Muckraker Makes Muck Again --Muckrageously!!

Mudrake posted the following definition --because I told him in private correspondence (i.e. it's private when I comment on his moderated blog, because he refuses to allow me or any other conservative Christian woman to comment at his blog--it's a Boys' Club) --So I told him that he "sounded stupid" on the topic of Liberty U. not allowing a democratic party club on campus since the u. opposes abortion and gay marriage --and they are a private uni. I knew he would not post my comment or I would not have called him "sounding stupid" in a public forum --I knew he would not print it, but instead, he did something that makes him sound even MORE stupid. First, he posted the following definition:

stu-pid: 1 a: slow of mind : obtuse b: given to unintelligent decisions or acts : acting in an unintelligent or careless manner c: lacking intelligence or reason : brutish
2: dulled in feeling or sensation : torpid
3: marked by or resulting from unreasoned thinking or acting : senseless

So I told him in an unprinted comment that he qualifies at least for no. 3 above --by some things he has done, like posting names and addresses and creating sock puppets with phony profiles using our names.

So once again, being "dulled in feeling" and "lacking reason," he created a profile for Barb and posted on his blog the following --which I obviously did not write:

You are stupid! I said it and I mean it!! Secular humanists like you (or should I use the more correct word, ATHEIST???) are ruining this country. The sinfulness, the porn, the homosexuality, the free sex, the aborted babies, the attempts to take God out of the classroom, and more.

God's wrath will be on this nation again- with more hurricanes and drought and locusts and plagues due to the disobedience of His Laws!

Jesus weeps at gay marriage and homosexuals running free all across America, and we will pay for this abomination- we already paid for this wit the natural disasters etc. 'I then will destroy your high places, and cut down your incense altars, and heap your remains on the remains of your idols, for My soul shall abhor you.'

But by the blood of the Cross will ye be set free. For the Jesus says, 'Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind.' - 1 Corinthians 9

Stupid is as you think, muddly!!

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

May 28, 2009 1:30 PM

( end of quote printed at his blog by himself as "Barb")

You know, I hardly know anyone else who can tell himself off like this! It's amazing!!! A muck-rageous feat! This is not my blog style, Muckaluck! though there is probably a lot of truth in the above comment attributed to me!

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

RE: Sotomayor and Hysterical, Libelous Charges from the Left

Over at Mudrake's blog, Microdot wrote, "I made a typo, it was Senator Inhofe who said she was "too ethnic".He also made caommets [sic] that her love of Puerto Rican cuisine would taint her palate and make her less able to make clear decisions."

I read this and didn't recognize that Microdot was joking --so I thought, why would any politician be guilty of such crude racist humor--or calling someone "too ethnic?" When, in fact, it was in the mind of Microdot to come up with crude racist humor. I don't think I'm the only one who would think Inhofe had really made the crude remarks upon reading Microdot's comment. I doubted it, but to be sure I looked up what Inhofe really said.

What he really said was reasoned and based on her own oft-quoted statements about race and background influencing how she will make judicial decisions. And her statement that appeals courts "make policy." And then she said, in effect, "Ha, ha, of course we don't REALLY make policy--I'm not supposed to say that" --in what the press described as a "light moment."

Well she was honest. Courts DO make policy and they are not supposed to. That's why the Supreme Court decision should have gotten McCain ALL the votes of pro-life supporters.





"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

LIFE WITH MOM --MEMORIAL DAY MEMORIES 09

Rob R. has missed his calling. He should do something in geriatrics. He is so good with my mother who has dementia, at 89.

We had a glorious three day weekend at the lake --best memorial day weather in years. We had stopped going that early because it was too cold to put the pier in. We have a super, fancy- looking metal pier --that is harder than heck to put together --and so it takes some time. Some of the family men have waders to wear, but some do not --and in any case, it has always been chilly --so we had started going in June --only to find that those weekends weren't much better.

So this one was warm and sunny --just lovely--with the Irises and Lillies of the Valley in bloom --and other beautiful flowers around the island.

My Mom didn't do well with the sleeping accommodations. We have a dormer room upstairs with several twin beds --and give that to the family with kids. We thought of putting her up there but feared she might be disoriented in the night and fall down the stairs. The other married child gets the queen bed and a private room--which was fair since she did most all the cooking and food planning/purchasing, etc. (We reimburse, but she plans and buys, and everything is immaculate and so nicely done, and our son, her husband, helps to buy, load and unload, fetch and carry, etc. She cooked roast beef in her slow cooker in that bedroom, I learned, as the kitchen is very small. Had no idea til it started to smell delicious.)

Grandma R., my husband's mother, is 87, has all her mental faculties still, but is physically limited and has to be near a bathroom and can't do steps. So all we can offer her is the couch in the living room --which she always says is good enough. Grandma M., my mother, walks better, and isn't so bathroom dependent, can do the two shallow steps to the porch and back, but she wants to be hotter than Hades all the time, bundled up like an Eskimo. OK , I exaggerate a little -but not much.

Well, my mom was an absolute "princess" --she was NOT sleeping on the fouton double bed on the porch.

"It's COLD on the porch! I never slept on this thing before --I refused to sleep here before, and I'm NOT sleeping here now! And this couch has been used for so many other things--and it's hard --and lumpy"...and on and on. It is actually quite comfortable --as porta beds go.

It was the warmest room in the house as we were air-conditioning the rest of it. Chrissy was going to be out there with her in a fouton chair/single bed. It was warm to the point of being hot and stuffy --but Mother was sure it would be cold --and she got very indignant.

"Well, Mom, I don't have anywhere else to put you!" "

"Well, what about such and such room?" she said.

"Mom, besides the fact that your grandson and wife already have that room, that bed is too high for you --you can't get up into it." (Even though I got a low profile box springs, thinking she might use that room someday, she couldn't get her short-legged self in it in the past. She usually stays in a deluxe first floor room, near a bathroom, at her sister's house --but her sister hasn't arrived at the lake yet.)

"Mom, this is the best I can offer you."

"Well, it's too cold. I can't sleep there."

"It's NOT cold, Mother. It's about 78 degrees in there right now. Do you want to sleep in a chair, because I don't have another bed to offer!"

She was really mad at me about this. Mom's main requirements of life are food she likes (which includes lots of coffee --fortunately she doesn't know the difference between decaf and regular,) a bed she likes and can call "hers" even for a short time, and warmth. She has a germ phobia and washes hands often --always has. And the daily newspaper--which I just subscribed to for her. She's like a child in loving sweets. She's fairly petite, however --in part because we don't think she was eating at all well on her own, before she came to live with us. She would cook her daily egg for breakfast, but we think she lost ability to open cans or use her microwave. Yet, she had a little fit the other day when I gave her a cold bologna sandwich for lunch.

"This is COLD. I can't eat that."

"It's supposed to be cold, Mom. It's a luncheon meat, cold meat sandwich." I finally warmed it for her in the microwave with melted cheese. That was better. She used to feed ME boloney as a kid.

Her daily chores are keeping track of her purse, her glasses, her belongings, and luggage.

So anyway, we tucked her into this perfectly comfortable, good quality fouton bed, with 3 layers of blankets, her nightgown, her robe, and her fleece sweater/jacket --and she admitted she was not cold. But the first night, she whispered to herself all night long and my daughter said she could not sleep for Grandma's indignant whispering.

That brings me back to Rob, whom she adores for staying with her (as he was going to college in her city) during the years when the memory banks were starting to shut down.

We got home here and she asked Rob who had made her bed. I told her it was made up Friday with fresh sheets, and is always made up, and she had slept in it the night before we left for the lake. And then, it occured to me to tease her that I thought Rob might have put his friend Clint in it Sat. night. Clint is a friend through church who came up to help put the pier in but wanted to go home Saturday night. So Rob drove him home and returned the next day.

And she said, "He DID???!!! Put somebody in my bed??"

He said, "Yes --and several hoboes, too --not together of course --but one after the other. They came to the door and said, 'Hey, Gov'nor, can you spare me a dime?' and I said, 'Sure, and would you like to sleep in my Grandma's bed?' and of course they were delighted to do so."

Now, confused as she is, Mom always knows that Rob is kidding her --and she gets this big kick out of it! Thinks he's so funny. And while it loses something in my retelling, he IS funny! And she always knows --that when he tries to charge her 10 dollars for a cup of coffee, he is just being silly. As confused as she is, I don't know how she knows that he's not serious. Though she did wonder if he really put Clint into her bed.

This morning as I was helping her get dressed, she told me when I mentioned my husband, 'I didn't know you were married to him. He just told me this morning. I guess I had forgotten that."

"Well, Mom, did you think we were living in sin? or what? He's the father and I'm the mother of those 4 grown-ups out there --did you think we weren't married? Who did you think he was, coming home to my house every night and being there in the morning when you got up?"

Well, she didn't know --just "didn't remember" that he was my husband --that we had married. "That was too long ago."






"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Penn Jillette Defends Evangelism

Thanks to Craig French of Antipelagian for posting this tidbit.

Penn Jillette is a comedian, magician, and reads for many a commercial on Comedy Central programming. He's also an atheist but here, he gives an account of a positive experience he had with a fan who sought to proselytize him.

Transgendered 8-Year-Old -- Boy Becomes Girl --Or Does He REALLY!

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/living/2009/05/18/dnt.ne.transgender.kid.ketv

On CNN today: An eight-year-old is transgendering from male to female, with parental encouragement. What a life sentence! He has expensive surgeries to face, to mutilate his normal healthy body (and I hope we don't have to pay for it) and hormone treatment and the fact that most normal males will not want to date a transgendered female or marry one --who cannot bear children --who is, in reality, a fake girl. And he would have to tell that about himself to be intimate leading to marriage --or he'd be committing fraud, leading to annulment. Nor will girls feel comfortable having over-nighters and sharing showers and bathrooms with a transgendered girl --who is really biologically male. I believe he really will NEVER seem normal to others --and never really PASS for female. He will be very odd --and he will never forget that he has this secret which his parents think he can perpetuate for life simply by starting into a new school where they don't know about him. His hormones are going to kick in--and he may have all kinds of emotional upheaval as the doctors tinker with his normal healthy body making it abnormal for the rest of his life.

In fact, that's what he's trading: a normal, healthy male body, for a fake female body that needs constant tinkering via surgery and hormones all his life in order to help him pass as a female.

This child did not come to the conclusion that he was in the wrong body without adult influence. Children learn what they really are from their parents. Something went awry in this case. Parents are VERY powerful in teaching their children. These parents have failed by letting their kid wander around in uncertainty about his sexual identity ---letting him "choose," in effect --with no knowledge that he has opted for giving up his normal, healthy body for an abnormal artificial one. So they tell him that he will have surgery and hormones, etc. some day, and that he can choose to change his sex --what does the kid know about that and what it means?? NOTHING!

Little boys and little girls are so much alike in their voices, in their "girlyness," in their baby-ish qualities --that call forth effeminizing "babying" by parents --which is appropriate for both sexes of little kids--to a point. But normal, sensible parents teach their children that they are boy or girl --by how they treat them, what they tell them, what they do with them, how they direct their interests and activities. They don't say things like, "he really looks like a little girl" or "He'd really make a beautiful girl with that hair --that skin --those eyelashes," or "Look how graceful he is! He can dance like a girl," or "Bobby's so clumsy --he really isn't very athletic --I think he'd make a better girl than a boy."

I remember when Oprah featured such children on her program--watched by so many suburban women. The letters flooded her website from mothers who thought their boys were possibly girls in the wrong bodies --because their boy toddlers put on Mom's high heels, carried Mom's purses around the living room, put scrunchies in their hair, tried Mom's make-up, preferred pink, played with dolls, etc. Some of the mothers said they were TRYING to be gender neutral in how they raised their kids. Some of them drew conclusions because children did the above things --and some of the fathers were furious to see the mothers encouraging the confusion instead of simply and subtly separating the feminine things from the child's playthings and directing him more toward Dad's shoes, shaving cream, mudpies, trucks, farm sets, etc. Boys have to have some fun, too, and if they are only around their mothers and sisters who squeal with delight over American Girl dolls--or if girls are raised only around boys and men (as was the famous pregnant "man,") it's no wonder they have an interest in the things of the opposite sex and identify with the opposite sex. This 8 year old's favorite toy was his American Girl doll. Who was the dumb bunny who gave it to him!!?? who cultivated his interest in these dolls? Geesh!

I knew a man whose grandmother fascinated him with her jewelry collection and willed it to him--he grew up with an abnormal self-image and fixation for jewelry and other things of more interest to women than most men--including other men.

Parents direct their children's sex identity --no question about it. How could we be so erroneous in the modern age! Just one more travesty in child-development psychology. "Professing themselves to be wise, they became as fools."





"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Summer Time for Church Kids

CLC is over for the summer. Next we send off about 40 youth to summer church camp at Somerset Beach, MI. And have a Vacation Bible School in July. And a roller skating party. And an all-church graduation banquet. And of course, Sunday School. I promised a handful whom we are not funding for camp that I would do something special with them --maybe a swim party at my house. It is because they are too immature in their behavior (and they are young) and require one-on-one counselor/teachers --which does detract from positive experience for the majority --and typically stirs them up, too. Like the little girl who giggles during class prayer --and gets under the tables, gleefully heedless of class goals and the short time we have to accomplish them.

CLC HONOR COUNCIL ~ Seventeen of my TrailBlazers (grades 3 & 4 ) came to receive their banners with the badges they earned. One of them has Oppositional Defiance Disorder or ODD--not the same one as the girl mentioned above. She came to me in tears before the meeting because she knew she hadn't earned many badges and said she didn't want to go up front. I said I needed her to sing with the others --and I wouldn't embarrass her about the number of badges --we wouldn't make a big deal of it --and she could hold her banner facing her if she didn't want people to notice she didn't have as many as some of the others. After the Honor Council, she asked me when the next one was so she could get her badges. She actually can make up everything missed this year in order to get the 2-year award --and she can make up the first two years --to work toward the 6-year award given after 6th grade. I WAS able to commend her and her cousin for being people who often say --or write on the board --"I love CLC. I love my church." And they love us teachers too and give us hugs--as do several of the girls.

In a way, I wonder if it would be good to stop doing the badges since we are so intent on outreach. We could do the same lessons and Bible memory activities without long-term awards to keep track of. From our bus outreach, I think we only had one set of parents come who knew their girls were getting all their badges. One of their children was "pulled through" her verses by my sympathetic helper --who "walked her through" her verse recitation of 7 verses in one night--probably not really memorizing. But what is it like if your kid's lack of achievement is made noticeable by the badge ceremony? The mother told me on the phone how thrilled she was that the girls were getting their awards.

This is what it's like: "Junior Jones got all 10 of his badges. Citronella Bernstein gets a certificate of participation. Henrietta Hippensteel got 2 verses." And we clap for each one as they receive their banners --or certificates if they had only one badge.

THIS IS THE ONLY AWARD CEREMONY I KNOW OF WHERE WE RECOGNIZE and call attention to NON-ACHIEVEMENT ALONG WITH SUCCESS. We say the program is optional --something kids can choose to work for if they wish--but then they all come to the program --or don't if they don't want to be embarrassed. I wondered if some parents don't come because they fear their children won't have badges.

We're also sensitive to seeming biased if most of the white kids got their badges because their parents go to our church regularly and understand the CLC goals and badge system. The racial minority parents (we have 3 races represented plus biracial) let us have their kids on Wednesday nights but aren't as involved in the program or our church themselves --so if their kids don't self-organize, they may not have the advantage of parents who prod them and care about the badges. As it turned out, we had some Afr. American kids who got all their badges and white kids who did not --it was pretty even this year . It is the 2nd year for these children to be bussed in --so some of them know about the system and did more this year than last. And that's the good thing about it--when kids really enjoy working for badges and do get them, representing good attendance, organizing to make up for absences, and memorizing Bible verses. We also gave special division awards to 3 girls and 3 boys this year for good character and good behavior, regardless of their badge achievement or lack. I could have given those equally to 8-10 of my children who were always respectful and easy to call to attention and showed consistent good behavior.

But I nearly had an ulcer worrying about whether or not we had given all the kids good help with their badges here at the end of the year--and throughout the year. There were some classroom management and record-keeping issues involved about which I have better ideas for next year. The bottom line is that some kids are more self-organizing and achievement-oriented than others --and they managed to get badges with no extra effort on our part as teachers --and some students could care less --until we have honor council. THEN they all wish they were getting all their badges and had paid more attention about attendance, make-up activities, and saying the verses to the teachers. I telephoned some of them --but didn't reach all of them--to have them go through their handbooks with me --so they could mark the verses they still needed to say and the activities they still needed to make up. None of it is too difficult for their age or for those with at least average abilities. But they have to knuckle down enough to know which verses they have to recite to us and which activities they need to turn in or tell us about --in order to complete the badge--and then they left the books at home and did not have focus on what they still needed to make up. I'm holding the master list and having everybody barrage me with their personal issues of all sorts . And here comes a mother to wonder why her little boy was the only one blamed for standing the table on end --I sent him out to the program director after he did it--like sending a student to the principal. She comes in and notices I have 2 boys horsing around the bathroom door and wonders if I know I have kids in the hall. Yup --I assume so --since there is always a run on the bathroom during any "down time." I run a tight ship when I'm presenting a lesson--but anytime we have independent work or are in transition from one activity or one place to another --things get a little loose! and not with my permission either.

Some who came to the last club night did make-up work --and others bounced off the walls while we were trying to catch up their peers. As I mentioned above, one boy lifted one end of a long table up in the air to show he could --we were fortunate he didn't bring it down on someone's bobbing head. I was pretty upset with him. And of course, his excuse later, to his mother, was, "Someone else started it." His diligent and truly lovely and distraught mother lamented that he was always the one to get caught and punished when other people started it or were involved and did not get caught and punished. I said the boy's problem is that he's the common denominator in almost every skirmish or tattle tale event in the class: "Brucie wrote on my shirt --Brucie said my mama is fat --Brucie told me I live in a "crack house" --and "Brucie kicked me," --"Brucie called me a retard!" -- "Brucie spat on my gingerbread house," and so on. He is probably a leader type, and we all hope he will figure out that he wants to use it for good some day.

I had a little speech written out about the highlights of our year --and after we sang the song, "I am a Promise" (about potential and being what God wants me to be), I forgot to share my speech, recapping their wonderful behavior at my house and the nursing home when we went caroling, the wonderful experience of seeing the Passion Play together at Fremont Alliance Church, their preparation and serving of the Tastes of AFrica for Missions Month, the wonderful Fun nights and neat crafts and the Fall Harvest Party with all the games and candy. I wanted to say how much I really loved these kids and hoped they'd be back next year --and how I hoped to see them incorporate God's Word into their lives so they might enjoy His blessings all their lives. And I should have commended my two assistants, who have been really nice to work with.

But after the song and the badge presentations --I forgot! Imagine that!!!





"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

The Psychology of Atheists

from Rob R

I have heard from a couple of sources of a study that demonstrated that many prominent atheists hated their fathers.

I shared this with a small group from my church and I was challenged on the notion to support this claim. I don't know if this is the source but it's pretty good. This video is of Paul Vitz who's a psychologist who wrote Faith of the Fatherless which is a record of his study of 72 major proponents of atheism and their relationships to their parents, particularly their fathers.

Here is an hour long lecture by the author. I admit I have not yet seen it all.




I would just highlight a couple of claims made by Vitz.

He isn't saying this is true of all atheists. He distinguishes between mild atheists, who don't view their atheism as central to their identity and don't make a big deal about it, and intense atheists who do and who have a major axe to grind against religion. His hypothesis is mainly about intense atheists. And of course upbringing does not determine one's religious outlook. You're going to have exceptions such as intense atheists who have a good relationship with their father like John Stuart Mill. No doubt your going to have people who've had a rough relationship with their fathers and are theists. Billy Wayne, a preacher who spoke at our church came to mind, though Billy is reconciled to his formerly abusive father who has come to faith.

As for the significance of this, of course Vitz rightfully notes that this does not directly reflect on the truth claims at stake with theism vs. atheism. He notes that what he is doing is turning the tables on atheists who have tried to use psychology as a weapon against religion in these matters.

Of course in and of itself, the psychological reasons behind a worldview may be emphasized to the point of ad hominem attack. This is to be avoided but at the same time, that such a psychologically unhealthy situation should be fairly consistently linked to a set of beliefs should make one wonder.

Vitz has further comments here though I am not sure that there is information here that wasn't in the video.