I had heard many commenting on the recent ruling by the Supreme Court that allows property to be taken for a greater tax gain... and I had heard of the 'solution'.

I just was not sure it was really happening. It is. Apparently even Souter's neighbors do not like that ruling!

The irony of this is that in the article, it says that Souter's homestead was part of what was left AFTER eminent domain took neighbor's land for a dam.... they say what goes around, comes around. Wonder it this one will end up in the Supreme Court?

The Parachuting Pussycats

I so enjoy Chuck Colson, and this article is very good, just had to share it...

BreakPoint

Links to Further Information

The Parachuting Pussycats
Respecting the Natural Order

July 13, 2005

Fifty years ago, a malaria outbreak occurred among Borneo’s Dayak people. The World Health Organization came to the rescue. They sprayed the people’s thatch-roofed huts with DDT—and set in motion a life-and-death illustration of the importance of respecting the natural order.

The pesticide killed the mosquitoes, but it also killed a parasitic wasp that kept thatch-eating caterpillars under control. The result? People’s roofs began caving in.

And then things really got bad. The local geckos feasted on the toxic mosquitoes—and got sick. Cats gorged on sick geckos—and dropped dead. And then, with no cats, the rats began running wild, threatening the people with deadly bubonic plague.

The World Health Organization was in a quandary. What unexpected disasters might occur if it now poisoned the rats?

Then someone determined that they needed to reintroduce part of the natural order that had collapsed: specifically, cats to eat rats.

So one morning, the Dayak people heard the droning of a slow-flying aircraft. Soon the sky was littered with parachutes bearing pussycats to earth. Operation Cat Drop delivered 14,000 felines to Borneo. They hit the ground—feet first, I suppose—and began taking care of the rats.

The story of the parachuting pussycats, while funny, makes a serious point. As I write in my new book, The Good Life, there is a natural order to the world. Ecosystems work a certain way. Cycles of nature are unchanging. You don’t grow a tomato plant in a dark closet.

No, the physical natural order of the universe is clearly evident, as the World Health Organization bureaucrats discovered when they tampered with it in Borneo. Not only that, but there is also a natural moral order that arises from our learning how to behave within the limits of the physical order. Morality, I argue, is basically choosing to cooperate with nature’s directions. As we do this, we discover a known moral order. The object of life is to live in accordance with that moral order.

It’s tragic the way so many people go through life fighting against it. We want to enjoy sex on our terms, not the way we were designed. We end up with dejection, family dysfunction, disease. It’s like planting the tomatoes in a closet. It doesn’t work. It breaks the immutable laws of the universe.

I argue in the book that this discernible physical order clearly reveals an intelligent designer. If God designed the physical universe—as the evidence is indicating—isn’t it reasonable that He would teach us to behave in a way that conformed to His created order? Morality is cooperating, remember, with nature’s directions.

This is what Christians believe by faith, and as I argue in the book, something we can all observe, that is, the natural order. And we need to help our neighbors understand this: The good life can’t be found when you live in opposition to the natural order, regardless of its moral demands. In the end, the moral demands are the only path to health and happiness.

If you don’t believe that, just ask the people of Borneo. They discovered what happens when you tamper with the natural order—and were rescued from mosquitoes, rats, and the World Health Organization bureaucrats by parachuting pussycats.

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For further reading and information:

Today’s BreakPoint offer: The Good Life: Seeking Purpose, Meaning, and Truth in Your Life by Charles Colson with Harold Fickett. Get a copy for yourself, and for a friend!

The story of Operation Cat Drop is told in Cornelius Plantinga’s book Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be (Eerdmans, 1995), taken from Extinction: The Causes and Consequences of the Disappearance of Species by Paul and Anne Ehrlich (Random House, 1981).

Our Kids MUST be our primary concern!!

Long ago, when no fault, forced, unilateral divorce entered our lives, I made a very grateful discovery. Because I had returned to school after we married, I had a livable wage, when combined with the child support for the three very young children we had.

I realized that many mothers in that situation were being paid minimum wage. I also realized why SOME had chosen to have a boyfriend move in with them even though I could not condone it, for many reasons. They had a choice between a roof over their heads and feeding their kids, or living on the streets. I also knew many came to regret deeply that decision.

For many reasons, including example/scandal to the children, etc, this fact of having a male move into the family unit is not always a wise decision. Often, the choice was simply 'jumping from the frying pan into the fire' by choosing someone like the former.

But occasionally, and increasingly today, it was a choice of someone worse.

The past couple of days, there has been another Amber Alert, an 8 year old taken by a convicted sexual molester. Mother did not know his history when he entered their lives and home.

How many kids have been hurt in this way because of a parent's decision? How many have been beaten, molested, killed by the man invited into the family unit by their mother, unknowingly bringing evil into that family?

How many women have been hurt, beaten by the same decision? I wish I knew the stats on this.

I once did a search for news stories to prove a point about a different subject that astonished those I sent it to. That search was for violence that occurs AFTER divorce papers have been served on the spouse, even with a restraining order. Deaths and near deaths were reported. And there were times that there had not even BEEN a history of violence in the family prior to those divorce papers ....

This past year, as I have watched so many children kidnapped, molested and murdered by sexual predators, I have wondered how many were by former/current boyfriends of the mother. I did not keep track. But with this latest kidnapping, I wish I had, or that someone had.

Long ago, when no fault, forced, unilateral divorce entered our life, I made a determination to live my vows regardless of what others had to say on the subject for many reasons. One, it being a core value in my life that marriage is til death, no matter who in the State may say it is not, no matter who in the marriage may try to get out of those vows, and no matter who in the Church (in the US) may try to say it was not valid. (I would appeal any Null decision to the Rota as the Court of Second Instance, automatically.)

That decision was also made for my children. I had come into contact in my career with children who had been abused, physically, some even sexually, by 'significant others'. I had also come across the grief of the results of that abuse in the ensuing years in 12 Step programs and working with Alcohol/Drug Rehab. I made up my mind that I would never put my children into that situation in any way that I could be held responsible.

I had two very pretty girls, and a cute son to protect.

I was fortunate. I earned enough money to do this, and child support helped. But I don't believe that money should be a reason for any mother to endanger her children in this way. A good choice of a housemate is another woman. This is not to be misconstrued into 'same sex relationships'. A housemate is a housemate, and shares rent and utilities and other expenses, sharing cleaning, etc.

I would never blame the victim here, and do not want anyone to think that I do. I find this so very sad.

But we must begin to wake up, and think about our CHILDREN FIRST.

Children of divorce have MUCH against them already, as many studies have shown, and they do NOT 'get over it'. It affects them regardless of their age at the time when that divorce takes place, even if they are adults themselves. While some divorces take place for protection, most take place because one person has chosen to break their wedding vows, to abandon the marriage, to throw away one spouse, and get another. They can justify it anyway they want, but most is for very selfish reasons...

Marriage was never promised to be a bed of roses, always happy. There is the 'bad times' we vowed to be faithful in. So the first way to protect our kids is to get the 'D' word out of our vocabulary, and learn that Love is not a feeling, but a CHOICE, as is forgiveness. And then make that choice DAILY (sometimes many times daily).

The second way to protect our kids is to stop moving people into our homes, lives, etc so easily! Those children MUST come first until they are adult and on their own. Not second. Not an afterthought. First. Always.

They are our responsibility. They are our primary concern. Yes, at times, it is a 'lonely' job. But those kids NEED a parent. Actually, they need TWO PARENTS.

The third way to protect our kids is .. believe it or not.. an EDUCATION!! Whether that comes before the marriage or after, it is absolutely imperative that we have the means to provide for our family in the event of ... death of a spouse... or that forced, unilateral no fault divorce.

With that education, we CAN provide a safe haven for our kids in at least one way...we are not 'forced' to have anyone outside the family 'move in with us' to keep the roof over our heads, food on the table, clothes on our backs.

And maybe even more important than any other is one most do not want to hear.

God did not give us the Ten Commandments to spoil our fun.
He gave them to us to PROTECT us!

Just as a parent tells their child... 'Thou shalt not cross the street without me' when they are little ... to protect the child from any vehicle coming...
or Thou shalt NOT go to a friend's house after school without calling me'.... to know where the child is... just as we set down rules to keep our kids safe...

God gave us those Commandments to keep US safe.

If we lived them, including avoiding adultery, fornication, etc, we would cut down the ways that evil could enter our lives immensely. No, not completely. There is evil in the world. But we would not have to INVITE it in...

Just my two cents.


"Right is still right if nobody is right,
and wrong is still wrong if everybody is wrong,"
Archbishop Fulton J Sheen author of The Life of Christ



The groom says:I (...), take you (...) to be my wife.
I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad,
in sickness and in health.
I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.

The bride says:I (...), take you (...) to be my husband.
I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad,
in sickness and in health.
I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.

Sandals for the Children

Dear Fight4Terri Members, Casey is a National Guardsman from Tampa, Florida. He joined the National Guard four years ago and is presently stationed in Afghanistan. Casey states the desert sands are hot and missing his friends and family is often very difficult. However, Casey relays, "missing my home and family is not as difficult as watching the little children run barefoot with their dry and cracked little feet." Casey said, " the children literally argue over shoes if they are fortunate enough to get a pair." They ask the soldiers for shoes all the time." Casey is making special arrangements to deliver sandals for the children but he needs our help. *Sandals are preferable. * Boys and Girls sandals from Youth size 1 to Youth Size 12 would be appreciated. Send one pair of sandals to Casey and help to make a difference in a child's life. Please Mail to: Casey Hendrix (For safety of the soldiers, rank is not permitted to be disclosed) B Co 53rd LPF 53rd Infantry Brigade Camp PHOENIX APO AE 09320 Thank you so much for taking the time to read this email. Respectfully Cheryl Ford RN Fight4Terri@aol.com PS. For those who wonder, Casey Hendrix is a caring young man and is my daughters boyfriend.