It's not always easy to tell on a blog when a conversation on a previous post continues to generate good comments. Especially if the post is a few days old and is buried by several new ones.
For those who are/were interested in the government-school scabs discussion, please head back over. Russ has had several long comments (YEAH!!!) in an exchange with Lord Leto (a newcomer to the blog. A delayed but very sincere welcome Lord Leto!). Lord Leto, concerned he was hoggin' my bloggin' (no I don't know what is the matter with me today) has taken part of the discussion over to his new blog Rule of the Worm. A really interesting blog with a whole Dune thing going on that sci-fi buffs will enjoy.
Some really eye opening thoughts by both of them.
Disclaimer: If you wish to remain ignorant of the true depths of depravity in our public schools, or if you wish to continue to think well of public schools.... maybe you better not look. (It's rather awful!)
And GREAT SCOTT!!! This just in: Russ has a brand spankin' new blog! Head over to the Complete Materialist and check it out. Russ is a hell of a writer, I sure hope he blogs fairly regularly. Oh, and Russ- P-Momma tagged you with that meme 8 Random Things and I for one am really hoping you'll play along!
Yes folks, peer pressure in action. It's an ugly thing.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
8 random things about JohnGalt666
8 random things about me (JohnGalt666)
1. All right, here are the rules.
2. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
3. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
4. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
5. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.
1. I need to lose over a hundred pounds. So much for mind body integration. (an objectivist joke)
2. I am an objectivist but got there from a mail order self help company called Neo-Tech. What a long strange philosophical trip it's been.
3. I am the night manager for a cab company which probably explains much of my cynicism for the human race.
4. I like adding 666 after the john galt because john galt is usually taken (it is the main character of Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged") but no one adds 666 after that name. I think of myself as the evil john galt because I do not alway agree with the Ayn Rand Institute especially about foreign policy.
5. I like responding to posts much better then trying to generate them on a blog. (hence my failed attempt at a blog a while back)
6. I do not buy t-shirts unless they are insanely cheap (under 4 dollars) so all my t-shirts are either gifts or ones from a convenience store. This leads to me wearing sports t-shirts when I don't watch sports and Sturgis shirts when I don't have a motorcycle (much less a Harley).
7. I am about as bad a speller as it gets. Thank you spell check! (And still many errors seem to get through.)
8. I am secretly into Scientology... Bwahahahahaha!!!
That one isn't true so it doesn't count which leads me to:
8. I have a very strange sense of humor. I especially love inappropriate humor that gets the response: "That's is just so wrong!"
Well, there you go. 8 random facts about that serious guy, johngalt666.
1. All right, here are the rules.
2. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
3. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
4. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
5. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.
1. I need to lose over a hundred pounds. So much for mind body integration. (an objectivist joke)
2. I am an objectivist but got there from a mail order self help company called Neo-Tech. What a long strange philosophical trip it's been.
3. I am the night manager for a cab company which probably explains much of my cynicism for the human race.
4. I like adding 666 after the john galt because john galt is usually taken (it is the main character of Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged") but no one adds 666 after that name. I think of myself as the evil john galt because I do not alway agree with the Ayn Rand Institute especially about foreign policy.
5. I like responding to posts much better then trying to generate them on a blog. (hence my failed attempt at a blog a while back)
6. I do not buy t-shirts unless they are insanely cheap (under 4 dollars) so all my t-shirts are either gifts or ones from a convenience store. This leads to me wearing sports t-shirts when I don't watch sports and Sturgis shirts when I don't have a motorcycle (much less a Harley).
7. I am about as bad a speller as it gets. Thank you spell check! (And still many errors seem to get through.)
8. I am secretly into Scientology... Bwahahahahaha!!!
That one isn't true so it doesn't count which leads me to:
8. I have a very strange sense of humor. I especially love inappropriate humor that gets the response: "That's is just so wrong!"
Well, there you go. 8 random facts about that serious guy, johngalt666.
Friday, June 29, 2007
inspirational story
By Jill Koenig
That first 10k race was quite an experience. I jogged, I walked, I jogged and I walked. At times, I didn't know if I could finish. Then came a defining moment.
At one point near the end, a 70 year old man ran past me, very very fast, and I felt embarrassed that I was 50+ years younger than he and I couldn't even keep up with him. I felt defeated for a second. But then I realized something. He was running his race and I was running mine.
He had different capacities, experience, training and goals for himself. I had mine. Remember my goal was merely to finish.
How often in life do we compare ourselves to others and feel disappointed in ourselves when we really shouldn't? After a minute, it hit me that this was a lesson I could draw from. I learned something about myself in that moment. I turned my embarrassment into inspiration.
I decided that I would not give up on running races, in fact, I would run even more races and I would learn how to train and prepare properly and one day I would be one of those 70 year olds who was still running. As I crossed the finish line, I was proud of my accomplishment.
Oh, I know, I know, I KNOW!!! It is one of those cheesy, sappy stories with a moral. I hate them too!
Stretch yourself just a bit and look beyond the sappy and see that she does make an excellent point. How often do we go through our lives comparing it to what others have? And not just the neighbor next door's brand new car. Or the cousin who inherits great grandma's house. How often do you watch the news and think, "For crying out loud, if I had Paris Hilton's money there's no way I'd parade around like a 2 bit whore. If I had that kind of money I could.......!"
The desire to have more, to be more, to even do more, is not a bad thing. That dissatisfaction with your own status quo can become a burning drive to reinvent yourself.
The cautionary part of this post is more of a reminder to me that I need to also find satisfaction in where I am now. The life I have is pretty damn good and comparing it to other people's lives or even more importantly- comparing it to the life I COULD have had is a silly waste of time. I need to find the joy in the now.
Oh crap, I did it again. The Starbucks thing. Just shoot me now. :-D
That first 10k race was quite an experience. I jogged, I walked, I jogged and I walked. At times, I didn't know if I could finish. Then came a defining moment.
At one point near the end, a 70 year old man ran past me, very very fast, and I felt embarrassed that I was 50+ years younger than he and I couldn't even keep up with him. I felt defeated for a second. But then I realized something. He was running his race and I was running mine.
He had different capacities, experience, training and goals for himself. I had mine. Remember my goal was merely to finish.
How often in life do we compare ourselves to others and feel disappointed in ourselves when we really shouldn't? After a minute, it hit me that this was a lesson I could draw from. I learned something about myself in that moment. I turned my embarrassment into inspiration.
I decided that I would not give up on running races, in fact, I would run even more races and I would learn how to train and prepare properly and one day I would be one of those 70 year olds who was still running. As I crossed the finish line, I was proud of my accomplishment.
Oh, I know, I know, I KNOW!!! It is one of those cheesy, sappy stories with a moral. I hate them too!
Stretch yourself just a bit and look beyond the sappy and see that she does make an excellent point. How often do we go through our lives comparing it to what others have? And not just the neighbor next door's brand new car. Or the cousin who inherits great grandma's house. How often do you watch the news and think, "For crying out loud, if I had Paris Hilton's money there's no way I'd parade around like a 2 bit whore. If I had that kind of money I could.......!"
The desire to have more, to be more, to even do more, is not a bad thing. That dissatisfaction with your own status quo can become a burning drive to reinvent yourself.
The cautionary part of this post is more of a reminder to me that I need to also find satisfaction in where I am now. The life I have is pretty damn good and comparing it to other people's lives or even more importantly- comparing it to the life I COULD have had is a silly waste of time. I need to find the joy in the now.
Oh crap, I did it again. The Starbucks thing. Just shoot me now. :-D
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
self pity
I have my days. Good days. Bad days. Days when I start to feel sorry for myself. To think, "Oh poor me, how I wish things were different." I know. It's ugly. It makes me want to vomit to even admit this crap. But I know I'm not the only one who feels this way occasionaly.
So here I am over at SMELLS LIKE BULLSHIT when I happen on this fabulous post addressing just this sort of thing.
It can always be worse
by Nightmare a blogger in the take-no-prisoners humor genre. Enjoy!...
Most people know or at least have heard that 20 years ago I broke my back. I fell off of a house drunk at a party one night in Los Altos hills CA and fell approx. 50 feet. This caused tons of damage to my back, I crushed 3 vertebrae and cracked 6 others. I then proceeded to baffle the hospital staff by enduring 3 CAT scans, and a litany of reasons why I needed three of them, machine wasn’t calibrated, the machine was broken, and finally “Well we don’t know how you did it..but you don’t have any nerve damage and you’ll be walking out of here Sunday” that was a week after I went in.
But why am I telling what most people know anyway? Because I had to wear a brace for 45 days after the accident to keep my spine straight so my vertebras would mend. During this time of sitting up straight and wheeling myself around campus in my rental wheel chair ( my brace didn’t allow for bending the right way to fit into the college desks) I learned a very important lesson from a very unsuspecting person.
I was standing in “Joes U Save liquors” , the groovy liquor store by my apartment that was extremely lax on carding people, buying a 12 pack to help with the pain killers that didn’t seem to work unless I added a beer or 10. So I’m standing in line waiting my turn to pay, vaguely wondering if Joe was going to card me this time(he was lax, but sometimes he would bust your balls just to be busting them), when I hear a voice behind me say “Wow, did you break some ribs or something?”
I didn’t bother to turn around I just said loudly “Not ribs, I broke my back”.
“Jesus, how did that happen?”
Again without turning I gave the cliff notes version of what happened, and moved forward to pay for my beer. Joe didn’t card me and as I waited for my change I heard the guy say, “ Well it could have been worse.”
I turn around to ask this talkie Mcspeakerson, “how the fuck does he think it could be worse, with a all league football player with 4 full ride scholarship offers, and now a broken back more than likely ending his illustrious albeit short career..what the fuck could be worse about this situation?”
Before I spoke and as I turned, I got a look at who I was conversing with. There was a man standing there shirtless, wearing cut off jean shorts, covered in tattoos, holding a 12 pack in one hand and a hand carved wooden crutch under the other arm, and as my anger cooled I looked down and saw that his leg was amputated at the crotch.
My mouth froze. My brain stopped and I knew he was absolutely right. Things could be worse. I looked him in the eyes and replied, “You got that fucking right, thanks man”
Now when I get to the end of my rope at work or even at home and I am tired of dealing with assholes, and clients and I am trying to find a reason not to get my pistols, and go on a tri state killing spree I always remember that guy, his missing leg, and the fact that no matter how bad it is it could always be worse.
It can always be worse.
So here I am over at SMELLS LIKE BULLSHIT when I happen on this fabulous post addressing just this sort of thing.
It can always be worse
by Nightmare a blogger in the take-no-prisoners humor genre. Enjoy!...
Most people know or at least have heard that 20 years ago I broke my back. I fell off of a house drunk at a party one night in Los Altos hills CA and fell approx. 50 feet. This caused tons of damage to my back, I crushed 3 vertebrae and cracked 6 others. I then proceeded to baffle the hospital staff by enduring 3 CAT scans, and a litany of reasons why I needed three of them, machine wasn’t calibrated, the machine was broken, and finally “Well we don’t know how you did it..but you don’t have any nerve damage and you’ll be walking out of here Sunday” that was a week after I went in.
But why am I telling what most people know anyway? Because I had to wear a brace for 45 days after the accident to keep my spine straight so my vertebras would mend. During this time of sitting up straight and wheeling myself around campus in my rental wheel chair ( my brace didn’t allow for bending the right way to fit into the college desks) I learned a very important lesson from a very unsuspecting person.
I was standing in “Joes U Save liquors” , the groovy liquor store by my apartment that was extremely lax on carding people, buying a 12 pack to help with the pain killers that didn’t seem to work unless I added a beer or 10. So I’m standing in line waiting my turn to pay, vaguely wondering if Joe was going to card me this time(he was lax, but sometimes he would bust your balls just to be busting them), when I hear a voice behind me say “Wow, did you break some ribs or something?”
I didn’t bother to turn around I just said loudly “Not ribs, I broke my back”.
“Jesus, how did that happen?”
Again without turning I gave the cliff notes version of what happened, and moved forward to pay for my beer. Joe didn’t card me and as I waited for my change I heard the guy say, “ Well it could have been worse.”
I turn around to ask this talkie Mcspeakerson, “how the fuck does he think it could be worse, with a all league football player with 4 full ride scholarship offers, and now a broken back more than likely ending his illustrious albeit short career..what the fuck could be worse about this situation?”
Before I spoke and as I turned, I got a look at who I was conversing with. There was a man standing there shirtless, wearing cut off jean shorts, covered in tattoos, holding a 12 pack in one hand and a hand carved wooden crutch under the other arm, and as my anger cooled I looked down and saw that his leg was amputated at the crotch.
My mouth froze. My brain stopped and I knew he was absolutely right. Things could be worse. I looked him in the eyes and replied, “You got that fucking right, thanks man”
Now when I get to the end of my rope at work or even at home and I am tired of dealing with assholes, and clients and I am trying to find a reason not to get my pistols, and go on a tri state killing spree I always remember that guy, his missing leg, and the fact that no matter how bad it is it could always be worse.
It can always be worse.
government school scabs
Have you been over at Sean the Blogonaut's blog? No? Well, you're missing out on a good discussion. Since you haven't been there, I'm bringing some of it over here. Ginny and I have been having a very congenial discussion about the benefits of government schools toughening one up socially. I am including here relevant highlights from the comment section on Sean's Blog.
Fiery Ewok: One of the benefits of homeschooling, no brats around to squash my son from exploring new ideas and ways of talking and behaving.
Ginny: Yep, definitely a plus, but the drawback can be that kids in public school as cruel as they can be, might be useful in the sense that the PS experience toughens one up a bit.
If you can learn to deal with the kids in school, you can pretty much learn to deal with anything life throws at you...yes public school kids are that horrible. I'm sure many of us have stories to tell...
Don't get me wrong, I'm not down on homeschooling, but I can see how even homeschooling has its pitfalls.
Fiery Ewok: I don't know about the toughening up aspect. Sometimes it just leaves scars that never heal and bruises that are always tender. The damage to your self-esteem can be debilitating and a lifelong struggle to reverse.
Inner toughness comes with self-confidence and the knowledge that you, as a person, are capable, intelligent, worthwhile human being no matter what others think of you. Especially the others who are in no position to know who you really are.
I'm not convinced government schools allowance of bullying, cliques, and peer pressure generate anything but scars in a person.
Ginny: Fiery said I don't know about the toughening up aspect. Sometimes it just leaves scars that never heal and bruises that are always tender. Perhaps you are right. I was picked on un-mercifully in middle school. It took a long time to get over some of the stuff I was put through. But all in all, I'd have to say it made me stronger.
I know that the opposite happens to some people. I'm sure there are plenty of horror stories of teens committing suicide and such because they were bullied constantly and saw no end in sight. Too often bullies go unchecked...
Fiery Ewok: That's just it Ginny. Who is to say what type of person we both would be without the scar tissue left behind by government schools?
If scar tissue is so wonderful, why don't we undergo routine disfigurement to get tougher skin.
Because people are beautiful the way they are and scars are ugly, painful reminders of a dreadful hurt.
Strength comes from the inside, not from abuse on the outside.
omg I'm turning into a Starbucks cup.
Fiery Ewok: One of the benefits of homeschooling, no brats around to squash my son from exploring new ideas and ways of talking and behaving.
Ginny: Yep, definitely a plus, but the drawback can be that kids in public school as cruel as they can be, might be useful in the sense that the PS experience toughens one up a bit.
If you can learn to deal with the kids in school, you can pretty much learn to deal with anything life throws at you...yes public school kids are that horrible. I'm sure many of us have stories to tell...
Don't get me wrong, I'm not down on homeschooling, but I can see how even homeschooling has its pitfalls.
Fiery Ewok: I don't know about the toughening up aspect. Sometimes it just leaves scars that never heal and bruises that are always tender. The damage to your self-esteem can be debilitating and a lifelong struggle to reverse.
Inner toughness comes with self-confidence and the knowledge that you, as a person, are capable, intelligent, worthwhile human being no matter what others think of you. Especially the others who are in no position to know who you really are.
I'm not convinced government schools allowance of bullying, cliques, and peer pressure generate anything but scars in a person.
Ginny: Fiery said I don't know about the toughening up aspect. Sometimes it just leaves scars that never heal and bruises that are always tender. Perhaps you are right. I was picked on un-mercifully in middle school. It took a long time to get over some of the stuff I was put through. But all in all, I'd have to say it made me stronger.
I know that the opposite happens to some people. I'm sure there are plenty of horror stories of teens committing suicide and such because they were bullied constantly and saw no end in sight. Too often bullies go unchecked...
Fiery Ewok: That's just it Ginny. Who is to say what type of person we both would be without the scar tissue left behind by government schools?
If scar tissue is so wonderful, why don't we undergo routine disfigurement to get tougher skin.
Because people are beautiful the way they are and scars are ugly, painful reminders of a dreadful hurt.
Strength comes from the inside, not from abuse on the outside.
omg I'm turning into a Starbucks cup.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
The Bet
Originally written by Poodles on June 26, 2007 and preserved for posterity here.
RAISING THE ROOF
Last fall chunks of shingles from my old black (yes black) roof blew off the house and on to our truck. Now I have this pretty new Painted Desert roof.
Below is the new shed that is being built. My new bullfrog hot tub is going where the old shed is.
Which brings me to "the bet."
I asked my contractor if he moved the sprinkler head. To which he replied "what sprinkler head?"
"The one that is apparently right under that shed now."
"Oops."
I told him I could get my husband to lift the shed so he could dig it out. His response "there is no way he can lift that."
"Wanna bet?"
"5 bucks."
"Deal." HONEY... could you come lift the shed... pretty please.
From the contractor, "that thing weighs about 500 lbs."
As my husband is walking toward the shed putting on his gloves, "he used to squat over 1000 lbs and bench press about 600"
"fuck, I'm gonna lose."
"Yep". He lost.
~Poodles
And that is why we call him the Hulk. :)
RAISING THE ROOF
Last fall chunks of shingles from my old black (yes black) roof blew off the house and on to our truck. Now I have this pretty new Painted Desert roof.
Below is the new shed that is being built. My new bullfrog hot tub is going where the old shed is.
Which brings me to "the bet."
I asked my contractor if he moved the sprinkler head. To which he replied "what sprinkler head?"
"The one that is apparently right under that shed now."
"Oops."
I told him I could get my husband to lift the shed so he could dig it out. His response "there is no way he can lift that."
"Wanna bet?"
"5 bucks."
"Deal." HONEY... could you come lift the shed... pretty please.
From the contractor, "that thing weighs about 500 lbs."
As my husband is walking toward the shed putting on his gloves, "he used to squat over 1000 lbs and bench press about 600"
"fuck, I'm gonna lose."
"Yep". He lost.
~Poodles
And that is why we call him the Hulk. :)
Sunday, June 24, 2007
8 random things
8 random things about me
1. All right, here are the rules.
2. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
3. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
4. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
5. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your
blog.
1- I delivered both of my kids without an epidural because I would rather go through a double-peaking transition-stage contraction every day for a month than let a doctor near my spine with a needle.
2- I waited until I was almost 30 before I had my wisdom teeth out (stupid) all 4 were full bony impacted and it took me 18 months before I could open my mouth all the way again. Thanks a lot you hack!
3- I love to learn new musical instruments. I've played the flute since 5th grade and in college learned to play clarinet, oboe, saxophone, and bassoon.
4- I can't dance to save my life. I get stiff and unwieldly and don't know how to follow.
5- I don't do girly. At least not if I can help it. Me- I'm a jeans and t-shirt kind of woman. Always have been, always will be. If it's cold I'll throw a flannel shirt over the top or pull on a sweatshirt. And if I do have to dress up, I usually feel like a complete fraud. Like I'm pretending to be something that I'm not.
6-I don't drink coffee (caffeine makes me paranoid- more so than usual), I don't smoke cigarettes (can't stand the smell), and I think beer looks like a urine specimen from the doctor's office. But. I do like mixed drinks- my favorite is a Long-Island Tea- the more the merrier. Some people get moody when they drink, I get silly. Everything is funny and I love to laugh. :-D YEAH BOOZE!!!!
7-My all-time favorite movie moment is when they bring the heroes around a corner moving in a line toward the camera. It's a shot they've used in Armageddon (especially effective when you saw the gaps in the line from those that didn't return), the Man in the Iron Mask (right before the last big fight against the king) and in Shrek (as they were leaving Dragon's castle). It gives me chills every time I see it.
8-I would rather be cold than hot. You can only take so many layers off before the neighbors complain. And nothing beats snuggling under a blanket and reading a good book. If I could skip summer I would. Spring, Fall, Winter, repeat. However, I love bright and sunny days. If the days are gray and gloomy I get depressed.
And I'll tag JohnGalt666, and BigTex71. I'm too chicken to tag people I don't know well and everyone else I know has already been tagged. Oh, come on, it's not that bad! :-D
1. All right, here are the rules.
2. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
3. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
4. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
5. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your
blog.
1- I delivered both of my kids without an epidural because I would rather go through a double-peaking transition-stage contraction every day for a month than let a doctor near my spine with a needle.
2- I waited until I was almost 30 before I had my wisdom teeth out (stupid) all 4 were full bony impacted and it took me 18 months before I could open my mouth all the way again. Thanks a lot you hack!
3- I love to learn new musical instruments. I've played the flute since 5th grade and in college learned to play clarinet, oboe, saxophone, and bassoon.
4- I can't dance to save my life. I get stiff and unwieldly and don't know how to follow.
5- I don't do girly. At least not if I can help it. Me- I'm a jeans and t-shirt kind of woman. Always have been, always will be. If it's cold I'll throw a flannel shirt over the top or pull on a sweatshirt. And if I do have to dress up, I usually feel like a complete fraud. Like I'm pretending to be something that I'm not.
6-I don't drink coffee (caffeine makes me paranoid- more so than usual), I don't smoke cigarettes (can't stand the smell), and I think beer looks like a urine specimen from the doctor's office. But. I do like mixed drinks- my favorite is a Long-Island Tea- the more the merrier. Some people get moody when they drink, I get silly. Everything is funny and I love to laugh. :-D YEAH BOOZE!!!!
7-My all-time favorite movie moment is when they bring the heroes around a corner moving in a line toward the camera. It's a shot they've used in Armageddon (especially effective when you saw the gaps in the line from those that didn't return), the Man in the Iron Mask (right before the last big fight against the king) and in Shrek (as they were leaving Dragon's castle). It gives me chills every time I see it.
8-I would rather be cold than hot. You can only take so many layers off before the neighbors complain. And nothing beats snuggling under a blanket and reading a good book. If I could skip summer I would. Spring, Fall, Winter, repeat. However, I love bright and sunny days. If the days are gray and gloomy I get depressed.
And I'll tag JohnGalt666, and BigTex71. I'm too chicken to tag people I don't know well and everyone else I know has already been tagged. Oh, come on, it's not that bad! :-D
Saturday, June 23, 2007
the fundy has left the building
Ummmm, apparently our fundy couldn't take the heat and got the hell out of Dodge.
He not only deleted every comment he made on my blog and Poodles Rule's blog, he also deleted his own blog.
Weird.
Buh Bye little fundy. Play nice on the other blogs.
He not only deleted every comment he made on my blog and Poodles Rule's blog, he also deleted his own blog.
Weird.
Buh Bye little fundy. Play nice on the other blogs.
value in education
More from John Holt in How Children Fail
It is not subject matter that makes some learning more valuable than others, but the spirit in which the work is done.
If a child is doing the kind of learning that most children do in school, when they learn at all--swallowing words, to spit back at the teacher on demand--he is wasting his time, or rather, we are wasting it for him. This learning will not be permanent, or relevant, or useful.
But a child who is learning naturally, following his curiosity where it leads him, adding to his mental model of reality whatever he needs and can find a place for and rejecting without fear or guilt what he does not need, is growing--in knowledge, in the love of learning, and in the ability to learn.
He is on his way to becoming the kind of person we need in our society, and that our 'best' schools and colleges are not turning out, the kind of person who, in Whitney Griswold's words, seeks and finds meaning, truth, and enjoyment in everything he does. All his life he will go on learning. Every experience will make his mental model of reality more complete and more true to life, and thus make him more able to deal realistically, imaginatively, and constructively with whatever new experience life throws his way.
To love learning. To be able to approach and explore unknown information knowing that you are capable of learning it. To have the skills to acquire new knowledge. Do students leave school with these skills?
It is not subject matter that makes some learning more valuable than others, but the spirit in which the work is done.
If a child is doing the kind of learning that most children do in school, when they learn at all--swallowing words, to spit back at the teacher on demand--he is wasting his time, or rather, we are wasting it for him. This learning will not be permanent, or relevant, or useful.
But a child who is learning naturally, following his curiosity where it leads him, adding to his mental model of reality whatever he needs and can find a place for and rejecting without fear or guilt what he does not need, is growing--in knowledge, in the love of learning, and in the ability to learn.
He is on his way to becoming the kind of person we need in our society, and that our 'best' schools and colleges are not turning out, the kind of person who, in Whitney Griswold's words, seeks and finds meaning, truth, and enjoyment in everything he does. All his life he will go on learning. Every experience will make his mental model of reality more complete and more true to life, and thus make him more able to deal realistically, imaginatively, and constructively with whatever new experience life throws his way.
To love learning. To be able to approach and explore unknown information knowing that you are capable of learning it. To have the skills to acquire new knowledge. Do students leave school with these skills?
Friday, June 22, 2007
how children view school
I'm reading a book by John Holt called How Children Fail when I came across this passage about how children, in general, approach school.
For children, the central business of school is not learning, whatever this vague word means; it is getting these daily tasks done, or at least out of the way, with a minimum of effort and unpleasantness. Each task is an end in itself. The children don't care how they dispose of it. If they can get it out of the way by doing it, they will do it; if experience has taught them that this does not work very well, they will turn to other means, illegitimate means, that wholly defeat whatever purpose the task giver may have had in mind.
Most of my classes I just "got through". I was one of the nerds, blowing the curve, getting good grades, answering the teachers questions, but rarely did I enjoy a class. School was what I did, something to do. I even got good at it. To the point that after high school, I couldn't imagine not being in school, so I went to college. I didn't have a purpose in mind, no goal to obtain, just knew that I was good at school and that's what good students did after highschool- they went to college.
What bothers me, is that I see my own children approaching school this way. As something to get through. Something that stands in their way of doing the things they love to do. An obstacle preventing them from living life to the fullest.
For children, the central business of school is not learning, whatever this vague word means; it is getting these daily tasks done, or at least out of the way, with a minimum of effort and unpleasantness. Each task is an end in itself. The children don't care how they dispose of it. If they can get it out of the way by doing it, they will do it; if experience has taught them that this does not work very well, they will turn to other means, illegitimate means, that wholly defeat whatever purpose the task giver may have had in mind.
Most of my classes I just "got through". I was one of the nerds, blowing the curve, getting good grades, answering the teachers questions, but rarely did I enjoy a class. School was what I did, something to do. I even got good at it. To the point that after high school, I couldn't imagine not being in school, so I went to college. I didn't have a purpose in mind, no goal to obtain, just knew that I was good at school and that's what good students did after highschool- they went to college.
What bothers me, is that I see my own children approaching school this way. As something to get through. Something that stands in their way of doing the things they love to do. An obstacle preventing them from living life to the fullest.
WAHOO!!!!! and also WHEW!!!!
BigTex is ok!
Drop by Rally the Troops and read BigTex's latest update.
I have to admit, you had me worried there BigTex. And I know I wasn't the only one. Friends stick together and the worst part was not being able to contact you to find out if you were ok.
It's the internet. I like to know things immediately. :-D
And speaking for the readers of my blog here- if you need anything at all BigTex, please ask. Seriously. It's the web. We'll help you find answers, resources, support, whatever you need. Keep in touch and please let all of us know if there is something we can say or do to help you and your wife through this difficult time.
Thank you for the update!
Drop by Rally the Troops and read BigTex's latest update.
I have to admit, you had me worried there BigTex. And I know I wasn't the only one. Friends stick together and the worst part was not being able to contact you to find out if you were ok.
It's the internet. I like to know things immediately. :-D
And speaking for the readers of my blog here- if you need anything at all BigTex, please ask. Seriously. It's the web. We'll help you find answers, resources, support, whatever you need. Keep in touch and please let all of us know if there is something we can say or do to help you and your wife through this difficult time.
Thank you for the update!
Thursday, June 21, 2007
fundy in the house
Call the exterminator.
Well blogger friends, we've got a fundy. An honest to no one, word twisting, bible thumping fundy. I have no idea if he's around long term or not. He's been stalking Poodles Rule and apparently followed me over from Atheist Rants, her blog.
*sigh* For an example of his work, please see this post over there Getting Caught Up it starts with stem cell research and degenerates into atheism is a religion.
He says atheism is a religion because
"*you regularly read, opine, and study the arguments of atheism
*the supernatural being is yourself, you worship you
*You believe that You are smart enough to learn enough to convince yourself that you have a belief of zero in something :)"
Currently he's over on my post called homeschooling and statistics and wants to know what indoctrination is.
So why is this fundy getting a post all his own? No, it's not to stroke his little ole ego. It's to let you know this is a no-holds barred cage match. You got something to say to this fundy, let him have it. BigTex (and I hope you are still out there)- that means you can let fly with as many elbows as you want.
Have at him!
Well blogger friends, we've got a fundy. An honest to no one, word twisting, bible thumping fundy. I have no idea if he's around long term or not. He's been stalking Poodles Rule and apparently followed me over from Atheist Rants, her blog.
*sigh* For an example of his work, please see this post over there Getting Caught Up it starts with stem cell research and degenerates into atheism is a religion.
He says atheism is a religion because
"*you regularly read, opine, and study the arguments of atheism
*the supernatural being is yourself, you worship you
*You believe that You are smart enough to learn enough to convince yourself that you have a belief of zero in something :)"
Currently he's over on my post called homeschooling and statistics and wants to know what indoctrination is.
So why is this fundy getting a post all his own? No, it's not to stroke his little ole ego. It's to let you know this is a no-holds barred cage match. You got something to say to this fundy, let him have it. BigTex (and I hope you are still out there)- that means you can let fly with as many elbows as you want.
Have at him!
Monday, June 18, 2007
rally the troops
Hello faithful readers and anyone new to my blog!
I don't know how others approach their blogs, but I become attached to the people who comment on my blog. I get to know them a bit by their writing and I come to care about them. When other people are hurting or in trouble it brings out the Mama Ewok in me and being Fiery, like I am....well you see where this is going.
Bigtex71, one of my longest readers, is having a bit of stress in his life right now.
Please head over to his blog Ironic Coincidences and offer a word of encouragement.
He's in a tough spot right now having half-outed himself from the atheist closet to his wife, a devout catholic. As you can imagine, she's not taking it very well and he's looking for advice, tips, hints, coping strategies, what to do, and what not to do- type knowledge from anyone who has been there and done that.
Also, Bigtex had one of the worst Father's Days ever, one I would never wish on anyone. You can read about it here at his other blog Deep in the Heart of Bigtex and send him some warm fuzzies there as well.
Thanks guys!
I don't know how others approach their blogs, but I become attached to the people who comment on my blog. I get to know them a bit by their writing and I come to care about them. When other people are hurting or in trouble it brings out the Mama Ewok in me and being Fiery, like I am....well you see where this is going.
Bigtex71, one of my longest readers, is having a bit of stress in his life right now.
Please head over to his blog Ironic Coincidences and offer a word of encouragement.
He's in a tough spot right now having half-outed himself from the atheist closet to his wife, a devout catholic. As you can imagine, she's not taking it very well and he's looking for advice, tips, hints, coping strategies, what to do, and what not to do- type knowledge from anyone who has been there and done that.
Also, Bigtex had one of the worst Father's Days ever, one I would never wish on anyone. You can read about it here at his other blog Deep in the Heart of Bigtex and send him some warm fuzzies there as well.
Thanks guys!
Sunday, June 17, 2007
two heads are better than one
What was this mama raccoon thinking?
Leaving her babies to play among farm chemicals. tsk tsk.
"Now don't move!"
I want to wish my mate a very Happy Father's Day!!!!
You've made me laugh until tears run down my face.
You've made me laugh until I've peed my pants. (At Target!!.)
You've made me laugh until I've gasped for breath and pleaded for mercy.
Love you!
Leaving her babies to play among farm chemicals. tsk tsk.
I want to wish my mate a very Happy Father's Day!!!!
You've made me laugh until tears run down my face.
You've made me laugh until I've peed my pants. (At Target!!.)
You've made me laugh until I've gasped for breath and pleaded for mercy.
Love you!
Friday, June 15, 2007
homeschooling and statistics
King Aardvark said...
Off topic, but Zeno has a post about homeschooling right now. It's not really about homeschooling in general and is really attacking a right-wing nut who wants to do away with the public school system, but it was kind of interesting. Just thought you should give it a look.
King Aardvark- I'm not entirely sure that Sousa is hoping to do away with public school.
That being said, I think that public school is seriously flawed and needs radical improvement. No Child Left Behind has crippled educators and made it impossible for them to effectively teach anything but to the lowest-common-denominator and towards those damn yearly tests.
As for Zeno's post he quotes Sousa, then responds, so I've inserted a few of my own comments.
Sousa: Homeschooling may not be for everyone, but there are certainly indicators that it works well for most and extremely well for some.
Zeno: After the peroration, would it surprise you to learn that the rest of Sousa's opinion piece is devoted to explaining how unusual and extraordinary homeschooling students and families are? He must have a very curious notion of “works well for most.”
Me: Sousa wasn't saying that homeschooling works for most of America, it works for most homeschooling families. If it didn't work, they'd stop doing it. I would love to see information from homeschooled students themselves to see if they are happy with the experience, to see if they felt adequately prepared for adulthood.
Sousa: The families of homeschooled children are clearly different from those of traditional schoolchildren. Some 97 percent of homeschooled children live in married couple households; the comparable number for public school students is 72 percent. Nearly 88 percent of homeschooled parents continued their own education beyond high school; less than 50 percent of the general population has attended college.
Zeno: Okay, homeschooling families are something less than typical. Sousa, however, is keen to promote the practice.
Me: Homeschooling usually involves dropping down to single-income status. That's not easy for most people to do and thus tends to determine who is capable of even affording to homeschool. That being said, I belong to several yahoo groups with single moms making a go of homeschooling some with homebased businesses. As for level of education, I would say that most people with just a high school education don't feel like they know enough to teach their children at home. At least that is what I have heard from some of them. Of course Sousa is promoting homeschooling, he sees good results from it.
I don't know King A. I'm not really sure what Zeno's problem with Sousa is. Zeno is a math teacher at the junior college level. Yet he doesn't mention if he has ever had homeschooled kids in his class, if he felt that any or none were ever adequately prepared.
Homeschooling is very individualistic. Everyone does it for slightly different reasons and there is certainly no universal results achieved, methods used, or reasons for homeschooling.
Yes, there are a lot of fundamentalists out there in the homeschooling world. Yet there is a growing number of christian secular homeschoolers. Wrap your mind around that dicotomy! They seperate their christianity from the classroom and even teach evolution.
On the other hand, not all do. My mate works with a guy who was homeschooled and his Mama taught him that dinosaurs were a trick perpetrated by scientists to disprove god. Or some such twaddle like that. Unforunately for her, he was a dinosaur buff and didn't buy into her religious fantasy.
The statistics game is a tricky thing, it doesn't really accomplish much at the end of the day. I would rather see testimonials reported and personal experiences shared than numbers quoted in or out of context.
As for winning the spelling and geography bees of course homeschoolers will brag. How do public schools fare on a world wide level in math, science etc...? It is embarassing when you see how far down on the list the United States always ends up. There is something wrong with public schools. Sending your child there is a crap-shoot at what they will be exposed to and whether or not they will learn anything at all. Homeschooling is an option. Some public school teachers are very VERY threatened by this.
I went back for my 5 class reunion several years ago and talked with one guy had become a highschool science teacher. He was horrified that I was homeschooling and said he absolutely disagreed with my decision to do so. I gently told him we'd have go agree to disagree on that particular subject.
Off topic, but Zeno has a post about homeschooling right now. It's not really about homeschooling in general and is really attacking a right-wing nut who wants to do away with the public school system, but it was kind of interesting. Just thought you should give it a look.
King Aardvark- I'm not entirely sure that Sousa is hoping to do away with public school.
That being said, I think that public school is seriously flawed and needs radical improvement. No Child Left Behind has crippled educators and made it impossible for them to effectively teach anything but to the lowest-common-denominator and towards those damn yearly tests.
As for Zeno's post he quotes Sousa, then responds, so I've inserted a few of my own comments.
Sousa: Homeschooling may not be for everyone, but there are certainly indicators that it works well for most and extremely well for some.
Zeno: After the peroration, would it surprise you to learn that the rest of Sousa's opinion piece is devoted to explaining how unusual and extraordinary homeschooling students and families are? He must have a very curious notion of “works well for most.”
Me: Sousa wasn't saying that homeschooling works for most of America, it works for most homeschooling families. If it didn't work, they'd stop doing it. I would love to see information from homeschooled students themselves to see if they are happy with the experience, to see if they felt adequately prepared for adulthood.
Sousa: The families of homeschooled children are clearly different from those of traditional schoolchildren. Some 97 percent of homeschooled children live in married couple households; the comparable number for public school students is 72 percent. Nearly 88 percent of homeschooled parents continued their own education beyond high school; less than 50 percent of the general population has attended college.
Zeno: Okay, homeschooling families are something less than typical. Sousa, however, is keen to promote the practice.
Me: Homeschooling usually involves dropping down to single-income status. That's not easy for most people to do and thus tends to determine who is capable of even affording to homeschool. That being said, I belong to several yahoo groups with single moms making a go of homeschooling some with homebased businesses. As for level of education, I would say that most people with just a high school education don't feel like they know enough to teach their children at home. At least that is what I have heard from some of them. Of course Sousa is promoting homeschooling, he sees good results from it.
I don't know King A. I'm not really sure what Zeno's problem with Sousa is. Zeno is a math teacher at the junior college level. Yet he doesn't mention if he has ever had homeschooled kids in his class, if he felt that any or none were ever adequately prepared.
Homeschooling is very individualistic. Everyone does it for slightly different reasons and there is certainly no universal results achieved, methods used, or reasons for homeschooling.
Yes, there are a lot of fundamentalists out there in the homeschooling world. Yet there is a growing number of christian secular homeschoolers. Wrap your mind around that dicotomy! They seperate their christianity from the classroom and even teach evolution.
On the other hand, not all do. My mate works with a guy who was homeschooled and his Mama taught him that dinosaurs were a trick perpetrated by scientists to disprove god. Or some such twaddle like that. Unforunately for her, he was a dinosaur buff and didn't buy into her religious fantasy.
The statistics game is a tricky thing, it doesn't really accomplish much at the end of the day. I would rather see testimonials reported and personal experiences shared than numbers quoted in or out of context.
As for winning the spelling and geography bees of course homeschoolers will brag. How do public schools fare on a world wide level in math, science etc...? It is embarassing when you see how far down on the list the United States always ends up. There is something wrong with public schools. Sending your child there is a crap-shoot at what they will be exposed to and whether or not they will learn anything at all. Homeschooling is an option. Some public school teachers are very VERY threatened by this.
I went back for my 5 class reunion several years ago and talked with one guy had become a highschool science teacher. He was horrified that I was homeschooling and said he absolutely disagreed with my decision to do so. I gently told him we'd have go agree to disagree on that particular subject.
pascal's wager and medicine
Back in my post called why do atheists keep harping at christians?
Verndigger has come back and answered some of our questions regarding his comment.
The summary of the situation is as follows:
Russ: ... it is immoral to be tight-lipped when a child is allowed to die from a routinely curable affliction because of its Christian Science parent's faith...
Verndigger: if it is just as immoral to be silent when that same child dies under care of the medical, IN SPITE of the 'routinely curable' cure.
Fiery Ewok: I think it would then depend on cause of death-
medical negligence- immoral
honest medical error- regretable
careless medical error- immoral
In response to my comment Verndigger has posed what seems to me to be Pascal's Wager concerning modern medicine.
Verndigger: ...would not the same criteria apply to other healing methods? such as various alternative methods, whether naturopath, homeopathy, or whatever healing method someone chooses ?...
Verndigger: ...CS'ers do not 'sit back and wait..', or 'refuse treatment', they are actively working for the healing, as I said before, in the way they know has worked for them and thousands of others, previously....
His comment was significantly longer than that and available if you follow the link above to the original post.
It seems to me that the difference is that modern medicine helps billions, where Christian Science, according to Verndigger, has helped thousands. Those aren't great odds when you are dealing with the life of a minor below the age of consent. For an adult to choose CS methods, it is just that- their choice. For a child to have imposed upon him or her, the parent's decision to use prayer and CS methods only or prior to medical care- that is immoral.
Verndigger has come back and answered some of our questions regarding his comment.
The summary of the situation is as follows:
Russ: ... it is immoral to be tight-lipped when a child is allowed to die from a routinely curable affliction because of its Christian Science parent's faith...
Verndigger: if it is just as immoral to be silent when that same child dies under care of the medical, IN SPITE of the 'routinely curable' cure.
Fiery Ewok: I think it would then depend on cause of death-
medical negligence- immoral
honest medical error- regretable
careless medical error- immoral
In response to my comment Verndigger has posed what seems to me to be Pascal's Wager concerning modern medicine.
Verndigger: ...would not the same criteria apply to other healing methods? such as various alternative methods, whether naturopath, homeopathy, or whatever healing method someone chooses ?...
Verndigger: ...CS'ers do not 'sit back and wait..', or 'refuse treatment', they are actively working for the healing, as I said before, in the way they know has worked for them and thousands of others, previously....
His comment was significantly longer than that and available if you follow the link above to the original post.
It seems to me that the difference is that modern medicine helps billions, where Christian Science, according to Verndigger, has helped thousands. Those aren't great odds when you are dealing with the life of a minor below the age of consent. For an adult to choose CS methods, it is just that- their choice. For a child to have imposed upon him or her, the parent's decision to use prayer and CS methods only or prior to medical care- that is immoral.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Labels- Part 2: Childhood Labels
Even more damaging than judging an adult by there gender is labeling kids and then treating them according to that label.
Schools are very quick if not eager to put a label on a child- ADD, ADHD, Special-Needs, Gifted, Slow, Learning Disabled, Physically Disabled. The label goes on the child's permanent record, and my guess is that file is then color-coded accordingly.
What bothers me, isn't that medical professionals are diagnosing children with these issues.
My problem is with the school administrators eagerly look for an excuse to increase their budget through a child's label. I also have a problem with guidance councelors or overly-enthusiastic teachers who would rather diagnose a child with a label instead of exercising their authority as the adult in charge.
When my daughter was in first grade, her teacher, Ms S. was just out of college. Fresh from the indoctrination to get kids pegged so there files can be properly color-coded and the resulting funding applied for- lest one of them be "left behind".
Late that fall we had our first parent-teacher conference. I was going to attempt to recreate the conversation, but it got boring and I don't remember it word for word anyway. Here are some of the points Ms. S. made to us regarding Punkin #1:
1- She already knows how to read
2- The other kids make fun of her for sounding out words phonetically instead of using the whole-word/guess method the rest of the class is using
3- She already knows the material in her math book
4- She makes the letter "a" incorrectly using the typewritten shape instead of the ball and stick shape
5- She talks too much during class
6- Oh- and by the way, I'm pretty sure she might need ritalin. Would you like to set up an appointment to see someone about this?
I should have asked how Ms S. was dealing with the teasing. I should have asked what steps she had taken to diminish the talking out of turn.
I couldn't get over the idea that this woman wanted to drug my daughter.
I don't know how to communicate my shock, disbelief, bafflement, horror, frustration, anger, and rage at this idiocy.
I've read Attila the Mom's blog dealing with her 2 boys who have some definite issues with ADHD and other complications. She faces great challenges at her house.
Aside from typical childhood behavior- my mate and I weren't having any trouble at home.
I really don't know how to let you know how ridiculous accusing my Punkin of ADHD is.
She doesn't have a "disorder". So- sorry! you won't be able to use her to up your budget. [Doesn't that sound like a great curse-out. "Up Your Budget!"]
She's not "hyper-active". She's probably antsy because she already knows the material.
She likes to talk. What else should she do if she's bored?
Punkin #1 never set foot in that classroom again. No way was a starry-eyed first-year teacher going to drug my child because Punkin #1 was bored with material that was too easy for her. Or call social services because we refused our daughter medical treatment or whatever other bullshit they come up with to force compliance with the label.
My mate and I had always toyed with homeschooling. Ritalin clinched the deal.
Funny how we got Punkin #1 home and didn't have any problems that required medical intervention. Hmmmmmm.
**************
Kids are more than the labels that have been attached to them.
Whether it is labels given to them legitimately by doctors or other medical professions or the color-coded label placed on their file by school administrators.
"There's no sense letting Bart try-out for the school play, he's ADHD and won't be able to commit to practice every night after school."
Possibly more damaging to a child is the label given by the parents. Next time you hear a parent introduce their child, pay attention. Is it along the lines of "This is my son Wentworth, he's in 4th grade" or "This is my daughter Sarsparilla she's five".
Or is it more like "This is my boy Tyler, he's a real competitor. Loves his sports." or "This is Matilda, she's painfully shy."?
When a child is known by a label, the label becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Kids will start to live-up-to or live-down-to the label. They become who a child is and the label comes to define them as human beings.
After all, labels provide a powerful excuse.
Little Matilda doesn't have to try hard to meet people, she's shy and everyone knows it up front.
Tyler is expected to be more interested in sports rather than in schooling. Tyler has a built in excuse for not studying his spelling: he loves baseball and just wanted to get in a few more pitches before bed time.
"Oh, that one has ADHD so don't expect him to focus for more than a minute."
"Don't invite her, she's homeschooled and won't know how to play with the other children."
No matter who gave it to them, children are more than their labels.
Schools are very quick if not eager to put a label on a child- ADD, ADHD, Special-Needs, Gifted, Slow, Learning Disabled, Physically Disabled. The label goes on the child's permanent record, and my guess is that file is then color-coded accordingly.
What bothers me, isn't that medical professionals are diagnosing children with these issues.
My problem is with the school administrators eagerly look for an excuse to increase their budget through a child's label. I also have a problem with guidance councelors or overly-enthusiastic teachers who would rather diagnose a child with a label instead of exercising their authority as the adult in charge.
When my daughter was in first grade, her teacher, Ms S. was just out of college. Fresh from the indoctrination to get kids pegged so there files can be properly color-coded and the resulting funding applied for- lest one of them be "left behind".
Late that fall we had our first parent-teacher conference. I was going to attempt to recreate the conversation, but it got boring and I don't remember it word for word anyway. Here are some of the points Ms. S. made to us regarding Punkin #1:
1- She already knows how to read
2- The other kids make fun of her for sounding out words phonetically instead of using the whole-word/guess method the rest of the class is using
3- She already knows the material in her math book
4- She makes the letter "a" incorrectly using the typewritten shape instead of the ball and stick shape
5- She talks too much during class
6- Oh- and by the way, I'm pretty sure she might need ritalin. Would you like to set up an appointment to see someone about this?
I should have asked how Ms S. was dealing with the teasing. I should have asked what steps she had taken to diminish the talking out of turn.
I couldn't get over the idea that this woman wanted to drug my daughter.
I don't know how to communicate my shock, disbelief, bafflement, horror, frustration, anger, and rage at this idiocy.
I've read Attila the Mom's blog dealing with her 2 boys who have some definite issues with ADHD and other complications. She faces great challenges at her house.
Aside from typical childhood behavior- my mate and I weren't having any trouble at home.
I really don't know how to let you know how ridiculous accusing my Punkin of ADHD is.
She doesn't have a "disorder". So- sorry! you won't be able to use her to up your budget. [Doesn't that sound like a great curse-out. "Up Your Budget!"]
She's not "hyper-active". She's probably antsy because she already knows the material.
She likes to talk. What else should she do if she's bored?
Punkin #1 never set foot in that classroom again. No way was a starry-eyed first-year teacher going to drug my child because Punkin #1 was bored with material that was too easy for her. Or call social services because we refused our daughter medical treatment or whatever other bullshit they come up with to force compliance with the label.
My mate and I had always toyed with homeschooling. Ritalin clinched the deal.
Funny how we got Punkin #1 home and didn't have any problems that required medical intervention. Hmmmmmm.
**************
Kids are more than the labels that have been attached to them.
Whether it is labels given to them legitimately by doctors or other medical professions or the color-coded label placed on their file by school administrators.
"There's no sense letting Bart try-out for the school play, he's ADHD and won't be able to commit to practice every night after school."
Possibly more damaging to a child is the label given by the parents. Next time you hear a parent introduce their child, pay attention. Is it along the lines of "This is my son Wentworth, he's in 4th grade" or "This is my daughter Sarsparilla she's five".
Or is it more like "This is my boy Tyler, he's a real competitor. Loves his sports." or "This is Matilda, she's painfully shy."?
When a child is known by a label, the label becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Kids will start to live-up-to or live-down-to the label. They become who a child is and the label comes to define them as human beings.
After all, labels provide a powerful excuse.
Little Matilda doesn't have to try hard to meet people, she's shy and everyone knows it up front.
Tyler is expected to be more interested in sports rather than in schooling. Tyler has a built in excuse for not studying his spelling: he loves baseball and just wanted to get in a few more pitches before bed time.
"Oh, that one has ADHD so don't expect him to focus for more than a minute."
"Don't invite her, she's homeschooled and won't know how to play with the other children."
No matter who gave it to them, children are more than their labels.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Labels- Part 1: Gender Bashing
Where I grew up in Montana- male bashing was the norm. It wasn't specific to an individual man, "My husband is so forgetful he would lose his ass if it wasn't firmly attached". In Montana, the male bashing was alway done in general terms. When a mistake, accident, or misjudgment occured, it was because he was "just a man".
For example- "Bubba screwed up the planning of X. He didn't plan for enough Y when he should have known Z."
I could live with that assessment. Bubba screwed up. But it didn't stop there.
Someone would say, as their cronies nodded in agreement, "Men just can't plan anything because they don't have a woman's abilities". or "He's such a man, it's no wonder he can't ...." or "No wonder you are having trouble with your boss, he's a man."
The most shameful result of it was hearing Papa Ewok begin to say, "I'm just a man." or "You know, men just can't do that sort of thing."
I felt really sad the first time I heard my dad say that, and now I try and disagree with a reason whenever he says, "Well, I'm just a man, I can't do that sort of thing". He usually just shakes his head and mutters he's still just a man. *sigh*
The male bashing had become an excuse, a reason, an enabling device for some men to feel incompetent, unable, and unwilling to attempt tasks "better suited" for women.
It was quite the shock to me, then, to move to Minnesota and find that here, woman bashing is the norm. "All women need a man's guiding hand. Women need a strong husband to lay down the law. Women are too emotional." These were actually said to me, in all seriousness. Let me tell you how well that went over with me! (Unfortunately living up to the "too emotional" aspect.)
I was playing Skip-bo with my fundy neighbor and his cousin, when the cousin's brother, Cro-Magnon walks in hairy knuckles dragging and says "You aren't letting a woman beat you, are you?" *Teeth grinding* as fundy and his cousin chuckle a bit and the game continues.
Later after Cro-Magnon leaves, we were playing a second game and the fundy's cousin says something about me being "just like a woman".
(Now remember we are at the fundy's house and I didn't pick Fiery because I like cook-outs.)
I looked at fundy's cousin and said softly with growing volume, "Fuck you and that woman bashing shit, what the hell is up with that? Where I come from in Montana it was all 'He's just a man' and now I get here and it's the same thing for women! What the hell is the matter with you guys?"
I don't think anyone ever called them on woman bashing before. Not like that. Not with an absence of tears or submission and pleading. They just exchanged a raised eyebrow, coughed, and kept playing.
I guess because I grew up a tomboy and rarely did typical girl things that I just assumed everyone was an individual. The guy was an idiot because he made a bad decision, not because he was a man. I didn't take part in male bashing and I sure as hell wasn't going to take part in female bashing.
Individuals are stupid. Individuals make idiotic decisions. Individuals can look at a situation and miss what is completely obvious to everyone else on the planet. It's not because they are male or female that these things happen.
So why the labels? Why generic bashing of genders?
Life doesn't come with a rule book. I think people like to put labels on other people because then they know how to deal with them. "She's being emotional because she's just a woman. He can't possibly understand this, he's just a man. He'll know how to jump the car, he's a man. It's her job to stay home with the baby, she's a woman."
Labels help make life manageable. They put people in categories so we know how to respond to them. The problem arises when the labels become over-generalized or don't fit the person labeled.
Men can be emotional too. Some of them even cry: at girlie movies, when bad things happen, when they are upset, or when they are hurt. Men can be understanding and very sympathetic and can provide a wonderful shoulder to cry on.
Labels work the other direction too. Some men don't know one end of a power drill from another, while some women can jump a car, change the oil, and put on the spare tire.
Some men can put together a fabulous meal or say their best memories were taking care of their infant son, while some women have the nurturing capabilities of sea turtles.
For example- "Bubba screwed up the planning of X. He didn't plan for enough Y when he should have known Z."
I could live with that assessment. Bubba screwed up. But it didn't stop there.
Someone would say, as their cronies nodded in agreement, "Men just can't plan anything because they don't have a woman's abilities". or "He's such a man, it's no wonder he can't ...." or "No wonder you are having trouble with your boss, he's a man."
The most shameful result of it was hearing Papa Ewok begin to say, "I'm just a man." or "You know, men just can't do that sort of thing."
I felt really sad the first time I heard my dad say that, and now I try and disagree with a reason whenever he says, "Well, I'm just a man, I can't do that sort of thing". He usually just shakes his head and mutters he's still just a man. *sigh*
The male bashing had become an excuse, a reason, an enabling device for some men to feel incompetent, unable, and unwilling to attempt tasks "better suited" for women.
It was quite the shock to me, then, to move to Minnesota and find that here, woman bashing is the norm. "All women need a man's guiding hand. Women need a strong husband to lay down the law. Women are too emotional." These were actually said to me, in all seriousness. Let me tell you how well that went over with me! (Unfortunately living up to the "too emotional" aspect.)
I was playing Skip-bo with my fundy neighbor and his cousin, when the cousin's brother, Cro-Magnon walks in hairy knuckles dragging and says "You aren't letting a woman beat you, are you?" *Teeth grinding* as fundy and his cousin chuckle a bit and the game continues.
Later after Cro-Magnon leaves, we were playing a second game and the fundy's cousin says something about me being "just like a woman".
(Now remember we are at the fundy's house and I didn't pick Fiery because I like cook-outs.)
I looked at fundy's cousin and said softly with growing volume, "Fuck you and that woman bashing shit, what the hell is up with that? Where I come from in Montana it was all 'He's just a man' and now I get here and it's the same thing for women! What the hell is the matter with you guys?"
I don't think anyone ever called them on woman bashing before. Not like that. Not with an absence of tears or submission and pleading. They just exchanged a raised eyebrow, coughed, and kept playing.
I guess because I grew up a tomboy and rarely did typical girl things that I just assumed everyone was an individual. The guy was an idiot because he made a bad decision, not because he was a man. I didn't take part in male bashing and I sure as hell wasn't going to take part in female bashing.
Individuals are stupid. Individuals make idiotic decisions. Individuals can look at a situation and miss what is completely obvious to everyone else on the planet. It's not because they are male or female that these things happen.
So why the labels? Why generic bashing of genders?
Life doesn't come with a rule book. I think people like to put labels on other people because then they know how to deal with them. "She's being emotional because she's just a woman. He can't possibly understand this, he's just a man. He'll know how to jump the car, he's a man. It's her job to stay home with the baby, she's a woman."
Labels help make life manageable. They put people in categories so we know how to respond to them. The problem arises when the labels become over-generalized or don't fit the person labeled.
Men can be emotional too. Some of them even cry: at girlie movies, when bad things happen, when they are upset, or when they are hurt. Men can be understanding and very sympathetic and can provide a wonderful shoulder to cry on.
Labels work the other direction too. Some men don't know one end of a power drill from another, while some women can jump a car, change the oil, and put on the spare tire.
Some men can put together a fabulous meal or say their best memories were taking care of their infant son, while some women have the nurturing capabilities of sea turtles.
Friday, June 8, 2007
faith in the white house
I've never put a picture on my blog before. So this post is something of an experiment. I found one picture over at Joe's Big Blog. I think the pic is important enough to land on more than one blog ambiguous enough to be worth a laugh.
Before I attempt the picture, I wanted to find a quote about dubya being a born-again christian. I found this article from the New York Times. It is called Faith, Certainty and the Presidency of George W. Bush by By RON SUSKIND . I started skimming it for the reference.
I had no idea that an article like this was in the mainstream media. The more I read the more I kept thinking why the FARDLES is this man President of the United States of America? Did you read the article? If not, please go back. Just read some of it. Honestly, I couldn't read all of it because the idiocy, corruption, and utter lack of any of the Presidential qualities of our Founding Fathers is so bad it made my ears ring and to quote Stinkbait Boucher- It gives me bad brain.
Here are three quotes that really boggle me.
''This is why George W. Bush is so clear-eyed about Al Qaeda and the Islamic fundamentalist enemy. He believes you have to kill them all. They can't be persuaded that they're extremists, driven by a dark vision. He understands them, because he's just like them. . . . [The dots are part of the article, the next paragraph continues right after them.]
''This is why he dispenses with people who confront him with inconvenient facts,'' Bartlett went on to say. ''He truly believes he's on a mission from God. Absolute faith like that overwhelms a need for analysis. The whole thing about faith is to believe things for which there is no empirical evidence.'' Bartlett paused, then said, ''But you can't run the world on faith.''
dubya's reaction to dissenting opinions or requests for explanations.
The disdainful smirks and grimaces that many viewers were surprised to see in the first presidential debate are familiar expressions to those in the administration or in Congress who have simply asked the president to explain his positions. Since 9/11, those requests have grown scarce; Bush's intolerance of doubters has, if anything, increased, and few dare to question him now. A writ of infallibility -- a premise beneath the powerful Bushian certainty that has, in many ways, moved mountains -- is not just for public consumption: it has guided the inner life of the White House.
And from later on, a description of why dubya became born-again. Note who decided dubya needed a ''come to jesus'' meeting.
George W., drunk at a party, crudely insulted a friend of his mother's. George senior and Barbara blew up. Words were exchanged along the lines of something having to be done. George senior, then the vice president, dialed up his friend, Billy Graham, who came to the compound and spent several days with George W. in probing exchanges and walks on the beach. George W. was soon born again. He stopped drinking, attended Bible study and wrestled with issues of fervent faith. A man who was lost was saved.
The President of the United States of America is not infallible. It is the responsibility of every elected official and every citizen of the United States to question his judgment, to hold him to a higher standard of reason, sound judgment, rational thinking, and logical decisions.
For all prayer meetings that dubya has held, for all the claims to being led by god in the war on terror, and for all the requests for spiritual counseling and consultations with fundamentalist christians, I leave you with a few pictures worth 10,000 words.
Oh- and "Go Longhorns!"
Courtesy of Joe's Big Blog.
Before I attempt the picture, I wanted to find a quote about dubya being a born-again christian. I found this article from the New York Times. It is called Faith, Certainty and the Presidency of George W. Bush by By RON SUSKIND . I started skimming it for the reference.
I had no idea that an article like this was in the mainstream media. The more I read the more I kept thinking why the FARDLES is this man President of the United States of America? Did you read the article? If not, please go back. Just read some of it. Honestly, I couldn't read all of it because the idiocy, corruption, and utter lack of any of the Presidential qualities of our Founding Fathers is so bad it made my ears ring and to quote Stinkbait Boucher- It gives me bad brain.
Here are three quotes that really boggle me.
''This is why George W. Bush is so clear-eyed about Al Qaeda and the Islamic fundamentalist enemy. He believes you have to kill them all. They can't be persuaded that they're extremists, driven by a dark vision. He understands them, because he's just like them. . . . [The dots are part of the article, the next paragraph continues right after them.]
''This is why he dispenses with people who confront him with inconvenient facts,'' Bartlett went on to say. ''He truly believes he's on a mission from God. Absolute faith like that overwhelms a need for analysis. The whole thing about faith is to believe things for which there is no empirical evidence.'' Bartlett paused, then said, ''But you can't run the world on faith.''
dubya's reaction to dissenting opinions or requests for explanations.
The disdainful smirks and grimaces that many viewers were surprised to see in the first presidential debate are familiar expressions to those in the administration or in Congress who have simply asked the president to explain his positions. Since 9/11, those requests have grown scarce; Bush's intolerance of doubters has, if anything, increased, and few dare to question him now. A writ of infallibility -- a premise beneath the powerful Bushian certainty that has, in many ways, moved mountains -- is not just for public consumption: it has guided the inner life of the White House.
And from later on, a description of why dubya became born-again. Note who decided dubya needed a ''come to jesus'' meeting.
George W., drunk at a party, crudely insulted a friend of his mother's. George senior and Barbara blew up. Words were exchanged along the lines of something having to be done. George senior, then the vice president, dialed up his friend, Billy Graham, who came to the compound and spent several days with George W. in probing exchanges and walks on the beach. George W. was soon born again. He stopped drinking, attended Bible study and wrestled with issues of fervent faith. A man who was lost was saved.
The President of the United States of America is not infallible. It is the responsibility of every elected official and every citizen of the United States to question his judgment, to hold him to a higher standard of reason, sound judgment, rational thinking, and logical decisions.
For all prayer meetings that dubya has held, for all the claims to being led by god in the war on terror, and for all the requests for spiritual counseling and consultations with fundamentalist christians, I leave you with a few pictures worth 10,000 words.
Courtesy of Joe's Big Blog.
Thursday, June 7, 2007
what makes jesus so great?
I've heard several atheists (I'm sorry I can't provide the links, it was awhile ago) say that although they don't believe in god, they think the teachings of jesus have merit.
I know that at Evil Bible.com they have a couple of pages dedicated to the nasty things jesus advocated.
What about the good stuff? What teachings of jesus do you believe (if any) have merit? That are actually worth knowing about and putting into practice?
I know that at Evil Bible.com they have a couple of pages dedicated to the nasty things jesus advocated.
What about the good stuff? What teachings of jesus do you believe (if any) have merit? That are actually worth knowing about and putting into practice?
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
escalating fundism
Mama Ewok recently had surgery on her knee and ended up with a total knee replacement. It's been about 5 weeks now and she isn't moving at all the way she wishes she was. She has always been active and very busy, so this forced inactivity is very hard for her.
Background- when I was growing up, we went through the motions of being christians (Lutherans). We went to church every sunday, attended sunday school, bible school for a week during the summer, observed all the holidays, first communion, confirmation, prayed before supper during the school year and lunch and supper during the summer. When I was little she would come down to my bedroom, sit on my bed and pray the "Now I lay me down to sleep prayer" and then we would visit.
That was pretty much it. We didn't spend really any time talking about god and we didn't pepper our conversation with "What would jesus do" questions or "The lord is leading me to..." or "The lord is testing me".
But in the last few years, her conversations have begun to include those types of phrases. *sigh*
She also has taken to saying "Well that's why God invented XYZ". Now that one really drives me batshit. God didn't invent anything. ARGH! Sorry.
What really drives me wonky is when she gives the lord credit for decisions I encouraged her to make, or things I have done to help her. One time I even said, "Don't thank god, Mom, that one was me. He didn't have a thing to do with it!"
Mama Ewok just found out she has a blood clot in her leg. She has to go back to almost no activity, blood thinners, etc... until the clot dissolves. This is not good. She has been going a little bonkers with all the forced in-activity. And it looks like the recovery time is now at about 3 months.
Tonight she sent me this e-mail [snip]... well i guess the good lord said hey Mama Ewok you have to slow down ...
I have just been ignoring these types of comments, but it is getting harder.
*sigh*
I wonder if she would work harder at making the life she has now on earth happier if she wasn't counting on their being a heaven to reward her for all of her sacrifices.
Background- when I was growing up, we went through the motions of being christians (Lutherans). We went to church every sunday, attended sunday school, bible school for a week during the summer, observed all the holidays, first communion, confirmation, prayed before supper during the school year and lunch and supper during the summer. When I was little she would come down to my bedroom, sit on my bed and pray the "Now I lay me down to sleep prayer" and then we would visit.
That was pretty much it. We didn't spend really any time talking about god and we didn't pepper our conversation with "What would jesus do" questions or "The lord is leading me to..." or "The lord is testing me".
But in the last few years, her conversations have begun to include those types of phrases. *sigh*
She also has taken to saying "Well that's why God invented XYZ". Now that one really drives me batshit. God didn't invent anything. ARGH! Sorry.
What really drives me wonky is when she gives the lord credit for decisions I encouraged her to make, or things I have done to help her. One time I even said, "Don't thank god, Mom, that one was me. He didn't have a thing to do with it!"
Mama Ewok just found out she has a blood clot in her leg. She has to go back to almost no activity, blood thinners, etc... until the clot dissolves. This is not good. She has been going a little bonkers with all the forced in-activity. And it looks like the recovery time is now at about 3 months.
Tonight she sent me this e-mail [snip]... well i guess the good lord said hey Mama Ewok you have to slow down ...
I have just been ignoring these types of comments, but it is getting harder.
*sigh*
I wonder if she would work harder at making the life she has now on earth happier if she wasn't counting on their being a heaven to reward her for all of her sacrifices.
why do atheists keep harping at christians?
I was over at Atheist in a mini van's blog. PossumMomma has been smacked by Patsy,a fundy, for not just ignoring christians when she gets bothered by them. There have been a variety of good responses to the little fundy. One really stands out. It reads like a "No, Virginia, there really isn't a santa claus" letter.
I really debated about the ethics of posting this comment here on my blog. However, I'm not claiming this as my own writing and I am providing a link to the original source material.
The reason I am posting it is for more people to read this blogger's thoughts.
If Russ or PossumMomma asks me to pull this- I will immediately. Until then enjoy a very well written response to a fundy!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Russ said:
When someone expresses the sentiments that Patsy did, "Why can't you just leave christians alone? I mean it, why can't you just not comment on things if they bother you," a wave of disgust washes over me as I recall the ever on-going inhumanity of Christianity. Sometimes I literally tremble in outrage thinking of the untold millions of my fellow men who have suffered horribly at the hands of Christians over the last two millenia.
So, "Why can't you just not comment on things if they bother you?": simply this, Patsy: it is immoral to be silent in the face of the crimes against humanity which Christianity is guilty of; it is immoral to hold one's tongue when innocent people are made to suffer and die for human-created Christian dogma; it is immoral to stand mute when the world over, in Christianity and most other religions, people are intentionally psychologically battered as children to make them dependent as adults on the cruel dictates of their church; it is immoral to avoid speaking out when the most politically influential factions of Christianity have sworn themselves to destroy the only real tool mankind possesses to improve its quality of life and to protect itself from the ravages of nature: science; it is immoral to silence oneself as Christianity, through the crooks, charlatans, frauds, thieves, and perverts it euphemistically calls clergy, steals money from people - so often ignorant and poor people - who desperately need it for their own families, through the con job called faith; it is immoral to hush oneself as Christian dominionists who want the world to end in a great conflagration edge ever closer to control of the US nuclear arsenal; it is immoral to be tight-lipped when a child is allowed to die from a routinely curable affliction because of its Christian Science parent's faith; it is immoral to remain quiet when one Christian sect, has always and to this day continues to support a worlwide network of Christian child rapists, molesters and sexual predators, in the guise of Catholic priests, bishops, cardinals, and popes (Patsy, should we allow children to be victimized because it's Christian clergy committing the crimes?); it is immoral not to speak out when the clear intent of Christians is to impose their superstitions, fears, and uncivilized ethics on all others; it is immoral to stifle ones voice when Christians, despite all their claims of moral guidance by the hand of its god, are certainly no better behaved than non-Christians; and, it is immoral to be tight-lipped while watching Christians piss away thousands of hours of their lives in religious observances when they could be involved in something more useful for themselves and their fellow man.
That is but a partial list of the reasons why I refuse to be silenced concerning the outrages and abominations of Christianity.
Patsy, you impress me as being, like essentially every other Christian on the planet, completely unaware of what it means to be Christian in the modern world. Christianity is, in fact, so diverse in theology, doctrine and dogma, that there is not a single idea that might be thought of as Christian that is common to all of them. You might say, "Well, they all believe in God!" Nope. Wrong answer, Patsy. There are lots of Christians who are atheists. That's right, Patsy. No god and nothing else supernatural either: no miracles, no virgin birth, no divine Jesus, no resurrection, etc. My favorite example in such matters is Episcopalian Minister Reverend Harry T. Cook, since I know Harry will take questions - yes, you can ask him yourself, Patsy - and answer them(Harry's contact information is: e-mail: revharrytcook@aol.com phone: 248.709.9689 web: http://www.harrytcook.com). Visit Harry's site, Patsy, but be prepared to have your eyes opened. Remember, now, Patsy, you can't play the "he's not exactly like me so he's not a real Christian" game. Harry's been active mainstream Christian clergy for more than forty years. He's a real Christian, all right, he's simply nobody's Patsy. Harry's a good man, a good atheist man, a good rationalist, empiricist man, working to make the world a better place, guided by evidence and reason, not superstition.
I have an uncle who is an atheist and is active Christian clergy. Patsy, you may resist the idea, but you could easily be attending church with atheists. You see, atheists like being with other people; atheists like music; atheists like pot luck dinners; atheists like social involvement; and, there are millions of them who attend Christian churches, owing primarily to the fact that, as a rule, atheists don't tend to herd well. As Richard Dawkins is fond of noting, organizing atheists is like trying to herd cats. Atheists are so independently-minded that they don't coalesce well. That's also why they are not good prey animals for religious predators.
Patsy, the way you've presented yourself, here, tells me you're one of Christianity's victims. You're told what the Bible says; you're told what you believe; you let others tell you what your morality is since the Bible is so bizarre that, left to yourself, there is no way you could possibly find in the Bible what your church is telling you; none of what you say you believe is yours; it's what someone else has invented and you pay for it every time the collection plate comes around.
You ended one comment saying, "My GOD is a loving GOD. HE is comforting and everlasting. HE takes my fears away because HE is all powerful." This tells a person a lot about you, Patsy. Clearly, you have never read, or perhaps more correctly, you have never been allowed to read the Bible using your own critical thinking faculties. No sane, moral person could read the Bible and come to the conclusion you state here. This is not yours; this is someone else's conclusion forced on you. That thing you call a god, Patsy, obviously does not quell your fears, since forced as you are to fear non-believers, you end up in fear of many non-believing Christians.
Not long ago, I witnessed twenty people in a Bible study group abandon Christianity because they actually read the words as though they were words that they, being the mere mortals they are, could understand. They put them into sentences they could understand. They pieced the narratives together in context looking for the big picture view. Then, they applied common standards of plausibility, the same standards that thinking people, but clearly not the Bible authors themselves, would have used at the time the Bible narratives were written. Comparing that view of the Bible - their own, remember - with what they know of the world and what it means to think, they realized it could not be divinely inspired. It was not the work of someone who understood humankind and the rest of the natural world even to the extent that a young schoolchild understands it today. They understood for the first time in their lives that the Bible was written by ignorant, superstitious, men - specifically, males - with cruel moral codes, men with whom they had nothing in common - not language, not knowledge, not culture, not thought, and certainly not morality. In light of their new understanding they did what sane, normal people do: they followed the evidence. They all abandoned Christianity, and most of them abandoned faith of any kind.
Patsy, I truly wish for every person on the planet the best that life can offer them among which are peace, joy, happiness, understanding, compassion, and love. If you really look at religion with open eyes, you will see that while religion has always promised these things, religion has never delivered on those promises. If you consider further, looking, for instance, at the myriad problems religions of all sorts, including your own Christianity, are causing the world over, you will see that it can't deliver on those promises.
After giving religions some serious thought, then, make this comparison, Patsy: look at your life, your health, the society around you, the world at large, and even the cosmos to see what you owe to rational thought, reason, and science. One itsy bitsy little fact will make a very strong point: only a fraction of the people alive on earth today would exist at all if not for science. Science in agriculture, medicine, and logistics, for instance, doesn't simply make life better, for most people, science makes it possible to be alive at all. While science and the other rational arts won't promise you love, or those other largely subjective things religions do, science does provide you the most fertile ground for those things to grow: life itself, good health, a clear vision of world, and an understanding of man's natural place in the natural order. Those are not given by gods. They are the products of hundreds of years of man's intellectual efforts, efforts, often impeded, often stymied, and often murderously opposed by the minions of Christianity. Knowing itself to be powerless to fulfill its promises made, Christianity put its full power and authority into keeping non-divine human efforts from fulfilling them. If Christianity could conjure no cure for disease, no man was to be allowed to find one. From the church's standpoint, better for all of mankind to suffer if the church didn't get the credit. So much for Christian promises. Another fine example of Christian immorality.
I have no reason whatsoever to think that outside religion you would be anything but scrupulously honest, Patsy. Now is the best time for you to turn your honesty toward religion and ask: "Does religion live up to its claims?," remembering that we must be honest; "Is there any human endeavor that comes closer to fulfilling religion's claims of benefitting mankind?;" and, "Since religion can't fulfill its claims, and there do exist other human endeavors which, by doing an observably better job of making life and health possible, come much closer to fulfilling religion's claims, why should anyone persist in supporting religion?"
Like the Bible study group I mentioned earlier, uncompromising honesty can lead you to truth, then, if you are strong enough to accept it, that truth can set you free.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thank you Russ for your unsuspecting guest spot on my blog!
I really debated about the ethics of posting this comment here on my blog. However, I'm not claiming this as my own writing and I am providing a link to the original source material.
The reason I am posting it is for more people to read this blogger's thoughts.
If Russ or PossumMomma asks me to pull this- I will immediately. Until then enjoy a very well written response to a fundy!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Russ said:
When someone expresses the sentiments that Patsy did, "Why can't you just leave christians alone? I mean it, why can't you just not comment on things if they bother you," a wave of disgust washes over me as I recall the ever on-going inhumanity of Christianity. Sometimes I literally tremble in outrage thinking of the untold millions of my fellow men who have suffered horribly at the hands of Christians over the last two millenia.
So, "Why can't you just not comment on things if they bother you?": simply this, Patsy: it is immoral to be silent in the face of the crimes against humanity which Christianity is guilty of; it is immoral to hold one's tongue when innocent people are made to suffer and die for human-created Christian dogma; it is immoral to stand mute when the world over, in Christianity and most other religions, people are intentionally psychologically battered as children to make them dependent as adults on the cruel dictates of their church; it is immoral to avoid speaking out when the most politically influential factions of Christianity have sworn themselves to destroy the only real tool mankind possesses to improve its quality of life and to protect itself from the ravages of nature: science; it is immoral to silence oneself as Christianity, through the crooks, charlatans, frauds, thieves, and perverts it euphemistically calls clergy, steals money from people - so often ignorant and poor people - who desperately need it for their own families, through the con job called faith; it is immoral to hush oneself as Christian dominionists who want the world to end in a great conflagration edge ever closer to control of the US nuclear arsenal; it is immoral to be tight-lipped when a child is allowed to die from a routinely curable affliction because of its Christian Science parent's faith; it is immoral to remain quiet when one Christian sect, has always and to this day continues to support a worlwide network of Christian child rapists, molesters and sexual predators, in the guise of Catholic priests, bishops, cardinals, and popes (Patsy, should we allow children to be victimized because it's Christian clergy committing the crimes?); it is immoral not to speak out when the clear intent of Christians is to impose their superstitions, fears, and uncivilized ethics on all others; it is immoral to stifle ones voice when Christians, despite all their claims of moral guidance by the hand of its god, are certainly no better behaved than non-Christians; and, it is immoral to be tight-lipped while watching Christians piss away thousands of hours of their lives in religious observances when they could be involved in something more useful for themselves and their fellow man.
That is but a partial list of the reasons why I refuse to be silenced concerning the outrages and abominations of Christianity.
Patsy, you impress me as being, like essentially every other Christian on the planet, completely unaware of what it means to be Christian in the modern world. Christianity is, in fact, so diverse in theology, doctrine and dogma, that there is not a single idea that might be thought of as Christian that is common to all of them. You might say, "Well, they all believe in God!" Nope. Wrong answer, Patsy. There are lots of Christians who are atheists. That's right, Patsy. No god and nothing else supernatural either: no miracles, no virgin birth, no divine Jesus, no resurrection, etc. My favorite example in such matters is Episcopalian Minister Reverend Harry T. Cook, since I know Harry will take questions - yes, you can ask him yourself, Patsy - and answer them(Harry's contact information is: e-mail: revharrytcook@aol.com phone: 248.709.9689 web: http://www.harrytcook.com). Visit Harry's site, Patsy, but be prepared to have your eyes opened. Remember, now, Patsy, you can't play the "he's not exactly like me so he's not a real Christian" game. Harry's been active mainstream Christian clergy for more than forty years. He's a real Christian, all right, he's simply nobody's Patsy. Harry's a good man, a good atheist man, a good rationalist, empiricist man, working to make the world a better place, guided by evidence and reason, not superstition.
I have an uncle who is an atheist and is active Christian clergy. Patsy, you may resist the idea, but you could easily be attending church with atheists. You see, atheists like being with other people; atheists like music; atheists like pot luck dinners; atheists like social involvement; and, there are millions of them who attend Christian churches, owing primarily to the fact that, as a rule, atheists don't tend to herd well. As Richard Dawkins is fond of noting, organizing atheists is like trying to herd cats. Atheists are so independently-minded that they don't coalesce well. That's also why they are not good prey animals for religious predators.
Patsy, the way you've presented yourself, here, tells me you're one of Christianity's victims. You're told what the Bible says; you're told what you believe; you let others tell you what your morality is since the Bible is so bizarre that, left to yourself, there is no way you could possibly find in the Bible what your church is telling you; none of what you say you believe is yours; it's what someone else has invented and you pay for it every time the collection plate comes around.
You ended one comment saying, "My GOD is a loving GOD. HE is comforting and everlasting. HE takes my fears away because HE is all powerful." This tells a person a lot about you, Patsy. Clearly, you have never read, or perhaps more correctly, you have never been allowed to read the Bible using your own critical thinking faculties. No sane, moral person could read the Bible and come to the conclusion you state here. This is not yours; this is someone else's conclusion forced on you. That thing you call a god, Patsy, obviously does not quell your fears, since forced as you are to fear non-believers, you end up in fear of many non-believing Christians.
Not long ago, I witnessed twenty people in a Bible study group abandon Christianity because they actually read the words as though they were words that they, being the mere mortals they are, could understand. They put them into sentences they could understand. They pieced the narratives together in context looking for the big picture view. Then, they applied common standards of plausibility, the same standards that thinking people, but clearly not the Bible authors themselves, would have used at the time the Bible narratives were written. Comparing that view of the Bible - their own, remember - with what they know of the world and what it means to think, they realized it could not be divinely inspired. It was not the work of someone who understood humankind and the rest of the natural world even to the extent that a young schoolchild understands it today. They understood for the first time in their lives that the Bible was written by ignorant, superstitious, men - specifically, males - with cruel moral codes, men with whom they had nothing in common - not language, not knowledge, not culture, not thought, and certainly not morality. In light of their new understanding they did what sane, normal people do: they followed the evidence. They all abandoned Christianity, and most of them abandoned faith of any kind.
Patsy, I truly wish for every person on the planet the best that life can offer them among which are peace, joy, happiness, understanding, compassion, and love. If you really look at religion with open eyes, you will see that while religion has always promised these things, religion has never delivered on those promises. If you consider further, looking, for instance, at the myriad problems religions of all sorts, including your own Christianity, are causing the world over, you will see that it can't deliver on those promises.
After giving religions some serious thought, then, make this comparison, Patsy: look at your life, your health, the society around you, the world at large, and even the cosmos to see what you owe to rational thought, reason, and science. One itsy bitsy little fact will make a very strong point: only a fraction of the people alive on earth today would exist at all if not for science. Science in agriculture, medicine, and logistics, for instance, doesn't simply make life better, for most people, science makes it possible to be alive at all. While science and the other rational arts won't promise you love, or those other largely subjective things religions do, science does provide you the most fertile ground for those things to grow: life itself, good health, a clear vision of world, and an understanding of man's natural place in the natural order. Those are not given by gods. They are the products of hundreds of years of man's intellectual efforts, efforts, often impeded, often stymied, and often murderously opposed by the minions of Christianity. Knowing itself to be powerless to fulfill its promises made, Christianity put its full power and authority into keeping non-divine human efforts from fulfilling them. If Christianity could conjure no cure for disease, no man was to be allowed to find one. From the church's standpoint, better for all of mankind to suffer if the church didn't get the credit. So much for Christian promises. Another fine example of Christian immorality.
I have no reason whatsoever to think that outside religion you would be anything but scrupulously honest, Patsy. Now is the best time for you to turn your honesty toward religion and ask: "Does religion live up to its claims?," remembering that we must be honest; "Is there any human endeavor that comes closer to fulfilling religion's claims of benefitting mankind?;" and, "Since religion can't fulfill its claims, and there do exist other human endeavors which, by doing an observably better job of making life and health possible, come much closer to fulfilling religion's claims, why should anyone persist in supporting religion?"
Like the Bible study group I mentioned earlier, uncompromising honesty can lead you to truth, then, if you are strong enough to accept it, that truth can set you free.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thank you Russ for your unsuspecting guest spot on my blog!
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
yikes
Just a little bit of trivia to keep you from sleeping tonight.
The Outstanding Public Debt as of 06 Jun 2007 at 04:27:58 AM GMT is:
$8,833,288,357,133.74
That is 8.8 TRILLION dollars. That doesn't even sound like a real number. More like 32 Brazillion dollars. Seems like there is a bad bush joke that goes with Brazillion. Anyway.
Breaking down a trillion into more manageable numbers:
*The estimated population of the United States is 302,080,750 so each citizen's share of this debt is $29,241.48.
*Is roughly four times Britain’s GDP
*Equates to $1,500 for every man, woman and child in the world
*Would buy all the tea in China. In fact it would buy all the tea in the world for the next 2,000 years.
*Is enough to solve the Palestinian crisis by rehousing every Israeli and Palestinian family in a £1.5m detached house in Henley-on-Thames
*Would build 28 Eiffel Towers — constructed out of gold.
Thanks a lot Xavier *sigh* how am I going to sleep tonight????
That's not fair is it? All I did was find an old post on his site with these stats. But he didn't create the debt. Nope. Just called my attention to it.
The big TYVFM goes to Dubya.
..|..
The Outstanding Public Debt as of 06 Jun 2007 at 04:27:58 AM GMT is:
$8,833,288,357,133.74
That is 8.8 TRILLION dollars. That doesn't even sound like a real number. More like 32 Brazillion dollars. Seems like there is a bad bush joke that goes with Brazillion. Anyway.
Breaking down a trillion into more manageable numbers:
*The estimated population of the United States is 302,080,750 so each citizen's share of this debt is $29,241.48.
*Is roughly four times Britain’s GDP
*Equates to $1,500 for every man, woman and child in the world
*Would buy all the tea in China. In fact it would buy all the tea in the world for the next 2,000 years.
*Is enough to solve the Palestinian crisis by rehousing every Israeli and Palestinian family in a £1.5m detached house in Henley-on-Thames
*Would build 28 Eiffel Towers — constructed out of gold.
Thanks a lot Xavier *sigh* how am I going to sleep tonight????
That's not fair is it? All I did was find an old post on his site with these stats. But he didn't create the debt. Nope. Just called my attention to it.
The big TYVFM goes to Dubya.
..|..
a few things to ponder
It is a bad idea to give the President the power to make war. Do you know why?
"Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose, and you allow him to make war at pleasure. [This guy is deep. It's not even all that easy to read. Can you believe that was just the first sentence? Stick with it. It's good! Study to see if you can fix any limit to his power in this respect, after having given him so much as you propose. If to-day he should choose to say he thinks it necessary to invade Canada to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to him, — "I see no probability of the British invading us"; but he will say to you, "Be silent: I see it, if you don't." [One more paragraph, you can do it!]
The provision of the Constitution giving the war making power to Congress was dictated, as I understand it, by the following reasons: Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object. This our convention understood to be the most oppressive of all kingly oppressions, and they resolved to so frame the Constitution that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us. But your view destroys the whole matter, and places our President where kings have always stood."
Wow that's deep. Any idea who said it? Anyone? Anyone at all? Don't be shy!
Here's another one.
“Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God.” This one was said by Ben Franklin
So, if those who oppose George Bush are being "obedient to God", who is George Bush being obedient to? That excellent question comes from Xavier Onassis
my newest blog discovery.
"Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose, and you allow him to make war at pleasure. [This guy is deep. It's not even all that easy to read. Can you believe that was just the first sentence? Stick with it. It's good! Study to see if you can fix any limit to his power in this respect, after having given him so much as you propose. If to-day he should choose to say he thinks it necessary to invade Canada to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to him, — "I see no probability of the British invading us"; but he will say to you, "Be silent: I see it, if you don't." [One more paragraph, you can do it!]
The provision of the Constitution giving the war making power to Congress was dictated, as I understand it, by the following reasons: Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object. This our convention understood to be the most oppressive of all kingly oppressions, and they resolved to so frame the Constitution that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us. But your view destroys the whole matter, and places our President where kings have always stood."
Wow that's deep. Any idea who said it? Anyone? Anyone at all? Don't be shy!
Here's another one.
“Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God.” This one was said by Ben Franklin
So, if those who oppose George Bush are being "obedient to God", who is George Bush being obedient to? That excellent question comes from Xavier Onassis
my newest blog discovery.
Monday, June 4, 2007
sex in 2011
Brian at Primordial Blog has an ongoing series: Sexiest Animal on the Planet. One week in April he posted about robots and how according to Discover Magazine we could all be enjoying great robot sex in as little as four years..
That got me to thinking (thank you Brian!) about whether or not I would even want to have sex with a robot? Apparently Standard options on the male will be sure to include a 7 inch rotating pearl vibrator with a built in clit stimulator.
I don't know. First of all it's not about length but thickness. Second, there's more to sex then penetration and clitoral stimulation.
For me it's the kissing. I like kissing, better than sex.
That's right.
If I had a choice between a really intense french-kissing session and sex I would pick the kissing.
I can "double click my own mouse" to achieve orgasm. But I can't kiss myself.
When you were a kid, did you ever try kissing your own arm? I remember when I heard that french kissing involved using your tongue. Being an ignorant kid I was naturally disgusted and had no idea on the logistics of how one would go about using one's tongue to kiss. I tried it on the crook of my arm. No satisfaction. Then I tried the palm of my hand. Nothing worth repeating there either. So I shrugged and ended the experiment.
I can't kiss myself in any satisfactory way. DAMMIT!!!!!!
:-P
So- let's assume that the sexbot would kiss. How would robot taste? Would I want robot tongue in my mouth even if it could kiss? And if I don't want its tongue in my mouth, why would I want its pickle in my hoo hoo?
That got me to thinking (thank you Brian!) about whether or not I would even want to have sex with a robot? Apparently Standard options on the male will be sure to include a 7 inch rotating pearl vibrator with a built in clit stimulator.
I don't know. First of all it's not about length but thickness. Second, there's more to sex then penetration and clitoral stimulation.
For me it's the kissing. I like kissing, better than sex.
That's right.
If I had a choice between a really intense french-kissing session and sex I would pick the kissing.
I can "double click my own mouse" to achieve orgasm. But I can't kiss myself.
When you were a kid, did you ever try kissing your own arm? I remember when I heard that french kissing involved using your tongue. Being an ignorant kid I was naturally disgusted and had no idea on the logistics of how one would go about using one's tongue to kiss. I tried it on the crook of my arm. No satisfaction. Then I tried the palm of my hand. Nothing worth repeating there either. So I shrugged and ended the experiment.
I can't kiss myself in any satisfactory way. DAMMIT!!!!!!
:-P
So- let's assume that the sexbot would kiss. How would robot taste? Would I want robot tongue in my mouth even if it could kiss? And if I don't want its tongue in my mouth, why would I want its pickle in my hoo hoo?
Sunday, June 3, 2007
politics
Talking politics is hard for me. Not because I don't have opinions, but because I feel so passionately about the ones I do have. I start thinking about the way our world is and the backs of my arms start to tingle. (Does anyone else feel emotions above their elbows?)
I start to think about what our country started out as, what it should have been, what it is today, and I can feel my blood pressure go up. I start to become angry. Anger degrades into bitterness. Bitterness yields to apathy. And I just want to stick my head in the sand and forget about the whole mess and hope it goes away.
And that is what "they" want.
"They"- our political leaders. Bush. Clinton. Hillary. And all their ilk who have created them, support them, and keep them in power. "They" do not want a thinking America. "They" want a complacent America. An America with its head so far up its ass that it thinks that turning over freedom will improve safety.
Hillary is an evil woman. She is the continuation of the bush-clinton-bush line and I oppose everything they work for.
America is closer now to becoming a dictatorship then it was under King George when the founding fathers rebelled against his tea tax. Can you imagine their reaction to the taxes we face today?
Hearing that Hillary wants to get rid of the "ownership society" scares the hell out of me. The people who scream the loudest for sacrificing and selfless behavior are the ones who want to be on the receiving end of said sacrificing.
Think that may not be true? Then point to examples of people that promote that lifestyle and look at their personal life. The type of house they live in. The clothes they wear. The luxuries they surround themselves with.
It is not the government's job to take care of us. It is their job to protect us from outside forces and the use of force here at home.
How can the government protect us when we need protection from them and all of their interfering ways?
How many of you, when driving down the street, see a cop car and feel negatively? Whether it's fear, anger, hatred, bitterness, resentment. Honestly how do you feel? Do you double check yourself to make sure you aren't doing anything that could be seen as illegal? Do you ask your kids to sit up straight in the car? Do you lower the pop can you were sipping from so they don't see it and think it is a beer? Do you start thinking of what to say to them if they pull you over and asking you questions?
I am afraid of the cops.
What an awful thing to feel. They are our first line of defense. They are our heroes. They are the ones who rescue us when things go badly.
But because of all the bullshit laws they have to enforce, I am afraid of them. Not because I've done anything. But because of what will happen if they perceive that I have done something.
Welfare- Temporary welfare is one thing. The people who live off of it long-term and keep breeding so their checks are bigger- that's just wrong wrong wrong.
When a person spends 1/5th to 1/2 of the year working just to pay their taxes- the system is pretty frelled. There is so little left after pay-day that there is no room for thinking of other people's needs. It's all I can do at the end of the month to pay my own bills. But what a life we could live if our taxes were 1/20th of what they are now.
Ron Paul- I think Ron Paul is an opportunity for America to begin the journey back to what it once was and should be.
He is an amazing man and when I click on this link to see what he stands for: I just feel like maybe there is a chance for America to be great again.
Here are his bullet points. I know bullet points are boring and easy to skim. But actually read what he does not support. Read what he does support.
*He has never voted to raise taxes.
*He has never voted for an unbalanced budget.
*He has never voted for a federal restriction on gun ownership.
*He has never voted to raise congressional pay.
*He has never taken a government-paid junket.
*He has never voted to increase the power of the executive branch.
*He voted against the Patriot Act.
*He voted against regulating the Internet.
*He voted against the Iraq war.
*He does not participate in the lucrative congressional pension program.
*He returns a portion of his annual congressional office budget to the U.S. treasury every year.
I like Ron Paul and have yet to find a point that I disagree with.
I start to think about what our country started out as, what it should have been, what it is today, and I can feel my blood pressure go up. I start to become angry. Anger degrades into bitterness. Bitterness yields to apathy. And I just want to stick my head in the sand and forget about the whole mess and hope it goes away.
And that is what "they" want.
"They"- our political leaders. Bush. Clinton. Hillary. And all their ilk who have created them, support them, and keep them in power. "They" do not want a thinking America. "They" want a complacent America. An America with its head so far up its ass that it thinks that turning over freedom will improve safety.
Hillary is an evil woman. She is the continuation of the bush-clinton-bush line and I oppose everything they work for.
America is closer now to becoming a dictatorship then it was under King George when the founding fathers rebelled against his tea tax. Can you imagine their reaction to the taxes we face today?
Hearing that Hillary wants to get rid of the "ownership society" scares the hell out of me. The people who scream the loudest for sacrificing and selfless behavior are the ones who want to be on the receiving end of said sacrificing.
Think that may not be true? Then point to examples of people that promote that lifestyle and look at their personal life. The type of house they live in. The clothes they wear. The luxuries they surround themselves with.
It is not the government's job to take care of us. It is their job to protect us from outside forces and the use of force here at home.
How can the government protect us when we need protection from them and all of their interfering ways?
How many of you, when driving down the street, see a cop car and feel negatively? Whether it's fear, anger, hatred, bitterness, resentment. Honestly how do you feel? Do you double check yourself to make sure you aren't doing anything that could be seen as illegal? Do you ask your kids to sit up straight in the car? Do you lower the pop can you were sipping from so they don't see it and think it is a beer? Do you start thinking of what to say to them if they pull you over and asking you questions?
I am afraid of the cops.
What an awful thing to feel. They are our first line of defense. They are our heroes. They are the ones who rescue us when things go badly.
But because of all the bullshit laws they have to enforce, I am afraid of them. Not because I've done anything. But because of what will happen if they perceive that I have done something.
Welfare- Temporary welfare is one thing. The people who live off of it long-term and keep breeding so their checks are bigger- that's just wrong wrong wrong.
When a person spends 1/5th to 1/2 of the year working just to pay their taxes- the system is pretty frelled. There is so little left after pay-day that there is no room for thinking of other people's needs. It's all I can do at the end of the month to pay my own bills. But what a life we could live if our taxes were 1/20th of what they are now.
Ron Paul- I think Ron Paul is an opportunity for America to begin the journey back to what it once was and should be.
He is an amazing man and when I click on this link to see what he stands for: I just feel like maybe there is a chance for America to be great again.
Here are his bullet points. I know bullet points are boring and easy to skim. But actually read what he does not support. Read what he does support.
*He has never voted to raise taxes.
*He has never voted for an unbalanced budget.
*He has never voted for a federal restriction on gun ownership.
*He has never voted to raise congressional pay.
*He has never taken a government-paid junket.
*He has never voted to increase the power of the executive branch.
*He voted against the Patriot Act.
*He voted against regulating the Internet.
*He voted against the Iraq war.
*He does not participate in the lucrative congressional pension program.
*He returns a portion of his annual congressional office budget to the U.S. treasury every year.
I like Ron Paul and have yet to find a point that I disagree with.
Saturday, June 2, 2007
open forum 2
I thought this turned out well last month- so here we go for round 2.
There have been times when visiting other blogs that I wanted to ask the blog owner a question off topic, but never really knew how to proceed. I didn't want to be rude and bust into a comment-conversation.
So- This post is the opportunity for any of my readers to broach a subject, ask a personal question, bring up a topic, whatever is on your mind...
The ball is in your court.
There have been times when visiting other blogs that I wanted to ask the blog owner a question off topic, but never really knew how to proceed. I didn't want to be rude and bust into a comment-conversation.
So- This post is the opportunity for any of my readers to broach a subject, ask a personal question, bring up a topic, whatever is on your mind...
The ball is in your court.
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