If I was given the opportunity of a lifetime, it would have to be either A) Samantha Brown's job on The Travel Channel or B) an elite position as a travel journalist with Conde Nast Traveler or some other well read travel publication.
I think I would prefer B over A though. I enjoy letting the destination sink into my pores and writing about it more than I would standing in front of a camera and dealing with all the issues surrounding that.
I'm not a big fan of the typical workweek in a cubicle, 9-5 banker hours. Ho hum. The travel industry is tough and it's even tougher to make any money working in it. But boy, the rewards are awesome. I wasn't meant to sit in a gray cubicle all day but instead, to be out among others, getting to know a place and its culture, experimenting with its language, food, etc. I actually feel like I'm withering as a person when I haven't been somewhere in a while, and it's not just the "vacation blues" for me. It's much more intellectual than that. I draw my energy from stepping off a plane and being in another place aside from where I live for a time. Maybe in my former life I was an explorer. (I don't really believe in former lives I just say that lol) but I always think about what it must have been like for the 16th and 17th century explorers to cross the Atlantic and Pacific, into the scary unknown. Those guys had some serious balls. We have all the creature comforts now whenever we travel, but they sure didn't back in their day. We owe a lot to those guys.
Africa is a place I'm just dying to go to. Not some fancy crystal and white linen in the bush for 10 days blitz, although a day or two of that with a massage would be quite nice. But a real tented safari, where you can get up close and hear the sounds of the lions at night. Sure there are armed guards nearby, but wow, how cool would that be? Knowing at any moment, in theory, you could be dinner.
Or how about a cage dive with a great white? I dunno....jury's still out on that for me, but if I'm in the right mood, I might try it, if the shark has already eaten for the day :)
There's also Antarctica. Imagine being on an ice crushing old Russian cruiser just barreling through ice several feet thick. Wow. Penguins. Whales.
Of course, making a pilgrimage to the Holy Lands or Greece would leave me speechless.
Touring Celtic Haunted Castles, enjoying Europe's waterways by cruise, Tuscany's wine country....I want to do it all.
I've done a lot already, but it will never be enough. My bag is packed and ready.
Friday, September 7, 2007
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Evolution is like a box
Evolution is like a box. I cannot replace humanist thought with all that is within my spiritual being. I cannot believe that the Bible is mythology. I cannot believe that Christ is a myth, not when I see the wonders of the Earth around me. To take the worldly gifts I have been given by God and replace them with the teachings of a mere man seems to me to be going backward.
"Unfortunately, the origin of the cell remains a question that is actually the murkiest aspect of the whole theory of evolution."
-Alexander Oparin, Origin of Life, pg. 196
"Can matter organize itself? No! Today there is no known circumstance under which one could affirm that microscopic beings have come into the world without parents resembling themselves."
-Louis Pasteur, Fox & Dose, Origin of Life, pg. 4-5
The American scientist, Stanley Miller, tried to conduct experiments in 1953. He triggered a reaction in gases he claimed would have been primitive to Earth's early atmosphere. At the time, this was regarded as scientific proof for evolution. It was false. Later discoveries showed that the gases used were different than the ones that would have been present in the early atmosphere of the world. He had to confess his error.
There is nothing wrong with admitting error! We are humans and make mistakes.
Jeffrey Bada even admits that we don't have all the answers.
"Today, as we leave the 20th century, we still face the biggest unsolved problem that we had when we entered the 20th century: how did life originate on earth?"
Jeffrey Bada, February 1998 issue of Earth Magazine
How could complex cell systems be derived from just some matter? Are we so arrogant? I just don't think a living cell from non living matter will ever be done in a laboratory as part of some experiment, by man, with all his intelligence, technology and scientific advances, even though evolutionists keep claiming this is how we came to be.
"The chance that higher life forms might have emerged by chance is comparable with the chance that a tornado sweeping through a junk-yard might assemble a Boeing 747 from the materials within."
-Fred Hoyle, Nature, Nov 1981
The scientists that discovered the DNA strand, James Watson and Frances Crick, acknowledged that life was much more complex than previously thought. Frances Crick, an evolutionist, and Nobel Prize winner, confessed that the DNA structure could never have emerged by chance.
We are wowed by the large hard drive spaces we can purchase for our computers, yet there is no way it can compare to the vast amount of DNA stored in one single cell. It is said that if you took a teaspoon and filled it with DNA, it would be the same as storing the amount of all the books ever written.
How can a human being ever duplicate this?
How could this just come from some matter, and we could come from one common ancestor? Not by chance or haphazard happenings.
Creation=Creator with eternal power and wisdom maybe?
"Natural selection can do nothing until favorable variations chance to occur."
-Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, 1 ed. p. 177
"No one has ever produced a species by mechanisms of natural selection. No one has ever got near it. And most of the current argument in neo-Darwinism is about this question."
-Colin Patterson, BBC, Cladistics, March 1982
So we supposedly came from the common ancestor, or Milyar Yil, a common cell that evolved into marine invertebrates, then fish, then they evolved onto land, and turned into reptiles. Birds and mammals then evolved from reptiles. There should be intermediary species right? Linking one living species to another. Half birds, half reptile creatures would exist, with half developed organs.
"if my theory is true, numberless intermediate varieties, linking most closely all the species of the same group together must assuredly have existed...consequently, evidence of their former existence could be found only amongst fossil remains."
-Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, 1st. ed. pg. 179
There are no fossil records containing any of these intermediary forms.
"Why, if species have descended from other species by fine gradations, do we not see everywhere innumerable transitional forms? But, as by this theory, innumerable transitional forms must have existed, why do we not find them embedded in countless numbers in the crust of the earth?"
-Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, 1st. ed. pg. 172
For 140 years, geologists have looked for these missing fossils. But these fossils remain figments of Darwin's imagination. British evolutionist Derek Ager admits this.
"The point emerges that if we examine the fossil record in detail, whether at the level of order or of species, we find over and over again, not gradual evolution, but the sudden explosion of one group at the expense of another."
-Derek Ager, Proceedings of the British Geological Association, Vol 87, p. 133
The Cambrian species of marine life came to life all of a sudden according to fossil records estimated to be 530 million years old.
"It is as though the species of the Cambrian were just planted there, without any evolutionary history."
-Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker, 1986, pg 229
What does this do to Darwin's theory?
"If numerous species belonging to the same genera of families have really started into life all at once, the fact would be fatal to the theory of descent with slow modification through natural selection."
-Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, 1 ed. pg 302
"A major problem of proving the theory has been the fossil record. This record has never revealed traces of Darwin's hypothetical intermediate variants. Instead, species appear and disappear abruptly. and this anomaly has fueled the creationist argument that each species was created by God."
-Mark Czarnecki, McLean's, January 1981
A 400 million year old shark and a modern day shark share the same structure. Similarly a 100 million year old ant and a modern ant are the same. A million year old dragonfly and a modern dragonfly are the same. The same with a 100 million yr old turtle=modern day turtle. 55 million year old bat=modern day bat.
For years, Coelacanth was touted as one such transtionary fossil. It ended up just being a modern day fish unable to make the leap to land.
Australopithecus, a man-like creature used to help advance the theory of man's evolution, is nothing more than an extinct ape species
Other skulls used to advance this theory, Homo Erectus, Homo Ergaster, or Homo Sapiens Archaic, in fact, belong to different human races, not one evolved race. The fossil differences of these skulls are not much different than what we have found today.
"These differences are probably no more pronounced than than we see today between the separate geographical races of modern humans.
-Richard Leakey, the Making of Mankind, 1981, p. 62
The missing link? Propaganda. Drawings in magazines, depicting large hairy ape and human like creatures. They give the impression that these half man/half ape have always existed. These are planted into the subconscious of society.
"You can with equal facility model on a Neanderthaloid skull the features of a chimpanzee or the lineaments of a philosopher. These alleged restorations of ancient types of man have very little if any scientific value and are likely only to mislead the public."
-Earnest Hooten, Up from the Ape, 1931, p. 332
Then there is the "Piltdown Forgery." How embarrassing THAT must have been!
A fossil was produced in 1912 by Charles Dawson, He attached an orangutan's jaw to a human skull and it was debunked as a forgery in 1949. This was presented as fast as the "missing link!"
The Nebraska Man - 1922 based on a single fossil tooth
complete with Latin name and imaginary drawing
The tooth belonged to a wild pig!!!!
Neanderthal Man, advanced as evidence in 1856, dismissed in 1960
Piltdown Manm advanced as evidence in 1912, dismissed in 1953
Zinjanthrohopus, advanced as evidence in 1959, dismissed in 1960
Ramapithecus, advanced in 1964, dismissed in 1979
Still these findings make their way into magazines and textbooks as fact. Much of it is still presented to schoolchildren in their textbooks.
The truth that evolutionists try to hide is there for all to see, that species appeared abrubtly and without error. They were created.
I won't live in a box built by evolutionists. I won't be fed their bunk every day. They want to call my faith delusion? Fine. They want to call my Bible mythology? Fine. You could come to my house and tell me I have to believe in evolution or you're going to take my bible away. No matter. I would still believe. There's nothing an evolutionist can do, now that I have seen and read this, to ever convince me that their teachings are far superior to what my faith has taught me. Not in 530 million years.
"Unfortunately, the origin of the cell remains a question that is actually the murkiest aspect of the whole theory of evolution."
-Alexander Oparin, Origin of Life, pg. 196
"Can matter organize itself? No! Today there is no known circumstance under which one could affirm that microscopic beings have come into the world without parents resembling themselves."
-Louis Pasteur, Fox & Dose, Origin of Life, pg. 4-5
The American scientist, Stanley Miller, tried to conduct experiments in 1953. He triggered a reaction in gases he claimed would have been primitive to Earth's early atmosphere. At the time, this was regarded as scientific proof for evolution. It was false. Later discoveries showed that the gases used were different than the ones that would have been present in the early atmosphere of the world. He had to confess his error.
There is nothing wrong with admitting error! We are humans and make mistakes.
Jeffrey Bada even admits that we don't have all the answers.
"Today, as we leave the 20th century, we still face the biggest unsolved problem that we had when we entered the 20th century: how did life originate on earth?"
Jeffrey Bada, February 1998 issue of Earth Magazine
How could complex cell systems be derived from just some matter? Are we so arrogant? I just don't think a living cell from non living matter will ever be done in a laboratory as part of some experiment, by man, with all his intelligence, technology and scientific advances, even though evolutionists keep claiming this is how we came to be.
"The chance that higher life forms might have emerged by chance is comparable with the chance that a tornado sweeping through a junk-yard might assemble a Boeing 747 from the materials within."
-Fred Hoyle, Nature, Nov 1981
The scientists that discovered the DNA strand, James Watson and Frances Crick, acknowledged that life was much more complex than previously thought. Frances Crick, an evolutionist, and Nobel Prize winner, confessed that the DNA structure could never have emerged by chance.
We are wowed by the large hard drive spaces we can purchase for our computers, yet there is no way it can compare to the vast amount of DNA stored in one single cell. It is said that if you took a teaspoon and filled it with DNA, it would be the same as storing the amount of all the books ever written.
How can a human being ever duplicate this?
How could this just come from some matter, and we could come from one common ancestor? Not by chance or haphazard happenings.
Creation=Creator with eternal power and wisdom maybe?
"Natural selection can do nothing until favorable variations chance to occur."
-Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, 1 ed. p. 177
"No one has ever produced a species by mechanisms of natural selection. No one has ever got near it. And most of the current argument in neo-Darwinism is about this question."
-Colin Patterson, BBC, Cladistics, March 1982
So we supposedly came from the common ancestor, or Milyar Yil, a common cell that evolved into marine invertebrates, then fish, then they evolved onto land, and turned into reptiles. Birds and mammals then evolved from reptiles. There should be intermediary species right? Linking one living species to another. Half birds, half reptile creatures would exist, with half developed organs.
"if my theory is true, numberless intermediate varieties, linking most closely all the species of the same group together must assuredly have existed...consequently, evidence of their former existence could be found only amongst fossil remains."
-Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, 1st. ed. pg. 179
There are no fossil records containing any of these intermediary forms.
"Why, if species have descended from other species by fine gradations, do we not see everywhere innumerable transitional forms? But, as by this theory, innumerable transitional forms must have existed, why do we not find them embedded in countless numbers in the crust of the earth?"
-Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, 1st. ed. pg. 172
For 140 years, geologists have looked for these missing fossils. But these fossils remain figments of Darwin's imagination. British evolutionist Derek Ager admits this.
"The point emerges that if we examine the fossil record in detail, whether at the level of order or of species, we find over and over again, not gradual evolution, but the sudden explosion of one group at the expense of another."
-Derek Ager, Proceedings of the British Geological Association, Vol 87, p. 133
The Cambrian species of marine life came to life all of a sudden according to fossil records estimated to be 530 million years old.
"It is as though the species of the Cambrian were just planted there, without any evolutionary history."
-Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker, 1986, pg 229
What does this do to Darwin's theory?
"If numerous species belonging to the same genera of families have really started into life all at once, the fact would be fatal to the theory of descent with slow modification through natural selection."
-Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, 1 ed. pg 302
"A major problem of proving the theory has been the fossil record. This record has never revealed traces of Darwin's hypothetical intermediate variants. Instead, species appear and disappear abruptly. and this anomaly has fueled the creationist argument that each species was created by God."
-Mark Czarnecki, McLean's, January 1981
A 400 million year old shark and a modern day shark share the same structure. Similarly a 100 million year old ant and a modern ant are the same. A million year old dragonfly and a modern dragonfly are the same. The same with a 100 million yr old turtle=modern day turtle. 55 million year old bat=modern day bat.
For years, Coelacanth was touted as one such transtionary fossil. It ended up just being a modern day fish unable to make the leap to land.
Australopithecus, a man-like creature used to help advance the theory of man's evolution, is nothing more than an extinct ape species
Other skulls used to advance this theory, Homo Erectus, Homo Ergaster, or Homo Sapiens Archaic, in fact, belong to different human races, not one evolved race. The fossil differences of these skulls are not much different than what we have found today.
"These differences are probably no more pronounced than than we see today between the separate geographical races of modern humans.
-Richard Leakey, the Making of Mankind, 1981, p. 62
The missing link? Propaganda. Drawings in magazines, depicting large hairy ape and human like creatures. They give the impression that these half man/half ape have always existed. These are planted into the subconscious of society.
"You can with equal facility model on a Neanderthaloid skull the features of a chimpanzee or the lineaments of a philosopher. These alleged restorations of ancient types of man have very little if any scientific value and are likely only to mislead the public."
-Earnest Hooten, Up from the Ape, 1931, p. 332
Then there is the "Piltdown Forgery." How embarrassing THAT must have been!
A fossil was produced in 1912 by Charles Dawson, He attached an orangutan's jaw to a human skull and it was debunked as a forgery in 1949. This was presented as fast as the "missing link!"
The Nebraska Man - 1922 based on a single fossil tooth
complete with Latin name and imaginary drawing
The tooth belonged to a wild pig!!!!
Neanderthal Man, advanced as evidence in 1856, dismissed in 1960
Piltdown Manm advanced as evidence in 1912, dismissed in 1953
Zinjanthrohopus, advanced as evidence in 1959, dismissed in 1960
Ramapithecus, advanced in 1964, dismissed in 1979
Still these findings make their way into magazines and textbooks as fact. Much of it is still presented to schoolchildren in their textbooks.
The truth that evolutionists try to hide is there for all to see, that species appeared abrubtly and without error. They were created.
I won't live in a box built by evolutionists. I won't be fed their bunk every day. They want to call my faith delusion? Fine. They want to call my Bible mythology? Fine. You could come to my house and tell me I have to believe in evolution or you're going to take my bible away. No matter. I would still believe. There's nothing an evolutionist can do, now that I have seen and read this, to ever convince me that their teachings are far superior to what my faith has taught me. Not in 530 million years.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Diet fads
The Atkins diet, South Beach diet, Slim Fast, etc etc. are all fads that come and go. Here's something interesting I found today:
Better Nutrition, Sept 2003:
It doesn't matter whether you're religious or not--even atheists can benefit from the "fasting" regime followed in the Greek Orthodox Church, according to a new study.
Strict Greek Orthodox Christians avoid specified foods three times a year: 40 days before Christmas, 48 days at Easter and 15 days in August for Assumption.
Each fast is associated with a different holiday. For example, at Christmas, the faithful are advised to avoid meat, eggs and dairy products, and eating fish is not allowed on Wednesdays and Fridays.
Since all other foods are permitted, this is not a fast in the traditional sense of avoiding all food. "The Orthodox Christians' diet, which is based on vegetables, legumes, fruit, cereals, bread and olive oil, is a Mediterranean-type diet with periodic abstinence from meat and other products during the fasting periods," the study states, as published in the May 16, 2003 issue of BMC Public Health, published by BioMedCentral.
University of Crete scientists discovered that those who followed the regimen to the letter had lower levels of total cholesterol and lower levels of the cholesterol-binding proteins called low-density lipoproteins (LDL), or "bad" cholesterol, in their blood after fasting.
Other Christians who did not follow the fasting regimen did not exhibit this lowering of "bad" cholesterol. Those who stuck to the temporary diet experienced no change in the blood levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL), or "good" cholesterol.
I'm sure though, that secularists would find something wrong with this diet and find some argument to say that it is not "good enough" for their scientific findings, or whatever, then pick a diet made by a secular doctor and promote that over this one in the media.
Better Nutrition, Sept 2003:
It doesn't matter whether you're religious or not--even atheists can benefit from the "fasting" regime followed in the Greek Orthodox Church, according to a new study.
Strict Greek Orthodox Christians avoid specified foods three times a year: 40 days before Christmas, 48 days at Easter and 15 days in August for Assumption.
Each fast is associated with a different holiday. For example, at Christmas, the faithful are advised to avoid meat, eggs and dairy products, and eating fish is not allowed on Wednesdays and Fridays.
Since all other foods are permitted, this is not a fast in the traditional sense of avoiding all food. "The Orthodox Christians' diet, which is based on vegetables, legumes, fruit, cereals, bread and olive oil, is a Mediterranean-type diet with periodic abstinence from meat and other products during the fasting periods," the study states, as published in the May 16, 2003 issue of BMC Public Health, published by BioMedCentral.
University of Crete scientists discovered that those who followed the regimen to the letter had lower levels of total cholesterol and lower levels of the cholesterol-binding proteins called low-density lipoproteins (LDL), or "bad" cholesterol, in their blood after fasting.
Other Christians who did not follow the fasting regimen did not exhibit this lowering of "bad" cholesterol. Those who stuck to the temporary diet experienced no change in the blood levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL), or "good" cholesterol.
I'm sure though, that secularists would find something wrong with this diet and find some argument to say that it is not "good enough" for their scientific findings, or whatever, then pick a diet made by a secular doctor and promote that over this one in the media.
Sunday, September 2, 2007
The Bible in TX Public Schools
I am originally from Ector County, TX and my understanding is that they are trying to get a bill passed to offer an elective bible class in the public school system in the Odessa area. Elective is supposed to mean that they can vote on it? But I guess that's not allowable. You see, if the right tried to say, "We're GOING to teach the Bible, the CUARTO crowd says, "Oh no you're not that's a violation!" But then they say, "Wait, we'll offer it as an elective and students can decide if they want to take it and then vote on it."
Um...oh no you can't!!! That's also a violation, and we're going to make it so!
So any way they try to go about it, they are totally screwed, am I right on this?
If the TX public school system wanted to integrate comparitive religion courses like they do at community colleges, would that be okay?
For some reason, if they did, I kind of think that the CUARTOS would not try to impose such strict guidelines for teaching the Bhagavad Gita as they would on teaching the Bible, as I will illustrate in the following point:
From bibleinschools.net:
The Texas Freedom Network, a self-admitted adversary of any biblically conservative movement, calling themselves "a mainstream voice to counter the religious right." The TFN, for example, is requesting five unnecessary changes to the Texas bill, which is intended to assure students are taught this classic text:
Mandate that teachers have appropriate academic qualifications and sufficient training on legal and constitutional issues surrounding instruction about the Bible in public schools.
Require rigorous, scholarly reviewed textbooks and other curriculum materials for all courses.
Include strong and specific language that protects the religious freedom of students and their families by barring the use of Bible classes to evangelize or promote personal religious perspectives.
Require the Texas Education Agency to regularly monitor and report on the content of public school Bible courses to ensure that they are academically and legally appropriate.
Uh huh. Interesting. I see the writing on the wall there. Okay, so here is what I want to know:
This is just a side point, but if the CUARTO crowd is so concerned about the quality of education that's going into teaching the bible in public school, then answer me this:
Why in the HELL does Texas go to Mexico to recruit Spanish teachers when there are plenty of Spanish speakers in the United States that can teach the language????? I'm sure there are UTA, TT, Sam Houston U, A&M, etc. graduates (some that have even spent a year abroad in a Spanish speaking country or more) that would give their right arm for a job teaching Spanish somewhere in the school districts listed below. I'm still trying to connect the dots here. If I wanted to teach Spanish where I live, I'd have to fork out several thousands of dollars for a teaching certificate. (I don't have one.) They won't even take me on a conditional basis without a certificate. I fail to understand, if there is such a shortage of "qualified candidates"among U.S. Citizens, why can't they just assist these people, take them on a conditional basis, let them get certified and that be it? Why do they have to go to Mexico and spend all that money to get people to come here? My theory: V-O-T-E-S. Excellent pool of voters for the next round of elections! These people get way more money than they'd ever get in Mexico, so it's a win-win deal for them, and a win-win deal for our policitians.
TEXT OF STORY
Scott Jagow: For most school kids, this is the best of time of year. I mean, there's no school. But while the kids are out, the adults who run the schools are probably not.
School administrators spend their summers looking for teachers. People who teach math and science are always in short supply — and in Texas, so are bilingual teachers. Joy Diaz reports from KUT in Austin.
Joy Diaz: The Lone Star State has more than 4 million students in grades K through 12. Some 700,000 are English learners.
Georgina Gonzales leads the Texas Department of Bilingual Education. She says more than 90 percent of students learning English in the state have Spanish as their first language.
Georgina Gonzales: Our whole goal is the minute that a student walks into a classroom here in Texas, they must start learning English. So while they're learning their oral language proficiency skills in English, their content area will not be behind. So based on that, the bilingual teachers are needed everywhere.
That need is more evident in the state's fastest-growing areas such as Dallas, Houston, Austin and along the U.S.-Mexico border. These places attract a lot of Latin American immigrants.
Richard Batlle is principal of Bluebonnet Elementary School about 25 miles East of Austin. He says more than half his students are Hispanic. Most are English learners.
Batlle says it's so tough to find bilingual teachers that this year, he went south of the border and hired some teachers in Monterrey, Mexico.
Richard Batlle: We're looking for fluent bilingual teachers. I mean, because our assessments are so rigorous and the Spanish is so formal, we require teachers that have a very good vocabulary and the literature. (University of Texas at Austin has one of the BEST Spanish language immersion programs in the U.S.! And the labor pool is right there dude!)
Those teachers can help students pass the state's standardized tests since for the first two years students can be tested in their native languages.
Teacher Reyna Araceli Perez preps fourth grade English learners at Blue Bonnet Elementary for the state's math test.
[Sound: Perez instructing students]
Perez and Batlle were connected through Region 4, one of the 20 state-approved organizations that recruit bilingual teachers. Most come from Mexico.
Luz Maria de Los Angeles Loyola teaches in Mexico City, but is gearing up to move to Texas later this summer.
At a Starbucks in the Mexican capital, Loyola, her husband and their three teenage girls pile out of their SUV. Loyola says she views her move to Texas as a mission.
Angeles Loyola: It's a very worthwhile challenge. I think these children deserve the opportunity to get an education. If they couldn't have it here in their own country, it is really nice that some other country's offering them the chance.
Bilingual teachers have different reasons for coming to the U.S., but they all pay a hefty price out of their own pockets. The cost of immigration procedures, remedial courses and taking the test for a Texas teaching license comes to around $8,000. Loyola also has to pay for her entire family to move.
But salaries are higher in Texas than in Mexico. Teachers start out earning around $40,000 a year — and most districts offer $5,000 stipends to bilingual teachers. That's about three or four times what they made back home.
In Austin, I'm Joy Diaz for Marketplace.
Not that it's any comparison, but even if I wanted to get a high paying job as an Events Coordinator for the Ritz Carlton in Cancun on a contractor basis, I couldn't. I'm not a Mexican Citizen.
When I lived in Guadalajara years ago, I was approached about "working under the table" for extra money teaching English. I wouldn't do it because it's not fair to the Mexican labor pool, and it's not fair to the U.S. Plus it's illegal!
From what I understand, these people also get grant money as part of their salaries. From our taxpayer pool. Money that could be used to pay U.S. Citizens to do the same job. The same thing has happened in Georgia too.
Now I understand that teaching Spanish and the Bible are two very separate curriculums. But my point is that the CUARTO crowd wants to impose all these restrictions on teaching the bible class when they really could care less about it to begin with (most of them believe that the bible is greek mythology anyway) but it's OK to go and recruit non citizens and just pay them a liberal salary to teach a foreign language when we have border issues that need to be addressed first. Sounds to me like the priorities aren't exactly in order there. You may think my argument is weak, and without any merit, but there it is and I'm sticking to it. Oh yeah, and just so we don't lose perspective on this, please see my post from September 1 on "Russian Christians in a Godless Society."
Um...oh no you can't!!! That's also a violation, and we're going to make it so!
So any way they try to go about it, they are totally screwed, am I right on this?
If the TX public school system wanted to integrate comparitive religion courses like they do at community colleges, would that be okay?
For some reason, if they did, I kind of think that the CUARTOS would not try to impose such strict guidelines for teaching the Bhagavad Gita as they would on teaching the Bible, as I will illustrate in the following point:
From bibleinschools.net:
The Texas Freedom Network, a self-admitted adversary of any biblically conservative movement, calling themselves "a mainstream voice to counter the religious right." The TFN, for example, is requesting five unnecessary changes to the Texas bill, which is intended to assure students are taught this classic text:
Mandate that teachers have appropriate academic qualifications and sufficient training on legal and constitutional issues surrounding instruction about the Bible in public schools.
Require rigorous, scholarly reviewed textbooks and other curriculum materials for all courses.
Include strong and specific language that protects the religious freedom of students and their families by barring the use of Bible classes to evangelize or promote personal religious perspectives.
Require the Texas Education Agency to regularly monitor and report on the content of public school Bible courses to ensure that they are academically and legally appropriate.
Uh huh. Interesting. I see the writing on the wall there. Okay, so here is what I want to know:
This is just a side point, but if the CUARTO crowd is so concerned about the quality of education that's going into teaching the bible in public school, then answer me this:
Why in the HELL does Texas go to Mexico to recruit Spanish teachers when there are plenty of Spanish speakers in the United States that can teach the language????? I'm sure there are UTA, TT, Sam Houston U, A&M, etc. graduates (some that have even spent a year abroad in a Spanish speaking country or more) that would give their right arm for a job teaching Spanish somewhere in the school districts listed below. I'm still trying to connect the dots here. If I wanted to teach Spanish where I live, I'd have to fork out several thousands of dollars for a teaching certificate. (I don't have one.) They won't even take me on a conditional basis without a certificate. I fail to understand, if there is such a shortage of "qualified candidates"among U.S. Citizens, why can't they just assist these people, take them on a conditional basis, let them get certified and that be it? Why do they have to go to Mexico and spend all that money to get people to come here? My theory: V-O-T-E-S. Excellent pool of voters for the next round of elections! These people get way more money than they'd ever get in Mexico, so it's a win-win deal for them, and a win-win deal for our policitians.
TEXT OF STORY
Scott Jagow: For most school kids, this is the best of time of year. I mean, there's no school. But while the kids are out, the adults who run the schools are probably not.
School administrators spend their summers looking for teachers. People who teach math and science are always in short supply — and in Texas, so are bilingual teachers. Joy Diaz reports from KUT in Austin.
Joy Diaz: The Lone Star State has more than 4 million students in grades K through 12. Some 700,000 are English learners.
Georgina Gonzales leads the Texas Department of Bilingual Education. She says more than 90 percent of students learning English in the state have Spanish as their first language.
Georgina Gonzales: Our whole goal is the minute that a student walks into a classroom here in Texas, they must start learning English. So while they're learning their oral language proficiency skills in English, their content area will not be behind. So based on that, the bilingual teachers are needed everywhere.
That need is more evident in the state's fastest-growing areas such as Dallas, Houston, Austin and along the U.S.-Mexico border. These places attract a lot of Latin American immigrants.
Richard Batlle is principal of Bluebonnet Elementary School about 25 miles East of Austin. He says more than half his students are Hispanic. Most are English learners.
Batlle says it's so tough to find bilingual teachers that this year, he went south of the border and hired some teachers in Monterrey, Mexico.
Richard Batlle: We're looking for fluent bilingual teachers. I mean, because our assessments are so rigorous and the Spanish is so formal, we require teachers that have a very good vocabulary and the literature. (University of Texas at Austin has one of the BEST Spanish language immersion programs in the U.S.! And the labor pool is right there dude!)
Those teachers can help students pass the state's standardized tests since for the first two years students can be tested in their native languages.
Teacher Reyna Araceli Perez preps fourth grade English learners at Blue Bonnet Elementary for the state's math test.
[Sound: Perez instructing students]
Perez and Batlle were connected through Region 4, one of the 20 state-approved organizations that recruit bilingual teachers. Most come from Mexico.
Luz Maria de Los Angeles Loyola teaches in Mexico City, but is gearing up to move to Texas later this summer.
At a Starbucks in the Mexican capital, Loyola, her husband and their three teenage girls pile out of their SUV. Loyola says she views her move to Texas as a mission.
Angeles Loyola: It's a very worthwhile challenge. I think these children deserve the opportunity to get an education. If they couldn't have it here in their own country, it is really nice that some other country's offering them the chance.
Bilingual teachers have different reasons for coming to the U.S., but they all pay a hefty price out of their own pockets. The cost of immigration procedures, remedial courses and taking the test for a Texas teaching license comes to around $8,000. Loyola also has to pay for her entire family to move.
But salaries are higher in Texas than in Mexico. Teachers start out earning around $40,000 a year — and most districts offer $5,000 stipends to bilingual teachers. That's about three or four times what they made back home.
In Austin, I'm Joy Diaz for Marketplace.
Not that it's any comparison, but even if I wanted to get a high paying job as an Events Coordinator for the Ritz Carlton in Cancun on a contractor basis, I couldn't. I'm not a Mexican Citizen.
When I lived in Guadalajara years ago, I was approached about "working under the table" for extra money teaching English. I wouldn't do it because it's not fair to the Mexican labor pool, and it's not fair to the U.S. Plus it's illegal!
From what I understand, these people also get grant money as part of their salaries. From our taxpayer pool. Money that could be used to pay U.S. Citizens to do the same job. The same thing has happened in Georgia too.
Now I understand that teaching Spanish and the Bible are two very separate curriculums. But my point is that the CUARTO crowd wants to impose all these restrictions on teaching the bible class when they really could care less about it to begin with (most of them believe that the bible is greek mythology anyway) but it's OK to go and recruit non citizens and just pay them a liberal salary to teach a foreign language when we have border issues that need to be addressed first. Sounds to me like the priorities aren't exactly in order there. You may think my argument is weak, and without any merit, but there it is and I'm sticking to it. Oh yeah, and just so we don't lose perspective on this, please see my post from September 1 on "Russian Christians in a Godless Society."
Saint Vassa of Edessa
Saint Vassa & Her Children
Daily we are met with experiences that present challenges to our Christian identities. Popular culture, the media, our occupations, our peers and even our families to some extent may present obstacles that can hinder our ability to walk in the way of righteousness. Fortunately, we have a rich Christian tradition that provides us numerous examples of hope, commitment and courage, even in the most awkward and disheartening of times. This Thursday, August 21 we commemorate Saint Vassa and her children: Theognios, Agapios, and Pistos who serve as such pious followers of Christ.
Persecution and oppression was commonplace by the pagan Roman state for such Christians in the third century. But, who would think that the pagan condemnation that fell upon this woman and her three sons would come from Vallarian, her husband? This act of wretchedness was unsurpassed, even for a pagan.
Vallarian looked upon his entire family as turncoats who betrayed not only his wishes but those of the Roman state. In turn, he turned his family into the city of Edessa's prefect, Vicarius known for his ruthless persecution throughout Mesopotamia of anyone who claimed to be a Christian. Vicarius, in an act of mercy afforded the family the opportunity to ironically choose whether they would denounce Christ and receive life or remain committed to Him and suffer the penalty of death.
The family members chose a similar fate. All remained committed to the fullness of life that is ultimately and eternally identified in Christ. The boys were first tortured and then finally put to death. Vassa, on the other hand, was imprisoned and suffered great indignities and indescribable punishments that ended in her beheading in the public square.
May the pious examples of Vassa and her children: Theognios, Agapios, and Pistos inspire us in our own commitments to Christ!
Daily we are met with experiences that present challenges to our Christian identities. Popular culture, the media, our occupations, our peers and even our families to some extent may present obstacles that can hinder our ability to walk in the way of righteousness. Fortunately, we have a rich Christian tradition that provides us numerous examples of hope, commitment and courage, even in the most awkward and disheartening of times. This Thursday, August 21 we commemorate Saint Vassa and her children: Theognios, Agapios, and Pistos who serve as such pious followers of Christ.
Persecution and oppression was commonplace by the pagan Roman state for such Christians in the third century. But, who would think that the pagan condemnation that fell upon this woman and her three sons would come from Vallarian, her husband? This act of wretchedness was unsurpassed, even for a pagan.
Vallarian looked upon his entire family as turncoats who betrayed not only his wishes but those of the Roman state. In turn, he turned his family into the city of Edessa's prefect, Vicarius known for his ruthless persecution throughout Mesopotamia of anyone who claimed to be a Christian. Vicarius, in an act of mercy afforded the family the opportunity to ironically choose whether they would denounce Christ and receive life or remain committed to Him and suffer the penalty of death.
The family members chose a similar fate. All remained committed to the fullness of life that is ultimately and eternally identified in Christ. The boys were first tortured and then finally put to death. Vassa, on the other hand, was imprisoned and suffered great indignities and indescribable punishments that ended in her beheading in the public square.
May the pious examples of Vassa and her children: Theognios, Agapios, and Pistos inspire us in our own commitments to Christ!
Are you thinking about God today?
Today is an appropriate day to think about God. It does not violate the public arena. Therefore, you can do it. Yay! You can even talk about it without fear of persecution.
But come Monday, or Tuesday after Labor Day, when you step back on the the bus or enter your workplace, you better not talk about God, ot dedicate one moment to Him. Not one.
I've decided to change my acronym from C.A.R.T.U. (Citizens Against Religious Thought Unite)
to C.U.A.R.T.O (Citizens United Against Religious Thought Organization)
They want to stamp out Creationism taught alongside the Theory of Evolution in schools. This is a way they can prevent God from being taught in the schools. So here's my idea:
They could make up T Shirts with their own C.U.A.R.T.O logo on the front with an appropriate little animal on the fron (maybe an ape?)
and on the back, it could say:
"It is absolutely safe to say that if you meet somebody who claims not to believe in evolution, that person is ignorant, stupid, or insane (or wicked, but I'd rather not consider that)."
-Richard Dawkins
I'll have to come up with some violations for thinking and mentioning God that C.U.A.R.T.O can implement into their by-laws but right now I have to go to church.
But come Monday, or Tuesday after Labor Day, when you step back on the the bus or enter your workplace, you better not talk about God, ot dedicate one moment to Him. Not one.
I've decided to change my acronym from C.A.R.T.U. (Citizens Against Religious Thought Unite)
to C.U.A.R.T.O (Citizens United Against Religious Thought Organization)
They want to stamp out Creationism taught alongside the Theory of Evolution in schools. This is a way they can prevent God from being taught in the schools. So here's my idea:
They could make up T Shirts with their own C.U.A.R.T.O logo on the front with an appropriate little animal on the fron (maybe an ape?)
and on the back, it could say:
"It is absolutely safe to say that if you meet somebody who claims not to believe in evolution, that person is ignorant, stupid, or insane (or wicked, but I'd rather not consider that)."
-Richard Dawkins
I'll have to come up with some violations for thinking and mentioning God that C.U.A.R.T.O can implement into their by-laws but right now I have to go to church.
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Russian Christians within a "Godless" Society
Let's take a look at a government that had God forcefully removed from it for several decades. This has absolutely nothing to do with the Crusades. Different time period. Just so we clarify that up front. And no, the argument that the Orthodox Church was friendly with the Czars does not justify the slaughtering of priests, nuns and bishops merely for their faith. It simply does not.
From "The Twentieth Century"
1917 The first phase of the persecution of the Orthodox Church in Russia began. Much of the persecution in this period was conducted in a non-systematic manner by individual Bolshevik “war lords.” Lenin intended to destroy the Church by abolishing private property, and thus eliminating the Church's income.
Between 1917 and 1935, 130,000 Orthodox priests were arrested. Of these, 95,000 were put to death, executed by firing squad.
1921 The second phase of the persecution of the Church in Russia. The Orthodox Church was stigmatized as a subversive element loyal to the old tsarist regime, while other religions were tolerated. (Which religions? We never hear about those. I am in doubt that they were Christian based.)
1928 Third phase of the Soviet persecution of the Church. The New Economic Policy was discontinued in April, with the result that the Orthodox Church was considered a private enterprise, subject to excessive taxation. Clergy were not allowed to vote or serve in the armed forces, but were taxed for failing to do so. These taxes, in addition to the tax (up to 81%) on private enterprise, often resulted in taxation of the clergy in excess of their income.
1928 As an example of Soviet persecution of the Church, the Raifa monastery in Kazan, Tartarstan was shut down in this year. The monks were executed. The monastery itself became a labor commune.
1929 The Soviet government began a serious crackdown on religion. All forms of religious “propaganda” were forbidden. The expression of religion was restricted to the space within the church structure. Clergy with incomes in excess of 3000 rubles per year were forced to vacate nationalized urban housing. Clergy and their families were disenrolled from state insurance programs, including medical care. A five-day work week was introduced in order to prevent worship on Sunday. (Do you know how much 3000 rubles is??? In today's exchange, that's about $120. Can you imagine what it was in 1929? Probably less than the average family would have had to live on during the depression in the United States!!!)
In the period between 1927 and 1940, the number of Orthodox Churches in the Russian Republic fell from 29,584 to 200-300. Approximately 40,000 Orthodox clergy and millions of laymen were killed for their faith between 1917 and 1940.
2000 Some historians estimate that as many as 50 million Christians were put to death during the twentieth century, primarily in Communist Russia and China.
I think this should make every American stop and reexamine ourselves. Is this what we want for our country? If I was a person wanting religion banned here, these numbers would make me feel ashamed. Really!
"During the Bolshevik Revolution, millions of Russian Priests, Bishops, Nuns, Monks, and faithful were slaughtered by the Communists. Among the martyrs was Patriarch Tikhon who died for Christ in the wake of being tortured and beaten by Leninist thugs. The reemergence of the Russian Orthodox Church after having been completely eradicated under the rule of Stalin proves that Orthodoxy will triumph over any crisis. In our own day, Serbian Orthodox Christians are being slaughtered in Kosovo."
-Theodoros Georgiou Karakostas, Orthodoxytoday.org
From "The Twentieth Century"
1917 The first phase of the persecution of the Orthodox Church in Russia began. Much of the persecution in this period was conducted in a non-systematic manner by individual Bolshevik “war lords.” Lenin intended to destroy the Church by abolishing private property, and thus eliminating the Church's income.
Between 1917 and 1935, 130,000 Orthodox priests were arrested. Of these, 95,000 were put to death, executed by firing squad.
1921 The second phase of the persecution of the Church in Russia. The Orthodox Church was stigmatized as a subversive element loyal to the old tsarist regime, while other religions were tolerated. (Which religions? We never hear about those. I am in doubt that they were Christian based.)
1928 Third phase of the Soviet persecution of the Church. The New Economic Policy was discontinued in April, with the result that the Orthodox Church was considered a private enterprise, subject to excessive taxation. Clergy were not allowed to vote or serve in the armed forces, but were taxed for failing to do so. These taxes, in addition to the tax (up to 81%) on private enterprise, often resulted in taxation of the clergy in excess of their income.
1928 As an example of Soviet persecution of the Church, the Raifa monastery in Kazan, Tartarstan was shut down in this year. The monks were executed. The monastery itself became a labor commune.
1929 The Soviet government began a serious crackdown on religion. All forms of religious “propaganda” were forbidden. The expression of religion was restricted to the space within the church structure. Clergy with incomes in excess of 3000 rubles per year were forced to vacate nationalized urban housing. Clergy and their families were disenrolled from state insurance programs, including medical care. A five-day work week was introduced in order to prevent worship on Sunday. (Do you know how much 3000 rubles is??? In today's exchange, that's about $120. Can you imagine what it was in 1929? Probably less than the average family would have had to live on during the depression in the United States!!!)
In the period between 1927 and 1940, the number of Orthodox Churches in the Russian Republic fell from 29,584 to 200-300. Approximately 40,000 Orthodox clergy and millions of laymen were killed for their faith between 1917 and 1940.
2000 Some historians estimate that as many as 50 million Christians were put to death during the twentieth century, primarily in Communist Russia and China.
I think this should make every American stop and reexamine ourselves. Is this what we want for our country? If I was a person wanting religion banned here, these numbers would make me feel ashamed. Really!
"During the Bolshevik Revolution, millions of Russian Priests, Bishops, Nuns, Monks, and faithful were slaughtered by the Communists. Among the martyrs was Patriarch Tikhon who died for Christ in the wake of being tortured and beaten by Leninist thugs. The reemergence of the Russian Orthodox Church after having been completely eradicated under the rule of Stalin proves that Orthodoxy will triumph over any crisis. In our own day, Serbian Orthodox Christians are being slaughtered in Kosovo."
-Theodoros Georgiou Karakostas, Orthodoxytoday.org
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
