I am writing to let anyone who cares that I have moved my entire blog to typepad.  I had a lot of reasons for doing this, but the main reason was that I wanted the name of my blog to mesh with the name of my website.  Soooo. . . if you are reading this, then maybe you would want to check out my new blog:

http://www.morningtower.typepad.com

Today has been a really good day.  Nice and peaceful, no stress.  We are going to bar-b-que chicken here in a bit, and that is always wonderful.  It is just too georgeous outside right now to not be sitting out on the deck and enjoying God's creation.

I have been reading "Confessions of St. Augustine", and it is a really amazing book!  The journey that he had was extraordinary.  It is inspiring to me on so many levels.  Augustine was not afraid to question God, and he was dogged in his pursuit of Truth.  I think questioning God can be a really good thing, but one has to be ready to accept God's answers!  I have questioned Him many times, and He has always shown Himself to me.  Even when I fear that I am too fargone for Him to hear me, He does, and He is still there for me.

Augustine talks about 'trifles' that he had tremendous difficulty letting go of.  He very vividly paints a picture of how hard it can be to turn away from the things that lead us away from God and keep us from receiving His blessings and graces.  That is one of the many reasons I have chosen him for my patron saint for Confirmation.  We will be Confirmed at the Easter Vigil Mass in just a few short weeks, and we each had to choose a saint.  Everyone was suprised that I chose Augustine.  Apparently he is not a popular or common choice.  Our DRE said he was often found to be too intellectual or lofty for many people. 

But that is precisely what I like about him!  He was a thinking man, and he understood God not just on a visceral level, but on an intellectual level.  He didn't just accept that there was a God because it was the right thing to do, or because his mother wanted that for him.  He chose to be a Christian very deliberately.  He lived a fairly wild life before he chose God (hence the 'trifles'), but after great thought and introspection, He gave it all up for God.  He knew what he would be 'missing', and it paled in comparison to what he was gaining.  And in doing so, he changed the world! 

We got some new Gevalia in the mail the other day, so Mom and I are having fresh coffee this afternoon.  That will surely keep me up 'til 3:00 a.m.!  It is seemingly just a hot beverage, but apparently there is much more to it than that.  It took the kids to Starbucks the other day, and was struck by the amount of political propaganda tastefully littered about the store. It was plain to me that I should not just sit in peace sipping my Mocha Frappacino, I must mnake somepledge to buy some CD or mug that would promote world peace and feed those starving amongst the coffee beans of Africa and Columbian.  It would be selfish and somehow sinful of me to merely pay for my drink and then just. . . drink it.  Action must be taken!! (Good thing coffee supplies me with caffeine, otherwise my quest for world liberation might be slowed by sluggish American thinking!)

Yes, coffee is an import.  It comes mostly from impoverished 3rd World countries whose politics and living conditions are nothing short of abominable.  Yet we import wine, and for some reason, when I walk into a wine cellar, all I see is, well, wine!  I do not get the same feeling of "Quick!  We must all join hands in worldwide harmony and help our brothers and sisters who are being enslaved and abused in some far off tropical jungle!"  Do wine connoisseurs not feel the same obligation to their less fortunate brothers and sisters slaving away in some vineyard in the south of France?  Or is it that those of us who can better afford coffee than wine are more likely to care about the issues of African coffee growers?  And isn't it the Coffee Crowd who gets so bent out of shape and starts putting anti-war bumperstickers on their cars when our government does exactly what the coffee house politicos propose, and sends troops over to some country to free those who are enslaved and bestow them with their inalienable rights of freedom and coffee?

Dont get me wrong.  I am all about peace, love and happiness.  But I think we need to be realistic. The brutal fact of the matter is that vicious sociopathic dictators who are willing to starve, rape and pillage their own people don't speak 'peace, love, and happiness'.  They speak violence.  And they have a nasty habit of expressing their violence toward those who try to meet the basic needs of their people with food and medical care.  (ie: they kill them!) We cannot communicate with them by gently explaining that their methods are unacceptable, and that they should simply congregate in coffee houses and discuss things.

So, then we have quite the dilemma.  Do we ignore the fact that millions of h uman beings are being brutally murdered and exploited, or do we do something?  And if we agree that doing something is the correct thing, then what, exactly, do we do?  And how do we manage to convince those evil dictators to let us do it?

It seems to me that whatever course of action is decided upon, it should be effective.  And somehow, buying CDs or coffee mugs simply doesn't seem like it will accomplish much.  Unless some sort of collective American Guilt is the goal.  We can all sit around sipping our Lattes and feeling guilty that we have the freedom to choose whether we need single, double or triple shots.  We can wear funny hats and hiking pants with carelessly slung backpacks and earthy sandals, and at least look like we are politically concerned.

Or we can start in our own living rooms, and love one another.  We can stop, just for a few moments each day, and really listen to what our family and friends are saying.  We can choose to smile at the harried clerk in the grocery store checkout line, or let someone pull into traffic in front of us after a long day when we really just want to get home.  We could stop spending all our money on Coffee House Cds, Birkenstocks and "Life Is Good" t-shirts, and send some of it directly to organizations that actually feed starving children or provide the dying with dignity.

And, if we want to get honest about it, we could admit that none of those things will be effective unless there is somebody to protect those who are there to help, to make a difference.  We could make the ultimate sacrifice, and enlist.  We could go to any length to share our way of life with those who didn't even know they were in need of a coffee house.  We could actually put a force behind our pithy ideals and agendas, by physically going over there and stopping the bad guys.

Or maybe we should all just switch to wine.  I recommend a fruity merlot.

Years ago, in Ruidoso, New Mexico, I was bored and wanted something to read.  We had stopped at a little mini-mart sort of place, and I was browsing through their tiny selection of books.  Most of them were sappy Harlequin Romance type stuff, but one book caught my eye.  It was a gold shiny book, and the title, "Love" was simply embossed on the cover.  It was written by a man named Leo Buscaglia.  It was the mid 1970's, and I was still into the whole hippie vibe about peace and love, so I bought the book.  It changed my life.

Recently a friend questioned where I got my ideas about relationships.  He thought that many of my ideas about friendship and love were very different than what he'd been taught growing up.  At first, I wasn't really sure where my ideas came from.  I assumed I'd learned them from my parents.  And, to be sure, a great many of my ideas and beliefs were formed from my parents.  But not all of them.  And I realized, slowly, that although I grew up Christian, I cannot reallly credit the Bible for my ideas.  At least not directly.

It was then that I remembered my little gold book.  I went to Barnes & Noble, and lo and behold:  it is still in print!  It's not gold anymore (things seemed to be much more glittery back in the '70s!) but the book is the same.  I think Leo Buscaglia passed away several years back, but his wonderful ideas live on.

It was from that book that I learned that love is not something to be sought, but to be given.  I very rarely expect to be loved back.  And so I am very rarely disappointed.  But I do get a lot of joy out of giving to others.  And, yes, that is very much a Biblical principle, but I learned it from my little gold book.

I think that in our "me" society today so much is lost.  We forget that the most noble and rewarding thing we can do is serve others.  I have known so many people who so desperately want to be loved, and they go to such great extremes to get attention, to be loved.  But all they have to do is give it away!  That is one of the most amazing things about Twelve Step Programs; that's why they work when everything else fails.  One of their basic precepts is "you've got to give it away to keep it".  It seems too simple to really work.  But that's the beauty of it: it's fool-proof!

One of my greatest mentors used to say that you could never be too stupid to understand it, but you could be too smart.  He was so right!  When we complicate things, we miss the obvious.  We get so caught up in figuring out how to get what we think we need.  The truth of it is that all we have to do to get what we need is to put others' needs first. 

Leo Buscaglia taught that loving was about giving, about living in the moment, because life was too short to get all worried about tomorrow.  He explained that we love, not to be loved, but simply to love.  The act of loving, in and of itself, is enough.  It is more than enough.

This is the season of Lent.  It is a time of inward reflection and repentance.  I think my biggest sins are sins of selfishness.  When I get so caught up in me, and my problems that I can't see the needs of those around me.  When I am more worried about how we are going to pay the bills or meet a deadline than about picking flowers with my little girl, or listening to my son tell me about a joke he just heard.  Those are the memories that will matter and last.  The bills will get paid, deadlines will get met (or not).  But in the end, they will not be remembered.

I am reminded of the Prayer of St. Francis:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Overall, this has been an amazing week!  On Monday, we found out that Kendall has been accepted to Belmont Abbey College for the Fall Semester!  I know he is thrilled out of his mind, but I'm not sure who is more excited, me or him. I was so worried about getting it all right with his transcript, and it is such a huge relief to know that it all worked out well.  I have actually homeschooled my son for 13 years, and now he is going to college!  WooHoo!!!  A homeschool success story!  Today we got a packet in the mail with more info, and this one informed him that he has received the Abbot Leo Haid Award, valued at $4,000.  I was blown away!  God is so good!

Also, today, after twenty-something years of being away from the Church, my mother 'came home'!  She received the Sacrament of Reconciliation this afternoon and then went to Mass and received Holy Communion.  Wow.  I cannot express how much it means to me that Mom has actually gone back to the Church.  We both heard so many lies and misconceptions about Catholicism when we left the Church so many years ago, and sometimes it can be really hard to overcome.  But she took her time, she sought the Lord's will, and made sure that this was the path He has for her.  I know that she will be a great blessing to her Parish Community, especially since she has studied the Bible so much over the past fifteen years or so.

Alex, Faith and I also went to Confession today.  I have to say that it is definitely NOT my favorite sacrament going into it, but once I've made the decision to go, and followed through with that, the feeling of hope and lightness that I have afterward are amazing. 

I know that so many people take issue with the idea of confessing one's sins to a priest.  I understand that.  There are certainly things I'd rather just keep between me and God, and honestly, some of those things I'd just as soon not talk to God about, either.  But the confessional provides so much healing that can never be experienced otherwise.  Just the act of actually saying, out loud, what my sins are is a healing thing.  In 12 Step Programs they like to say "You're only as sick as the secrets you keep."  I think that is so true.  For some reason, actually telling someone my sins takes all the power out of them.  Until I confess, the devil has a foothold he can use to convince me that I am not worthy of God's love.  But the minute I share those things with a priest and hear him say the words of absolution, I am free!  And I no longer have to carry that burden around with me anymore.

This Sacrament also keeps me accountable.  If I know that I am going to have to confess something, I am a lot less likely to do something offensive to God.  It makes God more 'real' to me, makes Him more tangible, if you will.  If I don't ever have to do any more than confess in my heart, then I don't feel as obligated to do the good.  Accountability is a very healthy thing for me.

I'm not going to get into all the Scripture verses about why confessing your sins to a priest is the right thing to do.  But I did look those up when we decided to go back to the Catholic Church!  That was one of those things I really wanted to be sure about.

Moving on:  tonight Kendall had seven friends over after dinner.  They ranged from 15 years old to 20 years old.  All but the 15yo are in college.  They could have gone anywhere or done anything tonight, but they chose to come over here and hang out with us.  And play cards with Gaylon, and visit with me and Mom.  How cool is that?  They are great kids, and I'm proud to know every one of them.  (Faith wanted to know why all of her friends couldn't come over at one time like that, LOL!  I explained to her that was because I would have to go pick all of her friends up, whereas Kendall's friends can all drive. *sigh* Her time will come!)

So anyway, tonight I am happy and peaceful.  There are so many things to be grateful for, and this is one of those wonderful times that I can recognize those things clearly.  So many times I get bogged down by the things that cause me stress that I don't notice the things that bless me.

Okay, so we all hate the IRS, right?  But I'm beginning to seriously believe they hate me back!!!  That is quickly followed by the thought that I have some doubts that they are organized or intelligent enough (as an entity) to have any sort of focused feeling or response about anything.

Let me explain.  They audited us in 2003.  That was a royal pain, but we survived, and all was well.  The audit actually occured in 2004, btw.  In IRSland, everything happens a year later.  So, fast forward to 2005.  We file our taxes, and are supposed to get a pretty healthy refund for our Earned Income Credit.  But no.  They notify us that we do not qualify for EIC.  Well, what that means in layman's terms is that they do not believe we have children.  In 2004, our children ranged between 15 and 7 years of age.  These were not NEW children.  We have claimed them every year since they were born, and the IRS never questioned their existence.

To complicated matters, we got the notice informing us that we didn't have children right after our house burned down!!!  So, now we no longer have any proof that we have children, unless you count grocery, clothing, education, medical, dental and activity bills!!!  But we didn't have the important stuff:  birth certificates, because of course, those burned. 

And since our house had just burned, we were ah, sort of distracted, and so we didn't get right on it with the IRS.  So it took a few months, and then they started sending us nasty letters telling us we owed them the amount of our refund!!  So we spent HOURS on the phone (most of it on "hold") trying to work this out with them.  Oh, not to worry, they told us.  Just send in form "X" and we'll take care of it.  So we jumped through all the hoops.  I hunted down birth certificates from three states, got copies of Social Security cards, filled out the right forms, and sent them in.  But the nasty letters kept coming, via certified mail, no less.

Okay, so then we file our taxes for 2005.  We claim our EIC again, just like we have been doing for 17 years now, and THIS year, they don't question it at all.  What they DID do was take our refund and apply it to the amount they THINK we owe them from 2004.  Clear as mud?  The only thing I am perfectly clear on is that they now owe us almost $3000!!!

So, we give up, and hire a Tax Consultant (a friend of a friend) who used to work for the IRS, and knows firsthand how absolutley insane and impossible they can be.  But she and her partner assure us that it shouldn't be that big of a deal to get it all straightened out.  Then she calls me yesterday to let me know that all is well, and the only thing the IRS needs from us now are transcripts from the children's schools for 2004, to show that they lived at this address during that year.  But we homeschool, and all our records burned!!!!!!  (The IRS knows we had a fire, we sent the freaking fire report to them, along with pictures of the burned house!!!)  We have also provided them with Social Security card copies, birth certificate copies, even copies of Baptismal, Marriage and Communion records!!!

Now this MIGHT make some sense if Gaylon and I had ever been divorced or seperated.  But we've been married for over 20 years!  To each other, no less.  Honestly, where the heck do they think our children lived in 2004?    Do they think the Mother Ship came and took them on a 52 week tour of a galaxy far, far away???  Then they mysteriously all reappeared for the 2005 tax year??

So, our wonderful tax consultant called them back and explained that we are homeschoolers (that has probably flagged us for some other abuse yet to be endured) and would savings account records for that year be acceptable?  Well, yes, bank records will suffice.  So I had to go down to the bank today and ask our banker for records of the childrens' savings accounts for 2004.  She was wonderful, and provided me with that, as well as documentation that those accounts have been open for over five years now.  And all of those years the children have lived at the same address!!!

I hate dealing with stupid people.  We all make mistakes, and we all have our "Here's your sign" moments.  But this is, in my opinion, verging on harrassment!  But maybe, just maybe, we really will eventually get all of our money, and we will be able to pay some bills, or go to the beach.  I would really just like for them to GO AWAY and leave our family alone! But I am sure that's probably just asking too much.

I found an old friend on MySpace last night.  Gaylon and I had often wondered what ever happened to him, so I happened to think of him last night and checked for him.  Sure enough, there he was!  Wow.  I didn't invite him to be one of my "friends", because apparently, his world is just too strange and deviant now.

This guy used to be a great Christian.  He really did love God.  He played his guitar and sang about God.  He counseled drug abusers (mostly teens) to find God and turn their lives over to Him.  Now he is into some really kinky, dark stuff.  And he very clearly states that he no longer is a Christian.  (Not that he really needed to point that out.)

And it made me really sad.  I'm not the evangelical type.  I don't run around spouting off Bible verses and trying to convert everyone.  I take to heart the advice of St. Francis of Assisi: "Preach the Gospel at all times - if necessary, use words."  But that doesn't mean I don't care very deeply when someone commits apostasy and rejects God. 

I care because I care a lot about people.  But I also care because I can see myself making the same mistakes.  I am so very human, and there have been so many times in my life when I really thought something was a great idea, or that it was at least a sin I was willing to commit.  I have far too frequently stood on the steep brink of spiritual disaster and looked longingly over the edge to the jagged tempations far below.  A couple of times I have even started to try and make my way down that steep cliff, only to find myself clinging on to the proverbial branch and begging God for His mercy and assistance.

I stand in judgement of noone.  I know I have it in me to reject God.  I've done it before.  Not completely, more like leaving Him an "away message".  But it is a dangerous, slippery slope.  St. Thomas Aquinas noted that a sinner does not see the choice between good and evil, but the choice between two goods.  I understand that!  So, again, I do not stand in judgement of anyone.  

In my catechism class, we were discussing the First Commandment.  And it seems pretty cut-and-dried.  You know, no false gods.  No idols.  Seems basic enough, until  you cross-reference it.  When Jesus was questioned about which commandment was the greatest, he freaked everyone out and didn't answer with one of the old tried-and-true Top Ten.  Instead, he sort of summed them all up in one:  "Love the Lord your God  with all your heart, mind and soul. Love your neighbor as yourself."  So, there's the cross-reference.  Love.  The First Commandment is all about love.  Loving God, and because of loving God, loving others.  NOT easy!!  

So in my class, we discussed the Theological Virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity.  We talked about what these things meant, and how to get them.  They are actually received at Baptism, but we must cultivate them.  It's basically a use-it-or-lose-it thing.  If you want to grow in Faith, you must exercise Faith.  You must protect your Faith, and not do things that will cause you to lose Faith.  I think this is really so important. 

Every time I have ever seen anyone turn away from God, it is because they first started dancing with ideas and behaviours that they knew were offensive to God.  So, finally, they found a way to be angry with God, because let's face it: it's a whole lot easier to offend someone if we're already angry at them!  Then, finally, they determine that either God does not care (because if He did, they'd be in a whole lot of trouble, right?) or that God isn't real at all.  That's the easiest theology, because if there is no God, then there are no boundaries, and anything goes.

I have been guilty of deciding that God didn't care about me.  Which brings us to the Theological Virtue of Hope.  Despair is obviously a sin against Hope.  Suicide is the obvious example of this in action, but I've managed to despair many times without ever comtemplating suicide.  (Good Catholic upbringing in action there:  suicide = mortal sin = one way ticket straight to hell.)  And I have been guilty of wanting God to look away for a while.  But I have never been able to just decide He doesn't exist.  That is incomprehensible to me.  I guess that is because deep down, I really do believe that God is forgiving and loving and merciful.  In spite of all the things I've done and considered doing, He still loves me.  Sort of like the way I still love my children when they've done something amazingly stupid or foolish, only God doesn't indulge in the good old-fashioned Polish Guilt Trip.  

Which brings me around to Charity, or Love.  If God loves me, then I should love Him back.  And if He loves everyone else, then I need to love them, too.  Which is impossible.  Except that love is not a feeling.  It's a decision.  And I am eternally grateful that thus far, God has given me the grace necessary to continually love Him, and others.  He makes the impossible possible.

And if I love God, then I will want to do things that make Him happy.  I mean, I am always looking for ways to make my kids happy, to make Gaylon and my Mom happy, and to make my friends happy.  I often go to great lengths to make sure I don't upset any of them!  If I know I've done something, or made some decision that will incur their disapproval, then I avoid them, until I can "fix" the problem.  It is tougher with God, of course, because I can't avoid Him!  But the precept is the same.

But the bottom line is this:  God is real, whether we like the idea or not.  Sorta like gravity.  We don't have to believe in gravity, but if we jump off a building, we will discover that it is very real, and we will pay the consequences.  It's easy to deceive myself into believing that I am being cheated out of some great pleasure or reward by obeying God, and that He's not being fair.  I love that line from the movie "The Labyrinth", where the girl keeps saying "It's not fair!" and the Goblin King looks at her and says "You keep saying that.  What is  your basis for comparison?"  What basis, indeed?

So, I am sad, but I am also motivated.  I really care about my friend who has turned away from God.  He is a brilliant and delightful man. It is so easy to get ideas in our heads about the way we believe things are, and then nothing else seems to make sense. We begin to believe that sin is good, and that everything is relative, and therefore okay.  I'm familiar with that thought process.  And I know that if I don't cultivate Faith, Hope and Love, I will lose them.  They will atrophy and die, and I really don't want to go there. It is far too slippery a slope.

A February 3, 2007 article in the Washington Post reports:

"The National Vaccine Information Center yesterday warned state officials to investigate the safety of a breakthrough cancer vaccine as Texas became the first state to make the vaccine mandatory for school-age girls."

So how proud the governor of Texas must be!  To be the first to enact a mass poisoning of little girls throughout his state!  The commercials for this vaccine show all these women proudly holding up their index finger and proclaiming "One less".  "One less"??  One less what?  One less little girl who will have a chance of a normal life, a normal birth, a normal baby?  The CDC assures us that the adverse effects are not bad enough to warrant them putting any sort of ban on this drug.  Well, that's a relief! (NOT!!)

Already cases are being reported of side-effects that range from unconsciousness to seizures!!  And they are recommending this for 6th grade girls!!  Actually, recommending is too gentle of a term.  They are forcing this on these little girls! 

Yes, HPV is a very bad thing.  But this vaccination (Gardasil) has not been tested long enough, and there is no concrete evidence that it will work, or that is is harmless.  How do we know what this will do to their young reproductive organs?  How do we know how it will affect their children, or possibly even their grandchildren?  The truth is, we do NOT know. 

Apparently Merck feels confident that most of these young girls will become sexually active (or, God forbid, are already sexually active) and therefore need to be protected against themselves!

Yes, I know that the potential is there.  It's always there.  But it's a known risk, unlike vaccinations that compromise immune systems.  We've already seen widespread evidence that vaccinations can cause serious problems, such as autism. But that doesn't seem to matter to the Big Money Makers at Merck.  As long as they can find a way to get their product out there, then they're happy.  For now.  What's next?  I shudder to consider.

Enough of my soapboxing.  Here is a news bulletin that was posted on Mothering Magazine's Website:

A Shot in the Dark

Sick of the aggressive, targeted marketing onslaught of often inappropriate goods and services aimed at pre-teens? One of the latest “products” directed at young girls might make them sick too—literally. Merck’s new vaccine Gardasil, which the CDC has just recommended for all 11 and 12 year old girls, has not been adequately or appropriately assessed for risks, according to vaccine safety advocates.

The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) maintains that Merck's clinical trials did not prove that the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, touted as preventing cervical cancer and genital warts, is safe to give to pre-adolescents. “There is too little long term safety and efficacy data, especially in young girls, and too little labeling information on contraindications,” said NVIC president Barbara Loe Fisher.

According to NVIC’s June 27 press release, in Gardasil’s clinical trials, the FDA allowed Merck to use a potentially reactive aluminum containing placebo as a control for most participants, rather than a non-reactive saline solution placebo.¹ A reactive placebo can artificially increase the appearance of safety of an experimental drug or vaccine in a clinical trial. Gardasil contains 225 mcg of aluminum and, although aluminum adjuvants have been used in vaccines for decades, they were never tested for safety in clinical trials. Merck and the FDA did not disclose how much aluminum was in the placebo. ²

Animal and human studies have shown that aluminum can cause nerve cell death ³ and that vaccine aluminum adjuvants can allow aluminum to enter the brain,^{4 5}as well as cause inflammation at the injection site leading to chronic joint and muscle pain and fatigue.^{6 7} Nearly 90 percent of Gardasil recipients and 85 percent of aluminum placebo recipients followed-up for safety reported one or more adverse events within 15 days of vaccination, particularly at the injection site.⁸ Pain and swelling at injection site occurred in approximately 83 percent of Gardasil and 73 percent of aluminum placebo recipients. About 60 percent of those who got Gardasil or the aluminum placebo had systemic adverse events including headache, fever, nausea, dizziness, vomiting, diarrhea, and myalgia.^{9 10} Gardasil recipients had more serious adverse events such as headache, gastroenteritis, appendicitis, pelvic inflammatory disease, asthma, bronchospasm and arthritis.

Gardasil is the first childhood vaccine to exclusively target girls. The HPV vaccine is also the first to be credited with preventing cancer, a claim hyped in Merck’s multi-channel marketing campaign “Tell Someone.” In fact, even the types of HPV billed “high risk” rarely actually result in cancer; the immune system generally removes the virus before it causes problems. Also, in the rare instances where it does occur, cervical cancer usually takes five to ten years to develop. Prior to cancer, HPV causes the growth of tell-tale abnormal cells, which can be detected by a Pap smear. Upon detection, the disease can be easily cured by minor surgery to remove the abnormal cells. Therefore, a woman who gets regular Pap smears every one to three years is almost 100% protected from cervical cancer—with no need for an expensive, potentially problematic, under tested vaccine. Cervical cancer accounts for only about one percent of all cancer deaths in US women.

Health and Human Services is expected to approve the CDC recommendation—meaning Gardasil will be routinely administered to all 11 and 12 year old girls. The vaccine has also received CDC approval for sale and marketing to girls and women ages nine to 26. At $120 a pop, the three required doses of Gardasil will earn Merck $360 per consumer. With over 35 million US girls and women between the ages of 9 and 26, recommended administration of Gardasil could mean over 12 billion dollars for the drug company. Merck is currently fighting more than 11,500 lawsuits related to another of their drugs, Vioxx, which is also plagued by controversy surrounding false data on its safety.

Sources:

http://www.gardasil.com/

http://www.merck.com/

http://www.metrokc.gov/health/apu/std/hpv.htm#whatis

http://www.909shot.com/PressReleases/pr62706gardasil.htm

I think that pretty much covers it.  I'm not just paranoid.  There is serious reason to take issue with this vaccine.  Never mind that it can do way more damage than good.  Never mind that it is unnecessary.  Never mind that this vaccine is being manufactured and promoted by a company with a history of lies.  How about the fact that yet again, the government has found a way to take more control over our children? Or that they assume that all these girls will be sexually active, and immoral?  What about Parental Rights? 

Christian groups supporting Parental Rights have a LOT to say on this subject! Children of God for Life, a Catholic organization, has a website devoted to links on just this topic:

Gardasil - Get the Facts 

Of course the Catholic Church is up in arms about this.  As a Catholic, I have to agree wholeheartedly.  If I was not Catholic, I would still feel the same way. Yes, I *know* that raising your children to remain pure until marriage is not a guarantee that they will abstain from all sexual activity until the honeymoon.  That doesn't make this vaccine, or any mandate thereof, acceptable.  Parents must be the ultimate decision makers for their children's wellbeing.  NOT the state.

Oh, that's right, I forgot.  Hilary Clinton explained to us that "It takes a village to raise a child".  Well, I didn't see any village raising her daughter!!  And they're sure as heck not going to touch mine!!!

Today, Faith and I went with her little Daughters of St. Anne group up to Asheville to work for a brief time at the Manna Food Bank.  Daughters of St. Anne is a group of homeschooled girls, a sub-group of CAFE: Catholic Area Family Educators.  This year they are studying the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy.  This month is was "Feed the Hungry".

I am NOT a morning person. I don't fully come to life until late afternoon.  Doesn't matter what time of year it is, how much sleep I get the night before, or anything like that.  Everyone told me that after I had children it would change.  Nope!  I still hate mornings.

But I still have to wake up in the mornings. We don't start our homeschool days at 7:00 am like so many other families I've read about, but I do like to be going by 9:00 or 10:00.  Then we stand a chance of being done early enough for the kids to have plenty of play time in the afternoons.

So, I have a morning schedule.  Well, more like a routine.  I drag myself out of the bed, crawl downstairs and get myself a cup of coffee.  Then I come straight to my computer and check my comics (Close To Home, For Better or Worse, and Garfield) and read my email.  Usually I find myself reading all the emails that are trying to sell me something.  Not spam, stuff I've actually subscribed to, like Pottery Barn, or Coldwater Creek. Stuff I usually cannot afford, but love to look at.  Sometimes something will catch my interest and I'll actually click the link and give it a closer examination.

Then we muddle through breakfast (the kids know not to bother me until after my first cup of java) and get started on school.  Sometime around late morning, right before Lunch, I find time to read my Daily Guideposts, and if I'm feeling really industrious, I'll read the Morning Prayer of my Magnificat magazine, and possibly even the Mass Readings for the day.  But I'm already well into my day by then.

Now, I've always heard that one should start their day 'bathed in prayer', but somehow I have convinced myself that I am not awake enough to accomplish this first thing in the morning.  But this morning, as I was staring at information on Toyota Avalons (which I am considering buying) it dawned on me that I could just as easily stare at daily prayers, readings and devotionals. 

Yeah, I might not get the full impact at that point, but maybe it would sink in enough to make a difference in my day.  I mean, I might not be able to utter profound or even intelligible prayers at that point, but I can absorb Godly information, right?  And that can't be a bad thing!

So I think my goal for today is to try to find some Daily Reading stuff that can be sent to my Inbox.  I know there are some really great websites out there that have that sort of stuff.  I think I'll check CatholicMom.com first.