The Best Way

I was inspired to create this blogpost following a conversation with some of my lovely, intelligent, compassionate girlfriends the other day, wherein I was surprised that they all seemed to truly believe that physical punishment (spanking) is a necessary part of parenting. Because each child is different, sometimes they won't respond to anything else. There really is no "best" way, they vacillated. Unfortunately, this clinging to justifications for spanking is done by the majority though it is not based in logic or empirical evidence. (As in the common, "I was spanked and turned out just fine." Is that because of or in spite of being spanked?)

Perhaps I should first admit that my personal experience makes me skeptical that much of the spanking parents believe they are using in a pure and holy way is actually abusive. I know that good intentions don't have much of anything to do with the message the child receives. That just because a child forgives quickly does not mean there is no scar. And even my idealistic interest pondering how to have greater world peace/build Zion plays a role in the uncovering this truth about punishing children. (See the Bomb in the Brain series sometime.) But you have a different history, different biases, and perhaps have had no reason to seek out a different perspective. It is my hope that providing both spiritual and empirical data may persuade you to stop spanking (or even overtly coercing) your children. 

"I thought that it was the job of a parent to make children behave. You see, once you define yourself as an authority, a teacher or parent, in the culture that I was educated in, you then see it as your responsibility to make people that you label a “child” or a “student” behave in a certain way. I now see what a self-defeating objective this is, because I have learned that any time it’s our objective to get another person to behave in a certain way, people are likely to resist no matter what it is we’re asking for. This seems to be true whether the other person is 2 or 92 years of age.This objective of getting what we want from other people, or getting them to do what we want them to do, threatens the autonomy of people, their right to choose what they want to do. And whenever people feel that they’re not free to choose what they want to do, they are likely to resist, even if they see the purpose in what we are asking and would ordinarily want to do it." from Raising Children Compassionately by Marshall Rosenburg in the book Everything Voluntary, compiled by Skyler J. Collins

"We may be tempted to focus our energies on overcoming children’s resistance to our requests and getting them to do what we tell them. If we’re not careful, this can become our primary goal. We may find ourselves joining all those people around us who prize docility in children and value short-term obedience above all." from Introduction to Unconditional Parenting by Alfie Kohn

Ironically the most agreed upon finding in all social-psychological research is that there are NO positive correlations to spanking. None. And they are talking about the benign definition of spanking, where it is done sparingly and no harm is intended. I say ironic because many parenting books and magazines flatly ignore it, and thus promulgate the false relativist position. Please watch this video (also available here with footnotes) to see for yourself the facts:

The top comment (last I saw) for that video on YouTube is something like: That's all well and good, but what are parents supposed to do instead?! If you've read Love & Logic, you know that author's approach to respecting and reasoning with your kids. I think L&L is helpful, but I feel it remains overtly coercive, often suggesting creative consequences to manipulate the child rather than allowing true natural consequences from God, if any, or to simply ask yourself: "Is my position on this the only correct one?"

"I’ve had plenty of opportunity over the years to discuss this issue with parents, and I’m pleased with how people can be helped to see the limitations of any kind of punishment, if they’ll simply ask themselves two questions.
Question number one: What do you want the child to do differently? If we ask only that question, it can certainly seem that punishment sometimes works, because certainly through the threat of punishment or application of punishment, we can at times influence a child to do what we would like the child to do. However, when we add a second question, it has been my experience that parents see that punishment never works. 
The second question is: What do we want the child’s reasons to be for acting as we would like them to act? It’s that question that helps us to see that punishment not only doesn’t work, but it gets in the way of our children doing things for reasons that we would like them to do them." from Raising Children Compassionately by Marshall Rosenburg

In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we are taught that Jesus values agency over obedience, wants us to love others as we love ourselves (Mark 12:30-31), asks us to be like Him (Matthew 5:48, 3 Nephi 12:48), and to that end has given much instruction and example about children, as Boyd K. Packer taught:

There is much in the scriptures about little children. The Psalmist wrote, “Children are an heritage of the Lord” (Ps. 127:3
The Savior gave the ever-familiar plea, “Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of heaven” (Mark 10:14).
When His disciples asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? … Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, … Whosoever … shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me” (Matt. 18:1–5).
Then came this warning: “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matt. 18:6).
To me, the most impressive lesson is in the Book of Mormon. Jesus “commanded that their little children should be brought. “So they brought their little children and set them down upon the ground round about him, and Jesus stood in the midst; …“He commanded the multitude that they should kneel down upon the ground.
“And it came to pass that when they had knelt upon the ground, Jesus groaned within himself, and said: Father, I am troubled because of the wickedness of the people of the house of Israel. …
“He himself also knelt upon the earth; and behold he prayed unto the Father, and the things which he prayed cannot be written, …
“And no tongue can speak, neither can there be written by any man, neither can the hearts of men conceive so great and marvelous things as [they] both saw and heard Jesus speak; …
“And they arose from the earth, and he said unto them: Blessed are ye because of your faith. And now behold, my joy is full.
“And when he had said these words, he wept, and the multitude bare record of it, and he took their little children, one by one, and blessed them, and prayed unto the Father for them.
“And when he had done this he wept again;
“And he … said unto them: Behold your little ones. …
“And they saw the heavens open, and they saw angels descending out of heaven as it were in the midst of fire; and they came down and encircled those little ones about, and they were encircled about with fire; and the angels did minister unto them” (3 Ne. 17:11–15, 17, 20–24).There is more, much more, in the scriptures about little children. 

President Boyd K. Packer in General Conference 1986

And yet, for some reason when it comes to parenting our children we tend to get more Old Testamenty than New. When I've talked with others about spanking never once have I heard the Savior's example mentioned. I do hear the line "Heavenly Father punishes us" though. (Really? Let's take a look...) Sometimes our justification comes straight from the OT, verses such as Proverbs 13:24 which reads “He that spareth his rod hateth his son; but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes” colloquially said "spare the rod, spoil the child." This may have stumped you, but I hope it's not news to my fellow Latter-day Saints that "rod" in Hebrew can be translated as "word of God".  

"Although neither of us is a Hebrew scholar, we used several concordances to look at how and where the word rod is used in the Old Testament. We then double-checked our findings with a Hebrew scholar. We found in Micah 6:9 and Isaiah 11:4, for example, that the exact same word for rod in Hebrew was referred to as “the word of God” just as we read in first Nephi 15:23-24 where the rod is referred to as the “word of God.”We also looked at what a good shepherd uses a rod for. The shepherd’s rod is never used for beating sheep. Instead, it is used to ward off intruders; to count sheep as they “pass under the rod” (Lev. 27:32; Ezek. 20:37); to part the wool to examine for defects, disease, or wounds; and to nudge sheep gently from going in the wrong direction. The rod is viewed as a protection. In perhaps the most memorable reference to a rod in the scriptures, David, who was once a shepherd himself, said, “thy rod and thy staff they comfort me” (Ps. 23:4), a passage we would never confuse with any kind of harsh punishment or beating." from fabulous article by Craig C. Hart, chair of Marriage, Family, and Human Development at BYU.

*I was just told (by a private commenter) that there is a whole free book available to further help us understand about using "the rod". Available here.* And all proof I find demonstrates that Latter-day Saint prophets do NOT support the punishment connotation, either.

"I have never accepted the principle of “spare the rod and spoil the child.” I will be forever grateful for a father who never laid a hand in anger upon his children. Somehow he had the wonderful talent to let them know what was expected of them and to give them encouragement in achieving it." from President Gordon B. Hinckley (General Conference, October 1994 

“Use no lash and no violence. . . but approach them with reason, with persuasion and love unfeigned. . . The man who will be angry at his boy, and try to correct him while he is in anger, is in the greatest fault. . . You can only correct your children by love, in kindness, by love unfeigned, by persuasion, and reason.” President Joseph F. Smith (Gospel Doctrine pp316-317, 1963)
“Kind words and loving actions towards children will subdue their uneducated nature a great deal better than the rod, or, in other words, than physical punishment." Brigham Young (Deseret News Weekly, Dec. 7, 1864, p2) On another occasion he added, “Let the child have a mild training until it has judgment and sense to guide it. I differ with Solomon’s recorded saying as to spoiling the child by sparing the rod.”(Journal of Discourses, 9:195-96) In making this bold statement of truth, Brigham Young was not in line with the thinking and practices of the 19th century... 
Sometimes, the way a parent disciplines his or her children has more to do with the parent’s needs, convenience or even vanity, than with the child’s actions. To quote Brigham Young again, “I have seen more parents who were unable to control themselves than I ever saw who were unable to control their children.” (Deseret News Semi-Weekly, July 12, 1870, p2) The research clearly shows that anger is more likely associated with tendencies toward coercion, venting, and hostility, meaning it’s easier for parents to lose control if they’re more inclined to use coercive or authoritarian forms of discipline (i.e., yelling, demeaning, unreasonably harsh consequences, etc).
This is one area, in particular, where the example we set as parents will likely have longlasting effects. Our ability to act as disciples of Christ, showing forth long-suffering, gentleness, meekness and love unfeigned (see D&C 121:41), will teach our children by example these principles of successful family relationships. President David O. McKay said, “Children are more influenced by the sermons you act than by the sermons you preach.” (In Conference Report, April 1955, p26)  from article by Craig C. Hart.

I like this thought from a Christian Unschooling blog:

"By demanding certain rules be followed, we miss the opportunity to allow our children to naturally grow from mimicry, to making choices for themselves. When we attempt to exert our will over another to create a limit or boundary to their behavior, whether our child, or someone else, we are doing something that God Himself does not even do.  We are bound by natural laws – we cannot simply flap our arms and fly away for example – but our behavior is governed by our own internal controls.  God does not MAKE us do anything."

Going forward with the idea of no punishment is going to take some faith, and a lot of pondering. It's going to take some major patience as we start respecting our child's autonomy and their ability to think for themselves and learn from mistakes. It's probably going to take some humbling of our own egos and repenting, as habits are hard to break. And frustration because there are some children that it seems near impossible to reason with. But if it's not worth all that pondering, praying, and talking, it's certainly not worth hitting!

I absolutely love Alfie Kohn's book/DVD Unconditional Parenting for more well-researched thoughts about respecting your kids as you raise them, and highly recommend Naomi Aldort's book Raising Our Children, Raising Ourselves which walks you through all types of situations with examples of how to think and react differently to children at any age.

I know God is the author of all Truth and believe that we are only accountable to the laws and truth which we know and understand. I am so grateful for all that I have stumbled upon so far in my sojourn. May the angels that surround our children help us in our quest to parent in a way that is truly "the best."

Tricky Economic Stuff Explained

It's been a while since you've heard from me on politics. One of Mark's (and my) favorite places to get information is Mish Shedlock's blog Global Economic Trend Analysis. About a week ago he posted this video explaining the Federal Reserve's Quantitative Easing Part 2 and I've been meaning to share it here ever since... A small warning/apology first: a certain (sh) swear word is used twice.

If you didn't get it before, maybe you understand a little more now why Mark (and I) got so fired up about politics in recent years. Better than banging your head! It is absolutely shameful that Ron Paul's Audit the Fed bill was squelched in Congress this past session. Mish has done more posts about the QE2, of course - like this one referring to a Wall Street Journal article. It is nothing short of amazing to me that the general populous isn't up in arms over this. Even the liberal Economist reports the move as "reckless" according to many countries and the IMF.

If you are interested in learning more about the Federal Reserve, you may want to read None Dare Call It a Conspiracy. President Ezra Taft Benson strongly recommended that book during a CES devotional. There's also a lengthy tome published by the John Birch Society titled The Creature from Jekyll Island, and Ron Paul's most recent book, End the Fed.

But here's an even quicker and easier thing you can do: Contact your representatives! Send your Senator and Congressman an email stating your concern over the Fed's handling of the economy and encourage them to pass a bill that will thoroughly audit the Fed and hold Ben Bernanke accountable.

Halloween

The adorableness of kids dressed up is the main redeeming quality of this holiday. I have to say I am personally a Halloween Scrooge. This is a pagan - even satanic - day at it's root and I find all the horror stuff associated with the day completely repugnant. Top that off with not being a creative/crafty/seamstress type mom, so the costume issue can be daunting. (I've used eBay in the past - this year all but baby's costume were borrowed.)

And then there's the candy problem, which is first that it is expensive to buy and second (more importantly) who really wants their kids to eat all the loot they bring home? Total immune system zapper and hyperness accelerator. No thank you. So bah, humbug!

Except... I don't quite have enough oomph behind my convictions to actually stop participating. Our church annually holds a Trunk-or-Treat for the whole community and it's always a blast. See all your friends in one place, safe environment, shorter walk, and this year there was hot chocolate and an amazing chili feed to go with the traditional fresh homemade donuts.

Oh, and did I mention that it was held on Saturday so as not to disrupt the Sabbath? Perhaps just a little like Dickens' Scrooge, revisiting the childhood fun and community spirit of this Halloween, the way we celebrated it, has caused me to shake off my humbug attitude once again and just enjoy it.

Love/Hate with Diapers

Yesterday I had the privilege of helping friends in need. I got to watch their five kids while they (mom & dad) were (still are) at the hospital. Spending my day this way was really great - I'm not being sarcastic. Their kids are so good at playing together, helping, obeying, etc. I was able to reflect on a lot of positives from the experience. But. Well, these dear friends of mine use cloth diapers. And their second-youngest (who wears cute little panties) refused to try going to the bathroom any of the 100 times I reminded her. So I got to clean up her mess (unexpected accident of #2 in her pants, ugh) but even worse (though just slightly) was the cloth diaper inside her little brother's rubber pants. I will spare you the gruesome details, but anyone who used/uses cloth because it was/is your only choice - like my mom - I admire you just a bit more. (Maybe I should admire the current women doing it out of choice but hey - it's their choice if they want to deal with that disgustingness several times a day. No bonus points for insanity.)

When we lived in Brazil there were only two brands of diapers available, in very small packages, and both were, I assume, more like the first American prototype of disposable. Which is to say I used them gratefully but longed for and thought I appreciated what we have here in the States. I now know that I have never appreciated disposable diapers as I ought. I am fully aware that these kinds of diapers are on the banned list of all "environmentalists"and because I now, more than ever, looooooove disposable diapers probably labels me an Evil Earth Hater.

Charlie, on the other hand, might be trying to send me a subtle planet-hugging message...

He prefers going natural.

Charlie takes his diaper off every chance he gets (then puts shoes back on - in this case his brother's snow boots)! I wonder if there is any connection between his diaper dislike and his recent favorite book?
He's 26 months old now. If he really wants to be done with diapers, he will be my youngest boy to do so. But I don't think I am ready for the constant viligence (and inevitable accident clean-up) just yet. It's bad enough, really, that I have to read that book every day!

Pleasure Reading

For some people any reading is a chore. For most, I think, it falls into a couple of categories: “work” and “pleasure.” Work Reading is things people feel they “should” read even if they're not that interested . Maybe it's dry material relating to one's employment or school, but often it includes news, non-fiction, and even the classics. Pleasure Reading then is filled up with the latest fiction best-sellers, summer-fun suggested reading lists from the Today Show, and magazine subscriptions. I'm not saying those are bad things, just that it is such a shame that reading for pleasure has become a) so limited and b) so scarce. I found recent data that says the average American spends between 2-6 hours each day watching television and spends as little as 10 minutes a day reading. Whoa.

That is something I just don't understand. Much as I like a few good shows, I am driven by insatiable curiosity that can only be satisfied through books. I fall into a third category to which all reading is a pleasure and so I'm a voracious reader who dabbles in every topic and genre, eclectically reading whatever grabs me at the moment. So I think I know wherewith I speak when I say that too often the most popular books are inarticulate and even offensive (whether in subject or as in "to my intelligence") and it pains me that those are the books people are spending their meager 10 minutes perusing. Though the plot may be quite gripping, they tend not to have anything to gain from the reading – no horizon to expand, no lesson to absorb, no application to real life, no moral to disseminate. For me, there is ultimately little pleasure in reading something so easily tossed aside and it is disturbing to me how little people seem to care with what they are filling their time and their precious brain.

With all this floating around in my mind, I came across a BBC's 100 Best Books list via Facebook this week. Now, we all have our personal opinions about what should be considered a “good” book, but this list really had some issues. In particular it bugged me because it contained REPEATS! I mean, there are way too many great works out there to waste precious list space on something repetitive like “Collected works of Shakespeare” followed further down by “Hamlet.”

Annoyed, I set out on a hunt to find all (or at least most) of the Best Books lists on the Internet. There were two “best” lists created by Modern Library (one was a decided by panel, the other by public vote – like the BBC's original list), one from a panel conducted by Time magazine, one from Entertainment Weekly, one from Radcliffe publishers, one from Penguin Classics, and of course many lists created by various educator's groups, message boards, and blogs. Most lists were of “modern” novels, defined as published since 1923. I did find a couple of non-fiction lists and an excellent resource for lists of classics suggested by age group (links: children and youth)...

What I did with that info was paste as many as I could onto a spreadsheet, then I cleaned it up, alphabetized it, and deleted the duplicates... I ended up with 504 titles! Why did I do all of this? To create a true catch-all BEST list for conscientious adult readers. A place to go to when we're deciding what's next for our “pleasure reading” or how to make the “work” of reading more pleasurable by having truly the best choices.

In the end, I decided one ginormous list was overwhelming, so what I now have to share with you is (each in their own post):
1. Classic Works that Really Should Be Read (the best "classics" both old, modern, fiction, and non) 135 titles,
2. Best of Classic Literature (oft-ranked classic lit not represented in #1 and older than #3) 75 titles, and
3. Best Modern Titles (some truly great and some merely popular) 294 titles (there's a sprinkling of non-fiction in there)

Please let me know if you spot any straggling duplicates or mis-categorized titles (modern vs. classic). Children's and Juvenile lit were not included. Maybe I'll work on those another day. (But with my current bleary-eyed state, I'd say that day is not too near.)

Happy Reading! And be sure to leave a comment with your favorite book(s) if it is missing.

Timely Essay... From 1958!

Hubby got this essay in pamphlet form at a county government meeting he participates in monthly. We were impressed, so thought I'd share it.

I, Pencil

(I removed the full text 'cause I wasn't sure about copyright, so click the link. I promise it's worth it.)

Random Sampler vol.1

Observations from each family member. The first in what could become a montly post.

Isaac asks, out of the blue, "If the Galapagos are on a Hot Spot, does that mean the islands were made from volcanoes?" Umm, yes dear; I think so. He proceeds to draw a series of pictures with underwater volcanoes eventually forming islands with fabulous animals on them. This is, I think, the first one.

I'm sharing this ad on behalf of Mark, and in the spirit of Inauguration Day:

"Communists and Socialists and Marxists of America unite! We finally have a real president who holds our values dear. We support Obama because he wants to nationalize health care, take money from hard-working Americans to give to the poor, and make one class of people. Hooray for communism! Hooray for Obama! Hooray for Obamunism! (That whole democracy thing just wasn't working out anyway.) So, if you are anti-Obama or anti-Democrat (or just totally in love with Obama's Communism, Socialism, or Marxism...freak,) you want this shirt."

Charlie's favorite "toy" is a hammer. Really. More than balls, cats, chocolate milk, anything, he wants to play with a real hammer.

He calls it "ham" of course. His second fave is a real screwdriver. We try to keep the toolbox far away from him, but if he spots one of these tools on a counter he will monkey his way to ownership fast as, well, a crafty little monkey.

Sorry to use this word, but really I pretty much hate the in-blog music players! Let me count the ways. 1. We don't all have the same taste in music. Ahem. 2. Say it's late at night that I'm catching up on my bloglist, your first track comes crashing through my cozy silence, possibly waking my children. 3. Perhaps I already have music playing, or maybe I want to watch a video that's on your blog... 4. It's really annoying to have to scroll all the way to the bottom to stop your player. 5. If you must inflict your favorite songs on your blog viewers, please put the player in the sidebar so that discerning visitors can put an end to the madness as quickly as possible. Thank you!

At dinner last night, Sam throws this thought at us: "If I was Tasha and Uniqua said 'Grab the ropes!' I would just grab the ropes. But I'm not Tasha, I'm Sam." Glad we got that straight. I think he does sometimes wish he were Austin, Pablo, or Tyrone though.

And why does he have an oral fixation all of a sudden? His shirts get soggy from him chewing on them. Eww, I know.

You gotta read Gatto

Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling by John Taylor Gatto

My review

rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
This little book is life-changing. Not in a wonderful, affirming way like reading the scriptures but similar in the recognition of the Truth being told. Admittedly a bit of a downer, Gatto also uses perhaps a few too many personal anecdotes and too little empirical data, yet it becomes (quickly & uncomfortably) impossible to doubt the veracity of his claim - that public schooling is bad in a way that cannot be reformed but only revolutionized.

He has a much more in-depth treatise on the subject (The Underground History of American Education) that I'm confident removes the heavy personalization in this text (which should be understood as this book is compiled of speeches the author has given, often while accepting personal accolades). So now, as the mother of three children, one currently school-age, what to do? Much more reading is in store.


View all my reviews.

P.S. A little note about GoodReads... I'm newly signed up and a little bit addicted. It's like when I started with Netflix and (since they suggest movies for you based on your ratings) I spent hours rating movies and adding movies to my queue. So now with GoodReads, even though I only have 9 "friends" so far, I feel compelled to rate, and sometimes review, not only some of my very favorite books but also some of my least favorite. (My ratings do figure into the total rating for the book, so I feel a little like it's social engineering - trying to knock the Twilight books down a notch, for instance.) Anyway, it's fun trying to remember that one book about India that I read for bookclub five years ago and loved so much (City of Joy), etc. I'm not exactly sure the point of my post-script, but I guess you can consider this a plug for the website.

I.O.U.S.A. and other political happenings

Mark & I went to the movies tonight for our weekly date. Not your typical cinematic feature, we went to the premiere of I.O.U.S.A., a documentary designed to enlighten and engage American citizens to fight for the adoption of sound fiscal policy by our elected officials. The film is great, easy to understand, full of important information, and I would encourage everyone to check it out. Don't worry if you don't want to spend your precious entertainment fund on this type of flick, you can catch it for free on PBS in January. I do not, however, endorse the panel discussion we witnessed afterwards. I'm pretty sure that was a premiere-night bonus but some of the comments from the "esteemed" panel really undermined the message of the film or were just plain inaccurate.

I haven't written much lately on the political front. Did you think my activism died with McCain securing the Republican nomination? Well, it didn't. Mark & I have joined in Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty, who's mission is "to promote and defend the great American principles of individual liberty, constitutional government, sound money, free markets, and a noninterventionist foreign policy, by means of educational and political activity. " So I guess attending tonight's movie & telling you about it counts as forwarding that cause, though they are not directly related (just the "sound money" part). And we now own all the teaching materials for the Constitution Class that we participated in at the beginning of our political awakening so that we can offer the class in our own home (someday when we can find the time).

We've also become members of The John Birch Society which entitles us to a subscription to their magazine, The New American, and provides us with a bulletin of current, concise information about the bills before Congress and the Senate so that we can decide what we would like our Representatives in Washington to do, and let them know.

Tonight, an article on the JBS website caught my eye which led me chasing crumbs around the internet (did you hear about the PETA scandal?) and I ended (before coming here) on an essay by Selwyn Duke entitled "Why John Edwards' Affair Matters". It is a fabulous argument on why our politicians need to be persons of character. Sad that there needs to be an argument, don't you think? Here's an excerpt:

Many people will defend the character-doesn’t-matter position by self-assuredly saying that the only relevant factor is that a person is competent. This is a nice fantasy; it’s a bit like saying it doesn’t matter if a computer has corrupted files as long as the hardware is top-notch. An auto mechanic may have tremendous talent in his field – great “raw material” – but it’s all for naught if you can’t trust him to render honest diagnoses, only do necessary work, install new parts when you pay for them, and ensure the job is well done. Ability isn’t the only prerequisite for competence; conscientiousness and perseverance are two others. And what are they a function of?

Character.

[...]If some scoff at this, I submit that their sense of shame is sorely lacking. There was a time when children often heard the admonition, “Don’t bring shame upon the family.” But you only have to surf YouTube, MySpace or some other juvenile den of iniquity to know that the “Hey, hey, ho, ho, guilt and conscience have gotta go” movement has been largely successful. No, we’re no longer “repressed”; we’ve regressed – to a state of licentiousness reminiscent of the ancient Roman ignobility. And don’t mistake it for the freedom of having shed shackles; it’s the bondage of having shed morality.

I hope that hearing about some of my beliefs and activities encourages you to 1. educate yourself and 2. become involved in the political process. Because truly "we, the people" have the power to change the course of things and keep America the great Land of Liberty, but it's going to take some work people!

Short Videos from the Rally

I caught a few salient points on camera, but probably not the very best ones. (Those would be said, the crowd would cheer wildly, and I'd start recording in hopes of a follow-up whopper.) Also, I had Charlie in my lap most of the time, so you'll have to excuse the shakiness and other noises.) In this first clip Ron Paul is talking about how there are more things he wouldn't do as President, than things he would (i.e. how hardly any part of our current government is functioning as it should)...


A little about the War in Iraq (or is it against the War Against Terrorism? Are those really the same thing? Since it's all undeclared, I guess they can call it whatever they want)...

Lady hollers: "We also wouldn't have had Hitler [if we had properly declared all wars]." Just her opinion, I'm only clarifying for the curious listener.


Last clip, Paul is referring to the Patriot Act (forgive the shaky, dark pan of the audience - it was my unsuccessful plan to show how big the crowd was)...


I got a little of his fiscal policy as well as his anti-NAFTA and United Nations feelings but they are both a bit mid-stream, and I didn't capture anything about his health care or education policies, so I'll just refer you to his officially released statements for anyone still interested in understanding why Mark & I are so passionate about what Ron Paul stands for.

On the run

This photo, with it's blury, back-lit, chopped off head, is a good example of how difficult it is to capture the quintessential moments of daily life. Great photography is elusive, if not impossible, for me. I know the basic rules of lighting and composition. I don't have a fancy camera, but I do have a decent digital with all sorts of fancy options, a tripod, and Photoshop. I also know that I have to sneak up on Charlie if I don't want him to stop what he's doing and attack the camera, and I have to get creative if I don't want the plastic "cheeeeese" smiles on the big boys. (Any tips are welcome.) Despite the fumbled opportunities, I enjoy both the attempts and the results. Even this one. I will always remember how I ran back and forth on my knees trying to lure Charlie into the light, but still hoping somehow to capture how sweetly he was playing with his puppy. Failure? Maybe. But look how screamingly happy he is!