Sheesh

Stop the ACLU says:

• The ACLU thinks that parents have no right to know if their pregnant underage daughter is seeking an abortion.

• The ACLU believes anyone, for any reason at any time should be allowed to abort a child.

• The ACLU opposes abstinence education.

• The ACLU has fought to have constitutionally-sound displays that include the Ten Commandments removed from public property.

• The ACLU is on record as supporting polygamy.

Sure glad they're standing up for all our rights, eh?

Hat tip to Conservative Thinking
Tags: ACLU

Recently

After two months of night classes, my wife and I were licensed to be foster parents this summer. Last week, we received our first long-term placement: a bright, adorable, attractive one-year-old girl.

Only thing is, she screams bloody murder when I walk into the room. With my wife or with the kids (especially our oldest) she's fine, but she has no use for adult males unless there's no women around.

Now I'm a big boy, and I can handle it. With four other kids in the house, it's not the first time a baby didn't want to be held by me. And it isn't even truly that she doesn't want me to pick her up, because she'll reach for me if no one else is there: she just prefers to be held by women. But she looks terrified when I pick her up.

Could be nothing. Maybe she's just not spent that much time around male family members. Or maybe it's more than that. I know I'm a stranger to her (and moreso than the rest of the family because of work) and that I'm just projecting here, but I can't help be angry at a world in which a little girl is terrified that she would be left alone with a man.


Tag: foster

Bach'n it

My wife took our oldest out of town for the rest of the week, and today was my first full day alone with the other three kids. Forgot how much I always liked the smell of Play-Doh.

Oh, come on. You do too.

Twenty years later...

... (and a handful of abominable VHS tapes in our library) and I can still correct some of our kids on the names of the Care Bears. There must be something more useful those neurons could be remembering.

Quite a week

Father's Day was great. The oldest kids hand-made a birdhouse and painted a storage container for me. They put a lot of work into it. I'm really blessed to have kids so eager to show their love. Also got this which I've been listening to back and forth to work all week. Watched Walk the Line a month or so ago, and it got me hooked.

Also, YD had her dance recital on Sunday. Her mom, big sister, and Grandma went to see, while I watched the boys. She loves to perform for people, when she's in the mood. The upshot is, she really enjoyed dance, which means another year of lessons. It's nice to see her have an activity she enjoys though, that's different from what her older sibs do. It's strange how different four kids can be.

Yesterday a huge storm system passed through here. I'm told we made the national news. Longest day of the year according to the calendar, but it looked like early evening all day long when it wasn't raining. Thunderstorms here, with lots of flooding. Tornados elsewhere in the area. We got 4 inches of rain at the house, and about 3/8" on the floor at one end of the basement. It scared the kids a little, I think. We were mostly worried about the new drywall, but glad we hadn't gotten to carpet yet. At the office this morning, the parking lot was flooded until after 10am.

Today is our 10th wedding anniversary. I love my wife, and I give thanks to God for her. Only He knows where I'd be without her. She observed earlier this week what a long time ten years is. That's something you hardly have any appreciation for when you get married in your early twenties. We were relatively mature when we got married, but even so we had a lot of growing up to do. I'm quite certain it's only by grace that marriages last 'til death do us part.

Tag:what's going on

Sign that the end is near.

I'm watching shows (as I work in the evening) during which they run advertisements for bail bonds. Their slogan: "You call, you walk."

Color me disturbed.

Schadenfreude

I never really appreciated the term. Sure, I've taken pleasure in the suffering of others. I'm human, after all. Not sure I've ever enjoyed it this much though. Lileks's saga of the Oak Island Water Feature seemed to have come to an end on Friday. (He's been mentioning it on and off since last September.) What a relief to read this morning that it still leaks.

I'd have thought he'd be having nightmares about it by now - but I'm guessing not since he hasn't written about them. At any rate I'm happy to say his continuing pain is our gain.

Indeed.

Scrappleface is always on target. Sometimes painfully so.

When asked how an outsider with no expertise in cryptology could break the code and comprehend the secret, the Popes spokesman said, To reveal the mystery, first lift the cover of the Bible. Then carefully examine all the text on the first page. Slowly turn the page. Repeat the process until the mystery becomes plain.

Taken out of context, one might almost think he had a point, eh?

Away for a little while...

I know it's been a while since I've posted. Unfortunately, it probably still will be for a while.

It's gotten very busy at work recently, and then a fourth of our department took 3 weeks vacation. He deserves it, so I don't begrudge him, but it means I don't have much time to post or even read blogs lately. (Work isn't the only priority which comes ahead of the blog.)

Hopefully things will calm down soon. Meanwhile, if you drop me an e-mail, I won't ignore it.

In case you've forgotten

There are some things about the Bush presidency which should please anyone who claims to love freedom and human rights. Here's one.

China and Russia last night thwarted a year-long diplomatic drive by Britain to impose United Nations sanctions on the perpetrators in of the violence in the Darfur province of Sudan ... The United States, which backed the British initiative, reacted angrily by threatening to call a public vote of the 15-nation Security Council that would force Russia and China into making a formal veto. Source: The London Times

Who's our ambassador to the UN? John Bolton. He's the guy President Bush appointed last year during Senate recess because his nomination was opposed by just about everyone to the left of -- well, the President, actually.

There was no shortage of detractors in the media at the time, either. In the Senate, at least, one mind is being changed:

"John Bolton at this point is a changed man," Voinovich told reporters. "I want reform of the United Nations, so I've worked with John and stayed on top of John to make sure he takes this wonderful opportunity."...Bolton's appointment expires next January. If Bush reappoints him, Voinovich said he "might not take the same position as last time." Source: AP

Tags: politics, UN