Dumb and Such | Ain't Complicated

Bonnet Rippers

Branches that hang low and ruin passing coverings on female Amish heads? I wish...

I learned a new expression day before yesterday: Bonnet Books. So I Googled it and learned another new one: Bonnet Rippers.

Great. Just great.

There’s a new kind of romance novel out there and its plot includes forbidden love, a mysterious outsider and a heroine who has to decide between new love and her old life.

But these are not sexy Harlequin-like romances nicknamed bodice-rippers.

These are bonnet rippers.

Amish love stories are occupying many of the top spots in religious fiction.

[…]

The books’ plots usually include a young Amish woman who falls in love with an outsider. The woman is young enough, however, that she has not yet officially entered the Amish church, so she still can make a decision to leave the community.

[…]

In most cases, the woman does leave with the community and the reader perceives a happy ending.

If she doesn’t turn her back on her faith, does the book qualify as a bonnet ripper? (Get it? In case you don’t…she keeps her faith and her bonnet, ripping neither.)

One more quote from the article:

The books are marketed at conservative Christian readers, often showing up in devotional sections of bookstores.

Those things qualify as devotional?! 🙄

Source: ‘Bonnet rippers’ new kind of romance novel

Pepsi’s Score

I don’t know what it is.

But I say they’ve hit a new low with their latest effort to amp up the debasement of the culture:

Amp, an energy drink made by Pepsi, has an application (app, for short) for the iPhone called “Before You Score.” It’s billed as a “roadmap to success with your favorite kinds of women—24, in all.” Choose your type and get suggestions on how to “score.”

Here’s a boast from the online commercial for it: “If you’re anticipating a successful night, the Before You Score app gives you up-to-the minute information, feeds, lines, and much more to help you amp up and talk to 24 different types of ladies.” By “lines” they mean pick-up lines. As for “types,” you can choose from “businesswoman,” “foreign exchange student,” “sorority girl,” “rebound girl,” “nerd,” “treehugger,” “cougar,” “twins,” even “married.”

Have they no shame?

Have they no decency?

Apparently not:

Pepsi issued an apology via Twitter that said, in part: “We apologize if it’s in bad taste.”

You’ve got to be kidding me! 🙄

Well, read the rest of Marcia Segelstein’s post over at WorldMagBlog.

Shop. Drop. Hop.

Shop — as in, shop all you want and set up shop all you want.

Drop — as in, drop the above notion(s).

Hop — as in, hop right along to other ventures and venture-ers.

Now, before any further explanations of the title or of the above explanations, a quote to rivet in your head:

“We don’t make haphazard decisions about risks here at CPSC.”
Scott Wolfson, CPSC spokesman

Good. That sounds commendable enough to me. I mean, any reasonable person should be in favor of not making that kind of decision.

With no further introduction or commentary….

New Government Policy Imposes Strict Standards on Garage Sales Nationwide

Americans who slap $1 pricetags on their used possessions at garage sales or bazaar events risk being slapped with fines of up to $15 million, thanks to a new government campaign.

The “Resale Round-up,” launched by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, enforces new limits on lead in children’s products and makes it illegal to sell any items that don’t meet those limits or have been recalled for any other reason.

[…]

In order to comply, stores, flea markets, charities and individuals selling used goods — in person or online — are expected to consult the commission’s 24-page Handbook for Resale Stores and Product Resellers (pdf) and its Web site for a breakdown of what they can’t sell.

Violators caught selling anything on the enormous list face fines of up to $100,000 per infraction and up to $15 million for a related series of infractions.

Waddle that do for eBay, Craig’s List, Amazon, Roth’s Curiosity Corner, Anabaptist Bookstore, and your great aunt’s garage sale?

😯

Breaking Discovery: I was ready to publish this post. I decided to pause long enough to have a peek at the CPSC site. Here’s a quote:

CPSC’s Internet surveillance team
is monitoring
online retailers and auction sites
for sales of recalled and hazardous products.
CPSC 9 Aug 09 Press Release

New “Speed” Limit

I just learned that Mexico decriminalized small-scale drug possession:

Mexico decriminalized small amounts of marijuana, cocaine and heroin on Friday — a move that prosecutors say makes sense even in the midst of the government’s grueling battle against drug traffickers.

Prosecutors said the new law sets clear limits that keep Mexico’s corruption-prone police from shaking down casual users and offers addicts free treatment to keep growing domestic drug use in check.

“This is not legalization, this is regulating the issue and giving citizens greater legal certainty,” said Bernardo Espino del Castillo of the attorney general’s office.

The new law sets out maximum “personal use” amounts for drugs, also including LSD and methamphetamine. People detained with those quantities no longer face criminal prosecution.

Espino del Castillo says, in practice, small users almost never did face charges anyway.

I think this is dumb.

But I’ve been wrong before.

On the other hand, they have decriminalized small amounts of driving in excess of the posted highway speed limit. For which I’ve been glad.

But that kind of speed is different than the kind featured in the story above.

“Cash For Codgers”

Caution: This is not breaking news. So don’t get mad. Or scared. Or hopeful. I repeat, this is not news.

But I ask you, Is it believable these days?

So, with a hat tip to World Magazine Blog’s Mickey McLean, I offer to you this:

Due to the extreme popularity of the “Cash for Clunkers” auto rebate program, whereby new car buyers may obtain up to $4500 in federal government rebates by turning in older, less efficient vehicles, the president has decided to announce a new wrinkle in his Universal Healthcare proposals.

During a Townhall Meeting in Ottumwa, Iowa, President Obama unveiled an innovative proposal to cut healthcare costs, to be called “Cash for Codgers**.” Young, uninsured Americans may receive up to a $5000 healthcare voucher for medical treatment, if they turn in for exchange an older, unhealthy relative.

😯

Those are the opening two paragraphs; read the rest here: The President Lays Out New Universal Healthcare Program.

So there you are.

The Mystery of Life

Alternate post title: When Life Isn’t

First, the story:

The Charles Manson follower convicted of trying to assassinate President Gerald Ford was released Friday from a Texas prison hospital after more than three decades behind bars, a prison official said.

Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme was just 26 years old when she pointed a semiautomatic .45- caliber pistol at Ford in September 1975 in Sacramento, Calif. Secret Service agents grabbed her and Ford was unhurt.

[…]

Fromme, who got a life term, became the first person sentenced under a special federal law covering assaults on U.S. presidents, a statute enacted after the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

(I remember both Ford assassination attempts, by the way.)

Anyhow, so she was sentenced to a life term, served a few years over 30, and is now free.

For quite a while in America, life hasn’t meant what it’s supposed to mean. (When does life end?!)

Which begs a question with an entirely different point: What do you know about real life and real living?

Source: The Oregonian

Now Don’t Go Making Congress Mad!

And a government cover-up is better? 😐

And…the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, decided not to make public hundreds of pages of research and warnings about the use of phones by drivers — in part, officials say, because of concerns about angering Congress.

Help me out — why would that make Congress mad?

“We’re looking at a problem that could be as bad as drunk driving, and the government has covered it up,” said Clarence Ditlow, director of the Center for Auto Safety.

Here we go again. Somebody is going to tell me I can’t carry on a conversation while I’m driving. Come to think of it, I don’t talk much while I’m driving. I don’t drink much either.

The highway safety researchers estimated that cellphone use by drivers caused around 955 fatalities and 240,000 accidents over all in 2002.

That is astounding, but how do they go about estimating such things?

The research mirrors other studies about the dangers of multitasking behind the wheel. Research shows that motorists talking on a phone are four times as likely to crash as other drivers, and are as likely to cause an accident as someone with a .08 blood alcohol content.

😯

So, just add a new dimension to DUI. Maybe something along the lines of Driving Under the Influence of Conversation.

Wait a minute — why am I wasting my time here again????!!!! 🙁

One more thing: Will the time come when we attach drunk driving stigma to distracted driving?

Read the rest of the New York Times story here: In 2003, U.S. Withheld Data Showing Cellphone Driving Risks.