Obama's 2010 First Pitch vs. Bush's 2001 First Pitch

Remember the good old days when this was a free country?

A Car and a Pumpkin

We got a new (used) car. It's our third Suburban. We kept our first (big blue) for 12 years and 150 thousand miles. Our second one (also big blue) was 10 years old and had 210,000 mi.

This is what it has. It's probably the best car I've had. It has a moon roof and leather seats. I think they are heated. That is not what we paid. We paid 29,000 and got 2200 for the old suburban.

Happy Halloween!!!



Public-Employee Unions Funnel Public Money to Dems - Michael Barone - National Review Online

Public-Employee Unions Funnel Public Money to Dems - Michael Barone - National Review Online

The Goose that Laid the Golden Egg

People often ask me why I decided to homeschool my children. The answer is simple in one way and endless in another. The simple answer is "Schoolschmertz" (loosely based on weltschmertz) - a free floating dissasisfaction with everything the schools were doing.  There are several points of contention that stand out. One was when Kim came home one day with a list of "cliches". They were not cliches - they were aphorisms- they were not tired and hackneyed- they were timeless truths.  This made me realize that kids these days are not learning the old standards - the stories that teach moral lessons in a fun way.

A child's education is not complete unless he has read "The Emperor's New Clothes"  Apply the lessons of the story to the current controversy over evolution and motives become clear.

The Goose that laid the golden Egg should be required reading for anyone who wants to "Tax the wealthy"!

DON'T SAY THIS

I just heard another person say "chomping at the bit" It's CHAMPING at the bit. Thanks to McDonald's hardly anyone can pronounce "gri-MACE".  It's NOT grimiss. Long lived has a long "i". Data has a long "a" and is plural. Media is plural. It's wheel BARROW not (Lord help us all) Wheelbarrel.

I really love the English language. When used correctly it is capable of creating great beauty. People should try to be more careful in using it .I have actually responded to those who have told me that their dog is "spaded" with "who dug her up?" It never gets a laugh.

There was an article once in the Worcester Magazine on how the internet is affecting people's ability to write proper English. Wouldn't you know he made a couple of mistakes in the article. I e-mailed him about it and he wrote back, properly chagrined. It can be a tricky business. At least he cared. I like people who care and I am miffed at my kids who think that if everybody says it wrong then they should, too. I never mind being corrected. It's how you learn.

One of my favorite mistakes was when Southern Living Magazine had a food article entitled "Pancakes for Breakfast are Crepe" (It's really funny if you know how to pronounce crepe - it rhymes with pep)

The New York Post has some really clever headlines. One of them, however, was about how Oprah had endorsed Obama and they titled it "OMENTUM". They weren't up on medical terminology.

A Good New Book

Quanah Parker was the last chief of the Comanche. He was the son of Cynthia Parker who had been kidnapped by the Comanches and who became one of the wives of the warrior Nocona. This book manages to capture (I think) the truth of the times - honest and balanced - detailing the good and bad on both sides. Quanah eventually surrendered and became a successful member of the white community, although he reamined a polygamist. He founded the Native American Church which is based on the use of Peyote.
(Peyote was mixed with water to use in taking communion) Which leads to the following:

Here is the QUOTE OF THE MONTH by Quanah Parker:

"The white man goes into his church and talks about Jesus - The Indian goes into his tipi and talks WITH Jesus."

This one's for you, Buddy

Biking with the Designated Hitter



Explaining the title - I was reading a blog awhile ago and a woman kept using the term DH. Well it didn't make sense to me since she wasn't at a baseball game and it didn't make sense in context. So I asked my husband, "What does "DH" mean?" and he said designated hitter. So how could both of us be wrong?

I did figure out later that it meant Dear Husband. However, if I use the term it will always mean designated hitter to me. I thought about it and in life if I ever needed to hit somebody since I am weak and my husband is VERY strong I would probably want him to do it for me. He actually was my DH when Buddy was 5. I needed to spank Buddy and he looked right in my eyes and said "You can spank me but you'll never make me cry!" Even with a stick and quite a bit of force I couldn't. Later on, Rick had no trouble making him cry. Maybe in the future I'll do a blog on boys and their mothers. - and why they NEED Fathers.

Anyway, we had a great time biking. Last month Rick and my friend Marla and I went biking in Otter Stae Park and we also looked for the entrance to the Ware River Rail Trail. That is when we saw the MONSTROSITY. When it suddenly appeared looming over the horizon, my first instinct was to say, "I feel like I'm in a science fiction movie!" and Marla said, "I expect to see Godzilla coming over the hill."

Again, I don't think a picture does it justice. But believe me, this thing looks like a huge alien monstrosity in real life.

One Hundred and One Famous Poems

My Dad had this book when i was a child. He would read poetry to me at bedtime (and sometimes he would cry). Little Boy Blue always got to him. It's about the death of a child. There are a lot of great poems in here and i just love this book. I wish I had my Dad's original - i bought this one for myself. The cover hasn't changed! I used to like "Invictus" by William Ernest Henley. Of course, now I know he was a famous atheist. I guess he appealed to the defiance in a child. I recited it in the fifth grade and everybody laughed. I should have gone with "Trees" (also in there). When i was in college, one of my first friends, Pat Croyle, had a book with favorite sayings and poems that she had written out and darned if "Invictus" wan't in there. Now they have the movie and I guess Nelson Mandela liked it, too. I tend to cry reading "Barefoot Boy". " The Daffodils" is in there. Tower Hill Botanic Garden has a field of daffodils that always makes me think of that poem. Well, what made me think of this book is James Russell Lowell from my previous post. "June" is a great poem - "What is so rare as a day in June, then if ever come perfect days.' My grandmother had to learn that one in school. The stanza I like best is

 Earth gets its price for what Earth gives us;
The beggar is taxed for a corner to die in,
The priest hath his fee who comes and shrives us,
We bargain for the graves we lie in;
At the Devil’s booth are all things sold
Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold;
For a cap and bells our lives we pay,
Bubbles we earn with a whole soul’s tasking:
‘T is heaven alone that is given away,
‘T is only God may be had for the asking;

Everybody should have this book.

Why Aren't We speaking Arabic?

Because on October 10,  in 732 Charles  Martel, Charles "The Hammer", fought the Muslims at the Battle of Tours and saved the Western World from Muslim domination. The crescent roll was invented to commemorate this decisive victory So even though it's a day late- go out and eat a crescent roll and thank God and Charles Martel that you aren't wearing a Burqua (if you're a woman) You might also ponder the possibility of having to wear one in the future if the West doesn't wise up.

Death on the Path to Life

I walked the dogs yesterday in Dunn State Park near our new townhouse. What is more glorious than an October afternoon in New England?  (apologies to James Russell Lowell) The bright clear sun in the cloudless, dead blue sky shining on the riot of colors in the woods makes for one incredibly beautiful scene after another.   I really wished I had a camera. So, today after church I went back to take some pictures during my walk.

As I began to take a few pictures, I realized that my pictures would never do justice to seeing the real thing. This is especially true because it is hard enough to take pictures, let alone take pictures while trying to walk two dogs on leashes.

As I was walking it struck me that all of these beautiful leaves were dying and the sermon this morning was on that very subject – the necessity of dying in order to have life . Christ died to save us and we have to die to ourselves to have life in Him. It occurred to me that Autumn and its incredible beauty is really a perfect picture of that concept.



Nature always makes me wonder at God’s power and beauty and goodness, but today I had an added blessing in being able to think more deeply about death on the path to life.



The Natural Man

At the bottom of it all – “it” being the divide, today, between the left and the Right, at the bottom of it all is………us - Or rather our view of us. It was famously stated in the Walt Kelly comic strip “Pogo” – We have met the enemy and he is us.

To the Left man is inherently good, born as a blank slate – tabula rasa- and everything that goes wrong with him is the fault of the world – parents, schools,  the environment. If you want a good laugh watch the West Side Story song “Gee Officer Krupsky” clip. All of their agenda  is directed toward creating a perfect world in which basically  good people will not be corrupted and be allowed to bloom. This agenda is well intentioned but doomed (and it is dooming us) because it is based on a fantasy understanding of the world. People who used to rub snow on frostbite to treat it really believed they were helping the person- oops too bad your toes have to be amputated.

On the other side is the view that man is born sinful, the world is fallen and the agenda is to make the best of it.

Take for example, the welfare state and all of the entitlement programs of the “New Deal” and the “Great Society”  These do-gooder programs which threw money at problems actually resulted in destroying the fabric of Black Society. Look up the facts and you will be shocked at what happened to the black family as a result of these programs. Daniel Patrick Moynihan  (a Democrat!) wrote about it quite awhile ago. Thomas Sowell has an excellent book on the subject.

A lot is being said about improving US schools. Mostly Obama wants to – you guessed it- spend more money. THE ONLY STUDY ever done that found a DIRECT causation of improved achievement in academic performance found it was due to the kitchen table. Well actually, it was what happened around the kitchen table. A married mother and father sat around that kitchen table with their child and encouraged studying. This was found across economic, ethnic and social classes.

Hillary Clinton wrote a book: “It takes a Village to Raise a Child” – Phylis Schlafly responded: “It takes a mother and a father to raise a child and the village should mind its own business.” Amen.

West Side Story-Officer Krupke

I forgot Thomas Sowell

Thomas Sowell is probably the best black thinker/writer in the US.