3708

Prom wasn't this tough when I was in school

This is a photo of a permission slip for . . . well, read it here. I didn't know things were this bad in schools. Are the children totally out of control or do administrators just not have enough to do? Maybe the folks who want to reinstate Bible reading and Creationism are right. Story at Travelin' Librarian.

Don't blame Obama for Nappy Roots

Sure, they appeared together at a Democratic fund raiser, and Obama took no offense then at their lyrics or their name then. They are quite successful and have had this name for over a decade. It's just considered a bit edgy--or was back in the 90s. Now it's just old news. It's sort of like gays using the word queers or women using the word chicks or babes. Or it was old news until the Imus double standard. This is different. . .

"He [Imus] didn't just cross the line," Mr. Obama said in an interview with ABC News. "He fed into some of the worst stereotypes that my two young daughters are having to deal with today in America." [NYT via Taranto in OpinionJournal.]

In the first case, he was just another Democrat raising funds trying to appeal to the with-it and young. In the second, he's an African American running catch-up in the me-too race with Jesse who was chasing Al.

3706 The Justice Department and Sandy Bergler

The AG should have the right to fire anyone he hired into a political appointment. I'm not the least bit worried about "politics" in a political appointee position. And I don't give a tooten e-mail about their system (except that pols aren't catching on to the problem that e-mails and IMs don't just go away whether you're setting up a date or a sting). I am very concerned that the Justice department covered for the Clinton administration official in not breathing a word about the Sandy Berger burglarly and crimes at the National Archives in front of the 911 commission. That whole investigation was done not knowing he was a criminal. Who knows what was compromised or why Gonzalez let this happen. He was supposed to take a lie detector test, but Justice hasn't followed up on that either. I'm also concerned that certain National Archives employees attempted to "catch him" on their own, without reporting him, and possibly bungled the burglary. They should be fired. They way overstepped their responsibility by trying to second guess his motives and behavior and should have called their supervisor or security.

3705

Double your coupons and your calories

Shopping at a major super market is like a scavenger hunt--can I buy real food, just food? Can I buy without playing with my food?

There's a full page Giant Eagle ad for loss leaders today that combines the words FREE and FOR (that's not new--but many don't see the subliminal message). Thirty years ago when I wrote an anti-coupon newsletter I wrote that it is difficult to convince American shoppers that stores don't stay in business to give away their products, but it has only gotten worse. Boneless chicken and 1 lb of strawberries are both "buy one get one free" (with a loyalty card which means the base price is much higher than a non-participating store and the frequent shopper knows how to play the game with multiple cards). These are not processed foods and are sort of teasers to get you in the store--makes you feel good--buying something real and wholesome. The other "buy one get one free" is for 13 oz. of Lay's potato chips. This means that for $3.48 you get 26 oz of chips. Then you can buy four 12 oz twelve packs of some Coke products for $12.00, and three 56 oz cartons of Breyers ice cream for $10.00. Remember back maybe 3 years ago when the standard package for pop was a six pack? You can't find them anymore.

No one's going to buy just those loss leaders, but let's just play along. So you grill the chicken, put out the chips, pour the pop into giant glasses and triple scoop some ice cream on the strawberries. Maybe a 5,000 calorie meal. And we're blaming McDonald's and Wendy's for obesity? You can almost peg the weight gain in the world to the introduction of corn fructose in soft drinks instead of sugar. Now we're going to put it in our cars to make Al Gore happy (I won't comment on his weight gain because that makes liberals unhappy).

Even moderately processed and packaged food is swamped by the aisles of highly processed, overpackaged, high fat (or reduced fat--just add water), or fructose added or salt added foods. I like to shop at Meijer's because it doesn't require a loyalty card (add 10-20% to your food bill to play those games and contests). It also has a very large, well stocked produce section with a nice variety of leafy green and root crops, probably because of the high number of Hispanic, Asian and Muslim residents living in that area. First generation immigrants are almost always thinner than their children because of their traditional cooking habits. Now that a natural food store has gone in near by, it has also improved its natural and organic sections.

After I bag the apples, bananas, fresh pineapple, strawberries and the greens (sometimes cut and in bags), tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, peppers, onions, etc., I move on to fresh meat and dairy, and then swing back through for the semi-processed. With only two people in our household, frozen vegetables are a better deal than fresh because I don't have to worry about them going bad before I can get to them. But even finding a simple bag (not an icy chunk in a box) of frozen vegetables or berries out of season is a challenge. I have to find the sections, hidden away, swamped by the ones with sauces and gimmicks, sweepstakes and coupon offers.

Our abundance and craving for choices, the latest flavor or gimmick is killing us. Don't play the victim and whine. Slow down, go on a hunt for real food. Although the walk through the aisles of high calorie, over processed food will add steps to your exercise routine.

When I'm 64

John Lennon and Paul McCartney's love song When I'm 64 was sung last night at a birthday dinner for Carol, who is now 64. When people in their 20s write or sing about age, they probably don't expect to ever actually be there because it is so far off (some having a better grasp of this than others, obviously). Sharon and Eric hosted the party and we played Apples to Apples after dinner which was lots of fun, especially for me and the birthday girl who really don't enjoy games much. Certain readers of this blog wouldn't like the game because the players use words and make comparisons, but we all had a lot of laughs.

3703

The broken string

I read a very moving story about Itzhak Perlman at someone's blog today--it's apparently been making the rounds in e-mail since 2001, she received it and put it on her blog. But it is an Urban legend. However, she found it so comforting, I didn't leave a comment. There's another one going around e-mail about how George Bush's modest Texas White House is so much more energy efficient and well designed to complement the environment than Al Gore's mansion. I checked that out too, and it is true. I can't remember if I blogged about that--don't think so. I have some liberal readers who become a bit upset if GWB does something right, so I try to respect their tender feelings.

I've been waiting all afternoon for the cold rain to stop. I think it is about 38 degrees. I wanted to walk outside because I'm in a 50 Days of Easter walking group. We keep track of our minutes and miles and encourage each other. But this is better than the snow that was predicted. Flowers and fruit trees in central Ohio are certainly longing for a bit of global warming.

3702

The VPL--flaunt it

The other day I wrote that Katie Couric had pretty much taken the pleasure out of watching TV, but I'll admit to turning it on if I want to take a nap. I clicked through a pre-Don Imus comedy show because of the bad language and racism (ca. 1999 I think), past the food channel where the hostess was GRILLING her waffles in butter and cheese, and was then treated to a bevy of gay fashionistas and some skinny-babe magazine editors who collectively could have fit into a size 00 reacting in mock real horror to the VPL. Truly, you would have thought they were discussing the shortage of bird flu vaccine, the war in Darfur or the fact that carbon footprints are a complete hoax. Their little faces all screwed up, pinched and pale. What some people do to earn a living!

The mid-20th century brief was a huge improvement over the early 19th century drawers for women. Fashionistas and clothing designers have returned us to that era 200 years ago of torture and strings with no coverage.

Eeeeeek! A VPL!
Before I decided to write about VPL, I googled it to be sure it was something less frightening than an attack by Islamofacists. There were about 73 acronym matches. Vancouver Public Library; Veterinary Products Laboratory; Visual Programming Language; and so forth. Butt we all know, that's not the VPL they were so afraid of.

Hello! The country is getting older. There is now a cable channel for retirement age viewers. Can a resurgence of Granny Pants be far behind? Ladies! Let's make a case for comfort and flexibility. Flaunt your VPL. Compliment your friends on their VPLs. Put those VPL photos in the family scrap book. Teach your daughters they don't have to be a slave to a string stitched to a postage stamp. Don't let the fashion dictators decide where your elastic will go. Stick it to 'em!

3701

The FTO gene

"A nondescript gene that no scientist has studied before determines why some people gain more weight than others. A new study of nearly 40,000 Europeans found that people with mutations in both of their copies of the gene known as FTO are 70 percent more likely to be obese than those with regular copies of the gene. Researchers says that identifying a genetic basis for obesity could lead to novel treatments for the increasingly prevalent condition blamed for life-threatening heart disease and type 2 diabetes, among other disorders. . . Obesity is on the rise worldwide, correlated with gains in affluence. According to a recent study in JAMA The Journal of the American Medical Association, nearly 100 million men, women and children in the U.S. alone are considered obese." Reported in Scientific American.

It is called FTO, not for fat-to-obese, but because it was originally studied in a mouse that had a fused toe.

Nowhere does it say this gene makes people fat, only that if you have this gene, you may need to be more careful about your calorie intake because you'll take on weight more easily than others. I don't think I have this gene--but I have gained 100 pounds since I graduated from high school 50 years ago. Usually I gain about 20 pounds over a period of years and then work hard to lose it, and it slowly comes back. I don't remember exactly all the details, just the big efforts--1960 I lost 20 lbs by turning down desserts and second helpings; 1982-83 I lost 20 lbs in an aerobics class; 1993 I lost maybe 15 through intensive walking and cutting calories; 2006-2007 I lost 20 lbs by reducing calories.

Diets are not difficult; keeping weight off is just awfully hard. We are constantly faced with groaning tables and restaurants on every corner. None of our ancestors had that problem--affluence, abundance and desk jobs. When I jumped about 15 pounds in two years between 2002 and 2004, I could see exactly where the scale was going, so I've "lost" it yet again. However, I know it isn't truly lost, that it is hiding behind every bag of potato chips and box of take-out pizza. And I can't blame grandma. It's just me.

Also, the research says don't wait for a pill, that ELMM is the only real solution if you have this gene--Eat Less, Move More.

3700

How God uses the Internet

Here's a neat story about how God uses the internet to meet the needs of his children. I got an e-mail today at my medscape.com account which I use on this blog from a Chaplain in Australia. A 97 year old woman in the nursing home where he serves sang in a weak voice a line of a table grace for him and asked him if they could sing it at lunch some day. He'd never heard it before but checked the internet. He got 3 matches for the first line, one was mine, and I had the entire grace.

I was really baffled and had no memory of ever writing about this grace which we used when my children were small. I knew it was from an InterVarsity hymnbook, so I spent about 15 minutes tracking the book down. I thought the cover was black, so that threw me off a bit (it is light beige). Anyway, I found it in Hymns II (1976), a paperback hymnbook, and sent him the information. I gave him the author, tune name, number of sharps and time, and hope he can find it. If not, I'll try to copy and fax it to him, hoping that this is the hymn she remembers. Often the elderly can recite liturgy or sing a hymn even when they say nothing else for days or weeks.

I couldn't find it on my own blog using the search window, but finally tracked it down in a Thursday Thirteen I'd written in February 2006 about my Prayer Job Jar. I had mentioned rote prayers like table graces and listed that one. The search didn't work because of the slash at the end of the phrase (my theory). I like this grace because it includes the gospel and our response to it, and is easy for children to learn. Although I think we used "you" instead of "thee."

We thank Thee, Lord,
for Jesus Christ,
And for the blood He shed;
We thank thee for
His risen life,
And for our daily bread.

3699

The unintended consequences of protecting women

Don Imus and Mike Nifong aren't the only guys with funny names apologizing in stories about women. Now Paul Wolfowitz is doing it for having a girlfriend at the World Bank. And she's Arab. Frankly, what DA Nifong did makes all the others pale by comparison, and is a horrible abuse of power, but since the MSM helped create that lynch mentality (Ladies of the View included), it is being soft pedaled and Imus is getting the play by play. He's expendable.

"Paul Wolfowitz's position as president of the World Bank appears shaky, as the bank's Board of Directors met overnight to discuss what to do about a favoritism scandal he is involved in. . . The World Bank's board released a statement early Friday detailing its review involving Wolfowitz's girlfriend, Shaha Riza. She was given a job at the U.S. State Department when Wolfowitz took charge of the bank in 2005. World Bank rules ban romantic involvement between workers and supervisors." Story here.

As I understand it, you can't supervise a "friend," and if you help her get a job somewhere else on the advice of your ethics committee, you are then violating another rule. Should he have just put her out on the street, or should he keep her as a paid mistress off the payroll of the bank?

This happens all the time in academe, but because salaries aren't the greatest and they don't have much power (and no ties to the present administration), no one objects. Presidents and deans are recruited. But a deal has to be struck to bring along the wife, the girl friend, boy friend or significant other. I remember one time getting a science librarian with no science background but who had a husband recruited for another department in the university. If the wife didn't get the job, he didn't come. If there is no position open at the university that fits her/his qualifications a position miraculously opens up on the art faculty. When he finds a better position at Yale or Brown or in industry marketing pet food, there will be only one position open when he/she leaves.

Bankers and former Bush appointees (there wouldn't have been a problem if he'd been a Democrat from Clinton's reign) need to learn that "me two" excuse that deans and college presidents use.

3698

Why librarians won't protect your children.

It's your responsibility. It's that simple. Movies, internet, e-books, music or books. Our UAPL head librarian says so. Our local news channel had an interesting interview last night with a reasonable, educated Upper Arlington parent who discovered her child was checking out X (or maybe it was R) movies from the public library when the overdue notice came. She requested a block on her child's library card so that he couldn't check out this material, but was told it isn't the library's responsibility (interview with a very stone faced, reasonable, educated library director). Apparently, parents need to go to the library with all children under the age of 18 to protect them from porn on the computer screens and disgusting movies. Because kids will be kids. In my day we had the National Geographic Magazine.

The other extreme is the parents who use the library as a drop off day care center. I've been at the terminals when they come in from the nearby school. For some reason, library staff put up with this role for the really careless parents, but won't cooperate with the really caring parents. I've read articles in professional journals about what a service this is.

I was a librarian. I have a master's degree plus. And 23 years of working the desk, budget, committees, publications circuit, continuing education requirements and stacks duty. True, I've never been employed by a public library--I'm just a client, a tax payer and a critic. This much I know. Librarians are very smart people--some aren't the most charming folk you'll ever meet--but they have a lot of education and high IQs. Can find information for you on all kinds of things and amazing excuses not to buy what you suggest if it doesn't line up with their political and religious views.

There must be a way for librarians to figure out they are responsible to and paid by their community--especially when when the main building sits in the city park next to the largest elementary school. At least get a clue in time for the next bond issue.

UAPL has recently created a $47,000 a year public relations position to work on its image. There's a cheaper way to do this: be responsive to the concerns of the community.

3697

This month's word

Worthington is a city north of Columbus. We're not supposed to call it a suburb because I think it was there first. Columbus just sort of oozed out to meet its southern boundaries. On my way through Worthinton on Rt. 161 the other day I noticed a small sign in its city park: "Character trait of the month: Commitment."

I've spent more time than I should on this month's word, let me tell you. Do you suppose people will be more committed to their spouse, children, church, job, parents, values, party, country or book club schedule because of a sign in a park? I've been married 47 years. That's commitment. I attend church even when I don't feel like it. That's commitment. I had three months of sick leave accumulated (although I didn't get to keep it) when I retired. That's commitment. I blog every day. That's commitment. I don't believe Al Gore, but I've done my part to cherish the earth because the Bible tells me so. That's commitment. Never in my life would I adopt a value because I saw a sign in a city park. I wouldn't even apply for a grant to do this warm fuzzy. That's commitment.

3696

Them bones, them dry bones

If Tyrannosaurus Rex is 66 million years old and related to the chicken, then it's easier to understand what happened to the British Navy. (story in USA Today).

3695

Our infectious lifestyle

Peter Huber wrote an essay for the Wall Street Journal called "The coming plague." I think it is from a work not yet published. The principles of privacy and personal autonomy combined with the resurgence of germs was a very interesting and . . .almost poetic motif. Here's my poem based on his essay. Please note: he didn't say anything about libraries--I took that from concerns I've read in the library literature and my own use of library terminals.


Ode to our infectious lifestyle
of freedom and privacy

I’m nimble on needles
enjoying the bathhouse
prisons and lockers,
on board for the fast louse.

I choose from the choicest
of pustule and sputum
then scan the horizon for
addict and meth bum.

I'll resist your meds while
with staph I’m cavorting,
on TB and syphilis
I’m munching and spawning.

I’ll take guts, skin or marrow
Although I prefer brain--
lungs and liver will do
while you look for my strain.

Faster than lawyers
Smarter than scientists,
I’m brighter than interns,
ahead of hospitalists.

At your library keyboard
I arrive safe and hardy
on the street person who
just wants me to party.

Update: Here's Huber's article on germs that appeared in Spring 2007 City Journal. He has incredible phrases--if you love words, or hate germs, be sure to catch this one. "It was the demise of a germ-hating culture that had helped clear the way for new epidemics of venereal disease". . . "A legal system that affirms the individual’s right to do almost everything at the germ-catching end now struggles to decide when, if ever, we can force the Typhoid Marys of our day to stop pitching what they catch." . . . "In the pantheon of disease and death, lifestyle and genes have completely eclipsed germs." . . . "nature designed an “immunodeficiency” virus—an all-purpose anti-vaccine, so tiny, quiet, slow, methodical, and gentle that it spread unnoticed for decades, and so innocuous that it never quite gets around to killing you at all. It leaves that to the old guard—the bacteria, protozoa, and viruses that invade when your immune system shuts down,. . ."

The title tells all

I just noticed this, and the title certainly reflects my views--Crazies to the left; Wimps to the right.

Poetry Thursday

Today I am poemless, rhymless, and without meter. I'm seeing nothing in syllables, no images in words, no sound in the rain and wind--except rain and wind. No canto or calligramme. I've locked my muse in the hall closet and she can't get out even by being coy. Not even by slipping Shakespeare or Shelley under the door.

The prompt for this week is, "we want Poetry Thursday participants to be inspired be one another’s work. The idea is that you leave a line from one of your poems in the comments, knowing that other participants might use that line as a jumping-off point for a new poem of their own." This is not that. I participated the last time. For today, I've looked through a thoroughly disappointing February issue of Poetry, a journal I usually devour. None of the poems made much sense--well, Billy Collins' was OK, but you'd expect that from a poet that famous. Therefore, I'm submitting the first line of each poem--thinking this accumulation makes about as much sense as anything else in that issue.

February rolls out its first lines
lifted, fitted, mixed and matched by Norma

If Parmigianino had done it. . .
Having failed for a third time to witness
Starlings’ racket; the straining redbud,
a red-feathered bird on a fence post
cooked by crooked
flames from the burn barrel
in the lost city of gold that was Oroville
I see you in your backyard’s lavender.

If they’re right, the whizkid physicist-theorist think tank guys,
She could be any woman at all.
In this sentimental painting of rustic life
A guitar has moved in across the street
Of course nostalgia Of course brooding
The world is wasted on you. Show us one clear time
You can tell by how he lists
That greasy letter into which my legs entered.

3692

Peace Democrats

We've been chasing around this Bush before, haven't we? In a review of Jennifer Weber's Copperheads, the rise and fall of Lincoln's opponents in the north, American Thinker finds some similarities and differences to today's Democrats.

"There is a long history of comfort provided to the enemy by the "peace" advocates in their very public undermining of the war effort. Copperheads consistently worked against what they saw as Lincoln's war. "Confederate confidence soared while Northern partisans bickered." (p. 45), Ms. Weber tells us. Robert E. Lee regarded the Copperheads as allies. He told Jefferson Davis that the best way to weaken the enemy is to give all support "to the rising peace party of the North." (p. 99). One can easily imagine similar encouragement today that is given to the Islamists by our Neo-Copperheads by calls for deadlines, the "peace" rallies, the constantly negative press, and the fatuous recommendations of the Iraq Study Group.

Because history does not repeat itself in the way that Santayana suggests, there are interesting differences as well. For instance no where does this book mention any Copperheads who tried explicitly to redefine "patriotism" as citizens undermining their own elected government's foreign policy. None in the North seemed to have had the nerve to call advocacy of Southern victory "patriotism." It would take the twentieth century triumph of the Orwellian manipulation of language, and the victory of postmodernists in today's trendy colleges and universities to bring about this sort of degradation of language and meaning."

3690

Terrorism, war, pestilence and immorality

OK. That's out of the way. How about global warming? When BP starts running full page ads in the Wall Street Journal about energy by the bushel, it's time to stockpile some food. We have perfectly wonderful stores of decayed vegetation called petroleum, coal and shale which will do fine while entrepreneurs are encouraged and given a chance to wean us off the gas tank and fuel oil. But no, through the hysteria of ALarmist Gore, a political has-been looking for another run at the White House, in combination with global energy companies who see a cheaper way to stick it to us, we're going to plant oceans of corn and burn that. Maybe this is a good case for evolution--we're on our way to the amazing shrinking human brain with the help of liberals, greenies, fanatics and global capitalists.

Did the media front the Don Imus story?

Did you see any of the major papers today? The Imus "nappy headed Ho" story is getting more ink than the finding that the Duke University lacrosse players' rape story was a complete hoax from start to finish. That works well for the MSM because they bought right into the outrageous railroading of those kids. Even good old (and I do mean old) Lionel Tiger got into the fray in WSJ today, scolding Imus, pointing out how this is street language regularly applied to black women by black men, but then excusing them because (shock and horror), during slavery times, black men weren't allowed to protect and marry their women. Well, what about the late 19th century and early 20th century Professor Tiger? Black men had no problem doing the right thing then, and black women were probably even stronger then. That is such an old, limp, tired academic excuse. Plus, white guys are following right along, shacking up, dissing women, and buying the music that makes rappers worth only 50 cents rich. What's their excuse?

Don Imus can't steal anyone's joy, not for a minute or a lifetime, and those young ladies better get a bit tougher. Their coach did them a terrible disservice--she could have been strong, but she was a sucker for the media. She could have been bigger than Imus. ("Don Who? Don Ho?") But an out of control prosecuter can certainly steal the life and reputation of anyone falsely accused with the help of bench warmers like the Duke faculty, and "leaders" like Jesse Jackson who offered the accuser a college scholarship. I hope the Duke trustees and alumni shake up those faculty cowards and administrators, and parents boycott the school so that no decent young adult enrolls there.

A new conspiracy machine is at work, of course. 1) Seems Imus has been extremely unkind to Hillary Clinton (particularly in his ridiculing of her body and plumbing, as well as her politics), so the Clinton machine is said to be at work bringing him down. He's small potatoes compared to some of the pols who appeared on his show--now they've been given notice. This can happen to you.

Another conspiracy theory: 2) this is really the back door for liberals to get conservative talk radio closed down. Not that Imus was conservative, by any stretch of the imagination, but we'll be hearing chatter that it needs to be regulated (even though he's been a shock jock for years). Silence the right, even if you've got to kill off one of your own. I've never heard Rush Limbaugh make a racist slur, unless he was repeating one made by the MSM and commenting on it, or ridiculing Kennedy for messing up Obama's name, but a liberal was whining that he leads the way in this degrading language. He'd better be prepared to listen to some tapes.

My vote goes for #2. How about you?

Update: Another conspiracy theory: 3) This Don Imus thing is all about Al Sharpton grabbing the spotlight from Jesse Jackson and trying to be the big negotiator and go-to guy for getting more blacks on TV (will he want them to have proportional representation on athletic teams or continue to dominate the boards and fields because they are better than the other players?). Hip Hop and Rap. Should blacks be proportional in popular culture? Tell us, Big Al, what exactly do you want?

3689

Katie Couric

The other day I realized I'd almost completely stopped watching TV. I used to catch Book-TV on week-ends, Fox News occasionally in the evenings, HGTV once in awhile. Boston Legal if I was up late. Maybe 10 minutes of Dancing with the Stars. WOSU Antiques Roadshow.

Gone. The thrill is gone. I think it is Katie. I really do. Tonight I walked into the living room as she was interviewing the parents of one of the young men from Duke who've just been through the worst nightmare a parent could imagine. I almost gagged. I whined. Complained. She and the other talking heads contributed to this mess. Stalked out of the room. Then it hit me. She's the reason. Katie has permanently turned me against TV.

She always looks like she's sincerely speaking at a wake; she asks asinine questions; her voice is like fingernails on a blackboard; her wardrobe looks like they dressed her from my own closet. Please. Send her home.

3688

I felt the same way about the Master's

""Who are all these people?"

"All very bad Jews," he told me.

It was, afterall, the first night of Passover. But for about 300 of New York's fanciest (plus a few book types), yesterday evening was also time to gather. . ." rest of the story here.

As the men in my family gathered around the TV on Easter Sunday to watch the Master's, I said, "Why are they playing on Easter?" My husband said something about the dates are set way ahead, to which I replied, "So are the dates for Easter."

3687

Let me spell it out for you

When the year end annual reports drop through the slot I'm always a bit surprised to find out what we own. I love those AFLAC commercials but didn't really know what it is, so was surprised to learn I own it (well, me and a lot of others). Now known by its acronym (and the duck), it used to be American Family Life Assurance Company. It's an insurance company to help workers meet their bills in times of crisis started by the Amos brothers, and I see there is an Amos who is Chairman and CEO.


Anyway, the report explains that the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a safe harbor to encourage companies to provide prospective information, but it has to have meaningful cautionary statements so that investors don't misunderstand that these are projections. So, the report lists the words to watch for in "forward looking statements." I think you'll find this helpful, in case you need to write something forward looking with no guarantees.

• expect
  
• anticipate
  
• believe
  
• goal
  
• objective
  
• may
  
• should
  
• estimate
  
• intends
  
• projects
  
• will
  
• assumes
  
• potential
  
• target

And then there is a long list of events to watch for which could screw up your forward looking words making results different than hoped for. I won't repeat all of them, but they include. . .

• legislative and regulatory developments
  
• changes in U.S. and/or Japanese tax laws or accounting requirements
  
• catastrophic events
  
• general economic conditions in the U.S. and Japan

There. CYA. Done.

3686

McGrorty vs. County of Los Angeles Public Library

Although I've never heard of a person being denied a job in a library because he is a military veteran (we had to give them--especially Vietnam vets--preference when I was interviewing), I suppose that is possible in California where "patriotism" can't even salute the flag and conservatives can be shouted off podiums on campuses. Still, it is one of the oddest employment cases I've read, because usually librarians are very liberal (223:1) and in favor of all the knee deep employment regs that the left uses to keep people out of jobs. Especially if they have one of their own waiting for it. I'm guessing, just from his name, that he's the wrong ethnicity for the positions he wants. Or maybe he's straight. Or not transgendered. Who knows. Maybe he's over 45?

McGrorty is one of the best writers you'll ever find on the internet, no matter the topic. I have no idea what sort of librarian he is, because I'm not sure he's ever been one.

3685

Hamburger Helper

Professor Paul Apostolidis of Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington (isn't that a tongue twister) published an article "Hegemony and Hamburger" in 2005 that points out the obvious--organized labor depends on a ready source of new workers and can manipulate the Mexican immigrant story to its advantage. So while I was googling this academic to see what else he'd written, I discovered he'd published a book in 2000 titled, "Stations of the Cross; Adorno and the Christian Right." Hmmm. Have no idea who Theodor Adorno is (was), but this certainly sounds like a PhD thesis being shopped around for a bookshelf on which to gather dust. So I poked around in some book reviews and read some sections online. It's a "nuanced, dialectical study," apparently linking James Dobson, an American Christian psychologist who has a radio show, to a German anti-semite about whom Adorno wrote in 1943. Nuanced. Well, you bet! Isn't that a word for "no one knows what I'm talking about but me?"

I read Dobson when my kids were little. He was a voice of reason in the midst of all the hysterical academic child writers of the era who appeared on Phil Donahue and Merv Griffin. I was a Democrat at the time and pretty liberal on just about everything. Don't remember when Dobson got political, but I know Phil Donahue threw him in head first by muzzling him on air when he was a guest, and he decided he needed to go on the offensive.

Apostolidis, like many left wing academics, gets his shorts in a knot when Christians speak up about anything. They can't get it figured out that Christians aren't some sort of monolithic block--they can't agree on how or when to baptize, how many days or eons God took to create the world, what exactly did Jesus mean in the parables, or which version of end-times to promote. I've seen Christian websites where they listed all the modern heretics, and I think Billy Graham and James Dobson are both listed.

Apparently the conservative Christians didn't have all the power the U.S. socialist professors thought, because Republicans were roundly defeated in 2006, although I personally think it had nothing to do with religion, unless of course, your religion teaches you to tell the truth and not go on wild spending sprees with other people's money. Republicans were tossed out because they refused to be the conservatives they pretended to be when they ran for office. I'd hardly call George W. Bush a stellar conservative on immigration, would you? The only religious change that came out of that election is that the liberal Democrat candidates worked very hard to sound more interested in family values and the welfare of children. They learned to talk the talk. So if all the liberal posturing and publishing that has poured forth since Bush got in office (most of which is on my public library shelves) did nothing else, it at least was successful in turning the issue upside down, so maybe next time the Democrats will be tossed for pretending to be something they weren't.

At the moment, conservatives do "own" talk radio. But it is a competitive medium and liberals just haven't done well getting their ideas across and attracting sponsors. Liberals don't do well with facts--and feelings do better on TV (like Rosie saying absurd hateful things with a sneer) than on radio which is more a thinking medium. Most of the national conservative talk hosts don't do religion--they may occasionally mention it, but their audience is too varied to risk it. Dr. Laura is a Jew, Glenn Beck is a Mormon, Laura Ingraham is a Catholic (I think), and the other big names I don't know. And Dobson I'd call a pretty small fish in a big pond. Is that nuanced enough?

3684

It keeps the money coming in

Because I worked in academe and was required to publish (actually I liked that part of my job), and purchased for my library publications paid for by government grants and foundations with an axe to grind, I should know better than to be surprised by "research studies." Still, some are so obvious, you just have to hope that the P & T committee saw through them. Here are two, one in the social sciences, one in medicine:

"Who evaluates a presidential candidate by using non-policy campaign messages?" by Marisa Abrajano, Political Research Quarterly, Vol. 58, No. 1 (March 2005): pp. 55-67. Apparently Ms. Abrajano discovered this no-brainer, which will allow her to be cited in the literature. When candidates give out non-policy campaign messages (my brother is married to a Mexican (Bush), or my son was born on Cinco de Mayo (Gore)), the less education the Latino voter has, the more likely he is to fall for it and think favorably of the candidate. Imagine this break through. The candidate needs to give different campaign messages depending on the age, education level, ethnicity, sex, and income level of his audience.

I remember chatting with a salesman in the Chef-o-Nette (my coffee spot) thirty five years ago who was always a snazzy dresser. One day he came in wearing khaki slacks and open collared shirt, but no jacket. "What's up? Got the day off?" I asked. "No, I'm going to my southern Ohio territory today, and you don't want to look like a city slicker with the good-old boys down there. You'd be laughed out of town." See? Didn't even need a government grant or a voter survey--he knew his product and his customer.

But here's my favorite. There's a study in the Archives of General Psychiatry (2004; 61:73-84) which uses PET scans and glucose monitoring to show that methamphetamine users lose their ability to control negative emotions, and so that might be why they are involved in so many serious crimes that involve violence. I'll bet you are surprised by that one, aren't you? Meth users out of control? I'm thinking there are a few cops on the street who could have put this one together without PET scans or glucose monitoring.

One of the big dangers from the meth users is their toxic "footprint." The walls, carpet and drapes of their "labs" are a toxic waste dump for the next tenant. You don't need to be a user in the traditional sense of the word to have your brain damaged. Here's a 59 page guidebook for cleanup (including sheetrock, plaster, counter tops, fabric) from Minnesota.

3683

Mike Bassett wants to give you a house

Mike Bassett owns a supermarket and hardware store where I often shop in the summer near Lakeside, OH. Nice guy--his family has been in the grocery business for over 100 years. He used to own a house on our street. He must be expanding in Bellvue, OH because he owns a very nice home there and will give it away, but you have to move it. I saw the item in the Columbus Dispatch, but when I googled it for a link, I see it was in a lot of papers and on several TV shows--even in Canada. AP must have picked up the story. I couldn't find a photo on the web, but it has 3600 sq. ft., lovely wood work, beveled glass windows, big porch of natural stone and a fireplace. I would judge it to be (from the Dispatch photo) built around 1910-1920 because it sort of has an Arts and Crafts look with maybe a touch of Green and Green or early Frank Lloyd Wright influence. You'd need a really big lot and probably about $80,000 to move it. Bellvue is 45 miles south of Toledo.

3682

Is it safe to let kids read?

We've all heard about librarians who don't want filters to protect children. What about books? Who's watching the publishers? Greg Smith's blog notes that recently he looked through a publisher's catalog at the YA titles and found:

A book on paralysis
A book on death of a parent, alcoholism, and unwanted pregnancy.
A book on death of a parent through cancer
A book on alcoholism
A book on armed assault with a deadly weapon
A book on death of both parents in a car crash
A book on death of both parents in a car crash and an unwanted pregnancy
A book whose catalog copy is vague, but appears to involve at least armed robbery and child abandonment
An historical book on suicide
A contemporary book on suicide
A book on death of a parent and economic hardship
A book on censorship. And sex.
A book on death by accidental shooting (or general stupidity)
A book on child abandonment, alcoholism, and an accident of indeterminate nature (resulting in, possibly, death)
A book on divorce
A book on death of a parent, economic hardship, robbery, and risking death.
Two books on (1960s) sex, drugs, and rock & roll (and therefore, at least metaphorically, death)

I'm glad I read only horse and dog stories when I was a kid (and Laura Ingalls Wilder); a lot of them were sad, but at least they didn't commit suicide or steal.

3681

It works in academe, too

Jared Sandberg in Cubicle Culture (WSJ) today listed a guide for horn tooters, gas bags and self-promoters. I recognized all of them, although I've spent most of my professional life in libraries not in business.

1. Move on to another job before the project fails.

2. Copy the boss with all your e-mails.

3. E-mail late at night to suggest you haven't left work.

4. During meetings, reinforce the boss' position with "Wouldn't you agree that. . . "

5. Cut down your colleagues or competition with, "You're saying what exactly. . . "

6. Wrap a self-serving argument in the flag of moral principle.

7. Be the ventriloquist's dummy, "What a great idea."

8. Speak first and often.

9. Distribute minutes or notes of the meetings, even if you aren't the one appointed.

10. Make the toasts at the office parties and social gatherings.

3680

Here we go again!

We're closing in on the last room of the home we moved into five years ago. The gay decorators who lived here in the 90s were fabulous and successful, I'm sure, but the brown living room, orange dining room, red family room, and dark hunter green and black guest room (all with a faux glaze with ceilings to match the walls) were a bit over the top for us, especially with enough yards of heavy drapes at the windows to canopy Scioto Downs. Now we're about to tackle the master bedroom which is dark blue with a lighter comb glaze, or maybe it is gray with a dark blue glaze.

This is the new bedspread--sort of a blue and creamy ivory and pale green
It's never easy, is it? There are light fixtures that should be replaced, holes in the walls that will need to be patched from the removed drapery rods, a medicine cabinet that must have cost all of $10 when new, and bathroom marble tile that won't exactly work with the paint I've picked out. I'm guessing the patching and light fixtures and new mirror will run us $1,000, and that's before we even buy the primer. To make matters more complicated, the comb faux glaze has a texture that may not cover properly.

When the painter (recommended by a friend) came by to give us an estimate, he brought his tiny, preemy baby (I weighed more than he does when I was born). Originally, he and his wife were in this business together, but now she has a "regular" job and the baby was a surprise. Then the mother-in-law from out of state to help out until July, but she got sick and was hospitalized and is now in a local nursing home.

Goodness. I guess funny wall colors isn't much of a problem to have, is it?

3679

Poverty stories--unintended consequences

The Columbus Dispatch a few weeks ago reported on the front page the sad story of a "Decade of Gains Dissipating." A decade ago the Ohio Supreme Court issued four rulings that the state funding system for schools was unconstitutional, and there were dramatic changes in the Appalachian areas of southern Ohio.

In "Southern Local" new schools replaced the old, the high school was renovated, special teachers were hired, science labs opened, and computers brought in. Graduation rate went from 88% in 1997 to 94% in 2006. Spending went from $4,780 per student 10 years ago to $10,043 today, and teachers with 20 years + an MS are getting $51,686.

Now salaries have been frozen, and special programs are being dropped. What happened? Life. The local property taxes can't keep up with costs, like benefits. The district has many expensive students--two thirds qualify for free breakfast and lunch, one fourth have special needs. Once the children are educated, many move away for better jobs. The young man whose parents brought the law suit against the state went on to college, is married and lives in a city in central Ohio and is considering private school for his kids.

Do these stories help or hurt? I think a 94% graduation rate is pretty spectacular--in fact, 88% is waaaaaaay above Cleveland's and Columbus' graduation rate, which have much higher costs per student, nicer buildings and better paid teachers.

I think we need to send a few administrators to southern Ohio to find out how they are doing a better job with less money and poorer facilities. I think I know the answer. Do you?

3678

Lest we diverge from the evolution party line

The Feb. 15 issue of Nature (445/7129) has an interesting article on the plants native to South Africa's Cape region. There are more than 9,000 plant species, 6,000 found in no other country in the world, and most of those are in the western region. Compare this to the entire area of the British Isles which is home to about 1500 plant species.

There seems to be some fear by the author that a person might conclude such fantastic variety, beauty and diversity were designed by a mind larger and more complex than ours rather than just happening by accident over a few million years. The terms "evolutionary approach," "evolutionary isolation," "evolutionary tree linking," and "bouts of evolution," appeared once; "evolutionary heritage," "evolutionary radiations," "evolutionary tree," and "evolutionary diversity," appeared twice; but the phrase "evolutionary divergence," (which reminds me of idiopathic, meaning "we don't know why this happened") appears 10 times in the article. And it isn't even a very long article!

3677

Maybe it's time to reread

All the King's Men. Sherry at Semicolon is one of my favorite book reviewers. Today she's taken another look at this 1947 novel by Robert Penn Warren whose character Willie Stark appears to be Huey Long, Governor of Louisiana in the 1930s.

"Willie has a gift for making the poor white hicks of rural Louisiana feel as if they’re an important part of the power structure. He’s one of them, he says, a hick, too, raised up by God to lead them on to good roads, decent sanitation, free education, and universal health care. And he’ll pay for it all by taxing the rich. Gee, haven’t we all heard that speech before? Maybe old Huey/Willie has been reincarnated several times since the 1930’s."

Read it here. She hosts an interesting Saturday Review of Books where you can contribute one of your own book reviews from your blog. I don't read enough books to participate, but it sure looks like fun.

3676

Imus or Rappers?

If I had to choose which insults black women more to more people, it would be the black rappers. Black performers making millions from the white kids buying their music regularly demean and objectify black women, calling them stupid Hos. You can dress it up with bling, but it doesn't change the meaning.

African American "leaders" in the media or entertainment world who are acting holier than thou need to make a stop at a music store, or where that filth is sold. I think Don Imus is disgusting and always has been; politicians who make nicey-nice on his show should look for cleaner streets for their soapboxes. Sponsors who have paid him to insult people need to find adults for their marketing departments who have vocabularies beyond four letter words.

"Who ever corrects a mocker invites insult; whoever rebukes a wicked man incurs abuse. Do not rebuke a mocker or he will hate you; rebuke a wise man and he will love you." Proverbs 9:7-8

3675

Pelosi repeats history

A two-fer--Joe Kennedy and Neville Chamberlain all in one trip. The woman is amazing.

"Pelosi’s willingness to undercut the president and accept the word of the chief of state of a sponsor of terrorism is on a par with the Democrats’ effort to set a timetable for fighting the war in Iraq. It brings to mind the efforts of Joseph P. Kennedy, the founder of the Kennedy dynasty, to appease Adolf Hitler."

“Speaker Pelosi is the Neville Chamberlain of our time,” said Brad Blakeman, a Republican strategist who was an aide in the Bush White House. “Cowering to and appeasing the dictator of a terrorist state was a disgrace to the high office she holds. The Sryians used this visit to validate their bad behavior by propagandizing the whole visit and her anti-war stance.”

Read the full text at American Daughter

Lake Erie Living

A new magazine for my collection of first issues at my other, other, other blog.

3673

Which church father are you?

You’re St. Melito of Sardis! You have a great love of history and liturgy. You’re attached to the traditions of the ancients, yet you recognize that the old world — great as it was — is passing away. You are loyal to the customs of your family, though you do not hesitate to call family members to account for their sins. Find out which Church Father you are at The Way of the Fathers!

3672

Monday memories

Easter memories.

30 years ago
Cheating just a bit here--these memories are from yesterday, Easter Sunday 2007. We all met at church. Usually my children aren't sitting side by side, and I learned in a memory flash back, some things never change. Lots of poking and whispering and giggling. Next year, I separate them! The choir was fabulous and although the sanctuary was packed, communion moved quickly. Pastor Paul suggested, encouraged, reminded us--let there be someone in next year's Easter service who is there because we invited them to church during the year and they met Jesus.

After church we came back to our house where everything was ready for dinner--but needed a little prep. Because of my daughter's DVT, my son was appointed the kitchen helper and she was ordered to the lounge chair to put her legs up. So he was putting the ice in the glasses, and the hot and cold dishes on the table. I kept shooing everyone else out. In a small kitchen, one helper is enough.

Although Ohio's weather didn't cooperate, I had a dinner to welcome warm weather and things to come. We had honey baked ham
(gift of my son-in-law's father)
baked beans
corn on the cob
fresh strawberries
potato salad
relish tray
hot rolls
sugar free pumpkin cheesecake
(from my daughter)
Easter basket for each person
(made by my daughter)

3671

Blogs that make me think

Janeen gave me a thinker's award, and then I'm supposed to list 5 more bloggers that make me think. I didn't know it would be so hard, then I discovered that after I browse through my links, that I often check out their links, and that is the direction from which I learn a lot. My own blog entries usually originate with reading 3 papers and several magazines, then I do the research. I discover many new blogs that way.

Like me, Janeen lives in Ohio and is a Christian--check out the additional 15" of snow they woke up to on Easter morning. Now they have a total of 36". Al Armist Gore is going to stop by and help out with his snow plow. We wish!

So Janeen makes me think about little children and food allergies (my family didn't have any) and how important it is to have a can-do spirit and a sense of humor. If you have allergies, she's got some great recipes.

Another mommy blogger I visit is Dancing Boys Mom--she only had three when I first started reading her blog, now she's expecting number four on the 16th, and I've been following the pregnancy. Originally her due date was the 5th. I think she's a bit uncomfortable. Yes, that'll make you think. She's dealing with celiac disease, something I knew nothing about.

Then there's a bunch of siblings and cousins I like to read, and I'll count this for two: Carol, Beth, Joan and Jane. However, Joan is the one I read most frequently because her website doesn't act up and she likes to write about words and learning.

Lazy Daisy always has wonderful spiritual insights as food for thought. She's a missionary and has beautiful, uplifting entries.

Women are just social beings--can't get around it. They love to visit and exchange recipes and ideas and photographs. Many of my link-to-ladies do memes every day, so I skip over those, and often move on to the medical, legal or political blogs.

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,

2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,

3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote. There are two versions of the award--I'm having so much trouble linking to Janeen this morning, try her site for the other color.

3670

Ugly shoes, ugly feet

Oh goodness. Someone was raving about this site, so I took a peek. $280 for a pair of shoes that don't even come in a narrow width and look like Mary Janes with a heel? No thank you. And ladies, please put on some hose. Your bare naked feet just aren't that pretty. Who told you they were?

3669

Buy a freedom cookie, offend a liberal

Bake sales by student Republican clubs where white males have to pay higher prices than women or minorities can get you in trouble on America's campuses. The left has no sense of humor.

"Nothing makes the campus censors angrier than someone who dares to question race and gender preferences, especially if he uses satire to do it. That’s why the anti-affirmative-action bake sales that conservative students have sponsored at many schools—white male customers can buy cookies for $1, with lower prices for women and various minorities—have provoked such ferocious responses from campus authorities.

Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan, provides a typical example. A Republican club there staged a bake sale, and several students then said that they felt offended. This amounted to a powerful argument, since hurt feelings are trump cards in the contemporary campus culture. . . . The College Republicans at Northeastern Illinois University canceled an announced affirmative-action bake sale after the administration threatened punishment. . . the cookie sellers would be violating university rules and that “any disruption of university activities that would be caused by this event is also actionable.” . . . Schools will use almost any tactic to shut the bake sales down. At the University of Washington, the administration said that the sponsor had failed to get a food permit. At Grand Valley, the university counsel argued that the sale of a single cupcake would convert political commentary into forbidden campus commerce. At Texas A&M, the athletics director argued that a satirical bake sale would damage the sports teams by making it harder to recruit minorities."

Read about campus speech codes at the Winter 2007 City Journal.

3668

Children's sports medicine

There was a full page ad for The Children's Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Center in Westerville in today's paper. I didn't even know there was such a specialty. According to the ad, "Sports injuries in children and teens now account for at least 40% of all emergency visits." ALL ER visits or just those by children? It does say ALL, doesn't it? Wow. Maybe organized sports isn't so great for children if so many are being injured. Sounds like bullying on the playground might be safer.

The boy in the picture had a stress fracture in his back from pole vaulting. The ad says this facility has the latest in digial x-ray technology, athletic trainers for rehabilitation and specialists in sports medicine for kids.

I remember when I was getting physical therapy for my rotator cuff injury (lifting and shelving heavy journals as a librarian). Except for the mastectomy patients, just about everyone at the rehab center was hooked on a sports activity of some type. I worked out with football and basketball players and people who competed in triathalons, and women who seemed committed to tearing up their shoulders and elbows in tennis tournaments. I hate to sweat and never really could see the advantages of it. Sort of glad now.

The ad for children's sports injuries is sponsored by McDonald's and Nationwide Insurance. Hmmm.

3667

He thinks Al Gore is an alarmist

and he's been in the hurricane prediction business for two decades. Before Katrina, before Al Gore's movie, but after the 2004 hurricanes that hit Florida, William Gray, the world's most famous hurricane expert was interviewed by Discover magazine.

"A few years ago, you almost called it quits because you’d lost so much funding. What made you continue?

G: I don’t have the budget that I had, so I have cut my project way back. I am in retirement. I’m still working every day, but I don’t teach and I don’t have as many graduate students and as much financial need. I’ve got a little money from Lexington Insurance out of Boston, and I have some National Science Foundation money. For years I haven’t had any NOAA, NASA, or Navy money. But I’m having more fun. Right now I’m trying to work on this human-induced global-warming thing that I think is grossly exaggerated.

You don’t believe global warming is causing climate change?

G: No. If it is, it is causing such a small part that it is negligible. I’m not disputing that there has been global warming. There was a lot of global warming in the 1930s and ’40s, and then there was a slight global cooling from the middle ’40s to the early ’70s. And there has been warming since the middle ’70s, especially in the last 10 years. But this is natural, due to ocean circulation changes and other factors. It is not human induced.

That must be a controversial position among hurricane researchers.

G: Nearly all of my colleagues who have been around 40 or 50 years are skeptical as hell about this whole global-warming thing. But no one asks us. If you don’t know anything about how the atmosphere functions, you will of course say, “Look, greenhouse gases are going up, the globe is warming, they must be related.” Well, just because there are two associations, changing with the same sign, doesn’t mean that one is causing the other."

He notes that he lost a lot of his funding when the global warming views became popular during the Clinton administration. Go figure! You mean there's money in the politics of science? Surely not!!!!

Global warming is a hoax. Washington Post story about Gray. He thinks in about 8 years we'll be cooling again--hmmm, around the time Gore will be finishing his 2 terms launched by his chicken little platform. Long enough for him to have destroyed our businesses and industry and taxed us to the warming heavens and back.

3666

There is no evidence

Although I am a 6 day creationist, I have no problem reading and enjoying reports of millions of years for old earth, particularly if they poo-poo man's impact on global weather change. Unfortunately, there is no money in saying that humans are not in charge. Be prepared to open your wallets if you buy into this Al Gore chicken little story, or even if you don't. This one by Ian Plimer of Australia is instructive:

"For 80% of time, planet Earth has been a warm wet greenhouse planet. Polar icecaps are rare, plants have only be on Earth for 10% of time and 99.99% of all life that has ever existed is extinct. Global atmospheric CO2 and CH4 have been variable over time and have decreased over time whereas O2 has been in the atmosphere for 50% of time, has greatly fluctuated and has increased over time. There have been 5 major and numerous minor mass extinctions of complex life, extinction opens new environments for colonisation and, because former terrestrial animals have become extinct, we humans now have a habitat. Sea levels have risen and fallen thousands of time by up to 400 metres, land levels constantly rise and fall and massive rapid climate changes derived from supernovae, solar flaring, sunspots, meteorites, comets, uplift of mountain ranges, pulling apart of oceans, stitching together of land masses, drifting continents, orbital changes, changes in the shape of Earth, ice armadas, changes in ocean currents and volcanoes. There is no evidence that life has changed climates." Full report here. (Opens in Word)

The medieval warm period

"temperatures during the Medieval Warm Period (~AD 800-1100) were about 1°C warmer than those of the Current Warm Period" Article here.

3665

Parting company

Where I part company with many Conservatives.

Politics

• I'm against the death penalty. Don't let the evil scumbags turn you into a killer.
  
• I believe marijuana can be a controlled substance for medical treatment, just like other mind altering legal drugs.
  
• I believe drug sentencing is too punitive and counter-productive--at least in Ohio. 60% of our prison population is drug related (I've heard, haven't researched it). Prisons are schools for crime, and we should stop sending so many novices there, because they will graduate and return to us.
  
• I think Creationists need to stay clear of the public schools. We haven't even convinced our own folks, so why go after non-believers? No one ever got to heaven because of believing in creation, nor was sent to hell because of evolution. Plus, you're not being truthful about your motives and that hurts your witness for Jesus.
  
• Schools need to allow students the freedom to be Creationists or write or speak on the topic without fear of punishment or grade reduction.
  
• I don't believe in the current political race for the brass ring called global warming, but I also believe that many conservatives don't take the precautions and care they should with the environment. Clean air and clean water is good for our health and for capitalism.

Religion

• I'm not a dispensationalist Christian. Not that all conservatives are, but many that are cherry pick their way through the Bible finding end-times principles to apply to politics that aren't there.
  
• Most Biblical admonitions about sexual behavior and morality are addressed to men lusting after women, not to gay men. Pay attention to your own plank before looking for the splinter.
  
• The Biblical record is clear that Jesus intended women to have an equal role in the church.
  
• I'm fine with infant baptism and don't believe in rebaptizing, although I appreciate my anabaptist heritage. Watching an infant baptism is a wonderful reminder of our need to rely totally on God.
  
• If you've got a well written liturgy, faithfully followed, it makes up for poor sermons and unsingable hymns.

Others

• I don't believe pets are "just like family," but once you take one into your home, you have obligations and responsibilities for training, veterinary care, love and affection.
  
• I believe homeschooling is good and soundly educational, especially for the parents who will have more actual learning and support than if the children attended public or private schools, but it isn't always better for the children. There's nothing wrong with doing it for mom or dad if they become better parents.
  
• Our children come into this world as unique beings, with everything in place to be successful and happy. If they don't get there, it may not be your fault, and it definitely is not the government's. Take the blame where you deserve it, and dump the guilt if you don't.

3663

Fat Grandmothers

I had none. I'm so fortunate that I had both my paternal and maternal grandparents in my life, and my great-grandparents lived just a few doors away when I was very young. My grandmothers weren't fat, or even plump or curvy. If your grandmother is a member of my generation, you probably can't say that.

Today I was reading "Aging, adiposity, and calorie restriction," by Luigi Fontana and Samuel Klein in the March 7, 2007 JAMA. It's a very cautious and conservative review of the literature from 1966 through December 2006 in PubMed (the largest and most famous medical literature database) which concludes from all the studies done on calorie restriction in the last 40 years that calorie restriction in adult men and women causes beneficial metabolic, hormonal, and functional changes, but (and here's the cautious part) the precise amount of calorie intake or body fat mass associated with optimal health and longevity in humans is not known. And after laying out all this fabulous research (139 citations), the authors take a buy-out and decide that because calorie restriction is difficult to maintain long-term, we might have to turn to a pharmacological agent for a solution. Cha-ching. There's no money in eating less, moving more.

That's what got me thinking about my grandmothers, both of whom lived to their late 80s. One was born in 1876 and the other in 1895, young enough to be the other's daughter (my great grandmother was born in 1873), a time when life expectancy at birth was about 45. Their generations benefited from better hygiene, but I doubt that either ever had a vaccination. It's possible that very late in life they might have had an antibiotic. I don't know much about their early lives, but given the times, I'm sure they were both breast fed by non-smoking mothers. They didn't give birth in hospitals. They both lived their childhood and early married life on farms a few miles from each other, but didn't work in the fields. Housework, however, was much more physical in those days. I use Grandma Mary's pressing irons as book-ends--they were heated on the cookstove and weigh 10-15 lbs. Water was pumped outside and carried in to be heated either in the stove or on it. Grandma Mary was wealthier than Grandma Bessie and did have a German woman as household help, but they would've worked side by side. And both gardened (potatoes, carrots, cabbage, tomatoes, beans, turnips) and raised chickens for meat and eggs. Root crops could be stored, and beans and tomatoes were canned for winter, but table fare was pretty bland and boring. Both women baked their own bread. Beef was not on the table in either household. Grandma Mary rarely served meat, except chicken occasionally, and Grandma Bessie would have only had fatty pork, sausage, or a tough old chicken, too old to lay. Cows were for milk (cash crop) and butter (for cooking), and when you think about it, they were much more difficult to butcher for a single family than a pig or chicken. There wasn't even much in the way of fruit, maybe a few apples, grapes for juice or berries.

According to the authors, the first calorie restriction study was done in 1935 when it was discovered that limiting calories in lab rats increased their life span by 30-60%. Food shortages during WWII in some European countries were associated with a sharp decrease in coronary heart disease, and although this article didn't mention it, I've seen reports like that on breast cancer. Again, the authors use cautious language, but say "population studies suggest that lifestyle factors, such as sedentary lifestyle, dietary intake, and adiposity, are responsible for up to 70% of chronic disease and are a major contributor to reduced longevity. . . data suggest that a BMI at the low end of normal (18.5-24.9) is associated with optimal metabolic and cardiovascular health."

Friday Family Photo

Before she was married, my grandmother Mary painted in oils. She probably had private lessons, because I think the school in Ashton, IL would have been too small to offer art. In one of her account books from the 1890s I found notations for art supplies and studio rent. This painting of iris hangs in my aunt's home. I can only remember three of her paintings framed and hanging in the farm house, but they were wonderful, so there must have been many leading up to those that weren't kept or framed.

In Grandma's little community of Ashton, IL (her family lived on a farm, but that was the school district), at 25 and unmarried, she was considered an "old-maid." Her deepest desire was to be a teacher, but not only were married women kept out of the classroom, but so were single women whose father could support them, or so she told me. Mary lived at home and worked as her father's bookkeeper and managed the house (her mother had died in 1898). The median age of women at marriage in the United States was twenty-two in 1890, but for college educated women the median was over twenty-five. My grandparents (he'd been off on an adventure in the northwest but they knew each other from college days) were married in September 1901, when Mary was 25 and Charles 27. The young couple did not see a future in Illinois managing any of her father's property and so they moved to Wichita, KS after their marriage where he had relatives.

Grandfather Charles' sister and brother-in law, Alice and J. Edwin Jay lived in Wichita where Uncle Edwin was on the Faculty of the Friends' University. Charles opened a feed store, the West Side Mill, at 811 West Douglas. They bought a house at 2007 Hancock where Mary earned money by renting rooms to students from the Friends' University (she later did this in 1934 at the University of Illinois during the Depression). She audited some classes at the University until her first pregnancy began to show and appearing in public was considered unseemly. They returned to Illinois after the deaths of their second son in 1907 and of her brother Ira in 1908 to help her father.

I like to think she may have continued her painting in Kansas, but I just don't know. She was a bit of a health nut and probably thought (correctly) the fumes from the linseed oil, turpentine and oil paints weren't safe during her pregnancies and then stopped altogether.

Poetry Thursday #14

Today's challenge has two parts. I think I've met it. I'll keep this at the top of the page, but scroll down for other important topics like the weather, fashion, recipes, and global warming.

Part I: Write a poem to, for, or about a poet.

Part II: Write a letter to a poet and then share it with the Poetry Thursday community on Thursday.

I'm writing about and to Wendy Cope, a popular British author and former teacher, who wrote a very brief poem about giving up smoking.

Oh Wendy Cope,
I sure do hope
you still can write
with such delight
and words so tart,
with poems that smart
and clever rhymes
just for our times.
Dear Ms. Cope,

It's difficult for me to fathom the cigarette addiction. When I go to that smoke-free place called Heaven, who will be left on Earth to nag my son who says he was hooked after that first cigarette? I shake my head because I don't understand how anyone could allow shredded, dried up vegetation burning right under the nose to control his life, health and finances. However, then I read the love poem that you wrote a few weeks after giving up smoking in 1985, and the last phrase said it all,

I haven’t finished yet--
I like you more than I would like
To have a cigarette

and I began to understand. And that's what poetry can do. You wrote, "People who have never been addicted to nicotine don’t understand what an intense love poem it is." Oh, and by the way, Ms. Cope, I also want him to find a love like that. Your poem's a two-fer.*

Thank you for your service,
Norma

*A two-fer is slang meaning "two for one." Sometimes it has no hyphen.

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Viral and Deranged--the left blogosphere

Apparently some of the biggieblogs fell for this doctored photo of Karl Rove even though it broke on April Fool's Day. Read the story. See the list of suckers.

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Happy Birthday

Today is my husband's birthday. This is what we looked like when we met in 1959, when I weighed more than he did. I'm wearing a girl friend's formal, which was a bit snug, and he's wearing his grandfather's jacket, which was a bit big.

Armory House Spring Dance, 1959

I see you're still dreaming
there's still so much to do.
Helping and guiding,
painting and traveling.
Isn't it great
to be you.
He's in the process of retiring, but met today with a client who he says is one of the nicest people he's ever worked with, but I think he usually says that. He brings that out in people. Calm, reassuring, and confident. Pretty much the same easy going, quiet, thoughtful guy I met in 1959. He stays busy.

• Design Review Board at Lakeside
  
• member of two Christian men's group that meet weekly for breakfast
  
• member of a couple's group at our church, UALC
  
• mentors a child at an urban school
  
• teaches a drawing class at the senior center and Lakeside in the summer
  
• Head of the Visual Arts Ministry at our church
  
• handles all the arrangements when we travel
  
• communion server at our church
  
• usher at our church
  
• 15 years teaching VBS children
  
• member of a group of watercolorists that meets monthly
  
• keeps an active painting schedule--completes about 10 a month
  
• member of two community art groups, founder of one, past president of both
  
• Condo association president
  
• leads a women's aerobics class
  
• takes me out to eat every Friday night

The ethics of corn ethanol

We were told by the TV reporter last night that Easter eggs will cost $.34 more a dozen this year. Corn ethanol is the reason, but reporters probably don't want to look on the down side of Al Gore's movie theories. Such as, China has now caught up to us in emissions (a decade ago we were told it would be 2025), so we could burn water in our automobiles and it wouldn't make a bit of difference in the global temperature, assuming that emissions are causing warming, which many scientists say is a bunch of cow poop. Being Americans, we not only think we are God, but that only what we do to the atmosphere matters, and the only hurricanes that hit land, are the ones we see here.

But let's look at the ethics of ethanol.

" . . . about 29% more energy is used to produce a gallon of ethanol than the energy in a gallon of ethanol. Fossil energy powers corn production and the fermentation/distillation processes. Increasing subsidized ethanol production will take more feed from livestock production, and is estimated to currently cost consumers an additional $1 billion per year. Ethanol production increases environmental degradation. Corn production causes more total soil erosion than any other crop. Also, corn production uses more insecticides, herbicides, and nitrogen fertilizers than any other crop. All these factors degrade the agricultural and natural environment and contribute to water pollution and air pollution. Increasing the cost of food and diverting human food resources to the costly inefficient production of ethanol fuel raise major ethical questions. These occur at a time when more than half of the world’s population is malnourished. The ethical priority for corn and other food crops should be for food and feed. Subsidized ethanol produced from U.S. corn is not a renewable energy source." Abstract, "Ethanol Fuels: Energy Balance, Economics, and Environmental Impacts Are Negative," Natural Resources Research, Volume 12, issue 2 (June 2003), p. 127-134.

And he doesn't even mention the bioterrorism of a well placed fungus that could wipe out the Americans' dependence on corn for fuel the way the potato blight sent the Irish running for a new country in the 19th century.

and the CO2 emissions of corn ethanol

"Proper mass and energy balances of corn fields and ethanol refineries that account for the photosynthetic energy, part of the environment restoration work, and the coproduct energy have been formulated. These balances show that energetically production of ethanol from corn is 2–4 times less favorable than production of gasoline from petroleum. From thermodynamics it also follows that ecological damage wrought by industrial biofuel production must be severe. With the DDGS coproduct energy credit, 3.9 gallons of ethanol displace on average the energy in 1 gallon of gasoline. Without the DDGS energy credit, this average number is 6.2 gallons of ethanol. Equivalent CO2 emissions from corn ethanol are some 50% higher than those from gasoline, and become 100% higher if methane emissions from cows fed with DDGS are accounted for. From the mass balance of soil it follows that ethanol coproducts should be returned to the fields." "A First-Law Thermodynamic Analysis of the Corn-Ethanol Cycle," Natural Resources Research, Volume 15, issue 4 (December 2006), p. 255 - 270

ethanol

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Send Swank to Syria

Maybe she'll put some clothes on. Nancy Pelosi's garb in a Muslim country (intended to show submission to men and decrease their sexual impulses) makes a lot more sense than what I saw Hillary Swank wear on the Jay Leno show last night as she plugged her new movie, "The Reaping." She had on a light blue denim strapless mid-thigh length dress, with about the same coverage as an Esther Williams swim suit from a 1950s movie--maybe less.

She looked absurd sitting beside a male comedian wearing baggy jeans and sweatshirt and across from Leno who had on a business suit and tie. It's probably cold in those TV studios. She was pale, pasty and plain as pudding in an outfit no self-respecting prostitute would prance in. Excuse my preposition at the end of a sentence.

It truly grieves me that women, whether Granny Pelosi who spouts one message at home and another abroad or Sister Swank are such terrible role models for young women and an embarrassment to mature women. If women still rock the cradle, they seem to be losing their grip on the clothes closet.

3656

Global warming and Ohio

We're all back in our winter clothes and coats today (it's below freezing). Isn't it interesting that those banging the warning bells the loudest about global warming have chosen to live in sunny climes or along the coasts where they prefer constant danger from storms which have been ripping up the sand and rocks for centuries, eating away the cliffs where they want to build their mansions and summer homes? Except Al Gore from Tennessee, who inherited his money for high living from tobacco sales, simultaneously stripping the land of all nutrients while killing thousands.

Then after they've polluted the air and cut off everyone else's view through punishing regulations which closed down industries that then moved to Asia, they want those of us who live in the "heartland" to fritter away our inheritance of good soil and water resources on even more acres of corn (which has already made the nation fat as a cheap sweetener). Corn to burn in our gas tanks as ethanol, taking more inputs to create a profit than coal or oil ever did. They've barely started this scheme and already food prices are inching up.

Way to go liberals--you've found yet another way to hurt the poor. Are we Americans insane, smug or just shameless--or all three?

Fact sheet comparing ethanol inputs.

ethanol

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Old trucks are popular

I saw this old Ford parked between cottages at Lakeside yesterday. Seems to be in the middle of restoration.


Then at Florida Cracker (a librarian), I saw this truck, apparently new, for about $58,000, made by Southern Motor. But you can choose your color.