The "Right" War

Follow up to 9/11---this is what the war in Afghanistan is all about. How soon we forgot that with our weariness over the Iraq War. May God bless our troops there. ---Marie Byars

"The best things in life aren't free---they're priceless!" ---Marie Byars

Q: What's the most requested pop song at Notre Dame Cathedral?
A: "Gargoyles Just Wanna Have Fun!" (ouch!)

Laymen's Guide to Pregnancy Terms

Baby Most common pop song lyric
Baby Shower Actually, baths are recommended
Birth Canal Formerly known as "Love Canal"
Booties What's shakin' at the club
Cesarean Section Where Julius always sat at the Coliseum
Coach How you can afford to fly after Baby comes
Cravings Why you're sold on "Ben" and "Jerry" for baby names
Delivery Pizza or Chinese?
Due Date Librarians' top concern
Engorged Why your cups runneth over
Fatigue French for "overweight"
Fertilization Why you're growing at this rapid rate
Fetus "We're hungry!"
Genes What you won't be fitting into for awhile
Heartbeat Amount of time it takes to get pregnant
Lamaze L.A. Freeways
Maternity Synonym for "achy & tired"
Morning Sickness Bringing up dinner at breakfast
2 O'Clock Feedings No, not late lunches with "the girls"
Placenta Italian food made from cornmeal
Rocker Bowie, Jagger, Van Halen, etc.
Stretch Marks Groucho's taller brother
Umbilical Cord A real love connection
Vitamins Great Supplement to pickles & ice cream
Womb The best prenatal unit there is!

A Moderate Manifesto

I'm one of those people who identify themselves as a political moderate, even a registered Independent. I'm one of those people both political parties seek, hoping I'll "swing" to their "side" without actually offering a platform that truly satisfies me. I happen to be a moderate with convictions, unlike the characterization some people make of "moderates", that we're people who can't make up our minds. This is one moderate's view of where she'd like things to go. Other moderates would weigh individual issues in alternately more conservative or more liberal ways than I do.
(1) I'm very proud to be an American. But I don't assume that we have to all agree to equally have pride in our country.
(2) My Christian faith is EXTREMELY important to me. Yet, I'm not lobbying for prayer is school. I'm much more concerned that my family and other Christian families are praying at home.
(3) I don't really want religion taught in school. I'm a moderately conservative Lutheran. I wouldn't want a strict fundamentalist Christian teaching the Bible in public school and possible strong-arming my children into their beliefs. And what if a person were in Utah and Mormons taught religion in public school because it was allowed? I don't want that for my children, either. Parents can pull their own Bibles off their shelves, dust them off, and teach religion very well at home devotions.
(4) We need for English to be our official language. We're a nation of immigrants from MANY countries, not just Spanish-speaking ones. I totally agree that our incoming immigrants should be offered English as a Second Language classes and coached into American citizenship and the English language.
(5) The strength and preeminence of our country in the world needs to rest more on our ideas than on our might. Our world is too interconnected and yet too fragmented for "might makes right" to work anymore.
(6) We need to provide some basic standard of living items to our citizens: health insurance, food, and green open spaces (parks) to maintain the bodies and refresh the spirits of all our citizens. This will give everyone a more equal chance to succeed. Beyond that, we still need to have a strong sense of personal accountability and responsibility.
(7) We have to accept that even though "all men are created equal" in regards to how they stand before their Creator, everyone is not gifted the same way. Because of this, not everyone will be able to rise to the same level of prominence. Some are more intelligent, some are more athletic, some are more artistic, etc. It's not realistic to expect that they will all attain the same standard of living.
(8) Even though we cannot expect the SAME standard of living for everyone, there needs to be a basic minimum set, below which we will not let working people fall, regardless of what sort of unskilled labor they might be doing. Not only is this basic and decent, it's good for the ongoing survival of a democracy. Democracies need strong middle classes, and ours is being eroded more and more into the very rich and the poor.
(9) BOTH guns AND abortions need limits on them! While I personally abhor ANY type of abortion, I do not believe that they will ever be outlawed. I also don't think so many people need to run around with AK-47's or concealed handguns. This is just crazy! No other country in the world allows this sort of thing. And it shows: we are an extremely violent nation by comparison. This being said, I'm still for allowing hunters to do what they do. It's just that neither the NRA nor NOW need to be setting the national agenda as much as they do. Especially not when you find out that the majority of the electorate IS more towards the middle on things.
(10) Abortion and Birth Control: While I would personally like my own children to remain abstinent until marriage, we live in a country where that is not everyone's morality. If we want fewer abortions, we need to talk more realistically about having people use birth control more consistently. It's great to teach abstinence in school, but teach about birth control, too. Parents and church youth groups can pick up on and emphasize the abstinence portion far better than public school programs can.
(11) People should not be "muzzled" from sharing their faith in public settings. But it should not be allowed to devolved into argumentativeness. At some point, we have to learn to "disagree without being disagreeable."
(12) People ACROSS the spectrum need to give some serious thought to this when they approach the topic of alternative sexualities. (And why would you shun someone who's not "straight", if you believe that's wrong, more than you would shun a "straight" person who commits adultery?)
(13) We need to slow the tide of immigration and stem the tide of illegal immigration until we can integrate the diverse population we already have. But we need to do these things in humane ways: Sheriff Joe marching suspected illegal immigrants through downtown Phoenix in chains is deplorable and unworthy of what it means to be an American!
(14) Our own citizens need to take those jobs illegal aliens are taking and attempt to get off TANF. On the other hand, we need to make sure our own citizens are paid a living wage and possibly supplemented indefinitely with food stamps and healthcare as long as they are working. (15) And NO job, if it's honorable, should be looked down on. No worker should be treated as if they are "less" because they're a busboy or a street sweeper. To be elitist towards American workers we perceive as "lower" is, to me, one of the worst forms of anti-Americanism there is!!! Everyone who works is a part of what keeps this nation ticking along, able to do greater things.
(16) Americans were once known for what was called "Yankee ingenuity." Let's apply that to green technology and get out in front of the world again in a new way!

Comparative Religion

(Please excuse the bad words. This is a "riff" on a bumper sticker that uses the word, so there's no way around it. It exists in several forms; this is my own edited version.)
TAOISM Shit happens.
CONFUCIANISM Confucius say, "Shit happens."
ATHEISM There is no shit.
AGNOSTICISM Maybe there is shit, maybe there isn't.
ISLAM If shit happens, it is the will of Allah.
BUDDHISM If shit happens, it isn't really shit.
STOICISM So shit happens. Big deal. I can take it.
HEDONISM When shit happens, enjoy it!
HINDUISM This shit happened before, and it's going to happen again.
HARE KRISHNA Shit happens. Rama, rama, ohm, ohm.
ZEN What is shit?
RASTAFARIANISM Let's smoke this shit.
NEW AGEISM Shit happens because you earned shithead karma.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Only 12 steps to solving any shit.
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE When shit happens, don't worry. It's all in your mind.
MORMONISM Next lifetime, I get to inflict this shit on someone else!
JUDAISM Why does this shit always happen to us?!?!
SEVENTH DAY ADVENTIST Shit happens every day except Saturday.
CALVINSIM Shit happens because you didn't work hard enough.
PENTECOSTALISM Shit happens because you don't have enough faith.
PRESBYTERIANISM If shit has to happen, let it happen to someone else!
ROMAN CATHOLICISM I must have done something REALLY bad to deserve THIS shit!
JESUITS: If shit happens and nobody hears it, did it really make a sound?
EASTERN ORTHODOXY Shit happens. God's mysterious. Deal with it.
SOUTHERN BAPTIST The Lord enables me to overcome more shit than you will EVER see.
LUTHERANISM This world can be shitty. Grace saves me from shit, but beer gets me through it.
EPISCOPALIANISM Another scotch, and I won't give a damn about this shit!

Disenchantment

(I'm borrowing Emily's words to describe my discoveries about "The Land of Enchantment", where I had once very badly wanted to live.)
It dropped so low in my regard
I heard it hit the ground,
And to go pieces on the stones
At bottom of my mind;

Yet blamed the fate that fractured, less
Than I reviled myself
For entertaining plated wares*
Upon my silver shelf.
----Emily Dickinson
*Putting the cheap(er) silver plate items in a special place with the really valuable & important stuff.