When I opened the newpaper this morning, I read this interesting article.
"One of the features that may be of most interest to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is their ability (in the near future) to view and print a digitized copy of a patriarchal blessing — either their own or those of their spouse, direct-line descendants and deceased direct-line ancestors."
Wouldn't it be interesting to read the blessings of our parents and grandparents? I can't even imagine how this is made possible, but I intend to take advantage of the opportunity!
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Wordle
Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.
The wordle above is from all the words spoken at October General Conference. The words that are larger and highlighted, were spoken more often. You can create your own "word cloud" by going here. What a fun an interesting concept!
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Article from the LA Times on Prop 8
Protecting marriage to protect children
Marriage as a human institution is constantly evolving. But in all societies, marriage shapes the rights and obligations of parenthood.
I’m a liberal Democrat. And I do not favor same-sex marriage. Do those positions sound contradictory? To me, they fit together.
Many seem to believe that marriage is simply a private love relationship between two people. They accept this view, in part, because Americans have increasingly emphasized and come to value the intimate, emotional side of marriage, and in part because almost all opinion leaders today, from journalists to judges, strongly embrace this position. That’s certainly the idea that underpinned the California Supreme Court’s legalization of same-sex marriage.
But I spent a year studying the history and anthropology of marriage, and I’ve come to a different conclusion.
Marriage as a human institution is constantly evolving, and many of its features vary across groups and cultures. But there is one constant. In all societies, marriage shapes the rights and obligations of parenthood. Among us humans, the scholars report, marriage is not primarily a license to have sex. Nor is it primarily a license to receive benefits or social recognition. It is primarily a license to have children.
In this sense, marriage is a gift that society bestows on its next generation. Marriage (and only marriage) unites the three core dimensions of parenthood – biological, social and legal – into one pro-child form: the married couple. Marriage says to a child: The man and the woman whose sexual union made you will also be there to love and raise you. Marriage says to society as a whole: For every child born, there is a recognized mother and a father, accountable to the child and to each other.
These days, because of the gay marriage debate, one can be sent to bed without supper for saying such things. But until very recently, almost no one denied this core fact about marriage. Summing up the cross-cultural evidence, the anthropologist Helen Fisher in 1992 put it simply: “People wed primarily to reproduce.” The philosopher and Nobel laureate Bertrand Russell, certainly no friend of conventional sexual morality, was only repeating the obvious a few decades earlier when he concluded that “it is through children alone that sexual relations become important to society, and worthy to be taken cognizance of by a legal institution.”
Marriage is society’s most pro-child institution. In 2002 – just moments before it became highly unfashionable to say so – a team of researchers from Child Trends, a nonpartisan research center, reported that “family structure clearly matters for children, and the family structure that helps children the most is a family headed by two biological parents in a low-conflict marriage.”
All our scholarly instruments seem to agree: For healthy development, what a child needs more than anything else is the mother and father who together made the child, who love the child and love each other.
For these reasons, children have the right, insofar as society can make it possible, to know and to be cared for by the two parents who brought them into this world. The foundational human rights document in the world today regarding children, the 1989 U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, specifically guarantees children this right. The last time I checked, liberals like me were supposed to be in favor of internationally recognized human rights, particularly concerning children, who are typically society’s most voiceless and vulnerable group. Or have I now said something I shouldn’t?
Every child being raised by gay or lesbian couples will be denied his birthright to both parents who made him. Every single one. Moreover, losing that right will not be a consequence of something that at least most of us view as tragic, such as a marriage that didn’t last, or an unexpected pregnancy where the father-to-be has no intention of sticking around. On the contrary, in the case of same-sex marriage and the children of those unions, it will be explained to everyone, including the children, that something wonderful has happened!
For me, what we are encouraged or permitted to say, or not say, to one another about what our society owes its children is crucially important in the debate over initiatives like California’s Proposition 8, which would reinstate marriage’s customary man-woman form. Do you think that every child deserves his mother and father, with adoption available for those children whose natural parents cannot care for them? Do you suspect that fathers and mothers are different from one another? Do you imagine that biological ties matter to children? How many parents per child is best? Do you think that “two” is a better answer than one, three, four or whatever? If you do, be careful. In making the case for same-sex marriage, more than a few grown-ups will be quite willing to question your integrity and goodwill. Children, of course, are rarely consulted.
The liberal philosopher Isaiah Berlin famously argued that, in many cases, the real conflict we face is not good versus bad but good versus good. Reducing homophobia is good. Protecting the birthright of the child is good. How should we reason together as a society when these two good things conflict?
Here is my reasoning. I reject homophobia and believe in the equal dignity of gay and lesbian love. Because I also believe with all my heart in the right of the child to the mother and father who made her, I believe that we as a society should seek to maintain and to strengthen the only human institution – marriage – that is specifically intended to safeguard that right and make it real for our children.
Legalized same-sex marriage almost certainly benefits those same-sex couples who choose to marry, as well as the children being raised in those homes. But changing the meaning of marriage to accommodate homosexual orientation further and perhaps definitively undermines for all of us the very thing – the gift, the birthright – that is marriage’s most distinctive contribution to human society. That’s a change that, in the final analysis, I cannot support.
David Blankenhorn is president of the New York-based Institute for American Values and the author of “The Future of Marriage.”
Proposition 8 - why it matters
Today Rick's sister Robyn (who lives in CA) sent an email to Andy with this paragraph that I thought I'd include here: "Right now I am writing to all my friends about the anti gay marriage proposition that is probably going to lose in CA. We are all getting persecuted for our beliefs. People are saying we are intolerant bigots. Today I am composing a letter to the editor. My friend who wrote to the editor got crucified in the paper, but I have to have courage. After all, our ancestors crossed the plains in handcarts."
Below please find some resources to check in order to fully understand some of the implications of Proposition 8 (Defining Marriage) on the California ballot and how important it is to all of us whether we are a California resident or not. This information is very critical to our country's future stability, protecting our children and grandchildren for generations to come and affording them the best chance for happiness in this life within the time honored structure of marriage and family.
Failure to pass Proposition 8 will hurt children. If gay marriage remains legal, public schools will be required to put it on equal footing with traditional marriage. Children will likely receive "age appropriate" information about sexual relations within heterosexual and homosexual marriages.
Failure to pass Proposition 8 will hurt churches. The court's decision will inevitably lead to conflicts with religious liberty and free speech rights. Society will become more and more hostile to traditional beliefs about marriage and family. Over time, greater acceptance of nontraditional marriage will be demanded of all people. This could impact the ability of any religion to teach and practice its beliefs. Including adoption agencies.
A YES vote will not hurt gays. In California, the law provides for marriage-related benefits to be given to civil unions and domestic partnerships. Proposition 8 does not diminish these benefits.
On Friday, October 10th, 2008 a first-grade class took a field trip to witness a lesbian wedding in California. Click Here for the article from the San Francisco Chronicle. A father in Massachusetts was frustrated when his twin kindergartners were taught about homosexuality at school by the teachers. He insisted he be notified in the future before such things were discussed so he could pull his boys out of school. He was taken to jail. Click Here for the story.A Catholic adoption agency In the UK closed their doors because of the Government's new homosexual equality laws. The Equality Act forbids discrimination in the provision of goods and services on the basis of sexual orientation. The law was forced through Parliament last year despite past Prime Minister Tony Blair's recommendation that Catholic adoption agencies be exempted from the rules. Click Here for more info.
Earlier this month judges in Conneticut overturned the state law (just as the judges in California did) to legalized gay marriage. This is not just an issue in California. Californians voted years ago to keep traditional marriage as the only marriage recognized in the state of California, 4 judges overturned their vote…and again, Californians need to fight back. That is what this Proposition is about. This is happening everywhere and the leaders of the church and others have warned that the outcome of California's vote will affect the way the other states vote.
If this proposition doesn't pass, it could eventually have an profound effect on everyone!
"Occasionally discouragement may darken our pathway; frustration may be a constant companion. In our ears there may sound the sophistry of Satan as he whispers, "You cannot save the world; your small efforts are meaningless. You haven't time to be concerned for others." Trusting in the Lord, let us turn our heads from such falsehoods and make certain our feet are firmly planted in the path of service andour hearts and souls dedicated to follow the example of the Lord." --Thomas S. Monson
Click Here for excerpts from the Broadcast given by Elders M. Russell Ballard, Quentin L. Cook and L. Whitney Clayton.A good resource mentioned in the broadcast: http://www.preservingmarriage.org/
November 4th: Election day. Polls close at 8:00pm. This election may be one of the most important in our life time for many, many reasons.
Hopefully, this information has been helpful. Even if you don't live in California you can make a difference by emailing this to all your contacts and getting the word out. Whether you are into politics or not...this issue is so INCREDIBLY important. I can't stress that enough. So get the word out: VOTE YES ON PROP 8 in California and Prop 102 in Arizona.
Below please find some resources to check in order to fully understand some of the implications of Proposition 8 (Defining Marriage) on the California ballot and how important it is to all of us whether we are a California resident or not. This information is very critical to our country's future stability, protecting our children and grandchildren for generations to come and affording them the best chance for happiness in this life within the time honored structure of marriage and family.
Failure to pass Proposition 8 will hurt children. If gay marriage remains legal, public schools will be required to put it on equal footing with traditional marriage. Children will likely receive "age appropriate" information about sexual relations within heterosexual and homosexual marriages.
Failure to pass Proposition 8 will hurt churches. The court's decision will inevitably lead to conflicts with religious liberty and free speech rights. Society will become more and more hostile to traditional beliefs about marriage and family. Over time, greater acceptance of nontraditional marriage will be demanded of all people. This could impact the ability of any religion to teach and practice its beliefs. Including adoption agencies.
A YES vote will not hurt gays. In California, the law provides for marriage-related benefits to be given to civil unions and domestic partnerships. Proposition 8 does not diminish these benefits.
On Friday, October 10th, 2008 a first-grade class took a field trip to witness a lesbian wedding in California. Click Here for the article from the San Francisco Chronicle. A father in Massachusetts was frustrated when his twin kindergartners were taught about homosexuality at school by the teachers. He insisted he be notified in the future before such things were discussed so he could pull his boys out of school. He was taken to jail. Click Here for the story.A Catholic adoption agency In the UK closed their doors because of the Government's new homosexual equality laws. The Equality Act forbids discrimination in the provision of goods and services on the basis of sexual orientation. The law was forced through Parliament last year despite past Prime Minister Tony Blair's recommendation that Catholic adoption agencies be exempted from the rules. Click Here for more info.
Earlier this month judges in Conneticut overturned the state law (just as the judges in California did) to legalized gay marriage. This is not just an issue in California. Californians voted years ago to keep traditional marriage as the only marriage recognized in the state of California, 4 judges overturned their vote…and again, Californians need to fight back. That is what this Proposition is about. This is happening everywhere and the leaders of the church and others have warned that the outcome of California's vote will affect the way the other states vote.
If this proposition doesn't pass, it could eventually have an profound effect on everyone!
"Occasionally discouragement may darken our pathway; frustration may be a constant companion. In our ears there may sound the sophistry of Satan as he whispers, "You cannot save the world; your small efforts are meaningless. You haven't time to be concerned for others." Trusting in the Lord, let us turn our heads from such falsehoods and make certain our feet are firmly planted in the path of service andour hearts and souls dedicated to follow the example of the Lord." --Thomas S. Monson
Click Here for excerpts from the Broadcast given by Elders M. Russell Ballard, Quentin L. Cook and L. Whitney Clayton.A good resource mentioned in the broadcast: http://www.preservingmarriage.org/
November 4th: Election day. Polls close at 8:00pm. This election may be one of the most important in our life time for many, many reasons.
Hopefully, this information has been helpful. Even if you don't live in California you can make a difference by emailing this to all your contacts and getting the word out. Whether you are into politics or not...this issue is so INCREDIBLY important. I can't stress that enough. So get the word out: VOTE YES ON PROP 8 in California and Prop 102 in Arizona.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Enjoying simple pleasures in Arizona
First morning there, we woke up to say hello to the girls in our PJs and to see what Grandma Vonnie and Grandpa Ricky brought in their suitcases.
Checking out the new princess books...
...and the new baby doll.
An afternoon at the zoo seeing all the cool animals and enjoying a picnic.
So much to see and do.
Watching and touching the stingrays as they swim by.
Looking at the monkeys, Lauren's favorite animal at the zoo.
Running through the splash pad and jungle adventure tunnel and getting soaked!
Little Ellie enjoying the stroller ride and looking at the animals.
Lauren enjoyed reading with Grandpa. We also played in the huge toy room, put puzzles together, played with the princesses and watched Bambie and the Lion King for the first time.
Watching Grandpa dive and swim in the pool. Kinda cold this time of year.
Walking to the mall one evening for a stroller ride. Swinging with Mommy and Daddy.
Riding the carousel at the mall and loving it.
Visiting Grandma Mary and David, Paul and DeNae. Enjoying a delicious meal together made by Mom. (We wont mention the BYU game.....)
Sunday before church.
Wearing new matching dresses. So cute!
Time to say goodbye. We're all sad, but very happy we got to visit for four fun filled days! We enjoyed Jord's great home cooked meals and Jake's amazing apple pie made from scratch. J&J enjoyed a trip to the temple and Jord went to get a full body massage while the free baby sitters were in town. We adults also had a great night out on the town in the downtown area and enjoyed a meal out with interesting adult conversation. Jake went out of town for two days on a business trip while we there, so we were able to keep Jord company and help with the girls.
Thanks J&J for a great time in the land of sunshine. We loved being with you all and look forward to seeing you again soon. We love our little grand daughters and about melted when Lauren said "I love you Grandma" and "I love your Grandpa" completely uncoached by anyone at different times during the visit. Does it get any better than that?
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