“Puritans believed in the democracy of New England town meetings. Liberals believe that unelected judges have an unlimited prerogative to create law, even when it is overwhelmingly opposed by the majority of citizens.”
I’ve grown to really like Thomas Brewton’s work on conservatism. This is no exception; it’s on my “highly recommended reads” list.
Tags: Conservatism
“Drawing on a wide range of studies to cross-match faith â�� measured by belief in God and acceptance of evolution â�� with homicide and sexual behavior, Paul found that secular societies have lower rates of violence and teenage pregnancy than societies where many people profess belief in God.”
This article subtitled “Religion fosters bad behavior” by Martin Foreman about a “study” on the topic of religion as a cause of crime is incredibly flawed. Let’s examine the opinion piece while keeping in mind that the study it references is predicated on the acknowledgement of an antithetical point. (Continued)
Tags: communications
Things I don’t tell my wife
My wife, Shelley, is a kind person - perhaps the kindest soul I’ve ever gotten to know intimately. Frankly, we are very different people and she’s far more consistently pleasant than I am. I’m outgoing, gregarious and less even-tempered; she’s a reserved, consistent and calming influence on me. She’ll never be the one quick to shake the hand of every person in the room, but she’ll always be very observant and perceive a lot of things that I’ll miss. Her counsel is priceless to me, and as I write this I feel a bit guilty for not thanking her for it more often. Knowing her, being with her and growing with her has, I believe, made me a far better person than the one she met seven years ago.
I think it is our contrasting basic natures that feeds a lot of what I put into my writings in this blog and various other written forums in which I participate: She simply would rather not know about or discuss what we call current events in great detail. Too many of the reported artifacts and results of human nature we call “news” are off-putting to her. If the terrorist is in our neighborhood she wants to know about it, but if it involves clashes of civilizations in some distant sand-pit that have been going on since Abraham begat Ishmael and Isaac, I know to spare her the details.
Our commitment to each other, building our lives together and raising our daughter gives us plenty to talk about and work on as a couple and a family. We each bring our unique strengths to bear in rearing our daughter. For instance: Very soon, my wife will be the one most intimately informed about the daily details of our four-year-old’s school days; I’m already trying to make sure that Federal intrusions like the insipid “No Child Left Behind Act” don’t render her part of a generation in which all public school children are molded into equally inept imbeciles.
We’ll both be working toward the same ends by different means while sharing equally in Katie’s successes and disappointments. (Continued)
Tags: communications, current events, human nature, no child left behind act, Political Correctness
I’ll start at the beginning.
The banner image I chose and cropped for this site is a portion of my 1964 kindergarten class picture. In the banner, I’m the shrimp at the far left. This picture is very important to me, and I’ll get to that in a bit. You might notice that I’m the shortest child in the picture; the kindergarten I attended was a two-year program. I was only four years old when this picture was taken, but so were half of the other kids.
Throughout all my years in school, until my senior year in high school growth-spurt, I was always the shortest kid in the class, and usually by several inches. Needless to say, I had to find creative ways to make up for my physical stature, lest I be picked on. I’m sure I’ll get around to describing some incidents regarding my defense of shortness in future posts.
But this post isn’t really about this picture.
This post is about my parents, particularly my Dad. It is about what they gave of themselves to me.
This post is about one moment in time. This post is about what a single incident can do to instill a meaning that lasts throughout a person’s lifetime. This post is about the process of “becoming” that every single soul goes through by his or her own path. And I hope this post makes you think about a cherished memory that at least brings a smile.
This picture, and a couple others from my kindergarten days, are my reminders about how I began to become the person I am today. The mental images I cherish from this time are far more important than the end result of light exposure upon film transferred to photo-sensitive paper. Every time I look at or think about this picture the memories flood back. And it always makes me happy. (Continued)
Tags: Family, love, self confidence
