Ain't technology great?!?

We just got some instant messages from our oldest daughter, who's in the airport in LA right now waiting for the last leg of her flight home. So, no kidding, isn't technology great?!? How cool that she could contact us that way, and that I happened to log into AIM messenger a few minutes before she did!

In about four more hours, she'll board a flight with Midwest Airlines, which truly is "the best care in the air".

And then, tomorrow at 5:30 a.m., the entire family will be at the airport to greet her.

I've been so happy for her having this great adventure and a wonderful time these last ten days that I haven't paid too much attention to how much we've all missed her. Let's just say, "De Nile ain't just a river in Africa, baby."

But now.... I can't wait to see her again.

Wall-E: I'll be going to see it again

I took my two younger ones to see Wall-E on Friday -- opening day, how cool is that? -- and immediately loved it.

I'd had some misgivings, as I was afraid that it might be yet another earth-good, humans-bad, save-the-environment, worship-Gaia piece of agitprop.

But it's not! Don't let the fact that the earth is covered with trash fool you: This is not about saving the earth.

It's about saving the humans.

There are so many very cool themes and symbols in this movie. We've been having so much fun sorting them all out to figure out the real story in "Wall-E".

But, that will be for another post.

In the meantime, I encourage everyone to go see that movie, right away!






So why are you still here? Go! Now! Buy ticket! See movie!

Thank me later.

Another phone call from our traveler!

She called again, 8 a.m. Thursday her time, 6 p.m. Wednesday our time. Everyone was home except our 16 yo daughter, who was working.

So, the four of us who were home picked up an extension and had a family chat!

The update: She ate some dried squid jerky (it wasn't too bad), was very tired yesterday (jet lag finally catching up to her?), got a little sunburned (it was overcast so she didn't think she needed much sunblock), climbed a huge cliff called "Sunrise Peak" (did my daughter really climb that?! Wow!), and generally is just having a great time.

Note: This update is primarily for friends and family who are keeping our daughter in their prayers for safe and happy travels! Thank you!!

So what's new in Korea?

We heard from our oldest daughter this morning at 8:30 our time, 10:30 p.m. their time. She's having a great time! They're touring around Jeju Island, seeing gardens and museums, and I imagine spending some time on the beaches, too, though she didn't mention that.

She's eating a lot of rice, as she's not too crazy about the fish and crab which apparently are a mainstay of the island diet. She said the hotel serves American breakfast, so that's good, but I'm sure she's going to come home even slimmer than she was when she left.

She also said that she didn't sleep at all on the plane, even though it was a 14 hour flight, and doesn't have any jet lag. Ah, youth.

She wanted to talk to everybody here at home; it was so nice to hear her voice.

In honor of our daughter and all her traveling companions, I've installed the clock in the sidebar showing the current time in Korea. Right now, about 4:30 p.m. our time, it's 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning for them.

Pure joy!

Hat tip to the Paragraph Farmer, who got it from the Anchoress.

And after visiting the Anchoress today, I see that I am pretty much copying her, though unintentionally. We both posted the same Carlin video, and of course this Matt video. I'm starting to feel redundant.

George Carlin on the difference between baseball and football

I just heard that George Carlin died last night, age 71.

Oddly enough, I was just talking about him yesterday, with the dad sitting behind me at one of our many baseball games. We were laughing about Carlin's "Baseball and Football" routine, which is probably the only George Carlin bit I personally know, and which also may be one of his very few 100% clean routines.

For your enjoyment, in honor of baseball season:

What a weekend

Yesterday we took our oldest daughter to the airport for her trip to South Korea. She's going with a group from her Tae Kwon Do school, led by Master Yun, founder of the school, so she's in good hands and with good company.

But still.

She now is somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. I tried to track her flight using this website but didn't have any luck. However, look at this animation -- amazing, isn't it?! -- and picture her flight heading west out over the Pacific. They're about halfway through their 14 hour flight right now, and according to this Asiana Airlines site, that means they should be into their second movie, having a beverage.

And I love this paragraph from Asiana, touting the virtues of their environmentally friendly coffee:

Asiana Airlines care about the global environment, even in a cup of coffee. Asiana Airlines provides the beautiful coffee in evry sense of the world, as certified by Rainforest Alliance, The coffee was serve is cultivated using enviromentally-friendly farming methods that for go the use agricultural chemicals and insecticides.

Enjoy beauty of the real coffee to the full with beautiful people “Asiana Airlines.”

I was just enjoying beauty of the real coffee myself, courtesy of Folger's, and a beautiful little person was here a few minutes ago. The rest of my beautiful people are still sleeping.

Back to our weekend schedule: yesterday, in addition to taking our oldest daughter to the airport, we also had the two younger kids in baseball tournament games. Today we have, potentially, six hours of Girls' Minis baseball to attend. I was going to say "sit through" but realized that didn't reflect the proper attitude, especially since our Mini Girl is thrilled about this.

But, come on. What brainiac decided that New Berlin Park and Rec really needs a weekend baseball tournament for nine year olds, with three games on a Sunday starting at 10 a.m.? This is not what we signed up for; we've had kids in Park & Rec baseball for more than 10 years and they've never pulled something like this before. With luck, it will be a one-time wonder.

Since our daughter won her first tourney game yesterday afternoon, she plays at 10 a.m. today, and if she wins again, she'll go on to play at noon and 2:00. Of course, the games each last two hours, so how they're going to stick to this every-two-hour schedule is beyond me.

And can you imagine how these nine year olds are going to feel after six hours of baseball? Thank God the temperature is mild today (low 70's), as we could have been hit with 90 degree temps and high humidity. Which would have meant having an ambulance on stand-by for all the heat stroke victims.

This also means we have to go to St. Aloysius (a.k.a. St. Last Chance) for the 7:00 p.m. Mass. It's not our favorite, but I guess it won't kill us. And it beats getting up to go to 7:30 a.m. Mass, after getting home late last night from a graduation party.

Well, in for a dime, in for a dollar. If we have to have this tournament, I really hope my little Mini Girl's team will win the whole thing.

Oops, I just checked: She's no longer a Mini. That was last year. This year she's a Minor. Oh well.

Support for the Catholic Church

This is very cool.

From a speech by Sam Miller, prominent Cleveland businessman, of the Jewish faith, strong supporter of the Catholic Church:

The Church has 230 colleges and universities in the U.S. with an enrollment of 700,000 students. The Catholic Church has a non-profit hospital system of 637 hospitals, which account for hospital treatment of 1 out of every 5 people - not just Catholics - in the United States today.

But the press is vindictive and trying to totally denigrate in every way the Catholic Church in this country. They have blamed the disease of pedophilia on the Catholic Church, which is as irresponsible as blaming adultery on the institution of marriage. Let me give you some figures that you as Catholics should know and remember. For example, 12% of the 300 Protestant clergy surveyed admitted to sexual intercourse with a parishioner; 38% acknowledged other inappropriate sexual contact in a study by the United Methodist Church, 41.8 % of clergywomen reported unwanted sexual behavior; 17% of laywomen have been sexually harassed. Meanwhile, 1.7% of the Catholic clergy has been found guilty of pedophilia. 10% of the Protestant ministers have been found guilty of pedophilia. This is not a Catholic Problem.

Where I was this morning

On this gorgeous last-day-of-spring, it was my turn to drive out to the countryside to pick up the 43 dozen eggs for our co-op.


View Larger Map

And there it is, courtesy of Google Street View: Solar Harvest Farm, producer of eggs, chicken, beef, and pork. They are completely energy self-sufficient because of solar panels, giant southern-facing windows on the farmhouse, and a windmill in the farmyard.

The hens live happy hen-lives, running around the yard, scratching, eating bugs, and trying to avoid being picked off by the circling hawk that once a week or so gets his chicken dinner from the farm.

Leading those happy hen-lives must make their eggs particularly delicious, as my husband thinks they're good enough to be worth the ridiculously high price of $4.00 a dozen.

And I'm happy because once in awhile I get to make the egg run and take a drive into the country.

Will President Bush convert?

I always said that President Bush was a Catholic but he just didn't know it yet.

So I found this very interesting:

George W Bush and Pope Benedict XVI have held an intimate meeting in Rome as rumours mounted in Italy that the president may follow in Tony Blair's footsteps and convert to Catholicism.

[snip]

However, it is thought unlikely that Mr Bush would convert until after he has left office. Jeb Bush, the president's brother, has already converted to Catholicism.

Catholics have noted that during the contested election in 2000, Jeb Bush travelled to Mexico and prayed to the icon of Our Lady of Guadelupe. His victory was announced by the Supreme Court on December 12, the feast day of the Lady of Guadelupe.

About that ban on speech in Canada

Eugene Volokh has something to say:

This is a breathtakingly broad prohibition, which extends far beyond the terms of the (already troubling) statute. Boissoin and his group aren't allowed to saying anything "disparaging" about homosexuals, which presumably would even extend to statements such as "homosexuals are acting sinfully" or "The Bible, which I believe should be our moral guide, condemns homosexuality."

Why global warming is better than global cooling

There are so many things I'd like to post about the global warming hoax... but alas, I just don't have the time. (I do have a little more time now that school is out, however!)

So for today, I'll just post a snippet of this article:

In the age of the dinosaur, for example, CO2 levels may have been five to 10 times higher than today, spurring a luxuriantly fertile planet whose plant life sated the immense animals of that era. Planet Earth is also much cooler today than during the hothouse era of the dinosaur, and cooler than it was 1,000 years ago during the Medieval Warming Period, when the Vikings colonized a verdant Greenland. Greenland lost its colonies and its farmland during the Little Ice Age that followed, and only recently started to become green again.

Must have been the SUV's in the 900's that caused that Medieval Warming, don't ya think?

About yesterday's post

I play this little game with myself. It's called, "What Did I Say That Could Be Misinterpreted?"

It can be played very successfully after, for example, teaching a college class, or giving a talk for my homeschool group. Or talking on the phone, sending an email...

...or publishing a blog post.

Upon reflection, I realized that the hyperbole of the post title, "This makes my blood boil", could be misinterpreted. I didn't say exactly what riled me so much.

It was the quote from the ruling that "the right not to be offended 'trumps the freedom of speech afforded in the Charter' ".

What? Show me, in the Canadian Charter, where "the right not to be offended" is enumerated. Here's what it says about "fundamental rights":

2. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:
a) freedom of conscience and religion;
b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;
c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and
d) freedom of association.

I just did a search, and surprise, surprise: The word "offended" doesn't show up. At all.

So there is no "right to not be offended" in Canada, or the U.S. And yet if you asked people on the street, I bet a lot of them would believe that such a right exists in our own Constitution.

Once the rule of law is discarded for the rule of "feelings" and imaginary rights to not be offended, the game is over.

And of course, this ruling in Canada strikes a direct blow at freedom of religion. If a pastor is not free to teach the truth about sexuality, then freedom of religion is lost.

It also strikes a blow at freedom of speech, not only for the Pastor involved, but for the press. Just read the ruling:

The Red Deer Advocate is not a part of this complaint. Due to a settlement of a prior human rights complaint against its publication of Mr. Boissoin’s letter, it has expanded its “letter policy.” Commencing on April 10, 2004, the newspaper now includes a policy statement that states:

The Advocate will not publish statements that indicate unlawful discrimination or intent to discriminate against a person or class of persons, or are likely to expose people to hatred or contempt because of ...sexual orientation.

Of course, no responsible paper would publish a hate-filled rant. (Note: Unless it was directed against George W. Bush.) But Rev. Boissoin's letter wasn't a hate-filled rant. A little googling found this summary of Rev. Boissoin's letter:

Boissoin, the full time pastor of a Red Deer youth ministry, wrote a letter to the editor of his hometown newspaper in which he said homosexuality is immoral and physically dangerous for those involved in it. Boissoin particularly criticized the homosexual political lobby that worked to teach children in schools about the practices of the “gay lifestyle”.

Boissoin was upset that “children as young as five and six years of age are being subjected to psychologically and physiologically damaging pro-homosexual literature and guidance in the public school system; all under the fraudulent guise of equal rights.”

Does that sound like hate speech to you? It doesn't to me.

So a pastor is silenced, and a newspaper acquiesces in its own silencing, all in the name of an imaginary right "not to be offended".

And that's what made my blood boil.

This makes my blood boil.

The "Human Rights Tribunal" in Canada has just ruled that a pastor is forbidden to speak about homosexuality in a "disparaging" way:

A Christian pastor has been given a lifetime ban against uttering anything "disparaging" about gays. Not against anything "hateful", let alone something legally defined as "hate speech". Just anything negative.

So a pastor cannot give a sermon.

But he must give a false sermon; he is positively ordered to renounce his deeply held religious beliefs, and apologize to his tormentor for having those views.

And then that pastor is ordered to declare to his entire city that he has renounced his religious views, even though he has not.

That's Alberta's human rights commission. That's the group where 15 bureaucrats are busily beavering away against me, because I published some Danish cartoons two years ago.

That's the same "law" under which Maclean's and Mark Steyn are charged.

Fire. Them. All.

You realize that "disparaging" means, "anything other than saying homosexuality is a good and normal and natural thing".

Don't think it can't happen here.

Click on the link in the post title to read the whole article.