Happy Friday everyone! Not too much interesting to report. It was a pretty quiet week for me but not for X5world. As UCrewX5 (aka "Jeffe") posted, xoutpost.com had its second anniversary this week. I, and others, have written about the extensive history of X5world but I won't rehash it. You can use the handy "search" function. The basic gist of it was that a group of us known as "The Refugees" for reasons I will skip over were unhappy with some of the other BMW forums out there and in particular, the state of X5 information and networking. It seemed almost like a joke that some of us would say stuff like "screw them all, let's start our own site". It was Jeff and Drex who took it seriously and ran with it. They took the initiative, the risk, and the time to put this site together. Now we are the best BMW SAV forum on the Internet, a fact acknowledged by a fancy British car magazine. If you're reading this, chances are you already know the history but if you don't know it, do some searches and you will definitely have a better appreciation for this site.

Speaking of knowing history, I found out some interesting history this week. I play ice hockey and the league I'm in now is really tame and more for fun so you get to know the guys pretty well. I played with a guy last season, who now plays on another team, who has an E60 M5. Of course I chatted him up about it. He said that he bought it Colorado where he had just moved from. He's pretty young so I was a little surprised at his acquisition. Anyway, he's a very nice guy. I then saw him driving a brand new Escalade but I supposed I can forgive that since he's got a M5. The other night after our game he said that he couldn't make it the next couple of games because he had to go to South Korea. He didn't seem too excited about it so I wished him a good trip and said that I hoped he was going for a good reason. He kind of sighed and sort of nodded. I didn't think much of it until Wednesday night when I found out what was up.

It turns out that this guy, who I knew is named Toby, is actually World Champion and Torino Olympic bronze medalist freestyle skier Toby Dawson. No wonder he skates so damned fast! So all along this pretty unassuming guy is a world class athlete and has even been in four of Warren Miller's skiing movies. (If you haven't seen one, they are awesome.) Cool, right? Well I further find out that he had to go to South Korea to meet his biological father after not seeing him for 25 years! Here is the story but basically what happened was that his mother literally lost him in a market in Korea when he was only 3. He was taken to an orphanage and eventually adopted by American parents who were both ski instructors in Vail. The rest is history. Check out the story. He's a really nice guy and never once has he mentioned his skiing or other achievements. It's amazing how someone like that would have such an interesting story and all along nobody at the rink knew. You just never know who's sitting beside you.

We often discuss in The Lounge how our society is nowadays and political correctness. I am a firm believer that our society has gone too far in the pursuit of political correctness. It's at the point where nobody can say anything that might offend someone or even something. Here is an example of PC gone nuts. It's an interesting story because I think that both sides of the fight are in need of a . A schoolgirl is asked about by some schoolmates about her Mormon upbringing, probably in a teasing way. She responds by saying that the question is "so gay". The school sent her to the principal's office and issued a warning and put a note in her file. (Her "permanent record"??? :eek: ) The girl's parents sued the school for violating her First Amendment rights. First off, I understand why the school felt it had to take action, especially given the fact that there had been problems with anti-gay stuff at the school, but they should have taken the context into consideration. I'm not condoning anti-gay slurs or sentiments but in the context in which the girl uttered it, it didn't rise to the level of hate. She should have been admonished and that would have been that.

Secondly, the parents of this girl are another example of abusing the judicial system for financial or political gain. They assert the First Amendment as if it is an absolute right. Sorry folks but it isn't. There are limitations on "free speech". I'm not a constitutional law scholar but a setting like a school there is a compelling state interest to protect people from certain types of speech and to maintain a safe and orderly atmosphere for learning. Therefore the school should be allowed to take action when something substantial calls for action. Schools are very special places when it comes to the law. Pretty much whatever is going to make a school a safe and secure place for kids to learn is "game on". Anyway, these parents are costing the school district tens of thousands to defend this lawsuit. Oh by the way, the girl is now 18 and the incident took place in 2002.

I didn't have any funny/strange/gross news last week so here you go:

These idiots are part of the reason Costco changed their return policy on TV's.
Karma, meet Neil. Neil, meet Karma.
This guy wasn't driving a Lamborghini while intoxicated but was almost as stupid. Unfortunately his stupidity cost him his life. Darwin???
Introducing a nominee for Scumbag of the Year Award.
Something cute to cleanse your palate. A little more in case you needed it.
Introducing another nominee for Scumbag of the Year Award. Looks like the competition is going to be tough!
I wonder if this guy was driving a M-B ML430. (For those who make the connection between Toronto and the M-B, it's funny. )
Let's start the countdown until The IRS take over eBay.
Can someone be too honest?
If you don't have a gun, try throwing a puppy.
This sounds like easy money.
And to close out, we haven't had a female-teacher-having-sex-with-students scandal in a while so here you go.

Have a great weekend!

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