New Pledge Of Allegiance

-----Original Message-----
From: ALBERT PETERSON
Sent: Monday, March 17, 2008 8:55 AM
To: MELISSA AMODEI; BARBARA CIEPLICKI; ROSALIND WATSON; SARAH JONES; Gail McKoy; MICHELE RUSSELLO; CATHY LEWANDOWSKI; Nildo V. Mades
Subject: New Pledge of Allegiance

*WRITTEN BY A 15 yr. Old SCHOOL KID IN ARIZONA :** *



*New Pledge of Allegiance (TOTALLY AWESOME) ! **
**
Since the Pledge of Allegiance
And
The Lord's Prayer
Are not allowed in most Public schools anymore
Because the word 'God' is mentioned....
A kid in Arizona wrote the attached *

*NEW School prayer *

*Now I sit me down in school
Where praying is against the rule
For this great nation under God
Finds mention of Him very odd. *

*If Scripture now the class recites,
It violates the Bill of Rights.
And anytime my head I bow
Becomes a Federal matter now. *



*Our hair can be purple, orange or green,
That's no offense; it's a freedom scene.
The law is specific, the law is precise.
Prayers spoken aloud are a serious vice. *



*For praying in a public hall
Might offend someone with no faith at all.
In silence alone we must meditate,
God's name is prohibited by the state. *



*We're allowed to cuss and dress like freaks,
And pierce our noses, tongues and cheeks..
They've outlawed guns, but FIRST the Bible.
To quote the Good Book makes me liable.
We can elect a pregnant Senior Queen,
And the 'unwed daddy,' our Senior King.
It's 'inappropriate' to teach right from wrong,
We're taught that such 'judgments' do not belong. *

*We can get our condoms and birth controls,
Study witchcraft, vampires and totem poles.
But the Ten Commandments are not allowed,
No word of God must reach this crowd. *



*It's scary here I must confess,
When chaos reigns the school's a mess.
So, Lord, this silent plea I make:
Should I be shot; My soul please take!
Amen *



*If you aren't ashamed to do this,
Please pass this on. **
**Jesus said,
'If you are ashamed of me,
I will be ashamed of you before my Father.' **


Not ashamed. Pass this *on. *

MARRIAGE

To those who are married… not married… and soon to be married…

MARRIAGE

When I got home that night as my wife served dinner, I held her hand and said, I've got something to tell you. She sat down and ate quietly. Again I observed the hurt in her eyes.
Suddenly I didn't know how to open my mouth. But I had to let her know what I was thinking. I want a divorce. I raised the topic calmly.
She didn't seem to be annoyed by my words, instead she asked me softly, why? I avoided her question. This made her angry. She threw away the chopsticks and shouted at me, you are not a man! That night, we didn't talk to each other. She was weeping. I knew she wanted to find out what had happened to our marriage. But I could hardly give her a satisfactory answer; she had lost my heart to Dew. I didn't love her anymore. I just pitied her!
With a deep sense of guilt, I drafted a divorce agreement which stated that she could own our house, our car, and 30% stake of my company.
She glanced at it and then tore it into pieces. The woman who had spent ten years of her life with me had become a stranger. I felt sorry for her wasted time, resources and energy but I could not take back what I had said for I loved Dew so dearly. Finally she cried loudly in front of me, which was what I had expected to see. To me her cry was actually a kind of release. The idea of divorce which had obsessed me for several weeks seemed to be firmer and clearer now.
The next day, I came back home very late and found her writing something at the table. I didn't have supper but went straight to sleep and fell asleep very fast because I was tired after an eventful day with Dew.
When I woke up, she was still there at the table writing. I just did not care so I turned over and was asleep again.
In the morning she presented her divorce conditions: she didn't want anything from me, but needed a month's notice before the divorce. She requested that in that one month we both struggle to live as normal a life as possible. Her reasons were simple: our son had his exams in a month's time and she didn't want to disrupt him with our broken marriage.
This was agreeable to me. But she had something more, she asked me to recall how I had carried her into out bridal room on our wedding day.
She requested that everyday for the month's duration I carry her out of our bedroom to the front door ever morning. I thought she was going crazy. Just to make our last days together bearable I accepted her odd request.
I told Dew about my wife's divorce conditions. She laughed loudly and thought it was absurd. No matter what tricks she applies, she has to face the divorce, she said scornfully.
My wife and I hadn't had any body contact since my divorce intention was explicitly expressed. So when I carried her out on the first day, we both appeared clumsy. Our son clapped behind us, daddy is holding mummy in his arms. His words brought me a sense of pain. From the bedroom to the sitting room, then to the door, I walked over ten meters with her in my arms. She closed her eyes and said softly; don't tell our son about the divorce. I nodded, feeling somewhat upset. I put her down outside the door. She went to wait for the bus to work. I drove alone to the office.
On the second day, both of us acted much more easily. She leaned on my chest. I could smell the fragrance of her blouse. I realized that I hadn't looked at this woman carefully for a long time. I realized she was not young any more. There were fine wrinkles on her face, her hair was graying! Our marriage had taken its toll on her. For a minute I wondered what I had done to her.
On the fourth day, when I lifted her up, I felt a sense of intimacy returning. This was the woman who had given ten years of her life to me.
On the fifth and sixth day, I realized that our sense of intimacy was growing again. I didn't tell Dew about this. It became easier to carry her as the month slipped by. Perhaps the everyday workout made me stronger.
She was choosing what to wear one morning. She tried on quite a few dresses but could not find a suitable one. Then she sighed, all my dresses have grown bigger. I suddenly realized that she had grown so thin, that was the reason why I could carry her more easily.
Suddenly it hit me... she had buried so much pain and bitterness in her heart. Subconsciously I reached out and touched her head.
Our son came in at the moment and said, Dad, it's time to carry mum out. To him, seeing his father carrying his mother out had become an essential part of his life. My wife gestured to our son to come closer and hugged him tightly. I turned my face away because I was afraid I might change my mind at this last minute. I then held her in my arms, walking from the bedroom, through the sitting room, to the hallway. Her hand surrounded my neck softly and naturally. I held her body tightly; it was just like our wedding day.
But her much lighter weight made me sad. On the last day, when I held her in my arms I could hardly move a step. Our son had gone to school. I held her tightly and said, I hadn't noticed that our life lacked intimacy.
I drove to office... jumped out of the car swiftly without locking the door. I was afraid any delay would make me change my mind... I walked upstairs. Dew opened the door and I said to her, Sorry, Dew, I do not want the divorce anymore.
She looked at me, astonished, and then touched my forehead. Do you have a fever? She said. I moved her hand off my head. Sorry, Dew, I said, I won't divorce. My marriage life was boring probably because she and I didn't value the details of our lives, not because we didn't love each other any more. Now I realize that since I carried her into my home on our wedding day I am supposed to hold her until death do us apart.
Dew seemed to suddenly wake up. She gave me a loud slap and then slammed the door and burst into tears. I walked downstairs and drove away.
At the floral shop on the way, I ordered a bouquet of flowers for my wife. The salesgirl asked me what to write on the card. I smiled and wrote, I'll carry you out every morning until death do us apart.

The small details of your lives are what really matter in a relationship. It is not the mansion, the car, property, the money in the bank, blah..blah..blah. These create an environment conducive for happiness but cannot give happiness in themselves. So find time to be your spouse's friend and do those little things for each other that build intimacy. Do have a real happy marriage!
If you don't share this, nothing will happen to you.
If you do, you just might save a marriage.

Palarong Pambansa 2008

Palarong Pambansa 2008

Palarong Pambansa 2008

Palarong Pambansa 2008

DepEd Chief Opens Palaro

April 19, 2008 9:59 am
by Joey Villar

PUERTO PRINCESA, Palawan – The 2008 Palarong Pambansa will have Education Secretary Jesli Lapuz representing President Arroyo as special guest during the opening ceremonies tomorrow and former President Joseph Estrada personally gracing the closing rites as speaker. The annual sports gathering among student-athletes comes off the wraps in an elaborate rites starting at 4 p.m. tomorrow at the newly refurbished Ramon V. Mitra Sports Complex. Host Mayor Edward Hagedorn said the Chief Executive wouldn’t be able to attend the opening ceremonies due to a previous commitment. But Hagedorn also announced that Estrada has committed to come and deliver a speech on the closing rites. About 15,000 athletes, coaches and officials from the country’s 17 regions will gather here for the weeklong games. Alroben Goh, the city’s chief information officer, said all but two regions are already accounted for with Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, Calabarzon, Central Visayas, Western Visayas, Eastern Visayas, Zamboanga, Northern Mindanao, Davao, Socsargen, and powerhouse National Capital Region arriving here as early as last week. The Big City bets remain as the heavy favorites in both the elementary and secondary divisions. Fireworks display, reportedly costing the host millions of pesos, will highlight the inaugurals ushered in by the ceremonial torch relay, the parade and inspirational messages from Lapuz, Hagedorn and Philippine Sports commissioner Eric Loretizo, speaking on behalf of chairman William “Butch” Ramirez. Palawan Gov. Joel Reyes and Congressmen Antonio Alvarez of District 1 and Abraham Kahlil Mitra of District 2 are also expected to grace the ceremonies. Seventeen events are calendared in the weeklong event with the centerpiece athletics unfolding as early as Monday at the Ramon V. Mitra Sports Complex, which is also the playing venue for softball, swimming, boxing, football and volleyball. Chess and taekwondo will be held at the Palawan State U, gymnastics at the City Coliseum, archery at TESDA grounds, arnis at Wescom Gym, badminton at Powerzone, baseball and table tennis at Palawan National HS and sepak takraw at People’s Amphitheater.

All set for expensive Palaro

April 19, 2008 9:59 am

Frank Calapre And James Konstantin Galvez

PUERTO PRINCESA: The Department of Education’s budget for this year’s Palarong Pambansa nearly reached a hundred million.
DepEd will be shelling out P89.2 million for the games proper alone. Add that to the P9.5 million for the transportation and accommodation expenses of the participating regions and the grand total will be P98.7 million.
It’s a 42 percent increase from last year’s budget of P69.3 million.
The games will start on Sunday at the newly-refurbished Ramon V. Mitra Jr. Sports Complex in Ba­rangay Sta. Monica.
Education secretary Jesli Lapus wants to make sure that those figures will no go to waste.
“We issued a general technical guidelines to ensure that the Palaro will run smoothly,” Lapus said.
He added that sports and health authorities, with the help non-government organizations, would take closer watch on safety and health of the athletes to prevent a repetition of last year’s tragedies at the games held in Koronadal City in South Cotabato.
During last year’s games, scores of athletes and officials were stricken by heatstroke, two of them fatally – Carlos Mingie del Prado, principal of Marinduque High School, who had a heart attack due to prolonged exposure to the heat, and Edwin Golmatico, a teacher from Koronodal High School.
As to the conduct of the games, the DepEd has formed a National Screening and Accreditation Committee to look into the eligibility of athletes for the Palaro and give accreditation to qualified athletes and coaches.
Palaro screening committee chairman Leo Pacala said they have already implemented the new guidelines, which does not only required the signature of coaches but also the registrar, principal, PESS supervisor and division superintendent in the athletes record.
“There are more authorities who have to certify the athlete’s eligibility now. Before, it was only the coach and physical education instructor. Even the superintendent will have to certify the athlete’s eligibility,” Pacala said.
A total of 9,520 athletes from 17 regions throughout the country are vying for supremacy in 17 sports disciplines in the high school competition and 14 in the elementary level.
The host city spent some P50 million in the rehabilitation of the facilities, venues and billeting centers and another P10 million for the operation of the multi-event meet.
Other supporters of the competition were the Philippine Amusements and Gaming Corporation and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.
The medal-rich athletics will be held at the sprawling 16-hectare RVMJ complex, badminton at the nearby Power Zone Training and Recreation Center, baseball at the 570th Composite Tactical Wing grounds, basketball at the Paleco Covered Court, chess at the Palawan State University, football at the PSU grounds, gymnastics at the Puerto Princesa Coliseum, sepak-takraw at the People’s Amphitheater, softball at the Palawan National School ground, swimming at the RVMJ Aquatic Center, volleyball at the Baptist Covered Court and lawn tennis at the Air Force court.

Big Brains Mean Longer Life

Big Brains Mean Longer Life

By Jeanna Bryner, LiveScience Staff Writer

posted: 18 April 2008 08:50 am ET

Weighing in at an average of 2.7 pounds (1,200 grams), the human brain packs a whopping 100 billion neurons. Every minute, about three soda-cans worth of blood flow through the brain. Credit: dreamstime. Full Size 1 of 1
Weighing in at an average of 2.7 pounds (1,200 grams), the human brain packs a whopping 100 billion neurons. Every minute, about three soda-cans worth of blood flow through the brain. Credit: dreamstime. Brains are good for more than acing exams. Turns out, nerdy noggins also help primates like us live longer, anthropologists say.
Scientists have long pondered the reason for humans' and other primates' relatively hefty heads. Elephants boast the biggest brains by volume of all land animals, but relative to body size, humans hold the brain-size record.
"There's got to be a benefit to this big brain, because big brains are really expensive to grow and maintain, energetically expensive," said lead researcher Nancy Barrickman, a graduate student in Duke University's Department of Biological Anthropology and Anatomy.
The study, to be detailed in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Human Evolution, suggests primates basically balance the costs of growing big brains with the survival benefits they get from having stellar smarts — they live longer.
Growing a brain
By comparing brain sizes and other developmental features of 28 primate species, Barrickman and her colleagues found primates with larger brains take longer to reach sexual maturity.
The researchers focused on primates living in the wild, because captive species tend to grow up faster, a phenomenon that would skew results. For humans, the team studied the Ache, a tropical forest culture in eastern Paraguay.
This time-consuming bulking of the brain better be worth it: "In order to pay off all that time you spent growing up," Barrickman said, "either you live a long time and have lots of kids over that life span, or you reproduce really fast. Either way you're getting a lot of offspring."
The analyses showed big brain size is linked with longevity rather than reproductive rate.
Survival smarts
The researchers suspect the extra brainpower allows primates to learn savvy food-finding techniques, as well as predator avoidance and social skills.
For instance, studies by Barrickman's colleagues showed the brainiac of all lemurs, called the aye-aye, also has one of the most bizarre food-finding techniques. These bat-eared lemurs are thought to need extra brainpower to master the skill of tap-foraging, in which they locate insect larvae by tapping on tree trunks and listening for the telltale sounds of a tasty morsel.
"It takes a year-and-a-half to learn it, and the babies need to spend a lot of time watching the mom," Barrickman said.
Human helpers
While humans fit in with the basic pattern of brain size and longevity, we stood out in one respect. Humans in hunter-gatherer societies don't take much of a break between babies, just three years on average, the researchers found.
"In a hunter-gatherer [society], three years is short," Barrickman told LiveScience. "You've got a three-year-old toddling around the African bush and another baby on your back. That's really difficult to juggle."

Are Big Brain Smarter?

If this were true, then perhaps big-headed people wouldn't be so pea-brained.
This question is mired in many unknowns. For one, scientists still debate over the definition of intelligence. For any IQ definition, how do you measure it? Further, do differences in IQ show up in daily life? And finally, does more brain tissue or a heftier brain equate with higher IQ?
One thing scientists do agree on: A big brain alone doesn’t equate with smarts. If it did, elephants and sperm whales would win all the spelling bees. Rather, scientists look at brain mass relative to body mass in order to make any speculation about a creature's cognitive abilities.
So while an elephant noggin, at 10.5 pounds (4,780 grams), could squash a human think box in a purely physical battle of brains, you and I take the cake in a war of wits. Our brains, which weigh an average of 2.7 pounds (1,200 grams), account for about 2 percent of body weight, compared with an elephant's under one-tenth of a percent.
Studies have shown that across species relatively large brains "do seem to provide some complex cognitive skills, such as innovative solutions to ecological problems, more efficient resource mapping and food acquisition, and more complex social strategies (such as deception)," said Nancy Barrickman, a graduate student in Duke University's Department of Biological Anthropology and Anatomy.
Differences in brain size within a species, such as humans, are relatively small, making it difficult to tease out the effects of brain size and the effects of other factors. For instance, the difference in intelligence between an organism with, say, a brain that's 1,100 grams and one that's 1,400 grams (which could be found in humans) is confounded by other variables, including differences in density of neurons, other structural brain differences and socio-cultural factors.
And the debate continues …
Brain size has nothing to do with scores on standardized intelligence tests, according to a brain-scan study of young children.
Michael McDaniel, an industrial and organizational psychologist at Virginia Commonwealth University, has claimed that bigger brains do make for smarter people. Many researchers, however, disagree with McDaniel's conclusion. His research, published in 2005 in the journal Intelligence, suggested that across all age and sex groups, brain volume is linked to intelligence.
Men are smarter than women, according to research published in 2006, which the study researchers say could be due to men having relatively larger brains, a difference of about 0.2 pounds (100 grams). Another scientist put forth several socio-cultural factors that would make the men-smarter results null.
Average brain weights for primates (not relative to body size):
Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) — 0.77 pounds (350 grams) Mountain gorilla (Gorilla gorilla beringei) — 0.95 pounds (430 grams) Mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus) — 0.004 pounds (2 grams) Sizing up brains for the rest of the animal kingdom, would include:
Sperm whale — 17 pounds (7,800 grams) Walrus — 2.4 pounds (1,100 grams) Domestic cat — 0.06 pounds (30 grams) If brain size had anything to do with innovation and creativity, some scientists expected to see a link between the so-called Mind's Big Bang (the emergence of bone tools and cave paintings that occurred between 50,000 and 70,000 years ago) and the emergence of modern-size human brains

Thank God For Closed Doors

Thank God For Closed Doors
We need to learn
to thank the Lord
for closed doors
just as much as
we do for open doors.
The reason God closes doors
isbecause He has
not prepared
anything over there for us.
If he didn't close
the wrong door we
would never find
our way to the right door.
Even when we don't realize it,
God directs our paths
through the closing and opening of doors.
When one door closes,
it forces us to change our course.
Another door closes;
it forces us to change our course yet again.
Then finally, we find the open door
and walk right into our blessing.
But instead of praising God
for the closed door (which kept us out of trouble),
we get upset because we "judge by the appearances."
And in our own arrogance, or ignorance,
we insist that we know what is right.
We have a very present help in the time of
need who is always standing guard.
Because He walks ahead of us,
He can see trouble down the road
and HE sets up road blocks and detours accordingly.
But through our lack of wisdom
we try to tear down the roadblocks
or push aside the detour signs.
Then the minute we get into trouble,
we start crying "Lord how could this happen to me?
We have got to realize that the closed door was a blessing.
Didn't He say that "No good thing will He withhold
from them that love Him?"
If you get terminated from your job - don't be down,
instead thank God for the new opportunities that
will manifest themselves - it might be a better job,
or an opportunity to go to school.
If that man or woman won't return your call - it might not
be them, it might be the Lord setting
up a roadblock (just let it go).
I'm so grateful, for
the many times
God has closed
doors to me, just
to open them in
the most unexpected places.
"The steps of a good man
are ordered by the Lord,
and He delights in his way."
(Psalms 37:23)
The Mountain top is glorious,
but it is in the Valley that I will grow!
Always Remember God gives you...
Enough Happiness to keep you Going
EnoughTrials to keep you Strong
Enough Sorrows tokeep you Human
Enough Hope to keep youHappy
Enough Failure to keep you Humble
Enough Success to keep you Eager
Enough Friends to give you Comfort
Enough Wealth to meet your Needs
Enough Enthusiasm to make you look forward
Enough Faith to banish depression
Enough Determination to make each day a better day than the last.
***and Enough Honey to keep you Sweet
Life must be lived forward but can only be
understood backwards.
Commit to the Lord in whatever you do and
your plans will succeed. (Proverbs 16:3)
If you love God
share this
and
He will
continue to
open and
close doors
for you.