Conservative Papa

Next time I take a cross-country trip, I want to do this. It should be a lot more interesting, and a lot less nostalgic, with a minivan full of kids!

Today everyone stayed home from church.  The children are mostly over their runny noses.  Carolyn just started getting the bug.  Yesterday I was losing my voice, and today it’s practically gone.  When I try to talk, I sound like some pubescent monster from a horror movie.  I actually scared Andrew when I scolded him for something.  “Please don’t make that noise!” he said, starting to tear up.  I tried to explain my problem in a more pleasant croak.  Really, I don’t feel nearly as bad as I sound!  Work should be interesting tomorrow.  Good thing I’m not a school teacher.  I plan to hole up in my lair, just as I usually do.

For times when you just really need something to do or need to avoid doing something productive, just watch some cheddar cheese age.

I just finished reading an interesting excerpt of Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity by John Stossel. The book deals with falsehoods promoted by our media. Among those falsehoods is the idea that we have less free time today that our forefathers did. Without debating that point, I’d like to take a tangent on this quote from Stossel:

The idea that we work harder than our ancestors is pure nonsense. Until 1890, half of all Americans worked in agriculture. People romanticize farms, but the old-fashioned family farm meant backbreaking labor under a broiling sun. Work began at dawn and continued past dark. Work in mines and factories was worse. Modern jobs are much easier. Our ancestors would be agog to see how much time we spend playing golf, watching TV (an average three to four hours per day), and going to our kids’ soccer games, while complaining about how much we work.

Perhaps I am romanticizing, but I think the operative term here is family farm. Even though the work was backbreaking, the family stayed together on the farm. Today it seems the family home is a place to sleep for a few hours before getting up and rejoining the rat race. It’s sad enough that fathers (and many mothers) spend most of five days a week away from their families. Filling the remaining hours with non-family activities leads to the degradation of the family unit that we see in our culture.

Here’s to saving a little more of that free time and investing it at home!

California Assemblywoman Sally Lieber is at it again. Her previous attempt failed, so this time she is thinly veiling her assault against Biblical corporal punishment. AB 755 has made it out of committee and is up for a vote in the Assembly.

From the declaration section of the bill:

Fatal abuse is too often the result of hitting or shaking by caregivers under the guise of discipline.

But the Bible says:

Proverbs 23

¹³Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.

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It’s amazing how a child can turn trash into something special.  One night last month after the children were in bed, I noticed this leaf by my bathroom sink.  Annoyed, I asked my wife what it was doing there.  She said Andrew brought it in and left it for me to see because he thought it was special. The leaf didn’t look very special until she said that.  It made me feel special, too!

Today, the Supreme Court upheld the government’s ban on this heinous method of killing our unborn babies.

We can rejoice that God is allowing a little impediment to our country’s headlong plunge down the slippery slope of morality and civility! What right is there to an abortion, anyway? It all comes down to whether one believes life begins at conception or at birth. The pro-life and pro-abortion ideologies line up nicely with those two definitions, respectively. The government seems to believe and enforce the untenable notion that life begins somewhere in between conception and birth.

Today at Men’s Prayer Breakfast, the request was made to pray for a couple who are planning in utero surgery for their unborn baby. It’s just amazing that if they wanted to kill it instead, they could legally do so.

Today U.S. federal income taxes are due — unless you live or have recently traveled in the Northeast. Hey, anyone who writes “April 16^th storm” at the top of his tax return is off the hook for two extra days — the IRS is using the honor system.

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While listening to live coverage of the convocation ceremony memorializing the victims of yesterday’s Virginia Tech shootings, I heard the band playing the solemn strains of the “Navy Hymn.” I am familiar with this hymn because my wife, brother, and I sang it together as a trio at my Navy veteran grandfather’s memorial service. Here are the original words:

Navy Hymn
Eternal Father, Strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who bid’st the mighty Ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep;
O hear us when we cry to thee,
for those in peril on the sea.

O Christ! Whose voice the waters heard
And hushed their raging at Thy word,
Who walked’st on the foaming deep,
and calm amidst its rage didst sleep;
Oh hear us when we cry to Thee
For those in peril on the sea!

Most Holy spirit! Who didst brood
Upon the chaos dark and rude,
And bid its angry tumult cease,
And give, for wild confusion, peace;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee
For those in peril on the sea!

O Trinity of love and power!
Our brethren shield in danger’s hour;
From rock and tempest, fire and foe,
Protect them wheresoe’er they go;
Thus evermore shall rise to Thee,
Glad hymns of praise from land and sea.

O that our society would take the sentiment of these words to heart! Perhaps if it did so, symptoms of a depraved culture such as this shooting would be less frequent.

Lord, turn us back to You and save our nation!

Way cool! Google Voice Local Search is in beta, and it works great! The number to memorize or store in your cell phone is 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411).

I asked for Crispy Creme, Wal-Mart, and Home Depot — and all were found and read back to me.  You can even have an entry text messaged back to the cell phone you’re using, just say “text message.”   This is the best thing since Google SMS.