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Our Daily Thread 10-23-14

Good Morning!

On this day in 1915 approximately 25,000 women demanded the right to vote with a march in New York City, NY. 

In 1946 the United Nations General Assembly convened in New York for the first time. 

And in 1973 President Richard M. Nixon agreed to turn over the subpoenaed tapes concerning the Watergate affair. 

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Quote of the Day

“Democracy means that anyone can grow up to be president, and anyone who doesn’t grow up can be vice president.”

Johnny Carson

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 Today is David Thomas’ birthday. Gotta love some good a cappella.

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Anyone have a QoD?

88 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 10-23-14”

  1. Johnny Carson’s comment aptly demonstrated today.
    Good morning everyone.
    Early voting starts today in NC. We may try to get there.
    I already have the sample ballot marked for Elvera.

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  2. So, Chas, you get to vote twice.
    No voting here, not sure why my absentee ballot didn’t come.
    California is getting some rain!
    God is good. I made some small changes to make school a happy place for a boy I just found out has lived in 15 places in his life. Too much transition can be stressful.

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  3. They say that statistics show that single women vote Democrat, married women vote Republican. More likely married women vote the way their husbands tell them.
    I watch, actually become absorbed, in the news.
    Elvera doesn’t watch the news, listen to Rush or any such thing. She watches Joyce Meyer and other TV preachers. Sometimes, the local news.
    She knows that she doesn’t like Obama but doesn’t know who Valerie Jarrett is.
    I suspect that situation is more common than people think.

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  4. I also read the statements by the respective candidates. I suspect Elvera and lots of other people may not realize that when a person running for a place on the judiciary, usually, but not always, a woman, , says he/she will be “fair” and “respect individual freedom” is really saying that he/she will vote in favor of same sex marriage and abortion on demand.

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  6. I don’t think so about women voting the way their husbands tell them to. I have always made my own decision who to vote for while single and while married. Turns out that so far I have always voted Republican.

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  7. I am also encouraged that over a range of ages, when I have heard people discussing gas prices being so low they are all saying it is because the mid-term elections are coming up.

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  8. Disney is fun if you have children. We used to enjoy taking the grandkids to Disney and King’s Dominion. But I’m finished with theme parks.

    Kim, I knew there are exceptions. Part of the difference between single and married women may also come with maturity.

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  10. I read the local paper more closely than my husband does, I’m not so sure about Chas’ comment. You may need to duck before the day is done, Chas.

    Of course I never vote for anyone who wins, so I’m not sure how invested I feel in government or politics.

    But hey, none of these messes were MY fault! 🙂

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  11. Yes on the gas. You must not have seen my lengthy energy post ten days ago, Chas! Last month the US produced more oil than any other country in the world. Oil is in a price free fall.

    Of course that means states are not getting as much in taxes, which means they’ll probably still be demanding more funds from us. 😦

    I didn’t vote for any of them; just sayin’. 🙂

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  12. I don’t vote on what my husband says either. I am a big reader, for one thing, and I became much more involved in some of the issues. I had the time, while he was at work. I was thrust into some issues, because of my involvement with my children.

    We both went to our caucuses and even state conventions. We haven’t done that in many years, however. We do discuss the issues and help inform one another. We disagree at times, but never on the most important things.

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  14. Husband is much more interested in politics than I am. He is involved with the party and all. I tend more toward neither party as neither stands for what I think. But, I do use him to plan my voting and generally vote the same. I ask him to walk me through the sample ballot.

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  15. My husband doesn’t have time to read up on candidates, so he asks me who I’m voting for, then votes the same way.

    Nice to hear California is getting some rain. We are, too, but don’t need it.

    I had thought of a QoD before getting on the computer, but thought I might have to apologize to our California people, since it’s about rain. 😉

    What’s your favorite rainy-day activity? (I hope the Californians on here are getting rain in their locations. If not, sorry.) 🙂

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  16. My husband and I both vote Republican, but, LOL, we typically vote for opposing candidates in the primary. He voted for McCain in the primary and I wanted nothing to do with McCain, etc. In the general election we vote the same. My brother us the one who would more likely tell me how to vote than my husband. Husband is not bossy, but brother has those tendencies. Since brother has no wife it means sister gets the grief and the good. He helps me if I have a need, as long as it does not involve cleaning a litter box. He is much more mechanically minded and a fixer of things around the house than my husband.

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  18. Lots of questions today.
    On rainy days I like to cook and read. If someone is available for a game of Scrabble or Upwards I would like that, too. A nap is nice, also. Depending on the weather, I would like to sit in a chair on our carport, or even better in a porch swing and enjoy the sound and the freshness of plants taking a bath.

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  23. I think the ladies on this blog are typically better informed and care more about politics than the general public women. I work with a woman who use to be better informed, but she knows more about celebrities than she knows about politics. Another lady knows more than I know about politics. She may inform her husband how to vote. It truly depends on the couple and their mindsets.

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  24. Oh, Chas, Chas, Chas.

    “More likely married women vote the way their husbands tell them. … Part of the difference between single and married women may also come with maturity … ”

    You’re lucky I just happen to be out of tomatoes, pal. 😉

    My mom was Republican, my dad was Democrat. Election season was always quite lively in our house when I was growing up. I think my mom followed politics and the news more closely than my dad did.

    She volunteered to work on Reagan’s campaign for governor in the mid 1960s, I remember my girlfriend and I going to one of his local campaign appearances and snapping a nice photo of him sitting in the back of a car as he was about to be driven away.

    And eventually she even persuaded my dad to change his party registration to Republican.

    As for the different voting patters (in general) of most single vs. married women: I think there’s some truth to the analysis I’ve heard about why single women tend to vote more Democratic — it comes down to personal security. Married women have husbands and families, single women will always have to rely more on Social Security, unemployment, disability payments, and other government programs when tough times come as they’re on their own with no family safety net (this also holds true for many widows who may not have children or whose children are not in a position to financially help them out).

    So I have one more election story to do today or tomorrow, along with 3 other stories. This has been a very busy week. And today I leave the Jeep for its overdue maintenance appointment. I was pushed to do it finally because my back tail lights are out again, which I’ve read is a common pitfall of this era of Jeep. I’ll probably have to get a new electrical gizmo back there somewhere, replacing the bulbs piecemeal never seems to last.

    Sadly, no rain in SoCal — I think it’s mostly all in the northern part of the state. We’re having a little “warm-up,” as the weather people call it on the news, it’s supposed to be about 80 today.

    So it’s another sunny day, I love L.A. — as the song goes.

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  25. I really need a handyman. I had one for a while, he used to work in the building maintenance department for the newspaper, but he moved his family to some cowboy state where they bought a ranch.

    Gas is amazingly low out here (for us), hovering around $3.60. Shockingly low for us.

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  26. Husband was feeling dismay yesterday that Carter and Nunn may take Governor and Senator for the Demo in Georgia. I told him not to despair for God is still in control. Yesterday my brother told me he heard Nunn speaking on the radio and all he could think was that she sounds just like Hillary screaming. I know nothing about them except for the negative ads. I think Carter lives not too far from where we live in this most liberal area of our state. At least they don’t sound and act like Cynthia McKinney.

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  28. Chas is speaking in generalities, not saying that all married women vote how their husbands tell them. I notice that some women, Mrs L included, get defensive when a man says “most” in a generality, then the woman proceeds to give exceptions. I always have to remind her that I didn’t say “all”.

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  29. Yes! Sweet duck couple! Duck, duck, and where’s the goose? Oh! The goose got loose and swam away. It didn’t wanna play that game today. He is the odd man out and looking for his mate. She is engaged birthing the golden egg. He’s hoping for sunny side up and not scrambled. Best wishes to Mr. and Mrs. Goose for a good egg kind of day.

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  30. Donna to Chas: “You’re lucky I just happen to be out of tomatoes, pal.” LOL! 🙂

    Donna, great points about single women and the safety net that’s often missing when difficult times come. I think the church in general could do better with being the safety net in situations like that, so that vulnerable women could be taken care of without such a need for government programs. (And I say that as a generality — some individual churches do take good care of their widows and other women who have experienced challenges they would otherwise face mostly alone.)

    I think the church (in general, again) could also do more to promote early marriage. Extended singleness is becoming the norm, and that has individual and societal implications as well, I believe.

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  33. My father is the handyman around here. He designed and built has house, has always fixed his own cars (even to changing the transmission and repairing the engine block), and repairs plumbing, wiring and appliances as needed. He was trained to repair office equipment, but he has learned to use that talent in just about every area. We know that if Dad can’t fix it, it can’t be fixed.

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  35. I’m not sure it even holds as a generality, though, Peter. 🙂 I can’t imagine any woman I know (and I know many, mostly married, many Christian) who would (necessarily) vote as their husband votes. The two may agree on issues and candidates, but women — in general — are very engaged in the world around them.

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  36. As for women leaning more Democratic, I also think issues of war and peace are of unique importance to the female gender. As moms primarily — but also just in the sense that women are wired differently — wars perhaps bother us more than they do men.

    And that’s another area in which I think the two genders help to balance each other out, by God’s design. Wars are sometimes necessary. But I suspect we’d have more of them if it were only up to men — and we would have a weaker defense and not fight the wars that are really needed to be fought (in general) if it were up to women alone.

    The two genders have a moderating effect on one another.

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  37. Like 6 Arrows, I’ve been thankful every day I married an engineer who can fix anything!

    The real question is why did God curse him with a wife who can BREAK anything (particularly an appliance)? 🙂

    Told you, Chas.

    No rain yet out here, but it feels like it’s coming. Please, Lord, send rain–not because we deserve it, but because of your mercy.

    Thanks, I forgot to pray that this morning with my prayer partner. 🙂

    Dream rainy day? Reading a great book by the fire and eating peanut butter M&Ms.

    Is it likely to happen anytime soon?

    😦 No. 😦

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  42. 😦 Where did all these rotten tomatoes come from!!!

    Elvera Collins married a man who is pretty handy. But he farms some of the work out lately.
    It may be a generation thing, but most women I know don’t follow politics closely. We were out for early voting and I overheard a conversation in the waiting line. A lady was saying, “I don’t vote for the party, I vote for the best person”. I wasn’t part of the conversation, but I thought, “I’d vote against Mother Teresa if she had the voting record Kay Hagan has.” Kay is probably a very nice lady, and certainly better looking than Thom Tillis. But she didn’t get my vote.

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  43. Seems to me, though, that it was women and students who staffed so many of the volunteer headquarters I was in back in the day (1960s-’70s).

    One of our neighbors was a WWII “war bride” from England, she and my mom were very busy-busy in the mid to late 1960s in political party circles.

    Funny true story: My dad put a political sign in our lawn one year for his candidate for president.

    I’ve never seen anything vanish so fast once my mom came home later that day. 🙂 Whoosh!

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  47. I’ve seen that before, 6 arrows. 🙂 And cars with opposing bumper stickers or window decals — placed on either side of the car.

    Give us the vote and look what happens.

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  48. A reporter I work with said her grandparents (in MO) actually just stopped voting after realizing they were just canceling each other out.

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  49. I’m listening to “Performance Today” on MPR, and I just heard a piece that reminded me of a couple people on this blog. Janice, the piece was performed at Spivey Hall, and Tychicus, the string quartet that played it is from the Czech Republic.

    And while at MPR, I found this interesting article, written by a man identified as a writer, teacher and singer, on the concept of “follow your passion” in terms of career choices, a notion that troubles him somewhat.

    Some good thoughts, applicable to anyone, not just musicians.

    http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2014/10/23/follow-your-passion

    What I’ve come to grasp is that “follow your passion” leaves out much to be considered. So music is my passion. Does that mean I’m a failure if I don’t find a way to make that the way I earn my living? This makes me think of Charles Ives, whose provocative and wholly original music led him to become one of the first American composers to receive international renown. What many people may not know, though, is that he had a successful and lucrative career in the insurance business and pursued music as an avocation. His example reminds me that our lives need not be defined by our means of financial support.

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  51. I attended a funeral today. The lady was 86 years old and had lived life at full speed. The priest made reference it being easy to love the roses, but hard to love the thorns…then said she sought the thorns…she was a blast. It is so appropriate that we sang this song. I hadn’t heard all the words in a long time, so stop, and really read them. Tell all my friends I’m coming too…
    Swing low, sweet chariot
    Coming for to carry me home,
    Swing low, sweet chariot,
    Coming for to carry me home.

    I looked over Jordan, and what did I see
    Coming for to carry me home?
    A band of angels coming after me,
    Coming for to carry me home.

    Chorus

    Sometimes I’m up, and sometimes I’m down,
    (Coming for to carry me home)
    But still my soul feels heavenly bound.
    (Coming for to carry me home)

    Chorus

    The brightest day that I can say,
    (Coming for to carry me home)
    When Jesus washed my sins away.
    (Coming for to carry me home)

    Chorus

    If I get there before you do,
    (Coming for to carry me home)
    I’ll cut a hole and pull you through.
    (Coming for to carry me home)

    Chorus

    If you get there before I do,
    (Coming for to carry me home)
    Tell all my friends I’m coming too.
    (Coming for to carry me home)

    Chorus

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  52. I love “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”, but get so caught up in the lovely melody, especially in the chorus, with all its dips and rises at just the right time for the lyrics, and in the slow swinging rhythm, that I forget to pay attention to the words of the verses. 😉 Thanks, Kim.

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  56. I have on occasion put a political sign in the yard for the candidate of my choice rather than the one of my husband’s choice. He does not mess with my signage, but it does make me feel a bit like a yard hog. 😦 🙂 ❤

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  57. Right now I have a Ben Carson bumper sticker inside the back window of the car I drive. The sticker seems to move around when someone else drives. Son does not want to make his political views known, and husband might offend clients so they are not so visually vocal as I am. Also, the neighborhoods in which we travel can make a difference in what you want known about the views of the driver. I am pretty brave to have our Republican signs out in the front yard here.

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  58. I see that you all are going on daylight saving time or, is it off, what ever, you will be moving an hour away from me. Sad, you probably won’t see me on here first thing.
    Until December! when I move to Mumsee’s time zone with Donna and Michelle! 🙂

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  61. Interesting thoughts on some of the more popular church youth activities (have any of your churches used these?):

    http://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/peer-pressure/

    ” … Having integrity requires the ability to refuse to conform. It means resisting cultural pressure. And, in our increasingly non-Christian culture, cultivating this kind of integrity is a spiritual survival skill. Parents, churches, and schools rightly try to teach adolescents to resist peer pressure. Ironically, the methods they use often teach the opposite lesson. …”

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  62. Donna, I had heard of the chewing gum game, and the spit-in-the-cup one, too, though no one I knew had been subjected to that.

    But this: For some reason, resist-peer-pressure programs often employ touchy-feely team-building exercises borrowed from sensitivity training groups. You fall back and let the other members of your group catch you. You climb walls and jump off them secured with ropes, with your friends hanging on to keep you from getting hurt. You go on “trust walks,” going blindfolded, with your peers leading you along. These all teach you to trust your friends.

    That is EXACTLY the kind of stuff they do at those retreats our church recommends for eighth graders (and seventh graders now, too, in the last two years), which 4th Arrow went to last week, and which is one reason I wasn’t keen on the idea of her going. (That’s putting it mildly.)

    One of her friends who went last year did not have a good experience at all, and because of it, decided not to go this year. She was on one of the ropes courses (they have “high ropes” and “low ropes”), and was supposed to “trust” her peers to catch her. Well, they were goofing off, or not paying attention, or something, and nobody caught her, so she fell to the ground. Or they may have purposely done it, as her mom mentioned there had been some mean kids in her class who bullied her last year, prompting her parents to put her in a different school this year.

    Anyway, she was not injured (that I know of), but the experience was one she did not want to repeat, and so did not go again. But a different friend of 4th Arrow’s went last year, liked it, and really wanted my daughter to go along this year, which she did not last year. Both hubby and I were bothered by that incident our daughter’s other friend had had last year, but hubby thought we should still let 4th Arrow go this year, despite that incident, because she really wanted to go anyway.

    It turns out the group this year did neither the high ropes nor the low ropes because there were too many other churches there the same weekend. They did do other things, though, like what was mentioned in that link — activities where some of the children were blindfolded for a time. My daughter did not wind up being one of the ones blindfolded.

    That atmosphere of trying to facilitate “trust”, especially in an area (ministry) where predators have been known to lurk (not that particular one, that I know of, but in general), is another reason, besides the ones Veith outlined very well, why these types of activities have the strong potential, IMO, to be not only counterproductive, but downright dangerous under just the right (wrong) circumstances.

    (If any of you were wondering why my stress levels had been so high recently, in the days leading up to and during the retreat, there you have a pretty significant reason why.)

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  63. Our church does not have a youth group and our children would not attend if it did. Nor would they go to Sunday school apart from us. We have seen too much and they have seen too much.

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  64. On a positive note, though, 4th Arrow did have a good time, and though I wasn’t too pleased about one thing she mentioned, that they were allowed to hang out just outside their cabins at midnight, not far from other cabins with people from churches they didn’t know, and without the presence of chaperones (what?? — they were inside the cabins doing other things), she came back home and has actually been more social with her family than she has been in the past. So that part is good.

    And on another note, my firstborn, with his wry sense of humor, pronounced the drivers-not-having-correct-directions fiasco that I ranted about the other night, “The Retreat from Common Sense.” 😉

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  65. Mumsee, I wish we didn’t have youth groups/recommended retreats, etc. None of our older three children went to this sort of stuff — I was very resistant to the idea for the very reason you mention, and my husband was fine with those children not going because my views against attending those retreats were stronger than his views in favor of them. But this time my husband thought saying no to this particular daughter would throw a wall up between her and us, so I relented.

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  66. And which is one of the reasons I asked for prayers for safety not only going to and from the retreat, but also AT the retreat. And a thank you again to all who prayed.

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  67. If that sounds like I’m yelling at you (or anyone), I’m not. 😉 I don’t always know how I’m coming across in print. My words might sound stronger than I mean them to be, even though I do have pretty strong feelings on the subject.

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  68. I loved youth group and youth retreats as a teen. I loved my youth leaders and now I love teens and young adults – so much fun to work with. Retreats are not for everyone, however. 🙂

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  69. Ugh, just read that article. That’s just gross! I was always after our teens to NOT share lip balm or straws, never mind what’s in that article. I don’t understand that reasoning.

    Jo, I don’t change time, so you and I will still be the same number of hours apart. 🙂

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  71. “Those things” being retreats, not straw-sharing, etc. that you mentioned in you 10:09 post, which wasn’t there when i posted my 10:09. 🙂

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  72. Lots of folks get a lot out of those get togethers, I am not one of them. My husband is the balance to my resistance. But in this area we are in agreement. We have been involved with youth groups over the years, both as participants and as parents of participants. With these particular children, we prefer to attend church where there are no other children. It has worked very well as far as we can see. However, we do allow them to participate in some school activities which is what has brought us to the point of having another one, on the verge of turning eighteen, about to receive her walking papers. The dishonesty that comes from them interacting with the other children is more than our family can tolerate. If it is that much to their dislike to be honest with us, they need to move on. Pray for us.

    I know it sounds bad to not attend church with other children, where will they learn to deal with peer pressure? But we do believe in their socializing with people of all ages, not just their peers. And so they do and they do so well.

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  76. It would be rather special to get that. Not that I was particularly fond of school, I was fairly oblivious. But in the interest of competition, you understand. There are those on here who care about those things.

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  81. Our church tradition integrates everyone into the worship service (including children of all ages, though there is a nursery if needed).

    There is a youth group & youth SS, but from what i’ve heard they’re heavy on things like teaching logic, though I’m sure there are fun activities as well, obviously. But hopefully nothing like the ones mentioned in that article. Ugh.

    I’m beat, what a crazy week it’s been. And tomorrow I’m going to *try* to write 3 stories, but I doubt I’ll get past two, we’ll see.

    We currently have no political or education reporter (we are interviewing for those positions), so with the election right around the corner & schools (we cover dozens) in full swing, a lot of the extra work has been spread around to everyone else.

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  82. The jeep is enjoying an overnighter at the mechanic’s, the tail light assembly (gizmo, in my dictionary) had to be ordered and it won’t come in until tomorrow.

    The loaner they gave me is an older, white CRV, cute but it’s always a challenge getting used to a different car with all the different dashboard settings. By tomorrow morning I should have it down pat.

    I did figure out finally how to turn the radio on. And roll down the driver’s side window. 🙂 But it took a few tries to get the ignition key out, you have to push it in and turn it. So tricky.

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  83. I hope you have a restful weekend, Donna. Sounds like you will need it after this week.

    OK, if there’s a race to 100 tonight, I’d stick around, except I think there is way too much of the pink avatar today. 😉 Twenty-four of the first 80 comments were mine; I just counted. For those who love math, that is 30%.

    Good night, all.

    And 83. The year I met my hubby. A nice thought to contemplate at the end of the day.

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