Free Dental Care for Children in Minnesota

For all my Minnesota readers, February 1 and 2 is a day for your children, 18 and younger, to enjoy free dental care throughout the state.  Details are below:

Free dental care appointments are still available this weekend for children in need throughout Minnesota. The care will be delivered on Feb. 1 and 2 at about 200 dental offices statewide. But advance appointments are needed and the Minnesota Dental Association encourages parents to schedule an appointment now.

To make an appointment contact the United Way, just dial 2-1-1 or the statewide toll-free number, 1-800-543-7709.

Patients seeking appointments should be 18 years or younger and accompanied by a parent or legal guardian.  

Appointments are now available in, Cottage Grove, Maplewood, Minneapolis, Saint Paul, White Bear Lake, and Woodbury

A record number of volunteer dentists have created a network of 6,000 appointments for free dental care for children whose families are unable to provide for the care. 

Love,

I. C. 

The Pretzelified Theology of Women in Combat

I don't normally use tweeny, textual generation acronyms, but this expose of Douglas Wilson's article on women in combat and what the Bible has to say about it calls for one of them.

O (tF) MG!

Seriously, give it a read.  If your eyeballs don't pop out of your head before the rest of your noggin simply explodes, you win a medal.

Libby Anne does a phenomenal job here.  And to think, Doug Wilson has been called a "great thinker".  My god!

Enjoy...

John Piper Wants to Be Murdered

In this piece, Pied Piper Boy states the following:

Suppose, I said, a couple of you students, Jason and Sarah, were walking to McDonald’s after dark. And suppose a man with a knife jumped out of the bushes and threatened you. And suppose Jason knows that Sarah has a black belt in karate and could probably disarm the assailant better than he could. Should he step back and tell her to do it? No. He should step in front of her and be ready to lay down his life to protect her, irrespective of competency. It is written on his soul. That is what manhood does.

Pardon me while I guffaw:

Bahahhahahahahhahhahahhahahhahhahahhaahhahahh!!!!!!!!

How about, Mr. Pied Piper Boy, you do the smart thing and let your woman do the disarming. No sense in being stupid and getting yourself kilt.

Kristine (my bride) is a black belt in tae kwon do. No way in hell am I going to be an idiot and pretend that some artificial "manhood" responsibility makes me her protector. She'd rather me alive and the perp dead so I can use my REAL manhood on her. *wink *wink *wink.

The Pied Piper also says:

God created man first in order to say that man bears a primary burden for protection, provision, and leadership.

 Well, hell's bells! If we're going by first come, first priority in getting murdered, why can't God, being that he was there BEFORE man, do the killing of the perp? Huh? Huh? HUH!?

Spare me the square pegs in round holes theology.  No matter how you pretend that it isn't outdated and ancient today, it's as pointless and unhelpful now - just like it was in ancient times when you, Piper Boy, were in college.

I Think He Loves Me

I arrived home this evening to freshly washed floors and a complete disaster of a living room.  Some of the kids were cleaning the living room and Kristine was making supper.

Renaya (10) was stirring a pot of grits, laced with butter and cheese.  Kristine was baking bacon. (Yeah...I know.  A perfect way to ruin bacon, but anything Kristine makes is worth it, so I enjoyed it anyway.)  On the counter was a plate of an attempt at over easy eggs.  My bride had tried and failed to make eggs for the one billionth time (she openly admits this to all hearers even though I love her eggs).

She was frustrated and told me to make them instead.  I made them - perfectly for only the third and a halfth time in my egg making career.  I was proud of myself, proud of Renaya, proud of my bacon baking wife, and proud of the rest of the kids, who were still valiantly pretending to clean the living room.

I had just cracked my third batch of eggs and dumped them into the pan when I felt something brush against my leg.  Jack (4) was looking up at me, just standing by the stove.

"Um...daddy?"

"Yes?"

"I just want to hug you."

Wow.  That never happens.  Tonight was a good night. 

More Opportunities for Women and Gays Means Military Will Fail?

I frankly don't understand the logic here. It baffles me to no end that you open up opportunities for women and gays and BOOM!...people stop volunteering for the military?

Um...huh? Me thinks Bryan Fischer is a moron. Oh wait...we already knew that.

Read and watch it here...

BIG Milestone

My last of six kids, aka, The Freak (2), just slept through nap time with no diaper on.

All I can see are the dollars back in my pocket from no diapers and wipes.

I feel like hugging everyone who walks past me now.

Love,

I. C.

Clifford is ALWAYS Nude

Ok.  To the person who arrived here by Googling:

"Clifford big red dog nude pics"

Dogs are always nude. Unless, of course, they wear those stupid knit sweaters in the middle of New York City or when they have million dollar tutus on inside some claustrophobic handbag meant for a rat the size of a five star restaurant meat ball.

Anyway, I haven't written much about Clifford naked.  I haven't written much about ANY dog naked, for that matter.  I simply thought it was a given.  At least it kinda is here, in the Midwest.

We don't shave our dogs to the skin, either.  Maybe that's what you wanted.  In that case, I have some confidential information that Emily Elizabeth has allowed me to share with you, oh Googler.

Clifford's skin is blue.

Now that you are more enlightened, here is what I wrote on Clifford, the Big Red Dog.

Happy Googling!

Her House is Dirty

Chandra says it well in Desires of the Heart.

My favorite quote in this article:

I see women who are burdened with desires. And these desires go well and beyond a desire for a husband. We desire our family to be close, so we will do anything we possibly can to achieve that vision. Even if it means over protecting, home educating when it is no longer a healthy option, forcing traditions that no one wants to participate in, or try to force family relationships in unhealthy ways.

Women Wearing Pants to Church

Christian Fundamentalism makes great hay about modesty.  About being a feminine woman.  There is no better way to display this femininity than when all "like-minded" individuals are gathered in the same place - namely church.

Femininity, in fundamentalist and patriarchal (even bled over to areas of mainstream or evangelical Christianity) is no better displayed than by the wearing of dresses, jumpers, or skirts.  Pants are frowned upon on a woman.  And if you happen to be the lucky girl not confronted by a busy-body, nose-in-everyone's business, old lady guru, you will discover the pleasure of being talked about behind your back, or even worse, become the subject of a sermon.

Don't worry.  Most preachers don't name names.  But you KNOW they're talking about you, you heathen.

During my formative years, many a theological discussion, centered around pants on women, cropped up in the circles of young men.  Dads preached the necessity of looking like a lady.  Curriculum for Sunday School, as well as extracurricular classes run by women, noted the virtues of the pant-less society of femininity.

For whatever reason, the theology began to change a bit.  We started to discuss that God actually knew the heart and pants didn't matter all that much. Maybe people were getting picked on in public and it became imperative.  Maybe cloth was too expensive.  Maybe fewer godly daughters picked up sewing.  Maybe they all wanted to look a bit more attractive, seeing the frumpy jumpered females not getting married and living at home into their forties.

Then I left and the whole subject bored me to death.

...until today.

I was browsing Facebook and saw a friend's status, excited about wearing her favorite jeans to church today.  Why?  Because she finally reduced her post-baby bod down to the size of the pant hips and could rock the pants again.

YES! YES!  YES!

THAT is the REAL parameters of the discussion of pants on women.  Do they look good on you?  Yes?

Then rock 'em.

A Typical Theological Conversation

Theology, the foundation of any religion, is easily spaghettified by any generation that needs to twist it into the status quo.  Sometimes, the old guard fights back and recruits young-uns to wave the banner flag for their cause, becoming more shrill as the rest of humanity moves on.  

The following is a typical conversation one might have with a layperson of Christianity, where there is no "winning" the argument because, after all, theology can answer everything.

Skeptic: If you claim that we can look at our bodies and see God's handiwork, because of the perfectly functioning systems, all working together, why is there cancer?

Believer:  Because, when Adam and Eve sinned, destruction started to happen in our bodies, due to the curse (jargon).

Skeptic:  Wait!  Two things.  First, if sin is what causes cancer, then, when we are without sin, in Christ (jargon tossed in here for effect), why do we still get cancer?  Second, if cancer was part of the curse, why was it not specifically mentioned by God, but rather, only some sort of toil stress and sweaty curse was mentioned?

Believer:  Well, even though we are alive in Christ, we still have our earthly bodies and must follow the same laws of all other bits of humanity.  Also, it didn't matter about what God mentioned in the curse.  Adam and Eve were given the curse of death, which manifests itself in cancer.

Skeptic:  If we have to follow the rules of all other bits of humanity, then why was Jesus and some of his followers able to heal, using the magical laws of supernaturalism?

Believer:  Well...first of all, that was Jesus.  Second, those were apostolic times (jargon).  We don't have that ability anymore.

Skeptic:  Huh?!  Why not!?  Other denominations would disagree and even claim to have healed others.  But, if this were possible, why are people not flocking to healing sessions?  Why is it not on camera?  Why do we have no real human beings standing up and saying - I WAS HEALED!!!...and then God would be glorified (jargon) and many would be healed?

Believer:  There are, I guess.  You just have to Google them.  But Jesus also told somebody not to tell everyone about the healing he had done to him.

Skeptic:  Yes, but Jesus also told someone TO tell everyone.  But, back to the beginning...why doesn't God heal everyone who asks him?  He actually says he will in the Bible.

Believer: Their heart wasn't right.

Skeptic:  What!!!???  How can you even SAY that!  Jesus says that if you believe in me, you are no longer a member of darkness, but of light (jargon).  So, how on earth can your heart NOT be right?  You're part of the freaking club!

Believer:  True, but consider Ananias and Sapphira.  They were part of the club and yet lied about stuff and had to die.

Skeptic:  Okay, wait... That doesn't even make sense.  You're part of the club that states you are in darkness only if you're not a member of said club, but you CAN do something dark, which then requires death then, but not in this era?

Believer:  Some things are a mystery.

Skeptic:  No, some things are unbelievable for a reason.

And to all the theologians that think they could win the above argument, you obviously missed the point.

There is Never Enough Money

The title of this post says it all.  There never is.  But that's partly due to my choices in life.  They are as follows, in no particular order, forgetting plenty:

1. I came into my working years with patriarchal Christian teachings that stressed that the woman must not work, stay at home, and have babies.

2. Birth control was evil.  It was God's job to open and close the womb, giving us as many kids as he wanted.  We were just to trust him to provide the finances.  No matter that I was perfectly capable of certain non-chemical or rubber assurances that a baby would not be the result of the enjoyment of other capabilities.

3. As a young man, I began receiving mailers from scam artists that preached the evils of working for "the man".  Being your own boss was the hot item of the day.  I ate it up.

4. I'm lazy and procrastinate entirely too much.

5. I shunned college (except for a 2-year technical diploma program during high school) until we had five children.

We are just now, in the last few years, rectifying the above five problems.  It's going to be a struggle and the kids will notice that we are working hard with the goal of rolling back the clock.  But the fact is, we aren't getting any younger and the years are flying by fast.

Oh, the wonderful advice I can now give my kids.  They may have struggles, but they won't be like these struggles.

I'm Too Honest

I have a small problem: I trust everyone.  That's bad, as I've found out over the last 32 years of my life.  The realization that there are many people who aren't worthy of your honesty and openness cuts me to the core because I love to bare my soul to anyone and everyone.

To me, life is too short to be worrying about what another person will think if I tell them something or whether or not that person will use the information that I am telling them in a negative way down the road.  More often than not, they don't, but I have been burned before.

And that hurts.

I look at humanity and want to love unconditionally.  As a young boy, I did just that.  Growing up, I did even more.  Christian Fundamentalism grabbed me by the throat and tried to strangle my love for humanity out of me and replace it with a disdain for anyone not like me (or like the person I was supposed to be, but never was).  It succeeded in creating a compartmentalization of my heart.

One area of my heart was reserved for the logical pushing away of those that were "evil", while the part of my heart that cared for others as people allowed itself to hide and be forgotten until it the other part ruined my life - which it did a good job of doing.

Suffice it to say that the loving part of me burst forth about two years ago with fresh abandon.  I opened up and began to enjoy people.  ALL people.

And then I got hurt.  And hurt again.  And hurt again...and again...and again.

It never stopped.

I would tell myself, "I.C., you idiot!  You have to be more careful.  When you notice yourself going down that path again...stop!  Better yet - STOP OPENING UP TO PEOPLE!"

But I would ignore myself and tell myself to shut up - and get hurt.

Trust me.  It's worth it.  I think.

New Post Coming Soon

I'll begin writing again soon...