Cliff notes version of Inconvenient truth

Amy sent me to this parody, but I sort of liked this one. The eye liner graph did it, I think. And the astute analysis.

2617 The Halls of Ivy need weeding

Remember the old song, Halls of Ivy? I'm not sure of its origins, but it was the theme song for a radio drama from 1949-1952 starring Ronald Coleman (and briefly on TV). It takes place in the fictitious Ivy College.

"Oh we love The Halls Of Ivy, that surround us here today
And we will not forget, though we be far far away
To the hallowed Halls of Ivy
Every voice will bid farewell
And shimmer off in twilight like the old vesper bell."

I can get weepy just humming it. It was a marvelous and rather intellectual show for which I think you can get tapes or downloads. However, the phrase "halls of ivy" refers to the old traditional, ivy covered buildings of a prestigious university. College isn't what it used to be, is it?

Every culture, race, ethnicity, nation, tribe, family structure and language is wonderful, complex, rich in meaning and worthy of respect in the hallowed halls of ivy (academe)--except ours in the United States of America. I'm working my way through "Companion to American Immigration," (Ueda, 2006) and although well-written and readable, this is the message I'm getting in the essays I've read so far.

You can listen to Halls of Ivy at Internet Archive.

2616 The New England Primer

was a textbook used by students from 1690 into the 19th century. It followed the tradition of combining the study of
the alphabet with Bible reading. Emphasis was placed on fear of sin, God’s punishment and the fact that all people would have to face death.

A- In ADAM’S Fall We sinned all.

B- Heaven to find; The BIBLE Mind.

C- Christ crucify’d For sinners dy’d.

D- The Deluge drown’d The Earth around.

E- ELIJAH hid By Ravens fed.

F- The judgment made FELIX afraid.

G- As runs the Glass, Our Life doth pass.

H- My Book and Heart Must never part.

J- JOB feels the Rod,-- Yet blesses GOD.

K- Proud Korah’s troop Was swallowed up

L- LOT fled to Zoar Saw fiery Shower On Sodom pour.

M- MOSES was he Who Israel’s Host Led thro’ the Sea

N-NOAH did view The old world & new.

O-Young OBADIAS, DAVID, JOSIAS, All were pious

P-PETER deny’d His Lord and cry’d

Q- Queen ESTHER sues And saves the Jews.

R-Young pious RUTH, Left all the Truth.

S- Young SAM’L dear, The Lord did fear.

T- Young TIMOTHY Learnt sin to fly.

V- VASHTI for Pride Was set aside.

W- Whales in the Sea, God’s Voice obey.

X- XERXES did die, And so must I.

Y- While youth do chear Death may be near.

Z- ZACCHEUS he Did climb the Tree Our Lord to see.

Hat tip to cousin Gayle who sent this along in her weekly newsletter.

2615 We're off

If I get a connection, I'll blog. If not, well, you know the routine. I'll have to hang out at a library or coffee shop and write very brief posts. Northern Ohio has been hit by some big rains in the last few days. I heard a swimmers' warning for Lake Erie on the radio this morning. Apparently some sewer treatment facilities for shoreline cities got overwhelmed.

Catch 'ya later. Don't be a stranger.

2613 My summer reading

Probably the only way I'll get this read is if we have a long week of rain at the lake. They are getting drowned right now in northern Ohio, but I'm hoping it clears up before we get there.

Anyway, "A companion to American immigration" edited by Reed Ueda (2006) is going in my book bag. In reviews of other things he's written, Ueda is described as an Asian American hostile to the idea that the U.S. was ever a nation of Europeans, and is a proponent of open borders. He's called the "worst of the lot" in a compilation of about 10 years ago on immigration, "Migration Past, Migration, Future." Baby boomer academic with tenure (my guess). In the introduction, Ueda says the essays bridge disciplinary and chronological divides; he says nothing that they might bridge ideological or political divides. That's the hard part, especially for scholars. And compilations are pay back time for your own network.

Introduction Reed Ueda (Tufts University)
Part I: Policy and Politics
1. A Nation of Immigrants and a Gatekeeping Nation: American Immigration Law and Policy, Erika Lee (University of Minnesota)
2. Naturalization and Nationality, Irene Bloemraad (University of California, Berkeley) and Reed Ueda (Tufts University)
3. Immigration and Ethnic Politics, James J. Connolly (Ball State University)
4. Immigrant Transnationals and U. S. Foreign Relations, Xiao-huang Yin (Occidental College) and Peter H. Koehn (The University of Montana, Missoula)
5. Bodies from Abroad: Immigration, Health, and Disease, Alan M. Kraut (American University)
6. The Politics of Immigration and the Rise of the Migration State: Comparative and Historical Perspectives, James F. Hollifield (Southern Methodist University)

Part II: Ethnicity, Race, and Nation
7. Ethnic and Racial Identity, Marilyn Halter (Boston University)
8. Nativism and Prejudice against Immigrants, Tyler Anbinder (George Washington University)
9. Assimilation and American National Identity, Michael R. Olneck (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
10. Internationalization and Transnationalization, David Gerber (University of Buffalo)
11. Immigration and Race Relations, Jeffrey Melnick (Babson College)

Part III: Population and Society
12. Demography and American Immigration, Michael S. Teitelbaum (Alfred P. Sloan Foundation)
13. Gender and Immigration, Suzanne M. Sinke (Florida State University)
14. Immigrant Residential and Mobility Patterns, Barry R. Chiswick (University of Illinois at Chicago) and Paul W. Miller (University of Western Australia)
15. Immigration Flows, Guillermina Jasso (New York University) and Mark Rosenzweig (Harvard University)
16. Marriage Patterns in Historical Perspective: Gender and Ethnicity
Robert McCaa (University of Minnesota), Albert Esteve (University Autonoma of Barcelona), and Clara Cortina (Universtity Autonoma of Barcelona)

Part IV: Economy and Society
17. Immigrant Social Mobility and the Historian, Kenneth A. Scherzer (Middle Tennessee State University)
18. Labor and Immigration History: First Principles, Leon Fink (University of Illinois at Chicago)
19. Immigration in the Economy: Development and Enterprise, Nian-sheng Huang (California State University Channel Islands)
20. Immigrants in the American Housing Market, Barry R. Chiswick (University of Illinois at Chicago) and Paul W. Miller (University of Western Australia)

Part V: Culture and Community
21. Immigration and American Diversity: Food for Thought, Donna R. Gabaccia (University of Minnesota)
22. Immigration and Language, Nancy C. Carnevale (Montclair State University)
23. Immigration and Education in the United States, Paula S. Fass (University of California at Berkeley)
24. Religion and Ethnicity, John McClymer (Assumption College)
25. Mutual Aid Societies and Fraternal Orders, Daniel Soyer (Fordham University)
Index

If I find anything interesting, I'll mention it on my blog, Illegals Now.

Disclaimer: My ancestors arrived here (Pennsylvania) in the 1730s. Swiss-German and Scots-Irish. Someone left me a comment a few months ago saying therefore I was not descended from immigrants. I just growed.

Update: I'm in Chapter One and so far, no surprises.

Intractable health care crisis

How many times do we see some version of this statement or hear it on the news? But frequently it is embedded in a story about an innovative (and often privately funded and small) program modelled on a good business plan.

This week the WSJ featured a story about a program in Cincinnati to reverse its terrible infant mortality rates--one of the highest in the nation. But "Every Child Succeeds" program, started by Procter and Gamble people using a strong business model, has reduced infant deaths from 13 per 1,000 to 2.8 per 1,000.

"Preliminary findings demonstrate that ECS has been extremely effective. Ninety-eight percent of mothers in the ECS program have a medical home. 93% of ECS infants function at developmentally normal levels. Of mothers with smoking histories, 79% quit or drastically reduce tobacco use during pregnancy. Of the 29% of mother who enter ECS with clinically significant levels of depression, half are no longer depressed after nine months in the program. Observational data suggest that the ECS injury prevention component significantly reduces hazards to the child. Over 97% of mothers state that they are satisfied with the service received. ECS prenatal referrals have increased from 40% when the program began to almost 60% at the present time. An infant mortality rate for ECS families of 2.8 per 1,000 births, less than one-third of the Hamilton County infant mortality rate." (from ECS website)

Even with the incredible success of a program that flies in the face of the usual government procedures and has saved babies' lives, the writer includes snarky remarks like "in recent years as Washington as lost its taste for expensive and large scale poverty programs boutique projects have sprung up to help fill the void reducing their dependence on a state that's increasingly unwilling to shoulder the burden." Apparently the "culture" of slowness in the cooperating agencies and their reluctance to gather data, caused some problems even in a successful small program like ECS.

So on the one hand, we've got large scale, inefficient, unsuccessful programs with lofty goals to eliminate poverty which result in dead babies, but it's such a shame that the funding isn't increasing?

Then yesterday WSJ reported on a program to reduce ER visits by the poor by using in-home visits by nurses, and how a small struggling Harlem hospital has increased its income and reduced government pay-outs both by collaborating with Mount Sinai to gain access to specialties its patients needed. This keeps the hospital in a neighborhood that needs it, and serves the people better.

Intractable my foot.

2611 Lowering standards

Not that I'd ever planned to stay at the Ritz-Carlton, but apparently they are lowering their greeting standards. It will now be acceptable to say "Sure," or "No problem," or "Hi" instead of "Certainly" or "My pleasure," or "Good Morning."

I do get tired of "no problem" as a throw away response to my "Thank you" for good service when I'm a customer or client. Where did that come from? I don't recall hearing it before the late 80s. I think it is supposed to sound friendly, but it almost sounds as though you shouldn't even bother to thank them. For annoying speech habits, I put it right up there with lifting the last word of a sentence so it sounds like a tentative question instead of a statement.

Story from the WSJ, 6-23-06, B1.

2610 Notice who is to blame here

that foreigners and immigrants, many illegals, don't speak enough English to receive proper health care (at tax payers expense). The story at Medscape.com starts out with the anecdotal, obligatory story of "monolingual" [i.e. Spanish speaking only] parents bringing a 10 mo. old to the clinic, getting a perscription and then misreading the English instructions given at the pharmacy, and making the child really ill. The limited Spanish of the clinic's staff was apparently better than the "limited Enlish proficiency" (LEP) of the parents, but it is the people who are in the helping role who are to blame for not knowing this family's primary language. And even if the pharmacy staff had spoken fluent Spanish, the parents could still have misread the instructions--quite possibly their Spanish would be a bit more colloquial than someone who learned it in college.

"Almost 50 million Americans speak a primary language other than English at home, and 22.3 million have limited English proficiency (LEP), defined as a self-rated English-speaking ability of less than "very well."(1) The last decade witnessed a 47% increase in the number of Americans speaking a non-English language at home and a 53% increase in the number of LEP Americans.(2,3) Between 1980 and 2000, both of these populations more than doubled, whereas the overall US population increased only 25%.(2) Unfortunately, nearly half of LEP patients needing medical interpreters do not get them (4), and only 23% of hospitals provide training for staff on working with interpreters.(5) Americans' foreign language skills are dismal: less than half of US high school students are enrolled in foreign language courses.(6)

In the case description, we are told that neither bilingual staff nor interpreters were available for this clinic visit. Having access to trained medical interpreters or bilingual providers facilitates optimal communication, patient satisfaction, and outcomes and reduces interpretation errors for LEP patients and their families.(7) In addition, a Title VI guidance memorandum issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Office of Civil Rights states that the denial or delay of medical care for LEP patients due to language barriers constitutes a form of discrimination and requires recipients of Medicaid or Medicare to provide adequate language assistance to LEP patients.(8) This case underscores the importance of having appropriate language services available for LEP patients and their families, particularly in settings with high volumes of LEP patients."

Is Medscape by citing Title VI suggesting that hospitals, pharmacies, clinics and ER staff know Creole and French and Swahili and Portuguese, or just Spanish? Or is it OK to "discriminate" against a Brazilian or a Haitian? "Bilingual" means two. Just which two?

When does the immigrant take some responsibility? One year? Five years? About 15 years ago I invited a Cuban family for dinner--the parents who had lived in Florida for over 20 years were visiting in Columbus and spoke not even rudimentary English. They spoke through their son-in-law, who had learned English as an adult and was a Lutheran Pastor. Outside of Miami, they really weren't safe unless with a relative.

Another example: as part of "diversity training" the library staff in the 90s attended a workshop at the university taught by a Puerto Rican who was on the staff and living in Columbus, Ohio (yes, they are U.S. citizens by birth). His English was so poor I was embarrassed for him. His part of the event was a total waste of our time nor did his personal example win any friends for the cause of diversity.

Friday Family Photo

There's a new Superman movie out with Brandon Routh. Superman turned 50 in 1988 and so did my husband.



Also in the photo are, from left, Fran, Connie, Marvin, Tony, Nancy and Margie.

Thursday Thirteen

13 things we did when the budget got tight.

After six carefree years as DINKS (double income no kids), we went to one income in 1994 when my husband decided to go into business for himself. Although we were never profligate spenders and had lived on one income our first 18 years of married life, we had to learn all over to tighten our belts. If you need to go to one income so one parent can stay home with children, most of these tips will work for you too.

1. Put all credit cards except one in the drawer--and it was only for emergencies. Cash only for day to day expenses.

2. Ate out once a month instead of once a week.

3. Stopped going into retail stores or the mall, "just to look."

4. Threw out all retail ads and circulars that came to the house. The word "SALE" actually is a trick word meaning "debt."

5. Bought no new clothes.

6. Reduced our utilities--water, electricity, gas, and phone.

7. As part of the buy-out, we got a rather old company car and used it as our second car for a year so we wouldn‘t have car payments.

8. Borrowed a computer for the business; used a small room in the house for an office. I was "staff" and worked when I got home from my job. He bought no equipment until he made some money--he went to the drug store to copy things, and Kinkos to use the fax. After the first year we bought a copier, fax and our own computer. He decided against learning CAD at his age so that was outsourced.

9. Took a five year buy-out of his stock in his former firm. That provided some income and reduced the taxes.

10. Made no major repairs on the house, or decorating, or new furniture.

11. Maintained my regular contribution to my 403-b at work.

12. Maintained our church tithe, but discontinued all other donations.

13. Gave up his downtown Y membership and joined an aerobics class at our suburban church (which he still does).

After two years, and he had established his practice, it was business as usual.


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2607 Multi-tasking accident

A few months back I featured Chris White who was heading for Afghanistan and was blogging about his experiences. I just checked and he's had an accident--sliced up his finger closing his switchblade while reading a letter! Ouch. But it has healed enough to get back to blogging, and it is fascinating to read about what he is doing--putting on workshops for contractors using an interpreter. He's had to remove comments because of hackers and spammers.

He updates his blog by first sending it as e-mail to his father in Michigan who puts it on the blog.

2606 Rush's theory on women in politics

Perhaps this isn't a new idea, but it is the first I'd heard it. Shouldn't be too hard to investigate. Yesterday Rush Limbaugh was reading some statistics on women in government. Seems the U.S.A. is somewhere around #68--and even Iraq and Afghanistan (thanks to GWB) have better representation in their governments by women than we do. Rush attributes this to our very powerful feminist movement--that it has actually set women in this country back by pitting them against men and to be like men instead of encouraging them to be partners in business and government with men and to be women. Spinning your wheels and spitting in the wind, maybe?

2605 American Library Association is in NOLA

As I've commented here numerous times, my profession (i.e., I'm retired) is more liberal than the ACLU or Hollywood movie stars who testify before Congress on topics from oceans to apples. Statistically, it is 223:1 liberal to conservative, based on a survey done during the 2004 election. So, the fact that we've got a librarian in the White House, and the current Administration has been quite generous in its support of libraries and museums, means zip, nada, zilch--her name is BUSH. Shush has cut and pasted from a library listserv (probably a no-no) into his website (scroll down a little since the entries aren't clickable), and Matthew from Florida has responded to their silly whining.

Mark Rosenzweig, ALA Councilor at large, appears to be just a flaming Communist/ Anarchist based on the stuff he's published--and his post here is mild compared to some I've seen. He really needs to live in Cuba, except they jail librarians there and he knows it. Michael McGrorty, a left coaster, is an outstanding writer to whom I link for that reason, but he's so off base here (speakers like Mrs. Bush are brought in to incite the membership? Wow--what's he smoking?). Unbelievable stupidity is demonstrated in these clips for people with advanced college degrees who can't imagine why there is so much security--given their own level of hatred, she probably needs protection from raging librarians!

And from my alma mater, the U. of I. comes this undergraduate pout from Al Kagan, who is a Professor: "First of all, I would like to know who invited her [bangs his shoe on the table]. Second, I want to know if there will plenty of opportunity for questions from the floor [grabs the microphone screaming]. If there will not be questions from the floor, we should vigorously protest [give me a piece of posterboard and a marks-alot]." Here's another one from a blog: "Laura Bush will be speaking at the American Library Conference on Monday June 26. Though I usually stay for the entire conference I will leave the conference early. Below are a few reasons why. I don’t want to be back-drop for a photo-op."

Get a grip, you guys. Show some manners, since you are showing your lack of reasoning. You want everyone else to be liberal and open minded, but you can't even tolerate the smartest and prettiest First Lady we've ever had? [She earned a bachelor of science degree in education from Southern Methodist University in 1968. She taught in public schools in Dallas and Houston. In 1973, she earned a master of library science degree from the University of Texas and worked as a public school librarian until her marriage in 1977. She also won the cookie vote against Mrs. Kerry (who said she'd never worked) in the 2004 election.]

If there were no ALA tomorrow is my entry on why I think ALA is such a waste of time, energy and money (disclaimer: I was never a member).

Michelle Malkin picked up on Greg's (Shush) blog entry about ALA and Mrs. Bush.

American Library Association
Laura Bush

2604 While I'm on the topic

of librarians, this is still one of the best reference question stories I've ever read. It beats my road kill and blackbirds in a pie questions.

2603 I hope this is an urban legend

I says to Florida Cracker, another rare find, a conservative librarian, but her comments window isn't working. Anyway, she's got a post about Mary Travers (Peter, Paul and Mary) but on the internet, you never know about stories like this. I can't imagine anyone could be this tacky.

2602 A little private instruction

My husband is headed for the neighbor's for a little private instruction in his new digital camera. I hope he comes home knowing how to do it as beautifully as Mr. Cloud who is posting some lovely shots.

2601 What would you bet?

• By floating so many withdrawal (aka cut and run) plans for Iraq, the Dems are bound to hit one or two dates correctly, so when the Iraqi government is strong enough to stand on its own, the Democrats will claim a victory for withdrawal of American troops.
  
  
• Bush will be blamed for the kidnapping and deaths of the two American soldiers, not the terrorists.
  
  
• Although no captured American soldier has been returned alive, making prisoners wear pink or go naked in front of female soldiers, is much worse behavior because it is humiliating and Americans should play by the rules.
  
  
• If WMD are found, even a small amount of chemicals, the Dems will say they are planted. They've had this story ready since 2003.
  
  
• When the number of soldiers killed equals the number of civilians dead in 9/11, the Dems will be playing ring around the towers, all fall down. New Orleans violent death rate before Katrina was 53.1 per 100,000, and in Iraq it is 25.71. It is more dangerous to be a male between 18-24 in Detroit, Chicago or Baltimore just because of the effects of testosterone on stupid behavior, than it is to be a well-trained soldier with body armor in Iraq.
  
  
• No Democrat will ever be able to recall (i.e., deaf and dumb) the Carter or Clinton administration giveaways as Korea and Iran heat up.

2600 Why I don't RSS you

Sure, it's easy, they say. But do I want more things to read? I just click on my favorite links which are right here to my left, recommended by me and occasionally updated. As it is, I subscribe to way too many newsletters, a method I prefer to RSS feeds. I hear from James Carville and some lady (Nikki?) at the LATimes for news from the left; I get Nathan Bierma who writes for the Tribune about language; Michael Yon for news from Iraq; Boogie Jack tells me web page code secrets; George Barna keeps me informed about surveys of Christians; I get a genealogy newsletter, and a film maker newsletter, and an adoption newsletter from Capital U.; James Taranto of the WSJ and Christianity Today alert me when they have something new to say; and I have on-line subscriptions to WaPo and NYT. Medscape tells me when one of you have commented, so I can go back and find it. Really, I don't want your RSS feed. I have enough to do feeding my own eight blogs. And then there's all that Viagra and ink cartridge and mortgage spam.

2599 Let's all go down to Mexico

and protest their immigration policies.

• Immigrants and foreign visitors are banned from public political discourse.
• Immigrants and foreigners are denied certain basic property rights.
• Immigrants are denied equal employment rights.
• Immigrants and naturalized citizens will never be treated as real Mexican citizens.
• Immigrants and naturalized citizens are not to be trusted in public service.
• Immigrants and naturalized citizens may never become members of the clergy.
• Private citizens may make citizens arrests of lawbreakers (i.e., illegal immigrants) and hand them to the authorities.
• Immigrants may be expelled from Mexico for any reason and without due process.

Full story here at "Mexico's Glass House" which pretty much confirms an article I found in Lexis Nexis about the classism in Mexico's citizenship.


No wonder their citizens try so hard to stay here, and not go home.

2598 Can 500 experts be wrong?

Today's WSJ editorializes that 500 prominent economists claim that "immigration has been a net gain for American citizens."

Guess what? In the 1830s and 1840s, U.S. economists and egg-heads believed that about slavery too! Yes indeedy. Slavery was absolutely an economic necessity in the rural South (they said then) and besides, white people were doing those poor pagans a big favor by bringing them to an enlightened country (while decimating their own culture and families).

I'm not worried about the 950,000 legal immigrants. We need them. But the illegals flooding in from Mexico? Is that good for the Mexican economy and culture to export their poor so they never have to address the inequalities in their system. And how about that drug trade that is part and parcel of the illegal immigration, and the one in 10 who are not Mexican, but come across that border into the U.S. Do you know how hard it is to immigrate to Mexico? Did you know you can't be President of Mexico if your mother was born in Spain even if you were born in Mexico? Did you know there are at least 4 classes of citizenship in Mexico, and guess who is at the bottom--the poorest and brownest (that's not the correct way to say it, but I like the alliteration). Well, no, the naturalized Mexican citizen would be at the bottom--especially if brown--not allowed to do many things.

But hey. Could 500 economists be wrong? Yes, about something other than the economy.

2597 Acceptable risk

Would you get on an airplane, eat an egg, or take an aspirin with these safety figures? The U.S. government regulations for acceptable quality for condoms is 4 per 1,000 with discernable holes. Thirty two percent of normal, intact condoms leaked in FDA tests. Add to that depressing figure, they must must be used from the beginning (during foreplay), until the end to work as intended. Among couples where one partner had AIDS, over an 18 month period the HIV virus was transmitted to the uninfected partner in 17% of the couples who used condoms. The "in theory" rate of failure in birth control for condoms is 2%; the reality rate is 14%, just slightly less than the reality rate for the rhythm method (16%). "How to talk confidently with your child about sex," by Lenore Buth.

Aren't you glad you stopped by to read my blog today?

condoms
HIV-AIDS
birth control

Clarifying Clinton's Kyoto

Amy Ridenour of National Center for Public Policy Research takes apart Media Matters claim that Clinton's Kyoto plans (U.N. global warming treaty) were dead on arrival because of key Republicans, concluding . . .

"It seems to me that Chris Horner [on Neil Cavuto's show] is right and Media Matters is wrong to criticize him. Senate Republicans may well have told Clinton Kyoto couldn't be ratified, but Senate Democrats -- indeed, 95 out of 95 Senators present at voting in July 1997 -- told Clinton the very same thing. And, if Clinton disagreed, he didn't do much to fight them."

Calling all B-team Catholics

I saw this at Vox Lauri's blog. It's for blogging Catholics (which I'm not), but I thought it was a cute idea, because blogging is definitely being taken over by the "real" journalists, and in Catholicism I guess the little guys are feeling crowded out.


Here's a typical B-Team member:

"I am the poster child for the Amateur Catholic. I am not a theologian, I am not a bioethicist, I don't have a Ph.D. and I have to beg my parish to let me speak on stem cells and cloning. (In fact, when I told my Bishop about my website, I got a polite response that passed me off to my parish priest, who I am sure was instructed to discourage me at all cost!)

My only credentials are that I go to Mass on Sunday, I have a degree in Biochemistry and have a high speed Internet connection. It doesn't get more amateur than that." Mary

"I'm part of the 20-something crowd that has decided to stake our claim on Catholicism and rebel against the evil effects of the 70's and 80's, or what we like to call "the birthing years". I'm a graduate student in Theology but don't let that fool you. I'm part of the school of thought that firmly believes; 'the more ya know, the more you realize you don't know anything' and boy do I know a lot, or...something like that. I've just recently started a new blog about my adventures through the Lenten season. How long will it take me to break all of my Lenten promises? Not long at all, in fact, I probably already have. I'm broken, I'm inarticulate and in spite of the number of comments on my blog remaining firmly at 0, I still think I'm wildly interesting." Amy

I discovered the Catholic blogosphere when I was trying to ignore that pesky call to become a Sister. I kept going to Google and typing in "Should Susan become a Sister" or "What should Susan do with her life" or "Does anyone become a nun anymore?" to no avail. I was however lucky enough to happen upon the real life stories of amateur Catholics who were struggling to make sense of this thing called life. I was inspired by their honesty and integrity, and it helped me to decide that I too could trust in my loving God and walk down this path to see where it leads. I must say I've been pleasantly surprised! Susan

Others call themselves amateur Catholics because they are converts as well as bloggers.

Monday Memories

Cousin Kirby, seated on floor, album cover, The Lincolns* Kirby and I at a family reunion in 1993 Kirby Johnson and I were first cousins and about the same age (I think my grandparents had 24 grandchildren). Our families would gather at my grandmother's home in Mt. Morris on Sunday afternoons, and the little house would be full of cousins. I remember he had terrible asthma and I think he took up trumpet to help his breathing. We both attended the University of Illinois, where we graduated in 1961--he in music and I in Education. He was a member of the concert band and was in a music fraternity, so our paths rarely crossed on campus. While at Illinois he and some friends formed a folk singing group called "The Continentals," and then changed the name to "The Lincolns." I was only vaguely aware of what they were doing, but I have one of their records (cover photo above). After college they headed for California and the "big time," touring the country with Donald O'Connor in 1962-63. Kirby by this time was playing many instruments and singing. Their album was the commercially viable pop/folk tunes so popular in the early 60s, with a number of the songs written by Rich Dehr, Frank Miller and Terry Gilkyson, of "Marianne" and "Memories are made of this" fame. Kirby stopped to see me in Champaign in 1963 after the death of my son, but I didn't see him again for thirty years. His home was in California and after 1967 mine was in Ohio, and when we returned to Illinois to visit family, our paths didn't cross. I knew the group performed on TV and changed its name to The Wellingtons. So through the magic of Google and the internet I looked him up this week. I discovered that he and his group (by then a trio) recorded the original Gilligan's Island Ballad. Rick Jarrard had left the group to become a producer. It was a rush job and no studios were open so it was actually recorded in someone's garage (according to one message board). Many sites still list them in the credits, but another said it was re-recorded the next season by a different group. According to Rick and Darva's Gossip page, the Wellingtons appeared on one of the episodes of Gilligan's Island as a band called "The Mosquitos," a take off on the Beatles, having added Les Brown, Jr. to the group. Kirby performed regularly with The Wellingtons on Hollywood Palace, a popular, long-running Saturday night variety show of the mid-to-late 1960's often hosted by Bing Crosby. They also performed 64 times on Shindig! according to a fan site. I found Kirby's name as a performer, conductor and arranger on the albums of some big name performers like Carly Simon [No Secrets, 1972; Another Passenger, 1976], Harry Nilsson and Bonnie Raitt. I think he probably had a fairly strong career in concert touring, TV and as a studio musician at least through the mid-1980s**. I never heard much after that, and didn't find many Google entries for later dates. I did find a 1986 film (music arranging) credit. It is difficult to tell, since many recordings are reissued and the credits run very long. We got together at a family reunion in 1993--in some ways he seemed the same sweet boy I knew as a child, but he was also world-weary. He died in 1999. Most of the pop music web sites and bulletin boards say that Kirby became an attorney, but if he did, no one in our family ever knew about it. And some web sites say a group called the Wellingtons recorded Disney's "Ballad of Davy Crockett," but if so it wasn't for the TV series (Mellomen one of whom was the voice of Tony the Tiger)--the guys in the Wellingtons wouldn't even have been out of high school in Illinois. Some sites say Wade became a producer, but I think it was Jarrard--but maybe they both did. The internet is fabulous, but there's a lot of misinformation too. And it's not much cleaner in the Wiki's. *Members of The Lincolns were Kirby Johnson, Rick Jarrard, Ed Wade and George Patterson **There is another musician also named Kirby Johnson, so more recent entries most likely belong to that person. 1. Ma 2. Natalie 3. The Shrone 4. Libragirl 5. Reverberate58 6. Shelli 7. Lazy Daisy 8. Old Lady of the Hills 9. Chelle If you'd like to join in on Monday Memories, leave a comment and I'll link back to you. Click here for the Monday Memories code Trackbacks, pings, and comment links are accepted and encouraged! View More Monday Memories Participants The Wellingtons Hollywood Palace Shindig! Kirby Johnson

2593 The cocoon where I live

If there was ever a statement that shows me my cocoon it's this one: "There is little difference between the amounts that Christians and non-Christians earn, spend, save, charge, or donate to charities." (John W. Kennedy)

Almost all my friends are Christians. They are married (or widowed), well-educated, prosperous and most tithe or at least are close. They are also very generous with their time, serving the larger community in many ways from boards of education to committees and races for the cure, city government, food pantries, hospitals, prisons, mental health agencies, Habitat for Humanity and inner city schools. Friends at Vineyard fan out and pick up the Homeless from the streets and bring them to church. There's a group of my friends who are doing an arts camp all summer "on the Hilltop" which includes meals for the children and neighborhood volunteers. Men I know are using business skills to reclaim a decaying neighborhood, house by house, for the poor. This month alone I know Christians coming home from rebuilding in Biloxi, distributing medicine in rural China, and Latin America, or going to Haiti to work in a school.

And probably because of our age, we know many people who are debt free and living well, after an early adult life of struggle and building. So I'll have to take a second look at that quote (forgot to write down the source, forgive me) and see why my life experience is so different.

2592 Front end or back end?

According to JAMA (285,no.16) Democrats are holding up the approval of Andrew von Eschenbach to be the Food and Drug Administration commissioner.

"Andrew C. von Eschenbach, M.D., was appointed Acting Commissioner of Food and Drugs in September 2005. He holds that appointment concurrently with his position as Director of the National Cancer Institute, to which he was named in January 2002. Dr. von Eschenbach is a nationally recognized urologic surgeon, medical educator, and cancer advocate. He also is a cancer survivor.

Prior to his appointment as Director of NCI, Dr. von Eschenbach spent 25 years at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, ultimately serving as Executive Vice President and Chief Academic Officer. In that position, he led a faculty of nearly 1,000 cancer researchers and clinicians." Full bio here.

If you read about him in the MSM (I checked WaPo), you'll first hear all about his friendship with the Bush family. That, in my guess, is what's really holding this up. No possible good could come of person with ties to the Bush family. It's apparently OK for him to fight cancer, but his views on over-the-counter sales of "emergency contraceptive pill" are not liked by Dems, who would rather catch potential cancer victims in the womb and eliminate them then, rather than treat them 50 or 60 years down the road.

2591 Out of the word closet

Every time I see JAMA or some other medical journal struggle to euphemistically describe men who transmit diseased results of homosexual behavior to women, I wonder if they need a committee working on a new term. Here's my suggestion.

The current term has three parts--the perp, the act and the victim. "Non-gay-identified men-who-have-sex-with-men who-have-female-partners could be shorted to prom-him-aids. That would mean a promiscuous bi-sexual moving very serious diseases back and forth (promenade).

2590 Are we drowning in red tape?

A clock repairman in South Charleston, Ohio refused a job with Lake County (Painesville, OH) to fix its 128 year old court house clock. The bid process was 20 pages long.
Phil Wright who is one of a handful of craftsmen who does this says he's used to doing work on a handshake, and it was just too much red tape. I can see having a contract, especially if you are a county or state agency, but 20 pages?

2589 My husband's new camera

He bought a Sony Cybershot H5. That means nothing to me since I don't know anything about cameras, but we thought we needed something before going to Europe in July. A neighbor who teaches camera classes at the Senior Center helped him pick one out, then sold him his brand new one when the source was out of that model, and he'll order a new one for himself. That way we'll have a little time to learn how to use this one. It tells me my computer doesn't have a hi-speed USB port. Will that matter? These are some practice shots:

Grilling burgers for Father's Day

Ready for burgers and bean salad

2588 Have you ever noticed

that if you do something well and are proud of it, someone else will second guess your decisions, outcomes or motives? Robert Fulghum (the guy who learned about life in kindergarten), a terrifically successful author, was recently asked:

"Why did I not address the political issues of our time, especially the actions of the present American government administration? Why did I not address the humanitarian issues of our day? Why was I not outraged as an American with the evil done on my behalf? Did I agree that might makes right, that the end justifies the means, and that God is on our side? How can I support the fundamental position of Zionist Israel? Did I really believe the American Way was the only Way? Did I have any real understanding of how America is perceived in the world now? How much hatred and contempt is felt? Why was I silent on these burning issues? Why did I not run for office and do something?"

He adequately answers, I think. But I did all this or addressed all these questions in the past 3 years except the last sentence (I wouldn't run for office of anything), and trust me, no one is beating down the door to my blog. The problem with people who ask these questions is usually that they don't like your answers and they'll still have a tantrum and flood you with "Yes, buts."

His response is beautifully appropriate for his style, beliefs and skill set:

"When people ask why don’t I do this and this and this instead of that and that and that, I can only say that I am a man who has found his league and scale, who goes about trying to be awake to the news of the immediate ordinary world; to make sense of what I see; to pass it on with the implied question: have you seen what I see? Look! Don’t miss the good stuff – that is my message."

Thank you, Mr. Fulghum, for being the best you.

2587 Which one would you believe?

I'm with the Starbucks folks on this one. I've yet to see a tattooed coffee clerk who would raise a studded eyebrow or flare a nose ring and bust some one (no pun intended) for breast feeding. But changing diapers? Yeah, that should get them tossed. Go to the rest room and use the one with the Braille instructions if you're too dense to know why other customers eating and drinking coffee don't want you near by. Someone's just a little too anxious for the lime light.

"Though the South Beach, Florida store in question was closed for renovations this past Sunday, some mothers gathered at a Starbucks and held a "nurse-in" to protest the expulsion of a woman named Nicole Coombs from the store. Coombs claims that she was asked to leave for breast-feeding her 4-month old son. The Starbucks manager, however, maintains that Coombs was asked to leave for changing her baby's diaper on one of the tables in the cafe." . . .

"Management and employees of that Starbucks store have never had any problems with nursing mothers in the past and have many women with infants as regular customers. This tends to support the store's side of the story, though the protesting mothers clearly support Coombs. They believe that Starbucks may have broken a Florida law that allows mothers to breastfeed anywhere they are legally allowed to be." Full story here.

Happy Father's Day

Usually I post my coffee shop stuff over at my other, other blog, but this one was just too good to allow it to languish in blog basement.

My regular Sunday coffee shop had a newbie on duty, and at 6:35 a.m., the coffee still wasn't made, so I hopped back in the car and went to another one about a mile away. While sitting by the window I overheard the two guys behind the counter who were making the coffee and waiting on customers:

Clerk #1: "There was a guy in here yesterday--had four kids and his wife is pregnant with the fifth. All girls."

Clerk #2: "Oh God. I'd have to shoot myself."

2585 Kroger battles Wal-Mart for food shoppers

according to a story in last week’s paper. I used to be a loyal Kroger shopper--I knew where everything was, I knew the staff, and I knew the specials--then they asked me to start playing games with a little plastic card, Kroger Plus. Well named, because it sure did up the price on everything. Jack it up, then give a special lowered price for using the silly card. They are not rewarding you for shopping there; they are penalizing you with data mining which is very expensive.

The worst thing about the loyalty cards isn’t just the cost increase in every day non-special items (about 49% higher than non-card stores), but the snooping they do on your shopping habits, which in turn “dumbs down” the choices to please the 20% of the customers they figure are making 80% of the purchases. Selling your information instead of food is also now part of the business. And in case you think you’ll just lie on the address and personal information, or borrow a friend's or the card of the person in line with you, some are going to finger scanning. With all the news about data being stolen recently (VA, AIG, Ohio University), you’d better know that a “privacy policy” is your own personal surrender flag.

So now I shop at Meijer’s or a neighborhood non-chain, neither of which use loyalty cards.

Loyalty cards

2584 Sadness mixed with joy and relief

My daughter called about 2 hours ago to tell me that her mother-in-law died early this morning. She had a rare form of dementia and had been in a nursing home for about 18 months. We last visited her in August, and although she was weak, she knew us and could carry on brief conversations. Each time they thought they were losing her, she would rally and return to the world of the living. She had physical problems too which the wonderful staff at the Lutheran Home (I've forgotten the name) controlled completely with proper diet and good nursing care--nothing extraordinary. My son-in-law had gone up Friday night, not because she was any worse, but just because he's such a super sweet guy who was helping out his parents. They were called after midnight because she was "in distress" so his father and brother were with her when she quietly slipped away. Her other three children are making arrangements to come home to Cleveland.

Yet, when a Christian dies, we are comforted by knowing there is more, much more. Mixed with relief because her illness is over, there will be sadness that now there is a hole in the family, among friends and in the church family. She directed a children's choir for many years at her Missouri Synod Lutheran church. She lost both her parents at a very young age, and I know a reunion will be on the agenda.

2583 The importance of a father

Ruth has a lovely message about the importance of fathers, and our heavenly Father. She lost her father at a very young age. She is the mother of several of the bloggers to whom I link. Check here, you will be blessed by her full message.

"The influence of a father cannot be over emphasized. Studies have shown that when a father is missing, absent from the home, there is a hole in the child, especially in a son, that cannot quite be filled

Fortunately, the Bible teaches there is a remedy. Many of the great leaders of past generations have filled this space, this hole left by an absent father with the Heavenly Father. The Psalmist David tells us even if my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will take me up. God is able to take all kinds of tragedy and bring about good when we commit our live to him."

2582 Episcopalian sound bites

About 1500 Episcopalians have been in Columbus this week, but you'd think there was only one, the gay Bishop Eugene Robinson. If I heard sound bites from him once, I'll bet I heard ten on our local radio and TV, admonishing others to believe the Bible, not about gender or marriage or judgement for sin, but about love and relationships. Most Anglicans (77 million worldwide) outside the U.S. take the Biblical view that homosexuality is an abomination, but he and a few hundred others have another agenda for their church. Did no one else but Robinson have anything to say?

Because ELCA (Lutheran synod to which I belong) cooperates with the Anglicans on things like disaster relief and social issues, a few years back it was proposed that Lutheran pastors be a part of the "historic episcopate" through the Episcopal hierarchy in order to be ordained. I've checked a few web sites to see if I could figure out where this stands today (it was a late 90s issue), but if there is anything more obfuscating than a federal government document, it is one done by the church where the elephant is just putting his trunk inside the door to see if he'll be invited to sit down.

2581 Environmental issues I believe in

Al Gore is just trying to rebuild his political base. The real action has to take place locally and by American business, not globally by government fiat. My goodness, in 2004 the airborne particulates in Beijing were more than 6 times as high as in New York City. And Ohio used to be under a glacier. So here's what I support, in no particular order:

1. Cleaner burning coal and safer mines.
2. Drilling for oil in Alaska, which is what Alaskans want.
3. Don't allow western and southern states to drain the Great Lakes so they can farm non-agricultural land.
4. Rebuild the barrier islands while restricting coast-line communities--even for the rich. Or the poor.
5. Don't allow mega-Casinos by Indians or Cajuns or Hispanics or the Mafia or people of any special interest in coastal-tourist areas. Work on developing "real" jobs that produce something.
6. Restore the fence rows in the Midwest so the birds can eat the bugs and less pesticide will be needed, plus it is just prettier and more colorful. Encourage living snow fences to protect soil from erosion in winter.
7. Get rid of welfare for farmers (price supports) which encourages mismanagement and misuse of the land and creates ever larger farms.
8. Strict enforcement of keeping out agricultural and waterway pests. (Actually we do a better job of restricting harmful bugs that hurt our economy than we do illegal people who do it by stealth.)
9. More solar power; forget wind turbines--looks ridiculous, kills birds and changes air currents which will have long term bad effects on agriculture.
10. More bicycle paths and set asides for parks. More sidewalks for walking. Discourage culs-de-sac to reduce congestion on feeder roads.
11. Give small, efficient cars a tax break instead of trucks, or eliminate it all together.
12. Reduce the government's dependence on oil by cutting gasoline taxes at the pump.
13. Have Hollywood's falling stars let squatters use their land for gardens for the poor.

I'm sure you have ideas from your industry.

2580 Algore's vision of the future without harmful emissions

Just kidding. These photos of North Korea were taken recently by a Russian web designer. Text has been translated.

HT Purpleslog

2579 Finances, taxes, consumerism and materialism--what I've blogged

This isn't everything, but it may take a while to find them all.

Alternative Minimum Tax Creep
The burden of student loans
Buy real food
Cashing in on going green
Charitable gifts Joe Biden
Charity CEOs’ salaries
College costs
Coupons TT
Debt management groups
Depression, Great
Donating to the United Way

Economy sad stories
Entitlement crisis
Ethanol and the energy crisis
Families in economic statistics
Fannie Mae
Fees, taxes and surcharges on utilities
Food stamps--what they will buy
The free breakfast
Gambling--the house always wins
Household income
Income tax preparation
Index of Economic Freedom
Love and Money
Loyalty card rant

The marriage gap and poverty
Material well-being of Americans
Minimum wage smoke screen
Mortgages and discipline
New face of homelessness
Petroleum based products--it's not just gasoline
Poverty in America
Poverty series, yet another one
Poverty, who helps
Retiree organizations

Retirees, income sources

Send Mom on a cruise
Six figure incomes--I feel their pain
Social Security
Student debt
Student loans
Taxes--Obama's Plan to save the economy
Taxes, Do the Rich pay their fair share
Thrifty food plan

Vacation home taxes
Wal-Mart and Ted Kennedy
Wal-Mart’s low prices help the poor
Wealth distribution
What I know about wealth and poverty
Why coupons don’t save you money
Why librarians salaries are low
Women’s wage myths
Worst Economy in 70 years
Young people in debt

Excerpts
"Liberals don't want the poor to be happy; they want them to be angry and feeling victimized--dependent on the government and Democrats for special programs. Not programs that lift them out of the bottom quintile, mind you, but programs that keep them right there where they belong--as their power base. The left is getting very aggressive with law suits against WalMart--and it's not just their deep pockets they're lusting for, they truly want WalMart to fail. Gimme back my po' folk!." Wal-Mart’s low prices help the poor

"My gripe is simple: Ellie Kay writes a column on finances, and the question she is responding to is about how to save money on food. According to the question, this family of four spends $700 a month on food. So how does Ellie Kay respond? She claims her family saved more than $8,000 last year on food and household goods by using, 1) manufacturers' coupons, 2) double coupons, 3) store coupons, 4) loss leaders, 5) price comps, 6) sales and clearances, and 7) comparison shopping.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. She's dancing with the guy who brung her. The advertisers. Food companies are not in business to give away their products, but she knows that most American shoppers believe they are. She knows that food companies are heavy advertisers in Meredith's publications." Why coupons don’t save you money

"Whenever you hear liberals whining that the rich aren't paying their share, but they will if we just increase taxes (like Friedman talking about raising gasoline taxes to reduce driving, which would probably hurt the poor the most), they ignore that the very wealthy can hire legions of accountants to protect them with all the loopholes Congress writes into the tax law, loopholes none of the the rest of us can qualify for or afford accountants and lawyers to interpret." Retiree organizations

2578 Student debt reply

Jody Minor gives this advice to the student (story in USAToday) at Rutgers who accumulated $116,000 of debt by graduation. "What did I do wrong?" the graduate whined? Mr. Minor supplies the answers in his letter making these points:

1. You didn't have to attend an extremely expensive college.
2. You could have spread your education over more years.
3. You could have worked part time or full time.
4. You could have worked before applying for graduate school.
5. You could have scrimped and saved (like he did).

Incidentally, Mr. Minor's parents' income was too high for him to qualify for government induced debt, so he followed this outline and graduated in 5 years with zero debt.

Friday Family Photo

Even most of my family couldn't tell you how these two photos are related. I'm guessing the b & w is 1940, but I have no idea what the occasion was. The children are my paternal cousins Kirby* and Melvin, Evelyn and Jimmy, my uncles Derril and Gene (my father's brothers), my two sisters, my uncle Ken (dad's brother-in-law) and a family friend who I think was Bud Wilson (I'm sure if Dad were alive he could provide a positive ID). However, my cousin Gayle, who is a maternal cousin, is sitting in the front. So perhaps Mom was babysitting, and maybe she took the picture, because the format size looks like hers--and it was in her box of photos.

But did they all get in that little car? Probably not. I'm thinking it was a family picnic--maybe the annual "Tennessee Reunion"--held at a farm, and the car was just parked along the road.



The second photo shows the children (with spouses) and grandhildren of my two sisters (who are in the b & w photo) almost 60 years later with my Mom in 1999. My niece Karen, who's the family photographer, set it up and then got in the back row.

*More about Kirby and his music career on Monday Memories next week.

2576 Fat Doctor's Scary Story

This is one of the scariest stories I've ever read on a blog. In her defense, I'll add that at 37 she is recovering from a recent stroke.

2575 Yet another poverty series

The Wall Street Journal is running another series on poverty. It is very anecdotal (they all are), but inserts statistics, like how the welfare rolls have fallen from 3.9 million in 1997 to 1.9 million in 2005. Or that 4% of the population was "rich" in 1969 and now 18% are rich. (I think that's supposed to be bad, even though the percentage of poor has also decreased since 1969, and most poor people desire to be rich.) The first installment was on hunger, despite a booming economy, and talked about "food-insecure" households. No mention of the millions of illegals with no education or family assets we're forced to absorb into the economy and government social services at the federal and local levels each year.

"Those who play by the rules ought not to be poor" is one of the most stubborn myths about the poor that I've ever read, but it is pervasive in our culture. I've personally been in four of the five quintiles, and we're moving back down because we are retired and living on pensions. But I think I read a U.S. Census site that provided 48 formulas to figure out if we are poor, so somewhere who knows, despite our wealth, we may be poor.

One hard and fast rule is, that if a woman graduates from high school, doesn't have children until she is 21, and marries the father of her children, she and her children have a very small chance of being poor. Women are in control of the poverty statistics in the United States. But does that mean if she's followed this rule she won't ever be poor? Of course not. What if she marries an alcoholic who's a good daddy, but a terrible employee with a spotty work record? What if she is a heavy smoker and develops a cardiovascular condition before she's 35 incurring big medical debts? What if she is obese, or is a hoarder? What if one of the children has ADHD or is mentally ill and she has to miss a lot of work for school counseling? What if her home was in Katrina's path and was underinsured? What if programs are available for her to better herself, but she as no desire to go to school--maybe she hated school?

Want to know why I was never in the top quintile? No desire. Nope. Not once did I want to put out the kind of effort required to be "rich." Now, maybe if I'd had the desire, and failed, I'd have been disappointed. But I thoroughly enjoyed a career as a librarian, being married to an architect, and those two professions are at the bottom for salaries based on years of education. I suppose one of the richest (in salary) librarians is the Librarian of Congress, and he isn't a real Librarian.

You can't sell newspapers with my life story.

2574 Desperate smoker counts pennies

For 5 days I've craved Frito's Corn Chips. I knew there was a Speedway store close to the church, so when I was on my morning mail run, I stopped and checked my resources. $.74. Safe, I thought--I don't have enough. But then I remembered the mitten (lost the other one) I keep with change for coffee emergencies. I dug around until I found it and took out two quarters. On my return trip, I slipped into a parking place and hurried into the store, found the chips and took them to the check-out. There stood a lady counting out pennies in piles of five from a little lozenge tin and a pack of cigarettes on the counter.

Is this the pot calling the kettle black? At least I had quarters.

2573 Recruiters outnumber students in accounting

This week I'm puppy sitting because Abby, my daughter's Chihuahua has a big stapled incision. She's not happy to be here, and our cat isn't pleased either. BUT--to get to the point, I'd run out of newspapers to put under the "puppy pad," so on my walk yesterday I picked up a June 13, still-in-the-bag, Wall St. Journal, from a neighbor's recycle bin. As I was laying it down this morning I noticed the article "Student shortfall pushes up salaries." Actually, I can't tell if it is advertising or essay, but it quotes some interesting statistics.

Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) has caused firms to expand their audit departments.

SOX compliance is so tough, it is driving people out of the field.

Firms are losing 40% of their partners and senior managers in the "big four".

There's no one to replace them with the experience they need, so salaries are 30% higher than pre-SOX.

2006 base salaries for senior managers in public accounting firms range from $85,000 to $130,000 a year.

In the 1990s, mathematically minded students chose to major in business instead of accounting and headed for dot.com companies.

When Enron unraveled, interest dipped again.

There is now a campaign to interest high school students in this career field.

300 recruiters went to Notre Dame last fall to woo 125 graduates.

Women accountants tend to drop out to start a family around the time they would be up for partnerships, further reducing the pool. So companies are beefing up their services to attract and keep women (i.e., more babies will be left at day-care so mommy can get her partnership).

2572 Fraud proof identity cards

Holman W. Jenkins in yesterday's WSJ proposed a "fraud proof identity card" for ALL workers, not just immigrants. Setting aside all concerns about loss of privacy, 9 year olds would probably learn how to hack it faster than adult criminals, but there is no such thing. Can you imagine the chaos if everytime you moved or changed your phone number you had to go find the right government agency to reprogram your ID card? The government couldn't even issue credit cards to Katrina victims without losing billions to the crooks. And how about that "secure" information that was recently stolen on all veterans and current armed forces members? Whether it was an employee or a burglar who didn't realize what he was stealing, it definitely wasn't in good hands.

Thursday Thirteen

13 things that puzzle me. It's not that I don't KNOW the answers, but I just don't get it. My WHY list is much longer than 13, but I can always do a second edition.

1. Why people ride motorcycles--especially without helmets. Ben's bike and the damaged car

2. Why young women smoke--especially when they see the effects on the saggy, crepy, spotted skin and gravely voices of older women who have smoked over half their lives.
3. Why young people (up to 35) are always in such a hurry when they drive--they have a lot more time left on the clock than the rest of us.
4. Why people throw things out of car windows--pop bottles, dirty diapers, cigarettes, fast food containers.
5. Why women think it is so cool, sexy and attractive to swear, cuss and be loud potty mouths in public or on the internet.
6. Why women think moving in with the boyfriend (or moving him in) will be a sound foundation for marriage.
7. Why college students will go into massive debt for social science degrees, but then want CEO and scientist salaries when they look for jobs.
8. Why city zoning boards, urban planners and developers continue to approve neighborhoods with culs-de-sac (French for bottom of the bag) when they just create more traffic problems on the feeder roads.
9. Why rich people continue to build homes on coasts in hurricane paths and on fault lines.
10. Why the customer who calls is always more important than the customer standing there (me) waiting to check-out.
11. Why the relative/friend/employee who is always late thinks we still believe the excuses.
12. Why people adopt infants and/or give birth after years of trying and immediately both parents go back to work and let someone else raise it.
13. Why pet owners refer to themselves as "mommy" and "daddy" when baby-talking to an animal but won't take the "parental" responsibility to train it.
(If you participate, leave your link in the auto-link and it will post here, but please leave a comment.)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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It's dead, Jim

Checking my blog links. These library blogs are dead, dying, struggling for content, or are totally discouraged. I'll have to think about unlinking.

Distance Education Library
Blonde Librarian
Conservator
Excited utterances--merged into another site
Family Man Librarian--spotty, but has a good excuse
Feel Good Librarian--seems to be posting about once a month
Infinite Library--just plays games
Jay Kegley, no idea what happened to him
Lethal Librarian--not much since March
Right Wing Librarian--only occasionally posts, but there are so few of him, I'll probably keep the link up
Random Thoughts--does a meme on Friday
Sonderman--nothing since December about Google Scholar (the topic)

2569 How to write your Congressional representative about illegal immigration

It's important that you let your Representative know today that the Senate bill, (S. 2611)the largest immigration increase in U.S. history, was rushed and cobbled together in a paltry 500 pages and is a mess. NO bill is better.

"The House may take the unusual step of conducting hearings on the Senate's immigration bill, which includes the opportunity for citizenship for illegal immigrants, before negotiating on final legislation, House Speaker Dennis Hastert said Tuesday.

Hastert's position appeared to reflect a growing sense among some House Republicans that they are better off seeking re-election in November without a new immigration law than with a version that includes parts of the Senate's." Houston Chronicle

1. Make sure to use "The Honorable" before their names--even if you have to choke when you write it. (Senate zip is 20510 and House is 20515), i.e.

The Honorable Deborah Pryce
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

2. Write only your own elected official. If you live in Cleveland or LA, don't write Ms. Pryce. Letters sent to members of Congress for another district will be forwarded to yours "as a courtesy."

3. Identify yourself in the first paragraph, as well as your state and district, city or county where you vote. Please reserve profanity for your blog or the local pols.

4. Identify the bill by number and/or title. Remember, they have been trying to solve this immigration issue since WWII, so it's possible they've forgotten already, or were around in 1986 when they passed the last amnesty legislation which created even more illegals.

5. Be concise and brief. Specific and succinct letters are more persuasive and show respect for the official's time, even though they aren't showing you any. No longer than one typed page. Something longer and more specific than "You F-ing S-O-Bs", however.

6. Support your case. Citing my blog won't do it--200 hits a day hardly makes me an expert. But include relevant facts. No jokes. They've heard them all.

7. No form letters. You don't like them--why should they?

8. Suggest an alternative (like, No bill until you've at least read this one). These guys and gals aren't any more experts on this than you and I, and 30 years of legislation and hand wringing proves it.

9. Sign your name.

10. If you are SOMEBODY, include your title. It won't matter, but if they get to use "Honorable" you'll feel better if you have one too.

Addresses, phone numbers, fax numbers

2568 Thank you, Mr. President

"My message to the enemy is, don't count on us leaving before we succeed," Bush said. I took him along on my walk this morning listening to his address at the press conference after his Iraq trip. Now let the "Kos, Defect and Death" bloggers begin. I'm sure they aren't happy with anything they heard, particularly about how we're not going to abandon the Iraqi people (like we did the Vietnamese).

2567 AMA Panel Says Physicians Cannot Ethically Participate in Prisoner Interrogations

"Helping with interrogations, including the planning of the interrogation or monitoring the prisoner with the "intention of intervening in the process" are actions that are outside the bounds of ethical behavior, CEJA (American Medical Association's Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs) said here Sunday." CHICAGO (Reuters Health) June 12, 2006

Seems it undermines their role as a healer. But it’s OK to abort babies and clone human embryos to reuse body parts for another human being? Ethics councils frolic in strange beds, don‘t they?

2566 The kitchen massacre

Last night I was "inventing" a new dish for supper. It had half a pound of ground sausage, a partial envelope of dry onion soup, some rice, and I was preparing to add a small can of tomato sauce. When I clipped the can opener into the side of the can, the tomato sauce squirted in the air, across the room to the other counter, to the floor and all over the pale cabinetry. I had to get down on my knees so the sunlight could reflect on the marble which is very dark, mottled brown. I got all traces of red mopped up, finished mixing the casserole and then looked at the doorway. Across the room, about 10 ft. was tomato sauce all up and down the louvered doors. I don't know how chain saw murderers ever get the place cleaned up.

Monday Memories

Have I ever told you about the summer we bought our little Lakeside cottage?

The summer of 1988 was ghastly hot--and a drought in Ohio. We'd rented a small cottage north of Fifth Street in Lakeside for our summer vacation. We thought it a blessing that it had recently been renovated and had ceiling fans. Even a walk along the lakefront brought no relief; a night cruise on Lake Erie felt like a door slammed in your face when the boat stopped moving. One day we were walking the perimeter of the town, whether for exercise or from an attempt to get away from the oppressive heat, I don't remember. And there it was. A little cottage with a "for sale" sign that we'd never seen. I climbed up the broken concrete steps to the back door--"Oh my goodness," I shouted, "it has a real kitchen, and a basement!" We walked around to the front and tried the porch door--it was open. We peeked into the living room. "It has a fireplace," I gasped. "This is a house, not a cottage."

Being the practical sort, I figured if you had to pay a mortgage 12 months of the year it would be nice to be able to use it 12 months. So we contacted the realtor, but also looked at two other cottages, one a large "4 square" from the early 20th century and one a small red 19th century farm house style. Both looked very nice on the outside, but were very cottagey on the inside, with either board thin walls or cut up tiny rooms. When we finally got into the "Thompson place" (cottages are always known by the long time owner's name), we were smitten. The widow who had started to renovate after her husband died had been diagnosed with cancer and moved to Florida. But she had already installed a.c., storm windows, new bathroom fixtures, and additional kitchen cabinets, so we knew that as long distance owners, we wouldn't have that worry.

Our mortgage on our home in Columbus had recently been paid off, so we weren't too alarmed by taking on a new one, except that in 1988 mortgages were 10.5%. I had taken a tenure track position in 1986, so we had that cushion. Still, I had a month or two of sleepless nights worry about debt, but it gave me something to think about other than my kids who had recently left home. We love living there in the summer, which we are now able to do, and have always enjoyed the cultural events (Chautauqua circuit) which include a month of symphony, summer theater, opera, ballet, pop music, lectures, Bible studies, vespers and art classes.

A summer home is rarely a good investment when you figure you only use it a few months of the year, but in the early years of owning it, we did go up more frequently off season than we do now. It's paid for now and has appreciated considerably (5 or 6 times more than the purchase price)--in fact, we couldn't afford this house if we were looking today. However, we've replaced the roof, added a deck, replaced the HVAC, landscaped and completely redecorated inside and out.

The one thing we were going to replace the first season, is still there, and that's the funny little porch that doesn't fit the 1940s design of the cottage. You just have to have a porch at Lakeside, and although this one is ugly, it is tight, easy to heat or cool, acts as passive solar in the winter, and protects the main house in the summer. We sure haven't forgotten that first hot summer of 1988, even though it's never been that bad again--and today we wouldn't be able to get a variance to replace it.

If you'd like to join in on Monday Memories, leave a comment and I'll link back to you.

1. Ocean Lady 2. Libragirl, 3. Yellow Rose 4. Mysterious Lady, (bring along a hankie) 5. The Shrone, 6. Carol, 7. Lazy Daisy 8. Melli, 9. Flip Flop Floozie 10. Ma

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Lakeside, Ohio

I remember when

librarians used to do this.

2563 Sticks and stones

will sell more books. David Carr of NYT writes (seen at Editor and Publisher):

"Without the total package, Ms. Coulter would be just one more nut living in Mom's basement. You can accuse her of cynicism all you want, but the fact that she is one of the leading political writers of our age says something about the rest of us."

So referring to someone from your opponent's side as a "nut living in Mom's basement" and a person of "pirate sensibilities" with a "mouth uninterrupted by conscience, rectitude or logic" is OK, but calling someone else a "Harpie" from your team (who said NY's mayor hadn't suffered any loss) is cynical? You gotta love the liberals--they are certainly consistently speaking out of both sides of their collective mouth.