Neuropsychology in Liberals and Conservatives

If you've ever wondered what alternative universe some politicians inhabit, you will enjoy this article in American Thinker today. In in Ms. Tyler explains, "The neurons of the human prefrontal cortex are the only objects in the known universe that are functionally altered by exposure to abstract concepts such as God, truth, freedom, and justice." Read it to find out how different people answer the important questions in life, and why we need to train our children to honor God and seek the Truth at all costs.

Join The Rebellion

Tired of mass media lies or Hollywood decadence? Choose your own entertainment instead of yelling at the television set. There's a wide world out there beyond the packages served to us by those who detest Christian values or who promote "alternative lifestyles."

If you're reading blogs, you've already started to think for yourself. Congratulations! Keep it up and encourage the ones that you like best.

If you've been there and done that, here are a few suggestions for free Podcast entertainment I've found since cutting the cable (as in TV) last fall. If you have a MP3 player, you can download the programs and listen while you drive, do the supper dishes, or walk the dog. If not, you can still listen and watch from your computer. Afterwards, you'll feel refreshed instead of tired.

1. Even if you hated science classes in school, you'll love Ian Maxfield's genial wit at The Catholic Lab (also see link at the right). He includes a bit of study, news items, biographies, and jokes with each weekly broadcast. My favorites were the one that explained some of the miracles that take place each time a baby is born and the one explaining the importance of carbon. (Yes, the same carbon the EPA recently designated as a major pollutant.)

2. Peter Kreeft, everyone's favorite philosopher, has a whole list of talks he's given that make philosophy understandable, interesting, and fun. Typing Peter Kreeft in the search box of iTunes will lead you to several selections posted under iTunes U. My absolute favorite, Ecumenical Jihad, is so good that I wish I could get everybody to listen to it and follow his suggestions. You can also go to his website and find at least 39 more favorites to download.

3. ITunes U has university lectures from all over the place on all sorts of topics. I've just begun to explore The Mises Institute's series on political philosophy from Plato to Rothberd, but they also carry many other lectures from both universities and think tanks. Last night I enjoyed Laughing with the Saints and collected about five good jokes making fun of us Catholics.

Of course, if you're willing to spend money, you can also download thousands more books and movies from iTunes, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and Audible. But, I'm going to enjoy the freebies first.

Tea Bagging and Politics

For those who, like me, had no idea what the newly popular terms, "tea bagging" and "tea baggers" meant, I point you to an article by Kyle-Anne Shiver , Are Liberals Encouraging Pedophiles with Their "Tea Bagger" Epithet? You Decide. She has written and published it at great personal expense both emotionally and financially.

I warn you not to read it if you are at all squeamish about sexual perversion. But, whether you read it or not, please do not use these words or allow others to use them in your presence. The vile terms have no place in civil discourse, the public square, or polite society. Honest, patriotic, G_d-fearing Americans should never be associated with the idea, the phrase, or the practice. Do not allow anyone to titillate themselves or others by saying the words out loud. Write protest letters to the editor if you run across them in print.

*I have carried Kyle Anne-Shiver's blog, Common Sense Regained, on my blog roll since reading and admiring her work at American Thinker. Last April and last August, I wrote about specific columns she had written. Sadly, AT refused to publish her current article.

Pro-Lifers Are Winning!

"Because there's a Democratic majority in Congress and the president is pro-choice, it sometimes gets lost how truly numerically challenged we are."...Nancy Keenan, the current director of NARAL. See New York Magazine for the whole article, written by a Pro Abortion advocate worrying about the fate for their movement.

Thank A Veteran

Yesterday a veteran responded to the query "How can we average Americans ever thank you for your service?"

His reply: "Work to improve your family, your neighborhood, your town, and your state. Make our sacrifice worthwhile by improving the nation we are defending. "

So those our marching orders as citizens are to use our energies, talents, and influence to make things better because we were there. From gracious small talk with the check-out clerk to patience with the elderly to compassionate tough love with the recalcitrant to informed political activity to implacable personal honesty, let us continue to thank our American veterans until the next Veterans' Day.

Watch Out for HR 875

And on yet another front, HR 875 was introduced last spring to protect consumers in the area of food safety. Like most bills, it is deceptively worded and presented. But some of the (hopefully) unintended consequences would be to restrict all food producers, including back yard gardeners growing tomatoes for the summer. Penalties for nonconformists include confiscation of land and the details sound like it was written by giant Agri-Business lobbyists. Read more about it here, here, and here. Beware because it's coming up for voting before Thanksgiving.

I think it's time that a "Time Out" be declared in both the House and the Senate. We just don't need reams of legislation passed every session to satisfy legislative egos or to develop new nanny state regulations. And the naughty children who are our current Congressional Clowns need to stand in the corner contemplating their sins for a few months.

What Have We Become?

Some of us have been fretting over the growth of crime and the abuse of children for years. Everytime we mentioned our concerns, we were reminded that such things have always existed and it's only because of the mass media that we think it happens more often now. References to the unlocked doors of our childhood, the freedom to play all over town without parents nervously hovering nearby, and the keys left in the ignition so they wouldn't be lost, have been generally ignored.

Today, Robin of Berkeley has a great article that explores the collapsing social mores in The Sociopathic Epidemic with the insight of a psychotherapist. Take time to read about the intertwining modern prophets of the 20th Century: Ayn Rand (novelist), Freidrich Hayek (economist), and Jules Feiffer, (cartoonist). You will be enriched and enlightened.

If My People, XIII

Trust not in oppression, and become not vain in robbery: if riches increase, set not your heart upon them. God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God. Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy: for thou renderest to every man according to his work. Psalm 62:10-12

On this thirteenth day of united prayer for our country, we once again affirm that true renewal begins with individual renewal.

At American Thinker, Selwyn Duke has explained America's problem more openly and more completely than I ever dared. I suggest you read Do Not Blame Barack and find out why 107 out of 109 comments highly praised his work. Here's a teaser:

But if we want to have any chance of winning the war, we must move on to graduate work and fight it on the deepest levels, the spiritual and cultural. We must scrutinize ourselves and evaluate how we have been complicit in empowering the culture that spawns Barack Obamas. We must remember that those of us who are engaged are a minority weighed against an apathetic majority. A few stones however, can be substantial enough to tip the scales against a million pebbles. But this can only happen if we so greatly increase the weight of our virtue that it outweighs the vice that is everywhere.

Great Insight

Please go to the A True Story of Passion, Profit, and Contribution today to read about people with special needs. For too long Americans have averted their eyes, crossed the street, or otherwise avoided less than perfect looking people. Or, if they did meet someone in a wheel chair, for instance, they talked loudly, as if the person were deaf, or talked only with the person's companion, as if the person were imbecilic. Each one of us is invaluable with contributions to make to society, if society will just allow us to share our gifts.

Nepotism Alert: The article was written by my beloved eldest child.

What Americans Really Want . . .Really

Frank Luntz' new book reveals the real heart of Americans everywhere because he asks the questions no other pollsters ask. His lastest book, What Americans Really Want . . . Really, details his findings regarding the current level of fear and anger that Americans experience every day. His word to our Congressional Clowns is that their lack of accountability is or soon will be their downfall.

The books ranks #1 on Amazon in the areas of Business & Investing, Marketing & Sales, and Consumer Behavior. He also advises politicians on using influential words to support their beliefs.

But on a more personal level, he details several easy things that the average American parent can do to insure his children's success. You'll have to read the book to get all of them.
1. Eat dinner together as a family at least 5 times a week.
2. Attend religious services once a week as a family.
3. Check your children's homework at least 4 times a week.
4. Know exactly where your children are on Friday and Saturday nights and do not allow weaseling about truth in this matter.
5. Never allow your cell phone messages or texts to interrupt a conversation with your child.

Food Costs Going Up?

I don't ever remember paying more than $1.00 per avocado in my many years of buying groceries. But this week, the lowest price I've found is $1.12, with much higher prices at several grocery chains. According to some prognosticators, this may be a portent for the near future all over the US.

But it's not just avocados. Sugar, sorghum, corn, and wheat crops have been bad due to drought conditions or bad weather in several states, especially *California and Texas, which will cause both price increases and shortages in those commodities and everything that either eats them or is made from them. There may be a temporary decrease in the price of beef as ranchers sell off their herds early, but expect higher prices down the road.

Consider buying and storing while it's relatively easy and cheap.

*Remember that at least part of the problem in California lies with the EPA which is redirecting the resevoir water to save the smelts instead of saving the crops for the people.

First Ms. Prejean, Then Black Pastors in DC

The homosexual activists want homosexual marriage in the US, no matter what. First they denigrated the majority in California who voted against the proposition in November, then they started the process of trying to change the effects of the vote. Next, in response to a direct question about her opinion, Ms. Prejean, without any negative connotations to the words she used, said that she personally believed that marriage could only occur between a man and a woman. And she not only lost the beauty pageant, she has been hunted down and pilloried by the activists ever since.

Yesterday, Marion Barry, backed by a cadre of Black Pastors, voted against recognition of homosexual marriage in the District of Columbia. The ensuing melee was so bad, police had to be called to escort the former mayor and the pastors from the building.

Silly me. I always thought the majority ruled in the US.

They Truly Do Represent Us

I’ve been fretting lately about the number of political appointees who are tax cheats. And I grow apoplexic about the politicians who ought to be in jail, instead of roaming the halls of Congress voting on bad bills we don’t need. Graft and corruption abound at all levels of government with hardly a murmur.

On the other hand, I can remember living in Dallas, TX during the fifties when we never locked our doors, not even when we left for a weekend trip. We kept the car keys in the ignition, so they wouldn’t get lost. Now people lock up their cars in their own drives, install burglar bars on their windows, and pay for electronic surveillance of their home to avoid thievery.

So maybe our dishonest politicians merely reflect the society they serve.

It’s Not My Brother, Not My Sister, But It’s Me, O Lord Standing in The Need of Prayer

If “they,” the elected government officials, truly reflect the people they represent, then it’s time for “us,” the voters, to start examining our consciences and changing our ways.

If America needs improving, the place to begin is with “us.” Christianity started in the middle of a permissive, pagan society. It thrived when those pagans observed the every day lives of Christians in their midst. Are we honest? Do we bring love and mercy to the hurting, broken people we live, work, and socialize with every single day? Do our lives reflect virtues worthy of emulating? Can we show love in every social interaction without condemning others or condoning sinful choices? Let’s change politics by changing ourselves.

Start at Home

I’ve never heard of any therapist who said his patients complained about how poor their parents were. But I’ve heard a lot about patients who wrestled with the lack of love their parents had shown them forty years earlier.

A man approached Mother Teresa and said,

"Mother, I want to do something great for God, but I don't know what. Should I start a school, be a missionary in a foreign land, build up a charitable agency?" He had great visions.

Mother Teresa looked at him closely, with kindness, and responded:

"What you need to do is make sure that no one in your family goes unloved."