Quote of the day from Google:

Every man is wise when attacked by a mad dog; fewer when pursued by a mad woman; only the wisest survive when attacked by a mad notion.

- Robertson Davies

Does your Senator or Representative Support FOCA?

The so-called "Freedom of Choice Act", which President-Elect Obama promised Planned Parenthood he would sign, is designed to eliminate abortion regulations (such as waiting periods, informed consent, and parental notification/consent) in those states that have them.

Such regulations are designed to protect women. Parental notification and consent laws are particularly important for protecting young girls from older men who use abortion to cover statutory rape.

It has to pass through Congress before Obama can sign it.

Here is a list of Senators and Representatives that are co-sponsors of the bill:

http://www.aul.org/FOCA_Sponsors

If your senator/representative is on the list, contact him or her to voice your disapproval. If your s/he is not on the list, contact him/her anyway to voice your opposition to the bill.

The text of the bill itself is posted here:

http://www.nrlc.org/foca/FOCA2007S1173.html

If passed, the language of this bill allows for such laws to be struck down in courts. It would make it illegal for the government to "deny or interfere with a woman's right to choose" an abortion, and allow her to take the state, or any government who "interferes" to court over such regulations as those mentioned above.

Planned Parenthood of Houston Expansion

From TexasFamilies.org:

Planned Parenthood is expanding.
This building could be the largest freestanding abortion facility in the Western Hemisphere.



Demolition has already begun.

The following companies are participating in this project:

Alpha Electric Company
906 W. 19th Street
Houston, Texas 77008
Office 713.802.1166
Fax 713.802.1628

Owners:

Jimmy Stallones
E-mail jstallones@alphaelectricco.com

Bo Parrish

E-mail bparrish@alphaelectricco.com

ARC Abatement Demolition Contractors http://www.arcabatement.com/services.htm

ARC Abatement, - Houston
6630 Roxburgh Dr, suite 120
Houston TX 77041
713-849-7738 / 800-920-7738 FAX 713-849-7744
Jeff Young , General Manager - Houston

General Contractor

Main Office
Meyerson Builders, Inc.
1770 St. James Place, Suite 509
Houston, Texas 77056

Contact Jerry Meyerson

Telephone: 713.355.4443
Fax: 713.961.2830
E-mail: jerry@meyersonbuilders.com

Central Texas Office
Meyerson Builders, Inc.
P.O. Box 523
Flatonia, Texas 78941

Contact Sandy Meyerson

Telephone: 361.865.3302

If you live in the Houston area or anywhere else where these companies do business, please call or e-mail them and RESPECTFULLY voice your disapproval of their participation in this project. Inform them that you will tell your friends and family, coworkers, and business associates, especially any who may be considering contractors, about this.

Also, there will be prayer vigils outside the general contractor's office. See TexasFamilies.org and/or the Houston Coalition for Life for more info.

Happy Veteran's Day!

And a BIG thank-you to our men and women in uniform.



We're pretty fond of y'all, too.

Lightening up and handling elections like grown-ups.

An old friend drew my attention to a fun piece by Dave Barry. Here's a small taste:

You know what I miss? I miss 1960. Not the part about my face turning overnight into the world's most productive zit farm. What I miss is the way the grown-ups acted about the Kennedy-Nixon race. Like the McCain-Obama race, that was a big historic deal that aroused strong feelings in the voters. This included my parents and their friends, who were fairly evenly divided, and very passionate. They'd have these major honking arguments at their cocktail parties. But unlike today, when people wear out their upper lips sneering at those who disagree with them, the 1960s grown-ups of my memory, whoever they voted for, continued to respect each other and remain good friends.

What was their secret? Gin. On any given Saturday night they consumed enough martinis to fuel an assault helicopter. But also they were capable of understanding a concept that we seem to have lost, which is that people who disagree with you politically are not necessarily evil or stupid. My parents and their friends took it for granted that most people were fundamentally decent and wanted the best for the country. So they argued by sincerely (if loudly) trying to persuade each other. They did not argue by calling each other names, which is pointless and childish, and which constitutes I would estimate 97 percent of what passes for political debate today.

What I'm saying is: we, as a nation, need to drink more martinis.

Read the entire column:
http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/dave-barry/story/756596.html

When your "Rich Uncle" Sam offers you a job...

In addition to raising the minimum wage (which in the long run only raises the cost of doing business and thereby makes products more expensive, defeating the purpose), President-elect Obama is taking a page from FDR's book and calling for taxpayer funded public works programs to create government jobs for the unemployed:

http://money.cnn.com/video/#/video/news/2008/10/31/news.top.obama.jobs.cnnmoney


Based on his personal experience as such, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote on being a long-term government employee.

Here he is expressing his concern for the person who becomes dependent on the government for gainful employment(emphasis mine):

"Why should he toil and moil, and be at so much trouble to pick himself up out of the mud, when, in a little while hence, the strong arm of his Uncle will raise and support him? Why should he work for his living here, or go to dig gold in California, when he is so soon to be made happy, at monthly intervals, with a little pile of glittering coin out of his Uncle's pocket? It is sadly curious to observe how slight a taste of office suffices to infect a poor fellow with this singular disease. Uncle Sam's gold--meaning no disrespect to the worthy old gentleman--has, in this respect, a quality of enchantment like that of the devil's wages. Whoever touches it should look well to himself, or he may find the bargain to go hard against him, involving, if not his soul, yet many of its better attributes; its sturdy force, its courage and constancy, its truth, its self-reliance, and all that gives the emphasis to manly character."

from "The Custom House"

The Onion strikes again!

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

Ahead of her time:

Words from the first Female US Presidential Candidate:

I wish to say my word on the theme of the day — Abortion and the Abortionists. . . Abortion [is]one of the fixed institutions of the country, one of the marked characteristics of the age, one of the indicative symptoms of the ripening and the rottening of our prevalent state of society! Who proposes to disturb Madame Restel [underground abortion practitioner]? Who really wants that there should be no opportunity to secure an abortion under peculiarly trying circumstances? . . . But the great revenue of these practitioners is from the married women among the wealthy. They have become unfit to have children, and abortion is the sewerage for this wretched stagnation of feminine life. . . . Abortion before marriage and especially after marriage are the rule rather than the exception—in the wealthy and fashionable classes, and to a great extent among workingwomen who say they 'can’t afford to have children'. . . Abortion is only a symptom of a more deep-seated disorder of the social state. It cannot be put down by law. Normally the mother of ten children is as healthy, and may be as youthful and beautiful, as a healthy maiden. Child-bearing is not a disease, but a beautiful office of nature. But to our faded-out, sickly, exhausted type of women, it is a fearful ordeal. Nearly every child born is an unwelcome guest. Abortion is the choice of evils for such women.

• Victoria Woodhull, first woman to run for U.S. President, member of the Equal Rights Party, in Woodhull's and Claffin's Weekly (September 23, 1871).

Postracial, my foot.

Race shouldn't even be an issue in this election, but since it's too late for that, I may as well put in my two cents here.

America has not elected its first Black president.

It has done something that should be much more significant: it has elected its first BIRACIAL president.

But said candidate, the media, and many who elected him are apparently content to ignore one side of his heritage.

As a biracial person, I am appalled by this. Even early in my childhood, I quickly grew sick and tired of having to "check only one" box when asked to identify my race on my personal records for school and college. I didn't think of myself that way. I loved and honored both sides of my family, and it seemed illogical to ignore one for the sake of a narrow-minded bureaucracy.

In the last eight years or so it has seemed as if there was growing awareness of the fact that a person can be of two races at the same time: that s/he can grow up in between two cultures and take the best of both into adulthood.

When the LA Times and other news outlets were publishing articles suggesting Obama's biracial heritage was a problem, Obama could have refuted the very premise of their questions and publicly celebrated his biracial heritage as an example of what is possible in America. He could have argued that American culture has matured to the point where it will take him for who he is and what he believes.

Instead he has chosen to check only one box. Worse, he has chosen to allow others to check only one box for him for the sake of political convenience.

Now, I know there are other issues in this election that are far more important. The protection of the unborn, the family, freedom of religious expression, and the security of our nation just to name a few. Those alone are reason enough for my vote against him today, regardless of anything else.

Obama campaigned on hope, change and new politics, yet he and his supporters acquiesced to what should be outdated ideas about race relations in this country. He speaks of "the power of ideals". It would seem that the ideal of being judged primarily by the content of one's character wasn't powerful enough here.

So much for change.

President Obama?

PSALM 55

1 Listen to my prayer, O God,
do not ignore my plea;

2 hear me and answer me.
My thoughts trouble me and I am distraught

3 at the voice of the enemy,
at the stares of the wicked;
for they bring down suffering upon me
and revile me in their anger.

4 My heart is in anguish within me;
the terrors of death assail me.

5 Fear and trembling have beset me;
horror has overwhelmed me.

6 I said, "Oh, that I had the wings of a dove!
I would fly away and be at rest-

7 I would flee far away
and stay in the desert;
Selah

8 I would hurry to my place of shelter,
far from the tempest and storm."

9 Confuse the wicked, O Lord, confound their speech,
for I see violence and strife in the city.

10 Day and night they prowl about on its walls;
malice and abuse are within it.

11 Destructive forces are at work in the city;
threats and lies never leave its streets.

12 If an enemy were insulting me,
I could endure it;
if a foe were raising himself against me,
I could hide from him.

13 But it is you, a man like myself,
my companion, my close friend,

14 with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship
as we walked with the throng at the house of God.

15 Let death take my enemies by surprise;
let them go down alive to the grave, ^[b]
for evil finds lodging among them.

16 But I call to God,
and the LORD saves me.

17 Evening, morning and noon
I cry out in distress,
and he hears my voice.

18 He ransoms me unharmed
from the battle waged against me,
even though many oppose me.

19 God, who is enthroned forever,
will hear them and afflict them—
Selah
men who never change their ways
and have no fear of God.

20 My companion attacks his friends;
he violates his covenant.

21 His speech is smooth as butter,
yet war is in his heart;
his words are more soothing than oil,
yet they are drawn swords.

22 Cast your cares on the LORD
and he will sustain you;
he will never let the righteous fall.

23 But you, O God, will bring down the wicked
into the pit of corruption;
bloodthirsty and deceitful men
will not live out half their days.
But as for me, I trust in you.

Tip of the Schoolmarm Ruler to: Catholic Mom

Obama promises hope for refrigerator victims.*

Original article by Christina the Crazy Schoolmarm

Community organizers across the United States are up in arms about recent studies revealing that fuller refrigerators use less energy, and are therefore less costly to run.

"This is an outrage" said one angry activist while picketing outside of General Electric's corporate offices. "It is a deliberate attempt by Big Energy and Big Refrigeration to squeeze every last dime out of working-class Americans who simply cannot afford to fill their refrigerators full enough to save money on electricity. Their CEO's get rich and fill their refrigerators to the gills, while we struggle to put anything in ours. It's about time Washington did something about it, since these corporate fat-cats won't."

When asked about Senator Obama's plan to deal with the refrigeration crisis, Joe Biden responded:

"President.....excuse me... Senator Obama is deeply concerned about the needs of America's working poor. One of the first things he will do is president is turn the page on the inequities of America's refrigeration system. It is time we stopped giving tax breaks to wealthy executives who feed off of the energy used to cool the empty refrigerators of those less fortunate. You know, I was just talking to Tim Farley of Ottumwa Iowa, and he told me how hard it was to choose between paying his electric bill and feeding his family. It's not fair that Tim has to work so hard to pay for energy to cool food he can't afford to buy. President....oops, excuse me again...I mean Senator Obama will also work with Congress to pass legislation to eliminate this refrigeration discrimination. If approved, the Obama Plan will require that all refrigerators manufactured after 2010 be more efficient the more empty they become. This way, the higher electric bills will be paid by the wealthier Americans who can afford them, and those who cannot afford buy enough food to keep their refrigerators full will no longer be punished for having less."

Obama's opponent, Senator John McCain spoke recently on this issue as well, saying, "The fundamentals of America's refrigeration system are strong. Energy efficient appliances are important for consumers who want to save money in these tough economic times. My friends, let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Let's not penalize companies for successfully finding ways to help consumers and our environment. Let's support businesses to make the cost of food production lower, and find ways to help create better educational opportunities for our young people, so they can afford to feed their families and keep their refrigerators full. Let us also support quality adult education for Americans who wish to find new careers that allow them to put enough food on the table, and in the fridge, and maybe even put a little a way for their sons' or daughters' college education."

When asked his opinion of the McCain plan, Senator Biden commented, "Of course the Obama plan is better. All we are trying to do here is create change that will level the playing field.

When asked if the plan may have unintended consequences for the environment and the economy, Biden added, "Is this a real question? Who is writing these for you? Rush Limbaugh? John McCain's plan will do nothing to change the way refrigerators are manufactured and marketed to an unsuspecting public, nor will it change the windfall profits CEO's make from the extra energy used by the working class to power empty refrigerators. President..oops, excuse me, Senator Obama's plan will. Mark my words. Shortly after this election there is going to be a serious refrigeration crisis in this country, and, in spite of what Talk Radio may say, Americans will have to trust that the Obama plan will work, even when it looks like it won't. "

This reporter attempted to pose additional follow-up questions. However, the Obama-Biden campaign had already canceled the rest of the interview and suddenly discovered that another news outlet needed our team's seats on the campaign plane.


---------------------------
*Schoolmarm Vocabulary Word of the Day:

Satire.

Look it up.

The most appropriate ballot box I have seen so far:

In this election, it is important for Americans of all sizes, walks of life, and fur colors to make a statement with their votes.

Not to be outdone by Mickey Mouse, cats at the Capital Area Humane Society of Columbus, OH, with the help of local FM radio station Mix 97.1, are voicing their opinions of this race. In the litterbox.

(Image Source)

The results should be pretty clear here. There will be no pregnant chads, and if anything is left hanging...well, let's not even go there.

It's a close race in the Kitty Caucus, with many news outlets reporting yesterday afternoon that McCain was ahead by one "vote". Our local 10:00 evening news reported last night that Obama had pulled ahead by two.

Hmm. Ahead by two in the number two department.

So many possible jokes. So little time.

The real question here is, if you were running for president, would you really consider it a compliment if you won the Litterbox Poll?