Jenn Martinelli Blogging in Boston

It is totally illegal that Rod Stewart has the number 1 pop album this week. This is what Rob Reed says:

"People do not know how to spend their money. Give it to me. I'll spend it for you."

Rob got a lovely mailing from this moron today. He would like us to know that he thinks that no child should ever be confused by the idea of same-sex marriage and so therefore there shouldn't be any same-sex marriage. There is a very stupid cartoon on the front of it that looks like it was made by a ten year old with scissors cutting and pasting. His two main problems apparently are that:

1. Teachers will be mandated to teach from kindergarten on that homosexual relationships are an equal alternative to marriage.

2. Religious institutions will be limited in their freedom to speak out against certain ethical issues and to govern themselves

Then he wants to point out that he wants to help us by "taking back our right to vote on marriage to protect our children", in addition to also being in favor of charter schools, term limits and lower taxes.

Wow, what an agenda. He is protecting our children from being confused and he is also in favor of charter schools which I think are a horrible idea since we need to fix the schools we already have, and then he wants term limits - on who? He doesn't tell me. And he wants "lower taxes". For who? How much lower? How are you going to make up the difference? What programs lose money? Not charter schools, that's for sure!

Yep, he really bowled me over. I don't even have the energy to go into all the reasons why this guy is just very very wrong.

Pretty funny stuff. The FCC sucks.

Pretty funny stuff.

Here is a really unfortunate story. I just heard on NPR something about some crazy sport in Afghanistan which I missed the name of but they likened it to a version of polo. Then described it, saying the riders (representing different warlords, by the way) flog their horses and each other, and that the goal is to carry a dead goat from one end of the field to the other. Nice. I think maybe this country has some deep-seated issues.

Check out the site that was spawned by a project in Rob's Comp 15 class at Tufts. Yes, he's a little over the top.

Seriously. First, go check out the wide variety of both sane and crazy comments here about the girl who died after being shot by a pepper spray ball from police at a riot near Fenway after the Sox won the pennant.

Now, please also note my earlier post on this subject, here. OK, now this is what I have to say - get ready, it's momentous.

People are stupid and crazy and they do stupid and crazy things. However, let's not get out of control here. Let's read up on our facts before we start calling the police murderers. Even from far away you coule plainly see on the news from the crowd scene in Kenmore square that night, that the crowd was completely out of control. I'm sure there were some people there who were not out of control, but there were an awful lot who were. People were starting fires, throwing all manner of things from trash cans to furniture to pieces of broken windows and signs and whatever else they could smash up all over the place - into other signs and buildings and people. There were fireworks being set off in the crowd by other people in the crowd. There were cops there in riot gear and I think they waited too long to break it up. However, all they seemed to do was push the crowd away and try to break them up. They apparently opted to use pepper spray and this girl that died was accidentally hurt by it. I'm sure that whatever method they were using to do it has been tested and carefully developed and isn't supposed to kill anybody but accidents happen, especially when there is a crowd of thousands that has turned into a crazy lunatic mob.

That having been said, now I'll make everyone mad by saying if you choose to go to Fenway and get drunk and then run around in the streets like an idiot, even if you're not destroying anything, then you made your bed and you get to lay in it. Sorry if that means you might get hurt. People need to get control of themselves. Don't be stupid, it's a bad idea.

Now after all this fuss, if one single person participates in any crazy street rioting surrounding the World Series then I don't want to see it on the news or hear one complaint if someone gets hurt or even killed. You know it will happen anyway because people are so astoundingly stupid.

Don't come crying to me. I hope next time the cops have their billy clubs out.

• The Boston Red Sox

• The St. Louis Cardinals

Check it out.

Don't be sad that you're 30. Just think of it as one year closer to being done with school! Hey, you're closer to being 18 than you are to being 45. I'm just giving you a hard time, 30 isn't old by any stretch. You can call yourself old when you're about 75.

Have a happy birthday! Do something fun! Eat cake and ice cream!