Jonathan's blog

By the time we got home from McDonald's, the power was back on...a big relief because we were starting to worry about food spoiling, etc.

Powerful winds from a thunderstorm Monday night left a bunch of folks in mid-Michigan without power. We were fine until Tuesday night when our street mysteriously lost power. Now it's Wednesday night and we're at McDonald's for our internet fix while the boys play on the indoor play equipment. Here are links to a few news articles: The day after: Midland residents share their storm stories Storm update: 5,100 still without power in Midland Restaurants boom after power outage

From an article of the same title by Darren Rovell on ESPN.com:

Now this is really fantasy sports. The Schaumburg Flyers, an independent baseball team located 30 miles from Chicago, have agreed to turn over to fans the managerial decisions such as the batting lineup, fielding positions and the pitching roster for the second half of the club's season. The project, called "Fan Club: Reality Baseball" is the result of an alliance between production company LivePlanet, which will be responsible for the behind-the-scenes storytelling, and Microsoft's MSN, the Web site that will display everything from the team's day-to-day statistics to video highlights with the potential to stream games live.

From a NY Times article of the same title by Helena Andrews:

Muslim women do not think they are conditioned to accept second-class status or view themselves as oppressed, according to a survey released Tuesday by The Gallup Organization. According to the poll, conducted in 2005, a strong majority of Muslim women believe they should have the right to vote without influence, work outside the home and serve in the highest levels of government. In more than 8,000 face-to-face interviews conducted in eight predominantly Muslim countries, the survey found that many women in the Muslim world did not see sex issues as a priority because other issues were more pressing. When asked what they resented most about their own societies, a majority of Muslim women polled said that a lack of unity among Muslim nations, violent extremism, and political and economic corruption were their main concerns. The hijab, or head scarf, and burqa, the garment covering face and body, seen by some Westerners as tools of oppression, were never mentioned in the women's answers to the open-ended questions, the poll analysts said... The most frequent response to the question, "What do you admire least about the West?" was the general perception of moral decay, promiscuity and pornography that pollsters called the "Hollywood image" that is regarded as degrading to women.

From an article by Terry Mattingly of the Scripss Howard News Service:

The Christian moviemakers behind a low-budget film called "Facing the Giants" were stunned when the MPAA pinned a PG rating on their gentle movie about a burned-out, depressed football coach whose life _ on and off the field _ takes a miraculous turn for the better. "What the MPAA said is that the movie contained strong 'thematic elements' that might disturb some parents," said Kris Fuhr, vice president for marketing at Provident Films, which is owned by Sony Pictures. Provident plans to open the film next fall in 380 theaters nationwide with the help of Samuel Goldwyn Films, which has worked with indie movies like "The Squid and the Whale." Which "thematic elements" earned this squeaky-clean movie its PG? "Facing the Giants" is too evangelistic. The MPAA, noted Fuhr, tends to offer cryptic explanations for its ratings. In this case, she was told that it "decided that the movie was heavily laden with messages from one religion and that this might offend people from other religions. It's important that they used the word 'proselytizing' when they talked about giving this movie a PG. ... "It is kind of interesting that faith has joined that list of deadly sins that the MPAA board wants to warn parents to worry about."