The Righteous Mind; why liberals and conservatives can’t get along

Wharton professor Philip Tetlock recently spoke with Jonathan Haidt, author of The Righteous Mind.

Close ties, state universities and federal government

How dependent are state universities on the federal government?  In September 2014, Ohio State University received 185 grants totaling over $39 million.

Friday family photo—All Hallows’ Eve

Tomorrow is All Saints' Day, the day we remember in the Christian faith all the saints beside us, around us, and those who have gone ahead of us to wait and welcome us home. Today is All Hallows' Eve, the day before (eve) All Hallows' feast day, celebrated since the 3rd century. In the secular world it is contracted to Halloween and people like to dress up; some as though they are already decayed and dead. Sort of to scare away what they know is coming. God declares us holy... in our baptism, so we are all saints (sanctus in Latin). Celebrate--it really is a Christian festival, but be holy and God centered--it's not a time for sexy costumes or the living dead! The first Sunday in November in the Lutheran church we honor the saints who have gone ahead--we read their names in our services, and we'll be serving communion. I remember last year as I was saying, "the body of Christ given for you," the names of my parents and in-laws were being read from the pulpit.

One slur that can be overlooked, another that can’t

So a member of Obama's administration bad mouthed the leader of Israel, our only ally in the middle east. Called him chicken shit or something like that. The media just skips over that word or uses symbols, so I’m actually not sure what he said. Anyway, he said Benjamin Netanyahu was a piece of poo and a coward. Obama has ignored the slur. It's a good thing that staffer didn't say, "Washington Redskins" or he might have been fired immediately for being so hateful.

http://omnifeed.com/article/dailysignal.com/2014/10/29/chickens-slur-doesnt-faze-israels-netanyahu

“Certainly, that’s not the administration’s view, and we think such comments are inappropriate and counterproductive,” said National Security Council spokesman Alistair Baskey, according to The Hill. “Prime Minister Netanyahu and the president have a forged an effective partnership, and consult closely and frequently, including earlier this month when the president hosted the prime minister in the Oval Office.”

http://www.timesofisrael.com/white-house-calls-chickenshit-netanyahu-slur-inappropriate/

What do teachers think of Common Core? The Gallup Poll

This is a deceptive Gallup poll--teachers are split positive and negative on Common Core (more Democrat teachers are positive than Republican, duh!). 56% say it is positive that there are unified standards in the U.S. BUT. Only 1% say it focuses on individual needs! Is this sacrificing the individual for the whole? Only 2% say it improves learning, improves communication, improves teaching, covers the basics, or holds teachers, districts and schools accountable. Only 3% ...say it improves reading and writing, in depth learning and positive change. Common Core has been bankrolled by financiers like Bill Gates ($150 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) in collaboration with UNESCO to develop a "master curriculum." It's not nationalism run amuck, it's globalism on steroids, with the end goal some sort of squishy morality on "fairness," "sustainability," and "peace."

http://www.gallup.com/poll/178892/teachers-offer-split-decision-common-core.aspx

The U.S. dropped its membership in UNESCO under Reagan, but GW Bush reinstated it in 2002. UNESCO had a plan called International Baccalaureate (IB) long before Obama had his eye on the WH, although many on the right want to blame Obama. When Common Core was imposed, many U.S. schools were already IB schools and didn't have to change much because they are so similar. IB emphasized socialist morals and goals. Academic rigor was replaced with fuzzy societal goals like redistribution of wealth, downplaying patriotism and nationalism, and stronger direction by the federal government.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/12/21/15ib.h32.html?

Hillary Clinton being absolutely clear about her socialist plans

1) Hillary, what she believes: “Don’t let anybody tell you that, uh, you know, it’s corporations and businesses that create jobs. You know that old theory, trickle-down economics. That has been tried, that has failed. It has failed rather spectacularly.”

2) Hillary, a few days later after her handlers realized it was toxic:  “Let me be absolutely clear about what I’ve been saying for a couple of decades: Our economy grows when businesses and entrepreneurs create good-paying jobs here in an America where workers and families are empowered to build from the bottom up and the middle out—not when we hand out tax breaks for corporations that outsource jobs or stash their profits overseas.”

U.S. corporations have the highest tax rate in the world.  Even if #1 translated to #2, it would be a lie. When politicians say, "let me be absolutely clear" be ready for more lies.

in #2 she sounds a lot like Van Jones six years ago before he was outed and fired who sounds a lot like the old 19th century Marxism.

#1 will be a good campaign sound bite for the Republican candidate (Walker, Jindal, etc.), and I hope they aren’t too timid to use it.  Such pansies.

The Democrats are abusing blacks

http://RebelPundit.com Chicago activists Paul McKinley, Mark Carter, Joseph Watkins and Harold “Noonie” Ward recently went on the record with RebelPundit to deliver a message to black communities across the country.

Democrat leadership gobbles up the dollars and starves the people out.

This Democrat says she’s not wealthy

Huffington Post on Elizabeth Warren in 2012: $700,000 from Harvard, book royalties, consulting fees, $5 million house, and mutual funds and stocks worth $8 million. But she actually told Congress that she wasn't wealthy. Of course, she also told everyone she was an American Indian.

Quarantines are for less important people

Kaci Hickox, the nurse and epidemiologist who was quarantined in New Jersey after recently returning to the U.S. with a fever after treating Ebola patients in Africa, actually works for the CDC, whose standards are lower than New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and the Pentagon, and probably your state. She thinks her rights have been violated because she had to live in a tent for 3 days (ask some American soldiers about that). Anyone want to bet which party she belongs to? Right.  She’s a Democrat.  I don't know who or what HLN is, but its poll said 91% want health care workers quarantined upon reentry.

But quarantines are OK for other people. "Hickox’s travels as a nurse took her to Myanmar, Cambodia, and Nigeria and convinced her of the importance of quarantines and “health surveillance,” according to the University of Texas-Arlington newsmagazine. “I realize that we need to find better ways to improve health surveillance and outbreak response in settings with poor resources,” Hickox said. “My training in the EIS with the CDC will allow me to learn the gold standard of this kind of work.”

Doctors without Borders with whom she worked for a year has had 9 deaths and 16 illnesses from Ebola.

http://www.ijreview.com/2014/10/193424-nurse-connected-to-cdc/

http://gotnews.com/ebola-nurse-complaining-quarantine-left-wing-democrat-cdc-employee/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/ebola-quarantine-issue-proves-divisive/2014/10/27/

Mauritania—where slavery is alive, unwell, and open (but illegal)

Where there is still slavery--Mauritania. And many don't even realize they are slaves. Something like 10-20% of the population with lighter skinned Arabs enslaving dark skinned Africans. A tradition of centuries.  This is a fascinating video made by CNN, at great risk  Stay with it (it isn’t long) for the interview with the Arab slave owner who became an abolitionist.  http://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2012/03/world/mauritania.slaverys.last.stronghold/index.html

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt carried a gun due to death threats

Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt has lunch with students at the Ohio State University on November 13, 1959.

Notice the purse under her arm in the first photo? Did you know, in her later years, Eleanor Roosevelt was a "pistol packing" liberal? Pictured in the second photo (discovered at the FDR Library) is her pistol permit. Former First Ladies did not have Secret Service protection until 1964 and Eleanor had numerous death threats against her and a bounty for her head by the KKK for her outspoken support of civil rights throughout the 1950s. It is said that she always carried a gun in her purse when she traveled. Tom Betti spoke with tour guides at great length at her home in Hyde Park, New York and they insist she target practiced and was ready to defend herself! She was never afraid of anyone, but prepared to defend friends, herself, and what she believed in. One thing is clear from her ID photo, don't mess with Eleanor!

Courtesy of Columbus Landmarks Foundation

https://www.facebook.com/ColumbusLandmarksFoundation

When we finally have that “conversation” about race. . . let’s tell the whole story

I was probably in my 30s or 40s before I found out that before the Civil War freed blacks in the U.S. owned slaves. I don't recall that was covered in American history in high school or college. But it wasn't until Prof. Henry Gates (Obama's friend in Boston and PBS host) wrote about it, that I learned that free blacks owned slaves at a much higher rate than whites, something like 25% compared to about 1.5%. Some of course, bought their wives and children after they bought their own freedom, although those were still counted as slaves in the census.  But many owned large numbers and nice plantations that needed slave labor. Also, Gates reported that only a very small number of African slaves ever came to colonies that became the U.S.--most of the 10+ million went to South America or the Caribbean where they died in huge numbers and had to be replaced. Free American blacks were voting before the Revolution and most likely helped ratify the amendments and send the men to Congress. There were very wealthy free blacks who owned a lot of property as well as small businessmen and craftsmen of all manner of the arts in the South.

To sustain their economic activities, free people of color acquired increasing numbers of slaves. Urban artisans--carpenters, bricklayers, stonemasons, mechanics-purchased black apprentices, hod carriers, and helpers; merchants and business people bought haulers, carters, and stock boys; plantation owners purchased house servants, cooks, mechanics, and field hands. By 1830, approximately 1,556 free black masters in the Deep South owned a total of 7, 188 slaves. Representing about 42 percent of the black owners in the South, they owned 60 percent of the black-owned slaves. In the Charleston District, 407 owners held a total of 2, 195 slaves. In New Orleans, there were 753 free black owners, including 25 who owned at least 10 bondsmen and women and another 1 16 who owned between 5 and 9 slaves. Although some of these slaveholders owned members of their own families, or loved ones, unable to free them by law, in 8 rural Louisiana sugar and cotton parishes, 43 Creoles of color ( 1.2 percent of the black slaveholders in the South) owned a total of 1,327 blacks, or lout of 9 slaves owned by blacks. In St. John the Baptist Parish, 3 plantation owners held 139 blacks in bondage-an average of 46 slaves each; in Pointe Coupee Parish, 8 planters held 297 slaves, an average of 37 slaves each. In 1830, approximately lout of 4 free black families in the region was a slaveholder.  “Prosperous Blacks in the South, 1790-1880”

http://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/f/L_Schweninger_Prosperous_1990.pdf

More recently, the Cherokee nation has expelled descendants of their black slaves which since the Civil War had been considered part of the nation according to a treaty they had with the U.S.  Before being forcibly removed to Oklahoma, over 7% of the Cherokees owned slaves--more than the whites in the same states and they took their slaves with them on the “trail of tears.” I suspect that the action had much more to do with money than racial animosity--there was a huge government settlement to be divided up a few years ago. Imagine thinking your family was Cherokee since 1866, and then you get exiled from the tribe over a few billion dollars.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/the-cherokees-one-nation-divisible-judge-will-decide-if-black-members-can-be-expelled/2014/05/06/8690e56c-d55e-11e3-aae8-c2d44bd79778_story.html

What this really shows is that slavery, which exists in larger numbers today than in the 18th century, is a human problem, not a white American problem.  Africans enslaved and sold people of other tribes, and the Arab Muslims were the middlemen to get them to the coast for the Europeans to sell.  Cherokees and other Indians had slaves long before the Europeans stepped ashore, and saw no problem in buying and selling black Africans.

http://ballandalus.wordpress.com/2013/11/24/trans-saharan-slave-trade-and-racism-in-the-arab-world/

http://randomthoughtsonhistory.blogspot.com/2014/04/just-finished-reading-black-property.html/

Lutheran Bible Translators—Ebola

“Lives and well-being of Sierra Leonean and Liberian coworkers are threatened because of the Ebola Epidemic in West Africa – spreading rapidly and claiming the lives of thousands. We have 28 coworkers in Sierra Leone and over 40 in Liberia. They have years of translation and teaching experience and encourage others to use and understand the Scriptures. The loss of even one worker would be a devastating blow to the mission of God’s Word being accessible in the heart language. Because of the Ebola Epidemic, coworkers are having to find new ways to accomplish their work while keeping themselves and their families safe.”

Powdered caffeine is dangerous

Senator Sherrod Brown wants the FDA to regulate powered caffeine.

“Caffeine is an accepted part of our culture – you would be hard pressed to find someone who hasn’t enjoyed a cup of coffee or tea, or a can of soda or an energy drink to concentrate or gain energy. Powdered pure caffeine, however, is not well understood and its high concentration makes it dangerous.

Even a small amount of powdered caffeine can kill.

According to the FDA, one teaspoon of powered caffeine is like drinking 25 cups of coffee all at once. That is more than six times the recommended daily amount of caffeine for an adult. Teenagers – who may be tempted to use powdered caffeine to stay awake in class or to improve their sports performance – are recommended to have no more caffeine than what you would find in a single cup of coffee.
To complicate matters, the recommended serving size of powdered caffeine is one-sixteenth of a teaspoon. That amount is so small that it’s nearly impossible to estimate without a food scale and a special miniature measuring spoon. Most kitchens don’t have those tools, putting powdered caffeine users at risk for fatal measuring errors.

Too much caffeine can cause rapid or erratic heartbeat, seizures, and even death but, despite these risks, powdered caffeine can be purchased online or in stores with little warning or guidance. Kids and teenagers can even purchase this deadly stimulant in bulk online with the click of a button and no parental supervision. “

(Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio newsletter)

http://www.dispatch.com/content/blogs/the-daily-briefing/2014/10/102714-powdered-caffeine.html

Herman Cain looks at the “good works” for blacks since Obama took office

“If Michelle Nunn wins that means Democrats keep control of the Senate and we can keep on doing some good works.” Barack Obama

Let’s look at the numbers (in all cases giving you the most recent numbers I could get):

• The median income for blacks in 2013 was $34,598. It was $35,387 in 2009.
• In 2013 the number of blacks living under the poverty line -- roughly $12,000 for an individual – rose to more than 11 million. In all, 27.2 percent of blacks were living in poverty in 2013. In 2009, roughly 9.9 million blacks (25.8 of all blacks) lived below the poverty level.
• Non-Hispanic blacks accounted for 37.4 percent of the total federal and state prison population in 2013. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, blacks are 13.2 percent of the U.S. population.
• 43 percent of blacks owned their own home in 2013. The rate was 46.1 percent in the first quarter of 2009.
• Black students had a high school graduation rate of 69 percent in 2011-12. The rate was 66.1 percent in 2009-10.
• From 2009 to 2011, the number of black workers earning only the minimum wage swelled by 16.6 percent, while the same number for whites rose by only 5.2 percent.

http://www.caintv.com/black-stats-obama-doesnt-want

Walnuts or Almonds for brain food—I eat both

Walnuts

Adding walnuts to your diet may help reverse some forms of age-related brain deterioration, according to a study published in the August 2012 issue of the "Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry." In the laboratory animal study, diets containing 6 percent walnuts significantly reduced degenerative protein deposits in the brain and promoted the brain's natural waste removal processes. Existing protein deposits were removed by the walnut-supplemented diets, with greatest effects noted in an area of the brain responsible for cognitive function and memory retention. Researchers also noted that walnuts boosted the brain's normal antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities.

Almonds

Almonds improved memory and lowered cholesterol levels in an animal study published in the June 2010 issue of the "Indian Journal of Pharmacology." Doses of 150 milligrams per kilogram body weight of almonds for 14 days improved learning and memory and reversed a form of drug-induced amnesia. Almonds also caused a decrease in levels of an enzyme that breaks down acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter that increases attention and awareness. Low levels of acetylcholine can lead to protein plaque formation and dementia. Researchers concluded that almonds may offer benefits for restoring memory and cognitive function in Alzheimer's patients.

http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/kind-nuts-good-brain-7718.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/06/healthy-nuts-health-benefits-cashews-walnuts-peanuts-almonds_n_3187731.html

https://memory-brain-function.knoji.com/brain-foods-to-increase-brain-power-nuts-and-seeds-that-improve-your-memory-and-brain-function/

Marc’s on Henderson Road (Columbus) always has the best prices on walnuts, about $2 cheaper than other stores, but they have been going up.  Yesterday I paid $6.99/lb for whole walnuts which is about $2 higher than a year or two ago.

The tragedy in Marysville

The school shooting Wednesday near Seattle, Washington  is looking less like a school shooting and more like a teen love triangle with the school just a convenient place to get them all in one place. So sad. The shooter and male victims were friends, cousins and members of the same Native American group. The name of the female killed hasn’t been released.  Pray for the families.
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/marysville-school-shooting/marysville-shooting-families-victims-grieve-bedsides-n233806

Two male victims, who were identified Saturday as Nate Hatch, 14, and Andrew Fryberg, 15, are being treated at Harborview Medical Center Seattle. Hatch's grandfather said the boys are cousins of the shooter, Jaylen Ray Fryberg, a freshman football player at Marysville Pilchuck High School — the chaotic scene of Friday morning's violence. “They’re just three complete buddies, and they couldn't be closer than three brothers,” Don Hatch told TODAY, referring to the gunman, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and the two injured boys, who remain in intensive care.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/25/cafeteria-worker-washington-shooting_n_6046812.html

Fryberg's Twitter feed suggested he was struggling with an unidentified problem. On Wednesday, a posting read: "It won't last ... It'll never last." On Monday, another said: "I should have listened. ... You were right ... The whole time you were right."
Marysville-Pilchuck High School has a number of students from the Tulalip Indian tribes.

Update: Father of shooter Jaylen was sentenced to 2 years for illegally purchasing guns.  http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2016/01/23/tulalip-school-shooter-father-gets-two-years-prison-163164

How many non-citizens are voting? We might have Obamacare because of them!

Study estimates that "6.4% of non-citizens voted in 2008 and 2.2% of non-citizens voted in 2010." 14% of non-citizens are registered to vote, whether or not they actually do is another matter (It’s a crime, by the way). This could conceivably have changed the make up of the Senate in 2010.  Plus, many of those illegals voting actually have fake documents, which throws in question an ID to vote, doesn’t it?

The Monkey Cage blog at the Washington Post, a “data journalism” hub a la Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight that prioritizes insights gleaned from number-crunching above left/right argumentation. In fact, the conclusion to the post isn’t that the study’s results necessarily cast a pall over the integrity of some U.S. elections and even the legitimacy of ObamaCare’s passage.

Democrats claim there isn’t massive fraud in our elections, but how much is enough to poison the results, or people’s respect for our system.  Just the school board outcome?  How about the bond issue for the schools?  Or maybe the city council? State legislature? How do you want to steal YOUR vote? Most of this fraud favors Democrats?  If you are a Democrat are you good with that? Are you OK with a win of say, 312, for your guy if there’s a heavy immigrant turn out? And don’t bring up Florida in 2000!  It was insulting to blacks, registered voters, that they couldn’t figure out a ballot, and Democrats were SO SURE of their power in that polling district they needed hanging chads to determine “intention.”

Our data comes from the Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES). Its large number of observations (32,800 in 2008 and 55,400 in 2010) provide sufficient samples of the non-immigrant sub-population, with 339 non-citizen respondents in 2008 and 489 in 2010. For the 2008 CCES, we also attempted to match respondents to voter files so that we could verify whether they actually voted.

How many non-citizens participate in U.S. elections? More than 14 percent of non-citizens in both the 2008 and 2010 samples indicated that they were registered to vote. Furthermore, some of these non-citizens voted. Our best guess, based upon extrapolations from the portion of the sample with a verified vote, is that 6.4 percent of non-citizens voted in 2008 and 2.2 percent of non-citizens voted in 2010.

Because non-citizens tended to favor Democrats (Obama won more than 80 percent of the votes of non-citizens in the 2008 CCES sample), we find that this participation was large enough to plausibly account for Democratic victories in a few close elections. Non-citizen votes could have given Senate Democrats the pivotal 60th vote needed to overcome filibusters in order to pass health-care reform and other Obama administration priorities in the 111th Congress. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) won election in 2008 with a victory margin of 312 votes. Votes cast by just 0.65 percent of Minnesota non-citizens could account for this margin. It is also possible that non-citizen votes were responsible for Obama’s 2008 victory in North Carolina. Obama won the state by 14,177 votes, so a turnout by 5.1 percent of North Carolina’s adult non-citizens would have provided this victory margin.

Franken winning a Minnesota seat illegally is a different ballgame. He was the 60th vote for ObamaCare. Replace him in the Senate with Norm Coleman and the law probably never passes.

http://hotair.com/archives/2014/10/24/study-non-citizens-are-voting-in-federal-elections-and-probably-tipped-at-least-one-senate-race-to-democrats/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2014/10/24/could-non-citizens-decide-the-november-election/

http://projects.iq.harvard.edu/cces/home

Children who are poor

“Children living in single female-headed families are especially prone to poverty. In 2013 a child living in a single female-headed family was nearly five times more likely to be poor than a child living in a married-couple family. In 2013, among all children living in single female-headed families, 45.8% were poor. In contrast, among children living in married-couple families, 9.5% were poor.

The increased share of children who live in single female-headed families has contributed to the high overall child poverty rate. In 2013, one quarter (25.0%) of children were living in single female-headed families, more than double the share who lived in such families
when the overall child poverty rate was at a historical low (1969). Among all poor children, nearly six in ten (58.7%) were living in single female-headed families in 2013.

In 2013, 38.0% of black children were poor (4.2 million), compared to 30.0% of Hispanic children (5.3 million) and 10.1% of non-Hispanic white children (3.8 million).  Among children living in single female-headed families, more than half of black children (54.0%) and Hispanic children (52.3%) were poor; in contrast, one-third of non-Hispanic white children (33.6%) were poor.

The poverty rate among Hispanic children who live in married-couple families (19.9%) was above that of black children (16.8%), and four times that of non-Hispanic white children (4.9%) who live in  such  families.  Contributing to the high rate of overall black child poverty is the large share of black children who live in single female-headed families (54.0%) compared to Hispanic children (30.1%) or non-Hispanic white children (15.7%).”

Poverty in the United States

Obamacare has raised non-group premiums in most states

“We’ll lower premiums by up to $2,500 for a typical family per year. . . . We’ll do it by the end of my first term as president of the United States” Barack Obama, a campaign promise made many times.

A new study from the well-respected and non-partisan National Bureau of Economic Research (and published by Brookings Institution), overcomes the limitations of these prior studies [projections] by examining what happened to premiums in the entire non-group market. The bottom line? In 2014, premiums in the non-group market grew by 24.4% compared to what they would have been without Obamacare.  Of equal importance, this careful state-by-state assessment showed that premiums rose in all but 6 states (including Washington DC).

http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2014/10/23/now-there-can-be-no-doubt-obamacare-will-increase-non-group-premiums-in-nearly-all-states/

Do women earn less than men? No. Sometimes they earn more

Income gap? Democrats need to update, but won't--they need the women's vote. Census data from 2008--6 years ago--show that single, childless women in their 20s now [then] earn 8 percent more on average than their male counterparts in metropolitan areas. In some metropolitan areas such as Atlanta and LA they might earn as much as 12-20% more. When all variables are taken into consideration--age, marital status, career choice, location, education--many women do better than men. This also means well educated, successful women are probably marrying the same type of man, and living in households that will contribute to an even larger gap, because the key for women is marriage and education, whatever your color or job.

Between 2006 and 2008, 32.7% of women between 25 and 34 had a bachelor's degree or higher, compared with 25.8% of men, according to the Census.

Bob Trube on staying intellectually fit

1. Work out with somebody else. What I have in mind here is that people decline mentally as well as physically when they are isolated. Pursuing some mentally engaging activity with others — whether a book group, a painting group, a choral group (all pursuits of mine!), or some other interest group that involves people and conversation — all that can help keep us mentally fit.

2. Healthy diet is important for our minds as well. A little “mind candy” is probably something all of us indulge in. A steady diet of “mind candy” might not be so helpful. A balanced intellectual diet might mean not getting all our mental stimulation from one source, like the television, or graphic novels. Mixing that up with books, discussions with friends, and different perspectives are all important. I would also suggest not being a “junkie” in any one area–particularly a news junkie! That seems to me to be a prescription for depression.

3. Are you developing your “core strength”? What I take this to mean is cultivating the core convictions and practices around life’s most basic issues, whatever those might be for you. For me as a Christian, this involves things like prayer, reading of scripture, self-examination, and the regular practice of gratitude. “Core strength” seems to me critical to navigating the challenges of getting older and those who haven’t addressed this sometimes spend their later years very badly and unhappily.

4. Attending to our mental “cardio” health seems vital as well. We can experience a “hardening” of our thought life when we nurse bitterness, anger, unforgiveness, or resentment. Similarly, I’ve watched people develop skewed views of reality where they worry themselves about conspiracies, rivalries, or killer bugs on every surface. All this impinges on how we think and hear the ideas of others. Mental “cardio” involves letting go of anger and bitterness, and, at least for me, trusting that I will live as long as God wants me to and realizing that worry will probably only shorten my life, not lengthen it.

5. Mental flexibility is another quality that sometimes seems to deteriorate with age. It is easy to begin to think in ruts. After all, it took us six decades to get to where we are, why change now? One thing I try to do is replay those mental tapes from when I was in my 20s that said, “I never want to become an old ‘stick in the mud'”! All of us knew people like that. The question is, are we becoming like that? Some of this is trying new things–for me this has been in the area of art. I still don’t think I have much artistic talent, but drawing makes me see things differently, and that is good. Do you just read the writers who agree with you or get all your news from one news outlet with a particular perspective? While disagreement can be uncomfortable, it also enlarges my view of the world and at very least helps me see why someone could see things so differently than I.

Bob blogs at Bob on Books

Walking and Weight Watchers eliminates 200 lbs and her diabetes

Airport employee sits for 10 years and reaches 370 lb. Starts walking the halls of the airport--loses 200 lb. and her diabetes. Plus she was an overweight child.

 http://www.kcci.com/news/she-walked-off-more-than-200-pounds-at-the-airport/29295568

God’s plan for the human race

Canadian work-place violence

To quote George W. Bush, “a thumpin’”

"Democrats this year—what a rhetorical, emotional and policy disaster. In ’08 they were on fire with hope, in ’12 they were keep the faith, stay the course. This year they are surly. They are unloving and unlovable. It’s race and gender politics, it’s wheelchairs, it’s endless defensiveness about voting for or with the president. Republicans may have failed to unite, but the Democrats divide."  Peggy Noonan http://online.wsj.com/articles/can-obama-find-thumpin-to-say-1414106272

The history of beer

I have never tasted beer. Not once. The smell puts me off. But yesterday our Conestoga (Ohio history) group attended a fascinating lecture on the history of beer in the world, in the U.S., in Ohio and Columbus, and the growth of craft beers. I learned why you should never drink beer out of a bottle and why you want to have as much foam as possible when you pour it into a glass. Our instructor at the Winking Lizard was Richard Seemueller, lifelong beer enthusiast. Retired brewer of 38 years turned beer educator, he's an excellent host, presenter and author. He is a "beer ambassador" for the Master Brewers Association of the Americas. We also learned a little about the interesting architecture of brewery sites--many in Columbus which have been converted to other uses.

Now about drinking from a glass, and how to pour it into the glass. He explained that the mouth can sense 4 tastes (sweet, sour, bitter, salty), but the nose can pick up hundreds (it actually can detect many thousands, but there aren't that many in a beer) and so you loose much of the beer experience if you don't have it in a glass. We did that experiment with gum drops and pinching our noses closed while eating them. No flavor. And the reason you want to pour it to encourage the foam is to release the gas (carbon dioxide and/or nitrogen). He poured it two different ways, then inserted a folded paper towel in each glass to simulate eating something after the beer was in the stomach. When more gas has been expelled before swallowing, there is less bloat in the stomach with food.

http://www.mbaa.com/districts/midwest/About/Pages/District-Cincinnati-Profile---Rick-Seemueller.aspx

WMD threat rewritten by MSM

“The presence of a large former Iraqi chemical weapons production plant in territory seized by the Islamic State has compounded those fears, although officials and chemical weapons experts say the 2,500 degraded rockets filled with nerve agents that remain there are unlikely to be fit for use. Weapons inspectors sealed them off with concrete in a bunker more than 20 years ago.” Washington Post, Oct. 23, 2014

Since sealing them off didn’t work, I would guess they could still be in pretty good condition.  Remember?  There weren’t any?

Cute t-shirt

Or, the double whammy.

 

Girl Scouts and Planned Parenthood

Abby Johnson writes: “I worked at Planned Parenthood for 8 years. I personally saw the connections between the Girl Scouts of America and Planned Parenthood.

You may be in a place where the troop says, "But our local troop doesn't partner with Planned Parenthood." Fantastic. But here's what you need to know. If a Girl Scout troop sells cookies (they all do), if they buy uniforms (they all do), if they buy badges (they all do), and if that local troop pays national due...s (they all do), then they are supporting Planned Parenthood.

Now, you may be in a church that says that it's fine to partner with Girl Scouts. You may be in a diocese that says it's perfectly fine (like mine). But IT IS NOT. It is never okay to cooperate with evil...especially within the confines of our CHURCHES!!

These are our kids! They are more valuable than any Girl Scout troop they could participate in! It's time to take a stand and teach our kids the value of standing for moral absolutes. And abortion is ABSOLUTELY wrong. Planned Parenthood is ABSOLUTELY wrong.

I just found out that my daughter's Catholic school is about to start a Girl Scout troop. (My daughter is in American Heritage Girls). You better believe that I'm not going to be silent about this. Take a stand against abortion. Take a stand against Girl Scouts.

For more information about these connections, please visit:
www.mygirlscoutcouncil.com
www.girlscoutswhynot.com
www.speaknowgirlscouts.com

Crescendo—a film

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CafJJNETvqM

Don’t blame the dryer

Obama and the mid-terms, by Krauthammer

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: “ Look, this is a guy who six years ago had a worship service at a Denver stadium, being cheered by people while he was behind Greek columns, a few weeks earlier, he had been the hero of 200,000 Germans in Berlin. I still don't understand what that speech was about. Here was a man -- I mean, as Rich Lowry said earlier tonight, he was a citizen of the world, the most interesting, most sought after political rock star on the planet. And now he's got to hide under his desk until November. This is a total humiliation for him and every once in a while he can't take it so it pops out. This is his way of saying, I transcend the party, I'm bigger than the party, I still am, and I'm still here. I mean he's not going to go out and campaign in these states, obviously, but this is hard for him to take so I would extend a little bit of sympathy for the man. He's under stress.”

Hide under his desk?  Hardly.  He’s been attending all kinds of fund raisers. In fact, when he called 2 off because of Ebola, that was news for days. And he’s back stabbed those running from him by claiming that although he’s not on the ballot his policies are and the incumbents voted with him 99% of the time.  That’s not stress, that’s rude.

And in a black studies program

Not just changing a grade, but the classes didn’t even exist!

“More than 3,000 students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill received credit for fake classes over an 18-year period as part of a program that allowed many of them to remain eligible to play sports, according to a report released on Wednesday. . . Various personnel at the school were aware of red flags, yet did not ask questions, the report said. “  And in 18 years, no one ever spoke up?  The power of sports.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/sports/wp/2014/10/22/wainstein-probe-implicates-over-3000-students-in-university-of-north-carolina-academic-scandal/

It was originally reported in November 2012.  I wonder why we’re just now seeing it front page?

Need, greed and compassion

"Today, wanting someone else's money is called 'need,' wanting to keep your own money is called 'greed,' and 'compassion' is when politicians arrange the transfer." -- Joe Sobran

Doing the right thing is expensive, guest blogger Michael Smith

My wife and I bought our perfect house in South Carolina in 2007. Acre lot, backed up to a private golf course, 4000 sq.ft., 3 car garage. In 2008 the market crashed. In 2009, we moved when I accepted a much better job.

We put the house on the market and for two years it sat empty as we tried to sell it. We finally leased it but the lease market was saturated due to so many unsold houses on the market, so the monthly lease payment we received only covered 60% of the mortgage payments. Two years ago we lost our homestead exemption and our property taxes went from $1900 a year to $9200 per year and our insurance doubled from $1400 to $2800 a year.

We kept hoping that the market would rebound but it never has - but we never missed a mortgage payment. In 7 years, we were never even late.

This Friday, I close on the house - finally it is sold. It was the second offer that we received on the house in 5 years.

It sold for $120,000 less than we paid for it, so we lost every dime of equity we had in it. The selling price was less than what was left on the mortgage, so I had to make up $35000 in deficit to pay off the mortgage and with all the fees and prorated taxes and such, to sell my house cost me right at $67,000 out of pocket this week.

And yet I personally know of people who just walked away from houses in similar situations. Of course, they took a huge hit on their credit rating but they don't really seem to care, nor has it visibly affected their lifestyles.

I guess I may just be stupid but I was taught to live up to my commitments. We made a bad decision in 2007 and that decision cost us nearly $200,000 in actual cash - but it was our decision.

We decided to take the painful loss now because I can see no signs that the economy will recover any time soon because of the structural damage that has been done in the past 6 years. It was time to move on before things get worse.

So this is my view of what the President's people call a "recovery".

There is no recovery.

I thank God that we have been blessed with the financial means to survive Obama's "stewardship" of the economy and I have a special empathy for those who are struggling with the same decisions or simply cannot free themselves due to their financial situation.

We are witnessing the worst performance of a post recession economy in our history. In spite of an energy revolution, the US economy can't seem to get up off the mat. Economic policies and regulations matter. Presidents may not control the economy but they at least have the responsibility not to screw them up.

This economy is screwed up - normal capitalistic/free market economies will naturally generate growth on their own but Obama and his merry band of progodytes have ours tied down as sure as the Lilliputians did with Gulliver

Michael Smith lives in Utah and blogs at Rio Norte Line and on Facebook, where this post resides.

The churchless Nowa Huta can be an inspiration for American Christians—The Lord’s Ark

The Communists decided to build a “workers’ paradise in Poland and it would be without a church or cathedral or cross.  The Polish people under the thumb of an oppressive government thought otherwise.

“Nowa Huta was built in the 1950s as part of a project to bring a mammoth steel mill to the outskirts of Krakow. The factory was intended in part to undercut the influence of the Catholic Church and local universities in Krakow, the longtime religious and intellectual center of Poland. In keeping with that model, Polish authorities prohibited the presence of any churches in Nowa Huta.

The rule was resisted for more than 20 years by Wojtyla and other priests from Krakow, who visited Nowa Huta regularly to celebrate Mass in muddy fields and to reach out to workers outside the gates of the steel mill. In 1957, Catholics erected a cross on the site, where they asked to build a church but were repeatedly denied permission.

Wojtyla persisted in peaceful attempts to win permits to construct a church, winning small but cumulative victories over the next two decades. In 1965, he received the go-ahead to enlarge a small makeshift chapel in Nowa Huta. Two years later, he consecrated the construction site. The church took another 10 years to build, with the Polish government putting up a long succession of bureaucratic hurdles. . .

Today [2005], Nowa Huta has deteriorated into a ghetto, with endless rows of drab five- and 10-story concrete block housing that stand as a legacy of its socialist past. Most of the people who live here are either jobless or have been left behind by Poland's capitalist revolution. One of the few centers of vibrant activity is the 28-year-old Church of Our Lady.”

The Lord’s Ark

Lessons from Nowa Huta

ISIS, Ebola, VA, IRS, NSA, ACA, ARRA, and so on

Why we don’t make a dent in the hunger problem

We never see improvement and the rolls of both poverty workers and the needy continue to grow. Hunger became "food insecurity" and poverty is an arbitrary number set by the Government that is raised every year, but “percent of poverty level” is the standard for benefits. 200% of poverty is the standard for food assistance in Ohio. To be "food insecure" means at some time during the year you changed your eating pattern to accommodate your resources.

The actual number of Americans who are “food insecure” for more than a few days is tiny, under 1% and most of those are children in unmarried households and elderly without family, but even a day counts toward the annual figure--the figure we see in the news is 14.3%.  This guarantees political fights in Congress when USDA funding comes up, government grants to academics, fodder for campaigning, and good jobs for people and agencies in the benefits distribution field. Churches, charities, non-profits and foundations also receive a portion of their annual budget from government grants. Food pantries, mostly run by churches, are involved in a complex mix of federal, state, local and non-profit resources.

62% of "food insecure" families participate in SNAP, WIC or free and reduced school meals (we used to call this school lunch, but now it is breakfast, lunch, and after school, plus summer meals).

Poverty rolls took a big jump in 2008, but haven't really come down.  A chunk of ARRA money in 2009 went to find and enroll people in the programs. It was very successful. Because of the weak economy, they remain on the rolls.

If poverty were solved tomorrow, we’d have a whole new crew of poor people—those who formerly worked in the business.

http://www.ers.usda.gov/media/1565415/err173.pdf

The Ohio Association of Foodbanks was awarded $2.18 Million Federal Navigator Grant for a 2nd year not to feed the hungry, but to enroll people in Obamacare.

The Ohio Association of Foodbanks is Ohio’s largest charitable response to hunger, representing Ohio’s 12 Feeding America foodbanks and 3,300 member charities including food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters. In SFY 2014, the association and its member foodbanks were able to acquire and distribute over 186 million pounds of food and grocery items. The association also serves as the home of The Ohio Benefit Bank and operates the state’s largest navigator program for the Affordable Care Act.

http://admin.ohiofoodbanks.org/uploads/news/Press_Statement-_Federal_Navigator_Grant_Awarded5.pdf

Free stock photos

I needed someplace to stash this amazing information.  What better place than a blog? 14 free stock websites for photos.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/238646?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pulsenews

Some require attribution, others not.

The richest man in Africa will help Liberia

Before I read the article, I figured the richest man in Africa would be Nigerian. The richest African Americans are often Nigerian Americans; look at the rolls of Harvard and Yale and you'll find Nigerians. Something in their culture pushes them to excel; also Nigeria is close to 50% Christian. American and European missionaries brought Jesus and the Protestant work ethic. Aliko Dangote himself is Muslim. That said, why can't he do anything with his lavish wealth to stop Boko Haram, a Muslim terrorist group?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/mfonobongnsehe/2014/10/20/africas-richest-man-aliko-dangote-to-support-liberia-in-fight-against-ebola/

Nigerians make up less than 1 percent of the black population in the United States, yet in 2013 nearly one-quarter of the black students at Harvard Business School were of Nigerian ancestry; over a fourth of Nigerian-Americans have a graduate or professional degree, as compared with only about 11 percent of whites. (NYT, Jan. 25, 2014)

Brittany Maynard, suicide publicity hound

“Maynard is the subject of a well-planned PR campaign orchestrated by the George Soros-funded assisted-suicide advocacy group Compassion and Choices (formerly known as the Hemlock Society). C & C’s press release applauds Maynard’s “courage to tell her story as she is dying and alert all Americans to the choice of death with dignity” as “selfless and heroic.” “

http://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2014/10/of-michael-landon-and-brittany-maynard

“Suicide has made Maynard an international celebrity. Partly, that’s because she is the perfect icon: young, pretty, newly wed, tragically dying, and transgressive for wanting to kill herself rather than face the rigors of late-stage brain cancer.”

How many people will be pushed to their death through her example?

The missing Public Health Service Corps

The U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps is an elite team of more than 6,800 full-time, well-trained, highly qualified public health professionals dedicated to delivering the nation's public health promotion and disease prevention programs and advancing public health science. Instead of sending them to Africa, Obama is sending the 101st Airborne, who are not trained in anything medical. Why? The Corps is trained and equipped to respond to public health crises and national emergencies such as natural disasters, disease outbreaks, or terrorist attacks, both here and overseas. Obama is apparently having a hissy fit because the Senate (his guys, btw) won't approve his anti-gun nominee for Surgeon General, who is the head of the Corps. Of course, there is an interim Surgeon General, Rear Admiral  Boris D. Lushniak, M.D., M.P.H. , but maybe Obama is doing this deliberately--putting our troops at risk.

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2014/03/18/democrats-lining-up-to-oppose-obamas-antigun-nominee-for-surgeon-general-n1810745

Vivek  “Murthy, who has a history of calling guns a "healthcare issue," classifying guns as a "public health threat" and of slamming the National Rifle Association, is being opposed not by just Republicans, but numerous Democrats in an election year.”

http://www.businessinsider.com/no-surgeon-general-during-ebola-in-us-2014-10

http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/about/biographies/biosg.html

http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/health/blogs/white-coat-notes/2013/11/14/obama-nominating-vivek-murthy-harvard-and-brigham-and-women-surgeon-general/eo6mit1nNtLpUxE6VrizLJ/blog.html

How low can they go?

Wendy Davis of Texas (think pink tennis shoes and abortion) isn't the first Democrat to play dirty with people's personal lives or disabilities (uses a wheelchair in a scare ad because her opponent is disabled). In 2004 both Edwards and Kerry brought up Cheney's lesbian daughter during the debates. I doubt they cared with whom she was having sex, but they hoped to smear Cheney. Really. Democrats will stoop that low.

Jesse Jackson (and a woman whose name I missed) are declaring the death of the Liberian treated at the Dallas hospital, because when he was first seen in the ER they did not recognize his symptoms.  The two nurses he infected are also minorities, Mr. Jackson.  Was Mr. Duncan a racist or was it just the hospital staff? Democrats find racism everywhere; they have it on the brain.  People aren't individuals capable of living without government help—they are all victims, at least if they are non-white.  Trillions spent on the War on Poverty and you’d think they’d be happy.

Ebola was brought to Nigeria by a Liberian on an air flight. They then responded responsibly and banned flights from West Africa.  Now they have been declared Ebola free by WHO.  But American race baiters will still rave on.

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2014/09/the-war-on-poverty-after-50-years

http://www.cnsnews.com/mrctv-blog/katherine-rodriguez/jesse-jackson-cries-racism-privilege-over-ebola-patients-treatment

http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-Texas/2014/10/13/Wendy-Davis-Holds-Press-Conference-With-Disabled-People-to-Defend-Ad

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31310-2004Oct13.html

Bigotry comes in all shapes, sizes, races, genders and public offices.

Crash diets work better than slow and steady, but they all fail

“People in the fast-dieting group were more likely to achieve their target weight loss than the slow-dieting group, but both struggled to keep the weight off over time.”

I actually think this is good news.  Quicky diets are much easy; I have no will power for the long run.

Weight-loss guidelines have long counselled that kilos shed too quickly are likelier to creep back than those lost at a slower pace.

But a new Australian study, published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, found that over the long term, fast-track and slow-track dieters were equally likely to regain most of the weight they lost.

Research led by Joseph Proietto of the University of Melbourne divided 204 obese men and women into two groups.

One group entered a weight-loss programme of 12 weeks, the other a more gradual 36 weeks.

The 12-week group were restricted to a diet of 450-800 calories per day, while the other group had their energy intake reduced by about 500 calories per day.

Those who lost 12.5 per cent or more of their bodyweight from both groups were then placed on a three-year maintenance diet.

By the end of the trial, individuals in both groups had regained some 71 per cent on average of the kilos they had shed.

"By contrast with the widely-held belief that weight lost rapidly is more quickly regained, our findings show that regain is similar after gradual or rapid weight loss," the team says.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2014/10/16/4108436.htm

There’s only one answer.  Regardless of how much you lose and how you do it, immediately go back to dieting when you’ve regained 5 lbs.  Because you definitely will gain it.

Ebola vaccine news

“The pace of human safety testing for experimental Ebola vaccines has been expedited in response to the ongoing Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 1,400 suspected and confirmed deaths from Ebola infection have been reported in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone since the outbreak was first reported in March 2014. 

“There is an urgent need for a protective Ebola vaccine, and it is important to establish that a vaccine is safe and spurs the immune system to react in a way necessary to protect against infection,” said NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. “The NIH is playing a key role in accelerating the development and testing of investigational Ebola vaccines.”

“Today we know the best way to prevent the spread of Ebola infection is through public health measures, including good infection control practices, isolation, contact tracing, quarantine, and provision of personal protective equipment,” added Dr. Fauci. “However, a vaccine will ultimately be an important tool in the prevention effort. The launch of Phase 1 Ebola vaccine studies is the first step in a long process.”

“Tried and true public health interventions, strong supportive medical care and the rapid testing of Ebola vaccines and antiviral treatments can help to reduce suffering now and in the future,” said CDC Director Thomas R. Frieden, M.D., M.P.H.

The investigational vaccine now entering Phase 1 trials was designed by Nancy J. Sullivan, Ph.D., chief of the Biodefense Research Section in NIAID’s Vaccine Research Center (VRC). She worked in collaboration with researchers at the VRC, the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, and Okairos, a Swiss-Italian biotechnology company acquired by GSK in 2013.”

Isolation and quarantine, but not restricting passports from West Africa?

http://www.niaid.nih.gov/news/newsreleases/2014/Pages/EbolaVaxCandidate.aspx

A number of research reports and grants go back to 2007. It’s not true that this disease (and others like it) were being ignored.

Danners in the tree

There used to be a lot discussion on the Danner genealogy forum about Blythe Danner (like whether she was one of ours), but if her daughter Gwyneth doesn't stop saying such strange things, the conversation will really cool. (I'm a descendant of Henry Danner).

An oldie but goodie

Brown struggled with Wilson over the gun—report in New York Times

The New York Times reports:

"The forensics tests showed Mr. Brown’s blood on the gun, as well as on the interior door panel and on Officer Wilson’s uniform. Officer Wilson told the authorities that Mr. Brown had punched and scratched him repeatedly, leaving swelling on his face and cuts on his neck."

Many witnesses have testified to the grand jury that Brown was attacking Wilson, although their accounts vary in details. I doubt that this will make any difference to the imported demonstrators. But I think Holder and Obama need to apologize for the problems they made for that community. Read the account carefully, the NYT reporters, who weren't there try to second guess Wilson's behavior after being attacked.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/18/us/ferguson-case-officer-is-said-to-cite-struggle.html?_r=0

Four low flow toilets

It was bound to happen with 4 low flow toilets in our house.  But I have successful “plunged” and we are free flowing again.  I had to buy a new plunger, as the old style don’t fit the angles.  It was a Waxman Heavy Duty Toilet Plunger.  It’s black plastic and has sort of accordion pleats.  There are models that have little containers, but this one is larger. I looked at the tag after I was finished, and happy to see not only was it made in the USA, but right here in Ohio.

Waxman Industries, Inc. markets specialty plumbing, and floor and surface protection products to retailers, primarily mass merchandisers, do-it-yourself warehouse home centers, and home improvement centers. It offers various products from plumbing repair to floorcare, and faucets to showers. Waxman Industries, Inc. also manufactures, packages, sources, and assembles plumbing products for industrial, OEM, and wholesale distribution customers. The company was incorporated in 1989 and is based in Bedford Heights, Ohio.

Everything is under control . . . of the president

I haven’t snoped Hillary’s past, but this sounds about right.

A letter to the Mayor of Houston

Dear Ms. Mayor of Houston,

You believe anyone with gender confusion or change should be allowed to share restrooms with whomever they identify to the point you want to destroy the first amendment over it. At what point in the conversion should the sharing begin?

On NPR I listened to a female to male transgendered man, at least that's how s/he identified herself--only hormone treatments, but no surgery yet--just the clothing, facial hair, muscle bulking, voice change, receding hairline, etc. Much to her shock, because s/he'd been raised a good feminist, s/he found out her brain had been changed. S/he had become interested in pornography, and even just a little skin showing on another female aroused her. S/he found her crude thoughts embarrassing, but unstoppable. S/he began losing her verbal acuity which had always been her long suit, and s/he had difficulty crying. S/he claimed she was reading more in the sciences which had never interested her before. Some points sound like a joke, but this interview was on NPR and I know we can trust the government in all things about sex.  The NPR guest doesn't have the right equipment for the urinal in the men's room yet, but sounds a bit dangerous for the ladies room. Maybe while in Houston, s/he could use your private restroom?

Norma

P.S. You may remember Chaz Bono's girlfriend (a lesbian) complained about her former lesbian lover's male behavior (and personal habits) and left her/him. The former Chastity Bono decided her attraction wasn’t because she was a lesbian, but because she was a man.

Exercise

What it takes to discourage Democratic voters

"Apparently all it takes is six years of economic torpor; the disastrous debut of the biggest new federal program in two generations; record levels of federal debt; revelations of scandals and malfeasance at the Veterans Administration, the IRS, the Secret Service, and the Justice Department; Russian revanchism on the march; a rampaging army of (literal) cutthroats gobbling up territory in the Middle East; and the feeble and patronizing government response to a modern plague." Mona Charen.

But all the polls show voters still think the Democrats care more about them. If this is caring, go love on someone else!

During the Great Depression when the economy would start to perk up, FDR would get some bloated socialist program passed, and the economy would sink again.  Ten years he did this, yet Democrats still think he is a saint because Grandpa was sent to the woods to built cabins or grandma got a ten cent raise.  Although I think the Ebola thing has been way over publicized, we see that it has lessened respect and faith in the president, who sits on his hands and worries about West African economies when our stock market got shaky just from the damage to airlines. Then he appoints a political hack to be the Ebola czar.   No one, except maybe Rachel Maddow has faith in him.

Hate speech and Houston

Gay marriage, confused restrooms and hate speech packaged ordinances such as Houston's will not be the end of it, folks. There is hate speech legislation that includes 30 forms of sexual behavior, many of which I didn't know existed such as klismaphilia and gerontosexuality, as well as pedophilia and incest. H.R.1913 - Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009.

• Apotemnophilia - sexual arousal associated with the stump(s) of an Amputee
• Asphyxophilia - sexual gratification derived from activities that involve oxygen deprivation through hanging, strangulation, or other means
• Autogynephilia - the sexual arousal of a man by his own perception of himself as a woman or dressed as a woman
• Bisexual - the capacity to feel erotic attraction toward, or to engage in sexual interaction with, both males and females.
• Coprophilia - sexual arousal associated with feces
• Exhibitionism - the act of exposing one’s genitals to an unwilling observer to obtain sexual gratification
• Fetishism/Sexual Fetishism - obtaining sexual excitement primarily or exclusively from an inanimate object or a particular part of the body
• Frotteurism - approaching an unknown woman from the rear and pressing or rubbing the penis against her buttocks
• Heterosexuality - the universal norm of sexuality with those of the opposite sex
• Homosexual/Gay/Lesbian - people who form sexual relationships primarily or exclusively with members of their own gender
• Gender Identity Disorder - a strong and persistent cross-gender identification, which is the desire to be, or the insistence that one is, or the other sex, "along with" persistent discomfort about one’s assigned sex or a sense of the inappropriateness in the gender role of that sex
• Gerontosexuality - distinct preference for sexual relationships primarily or exclusively with an elderly partner
• Incest - sex with a sibling or parent
• Kleptophilia - obtaining sexual excitement from stealing
• Klismaphilia - erotic pleasure derived from enemas
• Necrophilia - sexual arousal and/or activity with a corpse
• Partialism - A fetish in which a person is sexually attracted to a specific body part exclusive of the person
• Pedophilia - Sexual activity with a prepubescent child (generally age 13 years or younger). The individual with pedophilia must be age 16 years or older and at least 5 years older than the child. For individuals in late adolescence with pedophilia, no precise age difference is specified, and clinical judgment must be used; both the sexual maturity of the child and the age difference must be taken into account; the adult may be sexually attracted to opposite sex, same sex, or prefer either
• Prostitution - the act or practice of offering sexual stimulation or intercourse for money
• Sexual Masochism - obtaining sexual gratification by being subjected to pain or humiliation
• Sexual Sadism - the intentional infliction of pain or humiliation on another person in order to achieve sexual excitement
• Telephone Scatalogia - sexual arousal associated with making or receiving obscene phone calls
• Toucherism - characterized by a strong desire to touch the breast or genitals of an unknown woman without her consent; often occurs in conjunction with other paraphilia
• Transgenderism - an umbrella term referring to and/or covering transvestitism, drag queen/king, and transsexualism
• Transsexual - a person whose gender identity is different from his or her anatomical gender
• Transvestite - a person who is sexually stimulated or gratified by wearing the clothes of the other gender
• Transvestic Fetishism - intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors involving cross-dressing
• Urophilia - sexual arousal associated with urine
• Voyeurism - obtaining sexual arousal by observing people without their consent when they are undressed or engaged in sexual activity
• Zoophilia/Bestiality - engaging in sexual activity with animals

APA's "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders," Fourth Edition, Text Revision (Washington: American Psychiatric Association, 2000), pp. 566-582 (DSM-IV)

A plan to increase welfare by raising the minimum

The Democrats are on a roll again, lying about income, wealth and the minimum wage.  The Obama economy has only done well for the wealthiest, so of course they are demanding increase in minimum wage.  Walmart union led protests this week are saying $15, some $20 an hour. Minimum wage workers account for 4.7 percent of hourly paid workers and 1.1% of all workers and there are more women, and most are part time. Most companies will have to cut employees and when it doesn’t work, the demands will only increase.  And this is sort of an evil plan, because that means fewer teens working and learning job skills, therefore, more poorly prepared adults, and larger welfare rolls to vote Democrat. See how it works? When I worked at minimum wage I was probably not even worth that, but some employers decided I had a future and could be trained. Thank you Mayor Zickuhr, Mt. Morris Public Library and Foxbilt Feeds.

http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2013/ted_20130325.htm

http://www.bls.gov/cps/minwage2012.htm

Two-thirds of minimum-wage workers earn raises within a year—without the government’s help.

The average family income of a minimum-wage worker is $53,000 a year, less than the national average of $79,500 a year but well above the poverty level.

Sometimes it’s what you DON’T do that saves the environment

Don’t release balloons at parties and weddings and community celebrations.

Speaking of Ebola

While you've got exotic diseases on your mind, Chikungunya Virus which is spread by mosquitoes has now arrived in Florida from the Caribbean. You don't die, but it sure hurts. Also, how's this for speedy food safety investigations. Live swamp eels have been shipped to the U.S. from Asia since the 1990s for ethnic food markets, and now a study shows 27.7% of them are infected with some nasty nematodes which can transmit Gnathostomiasis. Vision loss, blindness, pain, paralysis, coma and death.  As reported in JAMA

Two female publicity hounds

There are two women whose stories are making the rounds of the internet, twitter and Facebook.  It’s hard to tell just how much they’ve generated since these stories are “shared” and passed along by multiple people, which could account for how recently I see them. But I think they are publicity hounds.

One is planning her suicide because she has a fatal illness. Famous and not so famous are pleading with her, telling her life can be good. 

The other is planning her abortion with writing a tender, loving letter to her baby who she is planning to kill because this just isn’t the right time.  I figure she’s angling for money and when the offer is high enough, she’ll take it.

I’m not giving them any publicity by providing a link, photo, or name.

Houston, we’ve got a problem

There are apparently some government officials in Houston who haven't read the Constitution and don't know the history of clerics in the Revolution, elimination of slavery, the Civil Rights movement, every war protest, and construction of every social agency from schools to hospitals. Somehow they've gotten the idea pastors can't preach morality and politics from the pulpit. That should surprise the ones preaching about climate change and income gap, which is also the topic of many (boring) sermons and church workshops.  I wish I had $5 for every sermon I heard against the Viet Nam war in the 1970s.

The mayor of Houston is a tyrant and bigot. Transgenders now think THEY are being thrown under the bus because they might not have open-to-all toilets if she backs down.

http://allenbwest.com/2014/10/christian-persecution-us-openly-gay-houston-mayor-demands-pastors-turn-sermons/

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/10/14/city-houston-demands-pastors-turn-over-sermons/

Hearty Breakfast Muffins (Carol Shaw Johnston)

• 2 carrots, shredded
• 1 zucchini, shredded
• 2 bananas, mashed
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup yogurt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries (I used low-sugar Craisins)
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger

. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Place paper muffin cups into a 12-muffin pan.

. Mix carrots, banana, zucchini,vegetable oil, yogurt, and eggs together until fully incorporated.

. Whisk flour and baking soda in a separate bowl. Mix brown sugar, oats, coconut, pecans, cherries, cinnamon,salt, and ginger into flour mixture until all ingredients are coated in flour.Stir wet ingredients into flour mixture until just combined. Scoop batter into the prepared muffin cups.

Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean and edges are slightly brown, 17 to 22 minutes. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.

What has NIH done with funding specifically for preparedness and biosurveillance?

The NIH has already been given massive amounts of money beginning with post Katrina funding to handle the situation we have now with Ebola.  Where has the money gone?

Here’s what’s covered in the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Reauthorization Act of 2013

• National Health Security Strategy
• Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response
• National Advisory Committee on Children and Disasters
• Modernization of the National Disaster Medical System
• Temporary reassignment of State and local personnel during a public health emergency
• Improving State and local public health security
• Hospital preparedness and medical surge capacity
• Enhancing situational awareness and biosurveillance
• Enhancing medical countermeasure review
• Accelerating medical countermeasure advanced research and development

“The 2013 law builds on work the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has undertaken to advance national health security. These include authorizing funding for public health and medical preparedness programs, such as the Hospital Preparedness Program and the Public Health Emergency Preparedness Cooperative Agreement. These programs build the capabilities of communities’ health care and public health systems to support people in need during and after disasters.

Thousands of hospitals and communities across the country participate in these programs, and because of this participation they now have stronger capabilities and better planning to respond to disasters. They regularly exercise and conduct drills. They are building partnerships across their communities so that if parts of the infrastructure are overwhelmed by disaster, the system can still provide care. Using these programs over the past seven years to strengthen health systems and build coalitions, states have been able to handle in a number of disasters on their own without federal responders.”

http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2013pres/03/20130313a.html

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/hr307/text

More lies about the Founders—left is working overtime

No, democracy wasn't invented by the Founding Fathers nor the indigenous peoples, who had many cultures and languages. They relied on many sources not only in Europe, but the Bible and all the way back to the Greeks and Romans. No one ever learned the nonsense of this straw man poster misinformation which first tells a lie, then reports to correct the lie. Also, we don't have a Democracy, we have a Republic. The Founders were brilliant men with flaws who knew they stood on the shoulder of giants. We have tiny shriveled gnomes today who don't think, plan or read history, whose ideas are rooted in Marxism and the divine right of kings.

Yes, the archives belong to the victors as we say in the library field, however, we are fortunate to have many original documents, although well hidden and disguised in government schools today. There was a real fascination with everything Indian if you check 19th sources. And if you go back to 16th and 17th c. sources, some Europeans were horrified by the behavior and culture they found--and obviously saw their own culture as superior (although not by our enlightened, humanist standards where we sacrifice the unborn for personal gain but not usually living children).