Obama needs to relearn the art of politicking

E.J. Dionne Jr. just doesn't get it. He thinks there's a communication problem. Unfortunately, Obama's plan is working and the American people are catching on that this is not at all what they voted for. He's not stupid Mr. Dionne; the press on the other hand . . .

E.J. Dionne Jr. - Obama needs to relearn the art of politicking

Secretary. of Education Urged Employees to Attend Sharpton Rally

Michelle Malkin wonders of the Department of Education employees were sent to check on the spelling of banners. A purple SEIU banner spelled American, as AMERCAN.

Even if it wasn't illegal, it was quite inappropriate for Arne Duncan to suggest in an e-mail memo that Dept. of Ed. employees spend their day off filling the seats at Sharpton's poorly attended rally which was very political and was organized hastily to counteract Glenn Beck's. Beck's event numbered about 500,000 and had a lot of racial and religious diversity. Sharpton's was . . . just Al . . . spouting off like he always does. The excitement, good preaching, and songs were over at the mall.

According to the WSJ, the Restoring Honor rally attendees left the mall cleaner than when they got there. Quite a change from the 2009 inauguration, if you remember the disgraceful piles of trash left behind by excited Obama supporters.

Michelle Malkin » Sec. of Education Urged Employees to Attend Sharpton Rally, Unfortunately Not to Spell Check Signs

Will the media ever apologize for lying about Beck's event?

No. First they lied about it. Said it was political. It was racist. It was made up of paranoid fear mongers. It wasn't.

Reported who would be speaking there. They weren't there.

Estimated the number of attendees at about 87,000 when there were probably 500,000. Beck drew more people than Obama, at a single event, and didn't use a teleprompter.

The media never told the truth even about "divertsity." Ignored the Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim leaders arm in arm in front of the crowds. Still dismissive. Still calling it a "Tea Party" event, a term they are desperately attempting to turn into a pejorative. Michelle Malkin was waiting Saturday "with race-baited breath for a reporter to head over to Sharpton’s rally and question the lack of diversity there, but it never happened."

Oh well, the media has so marginalized itself with lies and hyperbole, soon we won't even have a newspaper or news magazine because Americans won't trust them. Even PBS and NPR, which uses our tax dollars, lied.
Non-traditional media, like the one funded by leftist Ariana Huffington, Huff and Puff posted and ridiculed t-shirts, like those honoring the founders, faith and the events of September 11, 2001. Nice touch, libs.

Oh yes, this one is just hilarious.

NPR assesses the after thoughts.

Bella Stuffed Banana Peppers

The September/October 2010 issue of Lake Erie Living is out with an article about the Lakeside/Marblehead Fall Festival (p.50) on October 9, and a recipe for stuffed banana peppers. I don't think I'd ever used many banana peppers until my son began growing them in his garden, and he's so successful, I decided I needed a recipe, and this one looks pretty simple.

Bella Stuffed Banana Peppers
(Serves 6)
8 to 10 large locally grown (from Phil's garden for me) sweet banana peppers, tops removed and seeds scooped out
1 pound mild or hot Italian sausage, sauteed and drained
1/2 cup freshly shredded provolone cheese
1/2 cup freshly grated pecorino Romano cheese (plus extra for top of casserole) [salty Italian cheese, suitable primarily for grating, made from sheep milk--I had to look it up]
2 or 3 eggs
1/2 cup seasoned Italian bread crumbs
2 cups homemade tomato sauce (he makes that too)
1/4 cup olive oil

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Mix sausage, provolone, pecorino Romano, eggs and bread crumbs together in a bowl (mixture should be moist). Stuff into cavity of banana peppers. Lay peppers flat in a large 13" x 9" casserole dish. Pour tomato sauce over peppers. Drizzle with the olive oil and grate a generous amount of pecorino Romano on top. Cover with foil and bake about 1 hour, until peppers are soft. Serve with a green salad and good crusty bread (he makes that, too) to soak up the sauce.

This recipe is on p. 27, along with "Grilled summer peaches with pound cake." I've never grilled pound cake, but sounds good, too!

Heading back to Columbus

My last walk along the lakefront and then off to the coffee shop . . .

Where I'm greeted most mornings by Linda. I watch a little Fox morning chatter, make a few notes for the blog, and then walk home.

50th Lakeside Antique Show

The Lakeside Antique show runs for one day in South Auditorium, Wesley Lodge, Wo-Ho-Mis and the surrounding lawns, and it seems I've been seeing the same linens, old photos, silverware, books, tools, and glassware for years, but this year I think I saw more costume jewelry than I'd ever seen. Women and kids love to paw through boxes of $1.00 each. Even the stuff labeled $2 or $3 looked pretty good, like someone dumped out my high school jewelry box. And that's probably what's causing it. Parents are going into smaller retirement homes, and the daughters don't want this stuff.

A number of neighbors took advantage of the walk bys so I also stopped at three yard sales. Tempted. I took only cash with me, and didn't spend a dime. Somehow, a credit card or checkbook is dangerous at these places.

Tonight is Pantasia at Hoover, but we've seen them a number of times, so we may go down and watch a sunset.

Sunset August 25, 2010

How to promote a social agenda with medical statistics

If I were to tell you I still have my 1955 waist measurement, I wouldn't exactly be lying, but I would be measuring my thigh and not my waist with a tape measure and my fingers crossed. So it is with "developed countries" medical statistics like this one--"The U.S. spends more money per person on medical care than any other developed country in the world." (JAMA, July 28, 2010 citing OECD 2009 statistics). Notice, that's "per person" and not per citizen as it is in most countries. Someday I'd like to see a breakdown, by developed country, of non-citizens in their health care system, people who arrive with exotic diseases, not knowing the language, and with unfamiliar cultural patterns. Of course, it's a bit difficult to flee to Ireland or Finland from Guatemala or Haiti, isn't it?

And since we have so many ethnicities in the USA, I'd like to see a comparison of health and disease of Scandinavian Americans as compared to their 2nd and 3rd cousins once removed in Norway, Sweden and Finland, or 2nd generation middle class Mexican Americans compared with their peasant cousins still living in the home village in Mexico. Or Haitian American doctors and rock stars compared to working family in Port-Au-Prince. Oh, those aren't developed countries are they? No, but those new Americans had American healthcare resources at their disposal.

Obamacare trumped up measurements did not just come in since he took office in 2009--his plans have been in many government plans and planning for decades. Here's one of three "medical models" (the others being clinical and public health) currently in place, according to JAMA, July 28 (Commentary, p. 465, R. H. Brook)

1. Redistribution of wealth; 2. meaningful guaranteed jobs for all adults to have the income to pursue healthy behavior; 3. helping children feel safe and be healthy and ready to learn; 4. empowering women and communities so that they can work more effectively to increase the health of the population.

I'd truly love to see a medical study of Americans with meaningful jobs, able to afford the best health care and education who are politically empowered, who also are obese, who smoke, and who engage in dangerous and risky behaviors. Now that would be a study for the books, because I know a lot of people with unhealthy lifestyles who have all the perks of life that Dr. Brook describes in his commentary.

The deep desire to control others' behavior and lives (for their own good and the betterment of society and mother earth) is not just ingrained in the government--it's in medicine, academe, education, religion and just about any other field that requires a college education.

Ben Stein's gas station attendant

"On the way home, I stopped to get gasoline. The Hispanic attendant, whom I have known for many years, wanted to talk to me about the mosque in New York.

"We have to wake up," he said. "Those people want to hurt us. Then they want to build a mosque. Why? To hurt us more? And how come Obama always takes the side of the people who hate us? Isn't this his country, too? What's wrong with him? Doesn't he know he's an American? Or what is he? This country has to wake up and get rid of Obama."

I nodded. "I agree," I said.

The man shook his head. "This country has to wake up," he said again. "We elected Obama. We made a big mistake. Now we have to fix it. Stop him, then get someone else in there. Someone who is an American. Someone who works for us, not our enemies. "

He shook his head and walked away and I drove home to write about him."

Civil War Week--another great success

Monday the 7th Civil War Week at Lakeside set a new record--the Green Room in the Fountain Inn was packed with 126 and the day's programs recorded a record of 530 in attendance. Bob Bridges of Los Angeles, a screenwriter who has led battleground tours at Manassass, Antietam, Gettysburg, Richmond, Petersburg, and Appomattox, was terrific for the three presentations I heard Monday through Wednesday. He had us on the edge of our seats as Booth carried out his terrible deed at the theater in April 1865, climaxed at noon by the blasting at the quarry.

On Thursday I heard two wonderful book reviews/dramatic readings, the first from "Red Badge of Courage" by Professor of English Emeritus (Kenyon) Perry Lentz. I don't recall ever having an English prof that riveting! Now I'll have to reread the book. Also on Thursday was Mel Maurer's review of "The Widow of the South." This would be an excellent book for any book club looking for selections for next year. I'll certainly read it and suggest it to my group.
Book Review - The Widow of the South by Robert Hicks

Today I'll go back for Mel Maurer's account of the Battle of Franklin, which ended the South's chances for victory, and was also the setting for the Widow book by Robert Hicks.

The Hoover programming this week has been great too. Saturday evening we enjoyed "Frank Sinatra" by Steve Lippia--not necessarily related to the Civil War, but still a wonderful choice for this older crowd gathered for a week of history. We thoroughly enjoyed the Lisa Biales Trio on Tuesday evening. I think it's one of the few Hoover programs where I didn't leave early. I found her voice just lovely and crystal clear, with violinist (fiddle) Doug Hamilton, and cellist Michael Ronstadt (nephew of Linda) who did things with the cello I'd never heard. Wednesday was Al Batt, humorist, who told low key funny stories and childhood memories, many of which we could relate to who grew up in the rural midwest--like Sunday afternoon drives in the family car. Thursday night was the Saxton's Cornet Band an ensemble that reorganized a Civil War era group in 1989.

On the way out of Hoover last night (about 2/3 is about all I can manage without falling asleep) I saw an elderly woman fall as she headed for the water fountain. I knelt beside her to see if I could help, but I couldn't get her up--she was speaking and said she needed to take her pill. She was about my size and weight and I was afraid we'd both fall if I tried to get her up, so I pulled a chair over (no one else was in the lobby, which is unusual). Finally, two other women came out, and together the three of us got her into the chair. She said her husband was in the audience, so I went back into the darkened area, and saw a man I knew was usually with his wife and went to him and asked if his wife was here. He said she'd gone out to get a drink, so I asked him to come with me. I'd found the right guy, first try, in the dark.
He went to get their car and the three of us helped her down the steps, put her in the car, and fastened her seat belt. They live at the retirement home right outside the Lakeside gates. She refused an offer to call the squad, since apparently this has happened before. My last words to her were to call her doctor about that medication that was supposed to be helping her balance.

Not a big deal as mishaps go, but Wednesday evening we again went to the Family Picnic at Perry Park, and joined 6 friends at a picnic table instead of sitting in the chairs we brought. I got bitten by something, and have welts all over my feet and legs that seem to be spreading. Driving me crazy with itching! I thought I would get through the summer with no bites. I guess cool weather brought them out.

Restoring honor event exposes hate on the left--Guest Blogger Murray

On Aug. 28 Glenn Beck will be hosting a rally at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC promoting "Restoring Honor". This promises to be a historic event. One which the MSM and the Obama Administration will do everything in their power to discredit and associate it with racism and violence. The MSM, without knowing exactly what will be taking place, has already indicated the intention is to stir up the anger towards our government. They have falsely implied the Tea Party movement is part of this rally. There will be many Tea Party people there, however it's all Beck's doing. This is all about "Restoring Honor" to ourselves and our great country. There will be no signs allowed and Beck says bring the children.

Like I said, this will be historic. It will be big. It will upset the Progressive/ Liberal/ Left-Wingers to the point that they will do anything to disrupt the rally. Look for SEIU or ACORN to attempt to create a disturbance. We should all be there. Why aren't we?

Murray

The cabbie attack -- a hate crime?

This morning I watched back to back stories on ABC about vicious attacks. The one, a New York middle-eastern cabbie was slashed by a young white guy. It was labeled a hate crime because of ethnicities, with possible links (no proof except the time frame and the mind of the reporter) to the mosque story. The other was about a white guy in prison, a drifter, for a possible 20-30 murders of young girls, with rape and kidnapping. No hate crime charge was mentioned. It's always open season on women, whether in reporting crime, making movies, or writing novels; the men who kill them randomly, or just because, are never accused of a hate crime, unless the women are lesbians. And the husband who shot his wife in the face destroying it (face transplant story)? He only got 7 years--no hate crime.

And that serial slasher of black men whose attacks were labelled hate crimes? As soon as they found out he was an Israeli national, all talk of hate crimes disappeared from the coverage.

Let's strike hate crimes and hate speech from the books. They are ridiculous. They certainly don't help the victims.

The cabby attack - NYPOST.com

Update: Buried deep in the NYT account of the cabbie attack is the information that the attacker worked with a PRO-MOSQUE peace and justice Christian group.

"Mr. Enright is also a volunteer with Intersections International, an initiative of the Collegiate Churches of New York that promotes justice and faith across religions and cultures. The organization, which covered part of Mr. Enright's travel expenses to Afghanistan, has been a staunch supporter of the Islamic center near ground zero. Mr. Enright volunteered with the group's veteran-civilian dialogue project. Joseph Ward III, the director of communications for Intersections, said that if Mr. Enright had been involved in a hate crime, it ran "counter to everything Intersections stands for" and was shocking."

Is it possible that people make decisions to be evil independent of ethnicity, culture, gender, sexuality, economic status, age, and religion? Who knew? God. Read Genesis, where it all began.

Shirley Sherrod, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack go over 'Lessons Learned'

It is shocking that a federal employee would have been fired on such flimsy evidence as Shirley Sherrod, and just as shocking that she is blaming an internet viral video for her temporary problems with "racism" and plans to sue. Since when can news media not take something out of context. Gosh, the whole coverage of Sarah Palin by the MSM would have gone to court. Sherrod was apparently reinstated because of her position and spouse in the civil rights organizations (Obama being a newbie and Vilsack being white apparently didn't recognize their names), but further investigation needs to be done on that Pigford settlement she's in line to get from the government. From "Lessons Learned" it appears someone has reviewed Employment Basics 101.

Shirley Sherrod, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack go over 'Lessons Learned'

Happy Anniversary, Jean and Steve

Last year I picked up at a yard sale an autographed copy of "The Wonderful World of Cooking," a collection of recipes arranged by growing season by Edward Harris Heth (1956) for $1.00. Inside was an invoice from Tom Jacks Florists of Milwaukee, for Jean Winzenburg and Steve Treacy, and the date in the front of the book, from the Florist, was August 26, 1961. I don't know if Jean and Steve made it 49 years, but if they did, my best to you, because I'm certainly enjoying the book. I blogged about the tasty contents here.

Today I found additional information at another blog about the author--almost wish I hadn't. Both Heth and his partner Bill committed suicide in the 1960s.

[She] found a feature article on the life and times of Ed Heth, "Wisconsin's Finest Food Writer." Heth was born in 1909 in Wisconsin, the only child of a dissolute gambler. He led a glamorous writing life in New York until poor health forced him home in the 40s. He settled down into a country house on a hill, living amongst the friends and neighbors who populate The Wonderful World. His partner through it all was a ceramicist named Bill Chancey. The two lived together openly, surely making them the first gay couple in the tiny town of Wales, Wisconsin to do so. The town embraced the pair, the article quoting one woman's take on the situation: "I remember people saying they were very interesting people and Wales always felt very honored to have them in the community."

If all this sounds too good to be true for rural, pre-Stonewall America, well, turns out it was. In 1960 Heth and Chancey's house burnt down to the ground after a lightning strike. They began work on a new house, but a year later as it neared completion, Bill Chancey was found in his car with the engine on and the garage door closed. Heth tried to keep writing, even starting work on a novel, but in 1963 he fatally overdosed on painkillers. The two men are buried side by side on a sunny slope in Wisconsin's Welsh Hills. But The Wonderful World of Cooking — long out of print — is alive and vibrant, an incredible document of a man's love for his home and the food it gives him. Link. Photo from that blog--mine doesn't have a cover.

Jihadist ideology can't be soft peddled by progressives, history shows

Obama's lectures about tolerance and understanding are indistinquishable from those of 1938. We will pay the price again. The Cordoba Mosque funded by foreign money with an Iman who says we deserved 9/11 attacks is not needed; it is a symbol of their power and distain for us. It is planting a flag on the soil of the defeated. Where is the tolerance on the Muslim side--do they get sermons from their leaders on love and understanding of the Jews and Christians? We have an America-loathing coward in the White House who feels morally superior to the rest of us.

Oprah, the stem cell debate is dead

In this video from Oprah.com, Dr. Oz explains to Michael J. Fox, who has Parkinson’s Disease, and Oprah, why the debate about embryonic stem cells in research and medical advancement is dead. It was already dead when President Obama announced on March 9, 2009, that he was lifting the government ban on funding additional embryonic stem cell lines research. Why would he do that? Are his health advisers so naïve? Or is it because most Americans still think “embryonic” when they hear “stem cell” and he thought he could fool them? With adult stem cells, no embryos need to be killed; no toxic regimen of rejection drugs is needed for your own cells. The government doesn't need to take over women’s wombs for research. Adult stem cell is the way to go. Thank you, President Bush, for drawing the line 8 years before Obama told this lie, the beginning of his many lies about health and medicine.

http://www.oprah.com/health/Dr-Oz-on-the-Medical-Benefits-of-Stem-Cells-Video

From Obama’s speech, March 9, 2009

“Today, with the Executive Order I am about to sign, we will bring the change that so many scientists and researchers; doctors and innovators; patients and loved ones have hoped for, and fought for, these past eight years: we will lift the ban on federal funding for promising embryonic stem cell research. We will vigorously support scientists who pursue this research. And we will aim for America to lead the world in the discoveries it one day may yield.”

Why would Obama do this? Lack of respect for life, ignorance or pure political gain? Whichever, it was an immoral act, not the first and not the last of his medical lies.

Federal court case--backs down Obama's funding of March 2009. If you read the comments from readers at the various sites reporting yesterday's decision, it is clear that most people (referring to Republicans as knuckle dragging morons) don't realize that successful stem cell cures are only from adult cells, not embryonic stem cells, from which not a single cure has ever been developed.

Many More Now Following Mosque Controversy

Call me crazy, but it was our President's careless comments a little over a week ago (on a Friday when he thought no one would notice) that increased the volume about the ground zero, Cordoba mosque. More Americans are hearing about it, more Americans don't like it, and more Americans are doubting that we have a president who is one of us. And this week he worshipped at our Lady of the Links. He thinks it would be disruptive to appear at a church service, although all other American presidents managed it. Doesn't mind disrupting the golf games of unbelievers.

Many More Now Following Mosque Controversy – And Don’t Like It - Rasmussen Reports™

Tammy Bruce gives Daisy Kahn some facts

"What Daisy Khan [on ABC News’ “This Week,”] doesn’t seem to understand is that perhaps this isn’t about Muslims at all, but about Americans protecting and defending a site that is now precious to us. The malignant Narcissism of these people is astounding and so encompassing they, like the Obama admin in fact, cannot see beyond their own self-obsession. Little Daisy is loathsome–we didn’t start this, they did. We didn’t choose the location, they did. And the gall to claim opposition to the GZ mosque is “metastasized antisemitism” is the same as our own government calling Tea Party Patriots Nazis, UnAmerican, and the Mob. They’re all the same. There’s only one group of people who were mass murdered on 911 and that was Americans, not Muslims. And there has been only one group continuing to implement mass murder since then–Muslims. And there is one country that still calls for the mass extinction of Jews in the world, and it’s a Muslim country.

As Khan and her gang point fingers at Americans, another little reminder–since 9/11 we didn’t set out to annihilate Muslims around the world–we set out to free them. Thousands more Americans have died voluntarily serving in our military knowing they would be sent to the front line and whom ultimately liberated 53 million Muslims. And this detestable woman and her parasitic husband call us names as they decry that we haven’t gotten over 9/11 yet.

I’m convinced this mosque was Obama’s idea. The notion of it and its location. I think he knows he’ll be a one-term president and wants as much destruction to the American psyche as possible. The legacy this man is now establishing is a continuation of the terrorism unleashed in the 90s and defined by 9/11.

So do not blink, keep the pressure on the stop this atrocity at Ground Zero and . . .

Remember in November."

Tammy Bruce


Jihad Watch

One-sided Amanpour

New York Post

Week 10 Lakeside 2010

Here we are at the end of the summer--every morning on my walk along the lake I see the sun moving south. Saturday night we enjoyed the songs of Frank Sinatra performed by Steve Lippia and his "big band" sound. It was really popular with the audience, whose average age rises as the summer closes out. Some cool weather returned with a clearing rain and we were finally able to have a meal on our deck.

Week 10 is Civil War week, and I always learn a lot. Isn't it amazing that people are still researching this and finding new things to talk about! I plan to attend the 10:30 presentations by Bob Bridges. Monday: John Brown, Robert E. Lee and the coming of the Civil War; Tuesday: Ulysses Grant, Jefferson Davis and the course of the War; Wednesday: Abraham Lincoln and the End of the War. Also the Thursday 3:30 book review, "The Widow of the South" by Robert Hicks, and the Friday 10:30 Battle of Franklin with Mel Maurer. Tennessee is the area where my Corbett and Ballard families lived, and had many families divided by loyalties to both sides.

Wednesday evening if the weather holds we hope to do another Picnic in the Park. My husband enjoyed John Salamon's piano at Steele Memorial last evening, and we'll probably take in a few shows at Hoover--a jazz trio on Tuesday, humorist on Wednesday, a Civil War era band on Thursday, and a Christian singer on Friday. Last Friday night we said farewell to the Lakeside symphony for this season.

And to think this was written a year ago! It's only gotten worse

This piece was written before the enormously unpopular healthcare bill passed, against the wishes of 70% of Americans; before all the evidence was in on the failure of ARRA; before the military commander meltdown when we found out what they really think of him; before he drug his feet on the Gulf clean up and worsened the economy; before we learned from CBO and other economist left and right that his policies have failed; before it was clear he would never own up to his own decisions and would always blame Bush, or white people, or dumb Americans; before he and his wife took ridiculously (and separate) expensive vacations while urging others to conserve resources; before his dumb statements about the mosque that he later tried to walk back; and before the radical marxists who funded and supported him in 2008 left him high and dry.

"No narrative. Obama doesn't have a narrative. No, not a narrative about himself. He has a self-narrative, much of it fabricated, cleverly disguised or written by someone else. But this self-narrative is isolated and doesn't connect with us. He doesn't have an American narrative that draws upon the rest of us. All successful presidents have a narrative about the American character that intersects with their own where they display a command of history and reveal an authenticity at the core of their personality that resonates in a positive endearing way with the majority of Americans. We admire those presidents whose narratives not only touch our own, but who seem stronger, wiser, and smarter than we are. Presidents we admire are aspirational peers, even those whose politics don't align exactly with our own: Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, Harry Truman, Ike, Reagan.

But not this president. It's not so much that he's a phony, knows nothing about economics, is historically illiterate, and woefully small minded for the size of the task-- all contributory of course. It's that he's not one of us. And whatever he is, his profile is fuzzy and devoid of content, like a cardboard cutout made from delaminated corrugated paper. Moreover, he doesn't command our respect and is unable to appeal to our own common sense. His notions of right and wrong are repugnant and how things work just don't add up. They are not existential. His descriptions of the world we live in don't make sense and don't correspond with our experience."

Read the entire account of Another Failed Presidency by Gregory Hunt.

Cordoba mosque protest rally Sunday near Ground Zero

I was watching the national ABC News about the mosque controversy. I really think the media is ginning up the hate by not acknowledging what the protests are really about. There are hundreds of mosques in New York, and there is no objection to them. When broadcast news reports on this, they barely report the horrific events of 9/11. So people need to look elsewhere for information. Like the Internet.

Cordoba mosque protest rally Sunday near Ground Zero | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment

Fighting hate can be very profitable--don't be conned

“The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) recalls an observation about the Holy Roman Empire, i.e., it was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire. Aside from its location in Alabama, the SPLC is about as southern as William Tecumseh Sherman. It has little to do with assisting poor people and much to do with enriching its already well-heeled directors. And as for law, its strident advocacy on behalf of illegal aliens suggests that the rule of law is not exactly one of its top priorities.”

“The SPLC serves as a cash machine for Morris Dees and his close associates. Building upon the George McGovern presidential campaign contributors lists, Dees has become one of the most successful direct mail fundraisers in history. Easily scared leftists have contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to the SPLC and it now has a fat endowment. Various Charity Watch Lists, such as that of the Colorado Secretary of State, recognize the SPLC as among the most dubious non-profit organizations currently soliciting funds.”

Read more at Fighting Hate for Profit

Could you use $19 a year to buy at a Farmer's Market?

Well, that's part of one of the government's wasteful projects--$123 billion a year on programs that have no positive impact on the target population. Take at look at PART's Expect More. I just picked one at random--the USDA "Senior and Woman, Infants and Children Farmer's market." In 2006 the Bush administration found it (useless) providing $19.00 per person per year. But in 2010, under Obama, it's still spending, providing jobs for government bureaucrats, and that wonderful food from a farmer's market--if you can get there. I checked Ohio--it's getting $1,779,625--your state may be different.

Do you think we could just buy these people an automobile and let them drive to a supermarket. Oh wait--we took the used cars off the road so the middle class could buy hybrids.

What's in a name? The Cordoba Institute

The Cordoba Institute is in over under around and through the plans to build a mosque at the site of Ground Zero, where a group of Islamic fanatics bombed the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Presidents Bush and Obama assure us that Moslems are peaceful, loyal Americans, and we should not fear them. If so, why when they could build a "cultural center" and mosque anywhere, do they chose this site? This is about symbols, not reliious freedom guaranteed by our Constitution. This is about rubbing the face of America in Islamic mud going back centuries.

"The historic city of Cordoba, Spain was originally Christian, but was overtaken by Islamic marauders and turned into an Islamic stronghold in the 8th century CE. The Islamic seizure of Cordoba began in the year 711 CE by Berber tribesmen who had recently converted to Islam. They crossed the 14 mile stretch of ocean between North Africa and Europe into what was then called Al-Andalus, which is now modern day Spain.Grand Cordoba became home to what was known as the "Caliphate," an Islamic political paradigm wherein the leader is regarded as a direct successor of the founder of Islam, Muhammad (570 - 632 CE). Emir Abd ar-Rahman I--who arrived from Damascus, Syria--took control of Al-Andalus. It was under the rule of he and his descendants that the Caliphate reached its peak based at Cordoba. Under various successors, there was always a part of Spain which remained under Islamic control until the year 1492.To radical Muslims of today, few symbols are as resonant as the downfall of the Caliphate at Cordoba, Al-Andalus. In the same way that Americans remember their defeat at the Alamo and use its name as a rallying cry in battle; Cordoba, Al-Andalus is a rallying cry for Islam."

Continue reading Shelomo Alfassa

Jim Wallis Admits to Soros Funding

The "peace and justice" Christians really mean, "Piece and Just us." Jim Wallis, one of Obama's spiritual advisors who is critical of just about everything Christian in America, has admitted to Soros funding. Well, it's no surprise, since Soros has been behind the Obama White House from the beginning and Wallis has been so critical of anyone who questions Obama's motives and political beliefs. Christians like Wallis have been perverting the Gospel and Jesus' words for 40 years and following the Marxist trail of crumbs into new bondage.

Further investigation of Wallis and his organization is warranted.

Wallis Admits to Soros Funding | Politics | Christianity Today

We are now alone

Last Saturday and Sunday we had guests from California, Columbus, and Indianapolis, with 14 around the dinner table Saturday evening (in the cottage we had rented across the street since ours is tiny). It was a fabulous celebration on Sunday with our Bruce relatives and Lakeside friends for our 50th wedding anniversary (which we will celebrate again in Columbus in September and Mt. Morris in October). After most went home we spent the week biking, walking, attending the evening programs at Hoover, and had a picnic in Perry Park with other Lakesiders.

Mister Bruce -- all of them


Sharing family photos


The cottage we rented for 9 extra family (plus 2 at our house and 1 in the Fountain Inn)


The sibs biking around Lakeside looking at the cottages and burning off the extra calories we were consuming


Eating breakfast at the Patio Restaurant with Bob and Jean

Just which religion does Obama profess?

Why do the MSM persist in blaming the right for suspicion about Obama’s religion? He reported his Muslim background in his books (father, step-father, extended family, siblings), he‘s the one who is soft on Islamic terrorism and praises Muslims' intentions. The MSM reporters and talking heads (like Carville) are the ones bringing it up--"it continues to haunt the President" says this morning's ABC story. Like this NYT op-ed by Edward N. Luttwak in May 2008. I've always thought he was in far more danger from Muslim fanatics for his conversion to Christianity than he was from any "persistent rumors" from the right. Muslims in modern times have a long history of killing aspostates and infidels.

"As the son of the Muslim father, Senator Obama was born a Muslim under Muslim law as it is universally understood. It makes no difference that, as Senator Obama has written, his father said he renounced his religion. Likewise, under Muslim law based on the Koran his mother’s Christian background is irrelevant.

Of course, as most Americans understand it, Senator Obama is not a Muslim. He chose to become a Christian, and indeed has written convincingly to explain how he arrived at his choice and how important his Christian faith is to him.

His conversion, however, was a crime in Muslim eyes; it is “irtidad” or “ridda,” usually translated from the Arabic as “apostasy,” but with connotations of rebellion and treason. Indeed, it is the worst of all crimes that a Muslim can commit, worse than murder (which the victim’s family may choose to forgive).

With few exceptions, the jurists of all Sunni and Shiite schools prescribe execution for all adults who leave the faith not under duress; the recommended punishment is beheading at the hands of a cleric, although in recent years there have been both stonings and hangings. (Some may point to cases in which lesser punishments were ordered — as with some Egyptian intellectuals who have been punished for writings that were construed as apostasy — but those were really instances of supposed heresy, not explicitly declared apostasy as in Senator Obama’s case.)"

I’ve read Obama’s Christian testimony, published when he was running for Senate. In his conversion story he has praised at various times two very anti-American, anti-mainstream Christian pastors, one Catholic and one UCC, as his spiritual mentors and close friends. No one should be surprised that with his own words and behaviors and close associates, many Americans now believe he is if not a closet Muslim, at least not a Christian that most would recognize.


President Apostate? - New York Times

Temporary hiatus

My laptop has failed so I'm writing from a neighbor's home. No more blogging for awhile. But it was a great party Sunday at the pavilion, and all family arrived safely and we're having a great time.

The Antiques Roadshow, Bruce version

We are taking our anniversary celebration on the road, so to speak. With friends and relatives spread across the country, some unable to travel, we are becoming party animals with an August, September and October celebration for our 50th wedding anniversary. Here's a selection of photos from the Lakeside event. Although the temperature was hot--90-ish--the breeze was great and we didn't have the predicted rain. Lake Erie presented a never ending show of color and fun, as we could hear the happy squeals and splashing of children right below the pavilion. It was a perfect day!

The Bruce siblings, Ohio, Indiana and California

The dessert table, brownies, cookies, iced tea, lemonade, and fresh fruit; another table had memorabilia

Families Bruce, Poisal, Poynter, Kelle, Doncevic--together in the same place, at the same time for the first time

Our children, all of whom have been Lakesiders from a very young age

Dinner at Hotel Lakeside

The Tuesday Wellness Seminar featured Rod Crane President/CEO of Ohio Medical Transportation (MedFlight of Ohio). He discussed medical transportation services that may be accessed from home, community, other states and international locations.

After the program, we and the Cranes went to Hotel Lakeside for dinner. They are members of our church.

Tea party groups plan Arizona rally against illegal immigration

This rally will be held on private property with private security in support of Candidate J.D. Hayworth, a former congressman turned conservative radio commentator (running against McCain) and in support of governor Jan Brewer on Sunday August 15. The Republican primary is the 24th. Leave long arms and rifles in your car.

'Tea party' groups plan Arizona rally against illegal immigration

Martin Luther King, Jr. - I Have a Dream

It seems that some leftists (Media Matters, Newscorpse) are unhappy that Glenn Beck is sponsoring a Restoring Honor gathering in Washington DC on August 28 because that's the anniversary (1963) of the Martin Luther King, Jr. "I have a dream speech." I seriously doubt that anyone, especially Beck, knew this was a "sacred day" on which other events could never be held. There are wonderful and moving passages in this speech, about which everyone should be reminded. Especially it speaks to Americans who have something coming due to them that the government has taken away in the last 100 years of Progressivism, which would pretty much be Beck's audience.

"In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds.""

Our current administration is in the process of bankrupting this and the next several generations if we don't stop them. MLK quotes many writers and sources in this speech from Lincoln to Isaiah to America the Beautiful. But the promissory note passage is, I think, the most powerful, given our current situation. We're not only getting a bad check, but we're going to prison for trying to cash it.

It's not easy to get space in Washington to hold an event. In fact, they limit the port-a-potties according to the number of buses coming. So if you're using public transportation, bicycle or walking, don't drink too many fluids.

Washington DC was built in a drained swamp (these days we call them wet lands), and the swamp is attempting to reclaim the land.

American Rhetoric: Martin Luther King, Jr. - I Have a Dream

Citing the 1939 Morgenthau quote

Sometime ago I blogged here about tracking down a 1939 Morgenthau quote that was going around the Internet, and I found Alan Caruba. There were a number of comments, some disbelieving. Another reader, Jared Nourse of Williams College, class of 2011, contacted me by e-mail with additional information:

"I was recently browsing the web for the 1939 Morgenthau quote and came across your blog post of Feb 2009, which motivated me to look into the question further. I'm sure you've long since come to terms with the mystery, but I uncovered the full language of the original quote in a scholarly article, which sets to rest some of Anonymous' unease with the quote.

Since your blog is the first result for a google search on "henry morgenthau quotes," I thought you might want to post a final update that includes the full language. Here it is:

[U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, Jr.]: No, gentlemen, 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, as far as I am concerned, 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…

But why not let’s come to grips? And as I say, all I am interested in is to really see this country prosperous and this form of Government continue, because after eight years if we can’t make a success somebody else is going to claim the right to make it and he’s got the right to make the trial. I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started.

Mr. Doughton: And an enormous debt to boot!

HMJr.: And an enormous debt to boot! We are just sitting here and fiddling and I am just wearing myself out and getting sick. Because why? I can’t see any daylight. I want it for my people, for my children, and your children. I want to see some daylight and I don’t see it…

—Transcript of private meeting at the Treasury Department, May 9, 1939, F.D. Roosevelt Presidential Library

Horwitz, Steven. "Great Apprehensions, Prolonged Depression: Gauti Eggertsson on the 1930s." Econ Journal Watch 6.3 (2009): 313-36. Web.10 Aug 2010.

He notes that Folsom cites the transcript as well.

Best,

Jared Nourse"

Thanks, Jared, I'm posting your e-mail with your permission. I always appreciate a good citation (paper would be better), although if Jesus Christ himself said it, an FDR true believer would not be swayed.

Let's hope there is someone of intelligence and character left within the Obama administration who will take him aside and explain the facts to him. Unfortunately, I think it is Obama's intention and desire to ruin the country financially, so he has no reason to change direction.

What is a Socialist and why is no one worried?

"While earlier generations of Americans understood the word [socialism] to describe a political system that coincides with the diminution of personal and economic freedom, too many Americans hear the word and simply think of it as an alternative economic system. They think Europe, with its pretty buildings and, until recently, high standard of living.

These same Americans do not think of the USSR and the Gulags, or the Nazis and the concentration camps, or the Norks and their concentration camps, or the Cubans and their political prisons, or the Chinese and their political slave labor. All of those, Americans would say, were communist, which is different, never mind that it’s not.

I can already hear some of you saying right now that Americans are proving, with their hostility to the Obama/Democrat agenda, that they hate socialism. But I’m talking semantics. They’ll say they hate “Big Government,” or taxes, or government inefficiency, or too much government spending, but they will be utterly blase about “socialism.” The word has lost its power. The underlying concepts may bother Americans, but to say Obama is a socialist probably has as much meaning as to say he eats potatoes."

Bookworm Room » What if they gave a socialist party and nobody cared?

Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)

If I ever saw Breakfast at Tiffany's, a 1961 movie based on Truman Capote's novella by the same name, I have no recall of having seen a single scene--not even the iconic little black dress and the long cigarette holder adorning Audrey Hepburn who plays Holiday Golightly (Holly). It was last night's offering at Hoover here in Lakeside.

I'd call it a dark, dark film, with endlessly repeating scenes of smoking, drinking to excess, hopping in and out of taxis, climbing in and out of windows next to fire escapes, and losing keys. And it's the old, old fairy tale of a young girl who constantly needs to be rescued by older, and less lovely men, men of questionable intentions but mostly men wanting her sexually and willing to pay for it.

It's a story of a man and woman who in the end do fall in love, but who in the beginning are both kept by the older and wealthier as sex interests as they pursue their "dreams." Holly wants to reinvent herself from an Okie teen-age, step-mom married to an older farmer to a glamorous party-girl New Yorker on the prowl for a wealthy husband. Paul (George Peppard) is a kept man by an older, wealthy married woman (Patricia Neal who died this week). Hepburn, who looked anorexic in so many films, look healthier and heavier in this film; Neal was only about 3 years older but was swathed in heavy capes and jackets, maybe to hide a pregnancy, or just to look less attractive.

Until you see a 50 year old film where the drinking and smoking is so over the top it is distracting, and a Caucasian impersonates a cariacature of another race (Mickey Rooney plays a stereotypical buck tooth, screaming Japanese landlord) you forget how far we've come in "correctness,"--thankfully. Also, you see how the strong, capable female film characters of the 1930s and 1940s fell off the pedestal in the 1950s-1980s films where they seem to be perpetual sex toys with no brains or ambition except to meet Mr. Right or Mr. Money bags.

Capote apparently wanted Marilyn Monroe for the part--a poor girl in real life who changed her name and made good through her sexuality. It might have been a good choice, because I had trouble translating Audrey Hepburn into this character.

And I'll always be mad at her for dumping the no-name cat out in the rain; yes, I know it was just a movie and it all turns out well in the end, but can you trust a fictional air-head who does that?

Blaming Bush Doesn’t Create Jobs, Nancy

"Today’s report shows our teachers, police officers, firefighters, and nurses are still feeling the worst of the Bush recession.": Nancy Pelosi. Does anyone believe this blame Bush stuff? They sound like children. When the government "invests" it takes money from people who actually do.

Remember in November.

Morning Bell: Blaming Bush Doesn’t Create Jobs | The Foundry: Conservative Policy News.

The toilet is closed

Dan Cornwall, the Alaskan Librarian on my bloglist, had a photo of an orange, hand made sign: "Dan Moller Cabin and Toilet closed until further notice," so I asked Google, "Who is Dan Moller?" Well, wouldn't you want to know--I mean if you were hiking in Alaska this might be important. So here it is--all you need to know about the Dan Moller Cabin. It was built in the 1930s by the CCC and you can stay there (when not closed) for 2 nights at $35/night. But it's pretty primitive; although many people lived this way in the 1930s without the luxury of propane, garbage bags and fire extinquishers.

Water is available from a nearby stream, uphill from the cabin. Treat all water before using. Bring your own sleeping bags, sleeping pads, cooking stove, lantern, pots, pans, plates, utensils, food, toilet paper, garbage bags, fire extinguisher and fire starter. This cabin contains a wood stove. Wood is not provided, so you must bring your own if you wish to use the stove. Cabin is heated by a propane wall furnace. Propane is supplied. Bears frequent the area.

But I still don't know who Dan Moller was, so I keep checking and finally find a guide book that tells me he's the guy who laid out the Dan Moller Trail in the 1930s. Whoop! That's not much to go on.

The cabin's logs are rotting so they will build a new one--ADA accessible. How the disabled get there may be another story. From the guide book it looks like an 1800 ft. upward climb on the Dan Moller trail. It is located three and one-half miles southwest of Juneau on Douglas Island. Access by 3 mile trail on Pioneer Street off Cordova Street, and at the end of Jackson St. above Blueberry Hills subdivision in West Juneau.

Lakeside Week 8

There was supposed to be a sailing regatta today but there is zip, nada, zilch wind. [Update: They finally got off.] My husband's gone down to watch, but I don't think anything is going on. If he could find a partner he was going to try doubles. His motto is (because he comes in last) he's way ahead of the guys who didn't enter! Good attitude for someone who took up sailing at 65+.

Speaking of sailing partners, we really enjoyed the send-off of the Lakeside Leadership Academy interns Thursday evening. Grace Kelmer who was my husband's sailing partner when she was in middle school gave us an invitation. Grace is the Cultural Arts intern and is a lifelong Lakesider. She attends college at Illinois Wesleyan in Bloomington, IL, is fluent in German, and an accomplished cellist. This was the third year of the program, so if you have a young person looking for summer internships next summer, check this one out. Most of this year's class had no prior knowledge of Lakeside.

I must say I got a little nostalgic and melancholy as I listened to the presentations of the 9 interns--hospitality, environment, finance, marketing, human resources, event planning, and eduction. They were all so incredibly talented and hard working, good speakers, lavish in their praise of their mentors and sponsors and fellow interns. One can feel good that young people like this will be going out into the work world soon, even if they choose grad school, but one can also feel like a "has been" and think about missed opportunities along the way.

Last night's guest performer with the symphony was Dmitri Levkovich, pianist. Born in the Ukraine and a citizen of Canada, he got a standing ovation (and provided a nice encore) for Concerto No. 25 in C Major by Mozart. I must say, that although I know little about pianos, the new Steinway is making everything sound brighter, sharper, and clearer. On the walk home we enjoyed the many homes decorated for "Light up Lakeside."

Ouch! Now that hurts!

We had our summer house sprayed for spiders yesterday--perhaps the second time this season. Now the windows will need to be washed again. But, here's the big news. The owner of the spray company didn't do the application this time. Apparently, the day before he was at a job and a dog bit him in the scrotum and he had to have stitches! So an assistant came out to our place because the owner will be laid up for awhile.

Dog bites are serious, folks. And remember this word from a former veterinary medicine librarian who has seen the photos of torn up faces of children--ALL DOGS WILL BITE. Don't ever encourage young children to pet a dog in the park or on a walk, even if the owner assures you it's OK. Most dog bites are by young male dogs, owned by young males, and the victims are most often male children.

Made in China--guest blogger Nelson

Recently I came to the railroad crossing on the Lowell Park Road on the way to Dixon, Illinois. The gates were down, the red lights flashing and presently a long freight train came through heading west toward the Mississippi River. Every flatbed held a Chinese container, empty and heading back home to be refilled and shipped again.

Factories close, people are let go and the economy slumps. And the reason started with greed.

I worked for a Mattel company in Orange County, California in the early 1970s and I can recall that one Christmas there was a stevedore's strike that prevented the freighters from coming into the San Pedro docks. Mattel was going mad, realizing that if they couldn't get the ships in and unloaded in time for Christmas, their profits would slump.

And why were these ships loaded with Mattel toys? Because Mattel had found that they could have them made much cheaper in Japan than in the US. Some might call that good business for them to go overseas; I call it greed.

And later, when the Chinese came into the picture, Mattel had toys made there. . .which meant that if any other toy manufacturer wanted to compete, they would have to go to China too.

I am appalled, horrified by this but maybe, if I were in the manufacturing business, I would have done the same thing. I hope not, but making money becomes a terrible obsession sometimes.

The problem is that this going to China for the cheapies has had a reverse effect. As more companies have closed here and opened in China, the local economies have staggered and fallen. if that nut-and- bolt maker in Rockford has to close, the people he had working for him have to get other jobs or do with less. The result - and I see this every time I go to Rockford - street after street of vacant factories; which has meant a loss of the tax base, increase in crime and fewer city services.

It used to be I would refuse to buy anything made in China. I cannot do that anymore because to refuse Chinese goods would mean I wouldn't be able to buy a thing.

BP's 20 billion--Obama was snookered by his inexperience?

This is flying around the internet in viral form, and I'm no expert on the figures, nor is the person who sent it. This piece is about BP's escrow account to compensate Gulf businesses. It's been posted, and reposted on various forums and blogs. So I googled to see where it might have originated, and found the earliest form (it gets revised as it moves along like most virals) by Dick Miller in the Savannah paper on July 1, 2010. I can't determine if it is his own work, although he has appeared in other op ed columns.

BP dupes the president

It seems a miracle that our beloved leader was able to convince BP to establish a $20 billion slush (oops, escrow) fund to compensate those hurt by the ongoing oil plume in the Gulf of Mexico. After all, he had no constitutional power to force them to do so; so had to resort to Chicago-style negotiating.

But, let us take a closer look at the effect on BP's finances:

1. BP will establish a $20 billion fund, but will pay only $7 billion into it during 2010.

2. BP is a British corporation, but has a very large operating entity in the U.S.

3. By generally accepted accounting principles, BP must book the entire $20 billion expense in the year accrued. Therefore, they will book a $20 billion expense in 2010, reducing their U.S. tax liability by $7 billion.

4. Our dear leader also convinced this massive corporation to show their concern for the "small people" by withholding dividends to their shareholders for the last three quarters of 2010. This reduces their outward cash flow by about $7.5 billion, including approximately 40 percent of that amount to U.S. citizens. Assuming the Bush tax cuts will survive through 2010, the U.S. Treasury will lose another $450 million in taxes on that amount. We won't even discuss the effect on the U.S. economy.

Let us review the results:

BP Cash Flow:

Escrow funding ($7 billion)

Dividend saving $7.5 billion

Tax savings $7 billion

Net favorable cash flow :

$7.5 billion

US Treasury Tax Receipts:

BP Corporate income tax ($7.5 billion)

BP Shareholders ($0.45 billion)

Net unfavorable tax receipts ($7.95 billion)

I guess we really should expect this. After all, our dear leader is the most inexperienced man in any room he walks into.

DICK MILLER

Savannah

HT Murray

Update: According to the Washington Post, hardly a right wing spoof, the U.S. taxpayer may get hit even harder by the deal between Obama and BP (one of his biggest contributors going way back to his Senator years).

Using Spike Lee's script

Neo Neocon remembers that speech: "Ya been took! Ya been hoodwinked! Bamboozled!" The words Spike Lee put in Malcom X's mouth in the movie about Malcom X. She says now Obama uses that theme, in the campaign and on the continuous trail, and it's not lost on Black audiences. He's a race baiter.

'CBS Evening News' Anchor Couric Ridiculed Palin from Day One; Mocks Son’s Name | NewsBusters.org

Sorry, guys, as much as I think Katie isn't the right person for the nightly news job, I didn't find this "raw" footage damning. She's self-deprecating, and jokes. She chats like a hundred other women I know, but she's respectful. How many of us knew of or heard of Wasilla, or mooseburgers before Sarah Palin? Give it a rest. Katie did a poor job on her critical Palin interview which suffered from editing over which she may have not had control, but this video tells us nothing. Not even MSM or journolist bias.

'CBS Evening News' Anchor Couric Ridiculed Palin from Day One; Mocks Son’s Name | NewsBusters.org

Gisele Explains Mandatory Breastfeeding Comments

Well, she sure got her name out there, didn't she? Nothing like making a really stupid statement, declaring it should be the law, and then saying it's just a personal opinion. Did she have an opinion on breast feeding before she had a baby? Maybe not. Hopefully she'll do early weaning--a 3 year old attached to mom's chest is a bit over the top. At least she provided a little relief from the non-stop Clinton wedding coverage. If I never see that dress again, or see George Stephanopulos swoon over the dance again, I will be grateful.

My grandmother breastfed all nine of her babies, and thought anyone who didn't bottle feed if she could was crazy. In her case, breastfeeding was practical and safe (she was blind), but I doubt if it was convenient.

Gisele Explains Mandatory Breastfeeding Comments | NBC Los Angeles

"Mission Accomplished:" President Obama's Iraq Withdrawal Speech

He's been claiming mission accomplished on the economy off and on since he entered office, but this one was reminiscent of Bush's speech early in the Iraq War. What makes this one different is he can only keep this "campaign promise" because Bush's surge worked, and Democrats fought it, including Senator Obama. Also, the war had quieted down so much because of the surge that even in 2008 you rarely heard Obama bring it up. It was a non-issue by the time he was getting close to the White House. And if Democrats had gotten on board and hadn't given aid and comfort to the enemy, we probably would have been out years ago.

President Obama's Iraq Withdrawal Speech: 'Mission Accomplished 2'?

From Bush's speech: Admiral Kelly, Captain Card, officers and sailors of the USS Abraham Lincoln, my fellow Americans: Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country. In this battle, we have fought for the cause of liberty, and for the peace of the world. Our nation and our coalition are proud of this accomplishment — yet it is you, the members of the United States military, who achieved it. Your courage — your willingness to face danger for your country and for each other — made this day possible. Because of you, our nation is more secure. Because of you, the tyrant has fallen, and Iraq is free.

Obama will not exactly be "withdrawing" all troops, 50,000 are staying. I guess war is over when the guy in power says so, . . . unless the guy is President Bush.

Week seven at Lakeside

This week I'm taking two very different art classes. The first offered by Rusty Levenson is on art conservation. I've taken this class before, but it's so interesting and her clients and projects change, so it's always interesting. A background in chemistry and art history are essential, as well as the patience to go through apprenticeship, internship and possibly a residency requirement. But the perks--traveling around the world and meeting fascinating people--are good.

The second class I'm taking at the Rhein Center is Portrait Sketching. In any art class I take, I'm usually the best on Monday, but the same on Friday and everyone else has passed me up. But today there was a woman in the class who could have been teaching. She was fantastic. Maybe that means I can be better on Friday?

We had some great music over the week-end. The American Tenors sang Friday night to a very appreciative audience, and Pointe of Departure Ballet with the Lakeside Symphony performed on Saturday. On Sunday we had the big Hotel Lakeside Ice Cream Social and enjoyed the music of the Genoa American Legion Band. My husband helped with the Kids' Sail program, and 126 children participated, which I think is a record. The weather was perfect for sailing.

The Mouse Island sail boat race was Saturday, and my husband's sailing partner of a few years back, Grace, took first place. She's now 20. Today was the Lakeside Triathalon, and I saw the runners going past our cottage. I think biking and sailing was also involved.

I took the Friday tree walk again--took it last year. I always learn a lot. I think there's a few trees we'll be saying "good-bye" to soon--like the ash trees which are slowing succumbing to the emerald ash borrer, which arrived in Michigan in 2002, and a lot of our silver maples are nearing 70 or 80 years old, and they do not enjoy a long life although they grow quickly and create shade.

Who murdered the vets?

Yesterday at the Women's Club book sale for 50 cents I picked up a signed copy of "The Key West Reader: The best of Key West's Writers 1830-1990." Published in 1989, and edited by George Murphy a resident and writer of Key West. It's a very interesting collection by known and unknown (to me) American writers, such as John James Audubon, Robert Frost, Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, and John Hersey.

I've never been particularly fond of Hemingway's fiction, but the non-fiction accounts of the Labor Day 1935 hurricane (category 5) that killed over 400 people in an area with a population of a thousand or so in this book are stunning. Every governor and city mayor of the gulf states should be required to read this. If Louisiana's state and local officials knew this story and how bad FDR looked for sending unemployed and mentally addled WWI veterans to their certain death in a hurricane, maybe the outcome of Katrina would have been different. Or not. Hemingway disliked FDR intensely, so Democrats probably don't read him. This is from HNN account:

"Shortly after the natural disaster had occurred, writer Ernest Hemingway was contacted by the editors of New Masses to write an account of the storm from an insider's perspective. Hemingway's response was the article, "Who Murdered the Vets?: A First-Hand Report on the Florida Hurricane," published September 17, 1935, just weeks after the event. Although billed as a personal account, in reality it was an outraged demand for accountability for the needless death of the veterans. A hostile tone was established within the first few lines. "Whom did they annoy and to whom was their possible presences a political danger?" Hemingway asked. "Who sent them down to the Florida Keys and left them there in hurricane months?" Hemingway presented the veterans not merely as murdered but almost as though they had been assassinated for someone's personal political gain or simply that they were disposed of as an unnecessary burden to the public after courageously serving their country.

The left will always blame Bush for damages and deaths during Hurricane Katrina because they can't face up to the Democratic controlled administrations of Kathleen Blanco, the governor of Louisiana, and Ray Nagin, the mayor of New Orleans, who were in charge of the first line of defense. Presidents through FEMA then send in aid. Like FEMA hasn't done for the people of Ohio after its June tornado which destroyed a town (too white, too rural and too small to matter). Here's some background on the veterans from the Veterans' Memorial page:

"Unemployed WW-I veterans staged hunger marches and demonstrations in several cities, but the most famous was the Bonus Expeditionary Force in Washington, D.C., in June, 1932. A WW-I bonus law was passed in 1922, but vetoed by the President. In 1924, Congress overrode the presidential veto and gave every veteran a certificate payable in 1945. The nation entered the depression and in 1931 the vets demanded to be paid the bonus early. In June, 1932, about 15,000 veterans descended on Washington to convince the Senate to pass the bill. They were unsuccessful and finally President Hoover chased the "bonus marchers" out of Washington with bayonets and tear gas. Some say this action "put Roosevelt in the White House." Anyway, FERA was created in May, 1933 and various work programs and camps were established throughout the country. The events leading to the presence of the veterans in the Matecumbe work camps followed this scenario."

Reminds me of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study

One of the most famous violations of human rights is the U.S. government's Public Health Service study of poor black men infected with syphilis which went on for 40 years and the researchers continued to study the effects of the disease even after penicillin was invented which could have cured them.

Now, fast forward from 1972 to 1993, to another deadly disease, and a "data set" made up this time primarily of poor black women. The WIHS, Women's Interagency HIV Study, (pronouced WISE) has resulted in 440 published research papers with a data base that can be mined for many more to determine the affects of HIV on (poor minority) women.

The population of 2625 women is 60% black and 27% Hispanic; less than 1/3 are employed; 2/3 report a history of physical, sexual, or emotional abuse. These women have a high smoking rate, high crack cocaine use, high alcohol and illegal substance abuse rate; they have numerous co-morbidities not realted to HIV such as cardiovascular disease, liver disease, cancers, cognitive disorders, and depression.

I've poured through the report, both as summarized in the July 21 issue of JAMA and the on-line site, and the newsletters (most very dated and containing recipes and weight tips on portion control) the participants receive. Through anti-retroviral drugs AIDS is no longer a fatal disease. This clinical study does not treat the women; it refers them for treatment. It offers them money for participation, child care for attending, transportation help, workshops, phone call reminders, and for a select few, a seat on the advisory board.

Well, whoop! Double whoop! Pardon me if I'm not impressed. If all participants were handed the pills and medical staff watched them take it (they do this in methadone clinics), and they were then in remission (there is no cure, but there is life extension), where would the studies be? Instead of being an HIV/AIDS study, and I think the women originally believed they would be treated, not just studied, it has become a data set for researchers (just like the Tuskegee study) for studying poverty, substance abuse, child rearing, and other diseases that may put these women at risk. It's also a study on why people may not follow doctor's orders or follow through on drug therapy--but at the cost of their own lives.

My question is this: How did a disease that began in a tiny demographic made up of privileged white men with higher than average education and income, become the scourge of the poor and black? Why, with 12% of the population, are blacks so affected, and black women? Ten years ago you could talk about "down low" sex, the practice of gay black men bringing the disease home to the wife/girlfriend and then to the children. But these days, that has become politically incorrect to even raise the issue. So you're left to your own devices by this study, JAMA (the American Medical Association's journal) the Gay and Lesbian Alliance, NPR, and any broadcast media, because they certainly won't tell you the truth.

Women's Interagency HIV Study