1271 Creationists in the Closet

Although his core beliefs probably don't surface in his job as a school administrator, he whispered to me that he too was a creationist when it came up during our conversation. The evol-bio-fundies would just go bonkers if they knew how many well educated, urban, deep thinkers don't buy into their religion. He's got 30 years in the teachers' retirement system, is part of a main-line denomination, is highly respected in his community and has at least an MS and maybe a PHD (I didn't ask). And like me, he thinks it just doesn't matter on the job except to pass sophomore biology. We confessed to each other that even as young children being taught this in school (and he is a good 15 years younger), we didn't buy it. All we had to do was look around and see the evidence. But even in our childhoods, one wasn't allowed to think outside the evolution box.

Evolutionists are safe from us, however. Creationists can't even agree with each other (as coherent groups) and waste a lot of energy squabbling. I personally believe biology instruction belongs in the church--evolution/creation, sex/abortion, contraception/abstinence, gender and marriage, stem cell research, and end of life issues. We can't entrust these important issues to the education system which seems to have its plate full with reading, writing and arithmetic and bringing poor and disadvantaged children up to the standards all middle-class children are expected to know.

1270 Thursday wrap

Last night we rushed home from art classes, changed clothes and went to the opening of the art show at Hoover Auditorium. One of my husband's paintings was sold within the first 30 minutes, which was nice. We often buy a painting there, but this time there were none we particularly cared to purchase.

We decided to skip last night's program Tom Chapin, whom we've seen many times and instead went to see the movie, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants which was really quite charming.

Later at home we were trying to recall the details of the only other movie we've seen here this year. We finally tracked it (in our memories) to Memorial Day week-end, but neither of us could remember what it was. We only remembered the rude talkers behind us. So, fortunately because I keep a diary on the internet, I looked it up. Fever Pitch.

1269 Does blogging hurt or help your political party?

The Daily Kos is the most popular left wing blog out there, creating a family feel among its regular readers (I've looked at it a few times, but don't read it.) Numbers of visits for political blogs slid after the election in 2004, but the Kos followers are on the increase. Left wing blogging is much more popular than left wing talk radio, which can't seem to find its voice.

"Indeed, there is little doubt that the habitués of the Daily Kos, like their hated cousins who read popular conservative blogs such as Power Line and Little Green Footballs, live in very different worlds than their friends and neighbors. Blog readers are typically voracious gatherers of news. They not only simply know who people such as Ann Coulter are, they usually have strong opinions about these minor public figures, too. This is an unusual trait. After all, while Ann Coulter may be a polarizing firebrand beloved by her supporters and loathed by her detractors, when it comes to fame she's hardly Madonna." Dean Barnett on the rise of the left wing blogger

The problem as Barnett sees it is that party bigwigs are kowtowing to The Kos and trying to get on his front page. Even though most Americans still don't know what a blog is and don't read them, Democrats are adopting (according to Barnett) the shrill, hyper-reporting of the key blogs. Dick Durbin looked like a complete idiot with his comments about Gitmo being a Gulag, and the US being as bad as the Nazis, Soviets and PolPot, but the left wing bloggers embraced him. Barnett sees the party's affinity with these left wing screamers and screeders as bad for Democrats.

Well, maybe it is sour grapes. I've never heard of Barnett's blog until his article appeared in Weekly Standard. His site meter isn't public and his comments aren't enabled. Who knows if people who hunch over keyboards several hours a day sending memos to complete strangers will get out and ring door bells or work the phone banks or even run for office. Hugh Hewitt seems to think the blog is the next BIG thing in communication and has written a whole book on its growing influence.

1268 Overheard at the Lake

My husband was out for a bike ride. A mother and her two children went by on their bicycles. He overheard her say to them, "Do you think we need to worry that your Father keeps getting lost?" (This town is about 10 streets wide and 8 Avenues deep.)

1267 Reader of poetry

I've written about Ted Kooser before. Take a look at this. I love it. Reminds me of certain readers of this blog--quirky, checking out the bargains, and then moving on for more free lunch.

1266 Wednesday at the Lake

We were both pretty tired after our art classes at the Rhein Center yesterday--I really struggled to keep Mr. Cloud from morphing into Mr. Chertoff in portrait class. I biked home at 5:30, threw together a fabulous dinner of leftovers (meatballs, potato salad, carrots, strawberries and blueberries with vanilla pudding), took a short nap, and then we headed to Hoover. I often leave at intermission, but Robin and Linda Williams didn't have one, nor would I have left early. They are personable, funny and talented, performing a mix of bluegrass, folk, old country, and their own material. They will be appearing in a movie with Garrison Keillor and their final piece is what they perform in the movie. If you are in the Virginia area, you probably have a good chance of seeing them perform, but they also tour. Don't miss this outstanding example of "American music."

1265 If we lose the war

A number of web sites are circulating the warning by Ret. Major General Vernon Chong titled, "This War is for Real," and I saw it at American Daughter.

Even with a link to his AF bio, there is no positive way to identify anyone on the Internet, however, if you read through it, you'll find little that hasn't been reported elsewhere, like the list of the pre-9/11 attacks, the percentage of the world's population that is Muslim, and the number of Muslim countries that are democracies, or our Transportation Director's refusal to allow profiling even though 100% of current terrorist attacts are committed by a specific age/religion group.

"Democracies don't have their freedoms taken away from them by some external military force. Instead, they give their freedoms away, politically correct piece by politically correct piece.

And they are giving those freedoms away to those who have shown, worldwide, that they abhor freedom and will not apply it to you or even to themselves, once they are in power."

So take a look and judge for yourself. We know Spain is a goner, and that France will probably be next, so that part of the Chong letter will probably ring true. What else?

1264 Or they could start a blog

Some kids are going to essay camps to learn to write. The topics sound just like what I read on teen-age blogs.

1263 The morphing of Mr. Cloud

Anvilcloud has some great photographs on his blog, so I thought I'd just borrow one for portrait class. It was this adorable photo of Mr. Cloud with a chickadee (or something) sitting on his head nibbling on a piece of bread crust. I'm taking a portrait class this week, and I tried several photos--one of me, one of my sister, one of Condi Rice, and the bird on a cloud. Mr. Cloud turned out best, so it got transferred to the gesso'd masonite board. Then yesterday we were to paint in the shadows. Up until that point, it was a fairly recognizable Mr. Cloud. He was taped to a pillar and lots of people stopped by to admire. But, I didn't quite get the hang of putting in shadows around the eyes (this is my first try at portraits), and the longer I looked at the drying paint the more he began to morph into this guy

Yup. Put a bird on his head, and I've painted Michael Chertoff, Head of Homeland Security.

1262 Need proof reader

The blogger.com system is really neat. The new photo uploading works great--much easier than Picasa which I had been using. I've never had a spam problem with comments. Tech help usually responds quickly. I'm going to teach beginning blogging here in a few weeks, and I'll start them with blogger.com (can't beat the price). The spell check is awful, however. It doesn't even recognize the word "blog."

But sometimes you just need a proof reader because no spell check is going to clean up proper names. Today I was checking through articles about over-weight military, and how obesity could be hurting recruiting. Everything seemed to be based on the same AP story, so I was browsing through a search and came across a TRICARE article on fitness and the military. As near as I can tell, Tricare is an insurance program for the military. However, at this site, they've misspelled their own name. Now, if you go there and find it is spelled correctly, I've done my good deed for the day.

1261 Canadian-American Governor goes off the deep end

The Governor of Michigan (born in Canada) was interviewed the other morning on 760 am (Detroit). She was absolutely unglued about an article that appeared in the Wall Street Journal by a Michigan State Representative Rich Baxter. I don't know her party affiliation, but I know the definition of treason, and reporting that your state's tax system is unfriendly to business and holding back recovery, isn't treason--it isn't even reason on the Guv's part. She gives women in high places a bad name.

1260 Economists advise against Aid for Africa

Aid doesn't solve corruption, or help trade or even reverse disease outbreaks. African James Shikwati say western industrial nations "have been damaging our continent for the past 40 years. If the industrial nations really want to help the Africans, they should finally terminate this awful aid. The countries that have collected the most development aid are also the ones that are in the worst shape. Despite the billions that have poured in to Africa, the continent remains poor." [HT Florida Cracker]

Richard Posner seems to say it's not the African's responsibility to make you feel good and generous . . . "Foreign aid makes people in wealthy countries feel generous, but retards reform in those countries as well as in the donee countries. Obviously from a world welfare as well as African welfare standpoint Europe and the United States should not impose tariffs on agricultural imports in order to protect their rich farmers. Eliminating tariffs would do more for Africa than giving them an extra $25 billion a year to squander. (It would also increase the wealth of the countries that eliminated their tariffs.)

Since there are 650 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa, the extra $25 billion will increase per capita annual income (assuming it isn't squirreled away by corrupt elites) by only $40. Not that such an increase is wholly trivial in relative terms: Nigeria, for example, has an annual per capita income of only about $300, and it is not the poorest country in Africa. But it is unlikely that the poorest people in these countries will benefit from the extra money; even if most of it isn't skimmed off by corrupt officials or squandered on dumb projects, it is likely to stave off fundamental political and economic reforms. (The G8 nations at Gleneagles also agreed to forgive some $50 in African debts to them, but that is a one-time event and its annualized value is therefore much less than $25 billion a year.)" Becker-Posner Blog

International Monetary Fund disconnects of the concert: "Two International Monetary Fund researchers have turned intellectual firehoses on crowds at the Live 8 concerts, publishing research concluding that, in most cases, aid does nothing to boost economic growth.

In two research papers the fund's research director, Raghuram Rajan, and research economist Arvin Subramanian say comparisons of growth rates throughout the developing world show no solid evidence that aid flows lift growth."

1259 Let's see the job finished

"Before parting company with CSM Mellinger, we attended a memorial on LSA Anaconda for Specialist Ryan Montgomery from Kentucky. Ryan and his twin brother Bryan had both joined the Kentucky National Guard and were twenty-two years old. They were serving in Iraq when Ryan was killed by a bomb. During the ceremony, soldiers referenced the attacks in London as an important reason to stay here in Iraq, and to see the job finished. I saw it with my own eyes, and heard it with my own ears when soldiers from Kentucky said they needed to be here to prevent attacks in places such as London, or at the Kentucky Derby, or in Germany." Michael Yon.

1258 Frances Langford dies at 92

This morning's paper reported the death of Frances Langford on July 11, 2005 in Jensen Beach, FL. She appeared in 30 movies, few of which I've seen, but I remember seeing her in old footage of entertaining the troops during WWII. "I'm in the mood for love" was never sweeter or more poignant.

1257 The cruise on Lake Erie

Last night's cruise was lovely. I think I saw the most fabulous sunset ever. My husband, who frequently paints watercolor skies using pinks and ultamarine blues, put his arm around me and whispered, "If I painted that, no one would believe it." At 10:10 p.m. we could still see its remnants. The route was around Put-in-Bay and we came very close to Perry's Monument.


The water was a bit choppy and watching people balance their food on plates and knees was heart stopping. I met and chatted with Mary, 90 years old, and still playing golf. She reminds me a lot of my dad's friend Ruth, "the energizer bunny." I'd like to say these people have a magic formula for long life and good looks, but I know Mary's mother lived to 102 and her sister to 105. And I believe Ruth's parents lived into their late 90s. You just can't beat choosing the right parents.

As we walked toward the dock at 7 p.m. we reminisced about the summer of 1988, our first year on one of these cruises. The midwest was locked into a horrible heatwave and drought. We had rented a tiny cottage on Walnut that blessedly had ceiling fans (we didn't even have AC in our home in Columbus). Out on Lake Erie the moist, moving air engulfed us, but it felt cooler. The minute we walked down the gangplank onto the dock at 10 p.m., it was like being hit with a 2 x 4. Later that week we walked around and passed a small house for sale. We peeked in the back window. "It has a real kitchen and a basement," I squealed. We moved to the front porch, which was unfinished and unlocked and I pressed my nose against the pane. "Oh, it has a fire place!" That afternoon we contacted a realtor, who wisely showed us 4 dogs before he showed us the one we asked about. Soon we were locked into a 10.5% mortgage, just about the lowest available at that time. Because our home mortgage in 1968 had been for 20 years, we were debt free and could handle it.

We took possession the week-end after Labor Day. It was a life saver for me, being in deep, intractable grief over my children's decisions not to go to college (relax--it's not the end of the world as I believed then). The cottage was like a new baby, one we needed to visit every week-end and work on from morning 'til night. We'd sit under the fading lilac bush and eat breakfast and say, "It doesn't get any better than this." This summer is our 17th, and the cruises are still fun.

CATAWBA WINE

This song of mine
Is a song of the vine,
To be sung by the glowing embers
Of way-side inns
When the rain begins
To darken the drear Novembers.

It is not a song
Of the Suppernong
From warm Carolinian valleys,
Nor the Isabel,
And the Muscadel,
That bask in our garden alleys.

Richest and best
Is the wine of the West
That grows by the beautiful river
Whose sweet perfume
Fills all the room
With a benison on the giver.

Very good in its way
Is the Verzenay,
Or the Sillery soft and creamy,
But Catawba wine
Has a taste more divine,
More dulcet, delicious, and dreamy.

Pure as a spring
Is the wine I sing,
And to praise it one needs but name it,
For Catawba wine
Has need of no sign,
No tavern-bush to proclaim it.

H. W. LONGFELLOW.

1256 The sad truth about the U.N.

Even the Toledo Blade had a photo of a Muslim woman weeping at the graves. Yesterday's Wall Street had harsh words for those of weep "never again" and then demand immediate withdrawal from Iraq.

"But Mr. Clinton allowed the Balkans to bleed for three years before he "did something." He let the U.N. and Europe take the lead and was frequently heard musing about the ancient roots of the Balkans conflict, which supposedly made it intractable and beyond the reach of the United States to repair. What's remarkable is that, when the U.S. did intervene--for example, with a limited bombing campaign in 1995--it achieved fast and decisive results. Had Mr. Clinton honored his campaign pledges, he could have saved thousands of Bosnian lives and almost certainly averted the massacre at Srebrenica.

If American policy makers want to avoid facing another Srebrenica on their watch, they must never let the U.N. determine the mission. Allowing the Europeans to "take the lead" is also a bad idea. Above all, Srebrenica is what happens when Western policy makers reject taking pre-emptive measures against gathering dangers, so that by the time the dangers are obvious it is too late to do something.

It has become trendy in certain circles to speak of "No More Srebrenicas," as well as "No More Rwandas" and "No More Darfurs." If these people really believe the slogan, then the policy to make it work already has a name. It's called the Bush Doctrine."

1255 God must have plans for this little one

This morning I watched Katie Couric's interview with the parents of this baby.


Not sure what I think about little Laina Beasley.

1254 Should politics interfer with a relationship?

She writes: "We've gotten into shouting matches about Supreme Court decisions, gun control, abortion, etc. He's also hyper-rational, and I am more emotional."

I can tell by her description--playing up his "flaw" of knowing what and why he believes, and downplaying her loosely formed passionate attachment to her own beliefs--that he is a Republican and she is a Democrat. She never reveals this in her question, "can this relationship survive our politics."

Annie, the columnist, misses the boat on this one. She counsels: "Politics should never be more important than your relationship." Annie ignores that their differences are also embedded in their personalities. Notice how the writer describes playfully her own weakness ("more emotional"), but stresses his ("hyper rational"). Call me over analytical, but the word "more" is not as loaded as "hyper."

The writer describes her lover as smart, funny and easy going, which means if they marry she can probably look forward to a dogged, nit-picker who wants her to meet his standards in everything from housework to automobile-buying and a nasty wit that will turn on her in front of his friends for her less-than-perfect analysis of today's news. And instead of finding her sweet, adorable and simple in her whimsical thoughts, he'll discover that she lacks the ability to think through the erratic way she disciplines the children or to arrive anywhere on time. All the things that attract you to the "opposite" are the qualities that drive you crazy 10 years down the road when her waist has expanded and his hair has thinned.

Also, the writer wonders if counseling would help--she doesn't say they have an intellectual divide, just an emotional one. See? She doesn't get it! He says he respects her intellect, but not ALL her opinions. Maybe she should try respecting his intellect, and SOME of his opinions.

That'll be $200 please. Now go home and give him a big, emotional smooch.

1253 McClay for ALA

If Greg McClay is elected to ALA, it will be like a breath of fresh air in the stacks. McClay is running for an office [Councilor at Large] in the American Library Association, aka ALA. Silly guy thinks the professional organization representing 60,000 should stick to its knitting and resolve issues important to librarians, like abysmal salaries, accreditation, education, technology, library funding and budgets, child safety and so on. Instead ALiAns sing on command like warbling canaries in a mine shaft about various socialist and anti-war issues. Recently he posted the resolution against the war in Iraq (like the President is going to be very afraid of all the power librarians hold), which concluded:

“[long list of resolves into which are thrown the words “libraries and archives“] Resolved that the American Library Association calls for the withdrawal from Iraq of all U.S. military forces, and the return of full sovereignty to the people of Iraq.”

Interestingly, this is the administration’s goal. Finally, ALA is in step. But I think even a non-expert on military affairs can go back and re-read the newspapers in the library from the mid-70s and see that our withdrawal from Vietnam killed thousands, some say millions, of our allies and condemned others to prison reeducation camps. Our hasty withdrawal after the Gulf War planted the seeds for this one.

And so Greg comments after the bombing last week:

“In light of the bombings in London today this is an absurdity. We're fighting a culture, a mindset, that despises the concept of libraries, of public information, of both a man and a woman's right to improve their own lives through self-education and the brain dead boobs of Council who voted for this are whining about the bill.”

1252 Playing tag again

Jordan at Contemplating the Laundry has tagged me for another “tell all” report. I was reading through her long and thoughtful answers thinking I was really glad I hadn’t been asked to do this one, then I saw my name.

What I was doing ten years ago:
July 1995--I think that was the summer I invited my sister to come to Lakeside to attend a summer conference for church musicians. We had a wonderful time--or I did. I attended a lot of her activities--but we were exhausted.

5 years ago:
July 2000--I was planning my retirement, to begin October 2000. I had written a plan, called Post Employment Plan which I posted on my website. I was concerned about use of time because I had no hobbies, and of course, had never heard of blogging. It hasn’t been a problem, but I developed a really workable plan.

1 year ago:
July 2004--we were planning a trip to Buffalo to visit Frank Lloyd Wright architectural sites. Most of July of last year I have here on my blog, collected at one link.

Yesterday:
I’ve already blogged about the Perfect Day.

5 snacks I enjoy:
corn chips
potato chips
peanut butter
cheese
apples

5 songs I know all the words to:
None--possibly a few first verses, but not entire songs, unless there is only one verse to "Happy Birthday."

5 Things I would do with $100 million:
Pay off my children’s mortgages.
Create a foundation which would provide small grants for women in business; fund no-kill centers for animals; scholarships for students at Christian colleges and seminaries.
Fund an art gallery for Lakeside.
Take my friends on fun trips as my guests.

5 locations I would like to run away to:
Tennessee to do genealogy.
Montana to enjoy the scenery.
South America.
British Isles
Hawaii, again.

5 bad habits I have:
Talking before I think it through.
Avoiding difficult tasks.
(need some more thinking to distinguish habits from personality)

5 things I like doing:
Reading
Watercolor painting
Blogging and reading blogs of total strangers like Jordan
Writing poetry and essays
Travel

5 things I would never wear:
bikini
hip-huggers
short shorts
tight shirt that showed my mid-riff
platform shoes
(these were all Jordan’s, but they work for me too)

5 TV shows I like:
Cold Case
Dancing with the Stars
Anything on Book TV
Antique Road Show
Turner and AMC Movies, pre-1950

5 Biggest joys of the moment:
Retirement--doing all the things I planned
Watching sunsets and sunrises
Doing just about anything with my husband
Family get-togethers when they go smoothly
Good health

5 Favorite toys:
My computer
My digital camera
My bicycle
My cat
My journal (i.e., paper notebook just the right size)

I’m tagging
Paula
Lauri
Dana
Mr. Cloud
Matthew

1251 Women not in science and technology

Articles of angst, alarm and accusations continue to fill the news. Fewer women go into math and sciences than in 1984, according to this summary. Not enough role models and programs, they say. Hmmm. Maybe that's the key. There are all sorts of women in the "soft" roles--doing the recruiting, investigating, administering, and writing the reports. The article outlines all kinds of centers, committees, grants, and special programs, all probably run by women. Maybe they need to look at these front liners.

1250 A perfect summer day

We have a lot of those here in Lakeside, and I think I've used that title before. Yesterday afternoon I biked around, stopped at a friend's cottage for a glass of lemon-ade, and then biked to the Rhein Center to sign up for art classes this week. I'd originally planned to take perspective drawing, but instead chose "Portraits in Acrylics." We're supposed to bring a photo to the class today, and I think I'll bring along the one of Mr. Cloud with the bird on his head.

Then I biked to the park and settled on a park bench in the shade to listen to an hour of rag time by Sister Jean and her husband Laundry Fat. She does most of the heavy lifting on the piano, and he plays the wash board and kazoo and sings. The gazebo where they played is right on the lake so I was able to watch the sail boats go by and gaze into the leaves of the oak tree shading us.



In the evening we took a walk along the lakefront and there was a family picnic in the park with a man singing, doing a stunning imitation of Willy Nelson and Elvis Presley. Sometimes in the same song.

In the evening we walked two blocks to the auditorium to hear Phil Keaggy. Big crowd. And I also talked to my brother in Florida, but they'd only had a little rain.

1249 How do you clean a cell phone?

Interesting article about *nosocomial infection transmission and cell phones of medical staff in a hospital.

Cell Phones and Acinetobacter Transmission

*Term used to describe infections acquired in a hospital or medical setting. In other words the patient did not have this infection when admitted or was seen, but acquired it in the course of being treated.

Aren't you glad you visited this blog--just one more thing to worry about!

1248 Eschatology quiz

You scored as Moltmannian Eschatology. Jürgen Moltmann is one of the key eschatological thinkers of the 20th Century. Eschatology is not only about heaven and hell, but God's plan to make all things new. This should spur us on to political and social action in the present. Moltmannian Eschatology 100% Amillenialist 100% Preterist 65% Postmillenialist 45% Premillenialist 25% Dispensationalist 25% Left Behind 0% What's your eschatology? created with QuizFarm.com

Moltmann’s eschatology link for more information.

1247 Wretchard is outed!

Belmont Club written by Wretchard has long been one of my favorite blogs. Now he is no longer anonymous. But he outed himself. I think when you start getting quoted by the "real" press, the temptation is to come out from behind the curtain. He tells all. He's a Filipino Australian. I would have never imagined.

A typical, measured, pragmatic, smack-down post:

"The inevitable question then is 'why could Bin Laden not find the means to attack 30 trains?' The answer it seems to me, must be Afghanistan, Iraq, the Horn of Africa and hundred other places where he is engaged without quarter by US forces. Resources, whether Jihadi or no are not infinite. They do not have some magical machine that allows them to be everywhere at once, to sustain losses yet grow. There's no free lunch, not even, and especially not for Bin Laden. If it were true that Islamism would shrivel faster were it pursued more passively, then pre-911 policy should have finished it by now. But what we empirically observe is that ignoring them allowed them to mount 911-scale attack. Hit them continuously and in four years they could scrape together enough to blow up a London bus and some subway trains."

1246 Remembering Rushdie

It was probably only a few hours after the smoke cleared that the Left was blaming Bush and Blair for the bombings instead of the perps. And of course, their soft-on-misunderstood-terrorists and let's-get-out-now protests didn't have a single thing to do with all those deaths in London. The TV talk shows this morning are full of aghast MSM commentators rehashing all the mistakes Americans (i.e. Bush) has made. I just heard, "they can't tell us exactly when the Iraqi troops will be ready." Sigh.

At the sale yesterday run by Friends of Hotel Lakeside I browsed through the books and came across Salmon Rushdie. Remember him? Islamofascists threatened one of their own with death for words on paper.

Down memory lane: "The book that is worth killing people and burning flags for is not the book that I wrote," Salmon Rushdie, 41-year-old author of The Satanic Verses, told Time Magazine. shortly after its publication in 1988.

Rushdie's book caused deep rumblings among faithful Muslims offended by its content, prompting protests and book burnings and even riots in which several people were killed.

The furor reached new heights when Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini joined in, proclaiming the book a work of blasphemy and condemning Rushdie to death for "insulting Islam, the prophet Muhammed and the holy Koran."

Eager followers put a bounty on Rushdie's head, adding riches to what Khomeini had already guaranteed as a place in heaven for the successful assassin. Webcurrents

1245 Laurie R. King, mystery writer

Samantha the Librarian is a King fan, and reviews her latest book, Locked Rooms, at her blog Random Thoughts. I'm not generally a fiction reader, and mysteries, almost never. I read two of King's novels in her Mary Russell series because I'm in a book club, one of the huge advantages of joining a group. It challenges you to open a book outside your comfort zone. I wrote about meeting King when I attended the Festival of Faith and Writing in April 2004.

1244 Buying a baby in three hours

A really sad story of ‘flop bachchas’ (illegitimate children) and how easily they are sold. Mumbai Mirror (via Amit Varma)

Mumbai is the renamed Bombay.

1243 What were they thinking?

Trouble understanding the Left or Liberals who are having problems understanding Islamofascism or the War on Global Terrorism? Even friends or family members? There's help on the way with regular reading of: Shrink Wrapped is a psychoanalyst, Neuro-Conservative is an untenured blogger who needs to remain anonymous, and Dr. Sanity, blogs about life's insanities from Michigan.

Shrink Wrapped, for instance, pointed out in an entry about political correctness:

1. Everyone is equal, therefore the only reason outcomes are ever unequal is because of flaws in the system. In a perfect system, equality of outcomes would be assured.

2. Since everyone is equal, there can be no differences between people; men and women, therefore, are not just equal, but are identical in every way. Anatomy is no longer destiny, in fact, it is irrelevant.

3. All differences in outcome, therefore, must be the result of the powerful group, the ruling class, discriminating against the weaker groups. Check here.

Doesn't that sound like the premise of workshops you've been required to attend?

Neuro-conservative, who is not a Christian, ponders: "Are we really living in a society in which the Koran must literally be treated with kid gloves, in which all manners of speech (including flag-burning) are to be tolerated, yet the 10 Commandments are singled out for special opprobrium?" Check here.

So now we know there are other inquiring minds wondering why our gov't buys Korans for Gitmo's prisoners, but shields school children from forbidden Bibles.

1242 The secret is out

CBS Sunday morning show on July 3 featured a small segment on Lakeside. Because so many Lakesiders either didn't know it was going to be on or were in church at Hoover Auditorium, the clip was shown at last night's program. It got lots of laughs and cheers. Kevin, the director, announced the Association has had phone calls and e-mails all week. One Florida woman in her 90s e-mailed him that she had vacationed here as a child and had no idea the community was still here. Six people have contacted him about retiring here (I hope they have a place to go in January and February).

The program last night was Dallas Brass. No one in the group was from Dallas or even Texas, but that's apparently where the group started. They did a wonderful show and got two standing ovations. If you ever get the opportunity to hear them (they perform for a lot of school groups apparently), they are excellent and very audience friendly.



I had a great time this week in the watercolor classes taught by Barbara Cox. After the end of yesterday's session she gave each class member a wonderful print of one of her paintings. My husband is teaching perspective drawing next week, but I see there is a portrait class at the same time--now I'm torn. A knitter is offering 5 or 6 special classes, but I suspect I'm not far enough along. Found out my neighbor Carol is a knitter, so maybe I can get some pointers from her.

The drama group had try-outs for "Our Town" and I've heard they've drawn a wonderful group in to the production. Performances are August 1 and 2. Today is the Lakeside Hotel Rummage Sale at South Auditorium. That's always a great place to go to find other people's cast offs and books (I always find a book). One year I bought a book for a quarter that had a pension update stuck inside for a Civil War veteran. The money goes to Friends of the Hotel to help in their renovation of rooms (the hotel is over 100 years old).



Monday night is the Lakesider Sunset Cruise on Lake Erie. We've got our boarding pass and sweaters. Hope Dennis' tail end is passed by then.

This coming Thursday at 5 p.m. is the sneak preview of the Lakeside Art Show. My husband helped check in paintings yesterday. One really wonderful painting had to be turned down because it was too large. Another is on the ropes--a nude. This is Lakeside, afterall.

1241 Memorables

"I look forward to attending the first joint Mullah-enviromentalist press conference on global warming -- that is, if ladies are permitted to attend." Amy Ridenour

"That was an impressive sight yesterday in Gleneagles, Scotland, of British Prime Minister Tony Blair responding to the London Terror attacks flanked in solidarity by all the world's major leaders. Now let's hope those leaders react with the resolve President Bush showed after 9/11 rather than retreat the way Spain did after the Madrid bombings last year." Wall St. Journal editorial, July 8, 2005

"But sorry, old chaps, you are dealing with an enemy that does not want anything specific, and cannot be talked back into reason through anger management or round-table discussions. Or, rather, this enemy does want something specific: to take full control of your lives, dictate every single move you make round the clock and, if you dare resist, he will feel it his divine duty to kill you." Amir Taheri

1240 Friday feast

There is no Friday Feast for July 8, so I went into the archives and got July 9, 2004.

Appetizer
If you were a color, which color would you be, and why?
What is this? A therapy session?

Soup
When was the last time you went to the doctor, and what was your reason for going?
I think it was December--annual check up.

Salad
What do you collect?
Lots of things: Hull Pottery, although it has become so expensive that I rarely buy a piece anymore; first issues of journals, and I even keep a blog on that topic; here at the lakehouse I seem to be accumulating (that's the early states of collection) books about the Great Lakes and novels with ocean and lake themes (Summer of "42, Outer Banks); I have a collection of Cat's Meow lighthouses; I have a collection of kitty boxes--not the litter type, but little boxes of metal, wood or china with feline themes; we buy art for our anniversary, and we're coming up on #45, so it is becoming a collection.

Main Course
What were you like in high school? Name one thing you miss and one thing you don't miss about those days. (If you're still there, imagine how you'll remember it in the future.)
What you see is what you get with me. I was pretty much the same in kindergarten, except that I thought God looked like Mr. Bechtold, our mailman. I don't miss anything about high school, especially not the cliques. I always wanted to be an adult, and I got my wish. However, because my family lived in that town, it was easy to go back and enjoy the good things, and I often write about it. The ladies of my high school class had breakfast together on the 4th, a tradition they've continued over the years.

Dessert
Pretend you're standing in front of your home, with your back towards your home. Describe the view - what can you see? Trees? Cars? A zoo? Wal-Mart?
Here, I look around and see several 19th century houses and a few early 20th century camp style cottages; I see 6 American flags moving lightly in the breeze; I see our pink and white impatiens which were almost dead two weeks ago--a permanent vegetative state which reversed with some water and fertilizer; a lightly blacktopped street; our neighbors' flowers--roses, petunias and lilies; 10 cars and one golf cart; one lady walking her dog.

1239 Разработка онтологий 101: руководство по созданию Вашей первой онтологии

OK, I’m just showing off. This is a neat site available in English, French and Russian called, Ontology Development 101 : A Guide to Creating Your First Ontology. I saw it at John Dupuis’engineering library blog (he always finds such fun things to explore--no one has more fun than a librarian).

Here’s the abstract, and this exhausts my knowledge of the subject: Ontologies have become core components of many large applications yet the training material has not kept pace with the growing interest. This paper addresses the issues of why one would build an ontology and presents a methodology for creating ontologies based on declarative knowledge representation systems. It leverages the two authors experiences building and maintaining ontologies in a number of ontology environments including Protege-2000, Ontolingua, and Chimaera. It presents the methodology by example utilizing a tutorial wines knowledge base example. While it is aimed at users of frame-based systems, it can be useful for building ontologies in any object-centered system.

Without further ado, please go here.

1238 Let's revisit Vietnam

Neo-neocon and Vietpundit (see my links) are really excellent reads for revisiting Vietnam and its aftermath, but so is a recent post by Victor Davis Hanson on July 4. He writes:

"The al Qaedists and former Ba'athists anticipate another impending U.S. retreat, like the 1984 flight from Lebanon or the 1993 exit from Somalia after the horrific dragging of American bodies in the streets of Mogadishu. Both pullouts, enshrined in al Qaeda propaganda, contributed to the pre-September 11, 2001, folklore that the United States lacked the stamina to defeat terrorists.

So the media-savvy terrorists have redirected their attacks yet again — back to American troops. Just last week, female Marines, who allay Iraqi unease over the searching of Iraqi women at checkpoints, were blown up aboard an armored truck returning to base from a checkpoint.

In response, the ghost of Vietnam is again being conjured. Given this tendency to compare the two wars, we really should re-examine the horror of Vietnam, specifically its final years."

Our pull out didn't just cause the deaths of millions of our allies, but caused the bubbling up of all sorts of problems when we were perceived as weak and indecisive.

"Those who evoke Vietnam should think carefully of the entire lesson of that tragedy. We hear daily how we once foolishly got into that chaos but rarely the lessons on how we got out.

This present war is not just about the Sunni Triangle, but whether reformers of the Arab world will step forward to emulate a fragile democratic Iraq that survives the jihadist counterassault. For the last three decades, Middle East autocratic regimes either attacked their neighbors or reached understandings with Islamic terrorists to shift blame for their own failures onto an apparently unconcerned United States."
Complete article here.

1236 Robert Kennedy on autism

The evolutionary biology people think I'm soft on science just because I'm a 6-day creationist and pro-life. Not so. I can spot scientific clap-trap from 100 yards (even as a child when I received all the evolution dogma I thought it sort of fanciful). For instance, Robert Kennedy, Jr.'s article in today's WSJ on autism and vaccination. It's his big thing to keep his name out front. Play on the fears of panicked parents, while putting millions of children at risk for diseases controlable with vaccines.

Autism is a painful problem. I found this site comprehensive, but compact enough to read through.

1235 Is this the government?

Today I read an article in an OB/Gyn on-line magazine about how the Bush administration was moving aggressively to stop a woman's right to choose (i.e., to abort) through ideology and pseudoscience. I read through the article and found very little about the current administration, but a lot about what states are doing--and have been doing since before Bush I. Then I started looking at the references mentioned as "government reports." So I followed up on one that was prepared by the staff of Rep. Henry Waxman about why abstinence education was a bad idea. Here's his record:

Voted NO on making it a crime to harm a fetus during another crime. (Feb 2004)
Voted NO on banning partial-birth abortion except to save mother’s life. (Oct 2003)
Voted NO on forbidding human cloning for reproduction & medical research. (Feb 2003)
Voted NO on funding for health providers who don't provide abortion info. (Sep 2002)
Voted NO on banning human cloning, including medical research. (Jul 2001)
Voted NO on banning Family Planning funding in US aid abroad. (May 2001)
Voted NO on federal crime to harm fetus while committing other crimes. (Apr 2001)
Voted NO on banning partial-birth abortions. (Apr 2000)
Voted NO on barring transporting minors to get an abortion. (Jun 1999)
Rated 100% by NARAL, indicating a pro-choice voting record. (Dec 2003)

This report was about what was wrong with the abstinence curricula offered in some high schools. Most of the sentences were "one curriculum. . ." did this or that wrong. With Waxman's record (100% rating by NARAL), I can't imagine that his staff would prepare anything other than a negative report on a program supported by President Bush. All curricula from math to physics to health have errors. None worse probably than the sex ed courses. . . but Waxman's staff probably didn't look at those.

So why is this considered a "government" report?

1234 Your library probably won't buy this

unless you ask. If last year's campaign offerings were any example, you probably won't see 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America : (and Al Franken Is #37) by Bernard Goldberg
on the new book shelf at your local public library.


From Amazon site: Goldberg names names, counting down the villains in his rogues' gallery from 100 all the way to 1 -- and, yes, you-know-who is number 37. Some supposedly "serious" journalists also made the list, including the journalist-diva who sold out her integrity and hosted one of the dumbest hours in the history of network television news. And there are those famous miscreants who have made America a nastier place than it ought to be -- a far more selfish, vulgar, and cynical place.

But Goldberg doesn't just round up the usual suspects we have come to know and detest. He also exposes some of the people who operate away from the limelight but still manage to pull a lot of strings and do all sorts of harm to our culture. Most of all, 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America is about a country where as long as anything goes, as one of the good guys in the book puts it, sooner or later everything will go.

1233 London updates

This site usually reports trivia, but has updates on the London bombing. Noticed at Rainy Day.

1232 Thank you, ABC

Thank you, thank you for Dancing with the Stars. We've never watched a reality show format, but this one was a winner. We disagree with the judges--John O'Hurly and Charlotte Jorgensen were more graceful and obviously having a better time than the winners, Kelly Monaco and Alec Mazo (he was the best of all the professional dancers). I hope the show will be repeated, and I know many people will be signing up for ballroom dance lessons.

And thank you too for dropping that stupid idea , Welcome to the Neighborhood, which could have set human relations back a decade or two. Even if you weren't smart enough to figure it out on your own.

1231 Lutheran Chautauqua

This week at Lakeside is "Lutheran Chautauqua." Dr. Fred Meuser is the Chaplain of the week. I heard him Sunday at church, yesterday at Chapel and last evening at Vespers. He is just outstanding. He used to be President of Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus. Yesterday morning he gave one of the best sermons on communion, "Come to the table," I've ever heard, although it wasn't offered at that service. Last night he talked about modern day martyrs of the faith. He showed us his "clergy cap" with a removable "collar."

Yesterday I went to the afternoon watercolor because I wanted to hear Dr. Meuser in the morning. However, it was for beginners, and I didn't get much out of it. And I sat between two children--who were really good! How threatening!! So today I'll go up to the 10 a.m. class and see if I can get in with the other instructor, Barbara Cox, who is doing seascapes and landscapes.

1230 Coleen--your hairdresser called

This morning I watched an interview with Coleen Rowley (FBI "whistleblower) on a morning talk show. Whether her Republican opponent will also be interviewed for free air time I don't know. But she needs to see her hairdresser if she hopes to win (don't worry, my fashion predicitions are usually wrong). She looks like she hasn't changed her hair style since college making her look like a 1970s hippie--and I suspect she's actually younger than that. But even worse, she's letting it go natural, the cheap way--at the roots only. A short hair cut will get rid of that dishwater blonde if she intends to stay gray.

Katie Couric pulled out all the stops trying to get her to denounce the war and the Bush administration, but Coleen is a smart cookie even with dowdy locks, and didn't fall for her. She says there might be "another way," but didn't get to specifics.

I once wrote the website of a Democratic candidate (don't remember what office) and let them know about glaring errors in grammar. I think people should fall on their own swords, not the poor schooling of their volunteers. So maybe one of Coleen's advisors will see this.

1229 Political advertising a roadmap? I hope not!

Steven J. Fredericks, president-CEO of TNS Media Intelligence, presented 2005 ad spending predictions at last week’s AdWatch Conference. Among other figures I noted this one with some concern, since we in Ohio were drowned with political advertising in 2004, some of it very nasty.

“Political advertising, Mr. Fredericks noted, has become a perennial category, as well. “Election 2004 was a watershed event with spending exceeding $1.45 billion,” he said. “The number and diversity of advertisers and messages created a roadmap of new standards by which future campaigns and advertising battles will be waged.” More than 400 mayors are up for re-election this year, he noted, including in San Antonio, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit and San Diego, will receive an injection of political advertising dollars this year thanks to high profile mayoral elections and “New York TV will get a huge chunk of change from Mayor Bloomberg,” he said. Outside of elections, special interest groups are advertising around causes, such as prescription drugs, the environment and, what is likely to be the next big the next big issue, a Supreme Court Justice appointment. To date, those groups have spent $90 million on advertising, according to TNS data. Fourth quarter, estimates Mr. Fredericks, could see an additional $50 million from groups spending money in preparation for the 2006 midterm election.

Mr. Fredericks also took on the notion that the TV upfront is considered a leading indicator of the medium’s advertising market, noting that the cumulative error over 14 years of predictions has amounted to $24.5 billion -- about $1.9 billion a year. In only five of 14 years was total TV ad spending within five percentage points of the upfront-based prediction. It’s a “poor predictor” because buyers can exercise options to cancel their buys during first through third quarters, the networks vary their sellout levels from year to year and, he said, drawing what were likely cynical chuckles from the buyers in the crowd, sellers are the primary reporting sources for the totals.”

Complete predictions here.

1228 How to raise money for Africa--tax the rockers

Mark Steyn totals the original Live Aid help to Africa. Taxes on one dead Brit would've done the same:

"Seven years ago, you'll recall, Sir Paul's wife died of cancer. Linda McCartney had been a resident of the United Kingdom for three decades but her Manhattan tax lawyers, Winthrop Stimson Putnam & Roberts, devoted considerable energy in her final months to establishing her right to have her estate probated in New York state.

That way she could set up a "qualified domestic marital trust" that would... Yeah, yeah, yeah, in the immortal words of Lennon and/or McCartney. Big deal, you say. We're into world peace and saving the planet and feeding Africa. What difference does it make which jurisdiction some squaresville suit files the boring paperwork in?

Okay, I'll cut to the chase. By filing for probate in New York rather than the United Kingdom, Linda McCartney avoided the 40 per cent death duties levied by Her Majesty's Government. That way, her family gets all 100 per cent - and 100 per cent of Linda McCartney's estate isn't to be sneezed at.

For purposes of comparison, Bob Geldof's original Live Aid concert in 1985 raised £50 million. Lady McCartney's estate was estimated at around £150 million. In other words, had she paid her 40 per cent death duties, the British Treasury would have raised more money than Sir Bob did with Bananarama and all the gang at Wembley Stadium that day." Read Steyn article here.

Africa is the only continent in the world poorer than it was 20 years ago when the rockers first banded together to help.

1227 All the good stories are from Hollywood

Ex-Liberal in Hollywood has an interesting account of his move from wide eyed trusting liberal to pragmatic conservative. Probably most interesting for Californians, but since we see so many of these LAPD folk on our TVs, you might learn from this one.

1226 What's the worst decision you've ever made?

That was a topic on a talk show this morning, but the phone rang and I didn't hear what the guest said to do to get out of it. However, at 65 I've got to admit that even the awful decisions, or the ones I agonized about, smooth out over time. Bad ones lead to changes or modifications which evolve into good ones, which maybe wouldn't have come along if you'd done it right the first time.

I remember about 20 years ago we bought a lot on a lake in Indiana on a whim. We'd been out on a moonlit boat ride on a lovely summer night, and for some stupid reason offered the people $10,000 for a lot for which they were asking $25,000. We continued on to Illinois and didn't give it another thought until we got a phone call that our offer had been accepted. I was stunned, and almost physically ill. We kept it about a year, paying the assessment and real estate tax and mowing costs (it was waterfront with improvements, including trees). We listed it and sold it for $25,000. With expenses, realtor's fee and capital gains taxes, we still came out ahead. But I don't dabble in real estate anymore.

Deciding to be a foreign language major in college was a terrible decision at the time. I loved the cultures and the people, but really had no talent for language. Eventually, however, it lead me to Library Science, a field I loved after I was in it, but which definitely was a second choice--one I wouldn't have pursued if it hadn't been right under my nose in 1965.

A Bible promise I hold dear is Joel 2:25: "I will restore to you the years which the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame."

1225 There is no plan B; only A-b-o-r-t-i-o-n

Although I understand the reasoning the media calls Plan B "emergency contraception," it isn't; it is a very early abortion. Let's be more honest than we were with all the coat hanger statistics back in the 1960s. If you believe abortion is a woman's right to choose, and not the death of a human being, then be very clear about what you promote. There is NO morning after solution to tragedy, be it rape, long term promiscuity or one night stand.

"The American Medical Association voted Monday to put its weight behind legislative initiatives around the United States that would require pharmacies to fill legally valid prescriptions in the wake of recently publicized refusals by pharmacists opposed to dispensing the morning-after contraceptive." Chicago Tribune

And this:

"A bipartisan bill introduced last week by Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), Jon Corzine (D-NJ), and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) would require hospitals receiving federal funds to provide rape survivors with information about and access to emergency contraception. The legislation, known as the Compassionate Assistance for Rape Emergencies (CARE) Act, comes at a time when other proposals to ensure availability of contraception are the subjects of intense political debate -- proposals such as making Plan B (a form of emergency contraception) available over the counter and a bill ensuring that all pharmacies fill prescriptions for contraception." ACSH

1224 If you die in Cleveland

You'll need to check out the verb policy for the PD.


At home with the Lord. Hope to see you there, if you're from Cleveland.

1223 Another test for you

I took the MIT Weblog survey which is collecting information on how people use their logs. Here's the site:

1222 Mao, the unknown story

Have you ever picked up an old notebook or pad of paper and read through the notes? We keep a small notebook here at the Lakehouse for writing messages, only a few notes are written each summer, so we forget what they are about. My husband was flipping through it puzzling at the cryptic messages, some clear, some not:

Chicks, turn on radio, Studs.
We’re at art center. Back by 12.
Video tapes for print machine 421-7591
Buns chips brats burgers chips salad strawberry
Gone to library to return book. Keep cat out of bedrooms so she can’t hide.

And finally

Wild Swans. Est. 30,000,000 died in famine 1958-1962. Peasants pulled off land to work in steel.

What’s that one all about, he asked. I had to stop and think a minute, then remembered that Wild Swans was a book I was reading here at the lake maybe in the mid-1990s about China. My summer reading never seems to be light. It’s definitely one that should be on Senator Durbin’s short list. The author Jung Chang grew up in China and Wild Swans is about her life. In her new book, Mao, the unknown story, she writes:

“I decided to write about Mao because I was fascinated by this man, who dominated my life in China, and who devastated the lives of my fellow countrymen. He was as evil as Hitler or Stalin, and did as much damage to mankind as they did. Yet the world knows astonishingly little about him.” (Publisher’s note)

The issue of Far Eastern Economic Review June 2005 which contains the book review by Jonathan Mirsky of Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang, Jon Halliday and Jonathan Cape has been banned in China, where a dead Mao is still ruling from the grave. Wall Street Journal article comments on this ban.

1221 The President's Accomplishments

Dana has a long list. Your mileage will vary.

1220 July Fourth 2005 at the Lake

Did you see the feature on Lakeside on yesterday's CBS Morning show (9-10:30 EDT)? It was the last 5 minutes. We rushed home after communion to turn on the TV and of course, sat through all the other summer time clips on skateboarding, hot dogs, and hunting for relatives in the islands off of Italy. I think the Lakeside story was cut to make room for the Luther Vandross bio (died last week). Even though it showed almost none of the lovely sights, it did get the ambiance right, featuring the friendliness and trust of the community.

My husband then craved hot dogs all morning, so he took off on his bike and went to the little grocery store right outside the gates and fixed himself a hot dog for lunch. One. He is the most disciplined person I know.


This morning is the parade. Every little kid decorates a bike, and grandparents decorate their golf carts. A neighboring school district will probably send in a band, and there will be a few clowns. The Guys Club will march--that's a group of men who do nothing and I think their motto is something like "can it wait." This morning I saw someone flying a kite off the dock with a tiny US flag appended.

When I was walking through the park this morning with my coffee on the way to the lake, I saw a grandpa shooting baskets with his two little grandsons (at least I hope they were not sons), one about 2, the other maybe 4. Grandpa didn't give them any breaks either. Also, I don't think he made any points, but it was the cutest thing to watch.

Changing the Template

Fiddle. Fiddle. Faddle. Re-fiddle. I've deleted the comments window (I think) and moved my e-mail to the top, so if you have something to say, speak up! But you better note which entry you're referring to, otherwise, I won't know what you're talking about. Your inciteful comments haven't been deleted, blogger.com tells me, and can be retrieved anytime. Nasty comments, of course, were deleted as we went along. No blogger abuse allowed here.

1219 Cat Fanciers

Usually, I don't make fun of other people's pets, love like beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but check out this link, and then scroll down to ninth place. The copy function has been disabled, otherwise I'd just drop the photo in here. Truly, the most frightening cat I've ever seen.

1218 Daniel's Gift for the Fourth

My friend Daniel, a documents librarian and a proud American, offers this selection for your holiday reading. I was just browsing the Federalist Papers. Hamilton was awesome. One can't imagine the USA being what it is without his input.

Declaration of Independence
Articles of Confederation
Federalist Papers
Constitution of the United States
Bill of Rights
Other Primary Documents of American History from the Library of Congress

1217 War of the Worlds

Barbara Nicolosi at Church of the Masses has a long list of Whys in her review, beginning with why are there only 5 people in a theater that seats 500? But this Why was my favorite:

"Why doesn't the ACLU arrest Speilberg for being blatantly pro-Christian? (I mean, nobody in the WHOLE movie breathes the smallest prayer while the human race is being systematically exterminated. So, I figured, the filmmakers must be saying that all the Christians must NOT be getting exterminated. That is, the aliens are only killing the unbelievers who don't pray -- the Christians must have put lamb blood or something on their lintels off screen. Anyway, I think that must be pretty offensive to the ungodly...)"

My own Why, Why were we seeing Tom Cruise every time the TV is on? is now answered. It was a full court press--a trumped up controversy between him and Brooke, the Lauer interview, and probably a fake engagement, all to keep his name in the news to hype this movie.

1216 This is old news, or was it buried?

In the late 1970s I was hired on soft money (USAID funds) to be the agricultural economics bibliographer at the Ohio State University Libraries. It was a fabulous job for reentry into the work world: my children were in school from 8:15 to 3 p.m., and this job was half time, so I worked about 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. I contributed to the retirement plan, and got full credit instead of half for my time there (which became critical in 2000 when adding everything up). I had complete freedom and great funding to build the collection on agricultural credit--mostly about third world countries. I went to a lot of the graduate student meetings and lunches, attended some college functions like the Farm Science Review, was included in most of the library faculty functions without being appointed to committees (temps don't need the professional credit), attended state and local professional meetings and the department supported my research and publication. I also got to co-teach a bibliographic instruction unit with one of the professors. Truly, a dream job for a librarian who needed to work part time and relearn the ropes after a decade out of service.

However, I'm quite sure I knew then from all the reading I did to stay current in agriculture what I've just seen on a blog--that the inputs for alternative fuel cost more and required more energy than the resulting product. Renewable crops eat up a huge amount of inputs. Midwestern farmers and the schools of agriculture really wanted crop fuels to make it, and so I was shocked to read this when I know the writing was on the blackboard even 30 years ago:

"Ethanol, touted as an alternative fuel of the future, may eat up far more energy during its creation than it winds up giving back, according to research by a UC Berkeley scientist that raises questions about the nation's move toward its widespread use.

A clean-burning fuel produced from renewable crops like corn and sugarcane, ethanol has long been a cornerstone of some national lawmakers' efforts to clear the air and curb dependence on foreign oil. California residents use close to a billion gallons of the alcohol-based fuel per year."

Hat tip to Considerettes who links to SFGate. The research is not without controversy apparently.

1215 The journey of a conservative librarian

Susan, aka Mustang Mama, has written an outstanding post about being a conservative in the field of librarianship. You might think it doesn't concern you because librarians just do after school crowd control and direct people to the rest room, but I learned things I didn't know (I never worked professionally in a public library, although I've noticed the bias in the book selection). Particularly read this if you have children who use the library.

1214 In my humble opinion

This is a phrase I see frequently in blogs. It means the opposite of what it says--the person is not claiming to be humble at all, but has a very strong opinion on something. Father John has a not so humble opinion on the "right" to marriage.

"All of the arguments being advanced today to "change society's morality" to gain acceptance of same-sex marriages -- fairness; equality; acceptance of minority (that is, non-mainstream) points of view and practices, and so on -- can be made in favor of the "polys"; polygamy (one husband, many wives), and polyandry (one woman, many husbands). Indeed, here in the "wild, wild west," we have a group with significant money, power, and influence, whose central tenets at one time required its adherents to practice polygamy as the best way to salvation. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (known to many as the "Mormons") only rescinded this as a principle of belief when required to do so by the federal government as a condition for admitting the territory of Utah as a state. Why would they not return to this practice if the mood of the nation is to change the "traditional" understanding of marriage as the union of a man and a woman to allow same-sex marriages? After all, the proponents of polygamy have Biblical precedent on their side (at least, in the Old Testament), where many of the patriarchs had multiple wives. The practitioners of the Islamic faith also are permitted as many as four wives. Why should either of these groups refrain from entering the fray, and extend the definition of marriage to allow their religious beliefs to be practiced? Granted, part of the problem is that the practice has often been abused, with men marrying girls under the usual state-established age of consent -- girls young enough to be their daughters. But the abuse doesn't abrogate the right; and there's no reason why, with proper documentation, women of legal age to marry should be denied entry into a polygamous marriage if they choose to do so of their own will.

Nor should the legalization be limited to polygamy. After all, that would be unfair to that part of the female population who would prefer instead to have several husbands providing for their care, comfort, and pleasure. Again, as long as everyone is at or above the age of consent, and enters knowingly into such a union, registered with the state, why should anyone object? And, while there isn't (so far as I know) a "poly" for more complex relationships, there's no need to limit the establishment of some sort of "multiple marriages," where, say, three men and two women, or three men and four women (or "a" men and "b" women) desire to be joined in marriage and be recognized as each other's spouses. With everyone at the age of consent, and all open and above-board, why not? After all, we can't use Christian morality as an argument against any of the "polys"; that argument is out-of-bounds in the dialogue today. And, after all, just because only a few people, comparatively speaking, will actually want to enter into these forms of union doesn't make them wrong." Father John (scroll down until blogger gets it gap together)

And he hasn't even mentioned why adults shouldn't have the right to marry children (if you can change the gender, why not the consent) or their siblings or first degree relatives. Or why the marriage shouldn't take place if only one person wants it. Sort of a Kelo-Marriage. Follow the money. Follow the power. Just my humble opinion, of course.

1213 Are the media liberal or conservative or balanced?

Ask someone who earns his living there. Callimachus, a journalist whose "co-workers sit at their desks talking about how much they hate Bush, how important it is to defeat him, how many people they saw at the anti-war rally they marched in, how criminal the Iraq war is, how "evil" the U.S. administration is, how brilliant and important Michael Moore is, how stupid Republicans are" writes:

"I find it amazing that people consider the media to have a "conservative" bias. If by that you mean, "Peter Jennings is not actively promoting Maoist revolutionary rhetoric," then yes, that's true. But according to a Pew Research Center survey reported in "Editor & Publisher," the official publication of the U.S. news media, the proportion of self-defined "liberals" in newsrooms is increasing much faster than that of self-defined "conservatives," and the ratio is well out of proportion to the nation as a whole.

At national organizations (which includes print, TV and radio), the numbers break down like this: 34% liberal, 7% conservative. At local outlets: 23% liberal, 12% conservative. At Web sites: 27% call themselves liberals, 13% conservatives.

This contrasts with the self-assessment of the general public: 20% liberal, 33% conservative.

Pew found that, over time, not only is the media more polarized, but the liberal voices are more numerous. Since 1995, at national outlets, the liberal segment has climbed from 22% to 34% while conservatives have inched up from 5% to 7%."

Done with Mirrors

1212 Live Aid

There are few people more entrepreneurial or price gouging than the entertainment/rock musician club. So if they really want to help the poor in Africa, they need to encourage capitalism. Marxism and socialism didn't get them on stage raking in the dough. Somehow, I don't think we'll hear that message. They also need to sing loud enough to encourage African ex-pats to leave Europe, Canada and the US and return home to put their education and skills to work for the homeland. Yeah, I know that won't happen either.

1211 A Perfect Summer Day

When we arrived last Saturday the temps were in the high 90s and we could barely see the islands. A storm blew through on Thursday and cleared everything out. Last night we finally saw a sunset. Today has been coolish and windy. While walking along the lakefront today we could practically see people grilling out on Kelley's Island. Lake Erie is like a saucer of water, and with a little wind you get white caps.

I'd stopped in a new gift shop and heard a rumor that a house on the lake listed for $695,000 was in a bidding war, and had gone up into the $800s. So we were walking along trying to figure out which one it was. We did see one in contract which still had most of the porch protection in place. Like many of the older houses, some of its porches had been filled in. A lakefront house can get pretty chilly. Location really is everything. In Columbus, this house might go for $65 or $70,000.

Someone flagged down my husband today on his bike ride to ask if he'd retired. Their kids had just bought a house on our street and wanted to remodel. He won't take the job, but did stop and look at it and explained to them the complex set-backs and footprint rules. We do ponder what some of these young families do to be able to afford a second home--when we were their age, the groceries were spread awfully thin at the end of the month, and we'd hold our breath that nothing went wrong with the car.

Also on our street, the only "fixer-upper" left in town has changed hands. I stopped in yesterday to say hello. The floors and walls were straighter than I expected, judging from the outside. This family group owns about 6 other cottages that we know of, and I know they'll do a good job. It was an incredible mess. The former owner's family had been here on Monday to take out what they wanted. Then the next day a dumpster was in the yard, and virtually everything in the house went into it. I heard the young owner say, "Here's another typewriter," as he threw it in. The final frosting on the cake made of trash was 4 double bed mattresses. The roof is completely covered with a tarp--it's been that way for two years. The two story garage, which looks like a former stable, leans dramatically to the east. We'll enjoy watching the transformation.

1210 On activist judges

Jane Galt recalls:

"Most people seem to think of the constitution as a guarantee of everything they believe sacred and good--whatever that may be. I think of it rather as a process for finding what is sacred and good; the operating manual for a classically liberal society. The rights it guarantees are mostly the rights that allow people to meet and debate ideas. We have freedom of speech, assembly, and religion so that we can meet and debate about the truth, including the truth about God. We have the right to bear arms, freedom from unreasonable searches, and the various criminal justice rights to prevent the government from curtailing those rights through the backdoor of intimidation. We have a mechanism for electing a federal government to be our proxies for the enacting of the truths we discover into law.

This is a model, of course, and it's imperfect; the founding fathers had many things in mind (and I'm neither a historian nor a legal scholar). But as a model, I think it works pretty well. And I think there's an important idea here: the constitution doesn't tell us what those truths are.

It doesn't tell us that the right to sexual privacy is fundamental to human liberty, nor that we may not hear prayers in our classrooms or see nativity scenes on the town square, nor any of the other multitude of "rights" we've discovered since the Warren court. If we discover such things, it gives us a perfectly good mechanism for enacting those truths into law: the legislature."

1209 Mom Writers

While browsing through my site meter by referrals who had also mentioned Mt. Morris, IL, I came across the Mom Writers, "a community of professional and new writers . . . who face the unique challenges of writing with children underfoot." A very interesting site for female writers and wannabees. They've got their own t-shirts and hats. If you are a beginner, they offer encouragement and help.

1208 Book cart drill team

Librarians having fun with tools of the trade.

1207 Intelligent Design and Flag Burning

Folks, there's a reason all the verbs we use with money are also used with time--they are flip sides of the same pancake. First, they only matter on this side of eternity--neither time nor money exist after you are gone. Second, what you do with either or both can improve your life here, or make your life an early entry into Hell.

Spend
Save
Invest
Commit
Gain
Use
Redeem
Waste
Squander
Fritter away

Two of the biggest time wasters with no payoff at the other end, are 1) defending a vague spiritual concept known as "intelligent design" and 2) the freedom of expression of political thought known as flag burning.

I've had about 18 years of formal schooling, and probably 2 more if I added up all the required workshops and classes needed to hold down a job (another post: the non-formal education system is larger than the formal one, so if you want job security, go there).

I can't think of a single endeavor in my life, other than answering questions on a biology test, for which I ever needed the theory of evolution. Can you? And I worked in a medical library and an agricultural library for over 20 years. The ID theory pales to nothingness when compared with the first few chapters of Genesis, so why are you wasting time and energy? Goodness, get a life and open your Bible. Millions of Christians and Jews live perfectly wonderful, satisfying lives without ever thinking about either evolution or intelligent design. And we are sooooo tired of the squabbles and you guys making us all look like ignorant rubes.

I am a 6 day creationist myself, but that's a theological solution because death doesn't enter creation until after the first sin. Billions of years of deaths just doesn't fit the template for a really dynamic faith, in my opinion. Look around. Do you see anything but entropy and decay--have you seen the human race getting better and better? We've been at war my entire life time! Let them have their little favorite theories if it gives their lives meaning. Please don't send me websites and book titles. I've seen them all and been shouted at by the best.

I wouldn't ask a college of "Evolutionary Biology" to teach my faith, but I do expect you Christians to stop telling your kids to "just praise the Lord" in 7/11 songs (7 words repeated 11 times) and provide them with a few basics about sin and why it is everywhere and what the solution might be when they're sitting in a college course with an evolution-fundy-professor.

My suggestion for response to flag burners is ignore them, just like you had to do with your toddlers' temper trantrums. They are pushing your buttons and you're falling for it. I heard a former soldier call in to the Glenn Beck show and describe the training he had to go through to learn to deal with terrorists, rowdies and kooks. They had to stand by and watch the flag urinated on, used as toilet paper, spit on, stomped on, etc., but learned to show strength and realize it was a symbol. They had to know their core values, and those weren't the cloth and design. The flag stands for something that can't be destroyed by petulant weirdos. Burning is the only proper way to dispose of a damaged flag. Apparently those who burn a flag in public protest are already a bit mind damaged, but throw water on them by ignoring them into oblivion. Stop giving them prime time MSM coverage with your silly and harmful counter protests and proposals for amendments. I personally find t-shirts, motorcycle jackets or underpants made to look like US flags much more offensive. They equate being a good American with consumerism.

1206 Blueberries are brain food

Today we finished the 5 day class on "Mind Matters" taught by Sally Kriska here at Lakeside. The topic yesterday was the Teen-age brain, and today it was "The retiring mind." One of the tips that Sally passed along was the 10-24-7 tip. She said that in order to incorporate something into the long term memory, review it 10 minutes after hearing/reading it, then review in 24 hours, and then a week later. Then it is much more likely to make it to the long term memory, because most things drop out of our memory very quickly.

One day we covered nutrition. Blueberries kept coming up as brain food. So I looked it up, and discovered a USDA site that said pretty much what she said:

"It used to be thought that shortly after we are born that we had all of neurons that we were going to have throughout life and that no more new ones would be made. Now we know that during normal aging no neurons are lost and new ones are still being made (called neurogenesis) even into old age. However, it appears that the rate slows down. One brain region where this occurs is called the hippocampus, which is a major memory control area. . .

Previously, we showed that age-related declines in memory tasks can be improved by antioxidant-rich diets containing blueberries. In this study, to begin to understand the mechanisms responsible for the beneficial effects of blueberries, we assessed changes in hippocampal neurogenesis, activation of IGF-1, and ERK levels in blueberry-supplemented aged animals. The results showed that all of these measurements showed increases in the blueberry-supplemented as compared to control. Importantly, the results showed that these increases were significantly correlated with improvements in spatial memory. Therefore, cognitive improvements afforded by fruits such as blueberries, which are abundant in compounds called polyphenolics, may be regulated by their beneficial effects on hippocampal neurogenesis."

I've never been particularly fond of blueberries, but I can put them in a pie or a dish of mixed fruit.

However, never, never, never drop blueberries into packaged vanilla pudding. It contains yellow #5 & #6 food coloring, and as you learned in kindergarten, blue and yellow make green. Pea soup green pudding.

1205 The Week the Women Went

A talk show on CKLW (800 am) was discussing a British reality show, The Week the Women Went, or something like that. The idea is to have a whole community where the men are left to fend for themselves. The hostess, Lynne Martin, was taking calls (repeat show, I assume), mainly from men, who assured her the worst part would be missing their wives' care and emotional support. They were kind of sweet, I thought.

My husband could get along without me for a week, because I have purchased for him 10 sets of underwear, and there are only 7 days in a week, so he wouldn't have to turn on the washer or dryer. He knows how to fix lunch and breakfast, so for dinner he could drive to a restaurant. He's neater than I am, even hangs up his dirty clothes, so there would actually be less housework, and the dishwasher would hold most of the dishes, or he could use paper plates. I might have a problem if he were to spill or break something--he panics, and thinks if he can't see it, he's probably got it all cleaned up. Also, some things might spoil in the refrigerator, because if he doesn't see the item he wants when he opens the door, something in his nature tells him not to look behind anything. I understand many men have this boogey-man in the frig complex.

1204 Friday Feast 54 July 1

Didn't June go by awfully fast? Seems we were just celebrating Memorial Day, which originally was Decorate the graves of the Civil War Dead day, and now it is time for July 4, when we celebrate many values, including a very, very long revolution. Here is Friday Feast questions.

Appetizer
Where do you plan to go on vacation this year, or where would you want to go?
We'll be on vacation most of the summer right here, but will also take a trip to visit historic architectural sites in Arkansas and Oklahoma. Then in September we're going to Germany and Austria. I came across the Apostle Islands of Lake Superior in a real estate ad. That area of the US looks really interesting to visit.

Soup
What color is your bedroom? If you could redecorate it, what would you change?
We watched a segment of Oprah where bedrooms are redecorated to make them more restful or more romantic. I mentioned I was a bit tired of the dark blue faux stripe, but neither of us have come up with a better idea.

Salad

Do you have a bumper sticker on your vehicle? What does it say?No. I have a blog.

Main Course
What's the worst pain you've ever been in?
Birthing babies.

Dessert

Who is your favorite celebrity? What do they do that inspires you?I'm not much of a celebrity-watcher, but I'd probably drop everything to go see Laura Bush, first librarian.

1203 A gathering of Skeptics

When bloggers gather for a party whether they are Homespun or Cotillion, you can find some interesting posts. Here is the 11th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle, hosted by Anne's Anti-Quackery & Science Blog. Just because I'm a 6 day creationist doesn't mean I can't enjoy a few good scientific studies.

Here are some of the topics:
Table of Contents

- Quackery and Medical Misinformation
- Intelligent Design and Creationism
- Other Pseudoscience
- Urban Legends
- Critical Thinking
- Religion
- Astrology
- History
- Science and the Scientific Method

If you are interested in the topic of autism and vaccinations, the Orac series on the topic should not be missed. And you probably saw that hydrogen peroxide cure on TV--there's some blogging on that.

Anne does one of the best summaries of a topical group that I've seen.

1202 Even I'm not horrified

It's no secret I wish people would be a bit more careful about language, but even I'm not horrified by carefully placed, body parts scattered appropriately through a story, like this guy, Jaspan.

Hat tip Neo-neocon.