Saturday, June 30, 2012

Blogging from the porch

No connection at the cottage today, so I'm on the hotel porch.

Friday, June 29, 2012

Friday family photo


I found a cute pillow sham with 2 cats at Volunteers of America for 26 cents.  She looked so cute on it I went back and got the other one.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Thomas Sowell on how much this will cost you

Obama insisted it wasn't a tax. Court says it is.

The Supreme Court's Decision

The Supreme Court gets it wrong, sometimes. And then it's really big. And hurtful. Like in 1857 when it declared blacks weren't citizens (Dredd Scott) and therefore didn't have a right to sue in the courts and in 1973 when it decided the unborn baby wasn't either a human or a citizen and didn't have a right to life.. Justice Roberts (paraphrased) said it's not the court's responsibility to protect the American people from bad laws--we need to do that at the ballot box.


I doubt that the USSR could have fallen without Pope John Paul II and his inspiration for the Polish people to fight for their freedom. Looks like the limp, spineless evangelicals need to get behind the Catholics in their battle against the HHS Mandate. It's the only power we've got who can stand up to Big Brother Barack.


"It is amazing that people who think we cannot afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, and medication somehow think that we can afford to pay doctors, hospitals, medication and a government bureaucracy to administer it." --Thomas Sowell




NORMA BRUCE

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Week One at Lakeside 2012

Week 1 at Lakeside, Dr. Paul Beck of OSU was a featured speaker talking about the 2012 elections. Excellent speaker, and very informative. I had 2 take-aways after 4 sessions. This year will be a record for money spent on campaigning--$4-5 billion. But McDonald's will spend $20 billion advertising its products. Most of that goes to convince the "undecided, non-party" voter, and only a low percentage of them vote. The rest of us know who we are voting for so the ads don't affect us. Also, Columbus, OH will have more money spent on it than any other market because Ohio is a swing state. And I think Cleveland is #2. Most of you won't see what we see.

Sunday evening we went down to the park to hear a fiddle player, Krista Solars. But the weather report looked like rain, so it was moved to Hoover Auditorium  She was excellent, but lost some of her audience in the shift--the people carrying lawn chairs, food and leading dogs. On Tuesday evening at Hoover a group called Blue Lunch from Cleveland played.  Very interesting mix of R & B, soul, jazz, gospel and good old rock n roll.  Saturday night was Mike Albert and his Big E Band (Elvis impersonator), in his 14th appearance.  I think we've probably seen at least 10 of those.  He always puts on a great show.  Elvis and a classic car show go well together--lots of visitors of a certain age in town!

On Tuesday I also made a quick trip to Sandusky for a new pair of athletic shoes.  My legs were starting to hurt, and I know that's a sign I've gone too long. I don't want to miss out on the morning walks along the lake.  I noticed this morning the sun popped up at 6:01 which means the days are getting shorter!




Monday, June 25, 2012

Monday Memories--June 23 at Lakeside

Is there anything prettier than the Fords of 1954-1956?  Or maybe it's just the memories.  First program of the season was vintage and classic cars on Saturday, June 23.




Sunday, June 24, 2012

Yes, we're here at Lakeside with extremely slow connections. 1 mbps. Not much blogging and the template won't create a title.

Friday, June 22, 2012

ACORN’S Joe McGaven gets $445 million in Illinois

“ACORN, the supposedly defunct organization defunded by Congress in the aftermath of James O’Keefe’s video exposing ACORN employees’ willingness to help out pimps and prostitutes attain government benefits, is back. As Judicial Watch has uncovered, the Obama administration offered $445 million to a former ACORN official as part of a $7.6 billion government program designed to help “unemployed or substantially underemployed” Americans make their mortgage payments.

The ACORN official, Joe McGavin, is director of Hardest Hit, an Illinois program that received that massive Treasury infusion. Prior to his time at Hardest Hit, McGaven was director of counseling for ACORN Housing in Chicago, and the operations manager for Affordable Housing Centers of America (AHCOA), an ACORN affiliate.”

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/06/08/ACORN-official-gets-payoff

“Until two years ago AHCOA was called ACORN Housing. The nonprofit corporation renamed itself Affordable Housing Centers for America after undercover activists caught ACORN employees offering helpful advice about starting a brothel for pedophiles and committing other crimes on video in 2009. Soon after, popular revulsion prompted Congress to ban funding of ACORN and groups related to it.

ACORN Housing, which had been the largest affiliate in ACORN’s corrupt, taxpayer-subsidized empire of activism, grew out of crime: squatting. It emerged from a 1982 action in which ACORN built a squatters’ tent city behind the White House.”

http://frontpagemag.com/2012/06/12/obama-gives-446-million-to-acorn-veteran/

Give a wedding gift that will last

I'm still using some of our wedding gifts. We were married in 1960. President Obama wants couples to give that up so he can raise more money for his campaign. No president in history has ever run up a debt like he has or spent more time on the golf course. I don't think I'd trust him with my wedding gift money or my tax money. http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2012/06/22/obama_to_couples_why_dont_you_forgo_wedding_gifts_and_ask_your_guests_to_donate_to_me_instead

                          Oneida Coronation

Still using my silverplate received as a gift from my husband’s aunts and uncles. 

Conservatives complain too much about welfare—except where it counts

Welfare comes to many, not just the poor. Princeton University is highly invested in the success of capitalism with an endowment of $17 billion, or about $2 million per student. Even so, it received approximately $54,000 per student in 2011 from the federal government--you and me. Richard Vedder, Bloomberg.com, Mar. 18, 2012.

‎"In 2002, Meg Whitman, now the chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard Co. and a former CEO of EBay Inc., made a $30 million gift for what is essentially a luxury dorm (Whitman College) at Princeton that probably netted her a tax break of $10 million or so. Less opulent residences at the College of New Jersey lack such rich private funding. One could argue that this is the equivalent of building public housing for the rich. "

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-18/princeton-reaps-tax-breaks-as-state-colleges-beg.html

“It's unlikely that more money has ever been lavished on the education of so few. Even as Ivy Plus budgets have spiraled upward, the schools' enrollments have barely budged. From the 1997-98 academic year through 2006-07, graduate enrollment at the 10 institutions inched up by 10%, to 55,708, while the number of undergraduates actually fell by 1.4%, to 68,492.

Meanwhile [2007], the wealth gap between the Ivies and everyone else has never been wider. The $5.7 billion in investment gains generated by Harvard's endowment for the year that ended June 30 exceeded the total endowment assets of all but six U.S. universities, five of which were Ivy Plus: Yale, Stanford, Princeton, MIT, and Columbia. Ivy dominance extends to fund-raising. A mere 10 schools accounted for half the growth in donations to all U.S. colleges and universities last year. All of the top five on the list were Ivies, led by Stanford, which set a record for higher education in 2006, collecting $911 million in gifts.”

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_50/b4062038784589.htm

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Why the general public doesn’t trust architects

A glass box addition to a 19th century farm house.

Farm in Baltimore County

Story here

Even fewer jobs for Mexico in the future

“On April 19, 2012, Mexico’s Senate unanimously passed the Ley General de Cambio Climático, or the General Law on Climate Change. The bill, which previously passed The Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Congress, by a vote of 128-10, includes a requirement that Mexico reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 30 percent below business-as-usual levels by 2020 and by 50 percent below 2000 levels by 2050.

In addition, the bill mandates that 35 percent of the country’s electricity come from renewable sources by 2024; requires mandatory emissions reporting by the country’s largest polluters; establishes a top-level commission to oversee implementation of the law, lead environmental research, and report on emissions levels; provides for the development of a carbon emissions trading scheme; and establishes a fund to collect resources for climate change mitigation and adaptation measures.”

I guess there will be more Mexicans heading north to support their families. But at least the wealthy, white Mexicans who run their government can breath clean air.

http://blogs.law.columbia.edu/climatechange/

This is one serious climate change blog.  They are “true believers.”

Pelosi unhinged

It’s not only her boss who grabs power not assigned to his office.

“I could have arrested Karl Rove on any given day,” she [Nancy Pelosi] said. “I’m not kidding. There’s a prison here in the Capitol. If we had spotted him in the Capitol, we could have arrested him.”

However, Rove noted that while a House committee cited him for contempt in the investigation of the firing of U.S. attorneys in 2007, the House never took up the resolution.

“So it's nice to know that Speaker Pelosi wanted to have me arrested,” he said in an appearance on Fox News. “It's nice to know that she thinks she had the power to. But we're still a nation of laws, and she had no authority to do so, and had she attempted to arrest me on any of the number of times that I was in and out of the Capitol, without a resolution passed by the entire House of Representatives, she would have been up the proverbial creek without the proverbial paddle.

“You know, she sounds a little bit like Inspector Clouseau and a little bit about the mad red queen. But you know, Speaker Pelosi was dead wrong in her assertion today. I'm sure she had a good laugh, and it's nice to know that she dreams of slapping me in her own personal jail, but didn't have any authority to do it.”

Read more  Rove: Nancy Pelosi the Inspector Clouseau of House Speakers

Running from economic issues—Pelosi

Nancy Pelosi thinks Holder's contempt charge (he has lied to Congress) is about "voter suppression" (he's trying to stop states from cleaning up their voter registration rolls). Why does she want dead people, illegals and prisoners to vote? Talk about suppression. That denies legal voters a right to be counted. http://washingtonexaminer.com/pelosi-holder-contempt-vote-about-voter-suppression-not-fast-and-furious/article/2500261

Rep. Allen West (R-FL) said "Black unemployment remains at almost 14 percent -- almost double the rate for whites," and destruction of the family can be blamed for that. Look what Obama has done for blacks--just think what he could do for Hispanics. But that's not fair. The government has been destroying the black family for about 70 years. For unborn African-Americans, the abortion rate is about 40%. http://cnsnews.com/news/article/rep-allen-west-family-values-not-government-needed-economic-stability-black-community

“In the 1950s, after at least seventy years of rough parity, African American marriage rates began to fall behind white rates. In 1950, the percentages of white and African American women (aged fifteen and over) who were  currently married were roughly the same, 67 percent and 64 percent, respectively. By 1998, the percentage of currently married white women had dropped by 13 percent to 58 percent. But the drop among African American women was 44 percent to 36 percent—more than three times
larger. The declines for males were parallel, 12 percent for white men, 36 percent for African American men.” http://media.hoover.org/sites/default/files/documents/0817998721_95.pdf

http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2011/12/14/barely-half-of-u-s-adults-are-married-a-record-low/

Ineptocracy T-shirt

        image001

Too short to blog

Idioms. "Expecting a baby." It's already a baby. "Going to be a mother." Already a mother. "With child." Now you're catching on.

Sandals.  I have owned many, but they rarely fit well.  My “best” pair is over 12 years (summers) old, and the sole on the right foot separated on Sunday.  I bought some super glue.  On hold for now. Cost is no object (these were $5.00), comfort is.

Kitty.  Is not eating well again (refer you back to August 2011).  So we’re using appetite stimulants, baby food, and lots of variety.  But when you have a cat that doesn’t like fish of any flavor or species, the selection is limited.

Shams. I bought a pillow sham with 2 stylized cats on it for 26 cents at Volunteers of America that had colors matching my couch in my office.  I put a pillow in it—the cat loves it. So I went back and got the other one, also 26 cents.

Glasses. I picked up my new glasses on Tuesday.  Not very different than the 2008 style.  It’s too expensive to get a second pair at the optometrist’s or to even have new lenses for old frames (wanted $228), but I can get a wide selection at Wal-Mart for $79.

Education. About 50 years ago the Supreme Court decided that American children didn't need prayer or Bible reading in public schools. In their place we now have metal detectors, armed guards and classes on using condoms.

Ears. When I was about 35, I thought about getting my ears pierced. Still thinking. . .

Blueberry biscuits.  I made this.  Wasn’t as good as I expected, but ate it anyway.  Do you ever do that?

Blueberry Cream Biscuits 3

I have no idea what happened. “The OCLC Board of Trustees has concluded that rather than moving forward with the appointment of Jack B. Blount as its President and CEO, it is in the best interest of OCLC to have Jay Jordan continue serving in these capacities. Mr. Jordan has agreed to postpone his retirement to continue leading OCLC.”

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Not very healthy for the baby. . .

“While hundreds of Connecticut residents rallied in New Haven against abortion and federal requirements that religious organizations cover their employees' contraceptives, officials at the State Capitol complex took up a measure on whether the insurance everyone will be required to purchase under the federal health law will cover the procedures.

The panel unanimously decided that abortion is an essential benefit by eliminating the plan that prohibits elective abortion coverage, and that it will be covered in the plan they select.

"This issue is favorably resolved for all women now in Connecticut," said Jennifer Jaff, executive director of the group Advocacy for Patients with Chronic Illness and a member of an advisory committee of the Insurance Exchange Health Plan. "Stripping women of elective abortions is not a tenable option." “

http://ctmirror.org/story/16602/abortion-be-considered-essential-health-benefit

The Advocacy group appears to only be Jennifer Jaff.

Usually he’s compared to Carter

“In 1999, Christopher Hitchens penned an acid reflection on the presidency of Bill Clinton, titled "No One Left To Lie To." The verdict on the presidency of Barack Obama, at least during this campaign season, might be No One Left to Pander To. In three and a half years, we've gone from the "audacity of hope" to the "shameless palm grease." “

Mona Charen

The first shot in this battle over religious freedom was not from the Catholics

“The Catholic commitment to religious freedom doesn't stem from partisan political concerns. Anyone who's listened to a dinner-table political argument among Catholics knows there's no way this diverse group of litigants agrees about who they'll pull the lever for in November. In fact, months before these lawsuits were filed against the administration, Catholic bishops filed a Supreme Court brief arguing against Arizona's Republican-sponsored immigration law on religious liberty grounds. Alabama Catholic bishops have made similar arguments against their state's immigration law as well.

Before the administration initiated this controversy, a long-standing bipartisan consensus existed in favor of health care conscience exemptions and a robust conception of religious freedom. With broad Democratic support, President Clinton signed laws that included strong conscience exemptions. Senator Ted Kennedy wrote Pope Benedict XVI that he believed in "a conscience protection for Catholics in the health field." And President Clinton signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which codifies strong free exercise protections, after it passed the Senate 97-3. Just recently, former Clinton administration official (and RFRA point-man) William Galston told attendees at a religious liberty conference that he believes the HHS mandate violates RFRA.”

If anything, it's the administration that has politicized this serious issue by portraying opposition to the mandate as evidence of a manufactured "war on women". It's patronizing for the administration to assume that Catholic women are fair-weather believers willing to trade limits on religious freedom for the promise of free contraception.”

http://www.realclearreligion.org/articles/2012/06/16/solidarity_for_in-the-pews_catholics.html

Abortion is part of the Culture of Death

 

                                    Architects of the Culture of Death

image

http://www.myfathershouse.com/pdf/Architects%20of%20the%20Culture%20of%20Death.pdf

“DeMarco and Wiker have given the Culture of Death high definition and frightening immediacy. They have exposed its roots by introducing its "architects." In a scholarly, yet reader-friendly delineation of the mindsets of twenty-three influential thinkers, such as Ayn Rand, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Jean-Paul Sartre, Alfred Kinsey, Margaret Sanger, Jack Kevorkian, and Peter Singer, they make clear the aberrant thought and malevolent intentions that have shaped the Culture of Death.

Still, this is not a book without hope. If the Culture of Death rests on a fragmented view of the person and an eclipse of God, hope for the "Culture of Life" rests on an understanding and restoration of the human being as a person, and the rediscovery of a benevolent God. The "Personalism" of John Paul II is an illuminating thread that runs through Architects, serving as a hopeful antidote.”

http://www.newhorizonbooksandgifts.com/index.php?module=viewitem&item=41440

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Dishonorable mention—non profits that support Planned Parenthood

“The Boycott List includes a “Dishonorable Mention” section, which identifies nonprofits that are associated with Planned Parenthood and/or its agenda.

The only addition to this section is The Lance Armstrong Foundation. Other groups in the “Dishonorable Mention” section include: AARP, American Cancer Society, Boys & Girls Clubs, Camp Fire, Dr. Phil Foundation, Girl Scouts, Girls Inc., Kiwanis Clubs, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, March of Dimes, Michael J. Fox Foundation, Muscular Dystrophy Association, Ronald McDonald House Charities, Rotary Clubs, Salvation Army, Save the Children, Sierra Club, Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, YMCA, and YWCA.”

http://www.lifenews.com/2012/03/22/new-planned-parenthood-donors-include-gq-bob-evans-hotels/  March 22, 2012


2009-10 income was over one billion.

Obama’s budget—unprecedented deficits

Obama's Budget Continues Unprecedented Deficits

“The President is responsible for submitting an annual budget to Congress and has the authority to veto legislation, including irresponsible spending. Most Administrations have run small but manageable deficits, but President Obama's unprecedented budget deficits pose serious economic risks.”

http://www.heritage.org/federalbudget/budget-create-deficits#

It seems obvious the the Republicans, until Obama, were the big time spenders.

Will Romney be able to stop Taxmageddon?

Not unless he can take office before January 1.

Taxmageddon* is a one-year $494 billion tax increase slated to strike the economy on January 1, 2013. Taxmageddon is made up of several expiring tax policies and the beginning of some major tax increases from Obamacare.

*And they gathered them together to the place which to Hebrew is called Armageddon" (Rev. 16:12-16).

Although these tax increases will not start raising new revenue until next year, they are having a negative impact on the economy today. Families, businesses, and investors need to know how much tax they will pay in the future before making important economic decisions. The uncertainty caused by Taxmageddon means they are stuck in neutral while they wait for President Obama and Congress to act. This is slowing job creation and stopping many of the millions of unemployed Americans from going back to work.

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/04/taxmageddon-massive-tax-increase-coming-in-2013

Abortion is big business

In 2010, Planned Parenthood made 841 adoption referrals; in 2000, 2,486. Why the change? More profit in abortion than in adoption. It's a money making industry. 2009-10 income was over one billion, of which almost $500 million was our tax money and $18.5 million was profit. Not bad for a "non-profit" organization that sucked up almost $224 million in donations from gullible Americans. 22 of Planned Parenthood CEOs make over $300,000 a year in these killing fields. President Cecile Richards earns $353,819. Perhaps women hit the glass ceiling in other industries, but they do very well in this one. Only 2 of the top 20 money makers are men.

The Imperial presidency

Allen West (R-FL) says the last time we had this was King George III.  Nai Nai agrees—“I do feel disrespected and disregarded. Permanent legal status isn't cheap and my parents paid for themselves and their four children. I can't get my citizenship because the cost of it goes up every year and I just can't afford it. I've paid my taxes every year since I became old enough to get a job and my parents paid their taxes every year that they've been in this country. This is a slap in the face to those of us that did things the right way. It also sends the message to others that want to come to this country that they don't have to go thru the legal channels to get here. That they may as well save their money 'cause the current president will just hand them legal status and citizenship as long as they are illegal. Whereas those that are legal have to pay the ever-increasing costs of for naturalization, which includes the costs associated with the "free" service for illegals. So it's paid for no matter how you look at it. As if my tax dollars supporting them to live off of the system weren't enough, now I have to pay for their legal statuses/citizenships as well. I'm a little more than just angry right now. “

http://www.mrctv.org/videos/allen-west-obama-last-time-we-had-was-king-george-iii

The amnesty pandering for votes

Obama's trying to change to the subject to immigration (to get votes he violates the constitution), but if he's smart, Romney won't let him.  I hope he stays focused on Obama’s many weaknesses.
A better plan for Mexico’s citizens would be to pressure that government to correct its flaws so Mexico's poor can share in the vast riches of that country. Roughly 10% of Mexico's population of about 107 million is now living in the United States, estimates show. About 15% of Mexico's labor force is working in the United States. One in every seven Mexican workers migrates to the United States. 

“These are challenging times in America. And because of (Obama’s) failed record, his campaign is having a hard time deciding what to talk about,” Romney told the Janesville crowd. “They’d like to talk about the economy and his record, but they know the last time his campaign slogan was ‘hope and change.’

“This time they’re going with ‘we hope to change the subject.’ But we’re not going to let him do that. We’re going to talk about the economy and jobs and getting Americans back to work,” Romney said, garnering laughter and applause, the crowd apparently pleased with a political line the GOP challenger has pushed on his campaign trip.

Romney spent most of his speech ripping into Obama’s economic policies and highlighting some reforms he’d make.


http://www.wisconsinreporter.com/romney-turns-up-heat-on-obama-during-wi-stop

Monday, June 18, 2012

Obama’s lies about the Bush years

"Obama's depiction of the Bush years is wrong in just about every possible way. First, Bush was hardly a deregulator. In fact, the nation's regulatory budget nearly doubled in his eight years, and regulatory staffing climbed 42%, according to an annual report on the federal regulatory state by George Mason University's Mercatus Center. Nor did Bush's tax cuts devastate the budget. In fact, revenues as a share of gross domestic product hit 18.5% in 2007, which is above the post-World War II average. And deficits fell three years in a row to a low of $160 billion.

Unemployment, meanwhile, dropped to 4.4% just before the recession hit. And as we've pointed out on countless occasions, the financial crisis that caused the recession was not the result of too little government, but of far too much government intervention in the banking industry.

Then again, Obama can't even keep his own complaints straight. Moments after lambasting Bush's tax-cutting, deregulating ways, he was bragging about how he's imposed fewer regulations than Bush, cut taxes more than a dozen times and how he's not a big spender. (None of that is true.)

The real question before voters isn't whether they want to return to some dark, mythical past of Obama's imagination, but whether they want four more years of a dismal present characterized by stagnant growth, chronic unemployment, massive deficits and a president who is utterly clueless about how to fix any of it."

--Investor's Business Daily

Does this church also bless the unborn?

National City Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Washington, D.C.

I don’t care if they bless their pets.  I wonder about the unborn.   The vice moderator is Rev. Steven Baines, assistant field agent for Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.

Monday Memories—Father’s Day 2012

June 17, 2012 2

Fathers Day 2012 3

Sitting on the deck he helped build in September 2010 for our 50th wedding anniversary celebration at our daughter’s home.

Fathers Day 2012 2

The colander that brought fresh banana peppers from our son’s garden which were added to the salad.

Fathers Day 2012

A wonderful meal of baked salmon with teriyaki sauce, green beans and tossed salad prepared by our daughter.

Sinclair Community College and Cops stomp on religious freedom at religious freedom rally

In Ohio, home of the Northwest Ordinance, where it states that, “Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall be forever encouraged and established in the Northwest Territory,” a religious gathering at Sinclair Community College in Dayton were told they'd have to put their signs on the ground. This group, "Stand up for Religious Freedom", had all the proper permits, there is no prohibition on signs or posters or banners, but apparently the tax supported school has a right to decide what is freedom of speech AND freedom of religion.

http://www.wnd.com/2012/06/put-your-sign-on-the-ground-and-step-away/

Bryan Kemper, Priests for Life youth outreach director, told WND police officers with the Sinclair Community College Public Safety Department in Dayton, Ohio, informed the organizers of the local Stand Up For Religious Freedom event that no signs of any kind could be held by individual members of the public attending the Sinclair campus rally, which was just getting under way.

All signs were ordered by police to be laid down on the ground.

“As the rally was starting, the campus police informed us that all the signs and banners people were holding must be put on the ground after a complaint from a homosexual advocacy group leader,” Kemper told WND. “The police walked around the crowd telling people to put their signs down, that they could not hold them in their hands.”

According to organizers of the rally, police offered the Sinclair Community College Campus Access Policy as the reason no signs could be held in the hands of citizens, yet the policy can be found online and says nothing about signs.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

This morning’s sermon was based on Daniel 3

3 King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, sixty cubits high and six cubits wide,[a] and set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. 2 He then summoned the satraps, prefects, governors, advisers, treasurers, judges, magistrates and all the other provincial officials to come to the dedication of the image he had set up. 3 So the satraps, prefects, governors, advisers, treasurers, judges, magistrates and all the other provincial officials assembled for the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up, and they stood before it.

4 Then the herald loudly proclaimed, “Nations and peoples of every language, this is what you are commanded to do: 5 As soon as you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe and all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. 6 Whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace.”

I thought it interesting that a ruler first has to get the satraps, prefects, governors, advisers, treasurers, judges, magistrates and all the other provincial officials in place before he makes changes in religion.

Mark Steyn on Obama’s Cleveland speech

I wonder if people will ever stop talking about how bad the Cleveland speech was.  I didn’t hear it—who could possibly sit through 54 minutes of that nonsense unless it was your job?  Have only seen snippets and heard sound bites, but whew! it was really awful, even by my low standards for his speeches.

Obama: “That’s how we built this country — together. We constructed railroads and highways, the Hoover Dam and the Golden Gate Bridge. We did those things together,”

Steyn:  he said, in a passage that was presumably meant to be inspirational but was delivered with the faintly petulant air of a great man resentful at having to point out the obvious, yet again.

Obama: “Together, we touched the surface of the moon, unlocked the mystery of the atom, connected the world through our own science and imagination. We haven’t done these things as Democrats or Republicans. We’ve done them as Americans.”

Steyn:  Beyond the cheap dissembling, there was a bleak, tragic quality to this paragraph. Does anyone really believe a second-term Obama administration is going to build anything? Yes, you, madam, the gullible sap at the back in the faded hope’n’change T-shirt. You seriously think your guy is going to put up another Hoover Dam? Let me quote one Deanna Archuleta, Obama’s deputy assistant secretary of the interior, in a speech to Democrat environmentalists in Nevada:

“You will never see another federal dam.”

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/303015/ground-control-president-obama-mark-steyn

Federal red tape strangles small businesses

Deroy Murdock reports at NRO that federal red tape has squelched at least 779,203 potential jobs. If these positions were filled, today’s unemployment rate would fall from 8.2 percent to 7.7.  Federal employment boomed under George W. Bush, but regulatory employees soared under Obama. . .  291,676 of them regulate, up 17 percent under Obama.

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/301802/over-regulation-pricey-deroy-murdock#

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Will Christians be able to unite behind Romney?

Meeting today to plan strategy.  Romney spoke to the group via video because he’s campaigning. 

Marco Rubio speaking at the conference.  What we have is worth preserving he says. In your every day life is where you will make the biggest difference.  Christianity spread because of the way they lived and treated people, not because of preaching, and the source of this was Christ.

Meet King Obama the First

“President Barack Obama is supposed to be a constitutional scholar of some sort. On the subject of his decision yesterday to unilaterally enact sweeping changes to U.S. immigration policy on nothing but his own say-so, we would like to introduce Barack Obama to Barack Obama, who during a Univision interview just last year affirmed: “America is a nation of laws, which means I, as the president, am obligated to enforce the law. . . . There are enough laws on the books by Congress that are very clear in terms of how we have to enforce our immigration system that for me to simply through executive order ignore those congressional mandates would not conform with my appropriate role as president.” A little softness in the polls and one executive order later, the president has reversed himself.”

Continue the NRO article here.

Amnesty, Bush vs. Obama

Obama did learn one thing from Bush. Don't let the people decide about amnesty, either from representative government or input directly to the President. Just go ahead, be a dictator/statist and declare that adults who entered/crossed the border as children are on the path to citizenship. No problema. But even young immigrants should realize that this is just one step closer to the bad government and economy their parents fled. The one with no opportunity; no middle-class; no religious freedoms as we have come to define them; no brown or black people on TV; the one with strict racial and ethnic laws for immigration and citizenship.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/jun/16/its-not-dream-act-obamas-immigration-order-buoys-l/

Friday, June 15, 2012

The last Spring Commencement at OSU

“Spring Commencement 2012 wasn’t a typical graduation ceremony. For starters, it was Ohio State’s 400th commencement. The June 10th event was also Ohio State’s last spring quarter commencement, marking the end of a tradition that began in 1923. Another milestone? There were 10,642 Buckeyes in the Class of 2012--the largest spring quarter class ever for the fourth consecutive year.”

http://www.osu.edu/connect/#one  June 2012


With the university’s change to semesters, OSU faculty, staff and students can now borrow items from the Libraries for longer periods of time.

The loan period for faculty, staff and graduate students increased to 120 days (from the previous 70 days); the loan period for undergraduate students is 42 days (up from 21 days). All items will be available for unlimited renewals, provided another patron does not place a hold on the item, and the patron remains in good standing. From News Notes, June 13, 2012

Friday family photo—Tech Reunion June 8

Bruce Tech photo

Tech class photo

While Obama dined with Sarah Jessica Parker

and told lies in Cleveland,

http://www.extratv.com/2012/06/15/barack-in-the-city-his-2-million-dinner-with-sarah-jessica-parker/

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/06/15/at-opposite-ends.html

Mitt Romney is on the road talking about the economy as a businessman.

"I've been talking to small employers and big employers. And I hear day in and day out they feel this administration sees them as their enemy. They feel that the Obama policies have made it harder for them to put people back to work. Almost everything the president has done has made it harder for entrepreneurs to start a business, has made it less likely for businesses like this to be able to hire more people.  So as you look at the president's record, it is long on words and short on action that created jobs. ...

[T]alk is cheap. Action speaks loudly. Look what's happened across this country. If you think things are going swimmingly, if you think the president's right when he said the private sector is doing fine, well then he's the guy to vote for. ...

"I happen to be convinced, having been able to go all across the country, that we're poised to see a resurgence of American economic vitality with companies growing, with jobs growing, with employers bringing jobs back to America, as opposed to sending them elsewhere. That won't happen under this president. That'll happen if we change the course of this country. I spent my life in private enterprise, 25 years. I know how businesses work. I know what causes them to leave and what will bring them back.

Advent Lutheran Tag Sale

                                  chocolate deck

Love this annual sale!  Spent $6.50 at the Advent Lutheran Church Tag sale. I got "The chocolate Deck" for $.50, not sure what I'll do with it but if I'm ever hungry for Grilled chocolate-stuffed bananas, I'm all set.  Also got 4 CDs, 2 were Phil Dirt and the Dozers, a very popular 50s-60s group in Ohio—when they play at Lakeside, they really pack the house and give a stunning performance. 

TRACK LISTING: Vol. 1
1) Phil Dirt Theme 2) Denise 3) 16 Candles 4) Why Do Fools Fall In Love 5) Silhouettes 6) California Girls 7) Morse Code of Love 8) Ten Commandments of Love 9) Walk Like a Man 10) Papa Oom Mow Mow 11) My Girlfriend 12) Leader of the Pack 13) Dance, Dance, Dance 14) Gloria 15) Only You (skip version) 16) The Lion Sleeps Tonight 17) Hey There Lonely Girl 18) Don't Worry Baby 19) When You Dance 20) God Only Knows 21) No Particular Place 22) Baby Workout 23) Only the Only

TRACK LISTING: Vol. 2
1) What's Your Name 2) Pretty Little Angel Eyes 3) Duke of Earl 4) Little Darlin' 5) Help Me Rhonda 6) Runaround Sue 7) Hurt 8) I Get Around 9) I Knew You When 10) And Your Dreams Come True 11) Mr. Bassman 12) Unchained Melody (Vito & the Salutations version) 13) Teddy Bear 14) Get A Job 15) Smoke Gets In Your Eyes 16) Higher & Higher 17) Twilight Time 18) The Way You Look Tonight 19) Unchained Melody (Righteous Brothers version) 20) Rag Doll 21) Summer of the Century 22) Sh-Boom 23) Marlena

An extra computer mouse for 50 cents,  because you never know. . . And a small table for $3.00 with heart shaped shelves that appears to be hand made--maybe a shop class project. One of the volunteers told me she has one just like it made by her father-in-law, and her husband is 80. We have a small, cheap plastic table at the lake house collapsing from all the books I've put on it, so this will replace it. Mine is stained, but not varnished, but found a sample and a template to make it on the internet.

                                      table

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Ohio Right to Life endorses state and federal candidates

Ohio Right to Life PAC is confident these candidates “will represent the pro-life movement in our state and federal government. Ohio experienced never before seen growth in its defense of the unborn after electing every statewide candidate that Ohio Right to Life endorsed in 2010. With these victories, Ohio Right to Life worked with legislators to pass seven pro-life legislative measures, a feat unprecedented by any other General Assembly.”

Notable endorsed candidates include:

  • Mitt Romney - President
  • Republican Josh Mandel - U.S. Senate
  • Justice Robert Cupp - Ohio Supreme Court
  • Republican Jim Renacci - Ohio Congressional District 16
  • Republican Sam Wurzelbacher - Ohio Congressional District 9
  • Republican Randy Gardner with honor roll status - Ohio Senate District 2
  • Republican Peggy Lehner with honor roll status - Ohio Senate District 6
  • Democrat Mike Curtin - Ohio House District 17
  • Republican Kristina Roegner with honor roll status - Ohio House District 37
  • Democrat Matt Lundy - Ohio House District 55
  • Republican Nick Skeriotis - Ohio House District 75

Obama and the high tech billionaires

Isn’t it too bad that Obama has so little faith in capitalism.  Woot! What a joke. He needs capitalists on his side to win, and he needs to create division among ordinary Americans who will think they are the bad guys, the evil Wall Street guys.

In January 2012 Jim Messina, former White House Deputy Chief of Staff began a new job as “Barack Obama’s campaign manager, and being a diligent student with access to some very smart people, he arranged a rolling series of personal seminars with the CEOs and senior executives of companies that included Apple (AAPL), Facebook (FB), Zynga (ZNGA), Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Salesforce (CRM), and DreamWorks (DWA). “I went around the country for literally a month of my life interviewing these companies and just talking about organizational growth, emerging technologies, marketing,” he says at Obama’s campaign headquarters in Chicago. . .

“This time, you have to program content to a much wider variety of channels—Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, YouTube (GOOG), Google—because people are segmented in a very different way than they were four years ago.”  When Obama declared for president, the iPhone hadn’t been released. Now,  [Steve] Jobs told him, mobile technology had to be central to the campaign’s effort. “

http://www.businessweek.com/printer/articles/30696-obamas-ceo-jim-messina-has-a-president-to-sell

Not a one of these got could have gotten where they are today without investors and venture capital, but Steven Spielberg according to this article designed the Bain attacks against Romney.

And also.  How much fancy technology will it take to convince people he’s doing a good job if after almost 4 years he can get back to the economy Bush had for 7 years, or keep them from noticing he’s expanded the wars, and that he not only has suspicious friends like Bill Ayers, but shady appointees like Eric Holder, his Attorney General?  How long will even the most loyal Democrat swallow this nonsense?

Word Play

How is this not a federal body? "The Task Force is an independent, nonfederal, uncompensated body of public health and prevention experts, whose members are appointed by the Director of CDC." All appointees are members of the academy which gets both its funding and marching orders from the federal government.
http://www.thecommunityguide.org/about/task-force-members.html

According to this Community Guide task force report, "Health equity is achieved when every person has the opportunity to attain his or her full health potential and no one is disadvantaged from achieving this potential because of social position or other socially determined circumstances."

My good health is first of all, 1) genetic--my parents and their parents, etc., then 2) personal life style choices by my parents and myself about alcohol, cigarettes and food, and of course, 3) being born in the 20th century with the advantages of vaccines, antibiotics, and safe water, most of which was not available to my parents and grandparents. Many of these government health reports are simply advocating for government policy makers to move money from group A to group B while syphoning off a generous amount for their salaries as social workers, academicians and researchers. http://www.thecommunityguide.org/healthequity/index.html

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

1,2,3: Obama and the Supremes

“First, Obama unleashed a broadside against the justices during his 2010 State of the Union address for their ruling on a campaign finance case known as Citizens United. With the justices seated directly in front of him, Obama publicly scolded the court for its decision-making. It was an unusual step for a lawyer-president to take the high court to the legal woodshed during a State of the Union address.

Second, still desirous of blurring the lines of constitutional demarcation between the executive and judicial branches of government, in April, Obama once again took aim at the Supreme Court. In an encore performance at a press conference, Obama said it would be an "unprecedented, extraordinary" step for the Court to rule against his health care law. The former law professor must have forgotten his first day of law school, when Marbury v. Madison and the concept of judicial review were discussed. He must have also forgotten that in 2008, the Supreme Court invalidated an act that suspended habeas for Guantanamo detainees. Obama favored the court's outcome in that case, applauding the court's "unprecedented" overruling of a federal statute at that time.

Third, Obama has directed his administration to file papers claiming that if the Supreme Court were to rule against his health care plan, it would risk the "extraordinary disruption" of Medicare — never mind that Medicare has been chugging along for its entire existence without the benefit of the Affordable Health Care Act.”

From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120612/OPINION01/206120324#ixzz1xhX6yRLf

The author is a Republican.  Obviously. No Democrat can speak the truth about blurring the lines of responsibility and authority.

The Obama Gulf Spill timeline

Oil Spill Timeline from RightChange on Vimeo.

Holder stonewalling

“Attorney General Eric Holder has refused to provide written testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee in response to "questions for the record" submitted to him by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R.-Ala.) that focus on Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan's involvement in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act--AKA Obamacare--while she was President Barack Obama's solicitor general.”

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/holder-refuses-provide-testimony-kagan-s-involvement-obamacare

“So far it appears that only Republicans and conservatives want Kagan to recuse herself from hearing the case, while liberals and Democrats take the opposing view. I have been a liberal constitutional law professor for more than 20 years, and a loyal Democrat. I believe the Affordable Care Act is constitutional and that it would be truly unfortunate for the country (and the party) if the court strikes it down. I also recognize that there is a much greater chance of the court erroneously striking down the PPACA if Kagan recuses herself. That said, I believe that as a matter of both principle and law, Kagan should not hear the case.” Eric Segall  http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2011/12/obamacare_and_the_supreme_court_should_elena_kagan_recuse_herself_.html

Access for the underserved (aka poor, minority) to better medical care

I've been looking through the MEDTAPP grant of about $10 million (1.5  years) for seven Ohio medical schools for "underserved" populations.  It reportedly comes from  The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) which I assume got it from the federal government.  That sounds like a lot of money--except the universities skim about 55-60% for overhead (or did when I worked at OSU).  But imagine how big the amount was before the federal and state governments took their cuts!  Then it is split 7 ways and the money goes first to set up and administer those programs which are primarily for curriculum bloat, training experiences, coordination, outreach, etc. in everything from mental health to pediatrics to gerontology to expansion of faculty. It's no wonder the medical practices and hospitals have low reimbursement for treating the low income sick and elderly.

I couldn’t find within the several websites I checked whether the 1,000 students and trainees who go through these programs have any obligation to actually work with the “underserved.”

Government programs provide a very fine living for “public servants.”  No one in this pass through of funding is poor, underserved, mentally ill, elderly, or low income. Let’s hope something at the end of the line helps the needy (aka underserved).

  • The University of Akron – College of Nursing
  • Case Western Reserve University – School of Dental Medicine and Departments of Family
  • Medicine/MetroHealth System, Pediatrics and Psychiatry
  • Kent State University – College of Nursing
  • The Ohio State University – Colleges of Dentistry and Nursing, Moms2Be Program, Interdisciplinary Behavioral Health Education Program, Interdisciplinary Curriculum Development Program, and Medicaid Practice Placement and Learning Experiences Partnership Program
  • University of Toledo – Department of Psychiatry
  • Wright State University – Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the Community Psychiatry Collaborative (involving the Departments of Psychiatry, Geriatrics, Community Health and Family Medicine).

https://ckm.osu.edu/sitetool/sites/grc2public/documents/11MEDTAPPHAIOVERVIEW.pdf

http://grc.osu.edu/medicaidpartnerships/healthcareaccess/

http://nursing.osu.edu/news/news-headline-articles/Ohio-Medicaid-to-Fund-Statewide-Projects-to-Train-More-Than-1000-Health-Professionals.html

Republican teachers forced to support Obama in Ohio

"Barack Obama: a leader we can count on to stand up for education, for children and for our rights." OEA (union) "Ohio Schools," June 2012, p. 18. Republicans must join this union if they want to teach in Ohio, but their dues will always support Democrat candidates and issues.

The June issue of Ohio Schools (OEA union publication) declares that Ohio teachers must "take back our voice and vote." Hmm. You can't be a teacher in Ohio without joining the union, and it only supports Obama, despite that fact that many members of this forced membership are Republicans, Libertarians, or no political affiliation at all. So which teachers don't have a voice or vote? This is one step from Jim Crow—which was also a Democrat party plan.  A "member" told me that they are taking $22 from his monthly check to fight the "right to vote" in Ohio, something he believes in!

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Stimulus Jr. as campaign fodder

“The president was out there, once again, promoting the American Jobs Act. This bill is basically a huge payoff to Democratic constituent groups – notably organized labor, which would benefit enormously from federal grants to states to keep government workers on the payroll, as well as construction projects to be completed by union job crews.

This bill has no chance of passing through the United States Congress. The Republican party is never going to vote to hike taxes to pay off Democratic client groups. It never has, and it never will. What’s more, the politics of this bill do not play very well with the middle of the country – as Republicans can always point out (correctly), the American Jobs Act is a watered-down version of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (i.e., the stimulus that the country thinks was a failure).”

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/morning-jay-obama-s-problem-his-base_646967.html?nopager=1

What to do with degrees like these?

“In 2010, the New York Times reported on Cortney Munna, then 26, a New York University graduate with almost $100,000 in debt. If her repayments were not then being deferred because she was enrolled in night school, she would have been paying $700 monthly from her $2,300 monthly after-tax income as a photographer’s assistant. She says she is toiling “to pay for an education I got for four years and would happily give back.” Her degree is in religious and women’s studies.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/george-will-subprime-college-educations/2012/06/08/gJQA4fGiOV_story.html

But what are all those tuition and fee increases going for?  In part, narcissism.  Bloat. Says George Will.  And I’ve blogged about it when I see it at Ohio State which has an Office of Diversity and Inclusion; Faculty of Color Caucus of the Department of History; the Race, Ethnicity, and Nation Constellation of the Department of History; and DISCO, Diversity and Identity Studies Collective . Courses like “Gender and race in contemporary architecture.”

UCSD found money to create a vice chancellorship for equity, diversity and inclusion. UC Davis has a Diversity Trainers Institute under an administrator of diversity education, who presumably coordinates with the Cross-Cultural Center. It also has: a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Resource Center; a Sexual Harassment Education Program; a diversity program coordinator; an early resolution discrimination coordinator; a Diversity Education Series that awards Understanding Diversity Certificates in “Unpacking Oppression”; and Cross-Cultural Competency Certificates in “Understanding Diversity and Social Justice.” California’s budget crisis has not prevented UC San Francisco from creating a new vice chancellor for diversity and outreach to supplement its Office of Affirmative Action, Equal Opportunity and Diversity, and the Diversity Learning Center (which teaches how to become “a Diversity Change Agent”), and the Center for LGBT Health and Equity, and the Office of Sexual Harassment Prevention & Resolution, and the Chancellor’s Advisory Committees on Diversity, and on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Issues, and on the Status of Women.

Why does Dept. of Homeland Security want noncitizens on the voter rolls?

You only need one guess.  Because they’ll vote for Democrats or for what they are told.

“MIAMI -- Gov. Rick Scott and the Obama administration traded legal barbs and counter-accusations Monday as each side announced it would sue the other over Florida’s controversial non-citizen voter purge.

Scott’s chief elections official sued first, filing a federal lawsuit in Washington that accused the U.S. Department of Homeland Security of unlawfully refusing Florida access to a federal database that could help the state spot and remove noncitizens from the voter rolls. . . “

I fail to see how this will endanger lawful voters.  You’re either a citizen or you’re not.  The database should show that.

“Moments after the state filed suit, Assistant U.S. Attorney General Thomas E. Perez roared back in a sharply worded five-page letter from the U.S. Department of Justice, which ordered the state two weeks ago to stop the purge because it could violate two federal voting laws.

The state’s program is too “faulty” ” and comes too close to election time to not endanger the voting rights of thousands of lawful U.S. citizens, Perez wrote. He said Florida has repeatedly ignored Homeland Security’s warning that the department’s database, known as SAVE, isn’t designed for the noncitizen hunt on which Florida embarked.”

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/06/12/3653743/floridas-voter-purge-sparks-lawsuits.html#storylink=cpy

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/florida-purge-illegal-voters/2012/06/11/id/441946?s=al&promo_code=F274-1

News on the War on Women

Live Action released undercover footage June 6 showing two National Abortion Federation (NAF) clinics in Arizona agreeing to break state law and perform an illegal sex-selective abortion. The video is the third release in Live Action’s “Gendercide” project, documenting Planned Parenthood and NAF’s support for sex-selective abortion in America. But you probably haven't heard the President speak out on this particular War against Women, or even seen it on ABC, CBS, NBC or the cable networks, who feel they need to protect the President, and Planned Parenthood which has endorsed him. The same Planned Parenthood that slapped down and cowed the Susan G. Komen Foundation into submission when it dared to step out of line.

http://liveaction.org/blog/az-abortion-clinics-break-law-to-abort-baby-girls-in-new-undercover-video/

The "right to free contraception" which was invented from thin air in 2012, is now more important to Obama supporters than all our First Amendment Rights, the roots of which are in the Bible and many centuries of Western thought and philosophy. Obama (a lapsed UCC-an whose former pastor says he didn’t attend church much) and Pelosi (a cafeteria Catholic who supports abortion and gay marriage) support this new creation, but not our guarantee of religious freedom found in our Bill of Rights.

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/03/lib-hero-sandra-fluke-free-birth-control-is-a-natural-human-right-i-wont-be-silenced/

Our freedoms are God given

A graduate of James Madison University, Dr. Forbes speaks out on behalf of religious liberty.  “If we remove the foundation of religious freedom, the rest of the republic will fall!”

Monday, June 11, 2012

The HHS Mandate is about religious liberty

Rabbi Cary Kozberg at the Columbus Stand Up for  Religious  Freedom Rally, June 8, 2012

Obama meets with historians. . .

I don’t know if this happened.  Ed Klein says it did.  Doris Kearns Goodwin, Michael Beschloss, Robert Caro, Robert Dallek, Douglas Brinkley, H.W. “Billam” Brands, David Kennedy, Kenneth Mack, and Garry Wills met with Obama and staffers.  He wanted to know his place in history. It sounds like the Obama we’ve come to know through the news media—the ones that support him with unflinching loyalty.

“When one of the historians brought up the difficulties that Lyndon Johnson, another wartime president, faced trying to wage a foreign military venture while implementing an ambitious domestic agenda, Mr. Obama grew testy. He implied that he was different, because he could prevail by the force of his personality.


He could solve the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, put millions of people back to work, redistribute wealth, withdraw from Iraq, and reconcile the United States to a less dominant role in the world.


It was, by any measure, a breathtaking display of grandiosity by a man whose entire political curriculum vitae consisted of seven undistinguished years in the Illinois senate and two mostly absent years in the United States Senate.


That evening he revealed the characteristics — arrogance, conceit, egotism, vanity, hubris and, above all, rank amateurism — that would mark his presidency and doom it to frustration and failure.”
 Obama Will Be Presidential Failure Like Carter, Historian Says

Supplements for pregnant women

In the United States medical researchers probably can’t put poor black or brown women into three groups, give them different pre-natal supplements (MMS, multiple micronutrient supplementation vs iron-folic acid using  either 60-mg or 30-mg iron formulations), and then wait to see what would happen to the babies in a few years.  But it can still be done in Bangladesh.

I was given pre-natal vitamins (huge horse pills) as soon as I knew I was pregnant in 1961.  I knew without being told just from my upbringing that I needed to eat healthy; I stopped drinking coffee (made me sick).  I went back to drinking milk every day.  I gained very little weight.   However, in poor countries it is harder to eat better.

The surprising thing about “Effects of prenatal micronutrient and early food supplementation” research published in the May 16, 2012 JAMA is that although by age 5, the children in one group of the multiple micronutrient study were healthier, fewer of them actually made it to term. The special supplements (of any of the 3 types) had few or no benefits on birth length, weight or reducing still birth.

Mortality rates for offspring were highest among the women randomized to MMS combined with the usual invitation to food supplementation, mainly caused by asphyxia. Furthermore, this treatment group had significantly higher incidence of spontaneous abortions. The late pregnancy losses were lower in the usual invitation with MMS group, resulting in no difference in RR of total fetal loss across treatment groups.

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1157489

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1157470

Monday Memories—Our First Apartment 1960

         1311 N. Rural

We were in Indianapolis over the week-end to attend an Arsenal Technical High School class reunion at the Riverwalk Restaurant in Broad Ripple, and all class gathering on the campus (70+ acres).  On our way to the Tech campus we drove by our first home at 1311 North Rural (apt. 2).  My.  The neighborhood has certainly changed.  This was a very tidy 4-unit, probably originally built to be a duplex, then the upstairs 3 bedrooms were changed to a 1 bedroom, kitchen and living room apartment with a side entrance (not visible here).  It’s hard to say, but it may be back to a duplex.  We couldn’t see the side entrance. 

We were about 3 houses from a lovely park, and 3 blocks from 10th avenue which had a number of small stores.  I still have a few kitchen items I bought from a hardware store on 10th.  We can’t remember where we parked our car—there was an alley and garage behind the house, and the stairs to the street were extremely steep.  Every day I drove to my job at General Mold and Engineering, and Bob caught the bus to work downtown at Ayrshire Collieries on South Meridian (11th largest coal company controlled by Pierre Goodrich at that time). 

When we lived on Rural it was a working class white neighborhood, now it is mostly black with some Hispanic.  The condition of the homes is really awful, with many boarded up.  And as you can see, a couch on the porch is not a good sign in any neighborhood, even on college campuses studies show this is a serious indication of decay and trouble.

We never thought to take any photos when we lived there, but I’m pretty sure it was painted white and the owners, who lived down stairs, were careful with the property.

Our first Christmas in that apartment

                                 Norma 1961 graduation B.S.

A few months later, my college graduation photo from 1961, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Who will own and control your genome information?

It cost roughly a billion dollars to generate the first reference human genome in 2003; last year a company would charge $10,000 for this service.  This year it costs a few thousand dollars. And in a few years we should be able to get our genomes sequenced for a few hundred dollars.  Then what? To whom does the information belong? 

http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2012/06/08/your-genome-belongs-to-you/

The Commonwealth Fund

One of the big supporters of Obamacare (aka ACA) is the Commonwealth Fund.  If not directly, then through sponsored research and the preaching and writing and advising of Dr. David Blumenthal, the  Chairman of  The Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System, and other employees.  David Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.P.,  is the Samuel O. Their Professor of Medicine and Professor of Health Care Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital/Partners HealthCare System and Harvard Medical School. In opinion and editorial pieces in medical journals supporting ACA, you’ll see his name, or the Commonwealth Fund research cited.

The Commonwealth Fund is behind those studies that end up in sound bites on the news that says we’re at the bottom in the industrialized world for health care (despite the money we spend) and that people are going bankrupt trying to pay medical bills.

Like most foundations, Commonwealth Fund is the outcome of a hard working, savvy capitalist—or in this case, his second wife.  According to Wikipedia, Anna M. Richardson (25 October 1837-27 March 1926)  married Stephen Vanderburgh Harkness, a harnessmaker who had lived in Bellevue and Monroeville, Ohio, of Cleveland, in 1851, who invested with  John D. Rockefeller and became the second-largest shareholder in Standard Oil.

Stephen Harkness died in 1888. In 1917 Anna M. Harkness gave $3 million to Yale University for the construction of Memorial Quadrangle in memory of her son Charles, who had died in 1916.  Anna Harkness donated another $3 million to Yale in 1920 to increase faculty salaries.

In 1918 Anna Harkness established the Commonwealth Fund with an initial gift of $10 million, and made her son Edward Harkness  its president.  His home, The Harkness House, is now the home of the Commonwealth Fund.  From this fund the Harkness Fellowships were established, and St. Salvator's Hall at the University of St Andrews, the Butler Library at Columbia University and many of the undergraduate dorms at Harvard University and Yale University were built.  Other charities and funds were established through Edward Harkness who died in 1940.

In any case, it was Standard Oil money through the widow and her descendants to fund all these “good works,” some antithetical to capitalism.

http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Blog/2012/Jan/Affordable-Care-Act-Safety-Net.aspx

http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Newsletters/Washington-Health-Policy-in-Review/2012/Jun/June-4-2012.aspx

Friday, June 08, 2012

Today’s lecture tools

When I went to college in the 1950s and 1960s, and even later when I returned to make up a math class I didn’t have as an undergrad, or a refresher in reference titles so I could ease back into my career in the 1970s, we had face to face interaction with the instructors/professors.  Even in very large lectures, there was a human being.  Overwhelming, most of my classes were small, both in foreign languages (my undergrad major), and in library science (my master’s degree).

Today I saw an advertisement at OSUToday for LectureTools:

“LectureTools student iPad app allows students to relay feedback to their instructor in real-time during lecture. With larger screens than smartphones and smaller footprints than laptops, many students are beginning to tote iPads to class and many institutions are experimenting with iPad initiatives.”

Don’t even need raise your hand.  If you’re shy or autistic, no problem.  Be as silent as you want.

Thursday, June 07, 2012

The Walker Recall—Important or not?

Three lessons from the Wisconsin recall

“There are three important lessons from the Wisconsin collective bargaining battles over the past eighteen months:

1. The power of the government-sector unions and their impact on elections is greatly overestimated. With a victory for Gov. Walker, Wisconsin Government employee union will have suffered their fifth major defeat since March 2011.

2. When given a choice, government employees will quit their union in large numbers.

3. Government employees' salaries and benefits, particularly pensions, are financially unsustainable in most states and collective bargaining reform is needed.”

Read more: http://www.statebudgetsolutions.org/publications/detail/why-government-employee-collective-bargaining-laws-must-be-reformed-now#ixzz1x9ezwKiI

Voter fraud hurts all of us

Whether it’s in Ohio, Wisconsin or Florida, fraud hurts us all because these people make it to Washington.

fraud

I wrote to the Governor of Florida

The state of Florida is under attack by the U.S. Department of Justice because it is trying to clean up the voter rolls and limit voting to citizens who are legal residents of Florida.  Oh. The. Horror!  It’s a Democrat’s nightmare, and our Attorney General Eric Holder is on top of it fast and furiously.  I just wrote a few encouraging sentences, because we’re fighting voter fraud here in Ohio, too, and I’ve signed on to help stop it.  Like Madison, Wisconsin, we have more people voting in some counties than there are adults. 

Here’s what I received from Chris Cate, Communications Director, Florida Department of State, which now that I have a paper/digital trail, the media can’t bamboozle me:

· A letter from Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner to the U.S. Department of Justice regarding Florida’s continuing commitment to protecting citizen’s voting rights.

· An excerpt from a U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) publication documenting the legal basis for accessing the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database. The document can be found online at http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/privacy/privacy_pia_uscis_save.pdf

· An email chain, dating back to September 2011, between the Florida Department of State (DOS) and DHS regarding access DHS information on non-citizens.

· Frequently asked questions about Florida’s continuing commitment to protecting citizen’s voting rights.

· Secretary of State Ken Detzner’s letter sent on May 31, 2012, to DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano regarding access to the citizenship information in DHS’s SAVE database.

· Florida Congressman Jeff Miller’s letter sent on May 9, 2012, to U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano regarding access to the citizenship information in DHS’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database.

· Florida Congressman Gus Bilirakis’ letter sent on June 5, 2012, to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Alejandro Mayorkas regarding access to the citizenship information in DHS’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database.

· Florida Congressman Tom Rooney’s letter sent on June 6, 2012, to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Florida’s efforts to remove non-citizens from the voter rolls.