Happy Birthday, Sam!

CPAC

If you are in the D.C. area Tegan will be speaking at CPAC tomorrow at 10:00 on the Freedom of Information Act and how to use it. I'm sure it won't really be necessary in the new political climate of openness but it's always a good idea to be prepared. Just two years ago Tegan attended CPAC as a young college student and now she is a speaker! I am so proud of her!

Hunkering Down

I'm feeling like this poor heron, wishing I'd gone south for the winter. The first couple of weeks of February went quickly with a combination of sun and enough warming to melt some of the prodigious snow we had piled up but now it is cold and snowy again and the end of February seems far away...

Rest in Peace

John Kanzius lost his battle with cancer and his funeral was today. Rest in peace Mr. Kanzius and know that the battle continues. Hopefully, human trials will start soon. One of the doctors who worked closely on this project is speaking in Washington today to get FDA approval for the trials. Since their have been no side effects in the animal trails (and a 100% success rate in eliminating tumors) this could mean quick approval. I pray so.

More babies

I was bemused by the reaction to the mom who gave birth to octuplets recently. Gasp! She now has 14 kids and no visible means of support!! Is this woman mad!?! Well, probably. But when I read that four of the 8 are identical twins I realized it was with a divine madness. Watching the press go haywire with their "ethical" questions raised by these births makes me realize God wants to highlight a few things here. First, babies are a blessing. Even premature and expensive ones. Next, invitro fertilization is a bad thing. Really. Fetus reduction should be a crime not having eight babies. Fathers are a good thing, even necessary. The father of these babies should step up and shoulder some responsibility. And ultimately, who really cares how much these babies are going to cost? Estimate: $1.5 million and rising. This country is bleeding money everywhere. What would happen if we gave this woman $500,000 (suggested pay cap for failed Wall Street bankers) and let her hire a nanny or two. Look! Job creation! Or perhaps she could be encouraged (but not forced) to consider adoption. There are many people who would loved to raise these babies. I repeat, babies are a blessing. I know times are hard and money is tight or at least that is what I'm told every time I turn on the news but can't we afford 8 more babies? Is this the straw that will sink our economy? This is not the most responsible woman on the planet but I'm not prepared to stone her because she craves babies. Someone set up a donation site, please! Send in Extreme Makeover Home Edition. She needs an addition. And maybe some support. God allowed her these babies, perhaps to see how we will react to them.

My new favorite book

I picked this one up at the library , intrigued by the title but didn't really have any intention of reading it. (Ask my librarian and she will tell you I read about a tenth of what I cart home) But once I got into the story I couldn't put it down. What a charming book! It is written as a series of letters in 1946. The letters have several authors and it takes awhile to figure out who is who, but the heroine of the story is Juliet who wrote columns for a newspaper during the war and they have been put into a book and she is on a book tour at the beginning of the story. I was totally hooked when she hurls a teapot at an impudent interviewer who asks her why she broke off her wartime engagement the day before the wedding. Drink? A bit of the "ol' Oscar Wilde??" We are left hanging until a few letters later it is revealed that she broke it off because of....books! She came home to find him moving some things into her flat and he had boxed up all of her books (eight boxes!) and replaced them with his sports trophies! Obviously they had nothing in common and it was good to find out now and not tomorrow!! I loved this book. I wont give away any more of the plot but it is a much richer story than you would expect from a series of letters.

Book Quote about Books

I've come across several good quotes about books lately. Here's one from Inkheart by Cornelia Funke----"Stacks of books were piled high all over the house---not just arranged in neat rows on bookshelves, the way other people kept them, oh, no! The books in Mo and Meggie's house were stacked under tables, on chairs, in the corners of rooms. There were books in the kitchen and books in the lavatory. Books on the TV set and in the closet, small piles of books, tall piles of books, books thick and thin, books old and new. They welcomed Meggie down to breakfast with invitingly opened pages; they kept boredom at bay when the weather was bad. And sometimes you fell over them."