Benazir Bhutto
“I feel a special personal obligation to contrast the true Islam – the religion of tolerance and pluralism – with the caricature of my faith that terrorists have hijacked. I know that I am a symbol of what the so-called ‘Jihadists‘, Taliban and al-Qaeda, most fear. I am a female political leader fighting to bring modernity, communication, education, and technology to Pakistan. I believe that a democratic Pakistan can become a symbol of hope to more than one billion Muslims around the world who must choose between the forces of the past and the forces of the future.”
Today we had our office Chistmas party. It was a huge lunch potluck, with tons of food surrounding a ham. Needless to say, it was hard to get back to work afterward.
The high point was a slide show of photos of all the employees, with funny sayings that people had come up with. Beside my pic, they had written,
“I’m an Aquarius. What are you?”
I didn’t think I’d asked that many people!
The one that made me laugh most was our receptionist, Maggie, who is a sweet young girl from Poland. English is her second language, and she’s always writing unintentionally funny memos with goofs and lots of unnecessary explanation points. The saying beside her photo was:
”There is popcorn in a break room!!!”
Well, hey, what do you expect? That’s what passes for humor in a group of egg-head editors. Hehe.
I hope you have fun at your office Christmas party!
Here’s a fun little test for you. Are you right-brained or left-brained?
If you think the girl is swirling clockwise, then you’re right-brained (creative). If she’s swirling counter-clockwise, then you’re left-brained (logical). Some swear that they see her swirl both ways. (I do. To me, she keeps changing.)
Which do you see?
“The heartland” experienced a horrible occurrence yesterday with a shooting rampage in an Omaha mall. Nine Christmas shoppers were indiscriminantly killed by a teenager who wanted “to be famous.”
It’s very sad, and people are shocked that it could happen here. But why wouldn’t it happen here? Sometimes it feels like we’re sheltered in farm country, away from the big bad world, surrounded by corn fields and simple good people.
In The Adventure of the Copper Beaches, Sherlock Holmes talks about the sweet, innocent countryside:
All over the countryside, away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light green of the new foliage.
“Are they not fresh and beautiful?” I cried with all the enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street.
But Holmes shook his head gravely.
“Do you know, Watson,” said he, “you look at these scattered houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed there.”
“Good heavens!” I cried. “Who would associate crime with these dear old homesteads?”
“They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.”
“You horrify me!”
“But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of a drunkard’s blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among the neighbours. But look at these lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser.”
Maybe I am overly morbid and cynical, but I’ve always agreed with Sherlock. There’s plenty of evil here in flyover country, just as everywhere else. It’s just not so obvious until an experience like yesterday startles us out of our complacency.
