A Little Hidden Object fun

Right now Viqua games is graciously allowing all and sundry to make their own Hidden Object game screens. You just input a background picture of your choosing and add objects to click from their inventory. Its easy & fun.

Here's the 2nd Hidden Object minigame I put together using a family photo. Its got lots of shiny treasure. ^_^



Thanks to Brown-Eyed Tiger & Stellaluna

Trusting Him

As we watch the unfolding news, we have been spending a lot of time in prayer for our future, as we look to move beyond the medical trials that have dominated our lives for the last five years (and more!), but we also praying for many of God's people who, like us, are wondering what will come next. Many are rebuilding their lives today, after Ike & Dolly & other storms. Others are weathering the loss of savings they recently would have thought were quite secure. Its not an easy time, but it is an opportunity to grow in faith.



"As The Mountains Are Around" by Lamb, available on Songs For the Flock
(performed well here by a church band)

May this video offer comfort to those whose answer is to trust in the Most High God.

Despising the Message/ Messenger

With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.

Abraham Lincoln, 2nd Inaugural Address


Had a rough day last Saturday - and days recovering from it. (Praise God those symptoms passed!) The last few days we've had another storm - a nor'easter this time with 30-60 mph winds. (Its a sea storm that spins the other way. They don't name those.) This gave me plenty of time to catch up on my reading. I finally got deeply into "Lies My Teacher Told Me" by James Loewen.

It turned out to be a very thought-provoking book, and as those are dominating my thoughts, I feel like sharing them. So here's my book report! lol

I read a lot of histories, even as a kid, and I thought I could see through all the spins and deadly-dull verbiage of the average textbook. Nope! I had never realized the history - and the implications - of a number of very basic terms used - like "settler" - "frontier" and even the reason for continually focusing on the living of only the nomadic plains Indians and the desert dwelling Navaho. I knew how incomplete it was, I just didn't realize there was a purpose in the focus. I thought they had just gotten over-fascinated by two groups in particular.

I always wondered why Helen Keller was so often pushed at students, long after her personal fame would have naturally faded. I assumed it was as an encouragement for those with disabilities.

Apparently, that was only part of it. She was also seen as proof that 'anyone' can make it - even though she realized herself, in time, that her story would have been far different 'had she lacked the benefits of her environment and station.' Some wealthy factory bosses created a tour just for her to show the poor people they so grossly underpaid that 'anyone' can become a success. Actually extremely few people got the training, breaks, pay, or mentoring that made lasting financial improvement likely - until the unions - which they were then fighting - and which have since been largely undermined. Most textbooks now suggest unions are an anachronism - even as pay continues to fall and jobs get sent to underpaid people overseas.

Helen Keller felt she was being used to fool the poor, and she grew angry about the exploitation described to her, eventually becoming a radical supporter for Debs & others. I knew she had been an advocate for handicapped persons, and for labor reforms, but somehow didn't take in how far she went - and why. Nobody likes to be used as a tool. I don't guess I blame her.

& If this fellow is correct (and his bibliography at the back is impressive), we've all of us received a serious snow job over the legacy of Woodrow Wilson too. I had no idea he'd been so racist in his administration! I read very little of our foreign involvements in the Latin countries in WWI years.

Its been awhile since one of these 'correction' books had so many shocking things in it I didn't know already. I never expect a book like this to fill in outlines of many events - as they usually stick to overview, but in order to show why the textbooks he studied were doing a disservice to the historical events he covers, Loewen does go into some detail. I *did* know that Lincoln was truly for the freedom of all peoples, and that the quote most often used against him is both out of context and incomplete. I did NOT realize to what extant the Lincoln- Douglas debates altered public opinion in his own time (that they were important in and of themselves) - and probably that of the participants themselves as they went along. It was a fight for the conscience of the nation. I don't think anyone ever mentioned before that one of the things Douglas threw at Lincoln was Lincoln's previous efforts to repeal the 'runaway slave' legislation that had made escapees at risk all over the US. I certainly didn't know how low down, and abusive Douglas had been to Lincoln. I really was surprised how openly ugly and ungentlemanly the opposition had been. I mean, they prided themselves on their good manners back then! Lincoln's Second Inaugerual speech is also a shocker. I think I had heard a bit of it before, but its worth reflecting on.

Fondly do we hope—fervently do we pray—that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-men’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn by the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether.”

Imagine any public leader saying something like that now...

The thing that surprised me most, was Loewen's recognition that the biggest historical decisions made for the majority of people were based on moral & practical considerations - or on unenlightened self-interest by a controlling faction. History is very much about whether our forebears chose the high road or brawled over the low.

He pointed out as early as his chapter on Columbus, that the earliest descriptions of the Native folk the big C encountered, allowed that they were handsome, intelligent, and reasonably generous. After they'd been mistreated awhile, he describes them as 'brutish, savages' and worse, deserving the atrocities his men inflicted. Loewen gives this as a classic example of "cognitive dissonance" - the psychological term that explains adding insult to injury, by recasting your victims in an ugly light in your own mind.

It is due, the psychologists say, to the ego's desire to feel good about self, even when doing evil. When the ego has chosen to abuse another, aware that its choices are inconsistent with keeping that good opinion of itself, the base temptation will be to despise the victim. The abuser will use every social stereotype and magnify all real and imagined personal failings of the victim(s) to justify their own behavior before others (and self).

Now this makes it very hard for victims to be heard with fairness by their abusers. They may appeal to whatever ethical constraints their abusers should have, but this common mental attitude then devalues whatever truths the oppressed may speak. They don't have to listen 'to the likes of you.' [I had never understood this sort of deafness before. Truth is truth no matter who speaks it.]

Many such abusers go on until they have 'vindicated' themselves by getting as many as possible to agree with the abuser that the harm was deserved, and would have been done by anyone else there 'who had the guts.' If not significantly opposed, The arrogant abuser will eventually demand a form of praise/homage for their screwed up acts & beliefs about the victim(s).

Somehow, I had thought repentance was a more common occurrence than it seems to be.

I knew about this principle, after a fashion. I just didn't recognize it as a mainspring of history! Psalms & Proverbs mention repeatedly the way attackers justify their garbage, and hate the oppressed even worse when allowed a measure of success. The Prophets spoke plainly about these issues! God hates it!

To some extent the history of colonialism/imperialism seems to be largely an exploration of the way the greedy & powerful de-humanized those they dispossessed & abused, and finally even enshrined their bad opinion of them into law to oppress future generations!

Loewen gives it as the root of our current problems with racism, the continual problem with our rapidly jaded leaders, and our frequent lack of sympathy for the poor and oppressed in our daily lives. Our books claim EVERYONE has a fair shot to do or be anything they want. Not a wonder if those who hold the advantages don't look too hard at what they were given, and what a difference it makes. He makes a good case. I was just astonished that this cognitive dissonance issue became the philosophical heart of his book, as it is incredibly close to saying that all history is about choosing sin & self or choosing justice & kindness to others - and then justifying your choices - even to the next generations in your textbooks.

It is absolutely tripping to read the quotes by our Founding Fathers that frankly flattered the Iroquois League, when they were acknowledging their ideological debt to them in forming the Articles of Confederation, and contrast it with the abuse heaped on those same Native peoples later, when their governing body chose to back the British who had sworn to prevent further theft of their lands by 'settlers.' Some of this was due to the high feelings any war will provoke in those who 'choose the other side' - but some, yes, was cognitive dissonance, because the colonial authorities could not & would not promise to uphold Native American rights to expel European-descent squatters or hold full property rights under their law - and these were plain justice issues as far as the Native Americans were concerned.

He shows how slavery rapidly challenged the motivational ideals in a number of the founding fathers, and the social pressure the more southern colonial leaders faced to continue holding slaves or be counted out if they released them. He showed the spread of the social cancer that eventually used 'race' (genetically stable melanin amounts in families) to define value and rights of everyone. If your solar reflectivity could be used as an easy way to mark winners from losers, how about gender? How about wealth? How about age groups? How about distinctive religious practices? Our beliefs about liberty, very much influenced by the culture of the Native Americans, has been under siege ever since the beginning - when their rights were so often ignored. Its hard to realize how often the early discussions of our Founding Fathers took a bad turn - in order to keep slavery, and bless the ambitions of the greedy and the hopes of the desperate.

The best bit thus far (I haven't finished the book) was a hypothetical showing what he would expect to happen in a strapped economy if everyone with the last name "L" was suddenly 'accused' of being sub-human (assuming no one could change their name). Soon people whose name began with other letters might start looking hopefully at the possessions of neighbors that did have unfortunate surnames. If public sentiment sanctioned the abuse, agreeing to consider this segment as a target, they could quickly find themselves being openly insulted & provoked, then stripped of everything they owned, then killed. After all - they were sub-human. They had 'no rights worth worrying about' (a phrase that was actually used repeatedly in history). If mass murder was not allowed, they would be ghetto-ized- sent to reservations, or similarly imprisoned, with few hopes of normal life left to them. The 'survivors' would soon recarve the social pie without those surnamed "L" getting anything like a fair share, and tell them to grateful for what little remained! Within a single generation, the textbooks would cast it all as ancient history, establishing a staute of limitations via trained public opinion, and imply that the "L" people had incited the trouble they faced. "L" people - like all other people probably would resist, and even strike back, but as the losers of history they would receive little justice until & unless many in the society became aware of the truth and expressed regret for such behavior. Some changes MIGHT be made then.

Never in the history of mankind - not even in Nazi Germany or Stalinist Russia - has there lacked at least a few reformers - usually religious, but all idealists - who stood up and denounced the evil intended, regardless of what it cost them. I was fascinated by his research which showed that when the nation repented (at least to some degree) - the messenger was also honored -though he/she might still be killed by an extremist on the other side (IE: Lincoln). If the nation did NOT repent, then the messenger often died and would be deliberately forgotten for a season. The time came, however, when the nation became embarrassed for what had once been done, and then they dusted off the records and sang the praises of the good guys among us who prove we weren't ALL like that (IE: Bartolome de las Cases) Apparently mankind is still killing its prophets...and then building shrines to them later.

Loewen points out that those who dared bring a message of conscience into a controversy, got smeared personally by those who didn't want to hear. Cognitive Dissonance definitely played a role. Loewen offers a well-documented example of Helen Keller receiving this treatment. Helen Keller rebutted a bit of her abuse by simply contrasting quotes of the very same public speakers before and after her social epiphany. Papers & editors had called her 'extremely intelligent, generous, independent-minded, evidence of what the indomitable human spirit can achieve' as a young person on tour of factories, mines & mills - but said she was 'still a bit brutish, grasping, famous by chance, and one who is being fed opinion by others that she can't possibly understand' only a few years later when she was trying to use her fame to combat social injustice. Suddenly she's a brainless nobody for saying what they didn't want to hear? Ouch. Poor Lady.

So here we have a long book of victims, their abusers, those who championed justice, and those who are inclined to belittle such people...and why...with a lot of detailed history included. I am seriously impressed with this author.

Now this is not a perfect book. While Loewen goes on at some length about the necessity for complete fairness and openness in the history we teach our children. He didn't always succeed himself - which somewhat excuses reviews I have read mentioning a 'politically-correct' bias.

Loewen's mention of early Indian massacres chose to highlight the cruel, treacherous poisoning of Indians at West Point in 1623 - a story I happen to know well. He does NOT however mention that this was in retaliation for massacres of Colonials in 1622 at a party to which the Indians were invited. On a silent signal, they had risen up and slaughtered their hosts, young and old alike. That was also awful, treacherous, inhuman - and killed at least as many people.

Loewen puzzled me by carefully documenting the deplorable resurgence of racism in the US from the 1890's -1920's - but remaining unable to recognize the plainly ascribed source for its respectability in source documents I have read- the rise of the theory of evolution (and scientific materialism) which increasingly displaced Christian ethics as a basis for human governance. He actually asks why it happened, as if there was no way to know. Very strange.

No News is Good News?

So glad Ginger's family has weathered Gustav and come back to us online. Sure felt for what she said about the lack of coverage of the damage in Houma, Baton Rouge et al. As another lady pointed out, even the Katrina coverage consistently reported on New Orleans at the expenses of large damaged areas elsewhere like.. a LOT of Missippi. When Isabel damaged our area, it was the same thing. People saw a lot of damage here. One little city was wiped off the map, but you would never have known it was serious in my state based on the national news others reported to me. When I came back after two weeks, few seemed to understand what we'd just been through, and how much there was to fix.

and - yes- we're praying here for all those facing Hurricane Ike's wrath now.

About the tv national news coverage. Some of the weather coverage for the last storms seems to have improved. Its good to hear of some intended reform in the regular news too, like losing Oberman & Mathews at NBC, as their excessive bias (and political focus) was evident to everyone, but it hasn't gone far enough. There is still the problem of privileged areas of coverage (anything happens to the chosen 'darlings,' the media screams all day) versus the 'regular' stories. To give some examples:: Lately there was a huge explosion at a plant near a major city & college campus in West Virginia, national tv news barely mentioned it! There were earthquakes in Vancouver Island & central Canada & concerns the whole line was getting active. No reports here. There were train derailments, other explosions, & some were suspicious. There's all kind of stuff going on and all we can get on CNN/MSNBC those days is some celebrity flap (who on Earth is that anyway you keep going on about?), unfair attacks on Palin (not exactly getting the breaks they expected for Hillary - though she seems to be a real nice lady), endless coverage of the one little missing girl (probably deceased) and skimpy coverage of the hurricane damage (after it passed New Orleans). Let's not wait for the Glenn Beck hour to cover the most critical stories, okay? He can't get it all in in that time either, especially with all the soliloquizing he feels is necessary. (I won't say I don't know why he feels that way, even when I don't agree with him, but it does cut into news time.) Oil refinery damage is a real story, but so is INFRASTRUCTURE, so is HALF MILLION AFFECTED IN RURAL COUNTIES. Caylee's story is sad, but so was the story of the 4 yr old locally who was found dead in her own apartment. It surprises me that our state's political scandals of councilmen & supervisors hasn't gotten a mention. The N.C. coastal county flap got five minutes... Okay, you're the big news, you can't cover every tragedy. Fine, so FOCUS on big news stories! Local news does local news! Let Hollyweird do its own promotions! Worry about the affect on whole REGIONS - not just the cities you like! Tell us how the power grid is doing. Tell us what Missippi bridges are still affected by that flood this spring. Tell us what roads are affected by what is going on now. Tell us once in awhile how rural people are coping weeks/months after damaging tornadoes, hurricanes, firestorms etc - you know - all those areas outside LA, NY, & New Orleans. Stick to political stories that matter, and otherwise work on the biggest stories that affect the most people! There's too much spin going on still. The national news media has gotten a very strange idea of what is important enough to talk about. Right now you do better combing through Drudge Report , Lucianne, WN, BBC, Worldnet, Fox Online, Breitbart, AP Breaking, & even Wikipedia!

okay...got that back out of my system. Its what I get for watching so much hurricane coverage. ;)

As for the candidates - I am not pleased with the choice of Sen. Biden from Delaware. Sure he's the guy that helped Delaware's economy. Doesn't everybody know how? Don't they remember how many corporations & banks & bankcards companies are headquartered in that tiny province? That's how everyone knows Delaware! Biden would NOT be my choice to remember the little cardholder guy. Wasn't inclined to believe the citizenship flap, but Obama making plans to change the Prez seal isn't a good sign, even though he says its just for the campaign. I'm told that you usually do that only when changing a form of govt. Yes? No?

So that leaves McCain (or Barr) - now- I would still have preferred Huckabee, but I gotta admit, Palin is looking pretty good to me, family issues and all. So she's not a SAHM - few ladies are these days. She does support the right to life for even the littlest of little guys - and gals, even when it could cost her and her family. That shows some integrity. Then too McCain did a cool thing in trying to move the whole convention when he knew Hurricane Gustav was coming. Saw his various attempts reported online & though they wouldn't cancel, the Republicans did cut it down & cut it down to let the 'government' party focus on helping people during the crisis. That was very responsible of him..and them.

Working things out

We did get that half-off leather kit, as it will be a few weeks until we know if DS's necessary orthodontic work is covered. He has made his first set of moccasins. We bought a little extra leather so his older sister could also make a pair, and those came out reasonable well too, despite interference from the kitties. They stole laces, and hissed at the finished products, until they'd been worn enough to pick up some people scent. Its hard to make 'craft' moccasins tight, the pattern is very generalized, but you do get that sense of - hey, I can make what I need! Once you've made your simple shoe, you feel less intimidated about working out what tweaks or embellishments might improve your basic model. You start to see yourself as a 'can do' type person. That's what DH & I found so freeing when we did these crafts as teens. Glad to see the both of them get that same experience. DS will be making a belt soon, learning tooling. Tell you how that goes.

Both young'uns are being very good about keeping up their Wii fit exercise. Becka, especially, is getting some results. DS balance is improving noticeably! Mom was a bit discouraged that several of the games need her to move quicker than she can, but she still putters with it now and then.

Math arrived and DS dove right into it. He's quite enthused, thus far. Shifted to World History readings for now. We can get back to the Middle Ages later.

We're still getting some nice veggies from the garden, though its begun to slow down in this unusually dry summer. We didn't even get that much rain from T.S. Hannah. We're not at drought level, but this is usually a wetland, and all the drainage ditches (many are more like moats) are built with that in mind.

& I did get some Wisteria pictures uploaded. So...here they all are!


(click to see larger versions)