Alternative Parents Encourage Their Children to Learn by Eating Other Children's Heads!

My very good friend Jill (on the left in the picture) was interviewed for this Journal & Courier article about an alternative parenting group she started called CHOICES (Choices in Healthy birth, Offering Information, Communication, Education and Support).

I have so much respect for Jill and all of the research she does on every single aspect of mothering, from vaccinations to diapering to nutrition.

In my opinion it's a shame that in much of America, so many of these ideas are looked down on. Why is breast feeding in public such a taboo? Heaven forbid you feed your child the way God created. And just try bringing up cloth diapering in a group of people! Cloth diapering was the only way of diapering for decades, but mention it now and you must be clinically insane and are deserving of being locked up in a mental institution. Obviously it's a much better choice to spend hundreds of dollars on disposable plastic diapers (not to mention contributing to the carbon output of manufacturing plastic diapers and shipping them), fill up our landfills with stinky poo plastic, and then wash your hands of all of it, so to speak, because "out of sight out of mind." Imagine if parents took every single diaper they used for a year and threw it in their backyard to actually SEE how much their diaper output contributes to our landfills.

Someday if I become a mother, I plan on being open-minded towards alternative parenting ideas, and I hope to find a group like CHOICES where I am not looked down upon for questioning parenting norms, and feel comfortable researching my mothering options and planning the best path for my family.

Car Song

This is my friend's dad's car wash. Hmmmm...I definitely know which side I would drive into!

Just Palin Wrong

If you haven't read this article yet, you should. Some highlights:

1)At some point in those fractious first days, Palin told the department heads they needed her permission to talk to reporters. "She put a gag order on those people, something that you'd expect to find in the big city, not here," says Naegele. "She flew in there like a big-city gal, which she's not. It was a strange time, and [the Frontiersman] came out very harshly against her."

2) "Stein says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. "She asked the library how she could go about banning books," he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. "The librarian was aghast." That woman, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn't be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving "full support" to the mayor."

3) "We like to call this the Bible Belt of Alaska," says Cheryl Metiva, head of the local chamber of commerce. Churches proliferate in Wasilla today, and among the largest and most influential is the Wasilla Bible Church, where the Palins worship.

At the 11:15 a.m. Sunday service, hundreds sit in folding chairs, listening to a 20-minute sermon about the Book of Malachi and singing along to alt-rock praise songs. The only sign of culture warring in the whole production is an insert in the day's program advertising an upcoming Focus on the Family conference on homosexuality in Anchorage called Love Won Out. The group promises to teach attendees how to "respond to misinformation in our culture" and help them "overcome" homosexuality.

Doin' What Comes Natur'lly

HEY GERMAPHOBES! Wanna spread dangerous Staphylococcus all over your kitchen/bathroom/desk/phone? Try using an antibacterial wipe. Yeah, you heard me.

Turns out, using antibacterial wipes can spread around the methicillin-resistant staph. HA!

Scientists at Cardiff University, UK have found that this surface cleaner used in hospitals, but also in germphobic households, can spread methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus when used across more than one surface. So if you're going to use it, use it just like t.p.; wipe once, and then throw away. Or better yet, don't use them at all. Full article here.