Samantha Pierce

Warren at View From the Pew asks, What is up with THIS????? This stuff gets me fired up. I'm tired of American Christians whining about how terrible things are, and how rough it is to be a Christian. There are people in the world who would give everything they own to have things as "rough" as we do. We haven't had enough persecution, in my not-so-humble opinion. We've got too many Christians who are comfortable, and when their comfort zone is violated, they want to run away. I'm not running. If they make it illegal to preach, who knows -- I may become a preacher after all. If they ban the Bible, I'll buy a press and start printing them. I'm not going to go off to some Christian Utopia and bury my head in the sand and let the rest of the nation go to Hell in a handbasket. Right on brother! Dogman at The Rough Woodsman also has a few words for those who Christians who are foolish enough to think that everything would be just perfect if they

The carnival is back at Parablemania for the week. Looks to be a good collection of stuff this week.

Now this is twisted and demented interesting. Death by Theory? The little boy that Bruce Reimer was never had a chance. As an adult, he chose suicide on May 4 rather than live in unbearable torment. Underlying his death is a theory that still impacts children across North America: that sexual identity comes from nurture not nature and, so, can be entirely determined by proper social conditioning. Of his childhood, David later stated: "It was like brainwashing I'd give just about anything to go to a hypnotist to black out my whole past. Because it's torture. What they did to you in the body is sometimes not near as bad as what they did to you in the mind with the psychological warfare in your head." ...the Johns Hopkins Children's Center released two scientific studies that indicated "prenatal exposure to normal male hormones alone dictates male gender identity in normal XY male babies, even if they are born without a penis." If true, this utte

In his quest to get at my breakfast on Saturday morning Isaiah dealt a death blow to my computer's motherboard. The earliest it could possibly be fixed is Tuesday. My battery is also completely dead so I have to be wired if I want to go on line. That involves not being able to keep a constant eye on the kids. Since I'm not willing to deal with the consequences of that I won't be blogging much until my computer is fixed. I can still surf and leave pithy comments on other people's blogs when I can pry hubby's computer from his fingers.

I'm really digging this idea of Cobb's . Keeping It Right Now is the time for all good African American bloggers on my side of the fence, to come to the aid of themselves. I'm feeling blackified today, and this happens from time to time. It's not what I'm all about but it goes pretty deep. So this is an open letter to my bretheren. Let's league up. Most of us know of each other's blogs. We often end up on the same blogrolls. But I think we should come up with a logo and reserve a place. Shay has a response to the raving lunatic that commented so rudely on Cobb's post.

Booker Rising has some interesting info on black in America in the side bar. Much of it challenges many common assumptions about black folk. I've highlighted some interesting bits that you might not otherwise hear. There's much more stuff there than what I have listed here. ABOUT BLACK AMERICANS - DEMOGRAPHICS: U.S. Census Bureau, Pew Research Center, U.S. Department of Justice 38.3 million. Percent of U.S. population: 13.3% Self-identification : Black 44%, African-American 28%, Afro-American 12%, no preference 9%, Negro 3%, some other term 2%, Colored 1% 8.8 million families: 52% single parent (43% single women, 9% single men), 48% married. 9% of black kids live with grandparents Regional residence: 55% South, 18% Northeast, 18% Midwest, 9% West 52% live in cities, 36% suburbs (vs. 29% in 1994) , 12% rural Top 5 cities with black populations: New York, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Houston Marriage rate: 35% in 2002 (vs. 63% in 1950) Under age 18: 32%

Well the bug that laid out hubby the other day has caught up to me and the kids. As usual they are having a much easier time of it than hubby or me. The only reason I got out of bed today was to pay some bills. The kids have been munching on bananas, rice cakes, toast, and apple sauce all day. Hubby put on some Veggie Tales videos for them to watch so they would leave me alone. He also did the dishes while I snoozed for part of the morning. Now we have to pull our selves together and head out to meet with the school district to discuss recommendations for Ethan's therapy, oh joy.

The carnival's up over at Back of the Envelope . Yours truly has a post in this week.

Shay reports, "Voting for Bush is Voting Against Your People" This is what the husband of one of my best friends told me yesterday, and my friend concurred. The husband also said, "Any black who votes for Bush should be strung up and shot" (I kid you not). Ouch! Well then, go get your gun and your rope and catch me if you can.

I totally missed last week's carnival (bad Sam, bad Sam!). Here's a slightly edited version of the info for this week's carnival. The next Christian Carnival will be hosted at Back of the Envelope . To enter is simple. First your post should be of a Christian nature, but this does not exclude posts that are political (or otherwise) in nature from a Christian point of view. Then do the following: email Donald at cranksha@ece.rochester.edu Provide the following: Title of your Blog URL of your Blog Title of your post URL linking to that post Description of the Post Cut off date is Tuesday by 8 PM EST If you are reading this and are not a part of the Christian Carnival mailing list please visit this link and join up. *Also if you wish to host the Carnival in coming weeks email me at * carnivalhost@patriot-paradox.com All questions are welcome. Get your entry in asap! -- Contact Info: Nick Queen Email: patriot@patriot-paradox.com Yaho

(I Corinthians 14:34) Hubby and I have been having discussions lately about what other people believe about women’s roles in the church. The thing that has been on my mind lately is Christians who insist that women are not to speak in church at all . Now in most churches that’s really not a problem since the only one who ever gets to utter a word is the pastor. In my church we have open sharing and prayer times where anyone can share and pray about what is on their hearts. Both men and women often stand up to share insights that they have had recently, to inform people of new things in their lives, and to join in praying for others. There is a woman who attends our church with her adult son. She often stands up to thank the church for something or to ask for prayer. Last Sunday and this Sunday as she stood to speak I wondered to myself, who would speak for this woman if our church did not allow women to speak during the service? She is only ever accompanied by her son who

The second book written and the third chronologically, you're the story of a Narnia hundreds of years after the last visit, populated by mythological creatures struggling to overthrow a king determined to wipe them out. Susan's Horn brings help when it's most needed ... Find out which Chronicles of Narnia book you are. From Parableman . I finally read all of the books in the series (in the order they were written) shortly after my second kid was born (had to do something during those late night feedings). The description of heaven in The Last Battle was marvelous. It gave me the sensation of catching a fleeting glimpse out of the corner of my eye of something absolutely magnificent and left me breathlessly anticipating the real thing. Best quote from the quiz, "The bolt of Tash falls from above!" "Does it ever get caught on a hook halfway down?" Heh heh heh.

Now here's an interesting idea from Condi Rice mentioned by Shay at Crispus, Muslim Terrorists = Ku Klux Klan? "The more I think about it, the more on point Condi is here. The beheadings of Daniel Pearl and Nick Berg by Al Qaedaesque jihadists were not just because they were American, but their Jewish background. Muslims have been waging a war against blacks in Africa for awhile now."

LaShawn posted Psalm 37: 1-13 on her blog yesterday. I will post it here as well. It's a pretty good description of how I feel these days. "Do not fret because of evil men or be envious of those who do wrong; for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away. Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret--it leads only to evil. For evil men will be cut off, but those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land. A little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you lo

It seemed like a good idea at the time but now that my Haloscan comments have disappeared I'm not too excited about the new Blogger stuff. Anybody have any ideas on how to get them back? Nothing I've tried has worked so far and I can't get to the Haloscan website to tinker with anything there. This is so not cool. Update: Hey, my Haloscan comments are back! I guess Haloscan was the problem. I hope nothing else goes wrong. I've got too much stuff to do today.

I went to the doctor today and got a clean bill of health. I’m half way through this pregnancy and I’ve been feeling pretty good for the past few weeks. I’m actually starting to remember why I was excited about being pregnant. These days I feel pretty invincible despite wanting to go to bed at 8:00PM and not wanting to get out of bed until 8:00AM. I don’t need to eat constantly any more which is a relief. Most of my regular clothes still fit. I’ve had to abandon most of my jeans. My maternity pants are still too big so I’ve had to pin them up when I wear them. There must be some kind of baby boom thing going on in our area because every time I go to the doctor the waiting room is packed with women in various stages of pregnancy. This morning I spent two hours in the office because my doctor had not one but two patients in labour. All of the patients he would have seen were being seen by the nurse practitioner and she already had a full load of patients for the day. She

I've been putting of adding new folks to my blog roll for so long that I can't remember all of the blogs I wanted to add. Here's a partial list that I've reconstructed from my occasionally unreliable memory. Crispus : named for Crispus Attucks one of the first casualties of the American Revolution (or the War of Insurrection if you like), it's "Libertarianism, with a black American twist." The blog is pretty new but it looks interesting. Check out the post on Condi Rice's real agenda . The Mulatto Advocate : another one of those crazy non-Democrat negroes, well half negro. We just keep popping up all over the place. Army of One : he's been interviewing fellow bloggers from the Blogdom of God ( this one is the latest one) which makes for pretty interesting reading. The other stuff on the blog is interesting too. That's all I can remember at the moment.

I just realized what has been bothering me about this situation with the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US troops (other than the very fact that this situation exists in the first place). Why did CBS air the photos? It was bad enough that the people in those photos were treated in such a deplorable manner. But why did CBS have to add insult to injury by releasing them to the entire world? How often are we allowed to see photos and evidence from other on going investigations? How often do we get to the photos and evidence even after the investigations are over? When was the last time you saw pictures of the beaten and broken bodies of crime victims in the news? That kind of stuff is usually kept under wraps for the purpose of protecting the rights of the victims and the accused. And to insure that justice can properly be served for all involved. The other day the Washington Post published even more photos from Abu Ghraib prison with the disclaimer that the paper had not determi

Frank at IMAO says , DON'T kick the other person in the groin when he strays. He might forget what you were talking about in the first place. and DON'T pile drive the other person into a folding table when you find a topic you vehemently disagree on. Though it would be cool, it's just not civil. and DON'T burn the other person's house down over a small disagreement on a fact. Yes, insurance will probably cover it, but he'll be less likely to listen to what else you say. There are lots of other dos and don'ts we would all do well to remember. I really loved this comment on Frank's blog, Arguments are simpler down here in Alabama. "He needed killin'" "But war is baadddd, mannn" *Click Click* "Come to think of it, you seem to be on my property..." Posted by: Masada on May 5, 2004 06:33 PM I could see this happening in my family if we owned any guns, wait a minute, some of us do. I don't k

I don't read nearly as much as I should, outside of blogs that is. So I've decided to make a better effort to read stuff written down on paper. For the past few days I've been stalking the book shelves at home looking for a new book to read. I've already read or re-read most of the scifi/fantasy books we have. The ones that I haven't read yet are designated for bedtime reading with hubby. We've got tons of Christian books on all kinds of subjects but they're not really my cup of tea. I was beginning to despair that I wasn't going to find anything interesting to me until I started looking over my old textbooks. So what have I finally chosen to read? An old textbook from a history of medieval Britain and Ireland course that I took either my freshman or sophomore year of college. The title of the book is The Later Middle Ages 1272-1485 by George Holmes. I remember laying in bed and reading the thing cover to cover during the first few weeks of th

The carnies are over at Parablemania this week.

Sigh, for the past few days I’ve been going over the reports from Ethan’s developmental evaluations. I’m trying to prepare myself for when we meet with the evaluators and officials from our local school district. I’ve also been doing some research into our options for therapy to help Ethan over come his developmental delays. I’m not really excited about the option of sending Ethan off to pre-school. Even if he’s involved in a program that caters to the needs of autistic children I can see things getting ugly. Ethan randomly repeats just about everything he hears. Yesterday we were watching the 1953 musical The Bandwagon . Ethan particularly liked the number in the movie called "The Triplets" with three of the actors dressed up as little kids singing about how much they hate being triplets. One of the lines in the number was, " I wish I had a gun, a wittle, wittle gun! Then I’d shoot the other two and then I’d be just one." That was the one line in the nu