When Amish People Go Wild

I've been holding off on writing this latest blog entry, but the weirdness finally just got to be too much. What started me thinking of doing a new entry was a commercial on TV for an Infinity car. It starts out with a voice over saying, "If no one ever challenged the status quo, the earth would still be flat." It goes on to make several statements about other things that would be different if someone had not questioned them. But, think about the last part of that first one - "the earth would still be flat". Well, I don't know about you, Sparky, but I don't believe the earth was ever flat. They are acting like the earth used to be flat, someone decided to question the fact, and somehow changed the earth so that it is now round. I know what they are trying to say and what point they are trying to make, but MY point is that people who write commercials, produce commercials, act in commercials, and listen to commercials don't pay attention to the WORDS in the commercial. This is not the first one that I have caught in a very big error. But, this is the latest and most flagrant one. If they had said, "If no one had ever challenged the status quo, people would still THINK the earth was flat", that would be correct. I wonder how many other people have listened to that statement and not even thought a thing about it. Or, worse, thought that it was a perfectly accurate statement.

Now, since people don't really think about what they hear or read, here's another one for you. The State Fair of Texas (well, I should have said it properly - The Great State Fair of Texas) is going on right now. My husband and I went, enjoyed some things, ate some of the typical fried foods that are the highlight of the fair each year, and came home. Most state fairs started out as livestock exhibitions and gradually added the games, rides, foods, etc. But, underneath every state fair is going to be the livestock buildings full of pigs, cows, sheep, chickens, etc. And, every year at our state fair, they auction off the prize winning steer and some local farm kid gets a huge amount of money to go into their college fund.

Most of these kids are in 4H, the organization that stands for heart, health, head, and hands. Traditionally, kids that are interested in agricultural careers belong to 4-H and raise either a calf, sheep, or pig for the fair each year. Well, I just found out that PETA was denied a booth at our Texas State Fair. Way to go, State Fair Committee!! PETA wanted to set up a booth and show horrible photos of animal cruelty along with substituting the meaning of the H's in the 4-H symbol. Some of the substitutions would have been "hellish for animals", "hazardous to the environment", etc. They wanted to include data on the health risks of eating meat and dairy products, how it all harms the environment, and give out vegetarian "starter kits". Most people don't ever read what PETA is really doing. They think they are only trying to get people like Michael Vick and his dog cruelty practices noticed. But, they are a very dangerous, fanatic organization and people really need to pay attention to what they are preaching.

Now, the last thing that seems to fit into this week of weirdness is what the subject line is all about. Did you know that there is a group of disgruntled and "castoff" Amish people who are now attacking other Amish people because of religious differences? These hooligan Amish people are terrorizing the mainstream Amish and shaving off their beards and cutting their hair. You read that right - Amish on Amish crime. What is the world coming to when you have Amish on Amish crime? I mean, of all the peace loving people in the world, the Amish have to be at the top of the list. So, I decided that we must really be in bad shape when TV commercials are telling people that the earth used to really be flat, PETA wants to set up a booth at the place where the centerpiece of the event is a spotlight on the production of meat and dairy products, and Amish people are savaging other Amish people.

Try as I might, I cannot turn off that part of my brain that thinks. Things like the three mentioned above just leave me frustrated. I have always known that I think and approach things differently from most people, but surely someone else sees the stupidity of all of this. No wonder the government is busy making more and more regulations. They are frantically trying to protect people from themselves. But, I've got news for the government. You cannot legislate against stupidity. Stupid is going to win every time. Apparently the people who made the Infinity car commercial assume that everyone out there is already so stupid that they won't notice their incorrect statement at the beginning telling us that the earth used to be flat. Sorry, Infinity, but I actually was there the day they passed out brains!