http://www.paragoulddailypress.com/display/inn_news/opinion1.txt

The main point of this editorial is right on. Race can never be an issue against a person. But they included in their "great melting pot" the gay issue. Homosexuality is not an issue of class rights, but of morality. A shame that even your small-town publication, usually a saner head for such things than the urban(e) elites, has jumped on the bandwagon.

Worst of all, in my hometown.

Here's what an acronym is, according to m-w.com:

Main Entry: ac·ro·nym
Pronunciation: 'a-kr&-"nim
Function: noun
Etymology: acr- + -onym
Date: 1943
: a word (as NATO, radar, or snafu) formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the successive parts or major parts of a compound term

So, you want to know what, let's say, FWIW means. Then you go here:

http://acronymfinder.com

Just for a hoot, type in your initials and see what comes up. One friend, TDH, got "tall, dark, and handsome."

All I got was "Journal of Reproductive Medicine."

Unfair! Foul!

Another site, with no popups, is

http://acronymsearch.com

On both sites, you can submit an acronym for consideration.

Scientists are so brainy, they have plenty of three-dollar words, so a Big Government entity like NASA (that's an acronym) has its own 14-page Space Mission Acronym List. I, confirmed non-scientist that I am, was afraid to look too far.

Speaking of government entities, just when I'd thought I'd found the IRS's devious list, I was disappointed to discover it belonged to the British Institude of Rural Sciences. Probably wouldn't have understood anything anyway.

Other specialized interests have their lists, too. There are medical lists galore, including one just for doctors and med professional titles. Then there's the Dog Fanciers' Acronym List. I didn't find a feline list, other than the mention of FADD, Feline Attention Deficit Disorder. (Must be endemic to the species.)

Acronyms, as the 1943 date for the word suggests, are a modern invention, or at least, a modern flowering of use, because we're too much in a hurry for the long version. If Reader's Digest boils down the articles and books for us, acronyms must zip our language into tighter bits to speed along the slow communication process.

Now that you know more than you ever wanted to know about acronyms, IOH.

= I'm outta here.

I ran across these sites recently that offer decent-looking blogs.

http://lifewithchrist.org

http://www.motime.com/

Depending on what you're looking for, since antville isn't handing out any more freebies ...

This from the wit and wisdom ezine. I went there, but she wouldn't tell me much. ;-)

Chatter Bots

The first chat bot, Eliza, was created in 1966 by Professor Joseph Weizenbaum of MIT, to study natural language communication between man and machine. Eliza parodies a therapist by answering questions with questions. Here's a conversation I had with Eliza:

Me: Hi there. I've got a few questions to ask...
Eliza: Please go on.
Me: Well, I think I have a drinking problem.
Eliza: But you are not sure you have a drinking problem?
Me: I'm sure. All my shirts are stained in front.
Eliza: Why do you say your shirts are stained in front?
Me: The dry cleaning bills are really getting out of hand.
Eliza: Would you like it if they were not getting out of hand?

Although Eliza is 36 years old, you can still try it out at:
http://www-ai.ijs.si/eliza/eliza.html

Put this in your pipe and smoke it:

"The preservation of our children's childhood," [professor and author Neil] Postman said, "requires nothing less or more of us than this: if they are to remain children, then we must become adults."

Context: watching television.

To become adult: take responsibility for your children.

Implication: turn off the TV.

Here's the source.