Catholic Gasoline

Laughter is good, so this is good for you:

Sister Mary, who worked for a home health agency, was out making her rounds visiting homebound patients when she ran out of gas. As luck would have it, a Texaco Gasoline station was just a block away.

She walked to the station to borrow a gas can and buy some gas. The attendant told her that the only gas can he owned had been loaned out, but she could wait until it was returned. Since Sister Mary Ann was on the way to see a patient, she decided not to wait and walked back to her car.

She looked for something in her car that she could fill with gas and spotted the bedpan she was taking to the patient. Always resourceful, Sister Mary Ann carried the bedpan to the station, filled it with gasoline, and carried the full bedpan back to her car.

As she was pouring the gas into her tank, two Baptists watched from across the street. One of them turned to the other and said, "If that car starts, I'm turning Catholic."

Family Watchdog

Few people like to talk about sexual abuse, but this is a useful service to sign up for. First of all, I searched where I lived and then I signed up for updates to be notified when an offender has moved close to me, so I don't have to keep going back to the website unnessarily.

http://www.familywatchdog.us

Pittsburgh Plan for Preschool+

The Pittsburgh Plan is awesome for kids 2-6 years old. Claire is just about to the finish the Pittsburgh Plan. She's turning seven this summer. She started when she was about two. Children can start as early as 18 months. Both her younger sisters did, but I didn't discover it until after that point.

There are about 191 activities that you do for 15 minutes with your child two to three times a week for about four years. It helps kids read a little earlier, but they're going get that anyway. What's really fascinating is the math kids can learn if they're taught.

First graders aren't adding/subtracting fractions, dividing, or doing double-digit multiplication because no one's teaching them. Claire can do all of that. Sarah, who is four, is adding and subtracting and blending sounds together to make words. She recognizes double digit numbers up to 100, but we don't do anything with them until single-digit adding and subtracting is more automatic. Emily, who just started, is just trying to remember the names of letters. It's a lot of fun for them because it's a lot of fun for me.

It probably isn't for everyone, but it's worth checking out, especially if it might make their school life easier. More is on: http://www.pittsburghplan.com. I'm sure the founder would love to answer any questions you may have, but I would also being willing to elaborate on anything you would like to know more about concerning the program. It just helps kids achieve more than they otherwise would relying on their school alone.

AIDS

Again, I don't know if Jesus considers AIDS a penance from God because I typically see God allowing pain versus causing pain, even though he used to cause pain in the Old Testament. Either way, AIDS is bad and people shouldn't do things that would risk contracting AIDS.

http://www.tldm.org/news9/aidsnigerianofficial.htm

Mary's Requests

Whether these 17 steps are from Mary or not, they are good things to follow, especially praying the Rosary as a family for the rest of the steps.

http://www.tldm.org/news5/17-steps.htm

How few may get to heaven

This link suggests that most people did not used to go to heaven, so maybe hearing the whole story will change others for the better today.

http://olrl.org/snt_docs/fewness.shtml

Green Scapulars

Here's something on Green Scapulars for those unfamiliar with them.

http://olrl.org/sacramental/greenscapular.shtml

St. Gertrude

Since I don't use MySpace anymore, the links I had saved there aren't doing much good, so I thought I'd share them here:

http://olrl.org/pray/stgertrude.shtml

Education Funding

Next week, my school board is voting to either raise taxes or furlough teachers. We had a $3,000,000 deficit. The board agreed to take $1,000,000 from our $6,000,000 savings to cut it to $2,000,000. Our Superintendent proposed raising $1,000,000 by charging $50/student for extra-curricular activities and raising taxes 1 mill (which is $37/yr. for $100,000 homes). Then he proposed cutting some extra-curricular activities like 9th grade basketball (but keeping Varsity and Junior Varsity sports). One thing that's frustrating is that the board was unable to pass that and wanted to see what $2,000,000 in cuts could be made to the education programs like elementary art and furloughing other teachers to raise class sizes further above 30 students/class. We are in this situation because the Governor also refuses to raise taxes $50/person to keep education funding the same and not give up the raises he has given to his staff over the previous administration. It all made me think of this report.

Report shows education funding equals investment in economy June 2004

A report released on July 8 indicates that investment in quality education programs is an investment in the economy, as well. The report, Smart Money: Education and Economic Development, demonstrates how increased investment in preschool, primary and secondary education, and colleges provides “concrete returns to economic development through increases in productivity, learned skills, technology and workers’ average earnings.” The report was compiled by William Schweke, research director for the Corporation for Enterprise Development, a nonprofit organization.

“If our goal is an economic climate that provides good jobs, decent living standards, entrepreneurial workers and a competitive edge over other countries, then investing in education is the single most important thing we can do,” said Schweke. “Education should be thought of in terms of productivity, innovation and the growing of wealth.”

The report examines nearly 180 studies that show the relationship between education investment and quality and economic development. It shows that schools provide greater knowledge as well as an improvement of the lives of current and future workers.

Some of the books findings:

Individuals with less than a high school diploma saw their mean family income decline by 14 percent between 1979 and 1995, but college graduates’ mean income rose 14 percent.

The public saves $7.16 for every original dollar invested in high-quality child care.

A state’s economic performance correlates to past investments in such areas as education. Eight out of 11 states with the highest grades for local investment received an A or B in overall economic performance.

Community colleges help to increase salaries. People with an associate’s degree earn 18 to 24 percent more than high school graduates.

Investing $4,800 per child in preschool education can reduce teenage arrests by 40 percent.

Sheriff Joe

An email from a friend:

Do you know Sheriff Joe?

Maricopa County was spending approx. $18 million dollars a year on stray animals, like cats and dogs. Sheriff Joe offered to take the department over, and the County Supervisors said okay.

The animal shelters are now all staffed and operated by prisoners. They feed and care for the strays. Every animal in his care is taken out and walked twice daily. He now has prisoners who are experts in animal nutrition and behavior. They give great classes for anyone who'd like to adopt an animal. He has literally taken stray dogs off the street, given them to the care of prisoners, and had them place in dog shows.

The best part? His budget for the entire department is now under $3 million. Teresa and I adopted a Weimaraner from a Maricopa County shelter two years ago. He was neutered, and current on all shots, in great health, and even had a microchip inserted the day we got him. It cost us $78.

The prisoners get the benefit of about $0.28 an hour for working, but most would work for free, just to be out of their cells for the day. Most of his budget is for utilities, building maintenance, etc. He pays the prisoners out of the fees collected for adopted animals.

I have long wondered when the rest of the country would take a look at the way he runs the jail system, and copy some of his ideas. He has a huge farm, donated to the county years ago, where inmates can work, and they grow most of their own fresh vegetables and food, doing all the work and harvesting by hand.

He has a pretty good sized hog farm, which provides meat, and fertilizer. It fertilizes the Christmas tree nursery, where prisoners work, and you can buy a living Christmas tree for $6 - $8 for the Holidays, and plant it later. We have six trees in our yard from the Prison.

Yup, he was reelected last year with 83% of the vote.
Now he's in trouble with the ACLU again. He painted all his buses and vehicles with a mural, that has a special hotline phone number painted on it, where you can call and report suspected illegal aliens. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement wasn't doing enough in his eyes, so he had 40 deputies trained specifically for enforcing immigration laws, started up his hotline, and bought 4 new buses just for hauling folks back to the border. He's kind of a 'Git-R Dun' kind of Sheriff.

TO THOSE OF YOU NOT FAMILIAR WITH JOE ARPAIO:

Sheriff Joe Arpaio (In Arizona ) who created the 'Tent City Jail':
He has jail meals down to 40 cents a serving and charges the inmates for them.

He stopped smoking and porno magazines in the jails, took away their weights, only allows 'G' movies.

He started chain gangs, so the inmates could do free work on county and city projects.

Then He Started Chain Gangs For Women So He Wouldn't Get
Sued For Discrimination. [Despite the savings mentioned earlier, he has also lost a lot of expensive lawsuits.]

He took away cable TV until he found out there was a federal court order that required cable TV for jails, so he hooked up the cable TV again, but only let in the Disney Channel and the Weather Channel.

When asked why the Weather Channel, he replied, "So They Will Know How Hot It's Gonna Be While They Are Working On My Chain Gangs."

He Cut Off Coffee Since It Has Zero Nutritional Value.

When the inmates complained, he told them, 'This Isn't The Ritz/Carlton. If You Don't Like It, Don't Come Back.'

More On The Arizona Sheriff:

With Temperatures Being Even Hotter Than Usual In Phoenix (116 Degrees Just Set A New Record), the Associated Press Reports:
About 2,000 Inmates Living In A Barbed-Wire-Surrounded Tent Encampment At The Maricopa County Jail Have Been Given Permission To Strip Down To Their Government-Issued Pink Boxer Shorts.

On Wednesday, hundreds of men wearing boxers were either curled up on their bunk beds or chatted in the tents, which reached
138 Degrees Inside The Week Before..

Many Were Also Swathed In Wet, Pink Towels As Sweat Collected On Their Chests And Dripped Down To Their PINK SOCKS.

'It Feels Like We Are In A Furnace,' Said James Zanzot, An Inmate Who Has Lived In The Tents for 1 year. 'It's Inhumane.'

Joe Arpaio, the tough-guy sheriff who created the tent city and long ago started making his prisoners wear pink, and eat bologna sandwiches, is not one bit sympathetic. He said Wednesday that he told all of the inmates: 'It's 120 Degrees In Iraq And Our Soldiers Are Living In Tents Too, And They Have To Wear Full Battle Gear, But They Didn't Commit Any Crimes, So Shut Your Mouths!'

Criminals should be punished for their crimes - not live on taxpayers money and enjoy things taxpayers can't afford to have for themselves. [It's this last part that I agree with most since I don't get cable for free, for example, so I don't get cable.]

Make a Difference

This is a good story to share with others that have made a difference to you, so I'm sharing it with you. It's nice for me to know that somebody read this blog and shared it with somebody else. Hopefully, it's nice for you to know that somebody wanted to share it with you.

Mailmen

This is a good story to illustrate doing good deeds behind closed doors. Your reward in heaven will certainly be more than your reward in this present life, much more than the reward in this story:

There was a man who worked for the Post Office whose job was to process all the mail that had illegible addresses.

One day, a letter came addressed in a shaky handwriting to God with no actual address. He thought he should open it to see what it was about.

The letter read:

Dear God,

I am an 83 year old widow, living on a very small pension.

Yesterday someone stole my purse. It had $100 in it, which was all the money I had until my next pension payment.

Next Sunday is Christmas, and I had invited two of my friends over for dinner. Without that money, I have nothing to buy food with, have no family to turn to, and you are my only hope. Can you please help me?

Sincerely, Edna


The postal worker was touched. He showed the letter to all the other workers. Each one dug into his or her wallet and came up with a few dollars.

By the time he made the rounds, he had collected $96, which they put into an envelope and sent to the woman.

The rest of the day, all the workers felt a warm glow thinking of Edna and the dinner she would be able to share with her friends.

Christmas came and went.

A few days later, another letter came from the same old lady to God.

All the workers gathered around while the letter was opened.

It read:

Dear God,

How can I ever thank you enough for what you did for me?

Because of your gift of love, I was able to fix a glorious dinner for my friends. We had a very nice day and I told my friends of your wonderful gift.

By the way, there was $4 missing.

I think it might have been those bums at the post office.

Sincerely, Edna

Obamacare

This argument is from the 2010 election when groups were trying to unseat the Democratic incumbents that voted for Obamacare. Although my representative is Democratic, Jason Altmire, he didn't vote for that nor did he get unseated...

Having spent three weeks in a hospital in Naples, Florida with my wife, I couldn’t help noticing what was going on in the hospital and I had a lot of time to talk to the doctors and nurses about what I had observed. Below is a commentary from an ER Doctor. Do you think this might be a big reason our health care system and our social security system are so screwed up? Do you think this might be a big reason our taxes keep going up?

From a Florida ER doctor:
"I live and work in a state overrun with illegal immigrants. They make more money having kids than we earn working full-time. Today I had a 25-year old with 8 kids; all illegal anchor babies and she had the nicest nails, cell phone, hand bag, clothing, etc. She makes about $1,500 monthly for each. I used to say, “We are the dumbest nation on earth.” Now I must say and sadly admit: WE are the dumbest people on earth (that includes ME) for we elected the politicians who have passed the bills that allow for this."

If the immigrant is over 65, they can apply for SSI and Medicaid and get more than a woman on Social Security, who worked from 1944 until 2004. She is only getting $791 per month because she was born in 1924 and there's a 'catch 22.'

It is interesting that the federal government provides a single refugee with a monthly allowance of $1,890. Each can also obtain an additional $580 in social assistance, for a total of $2,470 a month.

This compares to a single pensioner, who can only receive a monthly maximum of $1,012 in old age pension and Guaranteed Income Supplement.

Maybe if more people knew about this, we can get the refugees cut back to $1,012 and help save Social Security. I don't want to persecute refugees because that would be unjust. They are my brothers and sisters in Christ. It's not their fault for accepting the money. That's the smart thing to do. It's the politicians fault for offering it and the voters being dumb for voting for those politicians in the first place. So I'm not asking to be unmerciful to people in need. If our retirees are in need of $1,012/month, then they should get it. If refugees are in need too, they should get $1,012/month too. They shouldn't get nothing like people on one side may say, and they shouldn't get $2470 like they are now. This way Social Security will be around a little longer to help out more people in need, retirees and refugees alike.

Maybe if more people knew what the majority of our elected politicians had been doing for years to over-taxed Americans, things would be better.

The Mayonnaise Jar

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day is not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and 2 cups of coffee.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him.

When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and started to fill it with golf balls.

He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured it into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous 'yes.'

The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

'Now,' said the professor, as the laughter subsided, 'I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life.

'The golf balls are the important things - God, family, children, health, friends, and favorite passions. Things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the things that matter - like your job, house, and car.

The sand is everything else -- The small stuff.

'If you put the sand into the jar first,' he continued, 'there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life.

If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

So...

Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.
Play with your children.
Take time to get medical checkups.
Take your partner out to dinner.

There will always be time to clean the house and fix the dripping tap.

'Take care of the golf balls first -- The things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.'

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented.

The professor smiled. 'I'm glad you asked'.

'It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend.'

Please share this with other "Golf Balls"

I just did..

Neighbors

Here's a site that could hold a lot of uses for some people. You provide an address and they provide the addresses and phone numbers of all the residential neighbors.

http://neighbors.whitepages.com/

Of course, this post doesn't directly support anyone in particular, but anything to help to build community is worth sharing.