09/21/10 - NNHS Newsletter - Help!

“We can't help everyone, but everyone can help someone.”

- Ronald Reagan
(06 Feb 1911 - 05 June 2004)

“You can have everything in life you want, if you
will just help other people get what they want.”

- Zig Ziglar
(b. 06 Nov 1926)

   OH, NO!!! I'm so sorry to learn this, Sandi! Their son, Keith, was only 41 when he passed away, and now to have lost a second son in so short a time is just more than the heart can comprehend!

http://www.nnhs65.com/01-29-09-NNHS-Keith-Pride.html 

   Thank you so much for letting us know, Sandi! We will definitely keep them all in our thoughts and prayers.

   Thank you so much, MaeLea and Brenda, for relaying this tragic news to us!

September 21, 1942 - On the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, Nazis sent over 1,000 Jews of Pidhaytsi (west Ukraine) to Belzec extermination camp.

September 21, 1942 - In Poland, at the end of Yom Kippur, Germans ordered Jews to permanently evacuate Konstantynów and move to the Ghetto in Biała Podlaska, established to assemble Jews from seven nearby towns, including Janów Podlaski, Rossosz and Terespol.

September 21, 1942 - In Dunaivtsi, Ukraine, Nazis murdered 2,588 Jews.

September 21, 1942 - The U.S. B-29 Superfortress made its debut flight in Seattle, WA. It was the largest bomber used during World War II. The plane made its bombing-run debut on June 5, 1944.

Tuesday, September 21, 1965 - Writer and critic Frédéric Beigbeder was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France.

Tuesday, September 21, 1965 - Actress Cheryl Hines (HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm) was born in Miami Beach, Florida.

Tuesday, September 21, 1965 - Actor David Wenham (Faramir in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy) was born in Marrickville, New South Wales, Australia.

Tuesday, September 21, 1965 - Film director Johanna Vuoksenmaa was born in Hämeenlinna, Finland.

   Oh, Laura is your daughter, Norris! Well, that makes it all the more important! When I tried to vote for Grace again today, I noticed the site was trying to pull a switcheroo on me. It tried to persuade me to vote for the wrong Grace!  OH, NO!

http://www.adogslife.net/photo_gallery.php?pg=&limit=40&sort=tnid&type=tnap&field=dog_name&keyword=grace#14296

You must hear this song.

This is a very good country music type song just written by a young ex-High School assistant football coach from Tennessee.

I think most of you will like it and share it with others.

This could be the next number one hit country song. It was written by a High School assistant football coach, and it criticizes the government. It's the best effort yet at encapsulating the outrage at the oversteps of this government in an entertaining song that doesn't suck. Apparently the guy was fired over the song because some parents complained. Shameful if true. If you like it, help it go "viral" by passing it along to everyone you know.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfH46DTAkxo
 

By Carol Capó
September 21, 2010

Reason 72 (or maybe 720) why I love living in Virginia: Because we've been at this governing business so long that there are, tucked away in our state code books, entertaining little backwaters where time stands still.

In some of those eddies, it's still 1800, when men hunted and wimmin's virtue had to be protected and you'd better have yourself in that pew come Sunday morning.

In others, it's always 1950.

May I direct you to Section 29.1-521 of the Code of Virginia. It says that Sunday is "hereby declared a rest day for all species of wild bird and wild animal life, except raccoons, which may be hunted until 2:00 a.m. on Sunday mornings."

Do you not love the image of a bunch of guys (let's be serious about who came up with that) so absolutely certain about their alignment with their Lord's wishes that they felt empowered — and obligated — to declare the Lord's Day to be so for all the Lord's critters?

I don't know if those critters know that. All I have is a cat, and for her, every day is a day of rest.

But whether they know it or not, they all — except for raccoons, who clearly did not have a top-drawer lobbyist — get a reprieve from being shot at. Except for those raccoons, it is illegal to hunt or kill any wild bird or animal on Sunday — even on your own property.

Nor, until just 2004, could you work or do business. Unless you happened to work in certain exempt industries, including transportation, publications, sports, agriculture, mining, real estate, health care … oh, really all of them.

Now, keeping a day of rest makes a lot of sense for a lot of people for a lot of reasons. Commandments aside, our spirits need a respite from the acquisition of stuff, and from making the money to make that possible.

We just don't need the General Assembly to tell us to do that or let us do that. Or tell us what day to do it.

Blue Laws, as the laws outlawing commerce on Sunday are called, were designed to keep the Lord's two-footed creatures safe on his day, too — from commandment breaking, in this case. But rather than admit they were out of date, for a long time Virginia's lawmakers kept them on the books — but with plenty of exemptions to make sure the god of mammon gets his due, too.

Eventually, commerce prevailed, but there's been no self-interested industry to push back against other ways the law reflects a long tradition of morality, which is esteemed if not necessarily followed by General Assembly members. It is against the law, and punishable by a fine of up to $250, to have sex outside of marriage.

And while it's perfectly legal to live with someone you aren't married to, let there be no shenanigans. It's illegal for unmarried persons to "lewdly and lasciviously associate and cohabit together." That'll net you a fine of up to $500 — or $2,500 and 12 months in jail if you're a repeat offender.

If you are married, you are legally free to be emotionally unfaithful to your spouse, but if things get physical, it's a misdemeanor. You're breaking the law as well as your vows. The state doesn't like it, either.

You risk being arrested, and not just by the manners police, if you cuss in public. Or spit — or, as the folks who write the laws put it, expectorate "upon the floor, stairway, or upon any part of any public building or place where the public assemble." Ditto the floors of buses (feel free to spit on the seats), sidewalks and lanes.

Lanes — isn't that charming?

You could argue that the antiquated bits of code ought to be cleaned up, because there's something corrosive about laws so ludicrous they invite people to flout them, or turn innocent people into criminals. But most people are smart enough to distinguish between the laws they're expected to obey and the laws that are just for show.

And to even enjoy the latter, the same way we enjoy looking at Martha Washington's gown on display in the Smithsonian — as a tangible reminder of a time whose customs are comfortably well removed from our own. And a reminder of how much easier it is to breathe when we're not strapped into corsets, whether they're made of whalebone or the sanctimonious convictions of men with gavels.

Some of the legal backwaters make no sense, though. You can take guns into bars in Virginia, but until recently, you couldn't drink sangria while you were there, because it was illegal to combine wine with spirits. Apparently guns and booze mix, but wine and triple sec don't.

The law says that no one under the age of 16 can ride loose in the back of a pickup truck. So it's perfectly legal to let your 16-year-old bounce around out in the cargo area while you tear down rough roads. But put that same 16-year-old in the passenger compartment, and you're obligated to buckle him into a seatbelt.

Go figure.

Capó is associate editor of the editorial page. Contact her at ccapo@dailypress.com or 247-2837.