50 Reasons

As Feminine Genius puts it, "Most Excellent!"

This post dedicated to the memory of my Aunt Mary Dolores, who was deeply devoted to Our Lady of the Rosary.

Wow.

This is very cool. Patriotism is not dead. Perhaps this indicates that the age of irony will finally begin to die a slow death.

"I stand for duty, honor, God and country", says high school student Jeffrey Sahli.

H/T Michele Malkin.

About Rainbow Punk

Did I ever tell you about the photo at the top of the page? It's a slightly edgy chalk drawing on the driveway created by my two younger ones earlier this spring.

"Rainbow Punk"... with the spiky hair and t-shirt... where do they come up with this stuff?!?

"Old age is no place for sissies"...

... according to Bette Davis. She was so right.

As I help my Mom and Dad navigate through these rough waters, I'm learning that it takes a lot of courage to deal with all the indignities of old age; all the insults, large and small, to body, mind, and spirit; all the changes and losses.

By the way, I found that Bette Davis quote on the Aging Parents Insights blog, while looking for information about services for the elderly.

If you have aging parents - or if you're on the aging path yourself (what? not me!) - you might want to take a look. I particularly liked this post about the "disproportionate rule" and caregiver aikido.

He also must think we're blithering idiots.

Neo-neocon puts it perfectly:

If Obama hadn’t noticed Wright’s vile views before, then Obama is an undiscerning fool who should not be in any position requiring judgment, much less the Presidency. If he had noticed them before, then he is a self-serving liar when he insinuates that he was shocked by Wright’s disclosures now.

Because the only thing new in Wright’s speech was his unequivocal branding of Obama as a hypocrite.

And as I said in the post title, Obama must think we are the stupidest people on earth if he expects us to buy the nonsense he's selling.

If he ends up being elected President, he'll be proven right on that point.

"Where've you BEEN, Mr. President?"

Why haven't we seen this President Bush every single night on the news? His ratings would be sky high.



As you see from the title link, h/t to the Anchoress.

Blogging will resume... someday...

But not just yet. This is "birthday week": one teen daughter turns 18 and the other turns 16. This comes on the heels of last week's birthday, with our youngest turning nine. Oh dear.

On top of that, I've been up to my eyeballs making phone calls on behalf of my Dad, trying to figure out what's the best thing to do for him and for Mom.

And then of course there's school (going pretty well, all things considered), and the rest of my life.

I should be back to blogging within a few years....

In the meantime, please go to Marquette Warrior's blog and read this entire post.

Can't wait to see this movie:

Ben Stein's "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed".

Here's the trailer (which is great); here's the list of theaters.

A beautiful description of art

From one of my favorite blogs, "Et Tu?", h/t the Paragraph Farmer.

Art is the secret handshake of the children of God, the inside joke among those with souls. The spark that is ignited within us when we are touched by a work of art is a spark of recognition: the artist has brought us a souvenir from our homeland beyond the material world, the place that none of us should know about, but all of us do. To connect with a piece of art is to connect with the artist as a fellow traveler, to realize that you are both walking the same rocky road, and that he is homesick too. And it matters because true art, art that seeks a connection of souls, makes it harder to devalue and dehumanize one another. It reminds us what it means to be human.

Beautiful.

Wall to wall coverage of the Pope's visit

By the Love2Learn Blog.

I once had escalator-phobia

Which I was reminded of by this fascinating article about elevators (h/t bldgblog via Althouse).

I loved this paragraph:

In most elevators, at least in any built or installed since the early nineties, the door-close button doesn’t work. It is there mainly to make you think it works. (It does work if, say, a fireman needs to take control. But you need a key, and a fire, to do that.) Once you know this, it can be illuminating to watch people compulsively press the door-close button. That the door eventually closes reinforces their belief in the button’s power.

That was me, yesterday, at my Dad's rehab place, compulsively pressing the "Door Close" button until finally it closed.

(I didn't like the very next sentence after the above, however: "It’s a little like prayer." Gratuitous religion-bashing. I'm getting used to seeing it in newspaper and magazine articles, but that doesn't mean I like it any better. )

The article also has a sad tale about a man stuck in an elevator for 41 hours. The sad part wasn't the being stuck part, it was what happened afterwards.

Anyway, about my escalator phobia. It didn't develop until I had kids; I was scared to death -- nearly paralyzed -- at the thought of taking the kids on an escalator, so we'd have to search out the elevators no matter how inconvenient they were.

It wasn't until our oldest was about five that I realized she was developing the same phobia (no surprise there, right?) so I asked my husband to take her and her little sister on "escalator training sessions". We'd go to the mall, I'd stay on the ground floor, and he would take them up and down the escalators until they were comfortable on them.

Now that the kids are older, my phobia has gone away. I can get on the escalator with barely a second thought about it -- though something must still give me away, as my daughter was gently teasing me about it on a recent shopping trip.

Anyway, go read the article about elevators, if you haven't already, and then tell me about your escalator or elevator phobias. I know I'm not alone on this one.

"Life is hard....

... but God is good. Try not to confuse the two."

A perfect philosophy of life, from Auntie Anne of pretzel fame.

Via a WaPo article, heartrending and powerful, from back in January, reminded of it via the Anchoress in a round-about way today.
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About LinkedIn

Nancy Brown invited me to join her on Linked In last December. Until then, I'd never heard of it.
Turns out it's sort of a Facebook for grownups ("Facebook for old people", my rascally children say); it's an online professional networking system.

And it's spooky.

Today it suggested three people whom I might know, and as a matter of fact, I do know all three of them.

Now how did it know that? Maybe those three have some people on their list of contacts who also are on my list... but still...

I hate it when computers know too much.

Shepherd One has landed!

The kids and I watched the arrival of B16 a few minutes ago. Very exciting!

We rang a little bell (as suggested by EWTN via Leticia via Love2Learn Blog) and cheered his safe arrival and his meeting with President and Mrs. Bush.

I hope that the Pope's visit here will have an inspiring effect on all of us.

Speaking of inspiring, this story of Pope Benedict baptizing a former Muslim is worth reading.

Barack "Karl" Obama

Much has been made of Obama's middle name, Hussein, and whether it signifies that he is a Muslim.

Much has also been made of the black Christian church he attends.

I'm not sure he's either Muslim or Christian, but there's reason to think that he's a Marxist.

As I'm sure everyone has heard by now, at a private fundraiser Obama claimed that people "cling to their religion" because they're bitter about their economic situation.

Here is what he said April 6, referring to people living in areas hit by job losses: “[I]t’s not surprising, then, that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.” (from Politico)

Sounds like he believes that religion is the opiate of the masses.

Apparently Joe Lieberman "hesitates" to call Obama a Marxist.

Based on Obama's left-leaning politics and now his statements about religion, methinks he shouldn't hesitate too much.

The U.N gets something right

About biofuels:

MASSIVE production of biofuels is "a crime against humanity" because of its impact on global food prices, the UN says.

"Producing biofuels today is a crime against humanity," UN Special Rapporteur for the Right to Food Jean Ziegler told Bayerischer Runfunk radio.

Using arable land to produce crops for biofuels has reduced surfaces available to grow food, many observers warn.

Perhaps "crime against humanity" is a little strong. But then again, maybe not:

In recent months, rising food costs have sparked violent protests in Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Haiti, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Mauritania, the Philippines and other countries.

In Pakistan and Thailand, army troops have been deployed to avoid the seizure of food from fields and warehouses, while price increases fuelled a general strike in Burkina Faso.

UPDATE: This makes me uneasy. Can it be that the U.N. is getting this right, after all their wrong-headed moves? (Putting Syria and Libya on the Human Rights Commission comes to mind, as does the huge Oil-For-Food scandal.) It just makes me uncomfortable to think that I might agree with any U.N. pronouncements....

About that ethanol mandate

Dad29 has it exactly right:

Rescind the ethanol mandate. NOW.

I have so little time to blog... but if I had the time, I'd write about how the ethanol idiocy:

• is causing soaring food prices around the world
  
• is contributing to the destruction of rainforests so that more corn (or other "biofuels", such as sugar cane) can be planted
• is not saving any oil, at all, because it takes so much fuel to plant, fertilize, and harvest corn, and then turn it into ethanol
• is bad for mileage and bad for engines.
  

This afternoon, I heard Mark Belling (1130 WISN) say that within a few years, the ethanol mandate will require ALL of the corn grown in the United States today, all of it, to be used for fuel.

How could our government have passed such a disastrous, short-sighted law?

And more important, how do we get the ball rolling on rescinding it?

Two fascinating stories and one of those great coincidences

Don't you love those fantastic coincidences, where you have to chuckle at the improbability? I just had one of them, in which I read about a species of worm I'd never heard of before -- and then read about it again within 20 minutes in a totally unrelated article.

First, I ran across this post at Althouse, linking to the story "Scientists invent microscopic operating table."

Now a special microchip that can immobilize the one millimetre long transparent worm Caenorhabditis elegans so that scientists can perform laser nanosurgery to sever individual nerves and study their regeneration is reported in Nature Methods, a technique that will be a boon for spinal repair in humans since the worms have many things in common with the scientists who study it.

Horribly constructed sentence, but that's not the point. The point is that I read about the worm C. elegans for the first time.

Next, I followed a rabbit trail of links starting with this post at Dad29, about P.J. O'Rourke's take on the "new" seven deadly sins, leading to this one at Provincial Emails on the same topic, with a hat tip to Arts & Letter Daily -- which had a completely unrelated and intriguing link to this article about the brain and use of psychotropic drugs.

And guess what? There's that worm again!

“We still don’t understand how C. elegans works,” Wiesel said, referring to a small worm often used by scientists to study molecular and cell biology.

Why yes, I know that worm! And now I know that they've invented an itty-bitty operating table just for it!

"It doesn't show signs of stopping"

Winter, that is.

No, it doesn't show any signs of stopping, and James Wigderson has posted a charming little musical and video tribute to the Eternal Winter of '07-'08.

Yes, Mr. Wigderson, when does that global warming start?

Meanwhile, my friend from Bayfield wrote to describe the results of the blizzard they had on Friday:

The snow finally stopped or almost stopped. All our landmarks, like the rocket launchers [rocket launchers?? this is some part of farming I'm not familiar with] and the well head are now again covered. The east and north windows look like they have been covered with lace. It's 29 outside and it's still windy. The employees are at the orchard making sugar-free apple butter, but we are blocked in as the road in front of our house hasn't been plowed.

The wind finally gave up sometime in the night, but we fell asleep to howling, really was tiring to listen to it.

Bruce wasn't able to plow the circle in front of the orchard as there's a drift that's like cement from the steady wind. No problem as this will all at least begin to melt this coming week.

Yesterday, my brother in Rhinelander called to say he was taking a break from shoveling the eight inches of snow dumped on them Friday night.

Down here in the balmy southern parts of Wisconsin, we had nothing that bad. Just cold, wind, and some snow showers.

Typical for April, isn't it?

OK, this is just SO not funny.

I just saw this on Ana's blog:

Granted, Ana is in South Dakota, two states west of us. And granted, it might end up to be nothing at all. And also granted, her weather might not make it all the way over here.

But. What if it does?

This is just NOT funny.

UPDATE: Ana says, "It is upon us, raging and screaming, howling and screeching, as Laura Ingalls described so vividly in the Long Winter."

UPDATE 2: Wow, this is such a hot topic! (Ha, a blizzard being a hot topic, get it?) A dear friend in Bayfield, Wisconsin (remember, they're the owners of the wonderful orchard?) just emailed to say that they are about to be hit with a terrible blizzard up there. School is canceled for tomorrow. For your edification, here is the snow bearing down on them:

It's Conference Season!

It's the time of year when Catholic Homeschool conferences sprout up all across the country.

I highly recommend two of them in the Midwest:

First, "Teaching the Truth: The Illinois Catholic Homeschool Conference and Vendor Fair", at the University of St. Francis in Joliet, Illinois, on May 23-24. I plan to be attend this year, so if any of you will be there, be sure to let me know!

Second, the Minnesota Catholic Home Education Conference, at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, May 30 - 31. I wish I could be at this one, too, but it's just not possible. I attended last year and it was terrific (as was the Chicago conference two years ago).

This year, my friend Ana will be presenting a "Fireside Session" on homeschool blogging, which should be a great conversation. If you make it there, be sure to tell Ana hello from me.



By the way, our homeschool support group, GMCHE, alternates sponsorship of an annual homeschool conference with the Our Lady of Good Hope group in the Chicago area. Next year will be our turn again... so please put a little note at the end of your 2008 calendar for April 24-25, 2009. How's that for advance planning?!?

Spring is here...at last

The past few days we've had sunshine and temps over 40. Today it's pushing 50. After the brutal winter we've had, that's a heat wave.

It couldn't have come soon enough; cabin fever was threatening to bring down the walls here.

So this week when the outdoors became inviting again, the kids burst forth with all the pent-up energy of daffodil bulbs that have been hunkering down underground for months.

There was chalk drawing on the driveway, playing catch in the backyard, biking, scootering, and just generally being outside, taking in all the sights and sounds and smells of a warming earth.

They're out there now, on the swingset. It's really too chilly today for a responsible mother to let her kids out without jackets and shoes... but note, I said a responsible mother.

Yes, my kids are out there in shirtsleeves and flip flops. Let 'em. If they get chilly they'll come in for more clothing. Besides, with all the sickness we had this winter, I'm sure their immune systems are tough enough to handle the stress of a slightly chilly spring breeze.

To show how quickly the seasons have changed, here's a little home video creatively titled "Robin in Snow", taken just one week ago. The video quality is less than stellar; a bit shaky, and you have to kind of trust me that it's really a robin in the pear tree, but hey, I never said I was a videographer.



I see that my friend Ana is posting about the arrival of this blessed season, from her home in South Dakota.

Ana, we survived this Long Winter!

Worth viewing

Beautiful.



The artist is Sara Groves, a Christian singer who has a pretty powerful story on her website.

And, as it turns out, she is in concert tomorrow night (tonight, if you're reading this on Saturday) in Mequon, Wisconsin.

H/T Sand in the Gears.

And now for something totally different...

Sometimes I think that the wonderful readers of my blog -- both of 'em -- must get whiplash from the speed at which I change topics.

There is no consistency on this blog. None.

It's a little crazy, I know.

But, that's the way I roll.

So for today's non sequitur post, here is a teeny-tiny, two-second video of a card I bought yesterday for my brand new great-nephew, Noah.

Yes, a video of a card. You'll see why.




Is that not adorable?

The Power of the Rosary -- even in Politics

This is a good idea.

The Saint Michael the Archangel Organization is attempting to organize one million people in the United States to pray the Rosary for unborn babies on Saturday, May 3.

Organizers of the prayer event, called One Million Rosaries for Unborn Babies, are asking participants to pray during the same 60-minute time span, beginning at 9 a.m. Eastern Time.

For more information, and to sign up, visit the St. Michael the Archangel site.

I signed up. It only takes a click; you don't have to enter your name or anything else.

This reminds me of the Lepanto Rosary campaign back in 2000; millions of people prayed the rosary for our country's return to a "Culture of Life". After weeks of battling over hanging chads and recounts, we inaugurated a pro-life President (a welcome change after eight long years of Clinton I), and the entire process was peaceful, without so much as a fist-fight.

Prayer is powerful.

Here's another recent example of the power of the rosary: "President of Columbia Attributes Avoidance of War to Intercession of Virgin Mary".

H/T about the Rosary Campaign to a good friend. If she had a blog, I'd link to it. :-)