My Own Thoughts

“Tell me what you read and I’ll tell you who you are” is true enough, but I’d know you better if you told me what you reread. –Francois Muriac from Happy Catholic’s Well Said posts

If a book is really good, it deserves to be read again, an if it’s great, it should be read at least three times. –Anatole Broyard from Happy Catholic’s Well Said posts

Who knew? Er, God, probably. Routine periodic fasting may reduce the risks of heart disease and diabetes.

For our anniversary, my husband purchased two private dance lessons for us. We are going to learn to dance!!! My very first date was to a dance, but since I didn’t know how to dance, my date and I just went and talked. It might have been better to try and dance. He told me [...]

The fear mongers are out in the Web in droves and everywhere I go I read about recession and depression and economic meltdown. I wonder if those living in the early months of the depression realized what they were living through. And I wonder if we are really going to have a depression and, if [...]

M turned 16 on Friday. I took him today (Wed.) to get his license, but he wasn’t able to get it. His eyesight is too bad. Even though eight months ago he didn’t need glasses, now he does. And he needs them for both eyes. M is upset because he doesn’t want to look like [...]

Twenty years ago today we made a lifetime commitment to each other. I never expected that being married to someone could be so good. Thank you for twenty wonderful years.

New discovery: Murdoch’s preliminary design also contained an Islamic sundial One of the dozen epic-scale mosque features in architect Paul Murdoch’s Crescent of Embrace design is a year-round accurate Islamic prayer-time sundial. The shadow calculations take a bit of work to verify, but the overt similarity is immediate: Traditional Islamic sundial, left. The gnomon’s shadow [...]

I don’t care who says he doesn’t. When you don’t vote for a bill that would have protected born babies, you’re supporting infanticide. A Princeton professor offers a calm and detailed look at Obama’s history.

Maybe these are why my doctor said I need more Vitamin D. Science Daily says In a paper published in the August issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Norman identifies vitamin D’s potential for contributions to good health in the adaptive and innate immune systems, the secretion and regulation of insulin by the [...]

I’ve been telling my sons that for years. My mother says I “brainwashed” them. But it turns out, I was telling them true. Reuter’s has the article. Total brain volume decreased as alcohol consumption rose, the researchers found, and the relationship was stronger for women. “Alcohol is absorbed more rapidly in women than in men, [...]

An eighth grade textbook from Racine, Wisconsin: I just found out that my son’s new (copyright 2008) Wisconsin – McDougal Littell Literature book has 15 pages covering Barack Obama. I was shocked – No John McCain, no Hillary Clinton, no George Bush – Just Barack Obama. I’m wondering how it is that Obama’s story gets [...]

Erin O’Connor talks of academic freedom and William Ayers in an article that begins: Academic freedom does not mean “freedom from criticism.” But there are a lot of academics who would like it to mean that–and who respond to public criticism with cries that the criticism threatens academic freedom. The cries have grown especially loud [...]

If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all. Oscar Wilde via Happy Catholic

Governor Sarah Palin was on Rush’s show today and his last question indicates he thinks they aren’t going to win. He asked her if she has thought of her future political career. If she were going to be VP for the next four years, that would be enough to think about.

Gun shows are not, as some have argued, a venue for suicide and homicide. According to a new study from the University of Michigan and the University of Maryland, To determine the impact of gun shows, the authors traced the number of gun-related deaths in ZIP codes close to where gun shows took place, looking [...]

Disciriminations has an article on a survey done on Affirmative Action. He ends with: So, students at schools that employ racial preferences are less likely to believe that “diversity” has benefits and more likely to believe that it constitutes reverse discrimination than students at preference-free schools. That, of course, is not surprising, since they should [...]

Scribal Terror quotes Wikipedia: Although the ancient peoples probably did not realize that fingerprints could identify individuals, references from the age of the Babylonian king Hammurabi (1792-1750 B.C.E.) indicate that law officials fingerprinted people who had been arrested. In China around 300 C.E. handprints were used as evidence in a trial for theft. In 650 [...]

According to Inside Higher Ed, it does. The article, though, seems to be saying that there is a significant penalty, but maybe less of a penalty for someone who is “serious” about getting their bachelor’s. I hope I haven’t hurt my son’s chances of getting into a 4-year school with this. [A recent study]found a [...]

One of the bloggers I read regularly has written about his creation of a diary for himself which was “not linear.” He does a lot of thinking/brainstorming/planning and playing to come up with his visual diary. I enjoyed his discussion on the history of the days of the week and the pictures of his ultimate [...]