Prayer Requests. Lots of prayer requests for people this week in my life so if you’re so inclined, please pray for…
[-] healing for Hevel from encephalitis.
[-] healing for Josh as he spends another night in the hospital getting things back on track after severe nausea.
[-] emotional peace for Josh’s parents Alex and Susan in the midst of his illness.
[-] healing for my father-in-law.
[-] adjustment to some kind of schedule for my brother-in-law (Chris) and sister-in-law (Joanna) now that Joanna and Patrick (my adorable nephew) are home from the hospital.
Orphans Do you see these three adorable kidlets?
First row: Brett and Iris.
Second row: Kaia.
Brett and Iris need a mama and papa. Kaia has a family committed to her. Click on their names to see their Reece’s Rainbow pages.
Anti-smoking spiel of the week. Are there any of readers who aren’t aware that I think the term “smoker’s rights” is an oxymoron? Their right to smoke ends where my air supply begins which means that they effectively have no rights. This NPR story talks about the cost of employees that smoke and I can attest to this based on the complete lack of productivity of one of my co-workers in Montana. Between all her smoke breaks and the fines leveled by Customs due to her complete incompetence, she probably cost my company the equivalent of her salary yearly. (I have no idea why she wasn’t fired.)
Don’t make me turn this plane around! Apparently, 100 kids/adults were kicked off a plane headed to Atlanta because they wouldn’t sit down and turn off all their electronic devices. After several requests from flight attendants and the captain coming on and specifically announcing it to the kids, they still didn’t comply and were then told to disembark. They had to be squeezed onto later flights and I guess it took some of them 12 hours to make it to Atlanta. Southwest has offered them vouchers for future travel which I think is ridiculous because it’s punishing bad behavior. The kids should have complied from the beginning and it serves them right that they had to endure a bunch of transfers and more difficult travel. [insert rant about how this *never* would have happened when I was a kid]
Can we say “cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face”? Apparently, there are churches who are cutting ties with the Boy Scouts because of the vote to allow openly gay scouts. OK… let me explain what this change *actually* means: The only big change is that openly gay scouts will still be able to earn their Eagle. There will be no orgies on camp-outs. Scouts will not be taught that being gay is totally acceptable — in fact, I’d kind of worry if my son came home from a Boy Scout meeting and told me that they discussed sex. I’ve been involved in both Boy Scouts (through my dad/evil twin/husband) and Girl Scouts for 25 years and I honestly can’t say that sex ever came up at any scout meeting. EVER. I worked on a camp staff that was 2/3 lesbian and I never knew that until one of my former co-workers brought it up a few years later. (I know that our girls were oblivious to it.) Scouting is a wonderful organization and both my husband and I are better people for being part of it. Heck, my husband was even a unit commissioner in Montana.
A good point. I read a brilliant article from Soujourners this week in which the author asked that people stop telling them what is anti-Christian. I concur. I’m a bit tired of people obsessing about how someone’s $tarbux habit is causing moral decay across the globe because $tarbux supports same-sex marriage. If you’re so completely offended by them, DON’T. BUY. THEIR. COFFEE. Support your local coffeeshop. Make your own at home. By the same token, the whole Chick-Fil-A debacle last year causes the same reaction in me — don’t buy their fried crap if you don’t like their corporate giving and don’t act incredibly self-righteous if you do decide to support them, claiming that it’s the “Christian” thing to do.
Hot Hot Hot! It’s supposed to be 110F here this weekend. Pray for me. I hate heat. I hate it! I hate it! I hate it!
For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.
While I certainly understand where you’re coming from on the “smokers rights” issue, I just want to point out how incredibly hurtful it is to be on the receiving end of comments like, “Their right to smoke ends where my air supply begins which means that they effectively have no rights.”
I’m sure you didn’t mean it like this, but your choice in phrasing was incredibly dehumanizing.
Yeah, I had coworkers that all smoked. Lots of breaks that I didn’t get! I used to go out with them and hang out for a little bit until I got pregnant. Then I had to go by myself. Bummer.
The Boy Scouts decision I think is setting themselves up for another pickle later on. What about when a gay Boy Scout grows up and wants to be a leader? I think they should’ve clarified the difference between preferences/orientations/desires and actions.
#3: Aside from any financial impacts, I just can’t stand the smell of smoke. Smoking within 15-feet of the entrance of a public building is prohibited in my city. But that doesn’t stop the smoke/smell from spreading beyond that distance.
Oh goodness. It is hot there! It’s only 55 here today!
And I hate smokers. I hate the smell and I hate what it does to people.
Oh, the Boy Scout issue! I think it will be the undoing of Boy Scouts simply because it is now becoming a political issue and that outside groups WILL make sexuality an issue in scouting. As a Catholic that believes and upholds the Church’s teachings, there is nothing wrong with the new policy as it stands on paper. We are to love and support and include those with same sex attactions. But, this is such a hot topic that I do not think the policy will be able to be taken as it is written. CA is already tyring to vote to remove BSA’s tax exempt status. While I do not agree with churches’ “knee jerk reactions” and shutting down troops, I do understand it. I think that Boy Scouts will have lots of internal problems and as a Scouting Mom, I am not sure I want to stick around and watch things get messy. We do have another year to make a decision, because our boys are still in Cub Scouts. We will just wait and see.
on #4 Oh wow- that Southwest offered vouchers – what a waste. I say the airlines should have stood by their employees and told the sass- pants-teens and chaperons, “sorry for your poor choice of behavior, hopefully, this won’t be an issue on your return flight.” Just because the misbehaved peeps had a twitterfest about their perceived mistreatment.