Quote of the Day

From Charles Krauthammer, as quoted at The Corner:

I think it hasn't been the most important 100 days. I think it has been the most revealing 100 days in our lifetime. After all, this man when he was elected was one of the great mysteries of American politics. He was the most unknown, untested, untried, and really un-figured-out man ever to ascend to the office.

And in the first 100 days, he has told us who he is. And before his inauguration there was a big debate. Is he a centrist who talks a good centrist game, or is he a leftist who talks a good centrist game? Now we know.

He is a man who has expressed in the joint address to congress, in the budget, and again in the speech he gave to Georgetown a few weeks ago, a radical domestic agenda which involves, as he puts it every time, a holy trinity of healthcare reform, by which he means nationalizing healthcare, and he wants to federalize education with essentially a federal guarantee of college education, and to seize control of the energy economy with a carbon tax.

And this is all in the service of leveling the differences between rich and poor and leveling the differences between classes.

That's as radical an agenda since FDR, and I think even more so, since FDR entered office willing to experiment. Obama knows where he wants to go to establish more social democratic America, and he has told us exactly what it is in the first 100 days.

Quote of the Day

From Postmodern Times by Gene Edward Veith, Jr.:

Thus many of the society's most important decisions are made not by ordinary citizens but by an unelected elite. Hospitals farm out questions of medical ethics to committees of "experts." Courtroom decisions hinge on the testimony of "expert witnesses" (who can usually be found to represent both sides of a case). Congressional committees listen to the testimony of "experts" in drafting legislation designed to solve society's problems. In most cases, the experts are brought in to answer questions that ordinary human beings have always been competent to answer: Is this fair? Is this right or wrong? Will this work? When the experts become permanently entrenched in governmental bureaucracies and receive the authority to set policies with the status of law, the democratic process becomes more and more irrelevant.

On Marrying Young

Via a Twitter friend, I found this interesting article on marrying young. Here's a peek:

In my research on young adults' romantic relationships, many women report feeling peer pressure to avoid giving serious thought to marriage until they're at least in their late 20s. If you're seeking a mate in college, you're considered a pariah, someone after her "MRS degree." Actively considering marriage when you're 20 or 21 seems so sappy, so unsexy, so anachronistic. Those who do fear to admit it -- it's that scandalous.

How did we get here? The fault lies less with indecisive young people than it does with us, their parents.

Hey, don't blame me! I was 21 and PalmPilot 22 when we married. Yes, we were young, but as my dad said when I asked him not long ago why they gave us their blessing at that young age, we were doing things in the right order. PalmPilot and I look back now and laugh and say that we grew up together. And we did. I have not one regret about marrying young because I have not one regret about the man I married.

Pressing On

An email exchange this morning with my husband prompted me to remember the high school teachers who have influenced me, even to this day. My English teachers, Mrs. Larson and Mrs. Atwell, will probably never know the extent to which I still hear their voices in my head. They inspired me to love words and to pay attention to the details of grammar. They never knew when I sat in their classrooms over twenty years ago that one day I'd be teaching my own children and, now, other children in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. I certainly never expected it.

Dwelling on all of this today has given me some much-needed encouragement to finish this school year well. We only have a few weeks left in our little home school and at the Christian classical school where I teach Latin. As tired as I am, I'm newly inspired this morning to press on because I can't predict just who might be listening to me and what they might end up doing one day. I could be a voice in someone's head one day, and I want to be an encouraging one that inspires a love of words and an attention to detail because words matter and words are how God has chosen to communicate with us.

For example, yesterday I read this post at Femina and was thinking about how God doesn't remember our confessed sins. It just doesn't seem possible that God wouldn't or couldn't remember something. It's dreadfully difficult to stop remembering an offense against me. How can God do it? But then I thought about the Latin phrase that makes it all make more sense to me: memoria tenere. That phrase literally means to hold in memory. That gives me a better picture of what's going on. God doesn't hold our sins in His memory. He lets them go and never brings them to mind again because they've been dealt with on the cross. Having more clarity about that bit of theology leads me to doxology, as my pastor reminds us often.

I want my students to make connections like that. I'd better get to work.

Word of the Day

I am maritorious.

The Sound of Silence

Do you remember that wise counsel from your mother: "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all"? That accounts for my blog silence. I'm too busy, too annoyed, and too tired to write anything positive. Blogging will resume when I'm in a better frame of mind.

17

It really doesn't seem that long ago to me that I was 17, but somehow today my firstborn is turning 17. The years have flown. PalmBoy is growing into a fine young man, and this mama loves him. On one hand, I can't remember life without him, and on the other it seems that just yesterday he was holding my hand, taking his first steps down the sidewalk on McKeen Street in Brunswick, Maine. Now he's taller than I am -- and even better -- taller than his sister now! He's got a deep voice, a driver's license, and a job. He's got a great sense of humor, a tender heart, and he still hugs me. The PalmFamily is blessed. Happy Birthday, PalmBoy!

then...

now...

Hawaii Tax Day Tea Party

PalmGirl and I went with friends to the Hawaii Tax Day Tea Party yesterday afternoon, and I have to say that as far as protests go, this had to be the most pleasant you could imagine. I'd venture to say we had the best weather and location of any other tea party today, and I'm sure we're the only one at which you could buy manapua.

We arrived just as the protest was beginning, and we stayed for over an hour. As we were leaving, the crowd was really growing. We only saw two "nutters", as my friend called them. One guy walked around with a "911 was an inside job" banner for awhile, but the crowd peacefully covered up his banner with their own signs, and he eventually left. A couple of policemen were watching him closely. One other goofy guy tried to make a statement by riding his bike while shouting something lame on a bullhorn, but he didn't make an impact, either. Plenty of drivers passing the Capitol honked and waved and flashed the shaka.

The real story was the very real people who are fed up with runaway government spending in our state and nation. The crowd was made up of very normal people from all walks of life who are sick of what's going on. And I got the distinct impression that it was not a Republican crowd, but a sick-of-what's-going-on crowd. I vote Republican, but I've reached the point where I want to vote against anyone currently in government. The problem is finding good folks to replace them, and I hope these tea parties can lead to that.





The Honolulu Advertiser covered the event here, and they paint it as a Republican event, which very much marginalizes it in this over-taxed, Democrat-led state. (Yes, we have a Republican governor, but by and large this is a liberal state.) That is misleading coverage, to be sure, but I can always count on the Advertiser to miss the point.

Hawaii Tea Party

Unless my day falls apart, I'll be there.

Skills

Somehow I've gotten on Howard Dean's email list, and if nothing else, it provides a little entertainment as I clean out my junkmail folder. Today I got one that promises to give me the skills I'll need to take back my local Democratic party. I'm not clicking on the link, but I'm having fun imagining just what skills would enable this rightwing extremist to "take back" my local Democratic party.

Hymn of the Day

Weary of Earth, Myself and Sin, available at iTunes here.

Quote of the Day

From Andrew McCarthy at NRO:

“Civilized” is a much-misunderstood word, thanks to the “rule of law” crowd that is making our planet an increasingly dangerous place. Civilization is not an evolution of mankind but the imposition of human good on human evil. It is not a historical inevitability. It is a battle that has to be fought every day, because evil doesn’t recede willingly before the wheels of progress.

There is nothing less civilized than rewarding evil and thus guaranteeing more of it. High-minded as it is commonly made to sound, it is not civilized to appease evil, to treat it with “dignity and respect,” to rationalize its root causes, to equivocate about whether evil really is evil, and, when all else fails, to ignore it — to purge the very mention of its name — in the vain hope that it will just go away. Evil doesn’t do nuance. It finds you, it tests you, and you either fight it or you’re part of the problem.

The men who founded our country and crafted our Constitution understood this.

Sad Headline of the Day

It has to be this one:

Sunrise Service Focuses on Economy; Draws Smaller Crowd

Focused on the economy? Not the Savior? Perhaps there's some correlation with the smaller crowd? I wouldn't get up at sunrise for a worship service focused on the economy, either.

Alleluia

And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him.

Miscellany

I've saved starred items in my Google Reader in anticipation of some inspiration to blog. That hasn't happened, as you've no doubt noticed, so I'm going to post a collection of random links and thoughts here so I can start fresh:

~ Doug Wilson wrote a couple of months ago about Liberal Arts Education in a Recession. Here's his first point:

This problem has revealed, as few other things could, that we have a dearth of people in cultural leadership who know how to think. What kind of education did the people who have made this mess receive? What was the principle value in that education, and why do we still think we need to keep training our young people that way? The principle value of modern education was and is "technical mastery," with little or no attention paid to theology, meaning, history, virtue, or the simple ability to follow a thought out to the logical conclusion. We have just had a crisis caused by finanicial irresponsibility and we are going to fix it by multiplying that irresponsiblity in order to get into the trillions column. We got hammered last night and are going to fix it with a whiskey and soda for breakfast. We just lost our shirt at the Vegas casino and we want to go double or nothing. We got laid off our job at the steel mill and bought a new car and plasma television on the way home to stimulate the household economy and cheer up the wife. Do you really want your children to be educated by people who can't see the problems in this? And who laugh at the people who do see it?

~Speaking of education, Redbud's Lane posted an H.L. Menken quote on the aim of public education.

~ Recently men at Honolulu Community College walked around in women's high heels to support ending violence against women. Try as I might, I cannot figure out (a) how any thinking person came up with this activity,(b) why any man would participate, and (c) how in the world it will do one thing to end violence against women. I suppose it's that compulsion that some have to do something, even though that something is really nothing in the scheme of things.

~ In more local news I learned that every new city construction project must dedicate 1% of its budget to art. That means the new -- REALLY BAD IDEA -- city rail project will require 2 million dollars to be spent on art. 2 million dollars. Now, I happen to love and appreciate art, but is spending $2 million of taxpayer money on that such a good idea right now? And now they'll be arguing about how to spend it.

~ PalmBoy turns 17 next week, and for his birthday dinner he has asked for hot dogs, homemade mac & cheese, and a Thin Mints cheesecake. My mac & cheese recipe is very similar to this one.

~ This looks like a book that is much-needed in today's church.

~ Jonah Goldberg makes the case that classical liberalism (which is definitely not to be confused with today's "progressive" liberalism) could in fact support the banning of certain drugs. I like that he brings up the point of addictions being a very real form of slavery. The PalmKids and I discussed this very point in our recent study of slavery & the Civil War.

~ Can you believe that pirates are a 2009 problem? Jay Adams reminds us that like pirates, certain sins, heresies, and trends never really go away, and we must remain vigilant:

There is no peace, no rest in this world; one must always be on the alert lest he be caught up in something that is emerging in his backyard. New doctrines, new ways of worship, new approaches to evangelizing—some good, some bad—all needing careful biblical scrutiny.

How important for churches to continue to preach solid doctrine, to teach—not merely exhort, to explain—not only whip up emotion.

~ It seems that President Obama needs to be reminded (as we all do from time to time) that all of the "distractions" ARE the job, not an interruption of it. Mark Steyn is just the man to do the reminding:

So many distractions, aren’t there? Only a week ago, the North Korean missile test was an “annoying distraction” from Barack Obama’s call for a world without nuclear weapons and his pledge that America would lead the way in disarming. And only a couple of days earlier the president insisted Iraq was a “distraction” — from what, I forget: The cooing press coverage of Michelle’s wardrobe? No doubt when the Iranians nuke Israel, that, too, will be an unwelcome distraction from the administration’s plans for federally subsidized daycare, just as Pearl Harbor was an annoying distraction from the New Deal, and the First World War was an annoying distraction from the Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s dinner plans.

In fairness, I haven't heard President Obama himself call this a distraction, but then I haven't heard him talk about this situation at all. Steyn continues:

Once upon a time we killed and captured pirates. Today, it’s all more complicated. The attorney general, Eric Holder, has declined to say whether the kidnappers of the American captain will be “brought to justice” by the U.S. “I’m not sure exactly what would happen next,” declares the chief law-enforcement official of the world’s superpower. But some things we can say for certain. Obviously, if the United States Navy hanged some eyepatched peglegged blackguard from the yardarm or made him walk the plank, pious senators would rise to denounce an America that no longer lived up to its highest ideals, and the network talking-heads would argue that Plankgate was recruiting more and more young men to the pirates’ cause, and judges would rule that pirates were entitled to the protections of the U.S. constitution and that their peglegs had to be replaced by high-tech prosthetic limbs at taxpayer expense.

Go read the whole thing.

Quote of the Day

John Piper shares a conversation with death. Go read it this Good Friday.

Yessss!!!!!

This morning in our Omnibus III discussion of Animal Farm, I asked the PalmKids the opening question (called "A Question to Consider"):

Is equality necessary for an ideal society?

And this morning, instead of jumping immediately to a yes or no as teenagers tend to do, PalmGirl replied in a way that made me cheer:

It depends on what you mean by equality. What do you mean by that?

Yesss! She's learning that defining terms is crucial in any discussion. I'm greatly encouraged that I'm not wasting my time here.

Quote of the Day

This morning I pulled a book off my shelf to loan to a friend, and as I flipped through it, this passage I'd underlined caught my eye:

The judgement of history is that Caesar's driving ambition and energy led him to try to make too many changes too quickly, without ensuring that there were workable substitutes for the traditions he was sweeping away. Further, the senate was concerned not so much with reverting to democracy, but with preserving rule by the aristocracy, and their positions in that rule.

Kind of interesting, isn't it?

And on a side note, I really love that I have friends who want to borrow books like that.

Giggle of the Day

It's at Scrappleface.

Of course, if you only get your news from old media, you probably never even knew that he bowed for the Saudi king.