Ever Notice

theories of a basic level of human decency tend to fair poorly in contact with actual humans?

Had an… interaction… with one of the thoughtlessly selfish today.  Ironically, she got prissy because I tried to be nice—she was on the phone in the gym, clearly yelling to be heard, so I hopped off my machine and turned off the far-too-loud music—even with my earbuds up too high, it was too loud.  She then felt the need to lecture me that I should have interrupted her and asked if she wanted it off, then tried to order me to turn it back on.  I demurred the opportunity to obey, and she managed to raise her volume.  (Yeah, me responding poorly to unauthorized orders.  Shock, that.)

Since then, I’ve been watching my back, and trying to make sure that I don’t give indications of any soft targets—a self-centered idiot with no sense of proportion is way more dangerous than an actively malicious one with a sense of proportion.  Seriously bad people will judge risk for reward—selfish, childish, short-sighted ones will get you killed because you crossed them, even if it would destroy their life.

There’s some philosophy on the nature of sin in there, but I’m too freaking tired to deal with it.

Dark Day

Lifted straight from John C. Wright’s blog:

 

A prayer for the unborn

O Heavenly Father, Creator and Giver of all life, Author of justice, Source of love and mercy: Although it is deserving of thine anger and punishment, look with mercy on our nation, which has offended thee by condoning the killing of millions of innocent children, thy precious sons and daughters, who, like all of us, were created in thine image and likeness, but whose only offense was their very existence. Amen.

A prayer for Right to Life

O heavenly Father, strengthen us against the mounting forces of anti-life; enlighten those who walk in this deadly way that they may see the enormity of their sin and return to the generous observance of the divine law. We pray, too, for mothers, that they may prize the great privilege of motherhood; and that they may bring up their children in the holy love and fear of God, thus saving their own immortal souls and furthering the honor and glory of their Maker. Through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Pray for us, St. Gerard, protector of the mother and her unborn child,
that we may be worthy of the promises of Christ!

~~ from “Prayers for Today,” published by Leaflet Missal Co.

Prayer for Life by Pope John Paul II

O Mary, bright dawn of the new world,
Mother of the living,
to you do we entrust the cause of life:
Look down, O Mother, upon the vast numbers
of babies to be born,
of the poor whose lives are made difficult,
of men and women who are victims of brutal violence,
of the elderly and the sick killed
by indifference or out of misguided mercy.
Grant that all who believe in your Son
may proclaim the Gospel of life
with honesty and love to the people of our time.
Obtain for them the grace
to accept that Gospel as a gift ever new,
the joy of celebrating it with gratitude
throughout their lives
and the courage to bear witness to it resolutely,
in order to build,
together with all people of good will,
the civilization of truth and love,
to the praise and glory of God,
the Creator and lover of life.

~~ Pope John Paul II
Encyclical Letter “The Gospel of Life”
Given in Rome, on March 25,
the Solemnity of the Annunciation of

Short

But accurate enough:

In short, we face a global war waged by a well-established alliance of Iranian and Syrian Islamists, Russian and Chinese crony plutocrats, and Latin American radical leftists who share a love of totalitarian control of their own people and a hatred of America.  We have failed to design a strategy to win this war, and indeed it often seems as if our leaders share the world view of our enemies. Obama thought he could make deals with all of them, apparently believing this would come about when they realized he shared their conviction that most of the world’s problems are America’s fault.  Indeed, when push comes to shove in their own countries, his instinctive response, as Fouad Ajami recently wrote regarding Syria, is to favor the success of the anti-American tyrants.

Everybody hates the cops.  Doesn’t mean you get rid of the cops and everything is peachy-keen.

There Is Still Much To Be Done-

“…to reach our ultimate goal of zero deaths on the road!”

I’m not sure that’s an exact quote of the PSA I’ve been meaning to blog about, but it’s as close as hearing it on the radio and remembering I wanted to mention it, then jumping (… all right, rolling rather stiffly) out of bed can get it.

I think it’s a drunk driving PSA.  Doesn’t really matter, because it’s stupid.  There is no way you can get “zero deaths on the road.”  The notion of a government action HAVING that as a goal means one of two things: someone has no sense, or someone realized how to make sure that their job will go on forever.

Maybe I’ve been reading too much Robin McKinley, but this seems awful symbolic: a quest that can never be finished, and inch by inch new rules will be imposed – “optional” to the states, but with the lovely carrot of getting some of the tax dollars from their citizens back in grants – in a vain (I hope) attempt to reach zero on the diminishing returns.   Why do I hope it’s a vain attempt?  Because I can think of two ways to make it work—make sure there is no-one on the roads, and destroy the roads.

Sorry so short, I’m heading back to bed.  Just wanted to point out that the law of diminishing returns is not one that can be ignored while you hope no authority will call you on it.

Base Assumptions

They really are rather important.

There’s a TV show called Grimm—it’s rather enjoyable, check Hulu—that I’ve seen a few episodes of, but have let fall by the wayside.

One scene keeps sticking in my head—it’s a one-episode character looking at the protagonist and asking him to imagine what it’s like to have your culture totally suppressed by an alien majority.  By the music, the lighting, the focus and the main character’s response, this is supposed to be a really, hugely sympathetic moment that questions the hero’s whole world-view and motivation in trying to do what he’s doing.

They’re talking about kidnapping those outside of the questioner’s group, torturing and then ritually murdering them in a rigged ‘hunt’ as a rite of passage.  There’s implications that cannibalism (?) may be involved, too, although it’s rather indirect.

It really rang false with me, and makes me wonder—how much do you have to idolize the notion of minority culture for not ritually murdering outsiders to be something that causes a conflict?

On reflection, the character that asks it fits the stereotype of “acting white”— if you saw a screenshot, you’d peg him as an office drone in a second.  Lawyer, I think, since the protagonist gets him to help stop the murder by pointing out how much legal trouble the murders would get into.  ‘Cus you need law school to figure that out, right? *headdesk*

Doubling in Price in Twenty Years

I just looked at one of my “comfort” books—great books that you go to for the book version of a fluffy blanket and a mug of cocoa.

 

Happened to look at the spine, and noticed that it was four dollars suggested price.  Turns out it was printed in ‘91.

 

Most of the paperbacks of similar size and quality that I’ve seen of late are either nine or ten dollars, and I KNOW they don’t stand up as well.

 

If this is the result of the *sarc* wonderful */sarc* publishing industry, ebooks may have come along just in time to save reading.

Iced In

That’s like “snowed in,” but when you get freezing rain on top of it.

 

Usually, this would mean that I’ll have a bunch of things to post… but the base is shut down, too, so my dear husband is home, I’ve got a raging headache, and the Princess is in a temper.  (her problem: Things aren’t supposed to change! *laughs*)

 

I’m glad Perry’s out.  I don’t care enough about Newt to figure out what his ex said vs spin vs whatever.

 

The Duchess is busy practicing going from her back to her belly and trying not to fall asleep.

 

I’m going to go nurse this headache with a cup of iced decaf… –.-

Why I Want To Reform The Electoral College

Bryan Suits had a topic (1/11/2012, first topic) that helped bring it into focus: down in San Diego area, they're going to charge people who live in rural areas for the costs of fighting wild fires. Bryan, having lived out there, knows that there are a lot of regulations about keeping brush under control, cut back from your house, etc-- and that fires tend to get started when someone isn't following the rules. From the point of view of the city, it's not "the rulebreakers" who are causing the problem, though-- they have to spend money saving all the rural people. So that's who they want to charge.

Makes perfect sense-- make pretty much any group of "them," and "they" will have a bunch of very important sub-groups, only a few of which will embody all the characteristics of "them."

This, because Dear Husband has been musing on the topic, made me think about the way that the Electoral College is supposed to work. (to my understanding, of course; on an aside, my love and I don't agree on the solution)

The point of the Electoral College is that this population won't watch that populations' interest as closely as their own. (Also a key point on why I'm conservative.)

The reform I want for the EC is that I want it broken down to representative districts-- maybe even just have your HoR member auto-vote for whoever wins the election in your district. Town kids just don't understand the realities of rural life, even if they have a vacation home out there. I'd like to see that respected on a national level.

It Depends

Over at the Darwins' place they started musing on high-comment posts.

Predictably-- and of expected quality for the location-- a LOT of suggestions for high-comment topics came up. Nursing, parenting, modesty, sex, traditional Mass, traditional culture, pop icons (in my head: It's not you I hate, Kardashian....) and Ron Paulitics.

A common thread popped out-- it depends. Almost everything was "it depends" type stuff.

Is it OK to nurse during Mass? It depends. You want to do it with love, of course-- I don't know what your church is like. I've gone to churches where there are dozens of places that are just fine to nurse in, with a blanket; I've gone to churches where you'd have to duck inside of the confessional, and to ones where it was held in a spot where there wasn't any polite place to nurse. (Last one was on a ship, where there shouldn't be nursing anyways, but still!)

A lot of stuff depends on context, intention, and who's there.

Slightly related, one of the topics on a post Paul was mentioned in said this:

Instead, I look at it and wonder how it’ll be used to show I’m a bad person or how I should be forced to do something the media likes. I remember doing those surveys in college and seeing clumsy attempts to ask the same question in different ways. They were clumsy because the different ways of asking the same question changed the meaning of the question, and often I’d answer them differently because of that truthful streak, knowing it would simply get my answer sheet thrown out. This does not encourage me to trust the results I see in the media.

Graves

Basically, different ways of asking the question change the question. It takes a LOT of skill to ask a question in different ways without changing the meaning!

Another reason I mention it is that it also has great mention of the first hint I had that there was a geek culture-- Fallen Angels. (Thankfully, I never found Mike Flynn's blog until after I was past massively embarrassing myself with fangirl enthusiasm. Only took a decade.)

PS-

K. Know how annoying it is to have something echo your thoughts? In fiction?

"Because the questions you ask shape the answer you seek,"

And doesn't THAT just sum up the issue....

Toddler Tips

Of course, most of this is YMMV, seen through my balance of priorities. And my girls are spoiled.

*Don't want to get your kid hooked on brightly colored characters, or just sick of trying to clean the little straw cups? Those big plastic cups for iced coffee work very nice: *Your toddler keeps taking the baby's blanket because it's crazy-soft? Not the normal polar fleece, but that fluffy, furry, super soft ones. Go to the fabric store and choose one that you like, get about two yards and hem the ends. Doesn't even have to be a good seam, mine looks horrible-- and the Princess LOVES it, especially since it's big enough to snuggle with mom and dad. (you could buy a big, really soft blanket, if you can find one for less than about $20 and it interest your kid...) * Toddler likes the baby's car seat toy? Put them next to each other. The toddler can activate the music better than the baby, anyways. * Toddler songs drive you nuts? Try out Gilbert & Sullivan. Watching "The Backyardigans" with Princess and Duchess, I stared at the TV for a good thirty seconds before freaking out my dear husband by starting to sing the song whose tune they'd..."borrowed".... (I've ribbons and laces to set off the faces of pretty young sweethearts and wives....) If your kids can resist "Three Little Maids" or the Major General's song, I'm amazed. * Dry Erase Crayons. AWESOME. They write on glass very well, and come off of walls with a damp cloth. (Wrap in duct tape before giving them to your toddler-- they snap rather easily, and it's easier to hold.)

* Speaking of duct tape-- we all know it's awesome, right? Get some of the colored and/or patterned stuff. It's handy to put on the feet of chairs to save floors, or to strengthen toddler furniture, or patch much-loved toys, or give too-big balls some grip, or close things. Also patching doll clothes.... (What? It's hot pink tiger stripes! That's kinda stylish! And Dolly didn't complain!)

* Don't like the stuff they put on kids' clothes these days? Buy packs of blank shirts or onesies and a pack of fabric pens and/or that gel stuff that comes in those vials that look a bit like eye drop bottles. (Couldn't find it to link. Very big during the 80s, comes in colors or glitter or glow in the dark, etc.) Also works for baby showers as an activity that doesn't involve diapers.

Why The Recent Lack of Posting

And why the sudden bunch of posts: (She sleeps!!!!!)

A Response To The Inspiration For "Being "Poor" and Being Responsible"

Found via here.

Short form: it's expensive for the poor to live like the rich. If you invest at the start, you can pay less over the long run.*

(Note: I didn't meet him until several years later. Frankly, I was rather intimidated by him, at first-- I got over it.)

Gee, if only there was a place they could go that has everything, from soup to nuts to bolts to cleaning supplies, that had low prices and almost always has a bus stop... With wall to wall savings... call it... wall-to-wall-savings-store...or something....

Honestly, I should do a point-by-point refutation, but it won't work. Nobody would listen. Never mind that I've lived it, and come out of it-- there'd always be some out.

My story: I get back stateside, stay with my parents for about...um... a month before it becomes obvious that I NEED to have some space. Plus, local economy suck(s/ed) I looked around and find a one-bedroom place with washer and dryer provided that was in (long) walking distance of both a mall and a couple of general stores, and I had my seabag for big shopping trips. (I did the math and figured out that the extra $10 or so bucks a month was worth it for the washer, since water was included, looking forward to my then future marriage. Depending on what you care about, the math is different. There was also a 7/11 a two-minute walk for impulse buys.)

You've got to THINK, you can't just DO. One of my goals is to someday be able to buy things without thinking about it.

* mildly annoyed they didn't do a h/t to Terry Pratchett, a lot of his Vimes/Lady Ramkin stuff is made of this trope. Then again, that would require an over-arching sense of...well, having sense.