Messy Jesse

I love Grandma's pancakes!

The Lenity of a Brother

Well, after a long and unintentional sabbatical (is that possible?) I have been ever so gently urged by some to post again. I have started re-reading Edith Schaeffer's What is a Family? I decided to read this again as well as The Hidden Art of Homemaking which happens to be my favorite book (well one of them). I haven't read them in years and haven't read What is a Family since I actually had my own family. Figured that was a good idea. In describing the family, Schaeffer uses a mobile to describe the family. She says:

" A mobile is a moving, changing collection of objects constantly in motion, yet within the farmework of a form. The framework of a family gives form, but as one starts with a man and woman, a mother and father, there is never any one day following another when these two, plus the children that come through adoption or birth into the home, are either the same age or at the same point of growth. Every individual is growing, changing, developing, or declining- intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, physically, and psychologically. A family is a grouping of individuals who are affecting each other intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, physically, psycologically. No two years, no two months, or no two days is there the exact same blend or mix within the family, as each individual person is changing. If people are developing in a variety of creative areas, coming to deeper understanding spiritually, adding a great deal of knowledge in one area or another, living through stimulating discoveries of fresh ideas or skills- they are affecting each other positively. The mobile of the grouping of toddlers with young school children, of ten-year-olds with teenagers, of young married couples with middle-aged married couples, of grandparents with two generations coming along under them, is amazingly real, vivid, and living as any possible mobile one could imagine. What is a Family? A family is a mobile. A family is an art form. A family is an exciting art career, because an art form needs work."
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And so you see in the picture above a small part of our mobile. Since no one's art is just like another's.... no two families are alike. That's just another part of the complexity of God's creation. We tend to think of the world around us: the animals, mountains, valleys, oceans, and universe, as God's creation but our families are yet another facet of God's creation. He created every one of us!
...And I happen to like the creation that surrounds me.

where does he get this

Well, yesterday was my birthday (I partied hardy since it's the last one in my 20's.)
and so Aunt Joanna spent the day with Anna and Caleb. She had a brilliant idea to actually type out one of Caleb's stories that continually pour out of his mouth several times a day.
Here is one:

One day I WAS playing with my Legos and something stomped in and it was a monster. That's the end of it. The monsters name was nobody, thats his name nobody, his name is nobody. He's just black and white and brown and nothing else. His head is black and his body he's wearing a soft coat. His body is also black. He is wearing black hair and he has a toy that is legos and he has something that doesnt belong to anybody. And he has something really funny a black maker puppet. His name is Black, Kecky Koo, BLAHSK his name is also Legos and Egos and Eagles and Egos and Eagles and Edos and Eboos Ejoos, Eters, his name is Eaters. BLOCKS! He has an American doll and long hair and up to his feet and up to his shoes and his pappy doos. And he has a horse who has long hair down to his feet and it can talk, it's name is Pappy doo as well. Fish? Why are we talking about fish? Fish over there? Where is the fish? I dont see it, too bad, I dont know where they are. Something smells bad. Your hair smells bad. I don't hear any candles in my ears. Can I have one more cracker. Okay I have a realy funny story Mommy was fixing me a monster and it was the legos I could eat. And babos and capos and burbers and chuggers and we got to have other things too but I dont know what they are, so I got it out and the big monster came and then you know what happen nexts? A big monster came and it was Americahoos and it was big and small and it was a bad day for the burk. I didnt know what happened to it, it was bad, the monster was bad and he never gave up. And then he saw me! And then I got killed! And then I pulled out my sword and killed the monster and then another nice bear was nice. So he gave up and said lets go play our lock and then he said lets go play at the park and then no one gave up he pepped up and rolled under the shshere and it was a bad day. No one was here with us. So we picked up and then no body else came. I don't know what to say anymore. I was on a green couch though this morning and I was sleeping on the green couch and I woke up and found a gun and shoot up the bad monster and then I found a new gun and then I was sleeping very well and then I took off my shoes. End of the story.

Can anyone recommend what to do with this 3 year old boy???

I don't believe there is such a thing as sayin' too much

Well, since this blog is semi-journaling, semi-entertaining (at least it tries to be) I need to create a post chronicling a day in the life at the Taylor house. (Round Hill Taylors mind you- the cooler ones) I'm actually stealing this idea from another person's blog. Theirs will be much more interesting but I want this for posterity sake. When I am old and bored, I can look back on this and smile : ) This was a more laid back day. No Dr. appointments, no errands, no trip to the park.

Get up at ____ (I won't enter a time here but I have my excuses) and wake to find Anna reading Caleb a book in bed. Sneak downstairs to start breakfast, load of laundry, make coffee, make Josh's lunch. Jesse's screaming, and Caleb gallops to the kitchen demanding (well he did ask nicely) fruit.
"NO FRUIT!" I exclaim and start pancakes. Make Jesse's oh-so-enticing mash of bananas and oat flour. Try to get Anna to feed it to him while I make Josh's lunch. Jesse does not settle for this one bit. Food only comes from woman in late 20's with a ponytail he says to himself. Maybe I can get by with just nursing him I tell myself. (he looked quite tired) Caleb and Anna eat, Josh is out the door, and I am realizing that the floor looks quite foggy. Yes, a floor can look foggy when milk has been spilled on it several, several times and only quickly cleaned up with a small cloth. Oh, but Jesse needs to nurse now and Anna needs to start math! Caleb is still eating and decides he should help himself to more pancake syrup since mom is busy.
Caleb also decides he needs to go outside in his boxer briefs and t-shirt in the rain to get something out of the van. Caleb comes inside, is banished to the couch so I can mop/check e-mail/drink coffee while Anna gets dressed. Mopping is done, coffee only sipped, Jesse is already awake. Short nap. Probably because he didn't get HIS BANANAS!!! Feed Jesse his gruel, nurse him agAIN and FINALLY get to math. Math goes well except all of a sudden towards the end of the lesson pennies have become nickles. Nickles were five cents and Pennies were one cent at the beginning of the lesson but now pennies and nickles are the same. Go over lesson again. Caleb wants an origami polar bear. It's after lunchtime now and Anna has only done math and violin. No lunch yet. Anna does her oral reading to Caleb while Jesse is tended to and lunch is fixed. Good thing there was leftover homemade pizza. Yes, whole wheat, because giving the kids anything else would be like giving them cigarettes! Kidding. Well that's exhausting.. I think the day continued in the same frantic pace. But at least ALL OF school was completed, SOME cleaning was finished, SOME laundry was done, SOME children were fed (ok, all were fed!), we finished Rabbit Hill and the kids and I even had our new BFFs over for socialization practice. (I need all I can get) As I look back however, I feel like nothing was accomplished, and yet EVERYTHING was.

Jacob&Jesse

Well, Jesse just happens to have the best uncle in the whole world.
Anna and I took off to Starbucks on a lazy Sunday afternoon while
Jacob volunteered (more likely was bugged to) hang with Jesse
at the big Taylor house. After my cap fix, I returned to discover
quite a precious moment. Jacob gets an A+++ and his payment is,
well, he gets to watch Jesse again! Uncles are such a blessing to the
little guys. (they love big guys to hang with)

he grins at the girls and they always grin back

Well, in case you are a grandmother, or want to become a grandmother, just know what's around the bend. Your grandson is likely to raid your pantry to commence in structural engineering.

Indoctrination never looked so good

MMM...Anna Just got an American Girl Doll named Julie. Complete with story book! Now she can learn all about male chauvinists. The book was complete with lots of great history: Gloria Steinem, Title 9, Billie Jean King, etc. Even "Julie's" dad is a bum and her parents got divorced. That's ok, cause it's much more fun with it just being "the girls" now. Later on in the book, Julie has to fight evil coach Manley because he won't let her play basketball on the boys team. He even throws her petitions out that she worked so tirelessly to obtain! Please, women were created for a purpose so much greater than living a disgruntled life. Feminism is full of so much bondage. Please, we are smarter, better, worth more than those fems think.

Hillary wants to give us smart babies

Give it up for Rush

Rush...doony that is.
I have been taking an intellectual sabbatical as of late. Thankfully I don't feel as guilty since while at the playground today I learned (how did I miss this important stat) that it IS true: pregnancy causes the brain to shrink and it certainly doesn't grow back while breastfeeding.

Recently I have started reading the Chalcedon report again and one of the recent issues was so fantastic, SO fantastic I had to post a quote from it. Christopher Ortiz wrote an article: The City of God: Readings in R. J. Rushdoony on the Christian World Order.
So here is a little dose of R.J. for you who are NOT taking an intellectual sabbatical.
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The Aristocracy of Talent

"Because there will always be a governing class, and that governing class will reflect the good or evil directions and impulses dominant in society, it is important therefore to do two things, one to produce and train a superior class, and two, to produce and train a vast body of people who will want the leadership that new superior class can provide.
It is most certainly necessary to fight against subversion and against heresy, but something more is needed, a new faith and character in society at large, and a new leadership, a new governing class in terms of that faith and character...
What needs to be done is, first, to bring forth a new people. This is the basic task of evangelism. Moral dry-rot has not only destroyed the older Christendom but the newer humanistic world order. There can be no new class as long as we remain tied to the forms of the old, such as statist schools. Truly Christian schools must be established, and both old and young re-educated in terms of a total faith. Every sphere of life must be viewed in terms of the whole counsel of God.
Second, new leadership must be trained, a new aristocracy of talent in terms of the new humanity of Christ. This leadership must re-think every discipline in terms of Biblical thought: theology, philosophy, science, economics, statecraft or political science, law, and all things else must be re-thought and re-established in terms of Biblical premises."

This is what Rushdoony referred to as "godly rule," viz. that salvation is not fire insurance against an eternity in hell but has implications for all of life."

Later on the article closes with yet another Rush gem: "None of us is called to set the world or our time aright, but rather to meet our responsibilities under God. The responsibility and work at hand is ours; the issue is in the hands of God"

Fantastico!

Quote of the Day

"My heart is cracking!"

-Caleb Taylor, out of breath while running laps around the house during morning break.

Gun safety is very important, very.

Well I normally don't like to post things with questionable language but this one I just couldn't resist. I like #2. I think I can relate to that. I do resent the hippy remark in #10.

The recent college shooting reminded me: I'm glad we don't live in a state where the only people who have guns are the criminals. Ciao, IL: since I've left you I've never looked back. (well, I do like Chicago)

While the cat's away..

My Mom wanted me to take her on one of my masochistic walks yesterday so that meant my Dad
had to volunteer to stay with the kids. This is the state I found them in when we returned,
Jesse on the floor and Anna and Caleb on my Dad.

It's a donkaphant..

We'd hum on election day instead of crying our brains out if a song were President. I prefer humming to crying, but that's just me.

After browsing the website for Ron Paul's congressional opponent in the 14 district down in TX something dawned on me: People want the government to be their church. Since they aren't getting much from their church, they look to government. Take Bush's faith based initiatives for example. The government actually takes YOUR money and gives it to a karate group (for example) that goes around sharing a quick version of the gospel along with their 20 minute or so karate show. Yes it's true. I say a version of the gospel because there is no accountability for these groups as to whether they are even adhering to Biblical doctrine or not. You may wonder what's wrong with this but let me ask one question: How will you like faith based initiatives when Obama is President and increases spending in these initiatives to further the spread of Islam? If President Bush would like to give money to help others and give them the gospel, GREAT- please do it with your church or you own money, Pres. Bush! He actually has a desire that most of us Christians have or at least ought to have. But, Mr. Bush don't take my money to do it. The government should not be involved in charity. See Davy Crockett on welfare and charity: http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig4/ellis1.html

Anyways, this is nothing new. "Conservatism" has become a feel good religion and it's god and standard are emotions. This false conservatism rightly believes that Homosexuality is bad so it then goes on to believe that we need to have the government involved in licencing marriage. (Marriage is between God and man). Conservatism wants to defend out country. (again, bravo!) This means tightening our borders and making sure we have troops here should our country be attacked. But, instead we invade other countries while our borders stand wide open. "Conservatives" should be more thankful to Clinton for starting this pattern, after all, Clinton paved the way for Bush's arrogant imperialism. We would do well to look back to our founding fathers when they said: "Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations – entangling alliances with none."

The Pack

Sweet. This is much easier than when I was blogging before. Prepare to be assaulted with images, video, all kind of fun things. This is rad. Yes, I will say that because it's my blog.
So this is Caleb, 3.. Jesse was 4mo. and Anna was a new 6 when we took this pic at Thanksgivin'. I'm growing Caleb's hair out again.. and Anna has just informed me that ponytails make your head look oval. (and yes, that was with tears so it's not a good thing apparently to have an oval head) Jesse is his same jovial self, but with more peach fuzz now. And more teeth, six of them.

Breathe Easy

Well it's been quite a long time since the last post. I know everyone has given up on me. You can all rejoice now, break out the champagne, savor every word of this long awaited post. They may even name this a holiday...The Day Melissa Returned to Blogging. Ok, I'm really rusty at trying to be funny so I'll spare you.

Let's see the last time I wrote, Jesse and I were arguing about the time of day: He insisted that night was really day while I tried to tell him "no, when I go to sleep you go too". Let's see,
then he was born, kicking and screaming mind you. He was in no hurry to leave the oven. Now he's six months, soon to be seven and when I think back as to what I have been doing it goes like this: Wake up feed children. School Anna. Feed children. Do laundry. Feed children. Nap. Feed children, go to bed and then feed child a few times in the middle of the night. Yes... that's been the last six months. Now I can add blogging to "feed children". In reality, we have been a little more productive lately. We are forging through school, did some work on the Ron Paul campaign, taken a couple trips to D.C., I'm back at the gym, Jesse's finally eating solid food, and Josh and I are getting back to being able to spend a little more time together again. I have even found time to make new friends. (I know, it's shocking that anyone would want to be my friend) One of those friends is why I am blogging again. She rightly knows that I won't start back up unless she endlessly nags me. Call that a faithful friend.

I have a new picture of the kids to post but of course because my skillllz are on the down, I don't remember how to post it. I will go reacquaint myself with the intricacies of blogging and be back next time with a picture. (and more interesting commentary) I'm too tired to think.

blog it down

Checking out my previous entries, these posts have been WAY to long! Perhaps I should Blog it down a bit instead of up.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching Christ Matthews host the GOP debate the other night. The highlight of the evening was when he "seriously" asked if it would be good for America for the Clintons to be in the White House again. He really tried to emphasize his seriousness, but of course everyone laughed at him, and Mr. Mitt even said "you have got to be joking!"On a serious note, Ron Paul was the real deal. It is quite the day when a strict Constitutionalist ends up looking like a freak at GOP presidential debate. He was the only candidate who mentioned the constitution that evening.


While you are waiting for more posts to show up.. treat yourself to a trip to www.redbluenation.net.
Here you can check out what the Queen of England REALLY does in her spare time. Snuggle up with some priceless moments from Pres. candidate Mike Gravel while you are there too!

Off to bed, just in time to engage with Jesse in our nightly wrestling match. I think he is starting to discover that there is just not much room left in his world. If our in-utero wrestling matches are any indication, Caleb is going to have quite a match in a couple years. Anna will have to develop the talent of being one that makes peace! Eight more weeks hopefully and he can stretch out in his very own bed, as will I.

Fox News Network: CLEAN UP!

One of my favorite talk show hosts: Laura Ingraham, has addressed in a big way the problem with the sleaze on the Fox News Network. There is quite a bit of momentum forming to contact Fox News and demand a better moral standard! Here is my letter to Fox News. Everyone, send a letter to Fox, it will only take a few minutes!!!

Dear Fox News,

Like so many other millions of viewers,I have been overjoyed to see the rise of a "Fair and Balanced" Network such as Fox.
I hope you keep up the investigative reporting and your commitment to the truth. It is what made you number one. The people who made you number one are comprised of people in this country who are committed to the truth and integrity our nation was founded on.

The people who have given you your success for the most part are fairly conservative people. The "T-Warriors" as Bill O'Reilly calls them are getting quite fed up with all the trash they have been seeing on your network lately. We don't mind hearing stories about a congressman's sex tape scandal (just to throw an example out there), but when you show the footage of the actual sex tape it comes across as being very sleazy and unprofessional. Throughout the day you are constantly showing sexual images of women. Bill O'Reilly is perhaps one of the worst offenders of this. His soft-porn footage he likes to constantly roll is an affront to the conservative people he likes to attract. How a society regards it's women and children is a good indication as to what direction the society is headed for. Showing these images constantly degrades and sexually exploits women and the gifts they were given by their Creator.

It usually happens that when a show or network has to stoop lower and lower just to get a story or an edge over their competitor, they are running out of ideas or their creativity is shot. I sincerely hope this isn't the case with Fox. I am speaking with more and more people who are fed up with this trash we get assaulted with when all we want is to hear the news. Your network cannot continue flooding my house with these images and so I, like many others are tuning you out. If you doubt where your customer base is coming from, I would love to see you run an online poll regarding this issue.

I appreciate your time and consideration,
Melissa Taylor

Immigration and Teddy

I have been having a great time listening to the Laura Ingraham show. She's hilariously smart and not a shill for anyone, unlike Rush or Hannity. Here is something she had on her show about Teddy R. and his comments on Immigration in his State of the Union speech. What has happened to conservatism?

TEDDY!!!

Our present immigration laws are unsatisfactory. We need every honest and efficient immigrant fitted to become an American citizen, every immigrant who comes here to stay, who brings here a strong body, a stout heart, a good head, and a resolute purpose to do his duty well in every way and to bring up his children as law-abiding and God-fearing members of the community. But there should be a comprehensive law enacted with the object of working a threefold improvement over our present system. First, we should aim to exclude absolutely not only all persons who are known to be believers in anarchistic principles or members of anarchistic societies, but also all persons who are of a low moral tendency or of unsavory reputation. This means that we should require a more thorough system of inspection abroad and a more rigid system of examination at our immigration ports, the former being especially necessary.

The second object of a proper immigration law ought to be to secure by a careful and not merely perfunctory educational test some intelligent capacity to appreciate American institutions and act sanely as American citizens. This would not keep out all anarchists, for many of them belong to the intelligent criminal class. But it would do what is also in point, that is, tend to decrease the sum of ignorance, so potent in producing the envy, suspicion, malignant passion, and hatred of order, out of which anarchistic sentiment inevitably springs. Finally, all persons should be excluded who are below a certain standard of economic fitness to enter our industrial field as competitors with American labor. There should be proper proof of personal capacity to earn an American living and enough money to insure a decent start under American conditions. This would stop the influx of cheap labor, and the resulting competition which gives rise to so much of bitterness in American industrial life; and it would dry up the springs of the pestilential social conditions in our great cities, where anarchistic organizations have their greatest possibility of growth.

Both the educational and economic tests in a wise immigration law should be designed to protect and elevate the general body politic and social. A very close supervision should be exercised over the steamship companies which mainly bring over the immigrants, and they should be held to a strict accountability for any infraction of the law.

Buchanan says it all

Well, I must admit, I have fallen oh so far behind in my blogging. Too much snot to wipe, too much refilling of humidifiers, too much cleaning up wet 3-foot long pieces of toilet paper. Really, does it have to take 3 feet of toilet paper to blow your nose once? It must for a 5 year old, specifically one named Anna. Oh, the sickness hasn't been that bad. We haven't had the flu here in almost 3 years. Now, some of you will be SHOCKED, but I did resort to the use of a drug during Caleb's bout with this flu. Anna managed to make it though with the herbs, but Caleb needed a little more help. Robitussin (is that even how you spell the thing?) is great for a little kid who's up gagging and coughing his brains out all night. Hum, it's great for the mom too. One night he woke up choking with his chest closed and wheezing, emitting that all too familiar bark a sea-lion would make. All you can do there is wrap them up and take them into the freezing night air. Does a croup wonders! We used to do this with my brother when he was little. By the time you get them to the hospital, the cold air in the car helped get the inflammation down a bit. Assuring Josh of my cold-air method was a little difficult in the middle of the night, but we all made it through. Sitting on the front porch in the pitch black, holding the little, wheezing, fever ball in my arms at three in the morning made me think. Now, the thinking wasn't all that deep, I had just gone through several days of this with Anna, so I only thought one thing. Is this worth it? I could be in bed right now, snuggled and warm, sleeping the night away, in a nice quiet house. Instead I was sitting outside holding a little kid in the freezing night air as he slept on my shoulder. The differences aren't all that striking on paper, but while I was sitting there the former seemed like heaven. I began thinking: who is raising future husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, statesmen, inventors, artists, preachers, mentors? The reality is, mothers are. Mothers who sit up with these people when they are little and can't even tend for themselves. Sometimes parenthood seems very ideological, very noble, very fulfilling, but I, for one, really forget sometimes about all the grunt work that is involved. Doesn't every noble accomplishment come only after years of grace, work, tears, persistence? I guessed it did. So I took my little preacher (that's what I call him) back into the house and we sat the night out. Of course I'm exaggerating, and I know people with 5 or 10 kids have it way worse. And, the worse is probably yet to come for me. Having said that, these nights were still difficult to my comparative easy life and it was nice to rejoice in the "heritage from the Lord", even when the heritage is 2 years old and keeps you up all night.

One other quick note. I have been looking into the Horton/Kline "two kingdom" view. It is a view that I'm afraid just utterly cripples the impact Christians could have on a culture/society. Andrew Sandlin has written a great article on it you can find here: http://www.natreformassn.org/statesman/01/retreat.html I guess the next question is how prevalent is this view in the reformed church? Mr. Sandlin suggests it's increasing in popularity. Hummm... any thoughts? As if anyone still reads my forgotten blog. hehe

Lastly, this is a very well written article by Pat Buchanan, one of my favorites. Conservatives seem to forget about him when Republicans are in power. And on a side note, what's up with Bush not pardoning these 2 border patrol agents? (http://www.eagleforum.org/column/2007/jan07/07-01-03.html) For all the conservatives who looooove Bush, there must be some reason for this madness!!!

Read on for Buchanan's article:

The Ideologue

by Patrick Buchanan
January 24, 2007 Churchillian it was not. Yet the State of the Union seemed a success if Bush's purpose was to buy time from Congress to wait and see if his surge of U.S. forces into Iraq might yet succeed.

But when Bush started to describe the ideological war we are in, one began to understand why we are in the mess we are in.

"This war," said Bush, "is an ideological struggle. ... To prevail, we must remove the conditions that inspire blind hatred and drove 19 men to get onto airplanes and to come to kill us."

But the "conditions" that drove those 19 men "to come to kill us" is our dominance of their world, our authoritarian allies and Israel.

They were over here because we are over there.

If Bush is going to remove those "conditions," he is going to have to get us out of the Middle East. Is he prepared to do that? Of course not. Because Bush, believing the problem is not our pervasive presence but the lack of freedom in the Middle East, is waging his own ideological war to bring freedom in by force of arms, if necessary.

"What every terrorist fears most is human freedom -- societies where men and women make their own choices."

Very American. But the truth is terrorists do not fear free societies, they flourish in them. The suicide bombers of 9-11, Madrid and London all plotted their atrocities in free societies. From the Red Brigades, who murdered Italy's Aldo Mori, to the Baader-Meinhoff Gang, who tried to kill Al Haig, to the Basque ETA, the IRA and the Puerto Rican terrorists who tried to assassinate Harry Truman, free societies are where they do their most effective work.

Stalin's Russia and Nazi Germany had no trouble with terrorists.

"Free people are not drawn to violent and malignant ideologies," declared Bush. Oh? Explain, then, why 70 million Germans, under the most democratic government in their history, gave more than half their votes to Nazis and Communists in 1933? In every plebiscite he held, Hitler won a landslide. In the year of Anschluss and Munich, 1938, Hitler was Time's Man of the Year and far more popular than FDR, who lost 71 seats in the House.

During 2006, free Latin peoples brought to power anti-American Leftists Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, Evo Morales in Bolivia, Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua and Rafael Correa in Ecuador, and came close to electing their comrades Ollanta Humala in Peru and Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in Mexico.

In the free elections Bush demanded in Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq, the winners were the Muslim Brotherhood, Hezbollah, Hamas and Shia militants with ties to Iran.

If a referendum were held in the Middle East on the proposition of the U.S. military out and Israel gone, how does Bush think it would come out?

"So we advance our security interests by helping moderates, reformers and brave voices for democracy," said Bush. But how many of those "moderates" -- Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Morocco, Kuwait, the Gulf States -- are ruled "by brave voices for democracy"?

Our Islamist enemies would likely endorse unanimously a Bush call for free elections in all those countries, as elections could not but help advance to greater power, at the expense of our friends, those same Islamist enemies.

What is Bush doing? The America that won the Cold War said ideology be damned, we stand by our friends.

"The great question of our day is whether America will help men and women in the Middle East to build free societies," said Bush.

But if we bleed our country to give the men and women of the Middle East the freedom to choose the society they wish to live in, are we sure they will not choose a society where Sharia is law? In liberated Afghanistan, popular sentiment was behind beheading that Muslim who converted to Christianity.

What leads Bush to believe everyone wants to be like us? Is it not ideology?

To characterize "the totalitarian ideology" we confront, Bush quoted Osama bin Laden: "Death is better than living on this Earth with the unbelievers among us."

This is the true mark of the true believer. But did not the Spain of Isabella want the "unbelievers" removed from "among us"? Did not Elizabeth I feel the same about Catholics?

"Give me liberty or give me death!" said Patrick Henry of the Brits remaining in this country that Brits had founded. "Live free or die!" is the motto of the great state of New Hampshire.

This is the heart of the war we are in. Americans believe in freedom first. Millions of Muslims believe in Islam first -- submission to Allah. We decide for us. Do we also decide for them?

Perhaps the best advice we can give our Muslim friends in the Middle East is the hard advice Lord Byron gave the Greeks under the Islamic rule of Ottoman Turks:

Hereditary bondsmen! know ye not,

Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow?

Past bedtime!

Even if it is past my bedtime, I haven't posted in FOREVER. Christmas is coming soon though and it's only getting a little busier. We do have a piece of news though, I found out that God saw it fit to answer Anna's prayer she has been praying every night at the dinner table for months and months. A third Taylor tornado is on his/her way! We are all stoked, but that still leaves the fact that battling sickness is an every day affair. I'm thankful for my mom bringing meals and for eating at the other Taylor's sometimes on Sundays. It's a blessing to have family around to help with things like this! The due date should be the first of July. I'm hoping it's on the 4th so that the little one gets fireworks for a birthday present every year!

A dear friend, Shalice who lives in Chi-town, is getting married in the spring! Josh has given us the blessing to go to the wedding so I'm jumping up and down at the opportunity to see some friends I haven't seen in forever it seems! I only wish he could come.

Well, a boring post this was, better grab a glass of wine, I want you to associate this blog with pleasant feelings, not feelings of boredom, monotony, and sluggishness. hehe : ) More later, I promise- but I can't promise it won't be boring again ! : /