If you didn't notice what happened in the first 4 weeks, Pt. 1

So everyone everywhere on the globe is unhappy with their economy, and no matter who or what party is in charge, they get blamed. There are strikes in Greece and mutinies in Bangladesh, and Cincinnati, Ohio is planning an old fashioned tea party to revolt against the stimulus plan--because where‘s the representation if no one read the bill?

The Socialist, Marxist and Capitalist economies are all in trouble. Why blame Obama, president for four weeks, instead Bush president for 8 years? Well, Bush was a Republican, but not a Conservative. Obama is a Democrat, but not a liberal. At least not as we've come to think of them. He's a socialist/marxist, and all you need to do is read what he has said in the past, what he has written, and look who his friends are and who financed the campaign. Or listen to his vague statements last Tuesday night. The program he proposed and got passed--the $780+ billion-- will amount to over $3 trillion by the time the debt is paid, and no president has matched that, not in 8 years, and certainly not 4 weeks, and he has promised more to come.

You may have your money in cash or CDs right now, but unless it's in the cookie jar, I doubt that yours is any safer than being in stocks, bonds or real estate market. And yes, the banks have been nationalized--that's what the "bailout" is. "We the people" now own the big banks--and not as stockholders. That's why they are being forced into foolish business decisions by Obama to rewrite all those bad mortgages--60% of which will fail within 6 months (Oh! those nasty predatory lenders--with gun to the head they loaned money to bad risks). That's why they have to cap salaries--and maybe yours or your industry will be next. And yes, the auto industry is nationalized too--that's why they are going to produce more "green" cars which don't make a profit. Now the government can also tell you to stop driving your “pre-green” car, even if you can’t afford a $35,000 hybrid. That way “we the people” can sell more new cars. See how nicely it works together when “we workers” own the means of production? And yes, when "children" are covered through age 28 in families earning $80,000 year, that is nationalized health care, and it doesn't touch the poor, because those new "children" were already eligible through parents' employers, and the poor were eligible under Medicaid. It's just one more way to put private insurers and private doctors out of business. The government simply needs to redefine “children” and “poverty.”

It's better to compare Bush with Clinton--and Bush was actually a bigger spender on Human Resources (welfare state, education, entitlements, etc.) than Clinton about a 2.75% annual growth during his years compared to 1.41% for Clinton. Bush lost the support of both the RINOs who always voted with the Democrats (in power since 2006). And he lost the support of the libertarians and conservatives, unhappy with the course of the war (people like Barr and Pat Buchanan).

A year ago, unemployment was 4.5% and the Dow at 14,000. Housing had been in trouble since August 2007, but mainly only that sector supported by government loans--maybe 2% of all mortgages, and that got worse. What happened Sept. 15, 2008 we may never know--I've read some "conspiracy theories" like 550 billion taken out of the economy in a few hours, and the government acted to stop it. Some say it was George Soros, some say it was the Chinese who own our debt. That totally changed the election campaign. From the beginning of Oct. 2008, Obama was the Man, and the markets, who don't vote for either party but hate instability, began to plunge and haven't stopped.

If you didn't notice what happened in the first 4 weeks,Pt. 2

Nobody wants to invest in our economy while Obama continues to threaten to raise taxes on the most productive segment that already pays 95% of the taxes, the so-called rich--those two income families that shelled out $100,000 to buy an education or business or law practice or medical clinic and are expecting to be paid for their efforts. Those "rich" families like mine who invested in businesses with our 403b and 401k giving up other things when younger.

I think the federal government--whether Bush with the Democratic Congress or Obama with the Democratic congress--needed to back off in 2008 and 2009 and let those companies in debt, banks and insurance companies included, struggle and die or merge and be bought out. President Bush failed his party and became President Hoover overnight--but he really stopped governing in October and turned everything over to Treasury and the incoming Obama administration. Hoover had 3 years of throwing money at the problem 1929-1932, Bush didn't. Then FDR continued socializing industries and the courts for another 12 years, until WWII pulled us out of it. Hoover is blamed and Roosevelt acclaimed. Baffles me. Allowing the economy to come back on its own is what happened in 1999-2000 during the last bear market. Jump starting it with tax cuts for tax payers, not tax takers, is what got it going again after 9/11.

Now, Bush did his share of "nationalizing"--like the drug benefit plan, developed with Ted Kennedy, certainly took us further down that road, and the NCLB which exerted even more federal control over local schools (also with Ted Kennedy) is another example. Both these money burners lost him tremendous support among conservative Republicans. The drug plan has just made us more dependent on less safe drugs made in India and China, and has resulted in huge profits for the drug companies. Again, these companies don't care which party is in office--they can succeed with either because the regulations and laws always work in their favor (they help create them with their lobbyists) because they kill the smaller businesses and competition. In fact, they love the Democrats because they are more likely to impose regulations whether it's on mythical global warming or the broadcasting industry or lead in toys.

No president ever spent more money on education than Bush, and although I think he was right to care about the " child left behind" all he did was make the unions and academics mad--leaving kids behind had always been their field of expertise--raising another generation of victims. Some studies show that NCLB made progress, but I suspect it's more "wealth transfer" only it's with grades and achievement at the expense of the better students, and eventually our country.

It may take years to show up, but I don't think Bush did churches any favors with the "faith based initiatives," because it has made churches more dependent on government grants, and Obama plans to tighten the screws on any mention or appearance of religion in those grants (a campaign promise he'll probably keep). Some of that had already happened under Bush and Clinton--I know 30 years ago we used to put religious literature in every bag of groceries at the food pantry. That doesn't happen today, but the food pantry is about 90% government funded--local, state and federal--10% by the churches.

American businessmen aren't stupid; they know how to make money. There are no business men in this administration and it shows. There would never be a Google or Microsoft or a Dodge Caravan if the Barney Franks and Nancy Pelosis of Congress had been in charge of the business plans. But they're more than happy to take over once someone else has figured out how to make money, and then Amtrak it. You can do that when the government is in charge.

Ben said it, not Obama

But markets respond to positive, upbeat messages, not gloom and doom, it'll-be-years talk.

"Bank stocks on Tuesday posted their best performance in almost a month, and their seventh biggest percentage gain ever, after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke reiterated that the government would keep banks solvent and said he saw no need to nationalize some firms.

Investors rushed to buy bank shares after Bernanke said there is no benefit from nationalizing the biggest U.S. banks."

And Newsweek certainly didn't help the mood blasting us with this cover. Why would they decide to say what he is now? The authors sound like whiny kids--"Well, Bush did it first." Then why didn't they love Bush? They slobber over Obama!

"We got into this mess largely because of government meddling in the economy, and because of regulations, policies and agencies that have no business existing in a capitalist society in the first place." Newsbusters

And I don't trust Ben either. He and Hank laid the ground work.

Russia's president laying off staff

Here's a novel idea. Dmitry Medvedev says, "One has to begin with oneself. The President’s administration is not the largest structure but it should show an example.” And this leader is also a darling of the press.

Some 100 employees are to be sacked from Dmitry Medvedev’s administration. This means that approximately every fifteenth worker will lose their job, since there are about 1500 people working in his offices. . .

Besides asking to work out a plan for cutting the expenses of his administration, Medvedev also recommended that the Federation Council and regional deputies do the same.

But apparently a lot of officials went to France for holiday anyway. Government officials get all the perks regardless of the country. RT link.

Finding bank failures in the library

"Works on bank failures are classed in 332.1 Banks, which has the note: “Including bank failures.” An example of a work about bank failures classed in 332.1 is Systemic Financial Crises: Resolving Large Bank Insolvencies. For more on how cataloguers in libraries are handling bank failures, see 025.431: The Dewey Blog. A very clever idea for a blog.

Men buy, women shop

For our upcoming trip, we both needed new shoes, and time to break them in. I saw there was 15% off at Kohl's today for seniors so we made an appointment for afternoon. But before I went to volunteer at the lunch room, I swung by Kohl's just to take a quick peek (an hour) and get the lay of the land. I found a pair for me that wasn't clunky and ugly trimmed in strange colors, a white tie Nike with a small band of light gold trim. I know we'll be doing a lot of walking, so there really aren't too many options if you need good heel support. I also browsed the sale items for women without purchasing anything, because all the good buys were winter clothing, and it will be hot in Israel and Egypt.

When we went together after lunch, we selected 3 brown/beige in Skechers for him to try, to replace his casual pair that is starting to show the wear of our trips to Ireland, Italy and Haiti. Because he wears an 8, he can usually find a good selection on sale. Two pair fit really well--he didn't want to choose--so he bought both. While he was checking out, I grabbed two short sleeve T's, white and blue (for me) I'd seen in the morning and tossed them on top of the shoes. In and out in about 15 minutes.

Today’s new word/phrase is CONSUMER-DRIVEN

You probably think you know what this means, however, when you find the phrase--usually in health care, technology or food articles--and analyze the sentence or paragraph, you’ll see it is used to mean exactly the opposite of what you thought.* In my opinion, it really means market and/or advertisement driven, or interest group driven, not consumer (you and me) driven. We've all laughed when told all that scummy stuff on TV is what "the people" want. Total nonsense, isn't it? They call that "consumer driven" programming. It's a soft word for "choice," except, usually the consumer hasn't made a free choice, it's been foisted on her. Someone interviewed 50 teen-agers with credit cards in the small brained crowd and found a match for their value system, then sold it to an investor. We've got a "consumer-driven," multi-use, multi-story condo monstrosity down the road from here that some city planner with the heart of a social worker sold our city fathers. So far, they haven't found enough people with $750,000 who want a condo overlooking the parking lot of Kingsdale Shopping Center.

I came across this phrase again yesterday reading a jargon filled paragraph lauding the achievements of an OSU professor who'd completed "the Food Systems Leadership Institute program." Wondering what a food system was and why someone needed to be its leader, I looked up FSLI. I found more mush words about boundaries, challenges, emerging issues, stakeholders and change agents that explained nothing--those are the same buzz words that librarians, health care workers, architects, and auto suppliers get in their workshops and conferences. But I did see the publication “Land Grant colleges' response to the changing Food System” (corrected version, Jan. 2008) had a focus on drivers and actors. A major theme was the "food system should be consumer-driven," and able to change as quickly as the environment it operates in. From there it really bogged down. See if it makes sense to you.

Today I saw an article in the paper on retirement. Seniors are choosing to stay longer in their own homes, thus hurting the retirement/nursing home industry. Now that is something I'd call "consumer-driven." The consumer has no money, the investments are gone, so they can't pay the entry fee. One night on our way home from our date spot, I noticed the parking lot at Panera's was jammed. I'd say that is "consumer-driven." The formerly two income family now has one, but still wants to eat out on the week-end, so they are choosing a less expensive venue. The consumer, not the ad agencies, are deciding.

But just about everything else you see called "consumer-driven" means the advertisers and marketers, bureaucrats and academics thought it up, and that includes all the hype about organic food, nutrition and exercise, and the "choices" in your insurance plan.

*google this phrase and see if you don't agree

Challenges to invest

This morning I got an e-mail from TIAA-CREF (Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund) encouraging me to invest more. I've already forgotten the reason. There were so many footnotes clarifying it, they outnumbered the sentences in the message. The "barrister" from Nigeria and the princess wife of the prisoner in Suckerstan who are offering me millions if I just help a little are starting to look more interesting, don't you think?

At last, someone who has read the bill

Notice how the Meet the Press interviewer continues to defend the bill, throwing in criticism for Republicans, not Democrats, Bush but not Obama. Still in the tank, but gasping for air.



Bobby Jindal.

To see how socialism will look in 10 years, check out the elderly unemployed

Today's WSJ has another anecdotal article on the economy today, this time on the elderly unemployed. Three in their 80s, one 90 year old, and a 76 year old--all unemployed. They have social security, food stamps, Medicare, Medicaid, various government social services like 27 months of paid job training--I don't think any were in government housing. In short, they are our future, because Obama is destroying our economy. He's following the pattern of the 1930s when Hoover and FDR threw money at the problem and deepened the Depression. Our pensions will be worthless soon if business can't recover. We are, or were, a capitalist country and so far all his proposals and plans like destroying our energy industry, the absurd plans to control the climate, and nationalizing banks, auto industry and health care, huge segments of the economy, do not bode well for the future of the USA. Our future is these workers. Barely getting by with all the generosity a bloated government wishes to bestow.

I suspect those in the story who have families would have help if they wanted it, or else they raised some very spoiled children. The divorced 80 year old raised 7 children, and if none of them help her, there's probably material for a novel. The 90 year old has six sons. Two of these workers took out home equity loans when things were good a few years back. Another never married and has outlived all her relatives.

Actually, the 90 year old isn't unemployed. When she quit waitressing at 85, she went into a job training program.

Getting hired isn't impossible. Dorothy Adams, 90, who raised six sons, had been a waitress. She quit at age 85 because of the physical demands. She couldn't make it on $8,000 a year in Social Security and $1,140 in food stamps, so she enrolled in an Experience Works training program in central Pennsylvania.

She got a job last year at a home-health-care agency. She drives to the homes of elderly adults who are sick and homebound. She reads them their mail, takes them to appointments, helps them dress and prepares light meals. She gets paid $7.50 an hour, plus mileage reimbursement.

Social Security and Food Stamps were intended to supplement, not support. These people did not have private pensions like 401k or 403b or defined benefit plans. If the markets can't recover under Obama, neither will we.

Human rights swept under the rug of debt

"Noting that Washington is borrowing more to fund stimulus spending, [Sec. Clinton] praised China--the world's largest holder of U.S. Treasurys--for its continued purchases of U.S. government debt." WSJ Feb. 23

How to create a Depression

. . .“while the Federal Reserve is predicting that unemployment from our current recession will remain high through at least 2011, President Obama plans to raise taxes on small businesses, corporations, and all Americans who invest in the stock market.” Morning Bell, Feb. 23.

That should make the markets respond--by going down even more. Thus the Obama Depression.

Investor's Business Daily reported in mid-October on the causes of a 6 week slide in the stock market:

• The imminent election of "the most anti-capitalist politician ever nominated by a major party."

• The possibility of "a filibuster-proof Congress led by politicians who are almost as liberal."

• A "media establishment dedicated to the implementation of a liberal agenda, and the smothering of dissent wherever it arises." And things haven't improved.Link

Lessons from San Quentin

“Real-estate entrepreneur Bill Dallas's charmed life changed dramatically when he was charged, convicted, and sentenced to five years in prison for grand-theft embezzlement. Lessons from San Quentin tells the amazing true story of how one man's life was changed for the better due to the hardships encountered at the legendary maximum-security prison. Using stories and reflections from life on the inside, Bill teaches 12 core principles that will inspire readers to use tough times to develop the character God wants them to have. “ Link

I watched him on the Hour of Power program last night. He said his Christian brothers in prison discipled him. He introduced two other parolees in the congregation. He’s now president and CEO of Church Communications network.

Update: Schuller's Hour of Power is not something I usually watch, but according to one source, he dumped his son, Robert A. Schuller, because he was preaching too much from the Bible, and not enough from the Self-Esteem Movement. Link.

The painful fence straddle at Kiplinger Connection (AIA)

The opening paragraph proclaims the stimulus WILL work (for architects). Then it’s like someone slapped him upside the head . . .that Treasury will “get its act together soon” . . . "Businesses will wait to rehire until they’re sure that any pickup in demand will last." And finally, the truth dawns.

We’ll never know if the stimulus really worked. There are no do-overs, so we won’t be able to tell what would have happened if a different path were taken.

Because recessions run their course, eventual improvement is inevitable, helped by low interest rates as well as low prices for gasoline and other commodities. But a lack of confidence among consumers and companies and the halt in spending and hiring threaten to keep the economy from recuperating fully for several years.

Throwing billions at the problems means soaring deficits and inflation later. But policymakers see those as the least of the evils they face. And it will help efforts to keep deflation from getting out of control. That would lead to a downward spiral that could get vicious and certainly would result in a much longer, deeper recession.

So, what these financial gurus are saying we're throwing money at a problem that would resolve itself in say 3 years instead of 11 or 12 if government would just stand back. And not a word about nationalizing so many industries and making us a socialist economy in the meanwhile. Which is really the excuse for this massive infusion of money. Maybe architects don't care? As long as they can play with their computer assisted design and have buildings that won't last 30 years (more jobs for the future), who cares who the employer is?

Straight out of the Roaring 20's

Soapbox Jill, a librarian/writer in Wisconsin, answers some questions you might have about Obama and his supporters with answers from the 1920 Milwaukee Leader featuring responses from the Socialist Party.

Q: Why doesn't the Democrats' stimulus bill contain more comprehensive tax cuts for consumers and businesses so we can have secure jobs to allow us to save for our future?
A: "...under Collectivism there will not be the slightest necessity for individual saving with a view to providing for the future or old age, for care will be taken of every citizen...There will be no encouragement for saving, because the accumulating of capital will be looked upon as the function of society, and not of the individual." (from "Socialism vs. Communism" by Victor L. Berger in The Milwaukee Leader, February 7, 1920)

Government funded, non-profit After School Programs

If you’d like to develop an after school program in your community, there’s apparently a lot of money. Here’s the link for government grants. You can be the director and hire your out-of-work or underemployed friends and relatives to help you. A back ground in teaching or social work might be nice, but I don't see that anywhere as a requirement. If you don't like children, you might try a different non-profit area, like finding mold, or lead, or hazardous waste.

No one has ever been able to determine what exactly these after school programs do in the long run, but in the short run they keep children supervised and off the streets, and provide adult mentors. Maybe they reduce crime; maybe they just put good kids in the path of bad kids they normally wouldn't be spending time with.

In the 1950s, my after school program was called "working at Zickuhrs," the local pharmacy, and I also had one called "working at the public library." After school club activities were known in the old days as hanging out with my girls friends for parties, overnights and picnics. When I was in elementary school I think it was called Girl Scouts, 4-H, and church choir. I'm sure the adults were role models, although we probably didn't think of them that way, and I'm sure they weren't paid. Our parents, not the government, provided the snacks, and I actually earned college money with all that adult advice and supervision from the Mayor and his wife Alice.

This definitely isn’t new to Obamadmin; the government has been using non-profits to spread the wealth for years. Bush was a heavy user of religious organizations for this. In exchange for taking government money, they were not to get preachy, which is what the church is there for. This will probably get much more restrictive under Obama--that's one promise he'll probably keep.

Just glancing through the list; in FY 2006-2008 there was about $7 billion available in just one after school snack program called CACFP; if you can throw in a little supervisory training for job skills you can dip in a pool of about $36 million through CNCS; if you’d like to educate the children on environmental issues there are numerous grants through EPA, including $25,000 from an $8 million pocket (2006-2008 years). I’ve even seen grants for getting people into mortgages in this after school funding list, although I’m not sure how that benefits the children--putting their single mom into mortgage debt instead of subsidized rental housing.

One of the "crown jewels" of after school programs is located in Chicago, called "After School Matters," and it was started by Mayor Daley's wife about 20 years ago. That should be long enough to see if it really does matter, but the fly in the ointment in determining this is that the children in the program are hand picked, and they can't participate unless they have a good attendance record in public school. Reading through a 2008 report, it appears to me it is in direct competition with several other programs in Chicago which don't get the fat cats' contributions. They all use government money, of course. But how they name it is a bit clever. For instance ASM says in a report by Sengupta

"Researchers studying After School Matters at Chapin Hall have asserted that its funding stream depends on Maggie Daley’s leadership. According to After School Matters’ audited reports from FY 2005-2006, of the $22 million in revenue received, 30% came from in-kind contributions from Chicago’s public partners, such as school and park space, while 51% came from government contributions."

Call me crazy but 51% from government "contributions" and 30% from the school and park funding is all tax money, isn't it? And $22 million a year for an afterschool arts program is nothing to sneeze at. The children are paid to attend this, so the demand is high. Then that leaves three other programs, also government funded, to pick up the slack: Department of Children and Youth Services includes the Kid’s Start and recreational centers after school programs; PARK kids run by The Chicago Park District; and Community Schools Initiative run by Chicago Public Schools. Since the Park district and the schools also contribute to ASM, it would seem to me the lesser advantaged kids are contributing to the more advantaged.

This is definitely math Chicago style. Now we see where Obama gets it.

Obama’s revolving door--FINRA and SEC

I've written about Mary Shapiro before. There is no hope for change when the fox guards the henhouse. We'll continue to have the Bernie Madoff and "Sir" Allen Stanford scandals and ponzi schemes.

"Markopolos and the subcommittee members devoted much time to laying out the multitudinous and egregious failures of the SEC with respect to Madoff. During the questioning, Markopolos was asked his opinion of another regulatory entity that is supposed to be overseeing and policing the activities of a segment of the financial services industry—broker/dealers. This one is called the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). It is a non-governmental organization run by the broker/dealers (think: fox watching the henhouse), empowered by the U.S. Congress to do so. Its powers include arbitrating disputes between customers and their broker-dealer members, since aggrieved customers are not usually permitted access to the courts. Supposedly, the U.S. Congress oversees FINRA activities.

Now, Markopolos was asked to compare the SEC and FINRA. His answer was short and pithy: the SEC is incompetent; FINRA is corrupt.

President Obama had appointed one Mary Shaprio to be the new head of the SEC, replacing the clueless Christopher Cox. I also knew that Mary Shapiro's previous job was head of FINRA, where she was paid approximately $3 million per year, plus another $5-$25 million reward for her FINRA exit. So, we have here the chief of a corrupt regulatory body, being appointed to clean house at an incompetent regulatory body. She was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate." Bob Gilbert quoted at Maggie’s Notebook

This should be a classic

Of all the blogs written on Terri, this is one of the best. It's been almost four years.

How little the lives of children matter in the legal system

In Ohio, we have incredibly oppressive, counter-productive drug sentencing laws. We have so many people in prison for doing dumb things with drugs, hundreds of books could and probably have been written. That's not my topic. This is about maimed, injured and murdered children. Here are two stories in today's Columbus Dispatch.

1) MOTHER OF BATTERED BABY GET PROBATION: The child had 27 bone fractures and cigarette burns on it. The father went to jail for 4 years; the mother gets probation and the child back. The injuries happened in May 2007; just getting to court. Link.

2) MAN PLEADS GUILTY IN 2001 DEATH OF TEEN IN BATHTUB: A man drowned and dismembered a 15 year old boy, and got the MAXIMUM sentence, 7.5 years. It was called a "domestic" dispute, because the boy was somehow related to the sister of the ex-wife. Link

But they'll put druggies in jail to rot forever.

Another meme

I found this at Gekko's site.

1. What are you wearing right now? Navy wool slacks, white collar shirt, layered with rust colored 100% cotton long sleeve open weave t-shirt. Brown Ecco tie oxfords, no jewelry except my rings.

2. What is on your mind right now? Blogging this meme. Also, I'm multi-tasking, listening to see if the dishwasher is still making that funny noise I heard on Thursday.

3. What was the last thing you watched on TV? I had one of the rerun channels on during the night. I saw several wretched "family" comedies from recent years, one about a baby being born with lots of screaming and yelling, one about a daughter that shoplifted so she could get in with the popular crowd, one about a daughter 15 who was getting her driver's permit and was driving badly because her boyfriend dumped her; they weren't very good, but I was awake with a cough about 3:30, then overslept. The converter box is working fine on the 20 year old set. Wish my eyes worked better; it's across the room.

4. What was the last thing you ate? My fabulous, thrown-together, cabbage soup with a touch of sweet-sour. See the previous blog entry.

5. Who was the last person you were on the phone with? Haven't talked on the phone today. It might have been a friend calling from Florida who reads this blog?


6. Are you a compulsive cleaner? I'm cleaner than a lot of people, but certainly not compulsive. I can see cracker crumbs and cat hair on my dark green office carpet. I've recently discovered that if I wipe some alcohol on my kitchen marble counter top, the paper towel finds a lot of dirt. I wonder if it's the old sealer coming up?

7. Zombies - good, bad, or just misunderstood? Where did that come from? Do people actually think on such things?

8. What was the last song you listened to? I was listening to Dr. Laura on a California station yesterday (streaming radio)--so it was probably her bumper music. She's not been available locally since the Gays got mad at her for saying that an adopted baby deserved a mother and a father.

9. Do you have any pets? Yes, she's getting drowsy right behind me on my office couch. I gave her a piece of cheese at lunch, and she'll be my best friend for about 2 hours.

10. What's your favoritest ice cream? Toft's Moose tracks, but it's hard to beat their Black Raspberry Bugaboo Fudge, too. I hope the government doesn't socialize the ice cream business and ruin it.

Cabbage soup for lunch

After I started this one, I thought I'd check google. Hmm. Cabbage soup doesn't seem to be a hot topic. Here's what I had. A very tired, half a head of cabbage. I trimmed off all the brown and limp, and chopped it up with a medium onion, and put it on the stove with home homemade chicken broth. I usually keep a lot of broth on hand, but the other day decided it looked a little pricey, so I just cooked some chicken and froze some of the broth. That's what I'm using. The recipes I looked through all used beef broth, some included potatoes and carrots. I have that. And I also have some green peppers and some tomato juice that needs to be used up. I looked through Granddaughter's Inglenook Cookbook, but that wasn't old timey enough.

I'm sure my mid-19th century Great grandmother Nancy (near Dayton) and Great-great grandmother Mary Ann Elizabeth (Dandridge, TN) must have kept this kind of food around the house--not having refrigeration and huge families. By the end of February, carrots, potatoes, turnips, onions, and cabbage must have become pretty boring and probably looked as limp and tired as what I had in the frig this morning.

I looked in More-with-less cookbook and found something called "Good Friday Vegetable Soup," which uses chicken broth, carrots, onions and cabbage, as well as green beans. I don't want to add any beans. I'd throw in some corn, but my husband hates corn. One of the recipes I googled was sort of a sweet-sour flavor using a touch of brown sugar and lemon juice, so I tossed in a little of that.

I'll let you know. . . but it sure smells good.

Update: It was fabulous with some crackers and cheddar cheese. That sweet-sour touch did it. Also I sprinkled in some bacon bits.

Sourcing the Morgenthau 1939 quote

At the coffee shop this morning another imbiber handed me a quote on a torn piece of paper, "We are spending more money than we have ever spent before, and it does not work. After eight years we have just as much unemployment as when we started, and an enormous debt to boot. - U.S. Secretary Henry Morgenthau. . . May 1939." Being a librarian, I looked into his handsome face and said, "Do you know the source?" And he didn't.

So when I got home I googled it, and found every conservative, libertarian and anti-Bam source on the internet is using it. That's not a good sign. Even going to a fact checking web site like Snopes or Factcheck is dicey, because even those are political, whether liberal or conservative. Someone, somewhere, must know where the original is, but with libraries like Fisher in the College of Business at OSU closing because it's all free on the internet, I don't know if I could find a paper copy. And these days, for this librarian [retired], paper is the "gold standard." Anything digitized, like all that stuff Obama promised us would be up there for us to read, can be altered. And although his staff had wiped out all the Bush stuff on January 20, they can't even get his press conferences up in a timely fashion so you can fact check. (I wonder if his IT staff paid their taxes?)

Anyway, I only recently (yesterday) began reading Alan Caruba because he'd written about coal, which is extremely important to Ohio's economy, which Obama and his green friends are trying to kill. Here's what I found in a Caruba blog.

In 1939, ten years after the crash on Wall Street, the Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Morgenthau, Jr., told the House Ways and Means Committee:

“We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. And I have just one interest, and if I am wrong…somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises…I say after eight years of this administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started…And an enormous debt to boot!”
Does history repeat itself? Yes, it does. And there is every appearance that the White House and the Congress intends to repeat many of the errors of the last Depression that came to be known as Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal.

With exquisite timing, after ten years of research, professor of history, Burton Folsom, Jr. has published “New Deal or Raw Deal? How FDR’s Economic Legacy has Damaged America” ($27.00, Threshold Editions).

To get an idea of just how bad the U.S. economy was during the 1930’s, Folsom notes that, even though the U.S. had budget surpluses in 1930 and 1931, government spending “ballooned and far outstripped revenue from taxes.” It was the Wall Street Crash of 1929 that precipitated the Depression, but it was FDR’s “solutions” that deepened and lengthened it, actually preventing any solution.

I'm guessing he found the source in Folsom's notes, but unless I see the committee report somewhere in print, I'll reserve judgement on the authenticity. Some quotes are just too good to be true, and after 8 years in office, I'm not sure Roosevelt had any people left who would question his plans. Anyone got a source?

And please, let's not give all the credit for the mess to FDR! President Hoover first did what Obama is doing now with help in the fall from Hank and Ben before he took office, spiking the unemployment to the 20% range. FDR's policies just lengthened it. If those two presidents had sat on their hands, if they'd just gone on vacation or wherever the summer White House was in those days, we'd be a much different country today. Regardless of whether we have a Democrat or a Republican in office, we've been bankrupting our country with social spending, not military spending, for years.


You can see from this that spending on social/human services levels or dips a little under a Reagan or a Bush, but it doesn't really go down. We'll be stuck with SCHIP and summer lunches for children forever, even though they've never been proven to help poor children or decrease poverty. In America, it's all about intentions, never results. If it feels good, it must be good. Which brings me back to the Morgenthau quote--got a paper source?

Update: Caruba has kindly confirmed the source from the Folsom book: Morgenthau Diary, May 9, 1939, Franklin Roosevelt Presidential Library.

Blogging from the kitchen

Today I'm sitting in the kitchen with the laptop--the one that frequently balks and quits, and I have to reload everything. I've learned over time, to not upgrade anything on it--not virus protection, not internet settings; don't add widgets or gizmos, nothing that flashes or wiggles. No music. No streaming radio. It wants to live in its own little cocoon of 2004, or whenever I bought it. So I got this e-mail from Murray, who will be my guest blogger until I can get the office computer to work (where I keep my drafts). Murray is living in Florida right now, but Spring is coming even to Illinois, wrapped in another very cold winter, and he and the Mrs. will soon be returning home to the golf links of Sunset Golf. course.

Murray sez: President Obama has been visiting some of the major cities to sell HIS plan to help people who got in over their heads and cannot keep up with their mortgage payments. His last stop was Phoenix where he assured the crowd that he has committed 75 billion towards that goal. He states that this help is only for the people that got caught up in the housing bubble or lost their jobs and will not assist the speculators, house flippers, and the people that bought more house than they could afford. (Heh,heh,heh!) Now, I would like someone to tell me just when did the Federal Government ever fine tune any financial bailout or large expenditure and track exactly where the money went? When they release this 75 billion it's gone. Never to be seen or heard from again. Just like free money for services in the war, the 150 billion PORK package and for Katrina. Anybody know what happened to those funds? They will manage the bail out just like they did with Medicare, Social Security and the National debt. They couldn't get the Prescription drug plan, the tax code, or even the simple AMT right.

Today I watched CNBC as the majority of the analysts argued why should the people who didn't do anything wrong bail out the people that did. One of our legislators responded with "these people did nothing wrong, they just got caught in the housing bubble"! Well, that statement ticked off quite a few people and one of the analyst replied, "me and everyone around me did nothing wrong but now our 401-K's are 201-K's. Who's gonna bail us out?" Excellent point that will go unanswered!

I'm sure by now you have all heard of ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. You know, they're the group that went to Ohio and rounded up anybody they could whether or not they lived in Ohio and took advantage of a weeklong period in which new voters can register and cast an absentee ballot on the same day in Ohio. You just know that they didn't round up anybody to vote Republican. Well, anyway these same shock troops will be rearing their ugly heads again. The troop hero (Obama) is dedicating millions of his PORK plan to this organization. Their next goal will be to stop people from being evicted from their homes even if it means that they will chain themselves to the front porch and refuse to be evicted. Or if evicted they will move back in. This will constitute civil disobedience. ACORN's drum beat and chant will be that they are defending these poor defenseless homeowners from the big bad banks. Columnist Michelle Malkin says "the ACORN foot soldiers, funded with your tax dollars, will scream, pound their fists, chain themselves to buildings, and engage in illegal behavior until they get what they want."

Here is a link to a video of ACORN breaking into a Baltimore house formerly owned by a woman who could no longer afford the payments after the Balloon. The bank she did business with no longer owns it and had resold it to someone else. Someone who probably had the traditional credit check and standard loan.

The lawyers will have a heyday AND your President already is aware of the tactics planned by ACORN and will see to it that they are adequately funded. This could, by itself, drag on for years.

I just looked in on the office computer. After hitting the F1 (or F2) key, after about 30 minutes a message came up about the keyboard, so I unplugged, replugged, and also rearranged the mouse just for good measure, and it seems happy now. Maybe the cat was looking for something to do last night when she wasn't sitting on my head while I was sleeping.

Going south for the decade with President Obama's Plan

Can we hold him to his promises?

No. "I will also go through the federal budget, line by line, eliminating programs that no longer work and making the ones we do need work better and cost less - because we cannot meet twenty-first century challenges with a twentieth century bureaucracy."

Actually, reading a bill line by line isn't the same, is it?

Or this one?

Third debate: ". . .what I've done throughout this campaign is to propose a net spending cut.... What I want to emphasize ... is that I have been a strong proponent of pay-as-you-go. Every dollar that I've proposed, I've proposed an additional cut so that it matches."

Rich Lowry RealClearPolitics:
If he had pledged in October to double federal domestic discretionary spending in a matter of weeks—including increasing the budget of the National Endowment for the Arts by a third, spending hundreds of millions more on federal buildings and throwing tens of billions on every traditional liberal priority from job training to Pell Grants—he'd have been hard-pressed to win at all.

The president should read the transcript of the third presidential debate. He claimed his program represented "a net spending cut." He called himself "a strong proponent of pay-as-you-go. Every dollar that I've proposed, I've proposed an additional cut so that it matches." He added, "We need to eliminate a whole host of programs that don't work."

Actually, I don't believe that if he told the truth he wouldn't have been elected. He made it over the finish line on white guilt, and blacks were voting for him 99%, and the press fell down and played dead. No, it wouldn't have mattered at all.

Some new sites to visit

This is fun to read--at least for a conservative, The Absurd Report. Seem to be a few Washington insiders present--a group blog. Be sure to read the collection of links on articles about Obama paying mortgages, and the percentage that will fail within 6 months anyway. I was going to do that one, but they've already done it.

Also I've added Hot Stuff 2.0 to my library links. He/she has corralled a huge list of librarian bloggers (540 last I checked), which are fun to look through (for me). Didn't see the Laundress', Deb's or Jill's--think you just add your name at the bottom. Librarians are really into blogging. Only about 1% are conservative, would be my guess, and that might be high. But it reflects what's on the shelves of your library.

Somehow my Bearflag League group fell off my blog--must have been in my last redesign. It's a group of California or ex-pat California bloggers. Yes, I used to live in California. Way long time ago. Alameda. Update: I found the code and added it, but couldn't get it to work in a cute little scroll box.

FISCONS blogs on the issues that affect your wallet - and the members of Congress that vote to protect it.

For once (or twice) I agree with President Clinton

After being elected on "hope" Obama has been the biggest down talker of the people and the economy I've ever heard. President Clinton has cautiously announced that this isn't the way to give people hope, and that everyone who has bet against America in its history has lost. First he gives Obama an "A" for his first month (he doesn't mind the huge ethics lapse of Obama's staff). Then he adds his "fatherly" advice--lighten up.

Former president Bill Clinton tells Good Morning America, in an interview airing today, that he likes "the fact that (President Obama) didn't come in and give us a bunch of happy talk. I'm glad he shot straight with us. ... (But) I just want the American people to know that he's confident that we are gonna get out of this and he feels good about the long run. ... I like trying to educate the American people about the dimensions and scope of this economic crisis. ... I just would like him to end by saying that he is hopeful and completely convinced we're gonna come through this."

I have never felt so belittled and distraught as I do listening to our President hem and haw his way through a speech or interview. He is throwing bad money after bad. And then he tells us it probably won't work. Huh? The markets are responding--unfortunately--just the way Obama "hoped." The markets began plunging when it appeared in the fall that Obama-spread-the wealth would be elected. They have continued to plunge because the more he destroys the economy, the more he knows the people will turn to him. Now all the gains of the Bush years have been wiped out, and Obama appears to be the big winner.

Friday Family Photo--August 1982

Is it too early, too cold, too gray to be thinking about Lakeside, Ohio, that 19th century chautauqua community on Lake Erie? In the 1980s, we liked the nostalgic 1950s feel; now we like the nostalgic 1980s feel.


This home was one of our favorite rentals. I think it's now owned by the director, Kevin Sibbring. When it came up for sale, we still had children in school, so couldn't even think about it. I like this photo because my son was standing on his tip-toes and was not yet taller than me. Now he is 6'1" and I'm the shortest one in the family. But in 1988 we did buy our own cottage, and now we can spend most of our summer at Lakeside. Here's my link for life at Lakeside.

Here we are at Lakeside (without the children) 25 years later, August 2007.

An unusual story in the Wall St. Journal

It actually criticizes President Obama, and points out how irritated and unhappy the people are who chose to live within their means, who met all the requirements for downpayment and percent of income for housing costs.

What do you expect from the government?" said David Newton, 46 years old, proprietor of DJN Management LLC, which owns 232 rental apartments in the Atlanta area. "The government isn't out there to help people who obey the law and follow the rules."

Mr. Obama "told everybody, 'I'm going to spread wealth around,' and that's what he's going to do," Mr. Newton said. Story by Timiraos and Phillips here.

Yes, it's a quote, but at least it's not from an ACORN "community organizer" who was first taking money from the government to put people into mortgages they couldn't afford, then taking money from the government to run foreclosure workshops, and now is taking money to organize foreclosure protests.

Since 1986, we have helped 45,000 families successfully negotiate the homebuying process and achieve the American dream of homeownership for the first time." ACORN website

"ACORN Housing provides one-on-one mortgage loan counseling, first-time homebuyer classes, and helps clients obtain affordable mortgages through our unique lending partnerships." ACORN Florida website

"In Providence, Rhode Island, ACORN will provide a foreclosure workshop to assist homeowners who need to renegotiate their mortgage loans. ACORN is a nonprofit group that advocates for initiatives that benefit moderate- and low-income people." Bankruptcy website

"ACORN plans local action to stem North West Indiana mortgage foreclosures." NWI website.

If you need a job, ACORN is hiring. I'm guessing the protestors in front of homes, banks, and mortgage companies are paid.

My Friend ERMA

United States Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund was authorized by President Obama after one week in office to furnish assistance under the Act in an amount not to exceed $20.3 million from the United States Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund for the purpose of meeting unexpected and urgent refugee and migration needs, including by contributions to international, governmental, and nongovernmental organizations and payment of administrative expenses of Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration of the Department of State, related to humanitarian needs of Palestinian refugees and conflict victims in Gaza. Federal Register, January 27, 2009"

Big Gay Al wonders how he missed it on the national news. Yeah, I wonder. Obviously, someone had that ready for his desk before he took his hand off the Bible.

So I went over to the ERMA website to see what else was going on, and why this was such a rush job.

Of the $20.3 million in new ERMA funds, $13.5 million will go to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), $6 million to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and $800,000 to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). . .

Today’s [January 30] contribution to UNRWA augments the $85 million the United States contributed in December 2008 toward UNRWA’s 2009 appeals. Of that amount, $25 million supported UNRWA emergency operations in West Bank and Gaza. The remaining $60 million supported UNRWA’s services for 4.6 million Palestinian refugees in the region, including Gaza. . .

Furthermore, today’s contribution to ICRC complements the $9.7 million the United States provided earlier this month for ICRC’s activities for victims of conflict in the Middle East, with particular attention to its critical programs in Gaza. . . In addition to our contributions to UNRWA, ICRC, and OCHO, to date, USAID has provided more than $3.7 million for emergency assistance to Gaza."

And does the US give Israel a lot. Oh yes. Billions. Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. However, when I tried to find a reliable source, all I found was hate Israel pro-Palestine sites (well, the first 20 or so). As with most problems in the middle east, it depends on your politics. Maybe the press didn't mention it because Bush gave more in December and they didn't want Obama to look like a piker?

The beautiful children of Haiti

Please see the previous blog entry first so you understand why we have these photos. It's hard to hold the camera when they all want to see the picture.



Lunch time! There are many shifts, and the food is on the table before the children enter.





Girl's choir from 2007 trip

Scenes from Haiti 2009

On Monday afternoon my husband returned from a short term mission trip in Ouanaminthe Haiti. This was his third year to go, and he hopes to go again next year. He loves the people there. By our standards, they don't have much, but they are so joyful in their faith, and the students he works with are just delightful.
The 2009 team with Dave and Pam Mann (UALC ministers who serve there)

The container with the construction materials didn't arrive until Thursday, but God always has a Plan B, so the team busied themselves painting a room cream with salmon pillars.

Two of the team members have medical equipment backgrounds and were able to help calibrate equipment in the clinic which is now completely staffed with Haitians. The first few years of the clinic it was staffed with rotating teams from the USA.

After he was finished with his construction responsibilities, my husband taught a 13th grade class in model building. These are models of the buildings he has designed for the vocational school which will be built next to the academic buildings.

Today's new word is JAILBREAKING

I don't have an iPhone, but do have an iTouch, which I haven't yet figured out. Today I saw the following: "For quite possibly the first time ever, Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) has publicly stated that it believes that jailbreaking an iPhone is against the law -- not against its end-user agreement for iPhone use with Apple's services like iTunes, its App Store, or MobileMe -- but against the law. More specifically, Apple contends that jailbreaking an iPhone infringes on its copyright. That's right, copyright."

Jailbreaking, then, is opening up your iPhone's file system so it can be accessed from your computer.

About.com says, "Jailbreaking your iPhone means freeing it from the limitations imposed on it by AT&T and Apple. You install a software application on your computer, and then transfer it to your iPhone, where it "breaks open" the iPhone’s file system to allow you to modify it. Once you do it, you're on your own. You may have voided your warranty, so you can't rely on AT&T or Apple to fix any problems you encounter."

Don't wear this to an awards event

Especially not if you are. . . rather large and going to be in every photo from the top seller award to the janitors' cleaniness prize. This photo is from yesterday's WSJ fashion article, but what I saw in a non-profit newsletter was a woman exec in a very big black and white patterned dress with jacket in a similar shiny fabric and design. And I won't provide a link. I don't think she realized when she took it out of her closet that morning for the event, that seeing the dress about 10 times in a single issue of the company newsletter would have such a stunning, memorable affect. At least I'll never forget it. The other female CEO wore a simple muted lavender suit, so she looked much more business-like standing next to the men who were all in dark suits, or even the janitors who also looked more professional than the black and white event of the day. It's not that large women have to always dress conservatively or in black, but neither should they be a moving billboard.

Go Green to Get the Green

Here's the February issue of the International Masonry Institute blog--I see the first article is about terrazzo floors, and its advantage for "green" building. I was roller skating at the White Pines on terrazzo floors 60 years ago. Who knew we were so ahead of the times back then.



Until the recent building meltdown caused by our inept government regulations, a mason probably made more than a teacher or professor. The BLS describes the job here. But, you'd have to pay through the nose and join the union. "Only about 2 percent of cement masons, concrete finishers, segmental pavers, and terrazzo workers were self-employed, a smaller proportion than in other building trades. Most self-employed masons specialized in small jobs, such as driveways, sidewalks, and patios."

Update: I was wrong about the salary. See here for terrazzo floor installers. The median annual is about the same as school teachers, and the hourly is much lower.

Global warming and the economy

"The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that October in the US was marked by 63 record snowfalls and 115 lowest-ever temperatures. Over the past few years, similar signs of colder than usual weather have been recorded all over the world, causing many people to question the still fashionable, but now long outdated, global warming alarmism. Yet individual weather events or spells, whether warmings or coolings, tell us nothing necessarily about true climate change. . .

Introduction of a carbon dioxide tax to prevent (imaginary) warming, euphemistically disguised as an emissions trading scheme, is a politician's, ticket clipper's and mafia chief's dream. . ." Australian, Jan. 20, 2009

"The IPCC’s assertion that a dangerous human influence is being exerted on climate change rested in 2001 on three main arguments. These were (i) that the thermometer-based ground-temperature record shows unprecedented warming; (ii) the claim, after the Mann et al. (1998) ‘hockey stick’model of climate change, that late 20th century temperatures rose to an unnatural level and at an unnatural rate; and (iii) the implication, based on a radiative-balance model of atmospheric processes, that deterministic computer models can predict climate 50 or 100 years ahead.

Regarding (i), the ground temperature curve now shows no statistically significant warming since 1995, and cooling since 2002. Regarding (ii), the work of Mann et al. has been shown to be deeply statistically flawed (McIntyre and McKitrick 2003). Which leaves GCM computer models as the sole remaining argument for dangerous human-caused warming. ‘How are they travelling’, you ask? ‘Not at all well’ is the answer. . ." from "Knock, Knock: Where is the Evidence for Dangerous Human-Caused Global Warming?" by Robert M. Carter, ECONOMIC ANALYSIS & POLICY, VOL. 38 NO. 2, SEPTEMBER 2008 (Available on-line as PDF, 26 pages)

Some in government have common sense

Sarah Palin and Bobby Jindahl. They are our hope for the future. Hope that there are elected officials who are NOT socialists and marxists. Shame on the US voter for not even putting up a fight before the takeover. Palin to Greta Van Susteren:

voiced her opposition to the Obama stimulus bill because Congress hadn’t had time to fully digest it.

“I wish he would veto it and send it back until our lawmakers can read it and know what’s in it. I think I speak for a lot of Alaskans who say also understanding that the impacts on individual states that this stimulus package has, they are unknown impacts,” Palin said. “So until our guy and our gals in Congress can read it and understand what the impacts are, I don’t want to see it signed.”

The former Republican candidate for vice-president added, “I would call for a veto, absolutely, and let’s do this right, understanding that there is going to be some kind of stimulus package. There is going to be some kind of attempts for economic recovery. I say construction projects that put people to work, that fits the bill, but these big huge expanded social programs where we are adding people to the rolls, and then the economic stimulus package dollars from the feds are going to dry up at some point. States then are going to be beholden to these programs.

“We will have to pay for them. That’s not right, that’s not fair. We just want to make sure that whatever is it is that is passed makes sense for the states, for the residents of our individual states.”

Although I think both governors will be pressured to accept the oppressive measures of this largest ever tax increase and deficit (each household in their state will also be slapped with the $10,000 price tag), it's nice to know someone up there still believes in reading the legislation.

Unfortunately, in order to read Greta's interview, you'll have to scroll through the Bristol and Trig stories, which seem to be the level at which you can ease most voters into this important news. Sorry--it's the best I can find. There may be 5 generations of family to help with the new baby, but that's not the message the teens get when Bristol's situation is glamorized. Shame on Granny Sarah for allowing this.

More of what got us to our financial meltdown in housing

Have you noticed that the GSEs Fannie and Freddie are front and center of the stimulus?

"Before Wall Street screamed bloody murder at the opening of 2008, President Bush was resisting pressure to lift the financial limit on the mortgages Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac purchase and securitize. The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), the GSEs’ wimpy watchdog, also objected to lifting the limit and continues to do so post stimulus agreement. The present GSE limit is $417,000. The stimulus would snap the cap to $625,500, and to $729,750 in extra pricey housing markets. Allowing Fannie and Freddie to purchase and securitize jumbo mortgages, the oversize loans MBS investors now shun as too risky. Link

How we got here--a quick review



HT Taxmanblog

Michael Crichton on religion

Remarks at the Commonwealth Club, September 15, 2003:

I studied anthropology in college, and one of the things I learned was that certain human social structures always reappear. They can't be eliminated from society. One of those structures is religion. Today it is said we live in a secular society in which many people---the best people, the most enlightened people---do not believe in any religion. But I think that you cannot eliminate religion from the psyche of mankind. If you suppress it in one form, it merely re-emerges in another form. You can not believe in God, but you still have to believe in something that gives meaning to your life, and shapes your sense of the world. Such a belief is religious.

Today, one of the most powerful religions in the Western World is environmentalism. Environmentalism seems to be the religion of choice for urban atheists. Why do I say it's a religion? Well, just look at the beliefs. If you look carefully, you see that environmentalism is in fact a perfect 21st century remapping of traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs and myths.

There's an initial Eden, a paradise, a state of grace and unity with nature, there's a fall from grace into a state of pollution as a result of eating from the tree of knowledge, and as a result of our actions there is a judgment day coming for us all. We are all energy sinners, doomed to die, unless we seek salvation, which is now called sustainability. Sustainability is salvation in the church of the environment. Just as organic food is its communion, that pesticide-free wafer that the right people with the right beliefs, imbibe.
More here.

And that's why, he says, you can't talk anyone out of hard core environmentalism, of belief in global warming, because those are issues of faith. No one invested emotionally and financially in the faith wants the facts.

So I can tell you some facts. I know you haven't read any of what I am about to tell you in the newspaper, because newspapers literally don't report them.

I can tell you that DDT is not a carcinogen and did not cause birds to die and should never have been banned. I can tell you that the people who banned it knew that it wasn't carcinogenic and banned it anyway. I can tell you that the DDT ban has caused the deaths of tens of millions of poor people, mostly children, whose deaths are directly attributable to a callous, technologically advanced western society that promoted the new cause of environmentalism by pushing a fantasy about a pesticide, and thus irrevocably harmed the third world. Banning DDT is one of the most disgraceful episodes in the twentieth century history of America. We knew better, and we did it anyway, and we let people around the world die and didn't give a damn.

I can tell you that second hand smoke is not a health hazard to anyone and never was, and the EPA has always known it. I can tell you that the evidence for global warming is far weaker than its proponents would ever admit. I can tell you the percentage the US land area that is taken by urbanization, including cities and roads, is 5%.

I can tell you that the Sahara desert is shrinking, and the total ice of Antarctica is increasing. I can tell you that a blue-ribbon panel in Science magazine concluded that there is no known technology that will enable us to halt the rise of carbon dioxide in the 21st century. Not wind, not solar, not even nuclear. The panel concluded a totally new technology-like nuclear fusion-was necessary, otherwise nothing could be done and in the meantime all efforts would be a waste of time. They said that when the UN IPCC reports stated alternative technologies existed that could control greenhouse gases, the UN was wrong.

Obama and his bevy of tax evading advisors probably don't read Michael Crichton.

Whether you love him or hate him

This will make you smile.

Temperature to drop tonight

If you live in Illinois, I understand you're passing along some cold temperatures to Ohio. Thanks a bunch. Oh, this global warming. Last year the average daily temperature here in central Ohio in February was 26.2. This year it's 17.6. One year doesn't make a trend, but it's actually been getting cooler for about a decade. I need to start tracking these AGW sites--you can get all you want about the other side, the political side, just by watching the main stream media, or reading any newsy/pop source like Time, Newsweek, or Nature. It's very hard to get a research grant or get published if you have a different viewpoint.

One piece of the economy that is going great guns is "continuing education." For my husband, that means taking courses in "green" in order to stay licensed--he had a 12 hour seminar yesterday (and we think he got food poisoning as a side benefit). But architects aren't the only ones by any means. Lawyers, pharmacists, medical trades, automotive, hospitality industry, leisure industry, janitorial and cleaning trades, school teachers, building trades--they all have license requirements, and they are all having "green" pushed down their throats. Yes, it's been a real boon for the companies that offer these courses. Whether the people teaching the courses believe it, I don't know, but they couldn't make any money if they publicly denied it.

Global warming hoax news

Global Warming Hoax

Master Resource

National Center for Policy Analysis

Icecap

There never has been a scientific consensus that human activities are causing catastrophic global warming. Indeed, hardly a day goes by when some eminent scientist comes “out of the closet” so to speak and publicly rejects either the link between human actions and the recent warming trend or the idea that the global warming will result in horrific environmental or human harm. Indeed, the U.S. Senate has a minority report listing more the 650 international scientists who disagree with the all or part of the so-called consensus. Many of the scientists on this list are current or former members of the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change (IPCC) who have broken with the IPCC over its findings or, at least, how it is presenting them. H. Sterling Burnett

Denver, CO (Feb. 18, 2009)—A new study says that a climate action plan promoted by several Western governors could prolong the economic recession, weaken already overburdened Western power grids and will deliver a temperature “benefit” of only one ten-thousandth of a degree Celsius even after a century of operation. The study, commissioned by the Western Business Roundtable, found that the Western Climate Initiative (WCI) greenhouse gas (GHG) cap-and-trade plan could “chase away tens of billions of dollars in high technology investment from the West to other regions” and would “further stress the West’s already strained electricity grid, increasing the threat of potentially catastrophic power outages.” ICECAP

We have one sensible weatherman in Columbus, Jim Ganahl.

The Can’t Fail Presidential Plan

“Suppose, as seems a distinct possibility, that the sloppily crafted, spend-to-oblivion stimulus package does precious little near-term good while causing eventual runaway inflation, a teetering dollar, huge tax increases and overall diminution of American prosperity and power. Will Barack Obama pay a political price?

Maybe not. Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal fiscal policies did not end the Depression and may have done more harm than good, but he was perceived as bold and caring, a dynamic leader making the best of the situation while here and there easing pain.” Link

More money for government buildings

The government gets to the green pork trough first. According to Architectural Digest $130 billion of the bill is earmarked for construction-related spending. Glancing through the list, it looks like you'll need to live near DC, Maryland or Virginia to get any of this. I don't think we have any GSA or NIH buildings around here.

BUILDINGS: $13.4 billion
General Services Administration (GSA), energy-efficiency upgrades for federal buildings: $4.5 billion
Facilities on federal and tribal lands: $3 billion
National Institutes of Health, facilities upgrades/construction: $1.5 billion
National Science Foundation, research equipment and facilities upgrades/construction: $600 million
Department of Homeland Security, new headquarters: $450 million
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, procurement, acquisition, and facilities construction: $430 million
Department of Homeland Security, ports of entry: $420 million
National Institute of Standards and Technology, facilities construction: $360 million
Department of Agriculture, facilities: $330 million
Border stations and ports of entry: $300 million
U.S. Courthouses and other GSA buildings: $300 million
Fire stations: $210 million
State Department, Capital Investment Fund: $90 million
Smithsonian facilities: $25 million

HOUSING/HUD: $9.6 billion
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Public Housing Capital Fund: $4 billion
HUD, redevelopment of abandoned and foreclosed homes: $2 billion
HUD, Community Development Block Grants: $1 billion
HUD, energy retrofits, "green" projects in HUD-assisted housing projects: $250 million

DEFENSE/VETERANS: $7.8 billion
Veterans Affairs, medical facilities upgrades/construction: $1.25 billion
Department of Defense (DOD), facilities upgrades/construction: $4.2 billion
DOD, military “quality of life’ projects, such as housing and child-care centers: $2.3 billion

Weren't you always told to read the fine print before you bought something on credit? When the editors put this list together, no one had yet read the bill--not even the people who voted on it. Not even the President read it. It's sort of a guess.

Can you spot the typo?

This one was a headline in OSU Today

Collaboration with Microsoft Widows Live

Oregon Democrats propose 1,900% tax increase on beer

Like the cigarette taxes that hurt the poor the most to pay for the medical care of the middle class, the state run lotteries that hit the low income the hardest that are supposed to help reduce dependency on real estate to fund schools, the reasoning here is that it will save in medical costs. For whom? I'm guessing it hurts the low income beer drinker the most. I've known a lot of alcoholics, and only one was a beer-alcoholic. I've never even tasted beer. Smells like rotten grain to me. More than likely, it will be one more case of Democrats shutting down an industry that employs people so they can create more dependency on the government with unemployment, universal health care, and the government owning and operating the beer plants. Or, if you follow the lobbyist money, you might even find some very large beer companies passing out some change to Oregon's legislators so they can put the competition out of business.

Jamie Floyd, owner of Ninkasi Brewing in Eugene, said Ninkasi paid $19,000 in taxes last year, and the increase would raise its taxes to $370,000. The tax increase brewers would assume would inevitably be passed on to their distributors, retailers and consumers, he said.

The economic recession already affects Taylor's, especially because its customer base is on a fixed income, Walker said, so the tax increase will only hurt business further.

"It can't be a positive thing for the economy," Walker said. "College kids are still going to do what they do, but (business) is down a little bit; it's not as busy as it was six months or a year ago." Daily Emerald

The President of Everything

Wouldn't it be surprising if even the press were to catch on this early in his presidency to where Obama is taking us?

"This is a presidency on steroids." That's not an assessment from a libertarian shocked by President Barack Obama's first month in office. That is the first sentence of Eugene Robinson's latest column, which goes on to list many of the ways that the Obama Administration is "managing the big chunks of the private-sector economy that are now more accurately described as semi-private at best.... He may have to become an auto executive, a banker, mortgage broker and who knows what else before this crisis is done." Who knows what else, indeed. Link to Morning Bell.

Meanwhile, a viral e-mail with a few inaccuracies but which gets it pretty close about all the tax and ethics problems which have turned up in just the first 3 weeks. Don’t know where it started but it’s been going around the internet for about a week and most points were correct, although it left out the Rezko-Blago-Burris-Obama connection--maybe was too early:

Secretary of State Clinton was bought off with her appointment and that's under a cloud due to her husband's gifts both in and out of office and laws passed while she was a Senator. Making available a donor list apparently made all the questions go away.

Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner is a tax cheat. Then when he talks, the brightest guy on the planet, next to the President, makes no sense at all.

Attorney General Eric Holder's law firm represents terrorists imprisoned in Gitmo. I've watched enough TV to know that's not right. And didn't he represent Marc Rich? If he wasn't ethical enough to be an advisor during the campaign, how can he be AG?

CIA boss Leon Panetta has zero experience. Where is the donor list for his "institute." He has no other visible means of support.

The Secretary of HHS nominee Tom Daschle withdrew under charges of cheating on his taxes. Also how many millions did he make his first two years after he left the Senate? Sort of a double standard Mr. Squeaky Clean President.

Nancy Killefer withdrew from consideration as deputy director of the White House Office of Management and Budget

Labor Secretary nominee Hilda Solis has tax problems, and she was also a pro-union lobbyist, something Obama said he didn't want in his gang cabinet.

Bill Richardson was first choice to be Commerce secretary, but the New Mexico governor withdrew amid a grand jury investigation into a state contract awarded to his political donors. When do we see Panetta's donors list?

Then Commerce secretary nominee Judd Gregg, a Republican, withdraws when he sees Obama’s plan for that department, particularly his interference in the Census.

Matthew Nugen, a top Obama campaign aide is joining Ogilvy Government Relations as a lobbyist. Like Daschle's, the position is technically one of "strategist." If it quacks like a duck. . .

David Plouffe, the campaign manager calling for for transparency and openness during the campaign prevented reporters from attending a speech at the National Press Club!

Rezko-Blago-Burris-Obama connection getting stronger.

And although not quite in the same category, Mr. draw down, code Pink, can't we all get along, is ordering 17,000 more troops for Afghanistan.

Update Feb. 17 from Dick Morris' column: Rahm Emanuel, now White House chief of staff, lived rent- free for years in the home of Rep. Rosa De Lauro (D-Conn.) - and failed to disclose the gift, as congressional ethics rules mandate. She is the wife of Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg who has received over half a million in polling contracts from the Democrats. Emmanuel is a millionaire who shouldn't need free rent.

This is a stunning list for only three four weeks in office. Where was our main stream press, our free press that hounded Bush for 8 years, finding all sorts of minuscule crimes, but that can't locate these tax cheats who now steal our taxes?

Let's ruin long term care

We've had a "long term care" policy for over 10 years. It isn't cheap, but even a month in a nursing home costs more than a year's cost for the policy. It's like any insurance--we've never gotten anything out of our auto insurance either--thank goodness--but have been buying it for almost 50 years. But Obama-Biden licking their chops over the money that's in it already? Oh no! Link.

Today's new word is MELIORIST

The book review in today's WSJ is of "Soul of a People" by David A. Taylor. The reviewer writes: "Fortunately, the Communists in the Federal Writers' Project [FDR's WPA] were in their Popular Front phase and all for the MELIORIST New Deal. . . " Meliorist comes from the Latin word melior meaning "better." Meliorism is the belief or doctrine that the world tends to become better and better. Have you seen any evidense of this? Sort of social Darwinism. The USSR, Communist China and North Korea probably collectively killed 100 million of their own citizens. Better indeed!

Today's new word is--amazing

Voice technology is certainly improving. http://www.oddcast.com/home/demos/tts/tts_example.php?sitepal

I typed in "Today's new word is. . ." and couldn't have said it better myself. In fact, most women don't have voices this good. Then when I clicked on the same phrase in Finnish, "Marko" came up. It's called Site Pal, text to speech. Actually, I really wouldn't want it on every site I visit, but it's fun to play with.

Home made soup

As soon as I read her blog about pea soup (and said yuk) I went to the kitchen and made a big pot of broccoli soup, one of my favorites. I didn't know e-Bay had blogs, but that's where I found these wonderful tips on making money, instead of spending money, with children. She's primarily a seller, not a blogger (once a month? what's that?)

I didn't breastfeed, or make my own baby food, but in the 1960s-1970s, we lived on one income, with one car, had play groups, washed diapers and did most of the other tips that this one-income family does. Snacks at our house were sliced vegetables or fruit. Oh, and we didn't have e-Bay in those days, but we had lots of fun at garage sales, which must be falling on hard times these days with everyone selling on-line. I could give the kids a quarter and they could "shop."

I think I saw her name at a discussion on coupons (I don't believe in them--in the long run they don't save you money because they are a marketing device and lull you into the something for nothing mentality).

The IRS gives wonderful tax incentives to those who have children. We got a child tax credit of $1000 this year, plus a tax deduction worth a fair amount of money by having an extra person in the family. For my family, if we can spend less than $1500 per year on our child, we are making money. Here's how to spend less than $1500. [Note: the family of the 1960s and 1970s got a much higher percentage of income personal deduction. I think it was around $500 per person in 1961 or about 10% of our income.]

1. Breastfeed.

2. Line dry cloth diapers and reusable baby wipes (cheap dishrags or cut-up old towels make great wipes). If you think you might like to use cloth diapers, think ahead. This summer, when you go to garage sales, ask proprietors of sales that have a lot of baby items if they have cloth diapers. Many people have at least a couple that they thought weren't worth putting out. These can be gotten for $.05-$.25 each, and are usually better quality than the Gerber 12-packs regular stores sell (for about $13). Plan on at least 30 diapers. Also, read prior post about how to save on costs of laundry, because this will be important to you if you use cloth diapers.

3. Never, ever buy prepared baby food. We have a pressure cooker in which we cooked veggies or fruit (just add a tiny bit of water to the bottom, and cook for a little while, and they'll be steamed). Run the stuff through the blender and put in freezer containers (or an ice cube tray, then bag the frozen food cubes). It's not difficult at all. If you don't have a pressure cooker, just use a regular pan; however, pressure cookers can be found at garage sales, and they save energy because stuff cooks a lot faster in them. Also, we found that our son would eat anything, even pureed asparagus, if we added applesauce to it.

4. Don't buy snacks, except Cheerios. Those Gerber snacks are overpriced, even with a good sale. A large box of Cheerios doesn't cost much, and they'll last a while; moreover, they are not yummy enough that parents or siblings will be tempted by them.

5. Skip preschool. Sure, kids need some socialization. Join a church mom's group which has kids activities (Coffee Break, MOPS, etc). If you can find a group or two that meets weekly, your kid will get socialization, and you might find some new friends, too. This could save $1000/year.

6. Quit your job if someone else in your family has an income, and save money on child care. To do this, you'll need to find other ways to save money. For wonderful ideas, read "The Tightwad Gazette", by Amy Dacyczyn (available at the library). Creative ways of hanging onto the money you already do have are as good as earning more.

7. Use the library instead of buying books.

8. Use the playground instead of Chuck E. Cheese.

9. Don't buy unnecessary things (such as shoes for babies who aren't walking yet, cute little impractical outfits, etc.).

10. Anticipate baby's needs. You know he'll eventually need size 10 shoes, so don't wait to buy them until he grows out of his size 9.5's. If you wait, you'll find yourself at Wal-mart paying $6, when a $.50 used pair would be far better quality. You know he'll eventually like to have Legos, so don't wait until Christmas to buy them new. Pick them up at the garage sale where they're $1. Kids don't care if stuff is used unless you condition them to care. (You condition them to care by acting like new stuff is superior. Ever say, "It's brand new!"? Phrases like that condition them to think of used items as inferior.)

11. Hit the end of church or school 2nd Best sales. Often they'll have a bag sale, where you can fill a bag with anything you want for $1-$4. This is your opportunity to stock up on whatever you need. If you need it right away, don't be too picky, but if it's something you'll need two years from now, only take the really good or hard-to-find stuff. These sales usually occur in the spring and fall, so watch the newspaper classifieds or Craigslist.

11. When we acquire something, we make it our goal to be able to sell the item for a profit when we're done with it. For instance, we found a very nice stroller free on trash day which we used for a few years, then sold it for $12 when we were finished with it. We bought a newer, but dirty, baby carrier for $.50, cleaned it up nicely and laundered the pad, and were able to sell it for $5 when we were done with it. We trash-picked a crib, gave it a paint-job, and sold it for $40 when we were finished with it. We have routinely sold toys, and even clothes, for a profit at our garage sales. I know there are those who say you shouldn't buy a used car seat, but talk to the person you're buying it from to see if it's been in an accident, call the manufacturer to see if it's been recalled, see if it's not too old, and use your common sense. And with cribs, you have to make sure a used one meets current safety standards. That information is easy enough to find online. But generally, used things should do just fine. I'll write an email in the spring about how to hold a successful garage sale.

12. Have patience. If we feel like we need something for our child, we try to wait. Needs have a way of either going away, or being met cheaply if only one has sufficient patience. Go to those garage sales (but stay on task, don't buy a bunch of junk that will just sit around your house), see if anyone will loan you what you need, keep yours eyes open for discards on trash day--you'll be surprised at what very nice things you can get free or for pocket change.

13. Because you'll essentially be earning money on this baby, check out savings accounts for kids. Often these are better deals than the adult ones (no fees or minimum balance), and the parents' names can be on the account. Just putting the kid's name on the account helps, even if only the adults use the account.

She has some wonderful tips; but isn't old enough or experienced enough to know this frugality will make no difference at all once her children get a hold of a credit card. And btw, don't ever put your child's savings account under her/his own name and social security number. They'll know more at 25 than 18.

Congress has promised

AMTRAK schedules for the automobile industry and converter box guidance for the healthcare industry.

General Motors and Chrysler raced to save their place in the American auto industry yesterday, putting the final touches on plans to curb production, cut jobs and pare brands in hopes of securing billions of dollars in additional federal aid. WaPo Feb. 17, 2009

Embracing socialism

And Obama. I'm watching a socialist Brian Moore argue the case for socialism with a Brit subbing on Cavuto's show. No contest. What idiots. 'scuse me. That's not nice. How uninformed, ignorant, pie in the sky and stepping into the doorway to marxism. But wow, are these guys thrilled with Obama!

Air travel has never been safer, but . . .

We can count on more regulations. It is a tragedy that 50 people died in last week's crash near Buffalo, NY. And yet thousands die every year on the highways. . . many because we don't have the will to raise the legal driving age even two years. Auto collisions are the leading cause of death among teens, killing about 4,000 a year. And it isn't just teens. Any person in a car with a teen driver is in much more danger than from birds sucked into airplane engines or ice on the wings. If we did nothing else but forbid teen drivers to have passengers, thousands of lives could be saved. Do those families not grieve? Are those people less important than people who boarded a commuter plane?

"The AAA Foundation analysis shows that from 1995 through 2004 crashes involving 15, 16, and 17-year-old drivers claimed the lives of 30,917 people nationwide, of which only 11,177 (36.2%) were the teen drivers themselves. The remaining 19,740 (63.6%) included 9,847 passengers of the teen drivers, 7,477 occupants of other vehicles operated by drivers at least 18 years of age, 2,323 non-motorists. The analysis also shows that 12,413 of these fatalities occurred in single vehicle crashes involving only the vehicle operated by the teenage driver.

In 1999, 16- and 17-year-old teens driving with no passengers were involved in 1.6 accidents per 10,000 trips, yet the rate rises to 2.3 accidents with one passenger, 3.3 accidents with two passengers, and sharply rises to 6.3 accidents with three or more passengers in the car." More statistics on teen drivers here.

During the last ice storm a teenager wrecked his dad's new red sports car by slamming into the light pole at our condo entrance (it's a 35 mph street but I'm guessing from the damage he was speeding). I think the car was totaled, and it was weeks before the red pieces were cleaned up because the snow plows had buried much of the debris. I hope daddy has learned a lesson, because fortunately the boy survived without serious injuries. The car can be replaced; the child can't be. He will live to drive again--much wiser I hope.

1,073 Pages

No time to read it, yet the President had time to dawdle over signing it. Took the Mrs. out for dinner to a swanky Chicago restaurant for Valentines Day. That was nice, a good example for men everywhere, but just what was the rush for not allowing the "transparency" we were promised? Why the black hole when it comes to nationalizing so much of the economy? The Democrats, who later cried "Bush lied," knew exactly what was what going into the Iraq War--it was their intelligence and rhetoric on WMD that Bush used. And that took months of negotiating, going over Saddam's failed promises, over the intelligence, over agreements with our allies, consulting with Senators like Clinton, Kerry, Kennedy and Edwards. But for this, which is far more serious--no, no. In Iraq, we were attempting to impose a democracy on a country that had been under a dictatorship. Now we're destroying our own democracy with a petty tyrant who stamps his dainty foot and says, "Never you mind, I won the election. No time to read it. No time for representative government." Just a take over of the economy by our government with complete compliance of the "free press" and our Congress. What's the big deal? And nary a gun was even pointed to anyone's head.

What you can do with a degree in literature

Or theater. Or art history. Or psychology. First find a job to pay the rent with the government in a field that will not die--like sexually transmitted diseases, then follow the money.

Thomas E. Getzen is Professor of Risk, Insurance and Health Management at Temple University and the founder and Executive Director of iHEA, the International Health Economics Association. After receiving an undergraduate degree in literature from Yale University, he worked for the U.S.P.H.S. Centers for Disease Control Venereal Disease program in New York and Los Angeles, and then obtained an MHA degree in Medical Care Organization and Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Washington. Dr. Getzen’s main research contributions have been in the areas of contracting, price indexes and forecasting of health care spending. His consulting work has included employee benefit negotiations, laboratory diagnostics, risk assessment, and capital financing for managed care. Dr. Getzen has been a visiting professor at the University of York (U.K.), the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and the Center for Health and Wellbeing of the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University. He has served on the boards of Covenant House, a local community health center in Northwest Philadelphia, MSI Inc, a venture-capital financed managed behavioral health care corporation, Catholic Health East (CHE), a multi-institutional health provider system with over 60 hospitals and nursing homes. Dr. Getzen has written more than 80 papers in the field and serves on the editorial board of the journal Health Economics.

Elderly hardest hit by Katrina

Why Mayor Nagin was never brought up on charges of criminal negligence I don't know; the people of New Orleans rewarded him with reelection. There's an interesting report In Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, December 2008 , which was probably ignored by the media because you couldn't make a racial case for the victims. New Orleans was over 65% black, but the deaths were 51% black. So who suffered the most in proportion to their population count--the elderly. That's probably not too surprising, because when you think about it, even if the warning system and the bus transportation had worked, they might have been left behind. Although I don't think Governor Jindahl left them during Hurricane Ike. This report hadn't been published yet, but someone on his staff was probably smart enough to figure it out. It's really unfortunate that in 2005 the mayor and governor performed so poorly during that disaster.

Results: We identified 971 Katrina-related deaths in Louisiana and 15 deaths among Katrina evacuees in other states. Drowning (40%), injury and trauma (25%), and heart conditions (11%) were the major causes of death among Louisiana victims. Forty-nine percent of victims were people 75 years old and older. Fifty-three percent of victims were men; 51% were black; and 42% were white. In Orleans Parish, the mortality rate among blacks was 1.7 to 4 times higher than that among whites for all people 18 years old and older. People 75 years old and older were significantly more likely to be storm victims (P < .0001).

Conclusions: Hurricane Katrina was the deadliest hurricane to strike the US Gulf Coast since 1928. Drowning was the major cause of death and people 75 years old and older were the most affected population cohort. Future disaster preparedness efforts must focus on evacuating and caring for vulnerable populations, including those in hospitals, long-term care facilities, and personal residences. Improving mortality reporting timeliness will enable response teams to provide appropriate interventions to these populations and to prepare and implement preventive measures before the next disaster.

A new roof for my son

You may remember that Hurricane Ike blew through Columbus in September. It took a large part of my son's roof. He had purchased the home from us in July, and although we had a local bank (Arlington Bank), a lawyer, a title company, and assurances from our home owner's insurance company that everything was taken care of with the bank, when he went to make a claim, he had no home owner's insurance--it was still in our name. Needless to say, we were outraged, but the bank eventually settled by giving him enough cash to get it repaired, but not replaced. And he found a new bank (he had been banking there since he was a child) and a new insurance company. Columbus and central Ohio had 60 mph winds last Thursday, and the repaired part of his roof held, but the rest of it went. He called today to say the new insurance company will replace his roof. Although I won't hold my breath. Remember, the government has sent him a letter demanding fifty cents of unpaid back taxes. If you can't find Daschle or Geithner, go after that guy in Columbus who fixes cars for a living.

He told me a funny story today. Someone called his repair shop to report that the battery had died on his remote key control and he couldn't get in his car. "Have you tried the key?" my son asked. It's funnier when he tells it.

Caterpillar employees are not fooled by Obama

Elizabeth Meinecke reports that Obama tried to cajole Illinois Republican Aaron Schock into voting for the stimulus package in front of the Caterpillar employees during his speech to hustle votes last week. Schock waited around afterwards to talk to them. No takers.

“In fact, I have received over 1,400 phone calls, e-mails and letters from Caterpillar employees alone asking me to oppose this legislation,” Schock said on the House floor Friday. “Why? Because they get it. They know this bill is not stimulus.”

Schock urged a no vote and followed through this afternoon. He’s clearly in touch with his constituents. Can Obama say the same?"

Well, Elizabeth, Obama IS in touch with his star struck fans--in a few months when they realize what he's done, the story may be a bit different. Although it's terribly hard to make a Democrat escape from the plantation. Freedom is so darn scary.

HT Soapbox Jill

Late for church twice in one day!

We have a prayer team that meets with the pastors at 7 a.m. on Sunday morning. This is perfect for me--I'm an early riser. It's about 6 minutes from my garage, to the parking lot, to the sanctuary. However, today I was to drive my husband's car to church so he can pick it up at midnight when he returns from a mission week in Haiti. I jumped (literally since it sits higher than my van) in his SUV which I hadn't driven in about 6 months, and had to find the seat lever to adjust for my short legs, the seat belt, key hole and garage door opener in the dark. Then I had to relearn a stick shift. In the parking lot I had to find the little switch (again in the dark) that lets you remove the key. I was late for prayer!

Then at 7:30 after prayer I went into the church library to read, because first service doesn't start until 8:15. I was reading about 18th and 19th century ethnic Lutherans in the USA (didn't get along, didn't like each others' music or liturgy and once they learned English they started getting cosy with Episcopalians and Reformed), when a woman who also used to live in Mt. Morris, IL came in and sat down. So as women do, we got to chatting, and before I knew it, it was 8:25 and I was late for church--again!

Our church has 9 services at 3 locations (Lytham Rd., Upper Arlington; Mill Run, Hilliard; Hilltop, Columbus) to which you can be late. Check out UALC.

Good politics is bad history and bad economics

It's a toss up. The demeaning and foot shuffling dance of the United States abroad by Biden-Obama, or Obama's negative rhetoric at home to completely gut the spirit of the American people. What is he up to? Certainly there's no hope, no change in the constant barrage of negativism we've heard since November 4. He gets his stimulus package through duplicity and lies, and before it even gets to his desk tells us it won't work and there will be more! I don't know if a positive attitude helps cancer patients, but if I had stage one cancer, I certainly wouldn't be encouraged by being knocked to the floor with the stats and treatment regimen for stage four.

[Obama’s] fearmongering may be good politics, but it is bad history and bad economics. It is bad history because our current economic woes don't come close to those of the 1930s. At worst, a comparison to the 1981-82 recession might be appropriate. Consider the job losses that Mr. Obama always cites. In the last year, the U.S. economy shed 3.4 million jobs. That's a grim statistic for sure, but represents just 2.2% of the labor force. From November 1981 to October 1982, 2.4 million jobs were lost -- fewer in number than today, but the labor force was smaller. So 1981-82 job losses totaled 2.2% of the labor force, the same as now.

Job losses in the Great Depression were of an entirely different magnitude. In 1930, the economy shed 4.8% of the labor force. In 1931, 6.5%. And then in 1932, another 7.1%. Jobs were being lost at double or triple the rate of 2008-09 or 1981-82. Obama's Rhetoric Is the Real 'Catastrophe'

If she pays her taxes can she join the cabinet?

"2001 Stanford Law Grad Cristina Schultz (now Cristina Warthen after her marriage to David Warthen, co-founder of the online search engine Ask Jeeves, now known as Ask.com) was indicted in San Jose federal court yesterday for allegedly failing to pay taxes on $133,717 she earned as a prostitute in 2003. From the Information (United States v. Warthen, No. CR-08-682) . . .see link TaxProfBlog. Now her husband has filed for divorce. Surely he knew! Two California newspapers I checked have pulled the story, but they had been copied into blogs.

Another Bridge to Nowhere

"Muzzammil Hassan came to America from Pakistan 25 years ago. He became a successful banker in Buffalo, New York, near the famed Niagara Falls. While he and his wife were happy to be in the United States, they were upset by the negative perceptions of Muslims, and particularly how this perception might affect their children. That is how they came up with the idea of Bridges TV. Mr. Hassan's wife challenged him to start it." VOA 2004

Thursday he beheaded his wife, Aasiya. Buffalo News.

The killing apparently occurred some time late Thursday afternoon. Detectives still are looking for the murder weapon.

"Obviously, this is the worst form of domestic violence possible," Erie County District Attorney Frank A. Sedita III said today.

Authorities say Aasiya Hassan recently had filed for divorce from her husband.

"She had an order of protection that had him out of the home as of Friday the 6th [of February]," Benz said.

Muzzammil Hassan was arraigned before Village Justice Deborah Chimes and sent to the Erie County Holding Center.

Clinton's legacy--welfare reform of 1996

The 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 was more successful than anyone hoped. Even Democrats acknowledged it while in the next breath noting it didn't end poverty or illegitimacy or hang the moon. The new Obama plan will undo most of what's left of it. The old programs and expenses crept back over the years under new names and acronyms without the stigma of welfare--SCHIP, EITC, TANF expanded child care, more money for school feeding programs. I think even food stamps got a new name.

We "imported" more poor people through the sieve of our borders and broadened the definition of poverty. Too many well paid jobs depend on the poor--poverty will never go away. Although the welfare case loads went down, it's still really tough for a single mom with limited education and few skills to compete economically with two income, college educated married couples. Do the math. It's easy for her children to slip back into "let the government take care of me" mentality ala Henrietta the Homeless in Florida. Even so, my 1996 letter to Ellen Goodman, the columnist, who was extremely negative then about the Act, shows Democrats differed. At that time I was still a Democrat, therefore my criticism of her column is a criticism of the programs I myself had supported and even then viewed as failures. (I supported the PRWORA, however, with reservations about where former welfare recipients would work.)

You may have a point, childhood or children, have indeed become expendable. But wasn't it we, the Democrats, who put that all in place long before the welfare reform? Who is it that first made unborn children less than human--when we undercut (chopped up might be a better term) the weakest and most vulnerable in our society at the rate of a million a year? We made an inconvenient pregnancy a tragedy and labeled it the "right to choose." Did we really think that this concept wouldn't start creeping up the age charts? And remember when we liberals thought the mentally ill and retarded should be out on the streets enjoying all those civil rights the rest of us have and we closed all their safe havens? And what about the tax structure that clobbers families with children and makes it more advantageous for men and women to just live together? And who was it that made it more financially viable for a woman to be married to Uncle Sam than to a man? Who was it that made being totally unproductive an entitlement? Wasn't it you and me?

I'm older than you, Ms. Goodman, and I remember when the "War on Poverty" began. I've seen 30+ years of billions of dollars being thrown at a problem, dollars that often go to pay the salaries of social workers, government bureaucrats and careerist do-gooders just so we can feel like we're doing something. I myself once worked for the JTPA--and I worked very hard, but I fear most of the money didn't really make it to the people who needed the help. Many have left poverty behind and for that I am grateful--but I doubt that public assistance helped as much as their families' assistance, or their churches' assistance, or the tremendous economic growth of the 1980s, the years we Democrats love to lie about. The problem with poverty graph lines and figures is it doesn't show what happens to individuals. Even with the horrors of welfare, my guess is the chances of moving up are still far better in the USA than anywhere else in the world.

Frankly, I'm concerned about where these folks currently on welfare are going to find this "work opportunity." Do I really want someone who has never had a parental example of working for a living serving my food, plumbing my pipes or inserting my IVs? Can you think of any jobs for someone trained in a 6 or 8 week program who dropped out of high school or doesn't have transportation? We all know that initially it will be more expensive to put people to work than to let them live on subsistence.

We encouraged women to get abortions; we encouraged them to go to work leaving the childcare to poor women; we encouraged them to ignore marriage vows. We shouldn't be surprised if the children are "sold and eaten."

And to think I remained a Democrat for another four years! The Democrats are now Socialists and the Republicans are now what the Democrats were in the 1970s and 1980s. Anyone for a new party?

Yummy cupcakes and other good things

Alisha and Angie have a cupcake business. If I lived near them in Utah, I would certainly buy a box for Valentines Day. But since I'm in Ohio, I'll just browse their interesting, delicious website and admire their plan to have their own business.

Soapbox Jill is a rare breed. She's a conservative librarian! Way outnumbered, but blogging anyway. She's also a mom, a Christian, a poet and a writer.

Mike and Judy are on the road with their RV (in Texas right now), but live in Michigan. They are both very good writers with an observant eye, and Mike was the president of my high school class and I've known him since . . . well, I can't remember when I didn't know him, but it's a long time.

Bookish is the title of Deborah's current blog. She's also a conservative librarian, so go visit and say HI. She's tried a few times to quit blogging, but she was born to blog.

Billoblog is my go to blog for things medical and technical. I "met" him over 10 years ago on line and just keep bumping into him. I think he's a pathologist. He can really dissect what's in the President's plan for us. It's sort of like making sausage--you probably don't want to know.

Karen Hall is a Catholic soccer mom of four who writes at Some Have Hats, and doesn't pull any punches. I like her style, even if I don't always understand the issues.

I've told you this before, but if you need to know anything about food allergies go visit Janeen's family blog. She also posts recipes and current news stories about food safety, etc. Her two boys both have food allergies. We never had those problems, but I just like her blog.

Two information/news sources I've recently added to my links are Black Informant, for news specifically of interest to African Americans, and Cybercast News Service, which picks up some of the news services like AP and Reuters, but is not as biased as what we usually get from the bootlickin' fanny wipin' journalists who will probably soon be out of a job because how many clones in an echo chamber does one president need?

Bush spent a lot, now it's my turn

What is this? Anything you can do I can do better? Obama says not to criticize him for his outrageous spending package because Bush spent too much getting us into trouble. So he spends more.

The Bush administration is certainly vulnerable to the charge that it spent way too much. Unfortunately for the always-campaigning President Obama, however, this is not a valid response to the question of whether he should spend more now. Link.

Bush lost a lot of support among Republicans for his profligate spending on domestic problems, especially those passed with "bi-partisan efforts." Republicans totally pulled away from him on the illegal alien issue. The difference here is the more Obama spends, the more the Democrats love him.

So this plan is the worst of all worlds — unless you are a once-closet socialist trained in the grand academic tradition of Chicago street organizing who finally sees an opportunity to "come out" and work your wonders on the poster nation for greedy and decadent capitalism, the United States of America. It involves incomprehensible spending in aggravation of an already dangerous national debt load; a possible net retardant effect on economic recovery; greater government control over the economy, with a consequent diminution of our liberties; and a necessary reduction of essential government services. Link

Australian bush fires

Australia is a continent--it's huge. All of Europe would fit within its borders with room to spare, and it's about the size of the U.S. without Alaska. So it's hard to generalize what's happening, since parts of that country are flooding, others having fires. Our hearts go out to all who've lost family and property in the terrible fires. Americans and Australians share Ireland as, if not our mother, at least a motherly aunt. Possibly 300 have lost their lives and 7,000 have been displaced. But we all know global warming will be blamed for either extreme--fires or flood--because, well, there's never been temperature extremes before right? It's only humans that are the problem. The little greens will blame people for wanting to live away from the city in areas with lots of trees (only movie stars and politicians should be allowed to do this) and the big greens will blame lack of action in capitalist countries to shut down production and let their people all return to 19th century levels of poverty.

I'm guessing that the most fire prone areas of Australia have regulations like ours in the SW U.S., with the best intentions, but aggrevating the fire and loss of life problems. When we were in Arizona and southern California in 2006 our guides were able to show us huge stretches of ugly tender-box forests, where neither the state or private owners were allowed to remove diseased, dead and trash vegetation. Some of the regulations are not even well-intentioned. They are intended to keep people from living there because it would be too dangerous and the "greenies" don't want the habitat desturbed.

This is Americana?

While flitting around this morning cleaning, I decided to listen to on some music, so turned on the cable to "Americana." My husband has been in Haiti for a construction and teaching short term mission, so I thought it might be nice to have things tidy when he got home. Americana seems to be an offspring of country and western, but 21st century. What ever happened to "somebody done me wrong" songs, or "honky tonk women," or "who left the chewing gum on the bedpost overnight?" This stuff is so pop-psych I almost can't take it. When did country go to college?

Obama Democrats by the numbers

I can't vouch for all of them. I knew about Chris Dodd and Tom Daschle. But that Maxine Waters benefiting from the TARP bank thing had completely slipped past me. But the last one is sure big, isn't it? Why does anyone in today's global economy, who claims to have lived abroad and experienced other cultures, who attended over-priced Ivy League colleges, think you can stop trade only on one end? What were they teaching in the 1980s?

"$1,646,000,000,000 ($1.646 trillion):

the approximate amount of annual United States exports endangered by the "Stimulus" package, which provides a "Buy American" stricture. According to international trade experts, a "US-EU trade war looms", which could result in a worldwide economic depression reminiscent of that touched off by the protectionist Smoot-Hawley Act."

Obviously, the days of the "rich Republicans" are long gone.

Update: If the protectionism has been "softened" in this package, apparently Europe didn't get the news. FT Weekend "Berlin fears repeat of 1930s mistakes," and this from Forbes on the 13th:

ROME, Feb 13 (Reuters) - G7 finance ministers converged on Rome to discuss the economic crisis amid warnings from Germany and Britain on Friday that the world could revert to the dark days of the 1930s if governments resorted to protectionism.

And not a word about married parents

The number one reason for children growing up in poverty is their parents: unmarried young mothers who didn't finish their education. A child whose mother didn't have her first child until she was out of her teens, who finished high school, and got married before she started a family has a very small chance of growing up in poverty. But here's what Obama said he would do--and none of this is original to him--we've been goosing this problem with government money (and good salaries for the bureaucrats in the programs) since the 1930s when social workers decided Uncle Sam could be a step-father to millions, thus keeping them in poverty and on the rolls for the Democrats for a life time.

"My anti-poverty plan will significantly improve opportunities for millions of poor children and their parents by strengthening the economy for working Americans and providing additional resources to programs that have proven to be effective in reducing poverty. For example, my plan will expand the EITC, which is considered one of the most effective pro-work anti-poverty programs to date, to 5.8 million more Americans. Additionally, my EITC plan will increase EITC benefits for another 6.2 million Americans. I will also extend affordable, quality and portable health insurance coverage to every American and make significant investments in early childhood education to help low-income families. I will invest $1 billion over five years into transitional jobs and career pathways programs to engage more Americans into the workforce and help them succeed. I will also work to tackle chronic poverty in urban neighborhoods across American by creating Promise Neighborhoods in 20 cities to provide new hope and opportunities to residents of concentrated poverty." Spotlight on Poverty

William Galston, a Democratic strategist and former domestic affairs adviser to President Clinton is usually acknowledged as the source of the statistics on the relationship between poverty, education and marriage. But it's been confirmed many times either in research or in personal experience by people who work with the poor. Even divorce lowers a child's economic level. Only 8% of people who do all three will be poor; of those who fail to do them, 79% will be poor. The evidence that mother-only families contribute to crime is powerful. When two scholars studied data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth, they found that, after holding income constant, young people in father-absent families were twice as likely to be in jail as were those in two-parent families. And their lives did not improve if their mother had acquired a stepfather for them. Fill-in dads don't improve matters any more than do fatter government checks.

Will more money in the form of EITC help? More health insurance? Vinyl siding and new windows on the home bought with a government grant? Not if marriage is left out of the poverty solution. Poor and low income women already have access to many government programs--most of which hold them hostage. I know a married mother of a school age child who doesn't work because the family would lose its EITC and SCHIP. It will also never get beyond "low income." During the year before their babies were born, 43% of unmarried mothers received welfare or food stamps, 21% received some type of housing subsidy, and 9% received another type of government transfer (unemployment insurance etc.). For women who have another child, the proportion who receive welfare or food stamps rises to 54%. (McLanahan, Sara. The Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study: Baseline National Report. Princeton, NJ: Center for Research on Child Well-being, 2003). Unmarried parents put children at risk for high rates of asthma (Harknett, Kristin. Children’s Elevated Risk of Asthma in Unmarried Families: Underlying Structural and Behavioral Mechanisms. Working Paper #2005-01-FF. Princeton, NJ: Center for Research on Child Well-being, 2005: 19-27.). In a study of INTERPOL crime statistics of 39 countries, it was found that single parenthood ratios were strongly correlated with violent crimes. (Barber, Nigel. “Single Parenthood As a Predictor of Cross-National Variation in Violent Crime.” Cross-Cultural Research 38 (November 2004): 343-358.)

Putting himself out there to the public as a married family man may be the number one thing President Obama can do bring down poverty. This he needs to say before every speech on proverty. Bring Michelle and the girls on stage and say proudly, "Here is plan A. Now for Plan B. . . "

To think they would grow up

to support and dance around the Porkulus Bill. "Some are going to live and some are going to die. . . make sure that tunnel has a door."

Governor honors long-time married volunteers

This was apparently started under Governor Taft and Strickland has continued it. No one from Columbus on the list.

First Lady Frances Strickland and the Ohio Department of Aging today honor 31 couples for their dedication to marriage and volunteerism at the tenth annual Joined Hearts in Giving celebration, held in observance of Valentine's Day at the governor's residence in Columbus. Joined Hearts in Giving honors Ohioans at least 60 years old who have been married 40 years or longer and who share a commitment to volunteerism.

"Ohio is a better place because of the efforts of these great people," said Mrs. Strickland, the event's host. "Through the hours and hard work they volunteer, they embody all that makes this state exceptional."

"The devotion of these couples is truly heart-warming," said Barbara E. Riley, director of the Ohio Department of Aging. "Their commitment to each other and their passion to help others is a model we can all take to heart."

I wasn't aware of the nomination process. I certainly would have recommended my neighbors long time volunteers at their church and the senior center, and married over 60 years.

Deja vu all over again

In 1978 I had a wonderful position in the Agricultural Library at Ohio State University working with agricultural credit and technology files. The position, like many at universities, was paid for by the State Department USAID. Essentially, it was research on what very small amounts of credit from non-profits and governments could do for families and villages in rural, third world countries. Browsing the examples that will be presented at this Fisher College of Business event next week, looks like not much has changed in 30 years. A scarf project in Bolivia and a charity in Appalachia. Well, they probably meet green goals even if they don't lift anyone out of poverty. And that's what is about these days, right? I doubt if the ACT files are still there, but there's no need to reinvent the wheel (although how would academics get promoted if they couldn't rewrite the research done 30-40 years ago?).

Students organize dialogue on battling poverty through entrepreneurship

On Feb. 20, students, the ambassador of Bangladesh, business executives, business scholars, state officials and poverty practitioners will gather at Gerlach Hall for the "Alleviating Poverty Through Entrepreneurship Summit." The day-long summit, inspired by Fisher students, will bring together poverty experts and individuals interested in this topic to create a dialogue and exchange successful strategies, ideas and practices.

“There are many entities addressing poverty utilizing different approaches, as business students we wanted to bring many views together in one forum,” said Benjamin VanBuskirk, one of the student organizers for the event. “We hope this interaction will create discussions about how theory and practice are intersecting while offering participants opportunities to learn from each other.”

The format for the summit will be panel discussions—focused on four areas, research, government, practitioners and business." Link

When the markets realized who would be the next president

So why didn't everything collapse in 1999?

In this morning's WSJ front page article about corporate default rates on high yield bonds I noticed something very peculiar in the chart. In 1999 the default rate was above 5%; in 2008 it was 4.5%. The projection--a big bold red dotted line--was for 13.9% in 2009, but we aren't yet where we were in 1999. So after the Obama Pork and Plunder (O-PAP) bill, we're still to expect defaults of businesses to continue? You mean bashing business, capitalism, free markets, nationalizing health care and parading high earners before Congress for public tongue lashing doesn't help the economy? Whudathunkit?

"A growing wave of souring corporate debt claimed another victim on Thursday as Charter Communications Inc., the nation's fourth-largest cable-TV company, said it would seek bankruptcy-court protection by April 1." Sorry, this is subscriber only

Our ever vigilant, free and independent press

"After curbing enthusiasm, Obama must ease anxiety" is the headline in today's WSJ article by Gerald F. Seib. This appeared in Capital Journal, "Capital Journal is WSJ.com’s unique site for analysis of the political and policy maneuvering in Washington in the era of Barack Obama. It features the Capital Journal columns and occasional other postings by executive Washington editor Gerald F. Seib, and will house Political Wisdom, the Journal's daily aggregation of the smartest political analysis from around the Internet. . ." What an Obama patsy. This corny mush couldn't keep a starving baby chick alive. God help us. He says the execessive enthusiasm (i.e. the bizarre hope ginned up by the candidate to win votes), needed some cold water.

If the goal was to head off irrational exuberance, it worked. More than half the country now says it expects the recession to last as long as three years. Link.

Not me. I expect Obama to exceed FDR's record and give us at least 12 years of bashing and destroying capitalism, high unemployment, and an even higher misery index. Then it will be up to whoever owns our debt, probably China, to decide what to do with us.

Barney the dog has left DC

We'll enjoy the memories of his antics. Barney the Frank is still there, marauding through the halls of Congress, looking for plunder, still misleading us into more debt. Barney Frank, the Representative from Massachusetts has done more damage to this nation than the senior senator from that state could ever have imagined.

Rep. Barney Frank asserted Thursday that the Obama administration can be more trusted than the Bush administration to ensure that banks do not misuse money they get from a $700 billion bailout fund. Chicago Tribune

Yes, good ol' Barn. He's the one who told us there was no problem with Fannie and Fred; he's the one with Chris Dodd whose oversite responsibilities got us here along with all the other Democrats and "can't we all get along" Republicans. He's the one who should be brought before Congress to do the mea culpa they are forcing on CEOs.

As my artist friend Charlie wrote, Barney is attempting to "wash his hands and those of the Democrat party of any blame for the mess, and lay total responsibility on the Bush administration and Republicans in General. The truth is that Frank and the liberal left generated the whole problem by coercing financial institutions to make loans to people who couldn't afford them and using their political clout in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to cover up the problem. (The loans were nicknamed "NINJA" loans....No Income, No Job or Assets)." Yes, I've written about that many times at this blog, and my man Bush certainly can take part of the blame. Four years ago he was praising the number of new home owners among minorities, pandering to the liberals in his own party and moderate Democrats. Owning a home isn't a "civil right," and there was a very good reason for 20% down and fixed mortgages. Once the government began demanding that banks become social workers and nannies, the scene was set for our current playbook.

If government would stay out of this, we could come out of this recession as we've come out of the last 5 or 6, without a massive Depression, but we're on our way! Wheeee! But now we have a $13 a week payback "to make work pay" for all those who believed in Hope and Change.

Here's your tax break

Don't spend it all in one place.

Q: What are some of the tax breaks in the bill?

A: It includes Obama's signature "Making Work Pay" tax credit for 95 percent of workers, though negotiators agreed to trim the credit to $400 a year instead of $500 — or $800 for married couples, cut from Obama's original proposal of $1,000. It would begin showing up in most workers' paychecks in June as an extra $13 a week in take-home pay, falling to about $8 a week next January.

There is also a $70 billion, one-year fix for the alternative minimum tax. The fix would save some 20 million mainly upper-middle-income taxpayers about $2,000 in taxes for 2009. Yahoo News

I think the decrease in the cost of gasoline in the fall added about $2,000 to the average worker's wallet, didn't it? So what will $13 a week, dropping to $8 a week do? What is that, a half pack of cigarettes a day? And their taxes on that pack are the ones paying for the new SCHIP for the middle class. A cup of coffee a day at Panera's? And now we know it's good for us. Where are all those whiners who disparaged the Bush stimulus--like Michelle Obama? Meanwhile, Geithner the tax evader is promising to throw trillions at . . . what? Does anyone know what he's talking about?

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner vowed on Tuesday to jumpstart the nation’s financial system, announcing sweeping new plans to aid struggling banks, spur lending and help beleaguered homeowners.

The program will commit as much as $2 trillion in public and private funds to spur consumer and business lending.

Geithner christened the administration’s revamped bailout program the “Financial Stability Plan,” a not-so-subtle attempt to distance the new Obama administration from the much-maligned management of the “Troubled Asset Relief Program” established in the waning days of the Bush administration. Politico

I'm not too good at math but I saw this at Soda Head: At a million dollars a day, it would take 1,000,000 days or about 2,740 years to spend one trillion. If you want to spend it in your (obviously not mine) life time you would have to spend at least 20 billion per day. Even then it would take you 50 years.

FiSP instead of TARP.

Read The Audacity of Dopes by William K. Black.

Heavy reporting

James Taranto took the USAToday writer to task for the sloppy writing on the figures for overweight military yesterday, but today he says it wasn't enough--the article was even more poorly researched with speculative (i.e. anti-war) conclusions than he thought.

To begin with, the study contains nothing--zilch--to back up Zoroya's contention that the trend "since the start of the Iraq war" is "yet another example of stress and strains of continuing combat deployments." And a close look at it gives further reason to doubt [Gregg] Zoroya's linkage of the findings to the Iraq effort.

So who's chubbing out? The women, and the elders--just like the rest of the population. The Army and the Marines, the bulk of the Iraq troops, have the lowest rates of obesity. I guess the press will need to find another way to slam the troops. The prisoners on Gitmo got fat on good food, too--which will probably all change when they are sent home to "reeducation camps" and then loosed to come back to us, slim and trim.

Today's new word--JEREMIAD

This is a noun from the name of the Old Testament prophet, Jeremiah, and means lamenting and denunciatory, complaint, doleful story. My goodness, haven't we been hearing a lot of jeremiads lately from the folks in Washington. The context: "[Jonathan Edwards] vision of depravity and sulphur is in the tradition of the jeremiad . . . one of the ongoing themes in American society and rhetoric. . ."

Every improvement has a consequence down the line

Our polio epidemics of the 20th century were a result of good sanitation--the flush toilet. Here’s one I wouldn’t have thought of--clean water increases poor sanitation.

"Clean Water Makes You Dirty: Water Supply and Sanitation Behavior in the Philippines"
Daniel Bennett, Assistant Professor, Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies, University of Chicago
June 12, 2008

Improving the water supply is a common policy response to endemic diarrhea in developing countries. However, water supply interventions may inadvertently worsen community sanitation by mitigating the consequences of unsanitary behavior. Since sanitation has large health externalities, the impact of declining sanitation may overwhelm the benefit of receiving clean water. This paper shows how the expansion of municipal piped water in Metro Cebu, the Philippines has exacerbated public defecation and garbage disposal. According to estimates, a neighborhood’s complete adoption of piped water increases public defecation and garbage by 15-30 percent.

I think there’s a message here for us, but I’ll have to think about what it is. Something like "it’s not my problem any more," or “now the government will take care of me so I can do anything I want.”

Cornell McCleary, former Columbus talk show host dies

He also was a blogger. He will be missed. Story here.

A longtime critic of Mayor Michael B. Coleman, McCleary had posted comments in recent days critical of the decision to demolish Columbus City Center. McCleary had wanted the city to subsidize the relocation of businesses from poorer communities into a new center named Columbus International Unity Center.

He ran unsuccessfully for Columbus City Council as a Republican in 2001.
He hosted a radio show on 610 AM WTVN for eight years, ending in March 2006.

Urban Infrastructure Recovery Fund

Even before the Obama jobs program, there was the Bush jobs program, which pumped millions and millions into cities to "revitalize" various neighborhoods. Very few poor people benefitted, unless they worked in one of the building trades that did the work. Many of those homes are now boarded up. These were bad investments for everyone concerned. And actually, I can't even blame Bush II because this was going on for about 20 years--maybe back to Carter, but on a smaller scale. In Columbus, you might find $60,000 homes in the central city getting $200,000 worth of renovations. The roofing programs were--out the roof. But, and this is no pun intended, get a load of this one for "assley resurfacing." Either someone hacked the site, or a PIC worker typed it. Look it up in an urban dictionary. I kid you not; I've cut and pasted from this web page

The program funds several million dollars of capital improvements per year in Central City Neighborhoods. Residents propose projects based on a premise they know their neighborhood needs. Since 1992, $36 million in public roadway and public park improvements were constructed such as street paving, assley resurfacing, street lighting upgrades, street trees, curbs and sidewalks, playground equipment, and neighborhood gateways.

We will probably get to tear down our 20 year old City Center Mall and build another unsafe park! That, Mr. and Mrs. America, is just a downpayment on Mr. Obama's programs for the nation--assley covering.

Now he shows up for work

President Obama has really been testy lately, no more Mr. Hope and Happy Talk. But he's learning. He now shows up. He can't just vote "present" anymore. Today he's back in Illinois (Lincoln's birthday) talking up his 1930s jobs program. He doesn't need support from Republicans. He doesn't need "bi-partisanship" to get this killer bill through Congress. He's got all the votes he needs. He just doesn't want all the blame. Maybe that is like voting "present," come to think of it. I think San Fran Gran gets most of coaching credit.

You can read about the first assassination attempt on Lincoln here at my blog. It wasn't reported in the news until 50 years later, but a librarian saved his life. William T. Coggeshall was Lincoln's bodyguard in 1861 and later became the state librarian of Ohio.

Cancer hoax in e-mail

The latest I received was supposedly from Johns Hopkins, but they are all over the internet. There are lots of things you can do to have a healthier life, but avoiding the microwave, fast food containers, and freezing water in plastic bottles aren't those.

You can eat real food

Get up and go for a walk and breathe

Be faithful to your spouse

Stop smoking or don't start

Just those four things--without Yoga, or vitamin supplements, no vegetarian diet, no navel gazing, will do a lot to help. Even prayer if it reduces your stress level. A nice hobby. A beautiful scene. An occasional vacation that doesn't wear down your wallet. Perhaps putting your hands in dirt and growing a garden. But no modification in living would have stopped my daughter's cancer, which she survived thanks to modern medicine and alert doctors, only to almost be taken out by a DVT which had nothing at all to do with anything except flying too often and wearing high heels.

Let's put good intentions in perspective. The environmentalist movement has killed more Africans than the Atlantic slave trade ever did; over 40 million developing Americans have died in abortions; a dirty peanut plant with careless owners is taking its toll on immune compromised people who survived cancer and other problems through a living, perfectly "natural" bacteria called Salmonella Typhimurium.

Now, listen to mother and get a life.

Craig's List and Ohio Prostitution

This seems to be a problem around here. Although if these folks weren't advertising on the popular Craig's List, which snagged an OSU Nursing School adviser and former employee of the Governor, the authorities might never catch up with them.

A fourth-grade teacher at Bellefontaine’s Western Intermediate School, who was arrested Tuesday on prostitution charges, allegedly used a school computer and postings on Craigslist to set up daytime trysts with clients.

Amber R. Carter, 35, of Bellefontaine, was taken into custody around noon by deputies of the Logan County Sheriff’s Office in the parking lot of the Bellefontaine Super 8 Motel, 1117 N. Main St., without incident. She was charged with third-degree misdemeanor prostitution and fifth-degree felony unauthorized use of property.

She is now free on bond and no date for her initial court appearance had been set as of this morning.

Bellefontaine City Schools is cooperating with the sheriff’s office, Superintendent Larry Anderson, Ph.D., said this morning. “It’s really a shock,” Dr. Anderson said. “We’re pretty devastated on this. Bellefontaine Examiner

I guess it was tough explaining to the kids why the teacher had a sub.

The Christmas wreath

When I stepped outside this morning, I narrowly missed crushing some pinecones and bulbs. The Christmas wreath was in the bushes and pieces parts in the entry. Well, it was time, right? About 20 of our neighbors across the ravine are without power, according to one that I saw at Panera's this morning with her family getting breakfast. They also lost power for 5 days after Hurricane Ike roared through here in September. Being without power in Ohio in February is a bit more challenging than September. We lost power for about 30 seconds, but I heard the wind roaring most of the night.

Time to hang the spring wreath anyway.

Who bears the responsibility?

If the managers and owners of Peanut Corporation of America knew about the salmonella contamination, they are worse than pond scum and should go to jail. But what about all the workers, the ones who now say they saw the filth, the rats, the chipped paint above roasters?

Terry Jones, a janitor, remembered the peanut oil left to soak into the floor and the unrepaired roof that constantly leaked rain.

And James Griffin, a cook at the plant, recounted how his observations led to this simple rule. “I never ate the peanut butter, and I wouldn’t allow my kids to eat it.”

In interviews, these three men and another employee who worked at the now-closed plant, provided an inside glimpse into the day-to-day sanitation lapses there. AJC.com

There must have been employees up and down the line, managers, union members, illegals and legals, educated and no-so-much, who saw and didn't act because they wanted to keep their jobs. How is that different than the men testifying before Congressional leaders whose values and ethics are also screwed up?

So now a government that can't provide enough employees so the FDA can keep the plants inspected using regulations and laws long on the books is going to spend massive amounts of our money dabbling in less critical facets of our lives, like universal pre-school, light bulbs to save energy and dangerous to dispose, and rewriting marriage laws so gays don't feel left out.

"Stimulus deal forged"
That was the Columbus Dispatch headline today. Yes, forge means to form or bring into being through effort, but it also means to make with intent to defraud, to commit a forgery. And it is definitely a forgery when over half of the American people know that government doesn't create wealth--it takes wealth from producers and gives it to non-producers. This past week we were all Joe the Plumber asking questions, and we were pushed aside by Congress and ridiculed in the press. A forgery has definitely taken place.

I am an Iris What Flower Are You?

Today's new word is CORPORA

Corpus is the Latin word for body--of a man or animal, or all the writings or works of an author. Corps is a body of men. Corpulent means fleshy or obese. The city name Corpus Cristi means body of Christ. CORPORA is the plural of corpus. Yesterday at the coffee shop I pulled a little tag from an advertisement asking for people my age to participate in a hearing study by the Psychoacoustics Lab at Ohio State. (If you're interested call 614-292-1643--they pay.) I didn't know what a Psychoacoustics Lab does, so I looked it up.

In the Psychoacoustics Laboratory we are working on projects that investigate the ability of listeners to extract information from complex, time-varying sounds. These sounds are acoustically similar to speech, music or environmental sounds, but they do not require the cognitive processing necessary to recognize or understand those sounds. We are testing our model of peripheral auditory processing, which suggests that the auditory nervous system responds to the spectral center-of-gravity, COG, of the neural activity generated by such sounds. The COG is the “balance point” for this activity. As the COG changes over time, listeners hear changes in the sounds that are often described as rising or falling pitches.

I had a lot of fun poking around in the speech lab, for instance this vowel corner. I could hardly tell the difference between the women from Ohio and Wisconsin, but western North Carolina was really different.

Anyway, I came across, "The approach taken at the SPA Labs is data-driven and the focus is on constructing large corpora of speech which would provide conclusive answers to the questions asked." At first I thought it was just a collection of data, but I learned that this phrase is very specific to speech research--refers to a collection of recorded utterances used as a basis for language analysis.

Orvieto

We were hanging an art show today (Jan Kotch, Worthington) at the UALC Mill Run Church, and one of the paintings was of Positano. I mentioned we were in Italy last summer. "Would you go back," a fellow artist asked. In a minute. Here's an artist workshop in Orvieto in 2010.

Here's the artist's story. Amazing what faith, love and talent can do for you.

This and that from January 1982

While doing some laundry, I continued to go through an old box of letters and found one from early January 1982 updating our parents and siblings on what we'd done over the holidays. It's not particularly interesting, but it does have a familiar ring with weather and economy stories.

THE BRUCE TIMES NO. 12 JANUARY 1982

No matter what part of the country you are in the weather seems to be the topic--California with mudslides, Chicago area with -26, Florida with freezes, and Ohio with -50 chill factor. We had another 5 inches of snow today and it was quite wet, so I had to spend about 45 minutes shoveling the drive-way before I could get the car in.

I had an interesting free lance reseearch job this past week getting material for a medical illustrator on health insurance. I browsed the title, "The Hospital that Ate Chicago." The state of Ohio has the 2nd highest unemployment rate in the nation, and it has now been predicted that we will have a billion dollar deficit, and most of it will be from the education budget.

It has really been gloom and doom at work [Ohio State University], and it is virtually assured now that I will be out of work very soon. They are predicting as high as 20% cuts in OSU's budget, which would virtually paralyze the university. Someone was recalling that during the Depression, you had to bring your own toilet paper because the university couldn't buy any. Today we were told all purchasing would stop--including paper products and line charges for the computer.

I've applied for a job at Chem Abstracts as a Russian cataloguer. Two weeks ago I wouldn't have considered it.

No health czar, no hearings, no choice

We've got it anyway. SCHIP protecting "children," who are adults, and electronic records snooping to make sure our doctors won't be able to give us too much help or quality care. On this one issue alone, the Republicans should have stopped the "hear no evil, see no evil, smell no stench" routine. Obama didn't need a single Republican vote to launch his war on the economy.

"Two provisions in President Barack Obama's economic stimulus plan could give the federal government the authority to oversee the medical decisions made between doctors and patients, critics warn, which could result in the rationing of health care." Story here.

I can understand why the Democrats fall in line--he's their guy. They can see what's happening, but they've invested so much of their passion and belief in a false prophet, that even when the crash of planets doesn't happen, they prepare to climb on board the spaceship ready for the next lie. But why would the Republicans be willing to accept the blame? Arlen Specter of PA, and Olympia Snowe & Susan Collins of ME. RINOs helped stampede us into a recession. In case you haven't lived long enough to remember history, here's a picture of what we've had in my adult life.


The chart is from JWF, a site not known to me, but I was around then, and it looks familiar. If you disagree with the figures, take your questions to him. I recall paying 10.5% for a mortgage in 1988.

The President can pick 'em

Yes, I know his advisors are doing the selection and they are socialists, marxists and progressives, with a few Democrats huddled in a closet somewhere gasping for air as they are slowly strangled by the leftists, but I had walked through the room and caught the tail end of a news report, "Obama choses porn defender" or something like that. The media tend to get this messed up just to grab viewers, so this morning I googled "lawyer pornographer court" and up it came.

So apparently, President Obama's pick for deputy attorney general is David W. Ogden, characterized as a "porn lawyer" and a "hired gun" for the ACLU. There have been a few times in our history when the ACLU has been useful to freedom's cause, but mostly NOT. Let's assume here that you have no problem with our attorney general associating with scum, how about his reliance on foreign law to interpret the U.S. Constitution?

Here's his vita. Haaarvad of course.

David Ogden focuses on high-stakes disputes with complex legal and policy dimensions and serious financial implications. His clients include leading companies in the pharmaceutical, petrochemical, insurance, financial, airline, defense, automotive, media, and internet industries, as well as major trade and professional associations, nonprofit foundations, and individuals.

Successfully representing a multinational energy company in ICSID arbitration against a Latin American country concerning intellectual property rights

Obtaining summary judgment for a major US corporation declaring unenforceable in the United States, a $486 million foreign judgment

Representing two foreign air cargo carriers, who are leniency applicants, in ongoing worldwide antitrust litigation, including a US class action involving US and EU commerce and supervising defense of related class actions in Australia and Canada

Obtaining on behalf of a US based university with a foreign campus an anti-suit injunction halting foreign litigation brought against the university, preserving control over the university's foreign assets

Obtaining on behalf of a major foreign airline and successfully defending on appeal dismissal with prejudice of a purported federal court, state-law class action claiming improper retention of US and foreign taxes and fees

Representing the US subsidiary of a foreign corporation, and two US media organizations, in three separate investigations of alleged export control violations concerning China or Cuba

Representing a former US Cabinet Secretary with respect to Alien Tort Statute litigation arising from events in a Latin American nation

Representing a national insurance company with respect to an ongoing False Claims Act investigation by the US Justice Department

Persuading a state civil rights commission not to pursue discrimination charges against a national insurance company concerning homeowner's insurance premium levels, and successfully defending that victory through a series of state court appeals

Obtaining dismissal with prejudice on behalf of a major national mortgage lender of a putative nationwide discrimination class action seeking billions of dollars in damages on behalf of minority borrowers

Representing automobile dealers in an ongoing US Civil Rights Division investigation into alleged discriminatory lending practices

Sounds like a good old boy to me for the globalists, they're the ones with the money. It's a "living Constitution" as long as it helps their own wallet.

The 2012 Pelosi GTxi SS/RT Sport Edition

This is too much fun to miss.

Maybe if he weren't a tax cheat

we could trust him? Nah. He'd be doing Obama's bidding even if he were honest. Stocks fell again today. The markets have fallen continually since Obama became the candidate of the Dems in the summer. Why does Obama blame Bush for overspending when he's doing double triple time to out do him? Wasn't he a senator in a Democratic controlled Congress? Spending too much got us here; more spending takes us back to the 30s where FDR put us in a 10 year Depression. He's passing out lip-smackin' pork cracklins to his left wing buddies who put him in office.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner may have wanted to put an end to the never-ending credit crisis by announcing a comprehensive approach to saving the banking system, but all he succeeded in doing Tuesday was adding uncertainty. Forbes here.


"The Obama administration is scrambling to get a grip on the economy as it continues its descent, including rising unemployment, falling housing prices and mounting foreclosures. The government's solution is a one-two punch: $800 billion in economic stimulus and the financial system stability plan.

Geithner wants to reverse the damage done by the previous administration's ad-hoc reaction to the banking crisis, which he faulted Tuesday for being "inadequate" and slow."

Five most Obamaudacious comments on the stimulus

See original at Morning Bell for expansion and links for these statements.

1) No Earmarks: . . . there are billions of line-item spending elements to payoff leftist interest groups

2) 4 Million Jobs: According to the Congressional Budget Office Obama's plan could produce only 1.2 million jobs. And one in five of these jobs will be a government job.

3) Spending: the bill itself is all the proof you need the Obama and his leftist allies thoroughly love their chance to blow a trillion dollars. The Obama Trillion Dollar Debt Plan doubles the size of the Department of Education and creates 32 brand new government programs.

4) Free Lunches: Obama's Trillion Dollar Debt Plan is founded on the belief that government can provide endless free lunches to the American people.

5) Japan: "We saw this happen in Japan in the 1990s, where they did not act boldly and swiftly enough, and as a consequence they suffered what was called the “lost decade” where essentially for the entire ’90s they did not see any significant economic growth.” - This statement is audacity defined. No wonder support for Obama’s economic stimulus plan is sinking like a rock.

"In principle, more Americans say that tax cuts for individuals and businesses – rather than spending on programs and infrastructure projects – will do more right now to stimulate the economy and create jobs. Nearly half (48%) says that tax cuts will do more for the economy, while 39% views government spending as more effective." Pew Research, Feb. 9, 2009

Right, right, right, um, right, exactly, OK, right

That was the voice of the interviewer I heard off camera during a video interview of a "conversation about Vietnam and Iraq with the author and Lt. Col. Rick Welch of the U.S. Army Reserve, who is currently [no date but possibly 2007] on assignment in Baghdad."

http://sgurvis.com/sixties/60s_video.php

Sandra Gurvis who put this together to promote her book, "Where have all the flower children gone," appears to be a local writer. I wandered into her memoirs about the 1960s and the Vietnam War via a restaurant review. It gives me new respect for television interviewers, even the ones I don't care for. Filmed interviews need quality editing, lighting, background, staging, music, voice, etc. Gurvis didn't make the case why she was trying to compare the conflicts in Vietnam and Iraq. She jumped in to quash his positive points about why the U.S. forces were in the middle east. Having worked for 18 months in Iraq reconciling different cultures, he was polite and patient, so his performance was more professional and informed than hers. She had no content or expertise, interjecting myths, half-truths, and hyperbole from the 60s and anti-war rhetoric that made little sense in this "conversation."

This was a good lesson. Whether interviewing or simply sharing ideas in conversation, I need to resist the urge to interject little words to let the speaker know I am listening. It actually has the opposite affect.

Health insurance for all at what cost?

"News from Kobe, Japan, brought the tragic story of a 69-year old man who was critically injured in a traffic accident while riding his bicycle. Suffering from massive head and back injuries, his condition worsened as paramedics raced him from hospital to hospital — 14 in all — and none could accept him because they had no beds, staff, specialists or equipment. He died of hemorrhagic shock by the time a hospital was found for him, three hours after the accident." Story here.

It will take awhile for the nationalized health care we're getting under the "stimulus package" to totally disintegrate, around the time Obama leaves office.

Not even a toe tapped or a finger twitched

Watch the young ladies in formal wear behind Buddy Holly (who died 50 years ago with the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens) in this 1957 video. How did they do that--standing perfectly still. Was this dance at a school for the deaf?

Our President was born in a backward time

Lucky for him. His unmarried 17 year old American mother didn't abort him--abortions were accessible but not easy in the 1960s. And his Kenyan father was old enough to have benefitted from DDT which was controlling malaria in his home country. For malaria statistics today, take a look at Kenya, and its under 50 life expectancy. Millions and millions of Africans died when DDT was removed from the market by environmentalists before there was an adequate replacement or plan. And those figures for treated bed nets don't look too promising either, do they? Less than 12% of the children under 5 are sleeping under treated materials in Kenya. And they are still blundering today with the lives of Africans. Where else but Africa can you find large pools of women at-risk-for-HIV on which to try out your iffy drug studies?

Today's new word is ANON

There was no problem understanding the context. "It is good that we should ever and anon remind our hearts of the central creeds. . ." Shakespeare and Chaucer used anon, but what does it really mean? It comes from Middle English from Old English, anoon and anan combining two little words, on and an. My dining room dictionary, the Webster's 2nd International says: in one body state or direction; straight away; soon; in a little while; presently; then. My Webster's 9th Collegiate says, soon, presently, later, after a while. There is a park in Belleville, Illinois named, Ever and Anon park, which I think is a very pleasant name for a public space.

Lifestyle modification and pseudoscience

As I've noted before, I can usually understand the opening sentences and summaries of medical articles, but I'm over my head with the details, statistics and funny upside down numbers. So when Mike Mitka wrote in the January 14 issue of JAMA that two major studies exploring the benefits of lifestyle modifications for primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular events (FIT Heart and HF-ACTION) failed to demonstrate what the researchers had hoped for, I decided it was time to turn to Sandy Szwarc's JunkFood Science. Sandy's good at explaining why failed studies are still called a success and why ideology trumps science.

Me? I usually say follow the money, whether it's Congress and earmarks (pork), Al Gore and carbon credits, or the latest diet and exercise fad that lands an academic a USDA grant. I think Sandy may be saying something similar (without my politicking), but read her whole article, just to be sure.

"The preventive health movement has become a major industry, though, and the healthy eating and lifestyle ideology has been an easy one to sell. Just like alternative modalities, everyone wants to believe in a simple magical solution that can keep them well. Various dietary ideologies have come and gone through much of human history, all giving food more power than the evidence supports. But, beyond preventing deficiencies, which is easily achieved for most people by eating an unrestricted and varied diet, food is primarily sustenance, not magic. Humans around the world have eaten very differently, with no one food or way of eating itself related to longer life.

Great myths of the great Depression

If you can count, you know that 1929-1941 (or 1943 by other research) is a very long time, and that both the Hoover Administration and the Roosevelt Administration created and fine tuned the so-called Great Depression with massive government interference. And now President Obama and the Reid Pelosi gang that can't shoot straight want to do it all over again and are lying to us about capitalism and about recovery. Why does anyone, president or pauper, want to recreate the pain of the 1930s? I've pointed out this article before, but in light of Obama's lies, it's worth another look.

"Old myths never die; they just keep showing up in economics and political science textbooks. With only an occasional exception, it is there you will find what may be the twentieth century’s greatest myth: Capitalism and the free-market economy were responsible for the Great Depression, and only government intervention brought about America’s economic recovery."

500 new jobs and $60 million more in salaries and expenditures for central Ohio

If you have a weak spam filter like my osu dot edu mail box, you’re probably getting a lot of mail about “enhancement” and “enlargement.” I suppose this reflects desperate times for gullible Americans, or eager spammers who think every one with a dot edu mailbox must be 19 years old, or maybe just poor IT security at OSU. No matter how many blocks I add to the word list, they just find more creative ways to discuss sex. Once in awhile there is interesting news in the mail box from Chip and Steve, from whom I hear often. Chip Souba, Vice President and Executive Dean for Health Sciences and Steven G. Gabbe, Senior Vice President for Health Sciences, OSU Medical Center. Today I learned:

"We are pleased to inform you that The Ohio State University Board of Trustees approved funds last Friday to proceed with interior design work for the final three floors of the Biomedical Research Tower (BRT). Floors 4, 5 and 6 were left as unfinished shells until the funding and research priorities for the space were identified.

This project will add approximately 72,000 usable square feet of research space to our Medical Center, which is absolutely essential to reach our goals of being a top-20 academic medical center and a top-10 cancer program nationally. It will eventually allow us to recruit as many as 42 new researchers and their staffs to Ohio State, which translates into 500 new jobs and $60 million more in salaries and expenditures for our local economy."

Now that’s the kind of expansion we can all appreciate, assuming it was not just part of another phony stimulus. And I can only hope that human embryos aren't part of that planned research--adult stem cell research is leaps and bounds ahead of embryonic, thanks to GWB holding the ethical line.

62%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

HT AmbivaBlog

Obama numbers dropping

Disapproval going up; approval going down.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Approval Index for Monday shows that 38% of the nation’s voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Twenty-four percent (24%) Strongly Disapprove to give Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of +14 (subtract disapproval from approval). . . Overall, 48% of voters believe that increased spending is generally bad for the economy. Sixty-two percent (62%) of voters would like the stimulus plan to include more tax cuts and less government spending.

Didn't he promise tax cuts during the campaign--95% of us were going to get them? Won't make any difference if he kills the economy, will it?

Parathyroid disease symptoms

I was listening to an interview with Fr. John Corapi about his illness, a benign parathyroid tumor. I don't see a date on this. Here are the symptoms of parathyroid problems. Sounds nasty, and difficult to diagnose. A high calcium level is one of the lab signals. Feeling old is also one of the symptoms.

Bowling and Exercise class

We had a sub in exercise class today. She really put us through our paces. I did about half. Half of the exercises at about half speed. And still I was sweating. She was kind and would yell out from the other end of the room, "I'll wait for you!" Last night I bowled--but it was Wii bowling. Have you ever played a virtual sport with a Wii? I love the sound effects. One time I "dropped the bowling ball" and the crowd all chattered and gasped. I was low scorer, but still better than the last time I bowled in real life which was in 2001 I think in California. Wii is a lot of fun and includes baseball, tennis, golf, and maybe archery, but we only did the bowling, and our hostess demonstrated tennis. There were six of us, lots of food in the near-by kitchen, including corn chips which I can't resist, and a sore shoulder when I finished. So that hot shower after class today really felt good.

What if Obama stops smoking?

And millions of others? Health care costs will increase. Yes, smokers die younger and will not require all that expensive care in their old-old years. That sounds crass, but if you ever ran the numbers on all this "healthy" eating, exercise, and no-smoking stuff, you'd find wonderful reasons to be healthy, but saving the government money isn't one of them. But also, if they stop smoking, we'll have to find other ways to pay for all the SCHIP "children" (who are adults) who don't need government health care.

On Feb. 4, President Obama signed legislation that reauthorizes and expands the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Earlier in the day, the House — on a 290-135 vote — passed the Senate version of the SCHIP legislation that expands insurance to an additional 4 million children. The new law also gives SCHIP an additional $35 billion over the next five years. The extra $35 billion in costs would be funded by a 62-cent-per-pack increase in the federal tax on cigarettes and other tobacco products. The new law removes a restriction that prevented states from enrolling middle-class children without first proving that nearly all poor children had been enrolled. Some states found it difficult to meet that criterion. Former President Bush twice vetoed similar legislation. AIS Health

Since more low-income and poor people than rich people smoke, this is an additional tax on the poor. Raising the tax doesn't cause them to stop--it just takes their discretionary money from another pot--like groceries. Another example of taxing the poor to help the middle class.

"The release of a scant one-page summary for 21 years of care brought some criticism to the Obama campaign – especially when compared to the thousands of pages of medical records released by McCain. Obama promised reporters that if there are additional health-related questions, his campaign would make that information available. “In terms of additional records, if there are particular things that people have questions about, then we’d be happy to give that information,” he said." ABC News

New York Times Lies

Today I've been going back through my blog edit page de-duping. I'm not sure how the duplicates accumulate, but they do, and hang around as "drafts." Anyway, I found one I wrote in December 2008 about lies the NY Times told about Clinton and Bush and Fannie Mae, which seems unfinished, but wasn't a dup. It wasn't clear when I read the draft if all the material was original, or if it needed to be cited and linked. So I cut the phrase "New York Times lies" and popped it into Google, and got 26,300,000 matches. My goodness. That's more research than I wanted. I looked through about 300 of them, most of which were about lies found in the NYT, but some were reports in the NYT about lies (not their own). And I came across this interesting video from 2007 by Bill O'Reilly and lies about the ratings of his show. Interesting. Don't mess with Bill. Isn't that the name of a pop tune?



The phrase may be a case of "google bombing." It took Google 4 years to stop the google bombing of George W. Bush, (if you type in a particularly negative phrase it will bring up a GWB page) and about 4 days to stop it on Barack Obama after he became president. I think that's what I heard on the radio. Maybe Obama is just more senstive about criticism. Ya Think?

Monday Memories--1976 in Southern California

My husband doesn't write many letters, so what a surprise today when I came across a real gold mine of copies of letters--maybe 10--he'd written in the 1970s. Don't remember now what I was looking for because I got so involved in reading them. Our family took at trip to California in 1976 to visit my husband's father, step-mother, brother and sister. We didn't know them too well--his parents were divorced when he was about two years old and he'd only seen them about once a decade. But we had a wonderful time, and the siblings have grown much closer over the years. (See the photos of the siblings at his sister's wedding 30 years later in 2006). But I thought this letter to his California parents was quite sweet. It's written on company letterhead in precise architectural printing at an angle across the page with his unique spelling, so I'm pretty sure I didn't have a hand in it. I'm glad he thought to make a photocopy of it.

BRUBAKER/BRANDT, INC. ARCHITECTS PLANNERS

Dad & Rosie,

Well, what can I say after a 9 day, storybook, Southern California vacation that was perfect in every detail. I could talk about the places I saw, the beauty of the land and ocean, the make-believe of Disney or ocean marine animals doing fantastic tricks. The sun filled sky and the smiles and laughter of our children watching animated bears singing and sea lions balancing balls in the water. But that would only be half of the story.

The other half was the best for me. Seeing and visiting family which I had not seen in many years. To learn to love again the family which has been on my mind many times. To see and hold a sister which has grown and matured into a lovely lady of beauty and talent. Could it really have been 16 years since I saw her last? I hope never again that long.

To see and spend a day with a brother who Norma says reminds her of me, surely she doesn't mean physically, and learn of his goals and values. Aunts and cousins which brought back memories of boyhood days at Lake Webster. What a great visit we all had that day. And of course, you Dad, for the time you shared with us at breakfast, filling our cups with coffee and love. And with you Rosie, being with you for the first time since I was eleven or so. Learning to love you and visiting with you and the pictures in your photo album.

It was the finest vacation our family ever had. Give my love to all and come our way when you can.

Dad and Rosie and our family, March 1976
And there were hand printed letters also to his brother and sister in the file. It's enough to make an old lady cry.

Talking us into a Depression

With the January jobs report, the recent recession has become one of the five worst since WWII in terms of jobs losses as a percentage of the work force (I know you may, from reading the paper and listening to Obama, think it is the worst, but it is still only the fourth or fifth worst). Let me compare the job losses and the output declines at this point in the recession for these 5 recessions:

See Coyote Blog

"I ask every business owner or manager I meet for the personal evidence they have of economic cataclysm. Is their business down? And in a surprising number of cases, I get the answer that their business is doing OK, but they are cutting back because surely the worst is soon to come, based on everything they see in the media."

What if there were a recession

and the federal government and the Fed did nothing, with Congress going home on an extended vacation. Based on what has happened in the last 8 months (and what happened 1929-1943), we'd be way ahead. The stock market has done nothing but drop since the markets woke up one day and realized Obama would be president after the Democrats met in the summer. When the congressional whiz kids decided to bail out the banks with the Ben and Hank (Fed + fed govt) dog and pony show, nothing recovered and everything got worse. The President's solution? Do more interfering. If a lot didn't work, much more might! Obama's numbers are dropping like a Bush in Iraq, and he's heading for the heartland to drum up support. Hope and Change.
Hopeless change.
Less change,
changing hope.

Was it NCLB?

Depending on your politics, education statistics are fodder for your cause. While in office President Bush was roundly criticized by both conservatives and liberals for throwing money at education, particularly NCLB. Although if you look at the grant money available from HHS, USDA, and other agencies, the money for children extended far beyond the DOE and NCLB. No president in the history of the nation has better reason to be called “the education president” than George W. Bush, based on the money spent, (or wasted, depending on your viewpoint). However, today I came across some interesting statistics.

In 1998 Georgia had the lowest overall graduation rate in the nation with 54% of students graduating, followed by Nevada, Florida, and Washington, D.C. The national rate was 71%, according to the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. (Its figures differ from some government statistics which include GEDs in graduation rates). Nine years later, Georgia's graduation rate rose to an all-time high of 72.3 percent in 2006-2007, according to data released by State Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox and Governor Sonny Perdue.

Manhattan Institute for Policy Research tends to be conservative/libertarian. I don’t know about the state superintendent of schools in Georgia, but I’m sure she would want to make it as positive as possible, regardless of her party. But it looks like NCLB helped some of the worst school districts in the country, which I believe was its intent. The NEA and teachers in general complained bitterly about it, and I'm sure anything good about the program will go the way of all digital information agencies of the federal government don't want you to see. As I've said many times, the archives belong to the victor, and the public libraries to the Democrats.

However, here’s another statistic I found. In 1993 Georgia began to invest more (many millions) in pre-K education which included a component for working with the mothers of the children so they could get their GED and job training. This was under Governor Zell Miller, and was funded by the state lottery. Press release 1993. If even some of the poorest children were helped by that program, it should have shown up in the 2007 graduation rates, 14 years later.

During the last three weeks, we've seen the previous administration dissed at every possibile turn by current officials, from Obama on down, and it is in very bad taste. It will be interesting to see if he is criticized for not caring about children.

Pro-Cuba, anti-Bush group petitions Obama

Artists, clowns, poets, musicians etc. want "normal" relations with Cuba. Petition here. I wonder if Cubans get anywhere petitioning their government for more freedom?

Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are a holy and righteous God and that you love us and our President far more than we can even imagine, that your son Jesus Christ lived a perfect life and died a perfect death for us. Protect and enlighten our President. Guard him from false advisors and information, so that he in turn can lead the nation. In the name of Jesus, Amen.

Page after page, lustful thinking

The AIA report on how to spend billions and billions of federal money on local and state projects to help the building and construction trades, many of which no one will want or use (transit, model schools, etc.) or will forget about as it filters through the bureaucracy pipe line for several years (block grants to communities), was supposed to include a "tax cut for businesses." I searched and searched, and finally found it on the final (9th) page.

Repeal Section 511 of P.L. 109-222, which requires federal, state and most local government agencies to levy a three-percent withholding on all government contracts, grants and other payments.

Although this provision is not slated to go into effect until 2011, many businesses are in the process of developing their plans for the next few years and are having to invest funds already in preparing accounting systems to handle the new withholding. In addition, the withholding would come into effect around the time that many economists believe that the economy will begin to recover. It makes no sense to provide economic relief to businesses on one hand and yet punish them for
performing government work with the other.

This is an unfunded mandate from 2005 which could cost some of the building trades more than their margin of profit. Certainly worthy of cutting, but I doubt that it's enough to offset the huge gorging of green the architects are craving and the banquet table loaded with pork. The building trades have been under the thumb of the federal government for at least 30-40 years--not as long as the farmers, but they've lost control of their professions. Why are all these buildings, roads and bridges in such tough shape if the government knew how to do everything better 20-30 years ago?

How many calories does a 60 minute aerobics class use?

According to this nice little widget, Fitness Partner's Activity Calculator which I found on Gekko's blog, about 318. The same as digging in the dirt for an hour, or painting the house for an hour, or cleaning gutters. I think I'll stick with the exercise class.

Fotographia

Sometimes you just get lucky when you click on "next blog." Get a load of these photographs! http://ilustranatur.blogspot.com/. João Nunes da Silva, Portugal, Fotógrafo de Natureza. Not much in the archives, but what a feast for the eyes.

Good enough to run for Congress

FEMA sent money to crooks who simply applied for it after Katrina and Rita blew through Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. But as we see in the negotiations for the packaged stimulating pork, this is a tradition in government. Yesterday's Columbus Dispatch reported that 15 Toledoans, some applying from prison and others claiming property damage in cemeteries and empty lots received FEMA money. Link.

If there were that many from northern Ohio, imagine how many there must have been who actually lived in the states affected by the storms. I think Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi should check out these dipsticks for the Congressional farm club. These crooks (the Toledoans, not Reid & Pelosi) weren't thinking big, but in politics not everyone starts at or near the top. And these folks are innocent until proven guilty (the Toledoans, not Reid & Pelosi).

No brainer Book Talk

Glancing through the paper copy of OnCampus yesterday I came across "Book Talk," an interview of Tanya Erzen, author of "Straight to Jesus: Sexual and Christian Conversions in the Ex-Gay Movement," which received the 2008 Gustave Arlt award from the Council of Graduate Schools. Despite the intriguing title, there was no doubt in my mind that this wasn't an evangelical Christian book about gays finding freedom in the love of Christ. It would be highly unlikely that such an author could make her way through the arduous promotion and tenure process, or even get hired in a Department of Comparative Studies (religion, folklore, ethnography) at a major university if she were a conservative Christian with historic, traditional views on marriage or even a liberal Christian with traditional views like I was for 35 years.

But if I'd had any doubt, Prof. Erzen, who says she doesn't believe in censorship or banning books, said:

What book would you most want your kids to read? What would you want them NOT to read?Since my daughter already likes Dr. Seuss, she’s off to a good start, and I have books by Roald Dahl, Ray Bradbury and Madeleine L’Engle waiting for her. I hope she’ll read Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States when she is older. I wouldn’t mind if she never wanted to read The Purpose Driven Life or the Left Behind series.

Lots of conservative Christians don't recommend Rick Warren's book because of its lack of a straightforward message about sin and forgiveness, but I suspect she dislikes his traditional capitalism and marriage views. No tender, inquiring mind will be damaged by reading its happy, sweet message of comfort. I'm not into dispensational theology either, or any Christian fiction for that matter, but Left Behind is no more fanciful than Bradbury.

The Democrats' view of prosperity

"That's what got us here." Whether it's Daniel the Catholic Alaskan Librarian or Obama the President who campaigned for two years I just shake my head in disbelief when I hear that the booming economy of 2003-2008 is what caused the meltdown. No interest loans. Mexicans flooding over the border to grab really high priced construction jobs in Ohio and drop their anchor babies. Managers frantically looking for workers--and giving them bonuses and parties for just showing up. On paper we had a phantom 3rd person living with us who just turned over his paycheck and asked for nothing but reinvesting his money. That wasn't disaster, that was a boom, and booms go bust if you're not careful about who you lend money to. Would you have preferred than the economy didn't recover after 2000 so you could blame that on Bush too?

Here's Daniel commenting at my blog

But having said that [he doubts the stimulus will work], we have been in serious tax cut mode since 2001 and failed to stave off what could be the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression. I think it's probably time to try something different.

And here's our President a year ago, blaming tax cuts, ignoring that they pulled us out of the last recession by stimulating the economy

"He criticized Bush for giving tax cuts to corporations and the rich while spending billions on the war in Iraq. Obama also rebuked Democratic rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Republican front-runner Sen. John McCain for supporting the war."

He gave up disparaging the war and our military commanders (although he plans to release unrepentant terrorists onto the world stage), but he hasn't given up his very unsound socialist belief (and loyal Dems follow on this) that tax cuts were "bad." Yes, my retirement funds have collapsed, but they are not yet where they were in 2000 during the last Clinton recession, not yet as low as they were in the months following 9/11. I disagreed with Bush in many areas, particularly the money the government passed out for mortgages under the CRA which created the toxic paper that brought us into a global recession, but his tax cuts were the right thing at the right time. As a nation, we've just come out of a drunken spending binge, with the Bush Administration forking out grant money with very little oversite for years, and Mr. Obama wants more of the same. It's insane.

It was a crazy idea in September

Just pay off all the home mortgages for people earning less than, say, $100,000 a year. That wouldn't have been "fair" to people like the Bruces whose 20 year fixed mortgage was paid off in 1988, but looking back, it would have cost me less money than the insane plan the Democrats have come up with to kill the economy and give us European socialism ala FDR in his decade extension of the 1929 Depression. Think of the money that would have been released for Americans to restore the economy. We would still have some retirement money! Too late now. The Democrats have had what they've been aiming at for decades. Rape and plunder. Complete government ownership of the American people. Michael Steele, the new chair of the RNC notes belatedly since the Republicans totally wimped out and RINO'd us

"The fastest way to help those families is by letting them keep more of the money they earn. Individual empowerment: that's how you stimulate the economy.

"But the Democrats have a different philosophy. Instead of leaving money in the family checkbook, they want to send it to Washington, run it through a slow and inefficient government, and hope that does some good.

"When families keep the money, they spend it, save it, or invest it. And the private sector economy benefits when families and businesses buy consumer goods or invest it for the future. But when Washington spends the money, some of it may flow into the economy, but all too often, much gets wasted. Michael Steele, chair RNC, GOP.com

Letter from an American Taxpayer

Phil Marx at My Hud House says he's sending this letter to his creditors. I took at quick look at Google to see if this is something going around, but his was the only one that matched.

Dear Sir or Ma’am;

I am currently unable to pay my bills due to circumstances beyond my control. It seems my government keeps taxing me and printing out new money. The first action leaves me further in debt to my government (more accurately, to foreign governments), the second action devalues my current savings and income. I am simply unable to keep up and must therefore default on my payments until such time as the federal government decides to bail me out.

I do realize that my actions here will cause hardship for you. I sympathize with your circumstances and would like to offer a remedy. It is my understanding that the government is largely handing out my money to corporations who already have lot of money, and now they are being given even more. I seems to me that the opportunity exists for you to appeal to them for financial assistance.

A partial list of these corporations includes: JP Morgan, $25 Bil.; Citigroup, $25 Bil.; Wells Fargo, $25 Bil.; Bank of America, $15 Bil.; Bank of New York Mellon, $3 Bil.; Capital One Financial, $3.55 Bil.; Fifth Third Bancorp $3.45 Bil.

Sincerely, An American Taxpayer

Hope he can change says VDH

"Anyone who cares about the U.S., at home and overseas, must be worried, very worried, about the disastrous last two weeks. Even the fawning media — that is responsible in some way for the crisis, given that they chose to be Pravda-like in encouraging the messianic style that got a haughty Obama in his present mess — will soon start bailing in efforts to restore their last fides. If a Dick Morris figure does not come to the rescue soon, Obama’s soaring rhetoric of hope and change will become the stuff of Leno/Letterman and general laughter. Bush was unfairly demonized, but no one abroad thought he was predictably soft and would be so-so about protecting U.S. interests, or that his words and his deeds would be so often in direct antithesis."

. . . the most exalted ethical rhetoric ever, and the greatest ethical lapses of any incipient administration in memory. Over 10 lobbyists now appointed, plus all the tax problems.

. . . the Blago tapes yet to be released.

. . . inflated lectures on historic foreign policy made by the clumsy political novice who trashed his own country and his predecessor in the most ungracious manner overseas to a censured Saudi-run press organ

. . . shrill campaign rhetoric about FISA, Guantanamo, Patriot Act, Iraq, followed by ‘all that for now staying the same’

. . . the stimulus is an ungodly disaster

. . . Robert Gibbs, the new press secretary is, is a Scott McClellan nightmare that won’t go away

. . . Biden has ridiculed the Chief Justice, trashed the former VP and bragged on himself ad nauseam

. . . really creepy people abroad are now lining up to test Obama

. . . Read the full article, if you dare, by Victor Davis Hansen

Mindful of the hypocrisy, they do it anyway

"Members of Congress were quick to shame corporate executives for over-the-top extravagance during the economic crisis, flying private jets and taking luxury junkets. But some lawmakers are strolling fancy resorts spending tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars and mingling with lobbyists." Link

The Wesleys must be rolling in their graves

"The United Methodist headquarters in Washington, DC, is hosting a month-long exhibit that portrays the founding of Israel as a catastrophe.

The display, which is titled "60 Years of Dispossession," chronicles what Palestinians call the "Nakba" -- the Palestinian word for "catastrophe." Palestinians use the word to describe Israel's founding, an event that is reviled in the Arab world. The photo exhibit trumps what it describes as "the 1948 mass deportation of Palestinians, massacres of civilians, and the razing to the ground of hundreds of Palestinian villages" following Israel's creation." Link

What a sad end to a once great leader in the Christian church.

Speaking of prayer

There is a newsletter for parents called theParentLink that comes from the Erie Christian Fellowship in Pennsylvania. There were three prayer requests in a side box, one reading, "Ask God to help your children embrace and celebrate people's differences." (The theme for February seems to be diversity.) Since most adults don't do that, it might be more honest to say, "help me embrace and celebrate people's differences." But that aside, what do you think of using the word "celebrate" in this way? I know, I know. I'm being picky, but that poor word has practically been destroyed by the touchy, feely, gushy language of multiculturalism and diversity, which in fact is a very divisive movement, in calling on people to recognize their differences rather than their similarities and commonalities. The dictionary meaning of "celebrate" has some meat on its bones. ". . . to observe a holiday, perform a religious ceremony, or take part in a festival. To observe a notable occasion with festivities." It's a nice 15th century word meaning to honor with solemn ceremonies or deviation from routine.

If you'll ignore my chin hair and wrinkles, I'll avert my eyes at your tattoo and nose stud. Let's not celebrate our age differences, let's serve God together.

A prayer for the President

Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus who died for all, I ask you to hear my prayer for the president. I read that he got very angry with people over the failures in the stimulus package. That's certainly understandable, and I'm angry too. Remind me and him that we can take our anger to you--you are a great big God as the children's song says, and you can handle our tiny, weak fists beating the air over things that are out of control. Your word is so clear; we are not righteous. Only you are. Be with those for whom this face of anger is a new thing. Forgive them for making the President, or any king or dictator or despot or official, more than a mere mortal who has flaws and makes mistakes just like the rest of us. As it says in your holy practical book of James, may we, the president and I, be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. Yes, Lord, that would be good. And thank you for that good word. Amen

Today's new word is DEFENESTRATION

Even in context, I couldn't figure this one out. “That's Wednesday of this week--i.e., roughly 24 hours after the defenestration of Nancy Killefer and Tom Daschle. Possibly Solis will skate by on the theory that the Killefer Standard does not apply to spouses." It means the act of throwing a person or thing out through, or by way of a window. It comes from the Latin de + fenestra, meaning window. The Defenestration of Prague in 1419 was throwing the burgomaster and others from the windows of city hall onto the spears of those below.

February 7 is National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

"Blacks are disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS. While making up only 13 percent of the U.S. population, they account for more than 49 percent of AIDS cases. AIDS is now the leading cause of death for Black women ages 25 to 34, and the second leading cause of death for Black men ages 35 to 44." Link to CDC site

MSM is reported in MMWR. That's the problem with acronyms. MSM can mean mainstream media or men having sex with men.

There’s an article in the Feb. 6, 2009 MMWR on the increase of HIV among gay and bisexual young black men. It’s a fairly small study done in Jackson, Mississippi, but I’ve seen very similar ones for other areas of the country. Men having sex with men, younger men with older men, anal intercourse, multiple partners, are primarily the causes of HIV/AIDS. It’s not a national epidemic--it’s a very specific disease caused by very specific behavior. Between that and abortion, blacks are destroying their families. Yes, women do get AIDS, but primarily from their men who don’t admit to their infidelities or sexual taste for men. I have no idea why it’s so high among black men, but I’m really tired of reading that homophobia and poverty are the problem, but that's the best way to get the grant money for these studies.

“Reducing HIV transmission among young black MSM is challenging because of many factors, including sexual network patterns, sexual partnering with older men, high prevalence of STDs, lack of awareness of one's HIV status, homophobia, HIV-related stigma and discrimination, and socioeconomic issues. CDC's Heightened National Response to the HIV/AIDS Crisis among African Americans aims to reduce HIV/AIDS in this population by expanding the reach of prevention services, increasing opportunities for diagnosis and treatment, developing new prevention interventions, and mobilizing broader community action. In the United States, reducing the toll of HIV/AIDS on young black MSM will require a combination of strategies, including culturally specific behavioral interventions, expanded testing programs, and comprehensive campaigns to combat stigma.”

Homophobia and no meaningful paycheck don't cause a man to have anal intercourse with another man, and then go home and crawl in bed with his girl friend. Sorry, I just don’t buy it. You could eliminate every last vestige of dislike or fear of homosexuality, you could give every gay man a middle class income, and HIV/AIDS will not go away as long has men continue to have sex with men and bring the disease home to their wives and girlfriends. Ask any rich man who's had several young male partners this past year. Ask the widow of the artist, professor or musician who cared for him as he wasted away when there was no one else.

Is this the change we were promised?

Have you seen the fawning press stories about Obama's apology for "messing up?" The media threatened and whined for 6 years that Bush should apologize for freeing the Iraqi people even with the bad intelligence he inherited on WMD from the previous administration. But oh by golly, here was Obama apologizing within the first 2 weeks for doing something stupid--appointing Daschle on the heels of Geithner. Oh, he's just so wonderful. He admitted to a mistake! Now if he'd just admit the stimulus package is a total failure and will plunge us even deeper into economic chaos.

"The Daschle affair was more serious because his offense involved more than taxes. As Michael Kinsley once observed, in Washington the real scandal isn't what's illegal, but what's legal. Not paying taxes is one thing. But what made this case intolerable was the perfectly legal dealings that amassed Daschle $5.2 million in just two years.

He'd been getting $1 million per year from a law firm. But he's not a lawyer, nor a registered lobbyist. You don't get paid this kind of money to instruct partners on the Senate markup process. You get it for picking up the phone and peddling influence.

At least Tim Geithner, the tax-challenged Treasury secretary, had been working for years as a humble international civil servant earning non-stratospheric wages. Daschle, who had made another cool million a year (plus chauffeur and Caddy) for unspecified services to a pal's private equity firm, represented everything Obama said he'd come to Washington to upend.

And yet more damaging to Obama's image than all the hypocrisies in the appointment process is his signature bill: the stimulus package. He inexplicably delegated the writing to Nancy Pelosi and the barons of the House. The product, which inevitably carries Obama's name, was not just bad, not just flawed, but a legislative abomination.

It's not just pages and pages of special-interest tax breaks, giveaways and protections, one of which would set off a ruinous Smoot-Hawley trade war. It's not just the waste, such as the $88.6 million for new construction for Milwaukee Public Schools, which, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, have shrinking enrollment, 15 vacant schools and, quite logically, no plans for new construction." Charles Krauthammer, continue reading Link

Tougher government regulation

The Bernie Madoff case is a good reason you shouldn't have crooks setting the rules. Link.

"Bernard Madoff was the former chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange and a respected figure on Wall Street for nearly half-a-century. For decades, his firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, had been one of the top market makers on Wall Street. In Washington, regulators had sought his advice on any number of regulatory issues over the years.In 2000 he served on a government committee established to protect investors by ensuring accurate and full public disclosure of information to them. In an old video of Madoff that’s come to light, he tells an audience it’s tough to skirt the law.

BERNARD MADOFF: In today’s regulatory environment, it’s virtually impossible to violate rules. And this is something that the public really doesn’t understand. And if you read things in the newspaper and you see somebody, you know, violate a rule, you say, well, you know, they’re always doing this. But it’s impossible for you to go—for a violation to go undetected, certainly not for a considerable period of time."

Madoff Swindle might give some children a chance at life

"By swindling clients out of up to $50 billion, hedge fund manager Bernard L. Madoff has caused at least two left-wing charitable foundations to fold. Through his Social Security-like Ponzi scheme that paid older investors with funds from newer investors, liberal Madoff, a heavy donor to Democratic candidates, has caused the collapse of the Picower Foundation and the JEHT Foundation. Picower gave generously to NARAL, Planned Parenthood, Southern Poverty Law Center, and ACORN affiliate Project Vote. JEHT gave big to the ACLU and its foundation, the Center for Constitutional Rights, ACORN affiliate American Institute for Social Justice, and the Tides Foundation and its affiliates."

But. . . there will be bailouts for those supporting Democratic causes, such as abortion. Welfare for charities.

"Independent Sector, a coalition of liberal charities and foundations, wants to cash in on Washington’s bailout fever, the Chronicle of Philanthropy reports. "There’s simply not enough cash to respond to the amount of the needs," said Diana Aviv, president of the group. "The demand is much greater and the dollars that are secured from traditional sources are shrinking." Call it charity welfare. If you don’t dig deeply enough into your pockets for charity, the government will force you to, or at least that’s what Aviv wants." Capital Research Center

Dear President Obama

When I found out you had paid your parking tickets from 1989-1990 when you were a graduate student at Harvard in 2007, I