Hostile Territory July 31, 2010

James 4:7 says, “So submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you of two minds. 9 Begin to lament, to mourn, to weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you. 11 Do not speak evil of one another, brothers. Whoever speaks evil of a brother or judges his brother speaks evil of the law and judges the law.”

Sometimes, there is so much said in a short quote like this, that little more needs to be said. Holy Apostle James was exhorting the brethren to make their souls truly hostile territory for temptation and sin. Parsing this passage would take a book, from the first phrase. “Submit yourselves to God.” This is the first and ultimate weapon in any prayer warrior’s arsenal. A submitted, obedient heart is definitely hostile territory to Satan and his followers. Obedience and submission are such acts of holiness that no demon can survive in such a soul.

Temptation by itself isn’t a sin. Even Jesus was tempted in the desert. It’s what we do with those temptations when they come our way that makes the difference. Once we act on a temptation; once we allow it to lead us onto a path other than the one chosen for us by our loving Father, the temptation moves into the realm of sin.

Making one’s soul to be scorched earth for evil is what is being referred to above. “Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you of two minds.” By doing these things, we make our soul to be a place compliant with God’s will. We can then turn ourselves into invincible spiritual warriors. A person with nothing on his conscience and no evildoing in his background is difficult to blackmail. In the same way, a soul that is clean and stays that way presents a barrier to temptation. It’s hard to tempt a soul that is firm in its faith. A soul in such a condition is truly hostile territoy for the enemy.

Stand fast. Watch and pray.

This Old Thing July 30, 2010

I was rummaging around in my archives again and discovered this old thing. (Note the date…) It’s similar in topic and tone to “Growing Up Alaskan.” I hope you enjoy it. (Yes, that’s a Coca Cola bottle.)

Ten Years Ago July 29, 2010

Less than a year ago, I wrote THIS.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Were we REALLY hearing about Holder refusing to prosecute the NBP thugs “clear back then?” Was it really only 8 months ago??

But, ten years ago, several smart people were concerned about the rollover to 2000 as it related to computers. There were lots of people who were panicking because they were convinced the world would come to an end, or they were frightened because they knew it wouldn’t but didn’t trust anybody who thought it would.

Who would have thought ten years ago, that ten years into the then-future, not only would we be nearly as bad off business-wise and politically as if their expected catastrophe had actually happened, and that we would almost be wishing for such a calamity to fall on us, just to get it over with, and to relieve our grandchildren of the onerous tax burden this deranged socialist’s racist reparations do-gooding was going to cost them?

The rest of the world itself is a little worse off, but something interesting is happening across the Atlantic. The European countries that haven’t been swallowed up by shariah are actually making the first few tentative steps toward bringing their economies out of the socialistic nannystate dark ages.

In wondering what could have brought it about, I realized that there is every chance that they have looked at what is happening in America, and realized that the U.S., in scarcely more than a year, have slid further down the economic ladder than they ever went in the last twenty years. If this isn’t an indication of how quickly evil can gain the upper hand when people are not, or refuse to be, vigilant against it, I don’t know what is. It reminds me of the old police joke:

Officer Jones: “Look at that! Three bullets to the back of the head!”
Officer Smith: “Yeah, worst case of suicide I ever saw!”

Ten years ago, things were actually in pretty good shape. What really could have been a business disaster was averted so well that it eventually became nothing more than a laughingstock. I, for one, am thrilled that I can sit here today and tell you how right I was, and how wrong I was. Ten years ago, we had a lot more freedom, a lot less taxes, a lot more hope, and just enough change going on to keep our brainy people innovating and inventing. Ten years ago, we illustrated the old FDR axiom, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” How could we have known that ten years down the road, we would be trying to get that pistol behind our heads for those suicidal shots?

Ten years from now, I hope I can look back on this sad, sorry episode in America’s history, and be able to tell my grandchildren, “If you EVER allow this to happen to this country again, you will not deserve to live here.”

Freedom is not free, as we are finding out in some very unpleasant ways. May God have mercy on this country.

Healthcare Spaghetti July 29, 2010

Remember when this came out?

People were furious to think there were going to be so many useless hoops to jump through and snotty bureaucrats to please.

Well, they’ve had more time to look over the health care bill, and they have come up with a new flowchart. This one shows what was really in the bill:

This might explain why Nutsy Pelosi told us they had to “pass the bill, so we can know what’s in it…”

An englightening article here.

OwwieOwwieOwwie, Etc. July 28, 2010

An observation and a question –

1. That must have been his all-time favorite golf ball.

2. What the hell was he THINKING??

The New Conservatives July 25, 2010

Imagine what would happen if people stepped back a bit and took a look at the political stratification in the United States today. Would they see a group of people desperate to cling to the “old ways” of doing things, willing to do whatever was necessary to maintain a status quo? Would they also see another group of people determined to make that task as difficult as possible, a group set on undoing as much of the status quo as they could?

Last week, a masterful article by Angelo Codevilla in the American Spectator made a huge splash among Conservative pundits. As the week progressed, discussion revolving around the contents of the article stepped up, as Rush Limbaugh spent most of one entire show reading and expanding on the topic. It would be difficult to add much of any real merit to such an educated and erudite discussion. But as I listenend and read, a thought kept crossing my mind:

What if the “ruling class” was now the new “conservative” faction? What if their efforts to maintain their hold on national power could be essentially defined as a “conservative” one, especially in view of the fact that they are so mightily reluctant to relinquish the current stranglehold on government, and on the productive power of the middle class and the corporations who hire them?

What if the Tea Parties and the Right side of the new media could be considered the new revolutionaries? There is a lot of evidence to support this line of thought, not the least of which is the left’s alarm at the effectiveness and infuence of the Tea Party movement, and people like Sarah Palin, Chris Christie, Alan West, Michelle Bachmann, and Jan Brewer.

I am one of those people who relishes the idea of being considered a revolutionary. I could even tolerate the idea of the undeserving left being marked as the new conservatives — with a small “C,” of course.

The Pendulum July 25, 2010

It occurred to me last night as I prayed that my days are bracketed by the swings of a spiritual pendulum. In the morning, the cream is skimmed off the top of my day, and given to God in prayer. I make a cup of tea, open the blinds if it is a bright day, take out my rosary, and spend the first hour in gratitude and meditation. Some days take longer than others, depending on the number, gravity, and immediacy of my distractions, but nothing else happens until that hour with the Lord is accomplished.

Although there are frequent periods of prayer off and on throughout the day, the pendulum doesn’t swing back before bedtime. At that time, the process repeats, slightly altered. The cup of tea is made, the blinds are closed. But instead of the rosary, the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary is taken up, and the Hour of Compline is prayed. After that come the intercessions and the examination of conscience through the reading of Thomas a Kempis’ “Imitation of Christ,” a book traditionally bound small and full of profound wisdom and spiritual strength. Only after these steps have been accomplished can I consider my day complete.

It is the nature of a pendulum to swing, to and fro, slowly and majestically. No matter the size, the process is always the same. The simplest of motions, the gravest of tasks. At which side can one say the pendulum has completed its movement — the left? The right? At the precise point of the middle?

To and fro, morning and night, and through the progression of the day, all things in my life are ordered by the silent and relentless motion of my spiritual pendulum.

A Double Government? July 23, 2010

The burden of oppressive government can be backbreaking for the citizens being oppressed. We are seeing it today in the administration of the current resident and his flying monkeys. About the only way it could be worse would be if there was more of it. More government…just what we need, of course!

Traditionally in America, we have three branches of government: the Executive, the Legislative, and the Judicial. Before the Kennedys, these branches knew their duties and accepted their limitations, and America governed herself well, and more or less efficiently, with minimal intrusion effects on the average taxpayers. But, things have really been through the shape-shifting machine in the last fifty years or so. What we used to respect and support has become the malevolent force for destruction of our world. Jack’s evil giant is coming to grind our bones to make his bread.

One government like this is bad enough, but these days, it does look more and more like we are being ruled (yes, I use that term deliberately) by two separate governments: both spurious, both wanting the same things, both ruling without the consent of the people they are supposed to be governing, and both riding roughshod over the will of the people.

On one side, we have an out-of-control Congress, deliberately, illegally, and arrogantly passing bloated and confiscatory bills they know their constituents don’t want any part of. These are the legitimate but despotic members of our government, duly elected by the people, by hook or crook, but trashing the mandates given them by their electorates.

On the other side, we suffer under a cadre of czars, experts, and “advisors,” illegitimate officials, appointed and given carte blanche, who not only hate America, but hate Americans, and whose only motivation is to be at the top of the heap in terms of power and influence. They force us to comply with their agendas. The oppressive, intrusive, and monstrously expensive regulations and judgments they are forcing us to accept are symptoms of the disease of leftist hubris and the elitist sense of entitlement.

A duplication of effort is usually a wasted effort. Ordinarily, the only time reduncancies might be a really good thing would be in space exploration or deep-sea expeditions. But not only do Americans not need a double government, they don’t need the duplication of destruction of the middle class. What the out-of-control legislators haven’t forced down the throats of the people, the czars and activist judges find ways of forcing on us through other means.

We are beaten down beneath the despotism of two similarly malevolent entities under the same overarching cloak of intent, bent on our destruction, and it still isn’t enough for them. Day after day, one side or the other of this regime comes up with new and more malicious ways to undermine and destroy the ability of the middle class to produce wealth and employment. One would think one side or the other of this double-whammy from Washington would be able to discern that killing all corporations, profits, and jobs, putting everybody on welfare, and expecting to be able to pay for that cradle-to-grave nannyism is a doable plan, the dream of the utopianists. Either that, or the whole plan is to just destroy the United States, period.

I don’t know about you, but I’m hoping we don’t wait around too long to see which one of these double-dip dreams is the main plan. We simply can’t afford a double shot of this kind of micromanaged smothering, either from Congress or from the czars.

From Right Change July 22, 2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=wGzUJezAQy0&vq=medium#t=263

A Not-So-Moldy Oldie July 17, 2010

While perusing my archives (narcissist that I am), I came across this article from 2007. I can’t even recall what prompted me to write it, beyond the obvious. The comments add to the strength of the article. Things in public education haven’t changed for the better that I can see, anywhere. My grandchildren have been subjected to some of THE ABSOLUTE WORST “education” I have ever seen since I graduated from high school back in (mumble, mumble). Read and enjoy, and add some comments of your own, if you wish.

Homework Blues

November 14, 2007 A generation of hyper-parents has larded their children’s days with band practice, piano lessons, soccer practice, volleyball, martial arts, dance recitals, and swim classes. For their part, teens find time to spend something like 6 hours a day using various forms of media; Xbox 360 sales do not seem to be suffering because kids are too busy to play video games and the malls have not been emptied of teens.

And yet the cry goes up that it is Mrs. Grundy’s history homework assignments that are destroying the innocence of childhood and wrecking the American family.

The American Thinker, 11/14/07 (This link is still good)

When I was a kid in school, we really didn’t have a lot of homework. Assignment for each class were built to be finished in class, and sufficient time was always allotted for not just perusal of the new chapter, but plenty of discussion, drilling, and questions and answers. At the end of that period, whether it was a segment set aside for that subject in the earlier grades, or the whole hour in junior and senior high, our day’s assignment was finished in class, and handed in as we went out the door/moved on to a different subject. No excuses. Finished or not, the assignments were handed in. Only reports, themes, or extra reading required homework.

When my kids were in school, a lot of the same criteria were still in place. Since neither of the boys at home was involved in an awful lot of sports (one in swimming, one in basketball), nor would I have allowed it, there was always time for the kitchen-table classroom, but even then, the amount of homework was increasing. At the time, I thought they were either goofing off in class or the teachers weren’t doing what we taxpaying parents were paying them to do.

Nowadays, my granddaughter, who is in fourth grade in California, has a different problem. Like the children in the pullquote above, she is pressed into all sorts of sports and special activities by her overachieving mother, and has very little time left to concentrate on actual studies and real learning, and the evidence is in her handwriting (as awful as her mother’s) and lack of spelling ability.

Without putting too fine a point on it, we are raising our second generation of poorly-educated, poorly-prepared youth. They haven’t the foggiest notion of the workings of the government, its branches, their functions, responsibilities, or anything that could even vaguely be construed as “Civics.” There is no relationship between what they are taught about American “History” and the reality, and there is a universal lack of desire to experience any of it. Math, Science, and English have all suffered from neglect in American public schools to the point that our children can barely compute without a calculator, but they are so cell-phone/ipod literate that you never see them without one in their hands. Home Economics and Shop classes, once the source of vocational aspirations for many students, have been done away with completely as “sexist.” Today’s kids can run rings around their opponents on the soccer field (what the hell kind of American sport is soccer, anyway?? What happened to football, baseball, or even softball?), but they can’t even spell “rings,” let alone “soccer.”

Once upon a time, we were warned that this was the direction our public schools were taking, and we were warned that there was a method in the destruction of our educational system, all of which would lead to a certain inevitable end. Of course, we, being the educated ones, knew better, and scoffed. We educated ones were too smart to heed these ominous predictions, and we ignored the warnings and smiled benignly while the curricula in the public schools which we were being taxed to support were changed without our knowledge, permission, or participation, to include things like, “values clarification,” (read: brainwashing/peer pressure), outcome-based education (it’s not what you know, it’s whether or not your whole class is the same, and that you TRIED), and political correctness/multiculturalism/environmental activism. Grades were often done away with to save Junior’s pride, and spelling and math rules were thrown out in order to prevent Juniorette’s feelings of inadequacy.

The tip of the iceberg has been bobbing around under our very noses for the last thirty years. The consequences we were warned of all those years ago are beginning to show up in ways we could never have imagined. Looks like we need to do some more homework.

Comment 1: You’re singin’ my song, although I tend to go after the teachers..some of the teachers. These are the under 40s teachers who somehow believe that learning is achieved by some process of osmosis. And, if all else fails, send it home where the parents will have to deal with it.
I was working with my Granddaughter doing math homework. To my amazement, the homework consisted of four pages, each introducing a new, complex concept. Scientific notation, multiplying and dividing positive and negative numbers with decimals, etc. She seemed pretty vague regarding any foundation that could have been laid for these concepts. It turns out that her school was found to be behind in math so they were presenting a fast track program for fifth graders that is actually sixth grade math. Never mind what they should have learned in fifth grade to prepare them for the sixth grade math….well, I could go on..and..on..and..

Comment 2: (by me)
I’m probably gonna get myself into trouble for this, but there is no darned excuse for kids not being able to get AT LEAST PART of something finished in class. They are there six to seven hours a day. What are they DOING??

If the school district wants to pay me to teach, I’ll be happy to sit down with junior and help him with his math or English. But if they don’t pay me for doing the teacher’s job, then they need to change the curriculum to something their teachers can handle. I don’t like the idea of being an unpaid teacher’s aide.

And, class size is no excuse. My teachers NEVER had classes with less than thirty kids, and they never had problems with discipline.

If the teachers weren’t so busy tooting some NEA agenda horn, or teaching kids how to worship the earth, put condoms on cucumbers, and write journals, they could impart the basics of the main topics that should be taught in REAL school, so the parents didn’t have to.

What’s going to happen in a few years when the “old students” (today’s parents) are gone, and the students being taught today have kids of their own bringing homework home? What will the subjects be, and how will they be taught? Oy, don’t get me started!

Comment 3:
Everything you wrote, and everything in the comments is exactly what I have experienced as a parent today. I did get a good public school education, but I’m afraid my child’s experience has been dramatically different from mine.

The difference between my education and my daughter’s are astounding. Teachers don’t teach anymore, they expose. In short, many children in these schools are masters of nothing. Rote memorization has been done away with.

They preach reading reading reading, and yet, I am amazed at how many children cannot read. They CANNOT read.

I have never once entered my child’s classroom and seen a teacher in front of the class presenting a subject, and then having the children work on that subject. They don’t teach. As an afterthought they send a worksheet home and have the parents help the child complete it.

My parents rarely ever had to help me with homework, I had already been shown how to do the work when I brought it home. The only time they became involved in that process is if a particular problem stumped me.

This is why I decided to homeschool. I just had no other choices anymore. I wish I had not have waited so long to do it. There are wonderful curriculums out there now that can be purchased, and even some that are free.

I would never recommend that anyone put their child in this school system, especially if the child is struggling at all. Get them out of there as soon as possible!