Sandbags = Houses

Folks here in the U.S. are aware of the massive flooding in the Middle states of Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, Arkansas, and eventually Louisiana, I am assuming. As you can see, most towns are furiously (and futile) trying to set up sandbag walls to hold back the flood waters.

When I see a sand bag…I see a house. All of those sand bags would easily construct an extremely sturdy structure (almost totally tornado proof) with the following materials: bags, dirt/sand composite, barbed wire, some measuring instruments, electric/plumbing as needed, windows, cement or earthen plaster, and small amounts of roofing materials. Voila, a hobbit house!

What will happen to those bags, if they are not washed downstream to tangle in trees or in boat propellers? We can build umpteen houses/camps for the homeless after the flooding. Just a thought.

Severity is not acceptable

There was a big splash on the internet about a news bit that ABC Good Morning America did on the Neurodiversity movement yesterday. I just listened to the clip. And read this woman’s response.

From what I understood, the slant of the news story is this: Its ok for Ari Ne’eman and other “high functioning autistics” to advocate for acceptance, but it is not ok to ask parents of “severely” affected children to stop seeking a “cure” from autism. Lots of bunny ears…sorry…the language is charged with meanings.

So, if my future kid is outwardly profoundly autistic, I have every right to want this kid cured instead of seeking for a better environment/culture for the child as s/he is. The ABC slant clearly said, well, fine enough for you guys who can talk and dress up in a suit, but if you cannot stand to wear suits (who does?) and cannot verbalize (maybe could type or use picture language instead), you need to be fixed.

ARRRGGHHHH.

The Autism Self Advocacy Network is incredible!

Hey George Soros, Buy Us A Farm!

I stumbled upon this chart with the fifty largest charitable hedge funds on Wall Street. Mr. Soros, I picked you out of the line-up just because I recognized your name from some hazy memories of CNN news reports. I also hear you are a fellow Magyar. It looks like you are sitting on a rather large foundation, like one pillar in the center of the Acropolis. We have a suggestion for a tiny fraction of that robust portfolio.

Buy us a farm. Nothing fancy, mind you. It could even lack electricity and running water. The acreage can be a minimum of three open acres, but woods, a stream, and a couple of hills to build a hobbit house into would be ideal.

We’d love to raise goats or maybe a few cows so the community can become healthier through real milk. Jeff is pretty adept at speaking chicken, so there will be some fowl running around the place. Two mules are a must. I love gardening. You really haven’t lived until you have eaten a freshly picked baby green salad with sun-warmed yellow peppers!

It wouldn’t be just us living there, either. We plan on having at least one other couple/single mom/family move in. More hands make light work. I could tutor/homeschool any children on our property.

The return for your investment is to know that a small patch of God’s earth is very, very well tended. We will get off the grid as much as possible with our electrical/petroleum usage. You are also allowed to drop in at any time (with a modicum of notice) to see how the land and the people fare. You may eat at our table, drink from the spring or well, sleep in a guest room, or snooze in a hammock. I might even knit you a pair of socks for winter every year.

You seem interested in helping out the world. So, how about relocating some overly-educated landless peasants?

Narnia II - Innocence Betrayed

The title says it all - the movie version of Prince Caspian was barely child-proof. Two or three parents left The theater midway through the film due to the overly drawn out violent battle scenes. The rating was PG for “epic battle action and violence.” It should have been a PG-13 not only for the blood n’ sword swinging, but also for the surprise nookie at the end. Dare I say more… you are forewarned.

Then there is the story line factual editing. Oh my! It would have helped me to have read the book before going to see the film (heeding my own advice), I could still remember enough of it to speak out, “That’s not in the book!”

Over all, I give the movie a C- on the American grading scale. The first Narnia movie was much, much better!

Thoughts on Monday

We had a beautiful weekend: fetching goat milk, visiting relatives, and went for a long walk in a park yesterday. There is a sun burn on my face (third time this year!) to prove it. I’ve got to remember a hat next time!

This story came to my attention this weekend. A young lady who has never cut her hair due to her Christian beliefs encounters a teacher with a long-hair hate and a pair of scissors. The result is a weird investigation.

In other news, mother’s day has come and gone. Notice I did not capitalize that. Its not that I wish the day never existed. I love my mom and sent her a card. I wished other mothers a happy day. I just do not like honoring it like a holy day during a church service. [Note: yesterday was the feast of Pentecost for the Western Christian calendar. Not a word mentioned about that significant event.]

The pastor starts off his sermon yesterday with, “Honoring mothers is an ancient practice…The Greeks started a spring celebration for the mother of the gods…” OH MY GOODNESS. Did he justify an American Holiday (and thereby, a church gathering) by citing pagan practices? Yep. I guess it was easy to be up front about it.

A Young Woman vs. a Girl

[Ask forgiveness later, but I just had to point out this glaring societal disconnect.]

When does a teenage girl become a young woman? Apparently if she is wealthy and popular. That is this week’s lesson of Miley Cyrus [15 years old] and her parents allowing soft porn photographs to be published internationally.

What was last week’s major bruhaha in blog land? The 15 year old girls who were pregnant and wearing….prairie dresses….taken from the Texas religious compound were children being manipulated and abused by their parents/”spiritual husbands”/religious elders.

It only seems just when the State deems “girls” as such. Both cases, in my opinion, are wrong and abusive. The media can wink away one as a mistake and the other as a horror. Parents were using children for their own ends, for religious kudos on one hand and wealth n’ fame on the other.

Miley will just have to continue being a “young woman”….and being used. The other “girls”, well, God only knows their fate in the hands of the State.

Resonating with Verbal Pet-Peeves

There are three current American English speech patterns that drive me batty:

RESONATE. If I open a magazine or read one more blog post with that word used in it to describe anything beyond a musical instrument, I WILL scream. Human beings are not tuning forks!!!

“How are you?”, more specifically spoken when walking past another person. Gone are the days when a “Hi!” and a smile were enough when passing stranger and friend alike. Now many people skip the Hello and go straight to “how ya doin?” You inquire into another’s well-being only if you are prepared to stop and expect an answer. I find it more kindly and polite to just wish someone a Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening and continue on to our respective destinations.

Best, when used as a sign off on an e-mail. Example, “Best, Anna —-” Best what? What could they be wishing me? Is it an open ending to use in both nasty-grams and condolence letters?

There…I feel much better.

Profanity - What it Really Means

When Jeff comes home from work, he often expresses frustration over his classmates’ profuse use of profanity. Many of them are former military (not that that should be an excuse) who are used to colorful locution, so much so, that the teacher has to tell them to “be on best behavior” when the class is out on a public service project. The language is a burden for someone who does not wish to slip into that style of speech.

Apparently, in many Emergent church circles, it is cool to be “free” to swear like everyone else. That article is a satire, but here is an instance of someone who is proud of their, uhhh, chosen freedom. [Warning: yes, profanity is used the the articles and comments.]

Am I prude? Bring it on! Because, what I am about to share with you will surprise and possibly shock you out of that dirty mouth of yours.

From the Merriam Webster Dictionary:

Main Entry:

²profane

Function:

adjective

Etymology:

Middle English prophane, from Middle French, from Latin profanus, from pro- before + fanum temple — more at pro-, feast

Date:

15th century

1: not concerned with religion or religious purposes : secular2: not holy because unconsecrated, impure, or defiled : unsanctified3 a: serving to debase or defile what is holy : irreverent b: obscene vulgar4 a: not being among the initiated b: not possessing esoteric or expert knowledge

Or Verb:

1 : to treat (something sacred) with abuse, irreverence, or contempt : desecrate 2 : to debase by a wrong, unworthy, or vulgar use

Or Webster, 1828 Version:

PROFA’NE, a. [L. profanus; pro and fanum, a temple.]

1. Irreverent to any thing sacred; applied to persons. A man is profane when he takes the name of God in vain, or treats sacred things with abuse and irreverence.

2. Irreverent; proceeding from a contempt of sacred things, or implying it; as profane words or language; profane swearing.

3. Not sacred; secular; relating to secular things; as profane history.

4. Polluted; not pure.

Nothing is profane that serveth to holy things.

5. Not purified or holy; allowed for common use; as a profane place. Ezek.42. and 48.

6. Obscene; heathenish; tending to bring reproach on religion; as profane fables. 1 Tim.4.Profane is used chiefly in Scripture in opposition to holy, or qualified ceremonially for sacred services.

PROFA’NE, v.t. To violate any thing sacred, or treat it with abuse,irreverence, obloquy or contempt; as, to profane the name of God; to profane the sabbath; to profane the Scriptures or the ordinances of God.

1. To pollute; to defile; to apply to temporal uses; to use as base or common. Ezek.24.

2. To violate. Mal.2.

3. To pollute; to debase.Lev.21.

4. To put to a wrong use.

So…Words have meanings; they are not toys to amuse you. If you have faith in the Bible as the communicated Word of God (or faith in the Incarnation), Words Mean Things.

If you can claim anything as holy, you must, therefore, claim at least one thing as profane. To believe in the profane is to believe in the possibility of God. Fracture this delicate connection,  you receive relativism and no hope of Hope.

God certainly thought Words Mean Things. He gave a commandment about the verbal mis-use of His Name. Jesus backed this up with telling us that even calling our brother a fool was a [rightly used] damnable offense. Of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.

The real source of profanity is from the human heart. Get the source pure and the stream will flow bright and clear. Let it be defiant, and you will love all sorts of profane things.

Praise the Lord and Pass the Soap!

A Third Reason Why the Abortion Rate is Falling

You might have heard or read some headlines about the U.S. abortion rate falling over the last 5 years. The MSM [main stream media] likes to point out that it may be because of a handful of reasons: less abortion clinics, more (abortifacient) contraception available, more Crisis Pregnancy Centers with ultrasound machines. Coconut says we still have the highest abortion rates in the world. I think there is a third reason why we Americans are slowing the baby-killing mill.

If my generation is doing anything right, it is loving babies. Thats right, we have established a ‘baby-positive’ atmosphere after decades of barely tolerating procreating. Babies are no longer life- and career-wreckers because technology has helped many women stay at home with their children and keep a small business on the side. We want to stay home because most of the Gen X folks were left alone. We don’t want that for our children! If we screw up our kids, it will be our fault. If they turn out well, then we have accomplished something real in a world of virtual everything. And…we might have more than 2!

Pregnancy is the chic thing to do, regardless of the mama’s religious creed. Midwives and breastfeeding are mainstreaming into daily life again. We want everything organic and cloth and recycled. Toys are wooden, silken, metallic or cardboard box. Television is out; cloud-gazing is in. Education is a way of life, not something to be checked off a list. Words like “Crunchy Granola Earth Mama” are taken as a compliment.

Old style feminists don’t know what to make of the younger set who gain a college education, only to “waste” it by getting married and having several children in their twenties. To them, there is only one choice, which is no choice at all: sacrifice everything for the career, because that is the way you can become as good as the guys. Husbands, children, and home are of inestimable value that a career cannot give you. There is nothing demeaning by being different than men.

Look around you and you will see a better future for babies and women, one we have fought for ourselves.

[I will be editing this throughout the day as more thoughts come to me...]

More Link Love:

Some more great stats from the Catholics.

Copper Wiring is Tempting

This headline just came up in Yahoo…and I thought I’d add a fact that wasn’t reported.

One major reason why some folks are without electricity in Oklahoma is that poor people are stealing the copper wiring right off the work crew trucks! This slows down the process greatly because the electricians need to return to headquarters to fetch new reels of wiring. And copper is expensive and finite. There are regular public service commercials telling people not to risk stripping metals from housing or power substations.

Christ have mercy!

We are a very impoverished state. I am so sad to see folks in such desperate straits(for whatever the reason).