I would like to extend a big “THANK YOU” to all who have communicated their support and encouragement. I will keep you posted.

I thought today would be a good day to urge you all to make a difference. Somewhere. Anywhere. I’ve got a few suggestions:

GiGi, from the DFW area, e-mailed this little tid-bit:

Let’s go POSTAL!!!! Payback is fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You may have heard in the news that a couple of Post Offices in Texas have been forced to take down small posters that say ‘IN GOD WE TRUST.’

The law, they say, is being violated.

Anyway, we heard proposed on a radio station show, that we should all write ‘IN GOD WE TRUST’ on the back of all our mail. After all, that’s our National Motto, and it’s on all the money we use to buy stamps.

We think it’s a wonderful idea. We think it’s such a good idea that we think you should write it on the FRONT of the envelope, too!

We must take back our nation from all the people who think that anything that offends them should be removed. If you like this idea, please pass it on and DO IT. The idea of writing or stamping ‘IN GOD WE TRUST’ on our envelopes sounds good to us. Some people are having stamps made, others are adding it to their e-mail signatures.

It’s been reported that 86% of Americans believe in God. Therefore, we have a very hard time understanding why there’s such a mess about having ‘In God We Trust’ on our money and having God in the pledge of Allegiance. Could it be that WE just need to take action and tell the 14% to ‘sit down and shut up’?

This does not require you to do anything – but not doing anything is one reason why this country is in the mess we’re in now. Don’t sit back and let it happen anymore!

IN GOD WE TRUST

I’ve added it to my e-mail signature block. After that, head over to Free Rice to do two things – test and build your vocabulary skills, and build up grains of rice (20 for every correct word) to be sent to areas needing food staples. In most cases, the sponsoring partner will purchase the rice locally to where it is being provided, to offer a double benefit. (I spent five minutes on the site and sent 2500 grains out. My best level to date is 43 [out of 60], what’s yours?) Do not go there during work hours – it is rather addictive.

Third on the list is a little something from a friend of mine. Something to think about, when someone tries to tell you that this country was not founded on Christian values:

Whether the founders followed the Christian faith or not, they understood that Biblical values formed the basis of the not only the republic but English Law, and that the republic would be destroyed if the people’s knowledge of those values should ever be lost.

This brings me to the head of the spear, so to speak. Understanding that our constitution is man’s interpretation of God’s divine law, one must assume that at times the constitution will fall short of providing adequate solutions to humanistic transgressions. When this occurs, such as the recent ruling against capital punishment extending beyond murder, and the California Supreme Court’s ruling to overturn the vote of the people regarding gay marriage, the solution is not to interject one’s opinion or to seek a populous consensus as was done in both cases, but to go to the source of our constitution; divine law.

Because secularism has pervaded our society and our nation has become mostly agnostic, our appointed judges are ruling based on a popular opinion rather than using fundamental principles of interpretation. It is very clear that in both cases, the decisions would have been exactly opposite had they adhered to the basic truths and applied biblical principles to each case. Thankfully, we are still ‘One Nation, Under God’; but that is slowly slipping away.

Hope you all have a great couple of days. Remember I won’t be around tomorrow, since TMBWitW will be working from home and I will not have access to the computer. Unless, of course, one of you wants to send me a laptop, then I can be on line all the time…

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Time, Inc. is a bunch of weasels, listen to The O Word on BlogTalkRadio, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

That is, a change in direction.

Possibly.

You see, after much thought and consideration, I placed an “employment wanted” ad on WoodWeb, a site for wood professionals to network.

I have been contacted a couple of times already, and I am in comminication with those who have contacted me. Depending on many, many factors, including what TMBWitW and I hear from God, we may end up moving from here.

I am not looking forward to trying to sell this house, leaving our church family, or leaving the railroad and then trying to find suitable replacements for any and all of these.

Maybe I’m just a real softy for our animals, but I worry most how a move would affect Logan.

You guys? I’m not worried about the friends I’ve made in the blogging world – this address wouldn’t change, and I know where to find your blogs. And, you’re tough. You’ll get by without me being here for a few days in the middle of a move. I will sure have a lot of stuff to blog about and talk about on The O Word from something like this.

And then, there is the old, old felling of uprooting myself again. Growing up, I never spent more than three years in a single school. My Freshman year in high school started out in Greenhills, Ohio, and ended up in New Madison, Ohio – from suburban to rural, from walking to school to riding a bus. And, of course, meeting a bunch of new classmates who were already three quarters of the way through their Freshman year and had been together since Kindergarten. No, no trouble fitting in there at all. Now, I’m (*%* years old (huh – looks like I get line noise even on a cable modem…) and I am thinking about uprooting the family myself. The rest of my family is kind of scattered, but mostly here in Arizona (with the exception of a brother in Utah and a sister in Ohio).

I can see there is going to be a lot of praying and talking about this. Please hold us up as we consider this. We appreciate it.

Update late Monday afternoon:

One of the conversations has ended, with a “thank you” so that leaves one, for now.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Time, Inc. is a bunch of weasels, listen to The O Word on BlogTalkRadio, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

This morning I actually got up with the alarm, and got ready for the ride. As I was headed out the garage door, MEG woke up and cried. With TMBWitW getting ready for her day, I knew that she wouldn’t be able to handle MEG at the same time, so the bike gathers dust for another day.

As is the case whenever she wakes up early, MEG is back down for a nap at this time (0730 ish). Since I am the only one home with her, I can’t go out and get my ride in now. Looks like tomorrow morning will be the re-start of my quest for fitness.

Quick reminder – Friday at 0700 Mountain Standard Time, The O Word on BlogTalkRadio, thirty minute show, and a salute to the Fourth of July.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Time, Inc. is a bunch of weasels, listen to The O Word on BlogTalkRadio, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

Hard to believe that it’s been that long, and so much has changed.

I started out blogging on Blogspot just to put my family history in electronic form – that project is still in the works, as evidenced by the lack of progress behind the tab marked “The Wisconsin Cartters” at the top of this page.

Then I started a personal blog to take my rants off the family page. That led me to meet a wonderful bunch of people – most of them still hanging out on my blogroll, some of them having signed off, one or two having shed this mortal coil – but all of them worth reading and chatting with when I get the chance. Oh, sure – like any family, there are going to be instances where some members of my blog-family aren’t going to be getting along with other members, and that’s fine, we’re all human, and if we all got along all the time it would be downright boring.

I started out with two blogs, and ended up with this one when I merged them in April of 2008. Having my own domain and full control over the blog is a comfort to me, being the semi-control freak that I am, and I have to thank Texas Fred and Robert for their help with getting this site set up.

I don’t remember who the first batch of contacts I made was, perhaps the gang over at The Notebored, a writer’s workshop headed up by Dee and her wonderful circle of fellow writers. I tried my hand at some writing projects over there, but there was something – I don’t know, missing? – and I just never really fully clicked. They are very welcoming there on The Notebored, but I don’t think I was ready for primetime. I do know that once I ran into Gawfer I ran into the best bunch of people I could call friends and a great variety of “conservatives” – from absolute white hat to situational conservatives, you can find a bunch of them on the blogroll now. Like I said, we don’t all get along all of the time, but we always have a great conversation.

I found Bill Whittle, a former liberal who started reading and thinking for himself (proof, by the way, that it can happen) and then using his talents as a writer to put our thoughts to “paper” and let us all read it and realize that “Yes, by thunder, that is EXACTLY what I was trying to say!” I still read him, when he publishes in between his super-glam life on the west coast and the movie deals and the screenplays… In fact, one of my personal favorite entries for I’m Thinking of the “O” Word was inspired greatly by Bill’s writing; specifically, my entry titled The Sheep, The Sheepdogs, and the Wolves was written after I had read his entry titled Tribes. I think it’s still relevant.

My wife, whom I refer to as TMBWitW, gave birth to our child, MEG, on December 30, 2006. I ran a babypool of sorts, and Paul at prying1 came in second while Just John (who, at the time, was going by Gunny John) came the closest in guessing the day and time for the momentous occasion. MEG is growing and running around and keeping the dogs on their toes now – the cats are not sure what to make of this little rosy-cheeked beauty that wants to pet them all…

And then in January of 2007 I read this entry on Jenn’s blog, and it just didn’t sit right with me. I started my campaign. Without funding. Trying to get a groundswell of support and momentum for a run at the White House. Trying, and failing. My feelings haven’t changed, especially now that we are guaranteed a liberal in the Oval Office, and I am seeing more and more signs of a revolution brewing to take this country back into the conservative hands of We The People. I do, however, plan to take another run at it in 2012, when the people of this country should be good and fed up with the liberal actions of the president and want to get back to being a sovereign country with absolute borders and absolute laws.

Now I have a BlogTalkRadio show called, appropriately enough, The O Word. Be sure to tune in on Friday mornings at 0700 Mountain Standard Time.

One thing about having a blog, and meeting (on line, of course, except in rare instances where you actually get to meet the fine people you blog with in person) other blog-owners – you will never run out of people to meet, and people who you want to link to, and people who may want to link back to you. Of course, having all these links is one thing, but being able to keep the connection going is another. I don’t always get to read all my links every day, but I sure try to stop in at least once a week or so.

Most recently, I was asked to join the gang over at Reject the UN and help spread that word. I don’t know how often I will be able to contribute, but I will be doing what I can when I can.

One thing that hasn’t wavered since I’ve discovered it: Wear Red on Fridays. I’ve got some way cool shirts that help spread the word, and I know that when service members see my red shirt they know they are being supported, prayed for, worried about, and generally appreciated for what they are doing.

A lot has changed in three years. I am so happy to have met all of you, and hope that you feel the same about me. We may not see eye to eye, but unless you break my commenting rules and totally disregard common courtesy, you will be welcome here. I know that there are a lot more people out there who deserve to be mentioned, and I will, on this Friday’s show. I’m sorry if I didn’t specifically mention you, but know that I think of each one of you often. Either to wonder what you are up to, or why you haven’t written anything lately, or to berate myself for not getting over to your site and leaving a comment. Tell you what – would you do me a favor, and just click on the “All Blogrolls Here” tab up there, and read through everyone who is making a difference in the blogosphere? Stop in and tell them I said hi, and I’ll be by later to chat.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, listen to The O Word on BlogTalkRadio, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

TMBWitW and I were working on cleaning up the “office” here in the house. Earlier, it looked like a war zone. There was a play pen stuffed with toys, there are two desks (one for the computer, one for the peripherals), there is a set of storage shelves built out of 2×4’s and 3/4″ plywood, and there are the remnants/beginnings of an HO scale model railroad stacked here and there. All in a room that is 11×13. The whole thing was supposed to be the railroad room, but that got sidetracked. (get it? railroad? sidetracked? i kill me … )

Anyway – I got distracted while glancing through the e-mail. Good discussion over at Texas Fred’s place and at Bushie’s place. Jump in the discussions, I think it’s going to be a long comment session.

I also got invited to become a member of the editorial staff of Reject the UN. I accepted.

So, the office is in disarray, about to be taken off-line for rearranging and a general cleaning, the play pen has been stored, and I’m tired. TMBWitW and MEG are both napping – I probably should, too.

In fact, I think I will.

Have a good weekend!

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, listen to The O Word on BlogTalkRadio, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!