial hypothesis, like several others, has turned out to be wrong — or at least incomplete.

McGaugh has spent decades studying how such things as stress hormones and emotions affect memory, and at first he thought AJ's memories were of such emotional power that she couldn't forget them.

But that hypothesis fell short of the mark when it became obvious that "the woman who can't forget" remembers trivial details as clearly as major events. Asked what happened on Aug 16, 1977, she knew that Elvis Presley had died, but she also knew that a California tax initiative passed on June 6 of the following year, and a plane crashed in Chicago on May 25 of the next year, and so forth. Some may have had a personal meaning for her, but some did not."

Read the whole thing.

Do You Recognize This Man?

He is a character in one of my favorite movies. I can virtually guarantee that you are familiar with the theme music.

Tom Cruise vs. 'South Park'?

The man's career takes a new turn. Has he not realized that all he does is provide more fodder for them.

"LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- Actor Tom Cruise threatened to boycott promotion of his upcoming Paramount Pictures film unless a sister cable TV network pulled a "South Park" rerun lampooning the Church of Scientology, industry sources said on Friday.

Representatives for Paramount and Cruise, a prominent Scientologist, denied he made any such threats or had anything to do with the Comedy Central network canceling plans to air a repeat of the "South Park" episode titled "Trapped in the Closet," on Wednesday.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of the crudely animated cartoon hit, issued a quirky statement, filled with references to Scientology and the science-fiction writings of church founder L. Ron Hubbard, suggesting Scientology was behind the scheduling change.

"So, Scientology, you have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for Earth has just begun," the pair wrote.

"Temporarily anozinizing our episode will NOT stop us from keeping Thetans forever trapped in your pitiful man-bodies. Curses and drat! You have obstructed us for now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail! Hail Xenu!!!"