"Parents were invented to make children happy by giving them something to ignore." - Ogden Nash

A headline on this morning's The Daily Beast:
"Polygamy, the Bible's Family Value; When the court ruled this week that polygamy won't be prosecuted in Utah...."

I know I shouldn't let it bother me, but that kind of stuff drives me crazy! To begin with, the court didn't say anything about polygamy. All 50 states outlaw polygamy and all those laws have been held constitutional by the Supreme Court. Utah also criminalized cohabitation. In this case the suit was brought by the man at the center of the reality show, "Sister Wives" who had been charged under Utah's more expansive law. He is not a polygamist because he has only married one woman, the first of his partners. The others just live with him and have born his children. In Utah that's also illegal, and that's the law the courts said was unconstitutional. If those women are dumb enough to live with a guy and have umpteen kids by him, well, stupid isn't against the law. (Insert your favorite example here.) If he had legally married any of them, only then would he have been guilty of polygamy.

Then there's the mess of interpretation that says the Bible OK's polygamy. It doesn't. The fact that it reports the polygamy of David, Solomon, and others, no more validates that practice than the account of Cain killing Abel condones fratricide.
Aaargh!

I wish people with degrees in journalism would either learn whereof they speak or stay away from pontificating on issues clearly well outside their understanding. If they made these kinds of bogus statements about medicine or U.S. history they'd be a laughing stock.

I check one of the local news sites in Grand Rapids each morning to see what's going on in our old home town. This morning the news was all about the freezing rain and its effects. Church services were cancelled all over the area, including at Celebration Bible Church, our last place of ministry. The news also talked about the widespread power outages. And that is another thing I don't miss about Michigan winters.

We lived out in the country and had both a septic tank and a well. If the power goes out the former still works but the latter does not. And if there's no water you might as well have no toilets, either. Or sink. In a 100-year old house heated by a gas boiler and radiators you also have no heat because the electric pilot light doesn't work.

The longest we ever went without power was three days. That's a long time in winter. The good news: empty the fridge and put the stuff on the back porch. Didn't lose any food. The craziest part: I had just purchased the year's day-old chicks, and the only way to keep them alive was to create a make-shift brooder in front of the fireplace. I slept on the floor next to them for those three nights to keep the fire stoked and the chicks alive.

Sunday night. Some football, some dessert (thank you, Brandie!!) and bed.