Life on the Road

Well, it’s official - I’ve been kicked out.

I’m trying to think if I’ve ever been kicked out of anything before, and I honestly have to say that I’m pretty sure this is the first time.

WHAT I’ve been kicked out of is The Miami Natural Pregnancy, Birth & Parenting Support Group, an email/real-life social network hosted on Meetup.com.

WHY I’ve been kicked out is because an Obama supporter and/or “Pro-Choice” member of said group got offended by my comments on the group about (against) abortion.

Here’s the request I sent to the group, verbatim, typos and bad grammar included:

[Subject]

Obama Question

[Body]

(See, nice descriptive title so you can just delete it if you don’t care!  LOL)
 
Okay, so I don’t want to start a debate about anything, I’m just asking if anyone has any *documentation* of Obama’s position on something - like from his website, or a quote, etc.  Since this is, in fact, a topic that was a bit of heated debate a while back, I want to be clear that I am not trying to open the can of worms here.  (I’ll go open it on my blog!  LOL)
 
I know he is in favor of “a woman’s right to choose” and his website says he will oppose any consitutional amendment that would overturn Roe v. Wade.
 
But a reliable source told me that he even opposes a prohibition of “partial-birth abortion”. 
 
True?

So it seems to me that I was pretty clear about the fact that I was looking for links and quotes for my blog post.  Do you find that misleading or ambiguous?

Several people on the group posted most of the links and videos that were subsequently placed in my post.  These people, naturally, are NOT the ones who got upset.  Why would they?

But some people who disagree with my views decided that it was a good springboard for getting upset.

One person in particular, who we’ll call Laura, actually started, like, stalking me.  She sent me hateful emails.  She posted hateful things on my Facebook page.  She apparently came and read through pages and pages of a blog that’s not of interest to her, gathering fodder with which to hate me more.  And, of course, she posted a hateful and accusatory post about me on the group.

Laura fanned the flames of the message thread, saying that I had “used” the group for my own personal benefit.  She got a bunch of people who agreed with her political views to read my blog and get offended, then parlayed that into getting them offended by my quoting of items from the group discussion.

She got everyone so riled up that the moderator removed me from the group - and apparently set a flag that prohibits me from rejoining.  All this without asking for my position, allowing me to participate in the discussion Laura was conducting, or even asking if I was willing to apologize.

Not that I have anything to apologize for, you understand.  But if I ran a group, and someone - in my opinion - did something “mean” or “wrong” or made some gaffe, I would first ask them for their side of the story.  If I still felt they were out of line, I would explain that to them, and insist that they apologize if they wished to remain a member of the group.

Had the moderator done that, one could hope that she would have decided a mountain was being made out of a molehill after discussing it with me.

But even if it had ended up with me leaving the group, it would not have been so rude and hurtful.

This is just another example of something we see more and more often as conservative Christians.  It’s amazing how intolerant those who preach “tolerance” and “acceptance” and “non-judgmental attitudes” really are…

As summarized by the folks over at AUL, the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) would basically reverse every gain that has been made in the right to life for unborn babies for the past 35 years - such as, for example, a pregnant teenage girl having to tell her parents before getting an abortion, and preventing partial-birth abortions.

But FOCA would do much more than that: it would allow the use of our tax money for doing abortions!

Essentially, it would codify and enshrine a so-called ‘right’ to kill the unborn, even for no reason at all, and to use our tax money to do it.
 
FOCA is about to be passed by Congress, and the President-elect has already promised to sign it into law. In fact, he’s said it’s the first thing that he would do as president (video of the speech on the Fight FOCA site, links above and below).
 
In this link you will find a petition to try to stop FOCA from becoming law. I urge you to sign it and to pass it on to as many people as possible: 

http://www.fightfoca.com/

Beyond that, please write to your Congressperson urging him or her to oppose FOCA. You can let them know that you do not want to be coerced into paying for abortions by using your hard-earned tax money.

If private individuals want abortions, let that be on their conscience, but let not the Congress or the President coerce us into participating in what is already the largest genocide of all human history: 50 million abortions, in the U.S. alone.
 
Also, here is a suggested prayer that really resonates with me:

“May our President-elect come to realize that the life of the unborn is worth as much as his own life, we pray to the Lord.”

I like this Open Letter to Senator Obama that they put together, too. 

Here’s some more reading on FOCA, from the Catholic viewpoint:

U.S. Bishops’ Post Election Statement

Freedom of Choice Act
would coerce Americans to subsidize abortions with tax dollars,
counteract efforts to reduce abortions in our country

Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), issued the following November 12 statement at the end of the U.S. bishops’ annual fall assembly
 
“If the Lord does not build the house, in vain do its builders labor; if the Lord does not watch over the city, in vain does the watchman keep vigil.” (Psalm 127, vs. 1)

The Bishops of the Catholic Church in the United States welcome this moment of historic transition and look forward to working with President-elect Obama and the members of the new Congress for the common good of all. Because of the Church’s history and the scope of her ministries in this country, we want to continue our work for economic justice and opportunity for all; our efforts to reform laws around immigration and the situation of the undocumented; our provision of better education and adequate health care for all, especially for women and children; our desire to safeguard religious freedom and foster peace at home and abroad. The Church is intent on doing good and will continue to cooperate gladly with the government and all others working for these goods.

The fundamental good is life itself, a gift from God and our parents. A good state protects the lives of all. Legal protection for those members of the human family waiting to be born in this country was removed when the Supreme Court decided Roe vs. Wade in 1973. This was bad law. The danger the Bishops see at this moment is that a bad court decision will be enshrined in bad legislation that is more radical than the 1973 Supreme Court decision itself.

In the last Congress, a Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) was introduced that would, if brought forward in the same form today, outlaw any “interference” in providing abortion at will. It would deprive the American people in all fifty states of the freedom they now have to enact modest restraints and regulations on the abortion industry. FOCA would coerce all Americans into subsidizing and promoting abortion with their tax dollars. It would counteract any and all sincere efforts by government and others of good will to reduce the number of abortions in our country.

Parental notification and informed consent precautions would be outlawed, as would be laws banning procedures such as partial-birth abortion and protecting infants born alive after a failed abortion. Abortion clinics would be deregulated. The Hyde Amendment restricting the federal funding of abortions would be abrogated. FOCA would have lethal consequences for prenatal human life.

FOCA would have an equally destructive effect on the freedom of conscience of doctors, nurses and health care workers whose personal convictions do not permit them to cooperate in the private killing of unborn children. It would threaten Catholic health care institutions and Catholic Charities. It would be an evil law that would further divide our country, and the Church should be intent on opposing evil.

On this issue, the legal protection of the unborn, the bishops are of one mind with Catholics and others of good will. They are also pastors who have listened to women whose lives have been diminished because they believed they had no choice but to abort a baby. Abortion is a medical procedure that kills, and the psychological and spiritual consequences are written in the sorrow and depression of many women and men. The bishops are single-minded because they are, first of all, single-hearted.

The recent election was principally decided out of concern for the economy, for the loss of jobs and homes and financial security for families, here and around the world. If the election is misinterpreted ideologically as a referendum on abortion, the unity desired by President-elect Obama and all Americans at this moment of crisis will be impossible to achieve. Abortion kills not only unborn children; it destroys constitutional order and the common good, which is assured only when the life of every human being is legally protected. Aggressively pro-abortion policies, legislation and executive orders will permanently alienate tens of millions of Americans, and would be seen by many as an attack on the free exercise of their religion.

This statement is written at the request and direction of all the Bishops, who also want to thank all those in politics who work with good will to protect the lives of the most vulnerable among us. Those in public life do so, sometimes, at the cost of great sacrifice to themselves and their families; and we are grateful. We express again our great desire to work with all those who cherish the common good of our nation. The common good is not the sum total of individual desires and interests; it is achieved in the working out of a common life based upon good reason and good will for all.

Our prayers accompany President-elect Obama and his family and those who are cooperating with him to assure a smooth transition in government. Many issues demand immediate attention on the part of our elected “watchman.” (Psalm 127) May God bless him and our country.

 Are you going to brave it?

Standing in line, in the cold, in the dark, for hours…  Just waiting for the store to open, so you can pick up the Hot Whatzit of 2008 at a great price?

Not me.

I’ve thought long and hard, and I honestly think I can say I have NEVER gone out shopping on “Black Friday” - or the weekend after Thanksgiving as a whole.

In the past, reasons have included, but were not limited to:

• Due to people’s weird and conflicting schedules, we’ve actually celebrated Thanksgiving on Friday a fair number of times.
• We don’t have TV, so have managed to avoid much of the desire for the Hot Whatzit, anyway.
• Over the past few years, we have shifted more and more away from Christmas consumerism, and focusing on fun anf thoughtful gifts a la the Dutch Sinterklaas Daag traditions.

Okay, look - basically, I just don’t like shopping.  I really, really enjoy finding great gifts, and giving them to people I care about (which even includes charity giving)…  But that MALL type SHOPPING thing?  ICK!

The good news for me is that this year it’s easier than ever to get those good sale prices on the things I do want - all while sipping tea in my fuzzy slippers!  Okay, so I don’t have fuzzy slippers, and with two little ones and a teen I rarely get to sip tea, but you know what I mean…

I’m done with gift shopping already (the Feast of St. Nicholas is December 6th!), but we do really need a new printer, you know?

There’s a whole website dedicated to compiling “the big guys’” Black Friday ads.

And here’s a great collection of smaller online merchants’ Black Friday sales and Black Friday coupon codes at My Precious Kid.

Visit Miss Jocelyn’s blog, A Pondering Heart, and you’ll be treated to the thoughts of a mature young Christian woman.

Click the graphic above to go directly to the post with a drawing for a $25 Gift Certificate to Christa Taylor’s modest clothing website.

Please mention that tiffanyblitz referred you when you leave your comment/entry! 

This is a cool event coming up this weekend.  It’s being orgaized by my great friend and dedicated La Leche Legue leader, Kristin Jayd.

Tickets available at the gate $6 per person, kids 12 and under are free.
For more info call 305-247-5727 or visit www.myspace.com/greatgreenfamilyfestival or www.REHSonline.com

Bring a blanket on Saturday to lay on the lawn and enjoy live music by Groove Kitchen, Psychadelic Mist, Usual Suspects.
On Sunday, sew your own cloth grocery bag from Morsbags: Sociable Guerilla Bagging.

Special Presentations include Green Trends Fashion Show
Soul Full Eating by Maureen Whitehouse Reducing Household toxins by Migule Cisneros Abreu

Buy local, independent, & handmade, from over 40 vendors including:  Arnica Spa to go Bee Heaven Environmental Productions First Choice Pet Food Going Bananas Green and Beyond Green Energy Products Green Veranda Hortitech Kypie Tzexoba Mama Kanga Mandala Art Mansura Stoneware and Raku Mindy & Lola Naturally Naked Nature’s Love Nature’s Natives Richard Lyons Nursery Romney Farms Suriya Thai Spa Tea N Sanity The Potluck Craft Collective featuring Bella Ella Boo Ehbip Arts Cheri’s Naturals Kristin Jayd Motherpath Ropa Vieja Vintage And MORE!!

Eat yummy food from the Crepe Maker Juice Blends Jamaican Organics Thai Donuts & More

Feed your Brain with Biscayne National Park DERM Earth Save Miami Everglades National Park Family Chiropractic Florida Energy Forum Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary La Leche League Patches Soil & Water Conservation Division Sunrise School of Miami the GREEN Party the Mustard Seed Initiative TREEmendous Miami Tropical Everglades Visitor Center and others!

I love LEGO.  My family has always loved LEGO.

My grandmother (a VERY tidy person, and very proper in many ways) was horrified when she came to visit for the holidays one year.  I was about 12, and my sister was about 6.  Mom and Dad had taken out all the Dining Room furniture, and covered most of the floor (wall-to-wall carpeted) with sheets of plywood.

Then, there were the LEGOs…

To keep us from arguing about parts, I suppose, they got my sister sets from the City theme, while I had Space sets. 

And boy, did we have sets.

The Dining Room stayed in that condition for quite some time, and I suspect we had every set made for those two themes at that time - plus any number of generic brick sets.

But you know, even those “specialized” sets had primarily “regular” bricks.  The only thing that made them a “set” was the particular assortment, and the instructions for assembling them into a Hotel, or a Spaceport, or whatever.

I’ve been buying LEGOs for Nick for over a decade now, and we’ve got lots of the “Duplo” big bricks now, too.  And frankly, I’m a little troubled by what’s out there on the shelves.

A set today is composed primarily of specialized pieces that ARE something - the hull of the ship,  the fender of a car, etc.  You don’t have to construct the whole model out of little cubes, you just have to snap the components together.

Doesn’t that totally eliminate everything we love about LEGO?

Where’s the creativity?  Where’s the thinking outside the box?  Heck, where’s the ability to dump them all into a big pile on the floor and just build a gigantic block tower with your kid sister that’s as tall as she is?

This is just one more thing that’s widely regarded as “progress” that I don’t find beneficial.  If I want to buy them a toy boat or a toy car, I’ll just buy one.  If I buy them LEGOs, I want them to be able to engage in stimulating, creative play.

Luckily, you can still order various “basic brick assortment” sets online (I’m sure some specialty stores still carry them, too - just not around here). 

After my last post, one “voice of reason” liberal email pal tried to “remind” me that the Right to Life was just one issue of many vital ones we need to consider in this election.

I firmly disagree! 

Who cares if the economy gets better, or I get a tax break, or health care is “reformed,” or ANYTHING else…  if we as a nation are morally going to Hell in a handbasket?? 

(Rest assured that is not a casual profanity, but a very literal description!)

Aside from the candidates personal agenda, there will likely be two Supreme Court vacancies to fill during this term.  Who do you want to appoint those Justices, who will shape the nation for the next 30 years or so?

We MUST get the vote out on Tuesday.  Make sure your Brothers and Sisters realize that as a Christian (or other person of conscience), their vote for a candidate who will make righteous choices, even if they have qualms with other points he’s made, will make a huge impact on our nation where it counts.

As Rush Limbaugh said this week:

Focus, you people. Step #1: Drag McCain over the finish line. Step #2: Rebuild the conservative movement. If you have to, tell yourself you’re voting for Sarah Palin.

And a final reminder not to be fooled by the spin in the news, and the so-often-proven-wrong polls: Don’t Let the Polls Affect Your Vote from Karl Rove (credentials included in a sidebar).

CAUTION:  There is some graphic discussion of unpleasant subjects in this post, and in the links provided.  Please use your discretion about reading it yourself, and especially on behalf of your children.

 A source I deem credible told me that Barack Obama supports Partial-Birth Abortion.  I was horrified.

First, a definition, so we’re all on the same page:

I received a host of fascinating facts and links.

Here’s a highlight of the voting record:

• Obama voted against a ban on partial birth abortion (SB 230 in 1997) while serving in the Illinois senate.
• He also supports and co-sponsored the Freedom of Choice Act (Bill Number: S.1173) in the U.S. Congress which removes all restrictions (including parental notification in the case of minors) on abortions.
• As an Illinois senator, he shut down a bill that would have provided protection for infants born alive after a botched abortion (instead of being able to leave them to die.)

Someone posted a quote from the good Senator as saying:

On an issue like partial birth abortion, I strongly believe that the state can properly restrict late-term abortions. I have said so repeatedly. All I’ve said is we should have a provision to protect the health of the mother, and many of the bills that came before me didn’t have that.

This, to me, sounds like nothing more than a political spin. 

It’s really easy for him to say whatever he wants to, knowing that his position alienates a whole big segment of the population…  But actions speak louder than words, don’t you think?  Simply look at the voting record, above. 

Here’s a video of Mr. Obama with a telling quote:

A BABY is…  a PUNISHMENT?

I hugged my kids tight and cried hearing him say that - and all the more so thinking that people are trying to elect such a person to lead our country. 

What happened to MORAL leadership?  A president we can look up to?  (I guess that all ended with Clinton?)

The Bible, of couse, says that children are a blessing from the Lord.  But even without that guidepost, can you jiggle your baby on your knee, and look at their drooly little smile, and …  I simply cannot fathom that as a serious position…

An intersting “scientific” tidbit was presented in the group discussion:

Of all methods of second-trimester abortion, the safest procedure (using mortality surveillance data) is dilation and extraction. - Source: http://www.emedicine.com/med/TOPIC3311.HTM

Erm…  SAFE?  Does the BABY think so?  As far as my understanding of the procedure, the mortality rate is 100%!  (Okay, or 50%, I suppose, if you count the mothers).  Talk about missing the point…

Here’s a powerful - GRAPHIC CONTENT - video on the horrors being perpetrated on over 3,000 American babies EVERY DAY, and about Barack Obama’s position with regard to them:

And just to leave you with a smile, let me suggest that perhaps the reason the good Senator doesn’t “get it” is because he’s an alien.   ;>

Up until now, we have deliberately tried to avoid any really controversial subjects… 

 Skimming the limit with our Christian beliefs, naturally, but shying away from anything drastic, and certainly from politics and other such topics.

NO MORE!

Now you’re going to hear it all…  What we really feel from everything about the decline of society, to the election, to…  who knows…

So buckle your seatbelts!

Sounds more like a physical exercise, eh?  And it’s that, of course.

If you’re unloading the moving truck into your new place, it’s all about the brawn.  BUT…

We live in a too-small house that is packed full of stuff.  So what do you do when you decide to shuffle the contents totally?

• Jewel’s bed and armoire were already in our bedroom, but her books, toys, riding horse and other things were still occupying half the room.  Papa’s comicbooks and other collectible stuff were living in the other half.
• Now that room is going to be Nick’s room.
• The room that used to be Nick’s room is going to be the “TV Room,” with some of the Living Room furniture, as well as storage for most of Papa’s stuff.
• The former Living Room is now the little kids’ play room, with all of Jewel’s stuff, plus R.T.’s growing stash.

But where do you start?

We had a lot of discussions that went something like this: 

If we can clear the comics off this rack (shelf) and stuff them somewhere temporarily, and move the rack out to Nick’s old room, then we can move Nick’s bookcase into his new room.  Then we’ll be able to put the DVD rack from the Living Room into the TV room.  Then we’ll be able to put Jewel’s bookcase in the spot where that was…

It felt like one of those slide puzzles, where each piece had to be shuffled around to make way for another piece to move…

It’s more complicated, though.  More like this one:

I think the furniture moving is now complete, but it seems like there’s an awful lot of displaced “STUFF” laying around now.  <sigh>