Category Archives: World News

Stupid Baby Names Outlawed in New Zealand

2 Replies

New Zealand’s Birth Registrar bans “Lucifer” “Messiah” “General” and “*”  as Names

As reported in the West Australian newspaper on July 19 and other news outlets down under the New Zealand  registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages have compiled a list of 102 names (so far) of names they will not allow parents to name their bundles of joy.

It might seem an arbitrary list, as they allowed one set of parents to name their child “Violence.”

Wouldn’t it be easier to just change your own name rather than embarrassing your offspring with your own idea of a unique name?

This is probably a case of the government overstepping their boundaries, but I am astounded by the number of stupid names American parents give their babies.

In New York City, a teacher I know who taught in the lower income South Bronx, actually encountered two children (from different families) with incredibly unique names.  Continue reading →

Rise in Graffiti Reported Across USA

Leave a reply

Graffiti is Vandalism, Not Art

The New York Times story on the rise of graffiti in cities both large and small is disturbing. For those who say graffiti is art, I would like to be invited to your home and I will splash paint over your entire home inside and out Jackson Pollack style, dripping and splashing it everywhere I can. If you don’t like it too bad, I’m not cleaning it up.

But you say that’s not art. I say that it is.

You say, what right do I have to come to your home and deface it?

That is exactly my point.

Our cities and public surroundings are our homes and no one has the right to deface public or private property.

The majority of graffiti artists are not frustrated artists but are in reality criminals, juvenile delinquents and gang members, who have a compulsion to etch, paint, mark or deface public property. Continue reading →

Paul Gauguin Painting Attacked at the National Gallery

Leave a reply

Lunatics Among Us

This story of a woman attacking the Paul Gauguin painting “Two Tahitian Women” on April 1, 2011 got skipped over in a lot of newspapers or was a blurb in others. The 1899 painting is worth an estimated $80 million dollars.

What was even less covered, and I thought was worth commenting on, was what the suspect in the attack, Susan Burns said in her statement to the police. “I feel that Gauguin is evil. Continue reading →

Guess What? The World Is NOT Ending May 21

3 Replies

People Believing In Strange Things

Maybe you’ve seen these people?

The New York Times front page story on the people who believe in Harold Camping’s prophecy about the return of Jesus on May 21 and the end of the world on October 21, points out that the children of these doomsayers are somewhat confused by their parent’s strange beliefs.

The idea of knowing doomsday’s arrival by interpreting or unlocking the secrets of sacred text has been around for a while.

The Times has a second story about a New Yorker who gathered about a dozen believers to prepare for the end of the world in 1925.

The United States has quite a history of biblical Doomsday prophets. A very notable occurrence happened Continue reading →