They're really not that into you

The lead story in Monday's newspaper, on the gifts that lobbyists gave to the local delegation to the state legislature, included a quote from one legislator which I've seen as something of a misperception among the state's lawmakers.

In commenting on the fact that he was one of the legislators who took a $1,200 trip to the Independence Bowl on the University of Georgia's tab, state Sen. Ralph Hudgens, R-Hull, said, "It wasn't a benefit for me; it was a benefit for them. In the box, a lot of big contributors are there, and they like to have the presence of the legislature."

Alpha Phi Alpha update

I'd hoped that it was going to happen before writing Sunday's editorial praising the strong stand taken by Alpha Phi Alpha's general president on hazing, but as things turned out, I didn't get in touch with Cory Thornton, adviser to the University of Georgia's Zeta Phi chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha, until Monday morning.

In the wake of a December hazing incident involving the Alpha Phi Alpha chapter at Fort Vally State University that sent a 19-year-old man to the hospital and saw a 21-year-old man charged with felony-grade assault, the fraternity's national general president has suspended "new member intake" until problems with hazing can be resolved.

According to Thornton, the effort to deal with those problems will begin later this month at a regional meeting of the fratenrity, where the national general president will hold a training session on new member intake.

Courtesy of one of my favorite Web sites, the Hype Machine (http://hypem.com/), and via YouTube, comes a suggestion for those of you still struggling to come up with a New Year's resolution:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UK5MdPRd8_U

We now return you to your regularly scheduled weekend activities.

It'll probably come as a shock to most of you, but I often -- which is to say only a little more often than never -- begin work on my Sunday column pretty early in the week to ensure that I'm bringing you the high standards of journalistic excellence you've come to expect from me.

To that end, I thought I'd take a moment to share with you some of the preliminary research I've done for this upcoming Sunday's column, in which I'll address the recent Pew Research Center findings that Georgia is among the most religious states in the country.

According to the survey, Georgia ranked ninth in the nation with regard to the percentage of people who say religion is important in their lives, at 68 percent. (The national average is 56 percent).

Elsewhere, the survey ranked Georgia 14th in worship attendance, eighth in the frequency of prayer, and eighth in certainty of belief in God.

TV people are idiots

Like many of you this morning, between eating my cereal and brushing my teeth I was watching President Obama's acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize. Perhaps unlike many of you, I was, well, a little frustrated that the usual gang of pundits and "news" people who populate morning TV, like MSNBC's "Morning Zoo Crew," felt that their gasbagging on the morning's event was more important than letting you hear the musical performance that followed the presentation, even as it played silently in the background of their commentary.

But what if God turns out to be a tax-and-spend liberal?

Anybody wondering how the Georgia General Assembly plans to deal with the steep decline in state tax revenues in the ongoing economic downturn -- a decline that has already forced furloughs of state employees and could soon force dramatic cuts in government services -- could have learned a couple of Sundays ago that divine intervention isn't off the table.

Newly minted Republican state Sen. Buddy Carter -- a former state representative who won a special election last month to fill former state Sen. Eric Johnson's Savannah-area seat (Johnson resigned to run for governor) -- said during his Nov. 22 swearing-in ceremony in Savannah's Wesley Monumental Methodist Church that in these tough times, "we (presumably including his legislative colleagues) should turn to God for strength and wisdom." He reprised the sentiment later in his speech, saying "let us look to God for strength and guidance."

Night-table reading for Chamber types?

A Georgia Tech study on Atlanta's loss of high-tech start-ups (hat tip to Pete Randall at www.peachpundit.com) might provide some lessons for the Chamber of Commmerce types and economic development professionals who continue to pursue the dream of turning the Athens-Atlanta corridor into a center for bioscience- and biotechnology-related industries.

I haven't read the entire study, but this bit would seem to hold some lessons for those who would ignore what Athens itself has to offer in favor of the time-honored techniques of offering infrastructure improvements, tax abatements, and "spec" buildings to industrial prospects:

Extra!

Extra! is a regular feature of this blog featuring letters and other communications to the editorial page editor that, for one reason or another, aren't likely to appear on the editorial page. No warrant is made as to the veracity or lack thereof of any item appearing in Extra!

The Thanksgiving buzz killers get an early start this year. Wonder how many of us are confused about the fact that we love us some turkey, yo?

Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and many Americans are already feeling more frazzled than festive. Much of this holiday stress comes from trying to create the perfect meal. As a dietitian, I want to point out that what you put on the menu actually influences your mood and could help relieve tension.