Lots of links today. Categories: Animals, Books, Christian, Connecticut, Education, Faith, Food, Fun, Health, International, Louisiana, Marketing, Not In Our Name, Phenology, Politics, Sex, Sports, Women's Issues, Weird, Writing...but, regretfully, not Zazzle.
Animals
Since some people have discovered this site by searching for information about monarch butterfly caterpillars...
This web site missed National Moth Week, and also Bad Poetry Day. (I was online on Bad Poetry Day. Someone tweeted a reminder that it was Bad Poetry Day. I did other things on that day.) If you didn't do anything about National Moth Week in July, you missed it too, but here's a list of moth resources with some cool images of interesting-looking moths. (Actually, some of the big showy ones are moths, and some of the little drab ones are butterflies...that's one of the first things you learn when you start looking them up.)
Tortie Tuesday was yesterday, but I happened to find these cute photos of a classic "tortie" cat today:
Books
If you liked E.T., what you might not absolutely love about this book is that Kotzwinkle's impression of a bear is as fully realized a character as E.T., but a completely different character.
Christian
Tying directly into the previous post:
Connecticut Update
New school for the Sandy Hook students opens next week:
http://www.dailygood.org/story/1367/to-feel-the-love-a-conversation-with-barry-svigals-jeff-zaleski/
Education
Delightful! (Even though it's The Blaze...European readers may need to be warned that this site is known for annoying ad clutter, or then again, it may not open for European readers at all. The Blaze is not Glenn Beck's blog; it's a group news blog he helped launch--but it's addressed to his U.S. audience.)
Less delightful...I have three thoughts for young Khadidja Issa. One: it sounds as if your younger sister got into the school with the better English program because she was already ahead of you academically, so maybe you should focus on studying harder instead of suing the school. Two: it sounds as if you're my kind of refugee (several G.E.D. tutors in the family!), so if you want just to back away from the hate your suit is generating and go to a friendlier school, we can discuss whether your family are the refugees this web site has invited to stay at the Cat Sanctuary. I warn you, though, growing up still involves hormone surges that feel absolutely horrible no matter how well off a teenager is, and English is still a hard language to learn--harder if older. Three: it sounds as if your primary problem may be that your baby sister is giving herself airs because merely being younger gives her a physical advantage in language learning, and if so, the position of this web site is that she's acting bratty and should stop it now.
Faith (Differences In)
Most of the people who call themselves Witches, Wiccans, or Pagans probably wouldn't find a Christian, fiscally conservative site a "safe space." However, this web site hates only censorship and actual abuse of persons. We offer bigotry no sanction. So yes, this site is being maintained as a safe space for any and all open-minded modern-style, nonviolent New Age Witches. And Muslims. And Mormons. And Catholics. And Buddhists. I may disagree with what you believe, but I uphold your right to believe it. Blessed Be.
(What about Jewish? someone may ask. I am a whole-Bible Christian. Grandma Bonnie Peters has "converted" and been a member of a Messianic Jewish temple. Differences between the two labels should be strictly cultural. I have no plans to disown the long line of active Christians in my actual family tree, partly because some people think I look Jewish...anyway, this site intends to be more than merely safe for non-Socialist Jewish readers. If they want to subscribe, post, or comment, they are positively welcome.)
Food
Sharon Brown shares two hominy recipes...meh. Most traditional Southern hominy recipes appeal to me less than just plain grits, lightly salted. (Grits, like cornbread, could also be sweetened, but that's just Not the Southern Tradition. If you sweeten it you call it something else and serve it as dessert. "Grits" implies a savory main dish for breakfast, sometimes fortified with meat or cheese.) What's cool about grits is that corn bran contains a phytochemical that interferes with the balance among B-vitamins in the body and can, if eaten frequently in a low-protein diet, hasten the development of deficiency diseases. With grits (or hominy or posole, as explained) the bran is removed, so you don't have to eat your corn products along with something high in protein to maintain a balance. Not that children don't love cornbread or grits with milk, or adults don't appreciate cornbread with beans or chili, or grits with eggs, bacon, ham, cheese, or chicken...but if you're vegan and don't feel like eating beans or mushrooms at breakfast, with grits you don't have to.
Fun
From Twitter:
http://www.bartertheatre.com/shows/afpp-mini-production-an-impossible-combination/201606081415362379
Health
Vegans go back to school...Mary McDougall and her daughter Heather will be hosting a Webinar, tomorrow, about packing healthy vegan box lunches. Register today to get your question in.
(As featured in...)
Is BPA (a chemical used in canning, which can contaminate foods) anywhere on your list of food-buying worries, in these GMO-and-glyphosate-infested days? It's not on mine...but @kroger already promised to take it off everybody's list, permanently.
International
Since this site has no foreign policy, its only comment on this link will be that it may interest some readers:
Louisiana Update
Our President finally gets to Louisiana...after the crisis. (Remember, please: presidential entourages are a nuisance during the crisis, so this doesn't prove that the President doesn't caaare.) But where does he visit, and why? (For those who don't already know, a lot of these "conservative" sites are already self-censoring out of readers' feeds just by running too many flashy annoying ads, and Breitbart has to be the granddaddy of'em all.)
Marketing
The whole article is worth reading, but the last paragraph...!!!
Not In Our Name
The death penalty is not unconstitutional and, in Dylann Roof’s case, it's justified. It’s too late to ask my Confederate great- and great-great-grandfathers what they’d say to the idea of killing a lot of church people in a church…I suspect Colonel William Peters
, who was only distantly related to the ones in Gate City but is still one of my favorite Confederates, would have volunteered to execute Roof himself. Even in war, even under orders, and even at the risk of his own life, the Colonel refused to kill noncombatant supporters of his enemy. I wouldn’t be surprised if my direct ancestors felt the same way. I'm sure more aggressive Confederates, like the generals whose names everyone remembers, would have shot Roof where he stood. Not in the name of the Confederate States of America can anyone do such a vile, cowardly thing. Nor in the name of any legitimate Tea Party, either.
, who was only distantly related to the ones in Gate City but is still one of my favorite Confederates, would have volunteered to execute Roof himself. Even in war, even under orders, and even at the risk of his own life, the Colonel refused to kill noncombatant supporters of his enemy. I wouldn’t be surprised if my direct ancestors felt the same way. I'm sure more aggressive Confederates, like the generals whose names everyone remembers, would have shot Roof where he stood. Not in the name of the Confederate States of America can anyone do such a vile, cowardly thing. Nor in the name of any legitimate Tea Party, either.
On another site, in a discussion of the news item linked below, someone asked, basically, "Why honor the memory of the things people got wrong?" I didn't have an answer at the time. Now I think that one reason to preserve, and honor, the memory of our misguided ancestors (and everybody had misguided ancestors) is to remind everyone to study exactly who they were, and what they did, and why...so that idiots like Roof can't do the most quintessentially "Yankee-ish" kind of dastardly deed in the name of the Confederacy. The Confederates made plenty of mistakes, and their notion of honorable warfare led directly into some of those mistakes. The notion of honorable warfare does, however, rule out murdering innocent, unsuspecting, old ladies and little children in a church. The Confederates would have agreed that that's obscene.
Phenology Links
Although I'm still seeing some pretty flowers--clover, roses, feral "Rose of Sharon" (Hibiscus syriacus), Queen Anne's Lace, Queen of the Meadow--I'm also seeing these midwestern flowers:
And goldenrod, although I've not seen this midwestern "prairie" species.
And these "weeds." No need to try to eradicate them! People eat them!
Politics (Election 2016)
Scott Adams reminds us that there's some good in almost everything, even this horrible election:
Nick Gillespie is less optimistic:
I can see why Hillary Clinton would want to shut down this web page. Read it before she does! (Tolerating this kind of free speech, when you're the target thereof, is a proof of True Americanism that ought to be required of all candidates, but I'm guessing that the pampered, all-about-my-little-feelings sector of "millennials" can't imaaaagine why....merely because it's what made your pampered, sheltered upbringings possible y'little brats!) This site is difficult to read and cluttered with annoying ads and videos, but...
Politics (General)
But Michelle Obama just out with something very, very good, and true, and relevant. (Yes, that's "out with" used as a verb, whether Google annoyingly tries to "fix" it or not.) This web site hasn't had nearly enough opportunities to applaud Mrs. Obama. If it did audio, it'd insert a recording of the two-minute applause track you've heard (occasionally) on TV.
I am (a small yet visible part) Cherokee (most Cherokee people I know say "Indian," but I don't, because) my husband was (predominantly) of Indian descent, and I'd like to put it on the record the headline of this article profoundly annoys me. We should never ban, or have banned, any document "for racism." We should acknowledge the role of racism in history, and learn from it!
Since I posted earlier about White privilege, might as well share Jim Wallis' new book on the subject. The usual cautions apply--he's about as left-wing as it's possible for Protestants to get--but he's an old friend-of-a-friend and I believe he's a sincere, though old-school, Christian, and a good writer. The position of this web site, once again: Don't stop giving whatever "privileges" you currently give to your own people...but do, please, consider extending them to other kinds of people too.
Politics (Virginia)
Virginia Republican-fest alert: I, Priscilla King, officially reply to this invitation thusly: If my Significant Other is able to drive to this with me, which is only what I've been praying for, is it only two years now?--then both of us will be there. In a Ford truck. With an "ISIS Hunting License" decal. And my top-heavy figure will be draped in a modestly loose "Gate City: I Still Pray" T-shirt. And we'll go as high as we can toward bribing Grandma Bonnie Peters to ride along and look for the "S.D.A. Tea" crowd, too...I no longer encourage her to drive, but she's still the heart of any alcohol-free party.
Oh, wouldn't that be fun! Realistically, I don't expect this to happen, so other fiscally conservative Virginians should fill in the gap and keep Virginia's Republican Party as close to the right track as possible.
Sex
It's a PDF. (Why does anybody ever even bother with PDF any more, anyway?) It's a low-graphics PDF so my computer does open it, as yours may not do; it's also very long. However, here's a scientific study that debunks the idea that teenagers who aren't constantly trying to make babies before they're eighteen may need to be encouraged to identify themselves as "sexual minorities."
"
There is no evidence
that all children who express gender-atypical thoughts or
behavior should be encouraged to become transgender.
"
Hat tip to Onan Coca for this fair and honest summary of what the study does say. Constitution.com may or may not work better than a PDF works for your computer; it does use some cookies and annoying pop-up ads. If you read the comments, you may notice me taking exception to some people's bigotry-based distortions.
Sports
Want to run five kilometers? In Utah? With U.S. Representative Mia Love? (Yes, it's Facebook, but the page opened for me from "old" Google Chrome.)
Weird
Sounds as if some students plan to unionize themselves right out of their student labor jobs:
Women's Issues
This link comes from a recent arrival in the United States. I think he's half right. We did once need a movement to call attention to the fact that women were, in practice, being cheated out of equal wages for equal work, relative to male co-workers. Now that that movement has called everyone's attention to that fact, it's often possible for remaining inequalities to be redressed--as in this case where a slightly less famous female movie star was getting lower pay than the male star--just by threatening to publicize injustice toward women. This is a case where the right-wing solution is currently more effective than anything the left wing called for, fifty years ago...but then again that's true because the left wing made its noise, back then.
Writing
Jerry Jenkins, coauthor of the blockbuster series, recommends a friend's post:
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