Pausing Life for a Good Read

Do you ever get sucked into a book? Have you experienced a day when all other tasks go to the wayside while you devour the text in front of you? Have you stayed up until the wee hours of the morning, bleary-eyed and immune to time, because you have to know what happens next?

Then you know what I am talking about.

Every once in awhile I go on binge readings. This is nothing new. I can remember nights during my childhood when I would hide under the covers with a flashlight to feed my reading habit, praying that my parents wouldn't notice the light seeping out from the crack under my door.

The past two days I've spent reading State of Fear by Michael Crichton. It certainly is a page turner. And turned the pages I have. My only awareness of time passing came from Michael's demands to nurse. On occasion I thought, man, this kid wants to eat every five minutes, to realize that two hours had passed since I last looked at the clock.

The final page has been turned.

And I have some new ideas to mull over. The whole story centers around the "global warming" hype and the repercussions of ideologue environmentalists. I found it a particularly interesting read in light of all the political developments on the topic these days. Has the State of Fear reached beyond the pages of Crichton's book into today's American society? I am beginning to wonder...

What's the Grip Againt Sarah Palin?

Technically, this is not a political blog. But I can't help expressing my frustration today over the obvious inequalities in the media - specifically concerning Sarah Palin & Barak Obama. Does it occur strange to anyone else that the media is grilling the Republican VP nomination harder than the Democratic presidential nomination?

The thing is, I really like Sarah Palin. I agree with a lot of what she says (not sure on the exact percentage, 80%...90% - I haven't heard all she has to say yet!). I think she is a wonderful example of a conservative woman out in the public sphere. So many of us, conservative women, that is, don't get a chance to make our views known publically. She represents a lot of women in our country, and I'm just one of the many.

I've been catching up on the Palin/Gibson ABC interviews on YouTube (we have no TV - a post on that later!) and Gibson's attitude towards Palin is appalling. He questions her like she's a dumb school kid, in trouble for lying, and he comes off as totally arrogant and full of himself. It really burns me up! Does anyone speak to Obama like that? Not even Bill O'Reilly.

I happen to think that Sarah Palin held her own very well, especially on the final Friday night segment. She laid out her views on abortion, stem-cell research, and gun control very clearly. Gibson kept asking the same question over and over again, implying that she had not made a sufficient answer, when she was very clear to begin with.

Gibson also implied that all women crave abortion rights (if you can even toss around a word like "right" so easily). That really ticked me off. Sure, the topic of abortion is very important in this election. However, having free access to abortion is NOT important to every single American woman. I am sick and tired of my womanhood being represented as "needing abortion" to be feminine. It sickens me. And I'm tired of being quiet.

Sarah Palin, thank you for standing up for your beliefs. We may not entirely agree on the issues, and you may have to defer to the decisions of your presidential running mate - but you stand firm anyway. You give a voice to conservative, pro-life women in politics. And you force the media to redefine it's definition of feminism. Please, please keep it up. We need you.

Catholic Vote 2008

I was so moved by this video, "Catholic Vote 2008," I had to post the link.

I would also like to give a shout-out to Confessions of a Steubie Wife for putting up the link on her blog, leading to my own inspiration.