Interesting Reading December 18, 2006

Over the past few years the American people have been asked to others who have suffered the devastating affects of natural disasters. There was a huge outpouring of aid following the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004. Now there is word of one Indonesian province in which aid was used to enforce religious law and to punish violations with things like the lashing of women. (See report on TimesOnline.co.uk: Hat Tip Michelle Malkin.)

Remember "Jarts?" Or you may have known them as "Lawn Darts." Well, Lawn Darts is number 10 on Radar Online's ten most dangerous playthings of all time. I actually remember a few of these toys and even owned one or two. (Hat Tip Kathy at Hang Right Politics.) On a related serious note: parents do not assume. Get up and find out what your kids are playing with. Or you can even be real radical and play with them.

In "CBS-Shameless" Falcon at Hang Right Politics talks about an episode of one of the network's shows in which the music of 'Joy to the World' is co-opted (corrupted) for use in a song with obvious sexual connotations.

It seems lately we are inundated with statistics. But do we take time to really look at what those statistics are telling us? LaShawn Barber takes a look at the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission's 2005 Hate Crimes Report. The report shows an increase in hate crimes based in race. La Shawn points out how this is an increase in a certain category of racial hatred and explains why we should take notice. While you are there make sure you read #5 under the comment section, a reminder that gangs are not just a big city problem anymore.