Dangerous Hindu Training For Public School Students

Like my friend Greg says, "In saner times, this would be a joke, but not today."

David Lynch (at right) plans to teach 1 million students Transcendental Meditation (TM) with the goal of transforming schools from "breeding grounds of stress and violence into centers of creativity and peace." While TM claims it is not a religious technique or sect, it is well documented that TM originates in Hinduism and its chief goal is to unite the participant with Brahman, the Hindu concept of god.

More disturbing are the similarities between the views of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and the sociopathic views of the Columbine killers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.

“YOU KNOW WHAT I LOVE??? Natural SELECTION! It’s the best thing that ever happened to the Earth. Getting rid of all the stupid and weak organisms.”

- Eric Harris on his website before the killings

Compare this with what the Maharishi said in the book Inauguration At the Dawn Of the Age Of Enlightenment,

There has not and there will not be a place for the unfit. The fit will lead, and the if the unfit are not coming along, there is no place for them. In the place where light dominates there is no place for darkness. In the age of Enlightenment there is no place for ignorant people. The ignorant will be made enlightened by a few orderly enlightened people moving around. Nature will not allow ignorance to prevail. It just can't. Nonexistence of the unfit has been the law of nature.

Clearly, Harris and the Maharishi were reading off of the same page of Darwinism and survival of the fittest. How can a person hold the same viewpoint on the judgement of the fit and unfit to live and yet profess to avoid the practical implications of such a belief?

Additionally, whatever the benefit of TM to help students, it is outweighed by the risks. An organization opposed to TM cites several scientific studies conducted. For example, one study in 1992 reported adverse affects of TM on a clear majority of the participants.

These adverse effects were relaxation-induced anxiety and panic; paradoxical increases in tension; less motivation in life; boredom; pain; impaired reality testing; confusion and disorientation; feeling 'spaced out'; depression; increased negativity; being more judgmental; and, ironically, feeling addicted to meditation.

Another study in 1989 reported,

uncomfortable kinesthetic sensations, mild dissociation, feelings of guilt and, via anxiety-provoking phenomena, psychosis-like symptoms, grandiosity, elation, destructive behaviour and suicidal feelings.

Instead of promoting peaceful creativity, it seems as though TM can induce states similar to that of the Columbine killers or the Virginia Tech psychotic, who claimed 32 lives just two weeks ago.

The connection between Harris' Darwinian manifesto and the Hindu Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's judgement on who is fit and unfit to survive combined with the documented side effects make for a destructive, or even a volcanic mixture. Yet they want to preach the TM message to a million public school students and they could end up doing much more harm than good.

Reid Their Lips: No Lost War

I'm just a kid, really, when it comes to understanding history. I don't have the understanding that many more people many years my senior have gathered with their age. Yet when I consider that a politico from two states over declares emphatically, "This war is lost," I have reason to doubt him. History will judge Reid for his statements last week. I, for one, can't imagine Reid saying what he said to the thousands of men and women in our armed forces in Iraq right now, who have provided an informal response. If Usama bin Laden and Mullah Omar are high on their list of operatives to capture, Senator Reid may have displaced both with his remark.

Still, it's helpful to have a someone like Reid to straighten us out on winning and losing in war. A career politician from Searchlight, Nevada is completely qualified to make such a summary judgment of the situation. He is eminently more qualified than Bush, a former national guardsman used to training and combat drills. I mean what are those good for, anyway?

Sarcasm aside, I really wish the liberals and conservatives would both clam up and let the commanders and generals work the problem. Iraq is difficult enough to manage without having a gaggle of big-wigs second-guessing your decisions. Who knows? Maybe we'll see some real progress with the additional manpower. Pinching off the cashflow only hamstrings our troops and provides aid and comfort to the enemy. I'm truly frustrated that the political grandstanding by the Dhimmicrats has gone this far. Oh, and Sen. Liebermann, that does not include you.

Oklahoma Teachers Suffer From Offensensitivity

I agree with Tia, it seems like the legislator's remark struck a nerve.

Nifty Video To Wow The Kids

Catch this nifty video from freehomeschoolvideos.com of an octopus camouflaged and how quickly it switches from hiding to flight. Isn't God's work cool?

What Little Boys Are Made Of

Caden Thomas, a 4 year-old, was playing near the sidelines at an intersquad collegiate football game when he got slammed into a padded wall because a play went out of bounds. Fox News has snapped up the story after a few days in the local media headlines here in Colorado. Apparently the little guy had a huge gash in his forehead. They took him to the hospital where, aside from the obvious wound, he was okay. He's even started talking about the experience a little bit.

"It was kind of scary 'cause I got bonked by the football," the boy said, hugging his own football. "It kind of hurted."

As a parent, nothing scares you more than when you know something's wrong with your child. The day we brought his little sister home from the hospital, my then 4 year-old son fell while playing in the backyard, cutting a gash in the back of his head that was over an inch long. I had been sleeping upstairs, recovering with my wife from three sleepless nights in a hospital room, when my mother came in and woke me up by saying, "Steve, you have to take your son to the hospital."

Who needs caffiene when you've got adrenaline?

When I got him to the hospital, we checked in at the station and waited in the ER waiting room. No one had been right there with him while he was playing, so I began asking him what happened. He told me he couldn't remember.

Adrenaline boost number two kicked in.

Doing my best to keep my voice level, I told him it was important for him to remember and tell me what happened. Again, he said he didn't remember. Then a light clicked on over my head. What was it like being a 4 year-old in this experience? Aha! I told him, "Bubba, you're not going to get in trouble."

"Well, I was standing on the bike [tricycle], when I fell."

Bubba had been warned before about standing on his tricycle. He actually thought I would discipline him for falling! But that's how we think when we're guilty. We're convinced that we're going to "get it" because we made a mistake. I'm persuaded that God knows our hearts, he knows when we know we've screwed up and he doesn't bring correction unless we need to learn something. God disciplines those he loves as sons, but as the world's best parent, he knows when his sons need correction.

I held Bubba's hand as he lay in the room getting his stitches and let him know that falling off the trike was more than enough of a lesson for him. A few weeks later, following the doctor's instructions, I removed the stitches and he was good as new, much like Caden will be in a few weeks. Boys, it seems, are made of Nerf foam and rubber, and thank God for that.

Prayer Needed For A Family

Keep these folks in your prayers. It's a terrible tragedy. Dads, hug your loved ones extra tight tonight.

Oliver North - Confronting Evil

I am convinced that we are going the wrong way with Iran. Diplomacy would work with rational people, but not Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. That's why Oliver North's column on TownHall.com this week struck a chord with me. If we fail to take this despot's power away from him, one way or another, he will attack us and Israel. He's said so. In a post 9-11 world, why don't we believe him?

Tips For Parents Regarding Kids and Blogging

A lot of parents out there have kids who want to blog or have already started blogging. I found some good tips at family.org on safe blogging for kids and thought it might be of interest.

I've had a lot of talks with my daughter about what is okay to put up on her blog. At 11 years old, she knows that the internet has a lot of malevolent folks that don't have her best interest at heart. She also understands that anyone can pretend to be a child or say things that will attempt to gain her confidence.

I have my own safeguards in place for her that go beyond the above suggestions. For example, I monitor her e-mail and keep up on it. Even then, there's no guarantee I can absolutely protect her, and for how long? Do I continue to monitor things when she's 20 years old? At some point, areas I trust her in are going to grow and I'm going to watch it less and less until she's able to manage things on her own. I will trust her more because she and I will continue over time to talk about the situations that come up and I'll offer my advice and she'll learn how to think through things. That's mentoring. That's homeschooling. That's growing a kid into an adult.

Alec Baldwin's Mouth Lands Him In Trouble...Again

This is inexcusable.

I try not to pay attention to celebrities. Unfortunately, they have power in today's culture and as such, cannot be ignored easily. For good or ill, celebrities affect the way people think. I can't imagine having Alec Baldwin for a father. The histrionics of such a man would make life at home practically insane. The man allegedly swore that would leave the USA if George W. Bush was elected, and then reversed himself (just when I almost had enough to pay for his plane ticket).

Now Citizen Baldwin has fouled up again. This time, according to Fox News, he was caught on tape calling his daughter, Ireland, "a rude, thoughtless pig." His profane, caustic tirade rips into her and her mother, ending with the promise that he will come out to Los Angeles to "straighten her out." Any behavior that a parent finds to be problematic requires a rebuke, but this goes far beyond the bounds of reasonable parental chastisement. Even in our anger, we parents have the ability and the duty to restrain ourselves from such destructive, abusive language.

We all say thoughtless things. We all regret rash words we've spoken in the heat of the moment. Yet Mr. Baldwin is an actor, someone trained and capable of emoting whatever the script may call for. As such a professional, he can calculate his delivery. Why he failed to do so in this case is a question none of us can answer. I know that if I had said such words to my daughter, it would devastate her. It would take her months to recover and she would have a lasting scar on her heart. I am sorry for such words aimed at any daughter. No daughter anywhere deserves such abuse, no matter her faults. A profanity-laced tirade only destroys what relationship a father might have left with his child. I'm not Dr. Phil, but even I know there are better ways to deal with bad behavior. Maybe Mr. Baldwin should look for help with his family here. Then again...I doubt he would listen to them.

Embracing the Superhero Within

There are a lot of shirts out there these days with sayings on them. A lot of them are witty. One of my favorites is on a camoflage shirt that says "You can't see me." Unfortunately, a lot of the shirts are disrespectful or even rude. Because one of our foundational character traits that we try to build in our children is respect, we don't let our children wear anything that demeans them or the people they meet. Still, we do have some shirts with sayings. My youngest daughter has a shirt that boldly labels her a "social butterfly" and it couldn't be more true.

Likewise, my son has a shirt that I picked out for him. It says "I'm like a superhero, just without the super powers." Even though money is tight, I bought it for a reason: I want him to believe it. He's a boy, and boys need to believe in superheroes. In the same way, men might not believe in superheroes, but they need to at least believe in the virtues they represent. I want my son to internalize the good values and character that lies within every true superhero. There will come a time for greatness in my son's life, and because of that, I want him to be ready. How can you be ready for greatness and not believe in those qualities?

Camping in the Cold

Every so often, I get an e-mail from Todd Wilson, the "family man" in Indiana. He and I have a few things in common. He is a homeschooling dad and he also has his own ministry called FamilyMan Ministries. His e-mail yesterday struck a chord with me, so I thought I would share it here.

Hey Dad,

Spring is here! It’s nice to feel the warmth as we tool down the road in the Familyman Mobile. Actually, the RV does well in the cold. All you have to do is make sure you have plenty of propane and everything stays nice and toasty.

So you can imagine how cold we were when we ran out of propane about 2am one 35-degree night in the middle of a Wal-Mart parking lot.

Actually, if I completely covered myself with all the covers it wasn’t too bad…but I knew the kids had less blankets than my wife and I did.

“They’re tough,” I thought to myself, “and they’re kids…they like the cold.”

From underneath our makeshift tent, my wife mumbled, “Put our comforter on the girls.”

I hesitated, hoping she’d think I was asleep…or frozen to death.

She didn’t buy it, and a few minutes later my girls were snug as two bugs.

In the early morning hours, I slipped out before everyone was awake and picked up a little space-heater (reason #238 of why it’s good to camp at Wal-Mart). As I set up the heater, Katherine (10) looked at the nice, cozy comforter tucked around her chin and said, “Thanks, Dad, for giving us your comforter.”

A twang of guilt moved in my heart. “I hope it made you feel warmer,” I responded.

Silence followed, and then she looked into my eyes and asked, “Were you cold without it?”

I smiled hoping she wouldn’t know the ugly truth - that I didn’t want to give it up, but she asked the question again. Her adoring eyes and tone in her voice told me that she was really saying, “You gave up your covers for ME? You were cold so I could be warm? I can’t believe you love me that much.”

She loved me for my sacrifice…although I didn’t want to make it.

That’s the kind of love my wife and children really want. The sacrificial kind. The kind that misses a business meeting to have lunch with them, turns off the ballgame to play a game, or gives up one of my comforts to bring comfort to them.

Here’s the truth: Greater love has no father than this, than a dad gives up his comforter for his kid.

So, I’m going to look for things that I can willingly (or not so willingly) sacrifice for them…because they’re worth it.

Go and do the same.

You ‘da dad,
Todd

PS – To check out the latest RV blog, go to http://familymanweb.com/rvblog.htm

I too have known those cold nights. One time, we had taken our church youth group camping in the mountains. It was our first trip with the group and we went to a campground that they picked out. I knew we were in trouble when we hit the Fraser River valley near Winter Park. Fraser has a long standing reputation in Colorado's backcountry as an icebox. All the cold air from miles around settles in the valley and lowers the ambient temperature by at least 10 degrees.

We got on a forestry trail and followed it in the direction of Byers Peak. When we stopped, I knew that we were still in the valley and the night would be cold and long. It wouldn't have been so bad, but we had taken our 4 month old daughter with us. We put up camp and I slept or dozed until about 1 a.m., when my daughter's cries and my wife's complaints about the cold made me realize that there was no way we would make it through the night.

I emerged from the tent, my flashlight illuminating my frosty breath hanging in the night air. I got our hearty assistant Mark and told him I had to take my wife and daughter into town to search for shelter for them. I drove them out the forestry road to the highway and searched one town and then another. Every room was booked. Finally, I remembered Camp Chief Ouray, a YMCA of the Rockies camp. They had everything from campgrounds to sparsely furnished hotel rooms. I found it and booked my wife and child into it. We got them in and cranked the thermostat. I knew I had to head back to our camp, but I grabbed a hot shower to help counter the night's chill. In the morning, we all crawled out of our tents.

"Where's your wife?" one of the kids asked. Apparently, she could sleep thought an ice age.

"Remember what I told you about Alferd Packer?"

"Yeah, right."

"Acturally, I took them to the YMCA camp. It was just too cold for my baby girl."

"Why didn't you stay there?" another one asked.

"Someone had to keep an eye on you guys." In truth, I knew that if something went wrong that night, I wouldn't be able to explain why I was sleeping in a cozy bed, miles away from where I had left the kids. It was not an easy night, but sleeping bags, even those rated for freezing temperatures, feel much better after a hot shower, especially if you don't tell anyone about it.

Virginia Tech Convocation Sadly Fell Short

When the students at Columbine High School met at Clement Park, a park I used to visit often, the majority weren't chanting Buddhist prayers or calling the Muslims to face Mecca and pray. What I do remember was dozens of students in worship of one name: Jesus. Sam Matherne, a girl in a group of approximately 120 students cried out, loud enough to be heard,

The only way you'll get through this is through Jesus. If you don't have Jesus, get Jesus. You don't know if you have tomorrow.

In two days, that shooting will be 8 years ago. What has changed since then?

Plenty.

A Muslim cleric, a Buddhist community leader and a Jewish speaker quoting Ecclesiastes spoke at the Virginia Tech Convocation in Blacksburg, Virginia yesterday. Finally, a Lutheran Minister batted clean-up, trying to help these stunned, grieving college students with exhortations to pull together.

Excuse my bluntness, but it's needed: Get a spine!

Buddha is dead. Has been for a long time. Mohammed, same thing. Jesus? Uh-uh, you aren't going to find a skeleton in his closet. He pulled his bones out of the grave right after he grabbed the keys of death and hades. If I'm not mistaken, we just celebrated his "coming out" party. It was called Easter. Jesus has the power that these other pretenders only dreamed of having. Resurrection power isn't found in Buddha or Mohammed or Krishna or money or possessions or sex or corporations or even in our friends and family. You can be the most loved person on earth and be destined for hell, because we all sin. There is one way to meet God and not find yourself dispatched to hell: call on the name of Jesus.

Romans 10 puts it best:

For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?

Indeed, how can they hear without someone preaching the name of Jesus to them? Attendees at the Virginia Tech Convocation were sold a bill of goods today. They never heard the one name that saves, the one name that is above every other name. They didn't hear about Jesus yesterday, and it was a black day in Blacksburg.

Prayer Needed For a Little Boy

Update 4/20: His name is actually Knox Anderson. Details got mangled, apparently. He is still alive, but the doctors are still not giving hope. Updates are being managed via his family's church on their website.

---

I just found out through the grapevine that a 2 1/2 year old boy, Knox Anderson had a near-drowning after filling the bathtub without his parent's knowledge. Right now, doctors are not giving much hope. His brain has swollen and his lungs are still filling up with fluid. The doctors believe that his injury will either kill him or make him a lifelong vegetable. God is greater than the doctors and he has a knack for making doctors and other professors to be fools.

• Please pray for Knox that he will have a miraculous recovery and no irreversible brain damage
  
• Pray that the doctors will have supernatural guidance and that they will work with God to heal this boy
• Pray for his parents that whatever happens, they will have a supernatural peace and protection over them, that God's words of comfort and love would surround them and that they would turn to God for their needs moment to moment as they wait and watch over their little boy

It tears at this father's heart, but I've included this picture. Print it up if you need to so that you will remember to pray for this boy and his family.

Knox Anderson

A Sad, Bitter Worldview For An Atheist

A friend pointed me to Kurt Vonnegut's interview from 2003 on the state of the world. I replied to him, in part, "When you cut God out of the picture, what you have left is total despair."

Fighting A Stomach Bug

We're fighting a stomach bug this week. It's a rough one, affecting both ends of the GI tract. It's highly contagious too. My son had it, then my wife, and a couple hours later I started showing symptoms. Now we find out we gave it to my folks when they stopped by the other day. This is not fun. It takes 48-72 hours to feel even close to normal. The real bummer is that this is the birthday month for our kids and they all have felt this bug to some degree. Hopefully, we'll be over it in a day or two and everything will be fine.

In the meantime, we'll just keep on working toward "normal."

Virginia Tech Massacre

It's all over the news. Cho Seung-Hui, a South Korean student at Virginia Tech killed 32 people before committing suicide on the Virginia Tech campus yesterday. Sure to follow are questions that typically start with the word "why." Why did he kill people he apparently didn't know? Why did he attack someone in their dorm room? Why would God let this happen?

Having gone through the impact of Columbine on my own city and state, I know that the answers will be slow in coming, if they come at all. It's so painful to even contemplate the actions of this man. Apparently, he was cold and methodical in his attack and in his wake, he has left hundreds and thousands of grieving parents, siblings and friends.

Pray for the people in Virginia. Pray that God would use this tragedy to help many to come to a hope and a future in Him. Pray that the vultures that circle the campus would be denied any more victims. Pray also that the media circus that is sure to follow for the next few weeks would be restrained and respectful of everyone involved.

Nominated? Me?

Someone nominated me for the Best Dads Blog at the Homeschool Blog Awards. I really was surprised to find out about this. Whoever nominated me, thank you for the compliment!

Update 11:34 PM: One of the folks behind the Homeschool Blog Awards is dealing with a brain tumor. I'm not sure I could walk through this sort of challenge...certainly not without His hand.
HT: Spunky

Okay, Kids, Get Yer Wetsuits On!

A friend forwarded this on to me. I checked it out and yes, Google Maps is crazy. Ask Google Maps for directions from New York to London and check out step 23. It works for other locations using this unexpected routing. I even plotted a course for San Fran Nan to a place where they'd really appreciate her.

Creater of BC Comicstrip Dies

Johnny Hart, creator of the B. C. comic strip, died yesterday on Holy Saturday. For years, Hart’s work has graced the pages of most of the nation’s Sunday comics. He drew criticism for using his medium to spread his religion, Christianity, something artists have been doing for around 2,000 years now. Hart drew such comics B.C., before Christ, his King as an artist performs before his patron. He’s one of the many that I look forward to meeting.

HT: MM

Democrat Candidate John Edwards to Homeschool

Gena has the details...

Understanding The World Of A 3 Year-Old

My recent travels have helped me remember that plumbing technology is advancing. Have you noticed that toilet tanks keep shrinking? Yet they're getting more powerful. The one I just visited is the only one I know (yet) that you have to brace for a recoil when you fire/flush it. I have to wonder how the plumbing copes with supersonic...uh, toilet water.

The science behind it is pretty obvious but something only low-flow toilets demanded. Air is compressed in a chamber in the tank by the flow of water from the fill valve. Open another valve to flush and boom! you have just fired water down a sewer pipe. I wonder what would happen if the air tank ever failed. It could have life-threatening implications.

Tonight, my 3 year-old daughter and I had a candid discussion about going to the bathroom and it was amazing how honest and frank she was about things. She was completely unaware of how such conversations hardly ever take place (outside of a doctor's office, anyway). It was a way for us to relate and understand how some things are the same whether you're 3, 33 or 93. My kids need to know that I understand that just like adults, they have challenges too. For them, every challenge is bigger than the first. Every obstacle is higher, wider or just plain out of reach. They can't wait to be 4, 5, 12 or 16, when all their problems will disappear.

It seems like every day, whether we're children or adults, we're always thinking about tomorrow, or next year. Few and far between are the moments when we get the chance to really just enjoy the now. We are always looking ahead or behind. I think that heaven will be so unlike that. We will move from moment to moment, enjoying each to the fullest. There won't be any daytimers, any calendars or schedules. The objectives and to-do lists will be relics of an era when things like that were considered important.

Being disabled has taught me some about living life in the moment. My fibromyalgia prevents me from making commitments by and large. Seldom do I find myself living life on a timetable like I used to do all the time in my former line of work. That was all about planning and steps and accomplishments. Now I am simply looking for a few good hours, a couple of good days to produce some work. Yet, I'm not always able to do that. It seems like my to-do list has been replaced by a way of life that is beyond my control, for the most part. Instead, I simply go from moment to moment, mindful of what needs to happen but in a place where I must have a forced patience with an unwilling tool--my body.

Maybe, in a way, I'm back to some of my daughter's challenges and frustrations. It seems like she wants to do certain things and then, strangely, she's forced to do something else, like get in the car and go to the store. Entire hours of her day vanish at the whim of someone who doesn't communicate the day's agenda in advance. Likewise, my body takes me down with little warning. I can feel it getting worse and I feel like saying--just like my daughter, "No! NO! I wanted to do this! Why can't I do this?" Yet it has to be the way my body says. Maybe I'm in this place for a reason, and maybe it's not just for my own benefit. I sure hope so.