That’s Elbert With An E

I received an email from the Delaware Family Policy Council alerting their mailing list to some funding hidden in the Delaware’s budget for the new fiscal year:

…hidden in the Tobacco funding, is $132,600 of our money being given to Planned Parenthood, Delaware’s largest abortion provider!

They are urging residents opposed to this to “call your legislators and ask them to vote ‘NO’ on the budget, S.B. 300 (page 106 of the budget).”

I do wonder what Planned Parenthood provides in services that would be tobacco related. Maybe someone who knows can email me or comment.

Our representatives in southwestern Sussex County are Bob Venables and Biff Lee. Here is their contact information:

Senate District 21: Robert L. Venables, Sr.:
Office: (302)744-4298/Home:(302)875-9559/Robert.Venables@state.de.us
Representative District 40: Clifford G. “Biff” Lee:
Office:(302)744-4034/Home:(302)875-5119/biff.lee@state.de.us

While I am a technology guy, I would recommend calling as opposed to emailing, although one could choose to do both.

One additional note from this email:

Join us at Legislative Hall June 30th, this Monday at 5:30pm to show your opposition to Planned Parenthood! Please call Jordan Warfel at 302-***-**** when you arrive and he will meet you at the door with a DFPC “Say NO to Planned Parenthood” sticker and provide you with details of what to do next. (Be sure to bring your driver’s license or a form of identification if you do not have a license, no cameras permitted).

You can reach the Delaware Family Policy Council on the web at this link.

UPDATE: SB300 is at this link. Here’s what I found (numbers to the left are line numbers on that page):

1 This Act makes an appropriation to the Division of Community Health for Tobacco Fund Contractual
2 Services. Of that appropriation, funds are allocated as follows:
3 $3,374.2 Tobacco prevention through Community Based organizations
4 $370.4 E-Resources Program - Delaware Academy of Medicine
5 $222.2 Kent County/Sussex County Consumer Health Services - Delaware Academy of
6 Medicine
7 $331.0 Wesley College Nursing Program
8 $122.3 Polytech Adult Education Nursing Program
9 $144.0 Delaware Hospice
10 $132.6 Planned Parenthood of Delaware (emphasis mine)
11 $115.2 St. Francis Hospital
12 $75.0 Hepatitis B Vaccine
13 $60.3 American Lung Association - Asthma Project
14 $231.5 Child and Families First - Resource Mothers Program
15 $43.2 Kelly Heinz - Grundner Brain Tumor Foundation - Awareness Program
16 $27.8 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Family Support Project - March of Dimes
17 $23.1 AIDS Delaware

That still doesn’t tell anyone what service they provide, outside of just saying they have be contracted for some services. If one were to guess that it is some tobacco education service or helping someone kick the habit, what guarantees do they have that the money is not being spent on something else?

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her… (Ephesians 5:25 )

…husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church…(Ephesians 5:28-29)

Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:4)

Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged. (Colossians 3:20-22)

Simply put, love your wives and encourage your children.

A sad snippet, but something to remind us that separation from your children can hurt.

If you have never been separated from your children for long periods of time, you may not understand, though I’m sure you share a deep love for your children. However, if you’re one of the thousands of fathers who are separated, divorced or incarcerated, you know exactly what I’m saying.

We long for the opportunity to patch a scraped knee, soothe a hurting spirit, or chase away the monsters under the bed. These little, yet significant moments pass us by as our children seem to grow up much faster when we’re apart. We would like to be there at that moment when our children need us, perhaps just once when they’re hurt from a bicycle fall or sad because of a classmate’s unkind remark—just once. But for most of us, those moments pass us by.

Sure, we have our visits, and if our children get hurt we comfort them, but visits aren’t real day-to-day life. They’re condensed time capsules, crammed with an abundance of activities, trying to make up for lost time. Just when the visit begins to slow to a normal pace, it’s time to take them home. All that fills the silence after the good-byes is the sad sensation that so many things were left undone or unsaid. You pledge to do them during the next visit, but by then she has grown so much that you need to find your bearings and get over the initial discomfort, and your visit time flies. (Randell Turner, The Hug That Changed My Life)

An exhortation:

On this Father’s Day, then, may we not only count the blessings of fatherhood, but also commit to honoring those attendant obligations every day. May we also examine the job we are doing as husbands first, and then as fathers. (Mark Alexander, Patriot Post 08-24 Digest)

I also got a gift card to The Gospel Shop in Salisbury. It will probably be used on books but if not, music will work just fine.

Finally, I’m linking to my daughter’s page. She has written something for Father’s Day that deeply touched my wife and me. Click here to see the post.

There is probably nothing to be added to the news about California’s Supreme Court overturning the will of the California people. What liberals can’t win in the ballot box they impose via the courts.

Californians passed Proposition 22 in March 2000, defining marriage as one man and one woman. This measure won with 61.4% of the vote. In real numbers, the spread between the yeas and nays was 1.7 million votes. That’s around two times the population of Delaware! The California Supreme Court said no to their decision.

Here are some widely varied stuff from around the internet.

James Dobson said in response to the decision:

“The will of the people has now arrogantly been declared null and void,” he said. “In so doing, the justices have undermined and endangered the basic building block of society, which has been honored and preserved in every nation on earth through most of human history.”

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins:

“The California Supreme Court assumed the powers of a legislative body by imposing same-sex ‘marriage.’

“This decision put marriage at risk all across the nation and again highlights the need for a Marriage Protection Amendment to the U.S. Constitution so that this divisive campaign for the oxymoron of ’same-sex marriage’ will be ended once and for all.”

From the decision:

…in contrast to earlier times, our state now recognizes that an individual’s capacity to establish a loving and long-term committed relationship with another person and responsibly to care for and raise children does not depend upon the individual’s sexual orientation, and, more generally, that an individual’s sexual orientation — like a person’s race or gender — does not constitute a legitimate basis upon which to deny or withhold legal rights.

and a reply from Outraged Richard:

Except for the fact that there are innumerable studies and psychological, philosophical, and religious writings to show that children not raised in a loving home of a married man and woman is detrimental to them.

More from the Outraged one:

The error of equating race and gender discrimination with sexual orientation discrimination is an exceptionally glaring one. Race and gender are genetically and biologically based standards that establish a human being, while sexual orientation, or more precisely, non-heterosexual sexual activity, is an extremely vague characteristic that has no immutable genetic or biological foundation.

An American Indian or a female can never stop being of that race or gender, and because those are integral unchanging human qualities there should be no discrimination against them because of it. In contrast, sexual activity, especially non-heterosexual activity, is an action that is performed, like hanging tinsel, and is subject to the same scrutiny that other acts are under—some of which have been declared unlawful.

Some pages of note: Hot Air | Prop 22 on Wikipedia | Citizen Link | Protect Marriage (CA)

donviti at DelawareLiberal.net pointed out a Today Show story that says…

For one species of flatworm that lives in the gills of freshwater fish, monogamy is the rule. But for humans and every other living creature, biologists believe nature prefers that man and beast have multiple sexual partners.

It would appear that they are trying to come up with excuses for the former Democrat Governor Eliot Spitzer:

With that in mind, some biologists say we shouldn’t be too surprised when public figures like former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and others get caught cheating on their mates.

We may just be wired that way.

I would guess that someone can’t help it if he/she were to cheat on their spouse. It’s in the genes so they have to do it. They have no choice. Right?

We all have choices to make. From the report:

…humans do have the ability to override their genetic and biological programming. And, studies show, most people do…

and further:

Both agreed that “biology made me do it” isn’t an excuse for infidelity.

“We have to be realistic about our human nature. We have these impulses to stray,” said Buss. “But we also have inhibitions against straying and the ability to choose whether or not we do.”

Those “impulses” are part of that thing known as the “sin nature” in man. All of mankind is under this curse of the “sin nature” because we sinned against God. Believing in Jesus, who came to earth to rescue us from this sin nature curse, allows us to tap into the power to overcome those impulses.

And to all this, I add Romans 8:12-14 (NIV):

Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

Let me close this with one additional thought. With regard to sexual behavior, I don’t think that you can compare humans with animals and other creatures. Humans are unique in the earth in that they are created in God’s image:

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:26-27, NIV)

A mother in Des Moines, IA recently sold her son’s car after finding alcohol in it. Here’s an image of the ad:

Great job, snoopy mom!!

Stories are here and here.

There was a fire at a home on E. East Street in Delmar, MD on Sunday afternoon December 9. The home belonged to Eric and Sonja Shires, members of the church we attend. The Fire Marshall declared the home a total loss. This has displaced Eric, Sonja, their two children, and two other family members. They have a couple of needs, particularly they are looking for a 4 bedroom home in the Delmar area. Their pastor, Jim Brown, is asking if anyone would like to make any donations to do so in the form of a VISA gift card. Please contact Jim Brown if you can help. Thanks.

The letter I received from Pastor Brown is here.

We had a great time with our families on Thanksgiving Day. Preparing the dinner was hard work as always, rising early in the morning then collapsing early in the evening from the early rising. My wife discovered something that I didn’t know. While I have used Wikipedia frequently for general reference information, I didn’t think I’d find a recipe for Lemon Meringue pie in there. Cool.

And I’m sorry Doug, the Detroit Lions lost another one.

UPDATE: Found this site on Rush Limbaugh’s web site: Thanksgiving World