Laura's News Commentary

A reverse sort of babelfish
One of several on-the-fly language translator prototypes from Carnegie Mellon consists of implanting electrodes in a person's cheeks converts facial muscle movements into speech. So while you're babbling away in English, your listeners might be hearing you in Spanish, Cantonese and Esperanto simultaneously.

School keeps students from See You at the Pole
A New Jersey school barred students from holding a See You at the Pole rally last month. Students were ordered to cease praying and stand out of site of arrive school buses as they were "mixing church and state". After the Alliance Defense Fund lawyer Jeremy Tedesco intervened to educate the school as to the First Amendment rights of their students to pray on campus, the students were allowed a do-over event. Tedesco notes that "the student-led prayer assembly ended up being a huge success, garnering more attention and participation than it would have had the students been allowed to proceed with their original plans."

ACLU Exposed on Fox News
Bill O'Reilly of Fox News recently exposed the ACLU for it's attempts at imposing totalitarianism on America in their attemps to bypass public voter's choice on public policy by judicial activism. In particular, the ACLU filed a brief in support of Oregon's Supreme Court ruling in favor of live sex shows, on the basis of freedom of expression, a ruling that would have been defeated if left to the voter's who recently voted down gay marriage. The ACLU also supports the North American Man Boy Love Association and endorses virtual child pornography, all under the claim of freedom of expression.

Top 10 Best and Worst Prime-time TV for Family Viewing
I'm not much of a TV fan, but it's interesting to watch the changing trends of what's popular in our general culture. Unfortunately, the Parents Television Council's yearly review could find only 9 shows to add to their Best for Family Viewing list. Fox gets the award for the worst shows, most of which are advertized as "family friendly". The worst ones included The Family Guy, CSI, The O.C., Desparate Housewives, That 70's Show. On the good side, there's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Dancing With the Stars, Three Wishes, American Idol, Reba, 7th Heaven and several new ones I've never heard of. For a full list of shows and a review of each, check out the linked article.


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