Images - Dec Swinging

Dec Swinging in the backyard.

"Abortion is better for the baby" Huh?

I was listening to the Michael Medved show yesterday and he was talking about another report that denigrates marriage as a just a quaint tradition of the past and a trifle for the rich. The report is based on a skewed interpretation of statistics which show that wealthier people tend to get married. As Michael points out, the more accurate interpretation of these results is that those who get married tend to do better financially.

While taking calls, the discussion turned to children born out of wedlock. Then a girl called in who said that she had been living with her boyfriend for two years before finding out that she was pregnant. She stated that after weighing her options, "The best thing for both me, my boyfriend and ultimately the baby was to have an abortion." Am I missing something here? How is abortion ever better for the baby? What she should have said is that she and her boyfriend are so selfish that it was better to kill a baby than to take any personal responsibility for their actions. Instead, she tries to make it sound like she is doing something noble for the baby by sacrificing it's life.

Those icky Mormons

An article by Alex Beam of the Boston Globe explains why he thinks that a Mormon, Mitt Romney, could not be elected as the President of the Unites States. He attempts to cast a shadow on Mitt Romney and all Mormons, but really only ends up rambling through a few stale "insights" into Mormon theology, doctrines and history. It was a pretty poor attempt to slander the church, but I found a couple of quotes amusing.

"The Salt Lake City-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as the Mormons call themselves"

Like we are really "The Mormons" but just refer to ourselves by some other name. Alex Beam, as the Anti-mormon calls himself.

Another good quote.

On the plus side, Romney and many observant Mormons seem to lead exemplary, enviable, and productive lives centered on the traditional nuclear family.

We only "seem to" lead exemplary lives. Don't be fooled by the appearance that the Mormons are an enviable and productive people. The really only "seem to" lead exemplary lives. They really believe that founding prophet Joseph Smith received a "revelation that the Garden of Eden was in Independence, Mo., and that Jesus Christ visited America shortly after his resurrection." How shocking.

I kept expecting the author to say, "Don't tell anyone, but do you know what I heard about the Mormons?" Maybe he should have submitted it as a fourth grade language arts essay.

Mark Steyn summed up Mr. Beam's hightly intelectual rationale as:

"The Mormon church creeps out Mrs and Mrs America. It’s all just too freaky weirdy icky."

Mark also provides some interesting information about LDS population and demographic statistics.

Images - Spikey Dec

Another picture of Dec on crazy outfit/hair day. (taken 03/01/07)

Images - Boys, Sticks and Water

Boys, sticks and water. Plenty to smile about.

Can doesn't like Mom sweaty

Yesterday morning I brought Can in as we gathered for family prayer and proceeded to set him on my lap. He immediately balked and wanted to sit on mommy's lap until I told him that she was sweaty from working out. Then he stopped, made this disgusted face and decided that my lap wasn't so bad after all. He has been turning into a momma's boy lately and wants her to do everything. However, he doesnt' like it when she gets "wetty," as he says. When she puts on her excercise clothes, he asks, "Mommy get wetty?"

VDH compares Iraq to past US wars

Another perspective check by Victor Davis Hanson on the current situation in Iraq.

The high-stakes war to stabilize the fragile democracy in Iraq is a serious, costly and controversial business. But so have been most conflicts in American history. We need a little more humility and knowledge of our past — and a lot less hysteria, name-calling and obsession with our present selves.

Dentist week

This is dentist week in our family. Yesterday morning I went and had three more cavities filled. Fortunately, these were not deep and so they were not as painful as the one from last week. Only one more to go for me. Dec is going in today to have some cavities filled and Mom gets to go for some fillings tomorrow. One might think that we never brush our teeth but for Mom and I it has been over 10 years since we have been to the dentist, so it is surprising that our teeth aren't worse than they are.

French scientist now against global warming

The real scientists are starting to jump off of the man-made global warming ship, or should I say circus train (via Drudge). Its only a matter of time now till the pendulum swings and we start hearing about immanent man-made global cooling. Expect the headline: "Subarctic temperatures will force us underground for a billion-billion years."

Also, a new documentary is set to become the antithesis to Al Gore's work of fiction.

More of Sul's B-day party

Here is another picture from Sul's birthday party.

Yummy jello

Can likes to get into the pantry to find things to eat. Yesterday while Mom was taking the bigs to the bus stop he came to me with two boxes of Jello and wanted to eat them. I don't think that he has ever had Jello before so I told him what it was and said that Mom could make it for him when she got home. A short time later I found him sitting on the couch dipping his finger into an opened box of Jello. He held up his finger and said, "yummy Jello." Fortunately he hadn't had time to pour it all over the couch.

Yesterday was "culture" day for spirit week at the boy's school. Since we are only plain old boring Americans, Dec decided to dress up based on his Mormon culture. He went dressed in a shirt and tie with a missionary name tag. Mom expected a call from the school saying that he was not allowed to dress as anything overtly religious, but I guess that they were feeling unusually tolerant today because he said that nobody made him take his name tag off.

I heard a story about homosexual, but not religious, tolerance on on the Dennis Prager show yesterday. An exerpt from the news report that he was discussing:

When a few classmates razzed Rebeka Rice about her Mormon upbringing with questions such as, "Do you have 10 moms?" she shot back: "That's so gay."
Those three words landed the high school freshman in the Principal's office and resulted in a lawsuit that raises this question: When do playground insults used every day all over America cross the line into hate speech that must be stamped out?

Lets bend over backwards to prevent "hate speech" against homosexuals, but never mind the religious insults. Of course the kids who teased her about being Mormon didn't end up in the Principal's office because Mormon's aren't a "protected" minority.

Images - Colorado Aspens

I took this at the YMCA near Winter Park, CO (09/20/03).

The pace of change in our world

An interesting look at some statistics regarding the times we live in. (via Hugh Hewitt)

Crazy kids

Today is crazy outfit day, or something like that, at school. The boys thought that they looked pretty funny. I told them that I didn't see much different from any other day.

Blowing out the cake with the candles

We had Sul's party with friends on Saturday and then on Monday we celebrated as a family. He only got a watch from us because he wants heelies (those annoying shoes with wheels in the heels) and we thought it would be better to take him with us to pick them out. Since he had cake on Saturday, Mom made him a pan of lemon bars for the birthday celebration. We didn't think think about the fact that powdered sugar on the top of the bars wouldn't go so well with blowing out the candles. This left a bit of a mess.

Early birthday party

Yesterday we had a birthday party for Sul. It was a few days early, but he didn't mind. I'm sure that the ice cream cake helped him get over the fact that it wasn't really his birthday.

We had quite a crowd of 8-9 year old boys at our house. They went on a treasure hunt that required disguises and a lot of running around. After this they alternated between jumping on the trampoline and playing basketball. There was also a pretty crazy silly-string war. I think that a fun time was had by all.

Dukes of Dixieland

Friday night we went out (without the boys, yahoo) to see the Dukes of Dixieland in concert. This was another in our old-timer concert series, where once again we felt really young next to the other concert-goers. As their name suggests, this group played a lot of New Orleans Jazz. Some examples of their music can be found here. We had a fun time and enjoyed a night out by ourselves.

Images - Play Ball

I took this picture of Dec a few years ago, but it was cute. After church he wanted to play baseball in the front yard and wasn't happy that I just wanted to take his picture. (taken 06/06/04, Lakewood, CO)

Pain at the dentist

In January we finally got access to dental insurance. It has been over 10 years since I've been to the dentist for a real checkup and things don't look good. I have five cavities, four of which are under previous fillings. One of these is getting very near the nerve and the dentist isn't sure if it will require a root-canal or not. Ouch. I mean the pain in my pocket-boot. I can deal with the pain in my mouth, but if this requires a root-canal it will really be expensive. While the insurance covers most of the cost of normal fillings, it doesn't pay anything toward major repairs (i.e. root-canals). Add my work to Dec's eight cavities plus the dental insurance premium and I'm really wishing that I had followed my childhood goal of becoming a dentist. If you need the X-ray crystallographic structure of your favorite protein, I'm your man, but currently that seems to be far removed from any practical real-life application. Can I start over in this whole career thing?

Images - Purple Flower

(taken 06/20/04)