08
This is actually a shot of PB 16 with his brother, Msgr. Georg Ratzinger, in Bressanone, Italy July 31.
16
15
After a recent trip to Barnes and Noble, and reading recent reports on the web, it seems that there is a growing problem with national booksellers Barnes and Noble.
Here is a summary of a recent excerpt from OneMillionMoms:
In
Collierville, Tennessee, recently, an 11 year-old boy named Landon
Howse was walking through the Barnes & Noble bookstore when he
noticed a book lying open on one of the reading area tables. His dad,
Brannon Howse, was right behind him. What Landon saw were graphic
pictures of two men engaged in sex. The book was titled “Ultimate Gay
Sex,” and is one of the many sexually explicit books offered in Barnes
& Noble stores.Mr. Howse
was obviously stunned and upset at what his young son had just been
exposed to just walking through a general bookstore. When Mr. Howse
complained to the store management that this kind of material should
not be on the bookshelves anywhere in the store, especially a store
children frequent, he was met with indifference. When he complained to
law enforcement that Barnes & Noble was in violation of the
Tennessee “harmful to minors” statute he was given the run around.
Now let’s be clear. I have a problem with Barnes and Noble providing easy access to ANY adult material, not just adult gay material. Here’s the letter that I sent to them:
Dear Chairman Riggio:
I am writing regarding an issue I have with your retail stores. It seems that there are dozens of books that contain graphic and explicit photos that can be accessed by just about anyone, even children and minors. As you know, many of your patrons like to take books off the shelves and browse them at the café or on nearby couches. Unfortunately, these books are often left there and can be picked up by just about anyone. I think your company needs to be more responsible with books of this nature. Either take them off the shelves completely or put them in special restricted areas where children cannot view them.
I would also ask that you be fair and honest in your evaluation of such books. I have seen and heard that books like “Ultimate Gay Sex,” with graphic sexual pictures, have been easily found on your shelves. Is Barnes and Noble going into the gay and pornographic market? I hope not!
Please know that your response to my concern will determine if I will continue to patronize Barnes & Noble.
I shop at Barnes and Noble (alot) and I have seen this before. I never realized how bad it was and after a quick trip there now I see there is a real problem. Please take the time to contact them and tell them they need to be more responsible with their adult materials.
I understand that many books have adult material, even the classics, but those with graphic images need to be put off-limits to minors. Even rag shops that sell hard core pornographic magazines know this. Come on Barnes and Noble, make your stories family friendly!
Mr. Stephen Riggio, CEO sriggio@bn.com
Chris Troia, Chief Information Officer ctroia@bn.com
Mary Ellen Keating, Senior V.P. of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs mkeating@bn.com
Jaime Carey, Chief Merchandising Officer jcarey@bn.com
Carolyn Brown, Director of Corporate Communications e-mail: cbrown@bn.com
14
http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1034635/My-bizarre-life-Madonna-Guy–BROTHER.html
I just found this interesting article, which is a small summary of some of the comments made by Christopher Ciccone, Madonna’s brother. Yes, that Madonna. Ordinarily this stuff doesn’t interest me in any way, but he has a sort of captivating style and knack for detail that I couldn’t help but read the entire article on the inner happenings of Madonna’s life. Let me tell you it’s SCARY.
The money, the power, the ego. Wow, even if half of what he says is true, I cannot imagine what really goes in the life of the super rich and powerful. I’ll have to be careful, I guess, when I make a fortune off my latest single: Like a Sinner, Going to Confession for the very first Time. You know you want to sing it, so go ahead.
11
An interesting factoid I just picked up from HarryT at the MobileRead forums, of which I am a huge fan and participant.
It turns out that the popular version of Jules Verne’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth” is not in fact the original story that was written by Jules Verne in French. The original story is more accurately titled “A Journey to the Interior of the Earth”.
And the difference doesn’t end there. The more popular “Center of the Earth” version has some changes in character names and even some major plot points. Having read the “Center of the Earth” version some years ago, and in anticipation of the new movie being released with the same title, I downloaded the original version, with a more accurate translation, from the MobileRead forums here.
I’m looking forward to seeing the differences and also to seeing this on the big screen!
11
Like Rebecca says, being pregnant is the new black. I guess Jamie Lynn Spears agrees.
While I think the world needs more kids, I don’t like the idea of kids having kids outside of marriage. The media wants to cover it as ‘news’, but really all they are doing is glorifying the fact that these young girls are having sex and children out of marriage.
For thousands of years before the twentieth century, young women have been having children at young ages. That’s no big secret. However, those societies were different and operated under strict moral codes that said that young women should be married when they have children. I have no desire to relive the days when woman couldn’t vote and were treated as property of their husbands, but in this case, God I miss the good old days!
11
It looks like I have some sort of attention deficit disorder regarding the theme on this site. I like this theme and I am going to start tweaking it a bit. It’s bright, colorful, elegant, and reminds me of summer. Plus it seems that many of my posts are, like, depressing, so hopefully the them reminds you that sun will come out tomorrow! Hope you enjoy it.
10
It’s time to put your dollar where your faith is! The AFA has asked for a boycott of McDonald’s for throwing their full corporate might into promoting the same sex marriage agenda. If you want your money to go into helping same sex couples gain legal marriage status, then keep on ordering those Big Macs. As for me and my house…we will go to Wendy’s.
From AFA:
08
Although not really an illegal drug, there’s a potential for abuse here since only eight states consider it illegal to use this stuff.
As a parent, I like to keep out on all this stuff because you never know what kinds of weird stuff kids in the future will be into.
08
NASA is going to be making a pretty big announcement on May 14th. Given the instruments cited, I wouldn’t be surprised if they finally found the first extra-solar planet with similarities to Earth. What else could it be?
WASHINGTON — NASA has scheduled a media teleconference Wednesday, May 14, at 1 p.m. EDT, to announce the discovery of an object in our Galaxy astronomers have been hunting for more than 50 years. This finding was made by combining data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory with ground-based observations.
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2008/may/HQ_M08089_Chandra_Advisory.html
