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This came from the keyboard of the lovely & gracious Mrs. M of the Rott.&#160 It’s worth your time to read it, because I said so.

It’s been a couple of days since that horrible shooting in Connecticut. As per usual, when something of this nature takes place, there are screams of outrage about what the killer chose to use to commit his horrible crime. Lets blame the guns.

When are people going to suck it up and start looking at why the shooter decided to do what he did, and what brought him to that point in the first place? Does it really matter what he used? How about we as a society start doing some soul searching as to how we are raising our children to become killers? Of course that’s not pretty or comfortable, so instead we want to blame inanimate objects for our crimes. What are we doing now, that wasn’t being done 30-40 years ago, when this sort of thing was unheard of. What are we not doing now, that was done 30-40 years ago when we didn’t have to look over our shoulders at everyone, wondering if they were planning to kill. Could it be that our “enlightened” way of being, our grand experiment of “if it feels good do it” way of life, and our total disrespect for each other and the sanctity of life is a total failure and blowing up in our faces??

We allow Hollywood and the media to bombard us with sexual images, violence and a complete disrespect for privacy and life in general. We allow the Government to dictate to us how our children should be raised and educated. When parents are faced with a behavior they don’t want to deal with, we allow the children to be placed on behavior altering (and in many cases mind altering) drugs without any thought as to the consequences. We’ve allowed our children to be exposed to some of the most horrid circumstances imaginable. We no longer blink when a 14 year old becomes pregnant. It’s just routine. We don’t think that children being born to a woman with multiple children with multiple fathers (most all of whom are completely absent from the children’s lives) is wrong. Children are being left to their own devices, forced to make it on their own, and we wonder why so many end up in gangs, on drugs, and turning violent. Even the kids who are living in “normal” homes are left to figure things out on their own. Parents think discipline is bad. They are under the impression that children will learn right from wrong on their own. They would rather hand the kids an Ipod, Ipad, a Wii, computer and a wifi connection and they don’t have to bother being parents. Just let the electronics and Youtube teach our children how to grow up. Self respect and respect for others is just old fashioned. We can’t mention the word Morals, because *gasp* that’s a “Religious” thing.

When did respect for life, respect for one’s self, respect for other people, knowing right from wrong, and obeying parents and the law become strictly a “Religious thing”??? And we wonder why kids are so screwed up?

Children are being sexualized and exploited from the moment they are born (when we even allow them to be born in the first place) and we seem to believe they are mentally and emotionally capable of handling it. We no longer want to protect our children’s innocence. That requires parents to actually be the adults and make the effort to know, see, and observe all our children are being exposed to. Parents are being led to believe that they have no responsibilities in raising their children. Let the Government, the schools and the media do that for them. Yeah Hollywood and Washington have a wonderful track record of turning out fine, upstanding, moral, responsible people right??

Children used to look up to people like Neal Armstrong and Charles Lindbergh, Jacques Cousteau, Alan Shepard, John Wayne. Those were the people our kids wanted to emulate. Now…

Well now it’s Honey Boo Boo, Kim Kardashian, Snookie, Lady Gaga, Tupac Shakur, and Jay-Z who are the “heroes”…and we think that’s progress???

So go ahead and blame guns. That will make you feel so much better than having to admit that Society itself has to bear much more of the blame.

Amen & amen.

Pastoral commentary(sermon) on the Newtown Shooting to come later today. For now, understand that those who would cynically use the wanton murder of innocent young children for political gain are as evil as the one who cold bloodedly did the killing.

While working on this evening’s sermon, a thought came to me(which is always dangerous). It seems Solomon had 700 wives. It seems that he was about 12 years old when he ascended the throne, and he ruled 40 years. This would mean that he had a wedding about every 3-4 weeks for 40 years.

Just think, if that were today, a wedding planner could make an entire career with just Solomon for a customer!

By the way, in addition to the 700 wives(think of the skillets! ), Solomon had 300 concubines, or mistresses. He had to have been one busy dude.

[SCENE:&#160 Deep space.&#160 Pegasus&#160 is burning.

Cut to interior view, where crew members are hurrying into what passes for escape pods.&#160 Cut to the ship’s cramped excuse-for-a-cargo bay, where His Rudeness’ personal courier, Excelsior…just blew up, narrowly missing Lord Venomous and General Korrioth.]

VENOMOUS:&#160 So help me Cthulhu, Narrator, your union boss best get his ass to running…!

[What, you think this is my&#160 fault?&#160 I didn’t write this crappy screenplay!]

VENOMOUS:&#160 Like I’m supposed to take your word for it?&#160 After what your predecessor pulled?

[You have my word, m’liege – I’m not responsible for this&#160 one, promise.]

VENOMOUS:&#160 Fine, then – into an escape pod with you.

KORRIOTH:&#160 I don’t suppose you’ve got a separating bridge module up your sleeve, do you, m’lord?

VENOMOUS (grinning maniacally):&#160 As luck would have it…mheh.&#160 C’mon.

—

Denizens, this time both machines blew up at very nearly the same time.&#160 Word to the wise:&#160 if you have an older Core 2 or AMD64, don’t&#160 upgrade to Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit.&#160 It no likee.

The PFW recap will be delayed another day or so while I clean things up around here.

By popular demand…

MERLIN:&#160 Meaning, of course, that it’s what you want, even if none of the rest of us do.

VENOMOUS:&#160 Meaning, old man, that it’s what Mrs. Venomous wants, and she still has the cast-iron skillet.

MERLIN:&#160 (ulp!)

…here once again, is the recipe for “Vodka Christmas Cake”.

You will need:&#160 1 cup sugar, 1 tsp. baking powder, 1 cup water, 1 tsp. salt , 1 cup brown sugar, Lemon juice, 4 large eggs, Nuts, 1…bottle Vodka, 2 cups dried fruit.

Sample a cup of Vodka to check quality.&#160 Take a large bowl, check the Vodka again to be sure it is of the highest quality then Repeat.

Turn on the electric mixer.&#160 Beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl.&#160 Add 1 teaspoon of sugar.&#160 Beat again.&#160 At this point, it is best to make sure the Vodka is still OK.

Try another cup just in case.&#160 Turn off the mixerer thingy.&#160 Break 2 eegs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit.&#160 Pick the fruit up off the floor, wash it and put it in the bowl a piece at a time trying to count it.

Mix on the turner.&#160 If the fried druit getas stuck in the beaterers, just pry it loose with a drewscriver.&#160 Sample the Vodka to test for tonsisticity.&#160 Next, sift 2 cups of salt, or something.

Check the Vodka.&#160 Now $%^& shift the lemon juice and strain your nuts.&#160 Add one table.&#160 Add a spoon of sugar, or somefink.&#160 Whatever you can find.

Greash the oven.&#160 Turn the cake tin 360 degrees and try not to fall over.&#160 Don’t forget to beat off the turner.

Finally, throw the bowl through the window.&#160 Finish the Vodka and wipe the counter with the cat.

KORRIOTH:&#160 Does it work with Romulan ale?

VENOMOUS:&#160 Yeah, but you might not get past “Take a large bowl…”

KORRIOTH:&#160 I’ll risk it.

OZY McCOOL:&#160 You would.

KORRIOTH:&#160 (grunt)