...but when these people start talking politics, they really sound like morons.
From the Blogger News Network:
Just Shut Up, And Thank All The Little People
September 18th, 2007 by The Stiletto
It was bad enough watching Sally Field have a senior moment and lose her train of thought (video link) midway through her speech accepting an Emmy for lead actress in a drama series (”Brothers and Sisters”), but when she finally remembered what she wanted to say - “And, let’s face it, if the mothers ruled the war, there would be no (bleeped expletive) wars in the first place” – The Stiletto couldn’t have been alone in wondering whether she has Alzheimer’s.
In the 60-year old actress’ own lifetime there have been three female heads of state – all mothers - who did not hesitate to wage war to defend, or advance the interests of, their respective nations:
† Golda Meir, a founder of the state of Israel and its Prime Minister from 1969 to 1974, was the mother of two children, Sarah and Menachem. The original “Iron Lady,” Meir was at the helm during the 1973 Yom Kippur War between Israel and a coalition of Arab countries led by Egypt and Syria determined to take back the Sinai and Golan Heights, which had been captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. Israel prevailed, and the war paved the way to the Camp David Accords, which led to normalized relations between Egypt and Israel.
† Prime Minister of India for three consecutive terms (1966 to 1977) and for a fourth term from 1980 until she was assassinated in 1984, Indira Gandhi was the mother of two sons, Sanjay and Rajiv. In the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, Gandhi backed East Pakistan against West Pakistan, which led to the creation of Bangladesh. Three years later, India developed a nuclear arsenal to counter the threat from Communist China. During Gandhi’s watch, India became the dominant power in the region.
† The sobriquet “Iron Lady” was reprised for Margaret Thatcher, who served as British Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990 and is mother to twins Mark and Carol. In 1982 when Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, Thatcher dispatched the navy and recaptured the British territory in a decisive victory.
Forget osteoporosis. Fields’ agent should immediately phone the Aricept people to set up an audition.
Note: The Stiletto writes about politics and other stuff at The Stiletto Blog.
---Katie
And really, those of you have worked in a number of places and have worked on boards and such for volunteer organizations - who, in general, would you rather work for, a woman or a man? Many of my women friends have told me that they would much rather work for a man - women in leadership positions can be, and I mean CAN BE, just plain vicious...I know several exceptions, but this is a generalization. ;-)
Women can go to war just as easily as men. If Hillary gets to be president, just wait and see.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Friday, September 14, 2007
Homeschooling Comes of Age
OK, I have to say I really like this article...and it is from one of my favorite organizations, Th Ludwig von Mises Institute.
Homeschooling Comes of Age
By Isabel Lyman
Posted on 9/10/2007
[Subscribe or Tell Others]
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the modern home education movement was in its infancy. At that time, most Americans viewed home-styled education as a quaint tourist attraction or the lifestyle choice of those willing to endure more hardship than necessary.
What a difference a few decades makes.
Homeschooling has undergone an extreme makeover. From maverick to mainstream, the movement has acquired a glamorous, populist sheen.
Flip through a few issues of Sports Illustrated, circa 2007, and there's no shortage of news about photogenic homeschoolers who make the athletic cut. Like Jessica Long who was born in Russia, resides in Baltimore, and is an accomplished swimmer. At 15, Jessica became the first paralympian to win the prestigious Sullivan Award, which honors the country's top amateur athlete. Then there's the dashing Joey Logano who, at 17, has already won a NASCAR race.
Even presidential hopefuls and their spouses have jumped on the school-thine-own bandwagon. Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas) has offered enthusiastic support for homeschooling families, and Elizabeth Edwards, wife of Senator John Edwards (D-North Carolina) told the Wall Street Journal that this fall she plans to home educate the couple's two youngest children "with the help of a tutor."
As for scholastic achievements, this national competition season was remarkable, seeing home scholars crowned as champs in three major events. A twelve-year-old New Mexican named Matthew Evans won the National Word Power competition, sponsored by Reader's Digest. Thirteen-year-old Evan O'Dorney of California won the Scripps National Spelling Bee, and fourteen-year-old Caitlin Snaring of Washington was christened the National Geographic Bee champ.
Then there's Micah Stanley of Minnesota who has yet to receive any lessons in a brick-and-mortar classroom building. For the past few years, he's been enrolled in the Oak Brook College of Law, a distance learning law school headquartered in Sacramento. This past February, he took the grueling, three-day California general bar examination (California allows correspondence law students to sit for the bar), and he can now add "attorney" to his resume. In his spare time, he's finishing up a book titled, How to Escape the Holding Tank: A Guide to Help You Get What You Want.
Micah is 19.
A teenage lawyer/budding author, however, wouldn't surprise John Taylor Gatto, an outspoken critic of compulsory education laws and a former New York State Teacher of the Year. Writing in Harper's Magazine, Gatto forthrightly argued that "genius is as common as dirt."
Perhaps. But it's also understandable that when everyday folks hear about the homeschooled Joeys and Caitlins and Micahs, they become a tad intimidated — as if this educational choice were the exclusive domain of obsessive-compulsive moms and dads with money to burn, time to spare, and a brood of driven, Type-A offspring.
Although it's commendable when the young achieve Herculean goals, homeschooling has always been more about freedom and personal responsibility than winning an Ivy League scholarship or playing at Wimbledon. In general, it has attracted working-class families of all ethnicities and faiths, who have been eager to provide a nurturing, stimulating learning experience.
Of course, the unabashedly adventuresome are always an endearing staple of the movement. The Burns family, of Alaska, set out on a 36-foot sailboat this summer to travel the world for three years. Chris Burns (the dad) told the Juneau Empire he hopes "to connect with Juneau classrooms and host question-and-answer sessions while at sea," as well as homeschool the two Burns children.
In a legal sense, homeschools serve as a glaring reminder of a complex issue that has become the stuff of landmark Supreme Court cases: does the state have the authority to coerce a youngster to attend school and sit at a desk for 12 years? Whether said child has the aptitude and maturity for such a long-term contract (or is it involuntary servitude?) remains an uncomfortable topic because, in the acceptable mantra of the day, "education is a right."
Such a national conversation is long overdue, as there are plenty of signs — costly remedial education and rising dropout rates, to name two — to indicate that the status quo public school model isn't kid-friendly.
Homeschooling, after all, began to catch on with the masses because a former US Department of Education employee argued that children, like delicate hothouse plants, required a certain type of environment to grow shoots and blossoms, and that loving parents, not institutions, could best create the greenhouses.
It was 1969 when the late Dr. Raymond Moore initiated an inquiry into previously neglected areas of educational research. Two of the questions that Moore and a team of like-minded colleagues set out to answer were (1) Is institutionalizing young children a sound, educational trend? and (2) What is the best timing for school entrance?
In the process of analyzing thousands of studies, twenty of which compared early school entrants with late starters, Moore concluded that developmental problems, such as hyperactivity, nearsightedness, and dyslexia, are often the result of prematurely taxing a child's nervous system and mind with continuous academic tasks, like reading and writing.
The bulk of the research convinced Moore that formal schooling should be delayed until at least age 8 or 10, or even as late as 12. As he explained, "These findings sparked our concern and convinced us to focus our investigation on two primary areas: formal learning and socializing. Eventually, this work led to an unexpected interest in homeschools."
$6
"Above all, the merit of homeschooling is that it allows for experimentation, flexibility, and trial & error."
Moore went on to write Home Grown Kids and Home-Spun Schools. The rest, as they say, is history. The books, published in the 1980s, have sold hundreds of thousands of copies and offer practical advice to potential parent educators.
Nowadays, there's a sea of such self-help material, scores of commercial products, and online opportunities solely dedicated to encouraging families to learn together in the convenience of their homes. Homeschooling has graduated into a time-tested choice that allows children to thrive, learn at their own pace, and which frequently inspires other success stories. As our nation is famous for encouraging immigrants to reinvent themselves and achieve the American Dream, so home education does for youngsters whether they are late bloomers or are candidates for Mensa.
Above all, the merit of homeschooling is that it allows for experimentation, flexibility, and trial and error. Here is the great contrast with state-provided education. As with all systems hammered out by bureaucracies, public schools get stuck in a rut, perpetuate failures, respond slowly to changing times, and resist all reforms. Errors are not localized and contained, but all consuming and system wide. It's bad enough when such a system is used to govern labor contracts or postal service; it is a tragic loss when it is used to manage kids' minds.
Isabel Lyman, Ph.D., is the author of The Homeschooling Revolution, a paperback about the modern home education movement. Her articles and op-eds have appeared in the Miami Herald, Wall Street Journal, Dallas Morning News, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Investor's Business Daily, Boston Herald, Los Angeles Daily Journal, National Review, Chronicles, Daily Oklahoman, and other publications. See her website. Send her mail. Comment on the blog.
Sources:
John Taylor Gatto, "Against School — How public education cripples our kids, and why." Harper's Magazine, September 2003.
Ken Lewis, "Juneau man to set sail on world voyage." Juneau Empire, April 16, 2007.
Raymond Moore, "Homegrown and Homeschooled." Mothering, Summer 1990, p. 79.
Email interview with Micah Stanley, July 2, 2007.
Click on the title to visit the site!
---Katie
Homeschooling Comes of Age
By Isabel Lyman
Posted on 9/10/2007
[Subscribe or Tell Others]
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the modern home education movement was in its infancy. At that time, most Americans viewed home-styled education as a quaint tourist attraction or the lifestyle choice of those willing to endure more hardship than necessary.
What a difference a few decades makes.
Homeschooling has undergone an extreme makeover. From maverick to mainstream, the movement has acquired a glamorous, populist sheen.
Flip through a few issues of Sports Illustrated, circa 2007, and there's no shortage of news about photogenic homeschoolers who make the athletic cut. Like Jessica Long who was born in Russia, resides in Baltimore, and is an accomplished swimmer. At 15, Jessica became the first paralympian to win the prestigious Sullivan Award, which honors the country's top amateur athlete. Then there's the dashing Joey Logano who, at 17, has already won a NASCAR race.
Even presidential hopefuls and their spouses have jumped on the school-thine-own bandwagon. Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas) has offered enthusiastic support for homeschooling families, and Elizabeth Edwards, wife of Senator John Edwards (D-North Carolina) told the Wall Street Journal that this fall she plans to home educate the couple's two youngest children "with the help of a tutor."
As for scholastic achievements, this national competition season was remarkable, seeing home scholars crowned as champs in three major events. A twelve-year-old New Mexican named Matthew Evans won the National Word Power competition, sponsored by Reader's Digest. Thirteen-year-old Evan O'Dorney of California won the Scripps National Spelling Bee, and fourteen-year-old Caitlin Snaring of Washington was christened the National Geographic Bee champ.
Then there's Micah Stanley of Minnesota who has yet to receive any lessons in a brick-and-mortar classroom building. For the past few years, he's been enrolled in the Oak Brook College of Law, a distance learning law school headquartered in Sacramento. This past February, he took the grueling, three-day California general bar examination (California allows correspondence law students to sit for the bar), and he can now add "attorney" to his resume. In his spare time, he's finishing up a book titled, How to Escape the Holding Tank: A Guide to Help You Get What You Want.
Micah is 19.
A teenage lawyer/budding author, however, wouldn't surprise John Taylor Gatto, an outspoken critic of compulsory education laws and a former New York State Teacher of the Year. Writing in Harper's Magazine, Gatto forthrightly argued that "genius is as common as dirt."
Perhaps. But it's also understandable that when everyday folks hear about the homeschooled Joeys and Caitlins and Micahs, they become a tad intimidated — as if this educational choice were the exclusive domain of obsessive-compulsive moms and dads with money to burn, time to spare, and a brood of driven, Type-A offspring.
Although it's commendable when the young achieve Herculean goals, homeschooling has always been more about freedom and personal responsibility than winning an Ivy League scholarship or playing at Wimbledon. In general, it has attracted working-class families of all ethnicities and faiths, who have been eager to provide a nurturing, stimulating learning experience.
Of course, the unabashedly adventuresome are always an endearing staple of the movement. The Burns family, of Alaska, set out on a 36-foot sailboat this summer to travel the world for three years. Chris Burns (the dad) told the Juneau Empire he hopes "to connect with Juneau classrooms and host question-and-answer sessions while at sea," as well as homeschool the two Burns children.
In a legal sense, homeschools serve as a glaring reminder of a complex issue that has become the stuff of landmark Supreme Court cases: does the state have the authority to coerce a youngster to attend school and sit at a desk for 12 years? Whether said child has the aptitude and maturity for such a long-term contract (or is it involuntary servitude?) remains an uncomfortable topic because, in the acceptable mantra of the day, "education is a right."
Such a national conversation is long overdue, as there are plenty of signs — costly remedial education and rising dropout rates, to name two — to indicate that the status quo public school model isn't kid-friendly.
Homeschooling, after all, began to catch on with the masses because a former US Department of Education employee argued that children, like delicate hothouse plants, required a certain type of environment to grow shoots and blossoms, and that loving parents, not institutions, could best create the greenhouses.
It was 1969 when the late Dr. Raymond Moore initiated an inquiry into previously neglected areas of educational research. Two of the questions that Moore and a team of like-minded colleagues set out to answer were (1) Is institutionalizing young children a sound, educational trend? and (2) What is the best timing for school entrance?
In the process of analyzing thousands of studies, twenty of which compared early school entrants with late starters, Moore concluded that developmental problems, such as hyperactivity, nearsightedness, and dyslexia, are often the result of prematurely taxing a child's nervous system and mind with continuous academic tasks, like reading and writing.
The bulk of the research convinced Moore that formal schooling should be delayed until at least age 8 or 10, or even as late as 12. As he explained, "These findings sparked our concern and convinced us to focus our investigation on two primary areas: formal learning and socializing. Eventually, this work led to an unexpected interest in homeschools."
$6
"Above all, the merit of homeschooling is that it allows for experimentation, flexibility, and trial & error."
Moore went on to write Home Grown Kids and Home-Spun Schools. The rest, as they say, is history. The books, published in the 1980s, have sold hundreds of thousands of copies and offer practical advice to potential parent educators.
Nowadays, there's a sea of such self-help material, scores of commercial products, and online opportunities solely dedicated to encouraging families to learn together in the convenience of their homes. Homeschooling has graduated into a time-tested choice that allows children to thrive, learn at their own pace, and which frequently inspires other success stories. As our nation is famous for encouraging immigrants to reinvent themselves and achieve the American Dream, so home education does for youngsters whether they are late bloomers or are candidates for Mensa.
Above all, the merit of homeschooling is that it allows for experimentation, flexibility, and trial and error. Here is the great contrast with state-provided education. As with all systems hammered out by bureaucracies, public schools get stuck in a rut, perpetuate failures, respond slowly to changing times, and resist all reforms. Errors are not localized and contained, but all consuming and system wide. It's bad enough when such a system is used to govern labor contracts or postal service; it is a tragic loss when it is used to manage kids' minds.
Isabel Lyman, Ph.D., is the author of The Homeschooling Revolution, a paperback about the modern home education movement. Her articles and op-eds have appeared in the Miami Herald, Wall Street Journal, Dallas Morning News, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Investor's Business Daily, Boston Herald, Los Angeles Daily Journal, National Review, Chronicles, Daily Oklahoman, and other publications. See her website. Send her mail. Comment on the blog.
Sources:
John Taylor Gatto, "Against School — How public education cripples our kids, and why." Harper's Magazine, September 2003.
Ken Lewis, "Juneau man to set sail on world voyage." Juneau Empire, April 16, 2007.
Raymond Moore, "Homegrown and Homeschooled." Mothering, Summer 1990, p. 79.
Email interview with Micah Stanley, July 2, 2007.
Click on the title to visit the site!
---Katie
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Don't Call Me Pastor!
I found this article oddly comforting amidst all the chaos at our church, chaos caused, according to some, by the fact that our pastor is not a shepherd. (I am quoting others, not making my own statement.)
Here is the excerpt that applied some salve to my bruised heart:
Granted, the metaphor of the people of God as a flock of sheep living under the watchful eye of a good shepherd runs deep in the Bible. And there is some support for referring to those in leadership roles as shepherds or pastors for God’s people. In John 21:16, Jesus’ second charge to Simon Peter is to “tend (shepherd, pastor) my sheep.” In the same way, I Peter 5:4 urges the elder within the church to “tend (shepherd, pastor) the flock of God that is your charge.” Ephesians 4:11 speaks of how it is a gift that some are appointed “apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers.”
However, it must be noted that positive references to church leaders as shepherds are few and far between. In fact, when the Bible speaks of the human shepherds and pastors of God’s people, it is most often with the language of condemnation and woe. Over and over again, the leadership of the faithful fail to be decent shepherds. David, the shepherd king, ends up as a sheep thief (II Samuel 11 and 12). Jesus speaks of how he—and he alone—is the Good Shepherd, and all others are either “thieves and robbers” or “hirelings who care nothing for the sheep” (John 10). “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” says the LORD—thus begins Jeremiah’s shepherd-sheep metaphor (23:1), and with it he tears at kings, priests, prophets, and all the other human shepherds of Israel as bullies and thieves. Ezekiel 34 is equally vicious in its condemnation of any who has claimed to be shepherd or pastor to God’s people. Even the little epistle of Jude takes a shot at would-be shepherds as it criticizes those who are “blemishes on your love feasts, as they boldly carouse together, looking after (=shepherding) themselves” (v. 12).
The good news within all the hard words against those who claim to be shepherds and pastors is the ongoing proclamation that, even though so many have failed, there is one who remains a good shepherd. As the familiar words of Psalm 23 say, “The LORD is my shepherd.” Jesus’ words in John 10, “I am the Good Shepherd,” are not an isolated instance. Jeremiah and Ezekiel’s rejection of human shepherds and pastors is grounded in the promise of God’s intention to be what humanity can not be. “I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down,” says the LORD God. “I will seek the lost and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the crippled, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will watch over; I will feed them in justice” (Ezekiel 34:15-16).
Click on the title to read the whole article.
Like I said, I am not making a statement about anyone, but it does make us think - can we really expect pastors to be good shepherds? Always? Even though they are sinners just like us? Perhaps we should just be thankful when we have that experience with a pastor and realize we won't find it everywhere. And remember who the Good Shepherd really is and who we need to turn to when our hearts are sore.
---Katie
Here is the excerpt that applied some salve to my bruised heart:
Granted, the metaphor of the people of God as a flock of sheep living under the watchful eye of a good shepherd runs deep in the Bible. And there is some support for referring to those in leadership roles as shepherds or pastors for God’s people. In John 21:16, Jesus’ second charge to Simon Peter is to “tend (shepherd, pastor) my sheep.” In the same way, I Peter 5:4 urges the elder within the church to “tend (shepherd, pastor) the flock of God that is your charge.” Ephesians 4:11 speaks of how it is a gift that some are appointed “apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers.”
However, it must be noted that positive references to church leaders as shepherds are few and far between. In fact, when the Bible speaks of the human shepherds and pastors of God’s people, it is most often with the language of condemnation and woe. Over and over again, the leadership of the faithful fail to be decent shepherds. David, the shepherd king, ends up as a sheep thief (II Samuel 11 and 12). Jesus speaks of how he—and he alone—is the Good Shepherd, and all others are either “thieves and robbers” or “hirelings who care nothing for the sheep” (John 10). “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” says the LORD—thus begins Jeremiah’s shepherd-sheep metaphor (23:1), and with it he tears at kings, priests, prophets, and all the other human shepherds of Israel as bullies and thieves. Ezekiel 34 is equally vicious in its condemnation of any who has claimed to be shepherd or pastor to God’s people. Even the little epistle of Jude takes a shot at would-be shepherds as it criticizes those who are “blemishes on your love feasts, as they boldly carouse together, looking after (=shepherding) themselves” (v. 12).
The good news within all the hard words against those who claim to be shepherds and pastors is the ongoing proclamation that, even though so many have failed, there is one who remains a good shepherd. As the familiar words of Psalm 23 say, “The LORD is my shepherd.” Jesus’ words in John 10, “I am the Good Shepherd,” are not an isolated instance. Jeremiah and Ezekiel’s rejection of human shepherds and pastors is grounded in the promise of God’s intention to be what humanity can not be. “I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down,” says the LORD God. “I will seek the lost and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the crippled, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will watch over; I will feed them in justice” (Ezekiel 34:15-16).
Click on the title to read the whole article.
Like I said, I am not making a statement about anyone, but it does make us think - can we really expect pastors to be good shepherds? Always? Even though they are sinners just like us? Perhaps we should just be thankful when we have that experience with a pastor and realize we won't find it everywhere. And remember who the Good Shepherd really is and who we need to turn to when our hearts are sore.
---Katie
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
As Sweden Islamifies, Crime Surges
From The Brussels Journal, the essential european blog:
"...Almost 90% of all robberies reported to the police were committed by gangs, not individuals. “When we are in the city and robbing we are waging a war, waging a war against the Swedes.” This argument was repeated several times. “Power for me means that the Swedes shall look at me, lie down on the ground and kiss my feet.” The boys explain, laughingly, that “there is a thrilling sensation in your body when you’re robbing, you feel satisfied and happy, it feels as if you’ve succeeded, it simply feels good.” “It’s so easy to rob Swedes, so easy.” “We rob every single day, as often as we want to, whenever we want to.” The immigrant youth regard the Swedes as stupid and cowardly: “The Swedes don’t do anything, they just give us the stuff. They’re so wimpy.” The young robbers do not plan their crimes: “No, we just see some Swedes that look rich or have nice mobile phones and then we rob them...”
-snip- "The number of rape charges in Sweden has quadrupled in just above twenty years. Rape cases involving children under the age of 15 are six times as common today as they were a generation ago. Most other kinds of violent crime have rapidly increased, too. Instability is spreading to most urban and suburban areas. Resident aliens from Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia dominate the group of rape suspects. "
Feeling like a frog in a pot yet, getting warmer little by little? It can't happen here, huh? Better hope when Hillary gets elected she lets us keep our guns so we can defend ourselves....
Yeah, I know...I'm a racist. Not!
---Katie
"...Almost 90% of all robberies reported to the police were committed by gangs, not individuals. “When we are in the city and robbing we are waging a war, waging a war against the Swedes.” This argument was repeated several times. “Power for me means that the Swedes shall look at me, lie down on the ground and kiss my feet.” The boys explain, laughingly, that “there is a thrilling sensation in your body when you’re robbing, you feel satisfied and happy, it feels as if you’ve succeeded, it simply feels good.” “It’s so easy to rob Swedes, so easy.” “We rob every single day, as often as we want to, whenever we want to.” The immigrant youth regard the Swedes as stupid and cowardly: “The Swedes don’t do anything, they just give us the stuff. They’re so wimpy.” The young robbers do not plan their crimes: “No, we just see some Swedes that look rich or have nice mobile phones and then we rob them...”
-snip- "The number of rape charges in Sweden has quadrupled in just above twenty years. Rape cases involving children under the age of 15 are six times as common today as they were a generation ago. Most other kinds of violent crime have rapidly increased, too. Instability is spreading to most urban and suburban areas. Resident aliens from Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia dominate the group of rape suspects. "
Feeling like a frog in a pot yet, getting warmer little by little? It can't happen here, huh? Better hope when Hillary gets elected she lets us keep our guns so we can defend ourselves....
Yeah, I know...I'm a racist. Not!
---Katie
Terrorist Test Run in Orlando?
I am not sure if this site is alarmist, or if their analysis is accurate, but I am aware that there have been many reports over the last few years of "test runs" for attacks on the US. I heard this one discussed on a local talk show, but did not find all the details anywhere until today. This is chilling. Click on the title for the whole article, but I don't know how long it will be there.
The Untold Story of Delta Flight 1824
By Douglas J. Hagmann
Sunday, September 9, 2007
9 September 2007: The passengers aboard Delta Airlines Flight 1824 flying out of Orlando International Airport last Thursday at 7:15 a.m. heard the following statement over the intercom as they were preparing to taxi onto the runway on their way to Atlanta, Georgia:
Ladies and gentlemen, we have been informed that there is "a credible security risk with this aircraft" and we are returning to the terminal.
snip
During a routine test of the baggage, Transportation Security Administration authorities ran the luggage through x-ray detection and then conducted an explosive trace detection of the bags belonging to the 9 Middle Eastern passengers. The x-ray of the bags found questionable items inside the luggage, and the explosive trace detection tests resulted in a "positive hit" for explosives -- specifically, SEMTEX, an explosive commonly used by Islamic terrorists. To be certain, however, the luggage was test no less than 4 times by four different machines and operators. Each time, a "positive hit" for explosives was registered. "The presence of explosive traces was 'no mistake,'" stated one federal source talking to this agency on condition of anonymity.
snip
Even more disconcerting, TSA and security officials observed that two of the Middle Eastern men intended for the flight had smeared Vaseline on their arms and neck areas -- a common tactic among hand-to-hand fighters who want the advantage in the event someone tries to grab them or put them in a headlock. Covered by the greasy agent, they are better able to extricate themselves during close-quarters, hand-to-hand fighting.
Like I said, click on the title....
What is more disconcerting to me is that the FBI labeled this incident benign.
---Katie
The Untold Story of Delta Flight 1824
By Douglas J. Hagmann
Sunday, September 9, 2007
9 September 2007: The passengers aboard Delta Airlines Flight 1824 flying out of Orlando International Airport last Thursday at 7:15 a.m. heard the following statement over the intercom as they were preparing to taxi onto the runway on their way to Atlanta, Georgia:
Ladies and gentlemen, we have been informed that there is "a credible security risk with this aircraft" and we are returning to the terminal.
snip
During a routine test of the baggage, Transportation Security Administration authorities ran the luggage through x-ray detection and then conducted an explosive trace detection of the bags belonging to the 9 Middle Eastern passengers. The x-ray of the bags found questionable items inside the luggage, and the explosive trace detection tests resulted in a "positive hit" for explosives -- specifically, SEMTEX, an explosive commonly used by Islamic terrorists. To be certain, however, the luggage was test no less than 4 times by four different machines and operators. Each time, a "positive hit" for explosives was registered. "The presence of explosive traces was 'no mistake,'" stated one federal source talking to this agency on condition of anonymity.
snip
Even more disconcerting, TSA and security officials observed that two of the Middle Eastern men intended for the flight had smeared Vaseline on their arms and neck areas -- a common tactic among hand-to-hand fighters who want the advantage in the event someone tries to grab them or put them in a headlock. Covered by the greasy agent, they are better able to extricate themselves during close-quarters, hand-to-hand fighting.
Like I said, click on the title....
What is more disconcerting to me is that the FBI labeled this incident benign.
---Katie
Monday, September 10, 2007
ELW
Here is an interesting opinion of the ELW, our new hymnal:
The creation of Evangelical Lutheran Worship (ELW) by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, as I understand it, was generated by the convergence of two factors. One was the fervent desire on the part of a relative minority in the church to end the use of masculine pronouns (“he,” “him,” “his”) to refer to God. The other was the increasingly serious financial situation of the church’s publishing house, Augsburg Fortress. A new worship book would make congregations pray and talk about God in ways that the influential minority considered essential and would at the same time be a big seller to bail out the publisher. And so it has happened.
Click on the title to read more at Lutheran Forum.
You know, those two items above have been my opinion for awhile - it's interesting that others think the same thing.
---Katie
The creation of Evangelical Lutheran Worship (ELW) by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, as I understand it, was generated by the convergence of two factors. One was the fervent desire on the part of a relative minority in the church to end the use of masculine pronouns (“he,” “him,” “his”) to refer to God. The other was the increasingly serious financial situation of the church’s publishing house, Augsburg Fortress. A new worship book would make congregations pray and talk about God in ways that the influential minority considered essential and would at the same time be a big seller to bail out the publisher. And so it has happened.
Click on the title to read more at Lutheran Forum.
You know, those two items above have been my opinion for awhile - it's interesting that others think the same thing.
---Katie
Are we in denial?
Here is an article from a non-mainstream source that is really scary. Do you think our schools are at risk? Or do you think terrorists realize that a Beslan-type attack on American schools could release a fury that would threaten every Muslim in the USA?
Here's an excerpt:
Probably the last place you want to think of terrorists striking is your kids' school. But according to two trainers at an anti-terrorism conference on the East Coast, preparations for attacks on American schools that will bring rivers of blood and staggering body counts are well underway in Islamic terrorist camps.
* The intended attackers have bluntly warned us they're going to do it.
* They're already begun testing school-related targets here.They've given us a catastrophic model to train against, which we've largely ignored and they've learned more deadly tactics from.
"We don't know for sure what they will do. No one knows the future. But by definition, a successful attack is one we are not ready for," declared one of the instructors, Lt. Col. Dave Grossman. Our schools fit that description to a "T"-as in Terrorism and Threat.
Click on the title to read the entire article.
This is an interesting web site focused on the effects of violence as well as the need to protect ourselves from violence.
---Katie
Here's an excerpt:
Probably the last place you want to think of terrorists striking is your kids' school. But according to two trainers at an anti-terrorism conference on the East Coast, preparations for attacks on American schools that will bring rivers of blood and staggering body counts are well underway in Islamic terrorist camps.
* The intended attackers have bluntly warned us they're going to do it.
* They're already begun testing school-related targets here.They've given us a catastrophic model to train against, which we've largely ignored and they've learned more deadly tactics from.
"We don't know for sure what they will do. No one knows the future. But by definition, a successful attack is one we are not ready for," declared one of the instructors, Lt. Col. Dave Grossman. Our schools fit that description to a "T"-as in Terrorism and Threat.
Click on the title to read the entire article.
This is an interesting web site focused on the effects of violence as well as the need to protect ourselves from violence.
---Katie
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
More thoughts on Churchwide Assembly
I have to say that my week at the Churchwide Assembly troubled me to some degree in my understanding of how we are to live as Christians. The theme for the Assembly was “Living in God’s Amazing Grace: Thanks Be to God!” The theme and all of our Bible study were from Galatians. Speakers and leaders emphasized over and over how we are no longer bound by the law. One Bible study leader asked, “What are you going to do now that you don’t have to do anything?” I have to say I struggled with this because I always have seen the Bible as having something to say about how I am to live. Am I to ignore all that the scriptures say about how we are to live because I am free from the law? Am I holding my brothers and sisters to a law to which we are no longer accountable by believing we should refrain from what the Bible defines as sexual sin?
I have been immersing myself in Jesus’ teachings since I have been home, particularly in the book of Matthew. I also have been reading Martin Luther’s “Freedom of a Christian.” Luther writes:
"Now Adam was righteous and created by God without sin, so he had no need to become righteous and justified through work and caretaking. However, so that he not be idle, God put him to work planting paradise, building and conserving it. These were free works, done only to please God alone, and not to attain righteousness, which he already possessed and which would have already been naturally inborn in all of us as well.
It is the same with the work of the believer, who through faith is once again put in paradise and created anew. Such a person does not need work to become righteous but, simply to please God, but is commanded to do such free works so as not to stand around idle but to give the body work to do that sustains it."
So, do we live our lives to please ourselves or to please God? And if we live to please God, how do we know what pleases God? Perhaps we look to the scriptures where we see not only the commands that God gives us, but a loving father who overlooks our mistakes and loves us in spite of our inability to keep the law perfectly. We don’t have to because Jesus already did it, yet we love him by doing what we can to obey him.
Hmmm. I seem to remember Jesus saying something about obeying him if we love him…
---Katie
I have been immersing myself in Jesus’ teachings since I have been home, particularly in the book of Matthew. I also have been reading Martin Luther’s “Freedom of a Christian.” Luther writes:
"Now Adam was righteous and created by God without sin, so he had no need to become righteous and justified through work and caretaking. However, so that he not be idle, God put him to work planting paradise, building and conserving it. These were free works, done only to please God alone, and not to attain righteousness, which he already possessed and which would have already been naturally inborn in all of us as well.
It is the same with the work of the believer, who through faith is once again put in paradise and created anew. Such a person does not need work to become righteous but, simply to please God, but is commanded to do such free works so as not to stand around idle but to give the body work to do that sustains it."
So, do we live our lives to please ourselves or to please God? And if we live to please God, how do we know what pleases God? Perhaps we look to the scriptures where we see not only the commands that God gives us, but a loving father who overlooks our mistakes and loves us in spite of our inability to keep the law perfectly. We don’t have to because Jesus already did it, yet we love him by doing what we can to obey him.
Hmmm. I seem to remember Jesus saying something about obeying him if we love him…
---Katie
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