Virginia Hull Welch's Blog: BooksontheBeach, page 3
April 7, 2015
Forgive me Father for THEY have sinned
President Obama, in what has become a predictable MO to keep his presidential suit clean, distanced himself from that messy group that he routinely purports to be part of, that is, Christians, this morning at the White House's annual Easter prayer breakfast.
“On Easter, I do reflect on the fact that as a Christian, I am supposed to love,” Mr. Obama said. “And I have to say that sometimes when I listen to less-than-loving expressions by Christians, I get concerned.”
Dramatic pause. “But that’s a topic for another day.”
But it isn’t, really, a topic for another day because Obama said all he meant to say, namely: I’m not one of those Christians. By pointing out everyone else’s flaws, his real intent shines through: He is distancing himself from that lower form he deplores, and he believes the world deplores, so he wants everyone to know that he is not one of them. This is his message: I’m not like the others. I’m enlightened.
Note that he’s not concerned about himself not loving others. He’s mortified by everyone else’s failure to love. And so he draws an invisible line around himself. Some might interpret this inclination as evidence of intractable self-righteousness. Let the reader decide.
Obama also distances himself from ordinary Americans. Every time he apologizes for what the United States does/doesn’t do, is/is not, he’s telling everyone outside our borders that he is not that type of American. He is compassionate. He is humble. His enlightened perspective on the United States and its intersection with world events causes him pain. He is moved to apologize for our failures. Over and over again.
Don’t believe me?
• He apologized to Europe for American “arrogance.” Only a humble person is enlightened enough to see the need to apologize for arrogance.
• He apologized to the Muslim world for our imperfections. I’m waiting for the Muslim world to apologize for all the spilled American blood that runs in Afghanistan.
• He apologized for our political stance at the Summit of the Americas.
• He apologized for our very being at the G-20 Summit of World Leaders.
• He apologized for the War on Terror.
• He apologized for Guantanamo (twice).
• He apologized to the Turkish Parliament for the “dark periods” of our history. Like we owe the Turks a defense?
• He apologized for our failure to be neighborly.
• He apologized for all our mistakes.
And on and on. See The Heritage Foundation Web site for a more exhaustive list.
There’s a biblical foundation for apologizing for a nation’s sins. But I don’t see Obama’s name in there, and I wish he’d quit apologizing for me and you to distance himself from us and our history. Either you’re with us or you’re not, Mr. President.
I think he’s made his choice.
“On Easter, I do reflect on the fact that as a Christian, I am supposed to love,” Mr. Obama said. “And I have to say that sometimes when I listen to less-than-loving expressions by Christians, I get concerned.”
Dramatic pause. “But that’s a topic for another day.”
But it isn’t, really, a topic for another day because Obama said all he meant to say, namely: I’m not one of those Christians. By pointing out everyone else’s flaws, his real intent shines through: He is distancing himself from that lower form he deplores, and he believes the world deplores, so he wants everyone to know that he is not one of them. This is his message: I’m not like the others. I’m enlightened.
Note that he’s not concerned about himself not loving others. He’s mortified by everyone else’s failure to love. And so he draws an invisible line around himself. Some might interpret this inclination as evidence of intractable self-righteousness. Let the reader decide.
Obama also distances himself from ordinary Americans. Every time he apologizes for what the United States does/doesn’t do, is/is not, he’s telling everyone outside our borders that he is not that type of American. He is compassionate. He is humble. His enlightened perspective on the United States and its intersection with world events causes him pain. He is moved to apologize for our failures. Over and over again.
Don’t believe me?
• He apologized to Europe for American “arrogance.” Only a humble person is enlightened enough to see the need to apologize for arrogance.
• He apologized to the Muslim world for our imperfections. I’m waiting for the Muslim world to apologize for all the spilled American blood that runs in Afghanistan.
• He apologized for our political stance at the Summit of the Americas.
• He apologized for our very being at the G-20 Summit of World Leaders.
• He apologized for the War on Terror.
• He apologized for Guantanamo (twice).
• He apologized to the Turkish Parliament for the “dark periods” of our history. Like we owe the Turks a defense?
• He apologized for our failure to be neighborly.
• He apologized for all our mistakes.
And on and on. See The Heritage Foundation Web site for a more exhaustive list.
There’s a biblical foundation for apologizing for a nation’s sins. But I don’t see Obama’s name in there, and I wish he’d quit apologizing for me and you to distance himself from us and our history. Either you’re with us or you’re not, Mr. President.
I think he’s made his choice.
February 12, 2015
Friends for Life
Recently I visited a party store, a well-known chain, to purchase a balloon arrangement for a baby shower. As I handed the clerk my credit card, without any niceties she demanded I give her my e-mail address. Not, “Would you like to receive coupons or updates about specials by e-mail?” No, it was just a flat, unsmiling,“Your e-mail?” and then she waited.
The same thing happens at a national import chain when you try to make even the smallest of purchases, say a handcrafted set of dinner napkins or a box of shell-decorated candles. The clerk demands―not asks if you’d like to share―your phone number. It is routine in some big box chains for clerks to demand your zip code as you hand them your credit card.
Like buying a two-buck gewgaw makes you friends for life.
Privacy is a gift. It’s also a right. That which we choose not to reveal to others remains our own estate and sets us apart from lower creatures, both of which give us dignity. You may lose many things in this life: your possessions, your health, your hair. But if you lose your sense of self—if the inner you is spread abroad for all to partake of—then you’ve lost it all.
Consider Kim Kardashian. The woman has no private moments. Does she have any self-respect? I can’t answer for Kim with authority, because I do not know her. I do know that her inclination to expose herself abroad begets her mockery and contempt.
We are bombarded with regulatory and administrative red tape that purports to preserve our privacy. We have privacy laws, privacy policies, even a congressional privacy act. All of this hand-wringing is supposed to make us feel protected from prying eyes, in particular a prying government. But the fact is, our definition of privacy is now so eroded, that even with all this talk and machinations about protecting our privacy, we are decidedly not protected because out of ignorance we collude with the enemy. Government and business have already reached so far into our lives to mine our most private choices that it’s a farce to think there is anything left to protect. The very fact that store clerks ask for our private contact information in the course of a routine sale is evidence that the social concept of privacy has morphed into a ghost of what it once was.
And we ignorantly conspire with them to give it all away.
This week I had to have a medical test conducted at a diagnostic facility. The registrar demanded to know where I’m employed. I don’t get my insurance through my employer, and I never give out my office phone for the simple reason that I don’t want to take nonbusiness calls at my desk. I knew full well that the medical center wanted this information (and my Social Security number) only to hand it to a debt collector to hound me at work should I refuse to pay my portion of the medical bill. I pay all my bills, so I refused to tell her where I work. This led to an impasse. She refused to go forward with my registration until I gave her this unnecessary information. Finally I told her just to put down that I’m a self-employed writer (which is true—I freelance along with my full-time job). That seemed to satisfy her.
Then she handed me the center’s privacy policy, which should be called a dissemination policy. It is a long list of companies and government entities with which the center feels entitled to share my medical information (my privacy is not assumed). The “privacy” policy protects the medical center, not the patient.
Then she handed me an acknowledgment form that stated that I agreed to allow the center to take photographs of me for medical use or training. I scratched through that clause and put my initials in the margin.
This has been long. I am sorry. Quickly: You never have to give out your e-mail, phone, or zip code to buy anything in America. The e-mail and phone they sell to data mining and advertising companies. The zip code they pair with your credit card name to target your home for advertising. You don’t have to agree to have your picture taken (or your surgery videoed) for training purposes, unless you are the giving sort and want to reveal operating room scenes of your unconscious self to eager interns. You don’t have to give your Social Security number to medical offices. A friend of mine had his identity stolen (and months and months of his time) by a medical office staffer who lifted his Social Security number and credit card from his medical records.
My own 18-year-old son’s ID was stolen while his lifeless body lay in a hospital morgue after he died in a car accident. The thief or thieves took his Social Security number and fraudulently filed his income taxes. As I said, the loss of privacy strips you of dignity.
I’ll close with this: In your own life, what is private? Decide it now before you get on Facebook, sign a contract, or seek medical care. Decide before you vote.
The same thing happens at a national import chain when you try to make even the smallest of purchases, say a handcrafted set of dinner napkins or a box of shell-decorated candles. The clerk demands―not asks if you’d like to share―your phone number. It is routine in some big box chains for clerks to demand your zip code as you hand them your credit card.
Like buying a two-buck gewgaw makes you friends for life.
Privacy is a gift. It’s also a right. That which we choose not to reveal to others remains our own estate and sets us apart from lower creatures, both of which give us dignity. You may lose many things in this life: your possessions, your health, your hair. But if you lose your sense of self—if the inner you is spread abroad for all to partake of—then you’ve lost it all.
Consider Kim Kardashian. The woman has no private moments. Does she have any self-respect? I can’t answer for Kim with authority, because I do not know her. I do know that her inclination to expose herself abroad begets her mockery and contempt.
We are bombarded with regulatory and administrative red tape that purports to preserve our privacy. We have privacy laws, privacy policies, even a congressional privacy act. All of this hand-wringing is supposed to make us feel protected from prying eyes, in particular a prying government. But the fact is, our definition of privacy is now so eroded, that even with all this talk and machinations about protecting our privacy, we are decidedly not protected because out of ignorance we collude with the enemy. Government and business have already reached so far into our lives to mine our most private choices that it’s a farce to think there is anything left to protect. The very fact that store clerks ask for our private contact information in the course of a routine sale is evidence that the social concept of privacy has morphed into a ghost of what it once was.
And we ignorantly conspire with them to give it all away.
This week I had to have a medical test conducted at a diagnostic facility. The registrar demanded to know where I’m employed. I don’t get my insurance through my employer, and I never give out my office phone for the simple reason that I don’t want to take nonbusiness calls at my desk. I knew full well that the medical center wanted this information (and my Social Security number) only to hand it to a debt collector to hound me at work should I refuse to pay my portion of the medical bill. I pay all my bills, so I refused to tell her where I work. This led to an impasse. She refused to go forward with my registration until I gave her this unnecessary information. Finally I told her just to put down that I’m a self-employed writer (which is true—I freelance along with my full-time job). That seemed to satisfy her.
Then she handed me the center’s privacy policy, which should be called a dissemination policy. It is a long list of companies and government entities with which the center feels entitled to share my medical information (my privacy is not assumed). The “privacy” policy protects the medical center, not the patient.
Then she handed me an acknowledgment form that stated that I agreed to allow the center to take photographs of me for medical use or training. I scratched through that clause and put my initials in the margin.
This has been long. I am sorry. Quickly: You never have to give out your e-mail, phone, or zip code to buy anything in America. The e-mail and phone they sell to data mining and advertising companies. The zip code they pair with your credit card name to target your home for advertising. You don’t have to agree to have your picture taken (or your surgery videoed) for training purposes, unless you are the giving sort and want to reveal operating room scenes of your unconscious self to eager interns. You don’t have to give your Social Security number to medical offices. A friend of mine had his identity stolen (and months and months of his time) by a medical office staffer who lifted his Social Security number and credit card from his medical records.
My own 18-year-old son’s ID was stolen while his lifeless body lay in a hospital morgue after he died in a car accident. The thief or thieves took his Social Security number and fraudulently filed his income taxes. As I said, the loss of privacy strips you of dignity.
I’ll close with this: In your own life, what is private? Decide it now before you get on Facebook, sign a contract, or seek medical care. Decide before you vote.
January 22, 2015
Black Lives Matter … but to Whom?
Today marks the 42nd anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision. Whatever good nine justices meant to bring forth with their misguided decision, it is overshadowed by the blood it has spilled in the lives of American Blacks.
Thanks to the media, we focus on White police as the biggest threat to Black lives, especially young Black lives. But if your goal is to stop the murder of young Blacks, get your eyes off the police and look at this:
• In 2010, the most recent year for which statistics are available, 138,539 Black babies were aborted in America.
• The CDC reports that in that same year, 765,651 babies lost their lives to abortion in America. Forty-two percent, or 321,573, of those babies were Black, even though Blacks represent only 12.8 percent of the population.
• Blacks hold the highest abortion rate of all ethnic groups: 483 abortions for every 1,000 live births. Let that number sink in. Blacks abort almost half their pregnancies.
• In New York City alone, more Black babies were aborted (31,328) than born (24,758) in 2012―55.9 percent of Black babies denied their civil right to life.
Just 313 Blacks were killed by police of any color (and vigilantes and security guards) in 2013. Who poses the bigger threat to Blacks? Across America one-third of all Black children are killed in the womb before they draw their first breath.
We are blind.
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2...
Thanks to the media, we focus on White police as the biggest threat to Black lives, especially young Black lives. But if your goal is to stop the murder of young Blacks, get your eyes off the police and look at this:
• In 2010, the most recent year for which statistics are available, 138,539 Black babies were aborted in America.
• The CDC reports that in that same year, 765,651 babies lost their lives to abortion in America. Forty-two percent, or 321,573, of those babies were Black, even though Blacks represent only 12.8 percent of the population.
• Blacks hold the highest abortion rate of all ethnic groups: 483 abortions for every 1,000 live births. Let that number sink in. Blacks abort almost half their pregnancies.
• In New York City alone, more Black babies were aborted (31,328) than born (24,758) in 2012―55.9 percent of Black babies denied their civil right to life.
Just 313 Blacks were killed by police of any color (and vigilantes and security guards) in 2013. Who poses the bigger threat to Blacks? Across America one-third of all Black children are killed in the womb before they draw their first breath.
We are blind.
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2...
January 7, 2015
We Will Not Shut Up
We will not shut up.
That IS what they want. They want us to shut up, and the surest way to silence us is to put a bullet in our mouths. It’s a scary world where journalists are kidnapped, beheaded, or gunned down in their offices. Mayhem, horror, and blood. There is nothing of God here and there certainly is nothing associated with a “peaceful” religion when terrorists kill journalists merely for what they speak.
But more scary than a terrorist's ire is a world where words are aborted before they are spoken for fear of violence. Four score and seven years ago. We hold these truths to be self-evident. I have a dream. For God so loved the world.
See, terrorists are on to something: Words shape history, and the right ones uttered at the right time in the right ears pierce more than bullets. And so those who speak them become targets of regimes for which words—the progeny of thoughts—must submit to the will of whoever holds the trigger. For some, it’s a dictator. For others, it’s a god.
But truly, it’s a war, we just don’t always see it that way because we live in a bubble of time, nearly 240 years of commonly recognized inalienable rights (and freedoms) unheard of in eastern societies. While we western journalists focus on generating words to gently evoke change, they focus on weapons to wrest change, no matter how violently, including shoving a rifle down our throats or hacking off our heads.
We will not yield our God-given rights to free speech to Kalashnikov-toting religious terrorists, cyber space despots, or any other deceived group of zealots who think that threats and intimidation will silence. Why? Why does this get me all worked up? Because a life lived muted is a life deprived of dignity, and a life without dignity is not worth living. Ask any slave. Silencing free expression is an affront to the likeness of God in all of us, who are made in His image. It’s His image in us that gives us dignity, meaning, and free will. It’s His image in us that gives us value. To silence us is to attack the Godlikeness in us.
If you take nothing else from my angry spouting, at least acknowledge that anything that attacks the Godlikeness in you does so because it can’t help it. It’s the nature of demons to attack those whom God values. And He values us a whole lot.
That IS what they want. They want us to shut up, and the surest way to silence us is to put a bullet in our mouths. It’s a scary world where journalists are kidnapped, beheaded, or gunned down in their offices. Mayhem, horror, and blood. There is nothing of God here and there certainly is nothing associated with a “peaceful” religion when terrorists kill journalists merely for what they speak.
But more scary than a terrorist's ire is a world where words are aborted before they are spoken for fear of violence. Four score and seven years ago. We hold these truths to be self-evident. I have a dream. For God so loved the world.
See, terrorists are on to something: Words shape history, and the right ones uttered at the right time in the right ears pierce more than bullets. And so those who speak them become targets of regimes for which words—the progeny of thoughts—must submit to the will of whoever holds the trigger. For some, it’s a dictator. For others, it’s a god.
But truly, it’s a war, we just don’t always see it that way because we live in a bubble of time, nearly 240 years of commonly recognized inalienable rights (and freedoms) unheard of in eastern societies. While we western journalists focus on generating words to gently evoke change, they focus on weapons to wrest change, no matter how violently, including shoving a rifle down our throats or hacking off our heads.
We will not yield our God-given rights to free speech to Kalashnikov-toting religious terrorists, cyber space despots, or any other deceived group of zealots who think that threats and intimidation will silence. Why? Why does this get me all worked up? Because a life lived muted is a life deprived of dignity, and a life without dignity is not worth living. Ask any slave. Silencing free expression is an affront to the likeness of God in all of us, who are made in His image. It’s His image in us that gives us dignity, meaning, and free will. It’s His image in us that gives us value. To silence us is to attack the Godlikeness in us.
If you take nothing else from my angry spouting, at least acknowledge that anything that attacks the Godlikeness in you does so because it can’t help it. It’s the nature of demons to attack those whom God values. And He values us a whole lot.
November 14, 2014
Policing's Perverse Payoff
I read it first in the Washington Post: The nationwide confiscation of innocent motorists’ cash by police without warrants from drivers who have committed no crime. Hundreds of millions of dollars fleeced from unsuspecting Americans on mere speculation of a crime. “Stop and Seize” they call it. Read the outrageous five-part story here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/inve...
I don’t hate the police as others do. I believe most are hard-working, decent folk who want to keep public order and hope to foster a safe world in which they and their families can live at peace. The fact is, I am married to a retired law enforcement official. The practice of seizing assets from criminals, he tells me, is a reliable way to fund drug enforcement programs and provide equipment for local police departments.
But the stories I have read about innocent American drivers suffering theft at the hands of hundreds of law enforcement officers nationwide make me furious.
Stop and Seize goes way beyond the limits of historic forfeiture laws. It is naked highway robbery. It doesn’t pass the sniff test—it’s as stinky as the “public safety” argument foisted on the public for red-light cameras that do nothing but act as a cash pipeline for city governments. I ask you: Do you feel safer on the road when the driver in front of you slams on his or her brakes at a yellow light to avoid a red-light fine? OK, do you feel safer driving down the road knowing that a police officer can pull you over for a broken brake light and, on that pretense, confiscate all the cash in your purse or wallet? Does carrying a sizable amount of cash make you a criminal?
The outrage of Stop and Seize is that these innocent drivers never again see their money. Most are forced to hire (and pay for) an attorney to retrieve their illegally confiscated earnings, and even then, in nearly every case they retrieve only a fraction. See: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/na...
Identical to red-light cameras, Stop and Seize creates a perverse incentive for the police to pull you over in the first place. It’s payday for them, and only a very naïve person would believe that police aren’t influenced by the money to be grabbed. To wit: Here in Virginia, shortly after the City of Norfolk installed red-light cameras, the duration of the yellow-light cycle at intersections with red-light cameras inside city limits mysteriously lost 3/8 of a second, which had the spurious effect of causing significantly more drivers than ever to be slapped with red-light tickets. See:
http://wtkr.com/2014/03/13/newschanne...
Police are being trained on how to seize your cash in the course of a routine traffic stop. See: http://www.washingtonpost.com/investi...
It doesn’t take much to get your pocket picked: failure to signal for a turn, expired inspection sticker, failure to come to a full stop at a stop sign. All you have to do is look nervous (is anyone not nervous, even a little bit, when they see the flashing blue light in the rear view mirror?). Your nervousness, per police training, is justification to suspect a serious crime. Small infractions for you, big payola for them.
Know your rights. Don’t submit to a warrantless search. Don’t let a police officer detain you longer than he or she has to for a routine stop. And don’t get in your car with more cash than necessary to conduct your business for the day. It may be the last you see of it.
I don’t hate the police as others do. I believe most are hard-working, decent folk who want to keep public order and hope to foster a safe world in which they and their families can live at peace. The fact is, I am married to a retired law enforcement official. The practice of seizing assets from criminals, he tells me, is a reliable way to fund drug enforcement programs and provide equipment for local police departments.
But the stories I have read about innocent American drivers suffering theft at the hands of hundreds of law enforcement officers nationwide make me furious.
Stop and Seize goes way beyond the limits of historic forfeiture laws. It is naked highway robbery. It doesn’t pass the sniff test—it’s as stinky as the “public safety” argument foisted on the public for red-light cameras that do nothing but act as a cash pipeline for city governments. I ask you: Do you feel safer on the road when the driver in front of you slams on his or her brakes at a yellow light to avoid a red-light fine? OK, do you feel safer driving down the road knowing that a police officer can pull you over for a broken brake light and, on that pretense, confiscate all the cash in your purse or wallet? Does carrying a sizable amount of cash make you a criminal?
The outrage of Stop and Seize is that these innocent drivers never again see their money. Most are forced to hire (and pay for) an attorney to retrieve their illegally confiscated earnings, and even then, in nearly every case they retrieve only a fraction. See: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/na...
Identical to red-light cameras, Stop and Seize creates a perverse incentive for the police to pull you over in the first place. It’s payday for them, and only a very naïve person would believe that police aren’t influenced by the money to be grabbed. To wit: Here in Virginia, shortly after the City of Norfolk installed red-light cameras, the duration of the yellow-light cycle at intersections with red-light cameras inside city limits mysteriously lost 3/8 of a second, which had the spurious effect of causing significantly more drivers than ever to be slapped with red-light tickets. See:
http://wtkr.com/2014/03/13/newschanne...
Police are being trained on how to seize your cash in the course of a routine traffic stop. See: http://www.washingtonpost.com/investi...
It doesn’t take much to get your pocket picked: failure to signal for a turn, expired inspection sticker, failure to come to a full stop at a stop sign. All you have to do is look nervous (is anyone not nervous, even a little bit, when they see the flashing blue light in the rear view mirror?). Your nervousness, per police training, is justification to suspect a serious crime. Small infractions for you, big payola for them.
Know your rights. Don’t submit to a warrantless search. Don’t let a police officer detain you longer than he or she has to for a routine stop. And don’t get in your car with more cash than necessary to conduct your business for the day. It may be the last you see of it.
November 6, 2014
Prepared for a Purpose
Every time I put this book down I couldn’t wait to get back to it. Here’s why:
1. Timely story—Antoinette Tuff, ordinary in every way except faith, talked down a shooter just recently, August 2013, and likely spared many lives at the Atlanta, Ga. elementary school where she works as a bookkeeper.
2. A person overcomes great odds to become victorious. The backdrop she paints of her early life, her many struggles, and the painful betrayals combine to add even more drama to that singularly spectacular day of drama when a crazed man with an AK-47 walked nonchalantly into the school office and pointed his weapon at the author.
3. The faith angle.
4. The message of hope: God uses your failures and your trials, even the trials you fail, for his purpose.
5. The story has a well-defined beginning, middle, and end.
6. The book is complex (but not confusing), filled with interesting characters, mostly the author’s family, whose inclusion add depth and context to her life. When you see her as mother, wife, and daughter, you see yourself.
7. It’s not overly long.
8. She had professional help with the writing and editing (thank God). Too many nonwriters who have a gripping story to tell simply throw it on the page, complete with typos and misspellings and weirdisms that distract from the read. The publisher, Bethany House, commissioned PEOPLE magazine senior writer Alex Tresniowski, author of 11 other books (including Waking Up in Heaven), to co-write Ms. Tuff’s story.
9. I saw the hand of God working in a very imperfect person.
10. She writes simply. Makes the read quick.
11. Her story inspired me to be more faithful in my daily devotions.
1. Timely story—Antoinette Tuff, ordinary in every way except faith, talked down a shooter just recently, August 2013, and likely spared many lives at the Atlanta, Ga. elementary school where she works as a bookkeeper.
2. A person overcomes great odds to become victorious. The backdrop she paints of her early life, her many struggles, and the painful betrayals combine to add even more drama to that singularly spectacular day of drama when a crazed man with an AK-47 walked nonchalantly into the school office and pointed his weapon at the author.
3. The faith angle.
4. The message of hope: God uses your failures and your trials, even the trials you fail, for his purpose.
5. The story has a well-defined beginning, middle, and end.
6. The book is complex (but not confusing), filled with interesting characters, mostly the author’s family, whose inclusion add depth and context to her life. When you see her as mother, wife, and daughter, you see yourself.
7. It’s not overly long.
8. She had professional help with the writing and editing (thank God). Too many nonwriters who have a gripping story to tell simply throw it on the page, complete with typos and misspellings and weirdisms that distract from the read. The publisher, Bethany House, commissioned PEOPLE magazine senior writer Alex Tresniowski, author of 11 other books (including Waking Up in Heaven), to co-write Ms. Tuff’s story.
9. I saw the hand of God working in a very imperfect person.
10. She writes simply. Makes the read quick.
11. Her story inspired me to be more faithful in my daily devotions.
October 31, 2014
If nothing else, do it for Facebook
Book Review: Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White
I've been forced to lighten my book load over 23 household moves across several decades, but I'll never get rid of my vintage copy of EOS. I write and edit for a living, but even if I didn’t, I wouldn't donate this life-changing book. I don't use that adjective lightly. EOS taught me valuable lessons about what makes good writing. Good writing caused my career to take off. So yes, it changed my life.
It's a small book, 85 pages. No words are wasted. Contents are divided into well-defined areas: Elementary Rules of Usage, Elementary Principles of Composition, A Few Matters of Form, Words and Expressions Commonly Misused, and An Approach to Style. This last helped me the most. As an English major many years ago, I understood the rules of language such as grammar, sentence structure, etc., but long after I left graduate school I was still developing a sense for style. It's best not to leave style to the fickleness of your creative muse. Authors William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White revealed to me why certain ways of writing irritate the reader, something I had known all along, but only in the back of my mind. Their assertions brought these irritants to the forefront, and oh how my writing improved when I scrubbed them from my pages.
EOS is well titled: "Elements," meaning it focuses on the basic, discrete parts of writing, the foundation of any composition. If you get these wrong, everything is wrong; therefore EOS is an ideal book if you are just starting as a writer. Writing instructors know this. EOS is required reading in many entry-level college composition classes. For easy reference it contains an index and is written in simple language. It’s designed for newbies.
You need this book whether you write professionally or limit your essays to arguing with strangers on Facebook. I highly recommend that everyone read it annually. I do.
I've been forced to lighten my book load over 23 household moves across several decades, but I'll never get rid of my vintage copy of EOS. I write and edit for a living, but even if I didn’t, I wouldn't donate this life-changing book. I don't use that adjective lightly. EOS taught me valuable lessons about what makes good writing. Good writing caused my career to take off. So yes, it changed my life.
It's a small book, 85 pages. No words are wasted. Contents are divided into well-defined areas: Elementary Rules of Usage, Elementary Principles of Composition, A Few Matters of Form, Words and Expressions Commonly Misused, and An Approach to Style. This last helped me the most. As an English major many years ago, I understood the rules of language such as grammar, sentence structure, etc., but long after I left graduate school I was still developing a sense for style. It's best not to leave style to the fickleness of your creative muse. Authors William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White revealed to me why certain ways of writing irritate the reader, something I had known all along, but only in the back of my mind. Their assertions brought these irritants to the forefront, and oh how my writing improved when I scrubbed them from my pages.
EOS is well titled: "Elements," meaning it focuses on the basic, discrete parts of writing, the foundation of any composition. If you get these wrong, everything is wrong; therefore EOS is an ideal book if you are just starting as a writer. Writing instructors know this. EOS is required reading in many entry-level college composition classes. For easy reference it contains an index and is written in simple language. It’s designed for newbies.
You need this book whether you write professionally or limit your essays to arguing with strangers on Facebook. I highly recommend that everyone read it annually. I do.
October 30, 2014
Disease: The Extraordinary Stories Behind History's Deadliest Killers
What an interesting book. Much to like.
1. Like you, I love to read but I’m busy. So it’s nice that each disease has its own chapter, about four to five pages. At our house we call these “bathroom” books, but I prefer to think of this one as the delicious 15 minutes I get to indulge in right before bed.
2. Pictures. Lots of them. But not necessarily macabre. If you want gruesome, go to Google with the name of any of these plagues and then click on “Images.” Sobering indeed. At times I had to quickly close the Web page to keep away nightmares. But in the book you’ll see not just 20th century photographs of victims (sans blood and pus ) but a lot of ancient wood cuts, journalism snippets from the time period of the disease’s greatest impact, and other memorabilia from days when microscopic bugs were scaring entire continents absolutely witless.
3. History. I like history, but I don’t love history. I don’t want hundreds of pages of excruciating detail. I do want enough detail to stimulate interest, enough to explain why any particular disease’s impact changed the course of history. This book gets the balance just right.
4. Psychology. Author Mary Dobson delves into the cultural and medical response to the pathogens, the symptoms, and the stigma of the world’s worst plagues (Ebola too). It’s interesting to follow the enemy as it topples governments, provokes mass migration, wipes out populations, and sets the course of public policy.
5. Organization. The book divides 50 diseases into four categories: Bacterial, Parasitic, Viral, and Lifestyle.
What I didn’t like:
Nothing.
And if you find this book and like it, you might also like “Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Caused It,” by Gina Kolata. Gripping story.
1. Like you, I love to read but I’m busy. So it’s nice that each disease has its own chapter, about four to five pages. At our house we call these “bathroom” books, but I prefer to think of this one as the delicious 15 minutes I get to indulge in right before bed.
2. Pictures. Lots of them. But not necessarily macabre. If you want gruesome, go to Google with the name of any of these plagues and then click on “Images.” Sobering indeed. At times I had to quickly close the Web page to keep away nightmares. But in the book you’ll see not just 20th century photographs of victims (sans blood and pus ) but a lot of ancient wood cuts, journalism snippets from the time period of the disease’s greatest impact, and other memorabilia from days when microscopic bugs were scaring entire continents absolutely witless.
3. History. I like history, but I don’t love history. I don’t want hundreds of pages of excruciating detail. I do want enough detail to stimulate interest, enough to explain why any particular disease’s impact changed the course of history. This book gets the balance just right.
4. Psychology. Author Mary Dobson delves into the cultural and medical response to the pathogens, the symptoms, and the stigma of the world’s worst plagues (Ebola too). It’s interesting to follow the enemy as it topples governments, provokes mass migration, wipes out populations, and sets the course of public policy.
5. Organization. The book divides 50 diseases into four categories: Bacterial, Parasitic, Viral, and Lifestyle.
What I didn’t like:
Nothing.
And if you find this book and like it, you might also like “Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Caused It,” by Gina Kolata. Gripping story.
October 21, 2014
Reserved for Christians Alone
Donald and Evelyn Knapp, owners of Hitching Post Wedding Chapel in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, are facing up to 3 years in jail and daily fines of $1,000 for refusing to officiate at a wedding for two homosexuals. The Knapps’ chapel is a for-profit entity, not a church, and the Knapps are professing Christians who typically conduct wedding services with scripture and prayer that reflect their beliefs. By refusing to officiate, howls the City of Coeur d’ Alene, the Knapps are in violation of a nondiscrimination ordinance.
What’s interesting about this case is the glaring prejudice against Christians and Christians alone―not members of other religions―that permeates every angle. To date I have not read about homosexuals testing the law—and that’s what they’re doing, testing the law—anywhere in the United States by demanding to be married (or to purchase a wedding cake or floral or photography services) from a Muslim-, Jewish-, or Hindu-owned business. These others are not the target, because nonbelieving homosexuals who set these traps don’t really want to be married in a church, synagogue, or mosque; they aren’t interested in a religious ceremony of any flavor. Their singular goal is to harass Christians and put them out of business, exactly like the Nazis set out to do to the Jews in 1930s Germany.
America has a long history of accommodating religious belief, and to this day we make room for the exercise of conscience. We are generous to Muslims in particular. Around the country they have fought successfully to wear their headscarves on the job. Employers have provided them on-site prayer rooms. The federal government has forced employers to allow Muslim employees to be exempted from driving trucks that deliver alcohol (http://volokh.com/2013/06/02/eeoc-cla... consumption of same violates their religious beliefs—though I haven’t read yet that employers have been forcing them to drink it). We have had conscientious objector exemptions from the draft for decades, and for this you don’t even have to be religious, just pacifist. We have religious exemptions for parents who choose not to vaccinate their children, even though you can make a convincing argument that this risks the health of the children. But we won’t let conscientious Christians abstain from participating in homosexual marriage ceremonies according to the tenets of their faith.
What’s odd in all this is how bald the hatred of Christians is and how our government collaborates with what can only be called a “hate crime”—the government’s term, not mine. Which brings me back to the City of Coeur d’Alene. It errs greatly when it forces any religious person to violate his/her conscience to push forward its social engineering goals. It is a foolish thing to write laws that force good people to sin against their beliefs. It contradicts logic. It is the stuff that starts revolutions.
I have some experience in this. When I was searching for a graphic artist to design the cover of my first book, The Lesson, a Christian romantic comedy, I found a particularly talented one, from New York, whom I contacted by phone. As soon as I gave him a thumbnail summary of the story, he told me that he would not work with me under any circumstance—he didn’t want to work for a Christian. Did I threaten to sue? Complain to the Federal Trade Commission? Of course not. I recognize the gentleman’s right to create or refuse to create works of art for whomever he chooses, so that his own dearly held values are not violated.
And really, I wouldn’t want ANYONE who doesn't value my story to design my book cover. Would you?
What’s interesting about this case is the glaring prejudice against Christians and Christians alone―not members of other religions―that permeates every angle. To date I have not read about homosexuals testing the law—and that’s what they’re doing, testing the law—anywhere in the United States by demanding to be married (or to purchase a wedding cake or floral or photography services) from a Muslim-, Jewish-, or Hindu-owned business. These others are not the target, because nonbelieving homosexuals who set these traps don’t really want to be married in a church, synagogue, or mosque; they aren’t interested in a religious ceremony of any flavor. Their singular goal is to harass Christians and put them out of business, exactly like the Nazis set out to do to the Jews in 1930s Germany.
America has a long history of accommodating religious belief, and to this day we make room for the exercise of conscience. We are generous to Muslims in particular. Around the country they have fought successfully to wear their headscarves on the job. Employers have provided them on-site prayer rooms. The federal government has forced employers to allow Muslim employees to be exempted from driving trucks that deliver alcohol (http://volokh.com/2013/06/02/eeoc-cla... consumption of same violates their religious beliefs—though I haven’t read yet that employers have been forcing them to drink it). We have had conscientious objector exemptions from the draft for decades, and for this you don’t even have to be religious, just pacifist. We have religious exemptions for parents who choose not to vaccinate their children, even though you can make a convincing argument that this risks the health of the children. But we won’t let conscientious Christians abstain from participating in homosexual marriage ceremonies according to the tenets of their faith.
What’s odd in all this is how bald the hatred of Christians is and how our government collaborates with what can only be called a “hate crime”—the government’s term, not mine. Which brings me back to the City of Coeur d’Alene. It errs greatly when it forces any religious person to violate his/her conscience to push forward its social engineering goals. It is a foolish thing to write laws that force good people to sin against their beliefs. It contradicts logic. It is the stuff that starts revolutions.
I have some experience in this. When I was searching for a graphic artist to design the cover of my first book, The Lesson, a Christian romantic comedy, I found a particularly talented one, from New York, whom I contacted by phone. As soon as I gave him a thumbnail summary of the story, he told me that he would not work with me under any circumstance—he didn’t want to work for a Christian. Did I threaten to sue? Complain to the Federal Trade Commission? Of course not. I recognize the gentleman’s right to create or refuse to create works of art for whomever he chooses, so that his own dearly held values are not violated.
And really, I wouldn’t want ANYONE who doesn't value my story to design my book cover. Would you?
October 15, 2014
Ebola. Why worry?
Ebola. You can’t help but think about it.
Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian citizen who died early this month in a Texas hospital, was cleared by Liberian authorities to make that historic flight to America because, at the time, he showed no signs of infection, in particular, he had no fever. But the virus takes 2-21 days to incubate inside a victim’s body after exposure, though the average is 8-10 days. A lot of people can travel a lot of places in 2-21 days. It appears from news reports that Duncan lied to Liberian authorities about his exposure to the virus, because we all know that he had assisted an infected pregnant woman who later died, just days before he flew to the United States (or perhaps he didn’t realize she had died of Ebola?—I’m trying to be charitable). Regardless, he was more clear-headed about his exposure to the virus by the time he showed up at Dallas Health Presbyterian Hospital, September 25, with a fever of 103, feeling deathly ill, and asking for assistance. At that time he told medical personnel in no uncertain terms that he had just arrived from Western Africa. They sent him home with useless antibiotics anyway, though patient records indicate the receiving staff realized his fever was alarmingly high and he had just traveled from an Ebola-stricken region.
Duncan returned to the same hospital 3 days later, near death. This time he was admitted, but it was too late to save him. Duncan died October 8, but not after infecting two, and possibly more, hospital workers who were trained in infectious disease hygiene and who had taken every possible caution to protect themselves from transmission including wearing space-like personal protective equipment not immediately available to the rest of us.
The CDC fears widespread panic above all, though I’m not sure why. We have been told again and again that Ebola is no threat to the citizens of this continent. But consider: We were told that if it did arrive we had the medical infrastructure to contain it, though Texas Health Presbyterian has fumbled this contagion from beginning to end—do you have faith that your neighborhood hospital would do any better? We were told that Ebola is spread only by direct contact with bodily fluids of an infected person—tell that to the two medical staff at Texas Health Presbyterian who are fighting for their lives. We were told that a travel ban is unnecessary because only persons with active symptoms are contagious. We are urged not to worry.
On Monday, October 13, 91 citizens from Liberia arrived in America, all—like Thomas Eric Duncan—without fevers.
-----------------
P.S. - Within an hour of posting this blog, I read on national news that the second medical worker at Texas Health Presbyterian to contract the Ebola virus had flown from Cleveland, Ohio to Dallas, Texas the day before she showed signs of infection. The CDC is now trying to find and interview all 132 people who were aboard that flight.
Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian citizen who died early this month in a Texas hospital, was cleared by Liberian authorities to make that historic flight to America because, at the time, he showed no signs of infection, in particular, he had no fever. But the virus takes 2-21 days to incubate inside a victim’s body after exposure, though the average is 8-10 days. A lot of people can travel a lot of places in 2-21 days. It appears from news reports that Duncan lied to Liberian authorities about his exposure to the virus, because we all know that he had assisted an infected pregnant woman who later died, just days before he flew to the United States (or perhaps he didn’t realize she had died of Ebola?—I’m trying to be charitable). Regardless, he was more clear-headed about his exposure to the virus by the time he showed up at Dallas Health Presbyterian Hospital, September 25, with a fever of 103, feeling deathly ill, and asking for assistance. At that time he told medical personnel in no uncertain terms that he had just arrived from Western Africa. They sent him home with useless antibiotics anyway, though patient records indicate the receiving staff realized his fever was alarmingly high and he had just traveled from an Ebola-stricken region.
Duncan returned to the same hospital 3 days later, near death. This time he was admitted, but it was too late to save him. Duncan died October 8, but not after infecting two, and possibly more, hospital workers who were trained in infectious disease hygiene and who had taken every possible caution to protect themselves from transmission including wearing space-like personal protective equipment not immediately available to the rest of us.
The CDC fears widespread panic above all, though I’m not sure why. We have been told again and again that Ebola is no threat to the citizens of this continent. But consider: We were told that if it did arrive we had the medical infrastructure to contain it, though Texas Health Presbyterian has fumbled this contagion from beginning to end—do you have faith that your neighborhood hospital would do any better? We were told that Ebola is spread only by direct contact with bodily fluids of an infected person—tell that to the two medical staff at Texas Health Presbyterian who are fighting for their lives. We were told that a travel ban is unnecessary because only persons with active symptoms are contagious. We are urged not to worry.
On Monday, October 13, 91 citizens from Liberia arrived in America, all—like Thomas Eric Duncan—without fevers.
-----------------
P.S. - Within an hour of posting this blog, I read on national news that the second medical worker at Texas Health Presbyterian to contract the Ebola virus had flown from Cleveland, Ohio to Dallas, Texas the day before she showed signs of infection. The CDC is now trying to find and interview all 132 people who were aboard that flight.
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