Above all else

So according to some people, the Archbishop of the Catholic Church is not allowed to tell his own flock not to attend a concert in which bikini clad nuns gyrate around crucifix stripper poles.  Seriously.  Are these people even hearing themselves as they say this? Basically, what some people are saying is, you are different from us.  And you're not allowed to think this way.  So shut up.  Your views are invalid.  Madonna is allowed freedom of expression.  You are not.  Shut up, shut up, shut up. The intolerance is astounding, the hypocrisy is towering, the double standards glaring.  I appeal to anyone sitting on the fence - think about this.  Can it truly be sensible that Madonna is allowed to hold her event (her concert), and express herself, but the church is not allowed to hold its event (its sermon) and express itself? And I want to go further than this.  Some people will say, reading this, that well, I guess it's OK...

Happy Chinese New Year! As we were having lunch earlier, my daughter was asking me whether I knew anything about covalent bonding.  The words struck a deep, long-forgotten  memory somewhere in the cerebellum, and I asked if what she meant was the situation where one atom has "extra" electrons and binds with another atom that is "short" of an electron (my old Chemistry teacher is probably foaming at the mouth about now). So my daughter said, no, I think what you're referring to is ionic bonding, like when two copper atoms ("short" of 4 electrons) bind with the "sulphate" polyatom ("extra" 4 electrons). Covalent bonding is like, when, a hydrogen atom, which has one electron, but remains "short" of one electron, binds with another hydrogen atom, and the two hydrogen atoms sort of "share" each of their lone electrons with each other, such that both atoms now have the full complement of 2 electrons (Chemistr...