Archive for July, 2009
vacation:
happy summer
Dear Readers,
Going on a break to swim, eat grapes (and apples), and generally enjoy the sun and the planet earth.
Be back in August. I’ll still be (sometimes) writing on Beetle Babee, so put her in your Google reader:
Sincerely,
the pomegranate apple
p.s. when i come back, there might be some fun changes around here. (it’s a secret)
July 24, 2009
Baby Happy Birth Day: Born at 39 Weeks
God is Gracious: Joyous Ringing of Heartbeats
Remember my unborn nephew? The one that liked to hang-out with one arm above his head? The one my sister saved for? The one we’ve been waiting for all these months and months and months?
…he finally made his appearance!
He still likes hanging out with one arm above his head.
And now his sweet sweet sweetness can be held by everyone. Not just my sister (inside her body).
Thank you sister! Thank you brother-in-law! For creating a new soul, and for preserving its right to a life (and a married mom and dad).
———–
There is a great lie that poor babies don’t deserve to be born. And a lie that fatherless babies don’t deserve to be born (fatherlessness is a tragedy that does not negate the right to breathe, think, create, and experience the planet earth). And a lie that babies of scared young girls in high school (or scared and/or irresponsible adult women) don’t deserve to be born.
There are plenty of couples willing to save and sacrifice to adopt a baby.
Abortion is not birth control.
Abortion is not a solution.
It is a holocaust.
Unborn babies have a right to be born.
———-
The media likes to sing about the rights and wants of adult women, but their song does not change the sound of an unborn baby’s heartbeat. It starts at 5 weeks.
It’s joyous. And deserves a big delightful celebration!
(and a song)
Leo Sayer: You Make me Feel Like Dancing
3 comments July 20, 2009
Video| Taylor Swift: Best Day
Mom: I don’t know who I’m gonna talk to now at school, But I know I’m laughing on the car ride home with you
Every child has a right to experience life with a mom and a dad. Society should do everything it can to encourage this blessed situation. Thank you Taylor Swift for this rad song about a rad mom.
Lyrics:
I’m five years old, it’s getting cold, I’ve got my big coat on
I hear your laugh and look up smiling at you, I run and run
Past the pumpkin patch and the tractor rides, look now, the sky is gold
I hug your legs and fall asleep on the way home
I don’t know why all the trees change in the fall
But I know you’re not scared of anything at all
Don’t know if Snow White’s house is near or far away
But I know I had the best day with you today
I’m thirteen now and don’t know how my friends could be so mean
I come home crying and you hold me tight and grab the keys
And we drive and drive until we found a town far enough away
And we talk and window shop ’til I’ve forgotten all their names
I don’t know who I’m gonna talk to now at school
But I know I’m laughing on the car ride home with you
Don’t know how long it’s gonna take to feel okay
But I know I had the best day with you today
I have an excellent father, his strength is making me stronger
God smiles on my little brother, inside and out, he’s better than I am
I grew up in a pretty house and I had space to run
And I had the best days with you
There is a video I found from back when I was three
You set up a paint set in the kitchen and you’re talking to me
It’s the age of princesses and pirate ships and the seven dwarfs
And Daddy’s smart and you’re the prettiest lady in the whole wide world
And now I know why the all the trees change in the fall
I know you were on my side even when I was wrong
And I love you for giving me your eyes
For staying back and watching me shine
And I didn’t know if you knew, so I’m takin’ this chance to say
That I had the best day with you today
July 20, 2009
California SB 54: Oppose Senator Leno’s attempt to allow out-of-state neutered marriage
From Protect Marriage:
As if the Legislature doesn’t have enough issues to deal with given the chronic $26 billion state budget deficit, some legislators are advancing a new bill in Sacramento designed to rip a huge hole in Proposition 8 and further undercut traditional marriage in California.
We need your help immediately to contact legislators and the Governor to oppose Senate Bill 54, which seeks to undermine Proposition 8, and further attempts to sneak this change by the people of California through a legislative maneuver known as the “gut and amend.”
Last week, Senator Mark Leno stripped out the contents of SB 54 – dealing with health care coverage — and inserted language that would legalize gay marriages performed in other states and nations prior to the passage of Proposition 8. This proposal is in direct conflict with California’s constitution – as amended by the passage of Proposition 8 – that provides only marriage between a man and a woman will be valid or recognized in California. Further, it goes well beyond the California Supreme Court’s decision that allowed to remain valid a limited number of same-sex marriages performed in California last summer before Proposition 8 passed.
It is simply wrong and undemocratic for liberal gay activists like Senator Mark Leno to attempt to circumvent the decision of voters and rewrite our constitution behind our backs with this sneaky “gut and amend” maneuver. That’s why we’re asking you to take action TODAY and urge the legislature, and if it gets to him, the Governor, to oppose this effort to undermine Proposition 8.
Please become an active supporter by opposing SB 54.
Senator Leno’s SB 54 is such a direct assault, and your action will make a difference.
SB 54 will be heard THURSDAY in the Assembly Judiciary Committee. While the odds of stopping the bill here are low, we think that applying pressure now will drive up more no votes on this bill, which helps increase the odds of the Governor vetoing the bill. If the bill makes it to his desk, we are ultimately looking at an effort designed to encourage Governor Schwarzenegger to veto this legislation.
But for now, the fight is in the State Assembly!
Write your state Assembly representative expressing your opposition to SB 54. Ask him or her to vote against SB 54 if it makes it to the Assembly floor.
In particular, if any of the following members of the Assembly Judiciary Committee represent your home area, please call or email them immediately to urge them to oppose SB 54. Your immediate action will send a clear message that Californians are watching and will not sit idly by while liberal legislators attempt to rip a huge hole in Proposition 8.
Assembly Member Mike Feuer (D – West LA, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood)
Assemblymember.feuer@assembly.ca.gov
(310) 285-5490
Assembly Member Van Tran (R – Costa Mesa, Garden Grove)
Trish.zanella@asm.ca.gov
(714) 668-2100
Assembly Member Julia Brownley (D – Calabasas, Oxnard)
Assemblymember.Brownley@assembly.ca.gov
(818) 596-4141
Assembly Member Noreen Evans (D – Santa Rose, Napa)
Assemblymember.evans@assembly.ca.gov
(707) 546-4500
Assembly Member Dave Jones (D – Sacramento)
Assemblymember.jones@assembly.ca.gov
(916) 324-4676
Assembly Member Steve Knight (R – Palmdale, Victorville)
Assemblymember.knight@asm.ca.gov
(661) 267-7636
Assembly Member Paul Krekorian (D – Burbank)
Assemblymember.krekorian@assembly.ca.gov
(818) 558-3043
Assembly Member Ted Lieu (D – El Segundo)
Assemblymember.lieu@assembly.ca.gov
(310) 615-3515
Assembly Member William Monning (D – Santa Cruz, Monterey, Carmel)
Assemblymember.monning@assembly.ca.gov
(831) 425-1503
Assemblyman Jim Nielsen (R – Redding, Yuba City)
Assemblymember.nielsen@assembly.ca.gov
530-223-6300
3 comments July 9, 2009
Marriage: On Celebrating 50th Anniversaries
If Possible Include Shoe Polish, Car, and Highway
I saw this car while I was driving the other day, and it made me so happy. (I felt like I was participating in the celebration.)
1959. 50 years.
Rock on.
—-
July 7, 2009
Happy Fourth of July
Iwo Jima Flag Raising on Mount Suribachi.
I was half listening to a radio show yesterday, and there was this man on discussing an experience fighting at Mount Suribachi (or maybe it was the son talking about his father?). He was the one asked to get the flag. The one raised in this picture. They’d already raised one, but it wasn’t big enough, and they need another. So he went back to the shore, he waded out to a boat and got a bigger one. While he was there he grabbed as many apples and sandwiches as he could. He filled his pockets. His comrades had been fighting for days and hadn’t eaten any “real” food.
I’m so grateful for men willing to go days without eating food, (fighting their guts out and too many times dying) to preserve freedom.
Thank you.
——–
July 4, 2009
Filling Baseball Cleats: Tony Gwynn and Tony Gwynn
The Stuff of Legends
I love it when rad legendary dads help their sons create their own legends. Go Padres!
It’s déjà vu all over again in San Diego by Tom Friend
“The Padres wanted the kid. They couldn’t justify taking him in the first round of the 2003 draft, but they decided the second round was the absolute right spot. First of all, the goodwill in town would be off the charts, and the organization needed more speed in its farm system. The team was all set to select him with the 41st overall pick when … the Milwaukee Brewers took him at No. 39. "We thought we were going to get him," Towers says. "I was kind of — I’m not going to say ticked — but I remember saying, ‘We’re going to take some heat on this one. We’re going to get crushed by the media. We lost out on a Gwynn?’"
Like it or not, Anthony was finally leaving home, and he assured a concerned Alicia — who couldn’t handle the Little League catcalls — that he wouldn’t cave under the expectations.
"You know what, Mom?" he said before leaving for the airport. "I really, truly have embraced this, because I’m really proud of what dad did, and I know these are his accomplishments. I’m walking his path, but I’ll create my own accomplishments."
Alicia beamed: "That’s right. That’s right. You do you. Don’t do your dad. Do you."
Imagine her surprise when he came back three years later with a strange new name: Tony Gwynn Jr.”
[…]
But then, on the next to last day of the 2007 season, the hometown Padres came to Miller Park [Tony Jr.’s team] with a magic number of one. San Diego led 3-2 in the bottom of the ninth, and all that stood between San Diego and its third straight postseason appearance was … someone calling himself Tony Gwynn Jr.?
Facing his Uncle Trevor with two outs, two strikes and a man on base — the same Uncle Trevor who was baseball’s all-time saves leader — Little T ripped a triple down the first-base line on a pitch down at his shins.
His father, Mr. Padre, leaped in the air [I love how his dad cheers!]. Every other Padre, including owner and family friend John Moores, slumped in their chairs. TV cameras caught Moores’ wife, Becky, saying "s—." It was too cruel: a Gwynn ripping the Padres’ hearts out. A Gwynn emasculating Trevor, of all people. A Gwynn ultimately costing the Padres a playoff berth. But as the kid stood on third base, dusting himself off, a chill came over Alicia Gwynn.
"I said, ‘This is vintage Tony Gwynn,’" she remembers. "It was so eerie when I looked at that hit. The pitch was out of the strike zone, but he put it where he put it.
"That’s when I saw the first sign. That’s when I said, "Hmmmmm.’"
Read the entire article here
[hat-tip goes to my big bro for sending me the link.]
——————-
July 2, 2009
Feminist Studies, Research, and Indoctrination
Why It’s so Difficult to Have Real Academic Discussion On Feminist Topics
I have a hard time when feminists purposely distort facts and/or use their platform as a man-bashing megaphone. That doesn’t increase understanding. And it doesn’t help any woman find value in herself.
My hope: that society will support and value men and women equally. The two genders are different, but combined make up humanity. The king is nothing without the queen. The queen is nothing without the king.
Both are celebrated here.
Persistent Myths in Feminist Scholarship
by Christina Hoff Sommers
“‘Harder to kill than a vampire.’ That is what the sociologist Joel Best calls a bad statistic. But, as I have discovered over the years, among false statistics the hardest of all to slay are those promoted by feminist professors. Consider what happened recently when I sent an e-mail message to the Berkeley law professor Nancy K.D. Lemon pointing out that the highly praised textbook that she edited, Domestic Violence Law (second edition, Thomson/West, 2005), contained errors.
[…]
Lemon’s Domestic Violence Law is organized as a conventional law-school casebook — a collection of judicial opinions, statutes, and articles selected, edited, and commented upon by the author. The first selection, written by Cheryl Ward Smith (no institutional affiliation is given), offers students a historical perspective on domestic-violence law. According to Ward:
‘The history of women’s abuse began over 2,700 years ago in the year 753 BC. It was during the reign of Romulus of Rome that wife abuse was accepted and condoned under the Laws of Chastisement. … The laws permitted a man to beat his wife with a rod or switch so long as its circumference was no greater than the girth of the base of the man’s right thumb. The law became commonly know as ‘The Rule of Thumb.’ These laws established a tradition which was perpetuated in English Common Law in most of Europe.’
Where to begin? How about with the fact that Romulus of Rome never existed. He is a figure in Roman mythology — the son of Mars, nursed by a wolf. Problem 2: The phrase "rule of thumb" did not originate with any law about wife beating, nor has anyone ever been able to locate any such law. It is now widely regarded as a myth, even among feminist professors.
[read more of the listed errors here]
Feminist misinformation is pervasive. In their eye-opening book, Professing Feminism: Education and Indoctrination in Women’s Studies (Lexington Books, 2003), the professors Daphne Patai and Noretta Koertge describe the "sea of propaganda" that overwhelms the contemporary feminist classroom. The formidable Christine Rosen (formerly Stolba), in her 2002 report on the five leading women’s-studies textbooks, found them rife with falsehoods, half-truths, and "deliberately misleading sisterly sophistries." Are there serious scholars in women’s studies? Yes, of course. Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, an anthropologist at the University of California at Davis; Janet Zollinger Giele, a sociologist at Brandeis; and Anne Mellor, a literary scholar at UCLA, to name just three, are models of academic excellence and integrity. But they are the exception. Lemon’s book typifies the departmental mind-set.
[…]
All books have mistakes, so why pick on the feminists? My complaint with feminist research is not so much that the authors make mistakes; it is that the mistakes are impervious to reasoned criticism. They do not get corrected. The authors are passionately committed to the proposition that American women are oppressed and under siege. The scholars seize and hold on for dear life to any piece of data that appears to corroborate their dire worldview. At the same time, any critic who attempts to correct the false assumptions is dismissed as a backlasher and an anti-feminist crank.”
Full article here
6 comments July 2, 2009
