Items
Here is a collection of items that defy connection, other than they share a planet and caught this reporter's attention.
Item one, a not surprising rejection by Israeli Airlines of a request by ultra-Orthodox Jews of priestly heritage that they be allowed to fly inside body bags to avoid becoming "unclean" when traveling in planes over Jewish cemeteries. These folks aren't supposed to go near cemeteries anyway, and a recent ruling by their higher-ups accorded air rights, so to speak, to the cemeteries, as well. It was they who suggested the plastic body bags in flight as a solution. Okay, but only if they are transported in the hold.
Item two, if you need a body part, China's the place to go. Apparently, what with all those people, the folks in charge figure they have a sizeable crop of organs and are marketing them to the world. One immediate source for no longer needed pieces are executees. China kills a lot of people, and then harvests the organs. Without anyone's permission. Of course the donee doesn't seem to have been in much of a bargaining position to begin with, and the survivors are likely not to raise a very vocal objection. The larger issue is the quality of the product. We know that terrified animals make a lousy meal. Ya gotta think someone about to end their life with a bullet in the back of the head is going to be sending unhappy energy throughout his body. Does anyone else feel itchy about the decision-making over there?
Item three, only in San Francisco, this from the San Francisco Chronicle: "Ted Fang is threatening to sue over his ouster last month as editor and publisher of the San Francisco Examiner, claiming his mother, Florence Fang, breached an oral agreement to grant him an employment contract and a 51 percent interest in the newspaper. Fang has given the Examiner and his mother, its current publisher, until Friday to answer his concerns or face legal action, according to his attorney, E. Robert Wallach. Although Fang seeks majority ownership of the newspaper and reinstatement as publisher, said Wallach, his primary desire is to mend the family rift." That's just the tip of the Fang iceberg.
Item four, down in San Bernardino, they've corrected a vote-counting error in last week's elections. It seems their computer programmer messed up royally, and the computer miscounted the ballots in a whole bunch of local races. Some ballots it counted in the middle. Some ballots it tallied backwards. Which meant that there were a lot of upsets when the numbers were announced election night, and still a lot of other folks upset when the recount was announced. Winners became losers, and vice versa. Said a school board candidate who won then lost, "This makes Florida look like child's play." Um, no, but wouldn't you know it that the programmer, who claims he ran the tests that allegedly would have caught the error, is still on the payroll?
Item five, California State Senator Pete Knight announced that he was drafting legislation to require the state's public school students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance every day. When advised that the Supreme Court of the united States of America didn't think that was Constitutional, a staff member hem-haw'd Knight's plan that would promote the class to stand and recite but wouldn't require anyone to participate, if they objected on religious grounds. Said the errant Knight's foil, "We will abide by the Supreme Court decision." Oh, goody.
And that's SetonnoteS...I'm Tony Seton.
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