1131 The Jackson Family Circus

Even ignoring this story as I have done, yesterday it was difficult to turn on the TV and not find breathless anticipation and nonsensical speculation. Is it just me, or did the media get this one about as right as it gets the Iraq stories? Do they just talk to each other for spin?

"In one fell swoop, the jury rendered its verdict and acquitted Michael Jackson of all charges. The aftermath of the verdict from a media perspective is stunning. Journalists from more than 34 countries around the world had gathered around this small courthouse in Santa Maria, California, and had set up shop in makeshift tents. Print journalists, radio broadcasters, television anchors, cameras, crews, technicians, producers, bookers had all set up shop on the asphalt in the parking lot of the courthouse. You staked your claim to a piece of parking lot and called it home for several months. Yet immediately after the verdict was announced, the place started to empty. Crews packed up, journalists left, and the media began to leave town. The frenzy died down almost instantly." MSNBC Susan Filan

These high profile cases are ridiculous. I thought there wasn't enough evidence to convict Scott Peterson, but the jury hated him because he was scum, so he was guilty. Any other man in his forties inviting little boys to his home and sleeping with them would be guilty, but the jury hated the boy's idiot mother, so he is not guilty. I think my faith in the jury system would be stronger if they weren't allowed to interview the jury afterwards.

1130 Architectural Digest Cover

John McCain and his rich trophy wife are on the cover of this month's Architectural Digest. Even with the record of the Kennedys and the Clintons, I think the Democrats fare better in the marriage marathon. McCain's first wife Carol worked for his release all those years, hid from him her terrible health problems caused by an accident so he wouldn't worry in prison, and then he drops her and marries within the month. Sweet. The marriage was "broken," he claims. Well, I guess! It would have been at least a kindness to pretend loyalty and fidelity for a year or so to let the poor woman save face. Without his current wife's money and connections, he wouldn't be where he is today--on the cover of my second favorite magazine--with awards and medals on the wall behind them. Doesn't fool me.

"It seems that McCain, who had once revealed to fellow prisoners of war in Vietnam that he wanted to be president, was restless in 1979. As Navy liaison to the Senate, he didn't have the career momentum he had counted on to propel him into an admiralty and on to the White House. He was 42, mired in stifling ordinariness. (Civilians call it "midlife crisis.")

But McCain was making bold career moves on the home front, hotly pursuing a 25-year-old blond from a wealthy Arizona family -- while married. Carol, his wife at the time, had once been quite a babe herself apparently, until a near-fatal car accident (while her husband was in Vietnam) left her 4 inches shorter, overweight and on crutches. The couple had three children, whom Carol cared for alone while her husband was in Vietnamese prisons.

McCain's strategy worked perfectly: After chasing Cindy Hensley around the country for six months, he closed the deal late in the year, had a divorce by February and was married to Hensley shortly thereafter. Bingo! McCain was a candidate for Congress by early 1982, his coffers full, his home in the proper Arizona district purchased." Jennifer Sweeney, Mothers who think.

Behind every great man--is a babe or two.

1129 The Media Generation

The Kaiser Family Foundation reports on the media and your children (too late for mine--they're adults). Sounds like someone needs to get out in the sunshine more, don't you think? Buy them a pony the next time they ask for a gadget that blasts music or plays games.

"A national Kaiser Family Foundation survey found children and teens are spending an increasing amount of time using “new media” like computers, the Internet and video games, without cutting back on the time they spend with “old” media like TV, print and music. Instead, because of the amount of time they spend using more than one medium at a time (for example, going online while watching TV), they’re managing to pack increasing amounts of media content into the same amount of time each day.

The study, Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year-olds, examined media use among a nationally representative sample of more than 2,000 3rd through 12th graders who completed detailed questionnaires, including nearly 700 self-selected participants who also maintained seven-day media diaries."

You can read this as a news release, a summary (41 p.), or you can read the whole thing, if you aren't busy with a video game or blogging. You can also listen to the report.

Just a few years ago, we were wringing our hands about the "digital divide" among children, but evil capitalists rose to the challenge and have taken care of that, and the increase is greater in homes of minorities and low income families than in higher socio-economic educated households. You can now buy a computer for under $300 that cost me over $2500 eleven years ago.

"The majority of young people from each of the major ethnic and socio-economic groups now have Internet access at home, and the increase from 1999 has been higher among children and adolescents of color and those from lower socio-economic levels. For example, over the past five years there has been an increase of nearly 40 percentage points in home access among children whose parents have a high school education or less (from 29% to 68%), compared to an increase of just under 20 percentage points among those whose parents have a college or graduate degree (from 63% to 82%)." (Summary, chapter 13)

The lower income kids go on-line less often, which probably makes them the advantaged group now. They're hanging out with their friends, visiting grandma or going to church, maybe. Kids still read, but the ones with TVs in their bedrooms (probably the richer kids) read less than those who don't have them. The kids who really get into video games read more than the ones who don't.

1128 Final plans

We're going back to the funeral home this morning to finish our "pre-need" plans. We've learned a lot through this process and talked about things that just never came up in 45 years of marriage. For instance, flat, markerless cemeteries that look like prairies with urns of plastic flowers have little appeal, but we both liked the mausoleum, something we'd never considered. Some areas we just never came to an agreement, so we've pledged, "I'll do what you want, if you'll do what I want." No amount of talking was going to budge either of us.

One thing (among many) we didn't know is that you can't buy these services before needed--but you can purchase an insurance policy that covers in detail what you have selected, whether that is next week or in 30 years. Yes, you can designate an account from which all these expenses would be paid, but just make sure your spouse or children have access to it.

We also learned that although no one in our family was too excited about our pre-planning (reactions ranged from "What's wrong, are you sick?" to "No, no, no, don't even talk to me."), our pastoral staff was delighted. They have faced this problem with baffled and grieving parishioners many times, and they believe making the arrangements before you need them is a priceless gift to your family members.

We also don't agree on all the paragraphs in the Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care (Ohioans can download a copy free, so don't pay for one), particularly the hydration/nutrition clauses. Some of the most recent 2004/2005 research from medical journals I've printed out says withdrawing hydration causes unneccesary pain and discomfort and doesn't affect the outcome. The Living Will (included with the DPOA) appears to be a very scary document, and had no appeal to either of us, so we aren't using that.

You don't have to search too far through the medical literature to find that doctors and "experts" disagree on pallative care. Here's how I see it. Dehydration in a non-terminal patient causes immense suffering and complications, so why add that to the burden of the dying patient? There is plenty of research to show that hydration makes the patient more comfortable, and it does not extend the life of the dying.

Both these documents, the DPOA and the Living Will, link "artifically or technologically supplied nutrition or hydration." I think you need to look very carefully at that and read the research. The Journal of Clinical Oncology, April 1, 2005, v. 23, n.10 reported there is a disconnect between what is done in the clinical setting and what is done in hospice, but "studies suggest that hydration can reduce neuropsychiatric symptoms such as sedation, hallucinations, myoclonus, and agitation."

No matter what you select for a funeral, even cremation, or buying your casket from Montana and using it as a bookshelf until needed--it isn't cheap. So you might as well make the decision when you are not traumatized, ill or overwhelmed with grief. Even the death certificates cost $15-25 (depends on the state), and you'll need one for each bank or financial institution.

Oh yes, something else we learned: obituaries are more expensive on the week-ends, so die on Monday if possible.

1127 Small, shrinking comfort

Apparently the Australians have discovered that even though your brain starts shrinking after age 60, that doesn't impair your cognitive functions. Oh yeah? Just where do they think those brain parts are going? In men, they go to their ears and nose(s), and in women they settle either on their waists or thighs, whichever area they've been battling all their lives. I'm using my extra 10-15 pounds as a cheap cosmetic solution to fill out my facial wrinkles, but I'm suspecting my brain cells have settled on my waist. All my life my waist has been too small to wear with the clothing size my hips demanded. Even in the days I wore a size 8 jeans (now memorialized in my clothing archives), the waist gapped. Now when I put my hands on my hips to display the body language of "I don't believe you just said that," there is a roll of flesh protruding between my index and middle fingers. Brain matter, most likely. Mystery solved, because my honed reference skills can still figure out the more important problems of the world, even if I can't understand the Jackson verdict.

1126 Look out Christians; we’ve got us a live one

The new crime drama, The Closer, starring Kyra Sedgwick playing a CIA-trained interrogator who takes over an almost all male special police homicide unit in Los Angeles, premiered tonight. We watched it and found the main character, Brenda Johnson, the super-sweet, quirky Southern Belle quite convincing. Sort of a female Lt. Columbo with quirks and surprises and hunches.

But Oh surprise, surprise! The murderer is a “good Catholic girl,” pure and virginal who still lives with her mother, and is so homophobic that she smashes the victim beyond recognition when she discovers her “lover” is a lesbian.

There were no commercials, just product placement--and of course, that obvious anti-Christian bias. But that’s becoming increasingly common, particularly in crime shows.

Photo of Sedgwick as Brenda Johnson

1125 A Homeschooler looks back

Brian gave us a wonderful summary of his year of teaching. Now MaMa T tosses the catalogs into the trash and gives us a look back at 12 years of homeschooling her son. Very touching. Lucky kid. Lucky Mom.

1124 There's good news from Iraq, including libraries

Arthur Chrenkoff is an Australian who keeps track of the stories you don't see or hear and periodically reports on them. The most recent account is at the OpinionJournal today and at his blog, Chrenkoff.

Checking one of his sources (USAID), I noticed this item about libraries: "University facilities, such as libraries, computer and science laboratories, lecture halls, and buildings, have been rehabilitated at colleges of law, engineering, medicine, archeology, and agriculture. In addition, books and electronic resources have been provided to university libraries."

1123 Why are Democrats asking for return of the Draft?

Dr. Sanity asks and answers this question.

"It is only the Demoncrats who have need of one, so that they can once again climb up to that moral highground they may have once held during the Vietnam war. Their party is anchored to the spot 40+ years ago, when they actually stood for freedom and cared about the rights of individual. I agreed with them back then, and opposed the military draft (although I did not oppose the war), which I believe has no place in a free society.

But those days are long gone. Democrats now feel most comfortable in the position of encouraging pathetic victimhood (like most of the Left) and there is nothing they'd like more than to have a military draft (which they will keep introducing) so that they can revert to being the stalwart defenders of the the poor and helpless victims of the evil military industrial complex again."

1122 Speed limits and traffic cushions

The news today is reporting that law enforcement is allowing a 10+ mph cushion above the 65 mph limit on most major highways, which is dangerous and inconsistent. It's been about 10 years since Congress increased the speed limit from 55 to 65 mph.

It's virtually impossible to find unbiased statistics on what all these limits, no-limits fiddling means (although I only spent 3 minutes looking through Google, it didn't take long to size up the politics of it). It's a real political football.

My recollection is the speed-limits were reduced to 55 mph not for safety, but to conserve gasoline back during the shortage in the later 1970s. As a parent with young children in the back seat I immediately noticed how much smoother and less traumatic driving to Indianapolis became. We had become so accustomed to seeing accidents and emergency vehicles and to long back-ups and traffic snarls that the amazing transformation after the 55 mph limits was very pleasant. Even congested urban areas smoothed out. The reduction in deaths on the highway was sort of by-product, at least that's how I remember it.

Now everyone is using statistics to try to prove a point--cars are safer, fewer deaths; more cell-phones so drivers are distracted at any speed; more miles travelled than 30 years ago, thus more deaths, and so on. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure out a drunk driver is more dangerous at 65 + a 10 mph cushion than he would be at 55 or that talking on your cell phone at 65 + a 10 mph cushion makes you even more likely to mess up.

We Americans are still killing more young people on the highways than "insurgents" are in Iraq. It wouldn't hurt, and might actually save some lives to go back to 55. Or at least enforce the 65. If he's your kid, the pain is the same.

Illinois: ". . .300 additional accidents per month in rural Illinois, with associated increases in deaths and injuries. This impact was apparent on both 65 and 55 mph roads. There is some evidence of traffic diversion from 55 to 65 mph highways plus traffic generation and speed spillover." Accid Anal Prev. 1995 Apr;27(2):207-14.

New Mexico: "The rate of fatal crashes in the 1 year after the speed limit was increased was 2.9 per 100 million vehicle-miles traveled, compared with a predicted rate of 1.5 per 100 million vehicle-miles based on the trend of the 5 previous years." JAMA Vol. 262 No. 16, October 27, 1989

Israel: "After the raise, speeds rose by 4.5%–9.1%. Over 5 years, there was a sustained increase in deaths (15%) and case fatality rates (38%) on all interurban roads. Corresponding increases in deaths (13%) and case fatality (24%) on urban roads indicated "speed spillover." " April 2004, Vol 94, No. 4, American Journal of Public Health 568-574

California: Death rates decreased with the change to higher limits, however in the first year the average mph only changed about one mile. In other areas, "In the first two years of higher limits, the number of fatal accidents increased 8.7 percent over the previous two years on the 2,317 miles of highway where limits were raised from 55 mph to 65 mph. Fatal accidents increased 9.7 percent on the 1,297 miles of highway where limits went from 65 mph to 70 mph. Relatively few people, however, are killed on freeways, with most dying on surface roads where hazards such as cross- traffic and the lack of center dividers raise the risk." SFGate

1121 Some Sanity on enabling behaviors

Dr. Sanity in response to a claim that Feminists don't kill anyone so why not focus your energies on something more important.

" . . .it is not enough to focus on just the drinking of the alcoholic, a good therapist must also deal with the environment of the alcoholic and people in that environment(the psychosocial supports) that enable that alcoholic--i.e., who buy him the alcohol, who encourage him to drink it etc. If you fail to do that, then your intervention is in vain. Or, let's take the latest public obsession--the Michael Jackson trial as an example. Whatever Michael Jackson was or wasn't doing with those young boys was hardly a mystery to the boys' mothers and/or families, which had to be complicit and enable Jackson's behavior (the kids didn't get to the Ranch on foot, nor did they stay overnight without permission). No, it served the purposes of the parents to enable Jackson's behavior. It serves the purposes of the Feminists et al, to ignore the brutality of Islam towards women, in favor of demanding that the Harvard President whimper and wallow before them in abject apology for remarks that were scientifically justified."

Dr. Sanity's blog on enabling terrorists

1120 Sounds just like my kitchen

"Since it opened in 1986, Rigsby's has continually reinvented itself, offering new dishes on a regular basis and challenging the palates of its customers. But now, in celebration the many changes that have taken place in the Short North area, it has undergone an all-out face-lift, modifying its name to the more homey-sounding "Kitchen." Along with a high-tech, marble-topped bar with groovy retro chairs. . ." City Guides

I've always wanted to eat there, but never have, and now it sounds like my kitchen, marble-topped bar, retro chairs and called "kitchen." Our chairs are REALLY retro--we bought the set in 1963, Paul McCobb, walnut stain. Marble is just plain awful in a kitchen. Pretty but not durable. Don't ever get it.

1119 Too Ugly to blog about

When I read Debra Burlingame's article last week, the story was so ugly, I didn't finish taking notes on the story or record my own thoughts. You probably won't read about it in the evening paper or see it on MSM, but the World Trade Center Memorial has been hijacked.

Cox & Forkum
Buzz Machine
Michelle Malkin
Little Green Footballs
Take Back the Memorial
SISU

1118 Where are they now?

Over at LISNews, Brian says he is shocked "by the decrease in education and funding to support school libraries." Not me. I'm shocked that conservatives continue to support the administration's thowing money at education when there is no evidence that this is the problem! Bush has spent far more on education than Clinton did. Even the NCLB was essentially demanding that schools live up to the standards and goals they had set instead of ignoring the poorest and the weakest.

Last week Milton Friedman in the WSJ pondered the dropping SATs since 1970. He mentioned several dates, but didn't seem to connect a lot of dots: 1965 NEA converted from a professional association to a trade union; 1983 "A Nation at Risk" was published spawning even more government attempts to fix education; defeating voucher system in California in 1993 and 2000. Friedman never mentions the changes in the lives of women during this period.

Let's go back to the early 1970s. Abortion becomes legal and the feminist movement really builds up steam. Possibly the brightest and best were aborted--I mean over 30 million Americans who were the spawn of young college bound and career women just disappeared. (Poor and minority women didn't really get on that bandwagon right away. They still believed that children were their future, not a glass ceiling job.) We'll never know what their contributions could have been or how they might have influenced the scores and results of school testing. Then when their putative mothers did have families, many of those later-in-life children were put in the care of less capable women during their important formative years.

I don't think there's enough federal money in Washington to fix the mess of the last 30 years, much of it created by women.

1999
2001
2003
2004

1117 Just don't call him late for lunch

Howard Dean is quite successful at getting himself and the DNC into the news--like the ignored toddler who will take any attention he can get, even negative, just to get noticed. David Freddoso over at NRO uses Dean's pearls to turn a nice phrase:

". . . now I don’t think it’s spin anymore. Howard Dean is just totally nuts.”

"[he] calls Republicans “evil,” “corrupt” and “brain-dead” “liars” who “never made an honest living in their lives” and “are not nice people.”. . . But Dean assures us, “We’re not going to stoop to the kind of divisiveness that the Republicans are doing.” Quite a relief!"

"There is much legitimate debate over what makes for a good party chairman, but one criterion that nearly everyone can agree on is that he should not be his party’s greatest liability."

"When Dean starts speaking, even Barney Frank gets nervous and starts looking for the door."

"Dean will have to do the same thing [as the RNC with $30.1 million] with only $7.4 million and a foot wedged tightly in his mouth."

". . .the good doctor has worked with such zeal alienating voters and contributors that Republicans can only sit back and enjoy."

Don't get too smug guys. This looks too easy.

Update, June 12, LA Times: "Recycling old saws about the GOP being the party of the rich ignores the fact that one of the reasons the Democrats have been faring so poorly in recent elections is that they've lost the white working-class vote. If Dean spent his time pointing to inequitable tax policies that punish the middle class and reward the rich, or dwelling on the costs of restricting stem cell research, that would be one thing. Instead, he is indulging in outdated caricatures of Republican voters. So far, Dean has done a good job of pulling the party together — the Republican Party."

1116 The Columbus Rose Festival

When we moved here 38 years ago, we went around to see all the local sights and sites--Old Man's Cave, German Village, Park of Roses, and some of the state parks. But then regular life set in and I think I'd only been back to Whetstone Park where the Festival of Roses is held a few times to watch my kids play soccer.

This week-end is the 19th Annual Festival of Roses at the Park of Roses, which was established in the early 1950s, in the Clintonville area of Columbus. Although it was a little overcast and drizzled a few times, it was a perfect morning for Bev and me to browse the lovely rose gardens and many floral memorials. There are 11,000 rose bushes and 350 varieties of roses. There were numerous vendors of community action groups, local restaurants, artists and clubs in tents along the brick sidewalks. The Festival is today and tomorrow, but the roses will continue to be on view. The two day event is free and draws 25,000 visitors. We spent about two hours oooing and aaahing, bought a sandwich and drink from a vendor which we ate under a tree on a picnic bench, and then Bev drove me through some of her favorite neighborhoods in Clintonville.

One of my favorite rose bushes was next to the guys in the Dixieland Band where we stopped to chat (I like a good trombone). I noticed the plaque said, "Forth of July." I asked Bev if she thought it was misspelled or if it meant "forth" in another meaning "out in view" or "out of." We meant to ask a guide, but forgot. The Dispatch gallery of photos of the roses lists a "Fourth of July" variegated that looks just like the one we admired, however.


Fourth of July

1115 Basic Black is Back

Oh goody. Basic black is back for fall. I can whip out that black number I bought in 2001 with the sparkly bodice. I think I've only worn it three times. I've never had the reason or opoortunity to buy the feminine, colorful frocks popular the past few years.

There are color czars or forecasters that decide all this for us--popular colors don't just happen. In home decorating, what we used to call "avocado green" is now "wasabi green." But black is black--I don't know if they've found a way to rename it. Widow's weeds black. Coal miner black. Horsefly black. Tar baby black. I mean, black is black, right? About every 3 or 4 years, the fashion people proclaim that the little black dress is back. I'm ready for them this year--now I just need an invitation.

I do like the swingy, floral and colorful skirts cut on the bias or a circle I see the young women wearing, topped with dressy t-shirts and short jackets and high heels. They brush the knee, show off the legs, move gracefully, and they are so feminine. And so 2004 apparently.

1114 Second hand porn

The Lion's Den, a local (chain?) "adult" porn store has a large print ad for "turn your stash into cash" in the newspaper. Yes, you can get cash for all those gently used and abused magazines and DVDs. What a disgusting way to use perfectly good trees and energy resources.

I wonder how the obituaries of porn industry CEOs read? Do they write their own or leave it up to a family member to fill it with euphemisms? Do they die without a verb?

1113 Beyond concrete and plastic

Have you ever seen someone putting out such effort that you wanted to stop and shake her hand or give him an award ribbon? Yesterday I saw two such people.

1) A Chinese immigrant (and I'm sure this was her ethnicity and status) who works in the shopping center at Jasonway and Bethel in Columbus was carrying water across the parking lot to water a garden she had built on the narrow grassy strip between the parking lot and road. The soil was mounded up inside planks and she'd probably purchased and brought it there, and the little plot was about 6' x 6'. I don't know if it is a vegetable garden or a flower garden because the plants are only about 6 inches high and I was traveling about 35 mph. I'm guessing she carries water to it every morning before starting work (I saw her about 7:30 a.m.), or takes it there during her break.

2) While passing through Delaware, Oh I saw a man laboriously walking behind his wheelchair through a grassy field--about the size of a football field, only not as well groomed. He was moving each leg with great effort. If you've ever tried to wheel a bicycle through grass, you get the idea how difficult this was for him. I've seen disabled people push their wheelchairs on sidewalks or in malls for exercise, but never in a bumpy field of weeds. Whether his car was at one end or the other, he'd have to make the trip across and back.

1112 Friday Feast 51

Appetizer
Name one thing that made you sad this week.
We had a phone call Saturday from the wife of a good friend. I've never met her, but she was going through her husband's files calling people who didn't know about his unexpected and sudden death. He lived with us about 33 years ago and really livened up our household.

Soup
What was the last object (not person) you took a picture of?
In May I took photos of our flowering magnolia "bush" which is really taller than our house. It was truly magnificent, but the photos didn't do it justice.

Salad
Who do you talk to when you need help in making a decision?
My friend Nancy keeps up on fashion trends and good buys for the home--she reads a lot and those are topics I don't pay much attention to. But for technology I check with our daughter--not gamer-generation stuff, but things like cell phones, answering machines and DVD players. For spiritual advice, we see a pastor/friend we've known for 30 years.

Main Course
If you were a weather event, what would you be, and why?
I would most likely be a partly-sunny, or partly-cloudy forecast. This makes me perfect for living in the midwest--Illinois, Indiana and Ohio--where we only have about 40% of the days in full sunshine.

Dessert
Suggest a website that you think your readers would enjoy visiting.
I visit a number of sites every day or once a week--like Belmont Club, Captain's Quarters, City Journal, First Things, and most of the Ladies I list on my links.

Friday Feast is located here.

1111 A teacher reflects on the last day of school

Brian, a middle school teacher, writes An Audience of One . Yesterday he reflected on the last day of school.

“This year is in the books now. I won't forget it for a variety of reasons. I had a successful professional year, not letting all of my inner turmoil affect my work to any great degree. I gained the respect of my colleagues. I worked with a lot of children and grew to love them. I formed good relationships with scores of parents. My principal approved of the work I did. All of that is something that gives me a very good feeling. I'm proud of what I accomplished professionally this year. I always am. I must be a lucky man to have always loved my job every year of my professional life. I've crossed paths with hundreds of teachers and many thousands of children. They've taught me many things and enriched my life. I keep saying it so much that I sound like a broken record--I wish it was transferrable to the other areas of my life. . .

I started so long ago with a head still full of hair and idealism pulsing through my veins. I wanted to make a difference in the lives of kids. I wanted to notice them like I craved to be noticed as a shy, soft-spoken, child. I knew I'd never get rich, but I've been enriched in ways that matter a helluva lot more than that green stuff people obsess about. I won't be counting my money on my deathbed. I'll be counting my memories. If I had it to do all over again, I'd do it in a New York minute.”

I haven't read enough of his blog to know what the inner turmoil is all about, but I'm glad he feels good about his life's purpose. I loved my career as an academic librarian, and although I was mentioned in a few prefaces and acknowledgements in theses, there will be no life time impact on others like a good teacher in the early years has, or a college professor who is a mentor for careers to come. I had a few teachers like Brian--his students are very lucky.

1110 The Methodists are Coming!

We're off to the lake to prep the cottage for the Methodists--Ohio East and Ohio West. We only rent two weeks of the summer and the United Methodists conferences in Ohio have their annual meeting there. I've never been there during those weeks, but I've heard the place swarms and bustles, the restaurants are packed, and the shops do the majority of their business in two weeks (sounds like Christmas season, doesn't it?).

So, I put all our personal items away and remove the food from the kitchen cabinets. It shouldn't be such a big deal but think about removing all your personal toiletries and clothes and food stocks from your home and storing them someplace, and you'll see the problem. In the last few years, the back seat of my van has doubled as a storage closet.

We're having a hot spell here (90s, humid) and there will probably be summer storms. We'll slip down to the Lake for a few minutes, maybe with an ice-cream cone, to catch the breeze.

1109 The Cheerful Oncologist

Considering my own experience with oncologists (my daughter's thyroid cancer), "cheerful" is not the adjective that comes to mind. However, when I was working I always enjoyed reading the poetry and essays published by doctors in the medical journals (usually the last page). Many are beautiful writers. The Cheerful Oncologist really has some thought provoking posts. I liked this thought in "Tell me that you'll wait for me."

"All of us have a one-way ticket out of here. As we drift off to sleep tonight, let us give thanks for the opportunity to serve those who are ahead of us in line, as we ask those behind us to do the same when our flight number is called."

1108 Medical Marijuana

This is not a topic on which I am even minimally informed, but I'll weigh in anyway. I've never understood why conservatives are against using marijuana to releave suffering and pain, especially considering the devastating side effects of some prescribed pain meds. And please don't tell me it's because pharmaceutical companies (owned by eeeeviiiil Republicans) don't want the competition from something cheap and natural. We hear that about every vaccine and miracle drug that comes down the pike--what would happen to this particular health care bureaucracy if a disease were really cured. I worked in a medical library for over 14 years and constantly browsed the serials, and let me assure you there are plenty of diseases re-emerging (just check out this month's CDC's Emerging Infectious Diseases on my links) or today's article in WSJ about the increase in drug resistant TB. The real danger is the left killing off incentive to invest in R & D and the health care industry.

However, medical marijuana doesn't have the poisoning side effects or even the addictive powers of many of the chemical potions we've created in the lab. I have a relative who's had two major surgeries (different body parts) in the last 3 years, and both times had to take special treatments to get her off the pain killer addictions even though she was extremely careful.

More disturbing to conservatives should be the Supreme Court seeing this as the commerce clause and striking it down for that reason.

"Writing for the court majority, Justice John Paul Stevens said the case was "troubling" because of users' claims that they needed marijuana to alleviate physical pain and suffering. But he concluded that the court had no choice but to uphold Congress's "firmly established" power to regulate "purely local activities . . . that have a substantial effect on interstate commerce." " WaPo article June 7

Makes you wonder what the Supremes were smoking while coming up with this.

1107 Party Hardy

Staying up late, partying and eating poorly can all increase those dark circles under your eyes. But so can gravity, heredity, skin color and the natural aging process which decreases the fat pads under your eyes. (I'd love to have a fat transfer from my thighs to my eyes.)

Now there is some hope for your dark circles and spider veins with Vitamin K cream. I'm kind of wondering how this works, because I know you're not supposed to eat food high in Vitamin K when you take a blood thinner like Coumadin. Those foods are liver, broccoli, brussels sprouts, and green leafy vegetables (e.g., spinach, Swiss chard, coriander, collards, cabbage). It must decrease the little blood vessels breaking up. So if you eat more greens, could you skip the cream? This one costs $27 for 2.5 oz.

1106 Left or Right?

I can't tell if this t-shirt supports the left or right. I thought the left loved Che. Does this mean they love our vice president, too?

1105 Medical malpractice?

Even the pro-abortion folks have to be turned off with the pain these babies suffered before their lives were snuffed out by their teen-age parents.

"A 19-year-old accused of causing his teenage girlfriend to miscarry two fetuses by stepping on her stomach was convicted Monday of two counts of murder."

His girlfriend, 17, who asked him to do it so she could abort her babies, was not charged. Apparently, her participation was just legal "choice," but his was murder. Story here.

"Erica Basoria, 17, acknowledged asking Flores to help end her pregnancy; she could not be prosecuted because of her legal right to abortion. The defence contended that Basoria punched herself while Flores was stepping on her, making it impossible to tell who caused the miscarriage."

At most, he was practicing medicine without a license, or having kinky sex outside of the red light district, or having sex with a minor, but murder? The guy in Utah who murdered his pregnant wife and buried her in a garbage dump wasn't sentenced for killing the baby--and he only got 6 years.

I hope you pro-abortion folks are pleased with the slime pit filled with human blood and flesh at the end of the slippery slope.

1104 A hopeful look at Iraq's future

Michael Yon's site has wonderful photographs of Dohuk and a peek into what we can hope will be the kind of future for all Iraqis.

"Approaching Dohuk, a short drive north of Mosul, brings to mind the countryside in Italy. The war is over in Dohuk. After suffering perhaps a half century of fighting, the people have finally gotten the peace they wanted long ago. With the old Iraqi government vanquished, Dohuk is thriving. In fact, this Iraqi city appears to be doing at least as well as--perhaps remarkably better than--many comparably-sized towns in Italy. A visit to this place affords more than a break from the rugged routine of war; it also provides a postcard of a possible future for all of Iraq."

Continue reading

1103 Hurricane Season, 2005

I haven't forgotten the storms of last year, and Floridians certainly haven't. Ivan devastated and flooded parts of Ohio, and PA and W VA were also a mess. However, Doyle comments on a squabble between the government sponsored weather agencies and the private companies that repackage that information using our tax funded NWS. I'm not so sure we need NPR or gov't sponsored children's programming for TV, but I'd really feel more secure if we not privatize the bad weather.

1102 There’s a new term in town--Exempt Media

It’s probably been invented by Captain Ed, because most blogs link back to him eventually when using the term “exempt media.” I think it means the mainstream media or MSM. What exactly they are exempt from (standards? good writing? handsome incomes? ethics? supervision?) I’m not sure. I did find a tax code that refers to exempt media, but that was about restaurant menu boards which for tax purposes were not to be considered in the same class as newspapers, TV, graphic advertising, etc. I suppose it is possible that the term derived from the suggestion that the MSM really weren’t communicating at all. Both the “define:” function in Google and the Wikipedia told me there was nothing on this term. But here are some results from my search:

“The Exempt Media is dying for one reason. They abandoned journalism in order to advance the Gramscian Marxist agenda. Nobody believes their claims of impartiality any more. The only effect of their impartiality pose is that they refrain from serving up the kind of "blue meat" that Kos, Atrios and Willis regurgitate on a daily basis.” Buzz Machine

Jack Shafer pens an interesting look at the similarities and differences between blogs and the Exempt Media, and postulates that parity may be coming between the two. In his opinion, the Schiavo memo shows that both sides can get stories equally incorrect, and that both sides should have the latitude to do so -- as long as corrections are published in a quick manner: Captain’s Quarters

First it was MSM, then it became CM (Corporate Media), courtesy of CJR Daily (Thank you ... thank you very much ... but please hold the applause until the waiters clear the tables of the rock-hard dinner rolls ...) And now it's EM (Exempt Media), courtesy of Captain Ed? Exempt from what, exactly? Apparently not criticism, thank God. CJR Daily

1101 Self Control

Occasionally something during the sermon strikes home--and it may not at all be what the pastor intended. Our pastors were finishing up a sermon series on Fruits of the Spirit, and Self-Control was the final topic (10 services, various pastors). Sylvia and I attended the 8:30 at Lytham (Pastor Jeff) and the 10:00 at Mill Run (Pastor Dave), and although technically we are one church, the sermons and locations of the buildings were miles apart. Jeff commented almost in passing that when he asks parishoners what areas of their lives are out of control they usually respond either eating or finances.

The Christian church is not growing in Europe or the United States (which makes one wonder about the hysteria on the left about evangelicalism). Christians are suffering from the same secular and cultural problems like gambling, habit and substance addictions and divorce as any other group. However, the church is growing by leaps and bounds in South America, Africa and China. The faith grows amongst the poorest of the poor in part because Christianity often elevates the level of living where ever it sprouts, especially if it is persecuted (which may be why we should thank the hot-headed lefties in this country). But I can't imagine anyone in a thriving third world church saying that eating too much or spending too much was the primary concern of their Christian witness. In fact, I can't imagine that young American Christians like my parents in the 1930s would have even thought that.

1100 Throwing bad money after worse

Usually you say throwing "good money after bad" to mean wasting more money than you already have in hopes of recovering a loss, but I don't think Harvard's President can win at all at this "woman problem" because the team he's on, the liberals, have created it. Now he has created a $50 million flush fund (I started to type "slush" but slipped, and think I like this one better) for gender diversity when Harvard has already spent millions beating the bushes looking for qualified women and minorities.

"Even Harvard’s bottomless resources cannot buy a miracle, however. So instead of a magician, the university has brought forth the next best thing: a report on “diversity” that, like all such products, possesses the power of shutting down every critical faculty in seemingly intelligent people. For connoisseurs of diversity claptrap, Harvard’s just released “Report of the Task Force on Women Faculty” is a thing of beauty, a peerless example of the destruction of higher learning by identity politics. Because the report will undoubtedly serve as the template for future diversity scams in colleges across the country, it’s worth studying." City Journal's Heather MacDonald. McDonald outlines the plan: 1) Collective amnesia; 2) a new bureaucracy; 3) subdivide the Big zero into little zeros; and 4) rechristen all the diversity words.

I don't really care how Harvard chooses to waste its private alumni funds, but you just know this will slop over eventually into the federally funded grants for science and research and state supported schools (i.e. you and I will end up paying for this folly). Less qualified candidates are going to receive research grants, tenured faculty positions, and appointments on university committees just because he let slip in public what most people, even women, believe. Men and women are different. Not unequal, but different. This means down the road, a woman will receive a worse education or carry an untreated disease because Lawrence Summers blabbed the truth.

I'm already feeling more safe, listened to, and valued, aren't you?

Full report of the Task Force here.

Week-end Activities

My friend Sylvia is staying with us this week-end. We met when we were about 6 years old, attended the same church, elementary and secondary schools, camp and college (Manchester). Also she has relatives, the DeWalls, who are from Forreston, where I used to live. So nice to have a friend who shares your own history! Despite the time zone difference, she was up early to go out for coffee with me. I made a lame attempt at showing her the campus of Ohio State University, but everything was so torn up and there were so many new buildings (and it had been awhile since I was on the Oval), I don't think I did it justice. Taking the "short cut" to get home, we ended up in traffic thick and deep at what appeared to be a high school track and field event being held on campus and a graduation ceremony.

Also she was game to go to the art festival, an annual June event here in Columbus. I started to wilt after about two hours in the almost 90 degree heat. This event draws artists from all over the country. Sylvia is a musician so we stopped at a booth where the artist made small wooden stringed instruments played with a bow and he provided a demonstration. To my untrained ear they sounded a bit like a harpsicord. Another booth had hand made harps with beautiful inlaid celtic designs, but it also provided lovely CDs by the co-artist.

We visited the booth of Stephen Sebastian a North Carolina artist whose work we had purchased about 16 years ago, although his technique and style had changed so much I wasn't sure it was the same guy and was about to move on. He hollared out, yes it's me and said you have to keep changing to stay fresh. After 15 minutes in the shade and a lemonade, we were making the last lap back to the car and we stopped at the booth of Gary Curtis. We were so charmed by his watercolors of light reflecting on simple objects of glass, ceramic, metal, and fabric, that we purchased a print of one titled, "Communion." We recognized his work immediately because he has appeared in American Artist and Artist's Magazine.

There are three things you shouldn't bring to art festivals: 1) babies, who are miserable in the heat and frying their delicate skin in the sun; 2) dogs of any breed no matter how well behaved--I've yet to meet a dog who appreciated art shows and crowds; 3) your credit card. Just kidding about that last one.

After a brief nap, we went out for dinner at The Rusty Bucket, then headed to Sylvia's Columbus relatives who were celebrating the graduation of a daughter from Dublin Scioto High School. Tomorrow we'll attend church at both the Mill Run and Lytham Road campuses of UALC and see two more art shows.

1098 Friday Feast 50

Appetizer
What comes to mind when you hear the word bizarre?
The most recent scandal in Ohio comes to mind; it is about state employees' pension money being invested in coins and some of it has come up missing. Investing in coins? A pension fund? Story was developed by Toledo Blade.

Soup
Using just a few words, describe your childhood.
I couldn't wait to grow up and be on my own. I was independent, sassy, opinionated, and resented authority figures; I was studious, had lots of friends, but could play alone, loved horses and dogs; I always envied the girls with the stylish clothes, and disliked cliques but was in one. That's about 50 words. Is that "few?"

Salad
Name one thing you do each day that you feel improves your appearance.
I eat nutritious, fresh foods, take vitamins, stay out of the sun, and don't smoke. That's more than one, but good habits come in a package.

Main Course
On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how would you rate your self-confidence?
Depends on the task. Playing a trombone would be a 1; riding a horse a 1; but achieving my plans for retirement would be a 9. Obviously, I didn't include playing in a band or trail riding in that.

Dessert
Where did you last find a bargain?
I bought a handsome book on cowboy art for $2 at the library sale on Tuesday. Good quality paper and color, no damage, and it still has its book jacket.

Friday Feast site here.

1097 Who's the real Dummy?

Not us, says Walter Mossberg. He answers questions about technology in his column "Mossberg's Mailbox" in the Wall Street Journal. He assures his readers (in print, didn't see this at his web site):

"You are not a dummy no matter what those computer books claim. The real dummies are the people who, though technically expert, couldn't design hardware and software that's usable by normal consumers if their lives depended upon it."

Visit his website for help with your computer.

1096 Raising Awareness--Darfur

Save Darfur is a coalition of 129 organizations including Amnesty International and National Council of churches which tries to educate the public through ads, speeches, rallies, banners, yard signs, etc. Those two organizations alone would keep me from contributing, as awful as I think that tragedy is.

Raising awareness is NOT action, it is not research, it is not a cure and it definitely isn't a political solution. And yet, how many times have you been asked to contribute money to a disease race, walk or a cause only to find that the money goes to perpetuate the organization which advertizes the problem? I know where this particular ad campaign is going, because I've watched it progress on the op-ed pages. At first the Darfur civil war was reported as a massacre by the light skinned Arab Moslem Janjaweed militia murdering, raping and slaughtering the black African Moslem Darfurians. Then later it was reported that the U.N. peacekeepers and observers were standing by doing nothing in Darfur. Then this week I noticed that Nicholas D. Kristoff said the United States was not acting against the atrocities in Sudan (never mind the public outrage on the left that we acted against the atrocities in Iraq--now we're supposed to spread to Africa).

Kristoff is moving quickly toward blaming George Bush personally, because Bush mentioned Sudan on January 10, but things have gotten worse. Bush has provided food and shelter for 2.2 million homeless Sudanese, but he has not intervened and stopped the slaughter with American troops. Watch. This is going to end up being George Bush's failure--not the U. N.'s, not the Moslem racists', and not greater Africa's. Kristoff wrote, "above all they need the international community to shame Sudan for killing and raping people on the basis of their tribe."

When was the last time international moral outrage stopped the rape of women during wartime? Kristoff started his article with the words of some nobody, an isolationist, who had written, and then he put those words into the mouth of George Bush. What? Who and which party have been the isolationists a la 1930s?

1095 The conundrum of time and gadgetry

An article in today's WSJ on the ever increasing complexity of gadgets and their accompanying inflation of costs in time and money for the user set me to thinking. What gadgets or inventions or improvements in technology have actually made my life easier, safer, simpler or faster since I married in 1960 (the year I declared myself an adult)? The author, Cameron Stracher, points out that there is no escape from life's hassles. If you speed it up one place, it just backs up and slows down somewhere else.

Here's my list of changes and improvements in the last 45 years that have actually saved time, wear and tear on my body, and improved the quality of my life. The corresponding list of said "improvements" that really haven't changed a thing in terms of quality or time saved is longer than the YES list, and grows every day.

In the YES column, the winners are:

Automatic garage door opener
Microwave kitchen appliance
Cordless phone
Central air conditioning
Warning lights in cars
automatic windshield washers and defrosters
automatic door locks in autos
Improved and longer wearing tires (safety, cost, etc.)
55 mph speed limit on interstates
portable, handheld hair dryers
velcro
permanent press and blended fabrics for clothing
TV remote with 2 buttons
card board file boxes with lids
one-use cameras
automatic defrost in refrigerators
flip top lids on cat food
advances in heart health--surgery and meds
improved picture tubes in TV (our newest set is about 15 years old)

In the NO column, the losers are
(OK, not exactly losers, but they haven't changed my life or health or given me more time to do other things)
computers
cell phones
VCR/DVD players
dishwasher
answering macines and voice mail
home security systems
automated grocery check-out
barcodes on merchandise and library books
TV remotes with 25 buttons
automated answering services in doctors' offices
"paperless office"
Digital camera
ATM
I-pod, mp3--any music conveyance beyond the cassette tape player
Any shopping gimmick invented after green stamps--coupons, sweepstakes, loyalty cards
Hanging screens in churches for reading text and hymns
Amplified sound in public spaces
ice makers
cable TV

Automobile improvements surprisingly topped my list, something I rarely think about. But between 1955 and 1965 I probably changed 5 or 6 flat tires. In recent years, I've had a few flats, but usually a slow leak with some warning, and have never been stranded on a highway thanks to improved tires and warning lights.

Your mileage may vary, but ask yourself how many time-saving devices really live up to their promises, or do you just spend more time reading manuals and replacing the hair you've pulled out?

1094 Wolfowitz on board at the World Bank

Jane Galt says, "The appalling poverty of Sri Lanka or Mozambique is not some bizarre aberration that can be tracked to a cause we can cure. We are the aberration; Sri Lanka and Mozambique are the normal state of human history. Trying to figure out how to reproduce those abnormal results in a couple hundred more countries is very, very hard. Fascinating, and unbelievably important. But tricky. If Paul Wolfowitz thought he was controversial before, wait until he tries to finance his first dam." Full article. And don't forget to read the comments.

Wolfowitz bio.

1093 Naked torsos, large

There are lots of words to cover a large lady, and Lane Bryant is one (or two). Owned by Charming Shoppes, a family of brands that specialize in "plus-size" clothing, Lane Bryant's headquarters are in Columbus. Lane Bryant was founded in 1904 by a young immigrant seamstress who must have had some foresight, because women are much heavier today than 100 years ago. Years ago, clothing for young, overweight girls was called "chubby," and for women I think it was "half" sizes. A 12 1/2 was for a plump, short size 12. Sizes for women used to be "juniors" and "misses" and now are usually just plain vanilla sizes (zero through 18) plus women's sizes, which are for large women, like 2X and so forth. Lane Bryant's sizes range from 14-28.

So today I'm looking at "AIA Columbus" (a section of The Daily Reporter) and I noticed a photograph of the new 135,000 sq.ft. Corporate Headquarters of Lane Bryant, decorated with large plus size naked mannequin torsos at the entrance of each office cubicle. These mannequins don't have particularly large bellies, as you might expect of a size 18, but they do have rather pendulous breasts. I think they represent the male fantasy of what a naked "plus size" lady should look like (no face, lots of chest), because they don't resemble any I've seen in the locker rooms and beaches of America. Sure, mannequins represent an ideal, and I occasionally see a naked anorexic mannequin in a store window (although you don't see many anymore), but I think seeing them in the hall at work would be a bit off-putting. Particularly for the female executives.

1092 How much for the school library?

I like organ music--wrote about the restoration of our church organ at my other, other blog. However, this story sounds like a less than useful way to spend FEMA funds:

"Over the years, Reseda [CA] Elementary's 900-pipe instrument has suffered through three earthquakes that damaged its internal workings — including the 1933 Long Beach temblor, which demolished the second floor of the original school building.

There was a repair job — financed by donations — in the years after the 1971 Sylmar earthquake. After the 1994 Northridge quake, organ technicians spent nearly two years restoring bent and mangled pipes. That $160,000 repair bill was covered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency." LA Times story here

The organ in the elementary school has been hidden behind a wall for years, and even now is only partially working. I think it is nice that these grade schoolers have a very expensive organ, but do they have a library?

Another organ restored with FEMA funds, but it sounds like the earthquake was just a timely event that allowed for restoration of a non-functioning organ.

1091 A slow newsweek?

Professional sports addiction and nicotine addictions are your own fault. Nobody forces you to do either as a pass time. I have no use for either, but recent stories about the San Francisco 49ers training film and the use of images attractive to women to sell cigarettes are just beyond belief. Primarily, both stories demonstrate the anti-business bias in our society.

Disclosure: I don’t smoke and I won’t own stock in any tobacco death-pushing company, nor will I watch a football game where grown men in pretty exercise outfits chase their balls and hug each other.

A locker room training film insults whom? The delicate psyches of 300 lb. football players hired to smash and injure the other guy? The film was never intended for the public. It was suppose to help them with the media--and God knows, they need that. Have you ever sat through one of those strategy interviews? "And uh, then, uh, weir gonna run, uh dah ba down dah feel and . . uh."

In the film an Asian guy mocks an. . .Asian‘s struggle with English using the double entendres we‘ve all heard a hundred times. Two women kiss after a phony wedding ceremony and it’s called Lesbian soft porn? Give me a break--it was San Francisco. What about the famous Britney Spears and Madonna kiss? And that was on TV. Glenn Beck says, if they’d just spun it as an anti-Bush clip on gay marriage, they would have been applauded.

The film was made with reverse psychology--how NOT to behave in diversity sensitive areas. I'm a prude, and I found it far less offensive than the Pepsico CFO middle finger speech, and she was insulting the entire United States, for no other reason than to be just “one of the blue state guys.” I think anything football is pretty silly--the games all look like reruns to me and are good only for napping as far as I’m concerned, but locker room jokes don’t affect me in my living room. Who put this stuff on the Internet? Was it stolen? What was his motive?

And the big cigarette expose. Long, tapered cigarettes were intended to attract more women to smoking. Well, duh! Isn’t that what marketing does--sell a product? Feminist scholars have been writing this stuff about advertising for 25 years. Why is it now just making it to the evening news? What about all the ladies’ girlfriends who told them when they were 15 that it was a good way to lose weight? Are teen-agers really reading ads in women’s magazines and reading billboards or are they gossiping with their girlfriends?

It must have been a very slow news day, or newsweek.

1090 The Democrats Plan to Take Back America

Los Angeles Mayor-elect Antonio Villaroigoso was quoted in today's paper as speaking to liberals and asking them to develop a more strategic or practical plan in their quest to "reclaim" America. I've noticed that conservative talk-show hosts like Michael Medved, Rush Limbaugh, and Hugh Hewitt actually encourage liberals to call in and speak to something, anything, specific. I'm wondering if it is cruel to bait them, or if the call screener just selects the most vocally vague and vacuous to put on the air. Surely there must be coherent Democrats out there who can speak to a specific plan that isn't just more of the same old same old. I used to be a Democrat and we didn't all cross over!

Medved asked this very question two days ago of a liberal caller: what specifically would you want your party to do to win back the White House and Congress. All the caller could do was babble something about "don't ask don't tell" (a Clinton plan, not Bush) and gay marriage. Medved kindly (or not) gave him enough rope to hang himself, and then reined him in and restated the question asking for specifics. This time he got something about "we are Christians too" (Medved is Jewish), so I'm not sure where he was going. Medved stated his question, slowly and carefully a third time, and still the caller couldn't develop a coherent thought.

Limbaugh uses this technique occasionally on his Friday call-ins. He gives liberals more time to answer or ask, and unless he determines they have been put up to the call, he just lets them embarrass themselves. It's a little like watching a drunk at a party trying to find a rest room, and then deciding it's just too much trouble.

If you glance to the left (no pun) at my links you'll see my link to News Talk 870 which is easy to listen to on your computer. We have very limited radio talk options here in Columbus, and it is nice to hear someone different occasionally, even if I do have to listen to the California weather and local politics reports. The Internet has really opened up the vast possibilities of radio, including radio blogging.

1089 Children and Self-Esteem

There was a USAToday Forum article by Christina Hoff Sommers today, titled "Children can handle failure." She and two other authors have a new book titled, "One Nation Under Therapy; How the Helping Culture is Eroding Self-Reliance."

She is interviewed at American Enterprise Online:

"Our schools of education promote the idea that high self-esteem is essential to academic achievement. But the concept is too poorly understood to be an appropriate classroom objective. High-school dropouts, burglars, car thieves, shoplifters, even murderers, are just as likely to have high self-esteem as the winners of the Congressional Medal of Honor or Rhodes Scholars.

In May 2003, four prominent academic psychologists published the first comprehensive review of the supposed benefits of self-esteem. They concluded that there was no significant connection between feelings of self worth and achievement, success in personal relationships, or healthy lifestyles.

The self-esteem movement has turned many classrooms into therapy centers rather than places of learning. Learning history, for instance, especially American history, has been radically transformed by the requirement that schools provide students with textbooks that enhance their self image. California subjects prospective textbooks to a social content review with the goal of determining whether the books "promote individual development and self-esteem." California is the largest textbook market in the country, so publishers selling their books in other states still tailor them to California's specifications. What happens is that students are sedated by what one critic called "textbook happy talk," and shortchanged academically."

The self-esteem mantra was going strong even when my children were little--even the Christian authors like Dobson got on the band wagon. So today's parents have not only their own upbringing to deal with, but apparently it is getting piled deeper and higher by the experts.

1088 Freedom to enjoy nature

Do you think today's children have the same freedom to play outdoors (riding bikes, hiking, playing in creeks, digging in dirt, etc.) that you had?

I suppose the answer would depend on your age and where you grew up. I grew up in two small, rural towns in northern Illinois where I was free to ride my bike anywhere, even to the next village, crawl through fences to pet the horses and cattle, poke at wasp nests, capture tadpoles in streams, wander over to neighbors and play with the new kittens under the porch, and walk my paper route. Our towns also had organized recreation for summers that included outdoor sports and swimming. No transportation from Mom required--just walk down the street. There was work too--but nothing awful--pushing a mower, pulling weeds from the garden, and later as a teen-ager, working in the fields detasseling corn. Now that I look back I can see a lot of benefits to the time I spent outdoors, wandering free and making up my own games.

I heard an interesting interview on NPR Monday driving home from the lake with Richard Louv discussing his new book (May 2005) "Last child in the woods; saving our children from nature-deficit disorder." He said that children who have outdoor recess regardless of the weather have fewer colds and viruses than those kept indoors. There are adult studies on stress reduction and nature, but not on children. The author believes that exposure to the outdoors decreases ADHD, and that as recess has been shortened or eliminated, the problem has increased.

An art teacher called the program and said she sees a positive difference in the hyperactive children when they've been outside (her school had a regulated wetlands next to the school grounds where the children were allowed to go). Interacting with nature and spending time outdoors could be a lot cheaper than medicating and counseling children, if Mr. Louv is correct.

1087 Jordanian Queen Reads to Children

Jordan's Queen Rania read to children at CentroNia, a bilingual and multicultural learning center in Washington D.C. I haven't seen reports of U.S. librarians or movie stars demanding that she solve the cultural and religious problems in the Middle East or the AIDS crisis in Africa. In her own country her critics are unhappy that she wears pants, high heels, and drives her own car, nothing that would raise an eyebrow here.

1086 Where is Marion Ross when we need her?

She was the ultimate 1950s mother in the parody of the 50s that played for 11 years in the 1970s and 1980s--Happy Days. She was cute, perky, kind, funny, loving Mrs. C., and she wore dresses and looked smashing.

So what is the image of the suburban TV housewife/mother today? We've got Desperate Housewives, hotty plastic imitations of that noble profession of yesteryear, and this summer we'll get Weeds with a suburban Mom who sells marijuana to support her family. Paris Hilton's mom will get a reality show. The Growing up Gotti's got just your average working mom. Then there is the Meet Mister Mom show where the mothers disappear all together. Maybe that is just as well--they should all get outta town.

1085 Blake's story

Glory Be tells a wonderful story about a young man whose friends give him a prom night to remember and the rest of us renewed hope in young people.

1084 Laura the wonder wonk

Can a mild mannered former librarian save the world? Of course, if she'd just stop talking about books and literacy and get down to being a female Jesse Jackson (unelected do-gooder) and run around the world telling people of other cultures how to run things.

The latest hoot was Christine Lahti opining on AIDS in Africa and how the First Lady really needed to be addressing this (at Huffington blog). I think she is a great actress, but when the Hollywood types try foreign policy they can get pretty silly.

And Annie Applebaum of WaPo says Mrs. Bush "failed to put the issue of women's rights in the middle of the democracy debate going on in the Muslem world." She thinks Mrs. Bush should change the entire structure of Moslem culture--the Shariah religious laws, the religious courts, the power of the local clerics and how the Quran is interpreted. Tall order, but she'll whip into a ladies room and put on her Wonder Woman costume and change thousand years of tradition.

Over at LISNews someone was calling her a hypocrite for NOT speaking out on a topic other than literacy and reading. Go figure. Librarians 223:1 liberal, which is worse than Hollywood but with better shoes and faster computers.

1083 No Grandma Left Behind

The Plain Dealer reported yesterday that Medicaid In Ohio will be reined in by tying money to quality of care. The better the care, the more money a nursing home gets. And this saves money because. . .?

I tried Googling this story for another source, but kept finding plans to save Medicaid and improve health dated 2000, 2002, etc.

The joys of librarianship--Green Tuna News

Life on Hold suggested I check out Green Tuna, a librarian blog, so I did and found it quite amusing. Here's a typical job description:

"Let me tell you how it is. Library work is part detective, part computer hacker, part Name-That-Tune expert (Music side), part Antiques Roadshow appraiser, (Art side), part HazMat employee (the removal of a plastic bag containing beer and underpants hidden in the folio stacks comes to mind) and part social worker, to name just a few.

But more often than not, the job is a blast. Be nice (treats help), and the librarian will go the extra mile for you. Case in point: A few weeks back a doctoral student came in looking for organ music he was requested to play at a wedding reception. Not the regulars. Not Bach, Mendelssohn or Wagner. Not Pachelbel or Purcell.

He needed Circus Music.

Specifically, he needed "you know -- that circus song they always play." And he sang it for me. And of course, I knew exactly what he was talking about, but had no idea what it was called.

I asked Google. I asked Amazon. But it's hard to know what to ask for when all you can do is doot-doot-doot the tune.

But because the question was so awesome (Circus music for weddings. Love IT!) and I didn't know the answer, I was determined not to give up. So, I did what any answer-obsessed, wedding music hating, computer-savvy music library type person would do. I consulted the ultimate reference source.

I emailed a clown.

As I am writing this email, trying to explain a musical tune in words..."

For the answer, and more fun, see Green Tuna News

Don't laugh

More bad news on the medical front.

"More than half of patients with asthma can have an attack triggered by laughter, New York researchers reported here at the 2005 American Thoracic Society International Conference.

Fifty-eight percent of patients reported that laughter was a trigger for an asthma attack, making it a common trigger, said Stuart Garay, MD, clinical professor of medicine, New York University Medical Center in New York. "This occurs more commonly than most physicians appreciate." " Seen at Medscape.com.

1080 Friday Feast, a day late

Here are the questions posted at the May 27 Friday Feast, and my answers.

Appetizer What job would you definitely not want to have?

If the job required math or measuring, I would be miserable and in tears most of the time. So that would be engineer, architect, carpenter, seamstress, landscape designer, etc.

Soup Oprah calls and wants you to appear on her show. What would that day's show be about?

Defintely about why using coupons and loyalty plans and other gimmicks cost the consumer money and time. This would really get her audience excited because Americans like to think there is a free lunch out there waiting for them.

Salad Name 3 vegetables that you eat on a regular basis.

Raw carrots definitely--usually for breakfast, but I enjoy them in a dessert like carrot cake too, shredded in a green salad, or mixed with pineapple and raisins in its own salad. I like broccoli in soups and salads. Squash of all kinds in casseroles, or grilled in a little butter with cinnamon, or in a pie. Yum.

Main Course If you were commissioned to rename your hometown, what would you call it?

Although I've lived in Columbus, Ohio, for almost 40 years, I still call Mount Morris, Illinois my hometown. It's not a bad name--there are towns named this in a number of states, but it is a bit boring. And the "mount" is the high place on the prairie. I've traveled back more times than I'd want to count, so I'd name it "Destination, Illinois."

Dessert If you had a personal assistant, what kind of tasks would you have her do?

I'd have her put freshly washed and ironed sheets on my bed everyday; I'd have her clean out the auto interior and see that my van goes through the carwash once a week; I'd have her keep me up to date on all the techie things I don't know about and of course, she'd have to know the best prices and downloads; she'd be paid handsomely to make all the phone calls and wait for service people to come to the house; she'd be a good seamstress and let the seams out on my slacks and skirts; she would drive if the trip meant going outside our suburb; she'd nag me to do my walks and then go with me and set the pace.

Thank you Friday Feast for these good questions.

1079 Finding Belmont Club

Belmont Club is one of my favorites, but my blog link doesn't work, nor did it work at any other site I checked. Finally I found someone who reported Belmont Club can be found here. I have no idea what is going on, since the fall back is still on blogger as was the original.

1078 Get the rest of the story from Iraq

Michael Yon is a freelance journalist in Iraq. Ever wonder about some of those stories you're reading? Michael explains how it is done, and what sort of a business he is in. This story has some great photos that are not MSM newsworthy--a medic helping a little girl, a soldier holding a puppy, ducks crossing the road with the military.

1077 New Game in Town--a Real Coffee Shop

Coffee and Cream is a new coffee shop at Second and Walnut in Lakeside. It opened yesterday and I was there about 6:30 this morning sitting on the pleasant sun porch facing the street. When I left about an hour later, there was a big crowd enjoying the good Cup of Joe coffee and their breakfast pastries provided by the bakery at Bassett's. You can bring your laptop; there is free wi-fi.

I talked to the owner, who like me, used to leave the grounds for a decent cup of coffee. 7 or 8 a.m. is just too late for a lot of us early birds. His teen-age children are helping and his dad did the remodeling. Also, this corner spot is prime real estate with a handsome cottage, so it is a good investment for the family. I also talked to Sue, the morning staff and like us, she is a cottage owner here.

Coffee and Cream has a warm, inviting color scheme--the walls are a warm gold with white bead board 3/4 up, natural wicker furniture with burgundy cushions on the porch, and nice small tables with black seating, on the light wood floors. The brick patio has metal furniture with beige umbrellas and plenty of seating for people watching. In the warm weather, there will also be an outside grill for brats and hot dogs for hungry people returning from an afternoon of sailing or swimming off the dock.

This is a wonderful addition to Lakeside's main business district (about 2 blocks square).

1076 Fever Pitch

Lakeside has the only movie house in the county, so last night we went to see Fever Pitch with Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon. I'd seen them talking about it a few weeks ago on Regis and Kelly. It was really pretty good, and I'd recommend it for Anvilcloud and his lovely Cuppa when they park their bikes. It's a romantic comedy about a couple who fall in love during the off-season, so she doesn't learn of his obsession with the Boston Red Sox until she sees him making an idiot of himself on TV at the Florida spring training.

The down side was we sat in front of two couples also out for a lively night at the lake, only they wouldn't stop talking. Two must have been hard of hearing (I'm guessing they were in their 70s--old enough to know better) so if one would miss a line, or what one of them said, they'd be retelling the scene: "What'd she say?" "I'm late," the other woman said. "Late for what?" "Her period's late," the lady's husband said loudly.

So I did what you can only do if it isn't crowded, we moved up two rows and enjoyed the rest of the movie.

1075 A Peep of Librarians

Somewhere I've seen a collective noun for a group of librarians congregating. Everything the librarian tells you has previously been worked out in a meeting--even the pauses and punctuation. What would be your vote? I'm not giving a right/wrong answer, because I can't remember, but here are some of my favorites:

a peep (chicken)
a troop (fox, giraffe)
a kindle (kitten)
a gaggle (geese)
a mob (kangaroo)
a pride (lion)
a sleuth (bear)
a school(fish)
a tittering (magpie)
a convocation (eagle)
a chatter (budgerigars)
a trip (reindeer)
a gam (whale)
a brace (duck)
a descent (woodpeckers)

One time when MLA met in Chicago, a tittering mob of us veterinary librarians (out of school) with kindled appetites trooped to a white limo and chattered all during the trip to the Cheesecake Factory where we showed a little gam as we mobbed the restaurant line and braced for a long wait.

1074 Queen for a Day

Forreston, IL celebrated its German roots with Sauerkraut Day in September for about 50 years. The last event was in 1960. But when my family lived there (when I was a little girl) the odor would permeate the whole town. 30,000 hungry people would come to our tiny town (about 1,000) and stand in line for two tons of free sauerkraut and a ton of hot dogs. As little ones we looked up to and admired the "Sauerkraut Queen" one of the glamorous high school girls. But I've often wondered if later in life, while living maybe in San Diego or Houston, a woman would admit to a past of being Sauerkraut Queen or maybe the Ogle County Pork Queen (another biggie in our farming county)?

This morning's paper reported that the Port Clinton Walleye Festival will not have a queen this year because it is under new management, and the committee didn't know how to run a queen pageant, so it was dropped. Some lucky young lady will not be able to tell her grandchildren, "I was first runner-up to Miss Walleye in 2005."

1073 We posed for this cartoon

Check out today's Non Sequitur by Wiley (May 26, 2005). I swear, that could be us. I'm always reading some strange article to my husband or quoting off-the-wall statistics. In the cartoon, the wife is in a double bed reading the newspaper. Lamps on either side of the bed. Check. Cat on the bed asleep. Check. The husband in his underwear is admiring his reflection in the mirror wearing a beret. The caption says "Bob maintains his majority status," while the wife is reading aloud, "Only a small percentage of the population actually looks good in a beret."

I showed it to my husband, laughing so hard tears were streaming down my cheeks. His only comment: "We're not getting any younger, are we?"

Have a nice Memorial Day Holiday. We'll be gone for awhile. Don't know if I'll find a computer. Catch ya' later.

1072 Let my people know

The National Coalition to End Judicial Filibuster. Where do I join? In fact, let's not stop with the judiciary, let's dump the filibuster altogether. Can you think of another organization that uses this? And it is misused by both parties--I'm not pointing fingers at the Democrats, at least not in this paragraph.

There may have been a time when the minority party needed to stall while members waited to hear from their constituencies about an issue or point of law or bill or appointment. But in this day of e-mail, fax and instant messaging? What congressperson doesn't hear immediately from his supporters if s/he is heading in the right direction? What congressperson doesn't have a huge staff, polling and franking privilege.

Whatever the original purpose, it is gone. Now it is just used to wear down the other party. Pictures of cots for Senators is just bizarre. This is a time honored tradition? Ohio's Mike DeWine has joined Voinovich in being a turn coat Republicans. I hope both are defeated in their next attempt at office, whether it's for dog catcher or Senator.

The battle over judgeships during the Bush years demonstrates how desperate the Democrats are to keep the blacks and Hispanics down on the plantation. They can see that they are making a break for it, and find nothing to hold them in their "proper place" (inside the Democratic Party) except talking the other side to death.

1071 What's wrong with this sentence?

Yes, it's a play on words, but read it anyway.

"Lionel Tate, 18, who was freed from prison after being the youngest person in recent history to receive a LIFE SENTENCE [for beating a 6 year old girl to death when he was 12] was arrested after allegedly pulling a gun on a pizza delivery man at a 12 year old friend's apartment and beating up the friend. . . " USAToday May 25, 2005

Mama and those who lobbied for an early release, of course, don't believe he'd do that; and apparently neither did the court system that put him under house arrest and on parole for 10 years after serving very few years of that "life" term (sentenced in 2001).

1070 It's broken zipper season

Last fall I wrote a story/blog, sort of about my life in 1982, based on the events and travels of a pair of khaki slacks that I wore for over 20 years. Then the zipper broke as I was getting ready for a yard sale. It was sort of a strange starting point for a memory, but apparently there are a lot of people like me who have a favorite item of clothing with a broken zipper, because this week, that blog has had 7 or 8 hits after being quiet all winter. People must be unpacking their summer clothes and breaking the zippers with the extra pounds put on during the winter. I feel badly that I'm drawing them in with fantasy and hope of finding a method to get those little teeth back on the track, but as far as I know, slack zippers that are 22 years old, widely traveled and part nylon and part metal are not fixable.

1069 Would you purchase on an appeal to your baser motives?

Of course, but you‘d have to test drive, too. And check with the bank. But auto makers are spending a lot of money on ads (all seen today) to get you to at least consider these models. Some appeal to power, some to a generation, some to childhood rules you want to break, some to prestige, some to “I deserve this” attitude, and some to mid-life crisis--wanting to be wild and crazy when you’re balding with teen-agers that need braces. I didn’t see the “lust and greed” ad today, but I know it’s out there.

Guess which ad goes with the car of your dreams. My favorite ad (although not the car), is definitely #9. It’s edgy--like a Laura Bush joke. Answers at the bottom of the page.

1. Freedom isn’t knowing your limits, but realizing you have none.
2. The luxury vehicle that tows other luxury vehicles away.
3. Moving at the speed of surround sound.
4. Can you resist? Absolutely nothing in moderation.
5. It’s all grown up. Drivers wanted.
6. A luxury car designed to protect you from blending in.
7. However unwarranted, improvements were made.
8. Take everything you know about design and nudge it. Push it. Simplify it. Modernize it. Liberate it.
9. Holds four keisters. Kicks all the rest.
10.Take no prisoners. Well, no more than six.

a. Cadillac SRX
b. Mazda
c. Aston Martin
d. Honda Acura
e. Jaguar XJ
f. Volkswagen Jetta
g. Saab
h. Land Rover
i. Nissan Infiniti
j. Lincoln Mark LT


1-c. 2-j. 3-d. 4-e. 5-f. 6-g. 7-h. 8-i. 9-b. 10-a.

1068 This has a familiar ring to it, doesn't it?

You'd be best served by reading the whole article, reading a more extensive review, or doing your own Google search on this. (Or, read the book!) I'll just lift a few key sentences that caught my eye.

“The New York Times consistently buried news of the Nazi Holocaust in its back pages and downplayed the Jewish identity of the victims, according to the first scholarly study of how the Times covered the Nazi genocide. Buried by The Times: The Holocaust and America's Most Important Newspaper, by Prof. Laurel Leff, has just been published by Cambridge University Press.” Wyman Institute

“Among the book's key findings:

... New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger, an assimilated Jew of German descent, feared that the newspaper would be engaging in special pleading and thus deliberately downplayed news of the Holocaust and the Jewish identity of the victims.

... Holocaust news was consistently relegated to the Times' back pages. Of the 1,186 articles that the Times published during 1939-1945 about Europe's Jews, only 26 (about two percent) of them appeared on the front page, and even those articles "obscured the fact that most of the victims were Jews."

... The Times only rarely published editorials about the annihilation of Europe's Jews, and never ran a lead editorial about the Nazi genocide.

... Because of its importance, the Times helped set the tone for the rest of the media's coverage of Holocaust news; the Times "might have been able to help bring the facts about the extermination of the Jews to public consciousness ... [instead,] the Times helped drown out the last cry from the abyss."

... When the Nazi death camps were liberated, the Times' coverage downplayed the fact that the victims and survivors were overwhelmingly Jews.”

Just as the tragedy and scale of the horrific events in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s were not considered a big story, so the good news coming from Iraq and Afghanistan are not newsworthy and the Palestine/Israel conflict seems to lean in favor of the Palestinians. The column inches devoted to prisoner abuse and a fallen dictator's underwear far exceed any news of the seeds of freedom and democracy struggling to take hold and flower.

1067 Paula said, Just do it

She isn’t bothering with tagging, so here goes. If you want, go ahead.

A) Total number of books I've owned: I have no idea, but it’s probably in the thousands. We’re trying to get back a 36” 7 shelf unit we loaned out a few years back. For years I hung on to practically every textbook I’d owned--gradually with time they’ve slipped out the door to book sales. I have to keep moving them out, usually donating, so I can bring more in, also usually from book sales. Plus, I have many of my grandmother’s and some of my great grandfather’s. Oldest is around 1840, The Economy of Human Life. I still have my first book, The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen, and my first Bible, a Christmas gift from my parents.

B) The last book I bought: Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

C) The last book I read: Answer in B, and since I’m leading a discussion on it, I’ll probably keep reading and re-reading.

D) 5 books that mean a lot to me:
Holy Bible, NIV
The Story of English
War Record of Mount Morris
11th edition, Encyclopedia Britannica
How the Irish Saved Civilization

E) Tag five people to do this exercise. If you’ve read this, you’re it.

Blogger is sooo slow tonight, and all the comments are disabled on sites I've visited, so I'm taking a short cut. S'Okay?

1066 Clearing out the Clutter

This morning I cleaned out three closets--just working on the one in my bathroom required rearranging two others. Do you save ribbons, bows and paper from Christmas and holidays? Goodness. I have enough bows to last until 2047! And those cute little gift (reuseable) bags--I had no idea I had so many. Birthdays. St. Pat's Day. Valentine's Day. Christmas. All purpose. I'm guessing I found about 25. And the gift boxes. Did I fear if I bought a piece of jewelry, it would come box-free? I think I had 3 color schemes of boxes from Lazarus, which changed about every 10 years, and now it is Macy's.

I took the largest shopping bag and filled it with dry cleaning bags, bows beyond their life span, beyond safe cosmetics, grocery bags (I must have had 522 small plastic bags awaiting reuse). This bathroom is also my dressing room, so I went through all the unmentionables and sleepwear and tossed anything with tired elastic or which I'll never wear again. I had some small pictures in a box and those got moved to another spot, which means that spot had to be cleaned too. In the guest room closet and chest I rediscovered old greeting cards from a variety of holidays that needed to be corraled, the tape from my wedding, and my sister-in-law's jeans which she left here in 2003. I'd started the day hauling a huge bag of clothes out to the car for our church resale shop, and found another 10 items or so and bagged those too.

When I was finished, I ate lunch and then went through my blogs and cleaned up my recipes into one linked collection, dating it October 1, 2003, which makes my blog look much tidier since I started on October 2. As I find more, I'll make more links, but I don't think I've really posted a lot of recipes. Next I'll link my poetry--there seems to be quite a bit of that here and there.

White House News Photographers' Dinner

Just watched President Bush's slide show live on C-Span. What a hoot. Can't imagine how mad the liberals are going to be. He just can't resist tweaking their blue noses--41, 43, 44, 45, etc. I'm sure the video will be out there on the web soon.

1064 Tagged by Grace

For this one I have to tell 10 things I never done, so here goes.

1. I've never lost any permanent teeth--I even have all my wisdom teeth.
2. I've never tasted beer--have you ever smelled it!
3. I've never been to Europe, but that will change soon.
4. I've never broken a bone.
5. I've never learned to program the VCR and now technology has moved on.
6. I've never painted a ceiling.
7. I've never completed reading the Bible.
8. I've never changed oil in a car.
9. I've never removed the cookies in my computer or the tags on my mattress.
10. I've never ridden in a helicopter.

Now I have to find 5 people to pass this on to. Vox Lauri, Ayekah, Greg S, Matthew and Walt.