Wednesday, May 28, 2008

This and That

Yesterday, I drove my daughter to the Santa Monica Pier for her Invisalign print ad booking. It's a good thing I went with her. Using the carpool lane saved her from getting caught in a lot of traffic.

These bookings are fun. We get to go to the beach! It was a bit chilly (only 65 degrees), but there were still some brave people who went in the water anyway. My daughter was grateful that she didn't need to pose in a bikini! After all, she got the booking through just a photo of her smile! All of the female models wore beach dresses, shorts and tops; and the guys wore t-shirts and board shorts.

Weeks ago, auditions for this booking appeared on the L.A. Casting site. She submitted some photos, but didn't bother to go on the audition. One reason was because they were looking for teens to do the shoot. She is age 20, soon to turn 21. However, she has a look that is often mistaken for being much younger.

Several weeks ago, we walked into a mall boutique that had prom dresses and bathing suits for sale. The salegirl asked her, "looking for a prom dress?" She said, "no." I knew that it bothered her. She doesn't want to look like she's 16 anymore! Well, getting this booking taught her the advantages of being able to look younger!

When she saw the posting (and the money she could earn!) she told me that she thought 'what the heck...just send some photos...I probably would not get chosen for the job even if I auditioned for it.' Imagine her surprise when they called her for the booking! She told them her age, but the Invisalign people wanted her for the photo shoot because of her smile. In the past, she did wear braces for about a year.

The Invisalign product was formerly available only to adults, 18 yrs. and up. Now, the company wants to promote it to teens. The photos will appear in catalogs delivered to orthodontists for the purpose of encouraging them to offer the product to teens that come in for braces.

It was a beautiful day! The sun was shining, and the breeze was blowing. I walked along the beach several times, stopping to watch the photo shoot as they shifted locations throughout the day. I also took some time to sit in my car and listen to several talk radio shows.

Heard all about the recent gaffes of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Hillary's reference to Robert Kennedy's assassination was being bantered about by several radio commenters. Some thought it was intentional; others did not. All did agree that it was a terribly awful gaffe and that she should never have said it!

Barack Obama's Memorial Day gaffe was less egregious than Hillary's. One commenter over at Hot Air wrote:



Is that Barack a Gaffe Guzzler or what?

Jack Bauer


Now THAT'S FUNNY!

It seems that Obama often makes such dumb mistakes when he does not have a teleprompter in front of him. Some gaffes are more serious than others. Confusing his great uncle's involvement in the Auschwitz Camp liberation with the actual one at Buchenwald does reveal his lack of knowledge about important historical events. With the increasing amount of obvious political gaffes, where he is largely given a pass by the MSM, as well as all of the terribly questionable characters that he has been associated with; I think that more and more people are coming to the realization that the guy just isn't qualified to be president. Period.

Many Americans are worried that if Obama gets into office we would have another Jimmy Carter to deal with. I don't even want to mention Carter's latest gaffe! I agree with this commenter over at Hot Air:





On May 27th, 2008 at 7:23 am, bloghooligan said:
This isn’t even liberalism anymore…this is sociopathic-ism. He’s crazy, and not in the ‘crazy uncle’ kind of way. He’s dangerous.

Not to mention, Jimmy Carter is the father of modern day slavery. Let’s remember he ruined Iran and enslaved its people as well as Zimbabwe.

Wherever there’s an international disaster, it has it Jimmy’s paw prints prominently front and center.


Yes. That utterance by Carter was extremely egregious!! I personally think that he deserves to have his visa taken away!

Shifting gears a bit.

Today, I want to focus in on what Dennis Prager discussed on his radio show yesterday. It was a rebroadcast of a show about The Search for Utopia





It always sounds noble and it always leads to terrible results. Communism is an example. Seek to make the world better, but don't seek to make it a utopia. Originally broadcast on July 10, 2007.


You can go to that link and listen to the 35 minute broadcast. Some of the points that Prager made shows how very different the thinking of the far left is compared to conservative Christians. We all know this, of course, but when Prager mentioned that many of the cults out there are attempts to create a mini-utopia, it made me realize that cult leaders often exploit people, and religion (not genuine worship of God or Jesus Christ) in order to get power and their physical desires satisfied. Many of these men create cult-like atmospheres for one reason - to get sexual gratification from women and children!

Look at the current debate regarding polygamist cults. Some people think that because it exists under the guise of "religion", that the children - who allegedly have been sexually indoctrinated and/or abused before the proper age of consent - should not have been taken away from the compound. Apparently, the recent court ruling agrees. Such situations are very difficult to ascertain what is the best way to deal with them. We all remember the terrible handling and deathly results from the Waco disaster.

But what about these children in this polygamist cult?

Perhaps taking them from the compound wasn't done correctly.

But what about the children?

How does one determine a dangerous cult from the silly ones? And, what should be done about it?

Be back later -

Christine

*******

Update: Be sure to read Escape at the CBS News site. Good comments, too.


HT: Hot Air

Michele Malkin

Winnepeg Sun

Protein Wisdom

TownHall

CBS News

NY Daily News

7 comments:

Christinewjc said...

Had a long, drawn out discussion about polygamy at my message board back in 2004.

It all started with a post by Rob called Equal Rights for Polygamists!

GMpilot said...

Yeah, I remember that. What fun we had!
I never returned to the topic because I was, as I said, doing my homework on the subject. Besides, it was enlightening to see you and prakk going at it. I don't necessarily agree with the man, but it seemed to me that he stopped you cold.

My personal belief is that any man who marries more than one woman at a time is a fool; one woman at a time is all most men can handle (and yes, I include myself here).

Considering that so many of the Old Testament heroes were themselves polygamous, THEY could obviously handle it...and are we of today any worse than they were?
I'll never do it myself, but for those who can, more power to them!

Christinewjc said...

So, you think he "stopped me cold?" I don't see it that way. Made my points quite clearly. After "Bouncing Waiter's" comments, I figured I'd just give "Prakk" the last word in the thread with the hope that he would stop posting. It worked! ;-)

About men being able to handle more than one woman...there are many who cheat on their wives. It may not be polygamy, but in some cases, close to it.

GMpilot said...

Sorry...I thought you were talking about polygamy, not adultery.
As far as I'm concerned, men who do that are fools as well. Married life is complex enough without that.

But of course men who do marry more than one woman at a time also pay a penalty: multiple mothers-in-law.

It ain't worth it.

Anonymous said...

It's nice just to hear about someone's day sometimes Christine instead all the other complications and controversies of the world. Congrats to your daughter on the interim job! Hope she finds more work if she enjoys it.

I'm trying to encourage my eldest to get some part-time work at the moment. He seems mildly interested. Hmmph.

Cheers,
Duane
:)

Christinewjc said...

GM - Ha! Multiple mothers-in-law. Now that's something to cringe about!

Hadn't considered that. Do they typically all live at the polygamy compounds?

I can't get the vision of all those women - in neck to toe, long sleeve pale colored dresses - out of my mind. Their responses during the various T.V. interviews were mostly expressionless and robotic. I think they were told exactly what they could and could not say. They were being controlled by threats from the husband(s).

Christinewjc said...

Hi Duane,

Thanks! Although I still threw some politics of the day into the mix. I admit, I must be slightly addicted to it!

Yes. She did enjoy the shoot. It was tiring, but worth it when she got paid!

It is the type of business that is sporatic in nature. But her experience paid off.

Ah! Your son's attitude sounds familiar! Getting our older children to break into the part time job world can be a challenge. Don't worry...they usually come around eventually!

God bless,
Christine