Barbara Curtis's Blog, page 178

October 12, 2011

Republican debate - your thoughts?

debate 1011.jpg



I watched the debates last night and I was so proud of all the candidates. They were so well-spoken and well-informed. Intelligent and articulate.



Had to laugh so many times at Charlie Rose and Karen what's-her-name, who kept posing questions and then looking like deer in the headlights when the answers were so way beyond their knowledge base. So much political/legislative/congressional history they are completely unaware of. Kinda like they live in the moment, posing their "gotcha" questions and not prepared for substantive answers



Any one of these candidates would do us a proud in a debate against Obama. Well, except Huntsman, who keeps me wondering why he's there and where he gets his tan.



Michelle Bachman is amazing. Newt Gingrich, while I would never want him to be president, is so smart. Rick Santorum has a great pro-family perspective to add. No matter who wins, I hope they will find a cabinet position which will use the skills of these dedicated public servants. In fact, I'm sure we will see a few of these faces in the post-2012 Republican cabinet. Lots of brain power there.



What really made me feel proud to be a conservative was spending two hours with leaders who can speak about the issues without sloganeering, manipulation and pitting Americans against Americans.



The bizarre thing about the Occupy Wherever protests is that many of them - if they informed themselves and used reason - would actually be Tea Party members. Many seem not to understand that it is our government - Corporate Crony Capitalism - that is the problem. Obama and Company - even while posing as being anti-corporation - are truly in collusion with the banks while strangling small business and American entrepreneurship.



But that's so typical of the left. Obama says he is a "Warrior for the middle class" when he has really spent three years destroying the American middle class, while increasing the ranks of government dependents and feeding the rich - both on which he depends for votes.



So we can be so proud of our candidates. And grateful for this process. While the Propaganda Press may have intended the debates series to make them look foolish, it has provided a great opportunity for people to see how much more depth there is to their abilities. And the viewership has been so HUGE. One in 12 adults have tuned in. Primary debates have never been so well-watched.



What this means to me is that more and more people are informing themselves and considering the issues rather than jumping on the Democrat bandwagon.



Btw, did anyone hear what the outbursts from the crowd were about?

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Published on October 12, 2011 10:15

October 11, 2011

Hank Williams, Jr: You Can Keep the Change

So probably everyone heard about Hank Williams, Jr losing his football gig because he said Obama and Boehner playing golf together was like Netanyahu and Hitler.



His reaction:





"Keep The Change" - Hank Jr.

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Published on October 11, 2011 20:03

Political cartoons - teach your children

political cartoon.gif



From Creators Syndicate. The artist is Michael Ramirezand you can access all his political cartoons - and many other artists - at Creators.com.



Political cartoons are a great way to teach your children about the issues. I am always amazed by the ability of artists to sum up a situation in a single frame that would take me 1000 words.



Oh, that's right - a picture is worth a thousand words!



Seriously, moms and dads. I still remember in elementary school when we were introduced to political cartoons. Don't know if they are teaching this in public school anymore (do me a favor - ask your kids and let me know).



Don't forget to teach your kids. Look at the cartoon and discuss what it means. After a while, they will start to get it on their own. And who knows? You might have a budding political cartoonist under your wing.

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Published on October 11, 2011 16:53

"Natural" cereals vs. organic - you need to know

Just in case you are buying products labeled "natural" and thinking that they are somehow superior to conventional brands - and also a heads-up that several formerly organic brands have dropped that designation for "natural" - hence containing pesticides consumers do not associate with their trusted brands:





Cereal Crimes



Tomorrow, The Cornucopia Institute will release a revelatory report:

Cereal Crimes: How "Natural" Claims Deceive Consumers and Undermine the Organic Label -- A Look Down the Cereal and Granola Aisle



Find out which major national brands, produced by giant corporate agribusiness, but hiding behind the façade of familiar "green" names (Mothers, Kashi, Peace Cereal, etc.), are romancing their "natural" labels while force-feeding their customers pesticide-contaminated grains and Monsanto's genetically modified organisms.



Watch the YouTube video, linked above, for a sneak preview!



Mark Kastel

Codirector and Senior Farm Policy Analyst

The Cornucopia Institute

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Published on October 11, 2011 16:01

Chinese dissident at Patrick Henry College 10/11

Chinese Dissident to Speak at PHC, Oct. 17

October 11th, 2011





CONTACT: 
David Halbrook

Patrick Henry College

(540) 441-8722

OfficeOfCommunications@phc.edu




 










Liao Yiwu, witness against Chinese Communism






Patrick Henry College continues its Coffeehouse Lectures with a special
visit from a man whom PHC's Professor of History and Writer in
Residence, Dr. David Aikman, calls "a Chinese version of Aleksandr
Solzhenitsyn." Liao Yiwu, who has suffered at the hands of Communist
China because of his commitment to writing and speaking about its
atrocities, will speak in the Barbara Hodel Center Coffee Shop on Monday, October 17 at 7:00 p.m.

Liao, 53, escaped from China earlier this year. Before his departure
from China he had been under almost constant surveillance and harassment
from the Chinese authorities. Liao had first come to prominence by
writing a long poem, "Massacre" in 1989 about the Tiananmen Square
massacre in Beijing in 1989. He was arrested and imprisoned in 1990 and
suffered grievously from torture and psychological mistreatment.


Like the Russian writer Solzhenitsyn, however, he used his prison
time creatively, interviewing dozens of fellow-inmates, just as
Solzhenitsyn did in the Soviet Gulag, to document their various grim
experiences. His account, published as Testimonials, was predictably banned in China.


Liao's most recent book translated into English is God is Red,
an account of several heroic and saintly Chinese Christians whom he met
and interview in China's remote and impoverished south-west. Liao,
though obviously admiring the Christians he met, was not himself a
Christian. Dr. Aikman wrote in Christianity Today, "If you want
to read one book that sums up the glory of the Christian witness under
persecution and the tragic 20th-century story of China's Christians,
read God Is Red. Brilliant and immensely moving, it will, if anything can, inject new backbone into your own Christian life."


Liao Yiwu will also perform on the Xiao (a Chinese flute) and recite his own gripping Chinese poetry (with translation).

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Published on October 11, 2011 14:19

October 10, 2011

Occupy Wall Street humor - Remy's protest song

The first Protest the Protest song - a couple of off-color lyrics:





Remy's Occupy Wall Street Protest Song



HT: Tina



If you like Remy, find more at GoRemy.com

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Published on October 10, 2011 19:09

New to MommyLife? Welcome!

motherhood_manifesto.jpg If you like MommyLife, don't forget to sign up for my email list in the right sidebar!



Periodically I do a little update for readers new to this site - and since I have visitors dropping in for one particular post, I'm thinking now might be a good time to do one.



MommyLife began on January 15, 2005. Since then, I have written 9286 entries and some of the brightest moms in the world have made 31,977 comments.



Before I blogged, I was a professional writer. I started blogging because I wanted a more immediate way to connect with readers. I have definitely found it: MommyLife is averaging over 5000 visits/day!



Thank you very much for visiting here.



Below my header are links to help you find any information you need by date or category as well as links to other blogs that link here (and if you link to me and are not there, let me know and I'll fix it).



On the near right sidebar is my Site Google where you can enter subjects like Toddlers, Montessori, Down syndrome, Tweens, Teens - and come up with everything I've written about it.



On the second right sidebar, under Barbara's Picks, is a wealth of information. While these are linked to Amazon and your purchases there can earn a small percentage to support MommyLife, the most important thing about them is the descriptions which show why and how each item can work to release the God-given potentials in your child and your family. So even if you never bought a thing there, you'd be better equipped to judge the value of books and toys and learning materials. And it's a good place to steer those who buy gifts for your children so they choose something worthwhile.



On the left are links to my very latest posts (since I average 5 or more posts a day, you will need to hit my Archives for more),the latest comments and any speaking engagements (I don't go out looking for these, but try to say yes when asked).



There are also projects - like my book study on Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, Classic Movies for Boys and numerous photo albums. The picture above is from the Mother's Day album I put together as a gift to my readers last year.



In the right sidebar is a MommyLife Widget which you are welcome to add to your site if you would like your own readers to have more frequent cultural/political/spiritual news updates.



For a year, I have published a monthly email blast called Mommy Matters. You can sign up for a free subscription in my far right sidebar and/or browse the archives.



The purpose of this site is to encourage, equip and empower moms - but there are lots of other people who read me too. If you've come here to disagree about something specific, you might want to take a few minutes to find some common ground.

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Published on October 10, 2011 18:59

Cough cure: Vicks on feet - what's your experience?

Vicks%20vaporab_s.JPG This is a rerun of a post from nearly four years ago that has drawn thousands of visits and 84 comments. The overwhelming majority say Vicks on the feet stops an otherwise unstoppable cough. If you don't have Vicks in your winter arsenal, you may want to get some. Then remember to use it when you need to and feel free to leave a comment on how it worked.



I first heard about this when Maddy had a cough a week before her competition and two of her teachers told her to rub Vicks on her feet before she went to bed. Did some research to find that this is all over the Internet and even Snopes doesn't know whether to judge it true or false.

But there is lots of anecdotal evidence from moms that it works:



I received an email recently about how doctor's found great results in reducing a child's night time cough by rubbing Vicks Vapor Rub on their feet, then putting the kid's socks on, and letting them go to bed. Now this email stated that not only were they getting good results, but the Vicks technique was working 100% of the time. Hmmmmmm, Time to test

I have a young child and now that we are entering the cold season I figured I would have the opportunity to test this method out. Well, the doctors were right. One night I woke hearing my child coughing steadily in his sleep. Remembering the email that I received a few days earlier I decided to give the Vicks a shot. I went into his room and started applying the Vicks. Now, my child is a very sound sleeper and will sleep through anything, so me applying the Vicks to his feet did not even begin to stir him from his deep slumber. I tell you this because the results were amazing. After I applied the Vicks, but before the socks were even on I noticed that his coughing subsided and his breathing was deeper. I wanted to think that this was due to the fact that I had woken him up and he was simply not coughing 'at that moment'. That wasn't the case. He had literally stopped coughing all together.



I went to bed that night and was questioned by my child during breakfast on how the socks arrived on his feet in the middle of the night... he didn't even know.



The skeptic that I am was amazed, but still thought that it was just luck. Needless to say a couple nights later my child was coughing after a long Halloween night. Immediately I went for the Vicks Vapor Rub. Again, the coughing stopped upon application. I can't believe how well this works, but I wanted to share it with other parents out there knowing that a good night's sleep is like gold!



by Trina at Alternative Medicines Direct



Anyone out there have any personal experience? If not, do you think you might try it sometime? We did and it seemed to work. But I was brought up on Vicks and returned to using it a couple years as my remedy-of-choice - at least on the chest. Now we're doing feet too!



Amazon has Vicks at a pretty good price, so if you're not in a hurry you can buy from them:





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Published on October 10, 2011 18:50

Stink bugs remedy - Talstar pesticide

[Talstar is the only pesticide that will work.  I've ordered some from Amazon because it's been sold out around here.]



We've moved to another small town in Loudoun and the stink bugs here aren't as bad as they were in Bluemont. . . . however, they are still intense and doing their best to get inside as they seek shelter for the winter - so they can lay a gazillion eggs in walls and attics and march forth when the weather warms up next spring.



Which is why you need to do everything you can to keep them from getting into your house. I find that even leaving the garage door open guarantees dozens getting inside - even in my car.



Here's the only known pesticide:



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Ew. The stink bugs are back - worse than last year. This is the scene by my back door, but they are swarming - well, swarming doesn't quite capture the plodding methodical progress they make as they march toward any opening they can squeeze through to get inside the house. Hordes of them at every window and door.



Opening a door provokes a shower of these prehistoric looking creatures who've embedded themselves on top between the door and the jamb.



No matter how hard you try to keep them out, they get inside the house, where they have a strange way of dive-bombing into your hair while you're working at the computer or reading in bed.



Last year I went into their background. See Stink Bugs: All you never wanted to know. They were a nuisance beyond mild but not yet threatening the quality of life.



Well, now my life quality is on the line - I'm ready for war. Found an exterminator's advice: How To Get Rid of Stinkbugs. He recommends Talstar, which I am buying from Amazon. And with the way this year's invasion is growing, if I had any money, I'd invest in Talstar



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Published on October 10, 2011 18:42

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