It's Sad When it Affects the Children

(AP Photo/The Salt Lake Tribune, Katie Drake)

Pyper, 7, and Sadie Vance, 9, hold signs in downtown Salt Lake City on Monday, June 23, 2008 to protest against high gas prices. The sisters decided to demonstrate after their mother was unable to pay the cable bill for their cartoons due to high fuel costs.

I think it's probably a good thing their mother's "monny" is no longer going for "cabel."

I wonder what Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker has to say on the subject. That's whose campaign sign Sadie has chosen as the canvas for her protest sign.

Random Photo of the Day

I shot this Sunday at Haywood Regional Medical Center's Proud to be an American memorial service. I like the composition.

A Tuscola High School Air Force JROTC flag detail stands at attention in front of the flag pole at Haywood Regional Medical Center in Clyde, N.C., during the hospital's annual Proud to be an American memorial service on Sunday. The detail's members are, from left, rising senior Beth Coleman, rising senior Alex Woodrow, rising senior Willie Jones and rising junior Desiree Rachels.

Simpson Municipal Court

My sweet sister sent me some photos from the renaming of the municipal court building in Copperas Cove as the Riley J. Simpson Municipal Court.

(McMGrad89)

Recent Thoughts... and Prayers

Until I have the it officially banished, I guess I'll have to keep hearing this silly phrase.

Hundreds of commuters and survivors stood silently as Mayor Boris Johnson and others laid flowers outside King's Cross train and subway station at 8:50 a.m. three years after the attacks in 2005.
Johnson laid a memorial card that said: "We honor the memory of those who died on 7/7 2005. We salute the courage of those who were injured and our thoughts and prayers are with all victims and their families."
-During a ceremony marking the third anniversary of London's July 7 bombings

"Jesse was a mentor and good friend and his contributions to North Carolina and to the nation were countless. We will miss him tremendously. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Dot and the entire Helms family."
— North Carolina GOP Sen. Richard Burr on the death of former Sen. Jesse Helms

Laura and I are deeply saddened by the passing of our good friend and a great American: Senator Jesse Helms. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife, Dot, and all the members of the Helms family.
-President Bush on the death of Helms

What does that mean anyway? "Are with you?" Maybe that's what gets to me. How can a thought and a prayer be with you? I could maybe see "are for you." Burr's "go out to" even makes more sense than "are with."

Am I over analyzing this? Coll seems to think so, but it just sticks in my craw. No telling what I say, though, that might rub people the wrong way. Anyone against the phrase "sticks in my craw?"

And it's not just people sending out random thoughts and prayers (I'm thinking about what you said to last time I saw you and praying that you break your leg, you old buzzard), it's people thanking people for their thoughts and prayers as well, which for some reason I find less odious than the first group. Don't ask me to explain it. That's just the way it is.

"Earlier this morning Nic gave birth to our beautiful baby girl, Sunday Rose Kidman Urban," read the message posted on Urban's Web site. "We want to thank everybody that has kept us in their thoughts and prayers. We feel very blessed and grateful that we can share this joy with all of you today."
-Keith Urban on the birth of his daughter

"Obviously, the pregnancy is still very early, but so far everything and everyone looks fine. We appreciate all the good thoughts and prayers now and in the weeks and months to come," Snyder said.
-Arkansas Rep. Vic Snyder, whose wife is pregnant with triplets

"Bobby remains hopeful that he will be able to resume his broadcasting work down the road, but for now, is appreciative of the thoughts and prayers of his fans, and wants them to know that he is aware that he is in their hearts, as they are in his," the family said.
-Statement from family of Bobby Murcer, Yankees broadcaster and former outfielder

I think I'd believe a person who said "my thought and my prayer is with you." Because that's probably about as much thought and prayer anyone really receives from people who utter this triteness.

Not much.

World's Largest Companies

Is it any surprise that six of the 10 biggest corporations in the world are oil companies? Does it surprise anyone that Mal-Wart is the biggest corporation of them all?
Two of the other top 10 are car companies that rely on the petroleum industry, and the final corporation in the top 10 is an aggressive financial institution.

1. Wal-Mart Stores
2. Exxon Mobil
3. Royal Dutch Shell
4. BP
5. Toyota Motor
6. Chevron
7. ING Group
8. Total
9. General Motors
10. ConocoPhillips

It's sickening how big corporations, especially oil companies, keep making billions of dollars hand over fist while so many people, not just here in the states, are struggling to get by.

If I didn't have to give my money to oil companies, I wouldn't. I can't remember the last time I was in a Wal-Mart. I quit them a while back.

Missing a Sock?

You know how socks always seem to come up missing and you end up with a sock with no mate?

If you're a woman living in Belleville, Ill., perhaps this guy has paid you a visit:

(AP) James Dowdy has gone to prison three times, and may go there again, for the same crime: burglarizing homes and stealing women's socks.
Dowdy's mother, Linda, said he needs to be institutionalized to get psychiatric treatment for the fixation she says has tormented him most of his life. She thinks the fetish took hold when he clung to some of her socks as keepsakes when he was forced to live for a year with his dad as a child.
In 1994, Dowdy was sentenced to three years in prison for trying to burglarize a home, ultimately getting caught by police with a bag of socks.
Early Monday, a man told police he saw a stranger crawling out of his basement window after his 15-year-old daughter heard someone downstairs. Sax said police dogs led officers to the house where Dowdy lives with his mother, and socks taken from the caller's basement laundry room were found in his bedroom.

It's kinda creepy and a little sad. Click here for the full story.

Thoughts and Prayers

I think thoughts and prayers should be banished.

Not the actions themselves but the phrase "thoughts and prayers."

I think I've heard about enough of that phrase recently to last me forever.

I think politicians and public officials are the worst for this, but probably only because they are often asked to comment on tragic situations that they have no close ties to.

A Google News search this afternoon came up with 3,204 uses of the hackneyed phrase, and at first glance many of them appear to be from different sources.

Here's are a few recent uses of the trite phrase in the news:

June 25, 2008, after a western Kentucky plastics plant worker opened fire and killed five co-workers and himself:

"This is a devastating loss to this community which we have been a part of for more than 40 years," Atlantis Plastics CEO Bud Philbrook said in a statement late Wednesday. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families and we will work with them to provide our help and support."

June 21, 2008, after a NHRA driver was killed when his car crashed and burst into flames:

"That really hits close to home," Keselowski said after winning the pole position for Saturday night's race at the Milwaukee Mile in West Allis, Wis. "(He was) a friend of my family's, and I send my thoughts and prayers out to him. That's tough to hear."

June 17, 2008, President Bush speaking in the East Room of the White House in honor of Black Music Month:

As we honor black music in America, our thoughts turn to one of its legends -- Bo Diddley. Bo was one of the pioneers of rock and roll. And during his more than five decades as a singer, songwriter and performer, he changed the face of music. He really did. We mourn his loss, yet we know this -- that his memory will live on in the songs and the joy he brought to millions -- including a little fellow like me. So all of us here today send our thoughts and prayers to Bo Diddley's family.

I guess I've always heard the phrase and cringed a bit, but it wasn't until Tim Russert died the other day that it really got my hackles up.

"I am grief stricken with the loss and my thoughts and prayers go out to his family."
-Sen. Barack Obama
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and we know that Tim Russert leaves a legacy of integrity of the highest level of journalism and we miss him and we will miss him a lot."

-Sen. John McCain

I've got more to say on this, but I've got to go for now. More next week. Stay tuned.