God never promised us tomorrow

Yet another touching post with amazing insights from Heather, a mom of three who is going through chemo to battle brain cancer.

Name that beer bottle

Can you match unlabeled beer bottles with their correct labels? Find out with this quiz. If you get them all right...is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Chick Flicks vs. Macho Movies

Hilarious.

Ben Stein has a new movie and a blog

About the movie (from its website): "Ben realizes that he has been 'Expelled,' and that educators and scientists are being ridiculed, denied tenure and even fired -- for the 'crime' of merely believing that there might be evidence of 'design' in nature, and that perhaps life is not just the result of accidental, random chance." Watch the trailer here.

He's also started a blog, which should be interesting to follow. Here's his first post (that received more than 1,800 comments!)

10 Embarrassingly Obvious Health Studies

Scientific studies show that cigarettes cost money and that combining alcohol and cocaine use can have negative effects on the brain. Amazing!

Einstein on the Church

Being a lover of freedom, when the revolution came in Germany, I looked to the universities to defend it, knowing that they had always boasted of their devotion to the cause of truth; but, no, the universities immediately were silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers whose flaming editorials in days gone by had proclaimed their love of freedom; but they, like the universities, were silenced in a few short weeks...

Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler's campaign for suppressing truth. I never had any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration because the Church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual truth and moral freedom. I am forced thus to confess that what I once despised I now praise unreservedly.

- Albert Einstein
Time Magazine, December 23, 1940

The origins of common nursery rhymes

Lots of interesting stories here about where some of our common children's songs and nursery rhymes come from.

I thought of Googling this after singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to my baby daughter last night. As I sang the words "how I wonder what you are," I realized that this must have been composed a long time ago, before we knew much about astronomy. Sure enough, it was first published as a poem in 1806. It's so neat that I learned it from my mom, who learned it from her mom, who learned it from her mom, and so on and so on all the way back to a person 200 years ago who was gazing up at the sky, wondering about the stars, and decided to create a little rhyme about it.

40 Reasons to Have Kids

Karen Edmisten has a great response to this shocking, sad article.

What is the Liturgy of the Hours?

Darwin has a great summary (one of the most concise I've seen on the topic) over at his new blog.

Very cool dynamic periodic table

Homeschoolers and nerds will love this. :) Click on any of the elements for tons of info.

via Digg

"As long as the baby's healthy"

Melissa Wiley has some interesting thoughts on that oft-used phrase. You'll also like these two posts on related topics: this one, also by Wiley; and this one by Rachel.

via The Wine Dark Sea

Quote of the day

Veronica writes about taking the kids to church, and offers the best sentence I've read today: "I am eager for the day that worship services feel more like worship again, and less like circus-training the monkeys. Even if they're cute monkeys that Jesus loves."

Clothing us with dignity and beauty

Aimee Milburn shows that she can even make a shopping trip interesting with her latest post about the difficulty of finding clothes that flatter the female figure without flaunting it. If you've ever walked out of Macy's feeling really demoralized, this post is for you.

Inspiring stories from the 40 Days for Life campaign

...can be found on the 40 Days for Life blog.

via Sheila Liaugminas

The loss of a child, suffering, and God

Wow. Boothe Farley writes on the death of her baby daughter. It's one of the best blog posts I've ever read. So is her previous post. Both are must-reads.

via BooMama

Creating Frodo's Hobbit House

Now this is an impressive doll house! Here are some pictures of its creation.

via Neatorama

Women's roles in population decline

I thought this Time article was interesting. Though Yanagisawa's comments were insulting, it seems that part of the outrage is simply at the notion that women have any kind of "duty" to society to have babies that will be the next generation. Some interesting food for thought.

They don't make atheists like they used to

One atheist understood the moral consequences of his unbelief: That was Nietzsche, who argued that God is dead, but acknowledged that without God there could be no binding and objective moral order.

Of course, the “New Atheists” deny this. Instead, they unconvincingly argue that you can have the benefits of an altruistic, Christian-like morality without God.

Nietzsche would laugh—and wonder why they don’t make atheists like they used to.

Read the rest from Chuck Colson.


via Happy Catholic

If they only knew...

This video was just light humor when it was created in 1930. Found via Will Cubbedge, who quips: "from a funny novel idea to a dark portent in 77 short years."

A hand gesture that says 1,000 words

View the ASL (American Sign Language) sign for abortion.

via Un-Muted Mumblings

"If you have tears, prepare to shed them now"

Christopher Hitchens, who is often known these days for his vitriolic rants against Mother Teresa and Christianity, offers a beautiful article about a young man who recently died in Iraq. He writes of discovering that the young man decided serve in part because of Hitchens' writings on the moral case for war:

I don't exaggerate by much when I say that I froze. I certainly felt a very deep pang of cold dismay...I feverishly clicked on all the links from the article and found myself on Lieutenant Daily's MySpace site, where his statement "Why I Joined" was posted....And there, at the top of the page, was a link to a passage from one of my articles, in which I poured scorn on those who were neutral about the battle for Iraq … I don't remember ever feeling, in every allowable sense of the word, quite so hollow.

It's a really touching piece. Well done, Mr. Hitchens.


via From Burke to Kirk

Choosing the right handbasket

Red Cardigan wins the "almost made me spew water all over my keyboard" award for today with her description of the differences between Republicans and Democrats:

This is not to say that the two parties are identical. Democrats, for the most part, exclude pro-life Americans, while Republicans merely treat them with disdain and contempt until just before each major election. Republicans favor preemptive war with any nation that has threateningly large amounts of oil, while Democrats would prefer to stick to their oddly successful tactic of sending Jimmy Carter around the world to become the focal point of the world's anger, taking the heat off of the rest of us. Democrats are in favor of gay marriage, while Republicans are in favor of not being asked questions about that issue, which they invariably answer with mumblings about civil unions that don't fool anybody.

Read the rest.

Chart: 2008 candidates' positions on the issues

I found this chart to be helpful in figuring out what issues each 2008 candidate supports and opposes.

How to make a volcano cake with vibrations, smoke and sound effects

...and strawberry-flavored lava flow. Sweet! (Here's the main page with a video of it in action. The instructions start here.)

via Neatorama

Feminism and femininity

Oz Conservative offers some interesting thoughts on an article about feminism and "the inner woman". From the article he excerpts:

Yet it turns out there are rather obdurate female longings with regard to dependency on men, despite pronouncements to the contrary - women need men like fish need bicycles - back in the heady years of the second wave. It turns out that fish are devoted cyclists. Indeed, the problem these days is that the bicycles seem to be fleeing the fish.

What's it like to have 18 brothers and sisters?

Bettnet.com has an excerpt from a nice article about a family of 19 kids. A good reminder that happy families come in all sizes.

Common vaccines actually use aborted fetus tissue?!

UPDATE: I spent a lot of time researching this this weekend and have summarized what I found on my other site.

==================

I always assumed that was an urban myth! The comments on this post at Catholic Dads would seem to indicate otherwise. Here's an article from Catholic World News about it, and here's a chart of which vaccines use aborted fetal cells as well as ethical alternatives.

Some quick Google searches would seem to indicate that this info is accurate, but it's just hard to believe that you don't hear about this more. Does anyone have any additional info?

Politicians and the Bible

Patrick calls b.s. on Giuliani's statement that he's "guided" by Jesus' admonishment not to judge others. Patrick notes:

Jesus did indeed chide the Pharisees for being hypocrites, mainly because they presented him with the woman while not bringing the man with whom she committed adultery. After they went away without stoning the woman, what did He tell her? It's in verse 11: "Go now and leave your life of sin." Some translations say "Go and sin no more." No translation that I have seen says anything like "Go and continue your sin, and tell anyone who asks that it is a purely personal matter."

Yeah, I haven't seen the "go ahead and continue sinning" translation either. Maybe politicians have a different version of the Bible.

What do 300 calorie meals look like?

Find out here. It's amazing how easy it is to rack up calories without realizing it.

via Neatorama

Creating a minimalist, functional wardrobe

I've been watching Tim Gunn's Guide to Style too much lately, so Regina Doman's posts here and here about paring down her wardrobe really caught my attention. I especially loved this diagram -- it's a great visual for thinking about how many of what kinds of clothes you really need.

via And Sometimes Tea

How to know when your blog is submitted to Digg

ProBlogger relays a useful (and really easy) tip for finding out when someone submits your blog to Digg: just go to Digg's search page, search for your URL, and then subscribe to the results page on a feed reader like Bloglines (you'll see the little orange feed symbol on the bottom right of the results page).

Tips for kids who want to save the environment

Young people are going to just love this post by Mrs. Darwin! She offers some solid tips for kids who are really concerned about saving the environment, like: wash the dishes by hand, wash your own clothes and use a clothesline instead of a dryer, turn off your TV and computer, etc. I bet young environmentalists are going to be all over this one. :)

RobK will buy you cool stuff

RobK of Catholic Dads and Kyrie Eleison is offering to buy the entire Reason for Our Hope series to the first five people who comment on this post. Nobody's commented yet -- go get it!

Two excellent articles on homeschooling

I've linked to both of these on my other site, but in case anyone missed them I wanted to highlight two of the best articles I've ever read on the subject of homeschooling, both by Sally Thomas:

• Schooling at Home
  
• Homeschooling and Christian Duty

Both are must-reads for anyone even remotely interested in the subject.

When men and women go shopping

Funny diagram of how a man goes about buying a pair of pants vs. how a woman goes about it.

On being a Christian man

Aimee Milburn has a good excerpt from a recent article by Archbishop Chaput, as well as some good commentary, as always. This was my favorite part (from the article):

Christian love is not weak or anesthetic. It’s an act of the will. It takes guts. It’s a deliberate submission of our selfishness to the needs of others. There’s nothing "unmanly" about it, and there’s nothing -- and I mean nothing -- more demanding and rewarding in the world.

Amen to that.

Creating the master race

Mary Meets Dolly highlights a fascinating article about an exhibit that "forces the public to ask tough questions about where we are going with genetic testing and genetic engineering by looking back at the atrocities of Nazi Germany". One of the things I found most interesting:

Most people are unaware the the atrocities in Germany started with the marginalization of those deemed "unfit". And even less known is the fact that it wasn't Nazi soldiers who were pushing the eugenics movement, it was the doctors, the social workers and the teachers.

Read the whole article at Cleveland.com here. The link to the exhibit's website is here.

Amusing parody to that Dove ad

I got a chuckle out of this parody to the video I featured in the last post.

Show this video to your daughters

This has been around, but in case you haven't seen it, it's great.

Women who change their last names are "in denial"

Wow. Quite an article here from Catherine Deveny. She writes:

Wake up! We are in 2007. Women are no longer owned by their father and then their husband. So why are some women still changing their surnames? And why do some men still want them to? It's sad, it's misogynous, it's archaic, it's insecure and it's unnecessary. Why would you do something so drastic simply because you decided to delude yourself it was easier? Because you are deeply insecure, deeply conservative or deeply stupid. And in deep denial.

Oz Conservative has some good thoughts.

A pro-life woman takes RU-486

A mother whose baby died in utero at 18 weeks recounts a stunning story of her experience taking RU-486. Here's one part that's really stuck with me:

I have never seen such agony as I saw on my husband's face when he heard her whisper, "It's a girl." His face looked like it folded in on itself. Our baby was really and truly dead. Somehow it didn't seem real until we held her in our hands and looked at her through our tears...I later learned from my midwife that [the doctor] performed abortions herself and was deeply disturbed by our pain. She told our midwife to get us out of the hospital as quickly as possible because we were upsetting the staff.

Read the whole thing.


via Thoughts of a Regular Guy

How to get attention online: a brainstorming session

Very amusing. (Scroll down for the content).

via Neatorama

From the "What Is Wrong With People?" files...

There's such a thing as a baby crying contest in Japan.

via Neatorama

Choosing a sperm donor with family values

Oz Conservative has a very concise, thought-provoking post about a single woman who plans to have a large family by IVF and sperm donation alone. Really interesting thoughts here.

via BlogWatch

Video: Shopping in Texas

An excellent summary of the experience of conversion

Aimee Milburn said this in the comments to a post by Abigail:

St. Augustine wrote in City of God that there are just two cities, the City of God and the city of man, and they interpenetrate each other. When one has been a citizen of the city of man, and changes to the City of God, there's a whole new way of life and thinking to be learned, like entering the culture of another country.

Great analogy.

Kids need happy endings

I've been thinking about Simcha's latest post all day. An excerpt:

In Fairytopia, for example, the spindly little heroine is the only fairy without wings. Because of her disability, though, she alone is not sickened by the poison spread by the bad guy...and she musters up her courage and defeats the villain in some way.

And as a reward, she gets wings.

See? She doesn't learn that her uniqueness is what makes life livable. She doesn't come to recognize her deformity as some kind of superiority. She was braver than she wanted to be, and is rewarded with really, really pretty wings.

As I said in the comments, I feel like there's a connection to the general rejection of happy endings that I was talking about here. Interesting.

Which 2008 candidate agrees with you?

A few friends and family have emailed me this presidential candidate quiz, and all say it's really accurate.

From paper-clip to house, in 14 trades

I'd seen this story before, but hadn't read the details. Really neat idea.

Afghan Hands

An inspiring project that sells beautifully embroidered shawls, scarves and other items created by Afghan widows to help them earn an income and get an education. Their collection looks beautiful. Their website is also very well done, with a blog and pictures of the women they employ. Keep this site in mind for your Christmas shopping!

The top 10 hand gestures you'd better get right!

Now I'm wondering how many of these hand gestures I've probably done while visiting other cultures!

via Geekpress

Site for playing matchmaker for your children

What an interesting concept for a site. I'm not sure if it will succeed, but it sure is an intriguing idea.

via Catholic Mom

You know you've succeeded as a parent when...

Your child writes a post like this about you.

Dog flow chart

Inside the mind of a dog (scroll down for flow chart). Eerily accurate.

via Geekpress

Game day tips

How dads can watch the game in peace. Very amusing (and bonus points for rooting for UT).

via Bettnet.com

Welcome!

My Weekly Links over at my other blog, Et Tu?, have become popular enough (with me as well as my readers) that I decided to just start a separate blog to share all my favorite links that I come across though emails from friends and family as well as whatever web surfing time I can squeeze in.

I love to have "best of the web" type sites on my Bloglines feed (like Geekpress, Neatorama, Lifehacker, etc.) so I thought other people who share my perspective (Christian, mom, closet computer nerd, etc.) might like a site like this.

Enjoy!