Thank you, God, for the Iraqi elections. Right now it looks like 36 people were killed and 60 percent of the Iraqi population in Iraq voted.
For some great stuff on the Iraqi elections go to:
Chrenkoff
Mudville Gazette
Captain’s Quarters
Read the posts on January 30 and 31st.
Auschwitz was freed 60 years ago today.
It’s been a long time and most of the people freed are now dead. They’ve joined the much larger number who weren’t released.
When I was ten one of my neighbors, “the crazy lady,” told me about the camps. She had been in one. She didn’t want any of us playing games which involved guns anywhere near her house. She certainly didn’t want us showing up at her door with them. Because she’d been in the camps. As an adult, I would surmise, since I think she was about 50 then. She made it out. Many people did not.
When I was in college in the late 70s there was discussion of the death of a local. He’d been somewhat of a hermit, unlike his sister. When he died, the inside of his house, every wall and door, was covered with paintings of scenes from the death camp he was in. I would suppose it was an attempt to get beyond it. I don’t think he succeeded.
Kids are actually graduating from a curriculum that targets dropouts. The kids have to attend, do homework, participate, and pay if they’re not passing. Harder does work better. I like it.
Joanne Jacobs has an article on reading, why boys don’t like it.
You know, I don’t like the mamby pamby literature that schools often assign. I’m a big sci fi fan. (Yes, I know it’s from the devil.) I also love Westerns, fantasy, romance, and action books. Need to read some more of those this year.
Two posts from Little Green Footballs. One on a Colgate professor who wants to be embedded with the terrorists. And one on Churchill, who said that the 9/11 victims were Nazis, who will be a speaker at Hamilton College.
Junk Yard Blog has an entry on the new Illinois law that forces discrimination against gays to end, even in churches.
Do they not understand that, for most Christians, anyone who is flaunting a sexual relationship outside of marriage, gay or not, is not going to get hired at a church? Yes, it is true that most Christian churches are against homosexuality. But I’ve seen plenty of pastors and teachers fired for heterosexuality as well.
It’s legal for churches to not have to hire people who are not of their faith for church positions. Obviously a practicing gay would not be “of their faith.” Maybe they can get around it that way.
Although I think it is just plain wrong.
Update on the Christian family who were killed in their home. This story by Michelle Malkin talks about legacy media response to the family. Jihad Watch quotes bragging about their death on the Muslim electronic bulletin board.
The American Coptics are upset that the police are ignoring the religious aspects of the story.
This blog entry from a woman who had a loaded gun in her CHECKED baggage. Interesting.
The Library of Congress has created aSeptember 11, 2001 history on-line, including pictures drawn by school kids. I can’t figure out how to get to all the pics, but these are in a gallery for perusal.
Sun in Glory, short stories of Valdemar, edited by Mercedes Lackey
Exile’s Honor, supposedly the first of a trilogy about Alberich, so far there are only two, by Mercedes Lackey
Night Watch, before Gone Too Far, about Wes falling in love. by Suzanne Brockmann
Flashpoint, by Suzanne Brockmann, a book after Tom and Sam have to leave the SEALs, with new characters; included is a short story about Sam and Alyssa
Take a Thief by Mercedes Lackey
Arrows of the Queen by Mercedes Lackey—This is one of her first three, though it follows the other two above, in actual sequence. I’ve read it many times. Reread it.
Arrow’s Flight by Mercedes Lackey—Second of the Arrow Trilogy
Arrow’s Fall by Mercedes Lackey—Third of the Arrow Trilogy
March to the Stars by David Weber and John Ringo—I actually hadn’t read the full book until this week.
We Few by David Weber and John Ringo—Baen Webscriptions has part of this book up. I am looking forward to reading all of it. It is a fascinating story, that continues the March to … series. I haven’t finished it, but I have read all that was available on-line.
Crown of Slave by David Weber—It’s an interesting book that I read on-line when it first came out in hardback. I don’t think I ever saw it at the store, but I know the paperback is coming out in April. I’ll buy it then, if I haven’t picked up a copy somewhere else. It’s an interesting spin-off story from the Honor Harrington series.
Books 1-7
Books 8-13
Books 14-17
Books 18-22
Books 23-29
Books 30-34
A school in Britain has decided that homework is a dinosaur and is now going to be extinct. I thought that was crazy.
Then I found this site which equates homework with drug. “Just say no.”
I knew I homeschooled for a reason.
Today is the 32nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade.
My husband was adopted 40 years ago. When he was eight, he turned from the TV and said, “I’d be dead.”
A girlfriend from grad school was molested by her brother’s friend, with her brother’s knowledge. He took her to Planned Parenthood, who gave her a test and told her she was pregnant. Her brother signed her up for an abortion. There was to be no telling Mom and Dad. … She didn’t go. … Turns out, she was so young and so innocent, she hadn’t been raped, so she couldn’t possibly have been pregnant. But why would PP help a molester rather than the victim?
My mother was refused entrance into a hospital with a miscarriage because the staff thought she had given herself a homespun abortion. She almost bled to death before she reached a hospital which admitted her. So she supports legalized abortion when no one will be turned away.
43 million Americans have died. Legally. Aided and abetted by all of us. May God forgive us.
An interesting high school graduation speech. Try stuff out. Don’t get demoralized. It will take work. But said much more articulately.
Cool site to check out later. Has articles on loch ness monster, etc.
A Small Victory has an interesting and long comment filled discussion on the topic. She has a follow-up post as well.
R and I had this discussion a year and a half ago, though without hundreds of comments. He came up with a very interesting definition of sexy. It has given me great pause at times. This post is my side of the story. It also talks about places I went to look for what is sexy.
I think that guys might differentiate between who they would date or have sex with and who they would marry. Once they are looking for the marrying one, they might not.
When I was 11 I had a list of 100 things, all modeled off my present crush. Like baseball. Blue eyes. An Aggie.
When I was 22 I had a much shorter list, based on things that were important to me.
He had to make me laugh.
He had to not love sports. (I’m not into sports that much.)
He had to be a strong Christian. (Not my denomination, necessarily, but an active believer.)
And I would prefer that he was three years younger than I was. (Since at the time, that was the life expectancy difference.)
I didn’t really care much about lists later on. If he scared me, I’d quit dating him. That was about it, I think.
However, R, who I married when I was 26, does, in fact, match the list I had at 22. He still does. Please note that there is nothing on there about education or job description or looks.
But there’s also nothing on there about sexy, either. For that you’ll have to go read my earlier post.
R came home from MacWorld in SF on Saturday morning about 7 am. Then he went out to play poker with some guys for his bday at 6 pm. Unfortunately, when he got home from that he was seriously sick. He’s been gone from work all week and isn’t really up to going back tomorrow.
I’ve been sleeping A LOT the last two nights and I took a 2 hour nap today. I’ve been queasy all afternoon. That’s not good, since I have college classes starting tomorrow night. I need to be well.
I’ve taken some C and some zinc and hope that will help stave it off.
I’ve only read 34 books so far this year. That’s not quite two a day. Drats. I was really going for that level. Oh well. I’ll try to catch up later, I guess.
If I read an average of 730 books a year, for 40 more years, I would have read 29,200. Okay, that is a little better than those old numbers. I probably won’t read that many. Realistically I’d say I read about 500. I read a lot several times, but that wouldn’t count in a single year, I wouldn’t think.
Supposedly, the average person reads 25 hours a year. That, for me, would be about 20 books. I think I’m over that already, for sure. And some of these books have been 400 pages, which means I’ve probably read about 44 hours this month. Of books. Not including blogs and short stories and school work.
The Sinner by Kathleen O’Brien. The second in a series of three. Slow coming out with the books, but good books. Not great, but good.
One Good Man by Charlotte Douglas. Part of a series, but you don’t need to have read the earlier one. Now she’s added about eight Marines to the mix. Interesting how many soldiers and Marines are coming out in romance novels these days.
Into the Night by Suzanne Brockmann Meet Mike Muldoon and watch his love for a West Wing bigwig take shape. Good book.
Over the Edge by Suzanne Brockmann. In this book miracle worker Senior Chief Wolchonok falls in love with a Navy helo pilot who is dealing with some serious long term abuse issues. The story is interwoven with the life story of an Israeli negotiator whose life was saved in Nazi Denmark by Stan’s mother, aunt, and grandparents. A great love story of another era weaves its tail through a modern love story, through the eyes of the woman who saw them both.
Out of Control by Suzanne BrockmannWatch the tres chic lawyer Savannah von Hopf fall in love with WildCard Karmody, or vice versa. Two other interwoven stories are fantastic. Rose Rainer the dashing double agent and Prince Heinrich von Hopf of the SS. And Jones, an abandoned soldier who turned his coat to save his life and then snitched on the drug runner who has a $5M price tag on his head, and Molly, the woman whose life used to be really messed up, but now she’s found God, and Jones.
Michelle Malkin has an update on the student whose esssay exam answer got him threatened with his student visa being pulled, because it was so pro-American.
This is my earlier post on the same topic, but pre-grading.
A family of Egyptian Copts (Christians) were killed and mutilated by attackers. Threats were made previously by Muslim extremists in the US.
God rest their souls. And God help the government find and punish their murderers.
More of the story at Michelle Malkin.
R’s home, thank goodness. I missed him a lot, especially from Wednesday on. But he’s got a temperature and was throwing up all night. His heartrate was also at between 200 and 240 this morning about 3 a.m. It’s settled down a lot, but he still has a fever.