Thursday, August 30, 2007

Today's etymology lesson:

lunatic (adj.)

c.1290, "affected with periodic insanity, dependent on the changes of the moon," from O.Fr. lunatique "insane," from L. lunaticus "moon-struck," from luna "moon." Cf. O.E. monseoc "lunatic," lit. "moon-sick;" M.H.G. lune "humor, temper, mood, whim, fancy" (Ger. Laune), from L. luna. Cf. also N.T. Gk. seleniazomai "be epileptic," from selene "moon." The noun meaning "lunatic person" is first recorded 1377. Lunatic fringe (1913) was apparently coined by U.S. politician Theodore Roosevelt. Lunatic soup (1933) was Australian slang for "alcoholic drink."



Speaking of the moon, here is a photographic progression of the recent lunar eclipse. It is the work of my brother, an astrophysics student and self-taught photographer. Click on the image if you want to see a larger version:


My husband also links to this on his blog.

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Sources:
"lunatic." Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. 30 Aug. 2007. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/lunatic>.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Revival Kitty

I don't know where Adoro Te Devote found this picture, but it gave me a good chuckle:

On a more serious note, her post is worth reading too. Especially if you want to know why it is so important to listen to people when you want to share the gospel with them.

2008 Presidential Rat Race: Giuliani again...

He is in favor of public funding of abortion and embryonic stem cell research, and personally gives his money to Planned Parenthood, even though he is "personally opposed" to abortion (when he could just as easily have given it to pregnancy centers that counsel women on options he does approve of, such as adoption). That is enough to put this blogger off of ever voting for him in the primaries.

Now, out of an attempt to gain the approval of more conservative republicans, we have a candidate who embraces one of the least forward-thinking educational policies to come out of his party. In short, we have one more reason why this blogger sincerely hopes the former New York Mayor does not get the Republican nomination:

He is in favor of state-funded vouchers going to private schools.

Now, that sounds fine as long as the government is run by people who won't interfere in the workings of private religious institutions. But what would happen if Nancy Pelosi or Hillary Clinton (or their ilk) ran the show, after private religious schools had come to depend upon publicly funded vouchers? The picture doesn't look so pretty to me now.

Here's a novel idea. Let's not adopt policies that will come back to bite us if the other side gains power. Let's keep the vouchers in the public system--and stop forcing the parents of private school students to pay extra taxes for a service they don't use. Then everybody gets what they need. The public schools get the competition that will help them to live up to their potential, and the private schools need not have any conflicts with the state.

This last feature is crucial. We need to have one section of the educational world that is free from the underhanded political abuse of the public education system we already see in certain public schools and other organizations that receive government money. In the UK, government funding is not even needed as a tool of manipulation. Merely providing a public service such as adoption in cooperation with the state is enough to create problems.

While we have the legal wiggle room to do so, we should protect the Church from the State. Let's not go asking for trouble.

Related posts:
On the Nature and Purpose of Public Education.
Public Money and Private Schools.
Rethinking Schools--but without school choice.
2008 Presidential Rat Race--Starting Positions

Hat tip: Tito

Sunday, August 5, 2007

Got Brains?

Is anybody else sick of stupid t-shirts for girls that say things like "Princess", "I got the skills to pay the bills". or, at the more blatant end of the spectrum "I'm tight Like Spandex." Blah blah.

Seriously, can't you lose I.Q. points just by wearing them?

Then I saw an interesting link over at Catholic Pillow Fight.

Somebody has made t-shirts for girls who can actually read books--and who have enough brains and self-respect to care what their clothes say about them. Personally, I like the one that says, "That's Dr. Princess to you."

Intelligence--now that's hot!