Archives: Politics & News

Adopted Kids Confiscated Leaving Haiti

The other day I tweeted a link to the story of a woman who had been trying to escort several adopted children to the United States, one of them her own adopted child. The adults and children were confronted by an angry mob, the police became involved, and the children were taken into Haitian custody until everything could be sorted out. Today I received an email from Gretchen (if you don't know, she's my best friend from high school). One of her friends, who is a pilot in Alaska where...

AP and Murdoch accuse us of stealing the news

Mashable reports that Associated Press CEO Tom Curley and Rupert Murdoch, head of News Corp, are lashing out at internet sites for stealing the news: Associated Press CEO Tom Curley and famed News Corp head honcho Rupert Murdoch told a meeting of media leaders in Beijing, China recently that news content creators were being exploited by third parties "such as Wikipedia, YouTube, and Facebook" and that "aggregators and plagiarists will soon have to pay a price for the co-opting of our...

Mark keeps trying to get into work early, and...

Mark keeps trying to get into work early, and this morning he had plenty of time. But then we ended up having a 45 minute discussion on book banning, why it's impossible to reconcile public school's Constitutional limitations with the need to protect children, and why we try so hard to actually discuss difficult topics with our kids rather than hide them. He didn't make it in...

Obama's New Dictionary

Racism Disagreeing with a black President, white Vice President, white Speaker, and white Majority Leader. Post Racialism Attending a church that regularly preaches hatred for "whitey." Stupidity Investigating reports of a potential break-in, then arresting a man who belligerently refused to co-operate with said investigation. Wisdom Pronouncing judgment on the police on national television after admitting to not knowing all the facts because the supposed "victim" is a...

Obama?

Ooops! I forgot to link this to the person who made it...

I Like Ike

Letting everyone know that we're absolutely fine. When Ike hit us it was still a category 2 hurricane, but we were lucky. There's no flooding anywhere near us, and the wind damage is only downed trees and fences. I haven't even seen any broken windows. Our power went out last night at 7pm, so we bailed to our friends' house. They only lost power for a few minutes during the night, when I was asleep. That's right; I slept through the whole storm. I went to bed when it was just kind of...

Oh yeah, hurricane, right....

I keep forgetting to let y'all know that yes, we are in the path of the hurricane, but no, don't worry about us. We live in an area that doesn't flood and we're unlikely to be on the dirty side of the hurricane, so at most we'll have tropical storm force winds. Our biggest concern is losing power and how long it might be out, so we're stocked up on bottled water and non-perishable foods. We brought in everything from the yard, just in case, and I'm staunchly refusing to read my copy of...

Abstinence Isn't the Answer...

To continue the discussion on teen pregnancy... Here's an article by Karen of Be Still My Soul called Abstinence isn't the answer - and neither is birth control. I read this a few days ago, and while it isn't the first article I've read along the theme, I did have it in mind when I wrote my post. In the comments y'all brought up very good points. If our grandmothers and great-grandmothers married at 14, why are we still "children" at 24? That's ridiculous! We say that there's so much...

As Christians, how we view pregnancy matters

This is in response to lainad's BlogHer post entitled Bristol Palin: The Hypocrisy Over Teenage Pregnancy. In it she expresses her dismay over learning that her niece -- a 22 year old whom she refers to as a "child" -- is pregnant, and her displeasure with the supposed hypocrisy in the right-wing's acceptance of Bristol Palin's pregnancy as opposed to the pregnancies of "young Latina and black women." First off, let me say that no one is jumping for joy over unmarried 17-year-old Bristol...

Sarah Palin for President... uh, I mean VP

In case you were wondering how I feel about the issue: And for my friends who have kids with special needs: I think Sarah Palin is awesome: a mom of 5 who has shown time and again that she values life and truly believes all children are blessed gifts from God. She's also a principled reformer who isn't afraid to take on even her own party to fight corruption and waste. In short, she is everything they say McCain is that I don't quite believe. See for yourself: I...

Houston Gets Recognized!

Julie pointed me toward this awesome story: Houston Picked the #1 City to "Live, Work and Play" No. 1: Houston, Texas By Jane Bennett Clark, Senior Associate Editor, Kiplinger's Personal Finance July 2008 COMEBACK KID Population: 5,542,048 Population Growth Since 2000: 14.9% Percentage of Workforce in Creative Class: 31.3% Cost-of-Living Index: 88.1 (100 being national average) Median Household Income: $50,250 Income Growth Since 2000: 13.1% It's the city of big plans and no...

Alaskan Governor Flies Cross-Country In Labor!

I can't believe I forgot to blog this! Just before Gretchen's wedding, when I was feeling sorry for myself that I was too pregnant to fly to Alaska (and drive from Anchorage to Homer) for the wedding, I read about this: Palin welcomes fifth child, a son named Trig Paxson Van Palin JUNEAU -- Gov. Sarah Palin [of Alaska] gave birth Friday to her fifth child, a boy, about a month before her due date... Palin went into labor Thursday while attending an energy conference for governors in...

I just fell in love with Paul Bettencourt

I was looking for info on the next Texas gubernatorial race, since like most Texans, I wasn't a big fan of Rick Perry's mandate to vaccinate. (And now he supports John McCain. Blech.) While poking around, I found this article all about why the Democrats must defeat Paul Bettencourt in this year's election for the Harris County Tax Assessor- Collector's office. (It seems that Bettencourt has announced intentions to run for Governor in 2010.) They called him "one of the most dangerous...

More Than Just A Mommy?

I know I've ranted about this before, even recently, but it keeps coming up. A commenter on GeekMommy's Weblife decried the lack of "mom[s] who [are] into other things then just being a mom." I don't know where she lives, but most moms I meet are pretty set on getting "away from the kids" to have "mommy time" where they pursue hobbies "not related to being a mom" and "preserve their identities aside from being a mom." Personally, I've never been much of a fan of this movement. Don't get...

No more abortion ticker

At least not on my site. This is sad, but I have no choice. The abortion ticker has become so hugely popular that our server can't handle it any more. It's slowing PHP to a crawl and eating up all of our bandwidth. I am very happy that so many people have chosen to spread the word, though. There are other people who are hosting the ticker, and you can link to it from their sites. Also, I am making the script freely available to anyone who has access to PHP and GD and wants to host a...

Housework Erodes the Mind?

This morning I stumbled onto a comment from an old View From the Right blog post making the claim that housework "erodes the mind": By the way, I realized that I made the contribution of women sound awfully high-minded: preserving culture, education, the human soul, etc. It is that, but I neglected to mention the incessant household drudgery. One of the most alluring feminist fantasies is the idea that this can be shared or, better yet, ignored altogether (as if we are not physical...

Graphic Pro-Life Signs

I hate to be the cause of any dissension in the pro-life ranks, but I feel I must object when tactics intended to save unborn lives threaten to become an attack on the well-being of my own children. I am speaking, of course, of graphic images plastered on signs, billboards, and the sides of large roving trucks. Why do we feel that the minds and hearts of young children who may be exposed to these signs are acceptable casualties in the war against abortion? When this subject came up again...

Culture of Neonaticide

Geoff McKee, in the L.A. Times, discusses why mothers kill their newborn babies. A forensic psychologist who has interviewed 32 such mothers, McKee believes neonaticide is closely linked to a phenomenon he calls "pregnancy denial": Teenagers' pregnancy denial may involve naive beliefs that morning sickness and weight gain are because of illness or excessive eating. But more often, denial is fed by shame over having intercourse, anxiety about enraged parents, fear of giving birth, or...

Michelle for Fred Thompson 2008?

Welcome Patrick Ruffini 2008 Presidential Wire readers! Just a quick note, this entry is about Fred Thompson and primarily about abortion. I am not interested in arguing about Ron Paul. If I ever feel like arguing about Ron Paul, I'll write a post about him! A friend of mine on MySpace has changed her nickname to "Kelly Halldorson is for RON PAUL 2008!!" and is suggesting that others do the same. I looked Ron Paul up, and I am very uncomfortable with his dismissal of the threats against...

How Liberal Or Conservative Are You?

Your Political Profile: Overall: 95% Conservative, 5% Liberal Social Issues: 100% Conservative, 0% Liberal Personal Responsibility: 100% Conservative, 0% Liberal Fiscal Issues: 100% Conservative, 0% Liberal Ethics: 75% Conservative, 25% Liberal Defense and Crime: 100% Conservative, 0% Liberal How Liberal Or Conservative Are You? 25% liberal on ethics? That worries...