So... What's wrong with barefoot and pregnant?

Add to "To Do List" interview college seniors, male and female and discover how many of them expect to at some point be involved in a relationship leading to procreation.

Ya think?

Well, I'm in the greenhouse now!
www.youdecide2008.com/2008/05/12/mccain-further-alienates-conservatives-embraces-green-agenda/


The new label for people who believe Genesis 1:1 (God created) and Genesis 1:26 and on (he put people in charge of taking care of the planet), formerly known as "evangelicals is, according to Rush Limbaugh, quoting the mass media, "green-minded social conservatives. (Social conservatives means "I only think that people who murder other people should be killed").

I do feel sorry for Mr. McCain, though, if he is going to win over these green social conservatives with Global Warming nonsense,. I suppose there are "former evangelicals" who believe in that, but I haven't met many. Silly me, just because the temperature of earth has gone DOWN half a degree in the last ten years doesn't mean there isn't "global warming! Right?!

Rather, your social green social conservatives believe in taking care of the planet, not because we have no right to use its resources, but because it has been given to us as a sacred trust by The One Who Owns It All.

Of course, they are all voting for Ron Paul... will he gain some kind of momentum in the face of a three-way tie between people that their own consituency has stong reservations about?

Should be interesting, folks, should be VERY interesting!

Public Service Announcement

2008 Democratic National Convention, to be held August 25-28 in Denver.

The Republican National Convention will be held at Saint Paul’s Xcel Energy Center from September 1-4, 2008.

With the dragging on of the Primary Season, I wondered if I was the only one who didn't know when it would be over.

So... There you go. Just in Case.

PMS: The empty womb cries out.

Funny things are happening at my house now that I have two daughters of reproductive age.

For one thing, the truism that women who live in close proximity to one another will get "in sync" resulting in days of bathroom crush is found to be true.

And secondly, the proof that "the empty womb cries out" becomes very evident. PMS probably should be called "pregnancy missed syndrome".

A generation of women is very, very cranky as we deny our wombs the gift of having children.

Realizing that it is after ovulation, when the body hormonally "realizes" that it isn't pregnant and trips the "prepare to start again" switch, that my girls have these huge, nonsensical meltdowns is very sobering.

Yes, it's "just hormones". But it isn't without reason. At a deep place, a woman wants to be a woman and bring forth life from the womb.

One great thing about living in a "flyover state" is that I can do a bit to grow my own food, and stay under the radar. We can live on goat milk and greens for a little longer than our citified neighbors can live without Wal-mart.

The elitists are shooting for total control of our food supply, but twisting incidents into policy, manipulating the media and making decisions that make our food non-nutritive.

But they truly are poisoning their own well, and it can't last. I guess the big question is: Will agribusiness bring about the "Big Bust"? Or will it be a political crisis that brings American down?

Media Discovers Global Food Crisis

The bubble that America's Elite lives in is pretty sturdy.

They've just discovered Famine! In the WORLD!

Hey! If we turn FOOD into FUEL guess what? It's not FOOD anymore.

What are these people HIGH ON????

Scientists Discover...

Scientists Use Brain Enhancing Drugs
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080409/ts_afp/healthscienceresearchersdrugs


DH: Did you read the headlines that scientists are using brain enhancing drugs?

Moi: "Is that how they discovered global warming? Yeah... Does it seem hot in here to you?"

Son: "So... will they have their Noebel prizes revoked if they get caught?"

DH: "Yeah. 'Peace, man... Wow.... I've discovered peace.' "

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!
International airline to allow cell phone chatter on planes (http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/12/21/wired.airlines/index.html)

Does anyone else think this is a HORRIBLE development!!!

So, it's not enough that I have to be trapped in a tiny little seat in "the most upright and uncomfortable position", worry about the comfort of the person next to me, rub thighs with them, worry about when and whether they - or I- need to go to the restroom, whether or not they are done with their drink... all without food or healthy drink...

I'm now going to have to listen to them guide their spouse through their Wal-mart shopping trip, find out what their boy/girlfriend things about their exboy/girlfriend.

If the airlines think this will be SAFE they obviously have no clue how much damage a middle-aged housewife with candidiasis can do when she flips out!

Does anybody have the power to stop this? Smaller seats I managed to live with, longer periods with my seatbelt on I cope with, no more peanuts and I said nothing... But this is the last straw!

Well, if they weren't raped before, they have been now! I'm talking about the children of the so-called "Reformed Latter Day Saints" raided on the basis of one phone call. I note that "more 50 cell phones have been confiscated..." Doesn't that indicate that the people there had pretty good access out, and were hardly being held prisoner?

The egregious crimes that "Child Protective Services" commits against families and children are unbelievable!

The assumption that because one child among 300 complained of sexual abuse means that the entire ranch of children should be "abducted by strangers" (police) "sexually assaulted" (by doctors) and held in captivity (by well meaning do-gooders who don't recognize that they are part of a government kidnapping program) is criminal.

(Notice how the media tends to use inflammatory words like "compound" about housing that is very ordinary - if a developer did it, we'd call it a subdivision. If religious people do, it's called an "enclave" or "compound")

The tone of articles about this mess makes it sound like it is unconscionable that families would want their children to dress modestly, not be raped by boys in the lav ( or science teachers in the lab), and that it is shocking that there would be parents who don't think there is anything worth watching on television.

These people thought the "the world was hostile and immoral"... well, Hello! Have you watched Youtube lately? Read the headlines? The RLDS people can hardly be considered kooks because they think things are getting pretty scary out there.

Deep breath in... out... Don't get me started!

Unfortunately, it is common practice for tyrannical government to use people on the fringes to implement disastrous policies against those who don't rely on the government, and don't conform to society's norms. I do believe that abuse may have been happening at "The ranch".

However, I don't think that dressing in pioneer dresses, home schooling, avoiding television or valuing family constitutes abuse. If these families need help with de-programming, I think it could be done without destroying their children.

May God have mercy on them all.

Twisted Justice

A polygamous sect has been rounded up. Shocked journalists write that there are 13 and 14 year olds who are married and pregnant.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,350768,00.html

I am in no way pro-polygamy... or pro teen marriage... However...

Meanwhile, our easy divorce laws, winking at adultery, and fornication with no consequences means that anybody can have sex with anybody any time they want. Schools teach children "If it feels good, do it!" including sodomy. Parents are prohibited from interfering in the "personal lives" of their children.

I know of one young lady who was raped at 13. She was placed under house arrest, while the 24 year old who had sex with her (statutory rape, regardless of circumstances) was released because he said, "She said she was 18!" Yeah, right. He's a wronged suitor, but she is a criminal.

So... let me be sure that I have this straight. If I want to rape a 13 year old, sodomize him/her, with or without consent, the law is on my side. But, if I actually marry that same 13 or 14 year old (presumably with their parent's permission, in this case) then I am a criminal, on the ATF hitlist.

A man can have an infinite number of sex partners, but if he pays them (I'm thinking of the recent expose on the New York Governor) that's a problem.

A young man can have an infinite number of sex partners, but if he actually marries some of them, he's busted. Unless, of course, he divorces them in between, a kind of "serial polygamy" that leaves the woman to try to fend for herself.

As a society, Americans need to decide whether people can be accountable for the sexual behavior or not. The schizophrenia represented by having Polygamy Laws be the only sex-related laws that are actually enforced is ridiculous.

Economic Stimulus Package

So... I'm not sure how it is going to "stimulate the economy" for us to borrow money from China, but I'm willing to give it a shot...

SO.... What are YOU gonna do to stimulate the economy with the big bucks you'll (supposedly) get from the IRS??

Boomers on a Power Trip

That sounds scary, doesn't it!!

Last night we were talking about the issues of "church leadership wanting people to pledge to be accountable" without pledging anything in return except the not unmixed blessing of being bossed around.

My 13 year-old asked, "Why are so many groups having this problem?"

Since I recently attended two presentations that talked about Boomer-Gen Y relationships, I had a theory:

Baby Boomers, the greatest rebels and troublemakers in world history, are (gasp) moving en masse into the executive/power age group.

They (we) have been looking for power, for a point of leverage for about 50 years, and are now in a position to be bosses... The only problem is, we raised our kids with "democratic parenting" and "civil rights" and they are not about to turn the reins over to us!

I, personally, have been trying to work toward non-leadership with my kids, egalitarianism in my house church fellowship, and overhauling my desire to control people.

But I can't help but notice, that NOT all my peers are doing the same!

I think some of the impotent rage we are seeing in the election year politics are somewhat humorous, when seen in this light. Ms. Rodham Clinton strives to tell everybody else what to do, and she is pretty nearly stunned that we aren't obeying.

More of this is coming down the pike - should be hilarious... if it doesn't kill us!

The New American Ghost Town

I recently traveled to New Orleans, and was surprised that it has a very similar feel to all the "post oil boom" ghost towns that I see around Oklahoma. Downtown areas that consist primarily of second hand stores, diners and discount stores are very common in NorthEast Oklahoma, site of the first oil well discovery.

The exodus of small stores results in a quaint but sad downtown area, as Wal-Mart pulls consumers to the outskirts. Collinsville, Claremore and Chelsea all feel like a 50's movie set - but without the life.

I'm saddened by the loss of community culture. Life has become one great drive-by, a neighborless, friendless wasteland. No wonder everyone is lonely.

New Orleans does, however, have a lot more life in the streets. There, of course, the wasteland feeling is for a different reason, and more temporary. Laid low by Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans gives the impression of bravely smiling and gamely pressing on.

There are people everywhere in the French Quarter, bustling through the streets on the urgent business of getting to the coffee shop or the bar. Businesses seem to be overstaffed, which made me wonder whether there is federal aid going into the few extant businesses to give employment to the many people displaced by closures following the catastrophe. Humorously enough, it reminded me of Japan, where they will have someone stationed at the automatic ticket dispenser in the parking lot to hand the ticket from the machine to the driver, and have 2 hostesses stationed at an elevator to wave you in.

I loved the "street conversation culture"in New Orleans, and the overwhelming impression that businesses were grateful for my custom. As a Bostonian, I especially enjoyed the southern courtesy of African Americans. It's hard to explain the hostile vibes one experiences in multi-cultural neighborhoods and on public transportation in Northeast or Chicago as a white person who is "just passing through". I haven't yet been able to conquer being aware of being the only white person on the street, but I can be comfortable around people of various flavors in the South in a way I never experienced in the North.

As I said, all the businesses seemed to be positive and grateful - except the Cafe Du Monde, a sad and over-rated little shop with cracked mugs and deep fried pastry of inconsistent quality, smothered in confectioner's sugar ( a mysteriously beloved treat called beignets) and waitresses being disinterested in 12 different languages. There was obviously something about that whole experience I was missing, because all over town people gushed, "Have you had Beignets at Cafe du Monde? It's wonderful!", but I thought the coffee tasteless, the shop crowded and dirty, and the resident jazz musician (very cool) was a beggar for his "church rebuilding project" (most uncool).

Perhaps this was New Orleans' answer to Boston's Parker House Restaurant, widely renowned for it's rude middle-aged waitresses? In a sea of jovial beneficence, it certainly stood out!

"Oh, no!" shrieked Isaiah. "I'm a dead man!"

Oprahs Church Exposed Video

http://youtube.com/watch?v=JW4LLwkgmqA

Another outrage being forwarded through cyberspace to disturb the civil minded - Oprah has rejected the God of the Bible in favor of the ideal of "being my own God".

No surprise, here, but her reasoning is interesting.

She was offended by the Bible saying, "God is a jealous God."

First thing that strikes me is that Oprah, like most Americans, is probably not distinguishing between "jealousy" and envy. True jealousy, meaning the justified anger of someone betrayed or stolen from, would probably be admitted as a good virtue. To not be "jealous about my husband" would mean to not care whether he is faithful or not. Envy, on the other hand, is to have a desire after what belongs to someone else, and is an ugly emotion.

True, jealousy can turn ugly. But of itself, it is a right sentiment.

The second thing that strikes me is that Oprah thinks she can dictate what God should be. And has decided, She should be Him. Wow!

I, for one, prefer a God who is well above my standards, a God who can certainly dictate his own way of being.

Only among American Baby Boomers can such a sentiment as, "I've decided to pass judgment on God", attract such a wide following (I almost said, "folly").

I'm sorry for Oprah, for if she has decided to be her own god, she is bound for disappointment! When the fame fades and she fails to live up to her high aspirations, there will be no where to go.

Although, I fully expect she will at some point return to the God of Her Fathers. God is faithful that way. But it will be sad that she will have first misled multitudes into denying His claims upon them. Most will not discover their error until they meet Him face to face.

Won't that be a rude shock? "Wait a minute! You're not Oprah!"

Surprise, surprise, surprise!

Language in transition

Perfectly good phrases that have gone by the wayside...

Does anybody else miss "So long!" as a goodbye greeting, or "Howdy" as hello? How about, "How's Tricks?"

How about my childhood version of "So what?" which was, "Big Dingo!"

On the other hand, I'm enjoying, "Wicked"'s nationwide usage, expanding out from Boston, where I grew up. I don't know why it's use is spreading. Did a television show have a character that used, "Wicked" to mean "wonderful" or "very" as in, "Wicked Lovely"?

A regional phrase here in Foyil is, "Spot on!" meaning, exactly, as in, "Your advice was spot on!"

I won't copy it here, but Tom Wolfe's overview of "F--- patois" in " I am Charlotte Simmons" was spot on for the usage of the word as an all purpose, all parts of speech catch-all term when I was a youth. I had never counted the ways this useful word could be handled, but I could even add to Tom's list others that I remember from my days as a juvenile delinquent.

Naturally, in the backwaters of New England, there was likewise an "s---" patois, a lengthy list of uses for another word that could mean almost anything, but when used in context left no doubt as to intention.

American English almost doesn't exist as a translatable language. I realized this when I was teaching English as a second language in Japan. How many times did I have to say, "It doesn't mean anything!" or "I can't explain it" about words and phrases that have no concrete, word-for-word meaning.

How do you explain, "Yo!", especially the difference between, "Yo!" and "Hey!" Subtle, isn't it? How do you explain "Ya think?" or "Whatever!" or "Not!" How about, "And I care because why?"

On the other hand, perhaps that is what makes English such a useful trade language in a day of globalization. You don't have to know the meaning of the words, and if you are in an everyday situation, you often know what is meant whether you understand any of the individual words or not.

Perhaps having 80 ways to say, "Goodbye", none of which actually mean anything literal, will be a good way to smooth over all those awkward international moments?

And being able to use two all-purpose words to replace every adjective, adverb and verb will mean no one has to learn a second language.

Won't that be wicked?

Just try to act normal

I'm reading an autobiography of someone who has chosen to live an "alternative lifestyle". It strikes me that the world is full of people who struggle with "being normal". This person had the shattering experience of losing a parent at a young age, and it is pretty evident that his life is a long quest trying to "fill the hole where Daddy should go."

I can understand that "acting normal" would be hard in that case. But, isn't it perhaps all the more critical that if you know you are broken inside, if you know that you can't really pass down to the next generation what you don't have, perhaps you should just "go through the motions?"

I've pretty much discovered from personal experience that being happily married means going through the motions of being happily married even when you don't feel like it - or maybe especially when you don't feel like it.

Isn't there a 12-step program slogan, saying, "Fake it till you make it"?

That works. I think our society is falling apart partly because we want to "do what we feel" instead of "acting civilized". Manners, customs and traditions are all necessary for us to dwell together without killing each other. There can be a lot of room for individual identity, but ultimately a people needs an identity that says, "This is normal", and gives pressure, to some degree, to make people conform to it.

Otherwise, there is no framework for the next generation to build their lives on. Remember when young people started dressing preppy as their "rebellion" against their sloppy, anything-goes parents? We need a normal, even if we hate it.

The idea that we have to broaden the definition of "normal" to allow for every aberration of human behavior isn't only destructive, it is just plain silly. Most of us, most of the time, have to exert ourselves to be civilized, or civilization would break down altogether. There has to be a meeting place. There has to be a "normal".

So... Just try to act normal!

Have I been unlocked?

Well, that was an interesting experience!

For the second time this month, I've had an episode of being "busted" for something online!

First, at my facebook, I asked a question of technical support, and they killed my identity.

"..this account has been disabled because it is not for personal use. Facebook profiles are meant to represent a single individual. Groups, clubs, businesses and other types of organizations are not permitted to maintain an account. We apologize for the inconvenience, but you will no longer be able to use this account. This decision is final."

Not content to delete everything I've done, they also locked my yahoo email address, so I couldn't use it for a different, more acceptable name.

So, okay, I was using "Powell Clan" as my name. I admit it, it sounds like a group. I just am getting the heebie-jeebies about how many online things are linked to my Real Life identity. I didn't want to be in the search, but I didn't want to be invisible either... Since everyone I want finding me online knows me as "Powell Clan" I decided to use that.

Busted!

Then, for reasons that aren't clear to me, this blog tripped the "spammer" switch automatically, and I received this:

Your blog, at http://mistressp.blogspot.com/, has been identified
as a potential spam blog.  For an explanation of what spam blogs are,
please see Blogger Help:
http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=42577

You will not be able to publish posts to your blog until we review
your site and confirm that it is not a spam blog.

I am so grateful that these online services are trying to keep us from being overwhelmed by garbage and abuse.

But I find it so amazing that "PENIS ENLARGEMENT" emails and "Moms undressing in parking lot" video "makes the cut" on appropriateness, and somehow my 'umble little blog and "Clan" alias trip the big red flag.

What is up with that?

And I find that my heebie-jeebies are well justified... the technical question I was asking had to do with facebook "going out and finding" a weblink I posted... and ending up publishing information that was in the computer in my closet... but not supposed to be associated with that link.

I may not be long for this cyberworld!

Posing as an Ordinary Housewife

Posing as "an ordinary housewife". Whoa!

Anybody else think that is a hilarious way for them to discuss the SLA alumnus-on-the-lam?

What is the difference between BEING an ordinary housewife and POSING as an ordinary housewife?

What are my credentials? How would anyone be able to tell whether I'm the real thing or a poseur?

Can we assume that this poor woman might have given up her career as a terrorist and actually was an ordinary housewife?

And can we assume that she is less of a security threat than the man in Claremore who rapes 13 year-olds but walks the streets because the judge not only believes that he "thought she was 18" but that this was an appropriate excuse to have sex with a stranger? How about, "You were pretty sure you hadn't married the woman, right? So... off with your balls!"

Does criminal justice in America seem just a wee bit off to anybody else besides me?

House and Home

Political Action Committees devote themselves to "evaluating impact" of impending legislation on their constituencies.

While there are "Family oriented" lobbies, I'm not really sure there is a lobby asking the question, "Does this legislation tend toward strengthening the family as an INDEPENDENT community, or toward undermining it? Does it tend to build strong inter-family networks, or make us more dependent on impersonal institutions?"

Not long ago, I made a determination to ask myself that question about every activity I did, every penny I spend, how I use my time, and so on.

The results were revealing.

I realized that while some family killers are well-known and widely discussed (schools and television come to mind) others are less obvious, but equally destructive.

Convenience stores and fast food restaurants tend to make us spend our time and money "on the way" rather than in the home. Electronic music eliminates live music venues, and families don't sit around with the fiddle or piano singing anymore. Automobiles make it too easy to be ugly and unsociable to your fellow travelers, as well as to spend more time as a family in a metal monster than in one's actual home.

I can remember as a child, that the need for an egg to bake a cake or a bit of salt to tide us over until payday was a natural way to get to know your neighbors. Now, when I try to reach out to my neighbors they seem to think it is just as likely that I'm casing the joint to rob them, or planning to sell them an overpriced candy bar than that I am actually interested in knowing them as people.

That sucking sound you hear is the end of civilization as we know it. As family, neighbor, friend all become an unnecessary appendage, replaced by McDonalds, 7-11 and Dr. Spock, there is not enough momentum in any other direction to keep the end at bay.