Hey, it's not the fault of the Carroll County Commissioners that they're all Christians and prefer to pray to Jesus

Two Carroll County Maryland residents are suing the county's Board of Commissioners for regularly opening its public meetings with Christian prayers invoking "Jesus" and "the Savior."

The two residents, who say that the five commissioners opened their official meetings with Christian prayers at least 54 times in the last two years, and during that time never prayed to non-Christian deities, have asked a federal judge to end the sectarian prayers by ruling they are unconstitutional under the First Amendment.

However, board members, who take turns offering the pre-meeting prayer, have a really good reason for only praying to Jesus--they're all Christians.

According to The Baltimore Sun, board president Doug Howard explained, "It is simply that commissioner's individual thoughts. I am totally comfortable with what we are doing."

See? It's not the commissioners' fault that they all believe in Jesus and are comfortable with their Christian-only prayers.

I mean, do you expect them to pray to a god they don't believe in? Or some generic "god" or "creator" who either Jesus or those at the meetings might mistake for *gasp* a non-Christian god?!

It's also not the commissioners' fault if some of their constituents are not Christians and uncomfortable with Christian prayers or feel excluded and/or demeaned when only Christian prayers are offered.

The commissioners did not explain in The Sun's article why it's important for them to pray aloud to Jesus at their public meetings rather than silently, or perhaps pray among themselves before opening the meetings to the public.

Maybe Jesus is more impressed, and thus more likely to bless the board's work, its members, and the county, if the commissioners pray out loud at their public meetings, where everyone--in addition to Jesus--can see and hear them pray.

And starting the board meetings without any prayers is apparently not an option because...the commissioners want to pray, so, by golly, they're gonna?

Or they need to pray, because Jesus will be sad or angry if no one prays to him before the meeting?

What do a "testosterone booster" and "The Daily Bible Guide" have in common?

The answer: spam promoting both "The Natural Testosterone Booster From Force Factor" and "Get inspiration from the Bible with one click" via The Daily Bible Guide arrived in my email this morning.

Both promote products that promise to help you, but may really mess you up. Both so not something I'd want or use. Both sent by some #&%*@)*&$&%!! spammer who doesn't care if I want to get email from them or not.

My spam detector pounced right on them and straight into the trash they went.

A passion for Passion Week

When someone mentions Passion Week, this isn't an image that's ever popped into my mind before--but probably will from now on. Which actually is a nice improvement over my previous mental images of a man being tortured to death. Published in The Baltimore Sun, Friday, March 22, 2013)

Harvey Fishing Seafood job offer is NOT a scam

I received what sounds like a wonderful job opportunity via email:

We are offering a job position in our company. Harvey Fishing Seafood is employing individuals to work for the company as a Sales Representative/Payment processing Agent. You don't need to have an Office and this certainly won't disturb any form of work, you have at the moment.

Salary: No basic salary, lucrative commissions structures. Average income range between $3000 - $5000 pm.

Experience: None Required- We will guide you through.

Age Requirements: From 25yrs and Above

Schedule: 5+ hours/week. You choose your hours.

Visit our application centre on http://www.[I'm not going to give out the website address so you don't steal this most excellent job opportunity from me. I'm not a fool.].com if Interested to Apply.

Admission is free of charge.

I don't know anything about "Harvey Fishing Seafood." But I'm guessing it has something to do with "fishing," "seafood," and perhaps someone named "Harvey." But I could be wrong.

I know next to nothing about fishing except the last time I did it I was still in grade school, and my father took me out in his motorboat, and I caught a fish, but as it flopped around in the bottom of the boat, gasping for air, I started crying about the "poor fish." And my father was so upset with my lack of appropriate excitement at seeing an animal die in front of me, he threw the fish back in the lake and vowed never to take me fishing again. And he never did, and I never fished with anyone else.

All I know about seafood is that some of it is delicious, even though I prefer not to watch my seafood die before I eat it. 

And the only Harveys I can think of at the moment are Harvey Milk and Elwood P. Dowd's tall, invisible rabbit buddy.

And, yeah, the email's capitalization is a bit...shall we say, "random." 

But I've got to assume that the Harvey Fishing Seafood knows what a great employee I'd be since, even though I haven't yet applied, they're offering me a job with great pay (especially if "pm" means "per month" (or better still, "per minute") and not "per millennium," especially when HFS expects as little as 5 hours a week; I don't have to give up my current job; and I don't have to pay admission!

Now I know what you're thinking. This sounds too good to be true; it's probably a scam. Yeah, I thought so too, until I got to the bottom of the email:

Scam Warnings!!! : Do not pay for a job, Your job has to pay you, BEWARE of Scams.

In Trust and Good Faith,
Mr. Thomas Lashan
Recruiting Department

See? Mr. Thomas Lashan is concerned that I might be taken in by scams. Hence, "Scam Warnings!!!:"

A scammer surely wouldn't write that, right? Especially one who closes the email with "In Trust and Good Faith." How could he not be honest and sincere?

I'm sure I'll be representing and processing the heck out of the fishing and seafood business in the near future from my non-Office. And raking in all my commissions, especially since I might put in, not 5, but as much as 6 or 7 hours a week. That might mean less time for blogging and commenting on other bloggers' blogs, but how can I pass this opportunity up?

Dr. Sood, Mayo'd, woo'd, not good

The January 3 Baltimore Sun had an article touting ayurvedic woo: "Ayurvedic medicine aims to correct balance of energy."

Because, heaven knows how many times those scientifically unknown and undetected "energies" get imbalanced. Especially the imbalances with clues lurking right there on your tongue. And golly, real-medicine doctors never think to say, "Your heartburn may be caused by an imbalance of energies. Let me look at your tongue."

It's disturbing that Tribune Media Services continues to distribute articles suggesting such ridiculous, non-scientific alternative-to-real-medicine and that The Sun continues to publish them.

It's even more disturbing that the article was written by a doctor from the Mayo Clinic, Dr. Amit Sood. Is no U.S. hospital free of doctors promoting and supporting woo?

At least the article did mention that research supporting ayurvedic medicine woo was "very limited" and that ayurvedic dietary supplements may be contaminated. Nothing like contaminated supplements to cure you when you're ailing because of unbalanced energies.

The article also cautions that "[n]o formal credentialing system exists in the U.S. for ayurvedic medicine practitioners. That means there is no guaranteed that someone who claims to be an ayurvedic doctor actually has credible qualifications or specific training." Yeah, because being treated by someone formally trained and credentialed in woo will give a patient much better results than being treated by someone who is not.

WBC comes to Maryland to protest same-sex marriage

January 2 was the first day that same-sex couples could be married legally in Maryland courthouses, so the Westboro Baptist Church came to Maryland to emulate their god's disgusting vileness by their usual hateful, ugly protesting. Four WBC members protested at both the Anne Arundel County Courthouse in Annapolis and the Baltimore County Courthouse in Towson.

And at both locations, they were met by groups of counter-protesters supporting the rights of same-sex couples.

Read more in The Baltimore Sun's report.

Where you put the little "." can make a big difference

Saw this ad for CareFRESH small pet bedding on Amazon yesterday.

Ninety-nine percent is quite a big discount, even for Amazon. Maybe Amazon wasn't selling many bags at the list price of $1,599.00, which does seem to be a bit steep for 4.8 pounds, no matter how much you love your hamster. Although it is turquoise.