Pro-life Tidbits

Oklahoma is considering a bill to allow a pregnant mother to use lethal force to stop an attack on her unborn baby. This is a quote about it from koco.com.

Oklahoma already has a law allowing a person to use force to protect himself or another person from someone else. The new bill includes an unborn child as "another" person. Oklahoma has also had a law covering the murder of unborn babies since 2005.

I got an e-mail from my TX State Senator saying that she is supporting the Texas ultrasound bill. The original vote was delayed. It is now scheduled for some time this week.

The White House got 2 million red envelopes from the Red Envelope Project. I somehow did not know about this until after it occurred, but I am glad so many people participated. You can read more about it on WorldNetDaily. I am not sure how effective this will be, but I pray that it will at least touch the hearts of the White House staff.
HT: LifeSiteNews.com

Home Again from Oklahoma City

My husband had a pre-paid business trip to Oklahoma City Friday and Saturday. The kids and I got to go too and all it cost us was our food and site seeing. We had a lot of fun. We got there Friday about lunch time. My husband ate lunch with us and then went to his conference. The kids and I went to the Myriad Botanical Gardens. All of it was interesting to a Landscape Architecture major, but the Crystal Bridge Conservatory was definitely the best.

Later that evening we went with my husband to the Oklahoma City National Memorial. It seems odd that the bombing was almost 15 years ago. This memorial was being designed when I was getting my degree so the landscape architectural aspects of it were very interesting to me. It was touching to see each chair with someone's name on it. It made me think of all the nameless people that abortion has taken from our land and how amazingly huge the field would have to be if we had chairs for all of them.

Then Saturday the kids and I spent the entire day at the Oklahoma City Zoo. The kids really enjoyed the sea lion show and the Dinosaurs Unearthed temporary exhibit.

The animatronic life size dinosaurs were very cool especially if you didn't read any of the evolutionary rubbish on the signs. They also had life size fossil replicas.

It was a great trip marred only by the announcement about the Iowa Supreme Court's ruling on "gay marriage" that we heard over the radio while in the car. As Caffeinated Thoughts has already said much on that topic (and probably better than I would have), I am leaving you with links.

Responding to the decision and Consequences

It is a great thing to see something new, learn, and relax with family.

Last Day of 40 Days for Life

Today is the last day of the official 40 Days for Life Campaign. So far the known total of babies saved nation wide is 368. I thank God for these precious babies and the many people who have prayed for an end to abortion. I ask God's special blessing on those parents who are now preparing for a birth instead of trying to make sense of a death. I am already looking forward to the fall campaign.

Parental Rights Amendment Introduced

The Parental Rights Amendment has been introduced in the US House of Representatives as HJ Res 42 with 72 co-sponsors. Click here to see if your representative is one of them. My representative is not on the list. I plan on encouraging her to join the other 72. You can get information on who your representative is here. Just type your zip code into the search on the upper right side.

You can read my reasons for supporting the Parental Rights Amendment here. You can also go to ParentalRights.org for much more information.

This is part of Michael Farris' speech when the resolution was introduced:

. . . a post-election Zogby poll (sponsored by WorldNetDaily) makes it clear that virtually every sector of the American public agrees with this last proposition.When asked if they wanted American judges to use American law alone or to also consider international law in making decisions, by an overwhelming margin, the American public rejected the idea of using international law for these purposes.
The majority of Republican voters reject international law.
So do the majority of Democratic voters.
Those who voted for McCain reject international law.
A majority of those who voted for Obama reject it as well.
Union members reject international law.
NRA members reject international law.
Every region of the nation rejects international law.
Every age group rejects international law.
Every racial group rejects international law.
This is a bipartisan issue in America among voters, and I truly hope and believe that it will become a bipartisan issue on the Hill.

Texas Ultrasound Bill

Texas state senate is voting on an ultrasound bill this week. The bill would require all women considering abortion to be given the opportunity to see an ultrasound and and opportunity to hear the baby's heart beat. I think this is a great step in the right direction that could save thousands of lives. If you live in Texas, please call your state senator tomorrow. They may vote on this tomorrow (Tuesday) or Wednesday.

Some Things I've Been Meaning to Link to

Dana Haley at Principled Discovery has an excellent post on breast-feeding and the view of some that it (at staying at home) is a waste of time. Here is my favorite quote:

And just what exactly does it mean to “work in any meaningful way?” Full time (or more) at the beck and call of…your boss, your customers, your editor, your anyone-besides-your-family-whose-requests-are-somehow-meaningful-because-a-paycheck-is-attached? Of course a woman’s time is not “worth nothing.” To me, it is worth far more than anyone could pay. Rather than without value, my time invested in my children is invaluable.

Wesley Smith at Secondhand Smoke has an interesting post about poverty being the answer in the eyes of many radical environmentalists.

And thus we see how the healthy environmentalism that cleaned up filthy rivers and reduced Los Angeles air pollution is quickly mutating into an implicit and explicit anti-humanism that is in danger of leading to becoming so degraded in our self perception, that we could reach the point of being urged (forced?) to become human sacrifices on Gaia's altar.

Thanks to Alex and Bret at The Rebelution for introducing me to Deborah Drapper. BBC did a documentary on her and boy is she brave in sharing her faith. May God give me such boldness. I will have to add her blog to the sidebar. Here is a clip from the documentary.

Read and Share DVD Volume 1

Read and Share DVD Volume 1 is a collection of 13 animated Bible stories. I watched these DVDs with my two kids. They are 5 and 6.5. Here are some of our thoughts.

The Good
First of all, the kids found these videos to be enjoyable. They sometimes even asked to watch more than I had planned for our daily Bible time.

I found the animation to be pleasant. It looked hand-drawn, but the shadows and such were so well done that I think it must have been computer generated.

Topics such as Satan and polygamist marriages were handled tastefully without re-writing history. Angels were made to look powerful instead of cutesy. I found this refreshing for a children's product.

The Annoying
Noah's ark was represented as a tiny vessel that could barely fit two elephants let alone 2 or 7 of every kind of animal in the world. Also Noah's family was represented as a bunch of white (or possibly Hispanic) looking people. This undermines the fact that all people on earth today came from this one family.

Not very much of the Old Testament was covered. For example there is no mention of Joseph, Moses, Joshua, the judges, David, Solomon, Elijah, Elisha, Hezekiah, Josiah, Daniel or Nehemiah. After Jacob and Esau you skip to Baby Jesus. Granted this is Volume 1, but if these stories are going to be included in Volume 2 then the chronological nature of the videos will be skewed.

There are a couple of minor inaccuracies. For example, one of the disciples that Jesus takes with him to Jairus' house is a woman. I want accuracy even in the small things especially when my children are watching.

The title of this DVD is misleading. There is nothing to read. After getting the DVD, I learned that the title is after a Bible story book. But I didn't know that when I got it and so was expecting some kind of reading to be intertwined.

Because of these annoyances I can't give this very well animated and scripted video 5 stars. I have to go with 3.5 (maybe 4).