Losing the Right To Disagree?

Image source : How Stuff Works
"A pioneering expert on hurricane forecasting says he may soon lose funding due to his skepticism about man-made global warming, according to a report in the Houston Chronicle.

Dr. William Gray, who once said that pro-global warming scientists are "brainwashing our children," claims that Colorado State University will no longer promote his yearly North Atlantic hurricane forecasts due to his controversial views.

Gray complained in a memo to the head of Colorado State’s Department of Atmospheric Sciences that "this is obviously a flimsy excuse and seems to me to be a cover for the Department's capitulation to the desires of some (in their own interest) who want to reign [sic] in my global warming and global warming-hurricane criticisms," the Chronicle reports. "
To read the rest of this article, click here.

Have You Seen It?

Have you seen the movie, "EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed" yet? If not, why? You really do need to see it. When we were done watching at our theater everyone applauded! Read the following and then find out when the movie is playing in your area. Be sure to leave us a comment on what YOU thought of the movie.

I found the following article here at Soo Today.Com

Set to open on 1,000 screens April 18, Ben Stein's Expelled stirs major controversy

"The battle over evolution is only one skirmish in a much larger war." - Oxford professor Richard Dawkins, in 'Expelled'

LOS ANGELES, April 16 - Even before its April 18 release nationwide, Ben Stein's movie, EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed has triggered heated reactions from both sides of the debate between religion and science.

Atheists are "crashing" Expelled screenings and conference calls; critics are slamming it; and leaders are raving about it.

One organization is urging theaters to reject the film, while another is holding a movie marathon for all 15 Expelled showings at their theater.

And Expelled screenings for legislators in Florida and Missouri are causing political firestorms and driving "Academic Freedom" bills that challenge Darwinism.

The controversy has made Expelled one of the most talked about movies of 2008:

- The Expelled controversy was rated #1 blog on the Internet (3/24/08)

- "Expelled rated #6 on Yahoo's "Top Searches" (4/8/08)

- Expelled made the front cover of the New York Times (10/27/07)

- Nearly 2 million visitors have come to the Expelled movie site recently

"The reaction to Expelled is threatening to ignite a new cold war between religion and science -- and the implications are enormous," says executive producer Logan Craft. "The atheists are going ballistic over our little movie. I want to remind them: It's just a movie. Relax!"

Early pre-screenings of the film have been met with both rave reviews and harsh criticisms.

Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh called it "powerful" and "fabulous" while critic Roger Friedman called it "sloppy" and "not just a little boring."

The Orlando Sentinel's Roger Moore said "it's not particularly funny," while MovieGuide called it "wry, funny, and well crafted."

And in the blogosphere where EXPELLED is creating the most buzz, bloggers like Bryan Swaggerty are calling Ben Stein "an idiot," while others like John Villareal are praising Stein as "a genius."

"It's amazing to see the totally opposite reactions to ,Expelled," said Logan Craft. "At most of our pre-screenings, audiences are giving standing ovations. But others are calling it pathetic. We think it has more to do with one's worldview, than with the film itself."

According to one prominent U.S. movie theater chain, people are even sending emails to boycott Expelled.

An email which the theater chain forwarded to the producers of Expelled read, "I urge the management of this theater company to consider rejecting the highly controversial film EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed ... [as it] undermines science in our nation's schools."

"This is the first time since Passion of the Christ that we've become really engaged," said pastor Jerry Johnston of First Family Church in Kansas City, who is hosting multiple screenings of Expelled.

"We think the debate about the origin of life isn't settled yet, despite what's being taught in our public schools. This is more than a movie, it's a cause," said Johnston, who will explore the topic in a four-week sermon series in conjunction with the release of Expelled.

Similarly, the Association of Christian Schools International has urged its thousands of member schools to use Expelled as a springboard for discussion.

"Many of our atheist friends are deeply angered by our film and we can't figure out why," noted producer Walt Ruloff. "This is America and we should all be ready for a little debate. My hope is that instead of trying to shut down the movie, they'll join the debate. Let the conversation begin."

Helpful Grocery Shopping Tip

Busy today but found a little something to share. I thought this was a good idea. Check out this helpful tip.

Are You Bitter?

The photo above came from here.
...You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. So it's not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations. ~Obama

The comments above by Obama have absolutely infuriated me, what about you?

Then I read this and had to share. This is a small part of the article. To read the whole thing just click on the link below.

....absolutely everything you need to know about Barack Obama happened last week, and I've read a lot of people, you know, their comments: "He's an elitist. Oh, he doesn't understand God, he doesn't understand religion. Oh, we're not bitter....

You know who else was clinging to religion? You know who else was clinging to their guns? Oh, those bitter founding fathers. Oh, I hate them. They're so bitter. No, they weren't. They were pissed off at the king but they weren't bitter. They were bitter maybe at George: "Hey, what's up with that?" But they were not unhappy people. They were inspired people. They were people with great hope because of their religion. Not because they were clinging to it. Not because they ran to it. It was who they were. It is why they left everything to come here. They didn't hope for change. They changed it. That's what they did. People who hope for change, you're on your own, man. You'll be hoping all you want. You hope for something, what you're creating is hope. I mean, the hope that something will change. Not the change. I don't need the hope. I got hope. I need change. And the last people I depend on for change are the weasels in Washington. This might explain Obama's understanding of religion. Why would people go to a Marxist faith, a Marxist theology?.......

Read the rest of this here.

Then I found the following at another blog.....

Obama informed the San Francisco plutocrats that these crazy working-class people are so bitter, they actually believe in God! And not just the 12-step meeting, higher power, “as you conceive him or her to be” kind of God. The regular, old-fashioned, almighty sort of “God.” ....The rich liberals must have nearly fainted at the revelation that the denizens of small towns in Pennsylvania have absolutely no concern for the rich’s ability to acquire servants from Mexico at a reasonable price.

We don’t know much about Obama’s audience, other than that four fundraisers were held on April 6 at the homes of San Francisco’s rich and mighty, such as Alex Mehran, an Iranian who went into daddy’s business and married an IBM heiress, and Gordon Getty, heir to the Getty Oil fortune.

It is not known whether any of Getty’s three illegitimate children attended the Obama fundraiser — which turned out to be more of a McCain fundraiser — but photos from the event indicate that there were a fair number of armed (and presumably bitter) policemen providing security for the billionaire’s soiree.....

For the rest of this article click here.

New Look, New Name, New Links!

I have been struggling with the name of my blog for some time. The first title was supposed to be temporary and later I adjusted it. I finally came up with something that makes me happy. Be sure to read the top of my blog for the definition of my new title. Let me know if you like it or not.

With a new blog name I thought a new look would be fun! I hope you like it.

Now for some great new links. I found these recently and thought they were a lot of fun.

Be sure to check out

You Look Fab for increasing your style quotient

Dinner Tonight for help deciding what to make for supper,

and my new personal favorite, Mrs. Fussy Pants where her motto is one I want, "We Can't Both Look Good, It's Me Or The House!"

My favorite part of that last blog is her "Fight the Frump With Fussy" that she does on Fridays. Scroll down to that and then there are many links you can click on to see what others are doing to "Fight the Frump"!

Expelled, No Intelligence Allowed-UPDATED

Just wanted you to know I went to see this over the weekend. It was AWESOME! Everyone should see it. Feel free to leave comments below.

"This movie will be a travesty. It will not make money. It will be ridiculed everywhere. This will go down as Ben Stein's folly. Why don't you read a biology book instead of pandering to the right-wing nutjobs?"-Nathan Daniels

"It's (EXPELLED) going to appeal strongly to the religious, the paranoid, the conspiracy theorists, and the ignorant –– which means they're going to draw in about 90% of the American market."
-Atheist blogger and fabulist PZ Myers, on a film he has not yet seen.

Wow! Those are some very interesting quotes. Interesting that the "religious" are thrown right in with the paranoid and ignorant. If I have faith that this world and everything in it was created by God that puts me right up there with nutjobs, paranoid, and the ignorant? Funny, last I checked the "religious" far out number the rest of them.

I have an idea! Let's all go see this movie. It is supposed to open in 1000 theaters. This will surpass Farenheit 9/11,”(debuted on 868 screens) and“An Inconvenient Truth" (opened on four screens despite all the hype, peaking at 587 before it fizzled).

Their website says this about the movie,

"Expelled” calls attention to the plight of highly credentialed scholars who have been forced out of prestigious academic positions because they proposed Intelligent Design as a possible alternative to Charles Darwin’s 150-year-old theories about the origins of life. Instead of entertaining a debate on the merits of competing theories, the scientific establishment has moved to suppress the ID movement in a “systematic and ruthless” way at odds with America’s founding principles, the film asserts.

Liberals have been going ape about “Expelled” for months as it has been screened around the country"

Watch a short trailer by clicking HERE.

Let's go see the movie. Leave me a comment to let us know what you thought of it.

Just To Make You Laugh-Hot Pockets!

If you love them or hate them you will love hearing this little comedy routine on "Hot Pockets".

Crude Coverage

Isn't that a cool picture? I found it at the 2nd link at the bottom of this blog post.

Media ignore OPEC’s control of oil market when covering America’s pain at the pump.

By Nathan Burchfiel

The media are awash with historical flashbacks. Is this the worst economy since the Great Depression? Or is it a repeat of ’70s-era financial woes? For the most part, the comparisons have been less than accurate. But there’s one the media have missed: an old villain from the ’70s causing Americans grief over oil and gas.

Oil prices have soared to more than $100 a barrel and journalists are looking for someone to blame for Americans’ “pain at the pump.” They call “Big Oil” “thieves” and accuse them of reaping “excessive profits” driven by “greed.” But the networks ignore one of the big causes of high gas prices – the hostile leaders of the world oil cartel – the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

The American people “know that companies like Shell are posting record profits,” NBC’s Meredith Vieira said to Shell Oil Company President John Hofmeister on the “Today” Show May 14, 2007. “Now, it may not be fair, it may not be right, but there is a perception out there in the country among certain consumers that the oil companies are a bunch of thieves, that you’re ripping people off.”

Vieira wasn’t alone in her thinly veiled hostility toward oil companies.

In an interview with Hofmeister Nov. 14, 2007, ABC “Good Morning America” host Robin Roberts suggested that “in an economy when people are truly struggling to try and make ends meet, could you cut back a bit on your profit?” Roberts also criticized Shell’s investment strategies, asking if the company invests “enough” into finding alternative fuels.

Despite economists’ reminders that supply and demand are at work – that oil companies don’t set gas prices – the networks have hammered away at that point. But Roberts wasn’t urging OPEC leaders to “cut back a bit” on their profits.

In fact, network reporters covered oil companies’ profits 14 times as often as they covered the profits of OPEC – an actual cartel that controls supply and directly affects prices, according to experts like Ariel Cohen, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation who wrote in June 2005 that OPEC “facilitates” high oil prices.

Many Americans still remember the cartel’s embargo against the United States in 1973. It caused record prices at the pump and led to gasoline rationing and long lines at service stations. Record prices have returned, but journalists now depict OPEC as a market follower instead of a market manipulator.

In the last year, OPEC has increased production by only fewer than 3 million barrels per day, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, while the per-barrel price of oil has doubled. Increasing production would lower the cost of crude oil by increasing supply to meet demand.

Members like Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez have admitted wanting to use anti-market practices to keep oil prices high to hurt the U.S. economy.

The rest of this very interesting article can be found by clicking HERE.

Now at leastm if we are mad we know who to be mad at. :-)

Another interesting article about what oil is (great for explainging to children) can be found HERE.

(Be sure to skip the part about it taking hundreds of millions of years for this process to happen-not true. )

Natural Reader

I haven't tried this yet but it looks like a really good thing. I am planning to download the free version of Natural Reader. It will read text out loud to you. You can pay for a version that gives you more natural sounding voices too also. This would be great for younger children or someone with reading issues.

Homeschool Curriculum Show & Tell-Science

I wanted to start sharing about homeschool curriculum or aids that we have used and enjoyed. It is kind of a blog show and tell.

Today, I want to share about Apologia Science. We have used it for several years for my oldest and 1 year for my youngest.

To find out more go the Apologia web site.

We are using the one on Astronomy this year. That is the photo above. It is really good. It has had some interesting and easy experiments. It says this is for up to 6th grade but I think it can be used for 7th grade also. You can also get Botany, Flying Creatures Of The Fifth Day, Swimming Creatures Of The Fifth Day, & Land Animals Of The Sixth Day.

My oldest has done General Science, Physical Science, and we are currently using Biology this year. So far my oldest has done a dissection on a worm and on a crayfish. Next up is a fish and a big juicy frog. Not looking forward to that last one, as you can imagine. You can order the specimens and the dissection kit from their website. That makes it easy & convenient. However, I found a better deal over here at Homeschool Science Tools . The main reason I went here was because the shipping was less and faster. My daughter was doing the dissections with a friend so we split the cost too.

Now I want to tell you the reasons why I like Apologia so much.

1. Most importantly it it written by a Christian that believes God created the world and that it wasn't just some big random bang. He does not teach evolution and explains the scientific errors in this way of thinking. He doesn't just believe it but has facts to back up the things he says. (Yes, he is a great teacher and a great scientist.)


2. I love that you can order the text book, or the CD or both. We have always ordered the CD. That means that all the work is done at the computer unless you want to print it out. That is not a problem at our house. If that won't work for you then the text book is the way to go or get both.


3. If you have the CD you can watch educational videos when the teacher wants to demonstrate or give you an example.


4. If you have the CD, technical words are pronounced for the student.

Click here to read the frequently asked questions.

If you are interested in this let me explain something to you. They have a CD with the full course on it. They also have a companion CD. That is NOT the full course. The full course is around $65. The companion CD is around $15. Don't want you to think you have gotten some kind of fabulous deal for the full course at $15. The website explains the companion CD this way....."It contains pronunciations for the technical words in the course, animations used to explain some of the more difficult concepts in the course, and videos of experiments that the student would not be able to do on his or her own." The full course has all of these things in addition to the text and more.

If you think you may want to try it or you know you want to try it leave me a comment. Also, be sure to let us know what you think after you have tried it.

How to Prevent Alzheimer’s

I don't think I can do all of these things but I am trying to do as many as possible. I think that is where good health starts. Make the changes you can make. Do a little bit at a time. It took us our life time to get into the unhealthy habits so it may take a while to get out.






In last year’s Alzheimer’s Facts and Figures Report, the number of Americans stricken with the disease was 5.1 million. This year’s report brings us up to 5.2 million, including some 200,000 to 250,000 people under the age 65 who are inexplicably stricken with so-called “early-onset Alzheimer’s.”

By 2050, the report estimates that a full 10 million U.S. “baby boomers” will have come down with Alzheimer’s, which translates to 1 out of 8!

How to Prevent Alzheimer’s (information for this was here)

Fortunately, there are ways to reduce your chances of getting Alzheimer’s. These simple lifestyle changes can help keep your brain in optimal working order well past your 60’s.

Eat a nutritious diet with plenty of vegetables...and pay special attention to avoiding sugar

Eat plenty of high-quality omega-3 krill oil or fish oil. Avoid most fish (high in omega-3, but often contaminated with mercury)

Avoid and remove mercury from your body. Dental amalgam fillings are one of the major sources of mercury, however you should be healthy prior to having them removed...You can find a biological dentist to have your amalgams removed.

Be careful as you could be jumping from the frying pan into the fire like I did if you see a conventional dentist to do the exchange. ONLY see a high quality biologically trained dentist or your health could get ruined.

Avoid aluminum, such as in antiperspirants, cookware, etc.

Exercise for three to five hours per week. According to one study, the odds of developing Alzheimer's were nearly quadrupled in people who were less active during their leisure time, between the ages of 20 and 60, compared with their peers.

Avoid flu vaccinations as they contain both mercury and aluminum!

Wild blueberries, which have high anthocyanin and antioxidant content are known to guard against Alzheimer's and other neurological diseases.

Challenge your mind daily. Mental stimulation, such as traveling, learning to play an instrument or doing crossword puzzles, is associated with a decreased risk of Alzheimer's. Researchers suspect that mental challenge helps to build up your brain, making it less susceptible to the lesions associated with Alzheimer's disease.

A New Earth?

I don't want any part of this 'new earth'.

Make sure your sound is turned up.

It is hard to even know what to say about this. There is so much to say I don't know where to begin. I guess you should just watch it for yourself. Everyone needs to see this video. This is too important to miss. The world is changing and Christians need to be praying and need to stay informed. If you think this is made up just go to the website. It is not hidden. I can hardly believe this is treated as a "normal" thing on the web site.

Changing Blog Title & Quote

In case you noticed and were wondering. I discovered another blog that had the same name as mine. Just thinking a quick change might make it more unique.

Since this is a pretty short post I thought I would include a quote I just saw.

Sin is the dare of God's justice, the rape of His mercy, the jeer of His patience, the slight of His power, and the contempt of His love.

-John Bunyan

Ouch! That really puts those pesky "little sins" in their place doesn't it? Changes the whole meaning of it's just a little white lie, too. I wonder if we read and thought about this every day if we would live our lives in a different way.