Crunchy Cons, post #1

This is the first in a series of many about the book Crunchy Cons, which I absolutely loved. Didn’t agree with it all, but loved it.

Overall, Dreher comes down pretty hard on Conservatives in general, specifically making fun of Rush Limbaugh-types. I generally consider myself a Rush Limbaugh-type conservative (though I disagree with him plenty, too). But what he said wasn’t offensive – he didn’t really put anybody down, or insult anyone, or call names, which is one thing that made the book so good. There was none of the usual “we’re good, they’re bad” type stuff.

This quote is from a section of the book where he is discussing the difference between a Crunchy Con and a regular Conservative.

We on the right tend to think if we’ve kept our minds clean and our pants up, we’re paragons of righteousness. But that’s not true – not from an authentically religious point of view, and not from a traditionally conservative point of view. The fundamental difference between crunchy conservatives and mainstream conservatives has to do with the place of the free market in society. Crunchy cons believe in the free market as an imperfect but just and effective means to the good society. When the market harms the good society, it should be reined in. Because crunchy cons, as conservatives, do not believe in the perfectibility or essential goodness of human nature, we keep squarely in front of us the truth that absent the restraints of religion, community, law, or custom, the commercial man will tend to respect no boundaries, in the pursuit of personal gain. (Page 31)

Interestingly enough, I have generally considered myself to be a free-market, free-economy, free-trade kind of a person. So parts of this book were kind of a struggle for me. The kind of internal struggle you go through when you read/hear a criticism of something you believe and start to wonder if you ought to change your opinion.

In the next installment, Crunchy Cons and modern technology, such as the television. Including a reference or two to Neil Postman, and fondly recalling my college days.

Back Entry

I guess I’m not only decluttering, but I’m also making our home a little nicer and prettier as I go.

Today I worked on the back entry. This is one of our “danger zones” as it is prone to gathering clutter.

This is the back entry area after I neatened it up.

I added a few jackets to the Goodwill pile and moved a few others to the Offseason Coat Closet in the basement.
I also made neat little lables for the coat hooks so we all are certain to confine ourselves to our own hooks.

Kitchen again and some Basement

I sorted through one set of drawers and, well, one out of the four drawers is now completely empty!

Got rid of:

– Three old lunchboxes that I didn’t even remember we owned.

– Two old water bottle holders that have seen better days.

– Coffee Filters. I don’t think we own a coffeepot any more.

Sunday, I worked in the mudroom in the basement. Mostly cleaned, but got rid of:

– Old telescope borrowed from SIL (this will go back to SIL’s house)

– Box of books (went to Half Price Books for a whopping $3)

– A large garbage bag full of old coats and sweatshirts we never wear.

Kept:

Rubbermaid full of some of my dad’s books. I want to get rid of them, but I don’t want to take them to half price books. They’re OLD Christian songbooks and seminary-type books. Old like 1900s. I just don’t know what to do with them.

This week’s zone is technically the entries, but there’s very little to declutter in those areas. Cleaning, yes. Decluttering, no.

DodgeBall

This evening, Wally’s cousin Lacey (7) asked Wally and Will (6) if they wanted to play Dodgeball. Will was all for it, and Wally said YEAH! because that was what Will said. First throw of the game, Lacey lobs the ball at Wally’s head.

That’s when I remembered the last two years of my life, explaining to these very children that Wally is little and can’t do the things they can do. He hasn’t mastered jumping over things. He is not allowed to even attempt to hang upside down on the top of the swingset. He doesn’t have the skills that would enable him to use a Hula Hoop.

And he lacks the knowledge of what to do when he notices that a ball is headed directly for his face.

Bam.

(He was fine, and he will not allow himself to cry over minor injuries, especially in front of his idol, Will.)

An idea:

Keep this blog, for general thoughts and sharing details of our lives with family/friends far-flung and near.

Keep Decluttering blog

Keep Hiking blog of course

Get rid of old crappy blog because I only post junk on there that’s a waste of time and energy

Start a new blog, not sure of the title, with a beautiful picture and some deep thoughts. I won’t post often. This will need some focus before starting it, obviously.
Too many? Is this stupid? I so want to have a pretty blog but I just don’t know if I ever will because I’m too wordy and apparently lost my ability to write well when I stopped getting paid for it…

My blog

You know, I’ve been visiting blogs lately. I’d love to have one of those blogs where I post a beautiful photo and then type some fantastic prose about my life, or our home, or some deep thoughts on homemaking, or reach some sort of spiritual conclusion that will make everybody who reads it a better person.

I keep trying to have that blog, and it keeps not happening.

The Monster – Sunday Scribblings #22

Sunday Scribblings

The Monster Wore A Cow Costume.

No, seriously. The mascot of Cowtown Jamborama is, well, a cow. The Jitterbugs have a cow costume and a few people take turns wearing it during dances. (or one person wears it, I guess I’m not sure.)

The sight of a giant walking, dancing cow is a little terrifying when you’re two. Terrifying and yet…somehow alluring, exciting. Wally has a love/hate relationship with this cow. He doesn’t want it near him. He will practically try to crawl THROUGH us to get away if it gets too close (like, 5 feet), saying “no, NO! No cow!!” But then when the cow moves away, he will say mournfully “cow?? Cow??” And he must keep his eyes on the cow at all times. I can only assume that this is so that he is certain of the cow’s location, to make sure it doesn’t get too close.

Today, however, he touched the cow (on purpose). While holding me with legs and his other arm as tight as he could. But still he did it (with encouragement, but not force, from me). And then the cow was a little less scary. Still too scary to allow it to come near him without a parent to hold on to, but not so scary so as to induce tears or crawling-through-you-to-get-away antics.

Popular Science

Though it’s a little liberal politically, I love reading Popular Science. This month’s issue has a feature on Second Life, which is like The Sims on crack.

I used to be a Sims-a-holic, back in LBW (Life Before Wally). I loved making my little virtual people do things, but was continually frustrated by the limitations inherent in the software. Then I got busy with real life and I can’t even remember which computer has the software on it. But I still remember what all my little virtual people were doing.

So anyway, Second Life looks interesting. I think once I move back to the basement, and spend Wally’s nursing-and-napping time back at the computer, I might look into it.

(Of course, I need to completely retool my website first and learn Dreamweaver in the process. Maybe I can convince my friend Sara to give me a Dreamweaver tutorial because I’ve owned Dreamweaver for Dummies for nearly a year now and have not yet cracked it open.)

Dance Workshop Weekends

Here we are at Cowtown Jamborama and my realization that dancing is no longer fun. It’s something I do because I have to. Upon further reflection, I discovered that it all relates to not feeling like I ever got my groove back after having Wally. Being hugely pregnant put a damper on my ability to really jam, and then I always had Wally around, and I don’t get to do much dancing these days. Factor in that practice is essential to any art form – or really anything in life – and there you have it.

So where to go from here? Not sure.

But in the meantime, a few thoughts from the Jamborama.

– Pretty boys who come to class late, miss the essential information given at the beginning of class, and then think they can just jump right in because they’re God’s gift to the class really irk me.

– I prefer older instructors, not ones who are still in college. I actually had a pair of instructors swear several times over the course of the 10 minutes I was in their class yesterday. Now I know we’re not learning palentology here, but still I think some level of professionalism should be expected. And I have a hard time taking such young kids very seriously. They don’t have the experience needed to back up their assertions, especially on theory and technique, and especially when those same instructors were saying completely different things a year ago.

– Part of why these weekends aren’t as fun, besides that Randy and I don’t get to take anything together, is because so many of the leads are not good. It makes it frustrating as a follow, because I want to bust out with something but can’t because I’m too busy protecting my shoulder joints. I think we decided last year that we weren’t going to go to these any more, but would stick with private lessons from now on. I think we forgot that. (But we want to support the Jitterbugs anyway, so would have paid for a weekend pass no matter what.)

Oprah and Bush, Africa and Babies

Oprah’s school in South Africa‘s been in the news. This seems silly, but ever since I saw the movie Sarafina, I’ve had a special place in my heart for black South Africans. Not a huge fan of Nelson Mandela, but that’s quite beside the point. I think the soft voices, beautiful faces, and absolutely delicious accents of black South Africans make it easy to fall in love with them as a people. Those voices. I could listen all day. When I was working for Landauer Corp, we did a book on Simon Estes (who’s a little big for his britches if you ask me) and during the course of this book, I also became involved in a program he set up. There is a Simon Estes school in South Africa, as well, and he had the choir from that school come to Iowa to go to school for a year and also tour the country singing. Oh, man…those voices. They were good. At any rate, I’m not a fan of Oprah. I’m like a reverse fan – I really really don’t like the woman. But this is a good thing she’s doing.

Then there’s this recent crap about Plan B (which I think is a STUPID name and not nearly as dangerous-sounding as it should be considering what it does) being approved in the US for over the counter sales. And Bush is supportive. Bush, who consistently is against using human embroyos for research (and rightly so), apparently doesn’t value ALL human life, just some of it. I honestly don’t understand how he can justify these incredibly opposing positions.