American-born impressionist Mary Cassatt (1844 - 1926) specialized in paintings depicting mothers and children. Our selection for this Mother’s Day, The Child’s Bath, is one of her most celebrated.

Last year I unveiled a very special Mother's Day photo album, which has continued to grow this year - now with 95 mother/child portraits: You can see the photos and read the moms comments at Our Little Extras - A Mother's Day Down Syndrome Celebration. Or watch the slideshow: Please send me yours if you'd like to be included! The more, the merrier!

The Hand That Rocks The Cradle Is the Hand That Rules the World Blessings on the hand of women! Angels guard its strength and grace, In the palace, cottage, hovel, Oh, no matter where the place; Would that never storms assailed it, Rainbows ever gently curled; For the hand that rocks the cradle Is the hand that rules the world. Infancy's the tender fountain, Power may with beauty flow, Mother's first to guide the streamlets, From them souls unresting grow-- Grow on for the good or evil, Sunshine streamed or evil hurled; For the hand that rocks the cradle Is the hand that rules the world. Woman, how divine your mission Here upon our natal sod! Keep, oh, keep the young heart open Always to the breath of God! All true trophies of the ages Are from mother-love impearled; For the hand that rocks the cradle Is the hand

We're no fan of McCain's, but this site is pretty shoddily thrown together. Their arguments against him aren't any good. Goofy and poorly written. "John McCain is to blame for millions of home foreclosures." No, the people who chose to buy subprime mortgages when they couldn't afford homes beyond their means are at fault. "John McCain is to blame for sending American jobs overseas to other countries." No, the changing economy is, lower-level service jobs are being shipped overseas and replaced with higher-skilled jobs here in the U.S. as our population becomes better educated (and fatter unfortunately as a result). Doesn't help that unions keep wages so high jobs are probably moved overseas faster than they would if it was a true free market.

Here's some more b.s. from the site -

John McCain will raise your gas prices to $5.00 or even $6.00 per gallon. Multimillionaire John McCain will raise your health care prices. Multimillionaire John McCain will raise interest rates on your bank loans, home mortgage, and credit cards. Multimillionaire John McCain will make it easy for health insurance companies to deny health insurance to sick people. Multimillionaire John McCain will make it easy for hospitals to deny health care to uninsured sick people.

Former conservative Congressman Bob Barr, who joined the Libertarian Party a couple of years ago after leaving Congress, has announced that he may be running for President on the Libertarian Party ticket. While Barr is a solid conservative who we greatly respect, his views on the Iraq War are a dealbreaker -

“What we’ve fallen into in recent years — not just since 9/11, but particularly since 9/11 — is this notion that, in order to protect ourselves, we have to preemptively go into and — in the case of Iraq — occupy another sovereign nation,” Barr said. “Simply saying, ‘Gee, it’s better to fight over in this other nation and destroy another nation, so we’re not potentially attacked here, is the height of arrogance.”

As for the Bush administration’s refusal to define waterboarding as torture, Barr referred to the practice as “sophistry of the worst and rankest order.”

It's unfortunate, because the rest of Barr's conservative credentials are far superior to McCain.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Most of the McCain “unity slate” delegates won positions for the upcoming national convention—scheduled for September 1 - 4 in Minneapolis/St. Paul.

McCain was nowhere to be seen today as his minions worked the crowd on his behalf and uniformed security officers, (expecting an insurrection perhaps?) were ubiquitous. A sight to behold.

The Arizona Republican Party web pages give a glimpse into the whirlwind activities.

The resolutions all passed by acclimation, to the chagrin of Paul Hickman, AZ Chief of Staff for Sen. John McCain, who shouted a loud, “No!” Several of the resolutions were strong anti-illegal immigration measures.

It was a long day. Any state delegates in attendance who would care to comment, this is your chance.

The price of ‘Forever’ stamps is going up.  On May 12, the postage price will increase from the current 41 cents to 42 cents.

With such a large influx of illegal Canadians sneaking across the border near Detroit, the Department of Homeland Security has wisely decided to employ the same vigorous controls and virtual fencing on the northern border that we have in place southwest of Tucson on our Mexican border. The Examiner gives the full report.

Ralph Nader, 74, is not a quitter. He doesn‘t like the ‘spoiler’ term often applied to him, either, as he reenters the presidential race, running as a third-party candidate. He has qualified for the ballot in Hawaii and New Mexico.

“Spoiler is a contemptuous word of political bigotry,” he said during an hour long speech to about 80 voters who gave him a standing ovation. He was on a stop through Arizona as he tries to win a spot on the state ballot, according to the daily.

 

The story from the convention is that there is no story. The official party slate ruled the day and the delegates were all well behaved and congenial. The conservatives scored a few delegates in the CD 4 voting. The state party did a good job on organizing the event. Most people were busy visting with good friends, talking to a candidate, etc to get too worked up.

1:10 Lunch is over and main meeting is back in session. The party/McCain slate won in most of the CD voting. Dean Martin is speaking to the audience now. Voting for at large delegates coming up.

10:05 Shadegg is now speaking. He is good but not quite as good as Kyl.

9:50 Kyl’s speach was very well received. Credentials reports 850 delegates. Re open for 15 minutes.

9:39 Long opening prayer included a sermon. Great rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. Kyl is now speaking for the “unable to make it.” Kyl as usually is very eloquent. Kyl said there was some technichal difficulty with McCain video feed. Not sure in McCain will even speak by remote.

I've been a fan of The Sundays since their first album, so naturally I'd fall for this L.A. jazz-inspired group.

Father of the Year award winner discusses his future political plans with Morley Safer.

The Arizona Republic reports that far left Democrat and partisan flak Tim Nelson (”ACLU Tim”) has formally announced he will be running against popular incumbent Republican Andrew Thomas for Maricopa County Attorney. ACLU Tim held a press conference Thursday attacking Thomas on several fronts. He accused him of promoting himself through his Stop DUI billboards. He conveniently omitted mentioning the billboards that his boss, Governor Napolitano, used to promote herself and put her photo on, which cost taxpayers $150,000. Or any of the many other ways she’s promoted herself as governor.

ACLU Tim said that he would occasionally enforce Arizona’s human smuggling law against illegal immigrants, such as if he needed them to testify against smugglers. Sounds like selective prosecution to me. In contrast, the article reports about Thomas,

Thomas ran his first campaign on an anti-illegal immigration platform and kept his promises by helping draft, and then enforcing, immigration legislation.

ACLU Tim said that under Thomas, the county attorney’s office fails to obtain convictions on almost 1/3 of cases that go to trial. Fortunately, the reporter covering this wasn’t lazy, and asked the county attorney’s office spokesperson Barnett Lotstein for actual statistics.

Lotstein says that the overall conviction rate has remained at about 93 percent and that the office actually wins about 80 percent of trials despite an increase in the number of cases that go to trial.

Lotstein also pointed out ACLU Tim’s lack of criminal prosecution experience, having been a civil attorney and political flak for his entire career,

He’s a civil lawyer, and the hand-picked candidate of the governor who wishes to have someone who is not quite as independent as Andy Thomas in this office.

It comes down to this: do you trust the statistics from an ACLU attorney who got them from criminal defense attorneys, or the prosecutor’s office which has toughened up crime laws and plea policies? Crime rates have finally started going down around the Valley, Thomas is obviously doing something right. Why replace him with an ACLU soft-on-crime wannabe prosecutor who will return crime levels to their prior level.

Some Web site concepts are simple and entertaining. Some are compelling, if not disturbing, while others are stupid and pointless. And many are just awesome. For honorable achievement of all the above, I present, Manbabies.

GET MORE AT ManBabies.com!

Laura Ingraham is a radio talk host worth listening to with her sharp insights intot he state of politics, culture and faith. She is an outspoken Roman Catholic and defender of the pro-life movement. Also a survivor of breast cancer. After years of waiting for the Guatemala adoption process - which her listeners id not know of - she is now a mother. Click here to hear Laura's announcement of her adoption!

California citizens, reeling under their state government's rapid financial slide, are looking at Planned Parenthood's bloated budget and recently documented abuse of our federal and state grants abortion industry handouts and saying Enough is Enough. As a 30-7ear resident of California (I returned to Virginia in 2002), I can verify the truth of the saying "As goes California so goes the nation." While this has always meant a destructive slide, some citizens of California are determined that this budget crisis may be perfect timing for finally overthrowing Planned Parenthood's grip on state finances. Following is the beginning of an email I received last week from the Coalition to Eliminate Abortion Funding. During this state budget crisis, when our family healthcare services and children's school programs are experiencing drastic spending cuts, California taxpayers request the Elimination of Abortion Funding, especially from Planned Parenthood, from our state budget. The abortion industry does

First Snowflake Family by Devon Williams, associate editor 'God's plan was well in place for these embryos, and that was a plan of adoption instead of destruction.' After years of infertility and being diagnosed with premature ovarian failure, Marlene Strege of California began to explore adoption. Her doctor recommended embryo adoption, and she and her husband, John, posed the idea to longtime friend Ron Stoddart, executive director of Nightlight Christian Adoptions. Stoddart investigated the idea and eventually created the Snowflakes Embryo Adoption program. After prayer and research, the Streges adopted a frozen embryo, and on Dec. 31, 1998, they became the proud parents of the world's first snowflake baby, Hannah. Ten years after her first Mother's Day, Marlene Strege spoke with CitizenLink about the adoption of their little snowflake. Read interview here. Click banner below for more information on Snowflakes Adoption.

Michelle and Jim Duggar have just announced their 18th - due on New Year's Day. You can learn more about the Duggar family - and even enter a contest to name their next baby - with 17 beginning with J, they're running out of ideas - here. Michelle has been pregnant 135 months of her life.

From yesterday's UK Telegraph - a Harvard professor declares that children ruin our chances at happiness: Marriage without children the key to bliss By Kate Devlin, Medical Correspondent May 9, 2008 Married life is the key to happiness, but having children can ruin it all, an international conference has been told. Couples only recover their former blissful existence once their offspring have left the nest, according to an expert on what creates joy. Daniel Gilbert, professor of psychology at Harvard University, said studies across America and Europe had shown that while feelings of happiness spike during the early years of marriage, they fall heavily after having children. He told a Happiness and its Causes conference in Sydney that parents' desire to get a return on the time and money they have invested in their children is part of the reason they persuade themselves that their offspring are enhancing their lives.

Dear Friend: Celebrate the Buddy Walk's 14th anniversary by entering the Times Square Video Contest. The video, which showcases individuals with Down syndrome from all over the world, will air on the Panasonic News Corporation Astrovision screen in Times Square on September 28 at 10:30 a.m. The New York City Buddy Walk™ will immediately follow the video at the Great Hill in Central Park. Each year, NDSS receives thousands of photo submissions for the Times Square Video Contest. Because the Buddy Walk™ promotes acceptance and inclusion of individuals with Down syndrome, the winning photographs feature children, teens and adults with Down syndrome working, playing and learning with friends and family. Please limit photos to no more than three per individual with Down syndrome. If more than three pictures are received, only the first three will be considered. For more information, or to submit a photo, please click here. The