Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Rusty Nails 6/29/05...

Intellectuelle is launched The 7 woman group blog, Intellectuelle, has been launched, and is hosted over at Evangelical Outpost. This week is mainly reserved for each of the women to introduce themselves. Thanks go to Bonnie for her mention of my influence on her venture into the blogosphere.
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Bush's Speech - Why did we go to Iraq? Hugh Hewitt reminds us, despite the claims of the Left, that they have understood all along why we went to war in Iraq. Classic quote from Nicholas Lemann:
In his State of the Union address, President Bush offered at least four justifications, none of them overlapping: the cruelty of Saddam against his own people; his flouting of treaties and United Nations Security Council resolutions; the military threat that he poses to his neighbors; and his ties to terrorists in general and to Al Qaeda in particular.
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Pinkie Rage From Sports Illustrated, Ragin' Rogers: Rangers pitcher goes off on TV cameramen.
Texas Rangers pitcher Kenny Rogers shoved two cameramen Wednesday, sending one to the hospital in a videotaped tirade that included throwing a camera to the ground and threatening to break more.
It seems that Rogers was hurting from a broken pinkie, which had caused him to miss his last start, and he just couldn't stand having those cameras around. Does the phrase "complete butthead" apply here? Actually, maybe it's not complete butthead because he broke his right pinkie and, if you'll notice in the pic, he's doin' his shovin' with his left hand.

Friday, June 24, 2005

Rusty Nails, 6/24/05...

To Public School or Not to Public School? Jollyblogger has a couple of posts titled, Christians and Public Schooling and, Christians and Public Schooling, II, in which he addresses the PCA's recent resolution (which was voted down) which would have encouraged congregants to remove their children from the public school system. David also lists several related links, including that of Russell Moore (Mere Comments) and Al Mohler.
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A Dangerous Business A history professor is murdered in broad daylight with robbery not the apparent motive.
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Dumbing Down the Bible or Readable Accuracy?
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Nightmare The alarm clock went off and it's time to wake up... The American Dream is over.
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MSM bias? No way.
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A Gitmo primer.
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Election Fraud Are Carter's Election Fraud police investigating this?
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Dave Roberts, the infrequent blogger at Welcome to the Planet, has started a photo blog. Check it out over at 1000 Words.

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

And yet another Home School energizer...

Again from Instapundit we're linked to Give This 'Attic' A Story To Tell, by Anne Applebaum, and We Are Our History - Don't Forget It, by David Gelernter. Applebaum laments on how the Smithsonian Musuem of American History has become a pop culture stop vs. an education stop for American History. She writes,
When the museum was built in 1964, this sort of thing probably wasn't necessary. But judging from a group of teenagers whom I recently heard lapse into silence when asked if they could identify Lewis and Clark, I suspect it's now very necessary indeed. Opinion polls bear out my suspicions. According to one poll, more U.S. teenagers can name the Three Stooges than the three branches of government. Even fewer can state the first three words of the Constitution. A San Francisco reporter once did an informal survey of teenagers watching Fourth of July fireworks in a park and found that only half could name the country from which the United States had won its independence. ("Japan or something, China," said one seventh-grader. "Somewhere out there on the other side of the world.") We're not talking about ignorance of semi-obscure facts here: We're talking about ignorance of basic information.
Gelernter writes,
To forget your own history is (literally) to forget your identity. By teaching ideology instead of facts, our schools are erasing the nation's collective memory. As a result, some "expert" can go on TV and announce (20 minutes into the fighting) that Afghanistan, Iraq or wherever "is the new Vietnam" — and young people can't tell he is talking drivel.
Indeed. While Home Schooling is not the only avenue in which parents can rightfully inform their children about American History, it certainly provides a wonderful opportunity to steer young minds away from apathetic ignorance and towards responsible knowledge.

Bear it away...

A bit late, but the CNN headline, Former Klansman found guilty of manslaughter, reminded me of this Kate Campbell song.
Bear It Away Four little girls dressed up nice Singing about Jesus, red and yellow, black and white Dreaming of freedom across the land And all God’s children walking hand in hand One deadly blast shattered the peace Making for a dark Sunday morning on Sixteenth Street Who can explain such ignorant hate When the violent bear it away Bear it away, bear it away Merciful Jesus, lift up our sorrow Upon your shoulder and bear it away It hurts my heart to think of them Four little girls and what they could have been But we never know about these things When the violent bear it away

Another Home School Energizer...

From Instapundit, a link to Shooting Down the Breakfast Club, in which the author argues that the reason kids who eat breakfast do better in school is because they're "morning people" by nature. If the kids who skip breakfast, presumably because they're "night owls," would be given the opportunity to sleep longer, then they'd do well in school also. From the article,
Parents often think that children need less sleep as they grow up. The research, on the other hand, shows that adolescents still require a solid nine and a quarter hours of sleep a night—at least as much as their younger counterparts.
It doesn't mention whether or not laziness is also a factor. I've always been suspicious of that all too easy excuse, "Well I'm just not a morning person!". Regardless, Suzanne Venker, in her book, 7 Myths of Working Mothers, also writes about the very real sleep needs of children - needs that are often circumvented through the requirement to arrive at institutionalized daycare by 6 or 7 a.m. One of the beauties of home schooling is that, while you should definitely have a school schedule, you have the freedom to adjust that schedule depending on the particular needs of your children. If they stayed up late the night before, as often happens after mid-week activities at church, then school starts a bit later the next morning.

Sunday, June 19, 2005

Gitmo <> Gulag...

Check On a serious note, Guantanamo is No Gulag, by Professor Bainbridge. Also, Michelle Malkin serves up a short history lesson with links to examples of atrocities committed by regimes such as the Nazis. Finally, Ilona has an interesting perspective in, Democrats are the Epitome of Evil. I completely disagree with her... but it's an interesting perspective nonetheless.

Daycare Redux...

In The Trouble with Day Care -- A Surprising Source, by Al Mohler, we read,
Concern about day care now comes from a rather unexpected source. The May-June 2005 issue of Psychology Today features an article entitled, "The Trouble With Day Care,"...
"The raging debates around maternal guilt, work/family balance, money and childrearing often drown out scientific insights into the developmental impactof day care," Lang warns. "But the latest findings, from a huge, long-term government study, are worrisome. They show that kids who spend long hours in day care have behavior problems that persist well into elementary school."
Even more troubling, from the Psychology Today article,
Consider this: "Developmental psychologists are sweeping this information under the rug, hoping studies will churn out better data soon, argues Jay Belsky, a child development researcher at London's Birbeck College and a longtime critic of his fellow scientists. He contends that the field of developmental psychology is monopolized by women with a 'liberal progressive feminist' bias. 'Their concern is to not make mothers feel bad,' he says."
Also reference my post, Mothers and careers, as well as Suzanne Venker's book, 7 Myths of Working Mothers.

Thursday, June 16, 2005

Rusty Nails, 6/16/05...

Whale Evolution: Looks are everything Instapundit links to the latest Tangled Bank offerings promoting evolutionary scenarios, and our old friend DarkSyde is included in a post on the so-called evolution of whales. Despite the fact that whales are notoriously prone to going extinct, evolutionists continue to cling on to whale fossils, which span across millions of years, as being the long lost transitional fossils so readily absent from the fossil record. The basis for such a claim rests mainly on how whale fossils apparently look like they transition from one form to another. Despite admissions that the proposed evolutionary lineages are sketchy at best, despite the fact that the proposed time of transition is woefully short to encompass the necessary changes, and despite the lack of any clear despcription of a mechanism that could produce such changes*, we still see blatant examples of Berra's Blunder. The bottom-line is that the examples presented as transitional fossils are nothing more than intermediate forms. Evolutionary "lensing," that is, viewing the data through strictly evolutionary spectacles, results in strictly evolutionary explanations. The notion that, transitional in nature is not the same as intermediate in form, never seems to occur to the evolutionist. For a classic look at how major changes* in proposed whale evolution are glossed over, view the QT video from the PBS series Evolution (especially note the animation towards the end of the clip).
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The Left is Lost Per FoxNews, regarding an FBI report on the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Senator Dick said,
If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags or some mad regime — Pol Pot or others — that had no concern for human beings
Utterly Disgraceful Let him know at dick@durbin.senate.gov
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A New Blog lurking in the shadows Longtime commenter Bonnie, from Off the Top, will be teaming up with Marla Swoffer (who probably owns a few Swiffers), on a new seven-woman blog to be titled Intellectuelle. A seven-woman blog? Sigh. Should I get the ACLUnatics to sue for gender discrimination?
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You won't see this on the boob tube Per Michell Malkin
Comedienne Rosie O'Donnell banned her partner Kelli Carpenter from breastfeeding their daughter Vivienne just a few weeks after she was born--because she was jealous of their bonding sessions. Kelli gave birth to Vivienne in 2002, and the lesbian couple have been raising her along with their three other adopted children. But O'Donnell admits she felt left out of the motherhood process whenever she observed her partner nursing their child.
Sounds like Rosie needs just a bit more Left Leaning Tolerance.
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* There are a variety of changes that must take place for a wolf-like land based mammal to transition first into a fresh-water and then salt-water based whale. In Michael Denton's book, Evolution: a Theory in Crisis, we find that the wolf-like mammal must,
cease using its hind legs for locomotion and to keep them permanently stretched out backwards on either side of the tail and to drag itself about by using its fore-legs. During its excursions in the water, it must have retained the hind legs in their rigid position and swim by moving them and the tail from side to side. As a result of this act of self denial we must assume that the hind legs eventually became pinned to the tail by the growth of membrane. Thus the hind part of the body would have become like that of a seal. Having reached this stage, the creature, in anticipation of a time when it will give birth to its young under water, gradually develop apparatus by means of which the milk is forced into the mouth of the young one, and meanwhile a cap has to be formed round the nipple into which the snout of the young one fits tightly, the epiglottis and laryngeal cartilage become prolonged downwards so as tightly to embrace this tube, in order that the adult will be able to breath while taking water into the mouth and the young while taking in milk. Be it noted that there is no stage intermediate between being born and suckled under water and being born and suckled in the air. At the same time various other anatomical changes have to take place, the most important of which is the complete transformation of the tail region. The hind part of the body must have begun to twist on the fore part, and this twisting must have continued until the sideways movement of the tail developed into an up-and-down movement. While this twisting went on the hind limbs and pelvis must have diminished in size, until the latter ceased to exist as external limbs at all, and completely disappeared in most, whales.
But none of this is a problem as long as you keep repeating to yourself that the fossils look so similar that the only possible explanation is that they must have transitioned into the forms we see through tiny changes over long periods of time.

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Homeschool energizers...

Every so often my wife and I get a reminder of why we home school our children. Recently, after a dinner at my parent's house, we sat around the dining table and chatted. I commented on how the same amount of time has passed, since 9/11, as between the attack on Pearl Harbor and the end of WWII. My mother then recalled how, at the end of WWII, her elementary school teacher, the wife of a Baptist preacher, led their class in a prayer. She paused for a moment, and then reiterated, "and this was in school!" Our four year-old looked up and proudly said,
We do that every day in school!
Yeah, that's it. For an idea of what so-called freethinkers think about the issue of prayer in school (or prayer in general), check out Infidels.com, EvolveFish.com, or Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
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At our Home School Open House this week we were treated to a short-sermon by a ninth-grader in our group. It was refreshing to see that he has grasped the basic fundamentals in Biblical understanding what with his comments regarding a certain verse in the Bible. Which verse? You guessed it - Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know what I have planned for you," says the Lord. "I have plans to prosper you, not to harm you. I have plans to give you a future filled with hope." Questioning why this verse seems to be quoted so much by Christians, he wondered why Christians didn't quote other verses of the Bible so vigorously - verses such as Matthew 5:30, "If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away! It is better to lose one of your members than to have your whole body go into hell." If one is to read the Bible, then one should read the entire Bible, and not simply the passages that happen to make one feel good. How wonderful to see that a ninth grader has a better understanding of Biblical interpretation than many adults!

Another Heard song...

All Is Not Lost - by Mark Heard When civilization takes a nasty turn And concepts are hushed when books are burned All is not lost All is not lost When swine are the ones who steal the pearls From the human oysters of the western world All is not lost All is not lost TRUTH LIVES ON TRUTH LIVES ON TRUTH LIVES ON When beauty seems beaten by the callous beasts And it looks like it will be 'cause history repeats All is not lost All is not lost You can still see grace in the children's eyes And this planet's face still gladdens the wise All is not lost All is not lost TRUTH LIVES ON TRUTH LIVES ON TRUTH LIVES ON When the hand of man becomes inept And sketches the truth in silhouette All is not lost All is not lost The hand of God has not worked in vain And this globe is fodder for the feeblest brain All is not lost All is not lost TRUTH LIVES ON TRUTH LIVES ON TRUTH LIVES ON

Sunday, June 12, 2005

Stay Tuned...

Well I'm back. It was a hectic week away from home, and tomorrow night (Monday) we have an Open House with our Home School ISP. Thanks for the kind words in the comment section (and for confirming that I've got at least 7 readers). I've got a lot of things I'd like to write about... but I've still only been able to squeeze 24 hours out of a day. In the meantime, to stir up your thinking juices, here are the lyrics from a song by the late great Mark Heard.
The Golden Age They say this is the Golden Age Video millennium Tidings from the self-made media sage Tickings of the bio-bomb Jet-set etiquette consciousness Monosyllabic goodbyes No one cares about no one else We're so used to the capital "I" THE GOLDEN AGE (Electric Neanderthal) THE GOLDEN AGE (With digital morality) THE GOLDEN AGE NOTHING REALLY CHANGES IN THE GOLDEN AGE They say this is the Golden Age In which both virtue and flaw And the entire human element Are effects of the quantum laws Deep in the wells of the centrifuge The spectrum of the soul is mined It seems we know ourselves too well And we don't like what we find THE GOLDEN AGE (Electric Neanderthal) THE GOLDEN AGE (With digital morality) THE GOLDEN AGE NOTHING REALLY CHANGES IN THE GOLDEN AGE They say this is the Golden Age We've got the tapes of the truth in drag We've got thermographs of the fires of hell And renderings of the cosmic bang If this is the Golden Age Are we no longer human beings Are we civilization's afterbirth Some kind of flesh and blood machines THE GOLDEN AGE (Electric Neanderthal) THE GOLDEN AGE (With digital morality) THE GOLDEN AGE NOTHING REALLY CHANGES IN THE GOLDEN AGE

Thursday, June 02, 2005

Out of town...

For my 5 readers... I'll be out of town until Friday, June 10th. Happy blogging!