It's Friday and for many, this Friday marks the beginning of summer break for many students so if you have kids, or are a school aged kid yourself (chronologically not mentally ) you'll be dealing with kids at home all week now. For the rest of us, the streets and malls in particular, will be teeming with kids. Run for cover! What with their skateboards and rap music, it'll be chaos, chaos I say! :eek:

I actually attended a high school graduation on Thursday night and got to see all the shining happy faces of graduates and the proud parents and friends of those about to be unleashed on the world. There is always so much optimism and celebration of bright futures. I'm sure many will go on to do very well for themselves and some will have seen the zenith of their lives on that night they wore a cap and gown. Either way, like it or not, they represent the future. It's a scary thought, I know. How well prepared are these youths to face life? Are they properly educated? Where will they all be in ten years? This could be the subject of an entire treatise but I will say that in general, our youth are well educated but the standard of public education can be driven down by allowing underachieving students and political pressure drag standards down. The main thing is that too many parents and society in general have developed an expectation that the school that has a child for 6 hours a day will educate the child in not just academics but all aspects of life, including how to be a decent human being. It seems some parents have forgotten that it is a parent's job to do the latter. School is not a babysitter and neither is the XBox the kid sits in front of during the remainder of the day.

What kind of world are these young people coming in to? I would say it's a good one with some serious problems. A very tragic and despicable event happened this past week involving 4 young people, two aged 18 and two aged 17. A 66 year old retired Marine was working as a security guard. He was parked in a marked security vehicle guarding a construction site. With the number of thefts from construction sites it's no wonder security would be needed. While this man was in his vehicle the 4 youths approached him, smashed out the windows of his car, ripped him from his seat and proceeded to beat his brutally. They beat him unconscious and then robbed him, leaving him for dead. The man was in a coma with severe head and facial injuries. He died last night. The 4 attackers are all in jail. (There is a God.) They are all gang members. They were initially charged with attempted murder, robbery, and other crimes but now they will all face murder charges. The two minors have been charged as adults. There is a possibility of seeking the death penalty on these evil bastards and to me, there is nothing more appropriate than exterminating them.

Why did this happen? How did these men get so depraved? There are no easy answers to those questions. It just blows my mind that people can be so brutal to another human being. The viciousness of their act is incomprehensible. I like to believe that there is really not much in terms of random acts of violence but this is one of those crimes that shakes a community. For these 4 individuals to act in concert like that and not only pull this man out of his car but to beat him to death is pure evil. I do not have answers for the hows and whys but I will say that poverty isn't a cause, racism isn't a cause, illegal immigration isn't the reason, the war in Iraq has nothing to do with it, you get the idea. I'm sure in the coming weeks and months there will be excuses and explanations. To me, nothing justifies it and any attempt is perverse. Just because someone is poor and disenfranchised in whatever way doesn't cause that person to become a brutal murderer. There are plenty of poor victims or racism that do not commit a single crime. I just believe that there are some defective people out there. There is no sense in trying to figure out why they are like that because all that comes out of that endeavor is a whole lot of psychobabble and excuses. Thankfully, these evil beings are few and far between and hopefully in due course we will be rid of 4 more.

We in California have The Governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger. He has been refreshingly candid and I respect the job he has done. Unfortunately, in this day and age of politicizing everything, he can't always speak his mind without getting backlash. While speaking at a meeting of Hispanic journalists he opined that Spanish speaking people in America need to stop watching Spanish language television and stop reading Spanish language newspapers in order to learn English. (The Story) As you can imagine the reaction was sharp and critical. Why is he being criticized for speaking the truth? All of a sudden he's a racist and anti-immigration. He is absolutely correct that immersion is the best way to learn a language, just as he did when he immigrated from Austria. Of course it's a person's choice to learn to speak English or not but I think we can all agree that to flourish in America, one must speak English. If nothing else, it sure makes life easier on a daily basis. Protecting one's right to not learn only holds them back. Nobody is saying that once a person learns English he or she must abandon his or her native tongue. (How many of you speak English and another language fluently?) It is just too easy for people to not learn English. The more they are accommodated, the less incentive there is to learn. These are very common sense principles but again, the politics comes in and the knee jerk reaction of "racism" comes to the forefront. It's more coddling and accommodation of people that weaken our society. Why does everything have to be about politics and racism? It makes me mad because I come from a family where English was not our first language but we all learned because we knew we had to in order to succeed. This is the attitude that I am talking about:

""I'm sitting shaking my head not believing that someone would be so naive and out of it that he would say something like that," said Alex Nogales, president and chief executive of the National Hispanic Media Coalition.

Hispanic immigrants need Spanish-language media to stay informed and "function in this society," Nogales said."

Instead of news links, I'm going to link some funny videos. I thought it'd be a good idea after my rather dark rant.

If you have a panorama sunroof in your X5, don't take it on safari.

Don't try this with your Porter-Cable!

Look at me! I just got a cool Jeep.

Why they are called "stealerships".

Somebody needed a torque wrench.

Finally, for you Triumph The Insult Comic Dog fans.

Have a great weekend!

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