The weekend's Top Ten Random Musings from yours truly:
1. I get so much more accomplished when no one is around.
2. I saw my first butterfly and grasshopper today while taking my dog on a walk. (Note to self: whities can still burn at 4:00 p.m. Sunscreen advised.)
3. I would be horrified, but not surprised if this man truly was the new Iranian President. God help us if it's true. Actually, strike that. God help Iran if it is. GW don't mince words. You're either with us, or you're our enemy.
4. L.A. is full of so many people. While that fact could wow some, it truly burdens others. For not all of the 8 million people are good, thinking, considerate individuals. Oh no. Road rage ain't seen nothin till it comes to Los Angeles. Well, maybe Manhattan might disagree. But even still, what is it about a steel cage that makes people so flippin rude?! And in defense of mankind, I do have to say that is mostly the women who are complete psychopaths on the road.
5. I am not entirely sure I can predict what I might do if I see one more "War is NOT the Answer" bumper sticker. I saw one crazy peace-nik car today at Whole Foods donning a spin off of the classic. It read: "Terrorism sucks, but war is NOT the answer." All I could do was sigh and hope that heaven is as good as I think it must be.
6. I love Italian Food....but that's a given. Not really worth mentioning.
7. I'm really disappointed that War of the Worlds is doing well. Not that it probably isn't great (I love Spielberg), but I really wanted Mr. Cruise to feel financial pain after his endless parade of pompousness. So much for poetic justice.
8. I saw Batman Begins (review to come..I'm seeing it again tonight because I missed the beginning. T'wouldn't be intellectually honest to review something I hadn't fully seen. I'm not a movie junkie; the first time was free.) I gasped when I saw Wayne Manor because....I"VE BEEN THERE!! :) Yep, I have been to the home of Batman, previously the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill (I know...those Waynes are connected!) and presently the home of the Dukes and Dutchesses of Marlborough. Normally, the British would like to call it Blenheim Palace, but that's beside the point. I loved seeing it over and over because it brought back great memories of visiting that wonderful place. If you ever get over to England, that's a must see. It's in a beautiful location. When I review the film, I'll post my own pictures.
9. I thought I'd post ten things, but I cannot think of anything else... Scratch that. In the interim between proofreading and saving, I just found out I won something on eBay. My first time...I know...welcome to the twentieth century. I won a book from 1889 called Instructions to Christian Converts. My first old book for my future library. Yea!
10. Finally, I just had to.....
That is truly one of the greatest magazine covers I've ever seen. Almost makes me want to buy a subscription....almost.
Have a wonderful weekend and a truly lovely, patriotic, American loving, troop supporting, pro-war Fourth of July Celebration! Hoorah!
Hey All,
Just a quick FYI. I'm on my way to house sit for about two weeks. I'm working out the internet connections at the house, so it may be Thursday that I actually have my next post. I know...slacker! :) Thanks for being so participatory. I love reading all of your comments!
See you soon,
Portia
The Man behind the curtain:
I wonder if Mr. Karl Rove knows how omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent he is. Apparently the man gets around more than the Holy Spirit, at least according to most liberals. I would love to see a formalized list of the many feats and political coups that he is accredited.
Now Mr. Rove is simply trying to clear the air about the differences in conservative and liberal responses to the 9/11 attacks. And, of course and as usual, democrats are calling for an apology for the truth. Nevermind that their moronic Sen. Dick compared our troops to mass murderers. How dare Karl Rove accuse us of something we said!! Outrageous! Preposterous! (Oh wait, those are big words. I probably should attribute them to liberal rants. :)
The White House is standing behind Rove, to the complete horror of the democrats. (I mean, the horror they're experiencing is right up there with the shock of the torture chambers that are Gitmo!) Ken Mehlmen sent a mass email out and prepared a press release with quotes supporting Rove. And LGF also has a few tasty posts on the topic.
He is this generation's William Wallace. Legend has spread that he's 8 feet tall, has killed a thousand men with his bare hands and topples tyrannical governments in a single leap! I mean, just look at him!!: 
Mr. Rove, I think I'd almost like to meet you more than I'd like to meet President Bush. You're one of my heroes, and I would love to just shake your hand.
"MacStansbury, rise a knight!" ...at least in Bloggerville.
Sorry it's taken me so flippin long to blogroll you. I'm laaame, I know. But, welcome to the fiefdom.
Now that I'm part of an official blog community, I feel quite pressured to be extra savvy and prolific. However, I haven't had the time these last few days to even get near the internet. That is, until 1 or 2 in the morning. However, next week I start the most incredible job ever and will have more time to devote to you fellow internet junkies.
So, things to expect from yours truly:
1. Incredible insights into religion, politics, and pop culture.
2. Mind melding vocabulary antics.
3. Jabs at liberals. You are, after all, my favorite target. If only it weren't so easy...Dean. :)
4. Book reviews. (I'm currently reading Dante's Commedia, Pride and Prejudice, The Thinking Toolbox, Boundaries of Technique, and Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (yes, the whole series). Yes, I have the ADD enough to handle all of them. Who knows what feats I wouldn't accomplish if I were to succumb to the incessant suggestions of lefty psychiatrists who over-prescribe that pesky amphetamine, Ritalin. What a waste that would be. :)
So, there's a teaser trailer for ya. I love blogging and communicating with you all. It really does bring me joy. Now I'll be a lot more joyful because I'll have more time to do so. What is it Martina sings?... "And the sweetest thing that you'll ever see/in the whole wide world/ is a happy girl." That's right!
I always knew Dean was the Bard of our time, but I didn't know he was capable of rhetoric that would put dear Dante to shame. "Dear Lord, please let this man stay in power as long as possible. Amen. "
On a more trivial note, I now have hit the 50,000 hit mark! Thanks for reading. I feel like I should pay you, not the other way around....and, by the way, I am setting up a paypal account.
(For the humor deficient *cough, Jon, cough*, we like to call that a joke, jab, a little tongue-n-cheek,...you get the idea.:)
ShakingSpears is back! The blogosphere has been a dark, dismal place since his absence. Alas, there were only 999 points of light when he left, but now, once again, all has been restored.
Glad you're back, Mr. Shaker! I know I speak for all of us when I say your writing was sorely missed. There, are you weighed down yet by the mounting expectations of anxious readers? (I'm secretly employing delta force-like tactics to get you to blog really soon...is it working?)
????? ?????
(That's "Welcome back" in Russian, or so I'm told.:)
Daddypundit has tagged me to answer a few questions about my nasty reading habits. Here are my answers, if you dare to read them.
What is the total number of books you have ever owned?
Well, I'm still slighly young, so I haven't acquired quite the library
I hope to own one day, but I'd say I own somewhere around 200-250
books. I've read about 80% I'm proud to say. Yes, that's right, social
life: 0, shelflife: 200.
What is the last book you've purchased?
I have to go with Daddypundit's answer on this one too. Since I've been
a book reviewer for Mind & Media, I haven't had to purchase many
books. I've gotten four for free. But I did visit the library today (I
love that place) and I checked out Dante's Commedia (Divine Comedy) and Virgil's Aeneid.
I'm listening to a course by the Teaching Company on Dante's Divine
Comedy and soaking up every minute of it. Classics really feed my soul.
(If you've never heard of The Teaching Company and you enjoy learning after college, you'll love this company. They record the lectures of the best professors in the country on any number of topics. Check them out. You'll be glad you did.)
What is the last book you have read?
Yesterday, I started and finished Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia by
Jean P. Sasson. I've never finished a book so quickly. It is the
anonymously told story of a princess in the house of Saud. She tells
of the horrors that Saudi women live (or die) each and every day. The situations
she describes are beyond my comprehension. I highly recommend this
book.
I'm currently reading my Mind & Media books with a more careful eye. On my nightstand are The Thinking Toolbox and Boundaries of Technique. I'll be reviewing them shortly.
What are five books that mean a lot to you?
C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity
C. S. Lewis' Till We Have Faces (and really everything else he's written)
The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer
First Love by Bill Bright
I don't want to list another Lewis book, though The Weight of Glory and The Great Divorce are right up there. Instead, I'll go with a hero profile:
Winston Churchill by Frank Keegan. Though not perfect by any means, I admire this man greatly and love learning about him.
So, there you have it. A somewhat brief bookography.
I hereby tag Muzzy (Blogizdat), The Night Writer, Lisa (R Cubed), Red Guy, MacStansbury and Captoe. My regular reads. I know, you're only supposed to do five. I couldn't resist. For the tagged: Simply answer the five questions on your blog and pass the tag along, if you wish. Thanks! I look forward to reading your responses.
I've just been invited to become a part of an online community of extremely savvy, intelligent, and influential bloggers belonging to The Cotillion. I heard about this site through Muzzy at Blogizdat, who passed my name along, and voila! I'm joining the ranks. (Thanks, Muzzy!!) {Hey, does anyone know how to add accents and things to characters? My French exclamation just doesn't have the same umph without it. Merci.}
I've added their blogroll on the right hand panel of my page and will frequently cite interesting and entertaining comments by the fellow bloggers. Please visit their sites, and more than that, frequent them. I know you will learn a lot and enjoy it in the process.
Oh, and I was joking about the reader's fee. I would never charge $49.95 for access to my thoughts. Please, I'm not that cheap!
I may have a cure-all for my blogging absence. I'm thinking of pulling a New York Times and charging $49.95 a year for people to read my thoughts. If I got paid, I might blog more. Whatdya think? :)
Re: Senator Dick Durbin's ridiculously irresponsible statements, Iowahawk has the scoop on his personal communications as per the Freedom of Information Act, I'm sure. Enjoy!
Many of you might possibly already know this story quite well, but I just now learned of it. If I could summarize it concisely, a young wife and mother was rushed to the hospital the day before Mother's Day after she collapsed. They diagnosed her with stage four melanoma and she quickly became brain dead. The problem is she was 17 weeks pregnant at the time. So she is fighting and being kept alive so the baby can have a chance at life.
This family could use great prayer and financial support. I've donated through paypal already and I would encourage any who are able to do the same. We are to help those in their times of need and this family is in the most desperate situation. Pray for Susan and her husband who must be suffering greatly right now. I cannot even fathom how painful this must be. Please help if you can. Pray for Susan and Jason.
This outrage over Gitmo and the so-called "horrendous torture" endured by the detainees is a prime example of something I've been thinking about for some time. And it is this: Liberals have no room to make value judgments, especially on our troops. Okay, I feel better now. Post finished. :)
But for those who might be slighly befuddled or outraged by that statement, here is the logic behind it.
Those who criticize the treatment of the detainees are the very same who justify the actions of the terrorists of 9/11 and the "insurgents" in Iraq right now. One cannot justify beheadings, the vicious and brutal murder of over 3,000 American lives and the continued killing of innocent civilians in Iraq and numerous other parts of the world, all on the basis of moral and cultural relativism and then turn around and claim that our soldiers are absolutely wrong. If there is moral and cultural relativism, then it must be so all the time, and the soldiers too can be fully justified in their so-called torture methods and disdain for the Qu'ran. In other words, you can't have your cake and eat it too. If behavior is always justified, then it always is. No exceptions. But the minute a relativist (contradiction in terms, really) begins to assert absolute value judgements, he immediately forfeits credibility and the opportunity to voice opposition. After all, why should anyone listen to someone who is so terribly inconsistent, and worse yet, won't even acknowledge it?
That has just been a pressing post for me. It is intolerable that people justify what Saddam Hussein did to thousands upon thousands of innocents--how he completely destroyed another nation (not even his own) until we liberated it--and what terrorists and other Islamic fascists do to thousands upon thousands of other innocents every day, Jews and Christians alike, and yet a group of military police is under fire for waking Erwin Chemerinsky's "client" up with lights and loud noises. Intolerable. Free speech is great, but let's not abuse that freedom.
Think and Speak Responsibly. Friends don't let friends be liberal. :)
I'll be back Monday for more blogging. I haven't had more than 5 minutes each morning to check email and read the news. I have a lot I've been wanting to write, but haven't had access to do so at all, really. But come Monday, you'll see more stuff. I'll be home more often.
Have a lovely and safe weekend!
As if carrying out an abortion weren't bad enough, one doctor takes it to the most disgusting, animal level. Unfortunately, I was eating when I read this headline. Safe to say, my apetite was lost. I'm really anxious to see the reactions from the pro-choicers. Rock and a hard place is the first phrase that came to my mind.
So, be forewarned: Don't read this if you're eating. I'm serious. Also, if you're pregnant, or trying, also not a good idea.
To those who think we live in a fascist or totalitarian government,
think again.
I'll accept formal, written apologies for ever holding such a view. :)
Studying history does a great deal of good on so many fronts. First of all, it expands one's knowledge. More importantly, it gives one a proper perspective on life--that it's short and should be lived worthily.
In case you didn't already know, I'm a private tutor for several different subjects to students of various ages and academic levels. One of my absolute favorite topics to tutor is, of course, history. I have many fourth graders who are studying California history right now. I remember the topic boring me to tears in elementary school, and while I still somewhat shudder at the sound of "mission dioramas," I find the history fascinating. Today, one of my students and I read about the California railways and the marriage of the Central and Union Pacific railways. It brought to light just how great we have it now. I prompted my student a number of times with questions such as, "So, can you imagine what it would be like without machines? Where you and a whole lot of other men had to use their own strength to dig and lay tracks?" He paused and added, very intuitively, "Yeah, and they used dynamite and explosives on hills and tunnels and things, and you could die." Perspective made. My job is done. :)
It's so important to realize that we live because of great men who have gone before us to make this life as good as it is now. (Response #4536 to feminist claims of men being stupid...who built the railways, freeways, cured polio, pasteurized milk, found penicillin? Oh, that's right...MEN! :) Not only is is worthwhile and completely necessary to recognize past achievements, it's also important to note that they are, in fact, dead. Meaning, the same will be of us someday too, hopefully later than sooner. While many great inventors and thinkers made quite a bit of money from their invention, it was their invention that lasted through the ages, not their money or lifestyle. The same, again, is true of us. What we do, who we are, who we impact will be the lasting effect on the world, not what house we had or how much money we made.
Sorry to preach. But this is what I get from reading California history. You too can have these insights and more... :) Here's to greater knowledge!
I'm sure it doesn't bother just me, the lack of plain old thinking that is apparent in society. On a micro level, why is it that drivers insist upon honking at you to step on the gas when there are pedestrians right in front of your car?? Why?!? It's this sort of thing that makes me darn near hate LA. Not as though it's restricted to the greater Los Angeles area. In the San Francisco Bay Area, an elementary school is in the process of being renamed because the grade school kids don't like their school being named after Thomas Jefferson because "he owned slaves." That's a quote from a nine-year-old. Sadly, his teachers have the same intellectual capacity. They're going for a less "offensive" Sequoia Elementary name. Here's a quote from the article by Moron #1 (sorry, I'm not going to be all super spiritual about this one...this is stupidity at it's best):
“I don’t personally have a visceral response to the name Jefferson—to me it’s just the name of the school,” Agre said. “But I understand that other people do, and I think that’s a good enough reason.”
I'd like to meet the people who have a "visceral" reaction to his name.
Agh. More later. I have plenty of thoughts to blog on the subject, but alas, I've gotta go get famous. :)
I had heard something like this just before the elections, but this is one of the funniest pieces. Transcript Shows John Kerry's Yale Grades Similar to President Bush's. The article goes on to say "identical" to Pres. Bush's grades. But when you read the article, it would appear that Kerry's grades are actually worse than Pres. Bush's. This is rich. I love finding out the truth after it really matters. Of course libs will still vouch that Kerry is still the more intellectual one. The truth really doesn't stop them too often. ;-)
I tutor a student who will be writing an argumentative paper on stem cell research this week. She is unsure of which side of the issue her teacher will make her argue, but she needs a great deal of evidence for both sides, at this point. I've printed up fact sheets and such, but if any of you know where I could find really great information on both embryonic stem cell research and non-embryonic stem cell research (good books, articles, etc), my lovely, bright 7th grade student and I would be so grateful.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Cinderella Man was everything I thought it would be. This is a brilliant movie that you all should see as soon as possible. Ron Howard sure knows how to make a film. The story is incredible, and the best part is, it's all true. If you don't know the story, don't research it until after you've seen the movie; the suspense and anticipation is far greater that way.
Russell Crowe was wonderful as boxer James J. Braddock. His portrayal of this man was so real and vulnerable that you could hear audible sniffles from probably both sexes viewing the movie. This movie speaks to everyone about overcoming obstacles and not staying down when you're hit. I plan on seeing this at least once more in the theaters and buying the soundtrack at the first opportunity.
Aside from the movie itself, there are some other wonderful reasons to see the film. I saw an interview with Mr. Crowe in which he said that this film shows the reason why this country is so great: because it's built on the backs of hardworking men/people who love their family and don't give up. He really lauded the people in America and our legacy. For that alone, I'll see the movie more than once. And the other reason to see it is that Jim Braddock, in real life, was a truly amazing person who gave back to his community, his country and would do anything for his family. I've read a great deal about him and am highly impressed by his character.
All that to say, see the film. Don't take little ones, the boxing violence is enough to keep me on the edge of my seat and there is a lot of swearing (though you really don't notice because it's only during incredibly intense matches). You won't regret it. In fact, you'll most likely be inspired and uplifted by it.
A few things I'm very excited about (and a change of pace from the last posts). I've finally received all of the books I'm supposed to review. I'm so excited! I love books, especially free ones. All three books are on economics, which is not my strong suit, but I think that might make me a better reviewer, because I'll be reading them as a lay person, not an economic expert. I'm waiting for the codes to post the images of these books so you can check them out yourself. The first book I'll be reviewing is called The Boundaries of Technique, which is about ethics and economics. I'm already really enjoying it. Stay tuned for that. :)
Now onto some truly delightful news that will hopefully bring just a bit of joy to all of you. 
A UK Couple Celebrates Their 80th Wedding Anniversary. This is the sweetest couple. They share their tip to a successful marriage for any who would like to achieve even half of their run as a married couple. They are entirely too precious, even the Queen thought so. I hope you enjoy this read. We need more stories like this. I, for one, am really weary of all the doom and gloom reporting, not as though it's unnecessary, it just seems particularly gratuitous lately.
Have a wonderful mid-week and a great month of June.