August 29, 2008
Human Events: Walter Williams - Is College Worth It?
Timely read now that our daughters are getting ready to leave home and begin adult life. Paul and I have had long and serious conversations with our daughters about what tens of thousands of dollars in student loans will mean for them as future stay at home mothers. I don't have all the answers, but this editorial should be read by all parents considering sending children to university, especially if they are going to have years of socialism shoved down their throats.
"Parents and taxpayers cough up billions upon billions of dollars to the nation's colleges and universities. Colleges make money whether students learn or not, whether they graduate or not, and whether they get a good job after graduating or not. Colleges and universities engage in "bait and switch," confer fraudulent degrees and engage in other practices that would bring legal sanctions if done by any other business. There is little or no oversight of the nation's over 4,000 colleges and universities that enroll over 17 million students.
There are some colleges, such as Grove City College and Hillsdale College, that do a fine job of undergraduate education. Useful information about what colleges are doing what can be found in the Delaware-based Intercollegiate Studies Institute's "Choosing the Right College."
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 6:36 AM
August 26, 2008
The American Scholar : Ivy Retardation By William Deresiewicz
I thought this opinion piece was really well written.
"It didn't dawn on me that there might be a few holes in my education until I was about 35. I'd just bought a house, the pipes needed fixing, and the plumber was standing in my kitchen. There he was, a short, beefy guy with a goatee and a Red Sox cap and a thick Boston accent, and I suddenly learned that I didn't have the slightest idea what to say to someone like him."
Being an intellectual begins with thinking your way outside of your assumptions and the system that enforces them. But students who get into elite schools are precisely the ones who have best learned to work within the system, so it's almost impossible for them to see outside it, to see that it's even there.
Smart sheep
There's been much talk of late about the loss of privacy, but equally calamitous is its corollary, the loss of solitude. What happens when busyness and sociability inherent in climbing the Ivies leave no room for solitude? The ability to engage in introspection, I put it to my students one day, is the essential precondition for living an intellectual life, and the essential precondition for introspection is solitude.
They took this in for a second, and then one of them said, with a dawning sense of self-awareness, "So are you saying that we're all just, like, really excellent sheep?" Well, I don't know. But I do know that the life of the mind is lived one mind at a time: one solitary, skeptical, resistant mind at a time. The best place to cultivate it is not within an educational system whose real purpose is to reproduce the class system.
The world that produced John Kerry and George Bush is indeed giving us our next generation of leaders. The kid who's loading up on AP courses junior year or editing three campus publications while double-majoring, the kid whom everyone wants at their college or law school but no one wants in their classroom, the kid who doesn't have a minute to breathe, let alone think, will soon be running a corporation or an institution or a government.
She will have many achievements but little experience, great success but no vision. The disadvantage of an elite education is that it's given us the elite we have, and the elite we're going to have."
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 8:00 AM
March 29, 2008
Freebirth: A Message to Obstetricians from Jenny Hatch, "Physician Heal THYSELF!!"
This video is hosted on My Share Page at One True Media
In the past few months four obstetrics societies have made public statements about Unassisted Childbirth.
The Canadian Doctors (SOGC):
The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC)
The Australian and New Zealand Doctors:
The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
The Royal College (RCOG) in the UK:
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG)
And in a recent article in the Denver Westword Newspaper (I was interviewed for this story)
A Spokesperson for ACOG (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) claimed freebirth was "dangerous".
Childbirth goes solo.
By Jared Jacang Maher
Published: May 10, 2007
"According to the guidelines of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the organization "strongly opposes" any birth not performed inside a hospital. A spokesman for the ACOG has a one-word assessment of freebirth: "dangerous."
I have just one message for these doctors, and it is this:
"The moral of the proverb is counsel to prove your trustworthiness with your own affairs before attempting to tell others what they should do."
Break out of the Matrix!
When the various obstetrics societies PROVE that they have the will to reform themselves internally by setting up standards of care that are more about the mother and the baby than they are about the doctor and staff at the hospital, then I will feel more open about listening to any edicts they have about my lifestyle.
Hey Doctors: why don't you set some goals....
1. No inductions before 41 weeks
2. 10% C-section rate
3. No elective C-sections
4. Full acceptance of Lay and Nurse Midwifery both in the home and at the hospital
5. A Complete and total acceptance of VBAC (Vaginal Birth after Cesarean)
6. A willingness to embrace proper prenatal nutrition as the foundation for a healthy pregnancy as outlined by the Brewer Pregnancy Diet
When society stops locking up our midwives for bogus reasons, embrace and promote natural mothering as the IDEAL for a new baby (Natural Childbirth, Attachment Parenting, and Long Term Ecological Breastfeeding), then I will believe you have found your soul as doctors.
Until then? Well, I am going to continue promoting freebirth and encouraging families to break away from your way of giving birth, because frankly, the way you do it stinks.
Lamaze International has a white paper on Elective cesarean Vs. Vaginal Birth (PDF)
American College of Nurse Midwives:
RISKS OF CESAREAN DELIVERY ARE UNDERREPORTED,
BENEFITS OVERSTATED
Media Briefing Highlights Concerns In Advance of NIH Conference
QUOTE:
"Only women themselves can tell us if they are actually demanding cesarean section surgery. With what we are learning from Childbirth Connection today, we now know that women VERY rarely schedule first cesareans by choice without a medical reason," says Susan Hodges, president of Citizens for Midwifery. "Only women can tell us what kind of informed consent process was provided to them. Citizens for Midwifery believes that women are not being given adequate and unbiased information about all the risks and benefits of cesarean sections. Research is needed to understand who and what are now influencing decisions to perform major abdominal surgery 'for no medical reason' despite substantial evidence that all cesareans increase harmful risks for mothers and babies."
Free yourself from the Matrix~!
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 2:35 PM
October 8, 2007
NRO: Michael Barone: Coded on Campus
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 12:15 PM
October 3, 2007
Literacy: ch 4 of Liver Cleansing during the Childbearing Season
Here is the next chapter of my video book Liver Cleansing during the Childbearing Season:
Here is the link to the church reading curriculum based on the scriptures. It is titled Ye Shall Have My Words:
Ye Shall Have My Words is a scripture-based literacy course that teaches basic reading and writing skills. President Gordon B. Hinckley said this course “is designed to bring light into the lives of those who can neither read nor write”
Click on the image to get to a sample page from the teachers guide.
Teacher’s Guide
The teacher’s guide provides instruction for implementing the Ye Shall Have My Words course and contains the answers to the exercises in the student manual. This guide is now available in English, Portuguese, Spanish, and French. A revised English teacher's guide will be available in spring 2007.
Click on the image to get to the sample page of this manual.
Student Manual
The student manual provides a group study or tutorial program to teach beginning reading and writing skills to students in English, Portuguese, Spanish, and French. A revised student manual in English will be available in spring 2007. Text and vocabulary are drawn from the scriptures. (This is not an ESL program.)
Training DVD
The Ye Shall Have My Words Literacy Training DVD is designed to help literacy teachers use the basic scripture literacy course and help train literacy teachers. It illustrates the importance of gospel literacy, demonstrates how to find and meet literacy needs, and models how to teach a literacy class. The multilingual DVD provides content in English, Portuguese, Spanish, and French.
If you are interested in learning more about the churchs literacy curriculum, please contact Missionaries from the LDS church who will put you in touch with those who can help you learn to read! Go Here.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 12:18 PM
August 6, 2007
Ann Coulter: Did I miss the hip part?
This one is pretty funny:
"CNN commentators keep telling us how young and hip the audience was for last week's YouTube Democratic debate, apparently unaware that the camera occasionally panned across the audience, which was the same oddball collection of teachers' union shills and welfare recipients you see at all Democratic gatherings.
Noticeably, Gov. Bill Richardson got the first "woo" of the debate — the mating call of rotund liberal women — for demanding a federal mandate that would guarantee public schoolteachers a minimum salary of $40,000.
So much for the "younger, hipper" audience. Maybe CNN meant "hippier," as in, "My, she's looking a bit hippy these days."
Not counting talking snowmen, the main difference in the YouTube debate audience and the audience for the earlier CNN Democratic debate is that the YouTube debate had 173,000 fewer viewers in the 18-49 demographic. So it was provably not young and, on the basis of casual observation, definitely not hip.
As usual, the audience consisted mostly of public schoolteachers. According to CNN, the highest reading achieved on the CNN feelings-knob was for Richardson talking about public schoolteachers."
.....
'Democrats care about social service bureaucrats who make their living allegedly working on behalf of the poor — the famed "public service" the Democrats always drone on about — jobs that would disappear if we ever eliminated poverty. That's why Democrats keep coming up with policies designed to create millions and millions more poor people.
Democrats fight tooth and nail against any measures that would actually help the poor, such as allowing schools to fire bad teachers. They refuse to allow parents with children in the rotten D.C. public schools to take money out of the public school system so their kids could go to Sidwell Friends like Chelsea.
Most important, Democrats resolutely refuse to tell the poor the secret to not being poor: Keep your knees together until marriage.
That's it. Not class size, not preschool, not even vouchers, though vouchers would obviously improve the education of all students. You could have lunatics running the schools — and often do — and if the kids live with married parents, they will end up at good colleges and will lead happy, productive lives 99 percent of the time.
But Democrats don't care about the poor. They don't care about the children. They care about government teachers and other government bureaucrats — grimy, dowdy women who "woo" at political debates. Or as CNN calls them, the "young," "hip" crowd.'"
One of the things I love the most about my childrens charter school is all of the young fresh faces....the teaching staff! My experience in Michigan with most of my teachers being tenured old biddies who were winding down their education careers with democratic political activism sort of warped my mind about who public school teachers were. Sure I had some good teachers, but the memorable rotten ones make for some interesting stories.
I had a teacher who was suffering from alzheimers for 8th grade english. What a waste of my time to spend a whole year in her class! Because she was tenured they could not get rid of her. I grew up, married, and left home and was at my parents house reading the paper one day when I saw that this same teacher was suing the district because they had finally gotten up the gumption to fire her for incompetence. I wondered how many students had passed through her English class during those ten years since I had her as my teacher in Middle school.
It was a horrible example of how difficult it is to fire a teacher in regular public schools.
I love the charter school that my children currently attend. The distric had some bad press around this issue of firing teachers the first year that they opened. It was such an unheard of thing for teachers to be fired in BVSD. But it sent the clear message to the staff that if you don't do your job, you will be gone next year. Our teachers have to get rehired every year, and while this has made some of our programs somewhat iffy, like the theatre department which has had a new acting teacher every year that it has opperated, I do believe overall it has kept the teaching dynamic and fluid rather than allowing the staff to relax and just "get by".
Wouldn't it be great to see all tenured positions dropped and the education establishment completely rebuilt from the bottom up with no government money or rules messing things up and local control handed back to individual school boards?
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 11:31 AM
July 30, 2007
Fox Video: David Horowitz
David Horowitz on Hannity and Colmes
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 7:54 AM
May 22, 2007
Unassisted Childbirth and Thieves Essential Oils Blend are the answer for plagues of any kind!
I have been taking a blogging break for the month of May, just too busy, but a headline announcing plague at the denver zoo caught my eye yesterday and I thought I would repost an entry I did in September about the Thieves Blend of Essential Oils. It is below:
Here are a couple of highlights from the past few weeks.
Paul and I were part of the Denver WestWord Article on Unassisted Childbirth last week. Here is the link.
Laura Shanley has a round up of the various Unassisted Childbirth Media Stories from the past few weeks on her blog. Go Here.
And Here are the Links to all of the Freebirth articles: (This outpouring of Media Interest in UC Birth has been extremely gratifying to those of us who have been promoting it for many years!)
The Independent 3-20-07 (UK) - Oh, baby!
Guardian 5-9-07 (UK) - Going it alone
Marie Claire 5-10-07 (UK) - The women having 'extreme births'
Globe and Mail (Canada) - 5-15-07 - DIY delivery
Channel 2 News (Alaska) - 5-15-07 - Great Expectations This video clip contains the UC Birth of Twins at home alone, one was a footling breech.
Reuters - 5-22-07 (UK - London)- Freebirthers dismiss fear and bring babies home
The Age - 5-27-07(Australia) - No doctor, no midwife — women go it alone
Same family, different story from Australia - A 'relaxed, beautiful' entry for Carter
And here are the links to the various online versions of the many UC Birth articles that have been written in the past month: Bornfree web site.
And here is a quick overview of some headlines for parents, so many different voices and opinions. Mothers and Fathers really need to just follow their hearts and not listen to all of the fear mongering about babies.
Having large families is an "eco crime"
Vegans sentenced for starving their baby
Stay-at-home mother's work worth $138,095 a year
Navelgazing Midwife - Oh, The Homebirth Debate Blog - Insights into the psyche of the fraud named Amy Tuteur MD (Pseudonym for a couple PR guys from Eli Lilly out to destroy and shut down the debate around home birth with statistics!!!). Go Here
Marsden Wagner's new book Born in the USA: How a Broken Maternity System Must Be Fixed to Put Women and Children First - Go Here
Unassisted Childbirth forum at Mothering - Go Here
Here are a couple of links used in the various debates that I engaged in at Salon and the NHS Blog Doctors comment sections.
The website of the Pre and Peri Natal Psychologists - Go Here
A Declaration of the Rights of Childbearing Women
Monty Python Birth Sketch: And people wonder why we don't want to have a hospital birth?
I have also participated in two online chats at blogs where Unassisted Childbirth was being discussed. Go Here and Here.
Here is a link to a synopsis of my comments at Salon: Go Here
And my Comments at the NHS Doctors Blog starts with this one: Go Here
I posted quite a few entries on that blog, so keep scrolling down for the rest of my comments.
I tend to let myself go when debating with medical people, they are just so full of themselves.
The chats are filled with lots of rage against those of us who birth alone, but I want to take the chance to testify right here on this entry, that I believe bubonic plague is very much tied to unassisted childbirth.
If the hospitals are overun with patients hacking and dying from plague and/or any other disease (certain forms of staph infection only exist in hospitals!), it is the last place in the world a healthy woman should be giving birth to a healthy child. Preparing for a quiet home birth is the best investment a healthy mom can make to insure the safe arrival of her child, despite what those individuals with MDs after their names have say about it. And they have plenty to say, I've been talking to some of them all week!
Speaking of prepration, I was asked to do the Food Basics booth at our Church Preparedness Fair last saturday! It was really fun and I was thrilled to be a part of it.
A little video:
My dear friend Esther baked twenty loaves of bread for the booth. All but one and a half loaves were chowed down by the people who attended. We teach a bread class for young moms to learn how to make this amazing bread which only costs 25 cents a loaf to make from scratch.
I also recorded this version of Be Still My Soul a few sundays ago:
Here is a link to the plague article at Reuters:
I'll start blogging again when Allison and I get back from New York. Too busy right now with rehearsals for our Faure Requiem performance next week with Colorado Repertory Singers. Michelle is graduating and we have a boatload of activities to attend around her commencement from high school. She has decided to accept the scholarship from her Dads alma mater, so each moment we get to share with her until she leaves home is very precious. I'll start blogging again when and if things slow down.
Thieves blog entry:
With Cold and Flu season just around the corner, I am really excited about this new line of products from Young Living. I have been a Young Living Essential Oils Enthusiast for ten years, and have actively worked a business on and off (mostly off) for some years now. I absolutely love these new products. My favorites are the toothpaste, lozenges, and the oil blend.
Recently I started cleaning everything with the Thieves household soap - it does it all - toilets, hardwood floors, etc... Here is a run down of all of the products. A great place to start would be to order the Thieves Kit, which contains a variety of products from the Thieves line.
All are available on my Young Living Web Site
Thieves Kit - Code # 3173
How to use:
Thieves® Essential Oil Blend: For dietary, aromatic, or topical use. When using as a supplement, dilute one drop in 4 fl. oz. of liquid such as goat's or rice milk. Diffuse for short periods of time (1/2 hour or less) in the work or home environment. Possible skin sensitivity. If pregnant or under a doctor's care, consult your physician. Always dilute before applying to the skin or taking internally. Keep out of reach of children.
Thieves® Hard Lozenges: Dissolve one lozenge in mouth, as needed. Swallowing lozenges whole may cause choking. Keep out of reach of children and do not expose to excessive heat or direct sunlight.
Thieves® Spray: Spray on any surfaces that you feel need to be cleansed, such as kitchen and bathroom counters. Not for use on infants or on sensitive areas of the body.
Thieves® Bar Soap: Use as any regular bar soap. For external use only. Store in a cool, dry place. Keep out of direct sunlight and away from ultraviolet radiation sources.
Thieves® Dentarome Ultra Toothpaste: Brush teeth and gums thoroughly morning and night.
Thieves® Fresh Essence Plus Mouthwash: Rinse mouth with one tablespoon or capful of Fresh Essence Plus Mouthwash for 30 - 60 seconds or as needed.
The Thieves Products are also available individually for purchase:
Thieves Hard Lozenges - Code # 3282
Thieves® Hard Lozenges are a soothing, therapeutic blend of 7 natural essential oils and will refresh you mouth and breath. Lightly sweetened with stevioside and the low-gylcemic sugar maltitol, these lozenges deliver the power of Thieves®, the university-tested essential oil blend, along with the flavor of natural peppermint and lemon essential oils. For fresher breath and relief, try these lozenges.
Thieves Fresh Essence Mouthwash - Code # 3683
Thieves® Fresh Essence Plus Mouthwash contains a special formulation of essential oils that gives you incredibly fresh breath. The unique liposome technology (using soy-derived lecithin) binds the essential oils to the mucous membrane inside the mouth for longer-lasting effects on teeth and gums.
Thieves Essential Oil - Code # 3423
Thieves® was created based on research about four thieves in France who protected themselves with cloves, rosemary, and other aromatics while robbing plague victims. The proprietary Thieves® oil blend was university tested and found to be highly effective in supporting the immune system and good health.
Thieves® oil blend is an integral ingredient in Thieves® Household Cleaner, Thieves® Spray, Thieves® Wipes, Thieves® Lozenges, Thieves® Dentarome Plus and Thieves® Dentarome Ultra toothpastes, and Thieves® Fresh Essence Plus Mouthwash.
Thieves Cleansing Soap - Code # 3679
Thieves® Cleansing Soap is fragrant with the rich aroma of naturally antiseptic Thieves® essential oil blend. Moisturizing plant oils and botanical extracts help promote healthy, smooth skin. A natural soap for sensitive skin. How to use: Use as any regular bar soap. For external use only. Store in a cool, dry place. Keep out of direct sunlight and away from ultraviolet radiation sources.
Ingredients: Saponified Elaeis Guineensis (Palm) Oil, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, and Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil; Vegetable Glycerin; Syzygium Aromaticum Flower Bud Oil; Lycium Barbarum Seed Oil, Avena Sativa (Oat) Kernel Meal, Simmondsia shinensis (jojoba) Seed Oil, Citrus Limon (Lemon) Peel Oil, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Cinnamomum Verum Bark Oil, Eucalyptus Radiata Leaf Oil, Rosemarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf Extract. 100% pure therapeutic-grade essential oil Organically grown in accordance with the California Organic Foods Act of 1990.
Thieves Spray - Code # 3265
The Thieves® Spray is ideal for use on door handles, toilet seats, and any surface that needs cleaning. The small one ounce bottle is also the perfect size for any kind of traveling. How to use: Spray on any surfaces that you feel need to be cleansed, such as kitchen and bathroom counters. Not for use on infants or on sensitive areas of the body.
Ingredients: Pure grain alcohol, deionized water, Thieves® essential oil blend, fractionated coconut oil and soy lecithin. 100% pure therapeutic-grade essential oil.
Thieves Wipes - Code # 3756
Tired of using dirty sponges you have used a hundred times, only to spread the dirt around on the surfaces in your home? Try our Thieves® Wipes! They are ideal for use on door handles, toilet seats, and any surface that needs cleaning. Simply use and throw away. How to use: Wipe on any surfaces that you feel need to be cleansed, such as kitchen and bathroom counters. Not for use on infants or on sensitive areas of the body.
Ingredients: Pure grain alcohol, deionized water, Thieves® essential oil blend, fractionated coconut oil and soy lecithin. 100% pure therapeutic-grade essential oil.
Dentarome Plus Toothpaste! Code # 3738
Thieves® Dentarome Plus Toothpaste contains well-proven ingredients-thymol and eucalyptol-found in clove and thyme essential oils, along with gentle, odor-absorbing baking soda. Also contains the powerful oil blend of Thieves®, which was the subject of research published in the Jornal of Essential Oil Research. Dentarom Plus is usually preferred by adults. How to use: Brush teeth and gums thoroughly morning and night.
Ingredients: Baking soda, deionized water, vegetable glycerine, xanthan gum, ionic trace minerals, thymol, eugenol, steviocide (Stevia rebaudiana), the essential oils of wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens), peppermint (Mentha piperita), and the blend of Thieves [clove (Syzygium aromaticum), lemon (Citrus limon), cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum), eucalyptus (Eucalyptus radiata), and rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis)]. 100% pure therapeutic-grade essential oil.
Dentarome Ultra Toothpaste - Code # 3744
New Thieves® Dentarome Ultra Toothpaste is an advanced formula of all-natural ingredients that gently clean your teeth and freshen your breath while harnessing the powerful action of pure, therapeutic-grade Thieves® essential oil for fresh breath. How to use: Brush teeth and gums thoroughly morning and night.
Ingredients: Calcium carbonate, essential oil concentrate containing peppermint essential oil, Thieves® essential oil blend (a powerful blend of clove, cinammon bark, lemon, Eucalyptus radiata, and rosemary, zinc oxide, deionized water with papain, xylitol, vegetable glycerine, essential oil base (thymol from Thymus vulgaris), Eucalyptus globulus, and methyl salycilate from wintergreen, xanthum gum, zinc citrate, and stevioside. 100% pure therapeutic-grade essential oil.
All You Ever Wanted To Know About THIEVES HOUSEHOLD CLEANER
Ordering Information: All are available on my Young Living Web Site
Thieves Household Cleaner - Code 3743, 14.4 oz.
Wholesale/Distributor: $21.50
Preferred Customer/Autoship: $24.89
Retail Customer: $28.29
Dilution Proportions for Thieves Cleaner - NOTE: one capful cleaner = ½ tablespoon
Light degreasing (1:60)
1 capful cleaner : 3.75 cups water
1 bottle makes 30 quarts of light degreaser (.32/quart)
Med. degreasing (1:30)
1 capful cleaner : a little less than 2 cups water
1 bottle makes 15 quarts of medium degreaser (.64/quart)
Heavy degreasing (1:15)
1 capful cleaner : a little less than 1 cup water
1 bottle makes 71/2 quarts of heaver degreaser (1.27/quart)
Pots & Pans (1:100) ½ capful cleaner : 3+ cups water
1 bottles makes 50 quarts of dishwashing liquid (.19/quart)
Hand Cleaner (1:1) ½ cup cleaner : ½ cup water
1 bottle makes 1 quart of hand cleaner ($19/quart)
Floors ( 1:100) 1 capful cleaner : 6.25 cups water
1 bottle makes 50 quarts of floor cleaner (.19/quart)
Walls ( 1:30) 1 capful cleaner: a little less than 2 cups water
Fabrics, Carpet spotting, etc. (1:40)
1 capful cleaner : 2 cups water
Carpet (1:100) 1 capful cleaner : 6.25 cups water
Glass ( 1:320) -1 capful cleaner: 5 quarts water
All are available on my Young Living Web Site
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 6:32 AM
April 15, 2007
A Prophet Seer and Revelator Speaks on Politics
During the fifty five years that have passed since this talk was given, the level of propaganda and lies told about America has exponentially grown to the point where our citizens, if they are not rabid anti-americans, they are definitely on the fence about whether or not to feel good about our nation and our Godly heritage.
I know for me, the final bit of ambivalence I had about our history, especially our history around the Viet Nam war, was completely wiped away when I read this interview found at Front Page Magazine. I remember that as I read it for the first time a couple years ago, I was hitting the monitor of my computer, and when I finished it, I rammed my hand down on the computer desk, because I was so floored by what Mr. Pacepa had said.
Here is the interview, followed by Ezra Taft Bensons talk given at General Conference 55 years ago.
Member Of the Council of the Twelve Apostles (Please note, this talk was given in April of 1952 at General Conference)
"Beloved brethren and sisters, in humility I invoke the inspiration of the Lord and seek an interest in your faith and prayers as I stand for a few moments in this pulpit. I should like, if the Lord will bless me, to give vent to some thoughts that have been deeply impressed upon my mind for several weeks now. I hope I shall not be misunderstood. It seems to me that the day in which we live demands a frank and forthright consideration of some of the problems which face us not only as a Church but also as a great Christian nation.
With you I thrilled at the opening address of our great leader, President McKay. As I have thought of his remarks regarding this land of America, its achievements, and its needs, I have felt that I could characterize best what he said in two words: Spiritual Statesmanship. With you I love this land in which we live. I am proud of our heritage; I am grateful for the American tradition; I am thankful that the Lord has given through his prophets information regarding this great nation.
However, it seems to me that there are certain tendencies, trends, and practices which endanger very greatly our way of life and strike at the very foundation of much that we hold dear as a great Christian nation. Of course, the conditions of the world generally give us cause for concern. We seem to live in a world of conflict, insecurity, uncertainty, and almost bewilderment. We appear to be groping blindly, aimlessly, unable to find the way. Were it not for our faith in the prophecies of God I fear sometimes we would almost be tempted to give up.
We are in the midst of continuing international crises. The outlook for world peace and security is dark indeed. The gravity of the world situation, it appears, is increasing almost daily. The United Nations seems unable to settle the troubles of the world. In truth we are faced with the hard fact that the United Nations, it seems, has largely failed in its purpose. Yes, the days ahead are sobering and challenging ones. We might well ask,
America-what of the future?
I never travel across this great land and note its broad, fruitful farms, its humming factories and gleaming cities but what I am impressed with the marvels of this great nation. Yes, we have made unequaled material progress. We have become the greatest and the richest nation in all the world.
This has been done on about 6% of the land area of the world by a relatively small group of people, only 7% of the world's population. Yet it is reported that this small group of people produce today approximately half of the world's total wealth in usable form to satisfy human needs.
It is reported that in the year 1950 almost half of the food and fiber of the world was produced here in the United States. Our productivity has increased one-fifth every ten years since 1850. Through the use of machines much of the drudgery and toil so common in many other nations has disappeared.
Our engineers have estimated that the average worker today has the equivalent of 99 mechanical slaves working for him. The Twentieth Century Fud recently predicted that by 1960, 96% of all the energy going into physical work in America would be performed by machines, 1% by horses, and 3% by men. The average American worker has an output per hour six times his output in 1850. Yes, we have made unprecedented achievements in material things.
The prophets of God foreshadowed these achievements when they predicted that this would be a land choice above all other lands and that it would be preserved for a righteous people. Those who were to dwell here, if they served the God of the land, should be free from bondage and captivity.
Lehi, who led the second colony which came to this great land, was told that he was leading that colony to a land of promise and that none should come here save those who would come here under the influence of heaven.
This land would be consecrated unto those whom the Lord would guide here. It would be a land of liberty. Lehi's son, Jacob, said there should be no kings upon this land, that the God of heaven would be their king that this land would be fortified against all other nations, and that he who would fight against Zion should perish.
Reference has been made by President Young to the coming of Columbus. The scriptures tell us that the Spirit wrought upon Columbus, and upon those who followed him, and that they came here under the inspiration of heaven. Nephi predicted that when they arrived, they would humble themselves before God, that the power of the Lord would be with them, and that they would prosper.
Our history clearly records that the early peoples who did come were humble, God- fearing men and women. Bradford records that their first act upon arriving here upon American soil was to go upon their knees in humble prayer and bless the God of heaven.
The impelling force in their hearts it seems to me, was a love for basic ideals and principles, which were dearer to them than life itself. Among these were their love of God, faith in his divine purposes, their love of freedom industry, thrift, decency, and honor. Yes, this nation had its beginning in a high-minded manner.
The rules of conduct established by the early colonists and our founding fathers were taken from the scriptures. They were embodied in the Decalogue and in the gospel. The Sabbath was set aside as a sacred day. Profanity and other vices were condemned, and gambling was forbidden. People were encouraged to keep good company and to repeat no grievances. They emphasized the spiritual virtues.
Washington but echoed the general feeling of the early colonists when he acknowledged God's direction and emphasized the importance of spirituality honor, and moral courage. He said:
No people can be found to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency.
Then as to the place of religion and morality, the Father of our country stated:
Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports . . . Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.
His successors spoke in similar vein. Lincoln emphasized the same thought when he acknowledged that "God rules this world," and that "It is the duty of nations as well as men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow...., " and then quoting from the scriptures, "and to recognize the sublime truth that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord." Yes, my brethren and sisters, they spoke of self-evident truths-inalienable rights.
When the Prophet Joseph came upon the scene to open a new gospel dispensation, he shed even further light upon the establishment of this great nation and the coming forth of the Constitution, which he stated was a glorious standard, founded in the wisdom of God.
Through revelation the Lord said to him, as was quoted by Brother Moyle yesterday,
Therefore, it is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another.
And for this purpose have I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by the shedding of blood. (D. & C. 101:79-80.)
We have enjoyed divine favor through much of our history, but what of the future? It seems to me, my brethren and sisters, that the lessons of history, many of them very sobering, ought to be turned to during this hour of our great achievement because I feel in my own heart that during the hour of our success is our greatest danger.
I feel firmly that even during the hour of great prosperity, a nation may sow the seeds of its own destruction. This may happen even during a period of great income, relatively full employment, and high business activity. History reveals that rarely is a great civilization conquered from without until it has weakened or destroyed itself within.
I read recently volume three of that monumental work by Will Durant, The Story of Civilization. This volume entitled Caesar and Christ, covers the rise and fall of the Roman Empire and the coming forth of Christianity. It covers a period of 1125 years, from 800 B.C. to 325 A.D. At the end of this six-hundred-page volume, the author writes an epilogue under the caption "Why Rome Fell."
It is generally agreed that not infrequently history repeats itself. The author lists the major causes why this great civilization fell apart. I wonder if there is anything in what he says for us to take note of today. As a read this volume I was caused to reflect on the similarity of conditions and practices then and now. May I give you briefly his summary:
The first group of causes he termed biological, and no doubt most fundamental. They had to do with the limitation of families, the deferment and avoidance of marriage, the refusal of men and women to shoulder the great responsibilities, God-ordained, of honorable parenthood.
He mentioned that sexual excesses were indulged in commonly, both in and outside the marriage covenant.
The operation of contraception and abortion was common. This, together with other things, resulted in reduced fertility. Sex ran riot, and moral decay resulted.
He mentioned as another cause of Rome's decay, the waste of natural resources in mining, deforestation, erosion, the neglect of irrigation canals but most important of all, the negligence of harassed and discouraged men the failure to teach high moral principles so necessary for the building of real character.
Then he lists with great emphasis the rising costs of government because of armies, doles, public works, expanding bureaucracy, a parasitic court, depreciation of currency, absorption of investment capital by confiscatory taxation.
Is there anything suggestive in this summary?
May I give you the following figures on this last grouping particularly, taken from what seem to be reliable sources? According to projected estimates, our federal government will spend during the coming fiscal years, 1952-53, more than the total income of all the people west of the Mississippi River-22 states. The federal payroll in 1952 will top 22 billion-4 billion above last year and 16 times the 1929 total.
Nearly one out of every four adult Americans is receiving regularly federal checks. At the present rate, by 1953 the government will be spending approximately 38% of the national income. During only three of the last twenty years has our federal budget been balanced. It requires today approximately 2 1/2 million civilians to staff the federal bureaucracy.
In the matter of the depreciation of the currency, it is reported that the present dollar is worth only 38 cents compared to the 1913 dollar, and that the dollar today will purchase only about half as much as it did in 1935-39.
As to taxation, the federal government took in taxes during all past administrations up to six years ago-156 years-248 billion dollars.
In the last six years we have taken in taxes 260 billion, and still we seem not to have enough to pay our current bills. With a debt of over one- quarter of a trillion dollars the annual interest payment is 6 billion dollars plus, more than all government expenditures in 1933.
Now, my brethren and sisters this author lists other causes. Political causes, he says, were rooted in one fact that through centralized control and the increasing despotism of the state, the citizens' civic sense was destroyed and dried up, thus destroying statesmanship at its source.
Men felt powerless to express themselves and lost interest in government. Yet, I presume, Rome has had no equal in the art of government. She achieved a democracy of free men and then destroyed it with corruption and violence.
With you, I love this great land in which we live.
I pray for the chief executive and his cabinet and the legislative and judicial branches, the officials of our states and our cities. But I wonder sometimes, my brethren and sisters, what our founding fathers, our pioneer fathers, would do and say if they were here today.
I'm sure they would give serious reflection to present conditions. I wonder if they would not recognize that our liberties have already been abridged, that there has been too much of a tendency for us to call upon our federal government every time we felt the need for the accomplishment of any particular objective.
I wonder if we haven't had a tendency to call for help for those things which our forefathers would have done willingly for themselves.
Yes, I presume as a people we are to blame, but I feel that if they were here today, they would apply some very definite tests before any new service or new program were approved. May I just mention three:
First, I think they would ask the question: Can this service, assuming it is needed, be done more efficiently, more effectively by our federal government or should we do it ourselves on the local level? They believed that government is best which governs least.
Government seems to be inherently wasteful and inefficient. Possibly it is because the profit motive and competition-the very life of private enterprise-are largely absent.
Second, How will it affect the morale and the character of the people? This seems to me to be of great importance. They were interested in the building of character. They recognized that character, not wealth or power or position, is of prime consideration.
Third, they would possibly ask: How will it affect our free institutions-the church, the school, the home, and our local form of government?
I believe if they were here, they would look for the answers to the decline of public morals.
As they looked searchingly for the answers, they would probably observe evidence of weak and vacillating leadership in many places, not confined to one group or one party.
They would find a tendency for men in high places to place political expediency ahead of principle. They would be concerned with the alarming growth of a something-for-nothing philosophy, a failure of people to stand on their own feet.
They would probably find bad examples by unscrupulous politicians and by delinquent parents, and possibly a weakening of religious training, and the substitution therefore of a faith-destroying materialism.
I think, my brethren and sisters, as Latter-day Saints, and as American citizens, we need to rouse ourselves to the problems that confront us as a great Christian nation. We need to recognize that these fundamental, basic principles, moral and spiritual, lay at the very foundation of our achievements in the past.
If we are to continue to enjoy our present blessings, we must have a return to these basic and fundamental principles.
Economics and morals are both parts of one inseparable body of truth, and they must be in harmony.
We need to square our actions and our policies with these eternal principles.
I wonder if we have forgotten the counsel of the prophets, the founding fathers, and our great statesmen. Surely we need a nationwide return to these fundamentals. We need a nationwide repentance to rid this land of corruption. We must return to the fundamental virtues that have made this nation great.
There is a force in the universe which no mortal can alter. This nation does have a spiritual foundation. It has been established in keeping with great spiritual and moral principles, but there seems to be a tendency for us to lose our sense of uprightness and to do wilfully those things which we must know to be wrong. This cannot be done with impunity.
God help us to raise our sights beyond the dollar sign, beyond material things. May we have the courage to stand up and be counted, to stand for principle, for those principles and ideals which guided the founding fathers in the establishment of this great land. Thank God for the promises that have been made regarding the future of America.
I hope and pray we shall realize the fulfillment of these promises because we merit their fulfillment.
I am grateful that the Lord has said through his prophets that this nation unto the righteous shall be blessed forever, and that he will be a light unto them forever that hear his words."
PACEPA INTERVIEW AT FRONT PAGE MAGAZINE
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 7:01 PM
April 13, 2007
Hugh Hewitt: If you weren't feeling stupid enough, here is the list
Hugh Hewitt had a couple of professors on his radio show and asked them the top books freshman should read in college. The transcript was a good read. Here is the link
And my comment #34:
I thought I would share some of the great LDS literature, links anyway...these would be in my top ten, not a professor, just a mom..
The Book of Mormon
- Perhaps the greatest book ever written on Freedom and what it takes for individuals, families, and nations to be free.
The Doctrine and Covenants
The Doctrine and Covenants is a collection of divine revelations and inspired declarations given for the establishment and regulation of the kingdom of God on the earth in the last days.
The Pearl of Great Price is a selection of choice materials touching many significant aspects of the faith and doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. These items were produced by the Prophet Joseph Smith and were published in the Church periodicals of his day.
I would add to the scriptures, these additional works of LDS non Fiction:
Jesus the Christ
The Miracle of Forgiveness
Ezra Taft Benson, A Biography
While a study of the ancients is beneficial and gives a sure foundation in western thought and philosophy, my modern mind revels in the words of fiction writers like Victor Huge (Where was Les Mis???), Chaim Potok, JRR Tolkien, Ayn Rand, LM Montgomery, and two all time favorites, (which were required in my BYU Honors Colloquium Freshman Year, Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and The Dancing Wu Li Masters, which has profoundly impacted my life from the minute I first opened that book.
We did read quite a few of the classics the good professors mentioned freshman year. I shudder to think what my oldest daughter is going to experience fall of 2007...praying for sanity in her freshman college classrooms.
Jenny Hatch
WWW.NaturalFamilyBLOG.com
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 5:56 PM
March 28, 2007
Michelle Malkin: threats in the Blogosphere
Michelle Has a message for the technoblogging elites: Go Here (Strong Language alert)
These past ten months I have had to seriously think about this topic of threats and being harmed by what I say. I have also had to question how much of our life I put on this blog, and how much of my time will be devoted to blogging endeavors.
I decided long ago that I would not take counsel from my fears, in any sphere of my life. And have attempted to walk the talk each day fearless of what life might send my way in terms of being attacked for my lifestyle, political views, and activism.
Malkin has some good insights, and I completely agree with her that we have to be fearless.
She Said:
"My response to this and other endless slurs and threats--most empty, some serious--has been two-fold:
1) Report the serious threats to law enforcement.
2) Keep blogging.
As I have said before: "There is a time to be tolerant and there is a time to draw lines. If you don't draw those lines, bullies will be emboldened."
That is my unsolicited advice to those now cowering in the face of anonymous commenters and assorted nutballs who will never go away.
Keep blogging. Don't cut and run."
I agree with her in theory, but after you have been attacked, sometimes it is important to just take a break, simply because you are ill and need to physically heal, and also need some space to recharge your freedom loving batteries. It might also be important to take stock of your life and decide if this is the cause that you are willing to put it all on the line for. Knowing deep in your heart that at any time and in any place you could be murdered or maimed for your political views.
Last week before the Gathering of Eagles event, I had some nightmares. My subconcious was dealing with my fears in a very real way during my dreams, and I felt some panic and fear. I also wondered if this was going to be a solo demonstration, and if I would be physically attacked by those on the other side. I figured even if I was hit I would probably live and would only die if I was shot by someone up on the hill. No Fear, No Fear....
On the thursday before the rally my visiting teachers came to visit, and I shared with them some of what I was planning to do with the Gathering of Eagles, and mentioned that I was having nightmares etc and then asked if they would pray for me. I joked that I was not afraid of getting hurt, just as long as I did not get shot. Ben was playing with the two little daughters of my friend and I did not realize that he was listening to our conversation. When I walked in the door after the anti war rally the first thing he said to me in a tone of excited exclamation was "You did not get shot!". I wondered then how much my little guy had worried for his mom.
When Dale Lanham and I walked in the door after the bake sale, Paul jokingly said "you didn't get shot! or arrested!!" He was only half joking. He had been really concerned that if we got too in your face with the Daily Camera people, they might call the police.
Here is a picture of me shortly after some toxic chemical was thrown in my face. I have struggled with my health for months since this attack. I reported it to the police, but they did not believe my story, and could not comprehend why someone would want to kill a blogging mother. I have released myself from the need to get justice around this attack, but it did change my life and my outlook on Freedom.
When one is attacked for political reasons, it can be truly devastating. You may feel guilt for putting your children in an unsafe situation, and you might feel damaged emotionally, because the bottom line is that it just feels terrible to be hurt for your beliefs.
That being said, after the attack, a freedom of expression and life comes into ones heart. At least for me, life after attack has felt liberating. I have absolutely no fear of death. I walked to deaths door, knocked on it, I think Jesus even opened the door, told me it was not my time, and I walked back into life completely changed. I also had a near death experience after the birth of my fourth child, and while similar elements were involved in terms of a change in perspective, life after the attack was the most liberating for me as a blogger.
It recharged my liberty loving batteries. It filled me with a purpose and a focus that has never waned. I feel absolutely fearless. I should qualify that by saying that in my concious moments I feel fearless, in my subconcious some fear has shown up in my dreams, as my mind has tried to reconcile things.
Life after attack has motivated me to make some changes in our day to day life. I bought the puppy I had been promising my children. I enjoy sunsets, sunrises, and flowers much more, and if I feel like dancing or singing, I do it.
I cut people out of my life who were making me ill just being in contact with them, and I invited others into my life who brought joy to my heart.
I joined a choir and I am enjoying performance again.
I have absolute faith and confidence that if my life is in the balance again, because of another attack, that Heavenly Father will preserve my life and protect me from evil. And I trust that if it is my time to die, that I will be welcomed home safely into the arms of my Savior.
It sounds like the blogger Michelle wrote about has decided that she cannot live with those fears of being attacked. I wish I had the ability to communicate to her that when you are attacked for your heart felt views, it can be the life changing, empowerment moment that gives you the courage to live one more day, year, lifetime, to its fullest.
I know my words sometimes convey this grandiose, majestic, over the top view of life, politics, freedom, and slavery. But it is difficult for me to harness my words, pull them back into a restrained elitist moderated voice. I have decided that the granduer of this cause of freedom is no delusion. I spend quality time talking to the Master of the Universe every day. I know he is listening. Some days, during quiet moments of prayer, in conversation with my Father in Heaven, the very specific guidance I have felt from his Holy Spirit showing me in word pictures what to write, what to say, what to do, has let me know in a very real and specific way that He is interested in what I am doing with this blog.
When one feels that the work they are doing every day is blessed by Heaven, that God himself takes an interest in what is said, what is written, and what is done, then yeah, one can understand why satanic forces, people, and ideas would have a major problem with one freedom loving momma in Colorado.
And, yes, Michelle Malkin is profoundly right that we bloggers cannot allow threats, real or imagined to compel us to stop. Peace through strength is my mantra. Some very evil forces in our world need to be confronted again and again and again, boldly, in full view of the public, and fearlessly by those who love freedom.
If we don't do it, who will?
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 11:32 AM
March 5, 2007
Tammy Bruce: Utah's New School Voucher Program
Utah's New School Voucher Program
Maynard, who posts at Tammy Bruces blog has put together this excellent entry on Vouchers.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 7:40 AM
March 3, 2007
Two Education Posts that illustrate just how deeply Marxism is entrenched
David Horowitz: Indoctrination U: The Left's War Against Academic Freedom
and
The Anchoress: I’d seriously consider home-schooling
IMPORTANT QUOTES:
Mr. Horowitz:
"During the last twenty years, I have spoken at more than three hundred universities, where I interviewed students and professors about the intellectual climate on their campuses. In the course of these visits I became concerned about the changes that had taken place since I attended college half a century ago. I was particularly troubled by the increasingly intolerant atmosphere of the schools I visited and by the relentless intrusion of political agendas into an academic environment where they did not belong.
As a result, in the fall of 2002 I began an effort to address these problems by reviving doctrines of academic freedom that were an integral part of university governance but had been increasingly abandoned as a practice in recent decades. I had first encountered these doctrines during my undergraduate years at Columbia College, in the McCarthy period, when they provided a bulwark against the turbulence of those troubled times.
Their origins could be traced back yet another half century to the Progressive Era, when professors had been forced to defend themselves from the meddling of benefactors who were angered by academic critiques of their business practices. The principles of academic freedom were devised at that time to insure that scholars could publish the results of their professional research without fear of reprisals from donors and politicians who lacked their academic expertise.
In recent years, by contrast, it is faculty members who have intruded a political agenda into the academic curriculum and have sought to close down intellectual discussion and prevent open-minded inquiries into “sensitive” subjects. Ideas deemed “reactionary” and “politically incorrect” are suppressed through “speech codes” and a collective disapproval that renders them verboten. Unlike previous attempts to interfere with disinterested inquiry, the new political assault comes from faculty insiders who regard their scholarship as a partisan activity and the university as a platform from which they hope to change the world.
The radical attempt to turn schools into agencies for social change is a recent development that coincides with the emergence of “political correctness” as the signature feature of a radicalized academic culture. “Political correctness” is a term that describes an orthodoxy or “party line,” in this case reflecting the agendas of the left. Ideas that oppose leftwing orthodoxy -- opposition to racial preferences, belief in innate differences between men and women or, more recently, support for America’s war in Iraq -- are regarded as morally unacceptable or simply indecent. The proponents of such ideas are regarded as deviants from the academic norm, to be marginalized and shunned."
Anchoress:
"If my kids were little and just beginning in elementary school, I would seriously consider home-schooling for a variety of reasons - mostly because now that I’ve seen how quickly it all went, I want more time with them! But I’d have considered it sooner had this been what they were taught."
Just evidence that our Marxist textbooks and indoctrination at teachers colleges have been 100% effective. How to combat this:
I've been wracking my brain over that one for many years. My husband and I homeschooled off and on for five years. When my fifth child was a baby I felt like I was dying, so overwhelmed with everything in my life, so we open enrolled the children in a charter school that still seems to be a good fit, even after four years of attendance.
I know for a fact that our teachers are sharing a variety of socialist views with my children every day, especially in English, History, and Social Studies classes. How can I send them to class knowing they are being propagandized in Communist thought and ideologies every single day?
For me, the benefits of daily spanish language instruction, daily music, band, chorus, and sports outweighs the risks in sending them to school. My three oldest children are at the age when just about everything we teach them is suspect to them. This is normal and healthy development in teens and I pretty much expected it to happen. They have so much regard for various teachers and teachings that Mom and Dads Passion for Conservatism and our Patriotism rings a little hallow for them.
How to keep them from becoming so educated that they don't join the ranks of those americans who are just a little too smart to be patriotic, just a little too degreed to even think of military service as a privledge, so intellectualized that religion and moral living is passe and for the dullards of our society.....
How to do it?
Well, I think we already did it, at least with our four oldest children. We spent years teaching them daily lessons in American History, our Mormon Church history, and we taught them the scriptures (which are all about freedom - The Book of Mormon is especially eloquent in articulating what it takes for individuals, families, and nations to be free) and to love to listen to a prophets voice.
We have filled our home library with patriotic books and occasionally I will see them reading various texts as they conduct research for classes.
Will they stay true? Will they stay filled with light and hope and the promise of Celestial living?
I don't know.
But I do know that I can look my Heavenly Father in the eye and with a heart brimming with hope and pleading for mercy, tell him that I tried my honest best to teach his little ones, these beautiful souls entrusted to Paul and I, true doctrine. They are so busy right now, it is very difficult to find time to teach them the way that we did when we lived the quiet home schooled life. We do read scriptures every morning and have a lesson once a week during Family Night.
I don't know that home school is the be all end all hope for the world. I know many families who believe it is the answer for them, and I heartily salute them for their passion and hard work.
I do believe with all of the false marxist lies being taught to our families from preschool up to the hightest levels of our graduate programs, that the tug and pull of Socialism is eating people alive as they fill their minds up with the feel good notions of collectivism and find themselves enslaved to an ideology that has ruined the lives of millions since its inception and implementation in the various societies who have tolerated and embraced its teachings.
I wholeheartedly Salute David Horowitz for his passion, books, articles, words, activism, and EFFECTIVENESS in fighting this most important fight in our Universities. Perhaps the collective wall that currently surrounds the minds and hearts of our professors and universities will come crashing down the way the Berlin wall fell and communism crashed in the late 80's.
My prayer is that more parents will learn what is at stake when they send their little ones to school to have their minds massaged in communist thought and activism. Perhaps that very awareness will be the antidote we need as a society. Most of my die hard home schooling friends are doing it simply to protect their children from socialist brainwashing.
Some of the best essays on this topic come from a scientist and home schooling father Art Robinson. Go Here for his web site.
If we ever go back to home school we will use the Robinson Plan for the outline for our day. It worked very well for three years and I wholeheartedly endorse and support the goals of the Robinson Plan. I think it is the most mother friendly set up out there in the overwhelming world of homeschooling curriculums.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 10:47 PM
February 21, 2007
Meridian Magazine: Pornography, if it quacks like a duck...
Vickey Pahnke-Taylor: Pornography, if it quacks like a duck...
"We are being warned of the dangers of pornography as its pollution infests ever-growing numbers of people, but few regard it as a threat — at least until it creates havoc for them. With not enough fingers pointed in their direction, the pornography industry is making a bundle as it helps kill off morals and decay the fabric of good emotional and spiritual health.
Pornography is making a loud, quacking noise. Compiled evidence — lots of it — shows the devastating effects of this addiction on so many people. First-hand or second-hand, people are being affected, debilitated — even destroyed — by it.
The peddlers of pornography would have us believe that no harm is done- just as some peddlers of tobacco did for so many years. Data indicate a different picture:
Psychologist Edward Donnerstein, at the University of Wisconsin, conducted a study that found that even brief exposure to violent forms of pornography can lead to anti-social attitudes and behavior. Other studies back his up.
Exposure to pornography may diminish a person's capacity for true intimacy. Researchers have found that those exposed to nonviolent pornography indicated a diminished satisfaction with their partner's physical appearance, affection, and physical intimacy.
Nationwide studies show that where the circulation rates of pornography are up, so are the rape rates. Although rape is not usually a sexual act, but an act of violence, there is some correlation here.
Approximately 70 percent of the pornographic magazines sold end up in the hands of minors (The Pornography Plague , Kerby Anderson). Those minors cannot all be someone else's children. Do we know what our children are experiencing — and accepting as a norm? What kind of marriages will they be able to create once their norms have shifted away from proper spiritual principles?
When viewing of pornography becomes habitual, there is a correlative increase in doubts about the value of marriage."
A More Excellent Hope — A Conference Geared toward Overcoming Pornography Addiction
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 6:56 PM
February 14, 2007
Davids Blog
Heather Mac Donald
Harvard's Faustian Bargain
America's oldest university selects a dreadful president.
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 6:26 AM
December 1, 2006
18 years ago today
One of the only pictures we took during Michelles Pregnancy! August 1988
Michelle's birthday is today. She is 18!
On that cold december day in Michigan eighteen years ago today Paul and I were working hard to birth our daughter.
I had taken a Lamaze class and fired the first doc I hired because he struck me as being a real control freak. The second doctor I hired was an Osteopath, and somewhat more natural in his approach. He did a pretty good job. Was mad at me for refusing...well...everything, but mostly he rolled with it and allowed us to have the natural birth we desired. The thing I am most grateful for is that as Shelly was being born, the doc grabbed Pauls hands and put them on our daughter and so Paul helped to catch her as she was being born.
When I think about that birth, I just cringe at how unprepared I was and how it felt like we were in the most unnatural situation possible for a natural birth.
I had chosen to give birth at the hospital where I was born simply because I thought it would be neat to have my baby at the same place. Later on I learned that the hospital had an alarming 50% C-section rate as it was the regional high risk center for most of the Detroit area.
Three weeks before Michelle was born I was at a library across town and discovered two books that changed my life. Robert Bradleys Husband Coached Childbirth, and Susan McCutcheon-Rosegg's Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way.
I felt the mixed emotions of complete excitement that I had discovered these materials which I knew in my heart were the ticket to the type of birth I wanted to have. But also a sense of fear and overwhelm that I had chosen the wrong hospital, OB, and set up for the type of birth I wanted to have.
Over the three weeks before our daughter was born I read Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way three times to fully aquaint myself with the relaxation techniques. I was greatly helped by my Yoga and movement background as a musical theatre performer as I attempted to quickly master the relaxation and deep breathing accompanied by visualizations and belief that my body could do it.
Five days before Michelle was born I started to have gentle contractions that came every fifteen minutes. These five days were crucial to our success with the Bradley Method because Paul and I spent hours practicing the relaxation techniques that helped our child to be born without any medications.
We ran to the hospital twice that week thinking I was in true labor. Both times we were sent home. I appreciate the fact that the hospital staff was educated enough to know that I was not in real labor and unlike today were willing for me to be in true labor with real dilation before they admitted me to the hospital. These days if a woman shows up in a pre-labor situation, the hospital is more likely than not to induce labor with Cytotec or some other unnatural labor inducement that will bring the baby out very fast, with horrifying results for the mother and the babe.
The third time we went to the hospital I was finally in real labor with actual dilation going on. But I had a fight on my hands with the hospital staff. They wanted to monitor me continually with the electronic fetal monitor, which if you have not had a baby in the past thirty years has become the "God" of the delivery room. I wanted them to monitor me for ten minutes every hour and then have the freedom to get up and move around, use the bathroom, and take showers etc while I was in labor. Several different people came in to try to convince me to use the monitor and I just kept telling them to leave me alone.
The breaking point came when my Doc showed up and was mad at me for not caving to the pressure. He broke my water without my permission, and labor became very intense. It was about this time that he as God of the situation gave me permission to drink the raspberry tea that I had prepared before we left for the hospital.
After I drank the tea, I felt my body shift into high gear and it was only a short time before I was through transition and felt the baby dropping into position to be born.
Michelle was born at 10:00 PM on December 1st, 1988, after a 24 hour labor, with five days of pre-labor and several confrontations with medical personelle. I gave birth with no drugs, no episiotomy, and only a first degree tear. It was the most empowering moment of my life to that point and we were so excited by how things went, Paul and I decided to become Certified Bradley Childbirth Educators the next year when the American Academy of Husband Coached Childbirth had an Ohio teacher training in 1989.
Jenny with Michelle - Ten days old
The many classes that Paul and I taught and the four additional babies that we birthed using the information we had gleaned from our natural birth education has been one of the greatest blessings of our marriage.
And now our little girl is embarking on her adult life and we are just overwhelmed by how quickly the time has passed. She has been busy filling out college applications and working hard to research the various scenarios. I was thrilled last week when she informed me that she was applying to some local colleges, yes even CU, which is ten minutes from our home. She said that it would save her $8,000.00 a year if she lived at home and went to school close to home. I just melted when she said she was going to consider doing that.
I have been increasingly overwhelmed at the thought of being out of contact with her. We mormons have a long and serious tradition of sending chidlren to Utah and Idaho for higher education. I attended BYU back in 1986 and although the memories of that experience are still a wonderful part of my past life, it was very diffcult to be in an apartment with five other girls who were constantly going home for visits, or had family and friends dropping in. Traveling so far from home for school is great, but it does come with a cost.
I would love it if Michelle would live at home for a year or two while she gets her GE stuff done.
Paul and Shelly when she was two years old.
I have not talked to her about this yet, but for the past year or so, I have been thinking of a list of books that I want her to read before she starts higher education. I have even been thinking of tying it to any money and support she gets from us. ie, you want to attend university and have mom and dad help you financially, you need to read these books first.
Top of the list would be David Horowitz'a Radical Son. Then the Case for Democracy by Natan Sharansky, as well as The Naked Communist by Cleon Skousen.
Especially if she decides to attend CU, I would think the balancing effect of reading these books would help to act as a shield for any indoctrinating that may take place in the classroom.
I have a friend who attended CU's Music School to become a Music Teacher. She summed up her experience by saying that she did not learn much about how to teach music to children, but if she had a homosexual child in the classroom, she would be fully prepared to nurture that child, as that was the thrust of her education classes. I'm not knocking sharing with educators how to deal sensitively with a child who has been sexually traumetized, but if that is the ONLY thing being focused on during education classes, it would seem to me that education teachers are being sold a sorry bill of goods in exchange for a proper music education.
Anyway, I plan to come up with a list of books that I want Michelle and all of our kids to read the summer after they graduate from high school. Books that will innoculate them from the propaganda and false educational principles that are based on Marxism that lurks in the various classrooms of America.
Happy Birthday Michelle, I love you so much!
Posted by Jenny Hatch at 7:45 AM