wyrd thoughts: my other blog

future of this blog......

2005-11-14T15:18:00.000-06:00

I'm thinking of merging this blog with my Nine Virtues News blog. Will move all the posts from this one over there if I do.

But can't do it just now as my modem just died.

I'm also thinking about doing a blog in Esperanto just to be contrary.

The poll that no one reported

2005-07-03T10:52:00.000-05:00

This link tells about a Gallup snap poll taken after the President's speech on Iraq.

"The poll showed some movement bolstering support for the war. In fact, it showed Bush picking up ten points on whether we are winning in Iraq (up to 54%), twelve points on keeping troops in Iraq until the situation improves as opposed to setting an exit date for their evacuation (now at 70%/25%), and seven points on whether Bush has a clear plan for handling the war in Iraq (up to 63%/35%)."

bush

Iraq

It Can Happen Here

2005-07-03T08:34:00.000-05:00

"American doctors once conducted an experiment that proved you can kill the disabled babies of poor families and get away with it. Their research was funded by the Federal Government. Twenty-four babies with spina bifida lost their lives. The experiment was declared a success. Yes, it can happen here."

Click on link to read the article.

Euthanasia

Resume of suspect in the Shasta case

2005-07-02T13:11:00.000-05:00

Missing Idaho girl was found with a convicted child molester, link above is to his online resume.

This is his blog.

sex offender

MoveOn.org attacks Bush for defending Terri Schiavo

2005-07-02T11:43:00.000-05:00

Isn't that a little like attacking some one for opposing Hitler?

http://www.moveonpac.org/schiavo-QT.html

terri schiavo

Euthanasia debate on message board

2005-07-02T08:38:00.000-05:00

I've started a new topic on the euthanasia debate on this message
board: http://pub19.bravenet.com/forum/1570816555/

I'd appreciate it if anyone reading these words would visit the board
and add their own opinions on the topic--- thanks!

Eyewitness account of Terri Schiavo

2005-07-02T07:56:00.000-05:00

--- In apag4life@yahoogroups.com, Paul Fratianni <prolifecommunity@s...>
wrote:
>
> The Paragraphs bellow are excerpts from a letter Fr. Frank wrote in
response the the recent autopsy on Terri. I felt this part was
exceptionally well put and really put the focus where it needed to be.

> "I will never forget my hours with Terri, both before and after her
feeding tube was removed. She responded to me, and she responded to
others who visited her. She laughed, she tried to speak, she returned
her parents' kisses, she followed us with her eyes, she closed her eyes
when I prayed with her and opened them when we were finished.
>
> Medical examiners can offer their conclusions because of what they
saw, but none of that changes what we saw. But both we and the medical
examiners were looking in from the outside. Any honest medical expert
will admit that there is so much about the human brain we still don't
know. What Terri experienced on the inside is a mystery that only she
and God know."
>
> And finally Frank suggests maybe, "it's time for an examination of
our souls." Good Suggestion.
>
> Paul
>

>
> http://www.prolifecommunity.net/ * * * "A diverse community
bonded together by a shared value of life"

----
My comment: you cannot tell how Terri Schiavo functioned as a living
person by looking at her dead brain.
If Terri, reacting as she was observed to by Father Frank and others,
could be deemed to be 'dead' by the pro-death movement, how alive are
you and I?

terri schiavo

Fight over Supreme Court to begin

2005-07-01T12:12:00.000-05:00

With the announcement of the retirement of Justice O'Conner, the battle for the Supreme Court is on. The Supreme Court and other courts have for some time been overstepping their bounds, creating new laws which is not their function.

The philosophy behind this is the idea that laws and the Constitution should 'evolve'. Well, our Constitution has a provision for evolving--- it's called the Amendment process and is in the hands of elected officials.

If judges can find in the Constitution new rights that are not there in the plain text and would have appalled the Constitution's framers, they could just as well take away those rights plainly granted. If our rights 'evolve', who is to say if we have any rights left?

Out of control Supreme Court justices decided in the Nancy Cruzan case that the ordinary homicide laws don't apply to people deliberately starving/dehydrating to death a profoundly disabled person. Shouldn't that have been a decision for elected representatives who are answerable to the voters? If they can take away a basic right--- the right not to be killed with impunity--- from one minority group, the disabled, who could be next?

Those who believe judicial activism is somehow 'liberal' and 'pro-freedom' are preparing for war at this second, we need to be prepared to fight back.

It doesn't matter if the next justice is personally a liberal or a conservative. What matters is that he or she has the right understanding of the role of the courts, and refuses to overstep those bounds.

supreme court

Terri Schiavo

Terri Schiavo Memorial Quilt Project

2005-06-30T16:09:00.000-05:00

Link above leads to my web pages on the quilt project.

It's far from complete but it explains the project and also has a 'names' page which lists 43 victims of the euthanasia movement by name: from Terri Schiavo to King George V to baby Allan Bollinger, killed in 1915 because he was born with physical disabilities and his doctor thought it a crime to keep alive 'one of Nature's cruelest blunders'.

Euthanasia mentality has gone so far that some disabled and elderly people are having a hard time getting the medical care (or food and water) they want because their doctors think they are better off dead--- like stroke victim Margery Nighbert, who begged for food and water while being starved/dehydrated to death, only to have a judge rule her incompetent to make such a request.

Terri Schiavo

Euthanasia

quilt

Euthanasia out of control in Netherlands

2005-06-30T16:04:00.000-05:00

Pro-death, anti-disabled propaganda on Terri Schiavo's tombstone

2005-06-30T11:17:00.000-05:00

http://www.wftv.com/news/4634214/detail.html

Link leads to photo of Terri Schiavo's tombstone. Her unfaithful
husband chose to put the date of her becoming disabled as the date of
her death.

In my mind this vicious hatred of the disabled--- saying they are not
really alive--- is on a par with bigots who say black people are not
humans but 'apes'. Sick, sick, sick!

This just redoubles my determination to promote the idea of
memorializing Terri Schiavo and other euthanasia victims in a quilt and
a website showing the making of the quilt. This killing of the disabled
has been going on in silence long enough--- it's time to get rowdy about it!

Terri Schiavo news on Hannity & Colmes tonight

2005-06-30T09:08:00.000-05:00

Mark Fuhrman has written a new book on the Terri Schiavo case in which he analysed the events leading up to Terri Schiavo's collapse. Fuhrman refuses to take a position on the euthanasia issue but he does do a good job in showing that Michael Schiavo was the last person on the planet who should have been allowed guardianship of Terri. He also reproduces the sworn testimony of two nurses who show that Terri was not in a so-called 'vegetative state' but was responsive.

This book is available in stores right now. Buy a copy for yourself and one for a friend, a family member, or your local library.

Fuhrman is going to be on the Hannity and Colmes show tonight on Fox news, at 8 pm Central time in the US. People who want to be informed on the issue shouldn't miss it.

The Cemetery Walk

2005-06-27T18:14:00.000-05:00

The Cemetary Walk at Riverside Cemetery in Menominee went really well. We had a lot of volunteers in historic costume playing the part of different prominent historic dead people.

I lucked out, I was assigned to Potter's Field. That's where the poor folk were buried including my great-grandfather. It's also the final resting place of the McDonald Boys, two Canadian lumberjacks who got in a fight at the local cathouse in 1881 and stabbed Willie Kittson, the half-indian son of a pioneering settler, to death.

Local folk felt the McDonald boys should pay with their lives, but Michigan had already abolished the death penalty some decades earlier. So the local crowd got likkered up in Forvilly's tavern and plotted a lynching. They broke the McDonald boys out of jail and strung them up. They were buried in Potter's Field, their grave marked only with a logger's chain. Then someone stole the chain.

The Cemetery walk was not actually supposed to be a walk, there was a horse drawn wagon to take tours around. But there was a big turnout and so crowds of people decided not to wait, but walked along the tour route. And so I had to give a presentation in the Potter's Field, even though the lady who organized the event said we wouldn't have to talk, but just wave to the crowds in the wagon.

Anyway, everybody really liked my presentation once I decided to tell the story of the McDonald Boys. Most of the people in town already know the story a little, it's local folklore. One fellow said the site of the lynching was in front of his house. (I was always told it was in front of my grandmother's house.)

Off to the cemetery

2005-06-26T09:11:00.000-05:00

Well, I must cut short my posting/blogging activities for this morning.
I'm off to Riverside Cemetery in Menominee for the cemetery walk, where
I have to wear a long dress and white makeup and pretend to be a ghost
walking around the graves.

What fun!

Euthanasia mentality in adventure fiction

2005-06-26T09:08:00.000-05:00

In reading adventure fiction, we often find a scene like this: a
Sacrificial Character falls into the snake pit or the piranha pond, and
is being consumed alive in some horrid way and cannot be rescued. Our
Hero pulls out his gun (or phaser) and puts the Sacrificial Character
out of his misery. And this is considered a noble deed.

Of course, this 'noble deed' is also convenient. Our Hero is spared a
few minutes more of screams--- or the decision to attempt a dangerous
rescue and perhaps succeed, and have a gravely injured, likely disabled
companion to care for through the rest of the book.

I'd like to see a scene more like this: the Sacrificial Character is
not just a cardboard cutout like the redshirts from Star Trek, just
there to be killed off. We care about the Sacrificial Character.
Moreover, the Sacrificial Character has a vital bit of information which
he hasn't given Our Hero yet.

When the Sacrificial Character falls into the piranha pool, we fall with
him. We see him about to reveal the vital information to Our Hero, with
his very last breath and in spite of all pain.

But then, Our Hero's Amoral Companion steps in, killing to Sacrificial
Character 'to spare him pain', and preventing the Sacrificial Character
from revealing the vital information.

Perhaps the Amoral Companion is already betraying Our Hero and the vital
information includes this fact. Or perhaps the vital information has
nothing to do with the Amoral Companion, but the killing is the first
big clue we have that the Amoral Companion will in the end betray Our Hero.

I'd like to see this in fiction, rather than the idea that some
characters in our stories are disposable and may be killed off
carelessly in the interests of providing a bit of pro-euthanasia,
anti-disability propaganda.

Show our wounded soldiers how much you care!

2005-06-25T08:16:00.000-05:00

"Join Chris Carney, Heath Calhoun and Ryan Kelly for their epic 4200 mile, cross country journey on Soldier Ride 2005. The ride begins at the Marina Del Ray "Mother's Beach" in Los Angeles, CA on May 21, 2005 and ends in Montauk, New York on July 19, 2005. These courageous men will lead the Soldier Ride National Tour Team across the heartland of America. Along the way they will be joined by fellow wounded warriors who will help them relay Soldier Ride's message of hope, courage and determination across America."

I'm sure all true Odinists and patriotic Americans will wish to help with this noble cause. Click on link to visit the Soldier Ride web site and to donate, and email all your friends about this.

The Pro-Life Alliance of Gays And Lesbians

2005-06-24T07:51:00.000-05:00

And now, for something completely different: a Gay anti-abortion group.

Personally, I'm 'pro-choice' but I am coming to feel that the current state of the law makes it so that women feel they have no choice other than abortion, or they make the choice lightly without knowing how it will destroy their lives.

It's important to get the word out that 'pro-life' isn't just a Catholic thing.

Boston Red Sox : The Official Site

2005-06-21T09:39:00.000-05:00

Boston Red Sox : The Official Site

In case you're ready for something on the lighter side (did you see the Red Sox game last night, very exciting, Red Sox won 10-9 in the end.)

On this site you can vote for your favorite ball players to be in the All-Star game. You can vote up to 25 times, voting ends June 30. Vote early, vote often.

The Boston Red Sox just last year overcame the Curse of the Bambino which they acquired from trading away Babe Ruth. The Chicago Cubs have yet to overcome the Cursee of the Goat. If you, like me, are a fan of cursed baseball teams, you'll also want to visit Chicago Cubs : The Official Site

What the disability rights community wants

2005-06-21T09:21:00.000-05:00

Click on link below to view article from disability rights org. Not Dead Yet.

Eight things that need to happen to prevent non-voluntary euthanasia

One of the most urgent things is a Congressional investigation into non-voluntary euthanasia of the disabled which is going on right now. It doesn't just involve brain-damaged people. Also Downs Syndrome babies are being starved/dehydrated to death.

Shades of Nazi Germany.

Killing Terri Schiavo again

2005-06-20T11:52:00.000-05:00

The news media has decided to use the Terri Schiavo autopsy report to kill Terri Schiavo yet again by re-writing history to hide her story.

The current version of history is that we all agree that people guilty of being in a 'persistant vegetative state' should be 'allowed to die', and that dehydration/starvation is an acceptable method of execution. This version also claims that the autopsy can prove that Terri was indeed guilty of PVS and that her death was justified.

Another rewrite of history is that Terri had expressed the wish to be killed in this manner if she became disabled. The fact that Terri as a Catholic would have wanted to obey the Pope's ruling is never mentioned.

Of course, in those cases where people have a wish to live, the media does not cover the fact that THOSE wishes are far from sacred.

Finally, the case is re-written as a Catholic matter. The disability rights activists involved in the protest have vanished from the new history. People like Ralph Nader and Jesse Jackson are no longer part of the story. And the weird, new age religion of the death lawyer, Felos, who claims to be able to channel from coma patients (and they all say they want to die), is never an issue.

What it really comes down to is impatience and money. The people who run the media and many other folks are just far too busy to deal with a seriously disabled family member or one suffering a long-term illness. They don't want to be thought unfeeling, so they just invent a new kind of 'caring' which involves killing the inconvenient disabled/sick person out of 'mercy'. And of course killing saves money and hastens inheritance.

Funny, though, when Hitler did the exact same thing to disabled people everyone thought it bad, not in the least because the same guys that did the killing of the disabled were moved to the death camps to kill Jews and Gypsies.

I guess though that if you were a Jew or a Gypsy in Nazi Germany you would be in unbearable pain and have lost all quality of life, and that if you had any sense you would want to be 'allowed to die'.

This is how it will read in NewSpeak: The Holocaust never happened. Hitler just helped six million Jews with their end-of-life issues. He gave them 'compassion in dying'.

What's wrong with showing a little 'compassion in living?'

Quilt squares for Terri Schiavo remembrance quilt

2005-06-20T10:31:00.000-05:00

This is a T block, a quilt block most often associated with the Women's Christian Temperance Union, an anti-alcohol organization founded in 1874. I think the T block is also very suited for making quilts in honor of Terri Schiavo and other victims of euthanasia. One can embroider the names of the victims and their dates of death across the top of the 'T'. (I have one with Terri Schiavo's name on it but didn't photograph it).

Before I discovered the T block I started an anti-euthanasia quilt with another style of block. That quilt will have 30 squares and I've already discovered the names of more than 30 euthanasia victims to embroider on it. The 'T' square, by the way, needs 2 squares that are 5 inches square and cut diagonally, one of a plain color and one of a print. You will also need 5 squares of 3 inches in the print and 5 in the plain, also cut diagonally. Sew squares made of one plain piece and one print piece with a 1/4 inch seam. You will be able to make 2 identical T blocks, or 2 with reversed colors--- see the two at the top of the pic.

The day I castrated the goat

2005-06-20T08:34:00.000-05:00

My mom's friend raises fainting goats. Her nanny goat had twins this spring and one of them happened to be a boy, so he had to be castrated. My mom's friend usually calls the vet in for this, but mom told her I always castrate my own with a band elastrator, and volunteered my services.

A band elastrator, in case you are not country folk, is a device which places a small, strong, thick rubber band around a young male goat, lamb or calf's testicles. The parts in question, being cut off from blood flow, wither and drop off.

I've been neutering my goats and sheep this way for years. Some are uncomfortable the first hour or two. Others don't seem bothered by the business at all.

I went out to the farm to do the fainting goat. Do you know what a fainting goat is? It is a rare breed of American goat, also known as the Myotonic goat or the Nervous goat. They have a hereditary condition which makes their muscles stiffen up when they get startled, and then they fall over.

I'd never castrated a fainting goat before. I assumed it would be the same as any other goat. Silly me!

My mom's friend's husband caught the little fellow and held him down for me, so I got the band on him in record time. Then, the goat fainted. That kind of scared me. He got up shortly after. Then he fainted again. And again. I guess the presence of the elastrator band 'down there' just kept startling him.

The goat was OK, really. It was me that was about to have a nervous breakdown.

My own recently acquired fainting goat buck is the older brother of this buck kid. My goat, thank the Gods, does not faint even when I chase him, or when the geese bite him. And since I bought him as a breeder I won't have to castrate him so he won't have that excuse to faint.

The fainting goat, after he fainted.

Comment function of this blog has been removed

2005-06-19T17:02:00.000-05:00

Due to the problem of which I write in the Nightmare Realm blog, the
comment function on all of my blogs has been taken down.

This is done for the protection of those who do not wish to be exposed
to foul language and other bad things from anonymous commentors and some
not so anonymous.

I wish Blogger would develop the option of having moderated comments so
the blog owner could check them out before having them posted.

Friendly folks who wish to contact me are urged to either use my
guestbook or my postal address.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Brain scan may detect early Alzheimer's

2005-06-19T16:34:00.000-05:00

Brain scans may be able to detect Alzheimer's disease very early (click on link above to view story)--- but should this be done?

The pro-death movement has already targeted Alzheimer's patients. One of Jack Kevorkian's early murder victims was a woman in the early stages of Alzheimer's. Euthanasia by dehydration/starvation is considered by many to be the 'non-treatment of choice' for Alzheimer's patients.

Early detection of Alzheimer's can lead to better treatment, prolonging life and improving its quality. But it might be considered cheaper to pressure the Alzheimer's patient into asking for assisted suicide. After all, we live in an age where a disabled people like Terri Schiavo and Nancy Cruzan can be dehydrated/starved to death simply because others don't value the lives of the severely disabled.

A flood of ducklings

2005-06-19T16:18:00.000-05:00

While all three of my broody geese have failed to hatch even one gosling, my Buff Orpington ducks have made up for it.

First one duck hatched out eight ducklings in a tractor tire in the barnyard. Then four ducks who nested under the lilacs turned up with what looks like 30 ducklings between them.

My gander (male goose) who is in love with a duck has decided he's the daddy and so is defending mothers and babies against the hungry cats. The Fifth Element, pictured in the previous post, has a real habit of eating baby chicks and she will take a duckling when there are no chicks around.

A lot of modern breeds of ducks are too nervous to hatch out their own babies, so I'm glad my ducks can hatch ducklings. I hope some survive. Last year one duck hatched four, and the cats got three and the last one was run over by a tractor.

The Fifth Element (the cat, not the movie)

2005-06-19T16:08:00.000-05:00

The Fifth Element, my prettiest cat. She was one of five kittens, the other four were all orange. One of her last-year kittens is Cold Case, a beautiful male cat who looks like a siamese. This year The Fifth Element has two kittens that look just like her.

Info for California Opponents of Assisted Suicide - Update 6/16/05

2005-06-17T13:56:00.000-05:00

This is from an email newsletter on the California assisted suicide issue. California folk should get active on this now

info-at-ca-aas.com wrote:

Opponents of Assisted Suicide - Update

As many of you know Assemblymembers Berg and Levine have amended the suicide bill text into AB 651. Even though the bill has a new number it still legalizes doctor assisted suicide in California. Berg and Levine used this tactic after the former suicide legislation, AB 654, failed to have enough support to even come to a vote of the Assembly.

AB 651 (Levine/Berg) currently sits in the Senate Rules Committee. The important task at hand is to contact your State Senator and tell them to oppose AB 651, the Assisted Suicide bill. You can find contact information on your State Senator at www.sen.ca.gov.

The authors are becoming increasingly frustrated at the level of opposition to Doctor Assisted Suicide and will use any tactic at their disposal to keep this doomed issue alive.

Again, thank you for your continued activism against Doctor Assisted Suicide. Please write, call or fax your State Senator today.

Thank you.

'Birth Control' battle over forced participation in abortions

2005-06-15T08:31:00.000-05:00

In Wisconsin the legislature is debating whether to allow pharmacists the freedom of conscience not to fill prescriptions for birth control pills if it is against their moral convictions.

The story above ignores the real issue. Pharmacists who are opposed to abortion don't want to fill prescriptions for pills that cause abortions: the abortion pill RU-482, the morning after pill, and birth control pills.

You don't have to be anti-abortion to believe that people should not have to participate in an abortion if they believe abortion is morally wrong. We don't force doctors to perform abortions. Why should we force pharmacists?

Leslie Burke: food as life support

2005-06-15T08:13:00.000-05:00

The above link is to a biased essay on the case of Leslie Burke, the man who is suing so he won't be starved and dehydrated when his disease progresses.

The essay assumes that giving food and water through a stomach tube is 'life support' which can be withdrawn without being murder. It also speaks of the high cost of health care.

In fact tube feeding's been around for over a hundred years and is routine. The food used is just ordinary Ensure that you can buy in any grocery store. It's a lot less expensive way to get food than eating at McDonalds.

The other care costs for a tube feeding patient are no different for the cost of keeping any disabled person alive, or a senior citizen in assisted living.

The doctors who approve starvation/dehydration for tube feeding patients sometimes also claim that meals brought on trays in a medical setting are 'life support', and that starving/dehydration should be the 'non-treatment of choice' for the elderly.

Supreme Court religious freedom case

2005-06-15T07:46:00.000-05:00

Child suicide in Norway

2005-06-14T11:29:00.000-05:00

In Europe where assisted suicide and euthanasia are more accepted, it's no wonder that there is a worrysome child suicide rate.

The message is being sent that if your life is bad and there is no hope of betterment, your life should be ended out of 'mercy'.

No wonder that teens often interpret that as an OK for their suicide.

Lack of religious commitment is also a contributing factor. If you don't believe in the soul or the existance of the Gods, you don't feel that there can be any bad consequences to suicide--- that it is 'the end'.

Actually it's the beginning of bad things for you, virtually all religions agree on this. After all, suicide is a form of murder and causes harm to family members and friends of the suicide, including copycat suicides.

I actually had a comment posted from some one who evidently favors child suicide, but deleted it due to content. It made me wonder though if the comment was actually a cry for help.

Child porn raids in 13 countries

2005-06-14T11:17:00.000-05:00

It's about time.

Child pornography is a visual record of the sexual abuse of children. This is a social evil which must not be tolerated at all, much less be given safe haven on the internet.

Regular pornography generally involves girls just over the legal age, who often are rape or abuse victims who cannot say 'no' to the increasingly perverse demands of the pornographer. If child porn outrages you, you should be nearly as outraged by regular porn.

If only they would start raids against that social evil on the internet. Women and children should be protected, not abused as a form of entertainment.

Poultry miracles

2005-06-13T08:03:00.000-05:00

The other day I thought the eggs left in my hatcher were all duds. There was one that had pipped the shell, but couldn't get out. I gave it a good long time, then cracked the shell all the way round to help it. (Helping a chick out is usually fatal.)

The stuck chick still didn't get out and I thought it was dead, so I turned the incubator off and left to spend the day with my mother.

When I came home, I heard chirping in the incubator. It was a hatched bantam chick. It was chilled and limp so I quickly turned the incubator back on. That didn't heat quick enough so I took the chick out to the brooder and placed it under the heat lamp.

That chick died by morning. But another egg in the incubator that had been turned off hatched overnight--- I'd forgotten to shut it off again. The chick seemed fine. I kept it in the incubator to dry off. It was chirping a lot so I decided to discard the egg with the dead, stuck chick in it. As I took it out, I saw movement in the egg membrane.

I carefully peeled the chick out of the shell. It was alive after being stuck so long and being chilled for half a day. I gave it a drink of water and left it with the other chick, and later moved both out to the brooder.

The stuck chick is still alive this morning. Not sure it's going to survive in the long term, but after what it's survived so far, it may well make it.

And this morning, another egg is hatching.

Abortion and Euthanasia

2005-06-13T07:55:00.000-05:00

I'm uncomfortable in making too close a link between abortion and
euthanasia, and here is my reason:

In an abortion, there are two people involved, the pregnant woman and
the unborn baby. Two lives that are interconnected. There is a wide
range of opinion as to when it is morally right to sacrifice the child
for the mother's needs. (I doubt there are any pro-life people who
would forbid abortion in a case where the mother would definitely die
without an abortion and the baby has no hope of living anyway)

In euthanasia the question is far simpler. There is one life involved.
Do we take that life because that is easier for us, or do we not?

I feel that too much linking of the abortion and euthanasia issues did
harm in the Terri Schiavo case. There were also folks out there linking
the Schiavo case to the Ten Commandments monument case in Alabama.

This kind of turns off people who might otherwise be on our side.

--
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Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.298 / Virus Database: 267.6.9 - Release Date: 6/11/2005

Gitmo detainees flush own Korans

2005-06-12T13:56:00.000-05:00

doesn't anyone have any respect for the plumbing???

Another WYRD thoughts

2005-06-12T10:45:00.000-05:00

Some fellow started his own 'WYRD_Thoughts' just to slander me. I must be doing something right.

For the record, anyone who likes may call anything they like 'wyrd thoughts'. Name your blogs, Yahoo groups, dogs, cats or children that.

Well, maybe not the children or they'll grow up and write tell-all books.

More about Munch the fainting goat buck

2005-06-12T10:16:00.000-05:00

See picture of him below.

We contacted the breeder and she says he was born last Christmas day and is one of triplets, and was bottle-fed in the house until 2 mos. ago when he was sold. He was named Christmas (or Merry).

He'll probably be pretty tame when he gets used to me.

Alabama attempts to ban gay books

2005-06-11T07:26:00.000-05:00

Click above to view story.

Banning any book by an allegedly gay author or with allegedly gay characters would actually be a license to ban most anything.

Incidentally, in the Rapturist Christian novel series 'Left Behind', there are gay characters (villains) in the latest book.

The author of this bill is playing into the hands of the radical 'gay rights' leadership, who will use this to try to convince conservative gay people that they have to go along with the agenda of forcing gay marriage through the courts against the will of the majority. They will say 'look what those people are going to do to you if you don't trust us to represent you'.

In actual fact, gay people were better treated than ever by the conservative movement until the push to force through gay marriage scared people. Now, gay people have to worry about losing their children or not being able to be at their partner's side in a hospital (or having estranged relatives rather than the partner make 'death with dignity' decisions.)

Gay conservatives just need to remember how the Republicans--- most of whom believe that 'homosexuality' is a matter of immoral behavior--- stood up in outrage when the Democrats attacked Mr. Cheney's gay daughter. There is a lot more compassion and room for diverse opinions on our side than among the political correctness mafia.

Concerns of Christian prayer, preaching in public school

2005-06-10T08:19:00.000-05:00

The ACLU is up in arms against prayer in Louisiana public schools and is determined to stop it at all costs.

The real problem in my opinion is not that there is too much prayer, but too little.

All the reports mention Christian prayer and activity.

Where are the Odinists? Why are they not saying Odinist prayer at football games? Why aren't they praying to Frigga at lunchtime?

Is that because there are only a few Odinists in the schools? Well, then they should have a good Odinist preacher coming in there witnessing to his faith and making converts.

In the USA taxpayer supported schools should be fair to all faiths. If some Christians don't want their children exposed to Odinist, Jewish, Hindu and Santeria prayer, they have a better chance of setting up a Christian school than we do of setting up an Odinist one.

So let's let ALL the Gods in to our schools.

Woman attempts to kill autistic daughter, calls it 'mercy killing'

2005-06-10T08:09:00.000-05:00

A woman tried to kill her 6 year old daughter, who suffers from autism and cerebral palsy. Her defense is that it was an attempted 'mercy killing'.

The acceptance of the pro-death philosophy is providing an out for criminals. 'Mercy' criminals often get away with their crimes or get shorter sentences.

Don't you long for the days when it was worse to try to harm a disabled person than an able-bodied one?

Should Britain adopt Holland's babykilling policy?

2005-06-10T07:56:00.000-05:00

The cost-cutters are at it again in proposing that it would be cheaper to kill premature babies through medical neglect than to care for him.

The rational is that some (but not all) of very premature babies will have some disability if they live, and of course one doesn't want 'useless eaters' living 'lives unworthy of life' to be allowed to live.

It seems to me that even if you believe cripples should be killed you could wait to find out if the babies will in fact be impaired before offing them. They're going from killing the cripples to killing those who have a greater than average risk of becoming cripples.

Is that Hitler's ghost I hear cheering in the background?

2005-06-09T14:41:00.000-05:00

This is Munch, my new fainting goat buck. He's six months old. He seems to like his new 'house', a calf hutch.

2005-06-09T14:39:00.000-05:00

This is my cat Niki and her 5 kittens. Why she wants to keep them outdoors in the flowerbed is beyond me

Birth Control Pill: Abortifacient and Contraceptive

2005-06-09T08:39:00.000-05:00

I feel the article above contains useful information even if you are not anti-abortion. A woman should have the right to know if her 'birth control' method is actually causing early abortions rather than preventing conception.

Personally, I can accept the idea of a woman having a surgical abortion for serious reasons better than I can accept the idea of routinely taking a pill which may over years of use cause 10 or 12 early abortions. Besides the psychological damage to the woman when she learns of this issue and begins to grieve for an unknown number of her babies, it can't be good for a woman's physical health. (And there are tons of health risks known for birth control pills.)

Of course birth control pills are sacred to many because they feel that because of the pill a woman has no good excuse to say 'no' to sex outside of marriage and the sexual revolution in general.

But a woman has the right to say 'no' to premarital/promiscuious sex, and to say 'no' to abortifacient 'birth control', and the right not to be condemned as a prude or religious fanatic because of it! (We need a NEW feminist revolution!)

Woman dies in hospital after "right to kill" court battle

2005-06-09T08:32:00.000-05:00

A woman with Lou Gehrig's disease wanted to be kept on her ventilator, her family agreed. It was the hospital wanted her dead.

Why wasn't her wish to live as sacred as Terri Schiavo's alleged wish to die?

You can see it's really all about the right to do away with those we no longer find useful.

Disability Groups File Amicus Brief in Gonzales v. Oregon

2005-06-09T08:26:00.000-05:00

For more information: Max Lapertosa, 312-253-7000, ext. 131
Diane Coleman, 708-209-1500 ext. 11

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 9, 2005 -- Eleven prominent disability organizations and one university-based policy center filed a friend of the court brief today with the U.S. Supreme Court in the Oregon assisted suicide case. Not Dead Yet, the leading national disability rights organization opposing legalization of assisted suicide, filed the brief, which supports the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) appeal of the decision in the lower court, which upheld Oregon's assisted suicide law. The following organizations joined the brief filed May 9th in the matter of Oregon v. Gonzales:

Not Dead Yet
ADAPT
Center on Disability Studies, Law and Human Policy at Syracuse University
Center for Self-Determination
Hospice Patients Alliance
Mouth Magazine/Freedom Clearinghouse
National Council on Independent Living
National Spinal Cord Injury Association
Self-Advocates Becoming Empowered
Society for Disability Studies
TASH
World Institute on Disability.

Not Dead Yet and its co-amici agree with the DOJ position that assisted suicide is not a "legitimate medical" use of federally controlled substances, and that it should not exempt Oregon physicians who provide lethal prescriptions under the Oregon assisted suicide law from disciplinary action concerning their licenses to prescribe controlled substances.

Not Dead Yet's amicus brief in the case, joined by the groups listed above, argues that the Oregon assisted suicide law cannot supply a foundation for the "legitimate medical" use for controlled substances.

Oregon's assisted suicide law encourages disabled individuals, those who are "terminal" and those who may not be, to end their lives -- and guarantees such efforts will result in death -- while other state laws concurrently discourage non-disabled persons from suicide.

"If assisted suicide were really about personal autonomy, it would be available to all suicidal people," said Diane Coleman, president and founder of Not Dead Yet. "But really, assisted suicide statutes are the ultimate societal judgment that the life of a person with a disability is not as worthwhile as that of a non-disabled person."

Assisted suicide also raises serious ethical concerns regarding the medical profession's treatment of disabled people. It requires doctors to make difficult, if not impossible, determinations of a person's competency and life expectancy, the consequences of which are both ultimate and irreversible. According to attorney Max Lapertosa, assisted suicide is a "dangerous distraction from policies that really enhance people's independence and dignity -- access to palliative care and other forms of community-based long-term care."

The full brief may be found at: http://www.notdeadyet.org/docs/gonzalesvorsupct.html

Home Page

Health-care-for-poor bill replaced by assisted-suicide bill

2005-06-09T08:16:00.000-05:00

This is very telling, showing the real, though perhaps unconcious, motivation behind the pro-death lobby.

Adult vs Embryonic Stem Cells

2005-06-09T08:14:00.000-05:00

This article explained a lot of things I didn't know about the stem cell debate.

How medical marijuana decision relates to assisted suicide

2005-06-07T08:00:00.000-05:00

From Secondhand Smoke blog

Website for preserving Men. River watershed

2005-06-06T12:17:00.000-05:00

http://www.menomineeriver.com/

That's the new site.

This is the old site, they still have stuff there.

http://moon.alphacomm.net/%7Espicker9/chris/front40folks.html

Although I'm not a rabid greenie who believes in a new ice age one minute and global warming the next at the decree of the enviro-popes, I really see no need for mining in an area where outdoor tourism and farming are such main stays of the economy.

We'll end up losing far more jobs than could be created. And the jobs will stay lost long after the mine closes down. No one wants to hunt and fish in a polluted area.

Leave the minerals where they are. If there are urgent shortages of minerals in the future, we can always mine them then--- when we perhaps will have far better mining methods.

Top 11 reasons to be concerned about mining in Menominee co.

2005-06-06T11:58:00.000-05:00

1. Zinc, copper, gold and silver mining is more hazardous to the environment than the Iron mining we know in Upper Michigan.

2. Contamination is bound to occur no matter how diligent the operators are.

3. There are no proven cost effective technologies for the acceptable long-term mitigation of potential impacts.

4. The Menominee River is a breeding bed for the sturgeon, the bald eagle is on the threatened specie list - they will not survive the heavy metal runoff from a mine.

5. There has never been a metallic mineral mine in the World that has not polluted.

6. Our Michigan mining laws are weak and favor the drilling/mining operations; not our groundwater. Metallic mineral mines are not subject to stringent hazardous waste management laws, even if it contains cyanide.

7. Once our groundwater, lakes, river, streams are lost, it will take generations to repair. We would leave the clean-up costs to our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

8. A change in our climate, such as our heavy snowfall of 1960 and 1965, will pose Spring flooding. If the mine site is not designed for these extremes Mother Nature can put on this County; we will have an environmental disaster. This is a major reason for the Acid Mine Drainage problems in Canada�s mining - insufficient planning for extreme heavy snowfalls.

9. Once Acid Mine Drainage starts, it can effectively sterilize an entire water system for generations to come.

10. The overburden from metallic mineral mining will leach acid from the exposed rock for as long as it is exposed to air and water until the sulphides are leached out. A process that can last hundreds, even thousands of years.

11. There is a known Exploration Site (drilling) in British Columbia called the Windy Craggy that is presently generating Acid Mine Drainage. This is evidence that even in the drilling phase of mineral mining, precautions must be taken or our groundwaters will be polluted.

Dutch man faces trial for assisted suicide

2005-06-06T08:06:00.000-05:00

In Holland, where they have loads of euthanasia including 'involuntary assisted suicide' , where things have got to a point where disabled people need to carry a 'don't kill me' card in their wallets, where a sick nun was killed by a doctor who justified it by saying her religion wouldn't allow her to ask for euthanasia so he had to step in to 'help', they have finally found a case they can't stomach.

Is it because the 'patient' was mentally, rather than physically, ill? No, they've done that before and it was OK.

They're upset because the killer wasn't a doctor.

I'd be more upset if the killer was. If a nation has to revive the Nazi T-4 program to kill off the 'lives unworthy of life', I'd just as soon it not be doctors doing the killing. We need to be able to rely on our doctors to help us, and if we know they may be thinking of killing us instead, how can we rely on their medical advice?

Book on Schiavo Case now available

2005-06-06T07:51:00.000-05:00

This is a post from the fight4terri blog

Fwd: Lone protester still takes a stand for Terri Schiavo

2005-06-05T11:08:00.000-05:00

>--- In apag4life@yahoogroups.com, LAscandals@a... wrote:
>Admirable. This woman deserves more recognition for her efforts.
>
>
>_http://www.sptimes.com/2005/05/17/Tampabay/Lone_protester_still_.shtml_

>Weeks after Terri Schiavo's death, one protester continues to show
>signs of
>conviction.
>
>By LEONORA LaPETER, Times Staff Writer
>Published May 17, 2005
>
>____________________________________
>
>[Times photo: Kathleen Flynn]
>Lisa Wilson, 48, hasn't let the death of Terri Schiavo stop her
>protests.
>She arrives at 66th Street N at dawn to send her message.
>
>____________________________________
>
>PINELLAS PARK - The sky was still dark Monday as Lisa Wilson walked
>quickly
>up 66th Street N toward her destination.
>She carried a sign with the words "Terri Schindler was murdered" and a
>single-minded purpose that even she struggles to explain.
>"I've never gotten up this early for a job in my life, but you do
>strange
>things when you love your job," said the 48-year-old woman as she
>took up her
>post at the intersection of 66th Street N and 102nd Avenue N at 6 a.m.
>Wilson is the last of the hundreds of protesters who trampled the grass
>outside Terri Schiavo's hospice in the days before her death March 31.
>If you talk to Wilson, you find out the Topeka, Kan., woman is not so
>much a
>religious zealot like some of the other protesters but maybe a woman
>who has
>either lost or found her way, depending on your perspective.
>She hadn't been to a church in 25 years until recently. She says she
>has had
>an abortion. She has a bachelor's degree in business administration from
>Washburn University in Topeka and a master's in food and nutrition
>from Kansas
>State University. And she maintains that she has never been to a
>protest in
>her life - until she showed up 56 days ago.
>"I believe strongly in what i'm doing," Wilson said. "I'm trying to
>protect
>other people from getting euthanized. This is a wake-up call for me."
>Five days a week she arrives at the intersection near Hospice House
>Woodside
>at the crack of dawn and holds up her sign hoping to reach the
>"movers and
>shakers" whom she thinks travel the roads at this time of day.
>Never mind that they can barely see her sign at this hour.
>At 8 a.m., she gets breakfast at McDonald's. Then she moves over to the
>grass in the right of way at the edge of the hospice's property until
>3 p.m.
>On Saturdays, she walks the intersection's four corners with a small
>American flag, pushing the button to change the light with
>military-like precision.
>On Sundays, she sits in front of the hospice.
>Most people ignore her. A few honk. Some yell at her, like a man in a
>maroon
>Corvette, who yelled, "Woman, mind your own business."
>"Personally, I think she's wasting her time," said crossing guard Ed
>Bigger,
>65, as he helped students cross 66th Street at 7 a.m. Monday. "It's all
>over, the show is done."
>Hospice officials say Wilson has been respectful of employees and the
>families who visit loved ones. But she received a $56 ticket a few
>weeks ago for
>violating Pinellas Park's sign ordinance.
>Signs are not supposed to be placed in the right of way. Wilson says she
>leans two of the three rods holding up her sign on her Nike sneakers
>as she sits
>in her white plastic chair. But on April 14 police accused her of
>planting
>the sign in the ground and ticketed her.
>She is the only Schiavo protester cited for violating the sign
>ordinance,
>despite the huge number of signs in the right of way before Schiavo's
> death.
>"We felt ... that we had more important issues to deal with at that
>particular time," said Pinellas Park police Capt. Sanfield Forseth.
>"And now that a
>lot of our problems that we were dealing with up there at the time
>have now
>since resolved, we're trying to get back to a state of normalcy."
>Wilson pleaded not guilty to the ticket last week and is scheduled to
>go to
>trial July 1.
>"As far as we're concerned, this is a very minor violation and I'll
>speak
>with the officers and see what their side of the story is," said
>Christopher
>Hammonds, assistant city attorney of Pinellas Park. "We'll continue
>to work
>with Ms. Wilson to come to some sort of resolution with this, but it's
>definitely her right to go to trial if she wishes."
>* * *
>She came down on an impulse. She was at home in Topeka listening to a
>former
>nurse of Schiavo's say on television that she'd heard the brain-damaged
>woman use words such as "mommy" and "help me."
>Next thing, Wilson was in her late husband's red GMC driving to
>Florida to
>join the protesters.
>Her third husband was a child molester who, when she met him, had
>spent five
>years in prison for molesting a 9-year-old girl. He killed himself with
>sleeping pills last July rather than be sent back to prison for
>trying to lure a
>4-year-old out of her yard.
>As Wilson saw it, she'd lost her husband. She'd been fired from her
>job as
>an office manager at an architectural engineering firm. Her son was
>grown.
>What did she have to lose coming to Florida?
>Wilson said she'd learned as a dietitian that removing a feeding tube is
>unethical.
>So her first stop was in Tallahassee to urge Gov. Jeb Bush to step
>in. Her
>first sign read: "Jeb Bush, are you a man or a mouse?"
>Later, her sign read, "Mommy," "Help me," "Pain."
>Then, "Terri likes Jello."
>And, "American Justice in Crisis."
>Day after day she stood there with her ever-changing array of signs. She
>made friends. She put up five or six protesters in her hotel room for
> two weeks.
>She bought one protester a black suede cowboy hat. She bought others
>meals.
>She said she helped a woman pay a $300 fine and $150 in towing costs
>after
>she was arrested in a police dispute. In exchange, she got the sign
>she now
>carries.
>She says she's living off $100,000 she got in insurance money after her
>husband's death. (Some insurance policies will pay out on suicides
>after a
>two-year waiting period.)
>Wilson's son, John Wilds, drove down to Florida with her but headed
>for a
>vacation with friends in Tampa. He returned to Kansas after two weeks.
>"It's interesting because she's never been an activist before," said
>Wilds,
>26. "It hit her like a ton of bricks. I think she just had problems
>with her
>past couple of husbands and she took it real serious."
>The day after Schiavo's March 31 death, Wilson made a new sign: "Terri
>Schindler Protest, Phase II." She told everyone she was staying forever.
>"This is life and death for me," she told a reporter.
>* * *
>Wilson keeps in contact with many of the other protesters by e-mail.
>Judy Goldsberry, a former protester who lives in Clearwater, has given
>Wilson a temporary home while she conducts her protest. "It's not
>something I'm
>going to do," Goldsberry said. "But more and more, I've come to think
>what
>she's doing is very valuable."
>At first, Wilson said she would leave when the state or federal
>government
>passed a law banning the removal of a feeding tube.
>Today, she admits the laws likely won't change soon and so she stays to
>promote awareness.
>"This is a one-person job," she said.
>--Times staff researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.[Last
>modified May 17, 2005, 01:36:07]
>
>
>
>Fight4Terri @aol.com
>
>

>
>
>
>December 3, 1963 ~ March 31, 2005
>Light a candle For Terri at her online Memorial Website
>_Memory-of.com - Memorial website in memory of Theresa Schindler
>(1963-2005)_ (http://theresa-schindler.memory-of.com/about.aspx)
>_http://theresa-schindler.memory-of.com/about.aspx_
>(http://theresa-schindler.memory-of.com/about.aspx)
>
>_Visit: www.fight4terri.blogspot.com_
>(http://www.fight4terri.blogspot.com/)
>
>Visit Terri's site: _www.terrisfight.org_ (http://www.terrisfight.org/)
>
>Cheryl Ford, RN (Fight4Terri@a...) is not affiliated with any other
>group
>and works to protect the rights of the disabled community.
>
>Fight4Terri does not wish to forward unsolicited mail.
>Please type the word "unsubscribe" in subject heading if you prefer
>to not
>receive anymore updates about Terri and your screen name will be
>immediately
>deleted from Fight4Terri's address book.
>--- End forwarded message ---

How to subscribe to a blog

2005-06-05T10:32:00.000-05:00

Click on link above to view. Method also works for some Yahoo groups, so you can view from your My Yahoo page if there have been any new posts to the groups.

Barn Kitten Sighting

2005-06-05T09:13:00.000-05:00

My tortoiseshell colored barn cat, The Fifth Element, has had kittens some time ago and yesterday I finally got to see the result--- two tortoiseshell kittens were running around the barn loft. They hissed at me when I got near.

Saudi Arabian Officials shred Visitors' Bibles

2005-06-05T08:39:00.000-05:00

View the link above for the story.

I find the double standard here newsworthy. Where is Newsweek on this story?

Did Michael Schiavo know current girlfriend before Terri collapsed?

2005-06-05T08:22:00.000-05:00

Another unsolved mystery in the Schiavo case.

Perhaps we all ought to pray for Michael Schiavo (Terri's self-made widower) that he have an honest change of heart and realize his wrongdoing.

Koran 'desecration' issue

2005-06-05T08:06:00.000-05:00

One hears a lot in the news about whether or not copies of the Koran have been 'desecrated' by being flushed in a toilet (hard on the plumbing), being thrown, kicked or torn, or having bad words written in them.

But when all these hard-bitten anti-religion-fanatic mainstream news media guys say the Koran has (or has not) been 'desecrated', they are affirming a presupposition that the Koran is, in fact, objectively sacred.

Now, people who believe the Koran is sacred logically must believe it comes from God, and that therefore Mohammed was truly a prophet as he said he was. The word for people who believe this way is 'Muslims'.

The news reporters who used the word 'desecrated' may believe that Muslims should be treated with far greater respect than Christians, Odinists or Wiccans, but they are still unbelievers and secularists at heart. They no more believe the Koran was dictated by God than they believe that Elvis is alive and well and flipping burgers somewhere.

Many people who have looked at the Koran objectively have found errors, such as the one where the Bible story of Abraham almost sacrificing his son is retold with the wrong son mentioned. They conclude in light of this that since the Koran claims to be entirely transcriptions of messages brought to Mohammed by an angel who brought the messages from an all-powerful, perfect One True God, that the Koran isn't what it claims to be and is in that sense false.

It is important to be honest and honorable in one's speech. Therefore, unless you have become a Muslim, don't use the word 'desecrated' in referring to an abused Koran.

Gosling Update

2005-06-03T16:19:00.000-05:00

Both of the goslings are well. I think one may be male as he is lighter in color. Have to move them out of the brooder they are in since they are with some chicks and one is a tiny bantam who is sick of being stepped on by clumsy goslings.

The nice thing of having a blog is I can go in the archives and find out what day the goslings hatched so I know how old they are. Wish I'd posted the day the cat had kittens because I have no clue when that was.

That didn't take long

2005-06-03T11:39:00.000-05:00

This morning my stalker said he was tired of the fight (in a public
forum) and now he's e-mailing me with threats in private.

I've forwarded it to my new Nightmare Realm blog
http://www.angelfire.com/mi2/tribal/nightmare
which is where all my stalker stuff will go in future so I don't have to
put it on my good blogs.

There will be a link on the left side to Nightmare Realm in case
anyone's morbidly curious.

This post is actually a test to see if I can really post via e-mail.
Here goes.......

More info on the Leslie Burke case

2005-06-02T10:53:00.000-05:00

He is the man I mentioned previously who is fighting in court not to get 'death with dignity'.

It seems a disabled person's wishes are only sacred when they wish to die.

History of Euthanasia movement

2005-06-02T10:51:00.000-05:00

An essential report for anyone who wishes to have an informed opinion on the issue.

Dutch Doctors want to Kill Terminally Ill Children

2005-05-31T17:32:00.000-05:00

Link leads to news story
In Holland, euthanasia is legal in many circumstances and practiced in far more, as in the case of the many 'involuntary assisted suicides'. Disabled people have to carry cards in their wallets in case they are taken to the hospital , so they won't be put out of their misery.

But there is some hesitation to kill children. A poll shows Dutch doctors want to be able to kill 'terminally ill' children. In the pro-death culture of Holland, most children with a severe illness will be sure to ask for death to spare their families pain and expense.

British man fights for right NOT to die

2005-05-31T17:22:00.000-05:00

Link above leads to news story
In England a man with a degenerative brain disease is fighting in court for the right NOT to be starved to death once he no longer can feed himself.

Funny, when it comes to 'right to die' a person's alleged death wishes are sacred. But when a person has the courage to want to live in spite of a severe disability, the guy has to fight in court to avoid being put out of his misery like an unwanted dog.

Supreme Court upholds religious freedom of prison inmates

2005-05-31T17:13:00.000-05:00

Link goes to story on the case.

A personal comment: as an Odinist who ran a newsletter for several years, I have had a lot of letters from prison inmates who say that they are denied the right to wear Thor's Hammer pendants while Christian inmates can wear crosses, denied the right to have a copy of the Poetic Edda while Christians can have Bibles, and so on.

Prison inmates are there because they immorally flouted the laws of the land. How are they to learn moral behavior when they are treated unfairly?

While I don't like to coddle prisoners, this ruling is a good thing.

Monk fight in Thailand

2005-05-31T17:09:00.000-05:00

Link above should take you to story about a street brawl between Buddhist monks from rival temples.

Just goes to show the Buddhists don't have all the answers.

"New Age" and Euthanasia: by a Norse Pagan

2005-05-30T06:54:00.000-05:00

According to the promo for a special issue of Whistleblower Magazine
the euthanasia movement is influenced by 'bizarre New Age beliefs'.

My own Odinist (Norse Pagan) religion is commonly considered 'New Age' and books about our faith tend to be published as 'New Age' books--- even though Odinists and other Pagans, including Wiccans (witches) don't consider themselves New Age and have a low opinion of the New Age movement.

Of course it is sadly true that since the modern revival of Odinism and other historic Pagan religions took place at the same time as the hippie 'counterculture', a lot of baggage from that age has seeped into our faith community--- acceptance of the 'sexual revolution' for example. And some accept the pro-death movement on the theory that if Christians are for it we ought to be against it.

A lot of this is out of ignorance. Most of those who became Odinists knew very little at first. Many of the most important books were out of print. (Imagine what Christianity would be like if the Bible and the ancient texts were all out of print, and all you had to go by was a few descriptions of Christianity by non-Christians).

Many people believe falsely that ancient Pagans in Greece and Rome approved of suicide. In fact it was considered to be cowardly and a form of murder.

It is also commonly believed that Vikings (who practiced the Odinist religion) believed that only warriors who fell in battle got to go to Valhalla, and those who died of sickness went to hell. So when they felt death approaching they would 'rist the runes' on their bodies with a spear point, which is presumed to mean suicide.

This is based on poor scholarship and misunderstanding. First, the place of the dead for Odinists is Hel, which is a realm of bliss, not a punishment place for bad people. In Odinism, everyone goes to Hel when they die. Those who are judged wicked die a second death and go to Niflehel. Warriors don't need to kill themselves to go to Valhalla, either. That is plain in a number of ancient texts.

Viktor Rydberg, in his Teutonic Mythology, has made an exhaustive study of this issue, which is discussed in volume 2 of this three-volume work. He proves conclusively that this 'risting with the runes' nonsense never happened and was based on a misunderstanding of a key text.

Ancient Odinists, and other ancient Pagans, valued courage and despised cowards--- and thought suicide a coward's way out. They respected their elders and thought nothing worse than a young person who thought his elders a burden because they were weak and needed care--- and considered one who would hasten the inheritance as a murderer of the worst sort, not a bringer of mercy.

As for the disabled, two of the most important Gods of the Odinist faith have disabilities--- Tyr has but one hand, Odin has but one eye. A clear message to the Odinist that the disabled are not to be despised.

I conclude with a passage from the Poetic Edda, an ancient text which is the Odinist Bible:

"All undone is no one though at death's door he lie
some with good sons are blessed,
and some with kinsmen, or with coffers full,
and some with deeds well done.

Better alive than lifeless be:
to the quick fall ay the cattle:
....

May the halt ride a horse, and the handless be herdsman
the deaf man may doughtily fight,
a blind man is better than a burned one, ay:
of what gain is a good man dead?"
(From the Havamal: the sayings of Odin--- a part of the Poetic Edda)

Terri Schiavo case only tip of the iceberg

2005-05-29T10:21:00.000-05:00

Insightful article reveals more on the euthanasia problem including an old woman who was deemed incompetant and so her request for food and water were denied and she was starved to death.

This link offers a special edition of a magazine focussing on the issue.

Baby girl who had 2nd head removed goes home

2005-05-29T10:15:00.000-05:00

News story linked above tells of an Egyptian baby born with a second head--- a rare defect in which a second conjoined twin failed to form. She is the only case that has survived surgery.

Isn't it amazing what they can do to save a life? Thank the Gods they decided she was worth saving.

National Sex Offender Registry

2005-05-27T07:33:00.000-05:00

The link above will take you to the National Sex Offender Registry. You can use this to see if any one in your neighborhood is a convicted offender. I used the Wisconsin state Sex Offender Registry to look up an ex-in-law of a family member that we heard had been convicted of molesting a step-daughter. He was in the registry with a recent color picture.

This is a useful tool for churches and volunteer groups, who can check out prospective Sunday School teachers and others who will work with children. The pictures really help because there are a lot of people with the same names.

One shouldn't be too confident though, there are uncaught offenders. Also, an offender may be able to convince you he was wrongfully convicted even when it isn't true.

There are wrongful convictions in sex cases, and we do need to show kindness even to the guilty. But no one on the sex offender registry should be working with children; they also should not be in certain positions of responsibility--- such as ministers and church elders. The offender must obey the laws of his state on contact with children--- he will get in trouble if he doesn't. Even sex offenders who will never harm anyone again need to obey these rules--- if only to set a good example to others.

Our society must find a way to deal with the sex offenders--- where should they live? What work should they do? What sorts of volunteer work might they be allowed to do if they want to start giving back to society? Perhaps we should have a sort of 'assisted living center' for sex offenders so they would have a certain amount of supervision, and aid in finding acceptable jobs and other activities.

Odinists Against Euthanasia

2005-05-26T11:27:00.000-05:00

Odinists against Euthanasia is a Yahoo group for Odinists (Norse Pagans) opposed to euthanasia, assisted suicide and the like.

I expect that non-Odinists from similar faiths such as Druids might also like to join. It's a brand-new group, we need members.

Menominee County Heritage Museum needs younger old people

2005-05-26T09:48:00.000-05:00

For many years my parents both volunteered for the Menominee County Historical Society, serving on the Board and being guides in the museum. Last fall my father passed away unexpectedly. Also, the museum curator Bill King who has been the mainstay of the museum has had health problems.

My mother is in charge of recruiting guides to the museum. Nearly all are retired people, and some are getting older and frailer.

What the museum (and others like it across America) really needs is some younger old people. New retirees, or people not yet retired, would be very welcome as volunteers even if they don't have a lot of free time. For example, my mother is always short on people willing to serve as substitute guides in the museum when the regular guides are sick. Even a person with a demanding full time job might be able to serve as a substitute guide once or twice over the course of the season on a day off.

I'm going to be serving as a museum guide once a week, taking the shift my dad used to have--- even though I'm far younger than the other guides. It's fun, I get to meet new people, and I'm helping out. I'm sure there are a lot of other people out there who have never really thought of volunteering for something like this, but who might have a great time doing it if they tried it.

A scary future vision

2005-05-25T08:33:00.000-05:00

It is the near future, and worldwide access to birth control and social attitudes against stay-at-home wives and mothers have lowered the worldwide birth rate to the shrinkage rate they have today in some European countries.

New advances in medical research with embryonic tissue means that an embryo, whether conceived in a lab or in a woman's womb, has a greater market value as medical material than as a future baby (which after all costs money to raise.)

Women are valued not as mothers but for their income-producing potential in the workplace. When a lower or middle income woman becomes pregnant, since she can't yet afford a college education for the future child, she feels her only responsible choice is to abort and sell the fetal tissue, to save up for the day when she can responsibly bear a child. Most often menopause will arrive before she accumulates enough money, and she is not likely to have the additional funds to buy the fertility treatments she will need then for even one child.

Children, thus, are a luxury item for the super rich.

With a falling worldwide population, all corporations face falling sales. Workers--- even executives--- are paid less and less, which leads to fewer children and even fewer sales. Businesses fail. A world-wide economic depression ensues.

Fewer and fewer young people are available to do the jobs of caring for the elderly and disabled people who need care. Pension funds and government social welfare funds are cut sharply for care of such people. As a result the elderly and disabled are routinely given poison injections. Others die alone in their homes for lack of simple care. In some cases an elderly or disabled home-bound person starves because home delivery of groceries and meals-on-wheels has stopped.

As this goes on, pro-death organizations encourage workers to take their own lives on retirement day when they become an economic burden to society. This becomes the social norm. But they have not taken into account the fact that the retired folk were consumers, supporting the economy by their purchases. The depression worsens.

In the end, no new children are born. The last few born, as they age, face a miserable future. Most commit suicide by age thirty.

And darkness falls across the face of the earth......

Isn't embryonic stem cell research great!

Putting a human face on 'waste' embryos

2005-05-25T08:24:00.000-05:00

George W. Bush made a good point the other day when he appeared with a batch of children whose lives came about because, as unneeded embryos from a fertility treatment, they were donated to women who wanted babies.

Which of these charming little children should have been snuffed out to provide human embryos for research?

The fanatics in favor of killing embryos for research who claim this will cure all diseases have yet to explain why the scientists can't play around with animal embryos and cure animals of diseases before they start killing human embryos which could otherwise be used to make babies. Wouldn't it be safer to do animal research first before they start experimentation on humans (along with killing human embryos in the process)?

I am pro-choice on abortion (though I think the abortion rate is very excessive and must be curtailed) because there are two human lives, the unborn baby and the mother. But in embryo research there is only one life involved. No one is hurt if the embryo is given to a woman who wants a baby instead of being killed for research. Don't let them turn this into an abortion thing.

It's another gosling!

2005-05-24T08:05:00.000-05:00

The second goose egg in my hatcher hatched and now I have two goslings. Both have dark markings so might be female.

The rest of the batch of eggs were infertile. That was because I had the three female geese with one male, and that male only mated with his 'wife' from last year, I think. The other two were his daughters so I have to commend his moral values, but I wouldn't have minded a few more fertile eggs.

Cat hunting season???

2005-05-24T07:52:00.000-05:00

It was proposed not too long ago (and defeated) that Wisconsin allow the hunting of 'wild cats'. By that they didn't mean wildcats, but feral or stray domestic cats. It was claimed the cats killed too many birds.

It was suggested that one could tell the difference between a 'wild' cat and some one's pet or working barn cat by looking to see if it had a collar. Whoever said that doesn't know cats. One year I got ambitious and put collars on all my barn cats. By the end of the week only my deaf cat Neelix was still wearing his. To this day I'm still finding abandoned cat collars all over the place.

Another problem is the basic rule of all hunters--- you kill it, you eat it. (That's what I tell my cats when they bring me a mouse.) How many cat hunters are planning to cook up a nice roast kitty-cat for their family?

Last year one of my cats seemed sick so I took it to the vet. The vet called to say it had been shot. The cat in question was Hermione (or The Other Hermione) and she happened to be pregnant at the time. Luckily the kittens survived both the gunshot and the x-ray at the vet, and I still have the two out of her three kittens that survived the hazards of farm life.

Now, don't get me wrong. I certainly don't believe that killing a cat is on the same level as killing a person and if one of my cats is preying on a neighbor's baby chicks, for example, I wouldn't take that neighbor to court over killing the cat. But to allow cat hunting will just kill off a lot of rural pets and barn cats that have owners and homes. I'm glad the measure was defeated and hope it doesn't come to Michigan.

A tip for better sewing

2005-05-23T08:05:00.000-05:00

My old Kenmore sewing machine is about 25 years old, and recently I moved it downstairs so I could work on my memorial quilt for Terri Schiavo and other euthanasia victims. In doing so I finally got around to reading the instruction manual. It said that the sewing machine needle should be replaced with every 3-4 garments you sew. I've never replaced the needle.

When I did, I found out I've been using the wrong size needle all these years--- the needle in it was the size you use for sewing heavy canvas. The right needle works much better.

My mother has a Kenmore that is almost fifty years of age. She says she never changed the needle except when it broke. Maybe she should have. She has a new machine now as the motor in the old was shot and needs fixing.

Protest Assisted Suicide Bill in California

2005-05-23T06:57:00.000-05:00

California has an assisted suicide bill under consideration, though they don't call it suicide--- it's 'compassion'. Funny, it used to be when a person expressed the wish to kill themselves the compassionate thing to do was treat them for depression. Even when the person was 'terminally' ill. After all, most people who are diagnosed as terminal go through a phase of depression.

What happens to a depressed person who says 'I want to die', looking for people to say 'I love you and don't want you to go' gets instead the response 'here, take this pill'?

One of the victims of assisted suicide in Oregon was an elderly woman whose daughter was pushing her to it to the point that the first doctor refused to prescribe the lethal pills. The daughter just got a second doctor, and when the old lady wouldn't take the pills she put her in a nursing home to persuade her.

In Holland there's lots of assisted suicide. They have voluntary assisted suicide and involuntary assisted suicide. A Catholic priest from New Jersey pointed out that where he grew up, involuntary suicide was called 'being rubbed out'.

Suicide pushers claim that assisted suicide is needed for people in severe pain but in fact nearly nobody who goes for assisted suicide gives that as a reason. The usual reason is fear--- fear of future pain, fear of urinary incontinence, fear of 'being a burden'. Instead of relieving the fear, it's easier to give a poison pill.

The real agenda is that some people believe the old, the weak and the useless have a duty to die whether they want to or not--- it's cheaper that way. After all, if granny checks out deliberately at age 75 instead of living to 100, the heirs will have a lot more to inherit. The question is: what is more important to you, your mom or grandma having 25 extra good years of life, or you getting enough cash for new snowmobiles for the whole family?

Hitler would be proud of the society we're creating.

It's a Gosling!

2005-05-22T16:56:00.000-05:00

My first goose egg of the season has hatched. I think it's a girl goose but I can't really tell until it's a couple weeks old. It's a Pilgrim goose, a rare breed, and in the breed the males are white and the females are grey.

Biological Basis of Homosexuality in Sheep

2005-05-22T13:45:00.000-05:00

An article of interest to those who wonder what science says about the nature of homosexuality.

While I personally believe that human homosexuality is biologically determined, I don't believe that this can be proved by animal studies because of the fact that humans are not animals.

On the other hand, having once owned an exclusively gay billy goat, I find the article of agricultural interest. Gay animals aren't much good as studs! (Though my gay goat had a nice, non-aggressive personality and would have been useful as a pack or cart goat had he lived longer.)

Monarchist Society of America

2005-05-22T11:15:00.000-05:00

And now for something really different....

Another Monarchy site

Women's Christian Temperance Union

2005-05-22T11:10:00.000-05:00

On this web site you can join the Women's Christian Temperance Union by taking the anti-alcohol pledge. They are also opposed to tobacco, drugs, gambling, porn, and favor a Marriage Amendment outlawing gay marriage and polygamy.

You might also be interested in the official site of the Prohibition party

While I don't agree with the WCTU in every respect, I have to admire their courage in speaking out for their convictions in spite of the modern attitude of ridicule.

Must Pharmacists Perform Abortions?

2005-05-22T08:14:00.000-05:00

Abortion is a morally troubling issue for many Americans. Advocates of legal abortion call themselves 'pro-choice' to indicate that it's not the abortions they are in favor of. But some pro-abortion advocates are not in favor of giving medical workers the choice NOT to participate in abortions.

Some pharmacists who are pro-life, for religious reasons, are not giving out abortifacient drugs. An abortifacient drug is one which causes abortions, and this class of drugs includes the famous RU-482 abortion pill, morning after pills, and ordinary birth control pills. (An IUD is another birth control method which causes abortion, but this is inserted by a doctor.) In addition to killing the embryo, these pills can cause harm to the women who take them.

Since birth control pills are a sacred cow to many--- even when they have been shown to have killed many women--- some are outraged over this and believe that pro-life pharmacists should lose their licenses over this. This is wrong.

Imagine this scenario: a conservative, anti-gay doctor claims he has a cure for homosexuality. It involves prescribing a heavy-duty anti-psychotic drug to the gay person. This drug may stop certain behaviors, but those on the drug develop tremors, flat affect, memory problems, and are unable to hold down any job except the simplist. A patient of this doctor goes in to get a prescription for this drug. The pharmacist on duty is a gay man (let's make him a conservative and deeply religious gay man.). He refuses to fulfill the prescription as he deeply feels it is immoral to damage a patient in this way just because he is gay.

I, being a gay person, would uphold this pharmacist's right. (I also uphold the right of the right-to-life pharmacists). Do we have any doubt, though, that the people that want the pro-life pharmacists to lose their job would protect the gay pharmacist? Do we further have any doubt that the very people who want to protect the pro-life pharmacists would want to pull the gay pharmacist's licence?

We need to encourage people with real moral values when they act on them. We need not agree with them one hundred percent. Aren't the pro-life pharmacists in this story a lot better than that pharmacist who watered down the cancer drugs to make money, possibly killing patients in the process?

I believe that legal abortion must be available because in the case of abortion, there are two human lives present. And in spite of all our medical advances, women can still die in childbirth. If doctors recommend abortion to preserve a woman's life or health, or if the woman has a very strong feeling she has to abort to save herself, I want this to be available. Casual abortion, on the other hand, is a different thing. It not only kills the unborn babies, it makes a negative statement about motherhood and therefore about women, since women alone can become mothers. It hurts women's rights rather than advancing them.

The sacred cow of birth control pills is the most casual form of casual abortion, since most people don't know they cause abortions. Even those who have heard this may believe that only abortion foes believe that, rather than it being an acknowledged medical fact that is kept quiet for political reasons. Many women who walk into a drug store with a prescription for birth control pills--- or even for a morning after pill--- may be women who believe that life begins at conception, women who would never knowingly have an abortion. Isn't it just to give at least a few of them the right to follow their beliefs by allowing pro-life pharmacists to keep their jobs and thus warn unsuspecting women?

Many women who have used birth control pills are in mourning for an unknown number of babies they have aborted over the years they've used the pill. Even if you believe that these early lives don't matter, shouldn't the women matter?

Irresponsible Media and the Koran in Toilet incident

2005-05-14T08:08:00.000-05:00

Haven't the news media ever heard the phrase 'Loose lips sink ships?'

Those who reported the story that some person at Gitmo allegedly threw a Koran in the toilet evidently didn't. Anyone with a lick of common sense could have told them that some in the Muslim world would overreact to this single alleged incident in a dangerous way.

Of course, Muslims throughout the ages have desecrated other people's religions. Mohammed destroyed Pagan holy images in a Pagan shrine at Mecca. Medieval Muslims desecrated the Jewish holy site, the Temple mount, by building a mosque on it. And right now, today, in Africa there are credible reports of incidents in which Muslims desecrated local Christian churches by going in and killing all the Christians.

Throwing one Koran in one toilet--- if it even happened--- wouldn't seem to compare, but many Muslims today don't see it that way. They believe that since their religion (in their eyes) is right and all others are wrong, any hint of an insult to Islam must be avenged while the actual killings of Christians in their church doesn't compare, since it relates to a false religion.

Muslims who have been brought up in that mindset can't really be blamed for their reaction, at least not fully. But the news media types knew full well their reporting might lead to anything up to and including a fatal terrorist attack or hostage taking, and they are morally responsible for any deaths that result.

In World War Two a lot of reporters kept secrets for the sake of the war effort in order to save lives. They have exactly the same responsibility today. Why won't they exercise it?

Our Border as an Attractive Nuisance

2005-05-14T07:05:00.000-05:00

When I was a child we lived in California for several years, and two of the houses we lived in had swimming pools. Both of these houses had fully fenced backyards. The reason? All the neighborhood children who did not have their own swimming pools would want to come over and use ours. Without a fence, they could have done so without supervision, and might have drowned. We understood that in the law, if we had something as attractive and dangerous as a swimming pool, we were obliged to prevent children from having unsupervised access to it or we would be legally responsible for any death that occurred.
Now think about our nation's southern border. Crossing the border is so attractive that the illegal immigrants have actually worn paths through the yards of border-dwellers in some areas. And about 300 illegal immigrants die every year in the desert after crossing the border.
I believe that if we as a nation don't have the will to close off our border, we are responsible for the deaths that occur, just as someone with an unfenced backyard swimming pool is responsible for the drowning death of a child. These Mexican illegals (along with other nationalities including Chinese and Arabs) are human beings. Yes, they are breaking the law, but the way the Mexican government is encouraging illegal immigrants (perhaps to distract from their own notorious corruption) they may not know it is illegal, or may think it is one of the laws we Americans no longer enforce like the laws against adultery and swearing in public. Some of the dead are children being brought by their parents, or wives following a husband, or elderly people following their children--- they don't have a choice in the matter.
In this country we have a death penalty in some states for murder. We have a death penalty for being severely disabled, as we've seen in the Terri Schiavo case. But do we really need the death penalty for naive illegal border crossers? You'll notice it's not the drug smugglers who die in these border crossing tragedies--- they know how to protect themselves. It's the most innocent who die.
Those illegal immigrants who survive their border crossing don't have it so good, either. Many women who are illegal immigrants have been forced into prostitution. All are vulnerable to being exploited by criminals, perhaps by being forced into working in some illegal enterprise like sales of drugs. They likely receive far lower wages than any American or legal resident would put up with. They often live in abject squalor. The most innocent of our illegal immigrants are often so fearful of the government that they don't apply for health care aid when they need it--- and they may have serious diseases like tuberculosis.
Some people who falsely claim to be advocating for the illegal immigrants, who call all who disagree with them 'racists', want to perpetuate this situation. They say we need these illegal immigrants to do jobs Americans won't do. Now, any American who is out of work and who refuses any job as being suitable only for illegals needs to be kicked in the asterisk! That attitude hurts our nation.
If we close off our border to illegal crossing, we will have control over who comes into this country. If we want to we can have stations at our southern border handing out green cards to all comers without a background check! Personally I want more control than that--- I'd like a system in which a Mexican didn't have advantages over a Sudanese, a Cambodian or a Ukranian when it comes to getting a green card. But any system that will stop the illegal immigrant carnage every year is better than what we have now.
Get active and write your congressman about this. Do it out of love to save Mexican babies from a dreadful death. The Gods will bless you for it.

A Quilt for Terri

2005-05-13T15:22:00.000-05:00

As many of you know I've begun a quilting project to memorialize Terri Schiavo and other victims of euthanasia. I've found just the most wonderful quilt block for such a project--- it is called the 'T block' and in the past was used by the Temperance movement. Click on the link for instructions.

One could embroider the names of Terri Schiavo and others on the triangle just above the letter 'T'.

I've already started a quilt using a different block, but I've already got more names of euthanasia victims to memorialize than there are squares in the quilt so it's just going to be a case of 'continued on the next quilt'. Terri's name will be featured in both quilts.

If anyone else out there has been doing a quilt to remember Terri, drop me a line to let me know or else leave a comment. If your quilt is on the internet or you have some other site of interest let me know and I'll put up a link.

Also--- am putting up a 'quilt' section for my web site in which I will be including pictures of quilt squares, useful links, and a list of names of euthanasia victims. Don't know when it's going to be up, though.

Good Site on Kevorkian victims

2005-05-13T11:19:00.000-05:00

From the Detroit Free Press, an article with pictures, names and stories of 47 victims of euthanasia advocate/serial killer Jack Kevorkian.

Killing a King for a headline

2005-05-13T10:20:00.000-05:00

King George V, father of George VI and grandson of Queen Victoria, did not die of natural causes when he passed away in 1936. Instead, the royal physician, Lord Dawson, plainly admits in his diaries that he gave the apparantly dying king a fatal dose of cocaine and morphine.

The doctor's motive? He wanted the king to die soon enough that his death would make the morning edition of the Times.

References:
Kelleher MJ. "Arranging the death of a king." Crisis. 1998;19(1):6-7
Ramsay JH. "A king, a doctor and a convenient death." British Medical Journal. 1994 May 28;308(6941):1445
Watson F. "The death of George V." History Today. 1986 Dec:36:21-30
Lelyveld, J. "1936 secret is out: doctor sped George V's death" The New York Times. 1986 Nov. 28:A1, A3

PETA compares Holocaust to a steak dinner

2005-05-13T10:14:00.000-05:00

The editor of sheep! magazine likes to call the animal rights movement 'the hostility biz'. PETA's latest adventure makes me want to call them a few other things, none of them suitable for mixed company.

They actually compare the ordinary meat-eating that humans (along with animals like wolves and tigers) have been doing since forever to the mass murder of six million Jews and goodness knows how many homosexuals, Gypsies, and handicapped people.

Of course, Hitler, the author of that slaughter, was also concerned over kindness to animals and was a vegetarian. I guess it's only natural that PETA follows in Hitler's footsteps. He is their spiritual leader and role model and you can see it in the way PETA acts.

Baby dies before she could be murdered

2005-05-12T09:13:00.000-05:00

Further research on the baby Knya case shows that the child has already passed away before she could be killed by taking her off life support. I'm sure there are other poor children out there in the process of being euthanized or being threatened with such, but the news coverage is almost non-existant and as in this case we are likely not to know about them until it is too late. That's why we need strong anti-euthanasia in place NOW, because by the time you are threatened with death by euthanasia there won't be enough time to save you.

Fight to save baby Knya!

2005-05-12T08:46:00.000-05:00

Another fight against euthanasia is going on. This time it is a poor black child named Knya Dismuke Howard. This five-month-old baby has leukemia, needs chemotherapy, and is on 'life support' which is about to be denied against the will of her mother.

Why is the news media ignoring this ongoing MURDER???

It's time to get active and let everyone possible know about this sad case.

Mark Fuhrman probes Schiavo case

2005-05-12T08:29:00.000-05:00

Click link to view article. It seems like Fuhrman's going a long way towards redeeming himself after the 'n-word' crisis of the O. J. case.

Don't forget Terri-- make a memorial

2005-05-12T08:04:00.000-05:00

Don't let Terri Schindler Schiavo's fight for life and her cruel death be forgotten the way so many other public euthanasia cases have been. (Does anyone remember baby Allan Bollinger?) If we all find a way to memorialize Terri and other euthanasia victims, it will go a long way towards ensuring remembrance.

My own memorial is going to be in the form of a quilt. I've never made a quilt before but I do sew and embroider. I got the idea when Terri was still alive and when I happened to go to a craft shop with my mother and saw the book "Memory Quilts in the Making" from Leisure Arts, I decided to go through with it.

The quilt I am doing is the antique album quilt on page 52. It has 30 rather large blocks which are easy to piece and each one has a generous place in the center on which to embroider a name.

I've been buying quarter-yards of fabric for the blocks, and also have been using fabric from my father's shirts. (My father passed away this past Nov. 30--- not of euthanasia, thank the Gods.)

The other part of the project is in finding the names of euthanasia victims. I've read a number of library books on euthanasia and got a newsletter from the Int. Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, and this has yielded a number of names, more than I need for the 30 squares of the quilt.

I will be putting up a web site on the quilt and its progress. I hope others will be inspired to make similar quilts and other projects. (Write to my PO box to tell me about yours and I will mention it one this blog and the website.)

Why we put pets down and not people

2005-05-12T08:00:00.000-05:00

Click on the link to find an article from the Jewish world review about one aspect of the euthanasia debate. (Fighting euthanasia isn't just for Catholics and evangelicals: I myself am an Odinist)

Link to article--- click here

Forgetting the Holocaust

2005-05-10T07:58:00.000-05:00

In this year's 60th anniversary of the end of World War Two, we remember how shocked everyone was to discover the full story of the holocaust. 'Never forget' was the slogan. 'Never again'.

And yet one important aspect of the holocaust has been forgotten--- the T-4 program for the killing of the 'useless eaters'--- handicapped people--- and some not so handicapped--- that interfered with the bringing forth of a perfect 'master race'.

The idea was that some people had lives that were not worth living and were also a burden on the rest of society which had to pay the cost of their life in institutions. This cost was seen as immense though an institutionalized person's cost of living is far, far less than that of a wealthy movie star, for example.

The killing of the handicapped was not initiated by the Nazis. The medical profession, most of whom were advocates of the eugenics movement which was at the time powerful in the US and England, wanted to take the next step of sanitizing the race by showing 'mercy' to the useless ones.

The techniques used included the gas chambers which were later used in the death camps, and also the use of lethal injection and dehydration and starvation of patients, particularly of deformed infants.

When this program was being sold to the public they spoke of people with very severe disabilities who could not communicate. In time they included milder disabilities, 'anti-social personalities', and the inhabitants of old age homes. Older women who developed mental problems from the shock of their experiences in air raids were put to death in large part to free up hospital beds.

While Terri Schiavo was being slowly murdered, not one television reporter thought to do a little piece on the Nazi euthanasia program, or even on the euthanasia movement today. In fact they covered up for the euthanasia movement by referring again and again to the euthanasia movement's Living Will, popularized by euthanasia advocate Abigail van Buren (Dear Abby), without once using the word 'euthanasia'. As a result, many people, particularly seniors, who are very much against euthanasia are being pressured into signing a standard, pro-death Living Will, thinking they are just signing something which will make it easier to unplug them from life support if they are 'brain dead'. (If you are really brain dead they will unplug you with or without the permission of your family, no Living Will is needed for that.) These people, unless they revoke that Living Will, can now be killed by dehydration/starvation, not just by removing of a feeding tube but by denying spoon-feeding. This can be done if they become disabled, or if they have a condition which is expected to result in death. (Life is a condition which is expected to result in death.)

Action: write a letter to the editor of your local paper reminding people of the euthanasia aspect of the holocaust, and the current state of euthanasia in America today as exemplified in the cases of Terri Schiavo, Nancy Cruzan, and others.

New Pope is Catholic: why are media guys so surprised?

2005-04-20T09:45:00.000-05:00

Pope Benedict, the new holy father of the Catholic faithful, is true to the beliefs of the Catholic faith. He continues in the tradition of John Paul II in that respect. Given how loved John Paul II was, this should please all those Catholics who actually still are Catholics in the sense of practicing the faith.

The news media wanted a pope who would change the Catholic church. They want changes similar to the ones that liberal Protestant denominations have made--- women priests, acceptance of birth control and abortion, and a rejection of the idea of moral absolutes in favor of relativism. Of course, the liberal Protestant churches are shrinking in membership. The people who agree with the liberal Protestant ideas are the same people who don't actually bother to go to church anymore. In the same way, those 'Catholics' who most want change are those who no longer go to Mass. If the church does change they may be happy, but looking at the example of liberal protestantism it's very unlikely that they'll get involved with the Church.

I personally am not a Catholic or any other kind of a Christian, being of the Odinist faith. I don't agree with the Catholic church on many issues--- the teachings on homosexuality and the idea of legally banning all abortion, for example. But the new pope, like the old one, is absolutely right on the issue of fighting moral relativism. If an evil action can be OK, sometimes, and a good one wrong, sometimes, as the relativists teach, how can you make any moral judgment on anything? Even if someone is about to kill you, maybe this is one of those situations where killing is OK, so you have nothing to complain about.

The Catholic church has done a good job standing up against one of the great evils of our time: the euthanasia movement. By the act of re-naming 'euthanasia' as 'right to die', 'compassion in dying' and the like, they have made euthanasia essentially legal in the US, at least in certain forms. The euthanasia movement's 'living will' document has been widely accepted by many people who are not really aware this is a document requesting euthanasia in the case you become 'terminally' ill or disabled. Former President Clinton has suggested that if we can get more older people to sign living wills, this will cut health care costs.

Pope John Paul II had the courage to call this evil by its right name. There is every reason to believe that Pope Benedict will do the same. Even those outside the Catholic faith can welcome this powerful aid in the fight against the falling darkness of the pro-death culture.

Protecting Children from Sexual Predators

2005-04-15T06:24:00.000-05:00

In the news last night there were several reports of missing girls. It's a fearful thing to know children are so vulnerable.

Children are at higher risk these days for a number of reasons. Low moral standards in our culture make it easier for the offender to believe that acting on his evil sexual impulses isn't wrong. Parents no longer seem to believe they have any authority over their children--- I've seen the mother of a toddler almost asking permission of her child before she decided not to buy a product he pointed out to her. It used to be that parents felt it part of their duty to discipline the child, teach him right behavior, and supervise his actions, including checking out his friends and forbidding the child to associate with the wrong sort of companions--- those who swore, stole and got in trouble at school for example.

One major modern risk is the almost universal idea that children ought to start using the internet from an early age. Most adults have difficulty understanding the risks and protecting themselves on the internet. How is it that we are willing to expose children of fourteen, twelve or even ten to such risks? We wouldn't allow such young children to go to a seamy strip club by themselves. Yet we seem to think that it's normal for such children to use the internet unsupervised, to have their own e-mail address, to use chat rooms and Yahoo groups and the like. This is more dangerous than sending the child to the strip club--- on the internet the typical sexual predator has an ignorant confidence that he can approach the child in complete anonymity.

The internet gives the illusion that we can pretend to be whatever we want and not get caught. We can make up our own screen names and internet identities after all. We can fudge about our age and occupation and many people will believe us at first. But we are actually giving ourselves away all the time. On the technological level it is possible for a computer expert to recover what we have been up to on the internet. That's why the moment a suspect is under investigation they take his home and work computers, and look at any public computers he may have used. On another level the internet pretender will usually be caught by his own words after a short time.

Here is an example: Imagine you went deranged and developed an obsession with the writer Stephen King. You might decide to use 'Stephen King' as your screen name, take out an e-mail account under that name, and use that name in postings in chat rooms and groups. You might put up a web site calling itself 'Steve King's site' and start a Yahoo group claiming you are Stephen King chatting with his fans. Now of course this is illegal and you could face criminal charges over it. But you will also be setting yourself up for ridicule. Every person has his own style of speaking and writing, and though you might start out trying to disguise it, you will get recognised. You may know that Stephen King himself, when he tried to publish under the name of Richard Bachman, got caught out when people noticed how Bachman wrote too much like Stephen King for it to be a coincidence. So before long, people would know you were a pretender.

The same thing happens with sexual predators. They may pretend to be a teenage boy, or a woman, in the hope of attracting underage girls. But observant people can tell before long that a writer who's made a few posts is a lot older than fifteen, or that a posting apparantly written by a woman is really made by a man. But unfortunately, less observant and suspicious people may be fooled long enough to be tricked into giving away important information.

What the sexual predator wants to do is connect a child's screen name to certain information--- an e-mail address, a real name, a home town, a school, and ultimately a home address and phone number. You can warn a child about giving this information out but a sexual predator might find it anyway--- he may do searches on your child's screen name and come up with a real name on one bulletin board, an e-mail address on the other, a hometown and a school name in still other places--- and then he will have the ability to capture the child.

Adults can also be victims of sexual predators on the internet. Some sick, weak, deranged individuals who can't have relationships with people in the real world may get a sexual thrill by sending porno e-mails to elderly strangers and imagining the reaction. Stalkers may use the internet in order to send threats to their victims without leaving fingerprints (though they do leave 'cyber-fingerprints' most are too ignorant to know it.)

If you or your child receive threatening, sexual or other harassing e-mail, don't respond to it and don't delete it. Leave it on your computer, and print out a copy with full headers. Take it to your local law enforcement immediately. This is doubly important if there is any possibility that the sexual predator knows your real-world location--- either your home, your workplace or your child's school.

Preventing the problems requires going against the tide and giving up on some modern technology. You will have to abandon all your current e-mail addresses that may be listed somewhere or another on the internet and get a new one. Guard this new internet address, only give it out to people you know in the real world. Lycos.com has free e-mail which you can set so you only receive e-mail from people on your list of known and trusted senders. Do this. It will not only foil sexual predators, it will stop spam.

When children want their own e-mail address, don't automatically give in. Ask them who they want to e-mail and why. Encourage them to write postal letters instead to communicate with cousins and distant friends. When your child is mature enough to start using e-mail, start them off sharing your e-mail address. Be sure and read all messages sent and received. After a few years of this your child will be ready for his own e-mail address, but be sure he knows that you will be watching his communications. Keeping the family computer in the TV room or other high-traffic area of your home is the best way to know what all family members are doing on line. (It will also help keep you from the temptations of viewing stuff, like porn, that you know full well is bad for you.)

Never use chatrooms, message boards or Yahoo groups. There is just no way to know who you are dealing with in these situations and you are likely to let down your guard and give out information you shouldn't. Yahoo groups are particularly hotbeds of abuse. Anti-stalking groups feel that Yahoo isn't doing enough to stop obvious stalkers from using or forming groups to attack their victims. They may ignore things as serious as death threats. In any case, even if Yahoo were to become hypervigilant, they can't possibly review every posting before it is made public and so abuse of victims cannot be stopped. If you or your child currently use chatrooms or boards as a social outlet, stop it and find an alternative. Be more active in your church, synagogue or temple, volunteer at St. Vincent de Paul or some other cause, and just say a few friendly words to everyone you meet and you will soon not even miss it.

If you are over 21, and are a freelance writer for example, and feel you must have an internet presence which includes contact information, consider your situation carefully before relaxing your safety rules. How safe is your home environment? If you own a gun and are sharing a household with a retired FBI agent and a gun safety instructor, you have a greater safety level and can take a small risk. If you live alone or with one other person and are an anti-gunner, you probably should not take any risks. If you must, after consideration, put up contact information along with your name on a web site, get a post office box. Never put up an e-mail on your site--- you will only receive spam and worse these days. Putting up a phone number can just lead to prank calls.

Children will have a hard time accepting the need for safety rules--- especially since our children no longer want to even call themselves children but 'teens' or 'young adults'. But the internet safety rules are wise at any age. They are the only way anyone, of any age, can take control over their internet use instead of having the internet control them. And children who take the mature approach and accept both the general safety rules for all ages and the special restrictions appropriate to younger users are setting an example that will help others see the wisdom of protecting themselves.

The day the baby chicks came

2005-04-05T08:09:00.000-05:00

Yesterday my order of baby chicks from the Murray McMurray hatchery came. For those of you trapped in the cities who've never ordered chicks, this is how it goes:

When I order the chicks they announce the day my order will arrive at the post office. (Sometimes the chicks can be a day late though.) The morning they arrive--- some time about 7 in the morning--- the post office calls me to say the baby chicks are there. This year I was prepared--- I was awake and fully dressed at the time.

When I arrive the post office lady hands me the cardboard box with 26 baby chicks peeping away inside. When I bring them home I put them into a brooder area which is sheltered from drafts and which is kept warm by a heat lamp with a red bulb. Last year I found that if you use a cheaper white bulb the chicks may peck one of the weaker ones to death.

The chicks need warmth, food and water and protection from the cats. Last year when the chicks became old enough I put them out in a space in the barn. One of my barn cats kept finding ways to get in and eat chicks even when they were getting quite big. Every time I plugged a hole she found a new one. Finally I gave up on blocking the holes when she started climbing to the ceiling to get through. I got a broody goose and put her in to protect the baby poultry. Next time the cat tried to get in she got trapped in there by the aggressive goose and I had to rescue her.

I heard a few years back they tried to stop them from being able to send baby chicks by mail. This would have put all the hatcheries which specialize in rare breed chicks for small home flocks out of business, and many of the endangered poultry breeds would become extinct. But luckily people got involved and took action and so the right to buy poultry by mail was preserved.

Just shows what people can accomplish when they get up off their butts and do something.

Remembering the pope

2005-04-03T12:11:00.000-05:00

Now that Pope John Paul II is dead, everyone, even those who fought everything the pope stands for, is speaking well of him.

What he may be most remember for is how he fought the pressure to have the Catholic church do what all the mainline protestant churches were doing: they were abandoning all the old traditions and doctrines of their faith in order to conform to whatever ideas were trendy at the moment. Us older folks may remember reading about or even attending church services where one was told how groovy God was, or invited to groove on God....

The pope stood for the idea that there are in fact moral absolutes: and in addition, rather than throwing out traditional forms of worship for something more 'groovy', he encouraged old-fashioned things like the rosary and the eucharist.

It might be noticed that the mainline protestant churches who abandoned most of their faith to follow the gospel of Sigmund Freud now are shrinking in numbers. The little they have left seems to be a rather political effort on issues such as social justice, and most people don't see the point of going to church for that.

A religion without sincere spiritual content will wither away. Pope John Paul II helped prevent that happening to his church. Those of other faiths could do worse than look to his example.