An old prof of mine had her only child at age 42 after having been married for 20 years. She used to caution us about hormonal birth control and assisted reproductive technologies (always their health side effects), and finally someone asked if she used fertility drugs to have her son. "Oh, no!", she said. "I would love to have more children, and if it happens, great, but I want to be around for my son, so I won't risk my health to get pregnant again." She was so vehement that I certainly believed her. Also, my friend B's mom had her last child at, I think 44 (this was in the early 1980's, and this woman is so against hormonal b.c. that I can't imagine her using any of the new-at-the-time fertility drugs), and her last pregnancy at 46 or 47. AND, I worked with a couple who had kids my age and a little younger, and the year the husband retired (I believe he was 56, and his wife was 8 years younger) they had a surprise baby girl. That was an unintended pregnancy, so I highly doubt the wife accidentially got poked with Clomid or anything. Oh, and one more... I was reading about Almanzo Wilder's family, and his mom had her first child at age 23, and her last at 48. Her oldest daughter had kids older than her youngest little brother. And that was in the 1800s.

Yep, I knew a guy like this. He claimed to be a Libertarian, even though he was on SSI. (He got drunk and rolled his car :glare:, which is how he got on SSI in the first place.) Do these women work outside the home? Where I live, in Michigan, in order to get any cash state assistance, single parents MUST work. (Married parents, only one must work.) That usually means getting subsidized day care and putting all your kids- even if you have a dozen, even if you are breastfeeding exclusively- in day care all day, even if you are just working a minimum wage job. I have a hard time picturing these FLDS women in their prairie garb working at a fast food place after dropping their kids off at day care. Unless maybe the moms of older kids work, and the moms of younger kids have the daycares? But that still involves state inspection, to get state subsidies. I dunno, maybe this is why they don't come to Michigan, LOL! Or maybe TX, CO, and AZ need to change their welfare laws so that their states don't have the burden of caring for these enormous families. After all, if the FLDS religion promotes traditional gender roles, then shouldn't the father be providing for his family? Maybe that would cause the men to limit the number of wives they took on, in order to have supportable sized family.

On that quiz, I am smack in the middle of the Liberal quadrant. Which is not remotely surprising to me, but it continues to puzzle me how I can be a liberal and stand in such agreement with so many of these conservative principles. I guess that while I do think society can be bettered, I also think that if what we're doing isn't working, change it! A good example is immigration. No matter where you come down on this issue, the current situation is not making anyone happy because the system in place is broken. Now, I'm a liberal because my policy idea is to crack down on companies that hire undocumented workers. I think this is the most logical way of doing things, because fines add to the bottom line, to whereas jail takes away from the bottom line; and because if people can't get work, their incentive for coming here illegally is vastly diminished. But I'd be willing to hear other ideas, for sure. I just think that the whole notion of "blanket amnesty" is a silly one. Why even have a border, then?

Number seven basically is a call to sustain classic architecture and urban cores. It's not just about physical beauty, as best I can tell. It has a lot to do with sprawl and work life issues.

beansprouts, thanks for posting the CC manifesto. Other than #1, which I have no beef with, I just don't self identify as a conservative, I agree with the CC manifesto.

No, I don't believe that mankind is perfectable. I think that forcing people to strive for utopia actually leads to distopia- like genocide. That said, I think that, in our fully mortal state, we should all strive to be as good (not perfect, just good) as we can be. And, as someone who thinks government is basically a Good Thing (because I think anarchy is basically a Bad Thing)I think that government can be a part of helping people to be good. This is not to say that I support all "big government" programs, but I do support many of them. I tend to be not-so-cautious about big government, but VERY cautious about intrusive/destructive government. I think this is a fundamental distinction that separates me (and a lot of others) from Grover Norquist style conservatives who want to shrink government so small that it can be drowned in the bathtub. And yes, I lived through all eight years of the Reagan administration- though I was kid, LOL. I'm sure that if I knew him as a grandfather or something, I could say many nice things about him, but I'm speaking of him as a president, and, well, I got nuthin', so as my mom says, don't say anything at all. For that matter, Hoover was, supposedly, a very good and moral man, but he was a rotten president. He definately makes my shortlist of worst presidents ever. Does that mean Hoover and Reagan are terrible people in my eyes? No, just bad presidents. Along with someone like Jimmy Carter, who I think has probably put his post-presidential career to better use than any other president, but was not a good statesman while in office. Does anybody get what I'm trying to say, or am I just rambling?

But see, that's the thing, it's not just lifestyle decisions for me- it is also the underlying assumptions about the nature of the world that I have in common with this set of ideals.

I'm a blueblood- by this, I mean that I am a liberal from a working class family filled with liberals. I am so blue that I am indigo. When I got married, I gained new a family, peopled mostly by so-called conservatives. This was, for me, confusing, because these people were neither wealthy nor remotely religious. I began to seek common ground with conservatives, because I was tired of every conversation ending with wounded feelings and discomfort. And, at the same time, I began seeing blurbs about this "Crunchy Cons" book all over the internet. So I read the book, to see what all the fuss was about. And here's the big news: I agree with about 85% of what was in this book. In fact, it's a much shorter list to state the problems and disagreements I have than to list all the commonalities. Those disagreements are as follows: 1) I think that it is silly to try to reduce or compare the post-Katrina New Orleans debacle to a single reason, particularly so nebulous a reason as "lack of community". 2) I cannot think of anything positive to say about Ronald Reagan. 3) I am against legislation dictating medical ethics standards outside of research. 4) I found it intellectually dishonest of the writer to mention gay Americans slightly, and then ignore the gay rights debate. 5) I think that the author engaged in a little too much stereotyping of both major political parties. 6) I thought it was big lapse in reason for the author to ignore the third branch of the religions of Abraham in his chapter on faith. And that, my friends, is it. I am amazed. I guess I'm so far to the left that I'm to the right.

Okay, great. Thanks, ladies, this is a relief.

I have what I think is probably best described as an inclusive approach to spirituality. I certainly do not have a problem with Judeo-Christian morals/ethics, as I share the vast majority of them. However, in looking through curricula, I have come across something of a puzzlement. I would never disinclude a source of education based on its religious base, but there are a few things that concern me. For instance, I do not cover my head. Looking through Rod & Staff's catalog, all the women are covered. Is there anything explicit in R & S that dictates the covering of women, and if so, would this be confusing for my child? Also, do I have to worry about any Christian curricula implying or stating that non-Christians are going to hell? Because that would be very troubling to me, and I would rather avoid that altogether, especially with a young child. Thanks.

We use instant grits. After everything is sealed up, you could try sprinkling instant grits around. They take the grits to the queen, who dies because she can't digest them, and the the colony moves.

I guess I think of the trivium and the quadrivium. The trivium being the acquisition of facts and basic skills, followed by the organization of facts, and finally the ability to express oneself in a logical, coherent, and applicable fashion.

I just found out yesterday that, while I am still technically pregnant, I am just carrying a placenta- there's no baby in there. I don't know if a blighted ovum counts as miscarriage per se, but it feels like crap just the same. All I want someone to say to me is that it's okay to feel angry.

I saw these for the first time recently on a yellow Hummer. A couple of days later, I saw a bumper sticker on a little car that said, "Nice Hummer. Sorry about your p*nis." I thought of that ridiculous yellow tank with it's fake reproductive organs, and laughed for a good five minutes.

I agree. I think it's pretty savvy PR move, myself, but it makes me angry at those men for not bearing some of the public burden that their wives have been carrying.

No advice, just empathy. My best friend's mom is an alcoholic, and that's been hard for me, so I can only imagine what it must be like for you.

I am going to quote that to about nine profs, Plaid Dad- "You can't expect me to become a postmodern relativist, or, for that matter, an existentialist just to pass your course." Because, you know what, you can't. This reminds me a little of the chapter in TWTM dealing with the teaching of character/morals/the order of things in general. I.e., belief in God being considered a bias, and non-belief being considered neutral, and that being intellectually dishonest. (I'm paraphrasing here, don't hate me, please, Jessie and Susan!) Also, how trying to teach character and morals in a vacuum is an exercise in futility. This statement of Plaid Dad's, like that chapter in TWTM, synthesizes and voices some thoughts and feelings that I have had, for, oh, I dunno, since I could think stuff like this through to its logical conclusion. I think some things are relative, but I'm a believe in Big T Truths, too- even though my religious persuasion is different from about 80% of this board's membership, and I was raised in a secular household, for whatever that's worth.

Talk to the dean of students and the department head BEFORE grades are given out. This is taken as an indication that you have real concerns rather than you are just put out over the grade you got. It sounds like this guy is tenured, which is too bad. If he's an adjunct, they'll probably do something; if he's tenured and enough people fuss, they may have him take a sabbattical... next semester. Terrible profs are usually tenured- that's how they are allowed to be terrible. (Of course, there are many wonderful tenured professors; most tenured profs, in fact, are good, but ALL the truly terrible profs I've encountered have gotten their tenure and just stopped giving a s***.) Also, consider finding out your current grade status, and just dropping the class if the grade is too low. A drop is not as a bad as a D, or a whiffed scholarship. I know, 9 isn't many credits to be able to drop, but if you think it always could worse, you won't ever use that safety, KWIM?

The first time you or your child, or anyone for that matter, reads TCON, it MUST be done in publication order. This is a direct command from, uh, me. :tongue_smilie: After that, if you want to re-read in the alternative order, be my guest.

The global economy is shaky right now not just because of the falling dollar, but food prices. There's all kinds of stuff going on that's leading to shortages of wheat, rice, corn, and other commidities- foods that not only are themselves staples, but also in everything. Ex: We were talking to a stock guy in Wal Mart the other day about how dog food prices have skyrocketed. We have cut our dog's food portioning in response (plus the vet says she needs to lose 4#) and are giving her a boiled egg a day. This food issue has helped destabilize the already tenuous-at-best stability of Haiti and Pakistan. The situation in Haiti gets me particularly fired up, because we have all this NAFTA, CAFTA, free trade blah blah blah and it's all B.S. Well, "free trade" is meaningless without fair trade. Haiti is too small and too populated to be self sustaining, and it has no real industry. About the only thing they can make money doing is farming sugar cane. But because we have stupid, artificial farm subsidies that subsidise unhealthy foods and give billions to companies like Archer Daniels Midland (#1 recipient of farm subsidies), US grown sugar remains artificially cheap, and countries like Haiti remain desperately poor, rioting in the streets because they have to eat mud cookies instead of being able to afford to buy food! And don't even get me started on stupid corn subsidies, and how they help cause diabetes and heart disease by pumping our food supply full of HFCS, which even worse than sugar... Gah! I need to go do some yoga or something now to chill out.

A much hyped fact. But then, I live in MI, and we've been hurting for a while. -Plummeting home values, due largely to sub-prime mortgage crisis -Higher utilities, due to increased energy demand -Higher gas prices, which impacts just about everything -Higher food prices, thanks to stupid ethanol and other worldwide market factors -Wages are stagnant -12% of the MI population is on food stamps, more than double what it was three years ago. Funny and Yet Not: As I write this, I'm listening to Ray Charles in Concert, and "Lets Go Get Stoned" just came on. This is what lots of people are going to do in the face of all this, I'm afraid, which is just going to make the situation that much worse.

Just make alfredo sauce and use it instead of tomato sauce. Easy alfredo: Sautee garlic (or not- some other aromatic- onions maybe? or even fresh basil) in butter or E.V.O.O. Add a little flour (to make a roux) whisk Add heavy cream or whole milk- if this is too thick, thin it out with milk, water, white wine Add black pepper- That's It! From here, you can use it plain as the pizza sauce, or add just about anything- red pepper flakes, sauteed mushrooms, and wilted spinach are my favorite. Happy pizza eating!

Ah, so nice to hear some good news! Hang in there. You and your family are in my thoughts and prayers.

I like sliced beefsteak tomatoes and sliced cheese (smoked provolone is especially good), laid one over the next in an alternating red and white pattern. Then, sprinkle with extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, pepper, and basil. Mmmm...

Yep to what Valerie said. *flashes street cred badge: Daughter of a Contractor* You need to insulate (with the best possible insulation) and ceil the attic if you want to use it as living space. You are also probably going to need to install multiple ridgeline vents so that the hot air has a means of escaping. While you are doing all these things, you may want to explore the possibility of a whole house fan. They cost about $200, and it is highly subjective if your house can use one, but that can reduce energy bills and make your house, especially hot spots like an attic, more temperate and comfortable. You'll also want to insulate the attic walls, of course. If you do these things, I don't see why an AC unit wouldn't work.