WobLog

Ed Whelan recaps the recently-completed Supreme Court term with the following observation:

The modest victories this past term shouldn’t lead conservatives to become complacent. Improving the composition of the Court is very much a work in progress and will require that the next several appointments be strong. That means, among other things, having the right president elected in 2008.

My own mantra is “One down, five to go.” By which I mean: Six justices on the Court in 2005 had signed their name (in Planned Parenthood v. Casey or in Lawrence v. Texas or in both) to the absurd proposition that “[a]t the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.” As those six justices have amply shown through their decisionmaking, that “mystery” declaration is nothing less than a claim of unconstrained power to define for all Americans which particular interests those justices think should be beyond the bounds of citizens to address through legislation. One of those six justices (O’Connor) has left the Court, but five more (Stevens, Kennedy, Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer) remain. I yearn for, and will continue to work for, a Court that has no justices who embrace the “mystery” passage and the illegitimate decisionmaking that it signals.

Amen to that, brother.

Posted by Don Roberts at 5:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today's National Review Online has a review of the new Pixar film, Ratatouillle, and it sounds like a must-see. Read the review for details on the plot, but here's a point from the review that I found intriguing:

The theme that the Pixar folks put forth in The Incredibles, that gifted people should not be held back in the name of false equality, gets further developed here: “Not everyone can be an artist, but an artist can come from anywhere.” Ratatouille is one more proof that, though not everyone can make an excellent animated feature, the best being made now are definitely coming from Pixar.

Posted by Don Roberts at 3:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This evening on a trip for work, I decided to grab a quick dinner at Chick-fil-A, a fast food restaurant that my friend Ed introduced to me in grad school. The really cool thing about Chick-fil-A is that they close on Sundays. They also have a mission statement that includes the following:

to glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us and to have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A

They devote a portion of their profits to a number of worthy causes, including foster homes, character building programs (including married couple retreats), and scholarships.

If there's a store near you, check them out.

Posted by Don Roberts at 7:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

But not barefoot. My feet just don't handle that so well anymore. Alternate blog title? Pop goes the Jar Lid!

It's that time of year when the plums start to ripen, and my thoughts turn to plum jam. Luckily we have a friend in a nearby town who always gets more plums than he can use. Ever eager to help, I take them off his hands for him, and to make sure he always has "more than he can use" I always send a couple jars of jam his way.

Tonight was a little sad though. Usually Don helps me "can" the jam so we can have it all year, but since he's out of town, I had to do it alone, excepting a brief interval when both kids rose from bed just before I began ladling steaming hot jam into the jars. They were so impressed, I decided to let them stay up till that was done. I was also forced, due to an over-full schedule and ripening plums, to work on jam till 10 tonight instead of doing it tomorrow.

The thing that really brought a pang to my heart was when the jar lids began their characteristic "pop," indicating they had sealed. This always brings a smile to my lips, since it means everything went well, and I still smiled tonight. However, Don always calls out the number of each jar as it seals. "One!" Pause, pause. "Two!" Sometimes minutes will go by between jars sealing, but he never fails to call them out. I counted the numbers in my head, and smiled to think of him, but it wasn't quite the same.

Posted by Lisa Roberts at 10:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We attended a Solemn High Mass at St. Margaret Mary in Oakland. Monsignor Wach, Prior General of the Institute of Christ the King and Monsignor Schmitz, the U.S. Provincial for the Institute journeyed here from the recent ordinations in Saint Louis. Since Monsignor Wach and Monsignor Schmitz traveled overseas to visit our church, the kids and I figured we could make the trek, too, despite feeling a little under the weather. We were well rewarded with the beauty and abundant graces of the celebration. At one point, so much incensing had happened that Alex cocked his head, squinted at the altar, and proclaimed, 'I can't see! It's all gray!"

Both kids also commented on the extraordinary beauty of fading sunlight flowing through the stained glass windows and filtering in colored beams through the rising incense. In addition to the myriad graces present at the old Mass, it is also always a feast for the senses.

Posted by Lisa Roberts at 2:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Senator Tom Coburn issued a 115 page report on fiscal abuse at the Centers for Disease Control. This report details a stunning variety of fiscal waste, including funding a transgender beauty pageant to fight AIDS and hosting $45 million worth of conferences, some of which included prostitutes, protests, and beach parties. And now the director of the CDC, Dr. Gerberding, is saying she can't continue to run without an additional billion dollars.

Perhaps she should take it from the prostitutes?

Posted by Lisa Roberts at 8:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I knew it would get hot today, though not as hot as it has been, so shortly after I rose I flicked on the TV and did the standing poses in Raquel Welch's Total Beauty and Fitness tape (available on amazon.com in VHS for a mere $42!), which is my favorite yoga routine of the 9 or so I have tried. I don't know for how much longer I will manage these poses, since I'm 5 months pregnant, but so far a few minor modifications have sufficed. (Note that I don't do the floor postures since I'm too far along in the pregnancy for that any more.)

Don called from overseas just after I finished exercising, so I talked with him a bit while planting a few more cucumber seeds (bugs just ate two of the smaller ones) and observing the three bush bean plants that had just pushed their little heads above ground. Don and I said our goodbyes, as hard as that was, and went on to separate tracks.

Refreshed and ready to go, I plunged outside with kids in tow and proceeded to build the last two tomato cages I needed, using chicken wire and green metal stakes. I only garnered two scratches from the chicken wire, which is pretty good, and got the tomatoes, now a bit large, ensconced into the cages. However, venturing into the garden reminded me of those pesky weeds I'd been meaning to pull, so after making and eating breakfast, I trundled outside again to pull weeds, stopping first to transplant a zucchini to a different spot in my yard. Looked over at the bush beans to notice that they were already taller, and then I proceeded to weed two and a half rows in the peppers and beans while helping Alex with questions about his phonics workbook. No, I don't homeschool on Saturday, and I'm actually on break right now, but Alex has decided that he does homeschool on Saturday, and he is not on break right now, thank you very much!

Finally ready for a break myself, I took a shower and then the kids and I walked downtown to the Farmers Market where I was reconfirmed in my view that our town's market is, essentially, a racket. Prices, in general, matched those of the grocery store, and we were there within 20 minutes of closing time. But we enjoyed walking through, and then walking home. Total time of nearly non-stop walking? About 45 minutes, so not a shabby bit of walking after yoga and weeding.

Once we reached home I did a little yard work out front -- probably 10 minutes -- then went in to make and eat lunch. At one point I took something outside to the trash and checked my beans again. Now three more beans had poked their heads up, and the original three had unfolded and had their first true leaf. I can't wait to see what they look like tonight! It's like a speeded-up film! On the way back into the house, I pulled a few radishes, and the kids and I ate them.

So now the kids are in "quiet time" and I am reflecting on what an amazingly full day I had already managed to have by two o'clock. Whew! I'm beat! What a full, enjoyable day this has been so far!

The only thing that would make this a truly wonderful life would be to have Don home here with us. We always miss him like crazy when he's gone.

Posted by Lisa Roberts at 1:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Just when news items like Paris Hilton's on-again off-again relationship with the prison system has me feeling like popular culture is an unrelieved cesspool, there comes this breath of fresh air: an unassuming Welsh cellphone salesman is taking the UK equivalent of the "American Idol" competition by storm singing classical opera. Here he is in the performance that introduced him to the world:

So far, Paul has won the semi-final round of the competition (here's his semi-final winning performance). While there's a certain amount of rooting for the underdog in this story, it's also true that people recognize that there's something beautiful, even magnificent, in a dumpy-looking, regular guy who can sing like a professional opera tenor. People are seeing truth and beauty, and they know it. Here's what a National Review Online reader had to say over at the Corner:

His expression before he begins to sing is that of a man resigned to disappointment. Even when he smiles, his eyes convey a profound sadness. He has been a nobody all his life. He, and perhaps only he, knows he has greatness inside of him, but he is obviously a humble man, massively insecure, afraid of rejection, unsure of himself outside the cocoon of anonymity. But you get the feeling he also knows that this may be the one chance he gets to escape the cocoon, and as he begins to sing, you can see him fighting down his fear. I think that is the wellspring of the emotion that pervades his performance. He is fighting against a life of obscurity. By the song’s end, what was an average Joe has stepped up, beaten back his fear, and broken through. In those few seconds, he put the void behind him, and his life will probably be changed forever because he called up the courage at that moment to show what he was really made of. We saw greatness, long denied, finally being born.

It was one of the most heroic things I’ve seen in a long time.

The finals of the competition are Sunday night, 17 June at 8:00 pm, UK time. Here's hoping Paul goes all the way!

Posted by Don Roberts at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Tomorrow, Friday 15 June, Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis will ordain two new priests for the Institute of Christ the King, Sovereign Priest according to the Traditional Latin Rite of 1962. These will be the first priestly ordinations for the Institute that will be held in the U.S. Our friend Fr. Michael Wiener and several of our other friends and fellow parishioners from St. Margaret Mary will attend the ordinations, as will other priests of the Institute and the entire group of Institute seminarians from the seminary in Gricigliano.

As part of the coverage of the event, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has a very good article on the resurgence of the Traditional Latin Mass.

Posted by Don Roberts at 7:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Monday's San Francisco Chronicle has a very favorable article on homeschooling. Some excerpts:

On Education: Homeschooling is a viable alternative to public schools
by Richard Sousa

Let's hear it for the home team -- they have done it again. Last month, 13-year old Evan O'Dorney of Danville won the National Spelling Bee; Evan is homeschooled. Of those who made it to the finals in Washington, 12.5 percent were homeschooled; of the top seven finishers, three were homeschooled. Last year, 13.5 percent of those making it to Washington for the Spelling Bee finals were homeschooled.

The number of students reported to be homeschooled in 1978 was only 12,500 (many say the number was actually higher due to underreporting), the National Center for Education Statistics reported 1.1 million children were being homeschooled in 2003 -- an estimated increase of nearly 20 percent per year over this 25-year period.

This increased growth, interestingly enough, has not come at the expense of student performance -- quite the opposite. Comparisons in achievement tests of homeschooled students to national averages for all students show that homeschooled children are well above the national average in every subject and at every grade level in the Iowa Test of Basic Skills and in Tests of Achievement and Proficiency.

Why do homeschooled students do so well? Koret Task Force member and Harvard professor Caroline Hoxby has shown that, of the factors affecting student performance, home environment and family support greatly outweigh school inputs: "Families matter most." There is no schooling pedagogy where the home and the family can have more influence than they do in homeschooling. The families of homeschooled children are clearly different from those of traditional schoolchildren. Some 97 percent of homeschooled children live in married couple households; the comparable number for public school students is 72 percent. Nearly 88 percent of homeschooled parents continued their own education beyond high school.

Homeschooling may not be for everyone, but there are certainly indicators that it works well for most and extremely well for some.

The article also touches on how the Internet has made homeschooling easier by providing a wealth of resources. It also mentions some of the opposition to homeschooling among the education establishment. Fortunately, there is an organization, the Homeschool Legal Defense Association, that helps homeschoolers defend their rights.

Posted by Don Roberts at 11:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here are another few photos from our England vacation. After touring the Reading Abbey (see below), we headed out to the Silchester Roman Town (aka Calleva Atrebatum). Here are a couple of shots of the Roman wall that surrounded the town:

The amphitheater for Calleva Atrebatum stood just outside the town walls. It still exists and is in pretty fair shape. Lisa, the kids, and I took turns having a few gladiatorial battles, re-enacting some of what the kids are learning in their history instruction:

Posted by Don Roberts at 8:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)