does school stifle creativity?

duh
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/66

Mother's Day

Mothers' Day Proclamation: Julia Ward Howe, Creator of Mother’s Day

Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts,
whether our baptism be that of water or of fears!

Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decided by
irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking
with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be
taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach
them of charity, mercy and patience.

We women of one country will be too tender of those of another
country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. From
the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own.
It says "Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance
of justice."

Blood does not wipe our dishonor nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons
of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a
great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women,
to bewail and commemorate the dead.

Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the
means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each
bearing after their own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
but of God.

In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a
general congress of women without limit of nationality may be
appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at
the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the
alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement
of international questions, the great and general interests of
peace.

Boston
1870

True Story

So today, husband, kids, friends, and I went to local favorite beer/hang-out place after a lovely day at the farmers market. We ordered our usuals scoth ales,josh had a seasonal and a big thing of nachos with fresh garlic on the top. blah blah blah. so, we got our receipts; their was the bill/tab, and then there was a receipt that I hadn't noticed during my previous times there. I glanced down at the bottom of the ticket and noticed the printed, "Yucky Hippies" at the bottom. This of course occured around the time the waitresses were switching shifts, and tables, so they find it helpful discribe which customers have what and leave quick descriptions for their co-workers.

Damn it feels good to be a gangsta

i'm a local, I need inspiration, or something

I sit in corner coffee shop.
This is one of the middle times.
you think about what happened before and what will happen next.
You wonder if you really do have something to say, or if your JUST a milkgiver.
JUST.
The black drop- "Here it is, doppio number three!"
Local artist Vince walks by and tells you that he admires your bike by using hand gestures through window.
Local spinstress Kate orders coffee with boyfriend, local acter, and they look all cute. They hold hands across the table while reading local news.
Remember pre-times?
Local guys talking about taking their local bikes to faraway places.
Local esspresso guru Alec walks in and out writing things down.

Yesterday we marched down this road holding doves and dancing to peace drums. And my heart and head where here (locally and faraway in the middle of the east) with the footsteps of many. I ended the night snapping at a woman who was different than me because I was embarressed and weirded out by her make-up. Will I ever be a peacemaker?

Retirement

I think I've found our "retirement" home. I least an idea for when the kids are wondering around on their own. I guess they could live there with us- but I'm sure they would be embarrassed of it when they were in highschool. Better if we wait till they're in their 20's+ so then they'll be like "oh our crazy, cool parents who live in a hole- lets go visit them, or stay there when they're traveling around!"
check it:
http://www.galfromdownunder.com/dan-price/

btw...I think exclamation points should be put inside the quotation marks. I'm always told I'm wrong to do that but it just makes more since. The exclamation is part of the statement, the quote, right? (I feel this way about question marks too.).(and periods.)

In other news, because we said we'd never forget:
Report: Hunt For Bin Laden Gone Stone Cold
As the nation marks the anniversary of 9/11, the Washington Post reports the hunt for Osama Bin Laden has gone stone cold. The newspaper says the U.S. government hasn’t received a credible lead on his whereabouts in more than two years. In March 2002, President Bush decided to pull out most of the troops leading the hunt for bin Laden in Afghanistan to prepare for war in Iraq. The Bush administration still has no one official in charge of the overall hunt for bin Laden. Pakistan has reportedly all but stopped looking for him.
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/11/1344246

lord, have mercy on us

taken from http://www.leftbehindgames.com/pages/the_games.htm


"Game description

Wage a war of apocalyptic proportions in LEFT BEHIND: Eternal Forces - a real-time strategy game based upon the best-selling LEFT BEHIND book series created by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. Join the ultimate fight of Good against Evil, commanding Tribulation Forces or the Global Community Peacekeepers, and uncover the truth about the worldwide disappearances!"

Is this not sick?

Thank you dear brother Shane. (and others!)

I've labeled myself a Christian my whole life. My Christianity was one of fear. The story of my "faith" went something like this:

So there's God, who is God of all- but only us protestant white folk from the states know just who HE is and what he wants- which is for everyone else to become just like us. So God is this big male character who created us because he needed someone to worship him- but he only wanted perfect people to do this. He went ahead and made us so that we would fail this standard so that he could kill his son to make us feel real bad. Now that this ordeal is all done we have to scurry about telling the whole world that unless you become best friends with this son, his dad will send you to hell- hallelujah. Oh- and I almost forgot, we have a time limit. We have to tell the whole world before the good ones are sucked up into the land of perfect golden freeways with no traffic jams. God will then release all the evilness he had been saving up for the right moment and all those who didn't make his son their best friend will be tortured until they do. And this all has something to do with being republican.

So needless to say I was just about done with all that. The only thing keeping me there was fear. My whole life I kept trying to be best friends with Jesus because my daddy (both) said so. I really wanted to believe the radical things that Jesus said, but I somehow wasn't allowed to believe them. The "words of Christ in red" were constantly watered down through the lens of rich mega churches, and a condemning "cloud of witnesses". I was becoming sick and disillusioned. I didn't want to go to heaven, much less tell others to go there if all it was lonely rich, perfectly landscaped mansions, with as much orgasmic entertainment that we could dream of. And I sure as hell didn't want to worship a cologne smelling republican (I don't want to worship a democrat either, okay!)
Well, they must of known what was going on in my life-
although seriously there is much more important things going on in the world than my issues with theology or whatever, geez-
so to make a long post short, through a series of miracles, including a book that I want you to read (http://www.thesimpleway.org/shane/book.html), I found Jesus. Turns out, he's this crazy ass radical who smells, doesn't wear shoes, doesn't drive, drinks alcohol, and he even likes THOSE PEOPLE from the middle east! I think he might even like white rich people too, in fact he might even love them, more than I do.
A whole new story of the gospel is emerging from the lifeless ashes of the church. A story I'm starting to get new glimpses of, that has really nothing to do with the story I grew up with. This is only a beginning.
I feel something new starting, and I'm not sure what to do with it. (and I'm not alone). And I'm going to end this post abruptly and awkwardly because, the revolution takes time (and blood, sweat, tears), not eloquence.