Eclectic Amateur

Today’s Office reading from the Wisdom of Solomon seems pretty up-to-the-minute:

1 For they reasoned unsoundly, saying to themselves, “Short and sorrowful is our life, and there is no remedy when a man comes to his end, and no one has been known to return from Hades.
2 Because we were born by mere chance, and hereafter we shall be as though we had never been; because the breath in our nostrils is smoke, and reason is a spark kindled by the beating of our hearts.
3 When it is extinguished, the body will turn to ashes, and the spirit will dissolve like empty air.
4 Our name will be forgotten in time and no one will remember our works; our life will pass away like the traces of a cloud, and be scattered like mist that is chased by the rays of the sun and overcome by its heat.
5 For our allotted time is the passing of a shadow, and there is no return from our death, because it is sealed up and no one turns back.
6 “Come, therefore, let us enjoy the good things that exist, and make use of the creation to the full as in youth.
7 Let us take our fill of costly wine and perfumes, and let no flower of spring pass by us.
8 Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds before they wither.
9 Let none of us fail to share in our revelry, everywhere let us leave signs of enjoyment, because this is our portion, and this our lot.
10 Let us oppress the righteous poor man; let us not spare the widow nor regard the gray hairs of the aged.
11 But let our might be our law of right, for what is weak proves itself to be useless.
…
21 Thus they reasoned, but they were led astray, for their wickedness blinded them,
22 and they did not know the secret purposes of God, nor hope for the wages of holiness, nor discern the prize for blameless souls;
23 for God created man for incorruption, and made him in the image of his own eternity,
24 but through the devil’s envy death entered the world, and those who belong to his party experience it.

God have mercy.

I caught a snippet on the radio this morning, chatter about Terri Schiavo, and heard this:

What about the right to die with dignity?

My response:

What’s so “dignified” about starvation?

God have mercy.

Dawn, yet again proving she is a national treasure by dumpster-diving into the surreal world of Planned Parenthood:

Yes, you read right: Planned Parenthood is teaching teenage girls to let teenage boys blindfold them and lead them around. I didn’t have the guts to let a guy do that to me until I was 27! And it sure as heck didn’t improve my sexual decision-making.

How many rocks did CBS have to turn over to find a case of “homeschooled” kids dying from neglect?

How much coverage have they given Terri Schiavo?

And which one of these stories is front page right now at cbsnews.com?

Screwtape and friends must be working overtime.

God have mercy.

G. K. Chesterton: By the Babe Unborn

                      "By the Babe Unborn"

                      by G.K. Chesterton



              If trees were tall and grasses short,
                As in some crazy tale,
              If here and there a sea were blue
                Beyond the breaking pale,
            
              If a fixed fire hung in the air
                To warm me one day through,
              If deep green hair grew on great hills,
                I know what I should do.
            
              In dark I lie; dreaming that there
                Are great eyes cold or kind,
              And twisted streets and silent doors,
                And living men behind.
            
              Let storm clouds come: better an hour,
                And leave to weep and fight,
              Than all the ages I have ruled
                The empires of the night.
            
              I think that if they gave me leave
                Within the world to stand,
              I would be good through all the day
                I spent in fairyland.
            
              They should not hear a word from me
                Of selfishness or scorn,
              If only I could find the door,
                If only I were born.

Greg Popcak points out that Serious Researchers™ are investing Serious Research™ into something that Nancy (veteran of many day care centers, elementary schools, and Mommy of four small snifflers) knew already: Day Care Makes Kids Sick While Breeding Superbugs.

Like so many things, the solution is simple: Stop pressuring families to be dual-income. Kids belong with at least one parent.

A less radical solution: Get employers to recognize that Kids Get Sick. Get daycares to stop insisting on “24 hours on antibiotics” as a return-from-illness criterion.

But then, nobody asked me. Or Nancy.