I have “taken the paper”, as my Dad would say, for 12 years here in Atlanta.  “The Atlanta Journal Constitution”, to be exact.  It’s a decent enough paper.  Easy read, decent stories, good coverage, nice funnies, and sadly, only one crossword. 

Really, it could use more.

But, that’s not my point.

I don’t read the entire paper.  Obits don’t interest me, ads bore me – and I’m broke anyway – I’m a headliner.  I read the headlines and decide which stories I’ll check out during the day.

I’m sure I’m not unlike many in this area.

I remember hearing as a child that JFK read 2 or 3 entire newspapers everyday.  It may be true, but I doubt it.  As with any prominent person, and especially the President, there’s a lot of myth. 

But again, I digress.

The headlines yesterday were a bit disconcerting.

“Fulton Teachers may lose their jobs” – Now that’s a pretty sight!  Fulton County is the heart of the Atlanta Metro Area.  High crime, lots of cops, big schools, big buildings, it’s a city.

Just a thought – wouldn’t it be easier to educate our children than prepare them for incarceration?  The majority of folks in prison are high school drop outs.  Why are we laying teachers off?

Here’s another – “State revenue still spirals downward” – everyone acts like this is a surprise.  Since my property taxes went up by 14% last year, state and county revenues shouldn’t be in a spiral.  But alas, according the the AJC, they are.  The state of Georgia collected 10% less last month than it did in the same month last year.  So I’m guessin’ there will be more cuts a commin’.

Hmmm…

And then there’s this one – “Lists note DeKalb schools that may close” – DeKalb (pronounced De CAB for all  you outsiders) is another large county that is the other half of the city of Atlanta.  Trust me, they have enough problems, they don’t need to close schools.    And if they close the schools, no one’s said where the kids will go.  I really can’t see that many people in DeKalb County homeschooling off the bat.  So, again, what’s to become of the youth?

“Obama throws down the health care gauntlet” - apparently there are some folks in his own party who are on the fence, and he wants them to get off of it…I suppose on his side.

And how about this one – “Colleges wary as guns bill advances” – Apparently a new law is in the works that will allow those with “carry permits” to take a gun onto a College Campus.  Now, I’m a 2nd Amendment kinda guy and all, but has anyone at the Georgia State House heard of Virginia Tech?  Or Columbine?  and on and on. 

That’s just the front page, and not even all of it.

The Metro section was even more disheartening.  Something about a judge resigning because she served alcohol to underage kids at her home.  A slaying suspect turned himself in (alas, some good news), A forest ranger was killed in a hunting mishap; can we say understatement? – MISHAP!   And apparently Hustler Magazine wants to publish pictures of the nude dismembered body of a woman who was killed while hiking.  There’s always some irony in any Hustler/Larry Flint/Metro Area story since Gwinnett County, where I live, is where Larry was shot during his porno trial.

And there was a small snippet about a “methane gas leak shuts down highway”.

Really, I couldn’t wait to read the comics!

Can you tell I’ve got a kid in college?

I really wanted to call this “Sallie Mae’s A Bigger Whore Than Ann Arbor”, but I thought it might scare people away.  Especially the two readers I have in Michigan…so.

Yahoo recently reported the story of Michelle Bisutti.  Michelle is a 41 year old MD who is a family practitioner in Columbus (Go Bucks!) Ohio.

She finished med school $250,000 in debt.

That’s bad enough.

Seven years later, it’s  $555,000.

“Why?”, you ask.

She deferred her loan payments during her residency. 

If one defers loan payments there are default charges and compounding interest rates. 

One of the charges was a whopping $53,870 fee for turning her loans over to a collection agency!

Really, maybe I’m in the wrong business.

Dr. Bisutti admits, “Maybe half of it was my fault because I didn’t look at the fine print.”   She adds, ”But this is just outrageous now.”

Outrageous doesn’t cover it.  It’s usury.  And frankly, I thought that was illegal, must be wrong, it’s just immoral.

Tuition is on the rise.  The state of Georgia announced that it would take a 77% increase at all Georgia State Universities to cover the short fall for next year.  That’s $4,500.00 MORE each year just to be a DAWG!  Yes, I know it’s worth it because the only thing better than being a DAWG is being a Buckeye, but really 77%?  C’mon!

And people think nothing of college loans.  After all it’s “necessary debt”, “college is important”, “How can you put a price on an education?”, and all that.  Well, colleges everyday put a price on an education…and it’s not cheap.

Getting out of student loans is near to impossible. 

File bankruptcy, everything else may go away, (including your credit and ability to buy things) but Sallie Mae’s at the door  slathering  on new lipstick, waiting for her pay off.

The ‘boy’ is in Nashville at a Tech School, NADC.  He will come out with about $40,000 in debt.   It’s a 15 month program.  All during the course of the program, the family loans kick in when the school needs more cash.  And Sallie doesn’t call to tell you.  She sends a note. 

When her emails aren’t answered, (because the password to get in won’t work) she starts calling.  EVERYWHERE.

We’re not close.

And family loan payments kick in BEFORE your student graduates.  Unlike the loans the student gets, there is no deferrment. 

Really, I hate her.

We have a plan.  His and our debt will be erradicated pronto!

As to Dr. B.  She has renegotiated her debt.  She only has to make 351 more payments of $900.00  per month.

She’ll be able to celebrate her student loan payoff just after her 70th birthday.

You may have heard, UP is a BIG, BIG fan of DWTS.

Love it.  Can’t explain it, it just makes me happy!

I wait breathlessly each season for the new line-UP to be announced.

As usual, I was all a twitter, waiting to see which “stars” would thrill me this season.

This time…not so much.

I’ll admit, Evan “I won a Gold Medal at the Olympics” Lysacek is a great choice, and probably a favorite to win.  Good on his feet, good looking, and hugely popular right now.

Nichole Scherzinger, the girl from the Pussycat Dolls, I can live with.  She could be the next Mel B, and it looks like she has already seen Edyta about costuming.

Neicy Nash will make Macy Grey look tame, and add a lot of humor. 

Me loves me some Reno 9-1-1 too!

Erin Andrews is going from the sideline to the Electric Slideline, and will probably hit the road early…but I’ve been wrong before.  Not a whole lot of football watchers watch the show (with the exception of a renaissance  man like me) , and unless their wives watch football with them, they may not know her.

The obligatory Football Star, Chad 85 Ocho Cinco will be a favorite early –  if he can dance.  The crowd will have no mercy if he can’t.  And the grille may be a ‘tad’ distracting.

Buzz “I was moonwalking be for moonwalking was cool” Aldrin will head back to space early.  He’s old, gets to stay a few weeks out of sympathy, and he’s no Jerry Springer! But I’m sure he’s a darn sight better than Tom Delay! (Who wouldn’t be?)

And then there’s the Batchelor guy, Jake Pavelka – or Mr. Bad Choice.  He’ll be  a fan favorite for a while, but who knows, everyone’s ticked that he picked the wrong girl.  And shouldn’t he be saving all his energy for the honeymoon?

Aiden Turner, from “All My Children” is pretty hot right now, and may be a contender.  The Soap Ladies love DWTS too.  He’s prettier than Giles Marini, you can understand him, and has quarter bouncing abs, so he might have an edge.

And then we come to the final three ‘ladies’ in the line up.

Kate Gosselin, Pam Anderson, and Shannon Doherty!

OH MY COWS!

For the two of you on the planet who don’t know how  UP feels about Ms. Gosselin, let’s just say, I’m not a fan, and think her 15 minutes of fame should have been over long, long ago.

   Before                               After

Shannen “Little Miss Spoiled Hollywood” Doherty will hang in there for a while since all the 90210 and Charmed folks watch.  But she’s not a winner.

And then there’s Pamela Anderson…from all the ‘moves’ she made in the Tommy Lee video, she might be pretty good on her feet, we all know she’s good on her back…

…I suppose we’ll have to change the name to Dancing With The Skanks!

My money’s on Evan.  Great smile, looks good in sequins, and if the pants are as tight on DWTS as they were at Vancouver, he’s a “skate-in”.

…as King Solomon.

You remember him, the wise Israeli King ,who when given a choice asked for wisdom rather than power, riches, or fame.

The son of King David, you know, the shepherd boy who slew the Giant Goliath and defeated the Philistines over and over and over again. 

Solomon, the King and Judge who knew that if he suggested cutting the baby in half, the one the two  harlots were fighting over, the real mother would plead for it’s life and the pretend one would not.

You know, Solomon of the Bible.  First Kings, Chapter Four to be exact.

Yes, he really existed, he really was that wise, and he really was that rich and powerful. 

He took over the throne in about 937 BC (that’s Before Christ, I don’t use BCE, which is before common era…why leave Jesus out completely?), when his father died.

Now Solomon was the “love child” of David and Bathsheba, it’s not just an Opera, it’s a true story.  David lusted after Bathsheba as she was a skinny dippin’ in her roof-top pool.  Her hubby Uriah was in battle, where Dave should have been, and so hormones a ragin’, Dave put in for a booty call.  When he found out Bathsheba was “in the family way” and that Uriah would know it wasn’t his, he tried to trick Uriah into thinking it was by calling him home thinking he’d have a little bedroom time with the honey.  When that didn’t work, he put him at the front of the battle, where he was sure to be a casualty.

So, after Uriah’s death and Hero’s funeral, David added Bathsheba to his stable of wives, and Solomon became a Prince of Israel.   And later King.

Historians have for years tried to tell us that David and Solomon were “largely mythical and that there was no strong government to speak of in that era.”  But the Bible for hundreds of years has told us that they were real, and that their was a kingdom, and that it was that great.

Now, an Archaeologist has found what she sees a “proof” for the Bible in an ancient wall in Jerusalem.

Proof for the Bible…really, you need proof?

Apparently a wall under the Dome of the Rock dates back 3,000 years, the time of Solomon, and it supports the “biblical narrative” about the era. 

Whoopie!

This wall is deep beneath the Temple Herod built and the Romans destroyed around 70-71 BC.  The Temple of Solomon was destroyed by Babylonian Thugs when Israel went into captivity back in the day.  Herod rebuilt, Rome destroyed, and they just kept building new stuff on top of it, so finding things is, let’s just say, a chore!

Nevertheless, the style, building skill, and materials used in the wall support the fact that The Davidic and Solomonic Kingdoms were “actually as strong and powerful as the Bible says they were.”  Imagine that!

Seems every one in the Archaeological community is stunned by this finding.

Again, Woopie!

Eliat Mazar, said archaelolgist, says, “It means that at that time, the 10th century, in Jerusalem there was a regime capable of carrying out such construction.”  Ms. Mazar (no relation to Debbie, who was voted off Dancing With The Stars way too early) claims her dig was the first to complete excavation and the first to turn up strong evidence for the wall’s age.

Said evidence:  a large number of pottery shards, which archaeologists often use to figure out the age of findings.

Aren Maeir who teaches archaelolgy at Bar Ilan U near Tel Aviv, says that he as “yet to see evidence that the fortifications are as old a Mazar claims. ”  He says there are remains from the 10th century in Jerusalem, but proof of a strong centralized kingdom remains “tenuous”.  And he added, “There’s a kernel of historicity in the story of King David.”

“This is pertinent and annoying because?”, you ask.

I don’t need science to prove the Bible for me, it’s nice and all.  But I accepted that a long time ago.  If it’s in there, it happened.

So, dig, don’t dig, date, don’t date, I really don’t care.  But since your science is proving God right…don’t treat me like an idiot because I been believing it for a long, long time.

Ok, note to Aren and Eliat.  God called,  He left a message:  “Told Ya SO!”, and He asked that you re-read …

1 Kings 4:1:
So king Solomon was king over all Israel.

You might wanna read the rest, it’s pretty interesting.