Both Kelly and Christian had tests postponed today due to the snow storm. It is coming down hard and it is very beautiful. I love the snow, but we do not think the kids will get back to school until Monday. This is the view out our front door as it continues to come down hard:
Month: February 2014
This is brilliant. h.t. Chicks on the Right
Day 905 of 1000
There is a totally fascinating article in the Wall Street Journal today about how Sweden has legislated themselves into a corner with respect to how they raise their children. It is against the law to spank children in Sweden now and the attitude that goes along with that appears to be bearing fruit against which the adults in the country are starting rebel. Swedish psychiatrist David Eberhard wrote a book about it whose title translates to How Children Took Power. I think this is definitely happening here in the United States, too. Sweden is prospering economicly because they have started to dump some of their liberal economic ideas. Here is hoping they start dumping their liberal social obsessions, too. Maybe there is still hope for Sweden.
Betty Blonde #68 – 10/20/2008
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Day 904 of 1000
I did not know it until I started reading a little, but the relative benefits of barefoot running can be quite a controversial subject. There are many things barefoot running claims to help. The one that caught my eye was the claim that it helps against shin splints. If that is true, I surely want to try it. Our friend, Daniel was talking to us about how it helped him get back into running after a twenty years hiatus because of knee trouble. I am kind of a fan of the Tarhumara Indians of Brarrancas del Cobre in North Mexico. They are they barefoot runners who, as part of their culture, run hundreds of miles at a crazy pace.
I think I will get the book pictured in this post, read about how to do this and try it out. Daniel says the most important thing is to start very, very slowly–minutes per day–and build up to where you want to be. That is good advise. If it helps me with my shin splints and gets me running again, it will be worth it.
Betty Blonde #68 – 10/20/2008
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Day 903 of 1000
I just finished reading a great article titled The Secular Religion of the Left. It is worth your while to read the whole thing. It articulates some of the things we have seen in the downward spiral of our society. An amazing connection is made between the culture malaise we see in parts of our own family who have immigrated here to the United States from Mexico and the idea that “Organic” food is somehow morally superior. The premise of the article is that the religion of the secular left is materialism. Here is the comment about immigrants that rings so true in light of our own personal experience:
Those most in need of the moral system of materialism are the descendants of the displaced, whether by immigration to the United States or migration within the United States from rural to urban areas, who have become detached from a large extended family structure that once sustained them.
Their grandparents had already loosened their grip on religion and as the family disintegrated, materialism took its place. Their grandparents worked hard to provide for their children, but the children no longer saw maintaining the family as a moral activity. Sometimes they didn’t even bother with a family. They became lonely individuals looking for a collective. A virtual political family.
Liberalism fills the missing space once inhabited by religion and the family. It provides a moral and ethical system as religion did and the accompanying sense of purpose and its state institutions replace and supplant the family. It does both of these things destructively and badly as its institutions forever try to patch social problems created by the disintegration of the family and its ideas provide too few people with a sense of purpose of a meaningful life.
Amazingly, the author, Daniel Greenfield, ties all this to the culture and religion of those who buy their organic food at Whole Foods. And it is a coherent connection. Whole Foods is a pretentious place. Here is a snippet about that connection:
Organic, a category with a debatable meaning, doesn’t really provide that much more value. And environmental labels are worth very little. And yet the average product at Whole Foods is covered in so many “ethical liberal” labels that it’s hard to figure out what it even is.
He finishes the post with this brilliant gem:
The left can’t replace family or religion. Its social solutions are alien and artificial. They fix nothing and damage everything. Their appeal is to those who are arrogant and starved for meaning, who want religion without religion and family without family only to discover that they are not enough.
The quotes above are great, but do not come close to doing justice to the entire piece. Read it. I am adding Greenfield’s blog to my daily reading list.
Betty Blonde #67 – 10/17/2008
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My buddy Frank sent me an image of the birdbaths in his yards. They are not only cool because they were made from random springs and farm implement discs, but because they have ten inches of snow on them. I knew Oregon got hit hard, but that amount of snow in that part of Oregon is unprecedented.
Day 902 of 1000
Christian went to the job fair to look for a summer internship. He walked away with a lot of free stuff–a Microsoft t-shirt, a pen and a memory stick from Sharp, and a water bottle!
Kelly, on the other hand, went to the job fair to work for her employer, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. They not only paid her but gave her the free promotional stuff given to them by NCSU–An NCSU clipboard with NCSU logo note paper, an NCSU thermal coffee cup, and an NCSU leather portfolio!
Betty Blonde #66 – 10/16/2008
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Lorena, Kelly, and Christian ran in what is probably their last Krispy Kreme run. I use the term “run” very loosely in this case. They might come back some time in the future, but it will likely not be this decade as they should all be out West soon.
Day 901 of 1000
Who would have ever guessed. Three-wheeled madness is coming out of the woodwork. Gene is actually working (on an extended schedule) on a building a three wheeler. See his blog on his effort here. He even provides a page that holds a bunch of links on the history of three-wheelers here. Actually, that whole website is very interesting. I just know I am going to get enticed into buying an Elio. The thing that gives me pause, though, is this youtube video from Trisha:
Betty Blonde #65 – 10/15/2008
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Day 900 of 1000
With only 100 days left in our 1000 day count, my buddy Eric left a very interesting comment on my post about Elio Motors, the three wheel company. with a link to a strange three wheel car company called Twentieth Century Motor Car Company. It is stranger even than the last, drug dealing days of DeLorea Motor Company and not in a good way. The crazy thing is the two three wheel cars have a lot in common including a specification of 84 miles per gallon gas mileage and a very low price. Maybe this idea’s time has come, but the leadership of the older company see more in line with the spirit of 2014 than the spirit of 1974. It is an interesting read.
Betty Blonde #64 – 10/14/2008
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Day 899 of 1000
Late last year on my way home from Arizona, I went to the wrong gate by accident and set by a nice fellow with whom I struck up a conversation. I almost missed my plane, but had a fascinating discussion about a new company that had been started to build a new kind of inexpensive 2-seat, 3-wheel car. He was one of the V.P.’s of the company and explained it all in some detail. The name of the company is Elio Motors. They have identified a manufacturing facility in Louisiana and are scheduled to start delivering cars in 2015. Because it is a three wheel vehicle, they have done a lot of work to assure and to demonstrate its safety. They expect it to receive a 5-star safety rating. It gets 84 miles per gallon with an 8 gallon tank–over 600 miles on a tank of gas is pretty amazing. It is not a speed burner, but it goes 0-60 in 9.6 seconds so it is at least respectable. The retail price is low enough, $6800, that I am very tempted to get one for going to work. It looks pretty nice, too.
Betty Blonde #63 – 10/13/2008
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Day 898 of 1000
Christian is attending the job NCSU job fair looking for internships. Kelly is there, too, but she is working the booth for the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. It is pretty hard work doing both. I hope to have a picture of one or both of them later today.
Update: Christian before he cleans up to go to the job fair:
Betty Blonde #62 – 10/10/2008
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Day 895 of 1000
I made the beautiful drive from Prescott to Flagstaff for gospel meeting this afternoon. Flagstaff is nothing short of stunning spectacular. I could live here.
Update: I had a an hour and a half to kill, so I made my way over to the Northern Arizona University campus. It is a beautiful campus, but the setting at the foot of a big mountain is beyond beautiful. I am sitting in the NAU main library and it is a wonderful facility. No wonder so many people want to come here. Very impressive.
Betty Blonde #60 – 10/08/2008
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Day 894 of 1000
I read through Romans 12 today. It reminded me again that the Bible is full of statements that shaped the world.
9 Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.
10 Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;15 Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.
16 Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits.
17 Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.
18 If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.21 Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
There is an amazing standard of conduct described there. It is uniquely Christian. This is the standard to which we are all held. Some do a much better job than others at upholding it, be we all fail–miserably–in the end. It is always worth the effort to strive for this kind of conduct. There are temporal benefits to attaining it, but the eternal ones are profoundly greater.
Betty Blonde #59 – 10/07/2008
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