The social, cultural, spiritual, political, academic, and literary rantings of a slightly strange Catholic English teacher.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Words from a favorite American author:
-- Mark Twain
Authentic Feminism
Femininity is having something of an identity crisis right now, due largely to the influence of some who call themselves feminists. These women insist that to be equal to men we must do what they do. The areas in which we most need to "catch up" are in education, career success, "sexual expression", and pregnancy.
Perhaps "catch up" is not the right phrase to use in reference to pregnancy anyway. Today's feminists discourage pregnancy. We women are told that to be as successful as men we must suppress our fertility with birth control pills, so that we won't be held back in the workplace by employers unwilling to pay for maternity leave. Our supression of fertility also allows us to enjoy sexual freedom, without consquences, wich the feminists claim men have had an unfair monopoly on.
"Goody!" many of us replied. "Now we can treat men as they have been treating us!" and we proceeded to treat them as sexual objects, to disregard their feelings, opinions, and wishes just as much as (we assumed) they would disregard ours.
But we are forgetting something. This also meant that we bore the whole of the burden. It is our responsibility to remember to take the pills, to carry the condom, or the sponge, or whichever item is necessary. Ours is the burdon of making the "choice" about what to do about an unplanned pregnancy. Men are as much without consequences as ever (if not more so), and we have exchanged one set of burdens for another.
Authentic feminism must recognize the dignity of the whole woman, including her fertility. It must recognize that just because a woman unlike a man in some respects, she is not unequal to him. this also means that the dignity of the man must be recognized as well.
We women were born with a womb. Our fertility was not foisted upon us by a massive anti-feminist cosmic conspiracy. It is a part of who we are as women. Just ask women who face infertility. It does not upset them simply because they want children and are unable to bear them. It is felt to be a slap in the face of one's femininity. Many women suppress as a nuisance what others would give anything to have. We should all value our fertility as something beautiful.
The early feminists recognized that a society that truly values women will allow them to be women, and that includes supporting them as they nurture new lives within their bodies. This is something that only women can do. We are the only ones who can carry a child within ourselves. It is our heartbeat that our children hear for the first nine months of our lives. Our breathing, our voices are the first comforts they have. We are the only ones who can use our own bodies to feed our children after they are born. This beautiful gift of self that we have had from our mothers is unique and should be treated as sacred.
Mattie Brinkerhoff, a 19th century feminist said, "When a man steals to satisfy hunger, we may safely conclude that there is something wrong in society - so when a woman destroys the life of her unborn child, it is an evidence that either by education or circumstances she has been greatly wronged." (The Revolution, 4(9):138-9 September 2, 1869)
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Related link: Feminists for Life of America
Perhaps "catch up" is not the right phrase to use in reference to pregnancy anyway. Today's feminists discourage pregnancy. We women are told that to be as successful as men we must suppress our fertility with birth control pills, so that we won't be held back in the workplace by employers unwilling to pay for maternity leave. Our supression of fertility also allows us to enjoy sexual freedom, without consquences, wich the feminists claim men have had an unfair monopoly on.
"Goody!" many of us replied. "Now we can treat men as they have been treating us!" and we proceeded to treat them as sexual objects, to disregard their feelings, opinions, and wishes just as much as (we assumed) they would disregard ours.
But we are forgetting something. This also meant that we bore the whole of the burden. It is our responsibility to remember to take the pills, to carry the condom, or the sponge, or whichever item is necessary. Ours is the burdon of making the "choice" about what to do about an unplanned pregnancy. Men are as much without consequences as ever (if not more so), and we have exchanged one set of burdens for another.
Authentic feminism must recognize the dignity of the whole woman, including her fertility. It must recognize that just because a woman unlike a man in some respects, she is not unequal to him. this also means that the dignity of the man must be recognized as well.
We women were born with a womb. Our fertility was not foisted upon us by a massive anti-feminist cosmic conspiracy. It is a part of who we are as women. Just ask women who face infertility. It does not upset them simply because they want children and are unable to bear them. It is felt to be a slap in the face of one's femininity. Many women suppress as a nuisance what others would give anything to have. We should all value our fertility as something beautiful.
The early feminists recognized that a society that truly values women will allow them to be women, and that includes supporting them as they nurture new lives within their bodies. This is something that only women can do. We are the only ones who can carry a child within ourselves. It is our heartbeat that our children hear for the first nine months of our lives. Our breathing, our voices are the first comforts they have. We are the only ones who can use our own bodies to feed our children after they are born. This beautiful gift of self that we have had from our mothers is unique and should be treated as sacred.
Mattie Brinkerhoff, a 19th century feminist said, "When a man steals to satisfy hunger, we may safely conclude that there is something wrong in society - so when a woman destroys the life of her unborn child, it is an evidence that either by education or circumstances she has been greatly wronged." (The Revolution, 4(9):138-9 September 2, 1869)
The nature of fertility, when it is given due respect, requires that both men and women give careful consideration to their behavior with respect to the opposite sex. This is why the Catholic Church is so in favor of Natural Family Planning methods, which require even married couples to give consideration to their fertility. When we can't have something every time we wish for it, it should teach us to appreciate it all the more when it is available. Respect for women, for men, and for the fertility of each requires that we not take our partners in life for granted. That we treat one another as equals, and not as objects.
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Related link: Feminists for Life of America
Internet quizzes: Take 'em or leave 'em. :)
flat out genius
Ok, theres not much I can say here accept congratulations! There is noone smarter than you. Well, except the few others who made it here. I mean Im just gonna leave it at that. Im sure your much too above what I could say.
Take this testTuesday, January 30, 2007
CHILDREN AND THE MEDIA: A CHALLENGE FOR EDUCATION
VATICAN CITY, JAN 24, 2007 (VIS) - Made public today, Feast of St. Francis de Sales, patron saint of journalists, was Benedict XVI's Message for the World Day of Social Communications, which this year is due to be celebrated on May 20, on the theme: "Children and the Media: A Challenge for Education."
The Holy Father's Message has been published in Italian, English, French, German, Spanish and Portuguese. Extracts from the English language version are given below:
"The theme of the Forty-first World Communications Day," the Holy Father's Message begins, "invites us to reflect on two related topics of immense importance. The formation of children is one. The other, perhaps less obvious but no less important, is the formation of the media.
"The complex challenges facing education today are often linked to the pervasive influence of the media in our world. ... Indeed, some claim that the formative influence of the media rivals that of the school, the Church, and maybe even the home. 'Reality, for many, is what the media recognize as real.'
"The relationship of children, media, and education can be considered from two perspectives: the formation of children by the media; and the formation of children to respond appropriately to the media. ... Within this framework, training in the proper use of the media is essential for the cultural, moral and spiritual development of children."
"Educating children to be discriminating in their use of the media is a responsibility of parents, Church, and school. The role of parents is of primary importance. They have a right and duty to ensure the prudent use of the media by training the conscience of their children to express sound and objective judgments which will then guide them in choosing or rejecting programs available. In doing so, parents should have the encouragement and assistance of schools and parishes in ensuring that this difficult, though satisfying, aspect of parenting is supported by the wider community.
"Media education should be positive. Children exposed to what is aesthetically and morally excellent are helped to develop appreciation, prudence and the skills of discernment. Here it is important to recognize the fundamental value of parents' example and the benefits of introducing young people to children's classics in literature, to the fine arts and to uplifting music. While popular literature will always have its place in culture, the temptation to sensationalize should not be passively accepted in places of learning."
"Like education in general, media education requires formation in the exercise of freedom. This is a demanding task. So often freedom is presented as a relentless search for pleasure or new experiences. Yet this is a condemnation not a liberation! True freedom could never condemn the individual - especially a child - to an insatiable quest for novelty. In the light of truth, authentic freedom is experienced as a definitive response to God's 'yes' to humanity, calling us to choose, not indiscriminately but deliberately, all that is good, true and beautiful. Parents, then, as the guardians of that freedom, while gradually giving their children greater freedom, introduce them to the profound joy of life.
"This heartfelt wish of parents and teachers to educate children in the ways of beauty, truth and goodness can be supported by the media industry only to the extent that it promotes fundamental human dignity, the true value of marriage and family life, and the positive achievements and goals of humanity. Thus, the need for the media to be committed to effective formation and ethical standards is viewed with particular interest and even urgency not only by parents and teachers but by all who have a sense of civic responsibility.
"While affirming the belief that many people involved in social communications want to do what is right, we must also recognize that those who work in this field confront 'special psychological pressures and ethical dilemmas' which at times see commercial competitiveness compelling communicators to lower standards.
"Any trend to produce programs and products - including animated films and video games - which in the name of entertainment exalt violence and portray anti-social behavior or the trivialization of human sexuality is a perversion, all the more repulsive when these programs are directed at children and adolescents. How could one explain this 'entertainment' to the countless innocent young people who actually suffer violence, exploitation and abuse?"
"Again I appeal to the leaders of the media industry to educate and encourage producers to safeguard the common good, to uphold the truth, to protect individual human dignity and promote respect for the needs of the family.
"The Church herself, in the light of the message of salvation entrusted to her, is also a teacher of humanity and welcomes the opportunity to offer assistance to parents, educators, communicators, and young people. Her own parish and school programs should be in the forefront of media education today."Source: http://212.77.1.245/news_services/press/vis/dinamiche/c1_en.htm
Thanks to the American Papist for drawing attention to this. :)
CTA duespayers-take notice!
Ah, the California Teacher's Association. The union to whom all California public school teachers must pay dues, whether members or not, whether willingly or not. This filthy little tentacle of the NEA automatically removes the dues from your paycheck to save you some trouble. Not partial dues, just to cover bargaining expenses, which I wouldn't mind. Full dues. How do I know this? I used to teach public school in California, and it's nothing short of highway robbery.
But there's good news from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, if you're interested in getting some of your money back. Apparently, we're entitled to have some or all of that money refunded, depending on our membership status. Can't imagine why the union is so quiet about this...
But there's good news from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, if you're interested in getting some of your money back. Apparently, we're entitled to have some or all of that money refunded, depending on our membership status. Can't imagine why the union is so quiet about this...
Monday, January 29, 2007
Words to live by...
Saw the following on a bumper sticker once:"Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup."
Picture: Glaurung slain by Túrin Turambar in Tolkien's Silmarillion.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Texas Rally for Life.
This past Saturday my husband and I hopped on a bus to Austin, TX, to attend the Texas Rally for Life. We marched about four blocks to the capitol building, stood on the steps, and made our presence known to the city where the Roe v. Wade tragedy began.
In the thirty-four years since the Supreme Court's supreme error, over 47.3 million tiny American lives have been lost to abortion. (That's more people than populate the metropolitan areas of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston combined).
And then there are the women and men who bear the psychological scars of abortion. One of these women came forward and told her story at the rally. At least one for every aborted baby.
Thats 47.3 million dead, and even more wounded on our own soil, by our own hands. That's Hiroshima and Nagasaki more than 20 times over. It's 1,446 times the casualties of 9/11. Even Al-Qa'ida can't equal those numbers.
As is true of those who marched in Milwaukee, San Francisco, and Washington DC in previous days, those of us rallying in Austin are appalled at the staggering casualties of abortion. Particularly those of us who were born after the Roe ruling. We realize that it could have been us. We realize that at least 1/4 of our peers, who could have been our friends, classmates, or our spouses, and in some cases who might have been our siblings never appeared. That whatever they may have contributed to the world is missing. That their children will never play with our children. The highest court in our land decreed that our lives had no value other than what others placed upon them--that we had no right to be here unless someone else "wanted" us. Nobody was interested in our opinion when we couldn't speak for ourselves.
But now we have grown up. And we see what Roe meant for us. And we're insulted. And we're making sure everyone knows it, because so many of our generation never had the chance to say anything.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Better ladies rooms--the next great feminist cause!
I saw this on a forum and had to post it here. Slightly graphic--very funny.
When you have to visit a public bathroom, you usually find a line of women, so you smile politely and take your place.
Once it's your turn, you check for feet under the stall doors. Every stall is occupied. Finally, a door opens and you dash in, nearly knocking down the woman leaving the stall.
You get in to find the door won't latch. It doesn't matter, the wait has been so long you are about to wet your pants!
The dispenser for the modern "seat covers" (invented by someone's Mom, no doubt) is handy, but empty.
You would hang your purse on the door hook, if there were one, but there isn't - so you carefully but quickly drape it around your neck, (Mom would turn over in her grave if you put it on the FLOOR!), yank down your pants, and assume "The Stance." In this position your aging, toneless thigh muscles begin to shake. You'd love to sit down, but you certainly hadn't taken time to wipe the seat or lay toilet paper on it, so you hold "The Stance." To take your mind off your trembling thighs, you reach for what you discover to be the empty toilet paper dispenser. In your mind, you can hear your mother's voice saying, "Honey, if you had tried to clean the
seat, you would have KNOWN there was no toilet paper!"
Your thighs shake more. You remember the tiny tissue that you blew your nose on yesterday - the one that's still in your purse. That would have to do. You crumple it in the puffiest way possible. It's still smaller than your thumbnail.
Someone pushes your door open because the latch doesn't work. The door hits your purse, which is hanging around your neck in front of your chest, and you and your purse topple backward against the tank of the toilet. "Occupied!" you scream, as you reach for the door, dropping your precious, tiny, crumpled tissue in a puddle on the floor, lose your footing altogether, and slide down directly onto the TOILET SEAT.
It is wet of course. You bolt up, knowing all too well that it's too late. Your bare bottom has made contact with every imaginable germ and life form on the uncovered seat because YOU never laid down toilet paper - not that there was any, even if you had taken time to try. You know that your mother would be utterly appalled if she knew, because, you're certain her bare bottom never touched a public toilet seat because, frankly, dear, "You just don't KNOW what kind of diseases you could get."
By this time, the automatic sensor on the back of the toilet is so confused that it flushes, propelling a stream of water like a fire hose against the inside of the bowl and then sprays a fine mist of water that covers your butt and runs down your legs and into your shoes. The flush somehow sucks everything down with such force that you grab onto the empty toilet paper dispenser for fear of being dragged in too, at this point you give up.
You're soaked by the spewing water and the wet toilet seat. You're exhausted. You try to wipe with a gum wrapper you found in your pocket and then slink out inconspicuously to the sinks. You can't figure out how to operate the faucets with the automatic sensors, so you wipe your hands with spit and a dry paper towel and walk past the line of women, still waiting. You are no longer able to smile politely to them.
A kind soul at the very end of the line points out a piece of toilet paper trailing from your shoe. (Where was that when you NEEDED it??) You yank the paper from your shoe, plunk it in the woman's hand and tell her warmly, "Here, you just might need this."
As you exit, you spot your hubby, who has long since entered, used and left the men's restroom. Annoyed, he asks, "What took you so long, and why is your purse hanging around your neck?" ...
This is dedicated to women everywhere who deal with a public restroom (rest??? you've got to be kidding!!). It finally explains to the men what really does take us so long. It also answers their other commonly asked question about why women go to the restroom in pairs. It's so the other gal can hold the door, hang onto your purse and hand you Kleenex under the door!
___________________________
When you have to visit a public bathroom, you usually find a line of women, so you smile politely and take your place.
Once it's your turn, you check for feet under the stall doors. Every stall is occupied. Finally, a door opens and you dash in, nearly knocking down the woman leaving the stall.
You get in to find the door won't latch. It doesn't matter, the wait has been so long you are about to wet your pants!
The dispenser for the modern "seat covers" (invented by someone's Mom, no doubt) is handy, but empty.
You would hang your purse on the door hook, if there were one, but there isn't - so you carefully but quickly drape it around your neck, (Mom would turn over in her grave if you put it on the FLOOR!), yank down your pants, and assume "The Stance." In this position your aging, toneless thigh muscles begin to shake. You'd love to sit down, but you certainly hadn't taken time to wipe the seat or lay toilet paper on it, so you hold "The Stance." To take your mind off your trembling thighs, you reach for what you discover to be the empty toilet paper dispenser. In your mind, you can hear your mother's voice saying, "Honey, if you had tried to clean the
seat, you would have KNOWN there was no toilet paper!"
Your thighs shake more. You remember the tiny tissue that you blew your nose on yesterday - the one that's still in your purse. That would have to do. You crumple it in the puffiest way possible. It's still smaller than your thumbnail.
Someone pushes your door open because the latch doesn't work. The door hits your purse, which is hanging around your neck in front of your chest, and you and your purse topple backward against the tank of the toilet. "Occupied!" you scream, as you reach for the door, dropping your precious, tiny, crumpled tissue in a puddle on the floor, lose your footing altogether, and slide down directly onto the TOILET SEAT.
It is wet of course. You bolt up, knowing all too well that it's too late. Your bare bottom has made contact with every imaginable germ and life form on the uncovered seat because YOU never laid down toilet paper - not that there was any, even if you had taken time to try. You know that your mother would be utterly appalled if she knew, because, you're certain her bare bottom never touched a public toilet seat because, frankly, dear, "You just don't KNOW what kind of diseases you could get."
By this time, the automatic sensor on the back of the toilet is so confused that it flushes, propelling a stream of water like a fire hose against the inside of the bowl and then sprays a fine mist of water that covers your butt and runs down your legs and into your shoes. The flush somehow sucks everything down with such force that you grab onto the empty toilet paper dispenser for fear of being dragged in too, at this point you give up.
You're soaked by the spewing water and the wet toilet seat. You're exhausted. You try to wipe with a gum wrapper you found in your pocket and then slink out inconspicuously to the sinks. You can't figure out how to operate the faucets with the automatic sensors, so you wipe your hands with spit and a dry paper towel and walk past the line of women, still waiting. You are no longer able to smile politely to them.
A kind soul at the very end of the line points out a piece of toilet paper trailing from your shoe. (Where was that when you NEEDED it??) You yank the paper from your shoe, plunk it in the woman's hand and tell her warmly, "Here, you just might need this."
As you exit, you spot your hubby, who has long since entered, used and left the men's restroom. Annoyed, he asks, "What took you so long, and why is your purse hanging around your neck?" ...
This is dedicated to women everywhere who deal with a public restroom (rest??? you've got to be kidding!!). It finally explains to the men what really does take us so long. It also answers their other commonly asked question about why women go to the restroom in pairs. It's so the other gal can hold the door, hang onto your purse and hand you Kleenex under the door!
Thursday, January 25, 2007
No college-- I just want to get married!
"Men of sense, whatever you may chuse to say, do not want silly wives."
-Mr. Knightley, Jane Austen's Emma
One source of frequent frustration for 19th century women was that they often had to marry for survival, rather than for love. One source of frequent frustration for the men was that the little porcelain doll they married spent so much energy catching a husband, she became a very hollow woman.
In the 20th century, all of that was supposed to change. Women gradually were able to make their own way in the world in a variety of professions. This gave us the freedom to be picky about whom we choose to marry, and the freedom not to marry if we do not meet a man who fits our criteria. It also allowed us not to fall into utter destitution if something (heaven forbid) happened to our husbands. Many women also find they benefit from having a bit of independent living under their belts before marriage. Many others wish they had some.
This ideally saves women the frustration of being married to a bad husband, and men (to some degree anyway) the unhappiness of being married to a chronically frustrated wife.
Besides that, men who are serious about marriage generally prefer to marry women they can respect and admire--and with whom they can have intelligent discussions.
And if that isn't enough, the critical and creative thinking skills that advanced education offers can come in very handy when raising children--a task that takes all the brainpower a person can muster, if you ask my parents. :)
Now, it is true one doesn't have to have a bachelor's degree to be a thinking woman. But it certainly does help to do a little something beyond high school. Nursing school is a noble option. An associates degree. A vocational training program. Something.
And then I hear the occasional young girl say she just wants to get married, and since she's just going to stay at home with her kids, she'd rather just get down to business and find a husband instead of wasting any unecessary time in school. I have had women suggest that my own education (especially my Master's degree) are a waste of time because, when I have children, I'd like to be an at home mother.
I could argue against this, but I have already presented the advantages of being a thinking woman in addition to being a married woman.
But, ladies, if you insist on taking yourself back an entire century, go ahead. Just remember you have no right to complain if your prince charming and castle in the air don't live forever, and you find yourself living in reality instead.
If your attitude is that college is a waste of time and an "expensive way to meet a husband", please, don't take up space at the university. You don't deserve to be there.
Anne Rice & Catholicism
Anne Rice, famous for writing Interview with the Vampire and many other related works, is now rediscovering her Catholic faith. Her newest work is a part of her journey.
I wasn't surprised to find out that Rice has a Catholic background. After seeing the film rendition of her most famous vampire novel, I was struck by the conflict Louis experiences between his conscience and his nature. He must kill--it is what a vampire does, but his moral sensibilities tell him it is wrong to do so, and his struggle is a deep one. Louis's character was so well rendered in the film, that I have added the book to my very long list of novels to read*. The story of Louis, the vampire with a conscience, and Lestat, who is distinctly without one, is not so much a story that romanticizes vampires, but one that explores the darker side of human nature.
We Catholics are fairly unique among our brother and sister denominations, especially Evangelical Christians, in that we ourselves face the same kind of internal struggle between our nature and our wills on a daily basis, and our theology does not run away from it. While all Christians believe that we must have deep love for Christ, and faith in his power to save us, we Catholics do not believe that once we are "saved" we are guaranteed entrance to heaven. After our baptism, our sins can damage the close relationship we ought to have with our Savior. And in some situations, where the sin is especially grave, we can even choose to reject the grace he has offered us. The life of a Catholic is a constant cycle of sin and redemption. He saves us, we fall, we repent, and he picks us up again. It is evidence of the great love and mercy of our Lord that He does this over and over again for us, because as humans, we are weak, and unable to lead blameless lives unaided. He never gives up on us. The struggle is still a painful one, as each time we fall we are reminded of our humanity, and natural tendency toward sin. The impression this struggle leaves on one's consciousness is often derisively referred to in the secular world as "Catholic Guilt". What many do not realize is that guilt, like physical pain, can serve a useful purpose. It tells us something is wrong, and sends us to the Doctor in search of healing. To choose not to go, or to bury ourselves in our suffering can have disastrous results.
That Rice would be sensitive to this issue, even though she was far from her faith at the time when she wrote her novel, is interesting to me. Sometimes the impressions that our early experiences of the Church leave with us in childhood teach us more profound theological lessons than anyone would realize--the kinds of lessons that a novelist might (consciously or not) incorporate into her work. Sometimes it is these that ultimately bring us back to God, even after years of wandering.
------------------------------------------------------------------
(*Unrelated parenthetical note: The quality of Interview with the Vampire as a film undoubtedly has something to do with the involvement of the novelist in its production. This was not done for Queen of the Damned, which lacked the depth of Interview and was, in this blogger's humble opinion, not a worthy sequel.)
I wasn't surprised to find out that Rice has a Catholic background. After seeing the film rendition of her most famous vampire novel, I was struck by the conflict Louis experiences between his conscience and his nature. He must kill--it is what a vampire does, but his moral sensibilities tell him it is wrong to do so, and his struggle is a deep one. Louis's character was so well rendered in the film, that I have added the book to my very long list of novels to read*. The story of Louis, the vampire with a conscience, and Lestat, who is distinctly without one, is not so much a story that romanticizes vampires, but one that explores the darker side of human nature.
We Catholics are fairly unique among our brother and sister denominations, especially Evangelical Christians, in that we ourselves face the same kind of internal struggle between our nature and our wills on a daily basis, and our theology does not run away from it. While all Christians believe that we must have deep love for Christ, and faith in his power to save us, we Catholics do not believe that once we are "saved" we are guaranteed entrance to heaven. After our baptism, our sins can damage the close relationship we ought to have with our Savior. And in some situations, where the sin is especially grave, we can even choose to reject the grace he has offered us. The life of a Catholic is a constant cycle of sin and redemption. He saves us, we fall, we repent, and he picks us up again. It is evidence of the great love and mercy of our Lord that He does this over and over again for us, because as humans, we are weak, and unable to lead blameless lives unaided. He never gives up on us. The struggle is still a painful one, as each time we fall we are reminded of our humanity, and natural tendency toward sin. The impression this struggle leaves on one's consciousness is often derisively referred to in the secular world as "Catholic Guilt". What many do not realize is that guilt, like physical pain, can serve a useful purpose. It tells us something is wrong, and sends us to the Doctor in search of healing. To choose not to go, or to bury ourselves in our suffering can have disastrous results.
That Rice would be sensitive to this issue, even though she was far from her faith at the time when she wrote her novel, is interesting to me. Sometimes the impressions that our early experiences of the Church leave with us in childhood teach us more profound theological lessons than anyone would realize--the kinds of lessons that a novelist might (consciously or not) incorporate into her work. Sometimes it is these that ultimately bring us back to God, even after years of wandering.
------------------------------------------------------------------
(*Unrelated parenthetical note: The quality of Interview with the Vampire as a film undoubtedly has something to do with the involvement of the novelist in its production. This was not done for Queen of the Damned, which lacked the depth of Interview and was, in this blogger's humble opinion, not a worthy sequel.)
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Good Wine!
I always love good wine!
My husband and I discovered the wine at this place when we took a class on Natural Family Planning, as part of our marriage preparation. The class was held at this winery, and yes, refreshments were provided! Needless to say, the experience was both educational and enjoyable!
So, I encourage everyone to try a bottle of the wine from the Martin & Weyrich Winery in California. Not only is it good stuff, but you can reward them for supporting couples interested in healthy marriages!
My husband and I discovered the wine at this place when we took a class on Natural Family Planning, as part of our marriage preparation. The class was held at this winery, and yes, refreshments were provided! Needless to say, the experience was both educational and enjoyable!
So, I encourage everyone to try a bottle of the wine from the Martin & Weyrich Winery in California. Not only is it good stuff, but you can reward them for supporting couples interested in healthy marriages!
On a positive note...
There are plenty of nonprofit pregnancy centers out there that offer support to women and girls facing unplanned pregnancies no matter how frightening, or how embarrassing the circumstances. There are shelters for them if their families throw them out; there are pregnancy tests, baby clothes, counselors, job training, adoption resources, and resources for prenatal care out there. Just check your yellow pages under "Abortion Alternatives".
If you are pregnant and scared, the good news is, we pro-lifers don't just want you to not get an abortion. We want to help you take care of yourself and your baby.
If you regret having had an abortion, we are here for you too.
And men, you are part of the picture. You can contact any of the above places if you need help as well.
If you are pregnant and scared, the good news is, we pro-lifers don't just want you to not get an abortion. We want to help you take care of yourself and your baby.
If you regret having had an abortion, we are here for you too.
And men, you are part of the picture. You can contact any of the above places if you need help as well.
Genocide in America?
Surely not, you say.
Unfortunately, yes. And it is a particularly insidious kind.
Sanger would be thoroughly pleased with the way her organization continues to run itself, and especially with the support it gets from Black leaders such as Senator Obama. In every town in which I have lived, Planned Parenthood operates its clinics in poor, minority neighborhoods, and works to sell its services as the only choice.
Several leaders of the Pro-life movement in the African American community spoke out on this issue at the March for Life in Washington, DC. and the Walk for Life West Coast in San Francisco, CA. this past week. Their voices deserve to be heard.
My husband also comments on this issue on his blog.
______________________________
Update: Alvida King speaks out on this subject as well.
Mp3 Audio: Speaking about abortion and the African American Community, including her own experiences as a post-abortive African-American woman.
More on her personal experiences.
Video: Dr. King in a television advertisement for the above mentioned website:
Unfortunately, yes. And it is a particularly insidious kind.
In America today, almost as many African-American children
are aborted as are born.
are aborted as are born.
A black baby is three times more likely to be
murdered in the womb than a white baby.
Since 1973, abortion has reduced the black population by over 25 percent.
Twice as many African-Americans have died from abortion than have died from
AIDS, accidents, violent crimes, cancer, and heart disease combined.
Every three days, more African-Americans are killed by abortion than
have been killed by the Ku Klux Klan in its entire history.
Planned Parenthood operates the nation's largest chain of abortion clinics and
almost 80 percent of its facilities are located in minority neighborhoods.
About 13 percent of American women are black, but they
submit to over 35 percent of the abortions.
---Taken from Blackgenocide.com
BlackGenocide.com also lists the following statements from Margaret Sanger, Planned Parenthood's revered founder:
"The most merciful thing that a family does to one of its infant members is to kill it." "Birth control must lead ultimately to a cleaner race." "We should hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We don't want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population…" "Eugenic sterilization is an urgent need ... We must prevent multiplication of this bad stock." "Eugenics is … the most adequate and thorough avenue to the solution of racial, political and social problems. "Birth control itself, often denounced as a violation of natural law, is nothing more or less than the facilitation of the process of weeding out the unfit, of preventing the birth of defectives or of those who will become defectives." "The unbalance between the birth rate of the 'unfit' and the 'fit,' [is] the greatest present menace to civilization… the most urgent problem today is how to limit and discourage the over-fertility of the mentally and physically defective." "The campaign for birth control is not merely of eugenic value, but is practically identical with the final aims of eugenics." "Our failure to segregate morons who are increasing and multiplying… a dead weight of human waste… an ever-increasing, unceasingly spawning class of human beings who never should have been born at all." "The undeniably feeble-minded should, indeed, not only be discouraged but prevented from propagating their kind." "The marriage bed is the most degenerative influence in the social order..." "Give dysgenic groups in our population their choice of segregation or sterilization." Margaret Sanger, Founder of Planned Parenthood, proposed the American Baby Code that states, "No woman shall have the legal right to bear a child… without a permit for parenthood". |
Sanger would be thoroughly pleased with the way her organization continues to run itself, and especially with the support it gets from Black leaders such as Senator Obama. In every town in which I have lived, Planned Parenthood operates its clinics in poor, minority neighborhoods, and works to sell its services as the only choice.
Several leaders of the Pro-life movement in the African American community spoke out on this issue at the March for Life in Washington, DC. and the Walk for Life West Coast in San Francisco, CA. this past week. Their voices deserve to be heard.
My husband also comments on this issue on his blog.
______________________________
Update: Alvida King speaks out on this subject as well.
Mp3 Audio: Speaking about abortion and the African American Community, including her own experiences as a post-abortive African-American woman.
More on her personal experiences.
Video: Dr. King in a television advertisement for the above mentioned website:
Monday, January 22, 2007
*Sigh* Where to begin...
When I was in high school, a classmate of mine approached me in the library and asked me to name for him one thing women did better than men other than having babies---as if childbirth didn't count. "You try pulling a cabbage-patch doll out of your nose," I thought later. "And then tell me if that wasn't an accomplishment." I only wish I'd had the presence of mind to say it to him at the time. At least I didn't dignify his question by responding to it.
"Men" like that are the reason the Feminist movement was invented.
The early feminists did a number of useful things for women. We get to vote, hold jobs, own property. We have the freedom to make our fortunes, rather than marrying them.
But somewhere on that journey, the movement got carried away, and things got ugly.
And that is why, around this time of year I feel very lucky. And very sad. And very annoyed. And angry.
Lucky because my mother could have had me killed, but she didn't. Sad, because other mothers made different decisions, and now live with the horrifying emotional consequences, instead of with their children. Annoyed that the pain these women feel, and the relief I feel at being alive are cheapened by "feminists"in order to advance a political cause. Angry that it is all perfectly legal, and in the name of social progress.
Thirty-four years ago, the Supreme Court of of the United States of America made a decision that has been fatal for millions. (See the counter in my earlier blog post), and left others deeply wounded. It marked a shift in our culture which has been a distinct step back in the cause for Human rights in general, and for women's rights in particular.
Abortion, my parents' generation was told, would be liberating. It would allow women to escape the tyranny of men who controlled them through pregnancy. Women would die less frequently as a result of childbearing. It would end child abuse, because every child would be wanted. It would reduce poverty (which, it was implied, was clearly the result of irresponsibly having too many children), and in the process it might even help with overpopulation, pollution, and maybe even global warming. Plus, if it were legalized, abortion would be safer.
But, for some reason, women are still abused by men, and even bullied into having abortions by men who are terrified of paying child support, and are often abandoned by these same men if they choose not to abort. Child abuse and abandonment is still rampant. Families and children who live in poverty are still with us. People still talk about overpopulation, there is still smog in the air. Al Gore says the planet is heating up like an oven and the ozone layer still has that stubborn hole.
On top of that, abortion remains among the most unregulated of surgical procedures. Many states (including my home state of California) do not require that women be informed of potential medical risks of the procedure, including death. Children under 18 can still get abortions without this information, or even their parents' consent, but the school nurse can't give them a Tylenol without a permission form. It is being discovered that abortion clinics often fail to report child abuse victims to the authorities, and that they do not always staff doctors with hospital privileges--just in case a patient needs emergency care if something goes wrong. Several abortion doctors do not even have up-to-date licenses. Planned Parenthood will happily give a young girl an abortion, and then send her back to the statutory rapist who made her pregnant. This puts the lives of girls and women in danger, and yet we are told that it is safe!
There is also a growing number of women who have had abortions, who are now speaking out about the physical and psychological damage they have endured as a result of this barbaric procedure, very often leading to years of mental anguish, and self-destructive behavior. Many speak about the intense pressure they experienced when they faced the "choice" of abortion, and the sensation they had of having no other option. Many were pressured by their boyfriends, husbands, and even their fathers. Yet the "feminists" who should have stood up for them in such situations now tell them that their feelings of grief are ridiculous.
With abortion legal and unrestricted, our fertility has come to be thought of as a chronic illness, to be treated and suppressed. Pregnancy is a sexually transmitted disease, and unborn children treated as malignant parasites. Men can have their fun, and not worry about paying child support.
We deserve better than that. We deserve to have our intelligence recognized with complete patient information. We deserve properly certified physicians. We deserve to be protected when we are victims of rape and incest. We deserve not to be ridiculed if we regret an abortion.
Another vivid moment I remember from high school was in a class on Christian Morality. (Yes, I went to a Catholic high school) We were doing an exercise where the teacher would make a statement and we would stand in a part of the room that corresponded to our opinion. The issue of the day was abortion. The students who were most in favor of abortion, who most unwaveringly supported a woman having one, were all male, and, by reputation, anyway, the most likely to find themselves paying some unexpected child support. It is into their hands that the Supreme Court played on January 22, 1973. The promiscuous, love-em-and-leave-em young male, who prefers to abdicate responsibility for the consequences of his decisions: who prefers to be oblivious to the dignity of women, and use them as toys. It has been over thirty years, and some of us are still waiting for the "feminists" to get wise to this.
In the meantime, I've called my mother to thank her for my life (and my dad too, since he was man enough to stick around). She deserves some credit for the sacrifices she made to raise me, especially since she never planned to.
Welcome to the 21st century.
"Men" like that are the reason the Feminist movement was invented.
The early feminists did a number of useful things for women. We get to vote, hold jobs, own property. We have the freedom to make our fortunes, rather than marrying them.
But somewhere on that journey, the movement got carried away, and things got ugly.
And that is why, around this time of year I feel very lucky. And very sad. And very annoyed. And angry.
Lucky because my mother could have had me killed, but she didn't. Sad, because other mothers made different decisions, and now live with the horrifying emotional consequences, instead of with their children. Annoyed that the pain these women feel, and the relief I feel at being alive are cheapened by "feminists"in order to advance a political cause. Angry that it is all perfectly legal, and in the name of social progress.
Thirty-four years ago, the Supreme Court of of the United States of America made a decision that has been fatal for millions. (See the counter in my earlier blog post), and left others deeply wounded. It marked a shift in our culture which has been a distinct step back in the cause for Human rights in general, and for women's rights in particular.
Abortion, my parents' generation was told, would be liberating. It would allow women to escape the tyranny of men who controlled them through pregnancy. Women would die less frequently as a result of childbearing. It would end child abuse, because every child would be wanted. It would reduce poverty (which, it was implied, was clearly the result of irresponsibly having too many children), and in the process it might even help with overpopulation, pollution, and maybe even global warming. Plus, if it were legalized, abortion would be safer.
But, for some reason, women are still abused by men, and even bullied into having abortions by men who are terrified of paying child support, and are often abandoned by these same men if they choose not to abort. Child abuse and abandonment is still rampant. Families and children who live in poverty are still with us. People still talk about overpopulation, there is still smog in the air. Al Gore says the planet is heating up like an oven and the ozone layer still has that stubborn hole.
On top of that, abortion remains among the most unregulated of surgical procedures. Many states (including my home state of California) do not require that women be informed of potential medical risks of the procedure, including death. Children under 18 can still get abortions without this information, or even their parents' consent, but the school nurse can't give them a Tylenol without a permission form. It is being discovered that abortion clinics often fail to report child abuse victims to the authorities, and that they do not always staff doctors with hospital privileges--just in case a patient needs emergency care if something goes wrong. Several abortion doctors do not even have up-to-date licenses. Planned Parenthood will happily give a young girl an abortion, and then send her back to the statutory rapist who made her pregnant. This puts the lives of girls and women in danger, and yet we are told that it is safe!
There is also a growing number of women who have had abortions, who are now speaking out about the physical and psychological damage they have endured as a result of this barbaric procedure, very often leading to years of mental anguish, and self-destructive behavior. Many speak about the intense pressure they experienced when they faced the "choice" of abortion, and the sensation they had of having no other option. Many were pressured by their boyfriends, husbands, and even their fathers. Yet the "feminists" who should have stood up for them in such situations now tell them that their feelings of grief are ridiculous.
With abortion legal and unrestricted, our fertility has come to be thought of as a chronic illness, to be treated and suppressed. Pregnancy is a sexually transmitted disease, and unborn children treated as malignant parasites. Men can have their fun, and not worry about paying child support.
We deserve better than that. We deserve to have our intelligence recognized with complete patient information. We deserve properly certified physicians. We deserve to be protected when we are victims of rape and incest. We deserve not to be ridiculed if we regret an abortion.
Another vivid moment I remember from high school was in a class on Christian Morality. (Yes, I went to a Catholic high school) We were doing an exercise where the teacher would make a statement and we would stand in a part of the room that corresponded to our opinion. The issue of the day was abortion. The students who were most in favor of abortion, who most unwaveringly supported a woman having one, were all male, and, by reputation, anyway, the most likely to find themselves paying some unexpected child support. It is into their hands that the Supreme Court played on January 22, 1973. The promiscuous, love-em-and-leave-em young male, who prefers to abdicate responsibility for the consequences of his decisions: who prefers to be oblivious to the dignity of women, and use them as toys. It has been over thirty years, and some of us are still waiting for the "feminists" to get wise to this.
In the meantime, I've called my mother to thank her for my life (and my dad too, since he was man enough to stick around). She deserves some credit for the sacrifices she made to raise me, especially since she never planned to.
Welcome to the 21st century.
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Remember George Bailey?
There are a lot of American babies conceived since 1973 who never had the opportunities he did. The rest of us are lucky to be alive.
Welcome to Pottersville, everyone.
Counter provided by Priests for Life
Welcome to Pottersville, everyone.
Number of babies
killed by abortion since
January 22, 1973:
Counter provided by Priests for Life
Thursday, January 18, 2007
The Culture of Death
"But the fear of death grew ever darker upon them and they delayed it by all means that they could; and they began to build great houses for their dead, while their wise men laboured unceasingly to discover if they might the secret of recalling life, or at least of the prolonging of Men's days. Yet they achieved only the art of preserving incorrupt the dead flesh of Men, and they filled all the land with silent tombs in which the thought of death was enshrined in the darkness. But those that lived turned the more eagerly to pleasure and revelry, desiring ever more goods and more riches..."
"Death was ever present... Kings made tombs more splendid than the houses of the living, and counted old names in the rolls of their descent dearer than the names of sons. Childless lords sat in aged halls musing on heraldry; in secret chambers withered men compounded strong elixirs, or in high cold towers asked questions of the stars. And the last king...had no heir."
And so, a once great kingdom fell to ruin, because its monarchs and its people spent so much energy avoiding death and pestilence, that they no longer lived their lives. The great cultural achievements of their forefathers were neglected fell into decay, and every new endeavor was corrupted by hedonism and fear of death. Lives became, if not shorter, more filled with fear. Lives were offered on an altar to Morgoth, king of Darkness, in exchange for an escape from death; an escape that was never granted. And when the people of Númenor became so enraptured by their own works, and forgot utterly from whom their gift of life came, their fall was complete, and their civilization destroyed.
"Death was ever present... Kings made tombs more splendid than the houses of the living, and counted old names in the rolls of their descent dearer than the names of sons. Childless lords sat in aged halls musing on heraldry; in secret chambers withered men compounded strong elixirs, or in high cold towers asked questions of the stars. And the last king...had no heir."
And so, a once great kingdom fell to ruin, because its monarchs and its people spent so much energy avoiding death and pestilence, that they no longer lived their lives. The great cultural achievements of their forefathers were neglected fell into decay, and every new endeavor was corrupted by hedonism and fear of death. Lives became, if not shorter, more filled with fear. Lives were offered on an altar to Morgoth, king of Darkness, in exchange for an escape from death; an escape that was never granted. And when the people of Númenor became so enraptured by their own works, and forgot utterly from whom their gift of life came, their fall was complete, and their civilization destroyed.
Only four days left till the 34th Anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision.
That's at least 1 in 4 people conceived since 1973 who never made it.
Tens of millions offered in darkness and in secret to Morgoth,
That others may live as they choose.
That's at least 1 in 4 people conceived since 1973 who never made it.
Tens of millions offered in darkness and in secret to Morgoth,
That others may live as they choose.
Friday, January 12, 2007
Religion in America
Several maps indicating the distribution of people of all faiths, and people of specific faiths from coast to coast. Very interesting, especially to anyone who watches regional voting patterns.
http://robotwisdom.com/issues/religmaps.html
Thanks to Bill for blogging about this after he found it on the Curt Jester's Blog.
http://robotwisdom.com/issues/religmaps.html
Thanks to Bill for blogging about this after he found it on the Curt Jester's Blog.
Canada seeks deportation of small stinky stowaway to California
There will be no charges filed in the case; they simply want to send her home. There is only one problem. This little illegal border crossing was committed by a sleeping skunk. Any volunteer drivers?
US skunk seeks ride home: only brave need apply
US skunk seeks ride home: only brave need apply
TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian wildlife officials are looking for a brave driver prepared for a 3,500-kilometre (2,200 mile) trip to take a stinky stowaway skunk back to her home in California.
But the skunk, who survived a seven-day journey across the United States and into Canada without food and water, after being accidentally locked away in a transport truck, is having a hard time finding someone to give her a ride home.
"We can never give a no-spray guarantee, of course," said Nathalie Karvonen, executive director at the Toronto Wildlife Center, which has been caring for the skunk since January 5, referring to the black-and-white striped animal's foul-smelling defense mechanism.
"It would have be somebody who would be prepared for that possibility."
Releasing her into the wild in Canada is out of the question, Karvonen said.
"It's totally and utterly illegal from a provincial and federal standpoint to release a California skunk in Ontario."
As well, "skunks are very territorial animals ... "They won't just readily accept a stranger in their territory, so there will be a big skunk fight." Continued...
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
Medical Mannequins: Not just for CPR anymore.
Check out the story and video from Reuters.
By the way, if you are squeamish about watching birth scenes--even simulated ones, you might want to skip this one.
By the way, if you are squeamish about watching birth scenes--even simulated ones, you might want to skip this one.
Tuesday, January 2, 2007
Kinslaying
One of the darkest chapters in Elven history was the Kinslaying, when one faction of Elves unjustly warred upon another to capture their ships, and leave the Undying Lands and the divine powers against whom they had rebelled. For this, they were exiled, and most never returned to paradise. In Arda, the universe in which Middle Earth lies, one of the most grievous sins is the killing of one's own kind. Those who attack unjustly are the most guilty. Those who must kill in self defense, however, suffer as well.
Professor Tolkien experienced the horrors of war before he "sub-created" this little history. He understood that even just wars were ugly, and like the Church he held so dear, he professed that the best course of action is for killing of one's brethren to be avoided whenever possible. Hence Frodo's insistence that Hobbit blood not be shed during the Scouring of the Shire (a chapter which, unfortunately, Mr. Jackson left out of his film entirely). We should feel how tragic it is when one human being takes the life of his brother, even if it was to justifiably defend his own. In an ideal world, such things would not even be necessary.
As do the peoples of Middle Earth, we live in a fallen world where a few men become too attached to power, and so greedy that they suck up as much of it as they can, and abuse it in the most heinous ways. Such tyrants terrify us with the sheer magnitude of their crimes, and justifiably we are angry that they are able to perpetrate them. And sometimes we are forced to take their lives ourselves, or the lives of the men in their armies, because we must protect the world from their dark will.
But we should not allow our anger to let us feel good when we must remove them from the world ourselves. Such tasks should disgust us, and we should take them on only when we have absolutely no other choice. When we can learn to take the life of another human being gleefully, uncontainable despot and incurable criminal though he may be, we should fear for ourselves. It is a short step from this, to learning to take the lives of men less criminal than he out of anger and revenge, and eventually, when our hearts have become hardened enough, even ending the lives of the innocent for our own convenience. Our just God also offers us mercy, and we are called to make both Justice and mercy a reality in our world whenever it is humanly possible.
Justice, revenge, distasteful necessity, and selfishness must not be confused with one another.
Professor Tolkien experienced the horrors of war before he "sub-created" this little history. He understood that even just wars were ugly, and like the Church he held so dear, he professed that the best course of action is for killing of one's brethren to be avoided whenever possible. Hence Frodo's insistence that Hobbit blood not be shed during the Scouring of the Shire (a chapter which, unfortunately, Mr. Jackson left out of his film entirely). We should feel how tragic it is when one human being takes the life of his brother, even if it was to justifiably defend his own. In an ideal world, such things would not even be necessary.
As do the peoples of Middle Earth, we live in a fallen world where a few men become too attached to power, and so greedy that they suck up as much of it as they can, and abuse it in the most heinous ways. Such tyrants terrify us with the sheer magnitude of their crimes, and justifiably we are angry that they are able to perpetrate them. And sometimes we are forced to take their lives ourselves, or the lives of the men in their armies, because we must protect the world from their dark will.
But we should not allow our anger to let us feel good when we must remove them from the world ourselves. Such tasks should disgust us, and we should take them on only when we have absolutely no other choice. When we can learn to take the life of another human being gleefully, uncontainable despot and incurable criminal though he may be, we should fear for ourselves. It is a short step from this, to learning to take the lives of men less criminal than he out of anger and revenge, and eventually, when our hearts have become hardened enough, even ending the lives of the innocent for our own convenience. Our just God also offers us mercy, and we are called to make both Justice and mercy a reality in our world whenever it is humanly possible.
Justice, revenge, distasteful necessity, and selfishness must not be confused with one another.
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Study: Researchers haven't learned basic math.
MSNBC.com is now sporting a rather astonishing headline:
"Even grandma had premarital sex, survey finds"
Now this may come as a shock to a lot of people whose grandmothers were in their teens and twenties during the early part of this century. Not to worry, baby-boomers, they don't mean your grandma. They are speaking of grandmas who were born a little later, in the 1940's.
Wow, that's early, you say. But remember, these folks were BORN in the 40's. They weren't having premarital sex in the nursery. ,That came later, in their teens, twenties, and even up to their 40's. And, in case you don't remember, it takes a few years to get from your own crib in the one sense, to someone else's "crib" in the newer sense, if you catch my drift.
Unfortunately, the MSNBC article conveniently fails to mention if the survey took into account which decade it was when Grandma had sex outside of marriage. The good news is, we can use our brains to fill in some of the blanks with reasonably educated hypotheses, even if the article writers did not.
Now, I know it's hard for some of us. I haven't taken a math class myself in about 8 years, and for some of you it may have even been longer. But, humor me here, and do a little basic addition.
So, let's say Grandma was born in 1940. This means she finished high school sometime around 1958. This means grandma had her first legal alcoholic beverage in 1961. Or, let's say grandma was born in 1949. This means she had her high school graduation around 1967, and she could have been an anti-war protesting, pot-smoking hippie college student by 1970. A grandma born in the 1940's would be in her own 40's during the 1980s, and we know how popular pre-marital sex was by then. Let's also not forget that during the 70's and 80's the divorce rate in this country began to rise significantly. It's possible that even if Grandma didn't have sex before her first marriage, she may have had sex between marriages.
Basically this survey has just discovered that the generation that started the Sexual Revolution has now become old enough to be grandparents. But they are probably too busy enjoying their grandchildren to need a survey to tell them this. Unless they are still smoking...
Way to go, MSNBC.
PS: Apparently only 88% of grandmas born in the 40's had pre-marital sex at some time in their lives. Kudos to the 12% that didn't. When people my age are grandmas only 5% of us will be able to say the same.
Friday, December 15, 2006
The Dark Night
From Carmelite.com: a poem with very beautiful and sensual imagery about a soul meeting its Savior. Thanks to Bill for drawing attention to this on his blog.
The Dark Night
1. One dark night,
fired with love's urgent longings
- ah, the sheer grace! -
I went out unseen,
my house being now all stilled.
For those who like music: Loreena McKennitt did a lovely version of this set to music, which she titles "Dark Night of the Soul". She changed the words a bit, but the basic meaning is intact for the most part.
The Dark Night
1. One dark night,
fired with love's urgent longings
- ah, the sheer grace! -
I went out unseen,
my house being now all stilled.
2. In darkness, and secure,
by the secret ladder, disguised,
- ah, the sheer grace! -
in darkness and concealment,
my house being now all stilled.
3. On that glad night
in secret, for no one saw me,
nor did I look at anything
with no other light or guide
than the one that burned in my heart.
4. This guided me
more surely than the light of noon
to where he was awaiting me
- him I knew so well -
there in a place where no one appeared.
5. O guiding night!
O night more lovely than the dawn!
O night that has united
the Lover with his beloved,
transforming the beloved in her Lover.
6. Upon my flowering breast,
which I kept wholly for him alone,
there he lay sleeping,
and I caressing him
there in a breeze from the fanning cedars.
7. When the breeze blew from the turret,
as I parted his hair,
it wounded my neck
with its gentle hand,
suspending all my senses.
8. I abandoned and forgot myself,
laying my face on my Beloved;
all things ceased; I went out from myself,
leaving my cares
forgotten among the lilies.
For those who like music: Loreena McKennitt did a lovely version of this set to music, which she titles "Dark Night of the Soul". She changed the words a bit, but the basic meaning is intact for the most part.
California vs. Texas
Most people wouldn't put Texas and California in the same sentence, unless noting how opposite they are supposed to be. I've lived in both states, and find that they have a few things in common:
1. Both were once part of Mexico
2. Both were independent republics before joining the US.
3. Both have fabulous historical sites reflecting items 1 & 2.
4. Both states are huge, geographically speaking.
5. Residents of each state think they live in the best of all possible places, not just on this planet, but possibly in the known universe. Ask them. Neither can fathom why anyone would want to live in the other state.
Texas, however takes its state pride to a slightly different level than California. Furniture stores in Texas often feature pieces with the Lone Star emblazoned proudly upon them. You don't see many Californians looking for furniture with the Bear on them. Texas even has its own pledge of allegiance, which from what I have heard, is often recited in schools along with the national one:
Perhaps not Pulitzer prize-winning poetry, but it's straightforward, clear and to the point.
I did a Google search, to see if California has its own equivalent. All I got was references to news articles and court cases about people in California trying to ban the national Pledge of Allegiance because of the words "under God". A similar Google search for the Texas pledge got notably different results.
And here we begin to see some of those differences.
1. Both were once part of Mexico
2. Both were independent republics before joining the US.
3. Both have fabulous historical sites reflecting items 1 & 2.
4. Both states are huge, geographically speaking.
5. Residents of each state think they live in the best of all possible places, not just on this planet, but possibly in the known universe. Ask them. Neither can fathom why anyone would want to live in the other state.
Texas, however takes its state pride to a slightly different level than California. Furniture stores in Texas often feature pieces with the Lone Star emblazoned proudly upon them. You don't see many Californians looking for furniture with the Bear on them. Texas even has its own pledge of allegiance, which from what I have heard, is often recited in schools along with the national one:
Honor the Texas flag;
I pledge allegiance to thee,
Texas, one and indivisible.
Perhaps not Pulitzer prize-winning poetry, but it's straightforward, clear and to the point.
I did a Google search, to see if California has its own equivalent. All I got was references to news articles and court cases about people in California trying to ban the national Pledge of Allegiance because of the words "under God". A similar Google search for the Texas pledge got notably different results.
And here we begin to see some of those differences.
Friday, December 8, 2006
Christmas Cookies!
There is a fruitcake recipe out there that has directions similar to these. The perfect recipe for those stressed out by their annual Christmas baking.
Thanks to my friend Michelle for bringing this to my attention.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Christmas Cookie Recipe
1 cup of water
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup of sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup of brown sugar
lemon juice
4 large eggs
1 cup nuts
2 cups of dried fruit
1 bottle Crown Royal
Sample the Crown Royal to check quality. Take a large bowl, check the Crown Royal again, to be sure it is of the highest quality, pour one level cup and drink. Turn on the electric mixer...Beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl.
Add one teaspoon of sugar...Beat again. At this point it's best to make sure the Crown Royal is still OK, try another cup.. just in case. Turn off the mixer thingy.
Break 2 leggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of driedfruit. Pick the frigging fruit off floor... Mix on the turner. If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaterers just pry it loose with a dewscriver. Sample the Crown Royal to check for tonsisticity.
Next, sift two cups of salt, or something....who giveshz a sheet. Check the Crown Royal. Now shift the lemon juice and strain your nuts. Add one table. Add a spoon of ar, or somefink.... whatever you can find. Greash the oven.
Turn the cake tin 360 degrees and try not to fall over. Don't forget to beat off the turner.
Finally, throw the bowl through the window. Finish the bottle of Crown Royal. Make sure to put the stove in the dishwasher.
Cherry Mistmas
Wednesday, December 6, 2006
UK Newspaper: another way for junk food to kill us...
Never mind the dangers to your weight, blood sugar and cholesterol. According to the Daily Register, now donuts (that's Doughnuts across the pond in the UK) endanger airlines as well.
-----------------------------------------------
The War on Terror claims doughnuts
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/12/04/doughnut_danger/
-----------------------------------------------
The War on Terror claims doughnuts
Reg reader sees sprinkling of panic
Published Monday 4th December 2006 12:13 GMT
Airport security is a serious business, but why was a Reg reader refused a Krispy Kreme doughnut at Heathrow airport?
Admittedly, the sugared snacks contain enough cooking oil and sugar to power a trailer park, but who knew they could be fashioned into bombs?
On Saturday afternoon a Reg reader was dropping some friends at Heathrow and stopped off at Krispy Kreme doughnuts outside Terminal 3.
But the reader was directed to the unstuffed ring doughnuts rather than a full-fat, fully stuffed Krispy Kreme special because the fillings fall foul of security restrictions.
"Imagine our confusion when the guy serving us advised that we could only buy ring doughnuts, not filled, circulardoughnuts. A moment or two's wrangling in broken English and we discovered that he thought we were outbound passengers.On further questioning, apparently the liquid contents of a filled doughnut fall foul of the new restrictions on liquids in carry on luggage. Quite how the authorities imagine that a terrorist could blow up a 747 by rubbing two Krispy Kremes together was a bit beyond us.
But a spokesman for BAA denied they were stamping on Homer's favourite food. He said: "Passengers can take liquids in 100ml bottles carrried in a clear plastic bag. But passengers use common sense on foodstuffs. Sandwich fillings and the like are not restricted."
In fact, the only foods still on the restricted list are: "Liquid-based foods, sauces, stews, soups over 100ml in size."
Drinks suffer the same restrictions, but there is no mention of doughnuts.
The real restrictions are available here on BAA's site. ®
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/12/04/doughnut_danger/
Christmas Shoppers: Help is on the way!
Dave Barry's 2006 Gift Guide is here! The Miami Herald humor columnist offers his perspective on this season's most intriguing gift ideas from a motorized cooler on wheels, to personalized toilet paper ...
Full article at MiamiHerald.com
Unfortunately, you will need to create a free account to view the entire article. :(
Another printing of this gift guide at the Star-Telegram
DAVE BARRY'S ANNUAL GIFT GUIDE
What's behind Santa's Ho-Ho-Ho
Holiday gift-giving is a tradition that dates back roughly 2,006 years, to when the Three Wise Men went to Bethlehem with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh for the Baby Jesus. Of course the next day the Virgin Mary returned these items for store credit, because she was a low-income mother with a newborn, and as the old saying goes, ''You can't diaper a baby with frankincense.''
But it was too late: The Three Wise Men had started a tradition. And in keeping with that tradition, this holiday season millions of people will spend billions of dollars to buy gifts that their friends and loved ones do not need.Full article at MiamiHerald.com
Unfortunately, you will need to create a free account to view the entire article. :(
Another printing of this gift guide at the Star-Telegram
Monday, December 4, 2006
The Bigotry of Low Expectations.
It's not obvious from my profile picture, since my face isn't shown, but I'm technically a minority.
At least, half of me is. You see, I am of mixed Mexican and Caucasian ancestry (one parent from each "race"). This combination of brown and white has left me an interesting shade of beige on the inside, but since my outsides are more on the brown side, most people look at me and go, Oh, she's a Mexican... And they approach me as such.
That doesn't bother me most of the time. I am proud of and identify with both sides of my heritage. I guess that's why I get a little sensitive when people make certain kinds of remarks about minorities in education, the workplace, and other key areas of society.
And that's why I'm furious over the way a certain Puerto-Rican student at Columbia University was recently treated on the basis of two things: His race, and his membership in the US Military. Well, it's not this incident that makes me furious. It's the disease of which this incident is merely a symptom.
When some fellow students at a booth for the International Socialist Organization were making rather loud, negative comments about the military. Matt Sanchez, the student in question, tolerated this, until they asserted that the military exploits minorities, using them as cannon fodder. Sanchez, noting that all of the ISO protesters were not minorities, challenged this, informing them that he is a minority person who signed up for the military, and he does not feel exploited. Their response? "You're too stupid to know you're being used."
I guess they felt it was their duty as his racial and intellectual superiors to inform him. And the University must have agreed, because it has yet to discipline these students for their violation of Columbia's policies against racial harassment.
Unfortunately, this attitude that minorities are too inept to look after themselves is not limited to this small group of students at Columbia University. When Jaime Escalante (the high school teacher immortalized in "Stand and Deliver") wanted to teach Calculus to minority kids at his inner-city school site who were academically behind, he met with resistance from faculty. These teachers believed Escalante's students incapable of advanced academic study, and argued that they should be protected from what they believed was inevitable failure.
There are universities now that are considering lowering their admission requirements, in the hope that it will attract more minority students to their campuses. What happened to helping them rise to the existing standards?
When I was in high school, my ethnic background and my very respectable GPA resulted in lots of mail from academic advancement and scholarship programs for minority students. Most of the letters I received assumed that I came from a financially, academically, and even culturally disadvantaged background. The message between the lines was, "you poor thing, let us help you". It never occurred to them that, thanks to the diligence of my parents many of the racial obstacles I might have faced had already been overcome. This is especially a credit to my father, who had to overcome a significant amount of overt racism to become a successful adult, including the low expectations of many of his school teachers, who assumed that a Mexican kid from a poor neighborhood would never go anywhere.
I encountered similar attitudes early in my own teaching career. One person I worked with, who taught a remedial English class for 7th graders told me, both in and out of the presence of these students that "These kids are low" and that they were never going to handle academic life well. She assumed that most of them would end up as dropouts, teenage parents, and even inmates before they were 18, and it was clear from her remarks that the fact that most of these students were ethnic minorities played into her assumptions. She therefore did not assign any homework, since she figured they wouldn't do it and she didn't want them to fail the class. It never seemed to occur to her, despite a lifetime of teaching, that she was contributing to their future failures by not reinforcing a study habit that might keep them from becoming dropouts and delinquents. (I will also note that this person was surprised to find out that English is my first language, even though she never heard me speak any other language, and I haven't the slightest trace of any foreign accent.)
Ironically, several of the kids in this class to whom I spoke wanted to go to college--a place she assumed they would never see, and which she didn't want to bother preparing them for. This teacher was skilled at gaining the respect of her students. Seeing the crestfallen looks on their faces when they overheard her say that she did not believe they would amount to anything was among the most frustrating and painful moments in my career. I had to remind myself that it really is the 21st century.
Even more frustrating is when I see people of color, who have positions of power as teachers, public activists, politicians, doctors, attorneys, actors, and occasionally even parents and students, adopting this attitude as well, and ceasing to encourage younger people to use their talents to follow their dreams and ambitions.
The initial intent of programs like Affirmative Action was, I have always thought, to provide a way for students to get around barriers created by unreasonable stereotypes. I reasoned that the assumption was that people of color are just as intelligent and capable as anyone else, and the forceful minimization of the effects of racism on the education system would provide equal opportunity for people of equal talent to shine. Experience, however, is making me start to think otherwise. Maybe these people who seek to "help" us never really believed in racial equality at all.
Related Link: The Columbia Daily Spectator
At least, half of me is. You see, I am of mixed Mexican and Caucasian ancestry (one parent from each "race"). This combination of brown and white has left me an interesting shade of beige on the inside, but since my outsides are more on the brown side, most people look at me and go, Oh, she's a Mexican... And they approach me as such.
That doesn't bother me most of the time. I am proud of and identify with both sides of my heritage. I guess that's why I get a little sensitive when people make certain kinds of remarks about minorities in education, the workplace, and other key areas of society.
And that's why I'm furious over the way a certain Puerto-Rican student at Columbia University was recently treated on the basis of two things: His race, and his membership in the US Military. Well, it's not this incident that makes me furious. It's the disease of which this incident is merely a symptom.
When some fellow students at a booth for the International Socialist Organization were making rather loud, negative comments about the military. Matt Sanchez, the student in question, tolerated this, until they asserted that the military exploits minorities, using them as cannon fodder. Sanchez, noting that all of the ISO protesters were not minorities, challenged this, informing them that he is a minority person who signed up for the military, and he does not feel exploited. Their response? "You're too stupid to know you're being used."
I guess they felt it was their duty as his racial and intellectual superiors to inform him. And the University must have agreed, because it has yet to discipline these students for their violation of Columbia's policies against racial harassment.
Unfortunately, this attitude that minorities are too inept to look after themselves is not limited to this small group of students at Columbia University. When Jaime Escalante (the high school teacher immortalized in "Stand and Deliver") wanted to teach Calculus to minority kids at his inner-city school site who were academically behind, he met with resistance from faculty. These teachers believed Escalante's students incapable of advanced academic study, and argued that they should be protected from what they believed was inevitable failure.
There are universities now that are considering lowering their admission requirements, in the hope that it will attract more minority students to their campuses. What happened to helping them rise to the existing standards?
When I was in high school, my ethnic background and my very respectable GPA resulted in lots of mail from academic advancement and scholarship programs for minority students. Most of the letters I received assumed that I came from a financially, academically, and even culturally disadvantaged background. The message between the lines was, "you poor thing, let us help you". It never occurred to them that, thanks to the diligence of my parents many of the racial obstacles I might have faced had already been overcome. This is especially a credit to my father, who had to overcome a significant amount of overt racism to become a successful adult, including the low expectations of many of his school teachers, who assumed that a Mexican kid from a poor neighborhood would never go anywhere.
I encountered similar attitudes early in my own teaching career. One person I worked with, who taught a remedial English class for 7th graders told me, both in and out of the presence of these students that "These kids are low" and that they were never going to handle academic life well. She assumed that most of them would end up as dropouts, teenage parents, and even inmates before they were 18, and it was clear from her remarks that the fact that most of these students were ethnic minorities played into her assumptions. She therefore did not assign any homework, since she figured they wouldn't do it and she didn't want them to fail the class. It never seemed to occur to her, despite a lifetime of teaching, that she was contributing to their future failures by not reinforcing a study habit that might keep them from becoming dropouts and delinquents. (I will also note that this person was surprised to find out that English is my first language, even though she never heard me speak any other language, and I haven't the slightest trace of any foreign accent.)
Ironically, several of the kids in this class to whom I spoke wanted to go to college--a place she assumed they would never see, and which she didn't want to bother preparing them for. This teacher was skilled at gaining the respect of her students. Seeing the crestfallen looks on their faces when they overheard her say that she did not believe they would amount to anything was among the most frustrating and painful moments in my career. I had to remind myself that it really is the 21st century.
Even more frustrating is when I see people of color, who have positions of power as teachers, public activists, politicians, doctors, attorneys, actors, and occasionally even parents and students, adopting this attitude as well, and ceasing to encourage younger people to use their talents to follow their dreams and ambitions.
The initial intent of programs like Affirmative Action was, I have always thought, to provide a way for students to get around barriers created by unreasonable stereotypes. I reasoned that the assumption was that people of color are just as intelligent and capable as anyone else, and the forceful minimization of the effects of racism on the education system would provide equal opportunity for people of equal talent to shine. Experience, however, is making me start to think otherwise. Maybe these people who seek to "help" us never really believed in racial equality at all.
Related Link: The Columbia Daily Spectator
Sunday, December 3, 2006
The first order of business...
Howdy there, whoever you are. :)
Welcome to my first blog entry.
Hm. I hate those awkward silences.
Here is where I will occasionally post things that I *hope* will be worth reading. I have, until now, been mostly using a "blog" on myspace, but that's....well... Myspace. If you are wondering who I am, I am a music lover and literature nerd, a certified high school teacher, and a newlywed. This means I'm slightly insane, but I'm also happy and therefore harmless. If you are as nuts as I am, welcome! Put your feet up and stay awhile. If you are sane....flee to the hills now before you become as strange as I am! :)
Until my next ravings, I shall leave you with the following image for your contemplation and enjoyment:
Welcome to my first blog entry.
Hm. I hate those awkward silences.
Here is where I will occasionally post things that I *hope* will be worth reading. I have, until now, been mostly using a "blog" on myspace, but that's....well... Myspace. If you are wondering who I am, I am a music lover and literature nerd, a certified high school teacher, and a newlywed. This means I'm slightly insane, but I'm also happy and therefore harmless. If you are as nuts as I am, welcome! Put your feet up and stay awhile. If you are sane....flee to the hills now before you become as strange as I am! :)
Until my next ravings, I shall leave you with the following image for your contemplation and enjoyment:
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