584 In Memory of Dad

While Dad's away at war, we plant our "victory garden." 

583 Armistice Day, November 11, 1918

My parents were small children when the First World War ended in 1918. They didn't know each other, but lived in adjoining counties in Illinois, and their one room rural schools were located just a few miles apart. Both were members of the Church of the Brethren, which had taken the word "German" out of its name just a few years earlier.

Both of them told me the same story about their memories of the end of the war. When I was young, I don't think it ever occurred to me to ask about World War I. WWII seemed the defining war of their generation, since my father was a Marine and my mother had moved with her four little children to be near his military base during the war. For my generation, kitchen clean up after meals when mothers and daughters worked together washing and drying dishes was the time to talk. I think that is when I heard the family stories passed down. Dishwashers and restaurant meals have probably created a huge generational story gap.

However, I didn't hear about WWI memories until sometime in the early 1990s. I had interviewed my father for an oral history to include in a family recipe collection for a reunion of the descendants of his parents who had died in 1983. I had interviewed my mother about her parents' personal library for two articles I wrote. Both recalled in their 80s the first Armistice Day (now called Veterans' Day) even though they were 5 and 6 years old. I imagine they listened in on adult conversations and caught the fear and dread that griped their communities. My mother's father who was 44 was registered for the draft. And although I haven't seen the record, I would assume my father's father, who was a much younger man, did too.

There were no radios or television, and newspapers would have been too slow. So the plan was to ring bells when word came to the nearest town that the armistice had been signed. The church bells would be rung; then each farmer would begin to ring the bells they used on the farm; then the next farmer a few miles further away would hear and begin ringing his bells. Both my parents had exactly the same memory of that first Armistice Day--hearing bells tolling throughout the countryside from all sides. The war was over.

582 Veterans' Day 2004

U.S. Military conflicts

2003-2004 Iraq War
2001-2002 Afghanistan (Al-Qaeda)
1999 Kosovo
1995 Bosnia
1994 Haiti
1990-1991 Persian Gulf
1965 Dominican Republic Intervention
1961-1973 Vietnam War
1950-1953 Korean War
1941-1945 World War II
1917-1918 World War I
1916-1917 Mexican Punitive Expedition (Pancho Villa)
1914 Tampico and Vera Cruz Incidents in Mexico
1900 Boxer Revolt (China)
1899-1902 Philippine Insurrection (Philippine-American War)
1898 Spanish-American War
1861-1865 American Civil War
1857-1858 Utah War
1848-1858 Third Seminole War
1846-1848 Mexican War
1841 Door Rebellion (Rhode Island)
1839 Aroostook War (Canadian lumbermen and American settlers)
1836 Texas War of Independence
1835-1842 Florida War; also known as the Second Seminole War
1831-1832 Black Hawk War
1780s-1890s Indian Wars including
1811 Battle of Tippecanoe;
1846-1868 Navajo Wars in New Mexico and Arizona;
1855-1858 Yakima Washington, Oregon, Idaho;
1866-1890 Sioux and Cheyenne Wars in the Dakotas and Montana;
1870-1886 Apache Wars in Arizona, New Mexico, and Mexico;
1872-1873 Modoc War in California;
1877 Nez Perce Wars in Idaho and Montana in 1877
1817-1819 Seminole War
1812-1815 War of 1812
1801-1805 War with the Barbary Pirates
1794 Whiskey Rebellion (Pennsylvania)
1791-1800 Quasi-war with France (Atlantic Coast and West Indies)
1786-1787 Shays Rebellion (Massachusetts)
1775-1783 Revolutionary War
1774 Lord Dunmore's War (in Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio
1771 War of the Regulators (North Carolina)
1763-1764 Pontiac's Rebellion
1754-1763 French and Indian (Seven Years War)
1760-1761 Cherokee Uprising (Carolinas)
1744-1748 King George's War
1739-1742 War of Jenkins' Ear (Georgia and Florida)
1715-1716 Yamasee War (South Carolina and Georgia)
1702-1713 Queen Anne's War (War of the Spanish Succession)
1689-1697 King William's War (War of the League of Augsburg)
1676 Bacon's Rebellion (Virginia)
1675-1676 King Philip's War

Happy 229th Birthday U.S. Marines, November 10.

581-b Betsy Stark's Good News

Imagine my surprise when I saw Betsy Stark's smiling face on the evening news reporting about the fabulous economy! Job growth. Consumer confidence way up. Stock market. Economy bustling. What a miraculous turn around in just 9 days. Isn't that incredible. There wasn't a shred of good news--worst economy in 70 years--just a few days ago. Hmmm.

581 Lawrence O'Donnell and my blog

When I checked my site meter the last several days I discovered that searches for Lawrence ODonnell (MSNBC) accounted for about half of all google searches that directed to my blog. That's odd, I thought. I mentioned him on October 23 after he'd gone bonkers over Swiftboat Vets and was screaming "Liar," but had no idea what he'd done recently. Well, apparently he's really gone off the deep end again (or, as usual?) and suggested the blue states secede. So that probably caused all the google searches, which in turn caused a ripple at my web site.

I hope someone has shown him the county maps. The counties would have to secede, not the entire state. Look at Illinois. It would appear that the Chicago suburbs went for Bush, but the St. Louis suburbs (in Illinois) went for Kerry, even thought the metropolitan counties are strongly blue. Bush won 2.51 million sq. miles with 150.9 million population, and Kerry won 511,700 sq. miles with 103.6 million people. And the red counties have all the agricultural land! What will the blue counties eat? And what movies will those of us in the red counties see? Oh dear, we've lost Hollywood. How tragic.

Do the number of hits on a blog matter? For those who sell ads, absolutely. There is an entire cottage industry of bloggers and software that count and evaluate blogs. "The current arbiter of the blogosphere as a whole is the Truth Laid Bear Ecosystem, an index of registered blogs whose evolutionary animal metaphor implies an ecological logic at work. Blogs are ranked by incoming links from other blogs registered in the Ecosystem making this a good analogy for a closed, but ever expanding, ecosystem operating in wider ecologies of the Internet. Blogs are ranked hierarchically from top predator InstaPundit described as a Higher Being down through tiers including Playful Primates, Flappy Birds, Lowly Insects all the way to Insignificant Microbes that subsist without a single incoming link to their name. Despite the animal metaphors the Ecosystem might be thought of as a Great Chain of Being as much as assertion of Linnean relationships. This is not only a description of energy flows but a catalogue of varying social status and influence in the blogosphere." Into the Blogosphere article. It is interesting to check out Bear and search the various blogs you like to read.

When I changed my site meter to not count my own visits to my site, there was a huge drop in the charts at Bear (I was already crawly scum), but there doesn't seem to be any standard for this-- whether you count yourself as a visit. But without my own visits, I get about 70 page hits a day.

580 Evaluating the blog evaluators

Today I came across “Into the Blogosphere” which calls itself the “first scholarly collection focused on blog as rhetorical artifact,” saying that blogs represent the power of regular people to use the Internet for publishing. It is hosted on the University of Minnesota Libraries website. I haven’t quite figured out how to use the site, but have noted a few inconsistencies in the plan.
Although one of the beauties of blogging (I have five) is there is no peer review, this particular site says that - - -

“The ethos of blogging is collaborative and values the sharing of ideas; bloggers are not dependent on publishers to get their words out.”

And then goes on to use a peer review process to evaluate blogging.

“Yet, as most scholars recognize, the peer-review process is important. Peer review provides a needed check and balance on information; it helps ensure the quality of research and the connection between individual research and the profession as a whole. . .”

Am I correct in thinking their “peer review” process is to provide the authors cache when promotion and tenure review comes up--intended for those write about blogs as a communication form, and not those who actually write blogs. Anyone know?

Here’s a sample sentence or two pulled out:

“In all likelihood, Weblogs will be incorporated into most major media organizations in some capacity if their popularity remains sufficiently high and user figures increase. However, a true blog revolution remains a future phenomenon at best. For the foreseeable future, Weblogs seem well positioned to continue to do what they do best: to allow a forum for open and autonomous debate about media texts in the discursive space that they provide and to function as a real-time virtual feedback loop fostering an interactive debate about the veracity of media texts.” Weblog Journalism: Between Infiltration and Integration, Jason Gallo, Northwestern University .

Notice the references to “future” --we don’t know “future” if we don’t know the "now" for the article, do we? Was this written in 2002 or 2004, January or December? Makes a difference in my interpretation. I can find dates on the comments (I assume these are the peers), but not the articles themselves.

It would be nice to know date of publication for citing purposes, rather than use the date of research (September 2003) buried in the text for this kind of material:

“Color alterations, changing the base color of a common weblog template, are present in 33.8% of the weblogs (Figure 1). Of those that used templates that had been altered for color, 57.7% (n=30) had female webloggers while 40.4% (n= 21) had male webloggers and one of unknown gender (1.9%).” Common Visual Design Elements of Weblogs, Lois Ann Scheidt and Elijah Wright, Indiana University at Bloomington

579 How to improve elections in the United States

Michael Mayo of the Sun-Sentinel (Broward Co., FL) has some suggestions for improving our elections, and except for #1, I agree with all of them. He wants to dump the Electoral College. I don't agree. I think the Electoral College may be more important today than it was in the 1700s when they didn’t want the populous states to run over the smaller states. With the right candidate, the Democrats can still win in non-metropolitan areas--Bill Clinton proved that. And he was a moderate, a conservative Christian, and a southerner.

2. Tighten registration procedures

3. Demand transparency from electronic machine manufacturers

4. Mandate voter-verified paper trails for every electronic voting system

5. Fix the absentee ballot mess.

6. Make early voting easier.

7. Smooth the Election Day rough edges. (This would vary by state.)

578 Prayer Job Jar

It's getting full. And I'm so poor about doing this consistently. Perhaps a jar on the kitchen table. I think perhaps the first prayer is that God will bring the list to mind. Today's list, in no particular order (I'll leave that to God)

Shoe, a librarian having seizures
My father in law, 91, recovering in a nursing home from small stroke
My sister in law, who takes care of him, recovering from back surgery
My daughter, grieving over the loss of her pet of 18 years
My neighbor, a recent widow, moving to a retirement facility
My good friend Nancy, off to California to greet a new grandchild
My cousin making decisions about a move
Several women struggling with separation, divorce, custody issues
My son, needing to move on after a failed marriage
The ladies I visit in the nursing home
The friend who coordinates all the people visiting the residents in nursing homes
Our pastors struggling to figure out how to serve a multi-campus congregation
Our President as he makes decisions that affect our lives
Safety and protection for our soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq

577 The jobs lie

One of the biggest lies and collective misinformation during the recent campaign were about the economy, specifically jobs. I thought I'd go crazy every time I heard the mantra about the worst economy in 70 years.

The current down cycle for jobs began in July 2000. A stimulus package was proposed but not supported by President Clinton. By the time Bush took office in January 2001, 217,000 jobs had already been lost and by the time his economic plan became law in June 2001, job loss was around 600,000. His tax cuts didn’t go into effect until August 2001.

Two examples of positive moves by business, using advances made possible by the internet.

Hand written inventory forms no longer necessary. “In the past, when the 100 sales reps of TaylorMade visited the 10,000 golf shops around the U.S., they would spend nearly two hours a day counting the titanium drivers and 9 irons left in inventory before filling out order forms by hand. That all changed in January when TaylorMade doled out handheld devices that sport bar-code readers and Internet connections. Now reps simply point the handheld at the bar code on each club to automatically tally inventory. Then they can focus on helping the retail customer boost sales. Sales-rep productivity is up 25%. And the system helped boost sales this year, allowing TaylorMade to beat rival Callaway as the world's No. 1 golf-club seller.” Business Week. http://businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_47/b3859623.htm

Multiple computer systems that can’t communicate have been replaced. “In the mid-'90s, the appliance maker Whirlpool, after expanding around the globe, was stymied by hundreds of computer systems that couldn't talk with one another. Whirlpool couldn't figure out how many products to make or to hold in inventory. Today, there's far less guesswork at the $11.8 billion company. Nearly every Whirlpool site worldwide is linked by e-business software. This has helped cut inventories from 15% of sales in 1997 to 12% today.” Business Week.
http://businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_47/b3859637.htm

But keep in mind, improved productivity means fewer jobs in one place, and more jobs somewhere else. The company that supplies the paper inventory forms for the salesmen may eventually take a hit as more firms use this system. Fewer staff in the home office are needed to process the information. Shortened sales call time may mean larger sales territories and fewer salespeople. Fewer computer support people may be needed at Whirlpool if there are fewer competing systems that need constant attention. Salespeople and software designers of the older, less effective systems, may be hitting the streets looking for work. Maybe that means fewer people going out for lunch in the business location, less demand for wait staff; maybe those computer support people will live in India instead of Indiana; maybe the improved productivity will hurt the competition and some of its people will suffer.

576 When the you-know-what hit the fan. . .

It warms my heart to read a dedication or an acknowledgement to librarians. Occasionally, a graduate student would mention my help (along with Mom, Dad, and Wife) in a PhD thesis. A romance novelist wrote a thank-you on the title page once for help in researching a feline disease, but that’s not the same as making it into the acknowledgements. A dog show researcher mentioned my help in one of his articles and donated a large sum of money to my library. One woman brought in a huge box of bakery goodies because I helped her father, a retired veterinarian, learn to use the internet. And personal thank you notes were always welcome.

But my favorite acknowledgement was from Richard Horwitz in his book Hog Ties: Pigs, Manure, and Mortality in American Culture (New York: St. Martins Press, 1998), a book based on the "other job" he held part time for fifteen years as a hired hand on a hog/grain/cattle farm in southeast Iowa.

Professor Horwitz and I had an e-mail correspondence across the corn fields and prairies about his research before the days of the web, and typing e-mail was somewhat complicated. I never actually met him in person, despite the fact we had some really important swine researchers at Ohio State.

Still, not every librarian gets her name in a book about pig poop!

575 Bridging our Culture Divide

Poor Jane Smiley. She’s been seriously hung out to dry by Liberal Larry. And he’s the better writer.

I compiled a list of ten people I know who voted Republican and gave them each a call, in which I basically laid out the real heart of the progressive philosophy in simple terms they could understand.

"RACIST BIGOT GAY-BASHING FASCIST MORON!" I screamed into the phone after dialing my first number. "BIGOT FASCIST RIGHT-WING IDIOT HATEMONGER!!!!"

"Why are you screaming at me?" Grandma asked. "This state went to Kerry anyway."

"NO THANKS TO YOU, YOU INTOLERANT EVANGELICAL NAZI WHORE!" I shouted.

"Jeezus!" Grandma gasped.

"STOP FORCING YOUR RELIGION ON ME YOU NAZI BIGOT MORON!" I demanded, and hung up the phone. Jesus indeed!

And so forth, as he outlines how liberals will bring conservatives back into the fold, to bridge the gap, so to speak.

574 Torturing iguanas

John Leo apparently left the Democratic Party before I did, but his reasons sound very familiar. The party left him.

"At a dinner party in New York a month ago, a dread moment arrived: Someone asked me to tell the whole table why I was going to vote for President Bush, which is deeply eccentric behavior in these parts. My fellow diners listened with the same polite detachment they would have shown if I were explaining that my hobby is torturing iguanas."

The party left him he said for its coercion, intolerance, and contempt for dissenters in the party and total distain for the values and culture of people living outside the major metropolitan areas of the east and west coast. Works for me, although he has more specific reminders at his Townhall column.

573 Let's Play Dress-ups

Remember when our mothers kept a box of dresses, old jewelry and worn out high heels so little girls could play dress-ups? I'm thinking churches need to have a "dress-up" day for adult women.

Today I was wearing a 10 year old blazer which was maybe $29 when new, a 4 year old white cable knit sweater bought on sale, and a skirt I bought for $10 last spring at Meijer's after winter sale. That's the good news. The bad news is, I was one of the best dressed women at church, and it was communion Sunday. They aren't alone. The only men I saw who were wearing suits were over 65. But I'm only addressing women here.

Please don't remind me that God doesn't care what we wear to worship. That's pretty obvious considering that Christianity is a world wide religion and 2000 years old. God has seen every imaginable style, fabric, adornment and head dress that can adorn a human body. My grandmothers both wore prayer bonnets. But that excuse has the faint ring of "I can worship God on the golf course just as easily as in a church." We've become so sloppy, so careless in our appearance, so casual, that I think we need a kick in the pants to jump start our pride, which certainly wouldn't be among the sins we confess at the altar these days.

I have never seen a woman who looked more attractive, graceful or feminine in pants than in a dress or business suit. Nope. Not even a $500 wool pants suit looks better than a $50 rayon dress. Especially women over 40. Doesn't happen. We have too many bulges, bumps and dietary indiscretions revealed in pants. Either our legs look like two sausages fighting for space in a tight package, or toothpicks flopping around in a round box. Perhaps a woman in snazzy slacks and layered sweater or dress jeans and jacket looks more stylish--if she were headed for a sorority meeting, the golf course, or a day at the mall--but she doesn't look like she stood in front of a mirror and said, "This is the day the Lord has made, let us be glad and rejoice in it."

572 Amazing Dog Story

When I was the Veterinary Medicine Librarian at Ohio State, I was privileged to hear some pretty amazing things about animals and about the people who care for them. One of the women I've added to my blogroll, Florida Cracker, tells the story of a German Shepherd, Lily, and her rescue from a life of pain and certain death, and her inclusion into a loving family. If you move forward from the Oct. 22, you'll see some photos.

571 Where now Democrats?

Watching some of the election rehashes on c-span, I'm thinking there are some who just don't get it--like the woman raging about various "irregularities" like long lines, shortage of machines, requests for ID, provisional ballots, and malfunctioning equipment. Well, here in Franklin County, that happened mostly in the suburban, affluent areas which had experienced the largest turnout, but don't let the facts confuse you. She wants to make it an issue of minority disenfranchisement--it won't fly.

But the Democrats need to address their success. Yes, the success they've had over the years with various programs to get more minorities and poor into jobs, college and office. They've been so successful (I know since I was a Democrat), there have been huge shifts in the demographics. People in this country don't permanently reside in an economic percentile. I've been 4 out of the 5 myself. Someone needs to continue to concentrate on the newest citizens, on the minorities, and on the fringe beliefs, or we really will have disenfranchisement. If the Democrats stop doing that because the numbers aren't there to get them elected to power, then none of it meant anything. And let's hope they jettison their left wing fanatics and anarchist nutsoes--they don't represent at all the majority of the Democrats, but they get into the news way too often.

In the last decade, the programs promoted by Democrats seem to encourage keeping the poor and minorities stuck where they are by never letting them break out, always remaining dependent on the gov't. Like lock step for abortion rights but not supporting abstinence programs, or fighting school choice for poor people. If Bill Clinton wants a legacy, let him look to welfare reform, which his party didn't want, but which happened on his watch. When people break out, they may change parties, unless their immediate jobs depend on party affiliation (unions, universities, civil service, etc.).

Also, there have been huge successes in the environment. Would I own a summer home on Lake Erie if Republicans had been pushing changes in pollution? Hardly. However, you can only up the ante so far before people begin to see this is never going to stop until someone brings the economy to a halt, or cigaretts become illegal to smoke anywhere.

I've read some pretty specious research that Democrats aborted their future voters (abortion rate is higher in blue counties), but I think it is more likely that they've helped their constituency to leave the party through economic and social advancement.

The panel I'm watching--at Georgetown University Public Policy Institute--consists of E.J. Dionne of Washington Post, Melinda Henneberger of Newsweek and a Republican pollster and a Democrat pollster. Ms. Henneberger can barely contain her dislike for Bush, even as she says Democrats need to be less condescending toward middle-America. Dionne, who appears to be the moderator, is doing a good job of being fair and keeping his biases to himself.

570 Miscellaneous Post Election Musing

Birdie of NYC who writes at LISNews sighed: "I know that I lost, but I feel disenfranchised, as if I don't belong here. The people have spoken, but the people. . .I just don't know who they are."
I responded: “A huge voter turn out, a very respectable showing by your candidate (more than Bill Clinton ever won by either percentage or voters), no violence, no challenges, thousands of people waiting in line for hours in the rain. Could it be you need to get to fly-over country once in awhile and out of the secluded, thin air of your city? I was fully prepared for my candidate to lose and to support the process.”

Apparently, Americans will watch entertainers, but they just don’t want to be lectured by them about how to vote. Even the young people, only one out of ten who voted. Michelle Malkin writes: “The MTV vote windfall for Democrats failed to materialize even after Herculean efforts by Ramen noodle-wielding Michael Moore, Bush-bashing Eminem, scare-mongering Cameron Diaz, fist-pumping P. Diddy and "Vote or Die!"-vamping Christina Aguilera. (Interestingly, exit polls showed that "morals" was one of the top issues among the youth vote. Go figure that one out, Paris and Leonardo.)”

Captain Ed (I think he is in MN) writes on November 3: "One aspect of this election that may have been lost in all this analysis is that we successfully held a national election in the middle of the war on terror -- and while we had a highly negative and immature discourse, no one shied away from speaking out, and we turned out in record numbers (at least it looks that way now), rather than cower under our beds. Democrat or Republican, Libertarian or Green, pat yourselves on the back. You just won a major battle against the terrorists." Captain's Quarters

569 Baseball and the Election

Blogging Babs, whom I’ve recently added to my blogroll under “Ladies First” likes both baseball and Dubya and hits a homerun with her analogy. She writes:

“The Dems rolled out the heart of their line-up, and they whiffed. Daschle, fanned. Edwards, caught looking. Kerry swings for the fences and misses. George W was on the mound and he was throwing heat. Note to Kerry, when you run, jump and throw like a girl, don't even think about charging the mound. And stop arguing with the umpire. It's embarrassing. You didn't see Pete Coors act like an amateur when he struck out.

And someone please toss a rule book to Terry McAuliffe. Better yet, whack him over the head with it. The game doesn't go into extra innings when you're behind. The fat lady has sung, and she's home rubbing her bunions.”

568 Voters who throw away their vote

A local radio news program this morning reported that 93,000 Ohio punch card ballots were thrown out, but that's better than in 2000 when 95,000 were not counted. When I think of the long lines of people waiting to vote, many in the rain--70% of registered voters, lower than in some other states, but high for Ohio--it makes me sad. I think I have heard that the reason we don't have the Florida hanging and pregnant chad problem, is that our laws clearly state what will be counted and what won't. I believe at least 2 holes have to be clearly punched in order for the ballot to be valid.

I used a punch card this year because we voted absentee, and I was surprised by how easy it was to have one or two not push through. I held it up to the light several times and found hanging chads.

The provisional ballots are not so serious--most of those will be thrown out anyway. But registered, valid voters getting it wrong out of carelessness--that's unfortunate.

567 Post Election Media

After flipping through the channels Tuesday night, I went to bed about 10 p.m. I got up about 3 a.m. and watched the returns. I skipped CBS when I saw Dan Rather, so I have no comment about its coverage. O'Reilly at Fox says Rather was the best of the MSM--but they are friends. Peter Jennings seemed to be behaving himself; I saw no facial tics or sneers when he mentioned the President. Brokaw just looked tired, even that early. Fox just reported, and for news, I think they do a better job of balance. They include bombastic left talking heads on their opinion shows, like Susan Estrich, who all but called Kerry the winner based on Exit Polls. Liberals don't see Fox as a viable alternative because they are always in shock to see a different viewpoint.

But the day after, when it became apparent that counting Ohio's provisional votes (we had many counties with more registered "voters" than we had adults eligible to vote, and guess who had signed them up) wouldn't make any difference, I clicked through again. Really, the main stream media was practically in a state of grief. They put the most negative spin possible on what was good news to 51% of the voters.

This morning CNN is covering at great length the obsurd coverage of far left newspapers in Britain, like the Guardian which tried to influence the vote in Clark County, Ohio and called (jokingly, they said) for Bush's assassination. One paper pondered how 60,000,000 people could be so dumb. I think I can see through CNN's little game here. And they practically have a catch in their collective throats when they rerun Kerry's concession speech. Now the news babe (looks like a model) is whining that the media get blamed, when all she wants to do is give us information--this after she expressed her own disbelief at the number who said they thought Bush could unite the country (a CNN poll).

I watched Kerry's speech. For the first time I believed him--when he spoke of his sadness and dashed hopes. On this he probably won't change his mind, and we can only hope he doesn't turn into a raving sorehead like Al Gore.

566 Salty Snacks and Rebuilding Iraq

“In 2004, the U.S. spent 4 percent of our GDP on national defense. That is far less than the 10 percent of national output consumed by military efforts during the Vietnam War. It is but a drop in the bucket compared to the 38 percent of GDP eaten up by defense during World War II.

Last year when Congress was wrangling over the request for $20 billion to help rebuild Iraq, I went searching for baselines against which I could measure that mind-numbing sum. I did some math and discovered that Americans will spend $37 billion this year on salty snacks like pretzels and potato chips. We'll collectively spend $31 billion on candy. Can we afford $20 billion to help set a free Iraq on its feet? We might better ask whether we can afford not to. Particularly when you consider that just the immediate damages done to the U.S. by the attacks of 9/11 have been estimated at $161 billion.”

Here for the rest of the essay by Karl Zinsmeister

565 Be Prepared with something useful and beautiful

Sweet Earth Casket and Cradle Shop of Kalispell, Montana, will create for you a simple wooden casket of pine or mahogany and if you wish to get some enjoyment out of it, you can buy it with shelving and use it before you go, for books, guns, file cabinet, mementoes or photos. Included with the purchase is a book on how to have an alternative, simple funeral.

564 The Deer Kill

Last April I blogged about seeing the dead deer in the median of the Interstate west of Columbus on our way to Illinois. Saturday on our way to Indianapolis, I counted 14 between the west side of Columbus and the exit at Richmond, Indiana. After that, I saw none, or the counties had been more aggressive about picking them up. It is very sad to see, but according to the information I found the last time, 500,000 are killed on the high-ways annually in the US, and about 31,500 just in Ohio, but more are killed in fences and by dogs.

563 Blog topics, free to a good home

Cryptic notes. What did I plan to write? Must have sounded good at the time. Throw aways. See what you can do. Or check back.

I ran into my "step-sister" Gloria at Panera's. We worked together in 1985 in a program called Ohio STEPS. Great lady.

"The fashion of torn jeans is an insult to all those who must wear clothes with holes in them for lack of better ones. . .No doubt, laborers toil somewhere in the Third World to produce those careful rips--the rich do the poor no favor by wearing rags, even by famous designers." Theodore Dalrymple. I have no idea who this is or what I'd planned to say about it.

TV story about the men and women who drive supply trucks in Iraq. Some like the risks and excitement. Some like feeling a part of something important. One 54 year old black grandmother says she does it for the Iraqi people.

The top 1% of tax payers pay an average rate of 27.25%, and the Kerrys pay 12.4%, and they are billionaires. Kerry's proposed tax rate increases would have the effect of making his wife more wealthy because when tax rates rise, so do the value of tax-exempt bonds, thus increasing the value of Kerrys' portfolio.

A blonde woman wearing a large pin that said "DORK" was giving a tour at Panera's to eight nicely dressed 20-somethings.

An ad for eton shortwave radio said, "Be an informed voter from BBC to NPR, get all the international and domestic news from different angles." Different from what? Certainly not each other.

Live-in Nanny--$27,664/year
Live-out Nanny--$30,000/year

German study published in NEJM shows traffic can bring on health problems.

"The herd of independent minds," describing I think, academe. Ruth Wisse?

Donations from lawyers: Kerry $21,781,718; Edwards $11,491,519. Club for Growth ad.

Flu kills 36,000 and hospitalizes 200,000 each year. How does that compare with HIV/AIDS?

Low carb fad is fading.

Average weight of Americans is up 25 lbs. since 1960.

Jaguar ad in booklet form is rubber cemented into strips in glossy magazines with a page each for: 1. Lust. 2. Greed. 3. Pride. 4. Sloth. 5. Envy. 6. Wrath. 7. Gluttony. I guess sex doesn't sell anymore.

Ad for diamonds: "Your left hand loves candlelight. Your right hand loves the spotlight. Left--commitment. Right--independence. Women of the world, raise your right hand."

Ad for Jenn-Air: "To some, they're just magazines. But to you, they read like romance novels." Shows a wall magazine rack in a stainless steel kitchen with all storage below the counter so you can see the ocean.

Amy Tan's quote about having a brain sounds like it took all the effort of a junior high insult on the playground. And she calls herself a writer?

I didn't know Columbus had a Bible College until the women's dorm was evacuated for carbon monoxide poisoning last week.

Undisconnectibility--internet election addiction. But what an interesting word.
net--from the word for knot
com/con--to bind, with
connect--to join or fasten together
dis--apart
disconnect--to sever a connection
un--not, do the opposite
-ible and -ity--suffixes handy for converting verbs to nouns,
-ibility--overkill suffix for making an adjective into a noun

This week we've had phone calls from Rudy Giuliani, Laura Bush, G.W. Bush, John Glenn and a few unknowns, some still calling election day.

Thirty known STDs are not blocked by condom use.

The Asian Carp can eat 40% of its body weigh in a day and grow to 150 lbs.

T.D. Jakes has marketed his new film "Woman, thou art loosed" through hair dressers because hair stylists talk to a lot of people.

562 Small World

Book Club met tonight. Evensong by Gail Godwin, a prolific writer born in 1937 who often writes about strong women and weak men. Abandonment. Depression. She's got issues. Anyway, there is a character in the book named Tony. As the story unravels, we learn Tony had spent some time in prison while in the service, specifically Fort Benjamin Harrison near Indianapolis. That's where the reunion was Saturday night. Not in the prison of course, but Fort Harrison is no longer a military base and is being used for commercial and community development.

561 The Reunion of the SLOBS

Last night we attended the 50th anniversary of a high school social club called the SLOBS (they aren't supposed to tell their wives what the acronym stands for). The club was "chartered" (they kept a scrapbook and minutes of their meetings) in 1954 and my husband was the first pledge. The last meeting appears to have been in 1959 with the class of 1961, the class of 1956 being the largest and most active of the members. This all male club now has female members, the widows of some of the members, some of whom attended wearing their husbands' SLOB pins, and a sister of one member.

Entertainment after dinner was reading from the minutes and the scrapbook which included a lot of paper memorabilia and photos. With a few guys chiming in with the memories, the minutes were really hilarious, and I paraphrase a 15 year old secretary (they changed officers every quarter), "I'm not sure what happened because I was in the kitchen eating sandwiches." After dinner when the guys went in the next room to have their photo taken, I leafed through the scrapbook and found photographs of my mother-in-law who must have been about 39 years old, blond, leggy and glamorous as a movie star, with all the boys at my in-laws cabin in Brown County, Indiana.

I wrote about Arsenal Technical High School in 540 "Two Classes One Reunion," however, I learned last night that after a few years, the boys began pledging guys from other high schools in Indianapolis, like Washington, Manual and Scecina and a some lived out of the district but attended Tech. Considering the distance they all lived from the school (my husband rode a city bus) , a once a week meeting with fines for not attending seems pretty ambitious for a teen-age boys social club.

The schools sponsored many clubs for many interests--but these were under the radar. The main activity of the guy social club was having "exchanges" with girls' social clubs from Howe, Broad Ripple, Shortridge and Tech, and apparently the Indianapolis Star of that era included a column for "subdebs and squires" where they printed up the events the groups had. These little clippings were carefully pasted in the scrap book. The groups had names like PIMZ, CHIX, ZEBZ, SPARKZ, KIMZ, JINX, ZEALZ, PRIMS, MICAS, EBBZ, ALGES, ELITES, HUNZ, TARAS, TYTANS, CROWNS, COUNTS, FAROS, and BARONS. The dues for the SLOBS were a quarter a week, and with this money they had parties, and a few philanthropic events, and even bought one share of stock in the Indianapolis Indians baseball team.

After all the laughs, the men went around the table and in 3 or 4 minutes each told about their lives after high school--and being typical guys, careers were the story, not family, church or hobbies. It was a wide range--two architects, a few engineers, an airline pilot, an actor/poet, a civil war historian you can see on TV, the mayor of the town where we met, television and radio, and sales.

A really nice bunch of SLOBS.

-----------

Update 2007: The 1957 class reunion.

560 Just a few days

A few more days and I won't have to be hitting the mute button on the TV remote, or turning off the car radio every 5 minutes. If you are not in a swing state, you haven't heard or seen the ads we get in Ohio. If you are in a swing state, you know exactly how monotonous this gets.

Last night we went down to Nationwide Arena to hear President George W. Bush and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. It was a packed house of very enthusiastic supporters. The President asked us each to call or speak to three people about voting (for him) on Tuesday. This morning at Caribou Coffee I talked to six. Four Democrats and two Republicans. We have so many people registered in our county (20,000 more than we have adults), some may even vote twice!

You're welcome, Mr. President. For you, I've given up my title as "last Ohioan who has never seen the candidates of 2004." But, I still have my four wisdom teeth, so I hope to hold on to that record.

559 Offensive Defense

Reviewers' favorite schtick: people will be offended if they want to be, but it's their problem. If you want to justify violence or sex or terrorism, just go on the offensive and blame the viewer, not the producer, director, writer or actor. Say they are small minded, uninformed or perverts. I haven't seen the movie Birth with Nicole Kidman, but the review was offensive, not for the scene described, but the condescension of the writer.

"Driven by her intense love for the husband she lost, she spends more time with the boy--including sharing a bath, a scene that is unsettling but not sexual, although some people, for contrasting reasons, might prefer to think it is."

Huh? It's unsettling? Contrasting reasons? It's not sexual when a 40 year old woman takes a bath with a 10 year old boy? Pedophiles might, in fact, find it quite pleasing to watch this scene. On the other hand, it might cause parents to screen older babysitters better. Yes, reactions might be different, but what planet did Frank Gabrenya (Columbus Dispatch) grow up on?

558 Stolen Honor; Wounds that Never Heal

I'd been trying to think positive about the election. So if John Forbes Kerry becomes President, would it be so awful? He's so totally lacking in character, charisma, love of country and has horribly dishonored his fellow Vietnam veterans, but can he lead?

Then this afternoon, I watched Stolen Honor, wounds that never heal. It's the one that the Kerry camp successfully raged about and got off the TV schedules last week. But it is available in full on the internet. Hold on to your lunch; it's pretty awful.

It is scene after scene of interviews with men who served 4, 5, 6 or 7 years in POW cells, who were brutally tortured, who were forced to listen to Jane Fonda tapes telling them they were scum and criminals, who had John Kerry's testimony read to them. There is scene after scene of Kerry's testimony in that clipped, private European prep school accent.

What hurt more than torture was wondering why their government had abandoned them or why the American people were listening to the lies of a man who had served a fraction of the time they had.

One former POW said, "If Kerry did what he said he did, he is a war criminal, and he hasn't found anyone who did the things he testified to. Why didn't the Americans stop it. "Good men who came back were spat upon because of what Kerry was doing," said one wife, "plus he was killing any chance of our husbands (the POWs) getting home. He lengthened the war."

This film is so awful (i.e. painful to watch), I am stunned that Kerry was ever elected to the Senate, that his rapacious ambition hasn't brought him down, or that some veteran hasn't arranged to meet him in a dark alley. If Kerry becomes President how will he ever look a wounded soldier in the eye or hand a folded flag to a mother, knowing the deaths and dishonor he brought over 30 years ago.

Now I can't even think positive thoughts. Watch it. Be prepared. This won't go away, whether he wins or loses. Too many people know now what kind of a man he really is.

557 Letter to Suburban News Publications (SNP) Columbus, OH

My husband left the SNP Upper Arlington News on the counter with the note, "Can you believe this?"

Although clearly labeled an editorial, it was really a diatribe against President George W. Bush, and much of that just inaccurate and awful reporting of misinformation. "Mean spirited and divisive?" Have you seen the 50+ hate Bush books that are in the book stores? Have you seen F-9-11? Have you heard the anti-Bush 527 ads?

So I read through the editorial to see what glowing endorsement of Kerry you had. "Kerry is thoughtful and practical." That's it? We're at war with Muslim fundamentalist fanatics and terrorists, and Kerry, who voted to go to war after seeing the information on WMD, Kerry who warned the nation many times in the late 90s about the dangers of Iraq and Hussein, is "thoughtful and practical?"

Today's Wall Street Journal has an editorial by Jack Welch, former Chair and CEO of GE, on qualities to look for in a President. He only lists six. He endorses no one. Bush is dead on for all six. Kerry doesn't come close on any of them. But the final one, is "Is he pro-business?" A free world's best hope is a thriving economy. Bush pulled us back from a recession that started in mid-2000 (I have my stock accounts to prove it). Kerry has done nothing but lie about the economy, and because he is so rich, he didn't even have parents who passed along tales of the Depression when unemployment was over 25% like I did. So he tries to tell us that 5.4 % unemployment is the worst in 75 years. But what is your excuse at SNP? No library? No internet for research? Letting bumper stickers and yard signs form your opinion and editorial?

You are like many of the Kerry supporters I've met, talked to or read. There actually were some decent, experienced, thoughtful candidates among the Democrats--the far left, anti-war wing drove them out, and Kerry became a Howard Dean stand in. You just hate Bush. That is the basis of your support. And you will support and vote for an empty, wooden, zero-charisma, no moral core, hyper-liberal Senator with a lack luster record, who sentenced thousands of Vietnam veterans to embarrassment and misery with his testimony of lies 30 years ago. You're supporting a man who can only say "I have a plan," but has never figured out what it is, because his only plan is to become President.

Senator Foghorn Leghorn

Although George Bush mangles the English language, Senator Kerry uses so much warm yeasty gas that he often doubles the script his people write for him. The Scotsman gives this example:

"During one speech, Mr Kerry’s script writers had crafted the concise pledge: "I will work with Republicans and Democrats on this healthcare plan, and we will pass it."

In the candidate’s hands it became: "I will work with Republicans and Democrats across the aisle, openly, not with an ideological, driven, fixed, rigid concept, but much like Franklin Roosevelt said, I don’t care whether a good idea is a Republican idea or a Democrat idea. I just care whether or not it’s gonna’ work for Americans and help make our country stronger.

"And we will pass this bill. I’ll tell you a little bit about it in a minute, and I’ll tell you why we’ll pass it, because it’s different from anything we’ve ever done before, despite what the Republicans want to try to tell you."

I think this is why people think he "won" the debates. Twice as many words to say half as much.

556 It’s not Moose Creek, Idaho, but. . .

It isn’t Moose Creek, Idaho, 95 miles south of Missoula, Montana, but it was darn purty around here yesterday. We had a wonderful walk around the condo property. Beautiful October sky, warm 70s, brilliant yellow color still on the maples, little critters peeking at us from the creek. The bushes along the water are still a rich green with bright red berries inviting the birds for dinner. The crunchy leaves from the cottonwood, ash and sycamore underfoot gave a little better footing in the steeper areas than we have in the summer. We could hear the traffic zipping past the golf course, but barely.

The doe and fawn we saw daily a few weeks ago have apparently moved further east into the ravines and woods to find more camouflage. If you need to choose between the mountains near by or your adult children near by, this is a good place to be. (Actually, I’ve never considered Idaho, but saw the ad in the paper this morning and thought it almost as lovely as central Ohio in October.)

555 The Women's Wage Myth

George W. Bush has freed millions of women in Afghanistan and Iraq, although feminist groups have been pretty silent about that. And John Kerry continues to promote the myth of the gender wage gap--I think he said $.76 to $1.00, but they haven't been silent about that. Actually he's wrong. There are many reasons women earn less. I stopped working from 1968 - 1978, then worked only part time until 1986. And I was in a low-paid, female dominated profession. Any profession with a large number of women has depressed wages. And even with all the laws and law suits, we still have women putting home and family before careers.

“. . . most studies of pay discrimination don’t weigh in such factors as experience and the desire of many married women with children to work shorter hours, and even seek less demanding jobs, so they can spend more time at home with their families. Studies that do account for those factors have concluded that across the board, the pay of unmarried men and unmarried women doing the same work are just about equal.” Independent Women’s Forum

I recall during the 1990s (I'll look for the citation), Pam Bradigan and Carol Mularski at Ohio State University Libraries wrote an article published, I believe, in the Bulletin of the Medical Library Association that showed that male librarians really don't make more than female librarians--they publish more and relocate more often and are more likely to accept the more challenging jobs. That translates into better pay. If anything, the higher pay that male librarians are willing to go after pulls up the median. The women indirectly benefit from having more men in the field.

554 Filipina blogs her favorite recipes

While using the "next blog" feature today I came across a well-written and beautifully illustrated recipe page called Kusina ni Manang. Today's feature is about canning a tomato pasta sauce.

Manang writes: "This is a foodblog of a Filipina stay-at-home Mom married to an American, now living in a rural area. Posts include kitchen tips, health & nutrition issues, cooking & baking recipes, and occasionally canning recipes.

For those looking for authentic Filipino dishes, sorry but not all Filipino dishes featured here are authentically Pinoy. I had to modify some of them according to the availability of the ingredients. Some were accidentally "discovered" through experimentation."

She says there are a number of Filipina expats blogging recipe pages. I don't do much cooking, but most of these look interesting.

553 Big brother--literally

A young Chinese cashier/clerk bagged my groceries at Meijer's last Tuesday morning using the new turn style equipment that eliminated baggers (and probably gave the cashiers backaches from stooping).

"Are you studying engineering?" I asked.

"Why yes, how did you know," he smiled with slightly accented, perfect English.

"Your focus and the way you straighten up your work area--I'm married to an architect. Are you an OSU student?"

"Actually, I graduated in engineering and don't have a job," he replied.

I almost said something about the economy and that he had a job with good benefits, but, remembering he was probably Chinese, I said, "How many resumes have you sent out?"

"Oh, just a few."

"You need to send about a hundred to get a good job," I advised.

His jaw dropped. "Oh, I'm too lazy to do that. I'll probably go to graduate school."

Yup. There is an older brother paying his way, I thought. And if he gets a good job, he'll have to help his younger siblings. It is the Chinese way, and every Chinese student who ever worked for me had that sort of deal, whether the brother was a doctor in the USA or technician in China.

Big brother. So that's where that expression comes from.

This morning I asked my cashier/clerk Raiz (probably Indian or Pakistani) what had become of the "happy bagger," when the turn styles were installed. He was a middle aged, retarded man who was always laughing and smiling and reminding the customers loudly to smile. "Oh, he was fired," he said. "Did he find another job?" I asked, thinking that his talkativeness and his handicap might have made it difficult. "Yes, he did. It took two months but he found a new job and likes it very much."

So a man that couldn't even go to regular public school can find a job and be happy, but an OSU graduate in engineering can't. Interesting.

552 Harassment of Conservative Bloggers

Apparently, conservative blogs are being harassed too, with spam and e-mail problems. Jason, at Counter Column (Iraq Now) blog writes:

"Someone wants to shut down the conservative meme factory at just the right time -- eliminating the possibility that the blogosphere will uncover another Rathergate scandal or give legs to a story that would hurt Kerry's campaign which would otherwise go unnoticed.

Funny how all the scumbag dirty tricks this year are breaking the same way.

Dumbwits.

If they really wanted to help Kerry, they'd spirit Teresa Heinz off to an "undisclosed location" and try to shut down the UK Guardian."

551 Reporting from the trenches of the campaign

Elliot Fladen took his Mom to a Bush rally in Canton, Ohio, at the Palace Theater, then stayed outside and confronted the Kerry goons who stole his Bush Cheney sign. He thinks they were bussed in from other areas because of the accents he heard. It is a long and interesting first hand account, from someone who thought the Bush speeches not interesting enough to attend because the action was all outside. He concludes:

“The arguments went on and on. Many have not been put in this post, but I can't remember them at this time. The crowd grew larger and more calm as they heard my answers, but then new angry people would come in, demand answers to the same or similiar questions, and then start fighting with those that had heard my answers as they wanted more. In the end I don't know how many, if any minds I changed today. But I do know that one kid told my mother he learned more from listening to me in one day than he had by reading the BBC, the NYTimes, and other publications in the past year. Another high school teacher told my mom that she was going to make my blog required reading for her class so they could be better informed. So maybe I made a small difference after all.”

550 Lawrence O’Donnell screaming at John O’Neill

I don’t watch the Joe Scarborough show on MS-NBC, but I think the video of Lawrence O’Donnell screaming at a Swiftboat vet, John O’Neill is instructive. Captain’s Quarters comments on the behavior of Democrats trying to intimidate Republicans is indicative of the hate level.

“However, O'Donnell didn't just pull this strategy out of a hat. Democrats around the country have begun using intimidation and sheer rage to silence Republicans. Our local Bush/Cheney headquarters in St. Paul wound up being invaded by union thugs with bullhorns who tried scaring off families with small children from getting tickets to a Bush appearance earlier this month. They pushed their way into the offices, taking over the intercom system and refusing to leave, shouting and using the bullhorn to keep people from doing their jobs.

Nor was that an isolated incident. GOP offices around the country have had equipment stolen, people assaulted, and windows shot out. Bush hatred has deranged a significant segment of the Left in this country, to the point where their fascist leanings have come to the fore. Al Gore accused bloggers of being "digital brownshirts", but these people have become the real thing. They're using physical violence to intimidate their political opponents and deliberately ensuring that Republicans cannot speak in public to explain their positions. God help us if the Lawrence O'Donnells wind up in power again.”

According to his bio, Mr. O'Donnell was in government from 1993 through 1995, as the Democratic Chief of Staff of the United States Senate Committee on Finance. The Committee has jurisdiction over legislation involving taxation, international trade, health care, Social Security, Welfare, and other income security programs. In 1992, Mr. O'Donnell was Chief of Staff of the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. But usually he is a writer, when he's not screaming at people on TV panels, particularly for the left leaning "West Wing."

549 Lies about Stem Cell Research

Only 27% of the U.S. electorate lives in television markets airing presidential campaign spots. Living in Ohio, I think I’ve seen them all. But one of the strangest, is Michael J. Fox, pleading for stem cell research, and saying he’ll support John Kerry because Bush’s policy on stem cell research is wrong.

This summer, the Democratic Party made embryonic stem cell research a central component of its election-year agenda.

“President Bush has rejected the calls from Nancy Reagan, Christopher Reeve and Americans across the land for assistance with embryonic stem cell research. We will reverse his wrongheaded policy. Stem cell therapy offers hope to more than 100 million Americans who have serious illnesses—from Alzheimer’s to heart disease to juvenile diabetes to Parkinson’s. We will pursue this research under the strictest ethical guidelines, but we will not walk away from the chance to save lives and reduce human suffering.”

Kerry and Edwards claim in their campaigning that the Bush administration has “banned” stem cell research, which is just a lie.

“John Kerry And John Edwards Support Lifting The Ban On Stem Cell Research” http://www.johnkerry.com/issues/health_care/stemcell.html

There are no restrictions at all on stem cell research, whether adult or embryonic, in the United States, making this country the most liberal in this bio-ethical mine field. Remarks by President Bush.

Researchers can do whatever they wish using private funding. Using public funds, they can use a fixed group of embryonic stem cells lines, where the embryos had been destroyed before the current policy went into effect. There are 22 embryonic stem cell lines available for federal funding and nearly 500 shipments drawn from these lines have already been made to researchers. The NIH provided about $25 million for embryonic stem cell research last year and spent another $180 million on ethically non-controversial adult stem cell work.

This definitely means the Democrats have found a new meaning for the word “ban.” It now means anything the government does not fully fund or anything where caution before proceding into murky waters might be advisable. It also means, pandering to the sick and disabled, because they and their families can vote.

(Except Terri Schiavo, of course, her the liberals would prefer to be starved to death.)

548 Revisiting the Robie House

For days my very patient, focused, meticulous husband has been in his studio playing "paper dolls," or "paper house" as the case may be. When we were in Chicago we visited Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House (see my blog about the trip here). Last week he started putting together a paper model--I think it has 138 pieces, many very tiny, requiring intricate folds and careful cutting with the x-acto knife. He has spent untold hours on a project that would have had me in a puddle of frustrated tears in 15 minutes. Don't ever buy this for a child!


Robie House Cut and Assemble

"From the Publisher: Now model builders as well as lovers of fine architecture can construct an accurate three-dimensional model of the Robie House, and thereby discover for themselves the harmonious interrelationships of parts and numerous other design details that make this home a world-famous architectural masterpiece. Printed in full color on sturdy card stock, the two-foot long model comes complete with step-by-step instructions and exploded diagrams. A series of multi-level horizontal planes includes balconies, platforms, a porch and entrance court, while easy-to-follow directions clearly explain how to cut, fold and glue walls, doorways, windows, roof and other features."

The Amazon site lets you click through a few pages and enlarge. This is not a project for sissies!

547 Why are drugs cheaper in Canada?

“. . . if you want Canadian pharmaceutical prices in the US, the steps you must follow are clear. You must cut your standard of living by 20-30%. You must reform your ludicrous product liability laws. And you must squeeze pharmaceutical industry profits through price controls and dominant purchaser policies, thus causing lower levels of pharmaceutical investment and innovation, getting cheaper prices for medicines already discovered at the cost of prolonged pain and suffering for victims of diseases we cannot yet cure or control. And you must restrict patient access to the latest and best medicines in order to keep costs low.” Read the entire paper from AIMS here.

546 The Scots-Irish--are they the secret GOP weapon?

Before I began looking into genealogy about 10-15 years ago, I had no idea who the American Scots-Irish were. Didn't know that my father's family had arrived here in the 1730s, or that he was descended from a cultural group that was the foundation of American-style democracy. James Webb has written a lot about the Scots-Irish, and has a new book, "Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish shaped America," (Broadway, 2004). I had read up on their contribution to our wars, our presidency and our customs in "Albion's Seed," a 1989 book that catalogs the contributions of four waves of British Isles immigration.

In today's Wall Street Journal Webb writes that the Democrats have ignored the Scots-Irish as a cultural group, and if they hadn't, Al Gore would have won Tennessee and the Presidency without a single hanging Florida chad. The Scots-Irish are fiercely independent, strongly pro-family and anti-government interference says Webb, and there are about 30,000,000 of them. Having only been a Republican for two years, I can point out that not all Scots-Irish escaped the Democrats, but then, I didn't know my own history either.

545 Poverty in the media

“According to the latest statistics on poverty in the United States, released in 1996 by the U.S. Census Bureau, 14.3 million children in America are living in abject poverty.” PNEWS, February 11, 1998

“Despite a glowing economy and record low unemployment, poverty is rising in the suburbs.” USAToday, April 28, 1999

''The good news is getting better, and the bad news is getting worse,'' says Andrew Cuomo, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which compiled the report. ''Smaller, medium-size cities are not participating in the new economy.'' USAToday June 11, 1999

“Unemployment is low, construction booming, housing prices soaring. But lines form every Thursday evening at the Sts. Joachim and Ann Care Service food pantry in St. Charles, where about 130 low-income residents pick up bags of groceries.” USAToday, October 18, 2004

Well, I suppose it’s nice to know that all this poverty isn’t President Bush’s fault since the media had plenty of poverty stories in the 1990s. A woman featured in today’s article is 45, divorced, has a college degree and is working for $5.15 an hour. The woman featured in a 1999 article on poverty was making over $10.50 an hour, was divorced and planning to go to college. It looks like the common denominator in poverty for women and children is single mothers, not geography or education or ethnicity. That is certainly confirmed by all the statistics the government has collected over the past 30 years.

544 Stolen Honor--stolen free speech

Remember when John Kerry wanted to stop the publication and distribution of "Unfit for Command?" This after about 50 anti-Bush books hit the market. Now he's at it again. Apparently "Stolen Honor; Wounds that Never Heal" will be shown by Sinclair Broadcast Group on 62 stations and the Kerry people are not satisfied with time to rebut, they want it pulled.

What? Biased media? With about 90% of journalists, entertainers and TV reporters claiming to be Democrats, what in the world are they whining about? Fox News starts to climb the charts and you'd think the world was coming to an end. After what CBS tried to do with Dan Rather's phony Bush documents? They haven't even had their wrists slapped--they've only been buried under an avalanche of bad press and tons of e-mail.

One day I looked at the campaign coverage on one page of the USAToday. The column inch and photo size were about equal, but oh, the verbs! In the Bush column were "taking aim," "charge," "takeover," "attack," "misrepresent," and "alleges." In the Kerry column were "said," "plans," "builds on" and some other innocuous verbs.

And then the Kerry campaign has Michael Moore and F-9-11 appearing in theaters as a documentary rather than fiction, and being shown by professional organizations purporting to support freedom of speech, the American Library Association (which said nothing about Kerry trying to shut up a publisher).

And by the way, have you been able to find Dr. Laura anywhere on your radio frequency? All she said was gay couples shouldn't adopt infants and that got her removed from anything except the most remote, inconvenient time.

Update: Sundance is running a film on George Bush's faith. It's owned by that well-known arbiter of American morality and faith, Robert Redford. Sundance is doing a two week anti-Bush blitz. The CBC (Canada) is running a very anti-Bush "documentary" while whining about Sinclair Broadcast Group. All timed for the election.

543 How Academics make Policy

Mary Grabar, a college professor, vividly describes her graduate school experience. Having entered school as a moderate in the early 1990s who supported Bill Clinton, she learned that the aging, tenured 60s liberals are anything but liberal. What she found was scoffing at the very idea of meaning, of truth, or indeed of value in the study the great works of the past. What she found was the family portrayed as an institution of evil, child pornography not only tolerated but sanctioned, and feminists mocking fetuses. So when the twin towers came down, she’d already seen academe imploding.

"As with Zell Miller, my conversion was solidified by 9/11. That event made very clear the danger of the ideas promoted by theorists like Noam Chomsky, Richard Rorty, Edward Said, and Peter Singer. That is the one thing the students taking over campuses in the 1960s realized: the arguments made in the halls of the academy, contrary to the conventional wisdom about the isolation of the ivory towers, have very real impact. The graduates become journalists, teachers, parents, and government workers. The political ideologies do not begin with the peasants, the workers, the average citizens. They start with the slick talkers, the ones who deliver their messages in measured tones, with thousands of footnotes. They then become policy.
Like the protestors and journalists referred to by Miller who enjoy their right to attack others with words, the academics enjoy the privilege of disparaging their own government because some have the courage to defend them.

Senator Miller [at the Republican Convention] was right to call attention to this evil within our own borders and among our own citizens. We need the straight-talking principled man from Appalachia to tell us this. We have had too much obfuscation from those who are undeserving of their doctorates and J.D.'s."

542 Reverting to adolescent behavior

Derek, a seminary student with a blog, writes about camping with 3 friends: “We packed up my car, got down there while there was still daylight and put up the tent and got the fire started. It's funny how four grown men can instantly revert to being 14 years old again when in total isolation, with no women around and a fire going.”

I think the opposite must happen with women. They revert to 14 when there is a man around. A few weeks ago at our local pub where we go on Friday night, there was a loud, hilarious table next to us, five women and one man. He had a wan smile, and was nodding politely, as they screeched and roared and told jokes on themselves, all with the hand movements of a drunken choir director, and bouncing the topic like a basketball. The young man got up to go to the rest room, or maybe out to get some fresh air. The noise level dropped immediately. I heard the women in hushed tones start talking about what they really cared about. Gone was the “I’m-out-here-having-a-good-time” façade, and it was down to the nitty-gritty of career stress, teen-age children, and negligent husbands. When the guy came back, so did the game faces and the merriment.

Interesting. I could give other examples, and you could come up with ones to disprove it. But I’ve seen this behavior in committee meetings too, causing some men to wish they’d lower that glass ceiling smack on the heads of their female colleagues.

541 Librarians, right and left, blogging

I APOLOGIZE FOR THE BLOGGING DRY SPELL. I just can't take my eyes off the polls and the political blogs right now. The fact is that nothing in American libraries is of any importance at all, when compared with keeping the White House away from John Kerry. Conservator

“. . . entering an Amtrak bathroom is like hermetically sealing yourself in a Tupperware lady's demo container full of boiled eggs she forgot in the trunk of her car: the waftey scent is stale, sweet and rotten. Even though I attempt to hold my breath throughout my bathroom visit, I had to breathe at some point so I was forced back to my seat.”
Vox Lauri

Helped patron make color copies of Cambodian money. It had to be double sided and look exactly like the real thing. Probably going to be doing time in a Cambodian prison for making fake 1000 Riel notes worth a quarter. Right Wing Librarian

Somewhere between the odds that I will have a child prodigy (250:1), and being audited by the IRS (100:1), is the chance that I might meet a fellow Republican librarian. Knowing this, lightning strikes and meteor showers seemed too scary to investigate.
223 to 1, according to the latest Library Journal, (10/04) is the ratio of librarians that have contributed to John Kerry’s campaign as opposed to Dubya. Tomeboy

Got into another debate over at LISNews today. It can feel very pointless if you think about the fact that the election on Nov. 2 doesn't really decide anything. It will decide who is President but no minds will be changed, ALA will still be ALA and our profession will still be on 'the left bank of the mainstream'. Shush

Like many people, most of my visits to the DMV have involved getting angry. (Except in Missoula. God bless those blissed out Mountain Folk for the effect they had on my nerves.) Many visits have involved the customer service representative subtly trying to pin the blame on me for something that I couldn't have known, or was their fault. It's hard to tell whose fault infamously bad service is: ours or theirs. We go in there grumpy and expecting bad service, so we get it. People come to the library with the same expectation sometimes. NextGen Librarian

On my favorite book: The truth, like many another slice of reality, is more complex: I have many favorites; among them the book I am reading now and the last one I finished; then there are all those wonderful books whose titles I can manage to remember and connect with their actual contents after the last page has been turned. A good answer to the question would be ‘all of them,’ but people, being people, always want to know The One. Perhaps this is because we live in a monotheistic society—even our atheists disbelieve in a single god, and because we are also competitive: everything has to come down to a final entity, a Grand Prize Winner. Library Dust

I'm at that age when a woman's fancy turns to thoughts of hormone replacement therapy.
Lipstick Librarian

540 Two Classes One Reunion

At the end of the month we're driving to Indiana to attend a reunion of my husband's high school fraternity. I think the last time they got together was about 10 or 12 years ago, although we've seen a few individuals over the years. They all attended Arsenal Technical High School in Indianapolis. In 1997 I wrote about our 40th class reunions, and how two classes that had been so different 40 years before, had become very similar.

Our Differences

Our schools couldn't have been more different. His school--Arsenal Technical High School--has a beautiful 76 acre campus in the middle of Indianapolis. Founded in 1912 at the site of a Civil War arsenal, its architecture spans a century and a half, from the old officers' barracks and guard house to the concretely ugly contemporary. Its neighboring residential area, once the glory of Indianapolis, was already shabby in the 1950s, but is now experiencing a renaissance. Tech's course offerings from technical to college prep were breathtaking, ranging from stagecraft to orchestral instruments to Greek. The school had 8,000 students when my mother-in-law attended in the 1930s, but was around 5,000 when my husband graduated in 1957. His school was larger than my home town. He says, and his classmates confirm, that they were so well behaved that you could hear a pin drop when the entire student body met for assembly.

Mt. Morris High School where I attended had only 52 graduates in 1957, was even smaller when my father attended in the 1920s, and our school, as a high school, no longer exists. The building is now a junior high school and the senior high students are bussed to Oregon, Illinois, to attend classes with our former nemesis and biggest rival. Its low profile, 1950s style architecture neighbors a retirement center to the east, a cemetery to the west and a cornfield to the south. The only foreign language offered at MMHS was Latin (for which I'm thankful--it's an excellent foundation), and we had no art classes, unless you count "industrial arts." Tech's lunch room staff was larger than our entire faculty! And we were never as quiet and well behaved as those city kids.

Our similarities

Our reunions had more similarities than our schools. Hard working local committees make these class reunions work. If there are no local people committed to the project, it just doesn't happen. The Tech Committee has quite a challenge finding addresses for over 700 people, many of whom have changed names, addresses and careers several times. The MMHS class had a much better rate of attendance with 37 classmates attending compared to 85 from the Tech class of 1957. His class has lost 34 members in death (1997)--that the committee has confirmed. My class has lost four.

Both groups assembled a large table of memorabilia for the reunion--annuals, a confirmation class photograph, snapshots, athletic sweaters, personal items. Tech's publications were a little more slick--they had an award winning school newspaper published by their journalism classes which even after 40 years looks quite professional. The MMHS class, however, had a signature quilt made in 1954 with all our names, our teachers' names and the current slang expressions embroidered on cloth blocks sewn together. That was a far sighted 14 year old who organized that project!

Both classes gathered for a reunion photograph. Bob's group was rather dignified and well-behaved, squinting in the bright sunlight on their beloved campus the day following their evening reunion. My class had a few stand-up comics who played off each other and kept everyone laughing. They must have driven our teachers crazy 40 years ago. The smiles in our MMHS picture taken at dusk in the White Pines State Park, the site of many school-related picnics, certainly weren't forced.

The Classmates

Each class had couples who met in school, dated and then married. The difference is that in Bob's class if you ask, "How did you meet," she might say, "We sat next to each other in zoology." My classmates Sylvia and Nancy and Mary Jane can say they met their husbands in grade school. Our classmates' marriages produced many children and now they are showing pictures of grandchildren and even great-grandchildren. One Tech couple at the reunion needed to hire a babysitter for the grandchild they are raising. One MMHS classmate showed a family picture that was almost half the size of our class.

Tech and MMHS classes both had a girl who was equally a friend to boys and girls, probably not an easy honor then when the preferred status was "going steady." I chatted with Bob's classmate for awhile and knew immediately why everyone in the class loved her. "I wish we'd known each other in high school," I told her (even though she had dated my husband).

On Growing Older

Sad stories were told in both groups. I think I met more guys downsized out of jobs in their 50s at Tech's reunion, although I didn't ask the same questions of my own classmates. Like me, many of the women began their careers after child-rearing and listened with envy to tales of buy-outs and early retirements. At our 25th and 30th reunions, divorce was the major personal loss. At the 40th it was the loss of parents, with at least three of my classmates losing a parent within the past six months. One Tech man told me his father died 13 years ago and he misses him more each day.

Surgeries, cancer, heart medication and portable oxygen kept our groups from getting too frisky. Two Tech men told me about hip replacements and were thrilled to be walking with no pain. One construction worker who had traveled from Florida to be at the Tech reunion proudly showed us his first pair of athletic shoes because after surgery he no longer wears a built up shoe. A Mt. Morris classmate had postponed knee surgery to be there and traveled in pain from California.

When we stopped by the Alumni Dance at the Moose Lodge in Mt. Morris after my reunion, we left after 5 minutes because of the smoke and noise. Nor did we go to the Indiana Roof Ballroom for the Tech Alumni dance. We love to dance, but unlike 40 years ago, these two alumni like our sleep more when facing a long drive home.

One thing was clear at these reunions: success touches us in a variety of ways. All our classmates were successful. Some had achieved the traditional definition--money, power, status or recognition. All the people I met or with whom I renewed acquaintance had overcome adversity, or followed a dream, or achieved a goal, or had provided needed friendship and compassion, or had been a faithful caregiver. The two classes that were so different in 1957 had become one by 1997.

539 Cooking to Hook Up--Another Quiz

Here’s the page that describes how Brain Syndicate worked with the authors of the book, Cooking to Hook Up. I took the quiz and came out a hybrid Academic/Career Girl. Thanks to Paula for the tip.

She is a hybrid of: Academic Girl Career Girl Click on the pictures below to read more: Take the 'What Kind of Girl Is She?' quiz at CookingToHookup.com

"Ann Michaels and Drew Campbell, the authors of Cooking to Hook Up were married in 1997. Despite a shared fondness for vodka martinis and cutthroat Scrabble, they soon realized they were better writing partners than life partners. Their no-kids-no-foul marriage dissolved in 2003 and the fact that they didn't argue over a single CD should tell you something."

538 Mrs. Bush's Winning Cookie Recipe

Family Circle featured the favorite cookie recipes of Mrs. Bush and Mrs. Kerry. Mrs. Bush's Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookie won with 67% of the vote. Here's the recipe. As soon as I lose 10 pounds, I'll try it. My husband would eat one, leaving me with 95.

Makes: about 8 dozen cookies. Bake: at 350° for 12 to 15 minutes.

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups light-brown sugar
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
3 cups quick oats (not old-fashioned)
2 cups chopped walnuts
1 1/2 packages (8 ounces each) chocolate chunks (3 cups)
2 cups coarsely chopped dried sour cherries


1. Heat oven to 350°.
2. With electric mixer, cream butter and both sugars.
3. Beat in eggs one at a time, then beat in vanilla.
4. Add flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and oats; slowly beat until blended.
5. Stir in walnuts, chocolate and cherries.
6. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto cookie sheet covered with parchment paper.
7. Bake at 350° for 12 to 15 minutes, until golden brown.

The cookie poll has been accurate for the last four elections, according to the Bush Cheney site, which posted this recipe. However, you'll still need to get out and vote.

537 The Lesbian Candidate

After I've just told you what a great profession library science is, I'm going to report that reference librarians actually get questions like this:

Is it Dick Cheney that is the lesbian presidential candidate?" Reported by Matthew, who gave up a nursing career to become a librarian and is probably wondering why.

Both Edwards and Kerry brought up Cheney's lesbian daughter during the debates, one of the cheapest, most obnoxious political tricks I've ever heard of. They were trying to frighten their wild-eyed, right wing strawmen who may have been in a closet for the past six months and could then be deterred from showing up at the polls due to their fear of homosexuality. And then Mrs. Edwards, who up to this time (Thursday) had seemed like a rational, nice person, tried to psychoanalyze Mrs. Cheney because she was upset the Democrats were using her child for political gain.

What sort of hatred is it that makes a man, no two men, use an opponent's daughter for a poster child for the speaker's own bigotry? As another blogger pointed out, Bush didn't bring up that Kerry, a Roman Catholic, had had his first marriage annulled, making his own daughters, . . . what, quasi-illegitimate due to their parents' failures?

This is really rock bottom slim and sludge, folks.

Update: James Taranto at OpinionJournal Best of the Web comments, Oct. 15:

John Kerry's gratuitous mention during Wednesday's debate of Dick Cheney's gay daughter has become the most talked about moment of the debate, and it looks as though it's backfiring on the Kedwards campaign. True, most gay activists seem untroubled by Kedwards' gay-baiting, apparently on the (no doubt accurate) theory that a Kerry administration would be far friendlier to their policy agenda than the Bush administration is. And it's anyone's guess whether the publicity for Cheney's daughter will suppress turnout among conservative Republicans or lead conservative Democrats to remain in the fold.

Update: Jean Vennochi, Boston Globe, Oct. 19:

There is no way to prove it, but I agree with conservatives who argue there was nothing accidental about Kerry's reference to "Dick Cheney's daughter, who is a lesbian" during the last debate. It followed an earlier mention by his running mate, John Edwards. Whether the intent was to discourage evangelicals who oppose homosexuality from turning out in large numbers for Bush or to remind voters in general of GOP hypocrisy on the topic, two mentions of Mary Cheney are not political accidents. They are political calculations. . .

Go ahead, liberals, start howling: What is worse, you say, refusing to admit you were wrong to invade Iraq or refusing to admit you were wrong to invade the Cheney family's privacy? On the merits, of course, Bush's refusal to admit wrongdoing in war is much more serious. But the merits don't always prevail, in court or politics. Like it or not, Kerry's willingness to use Mary Cheney in a political forum and unwillingness to apologize for doing so gives less-than-committed Kerry voters time -- two weeks -- for second thoughts.

536 Just A Few Best Sellers

Just A Few Best sellers
from the Wall Street Journal
October 15, 2004

It’s “Good to great” and then
“Who moved my cheese?”
“Discover your strength,”
“Da Vinci Code,” please.

Harvey McKay and
Carolyn Kepcher
Arthur Agatston and
Sharon Lecter.

Rosabeth Kanter
R. Kiyosaki
Liz Tucillo and
Jean Sherman Chatzky.

Michael F. Moore loves
Ms. Kitty Kelley
Lemony Snicket
John O’Neill Corsi.

Malcolm Gladwell,
Staff of the Daily Show;
Stephen Lundin and
Bob Dylan you know.

Maeve Benchy, Jim
Collins Harry Paul ;
Sophie Kinsella,
Tom Roth Phil McGraw .

“How full is your bucket,”
“We got fired,”
So many new books
Read ‘til you’re tired.

535 Whose turn to clean the bathroom?

Yesterday I was reading a summary of one of the left-wing Bush bashing books, this one about his dangerous, evangelical religion, and decided to look up the publisher, Pluto Press, which was an arm of South End Press. Although I was not surprised by the mission statement of South End, I got a chuckle out of the “cleaner in the bathroom” story. It just sounds so. . .so. . .70s. And it was, of course. After the Vietnam war protests died out (until this year), the founders decided to go into publishing. They are still around, finding readership for their blather, but are probably getting smarter about the bottom line.

". . .we started with a clear mission statement. We knew what our purpose and principles were and why. It was on paper for future collective members to see, it was on the copyright page or the back page of the books we published. No matter what the financial situation was, no matter what the internal problems were, our goal was to get those political books out. The book publishing decisions were informed by what we thought would be a contribution to analyzing U.S. institutions, to the left broadly defined, to what we referred to then as “totalist” politics (recognizing the important of race, gender, and class), and to visions and strategies for radical social change."

". . .we were committed to our principles but flexible about tactics. For example, in the beginning everyone had to be part of every decision made, including what cleaner to use in the bathrooms and the font size of each book. Later, we delegated decision making and autonomy within work areas, mostly by instituting a yearly summer policy-making retreat."

I remember those policy making retreats from work and church. If you ever want to create grass roots support for your own ideas, you gather people together for a retreat, serve them nice box-lunches, and have them come to your conclusions and plans in small groups.

534 What Librarians do today

If you’d like an exciting career battling technological advancement, choose “library and information science.” I truly loved being a librarian, but technology and our devotion to it is one of the reasons I retired early (and my own thrifty behavior of putting 15% aside for TIAA-CREF all my working years). So here’s a brief compilation of what a day looks like for a librarian:

Krafty Librarian writes:
“. . .the systems librarian and I are working on our server and various problems. I replaced the tape drive Friday and we were able to do back ups for the weekend then all of a sudden on Monday it failed. What was the point of me replacing our broken tape drive when they sent us crappy refurbished one that would work better as a paper weight?”

Shoe frets:
“I am putting Mozilla on them as soon as I get a chance, and taking off IE. There will be no choice. I don’t want a lawsuit because some doofus a million miles away stole a patron’s credit card number. Besides, Firefox and Mozilla are better browsers anyhoo. And the kids love the tabbed browsing. Oh, how I wish I could get a Linux system running. It would ease my fears some. It would ease my fears a lot.”

Tangognat worries:
“Am I missing something, or did some of the search functionality vanish from the redesigned American Memory site? I thought there used to be a way to search by limiting your search by medium. So if you only wanted to search and retrieve photos or audio files you could do that. Now that option seems to hidden, under the option to browse specific collections. If I browse Books and other printed works, I’m then given the option to run a search limited to those formats. I was really confused, probably just because I expect very different things from the labels “browse” and “search". .

Family Man Librarian speaks for all: ". . .librarians are not that great at marketing themselves. By marketing, I don't mean shameless self-promotion. Instead, I'm talking about making clear to their institutions how integral and vital their role and the role of libraries is to their success and to society in general, especially in this digital age. Over and over and over again, I am reminded of how persistently overlooked and underrepresented libraries and library issues are in the general scheme of things in my local environment. It's incredible, especially given the facts...like huge (and growing) library website statistics, huge (and growing) use of online resources, huge influx of people in the library. . ."

And these youngsters don’t even comment on the 10 or so meetings a week or the parts of your job that gradually get outsourced to state, regional or national consortia and committees. Still, it’s a great life. Some libraries even have books.

533 Only two states left

If this registration chart is correct, the only states left where you can still register to vote are Connecticut (14) and California (15). Millions have disenfranchised themselves already through sloth, apathy and carelessness. Their places in the voting booth will be taken on November 2 by those who vote more than once (no ID required), and those who are dead and have sent stand-ins.

Then their freedom of speech has been hijacked too, not by terrorists, but by their own inaction, because if I hear any complaining about the president in the next four years, I've got a roll of duct tape I'd like to use. . .