Name:
When I write, especially for business, I like to come back a day later and read out loud what I've written and make sure that my sentences are clear. One way I ensure clarity is with a careful use of commas. I believe that it's a courtesy to my reader and avoids misunderstanding in places where the eye might be tempted to combine words or thoughts I didn't intend to combine. Interestingly, not all comma use is governed by rules; some comma placement is a matter of style, preference, and individual judgment.
ON THE OTHER HAND.
Have you noticed the growing tendency to use commas like salt and pepper? The folks at The Onion have! (disclaimer: not everything on this site is G-rated.)
Commas, Turning Up, Everywhere
Labels: Language
When God wants to drill a man
And thrill a man
And skill a man
When God wants to mold a man
To play the noblest part;
When He yearns with all His heart
To create so great and bold a man
That all the world shall be amazed,
Watch His methods, watch His ways!
How He ruthlessly perfects
Whom He royally elects!
How He hammers him and hurts him
And with mighty blows converts him
Into trial shapes of clay which
Only God understands
While his tortured heart is crying
And he lifts beseeching hands!
How He bends but never breaks
When his good He undertakes;
How He uses whom He chooses
And with every purpose fuses him,
By every act induces him
To try His splendour out—
God knows what He’s about!
Labels: Devotional
Regular visitors here will know that one of the topics that really gets me going is global warming hysteria. If it's something that interests you, too, maybe you'll want to hurry and read this book before things get too steamy hot to enjoy curling up with a good book. From Amazon:
Is The "Scientific Consensus" on Global Warming a Myth?Yes, says internationally renowned environmentalist author Lawrence Solomon who highlights the brave scientists--all leaders in their fields-- who dispute the conventional wisdom of climate change alarmists (despite the threat to their careers)
Al Gore and his media allies claim the only scientists who dispute the alarmist view on global warming are corrupt crackpots and "deniers", comparable to neo-Nazis who deny the Holocaust.
Solomon calmly and methodically debunks Gore's outrageous charges, showing in one 'headline' case after another that the scientists who dispute Gore's doomsday scenarios have far more credibility than those who support Gore's theories. These men who expose Gore's claims as absurd hold top positions at the most prestigious scientific institutes in the world. Their work is cited and acclaimed throughout the scientific community. No wonder Gore and his allies want to pretend they don't exist.
hat tip: Vicki
Labels: News, Political Observation, Science, Social Observation
hat tip: Lori H.
Labels: Homeschooling
It takes guts to speak the truth. The "powers that be" have so much invested in ethanol, both intellectually and economically, that they can't bring themselves to admit that we're now dealing with the curse of unintended consequences. Kudos to our senior senator from Texas for not only saying this out loud but also proposing at least some temporary measures to alleviate the escalation of the crisis:
Undoing America's Ethanol Mistake
By SEN. KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON | Posted Friday, April 25, 2008 4:20 PM PT
The Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman once said, "One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results."
When Congress passed legislation to greatly expand America's commitment to biofuels, it intended to create energy independence and protect the environment.
But the results have been quite different. America remains equally dependent on foreign sources of energy, and new evidence suggests that ethanol is causing great harm to the environment.
In recent weeks, the correlation between government biofuel mandates and rapidly rising food prices has become undeniable. At a time when the U.S. economy is facing recession, Congress needs to reform its "food-to-fuel" policies and look at alternatives to strengthen energy security.
hat tip: Vicki
Labels: News, Political Observation, Social Observation
Labels: News, Political Observation
I love to cook. One of the hardest things about being unable to be on my feet lately has been turning over all the cooking to others. Not that we don't have good and capable cooks in the family...I've enjoyed seeing their skills blossom during these stretches! But I have really looked forward to being back in the kitchen. And today was the day! I wore myself out but I had a ball making a nice sit-down Sunday dinner for the family. Very satisfying.
Finally sat down and went all the way through a cookbook I got for Christmas, Barefoot Contessa at Home. I adore Ina Garten. Of all the Food Network personalities, she might just be my favorite. She is so pleasant, laid back, comfortable, and competent...and she cooks without cleavage, which seems to be rare these days. I'm going to enjoy trying out some of the recipes in this book...
Have you seen the John Hancock commercials where the guy is sitting in the hotel room IM'ing with his wife? Very clever...I like to see aging boomers treated with respect by marketers, and this series does it in a way that really appeals to me.
I've been blown away by the beauty of the latest images from the Hubble telescope, this time documenting colliding galaxies. No collections of faulty conclusions on the part of astronomers can diminish the beauty, the magnificence of what God does with His creation. Amazing.
Did you see Chris Wallace's interview with Barack Obama on FOX News today? I thought Wallace did a wonderful job, and I actually thought Obama acquitted himself quite well. He has to be happy with both his performance and his decision to buck the hardcore left in giving the interview in the first place.
Shame, shame on you, Time Magazine.Yes, I bought my share of rice this week. I'm not so much worried about shortages as I am about the rising prices of staples (rice has already doubled in price!) and so I'm going to "buy ahead" on some of the things we eat a lot of and that will keep for a while. Too bad we can't do that with gas, huh? Not that I'd want to stock up at today's prices, but last year...
Prayers this week for our grandson David, 10, who's experiencing some visual changes and symptoms that may indicate something serious going on with his optic nerve. David is always a beautiful example to our whole family of complete trust in the Father, and we all need his example now...
Snip, snip, that's all for this Sunday!
Labels: Food, Grandkids, Political Observation, Social Observation, Sundays, TV
Don't you just hate it when facts start to threaten orthodoxy? Ben Stein needs to do this movie next. (Perhaps An Inconvenient Truth, EXpelled ?)
Antarctic getting colder, Now has largest sea ice pack on record
hat tip: The Papa
Labels: News, Social Observation
Peggy has said what you (and I, as you'll soon see) have thought in increasing numbers for the past seven years. She has her finger on our collective pulse.
I'm not giving you any Reader's Digest condensed version here...I don't want you to have any excuse not to go read the whole thing. If you only read one piece today, make it this one.
The View from Gate 14
I give it five stars.
hat tip: a whole slew of you
Labels: Political Observation, Social Observation
(I was tempted to tell Mr. Ott that no self-respecting elitist would misspell "bourgeois", but I decided to keep my nose in my own salon.)Obama Calls Elitist Charge 'Gauche' and 'Droll'
by Scott Ott for ScrappleFace
(2008-04-24) — Responding to remarks by presidential candidate John McCain suggesting he’s an ‘elitist‘, Sen. Barack Obama today called the accusation 'gauche' and 'droll'.
“First of all, it’s très gauche and a bit bourgois to banter about elitism at all,” said Sen. Obama, “It simply isn’t done in polite society — not among my chums from Harvard Law School or Columbia University, and certainly not in the Senate cloak room or the finer salons.”
Labels: Political Humor
All of us, regardless of how we have chosen to educate our children, should and must be attuned to and invested (and we're all invested, if even just in the financial sense) in how the majority in this country are educated. The effectiveness of the methods by which the majority receive their K-12 education ends up impacting every aspect of our national and international life. The signs, in case you haven't noticed, are not good:
Education Lessons We Left Behind
By George WillIf an unfriendly power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war. -- "A Nation At Risk" (1983)
WASHINGTON -- Let us limp down memory lane to mark this week's melancholy 25th anniversary of a national commission's report that galvanized Americans to vow to do better. Today the nation still ignores what had been learned years before 1983.
Back in the days when there were Democrats who looked at facts and interpreted them with vision and wisdom, one of my heroes, at least on the education front, was the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan. It's too bad more people weren't paying attention to his astute observations. Instead, his colleagues pandered to the growing power of the teachers unions and ignored reality:
Read the whole article here.In 1964, SAT scores among college-bound students peaked. In 1965, the Elementary
and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) codified confidence in the correlation between financial inputs and cognitive outputs in education. But in 1966, the Coleman report, the result of the largest social science project in history, reached a conclusion so "seismic" -- Moynihan's description -- that the government almost refused to publish it.
Released quietly on the Fourth of July weekend, the report concluded that the qualities of the families from which children come to school matter much more than money as predictors of schools' effectiveness. The crucial common denominator of problems of race and class -- fractured families -- would have to be faced.
But it wasn't. Instead, shopworn panaceas -- larger teacher salaries, smaller class sizes -- were pursued as colleges were reduced to offering remediation to freshmen.
In 1976, for the first time in its 119-year history, the National Education Association, the teachers union, endorsed a presidential candidate, Jimmy Carter, who repaid it by creating the Education Department, a monument to the premise that money and government programs matter most. At the NEA's behest, the nation has expanded the number of teachers much faster than the number of students has grown. Hiring more, rather than more competent, teachers meant more dues-paying union members. For decades, schools have been treated as laboratories for various equity experiments. Fads incubated in education schools gave us "open" classrooms, teachers as "facilitators of learning" rather than transmitters of knowledge, abandonment of a literary canon in the name of "multiculturalism," and so on, producing a majority of high school juniors who could not locate the Civil War in the proper half-century.
Labels: Education
Be fruitful and multiply," says the book of Genesis, and Lord knows we have. To the tune of more than 300 million at home and more than 6 billion abroad. But as we go about the heavenly task of multiplying, a poignant question arises: Might our religion be killing us?
Mr. Thomas, congratulations--you're the recipient of Granny's Kool-aid Drinker of the Week Award!
hat tip: Jane
Labels: Theater of the Absurd
In case you're tempted to buy a seat on the Bandwagon of Hysteria, chartered by enviro-nazis and apt to drive us all right over a cliff, be sure to hear all sides. If we listened to these folks, we would still be fighting cholera in this country.
Why I Left Greenpeace
By PATRICK MOORE
April 22, 2008; Page A23In 1971 an environmental and antiwar ethic was taking root in Canada, and I chose to participate. As I completed a Ph.D. in ecology, I combined my science background with the strong media skills of my colleagues. In keeping with our pacifist views, we started Greenpeace.
But I later learned that the environmental movement is not always guided by science. As we celebrate Earth Day today, this is a good lesson to keep in mind.
At first, many of the causes we championed, such as opposition to nuclear testing and protection of whales, stemmed from our scientific knowledge of nuclear physics and marine biology. But after six years as one of five directors of Greenpeace International, I observed that none of my fellow directors had any formal science education. They were either political activists or environmental entrepreneurs. Ultimately, a trend toward abandoning scientific objectivity in favor of political agendas forced me to leave Greenpeace in 1986.
Finish reading Moore's article at Why I Left Greenpeace.
Labels: News
Obama Gives Tips on Armed, Bible-Toting Voting
(Oh, and I know that Scrappleface is distressingly slow to load. I don't know why it's so...I just know it's usually worth waiting for.)
Labels: Political Humor
What's not slow is....COLLEGE! In the past week we've handled or helped handle financial and/or registration details for THREE college students, and next week we'll handle getting one more in on a dual credit basis for her first two college classes. That's FOUR, count 'em FOUR, of our kids in college at once! I'm not sure that's legal, and we're probably going to be penalized by the IRS somehow. As if we need any OTHER shocks to our checkbooks! Really, though, this is a first and it's a wonderful first to have finished the homeschool journey with all of them and see them continue their educations outside of the house and all at once.
Meanwhile, our two young(est) men get taller every day. Did we once refer to them as "the short boys"?! It won't be that long before we'll be registering them for Freshman Comp 101 and writing tuition checks for them as well. A bittersweet thought...
The kids can SMELL the end of our school year. I know they can. Worse than that, they know *I* can. It's evident in the slow slide of efficiency, time management, and enthusiasm. For the next few weeks, only sheer will will keep us going...but go we will, finishing up the last of our books with...with...yes, with determination!
I have a thousand projects I'd like to do this summer. In truth, five of them will probably get done. I can comfort myself with the memory of how successful we were with major projects last summer, thanks to my son-in-law and the many hands that pitched in along the way. But I'm still holding out hope that in another month I'm going to be walking (and bending, and climbing?) pain-free, allowing me to take on some of the things that only the mom can do...
Tuesday is one more in a string of dates that many of us have been sure would be the tipping point in the race for the Democratic nomination. I've learned enough not to say, "this will be it..." because I've found that there are women more stubborn than I am! Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see what happens and where the race goes from Pennsylvania. And as the cannibalization of the Dems continues, John McCain quietly builds support among the very folks that said, "Never."
This week I received the okay to begin putting weight on my leg (read: the xray shows this graft isn't broken!) and so the march to normal continues. I want to ditch this walker! I will start physical therapy soon to restore the muscles that have now been cut through three times. I'm never crazy about physical therapy but I've seen remarkable results as a result of diligent attention to it, so I will comply.
A nice field technician came to my house this week and replaced the motherboard on my laptop. It was rather disconcerting to see the extension of my personal and business brain laid out in pieces on my desk, rather like seeing the same thing happen to my 60-year old piano last summer when it was being reconditioned. But all is well, and though I would still call this model of Dell laptops a lemon (this is my second one), at least some of the problems have been taken care of and I'm back in business with no apparent loss of anything valuable. The rest, as they say, remains to be seen.My three-year-old grandson Sam was shown a wedding picture of The Papa and me and was asked, "Sam, do you know who this is?" After answering several times that he didn't know those people, he was told that, yes, he DID know those people, that they are his Granny and Papa when they were younger. He squinted, got his face right up to the picture, and then exclaimed, "Oh! They used to have regular faces!"
May you, too, have such happy reality checks as you get older :-)
Have a lovely Sunday and a productive spring week!
Labels: Aging, Grandkids, Health, Political Observation, Sundays, Technology
NOW, it's spring.
Okay, so spring here only lasts 3.5 days, but we're in it.
When we woke up it was 50 degrees in our room and I almost decided not to get up, since sleeping, for me, is so very wonderful when it's cold. I did finally drag myself out of bed and threw open the windows to enjoy the lovely cool dry air and the spring breeze. The Papa and the boys are out doing the first real yard work of the season...and that brings the scent of fresh cut grass (okay, and weed killer) wafting in with the breeze as if to confirm the advent of our short south Texas spring. All too soon we'll be sealing the house up against the steamy heat; for now, I'm drinking in the delicious air and remembering the days I'd be setting out tomatoes and peppers and herbs at the first signs of spring, playing the odds against a late freeze. No tomatoes this year, and a late freeze would be welcome if it staved off the steam bath for an extra week. Either way, I'm welcoming our April 19 spring :-)
Labels: Weather
Tomorrow is the premiere of Ben Stein's new movie EXpelled. (Have you seen the commercials? They're great!) My hope is that we are going to see a flood of discussion as the movie makes its mark, and that voices heretofore silenced out of fear and outright censure will begin to be heard. Voices like Bruce Chapman's today in the Seattle Times:
"Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" is a trenchant new film by actor/economist Ben Stein, the man first made famous in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." He's now tackling with humorous dudgeon the classic example of ideological science, Darwinian evolution. Stein shows Darwinists insistently misrepresenting the scientific case against their theory. Where facts and reason might fail to persuade, personal attacks are employed, sometimes even by organizations supposedly committed to civil discourse.
When I was taught Darwin's theory in college more than four decades ago, it was represented as unassailable. But I also was taught in those days to respect academic freedom, which is a good standard to apply in any field. In the 1990s, before intelligent design was added to the ideas studied at Discovery Institute, I learned about an assault on the academic freedom of Dean Kenyon, a biologist and author at San Francisco State University who had come to view Darwin's theory as flawed. At first, the effort to restrain him from teaching seemed like just another skirmish over political correctness.
Then, following the Kenyon case, I began to examine the account of life's development that I once had been taught so dogmatically. One after another of the demonstrations of the theory that supposedly were "certain" and "conclusive" when I was a student — such as Ernst Haeckel's embryo drawings that showed various animals looking almost identical in the earliest stages of life — have been abandoned or replaced. What has not changed is the dogmatism.
Finish reading his piece here:
An intelligent discussion about life
Labels: Education, Movies, News, Social Observation
What makes the national mistake of legalizing same-sex marriage unique in Canadian history is that to even discuss the issue is considered by many, particularly our elites, to be at the very least in extraordinarily bad taste. Although this is a valid and vital debate about social policy, anyone critiquing the status quo is likely to be marginalized as hateful, extreme or simply mad. Social conservatives aren’t just wrong, they’re evil.
The discussion, we are told, is over. Which is what triumphalist bullies have said for centuries after they win a battle. In this case, the intention is to marginalize anyone who dares to still speak out. In other words, to silence them.
Sound familiar? Read more.
Canada's biggest mistake
Labels: Social Observation
UPDATE: I'M DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I won't have much posting time today. This is perhaps the second year in the 34 we've been married that we've put off filing taxes until the very last minute. Our fun weekend encouraged my procrastination of this little "detail" and now I have no choice but to bury myself in the figures. I let you know when I emerge.
Labels: Money
You're my trampoline
Labels: Family, Friendship, Fun, Kids, Memories
The question is, if she succeeds, what kind of Party will she be left to lead? She's burning down the village to save it -- or to prove that she would make the best fire chief. But the village won't be saved; only one house will be left standing. A house with room for just two occupants. Hill and Bill.
Read Huffington's (characteristically acerbic) post here:
Clinton is doing McCain's job for him
Labels: Political Observation
Can't believe not one of my very serious kids (LOL!) cracked a smile on this one:
Labels: Family
Why are so few of our leaders willing to say out loud what the "blessing" of health insurance has done to health care costs?
The Health Insurance Mafia
Labels: Social Observation
We're having a ball here at Granny's house, eating comfort foods visiting and playing games and burning up the cameras (in case you haven't seen the shots strewn across our blogs!). This morning all eleven of us, plus over half of our grandchildren, were at church together for the first time in years. A rare blessing!
It's now been more than a month since my leg surgery, and I continue to make progress. The need for pain meds is now close to zero and for that I'm thankful. I'm still reserving judgment on whether this operation did what we wanted it to, but as soon as I'm allowed to put full weight on it (another week) I should have a better idea.
The Papa is home! This trip to Hawaii seemed especially long for all of us, so his return was even more welcomed than usual. And aside from the obvious pleasure of having him back in the house is the secondary pleasure of the passing out of the chocolate-covered macadamia nuts, the Kona coffee, and the Hawaii T-shirts. It's only because of these things that we let him make that long trip several times a year :-)
Last night, the Lifetime channel ran the premiere of the movie The Memory Keeper's Daughter. I'll admit to not having seen a whole lot of movie adaptations of books I've previously read, but the few I've seen have been disappointments. Not so this one. In so many ways, it was just as I pictured as I read the book. Naturally there was a mountain of character development missing from the two-hour movie and it kind of felt like the movie was racing through the story at break-neck speed, but other than that the movie was very faithful to the book and tells a sweet, if heartbreaking, story...
A particularly poignant verse from one of this morning's hymn spoke to me unusually loudly:
Let sorrow do its work, come grief and pain;
sweet are thy messengers, sweet their refrain,
when they can sing with me: More love, O Christ, to thee;
more love to thee, more love to thee!
May you welcome whatever messenger is sent to your life this week with the knowledge that God will work His purpose...
So what?
Clinton: "Not relevant" last time I went to church, fired gun
SCRANTON, Pennsylvania (CNN) – After a weekend spent making direct appeals to gun owners and church goers, Hillary Clinton said Sunday a query about the last time she fired a gun or attended church services "is not a relevant question in this debate” over Barack Obama’s recent comments on small town Americans.
“We can answer that some other time,” Clinton said at a press conference held in a working class neighborhood here. “This is about what people feel is being said about them. I went to church on Easter. I mean, so?”
Not relevant
Labels: Political Observation
(2008-04-13) — Sensing an opportunity to portray Sen. Barack Obama as elitist and out of touch after his remarks about “bitter” rural Americans who cling to guns, God and xenophobia, Sen. Hillary Clinton stopped after church today at an indoor gun range, where she fired roughly 300 rounds through a handgun she said she carries concealed everywhere she goes.
Her lower lip bulging from a dip of Skoal, Sen. Clinton put her Bible in her handbag, and drew out her own Para Ordnance Warthog .45 caliber pistol.
Seizing Moment, Hillary Totes Bible to Gun Range
Labels: Political Humor
Mark Steyn is on call today, alerting us to the dangers lurking in the seat next to your four-year-old. And just as scary, the very real possibility that your eighth-grader's friend is hiding ibuprofen in her cleavage.
Oh my.
Attack of the preschool perverts
Labels: Education, News, Social Observation, Theater of the Absurd
...to bring you one of the funniest pieces I've read in a long time, though it hits dangerously close to home.
And yes, I'm aware that a disproportionate number of my readers are Gen X'ers and I'm okay with that. But sometimes, you know, you gotta "dance with them what brung ya."
And so, if you are over, say, 40 years old--or hope to make it there someday--you must read this piece by David Brooks in the New York Times. Read it aloud to someone you love...even if he won't remember by tomorrow.
The Great Forgetting
I'm sure many of you are as keenly interested as I am in the situation with the FLDS cult here in Texas. My heart has been broken more than once as new details filter out about the extent of the abuse and the horrors that these women and children have endured for generations (not to mention the "lost boys" who are forced out of the community because of the simple math of polygamy). If you'd like to read some perspective from those who know the history better than we do, go read this post on Mormon Coffee, one of my daily reads. Just as the Koran itself disproves the lie of Islam as a "peaceful religion," the history of Mormons destroys any current claim that they are of a different cloth than those now in the spotlight. The FLDS are the ones faithful to original Mormon doctrine...
Faith-Promoting Perceptions
Labels: News, Social Observation
One of the two daughters who's flying in from the east coast tomorrow to spend a long weekend here calls this morning.
Unnamed daughter to her younger sister: Umm...I'm just calling to check to see how few clothes I can get away with bringing. I want to pack really light, so what is the stock there of tank tops? T-shirts? Cut-offs? Capris? Dresses for church? Oh good, so basically all I need to bring is my toothbrush? Oh, okay, well yeah I WOULD have brought my own underwear. See ya soon!
Can you imagine a conversation like that among brothers? I don't think so :-)
hat tip: Shelley
It was interesting to watch the rather heated squabbles, not to mention the strange bedfellows, in the conservative ranks early in the Republican primaries. Now, a rare case of admitted buyer's (or in this instance, NON-buyer's) remorse from conservative icon Paul Weyrich, related by Jonathan Martin of Politico.com. He depicts a scene from a meeting held last month in New Orleans at the conservative Council for National Policy meeting:
Then, venerable Paul Weyrich—a founder of the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority, and the Council for National Policy (CNP)—raised his hand to speak. Weyrich is a man whose mortality is plain to see. A freak accident several years ago left him with a spinal injury, which ultimately led to both his legs being amputated in 2005. He now gets around in a motorized wheelchair. He is visibly paler and grayer than he was just a few years ago, a fact not lost on many of his friends in the room, some of whom had fought in the political trenches with him since the 1960s.
The room—which had been taken over by argument and side-conversations—became suddenly quiet. Weyrich, a Romney supporter and one of those Farris had chastised for not supporting Huckabee, steered his wheelchair to the front of the room and slowly turned to face his compatriots. In a voice barely above a whisper, he said, "Friends, before all of you and before almighty God, I want to say I was wrong."
In a quiet, brief, but passionate speech, Weyrich essentially confessed that he and the other leaders should have backed Huckabee, a candidate who shared their values more fully than any other candidate in a generation. He agreed with Farris that many conservative leaders had blown it. By chasing other candidates with greater visibility, they failed to see what many of their supporters in the trenches saw clearly: Huckabee was their guy.
Too bad it's too late. I think at this point, most of the folks who complained that Huckabee wasn't conservative enough admit that he was to the right of McCain on most of the things that really matter to them. Caveat emptor.
Huck remorse
And while I'm on the topic of Huckabee, WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT??
Hat tip: Pam Y.
Labels: Political Observation
Here's one that may get your blood boiling. A Christian student can't even draw a picture with a cross on it, but an entire public school can be run as though it were an Islamic school. Note we're talking about a completely tax-payer funded charter school, not a private school...further proof that there is a systematic war on Christians in the public arena coupled with an institutionalized effort to accommodate and indoctrinate adherents of other religions, most notably Islam. Again, my friends, at your expense.
Teacher breaks wall of silence
Labels: Education, Social Observation, Theater of the Absurd
Having spent a couple of years now enjoying my audible.com membership, I've been watching their 1st Annual Tournament of Audiobooks with much interest. Today, The Winner was announced, and lo and behold, the winner is the one I'm currently listening to...and the runner up was its sequel! Go look at the list of near winners and the weekly Final Four-style brackets that led to a face-off between one author's two recent books!(And do think about sampling one of their superb audiobooks if you haven't already!)
If you, like me, are tired of hearing all the hand-wringing about America's shredded reputation in the world, you'll appreciate today's take by columnist Mona Charen:
If there's one thing the Democrats are certain they can accomplish provided they win in November (and it doesn't matter, for this purpose, which of the two candidates becomes the nominee) it will be the restoration of America's tattered world reputation. Barack Obama has promised that his first priority is to get the United States out of Iraq and "restore our standing in the world." Mrs. Clinton has said that an "urgent task" for the next president is to "restore America's standing in the world." Other Democrats hit this theme over and over again. Sen. Pat Leahy offered the standard version in his endorsement of Obama: "We need a president who can reintroduce America to the world and reintroduce America to ourselves."
Go read why she thinks we're not about to get voted off the island...
Do we care what they think of America?
hat tip: Steph K.
Labels: Political Observation
Beware, all of you who are daring to have a huge, ostentatious family of three kids. People are watching.
Three Kids? You Showoffs.
hat tip: Trish
Labels: Children, Social Observation, Theater of the Absurd
It's been an out-of-the-ordinary week at Granny's House, in more than one sense. And while I don't mind the occasional surprises that life throws at us, I am a creature of habit and long for the comfort of routine and normalcy. This week should return us to a bit more of the familiar...but I dare not hold my breath...
This week I listened to the Ray Bradbury classic Something Wicked This Way Comes, written in 1962 (while I was in early elementary school!). While it didn't live up to some of Bradbury's best novels (Fahrenheit 451) or some of his terrific short stories ("All Summer in a Day" from A Medicine for Melancholy and Other Stories), it was nevertheless an interesting diversion for a few hours. I think the value for me was in seeing how the world was perceived during the years of my growing up.
And I've started the LOOONG saga of Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett, which will be followed by his equally lengthy World Without End. Both cover a historical period that holds my interest more tightly than any other and so their length does not deter me!
Nathan surprised me by coming home for a night. It's nice to have him close enough that he can do that now and then!
I can never figure out why liberals who are so convinced of the lie of "a woman's right to choose" should then get up in arms when women also want to use abortion to choose the sex of the children they deliver, as though social engineering and the resulting imbalance between the genders is a far worse evil than murder. Nevertheless, this is tragic.
This week I'll pass the 4-week mark in my post-op recovery period. I hope to begin putting some weight on my leg late in the week and then maybe even make it to church on Sunday.
Which will be very important to me...since Annie, Judah, Kristen, and Liam will be arriving Friday and all nine of our kids will be with us on Sunday! That happens all too infrequently (last time was fourteen months ago) so we are extra-grateful when God allows it.
Our loving Father has taught us more this week about His control over life's strange twists and His comfort through our deep disappointments. Yes, His ways are unsearchable, but often He gives us glimpses when our eyes are toward Him. Seeing "through a glass darkly" will pale in comparison to seeing Him face to face, and yet even the seeing in the dark can be a gift. Light for the next step is all He promises...and we have been given that and more. Thank You, Father, for your care for Your children.
Blessings on your week!
Labels: Books, Family, Health, Social Observation, Sundays
For the mountains shall depart
and the hills be removed;
but my kindness shall not depart from thee,
neither shall the covenant of my peace
be removed
saith the Lord
that hath mercy on thee
Isaiah 54:10
Labels: Devotional
Labels: Devotional, Music
In light of this article, I will be proposing that Starbuck's receive special corporate tax breaks as a valued member of the health care industry!
Coffee may cut the risk of dementia by blocking the damage cholesterol can inflict on the body, research suggests.
The drink has already been linked to a lower risk of Alzheimer's Disease, and a study by a US team for the Journal of Neuroinflammation may explain why.
A vital barrier between the brain and the main blood supply of rabbits fed a fat-rich diet was protected in those given a caffeine supplement.
UK experts said it was the "best evidence yet" of coffee's benefits.
The "blood brain barrier" is a filter which protects the central nervous system from potentially harmful chemicals carried around in the rest of the bloodstream.
Other studies have shown that high levels of cholesterol in the blood can make this barrier "leaky".
Alzheimer's researchers suggest this makes the brain vulnerable to damage which can trigger or contribute to the condition.
The University of North Dakota study used the equivalent to just one daily cup of coffee in their experiments on rabbits.
After 12 weeks of a high-cholesterol diet, the blood brain barrier in those given caffeine was far more intact than in those given no caffeine.
Daily caffeine 'protects brain'
hat tip: kristen
Billionaire environmentalist says world has too many people
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 04/03/08
Failure to address global warming will have us all dead or eating each other by mid-century.
So says Ted Turner, the restaurateur, environmentalist and former media mogul whose controversial comments have earned him the nickname "Mouth of the South."
30 or 40 years and basically none of the crops will grow," Turner said during a wide-ranging, hour-long interview with PBS's Charlie Rose that aired Tuesday.
"Most of the people will have died and the rest of us will be cannibals," said Turner, 69. "Civilization will have broken down. The few people left will be living in a failed state — like Somalia or Sudan — and living conditions will be intolerable."
One way to combat global warming, Turner said, is to stabilize the population.
"We're too many people; that's why we have global warming," he said. "Too many people are using too much stuff."
Turner suggested that "on a voluntary basis, everybody in the world's got to pledge to themselves that one or two children is it."
Global warming could lead to cannibalism
Labels: Theater of the Absurd
Take notes, because there WILL be a test. In YOUR lifetime.
Excerpt:
At the heart of the social safety net is the moral belief that the government is responsible for our lives, and that, as Barack Obama has often said, "We are our brothers' keeper." Under this altruist sensibility, we are duty-bound to serve the needs of others, meaning that anyone needy has an inherent claim on anyone better off. The wealthy aren't merely able to deal charitably with those in need, but are legally obligated to sacrifice their earnings for the benefit of those they might not voluntarily wish to support.
Entire lesson here:
Entitlement Mentality is Wrecking Economy
Labels: Political Observation, Social Observation
Obama’s ‘baby’ comment draws fire from conservatives
Posted: 03/31/08 05:35 PM [ET]
Sen. Barack Obama’s (Ill.) campaign on Monday sought to clarify remarks the Democratic front-runner made on teen pregnancies that had drawn criticism from conservatives. Speaking about sex education at an event in Pennsylvania Saturday, Obama said, according to the Christian Broadcasting Network, that he will educate his young daughters but “if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby. I don’t want them punished with an STD at the age of 16.”
Labels: News, Political Observation, Social Observation