I went to a baby shower this evening; they asked us to bring a dessert. I have some blackberries in my freezer that I've been meaning to use, so I decided to make some scones. They were delicious! And they were no more difficult than biscuits or cookies! In the process of finding a recipe for the scones, I discovered this wonderful site, The Joy of Baking, which in addition to having a whole mess of yummy-looking scone recipes, had some general tips on making scones, along with a whole lot of yummy-looking pictures. So they turned out delicious on the first try, which is always nice. Turns out that scones need similar treatment to pie crust: don't over mix; don't over handle. But that's not too hard to do. We did skirt disaster when I forgot to put the butter in. Fortunately, although I put in the berries and chocolate, I hadn't put in the wet ingredients yet, so I just fished out the berries and most of the chocolate, did the butter, and continued on my merry way. The scones were just fine. My scones were based on the Raspberry Chocolate Scones, but of course I 
This 1000 Good Books List is by no means exhaustive. It is a listing of the books that 25 homeschooling mothers have come up with over the course of a year’s time through discussions of criteria to use in choosing a good book, ... The criteria we used to judge inclusion are: Does the book have literary value? Does the book re-emphasize a Biblical worldview or the Judeo-Christian heritage in some way? Does the book teach, through whatever means, what is moral or just or true? Does the book encourage to love and good works? Does the book exemplify warmth, tenderness, courage, humor, and other values and characteristics that we desire our children to be exposed to? Does the book nourish the intellect and fire the imagination? Does the book cross age barriers to be enjoyed by all?
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Back in my younger parenting days when I only had 2 or 3 children, I would load up a bag with crayons, coloring books, little puzzles, snacks, and lots of stuff that I thought would keep them busy during worship. Then I started to realize that I was only encouraging them to think of it as a playtime, and a boring one at that. I wanted them, instead, to think of it as a time to actually worship and listen to the words being read from the Bible.
Many communities gripped by a gas shortage were in panic mode over the weekend, and bad news from AAA did not help to calm them.
AAA said Saturday that supplies may not return to normal until late next week, but until then, they said everyone needs to deal with the crisis in a reasonable manner.
The latest updated comes the day after Gov. Phil Bredesen stated that the colonial pipeline that provides much of the area's supply was at 100 percent capacity.
AAA stated that the pipeline is still experiencing interruptions due to power problems caused by Hurricane Ike.
They said they do not expect normal service to be restored until next Friday.
The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency said that supplies are running as normal, but do to the higher demand, reserve tanks were drained.
TEMA referred to the short supply as a temporary pinch point.
Many rumors surfaced during the shortage about gas trucks being held up at the border and shut downs occurring at stations. None of the rumors has any truth to it.
Officials said rumors can cause panic in an already tense environment and can cause more problems in the long run.
Officials said they wanted to stress to the communities that no one should be hording gasoline, cars should only be refilled when they are close to empty and drivers should not top off tanks when they are half full or more.
Channel Fours' Cynthia Williams spent Saturday traveling from different Tennessee communities.
Williams reported that in the Music City, chaos broke out close to midnight at a Pilot station on Trinity Lane.
Many at the station had to push their cars to the pump, adding another annoyance to a stressful day.
Franklin had a similar situation, Williams reported.
Police were called for gasoline deliveries, as drivers crammed the station looking for fuel.
In parts of Franklin only one or two gas stations had fuel.
In some cases, people were given limits on how much gas they could pump.
The manager at one "Daily" gas station said that her bosses sent out a companywide e-mail promising that trucks were on the way with gas and would arrive either Saturday or Sunday. She said she later heard that there were more issues with a pipeline, which she knew meant more long lines.
One man waiting at a gas station stood in line and filled up a gas can, saying that his vehicle was stuck at "E" in his driveway.
Officials said a barge arrived Friday with more than 1 million gallons of unleaded fuel and 3 million gallons of diesel.
They said, however, that demand will suck that up faster than the next delivery will arrive.
All the above images were shot with my Sony 350 and 35mm lens. The 350 is a great DSLR that is super easy to travel with and has fantastic color! I was at a 1.6 aperture for extreme blur in the background. My shutter speed was 1/500 or 500th of a second. When I was outside shooting the blue steps and molding, I could be at a 100 ISO. But when I came in the house, I lost light and needed to bump up to a 400 ISO.
Take an essay, an editorial, the transcript of a political speech, a news article. Copy and paste the article in question to a word processing document or a blog. Then read it slowly, very slowly. As you read each paragraph, try to sum up the point of that paragraph, exactly what was that paragraph saying? Type out your summing up of that paragraph, either in a bolder font above it or below it, putting that paragraph in parentheses.
Obama Fine-Tunes ‘Change’ Message, as Race Tightens
The presidential debate has turned from which candidate can deliver change to which candidate has the best change to deliver.
And in the new messaging landscape, Barack Obama is fine-tuning the most basic element of his campaign.
Obama, whose slogan has long been “Change We Can Believe In,” has since the end of the Democratic National Convention in late August altered his rallying cry — and not because it ends in a preposition.
Obama now speaks at a podium that bears the words “Change We Need.”
He advertises upcoming “Change We Need” rallies on his Web site. And he incorporates the modified phrase into his stump speeches.
It may seem like a small tweak, but in the carefully calibrated Obama campaign nothing is incidental.
“There’s a real distinction between more of the same John McCain would bring to this country and the change we need,” Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki said, when asked about the slogan shift.
“It’s not that we’re moving away from (the theme of change). We are incorporating the seriousness of the issues this country is facing with the commitment to change we have been talking about for 20 months.”
The sudden focus on change-iness, as Stephen Colbert might put it, comes after John McCain and running mate Sarah Palin began to market themselves as the true reformers. McCain declared “change is coming” in his GOP nomination acceptance speech, and the duo has since played up its maverick roots in television ads and on the campaign trail.
The poaching of Obama’s campaign theme coincides with an uptick in the polls for McCain, who has been leading in the Gallup daily tracking poll since just after the close of his party’s convention Sept. 4.
The enthusiasm surrounding the GOP ticket has been attributed in large part to his history-making selection of Palin as his vice presidential nominee, but McCain’s themes also fly in the face of the Democratic Party’s attempts to cast his candidacy as a third Bush term.
“(Obama) needs a sharper, more focused, tighter, more immediate message,” Democratic pollster Doug Schoen said, casting the 2008 race as still a “simple” choice between Bush policies and real change. “The slogan is a baby step but it’s only that.”
He said the slogan adjustment is a recognition that, “we’re past the point where we need to believe in things. We need results.”
Obama himself has taken public exception to McCain’s use of the change theme.
As he does so, he draws the “distinction” Psaki referenced in the type of change he would deliver — change we need — versus McCain.
“That’s the change the American people need,” Obama said in Golden, Colo., Tuesday. “While Senator McCain likes to talk about change these days, his economic program offers nothing but more of the same. The American people need more than change as a slogan — we need change that makes a real difference in your life.”
And Saturday in New Hampshire Obama said: “If we are going to bring about the change that we need, we have to understand what change is. We can’t be fooled because John McCain — I’ve been talking about change since we started this campaign.”
The Democratic presidential nominee used the “change we need” phrase several times in his nomination acceptance address in Denver. But the new rhetorical tack is still being incorporated into the campaign set.
Obama supporters Saturday in New Hampshire waved new “Change We Need” signs as the candidate spoke. But as recently as Sunday, Hillary Clinton stumped for Obama in Ohio at a podium decorated with a banner that displayed the old slogan.
Monday in Michigan, running mate Joe Biden was equipped with a “Change We Need” podium. Obama’s set on Tuesday said the same.
The push-pull over change is similar to the rhetorical chess-play that emerged after the January Iowa caucuses in the Democratic primary, when the race between Obama and Hillary Clinton was widely viewed as a contest of change versus experience.
Bill and Hillary Clinton attempted to differentiate between the type of change being proffered in the primary campaigns, saying the former first lady would bring “change you can count on.”
The Obama campaign, though, has in the past few days attempted to use the financial turmoil on Wall Street to turn the campaign back to issues, and buttress their argument that McCain only talks about change.
McCain took heat Monday for saying the fundamentals of the economy are strong.
But the Arizona senator on Tuesday likewise applied his reform message to the financial meltdown.
“We’re going to start where the need for reform is greatest,” McCain said in Tampa, Fla. “In short order we’re going to put an end to the reckless conduct and unbridled greed that have caused the crisis on Wall Street. We’re gonna put a stop to it.”
However, McCain later returned to his years in Washington in an ad addressing the economy that pointed to “experience and leadership in a time of crisis.”
Leonard Steinhorn, professor of politics and media at American University, said the new Obama message seems to be an attempt to “create a partnership of change between Obama and the voters.”
He said the new rhetoric stresses the voters over himself, as he tries to blunt McCain’s use of his campaign theme.
“It’s not about the candidate. It’s about the type of society that we want, that we need to be different from the past eight years,” Steinhorn said. “There’s a subtle difference between the two, but the message is clear.”
But there is, of course, reading and reading. And mere reading, base reading, simple, instrumental reading, does not raise you much above Jo's beast like level. [Jo is an illiterate street urchin in Dickens' Bleak House.] And what is most striking about the changing nature of modern reading material is how it moves us insistently back to a more and more simplistic, merely instrumental, reading position. We, and it, are progressively dumbed and dumbed-down. We are treated more and more as nearly-Jos, forced increasingly to inhabit a sort of glorified Reader's Digest kind of world, the zone of the hand-out, the precis, the ad-man's slogan, the politician's catch-phrase, the government department's brochure, the headline. Public words get progressively baby-like. The lettering up in neon is gargantuan easy reading stuff. The tabloids' mastheads come in massive print, as if for nursery readers. We're surrounded by baby-words writ large, and simple sentences for the learner reader. Public discourse is made up of little words, short phrases, small paragraphs [!], brief texts.
It is one of the great ironies of our time that as the means of modern writing production get more and more sophisticated, modern reading-content gets more and more playschool.
Picture a banquet, a feast, lavishly spread on a long table. Now, keep that picture in your mind, for that is how Charlotte Mason described the abundance of ideas that we should make available to our children in their school work. ... You wouldn’t call a plate of bread and a pitcher of water a feast. No, a feast involves lots of food! So have you planned to present your child with an abundance of knowledge? ...
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From their website:
The American Conservative Union is the nation's oldest and largest grassroots conservative lobbying organization. ACU's purpose is to communicate and advance the goals and principles of conservatism through one multi-issue, umbrella organization. ACU's Statement of Principles expresses our commitment to a market economy, the doctrine of original intent of the framers of the Constitution, traditional moral values, and a strong national defense.
From their website:
Our Liberty and Security Initiative, created in response to the tragic events of September 11, 2001, addresses the importance of preserving civil liberties, even as we battle new forms of terrorism.
From their website:
Privacy International (PI) is a human rights group formed in 1990 as a watchdog on surveillance and privacy invasions by governments and corporations. PI is based in London, England, and has an office in Washington, D.C. We have campaigned across the world to protect people against intrusion by governments and corporations that seek to erode this fragile right. We believe that privacy forms part of the bedrock of freedoms, and our goal has always been to use every means to preserve it.
Your Extroversion Profile: |
 Activity Level: Very High Cheerfulness: Very High Sociability: High Assertiveness: Medium Friendliness: Low Excitement Seeking: Very Low |
You Are 12% Slacker |
 You are anything but a slacker. You're truly a go getter. You never let laziness get in the way of living your life - and you can't stand to see it in others. |
You Need Some Green in Your Life |
 Green will make you feel alive, renewed, and balanced. And with a little green, you will project an aura of peacefulness and harmony. If you want stability, you've got to get a little green in your life! For extra punch: Combine green with blue or purple The downside of green: It can promote jealousy in yourself or others The consequences of more green in your life: You will be drawn to a new life path You will feel free to pursue new ideas and interests, no matter how strange You will be released from the demands and concerns of others |
Item—In June, the FEC ruled that the Bill of Rights Educational Foundation, an Arizona nonprofit corporation headed by a conservative activist named David Hardy, could not advertise Hardy's pro-gun documentary (The Rights of the People) on television and radio during the pre-election season...
Item—On September 9, the FEC ruled that a conservative group called Citizens United was not a "media organization" and therefore could not use unrestricted money to broadcast ads marketing a book and film critical of Democratic presidential candidate...
Item—Also on September 9, the FEC ruled that the Ripon Society, a Republican group, could run TV ads touting the anti-terrorism efforts of "Republicans in Congress" because no political candidate was referred to in the ads...
Item—That day, the FEC also ruled that a Wisconsin car dealership, called the Russ Darrow Group, could continue using its own name in its car ads during the election season. ... [The] dealership's ads were not "electioneering" because they did not feature the candidate himself. ...
Worries about free speech, however, have proved all too well founded. "We're heading into a new era," says Smith. "You get less protection talking about your congressman than for Internet pornography sites or burning a cross outside a church or topless dancing."
Astonishingly, the Supreme Court, which many in Congress had counted on to overturn the Wellstone amendment, instead ringingly ratified it. And so the law of the land now sharply circumscribes what is arguably the most important of all civil rights in a democracy: citizens groups' right to criticize politicians. "What the Supreme Court has done," says David O'Steen, the executive director of the National Right to Life Committee in Washington, "is make it possible for these guys to set limits on how and when they're criticized."
Read the whole article here.
