Prayer in schools?

Remember that? Was it really that long ago? Wasn't there this big controversy about how it's religious and shouldn't be allowed? Is the position that school is about reading, writing, and arithmetic? Do I want a watered down prayer to a higher power in my kids classroom anyhow? That battle was really lost long ago. OK, fine, agreed.

With that said, now realize that really wasn't the issue. It's really about not allowing thought that is contrary to the agenda. Am I just towing the conservative line? Maybe so folks, but the line makes sense. Get ready middle America, it's coming, I hope that middle America is strong enough to turn the tide. I know this school. I know people who go here. This is just a few miles from where I used to live. Education is strong; mold the minds of the youth and you turn society. Try to be a conservative teacher in California and have a voice; if you're willing to fit in fine, if you have an opinion, good luck. Go ahead, wear a "Yes on 8" sticker to class, let me know how that works out.

Here's the article. Oh I'm sorry, Prop 8, it's not about schools. You're right. Do you think a school gets permission when it talks to your kids about marriage? About a family? Redefine a family and you think your permission will be needed, as if it is now? ARGGGGHHHH. WAKE UP!!!!

Speaking of morphing...

Well, it's gone

In honor of Halloween, the "Yes on 8" sign made like a ghost and disappeared. Tolerance in our society continues to be a double standard. Darn motion light broke this week or I might have caught 'em red handed.

Morphing Wonder Woman

Why? Well just because, but I think I like her better the original way. I'm quite certain she might use her superpowers to inflict some pain on me for the result. It's called "Mucha". Morph your own images here.

Redefinition of the day

Peanut Butter:
(1) A paste made from ground roasted peanuts
(2) A paste made from taco sauce, flower, and honey

Interesting. I looked up the definition of the word marriage on Merriam-Webster online dictionary and got this:

(1): the state of being united to a person of the opposite as husband or wife in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law (2): the state of being united to a person of the same sex in a relationship like that of a traditional marriage

Hmmm. What's interesting is that I have a dictionary from Webster on my bookshelf from 1989 that has NO such definition (of the same sex variety). Now, certainly words evolve; there are no doubt words in the new dictionary that didn't exist in the old one. And in fact, many words have evolving definitions.

But in prop 8 situation, the fundamental elements have changed. We've traded peanuts for other ingredients so to speak. The prop was originally worded as simply a statement of the definition of marriage: 1 man, 1 woman. The liberal legislators reworded it to sound much more like a take-away of rights. Thus the no on 8 folks can market it much more as an attack on rights. But who's really being attacked here? Who rewrote the definition? If we hold this as a religious institution, the redefinition of the word is really the attack; an attack on MY religious beliefs. But religious rights really aren't important anymore are they?

It's time for a new word. As not to offend anyone, I'll let someone else come up with the word, just please, in honor of tolerance, let's not change definitions.

Message in a bottle

Ah, but Cosmic Boy, as you see, I can write letters. Well not very well, but you get the point; my letters need some help in my letter. Click on the image to see it bigger.

Very belated movie review

Usually, I kind of know what I'm getting in to before I go into a movie. There's a few exceptions, as a teenager and young adult, I'd watch most anything and saw some pretty lousy movies. Somewhere along the line, WW and I started to get fairly picky. With few exceptions, we check out what we watch beforehand and try to make sure it's worth watching. I still got some favorites that probably wouldn't make top of stack if it weren't for the fact that they somehow earned classic status...Sixteen Candles, Long Duk Dong cracks me up, but having just watched the movie again recently, I realize you got to overlook a LOT of crap to accept the funny stuff...The Jerk, come on, now that movie cracks me up. Here's a classic monologue from Steve. But yeah, it's got it's crap in there too. This topic probably warrants it's own post someday.

But the movie we just saw was "Million Dollar Baby". I know...old news, best picture like 5 YEARS ago, where have I been??? But I couldn't get over the title, it just didn't hook me in the least. I had NO DESIRE to even look at what it was about.

So fast forward to last week. I was in the library and right now we got no TV. No cable. Won't have any until mid next month. So I was checking out some books, the movie was laying there, I grabbed it.

All I knew about the movie was: Clint Eastwood, boxing, and a quote from my m-in-law from years ago "that movie was really good but sad".

Watched the first third of the movie on Saturday. It hooked me pretty good, good acting, good story. I was actually looking forward to the rest of the movie. But the "sad" quote from my m-in-law was in my brain, so I was a figurin' that the chick would get killed by the title fight.

Well, the fighter actually ends up breaking her neck in some freak accident in the ring brought on by some dirty play by the opponent (do I have to have a spoiler warning for a movie this old?).

At this point, Hollywood takes a good movie and turns it into a bad one; play up the emotions and lead people down the emotional path of justifying euthenasia. Thought provoking...yes. Would I want to be in that situation...no. They discredit the priest early in the flick, bring him back in the end to clearly state morality, and of course promptly contradict his words. Even if I did agree with the outcome, they took forever to get there.

A better writeup than mine here.
Really interested in the topic? Read all this and educate me.

Who do you think has more money?

Apple computer or the California Teachers Association? Apple donated $100K to the "No on 8" campaign, whereas the CTA donated $1 million. The CTA is the BIGGEST contributor of all. Bigger than Apple. Bigger than Levi's. Uh, what's wrong with this picture??? I thought the schools were in a budget crisis? Last time I had a budget crisis, I focused on what was important. I paid the bills I needed to pay and cut out the Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream.

So either there's no budget crisis...or the No on 8 is REALLY important to them. So why would it be really important? Com'on these are the questions one logically has to ask! There's a slippery slope that we're playing on here. The bottom line is that it IS important for the CTA to cram liberal ideology like this down our kids throats, directly or subtly. I know parents, I've heard it. "But they have to get my permission to talk about to my kid about sex". And "I love my kid's teachers." Fine. And I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you. But a lot is taught outside the formal curriculum.

Am I a radical? Do I think your kid can survive California public school. Absolutely. But one of the keys to power in any situation is influence. And for a small kid, the authority figures on the top of the influence pole are the parents and the teacher. It's pretty hard for a small child to decipher good and bad influence so you'd better be on top of it.

I'd say I don't really remember too much subtle mind molding until about the 6th grade. Maybe to that point the education was fairly pure or maybe I just don't remember, what 11 year old or lower boy would? Begin 6th grade though and the slant was steep at times depending on the teacher. Once I hit college, forget it. Just keep your mouth shut and get through the class.

So when do I "let 'em go" so to speak?" (the kids that is) You know I don't quite know yet. If I had all the answers I'd be writing books and getting paid rather than blogging (mostly for me :-) This much I do know, I'm certainly training my kids to stick up for themselves and their beliefs. Don't believe me...fine, ask Dash. And we constantly look for new ways to let more rope out.

Next year they want a new bond measure to tax me for more money in our district? Pack that, take your money that's supposed to be used for education and salaries and use it for just that.

So I leave you with a few quotes:

"Who dares take on religion, free enterprise, patriotism, and motherhood?
We do -- and we must!" ("Guidelines for Academic Freedom in the Public
Schools," CTA, 1984)" (25 years ago, long time planned)

"We are going to go right on trying to discredit you in the eyes of your children, trying to strip your fundamentalist religious community of dignity, trying to make your views seem silly rather than discussable" the late Richard Rorty, professor at Wellesley, Princeton, Univ of VA, and Stanford

Hopefully I'm not the only one

Dang I'm a dufus. I hate it when I flake!!!!!!

Happy New Year

We've all done the New Year resolution thing. Oh, and by the way we've all failed on at least some of it. But you know the concept is a good one. Focus on something and change it. Stop it, start it...do it. So since you failed last year on Jan 1, why not start on October 23rd? How about a reasonable goal...100 days...a long time yes, but yet an attainable goal. And for those of you who like round numbers...100 days from today is 1/31/2009.

And if you don't want to join me, I'll be kind enough to share that we are 63 days from Christmas and 110 days from my birthday...so get shopping.

Guess I have to get another arm before I put up this sign

Been there, had that

Well, Luke and I must be doing SOMETHING, we keep on getting poison oak! I'm back to the theory that we should lock ourselves in our rooms and do nothing. Probably safer that way.

I leave you with a song. What does it have to do with anything? Absolutely nothing, but I'm sure it will inspire you for something. Here it is...

Conspiracy theory of the day

OK fine, you've heard the conspiracy. But how about watching something you won't see on the nightly news. Is it true? Don't know, but quite interesting.

Reflection on a sermon

Our pastor had a message yesterday on 1 Thessalonians 1:4-10. If my memory serves me correctly, at least three of the main points were that the Thessalonians were:

1. Active recipients of the gospel
2. Willing imitators of the apostles AND the Lord
3. Willing examples to other believers

Have you actively received the gospel? Is it something that you grab on to in life, or is it great head knowledge that gets you into a good club?

Who are you imitating? Who do you want to imitate? Who's on your pedestal? I laugh when I see affluent kids here in our town imitating thugs with baggy pants and sideways hats and lots of bling. An extreme and physically evident case yes, but one that gets the point across. We're all imitating someone. Who is it?

Are you willing to be an example for other believers? Do you want to be an example for other believers? It's certainly the easy and culturally acceptable path to say "mind your own business", keeping your focus on yourself and letting others be. It's certainly a lot easier that way. Being an example puts yourself on the defensive and on the offensive as well. There's certainly more critics than leaders in our culture; are you willing to be an example for others? It's not the easy path.

That's some meat to chew on throughout the week. Keep chewing...

Camping on Mt Diablo

We are truly blessed with great friends. Wonder Woman is truly blessed to have the 2nd w/e in a row by herself. More pics here. If you're not my friend on Facebook, you should be! Leave me a comment to add you or go find me yourself.

Free speech for all?

...that is unless it's the message that doesn't meet the agenda...

What do you think...are my odds higher or lower of getting vandalized with a "Yes" or a "No" sign in my front yard? This is 4 houses away from me.

Yes on 8

NOW

No silly. not N.O.W. They aren't worth exercising my fingers about. Com'on...we've got a woman on the ticket, with the power to potentially be President, and where are they? Where's the talk of history, of equality? I'd personally prefer 2 men, but the history is staring me in the face. With Hillary saying today that she won't run again (yeah right), this could mean another 8 years before the possibility even arises. Oh never mind, I digress as usual.

My intent was not to talk about those ninnies. I'm talking about "now". The present. This instant. Did i stutter? Let's get on with it....

"We have become a culture addicted to instant gratification and a fixation on the material. Increasingly, concepts such as duty, self-denial, hard work, delayed gratification, and patience have been swept away."
Ken Blackwell, Family Research Council

Break the mold. Dwell on it. Think about it. Do it.

~Mr. Incredible...out

Why does it matter?

Some friends of ours are very active politically. This couple attends conferences on lobbying politicians and belongs to local political groups that fight for justice and values. They choose their affiliations and support with care and research; for instance, I know they do not patronize certain eating establishments due to the political backing by the company.

On the other extreme, there are some others we know who shun the political world altogether, choosing instead to not register, not vote, and isolate themselves from that arena. As I understand it, it's more of the approach of not being in alignment with any party, to putting their faith in God, and letting chips fall where they fall.

Then there's us, more in the middle, a "moderate" in this spectrum (dang I hate that word!). Reading, voting, defending our philosophy on occasion, talking more in length with those who are more like minded. To date, we haven't plastered the bumper stickers, staked the signs, or attended the rallies.

Economically, I've got my opinions. Economist, I'm not. Logician, I like to think I am. Government to me doesn't typically solve problems; the bureaucracy of it all seems akin to the modern large corporation, ripe with critics and opinions, but incredibly lacking in true leaders. Meetings upon meetings, blah, blah, blah, with no action. So my logic sees large(r) government as wasteful and unproductive. The economic slippery slope to me seems to lead down a socialistic, "why can't everybody be equal", path. Interesting discussion, and certainly some passion in me, but probably not a hill I'll die on.

Socially, my opinions are more intense. You know the hot button topics ... abortion ... gay marriage ... etc. I believe in a right and a wrong and don't think now is the time to start redefining what those rights and wrongs are. Those definitions were made long ago. I'm not saying "stop thinking", but I'm saying there's a moral fiber that just plain makes sense. I have gay friends (some of which on occasion read this blog), I hope they realize I love them...but I don't have to agree with their lifestyle. And there are certainly other moral issues, not the only thing by which to judge a person.

Abortion much the same, the standard conservative position. Dang it, it just makes sense, don't kill babies. If the heart is beating (or not), don't kill it. Find new ways to save the life instead of putting energy into finding new ways to kill it.

I've often told Wonder Woman there's no doubt in my mind that gay marriage would be legal in my lifetime...nationwide. Believing this, my thought process is almost "Let's just get it over with". Certainly not excited or supportive but resigned. The same with other issues as well; do I expect abortion to be outlawed? Not really.

Again, are these the only issues in town? Of course not, but the attitude is what I'm talking about. You know, my sign walking friends, they're making more and more sense. In response to my thoughts of resignation, the paraphrased quote was "You just have to fight it; you have to fight for what's right." That's the point. In the face of defeat it's understandable to wave the white flag, but I hardly think it's what we're supposed to do.

Under a blood red sky

I'm not even a U2 fan. Pictures speak for themselves...

Pressure points

There's decisions that we've made for our family that aren't popular. For some of the superheroes, these decisions haven't gone from the head to the heart. Dyna Girl probably has the biggest problem with Halloween, which we don't celebrate. She really wants to "do" it. I understand, it's fun, there's candy...I get it. She's not boldly rebellious about it; as parents we can just tell. And furthermore, both us parents did Halloween; she knows that; we don't hide that.

Halloween in particular is also one of those head scratchers to some of our friends. A mom told me yesterday that Dyna Girl said we don't celebrate Halloween; when asked why, Dyna Girl said something like, "That's a good question, you should ask my mom about that." Especially to someone who's religious, there's a fine line to walk to not sound "Holier than thou"; in our case, it's one way we consciously separate ourselves from the world, from a holiday that has it's roots in pagan festivals AND the spirit world. I know, I know...so do some other holidays, but the ties to the past are still strong and to us, step over that line.

But it's important to know about Dyna Girl's heart, to pray for it, to dwell on it, to mull over it, to talk about it. After all, it's all about the heart isn't it? If she follows now with actions only, at some point her heart will be free to do as she pleases. It's relatively easy now to make my kids do what we want, but it of course is getting harder. Lord willing their hearts will follow their training.

As I understand it, in particular connection to this holiday, hypocrisy is derived from the Greek, to act out, as in the sense of trying to being something you are not. If I've got a mask on, my kids will quickly see through it. Talk is cheap; walk the walk, talk the talk. ~Mr Incredible....out.

Car rally goes bonkers

The big honker definitely gets used...




Look who we ran into...

Cosmic Boy Turn(ed) 10

Can you tell a good time was had by all? Not sure what we fed this bunch, this is how they ended up...

Bluetooth in the bathroom?

It's a phenomenon I'm struggling with. For the second time this week I ran into it's use. You know, there should be a box to leave cellphones at the door.