On The Road And Offline.

Heading to the Bay Area for a family visit and to watch the Padres play the Giants in San Francisco on Friday night. Leaving the computer at home.

-tdr

The Duel Between Make Believe And Sport.

Mister Americano will be witnessing a duel this evening. There will be veggie burgers after the duel. It's a meatless event. How far the honor code has fallen in America.

It won't be a duel to the death or even to injury. It's a sword fight between a participant in the Society of Creative Anachronisms and a competitive fencer. Apparently the SCA guy challenged the fencer to a duel to prove that SCA rules are better than fencing rules or more realistic or something. My money is with the fencer.

-tdr

Epilog: The competitive fencer won. The SCAer acquitted himself well. The veggie burgers were very good. Tofu dogs, not so much.

Tutoring Adults In Reading.

San Diego's READ program held its annual awards banquet this evening. "READ/San Diego provides free tutoring services for adults 18 years of age and older in San Diego Public branch libraries as well as in partnership programs throughout the City and County." (Website here.) The tutors are volunteers.

Adult illiteracy is an expensive problem that costs the American economy $73 billion each year. Companies spend almost $17 billion each year on workers with low literacy skills. It is estimated that there are 93 million adults in the United States in need of some literacy assistance.

READ San Diego's annual banquet showcases the volunteers who give of themselves to help others learn. (Pictured at left is Lorraine Rankin after receiving her commendation for tutoring.) But the stars of the evening are the adult learners who had the courage, discipline, and work ethic to better themselves. (Pictured at right is Ranleigh Miller whose advances in reading have enabled him to obtain a better job so he can better support his wife and their new child. He now is able to read to his child. And his improved literacy has enabled him to learn to use a computer.)

-tdr

Technorati:
adult literacy
education

Happy New Year!

And peace on Earth to men and women of good will. To those of ill will, have a miserable, miserable year.

-tdr

Happy Holy Days Everybody!

Today is a holy day for two important religious groups in America: Christians and Jews. It's Christmas, the day when Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, who was born either in 6 BC or 4 BC or in the year Zero, died and came back to life some 33 years later and was the inspiration for a religion that has grown to dominate Earth.

Jews today begin the celebration of lights, Chanukkah. This site (here) has an interesting take on the bitter irony of that holiday's importance for American Jews.

"Many non-Jews (and even many assimilated Jews!) think of this holiday as the Jewish Christmas, adopting many of the Christmas customs, such as elaborate gift-giving and decoration. It is bitterly ironic that this holiday, which has its roots in a revolution against assimilation and the suppression of Jewish religion, has become the most assimilated, secular holiday on our calendar."

Many American Christians would relate. To them, Christmas is the most assimilated, secular holiday on the calendar. They have a point. For today is one of American Secularism's holy days. It's X-Mas (or "holiday" as it's known now), the day when Americans praise the demigod of family and commerce, Santa Claus, by exchanging purchased gifts with family and close friends thereby strengthening two pillars of American society: business and family.

Whatever your faith, enjoy your December 25th.

-tdr

PS: About the title of this post. Mister Americano is sympathetic to those who are annoyed by the replacement of "Merry Christmas" with "Happy Holidays." On the other hand, Christmas is not the only holy day this month and not every American is a Christian. But "Happy Holidays" doesn't convey the religious nature of the holiday season, whether it's Christmas, or Chanukkah, or the Winter Solstice, or Ramadan, when it occurs in December, or whatever. "Happy Holy Days" does. It's also a greeting that is inclusive of other faiths. The greeting may offend atheists but that is a bonus. Atheists are hands down the angriest most easily offended group of people in our country. So Happy Holy Days!

Babelizing Peace Through Victory.

This site (here) does amusing literal translations from English to a foreign language and back again.

Mister Americano's slogan came out this way.

Original English Text:
peace through victory - the american way

Translated to Japanese and back to English:
Victory - peace due to the American manner

Translated to Chinese and back to English:
Victory - peace as a result of American mode

Translated to French:
Victoire - paix en raison de mode américain

Translated back to English:
Victoire - peace because of American mode

Translated to German:
Victoire - Frieden wegen des amerikanischen Modus

Translated back to English:
Victoire - peace because of the American mode

Translated to Italian:
Victoire - pace a causa del modo americano

Translated back to English:
Victoire - peace because of the way American

Translated to Portuguese:
Victoire - paz por causa do americano da maneira

Translated back to English:
Victoire - peace because of the American in the way

Translated to Spanish:
Victoire - paz debido a el americano de la manera

Translated back to English:
Victoire - peace due to the American of the way

-tdr

Plumbers Protest Toilet Desecration

News about the misuse of TP's (Terror Prisoner) Korans continues to come out of Guantanamo Bay. In the latest story (click here) a Pentagon report documents a number of instances where guards mishandled the Koran, either deliberately or unintentionally. In one instance, the interrogator apologized after stepping on a TP's Koran. In another a guard's urine stream apparently wet a Koran belonging to a TP. The story does not mention whether the guard is a modern artist doing an anti-Islamic version of the anti-Christian Piss Christ.

What's notable about the report is not the number of incidents of TP Koran abuse, it's the discipline visited on the offending American soldier after the incident.

Meanwhile, back in the real world we're still waiting for Al Qaeda to discipline its minions for beheading innocent civilians.

In related news, this site has obtained a copy of a secret US government report by the Entire Government's Accountancy Department that reveals the spreading repercussions of the Koran abuse.

EGAD's report describes a little known riot by members of the United States Government's Plumbers Union who were outraged at the news a Koran was flushed down a toilet. PU members used their signs, many emblazoned with the slogan, "One Man's Toilet Is Another Man's Throne" to fight the police who had been called out to maintain order.

PU's members have not gone on strike to protest what their union president, Patina "Pat" Porcelain, describes as the "outrageous desecration of civilization's ultimate invention."

Yet many members remain angry at the reported toilet abuse and have found a novel but puzzling form of protest. They have revived the age-old practice among plumbers of refusing to wear belts to hold up their trousers as they bend over to work in front of customers.

The EGAD report criticizes the military for permitting the Koran flushing incident to occur. The report points out that environmental regulations require low-flush toilets in all government facilities. The report notes that such toilets "are barely adequate at removing human waste and government sanctioned toilet paper let alone bound copies of the Holy Quran of the Prophet Mohammed, blessed be his name."

The report also criticizes the actions of the guards in calling a government plumber after 5 pm, which required overtime payment. The report recommends in the future that guards "hold it" until the morning to save taxpayer money.

-tdr