Conestoga tour to Mansfield May 17—Reformatory

Conestoga is  “friends” group that supports the Ohio History Connection (formerly Ohio Historical Society) and we take tours and raise funds to support research and preservation on our history.  On  a beautiful sunny May 17 after a very cold Spring we met at the center at I-71 & 17th Avenue, boarded a bus, worked our way through a traffic back up  and arrived at the Mansfield Ohio State Reformatory about 10:30. Our guide/docent who has a degree in history and anthropology carefully explained the history of the building, the wardens, the architect, and some escapes and threw in a little information on the four movies filmed there after it closed in 1990, especially Shawshank Redemption (1994).  Another guide, who was not on our tour but who talked to some of the members who could not take the physical demands of the entire tour (lots of stairs) was a former “resident” of this reformatory when it was still in service. He now works there and lives in Mansfield.  Most of us cared about the history, but other tourists come there for the movie history and paranormal gatherings—it is very spooky.  Some administrative areas have been restored, but it’s very expensive. The building was slated to be torn down, but a preservation group saved it.

 

 

 

Dyson vs. Peterson in a debate

The comments on the debate between Michael Dyson and Jordan Peterson are better than the debate. Dyson lost clearly because he said nothing and the audience noticed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XdQZkCdd2M

“The left dominates academia, the media, the tech industry, politics and Hollywood and yet they think they are the have nots while at the same time everything they cry about regardless of how delusional it might be gets transcribed into law.  At the same time the ones they cry about are getting jailed for voicing their opinions on Facebook.”

“Dyson, spewing word salads.”

“Michael Eric Dyson, that was an embarrassing sermon. It's good people like you speak, because you expose more and more how racist you are, and how bereft and empty the Left has become. You have nothing to offer except political correctness and identity politics.”



Tom Wolfe

I've had this issue of Biblio (v. 4, n.2 1999) for 20 years.  I suppose I should read it.  Tom Wolfe died this week. https://evolutionnews.org/2018/05/farewell-tom-wolfe-boldly-told-the-truth-about-evolution-and-intelligent-design/

Wikipedia’s liberal bias

You can read the whole article, but here are 2 good examples of the liberal bias of Wikipedia, a source virtually everyone uses even if they deny it: Coulter vs. Moore and Beck vs. Olbermann and how their personal lives and career are treated in the Wikipedia entries. This article is from a conservative source, Frontpage, because you probably couldn’t find one from liberals making a similar charge of bias in favor of conservatives (although I think the Communist Party of the USA makes this charge about American media). Wikipedia always provides sources, but when the sources are biased, plus the verbs and adjectives are loaded, the content shows the bias. There have been a number of unflattering biographies of President Obama, yet they wouldn’t be used as the primary source of a Wikipedia account of say, his legacy.

“Consider Ann Coulter versus Michael Moore. Coulter’s entry (on August 9, 2011) was 9028 words long.* Of this longer-than-usual entry, 3220 words were devoted to “Controversies and criticism” in which a series of incidents involving Coulter and quotes from her are cited with accompanying condemnations, primarily from her opponents on the Left. That’s 35.6 percent of Coulter’s entry devoted to making her look bad. By contrast, Moore’s entry is 2876 words (the more standard length for entries on political commentators), with 130 devoted to “Controversy.” That’s 4.5% of the word count, a fraction of Coulter’s. Does this mean that an “unbiased” commentator would find Coulter eight times as “controversial” as Moore?

The same disproportion can be seen in the former flagship stars of Fox News and MSNBC, Glenn Beck and Keith Olbermann. Beck’s entry is 7810 words; instead of featuring a dedicated “controversy” section, as in the case of Coulter, the 1789 words of criticism from leftist opponents are scattered throughout -- 23 percent of the profile.

Beck’s page shows other metrics for measuring Wikipedia bias. First, the sources: Of the 206 references, 25-35 could be characterized as leftists critical of Beck, with frequent citations from Salon’s resident Beck antagonist Alexander Zaitchik and his attack book Common Nonsense: Glenn Beck and the Triumph of Ignorance. Another telling sign of bias is the fact that 9% of the entry, or 729 words, are comprised of potentially embarrassing details from Beck’s “personal life.” Such information is often more detailed in conservatives’ entries.

In Olbermann’s 3750 word entry 199 words (5 percent) could be characterized as criticism. However it is much more muted than that directed at Beck. Of the 199 critical words 113 are devoted to an incident in which Olbermann went off on a rant against Republican Senator Scott Brown that was so vulgar that Jon Stewart stepped in, eventually causing the MSNBC host to apologize. This is a frequent element in the treatment of leftist figures by Wikipedia. Criticism from those further to the Left (or, like Stewart, higher within progressives’ hierarchy of household gods) may be included which itself “centers” the subject of the profile. Incidents where the figure apologized for his or her transgressions may be featured as a form of exculpation, transforming a failing into a chance to show the subject’s humanity.”

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/102601/how-left-conquered-wikipedia-part-1-david-swindle

What’s happening with Philadelphia’s foster care?

The City of Philadelphia is attacking the Catholics--THIS time—because it doesn’t recognize marriage between/among homosexuals. Therefore it must lose its grant funding for children’s foster care.  But in fact, federal, state and local government social services sub-contract to many different religious groups, Jews, Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, and Muslim. The problem is, you have to dance with the one who brought you. And many do.  Churches often have to compromise their beliefs, morals and values in order to get the money—to collaborate--or to even get insurance for their staff members. Remember when Obama went after the nuns who cared for the elderly and poor because they didn't provide birth control for staff? And Chick-fil-a because it didn't cover abortifacients?  I believe it was Massachusetts that planned to penalize churches that didn’t “integrate” the bathrooms because the building might be used for secular or public purposes. http://newbostonpost.com/2016/12/19/not-so-fast-massachusetts-ag-office-says-churches-not-always-exempt-from-bathroom-bill/

All Christians are commanded to do good works--some see it as part of salvation, others see it as an outcome of salvation, but Jesus made it clear--if you have no good works, you don't recognize him as savior (Matt. 25) and he won't see you as his flock. There are no goats in heaven. At one time in the U.S., virtually all community services were handled by the churches and community organizations, but gradually the government became more socialist and began copying and co-opting them (like the Peace Corps which was built on the Anabaptist volunteer model) and then doling out funding for the churches to do what Christ commanded. Gradually, churches lost their mission, and began competing for the government dollar instead of hearts.

Not accepting the grant money isn't always the solution. The government also controls the licensing and regulations for social services and all the HR regulations for staff, internships, codes, building, etc. Also, some of these agencies that the government attacks for not recognizing homosexuals as adoption candidates or fostering (it is after all supposed to be about the children) also run food panties, clothing and material outlets for the poor, settle refugees and immigrants, run job training programs, prison ministries, summer camps, disaster relief, etc., and the government can consider those "contaminated" and pull those grants, too.

So the holier than thou accusations about gay couples are really just an all out attack on Christians. Even those Christian organizations who have no problem with gay couples, just might draw the line at polygamy, incest or someone who choses another of the 32 genders.

Avenatti hogs the attention of CNN

Michael "Stormy" Avenatti, has appeared on CNN 65 times and MSNBC 43 times between March 7 and May 10 thus tragically and irresponsibly blocking their viewers from stories about Korea, the border, taxes, important judicial appointments, reduced regulations to release the economy from Obama's chains, Clinton's campaign mischief, trade deals, CIA appointments, lowest unemployment rate ever for black Americans, Hamas attacking Israel, while focusing on a man who's prostituting himself for naked attention. CNN also helped elect Donald Trump in 2016 by concentrating so often on his campaign, and it's helping his rising poll numbers in 2018, however, Avenatti's appearances are about double the time (worth billions) they gave Trump. What's in it for him--other than love of the attention?

Trump’s enemies in the media

Yesterday it was reported that Kim was unhappy about the U.S.-South Korea military drills, which as I understand, happen every year. Chuckles and jeers from the Left.  Does it seem to you that the MSM are cheering for North Korea just so they can poke fun at the President who's come further in ending the Korean War than all the presidents since the mid-50s? Really? They want more nukes from North Korea and more from Iran it seems. Whose side are they on? Has their hate for Trump overflowed to hate for Americans? The fall out will be on their supporters, too, because when bombs fall, they don’t ask about your party.

Why walking is good for you

Weight loss, toned muscles, better than running, helps the brain, stronger bones, relief from back pain, a calmer mind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ka7B3hCg08

Seattle punishes success

Seattle is driving out its lucrative, job creating businesses by creating a "head" tax on each employee so they can create more homeless camps and hopelessness. Hope they come to the mid-west. I'm thinking whoever our governor or mayor will be, Democrat or Republican, they will be smarter than that!

The Left always eats it own.

Even for leftists, this is insane, but Jeff Bezos owns Washington Post which runs 8-10 anti-Trump articles everyday, so I guess he deserves it.



https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/seattle-head-tax-passes_us_5afa53d5e4b0200bcab82fea

For my children

My new pledges

I will back up my computer once a week.

I will unplug my lap top once a week and let the battery run down.

I will floss once a day.

I will replace the head in my electric toothbrush every 3 months.

I will faithfully use my eye drops.

Hiatus

Computer in for repair.