Dobson’s politics

Those that know me, know that I’ve never really been a fan of Dobson’s family ideologies or treatment methods, and secretly I would love to have a bumper sticker that reads “Focus on your own damn family”. But after hearing and reading Dobson’s recent political and theological attacks on Barack Obama, I now must add Mr. Dobson’s ad hominem logic and blatant distortions on Obama to my “what-the-hell-is-wrong-with-you” list (with all due respect). I especially appreciated (and recommend) reading Jim Wallis’ response to Dr. Dobson’s politics here.

5 films to view this summer

5. Savages

4. The King of Kong: Fist Full of Quarters

3. In the Valley of Ellah

2. Lars and the Real Girl

1. War Dance

The povertization of women and welfare reform

I am currently researching and writing on social policies surrounding women in poverty and welfare reform. It is fascinating, challenging, eye-opening, and at times infuriating. Sometimes I wonder how certain policies can even make it into a political proposal, let alone become the national standard. But to avoid jumping on a soap box, I will instead recommend a book for a summer read.

The Weekend

One of the things I love about our town are the many local social and environmental events. Yesterday we attend the Sol-a-bration in downtown. A few highlights: Nate was invited to speak on environmental concerns–he did an excellent job of bringing the issue to a local scale. Also there was a phenomenal local bluegrass family band (I love family bands), that everyone should check out.

Tonight we are going to hear a talk by Scott Ritter, former UN weapons inspector and author of “Target Iran”, addressing the urgency of avoiding a war with Iran and the actions we can take. Musicians Lizzie West and Baba Buffalo will be performing, they are also worth checking out. This all takes place at Sacred Heart Church, corner of Waugh and Locust at 6pm.

interesting morning

I love the neighborhood we live in… but sometimes we see and hear difficult things. This morning we woke up to see various trucks loaded with city officials carrying clipboards and frat boys with workgloves, descend on our neighbor’s house. I looked and Nate and said this doesn’t look good. Yes our neighbor collects a lot of junk in his yard, but we’ve gotten to know this neighbor and realize this is his way of feeding of his family–fixing up old lawnmowers, selling scrapmetal, etc. So to watch the city with a wave of the pen, begin gathering up all of our neighbor’s “treasures” and throwing them in trucks to take to the dump, well my stomach turned watching this act of “neighborhood clean-up” at work.

This is one of those difficult situations… as a homeowner I do understand the value of having city codes and neighborhood standards to uphold, BUT I also (idealistically) would hope for compromise, especially when a family is trying to survive by working. I don’t think this story will have a happy ending.

(I should add that one of the city officials did compromise with an electric dryer… Nate talked him in to letting us store the dryer for our neighbor instead of taking it to the dump.)