As anyone familiar with this blog knows, I homeschool my kids. I’m really not a fanatic about homeschooling, in general. It’s something we do for many, many reasons, but I wouldn’t presume to tell other people what they should do. I’m perfectly willing to accept the idea that public schools are the best choice for many families. However, like many homeschoolers, I sometimes find myself … Continue reading There are things I don’t understand
Be sure to check out this fantastic column over at Slate by Emily Yoffe (aka Dear Prudie) on the disaster of normalizing single parenthood. Continue reading While I’m gone . . .
My goodness. A high school outside of Chicago has recently decided to move a piece of pornographic work (“Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes (Parts 1 & 2)”) from it’s “required” to its “optional” reading list for an AP Literature class after parents and an advocacy group spent months complaining. How good of them. I suppose that simply having access to porn … Continue reading Pornification goes to high school!
Over at Crunchy Cons, Rod has a post up linking to a rather unfunny piece by Diogenes on Catholic World Daily which is meant to mock those who have or would like others to, ask for forgiveness for the sins of our ancestors. A clip from the piece:
It’s back in style: the political fashion of issuing official “apologies” for wrongs committed by others — especially long-dead others — in order to cash-in on the compassion sweepstakes and dutch rub the opposition in the process. Australia’s Labour Government apologized to the aboriginals last month, and now Canada appears ready to follow suit. Perhaps the following Mea Culpa, first offered in response to the initial wave of vicarious mortification, might bear repeating:
Bless me, Father, for my ancestors have sinned. It has been two episodes of 60 Minutes since my last confession.
— My parents were unwelcoming of government mandated integration in their working class neighborhood. At least, I ‘m not absolutely sure they were unwelcoming, but they had a statue of the Sacred Heart in the parlor, and that was typical of the kind of people that put property values before justice in those days. For these and all their other sins of bigotry I ask pardon and penance.
I think it’s safe to say that our pastors are doing a really, really bad teaching the flock how God wants us to deal with the sins of our ancestors. The gap between what God calls us to do and how many Christians, even good faithful Christians, think about what is the right way to deal with the sins of our for-bearers could hardly be greater. A commentator on the Catholic World News sight where the item was put up had this to say: Continue reading “The sins of the fathers”
There’s a story in the Chicago Tribune about scientists who have figured out how to get a computer to “read” brain scans to figure out which picture out of several choices a person has viewed. This is considered one of the first steps towards eventually figuring out how the brain works, which I suppose if good. However, it could also the be the first step … Continue reading This seems creepy to me
Normally I trend a little towards the crunchy end of life. I make bread from scratch. I garden. I breast fed all four of my children, including my youngest who is still nursing. I wore them in slings around town. I homeschool. But there are just some places I won’t go. I don’t own a pair of sweats and only wear comfortable shoes when I’m … Continue reading Ricki Lake did something I won’t do . . .
I wrote an article recently for a magazine about “The Jesus Brand”. It basically revolved around our relationship as Christians with Christian retailing, but if I had seen this doozy of a product line before writing it, I may well have gone in a different direction with it: The tagline on the webpage says “Look your Sunday best! Guaranteed to help you be worthy and … Continue reading Jesus, Virtuous Vanilla Lip Balm, and a Prostitute
Doug Shoen wrote a column in today’s Washington Post warning politicians to beware of what he is calling RAMs or “restless and anxious voters”. Aside from his nauseating fawning over his current employer, Bill Clinton, I think Shoen nails something important about the current state of the American voter – we’ve had it.
From the article:
Voters today aren’t just fed up with the status quo; they’re furious. In a Gallup poll last month, only 24 percent of Americans said they were satisfied with the state of the country — one of the lowest readings ever recorded. And it’s not just George W. Bush they’re mad at. Public approval ratings for the Democratic-controlled Congress are even lower than the president’s. According to a 2006 poll taken by my former firm, Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, 61 percent of voters say the two major parties are failing, and a survey last year by the Republican pollster Frank Luntz showed that 81 percent of voters would consider voting for an independent this year.
Yep, that sounds about right. Continue reading ““RAM” Voters”
I came across a great quote today from Pope Benedict which presents a way of thinking about living an authentic Christian life in our modern, western world:
We do not know what the future of Europe will be. Here we must agree with Toynbee, that the fate of a society always depends on its creative minorities. Christian believers should look upon themselves as just such a creative minority, helping Europe to reclaim what is best in its heritage and thereby to place itself at the service of all humankind. (See the whole article by Benedict here.)
Toynbee was a British historian who looked at history as a series of rising and falling cultures. In his understanding, cultures are shaped by the particular challenges their culture faced. The role of the “creative minority” was to offer solutions which addressed the challenges of the times. There’s a very interesting and long discussion to be had regarding how this works, however, I have kids to take care of so I’m going to cut it as short as I can. Continue reading “Christians as a “Creative Minority””
The Las Vegas Review Journal recently ran an article about a survey of parents in Nevada and their attitudes towards the state’s public education system. This is crazy: Just 11 percent of Nevada residents who responded to a recent survey on educational issues said they would send their children to public school if they had the freedom to choose any available option . . . … Continue reading Unpopular Public Schools in Nevada
The Upside Down World 