Dazzling Miniature Wonderland in Hamburg

This is an overview of the amazing, detailed miniature railroad and multi-country display located in Hamburg, Germany.

Click on this link to view the original in a slightly larger format.

I was all excited and thinking I might actually want to visit Hamburg, until I discovered that I live less than an hour from America's version of this same kind of miniature spectacle, called Northlandz. Unfortunately, Northlandz has an uninspiring website, but what a bonus field trip site for New Jersey homeschoolers!

The 10 Symptoms of Mammon's Influence

Here is a compelling recording of Episode 5 of the Renegade Christian Entrepreneur Bible Study, a study of Earl Pitts’ book, Wealth, Riches, and Money. Bruce Cook, host of the annual Kingdom Economic Summit, is teaching today's lesson. The study actually begins at about 27:00 of the recording.

Here is one symptom: Don't want to be accountable, secretive.

You will have to listen to the audio to hear the rest. For additional Christian business resources, visit Christian Business Daily.

Digg This: The Hijacking of a Life Part 1

Maybe you have wondered where I have been, maybe you haven't.

After posting daily since July 2008, I suddenly dropped off the face of the earth. I only posted a few times in February, and only one of those was not a repost of TGIF or some other article written by someone else.

I have been hanging out on Digg.

For the Christian homeschooler, the world of Digg is, well, another galaxy far, far away. You can count on seeing plenty of profanity, blasphemy, obscenity, tirades against "fundies", and the parroting of every pro-abortion, pro-homosexual, socialist platitude that young, liberated wannabes have been spouting for a hundred years. Oh, there are other conservatives, and other Christians, and I have found some of them. But for the most part, I have been wandering in the lion's den.

Populated largely by twenty-something techies, gamer guys, atheists, and liberals of every stripe, it doesn't sound like a place that would even be a little attractive to someone like me - a fifty-something, conservative Christian homeschooling mom.

And at first, it wasn't. But there was something strangely familiar about it...it has taken me this long to figure out what it was.

What it is.

It is a window back in time --back to the pre-video game, pre-pc, pre-internet, pre-cell phone, pre-ATM, pre-calculator time when I was a college student spouting the same tirades against "fundies", pro-marijuana, pro-abortion, pro-homosexual, marxist egalitarian platitudes and reading Marx and Engels, Nietzsche, and liberation theology.

Back to recession. The Oil Crisis and gas rationing. Stagflation. The Dow under 600. (Not 6,000 - 600.) Unemployment.

To Iranian students marching fifteen abreast down Peachtree Street shouting "The Shah is a US Puppet, Down with the Shah!" To posters depicting Rev. Sun Myung Moon that declared "October 30 Could Be Your Re-Birthday!" To Skylab and Spiro Agnew. Siddhartha. USSR. Abortion still illegal.

To Kent State, the Symbianese Liberation Army, Wounded Knee, Nixon in China, the killing of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics, M*A*S*H, the legalization of abortion, Watergate, and those newfangled devices - VCR's and calculators.

Let's fast forward that old VCR - where are we now?

US offering to cancel an important defense project in exchange for Russia's cooperation in blocking Iranian missile plans. Reverend Wright.

Hillary in China, an African American president, $40,000 per year college educations, Hamas in Gaza, legalization of medical marijuana, rising worldwide hatred of Israel, 50,000,000 abortions performed and counting, Octo-mom, Blackwater, Gitmo, waterboarding.

Bush and Cheney, legalization of medical marijuana, reality TV, and technology advancing at breakneck speed.

Recession, bailout, stimulus, unemployment. The Dow threatening to go below 6,000.

Profanity, blasphemy, obscenity, tirades against "fundies." And college students spouting pro-abortion, pro-homosexual, marxist egalitarian platitudes and reading Marx and Engels, Nietzsche, and liberation theology. Same song, second verse.

A really important question, then, is why is it so addictive?

Photo credit: tutorial-net.blogspot.com

Utterly Off Topic Wednesday: Wal-Mart Customer Finds Human Teeth in New Wallet

Police say the man found 10 human teeth Saturday when he unzipped a compartment in the wallet. One tooth had a filling.

Honestly, I couldn't make this stuff up. From FOX News...

read more | digg story

Jonathan Krohn: 13-Year-Old Conservative Wunderkind Wows 'Em At CPAC

I would never have believed I would be linking to the liberal Huffington Post in a million years. But I couldn't resist sharing a wonderful article about a rising conservative star who has written a book called Define Conservatism.

Did I mention he is 14 years old and homeschooled? Well, he will be 14 next week, if that counts.

Read the article, and then see for yourself. There are videos on the HuffPo site of his speech before CPAC last week.

read more | digg story

No time to go look at the article, take a quick look at this video of his appearance on FOX News.

Home schooled athletes face obstacles to play basketball

Photo: Washington Times

Rebecca Reifsnider is a 5-10 junior, a top rebounder and scorer among girls high school basketball players in Frederick County. She wants to play in college, and her coach believes she is good enough.Yet Reifsnider does not attend high school, public or private. She plays for the Frederick Warriors, a team of home-schooled students.

read more | digg story

Backdrop: I submitted this story on Digg because as a homeschooler I found it interesting. I was astonished when it went to the Digg front page and attracted no end of comments, from the sublime to the ridiculous. Homeschoolers, if your kids play sports, either on a homeschool team, a travel team, at a public or charter school, you will want to contribute your perspective to the lively debate.