Children's Literature: Pick of the Week

OK, so maybe this isn't the fine sort of literature that would make a great children's literature list, but for beginning readers, these are great little books: Now I'm Reading! for Beginning Readers. This hard backed cover (what you see in the picture) holds 10 small paperbacks. My second son is learning to read right now, and I actually enjoy these stories. Can you imagine a ten page book in which you actually look forward to seeing what happens to the fat cat? What happens when the hot dog gets lost in the fog whilst standing on a log? They are just hilarious books, and the illustrations are what "make" these books work. They were written by Nora Gaydos and illustrated by BB Sams, and published by a company called Innovative Kids.

Dangers of Genetically Modified Food

As a follow-up to this previous post, I'd like to write about the dangers of genetically modified food. This is important because nearly 1/3 of agricultural land in the United States is now being planted in gene-altered crops, and 70% of processed foods at your local grocery store have GM foods in them. And there are no requirements for these processed foods to be labeled as such. Likely everyone reading this has already consumed a fair amount of this kind of food. It is hard to avoid, even if you don't buy processed food. That's because it is also prevalent in any kind of restaurant food as well (particularly soy, corn, and canola).

Here are just a few reasons that GM foods are dangerous:

• They create "super-weeds" that cannot be controlled.
• The FDA assumes these foods are the same as the originals without even testing them; there have never been any studies on the effects of GM foods on humans.
• In animal testing, GM foods have caused numerous health problems, including lung damage, cancer, and death.
  
• GM foods have an inherently higher risk for children.

This is such a small sampling of the number of problems with GM anything. I didn't even mention rBGH (genetically modified hormone given to cows), terminator technology, the Star-Link corn fiasco, etc., ad nauseam. This information can be found easily over the internet. Dr. Mercola is an excellent trustworthy source for this kind of information if you find conflicting information and don't know who to trust. Naturally, any kind of information written by or paid for by any big seed/chemical/GM corporations is likely untrustworthy. This site has a list of 50 Harmful Effects of Genetically Modified Foods. I don't know anything about the rest of the site, but this page has some good information.

Next week I'll write about how you can avoid genetically modified food.

More on the Primary

I am developing quite an interest in the 2008 Republican Primary. To me, that's the big election. It's still a year away, but there's already a fair amount of activity with the candidates. I think it's the most important election because if we elect a dud for the primary, you might as well forget about the election in November. Whether we get a Democrat or a Republican will not much matter, as we have learned in the past. The press is telling us our top three choices are: John McCain, Rudy Guiliani, and Mitt Romney. I agree with Phyllis Schlafly. All of those guys are "no-go's" for me. One thing that is nice is that the primary "season" seems to be starting earlier and earlier with each election cycle. That way we have plenty of time to "kick the tires" on each candidate before we "buy" (elect) them, as Kevin McCollough puts it. Third parties don't get much of a chance in November elections, but if we do get the "dud" for the Republican nomination, I will have no choice but to go with one. And the overarching truth that brings sanity to my thoughts on the big election: God will still be God, even if Barack Obama is elected president of the United States.

Republican Primary 2008

Here's an article worth reading regarding next year's primary: Ron Paul, the Real Republican?

Children's Literature: Pick of the Week

Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, by Rudyard Kipling. This is a classic story your kids have to read. My kids loved it. The mongoose (Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, of course), saves his "family" from two king cobra snakes. It is action packed and full of excellent writing!

I didn't remember much about this story before I recently read it to my kids, even though I know my teachers read it to me in elementary school. The nice thing about reading to your kids is, you get to actually appreciate all this great literature that you wouldn't normally read otherwise. Even if you did read them when you were a kid, you develop a deeper appreciation of them as an adult.

Favorite Things

Here's one of my favorite things about our house: curtains that I made all by myself a couple of years ago when I went on that "sewing kick". I like how they turned out. Not bad for someone with practically no sewing experience (unless you count cross-stitch).

Monsanto is Evil

I just read an article about the USDA getting in trouble for not doing a better job of regulating Monsanto's destructive genetic engineering practices. Hopefully, this will spur the USDA on to really put a dent into Monsanto's dangerous ways. It is not a light thing to call a person or business evil, but let me be perfectly clear: Monsanto is evil.

Did you know that a farmer has to pay Monsanto for growing their seed, even if they don't want it and it has just contaminated the farmer's seed through pollination or spillover from trucks driving down the road? Did you know that almost all rice grown in the U.S. now is contaminated and contains GMO's (genetically modified organisms)? Did you know that Monsanto is filing for patent after patent on seeds and that they are reducing the diversity of the seeds being planted in the U.S.? That may not seem too important, but what happens when one (or more) particular variety of plant is struck by some sort of disease? Widespread famine. Now they are looking into patenting animals. Why should it be legal to patent any kind of life? Farmers have been saving their own seed since the beginning of time, but this is putting an end to that. And how can those who oppose GMO's keep them from cross-pollinating their fields/gardens? Impossible. There's even GMO corn with a built-in spermicide. Imagine if that stuff got loose in our country. And an even more awful thought: what if it already has?

If you want to learn more about how our food supply is coming under the control of only a few mega-corporations, you should watch The Future of Food. It is here for free, you could borrow the dvd from me sometime, or you can buy it from here. This is really so very important, and one of the main reasons why it is great to buy locally and buy organic. You can tell I feel very strongly about this, yes? Next week, I'll write about some of the effects of GMO's and how you can avoid GMO food.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Conversation overheard in our house this morning:
"Today's Grandma's birthday!"
"Should we make her a cake? She always makes cakes for us!"

We love you, Mom!

Children's Literature: Pick of the Week

My kids love this book. And obviously, this was the week to read it.

What I Do During Blizzards

Irony is so ironic. Yesterday for my son's birthday we took the day off from school to celebrate, while the "regular" schools were all in session. Today we have a blizzard, all the local schools are closed, but we are going to have school here. I guess it all evens out, doesn't it. The weather is too bad for my husband to make it to work, so he's out in the windy fray, puttering around doing guy stuff. Starting the tractor, making short trips into town to the little store to buy stuff "we might need", taking care of the animals. And I'm staying put. Keeping nice and warm. Duh.

I thought I'd post a couple of links to some good articles I read today on WorldNetDaily. I got out of the habit of reading there over the last few months. It was annoying me that they were spending so much time bashing the illegal immigrants. I know it's wrong for people to disregard the law, but the large bulk of illegal immigrants are here because they are wanting to have a better life. We need to enforce the immigration law, but I think we can have a little compassion for needy people too.

The first article I liked, from Mr. Mychal Massie, talks about slim pickings for the Republicans come primary time next year. Giuliani and McCain seem to be the front runners, and I'm thinking, HUH? They are RINO's. Why would real Republicans vote for them? What's up with that? Anyway, read Mr. Massie's article for some good info.

The second article is from Mr. Jim Rutz. He reminds us that "History is Scripted". If you look up "soy" on the WND search engine you will also find a very good series of articles he wrote on the dangers of soy. It is worth reading too, if you get the chance. Hopefully you will, especially if you use any soy products (other than fermented soy like soy sauce and miso).

And now, back to school...

Everything About Duct Tape

I'd like to dedicate this post to Dad.
Duct Tape Guys on video
The Official Duct Tape Guys web site

I guess I need some duct tape so I can try out the nunclucks.

More About the Weather

If "Accuweather" is accurate, (side note: in our house, when we refer to Accuweather, we put the accent on "Ac-cu" and we give the entire word a rather sarcastic slur) it is supposed to get up to 41 degrees on February 14. "Weather" or not that means anything to you, I don't know, but there is hope, somewhere, somehow, that the temperatures will one day again rise above freezing. And isn't it consoling that we have more sunlight now and the sun is coming down from a higher angle than it was a month ago? OK, maybe not. Sorry I mentioned it.

I was talking with an Amish woman yesterday. No matter what you say, you cannot get the Amish to complain about anything, much less stuff like the weather. I mentioned how cold it was and how I was more of a "warm weather" person myself. She said something like how we can all be grateful that we have a nice warm house to be in when it gets this cold outside. Wow, didn't I feel like a heel.

Yes, I am grateful and blessed to live in a nice warm house. But...YOWZA, I still hate this cold.