Friday Follow-up

Here's a Friday Family Photo--taken about 2 weeks ago at our little family gathering to celebrate my husband's birthday.



Taxes were due this week. In 1919, P.G. Wodehouse observed: "The only difference between the United States government and the ordinary practitioner in a black mask was that the latter occasionally left his victim carfare.

John of the Cross, after his ordination (in the 1500s), traveled nearly 18,000 miles all over Spain, mainly on foot.

"When millions of people are going hungry, it's a crime against humanity that food should be diverted to biofuels," said India's finance minister, quoted Monday in the Wall St. Journal. Not to be out done, the Turkish finance minister said, "The use of food for biofuels is appalling."

Richard at 3 score and 10 blogged about why it is important for men to learn to put the toilet seat down. At the coffee shop I see that women runners come in to use the restroom about 10 times more often than men (or maybe there are more of them at 7 a.m.) In the medical literature, this is called urodynamics.

The fourth reason to vote for Senator McCain is that he says (now) that he will keep the Bush tax cuts. Sen. Obama needs to go back to math or economics class. He says he will cut taxes for the middle class (earning less than $200,000), but his plan (according to WSJ today) will actually raise middle class taxes because 47% of all tax returns reporting capital gains were from households with income below $50,000 (that'd be us), and 79% came from households with incomes below $100,000. He wants to raise the capital gains tax even though it brings in less money because "it's fair." Not being a boomer, perhaps he hasn't noticed how many will need to be living off their investments.

"People of all colors and income levels don't hate the rich. They want to get rich." Jack Kemp, WSJ 4-17-08

Randi Rhodes is the foul-mouthed, ranting profane anti-Hillary talker on AirAmerica. She's 49. Give her a break. She's probably having hot flashes. Anyway, she was fired for her "comedy" routine on her own time. That doesn't seem fair, and I know liberals are all about fairness. Also, I think she was the only show on that sorry network that had listeners. Liberals love trash talking, especially from women. She probably thought she was safe since an Obama supporter, Charlie Kireker, bought controlling interest.

"Jesus is a liberal" and "Grandmothers for peace," are two bumper stickers I saw on a flashy convertible. Rich Democrat Anabaptist?

Joe Rosebrook, 33, is in the Logan County jail charged with conspiracy to commit murder. His father, also named Joe Rosebrook, is currently serving a sentence on the same charge. Little Joe has droopy eyes, long hair, and a scruffy face--Big Joe may look a bit better if the prison has standards.

Sunset Cemetery west of Columbus has a large grave stone in the shape of a loaf of bread. It memorializes the life of a man, called the Bread Man, who took food to the poor on his own dime and effort--not the USDA's (our tax money).

Today I'm having lunch at Spageddies Kitchen in Hilliard. I've browsed their menu, selected what I want to order, checked out the map, and read about the benefits they offer employees (really good!). I needed a log-in to read the annual report. I have also e-mailed the corporate office and suggested they give their web designer a raise, because it's beautiful, clear, easy to navigate and librarians could learn a lot from them.

Everyone afraid of temperatures who thinks global warming is to blame for too much cold or too much water needs to read Patrick Michaels' article in WSJ today. Did you know that one of the reasons we have an uptick in temperature, and it's very small, is because the IPCC revised the numbers from the 1950s and 1960s downward well after the fact? There's a lot more in it, like what's happening, or not happening in Greenland. You'll sleep better after reading it, but I don't think it will stop the stampede for government grants or investments of the rich folk in phony carbon credit schemes.

The new 2009 Dodge Journey crossover has half the cargo space as my 2002 Dodge minivan, will hold 2 fewer people, has a larger engine, gets poorer gas mileage and costs a few dollars more. I think I'll pass.