My Own Thoughts

Or, rather, with the guy who interviewed the suicide bombers can be found at Counterterrorism Blog. Thanks to Blackfive for the heads up.

A new “Stonehedge” type place has been discovered in Brittany, France. Read all about it in The Independent. But what I found interesting was this: The middle and late-neolithic (or Stone Age) and early Bronze Age in western Europe – roughly from 4000 BC to 1500 BC – was a period of rapid and revolutionary [...]

Farmers have preferred uniform ripening in tomatoes, for example, enabling mechanized harvesting. Also, they’ve bred them for a hearty consistency to ensure they’ll survive transcontinental transit. What’s sacrificed, however, is taste. “With the tomatoes you find in the grocery store,” says Mary Brittain, of the family-run Cottage Gardener, in Newtonville, Ont., “people say they’re just [...]

Carrots, for instance, have not always been orange. In nature, they’re also red or purple or white — and they’re just as likely to be spicy as sweet. Over the past 50 years, thanks to modern farming techniques, North American consumers have lost touch with the white peaches, tart “lemon cucumbers,” and chocolate-tinted tomatoes that [...]

No. I haven’t changed the blogs I read. But I’m getting more and more weirdness coming out in the ones I do read. Language Log gives “authoritarian conservative” Kilpatrick the arguments LL thinks he’ll respect. Is he an “authoritarian conservative”? I don’t know. I do know that appealing to the experts would be a good [...]

I enjoyed the Funeral Museum. Does that tell you something about me you didn’t already know? Probably not. I liked the hearses, some from the 1800s. I liked seeing the carved wood, knowing how they carried the caskets. The museum had lots of samples of old caskets, including iron ones from the Civil War. They [...]

Tomorrow we are going to the Funeral Museum and Glenwood Cemetery. (Go here to see the Flickr Photoset of the cemetery.) I used to enjoy going to cemeteries, but couldn’t interest hubby in that. Now he’s taking me and the boys. I think it will be fun. I think the boys should probably go to [...]

Bloodletting has a post about someone getting an IV in their foot during the Army’s combat lifesaver course. It is a good read. It reminded me of the IV they did this time. … I was totally awake. They did not numb my arm. It hurt so much I thought I was going to puke. [...]

It’s week 7.5 and the bowels have been working well for a week or so. The bladder not so much, although I am getting some sensation back. I also feel I may have been upset for no reasonable reason at my children when they had “to go now.” Maybe their bladders really didn’t tell them [...]

A Pakistani has killed one and wounded five because he was “upset” about Israel. Those shot were at the Jewish Federation. This is wrong. It is wrong to kill people because you are mad or upset. And it is wrong to hate people because they are from a different religion or country or background. American [...]

My eldest is looking at a math degree and a career in math. What sites can I send him to in order for him to learn more about the possibilities? “Careers in Mathematics” is the short version of a paper given by the math chair from SWBU. It has relevant quotes, lists of careers in [...]

High school English, unlike science or math or history, has more than one text book. “English” or “Language Arts” covers more than one topic. It means reading and, more specifically, reading literature. It means writing. It means grammar, not just in writing, but the actual rules of grammar itself. It means spelling, in the lower [...]

How about 0 to 60 in four seconds? Top speed 130 MPH? (Assuming you can find a space to do that safely.) Fuel costs of two pennies a mile? And a range of 250 miles? (Okay, I can go farther in my car, but not much. I can go 320 if I’ve been on the [...]

Big Lizards has a great post that explains 1) why people keep saying Israel’s response to Hezbolah has been “disproportionate” and 2) why the “criminal justice” versus “war” argument hasn’t flown with the left. It’s great. Go read the whole thing. Here’s a tiny taste: And just now, the answer I’d been seeking struck me [...]

My husband and I wrote our own vows. Recently he said he wished he knew what he said. I told him that I had the vows. I don’t think he believed me. Here is what he said: I love, honor and cherish you today and I will forever. I cannot promise you riches or health [...]

Opinion Journal has an article on a woman whose dad was “dying” and the doctors kept asking her to let him go cheerfully. “Dr. Death” was just one of several. A new resident appeared the next day, this one a bit more diplomatic but again urging us to allow my father to “die with dignity.” [...]

Right on the Left Coast has a blog entry which explains why the Left hates America. It makes sense. I’ve seen it. I have seen other of the “folk Marxist” theories in action. Short answer: They hate us because by being rich and powerful we MUST be the oppressor. But don’t settle for the short [...]

File it Under wrote an answer to a question I posted in the comments. I laughed aloud when I read God’s answer to him. I cried when I read some of what he wrote about God. And I bawled my makeup off when he said he would pray for E.

Baby Triceratops has been found in Montana. (Bones of it, anyway.) Just in case I ever get to teach dinosaurs again.

“Here’s a fascinating fact,” she said. “There is no literacy gap in home-schooled boys and girls.” The above is almost a throw away line in a Fox News story about the gender gap in learning which favors girls over boys. I read about it originally at The Common Room, but, aside from repeating it to [...]