Love Ben Stein (better late than never...)

SEE THE NOTE BELOW FIRST--thank you Emano!!!:

I don't know that I agree with everything Mister Stein has to say, but I have to say it's refreshing honesty to hear this at all.

I still think religion belongs at home rather than at school, but it's nuts to actively deny the Judeo roots of our legal system--though school is not the place for prayer (unless it's private and before an exam) home is. Synagogue is. Church is.

Seriously, who wants a teacher leading prayers. Honestly! Like when did I get a Divinity degree???

At the same time, the atheists I know are the most ethical folks I know as--for them--there are no easy answers. They have to actually think about right-and-wrong rather than just have a spoon-fed, knee-jerk response (which may be wrong...witness the Teddy Bear). And while I'm totally on-board with the Nick and Jessica thing, I'm a little unnerved by the "they asked for it" overtones on the good folks who died or who's children committed suicide...

Regardless. It's interesting to read, no?

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS

Sunday Morning Commentary.

My confession:


I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And
it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those
beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel
threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are:
Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say 'Merry Christmas' to
me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in
a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all
brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't
bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key
intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a cradle
there, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred
yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew and I don't think
Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think
people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed
around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that
America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the
Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: Where did the idea come from
that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to
worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm
getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering
where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went
to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this
is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not
funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

[See below. This part did NOT come from Ben Stein...I wondered...]          Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane
Clayson asked her 'How could God let something like this happen?'
(regarding Katrina) Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and
insightful response. She said, 'I believe God is deeply saddened by
this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get
out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of
our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly
backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His
protection if we demand He leave us alone?'

In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings,
etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was
murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer
in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not
read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou
shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when
they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped
and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed
suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And
we said OK.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why
they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to
kill strangers, their classmates and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out.
I think it has a great deal to do with 'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.'

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why
the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the
newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you
can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but
when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think
twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene
articles pass freely through cyberspace but public discussion of God
is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many
on your address list because you're not sure what they believe or
what they will think of you for sending it. Funny how we can be more
worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of
us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard
it...no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought
process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world
is in.

My Best Regards. Honestly and respectfully,
Ben Stein
Amen

NOTE:
THANK YOU EMANO! Here's the REAL original:

Intro from Scopes:

Stein, a lawyer by training, has also served as a speechwriter for President Richard M. Nixon, has to date authored sixteen books (both novels and non-fiction efforts), and continues to write editorials and columns for a number of prominent publications. He is perhaps best known to the world at large, however, for his in-front-of-the-camera work as the dreadfully dull economics teacher in the film Ferris Bueller's Day Off (and his similar role as the monotonic science teacher Mr. Cantwell on the TV series The Wonder Years) and as the keenly competitive host of the Comedy Central game show Win Ben Stein's Money.

Mr. Stein currently offers occasional commentaries for the CBS Sunday Morning news program, and the item quoted above is based on one such commentary, entitled "Confessions for the Holidays" and delivered by Mr. Stein on that program on 18 December 2005, one week before Christmas. However, the version widely circulated via e-mail includes some transcription errors and modifications that were not part of the piece as originally aired. Here is the full version as broadcast, taken from a CBS News transcript of the program:

CHARLES OSGOOD, host: We all have our own thoughts about the holidays. Here's Ben Stein with his.

BEN STEIN: Here at this happy time of year, a few confessions from my beating heart. I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are.

(Footage of People magazine; Us magazine)

STEIN: I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly when I'm buying my dog biscuits. I still don't know. I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores who they are. They don't know who Nick and Jessica are, either. Who are they? Will it change my life if I know who they are and why they've broken up? Why are they so darned important?

(Footage of People magazine)

STEIN: I

don't know who Lindsay Lohan is either, and I don't care at all about Tom Cruise's baby.

(Vintage footage of congressional hearing)

STEIN: Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if I'm a subversive? Maybe. But I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are. Is this what it means to be no longer young? Hm, not so bad.

Next confession: I am a Jew and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish, and it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautifully lit-up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees.

(Footage of Christmas trees)

STEIN: I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are — Christmas trees. It doesn't bother me a bit when people say 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they're slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. I shows that we're all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year.

It doesn't bother me one bit that there's a manger scene on display at a key intersection at my beach house in Malibu.

(Footage of manger scene; menorah)

STEIN: If people want a creche, fine. The menorah a few hundred yards away is fine, too. I do not like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat. Or maybe I can put it another way. Where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and aren't allowed to worship God as we understand him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we used to know went to.

SPS (I suck!)

I've been remiss. But then, I've been sick.
Of course, I now have a new haircut to show off today.
This is me trying to finish a 50,000 word book in four more days.
Yeah, I know.
Me too.

This is a lighter pic of me in the office (see, TWO this Sunday!).

And here's a question for all of your knitty types:
those little sweater stones...do they work? My Rogue Hoodie is getting all pilled along the cuffs and inside of the sleeves. Stone or little rotary reverse-fan looking-thing?
Your call. It's all a mystery to me.

And what have I been wearing today? My Harry Potter Sock Swap Socks (THANK YOU CASSANDRA GRUBBLY-PLANK!) and my Rogue Hoodie.
Why?

BECAUSE IT WAS COLD!

It's 49° out there right now, at 10pm!

I LOVE THIS!!!!

NaNoWriMo Fun!

Everyone needs a merit badge.

Near as I can tell, these are the above, in order left to right top row:

• Procrastination
• Rally Day
• Word-Count Padding,
• Victory
• Random Ending

in order left to right bottom row:

• Caffeine Abuse
• the Eureka Moment (when the puzzle piece fits)
  
• NaNo Socializing
  
• Secret Noveling
• Creative Nonfiction
  

On some level I think I'll get all but Victory...now I'm starting to get a complex after the horrible experience in the Knitting Olympics. I gotta stop joining these things...

Harry Potter bounty from my pal!
HeatherViaPhone

I'm SO Warped!

Warping for presents!
HeatherViaPhone

OHMAHGAW!
I have the BEST friends in the world! Two friends from the local Handweavers and Spinners guild (TH&SG) had a warping board they could live without. Me? I'd gotten to the point where using part of the great room and the dining room table with a Ginger Ale 2-litre bottle on it (to make my cross) was getting both OLD and dangerous with two small boys who like to crash into things.
This has saved Christmas.
Too late for Hanukkah.
LOL

But it's great. You see two colors of chenille warped up here to make SOMEthing for SOMEone who occasionally reads my blog. It's a short warp b/c it's a kit. Had I my druthers I'd have warped all 14 feet of this lovely lady.

More on this later.

My office. . .

For Monday and Tuesday, anyway. . .
HeatherViaPhone

On the road again. . .

Thing One rides (and rides)
HeatherViaPhone

O, That's ALL?

You Are 72% A Child of the 80s

Not only did you experience the 80s... you are practically an expert. You should be totally stoked!

Are You a Child of an 80s?

One reason i'm glad i'm not an undergrad

Says "so dirty you'll beg for a shower." ad by axe. more to come on this. . .
HeatherViaPhone

The End Is Near

I find myself still unable to speak clearly for any length of time, so getting the podcast out has been impossible. I think I might start doing it in stages, a few minutes here and there just to get the first chapters out to everyone. I feel horrible. I'd so wanted to start Frankenstein for Halloween.

Ah well...the best laid plans, blah blah blah.

And, of course, I'm not the only sick one.
Andrew leaves and Thing 2 gets Croup. I've never met Croup before. It's horrifying. The poor little guy couldn't breathe in OR out. His cute little voice had been replaced by hideous, raspy, seal-boy, barking and wheezing--not a high pitched wheeze, either, but this low, growling, rolling, aching snarl

I hope I never hear this again.

I tried to get an inhaler in his mouth--HA! He was awake and crying but not really awake enough to reason with (who am I kidding? He's three...like we ever are able to reason with him). I pulled down one of the humidifiers--which was strangely missing it's water-container cap. Okay, so that's trash--not fun to discover at 12:30am. Humidifier #2 comes down and it's good to go...but there are no available plugs. Unplug the air purifier and...find yourself unable to get the humidifier plug into that socket.

One whole I Love Lucy sketch later, and the humidifier is in. Thing 2 has already collapsed backwards in bed, sound asleep and breathing pretty well.

I go back to bed and fall into it. I'm still having trouble myself, so I take a hit off of my (brand new) inhaler and pass out. I come-to about 15 minutes later, coughing myself awake. I pop a Halls (mmmmmmmmmm mentholyptus!) into my mouth, take a swig of water, and curl up again.

I know, I know, sleeping with a cough drop in your mouth--especially when sleeping alone--isn't such a great idea. So sue me. It works.

Thing 2 and I repeat our comedy act three times during the night. Finally at 5am, I ask him if he wants to get into bed with me. Yes he does, so we stumble back to my room, which is (mercifully) dark as a tomb, and I arrange the pillows around him for maximum safety. He snuggles in and I ask if he wants to hold my hand. No. He grabs his hand away from me and is fniffy in ways that only a three year old can be--followed almost immediately by this little arm snaking through the covers to find and clamp onto my hand as he falls, immediately, into an occasionally fitful sleep.

Me?

I just stay there, listening to make sure he's breathing.

The next day, yesterday, after nearly four hours at Urgent Care (our pediatrician sucks) they give him a liquid steroid.

And last night?

The boy slept.

But none of that has anything to do with the title of the blog post.

In the middle of all of this, I've been working on socks for the Second Hogwarts Sock Swap. Luckily, both my pal and I have had a hard time finishing--I'm doing the Railroad (I think) pattern for gentlemen's socks from Nancy Bush--lovely pattern, easy to memorize repeat, freakin' tiny gauge. They're taking me forever.

But will be lovely when they're done.

I have about another two inches before I can start decreasing for toes.

The end is near.

Next? I weave.