A few must-reads...

Here are a few must-reads that I've run across this weekend...

Although it's highly unlikely that you read this blog and not InstaPundit or The Command Post, I'm linking this for my own reference and to this to make sure you don't miss it:

Assyrian Christian News: "I Was Wrong!" by Ken Joseph, Jr.

Sitting next to me was an older man who carefully began to sound me out. Apparently feeling the freedom to talk in the midst of the mingling crowd he suddenly turned to me and said `There is something you should know.` `What` I asked surprised at the sudden comment.

`We didn't want to be here tonight`. he continued. `When the Priest asked us to gather for a Peace Service we said we didn't want to come`. He said.

`What do you mean` I inquired, confused. `We didn't want to come because we don't want peace` he replied.

`What in the world do you mean?` I asked. `How could you not want peace?` `We don't want peace. We want the war to come` he continued.

What in the world are you talking about? I blurted back.

That was the beginning of a strange odyssey that deeply shattered my convictions and moral base but at the same time gave me hope for my people and, in fact, hope for the world.

(Yesterday, the Assyrian Christian website had a page saying that the tapes that Ken Joseph made of Iraqi citizens telling their stories were to be aired on ABC news next week. Now it's gone. Strange...)

Next up is this column discovered via the inimitable J.F. Karr of Joshua Claybourn's comments section*:

Sydney Morning Herald: Lofty moralists blind to stark truth

Only those afflicted by the disease of moral relativism, which blinds them to right and wrong, cannot see which regime is worth fighting for.

Not all anti-war protesters are moral relativists, but the belief system underpins the movement, as a lawyer and former US Marine, Adam Mersereau, wrote in an article for National Review Online last week. "Many people who are anti-war are anti-war not merely because war is violent and inhumane, but because war is the ultimate statement of moral certainty - it is the ultimate in 'judgmentalness'. For the enlightened person, war is never the answer because he can never identify with certainty an evil that must be confronted, or a cause that is unquestionably just."

Finally, Rachel Lucas has this amazing story told by a Naval officer acquaintance of hers. Apparently, the officer's mother indicated on a bumper sticker that she was a proud of her son. Some busybody took offense at this:

"Excuse me but I hope you know that your child is a murderer," the woman in the Mercedes yells at my mother. My mother doesn't even respond because she is completely shocked. "Your child is over there killing and murdering and maiming innocent women and children! He's nothing more than a cold-blooded killer! How dare you call yourself a parent knowing you raised a barbarian!"

At this point my mother can scarcely believe what she's hearing. And it's important to understand that my mother is one the most non-confrontational people on God's green earth. She wouldn't know how to yell at someone even if she wanted to, now matter how provoked and justified she might have been. She does manage to muster the chutzpah to say: "You bitch!" (Go Mom!)

This is where it gets almost surreal.

This woman actually has the gall to be shocked and insulted at my mother's response.

I think this guy's mother showed amazing restraint.

(*Just a warning -- the post on Josh's site may crash your browser if you're using IE.)

Even-a-Stopped-Clock-Is-Right-Twice-a-Day Dept.

This is interesting, and a little surprising:

The Irish Catholic: Liberation theology and the Iraq War

While liberation theology does not encourage violence, it acknowledges the right of people to defend themselves against murderous repression...Liberation theology would say that the Lord, who breaks the rod of the oppressor, was with them. But unaided rebellion would have no prospect of success, and our bystander sympathy, our distant indignation (if we even noticed) would not prevent it being crushed with great slaughter.

Yet amazingly, when their liberation rides on the probable success of US arms, much of the world is totally opposed. As the prophet Isaiah recognized in Cyrus the Persian '"Israel's hope of liberation from Babylon" so today Iraqi exiles cannot wait for the US to overthrow Saddam's regime. But, sadly, Christian solidarity with them is overwhelmed by pacifism, neutralism, and anti-Americanism.

Pacifism absolutises peace at the expense of justice, and neutralism turns fence-sitting into moral superiority. Anti-Americanism, like Saddam's torturers, drowns the cries of the victims and silences the tongues of the exiles.

(Via Relapsed Catholic.)

On "Real" Women

Tony Woodlief has a great takedown of the notions that some feminists have of what a "real, serious" woman is. His inspiration is a magazine that declares that it's aimed at "real" women, not those dumb homemakers who sit around watching soaps and eating bonbons all day. (As if!)

The real woman. Not the woman who sacrifices a career because she believes she can do more good in the world by raising and teaching her children herself. So what if she has wrestled for years with the challenges, for example, of raising her children in adherence to her faith? That doesn't compare with hustling to get appointed Executive Mid-Manager in MegaCorporation ABC, after all. Get real, mom. You are merely managing the moral, physical, and intellectual development of human beings; it's not like you are putting together PowerPoint slides comparing the costs of competing stationary vendors.

Not that the homemaker could do something like that, because she is, implies Betty, uneducated. Educated women, you see, don't stay home. How do we know? Because the sweethearts at Betty, along with their pseudo-intellectual ilk who infest the coastal cities, look around themselves and see educated women working. None of these smart women would dream of staying home with the kids. Ipso facto, educated women don't stoop to such an enterprise.

There's much more, of course.

I've seen this attitude even among some relatively non-feminist mothers who work outside the home. They believe that if a woman is educated and chooses to be a stay-at-home mother, she is "wasting" herself. And they usually assume that stay-at-home mothers are uneducated or submissive. Many of them have this disdainful attitude because their own mothers worked outside the home, so they never knew anything different.

I have a completely different view because my mother was a homemaker. If I ever have kids, I will be a stay-at-home mother, too. I have great respect for homemakers, and I think it's a shame that feminism has devalued such important work.

Remembering the Lost & Acts of Mercy

Rachel Lucas has this list of those American servicemen lost in Operation Iraqi Freedom so far. Also, Joshua Claybourn brings my attention to this post:

davidmsc.com: American Heroes

From that post:

These are the coffins of six members of the United States Air Force. They did not die as a result of enemy fire. They died while attempting to transport Afghani children to a US medical facility for treatment. That is what the United States does. To all those who say, "...but what about Afghanistan? We haven't fixed it yet..." and other such whining, I say: screw you. Six brave airmen died trying to make life better for children and their families who were brutalized under a tyrannical theocratic regime.

Of course, we never get any credit for things like this. And getting credit isn't the reason you do things like this. You do it because it's the right thing to do. But it would be nice if the anti-war crowd would drop the "eee-vil Amerikkka, enemy of world peace" crap and actually acknowledge things like this once in a while. But then, I'm still waiting for them to condemn Saddam and his regime as vociferously as they condemn America. Looks like I'll be waiting a long time...

In the same vein, Rachel Lucas has another post with an interesting photo at the top.

Update: Joshua Claybourn has yet another story about good things America is doing for Afghani children. Some seem to object to Josh pointing these things out. I wonder why that is?

I like this idea...

Brought to my attention by Aaron's Rantblog:

BUY A GUN FOR (TO SPITE) MICHAEL MOORE DAY, APRIL 15

I already own a gun, but I haven't been able to go to a shooting range and practice in a couple of years. The range here in town I used to go to closed down. The closest ranges that I know of are about 45 minutes away. I recently found out about a private pistol club here in town. This might be a good time to look into joining it. Maybe I could buy a smaller pistol appropriate for concealed carry and take classes to get a concealed carry permit. I let my NRA membership lapse some time ago; perhaps I should consider renewing it. Annoying Michael Moore...all the more reason to do these things!

Free Speech

I've noticed lately that some are saying that the mere act of disagreeing with someone is suppressing their freedom of speech. This charge has been leveled at those critical of the statements of certain "documentary" filmmakers, certain country music stars and certain protesters. Let's get something straight:

Disagreeing with someone, criticizing someone, boycotting someone or even ridiculing someone is not suppressing freedom of speech. Those things are free speech. If someone is executed or thrown in a gulag for something they said, then that's suppressing free speech. Having your feelings hurt doesn't count as suppression of free speech. That's your issue. And freedom of speech does not include blocking streets, harassing people, destroying property or puking and pooping on the sidewalk. Are we clear on this?

That's all.

(Inspired by this post and this post.)

Dirty Tricks

This item from Neal Boortz:

NOW WE ARE BEGINNING TO UNDERSTAND ...

... why the Russians were so anxious to keep the United States out of Iraq.

Over the weekend we heard stories that the Russians have been quite active in the war effort. Quite active strengthening the hand of Saddam Hussein. We now know that Russian companies have sold several thousand night vision goggles to the Iraqi army. This removes some of the advantage that coalition troops would have during night battles.

It' gets worse.

It has now been disclosed that Russian companies, with the complete and full knowledge of the Russian government, have been selling devices to Saddam Hussein that can be used to jam the GPS signals that guide American precision-guided bombs to their targets. In fact, Russian technicians were in Iraq last week showing the Iraqi government how to use this equipment. The GPS jamming systems were hidden in shipments of humanitarian aid to Iraq during the past few months. And just who was sending this humanitarian aid? The United Nations, of course. Now we have to wonder if there was complicity on the part of some U.N. officials in shipping these military devices to Saddam Hussein.

It should be said that when the GPS signals to the precision bombs are jammed, these bombs lose their precision guidance and will strike in unintended areas. Civilians may well die in those unintended strikes ... all because the Russians want to help the Iraqis save their military targets. So, Iraqis use jamming devises to cause GPS guided bombs to miss their targets. When the bombs miss the Iraqis carry foreign journalists to see where they struck, and claim that Americans are targeting Iraqi civilians ... all with the help of our friends the Russians.

And wait again! There's still more! We also learned that Russians sold anti-tank guided missiles to the Iraqis, and that these weapons were delivered within the past two months.

Update: The jammers have been destroyed. Perhaps the dirty trick was played on Saddam, instead of the U.S.

Forget You, Sci-Fi

Flargh expresses my sentiments exactly. I had almost forgiven Sci-Fi for canceling Farscape, because I really liked the Children of Dune mini-series. But after the way the final Farscape episode ended, I'm just completely disgusted. It was worse than the way Twin Peaks ended.

There are very few TV shows that I take a liking to and watch regularly. Why do the networks always hate my favorite shows?

Oscars? **yawn**

Andrea Harris and Kevin Parrott are watching the Oscars so you don't have to!

Anger

Earlier today, my sister said pretty much the same thing that Murray Hill did in this post. This was after hearing about some of our troops being captured, executed and paraded before cameras.

My response to her...no, we can't do that. We can't be that way. We are better than that. I know there are plenty of people (those so consumed by hatred of Bush and/or America that they can't see straight) who were and are convinced that we don't care about killing innocent people. Sure, nothing will convince them that America isn't pure evil, but that doesn't mean we should live down to their expectations.

It's true that the main goal is toppling Saddam and getting rid of the WMDs that the protesters tell us do not exist. Liberation for Iraq is a noble but secondary goal. My sister says the Iraqis were spineless because they didn't rise up and topple Saddam themselves. I told her that I cannot judge them, because untold horrors awaited those who stepped out of line.

So, while I understand my sister's anger and frustration, I can't agree with her on this. Like I said, I believe America is better than that.

Update: It seems my offhand linking to this article has caused this blog (and a bunch of others) to be linked in this post as an example of supposed bias among bloggers. There are three reasons I never posted a correction. One, the story was not the point of the post. Two, I'm not a warblogger, so I have a hard time keeping up with all the war news. Three, the whole story regarding the chemical plant has gotten rather murky; I think it remains to be seen whether this plant was used to manufacture chemical weapons in the past. But in the interest of fairness, here is a link to an update on the chemical plant story. I think the original point that I was making in this post still stands.

The Command Post Has Moved...

It is now located here: http://216.134.209.67/~command/

The Command Post is absolutely indispensable. Check it often!

Update: The permanent URL is www.command-post.org.

War and Anti-War Protests

I was going to write a post about the war and about the "peace" protests. But I'm sure you can predict what I was going to say anyway. So, instead of an essay or rant, I'm simply going to link to a few posts from various blogs with pictures and/or stories involving war and peace protests. You can draw your own conclusions...

• The Command Post: Soldier tearing down a picture of Saddam.
• The Command Post: More Saddam propaganda art torn down.
• The Command Post: A soldier and some Iraqi children.
• The Command Post: Iraqi soldiers who surrendered.
• The Command Post: Iraqi woman welcomes U.S. Marines.
• The Command Post: Link to an interesting MSNBC video clip.
• The Command Post: Saddam's compound in flames.
• The Command Post: Peace protests in Athens.
• LGF: Peace protesters lying in the street.
• LGF: A U.S. soldier and a surrendered Iraqi soldier.
• LGF: Protester waving an Iraqi flag.
• LGF: What the protesters think of the troops.
• Daily Pundit: Peace protesters carrying weapons, destroying property and using vomit as a weapon. (No pictures of protesters vomiting, thank God.)
• Daily Pundit: More surrenders.
• Cut on the Bias: Peace protesters harassing innocent people.
• Cold Fury: Mike Hendrix on the peacefulness of the protesters.
• Dean's World: The Iraqi Street
• JunkYard Blog: Human shields get a shocking dose of reality.

Note: I may add more to this list over the weekend.

Update: Here are some more links:

• Too Much To Dream: A study in contrasts.
  
• LGF: An Iraqi asks, "You're late. What took you so long?"
  
• LGF: A British peace protest.
  
• The Command Post: The Streets of Baghdad
  
• The Command Post: Iraqi refugee says anti-war protesters have no idea what they are supporting.
  
• The Command Post: First person account of air raid.
  
• The Command Post: Iraqi citizens still fearful of Saddam.
  
• Outside the Beltway: Some liberation photos.
  
• Andrew Sullivan: Protesters are a joke.
  

Update 2: Here's a few more:

• Peppermint Patty: Human shield realizes he was a naive fool.
  
• Too Much To Dream: Protesters whine about tough night in jail. (The sandwiches were less-than-tasty! The nerve!)
  
• IsntaPundit: Dipnut finds that the protesters are the ones with a herd mentality.
  
• LGF: Iraqis parade captured troops.
  
• LGF: Chemical Plant Captured
  

Readiness Tips

Need some readiness tips in case of a terrorist attack? The US Department of Laughs has some suggestions. (Just a warning -- some profanity and off-color humor.)

Here's my favorite:

-- If you hear the Backstreet Boys, Michael Bolton or Yanni on the radio, cower in the corner or run like hell.

(Via Blended Perspectives.)

War Blogging

For continuously updated war news, check out Blogs of War and The Command Post. I have added both to the blogroll.

So, I guess it's started...

War, that is. I pray for our troops, for the people of Iraq and for the people of this country. I pray for justice when it comes to Saddam and his henchmen. I pray for peace...real peace that comes from standing up to evil and defeating it, not fake peace that comes from denial and appeasement. Other than that, I don't have much else to say. I never wanted this to be a "warblog," although I know I've been posting about this subject a lot lately. What can I say? It's a topic on everybody's mind.

I'm tired and not feeling well tonight. I wanted to respond to a couple of comments posted here that I disagree with, but I just don't feel like it. Maybe I don't need to respond or debate every time someone disagrees. I just feel that I should most of the time. Sometimes there's just no use...I'm not going to change their minds and they're not going to change mine.

"Answer the question, little girl!"

I've seen this linked at various places, including Andrew Sullivan. I haven't had a chance to listen to it until now. It's pretty powerful...download it and give it a listen:

From KVI-AM (Seattle, WA) -- Iraqi Exile Takes On a "Peace" Activist

Update: Here's the page on the radio station's website that the above audio link comes from. (Via Dumb Celebs.)

Smug Alert

Patty fisks this pompous, snotty BBC column by Justin Webb about faith in America. To sum up the column, Mr. Webb is amazed that there are people in America who take their faith seriously. Why, they actually pray, read the Bible and believe in things like good and evil! How simplistic! How gauche! Why can't they be more like the secular, enlightened Europeans? Or more like the "rational," non-religious British? (Guess he's never heard of C.S. Lewis.)

Of course, the main purpose of this column is to take a swipe at President Bush and his faith. Now, this is starting to get confusing. People like Mr. Webb feel threatened by Bush because of his faith. But yet there are liberal Christians who accuse Bush of not being a "real" Christian because he's not a pacifist. Go figure...

Outrage

I went to Pep Boys a few months ago to get a new battery put in my car. After reading this story, I won't be going back until they stop breaking the law and start doing the right thing by our military reservists.

(Via Ipse Dixit.)

Bible Quiz

You are Romans.


Which book of the Bible are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Gosh, that's kinda hard to read...here's what it says:

You have insight on what it means to turn your life around and try to live for God. You really want people to understand the deeper things of God, but have a tendency to come across as pushy and prideful...and at times, maybe you are. But you know your weakness and work hard at trying to temper it with grace and compassion.

(Via E-Pression.)

Is the UN relevant?

Neal Boortz is skeptical:

MONDAY .. THE MOMENT OF TRUTH

Not only for Iraq, but also for the United Nations. This will be the day that we discover if the United Nations has any relevancy in the age of terrorism and petty dictators with dangerous weapons.

The United Nations is discovering today what a true ultimatum is. An ultimatum is not a 12-year series of “last chances” followed by appeasement, followed by another last chance, followed by more appeasement, followed by an ultimatum, followed by … nothing.

Midnight today. There, Kofi Annan. That’s an ultimatum. Sit back and watch this one go by … please.

Yeah .. I want the U.N. to continue to fail to act. The United Nations has shown itself yet again to be dangerous to the United States. It is, and always has been an essentially anti-American institution. The most frightening aspect of this whole Iraq-American drama has been the stupefying number of American people who seem to not only be willing, but actually eager to surrender American sovereignty to this anti-American body. Come on, people. Are you serious? You want the nation of Cameroon to have a say-so as to whether or not the U.S. can act in what it perceives to be its own national interests? What kind of insanity is this?

Do you know that the root of the word “resolution” is? It’s “resolve.” The United Nations has none. George Bush does.

Don't Forget...

Saturday, March 15th is International Eat an Animal for PETA Day.

Make a PETA member cry. Here are some suggestions:

Thank God

The Senate has approved a ban on the barbaric procedure known as Partial Birth Abortion. The House is expected to pass the bill and President Bush (unlike his predecessor) will sign it.

(Via The Colonel Sanders Conspiracy).

New Skin

I have a new skin available called "All American." As you may have guessed, it has a patriotic, red, white and blue theme. All the skins can be found on the sidebar.

Also, I've moved the "Special Notice" buttons down below the blogroll.

Political Stereotype

Republican - You believe that the free market will
take care of most things, but that the
government should be there with moderate
taxation to provide for national defense and
enforcing morality. Your historical role model
is Ronald Reagan.


Which political sterotype are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

The Home Front

Susanna Cornett at Cut on the Bias and Mike at Cold Fury have set up a website called The Home Front. This website lists the companies that are going the extra mile to support reservist employees who are called away for duty. I have added a button to this site to the sidebar.

Nothing like the smell of self-righteousness in the morning...

Joshua Claybourn and other Christians who are pro-defense are being equated with the Christians of Nazi Germany. Nice.

To avoid responding with bitter sarcasm (which I want to do very much), I will simply link to a past post and ask them to read the post from Cut on the Bias linked therein: Jesus and War

Good Answer...

...considering what my favorite color is:

You are purple-haired. You are strange, sometimes
perky, but well-liked, most of the time. You
are curious, open-minded, and multi-talented.


What is your inner anime hair color?
brought to you by Quizilla

However, I was looking at all the results and I think blue hair seems a little more accurate sometimes (depending on my mood):

You are blue-haired. You are solemn, yet naive. People are always trying to understand you, because you seem to be off in your own little world most of the time. You enjoy quiet activities such as reading and sketching in your free time. Sometimes you come off as a bit insensitive, but it's mostly because people don't always understand you.

I don't know much about anime. I've seen it on the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim and on Sci-Fi (a long time ago), but that's about it.

(Via Lynn.)

Policy on Trolls

Yesterday afternoon, I got my first genuine troll comment. It was someone, using AOL International, calling a three-week-old post of mine nonsense and saying that Americans "disgust [her]."

I was more amused than I was offended by this. However, I would like to keep things civil on my blog. I close comments on most all posts over a month old to discourage such nonsense, and I don't have comments on every post.

Since I don't want trollage on my blog, I have decided to delete obvious troll comments outright. I will also IP ban if it becomes necessary. Now, I do not consider comments disagreeing with me to be trolls. I have no problem with such comments as long as they are civil and respectful. I think the difference between honest disagreements and trolling is usually pretty obvious.

Lenten Blogging

Joel Fuhrmann at Religious Left Watch is doing some special blogging for Lent. He is posting a chapter by chapter review and meditation on John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress. I'm ashamed to admit that I've never read this book. Joel explains what he is doing in this post. The Lenten posts start here. This is good stuff -- do check it out.

Too Funny!

I translated my page with this Snoop Dogg translator and literally laughed until I had tears in my eyes. The translator does come up with some mild profanity, so be warned.

(Via The Rattler.)

"This time I mean it..."

Saddam has certainly gotten a lot of "last chances."

Revolution Redux

Mirele posted some comments (and also blogged them) to this post. She took exception to Patty's post and my agreement with it. I decided to respond to her in a separate post rather than in the comments. If you're not interested, you can skip this.

If you're still with me, I'm going to excerpt Mirele's points and then give my response:

Ok. There seems to be this mistaken idea here from Patty (and LilacRose, by extension) that women lost the sexual revolution because we put out and the only reason we stay with men is due to sex. Frankly, someone's got rocks in her head, and that person is not me.

It may not be you or me, but a lot of women do have "rocks in their heads." They've bought into the lie that "sexual freedom" means sleeping around and acting like men at their worst. But, men and women are different. You can't get around this. To see what I mean by this, read this post by Steve H. at Little Tiny Lies. He gives a man's perspective on Patty's post. He's brutally honest, and, I think, on the mark.

Let me propose something different. Before the sexual revolution, women's sexuality was owned by others: her father, then her husband. She did not have the right to tell her husband no to forced sex, and she certainly couldn't accuse him of rape, because it was considered that wives had to put out for their husbands. Remember, men in those days had raging hormones, and it was the wives' job to satisfy their husbands' lust, just as it was an unmarried woman's job to keep her beau chaste. So this is my question. What is the difference? The difference is that women now own their own sexuality, for good or for ill. I rather prefer this than to go back to the good old days, when my sexuality was dictated because of the ownership relationship between myself and my male relations. It should also be noted that with freedom comes responsibility and a lot of women have made hash of that. That doesn't make the principle of self-determination wrong, it just indicates that more education about choices is necessary.

I don't think anyone here is in favor of husbands forcing themselves on their wives, or of unmarried women being "owned" by their fathers. I don't know why pointing out that some women have been poor custodians of their sexuality means that one thinks women should be owned by anyone. The point is that women are free to make their own decisions -- and in some cases these decisions are bad ones that have far-reaching effects.

If a woman decides of her own free will to subscribe to the many different versions of female subordination present in the USA (where I live), then she is making her choice and who am I to gainsay her? My problem is with those who (for example) insinuate that marital relations between men and women are put together with "sex glue" (which is, in my opinion, unwarranted hyperbole) and are doomed to fail.

I don't think Patty was saying that all martial relations are put together with "sex glue." What she is saying is that some relationships are held together only with that glue and not with something more substantial. I think what Patty calls "sex glue" is exactly what Paul was talking about here and here -- one flesh. C.S. Lewis also explains this very well in The Screwtape Letters: "The truth is that wherever a man lies with a woman, there, whether they like it or not, a transcendental relation is set up between them which must be eternally enjoyed or eternally endured."

Going back to the past, where wives were given responsibility for their husbands' sexuality, while at the same time not being able to say no to their husbands' demands for sex, and girls were made responsible for boys' sexuality (which is still the case in some American religious organizations I'm familiar with) is not desirable. Women should be free to make choices about their own sexuality. And we should be warned in advance about those consequences. Ultimately, it is up to women ourselves, because we are not property.

But women do have a responsibility for men's sexuality. Men also have a responsibility to women. I believe that the sexual revolution has eroded that sense of responsibility among many men. That's why women have come out the losers in this whole thing. Of course women are not property; of course they are free to make choices, just as men are. But some choices are bad ones that affect more than just the person making the choice.

Rambling About Roses

I have a little rose garden in my front yard. It consists of six bushes surrounding a crepe myrtle tree. Well, actually it was five bushes because one of them died last year. Today, I bought another one to make it six again. It's a Moon Shadow rose, which is a dark lavender color. I can't plant it until the weather clears up some, but I can't wait!

Here are the other bushes I have: Rio Samba (bright yellow and orange), Chrysler Imperial (beautiful red blooms that smell just like tea rose perfume), Blue Girl (which is actually a lilac color -- I think they smell like magnolias), Sterling Silver (a silvery lilac color), and JFK (an ivory rose given to me as a gift by a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat aunt).

I'm still pretty new to this rose gardening thing, but I've only had one bush die on me so far, so I guess I'm doing okay. In case you were wondering where the name of this site comes from, it's from a screen name that I've used when posting on a couple of political forums. I love roses and my favorite color is purple, especially pastel purple. Hence, LilacRose.

Update: I was able to plant the Moon Shadow rose today. I had a few difficulties while planting it, though. I'm praying that it will thrive despite my ineptitude.

Crossing the Line

Like I've said before, usually I try to separate the art from the artist. But there's a certain line of obnoxiousness an artist can cross that makes me no longer able to do that.

Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders has crossed that line.

Lent

It's Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. I'm giving up chocolate and other sweets for Lent. This will be a real challenge, because this is one of my weaknesses. I'm not an overeater, but I do love sweets -- especially chocolate!

I'm trying to ease myself into an Atkins-like diet anyway -- less carbs and more protein. Giving up sweets will help immensely.

Women Lost the Sexual Revolution

Patty at Pdawwg has a great essay about the so-called sexual revolution. Here's a brief excerpt:

We abdicated our job as responsible guardians of our own sexuality. We bought into the culture that said this was a good thing, and we never once stopped to count the cost to us, to our children, to our grandchildren. We can deny ourselves nothing, including sexual gratification. Ask yourselves this question, if you were to stop having sex today with your husband, boyfriend, fiancé or dating partner, would he stay? Would you want him to stay? If the answer is no or I don’t know, that’s not love, that’s sex glue.

Now, go read the whole thing, won't you?

Malaise

It seems that there's a general malaise and frustration, both online and offline right now. I've seen it in various blogs and political forums I visit. I feel the same way myself.

A lot of this comes from the tension over the most likely imminent invasion of Iraq. I get tired and worn down from hearing the same simplistic clichés from those on the "anti-war" side. Sure, there are also those on the "pro-war" side who are too flippant and jingoistic about this very serious matter, but they seem to be in the minority. And what's often taken as flippancy by some is simply an expression of anger towards the pro-appeasement, peace-at-any-cost crowd.

Yes, that's right, anger. Anger at disrespect to our servicemen and women and their children. Anger at ignorant celebrities. Anger at the petulant sanctimony of some of my fellow Christians.

I have to deal with the anger and frustration in a way that doesn't turn me into a bitter crank. Some people write their best stuff when they're angry. The passion comes through in their writing and it's a catharsis for those of us who are not good writers. I can't get away with writing stuff when I'm angry. I just end up sounding shrill and nasty. So, I usually end up channeling the anger into humor and sarcasm. Or I'll tune out, rolling my eyes and just saying, "Whatever..."

The thing is, I don't think of myself as a gung-ho, pro-war type. To me, it's an ugly necessity -- the thing we have to do because nobody else can or will do it. The job that should have been finished in 1991. Sure, you could stick your head in the sand and not worry about the smallpox and the nukes and hope the UN will give Saddam a stern enough taking to that he will promise to be good from now on. But some of us have chosen to face reality, which is ugly and messy. After all, reality gave America a hard punch in the stomach on 9/11/2001.

So, what can I do about this malaise? I don't really know. Pray, I guess, although I have to admit I've had a hard time praying lately for some reason. The fact that I've been less-than-impressed with many of my fellow Christians doesn't help much. Perhaps I could try less sarcasm and more tuning out. I could try to support things that are positive and helpful.

I will do my best. Lent is coming and I want to refresh and regroup.

An Awesome Idea

Would you like to help send music to our troops? If so, go to Operation Troop Trax and donate!

New Skinnage

If you like green and Victorian-style art, then you'll like the new "Springtime" skin. The two illustrations are from a Victorian-themed calendar. The fan on the comments box comes from a PSP tube found on Goldtassel.net.