America's inability to spell

Google searches offer a revealing look at how America spells. It's not pretty.

Someone stumbled across my blog early this morning with the following Google search:

minisotta vikings attendence

At face value, I didn't think much of it. Then I saw the location of the IP address: Colgate University.

Colgate University is located in central New York. U.S. News and World Report ranked it as the 19th best liberal arts college in the entire country in 2009. 93% of their student body was in the top 20% of their high school class and 79% were in the top 10%. The average high school GPA of students at this school is 3.73 with an average SAT score of 1397.

This place is cranking out smart people, right?

Maybe, but it looks like they've got some smart people who don't know how to spell.

Twitter is perhaps the best examples of America's spelling problem, and I'm not talking about "LOL" or "LMAO." Anytime Brett Favre makes the news, "Farve" becomes a trending topic. When Vikings interim coach Leslie Frazier coached his first game the other day, local TV station Fox 9 Sports repeatedly referenced "Frasier" in their tweets. And this is for a guy who's been the Vikings' assistant head coach for 2 years prior to being named the interim head coach! You'd think someone whose full-time job is to follow people like that would know how to spell the guy's last name.

I know, there are bigger problems in the world than how "Minnesota" is spelled or whether someone knows "R before V except for in Favre." But I can still lament the fact that people don't know how to spell and in many cases don't care to change it.

Passionately anti-airbags?

It seems that everyone is passionate about something that goes against the grain of 90% of the population and in some cases even against common sense.

Some people sit on the fringe, believing, for example, that the 9/11 attacks on New York City were an inside job by the U.S. government.

Others hold to minority positions that have a few more followers than the fringe, such as arguing that vaccines are bad for us. Even this position is sometimes taken to the fringe with the notion that the U.S. government is conspiring to infect its population through vaccinations.

When I was in high school, I jumped on board a rather peculiar "anti-" bandwagon: airbags.

I was in driver's ed. and had to write a paper. I don't think there's a much more boring class for which to write a paper than driver's ed. What are you supposed to write about, the advantages of automatic and manual transmissions in various driving conditions?

I decided to write about the effects of airbags. More precisely, I wrote about the NEGATIVE effects of airbags.

I found a story of an arm that was shattered when an airbag went off in a parked car. I wrote of little children injured when airbags went off for no apparent reason in a still vehicle. Who knows, I may have even found a government conspiracy in airbags.

I don't recall many of the other details of that class or that paper, but I do laugh in hindsight. I think I got a 50/100 on the paper. I'm sure I was annoyed by it and I probably I deserved it.

I can't imagine getting a car without an airbag now, but it helps to remember my well-meaning stance when I come across an idea that I think is really out there.

It's good to be reminded that there's always someone else who thinks that something I believe is really out there too.

Jillian Michaels: fitness fraud?

Jillian Michaels has built a reputation as a tough fitness instructor through NBC's The Biggest Loser. She's also built a brand selling weight loss pills, exercise DVDs, etc.

I don't watch The Biggest Loser and have never purchased her weight loss pills, but I was intrigued when I read an LA Times article coming down hard on Michaels, sent to me by my old personal trainer and RKC-certified kettlebell instructor.

The article's opening line grabbed my attention.

I don't know much about proper kettle bell techniques. Neither does Jillian Michaels.

Jamie and I lost a lot of weight and improved our strength and stamina with kettlebell workouts. Proper form is absolutely critical or you could seriously injure yourself swinging and lifting a 50-pound weight.

Among the article's allegations:

• Michaels is "an actress playing the role of fitness trainer."
• Professional trainers agree she regularly displays poor technique and unsafe training practices.
• Michaels only has introductory exercise and aerobics certifications from 17 years ago and has never recertified.
• Kettlebell and yoga videos - neither of which she's certified to teach - advertise losing up to 5 pounds a week, which is highly unrealistic.

Some of the direct quotes from kettlebell professionals take things a step further.

• "I would not recommend this from a safety perspective."
• "It's just wrong...in every way. All of it. Every single thing she does is wrong."
• "Her technique and approach was so off the mark. It couldn't have been more dangerous."

In fairness, I have no doubt Michaels has forgotten more about fitness and exercise than I know.

Still, it doesn't take a genius to know that weight training, yoga, kettlebells, and diet are VERY different from one another! Instructing others in these disciplines requires different skill sets and a tremendous amount of knowledge tailored to each one. The notion that one person would be an expert in all 4 disciplines is tough to believe, especially when that person is missing any certification in those disciplines.

Your health depends on you being informed - informed by someone who actually knows what they're talking about. Pretty faces and great marketing techniques are no substitute for the real deal.

My car did it!

In my post earlier today on my license plate, I made mention of resisting the temptation to flirt.

This got me thinking about something that I've actually considered for a while.

Why is it that when we're in a vehicle, we assume that everything done in the vehicle is actually done by the vehicle, not us.

We honk at people we'd never actually criticize - much less yell at - in public.

After an accident: "Well, my car just started skidding and it wouldn't stop."

Guys who would never so much as talk to a random girl in the mall will slow down, do a wink and nod, and keep going.

Why? Because the car did it.

This is wrong. It was this realization that helped me quit speeding. (Okay, I still go 5 over sometimes, but is that really speeding?) Realizing that what I did in my car was still me - not the Jeep - is why I don't flirt with random girls as we're passing each other.

My old car had a ton of bumper stickers on it. It was an 18-year-old thing that took me till I was 20 to get over. However, I never put a Christian sticker on the car. I didn't want anyone to see me do something and then say, "He just did that, and he calls himself a Christian? Would Jesus cut someone off like that, or weave in and out of traffic?"

Then it hit me: people should see Christ in me, even if I'm driving and all they see is my car. I'm controlling the car. What the car does, I'm telling it to do.

I still don't have a Christian bumper sticker on my car. I'd rather people already see Christ in me by the way I live than for me to have to shout, "If you couldn't tell already, I'm a Christian." (Nothing against Christian bumper stickers...that's just my philosophy.)

But I am more conscious of how I drive. Why? Because the car doesn't do it. I do it. What the car does, I'm doing, and what the car is doing should be above reproach.

Our kids are idiots

If you listen to the students - girls, no less - at Padua High School, we would end women's suffrage.

By no means do I endorse everything on this website. But, a friend showed me this clip, and I had to share it.

If you don't want to watch it, here's the gist of it: Guy goes to a Catholic Prep High School - very nice school, supposedly very smart kids. Guy goes around with a microphone and camera asking girls (and a few guys) to sign a petition to "end women's suffrage." He then repeats numerous times as they're signing, "You're supporting ending women's suffrage," "You're a true American," and other phrases to communicate that idea. And he's laughing half of the time as he's saying it.

The girls sign away - all but one, that is.

While it's really funny, it's also a reflection of how little kids really know about history.

It also shows that signatures on a petition really don't mean much.

Call me retarded

The other night, a good friend and I were talking and he said, "That's retarded."

I didn't think much of it. Do I use the word "retarded?" No. Do I like the word? No. I think the use of the word - similar to saying, "That's gay" - simply reveals your intellectual integrity.

However, I don't get all bent out of politically correct shape over it. So, I thought it was odd when he immediately stopped with a look that said, "Did I seriously just say that?" And said, "Dude, I'm sooooo sorry!!"

He then repeated that apology a few more times, like I should have been put off at what he said.

It took me a while to figure out why he was so apologetic this time. I have a three-week-old brother who has Down syndrome. Apparently, until three weeks ago, I had no reason to be offended by the word "retarded."

Now, I should be horrified at the use of the word.

I'm not.

Last week, a radio host was fired after calling Condoleezza Rice a "coon" on the air. Upon using the word, he immediately apologized, and spent the next twenty seconds saying, "I am totally, totally, totally, totally, totally sorry for that."

In case you weren't counting, that was 5 totallys. He was still fired.

Now, I like Condoleezza Rice, and I don't like the derogative use of the word "coon" any more than I like the "n" word. Having said that, have we gotten so politically correct that we can't allow for even one mistake?

I appreciated the fact that my friend apologized. He said he's trying not to use the word "retarded" in the way he did anyway, regardless of my brother.

Having said that, I felt no need for him to apologize. I wasn't offended. Being a white male conservative Christian [chauvinist bigot he-man woman-hater racist pig] who not only chaired a conservative organization and Bible study while I was in college but also had a column in my student newspaper and was (and still am) politically active, I've been called just about everything. Most of it, I'd never actually write or say.

However, that's how those people felt. Why should they apologize for that? So what if I think they're intellectually deficient for using their chosen words? Since when did my opinion become a universal code that everyone else must follow, lest my feelings be hurt?

My friend apologized for using the word "retarded" because he genuinely felt bad about using the word. That St. Louis radio host apologized because he was genuinely sorry for what he'd said. Hey, I'm glad both of these people realized that what they said wasn't appropriate and apologized immediately.

But you won't hear me asking for an apology for something someone calls me. I'm sick of our culture trying to keep people from saying what they think. People should love one another, and if they don't, I'd rather they be upfront about it rather than playing nice because their culture demands an apology if they don't.

So, call me retarded. And while you can assume that my respect for any intellectual integrity you're trying to pass off will be a bit degraded, you can be sure that I won't demand an apology.

Not good

Many conservatives point to "gay marriage" as something that would be the ultimate sign of the fall of our society into moral degradation.

Not me. Many of those "conservatives" are simply hypocrites. They talk a good game, but the fact is they pick and choose what parts of "morality" they want to believe in. They don't think guys should be able to marry guys because they think it's perverted and immoral, but they don't adhere to that high moral standard in other areas of life. They get wasted on the weekends, watch porn on the weeknights, and are all around moral degenerates.

This post began as a criticism of the recent signing of "The Simpsons" to two more seasons. I began thinking of the many "conservatives" who love to watch Homer drink himself silly, Bart mouth off to his parents and show utter disregard for any authority, and more. I've only seen a few portions of a few episodes, so I'm not an expert on what all "more" entails. All I know is that the little I've seen has been enough to make me turn the channel.

I'm not suggesting that I'm a supreme moral being who everyone else should admire and look up to. I'm suggesting that "social conservatives" quit pretending to be something they're not. I hate to see hypocrisy in people. If you're against gay marriage, be against it. But don't pretend it's because you're taking some moral high road. All you're doing with that argument is helping the liberals make their claim (and justly so) that your words don't match your actions.

Who needs the bill of rights?

More Americans - 22% - know all five Simpson family members (from the TV show "The Simpsons) than know all five First Amendment freedoms - .01%.

You're saying, "Wow, that's crazy!" But do you know all five freedoms?

Didn't think so.

But you can probably name at least two, maybe even three, right?

If you can name more than one, you're among just 25% of Americans.

On the other hand, more than half of Americans can name more than one Simpson character.

Here are the five freedoms of the First Amendment:

- freedom of speech
- freedom of religion
- freedom of the press
- freedom of assembly
- freedom to petition for redress of grievances