"Dear Dr. Laura" is making the rounds again

The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. - Shakespeare

(Warning to religious conservatives and homophobes, read no further. It will only put you off your bran flakes.) 

With a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage on the Minnesota ballot this fall, the wickedly funny (and to the point) letter below is circulating again. It's good to see. The letter has an interesting history (as does Dr. Schlessinger herself) on Snopes.

I always get in trouble with some readers for posting on "off topic" social issues (like here). While I've never had much interest in marrying another guy and my own children are all straight or digisexuals, I have very good friends to whom this is a very important issue in their families. And if you don't support your friends, what damn good are you?

Fire away...

Dear Dr. Laura:

Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law.

I have learned a great deal from your show, and try to share that knowledge  with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination. ... End of debate.

I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements of God's Law and how to follow them.

1. When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odour for the Lord - Lev.1:9. The problem is my neighbours. They claim the odour is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?
2. I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?
3. I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanliness - Lev.15: 19-24. The problem is how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offence.
4. Lev. 25:44 states that I may indeed possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighbouring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?
5. I have a neighbour who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2. The passage clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself?
6. A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination - Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this? Are there 'degrees' of abomination?
7. Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle room here?
8. Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev.19:27. How should they die?
9. I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?
10. My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev. 19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? - Lev.24:10-16. Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14)

I know you have studied these things extensively and thus enjoy considerable expertise in such matters, so I am confident you can help.

Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging.

Your adoring fan,

Anonymous

Why I don't get more done

E-mail: a to-do list to which anyone can add.

In Beware Email’s Cunning Little Ways, Tim Hartford writes:

I recently heard a question that brought me up short: what does email want?* ... So let's list some key attributes of email. First, email, like the old-fashioned stuff that comes through the letter box, is an equal-opportunity system. Anyone with your address can reach you from anywhere in the world. ...

Second, email programs do, however, have their own priorities: they venerate whatever is new, placing it at the top of your inbox, highlighting it, and if you are not careful, interrupting you to announce its arrival.

Third, emails don't expire. ...

Fourth, emails provide a written record. This can be very useful (and occasionally dangerous) but it encourages your inbox to become your "To Do" list. ...

Email is also a system ... It is possible for an individual to opt out of such systems, but usually easier to adapt yourself than to adapt the system.

Finally, because email is very cheap and easy to send, there's a lot of it about. You may have noticed.

This is approximately the 20th anniversary of when I first began using e-mail on a regular basis. In 1992, after one abandoned attempt, I started to regularly check my palsdaj@vax1.msus.edu account that I was given by by a mentor at the local university. Always more visionary than I, Frank thought e-mail might be a big deal someday. 

Oh for the time when I was sincerely disappointed on the days I didn't get a single e-mail. (LM_Net soon took care of that.)

E-mail has become for me, like many, a huge time suck. Despite my most valiant efforts to adopt a zero-in-box mentality, build good filtering systems, use canned responses to regular requests (Would you please share this on your blog?), and skim and scan most e-newsletter, e-mail takes up far too much of my day.

But I have to admit, e-mail is still as much a bad habit as anything, Rather than starting a legitimate task immediately, it's just too easy to check the damn inbox "just one more time."

Or check the GoogleReader feed. Or check Twitter stream. Happily, Facebook is not yet a personal addiction.

As helpful and informative as some of these tools are, I would also assign them to Quadrant IV in Stephen Covey's Time Mangement Matrix - Not Important and Not Urgent - but a tough change for natural procrastinators to make.

The other person I blame for my lack of productivity is Tyrion Lannister. Or perhaps I should say George R. R. Martin for writing the bajillion pages of his Song of Ice and Fire series in which Tyrion is the most interesting character. Despite its length, I am afraid it will remain my fix for weeks, months or years it will take me to read the whole damn series. What is it with these fantasy writers and volume? 

Looking forward to seeing friends at ALA and ISTE in a couple weeks - provided I actually around to working on my workshops and presentations. If I don't, I'll be too embarrassed to attend. 

* This comment inspired me to start Kevin Kelly's book What Technology Wants. So far, so good.

BFTP: 7 wonders of Grand Forks

A weekend Blue Skunk "feature" will be a revision of an old post. I'm calling this BFTP: Blast from the Past. Original post July 13, 2007. A follow-up post with a list of Mankato's 7 wonders is here. I'm hoping these posts encouraged a lot of teachers to ask their students to complie lists of 7 wonders of their own making.

I am spending a long weekend attending my stepson Louie's destination wedding here in Grand Forks, North Dakota. I was a little uncertain about what to do with myself while the ladies in the wedding party got their nails done, decorated tables, and other girl stuff.

Luckily this morning's Grand Forks Herald's "Ask Marilyn" advice column had a list of the Seven Wonders of Grand Forks. Not to be outdone by the recent contest selecting the world's seven wonders, Marilyn happily supplied my targets. I spent the day on foot tracking down these midwestern marvels.

They are:

1. Themis, the Goddess of Justice who stands atop the Grand Forks County Courthouse. 

 

2. The smiling water tower on South Washington Street - on one side he is winking.

3. The world's largest bra in front of Artsplace - the LWW here provides scale - of height, of course.

4. The Grand Army of the Republic Statue near St. Mary's Catholic Church. A very young face on this soldier.

5. The Ralph Engelstad Arena - home of the fighting Sioux.

 

6. The (sewage) lift stations named after newspaper columnists - Dave Barry is #16 - I am not making this up.

 

7. The Kegs Drive In where I had the sloppy joe special - be sure to bring a car since there is no indoor or outdoor seating.

 

I need to be thinking about the Seven Wonders of the Mankato Area.

Or the Seven Wonders of the Mankato Area Public Schools

       1. The media and technology department...