The natural order is blithely unconcerned with our happiness; our bodies are built with the family's -- and, hence, the species' -- best interest in mind. So, by nature, we barrel bedward with all the zest of salmon swimming upstream to spawn. With the same results. Have you ever seen the battered state of those fish at the end of their selfless, frantic fight against the current, over rocks, up hills, and over dams -- their tattered skin, broken fins, and glassy stares? They look like parents emerging, drained and dazed, from Chuck E. Cheese.

No wonder modern man, having figured out biological means to skip that whole, exhausting slog, prefers to live in a fish farm. We'd rather subsist like those shiny, bloated salmon that slurp around in corporate hatcheries, chowing down on niblets of corn, staying healthy with regular doses of hormones and antibiotics, and using red dye No. 2 to keep our flesh nice and pink. We may not build up all those healthy Omega nutrients that the authorities say would make us "better fish." Our offspring are fewer, but fatter. We might not turn out as complex, or courageous -- but our "effort to pleasure" ratio is a whole lot better.

In other words, if your whole political economy is based on putting a burden of debt on unborn generations, does not the existence of your political economy rest on the idea that the unborn generation shall and must come to be? If the Big Brother you worship and serve cannot remain solvent, indeed, cannot survive at all, unless the next generation outnumbers the current, is it not treason to Big Brother to remain infertile? ...

Civilization will probably return to the historical norm of having a dozen children as a retirement plan.

Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children born in one's youth. Blessed are they whose quivers are full. They will never be shamed contending with foes at the gate. (Psalm 127:4-5)

A system of social and economic organization that would substitute state monopoly for private ownership of the sources of production and means of distribution, and would concentrate under the control of the secular governing authority the chief activities of human life.

"The socialists, therefore, in setting aside the parent and setting up a State supervision, act against natural justice, and destroy the structure of the home." (source)

"Socialists...debase the natural union of man and woman...the [family] bond they...deliver up to lust. Lured...by the greed of present goods...they assail the right of property. While they seem desirous of caring for the needs and satisfying the desires of all men, they strive to seize and hold in common whatever has been acquired either by title, by labor, or by thrift." (source)

"...Socialism...cannot be reconciled with the teachings of the Catholic Church because its concept of society itself is utterly foreign to Christian truth." (source)

What particularly strikes me about Ghost Town is how easily it and films like it ... all get right at the meaning of life without being didactic and preachy.

The poor you will always have with you

"I appreciate we live in a multi-cultural society but what gives him the right to impose his beliefs onto me?"

I have been into debt and I had to work hard to get OUT. I suffered for my mistakes.
I have never been in debt. I played fair by the system. I suffered through delayed gratification while my neighbors bought nicer stuff.
I am in debt and I know I will have to work hard and suffer to get out.

I went into debt. I have bad credit, junk assets and I am asking the taxpayer to give me a sweet debt consolidation loan and then trust that I'll do better next time.

Wall Street 1901-03: -46%
The market was spooked by the assassination of President McKinley in 1901, coupled with a severe drought later the same year.

Wall Street 1919-21: -46%
There were fears that the new automobile sector was becoming overheated and that car ownership had reached saturation point.

Wall Street 1906-07: -48%
Markets took fright after President Theodore Roosevelt had threatened to rein in the monopolies that flourished in various industrial sectors, notably railways.

Wall Street 1937-38: -49%
This share price fall was triggerd by an economic recession and doubts about the effectiveness of Franklin D Roosevelt's New Deal policy.

Wall Street 1929-32: -89%
The Wall Street Crash heads the list, with the US stock market falling by 89 per cent between 1929 and 1932. The bursting of the speculative bubble led to further selling as people who had borrowed money to buy shares had to cash them in in a hurry when their loans wre called in. (source)

Place		Date		Pct. Loss
1		December 12, 1914		-24.39
2		October 19, 1987		-22.61
3		October 28, 1929		-12.82
4		October 29, 1929		-11.73
5		November 6, 1929		-9.92
6		December 18, 1899		-8.72
7		August 12, 1932		-8.40
8		March 14, 1907		-8.29
9		October 26, 1987		-8.04
10		July 21, 1933		-7.84
11		October 18, 1937		-7.75
12		February 1, 1917		-7.24
13		October 27, 1997		-7.18
14		October 5, 1932		-7.15
15		September 17, 2001		-7.13
16		September 24, 1931		-7.07
17		July 20, 1933		-7.07
18		September 29, 2008		-6.98
19		July 30, 1914		-6.91
20		October 13, 1989		-6.91

(source)

"There were people who had sat through Category 3 storms and this was only a 2. Nobody realized the water would be that bad."

ALL NEIGHBORHOODS...AND POSSIBLY ENTIRE COASTAL COMMUNITIES...
WILL BE INUNDATED DURING THE PERIOD OF PEAK STORM TIDE. PERSONS
NOT HEEDING EVACUATION ORDERS IN SINGLE FAMILY ONE OR TWO STORY
HOMES WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH. MANY RESIDENCES OF AVERAGE
CONSTRUCTION DIRECTLY ON THE COAST WILL BE DESTROYED. (source)

2. Some talented athletes require a school to achieve their potential (I am thinking football mostly). Uncommon problem for most homeschooling parents.

Only 24 states allow homeschoolers to participate in extracurricular activities at public schools.
...
Being banned from public school teams is reality for some. The Ketchum family has gone against its ideal of education and enrolled two of its children in high-powered Briarwood Christian Academy in Birmingham: daughter and future Auburn basketball player Ruth, who was searching for a basketball scholarship, and son Phillip, who wants to pursue football in college.

The more I think about this the more I think homeschoolers need to take this lump with the choice. If your kid is that good, put him back in school.

The main reason is one of allowing the state a foot into the door. Once you have opened that can of worms you have voluntarily relinquished parental rights that are presumably some of the reason you chose to homeschool in the first place. Ultimately parental rights are more important ...

The correct solution is regional un-affliated homeschool umbrellas. Another problem with allowing homeschool students into a public school to compete is that the choice opens up a WIDE chasm for abuse. For example, your son is struggling in the 9th grade. He is 5-star recruit good. Why not homeschool him and lower your academic standards so he can focus all of his attention on athletics? I would be an easy and widespread choice. The schools have no way to police this type of abuse nor do I think the taxpayers should pay for it. Homeschool umbrellas have the same problem EXCEPT that it requires a fee (you pay for your own stuff) to get in. The parents would also have to pool to pay for a salary, obtaining access to a practice field etc. Its a system that could be required to be self policed like mandatory testing to ensure a minimum of academics is met. All of this could be required to be covered at the expense of homeschooling parents (i.e. no taxpayer dimes) ... That leaves the whole system and thus the whole choice of homeschooling untethered from the state. Ultimately that is what needs to be retained.

More than ever, it appears that the promise of such pluripotent cells can be explored—all the way from basic science to the clinic—without the need to use or destroy human embryos, and so without political or ethical controversy.

The pre-hurricane effort in Louisiana before Gustav was unheard of in our state history. This is the first time I recall evacuations, for the most part, running smoothly. Some people want to give all the credit to Jindal but you hit the nail on the head with where the bulk of the credit belongs -- experience. Jindal did what he was supposed to do and since I like Jindal it doesn't hurt my feelings that he will be praised for his efforts. This storm even made Ray Nagin look better. I like to point out to folks who are not familiar with the history of hurricanes in Louisiana that it had been decades (Besty in the 60's) since New Orleans suffered a direct hit from a significant hurricane. The lower Ninth Ward flooded then just as it did with Katrina. In 2004 Hurricane Ivan headed towards NO and turned at the last minute. The evacuation for Ivan was an utter and complete disaster. Drive times from NO to BR (normally 1 hour) were in the 12+ hour range. People died in the resulting gridlock. What people don't realize is that for all that died in Katrina in 2005, it would have been a LOT worse if Ivan had not provided a dry run for the evacuation for Katrina. Still, the bad experience in 2004 almost certainly resulted in SOME of those who stayed and died (don't want to discuss the able vs. the unable -- they had a good plan for that with Gustav). The aftermath of Katrina provided very serious efforts from the state level all the way down to the prepared citizen. The mistakes made in Katrina were learned from -- at least in the short term.

Fast forward to Ike. One can make the case that Texas had its analog of Betsy-Ivan-Katrina with Carla-Rita-Ike. It had been a while since Carla (and there is very strong evidence in post-storm analysis that Alicia was not a major hurricane). A bad evacuation experience with Rita in Houston setup the people who stayed in Ike. The evacuation rate for Galveston with Rita was near 100%. Thousands supposedly stayed with Ike. Still Texas had a MUCH better plan this time. I fully believe that if the Houston metro area gets hit with another major in the next few years there will be no state more prepared to deal with it than Texas. Like I said, experience helps.

Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver said Mr. Biden should avoid taking Communion as a result of his pro-choice stand on abortion.

• “We do not hesitate to say that the acceptance of contraception will produce profound changes in our civilization, these changes are already taking place in countries that have officially endorsed contraception for one or two generations.”
• “Voluntary numerous families will progressively disappear, and the large family will tend to appear as a monstrosity.”
• “Populations and families which have deliberately become less creative will experience spiritual ageing and premature sclerosis.”
• “The idea and the ideal of family happiness will be downgraded in terms of a so-called right to happiness and of what people think are the ‘techniques’ of achieving it.”
• Morality among the young will deteriorate. The unmarried will be more licentious. The sexuality of women will lose its connection with marriage.”
• “There will be a grave change in the bond of love, due to the reversal of sexual function. It will remain fixed at an ‘adolescent’ stage. Society as a whole will slip into this ‘transitory’ stage.”
• “The maternal instinct will become sterile, due to the repression of the desire for children which is innate in women. There will be a silent hostility toward life and its first manifestations: pregnancy, childbirth and even sometimes towards dolls and babies.”
• “A new concept of sex, now essentially defined as ‘the capacity for erotic play for the sake of the couple,’ all reference to procreation now being only accidental.”
• “A growing tolerance of homosexual behavior, as erotic play that succeeds in expressing personal intimacy between friends or lovers.”
• “Finally, contraception will raise hopes which it cannot fulfill, and will give rise to frustrations and deep dissatisfactions, which will contribute to:
- The crisis of divorce and instability of modern marriages.
- The deterioration of mental health, and lack of sexual desire in women.
- The abdication of parents confronted by their task as educators.
- The ennui secreted by a civilization that is entirely centered on a comfortable way of life and sexual satisfaction.”
• “We may be accused of drawing a rather somber picture. No one will reproach us for not being frank. It only remains to justify these predictions.”

Women dressed in miniskirts and low-cut shirts have rallied at the doors of Mexico City's Cathedral during Sunday Mass, carrying signs that read: "Clothed and naked, I am the same."

Guadalupe Loaeza, a renowned Mexican social commentator, said she worries the priest's statements will be taken seriously and make it acceptable to blame the victim.

"It gives rapists permission to say, 'Well, she had on a miniskirt,'" Loaeza said. "What the church says has credibility — that's why this type of statement is so dangerous."