Health insurance for children

David Brooks on Sept. 28 had an Op Ed in the NYT about the phony pain Congress suffers when speaking of our debt. "The U.S. government has $43 trillion in unfunded liabilities, or $350,000 for every taxpayer," he writes. Congress has a Mardis Gras-tomorrow will never come mentality.

These habits infect everything they touch, even a straightforward and successful program like the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or S-chip. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the number of uninsured children has been declining steadily for years. It shouldn’t be that costly or hard to insure the ones that are left.

And yet because S-chip is a product of the current climate, the expansion plan in Congress has all sorts of corruptions and dishonesties built in. First, it perpetuates a smoke screen of obfuscation between who pays and who chooses. States have an incentive to ramp up benefits because they know that most of the cost will be borne by taxpayers somewhere else. Second, it entices children out of private and into public insurance, even though after 2012 it cannot cover the cost.

I have little sympathy for smokers, but I do admit, I don't know any college-educated, well-off smokers. They've sucked it in, endured the headaches and quit. The smokers I do know are blue collar folks--retail, hospitality, auto repair, clerical, factory, construction. So Brooks zeros in on the wealth transfer that will have to take place for this entitlement.

The S-chip bill takes money from these relatively poor, politically immobilized people and shifts it to those making up to $62,000 a year. Nobody is raising a tax on wine consumption or gasoline consumption to pay for this benefit. Instead, Congress is taxing the weakest possible group [lower income smokers] in order to shift benefits to others, some of whom are middle class.

Have you ever noticed that if a government program is successful and begins to eliminate the problem it was set out to solve, Congress will expand it out of fear of losing a piece of the action?

More stuff, more stress

A few years ago, a well-heeled girlfriend told me that her 80-something mother was living in a tiny trailer in Arizona with a minimum amount of furnishings. She'd told her family, "When I die, just push it over the cliff." She wasn't poor; but she'd learned what most of us do after awhile--your possessions own you, not the other way around. In an article, about "Stressed out Moms" Ingrid Schlueter writes,

One factor seems to be expectations going into marriage. Newlyweds of my parents’ generation had very modest expectations financially. My parents started out in a basement apartment in Des Moines, Iowa that didn’t have much in the way of amenities. They graduated to a studio apartment later and then to a three bedroom flat where my brother, sister and I spent our early childhood years. From there it was a very simple, three-bedroom Milwaukee bungalow. No family room, one bathroom, old, basic kitchen and bath. The carpet when we moved in was the original and that goes for the linoleum as well. Mom made it all comfortable and homey, and we kids didn’t know that we lacked a thing. That’s where my parents lived until I was married.

Today, few newlyweds start out this way. Home ownership is seen as essential for many, even if it requires both husband and wife to work outside the home. It’s a dangerous way to begin because once the couple starts relying on two incomes to live, it is very hard to stop when a baby comes. Then the couple begins the stressed out years of trying to find and pay for exorbitant childcare, while strangers get the privilege of caring for their baby. Add a couple more children to the picture, and you have a lot of outgo for that same two-income couple and the race to meet all the demands begins."

That's exactly the same thing our Irish bus driver John (50 and the father of 5) said about the younger Irish generation setting up homes and getting mortgages. It's not a local problem.

4171

High level pharmaceutical decisions

What I would ask a librarian. Are there committees at pharmaceutical companies to decide which syllable and how many get the accent?

rosiglitazone (pronounced row sih GLIH ta zone)

Thiazolidinedione: (Pronounced THIGH-ah-ZO-li-deen-DYE-own.

It would sound and flow better if the final -ne were its own, stand alone syllable, don't you think?

The new polyester pants suit

I remember when my mother's generation (they were college age in the early 1930s) discovered the pastel polyester pants suit in the late 60s and early 70s. I'd seen her age group in slacks only in the garden--and here they were blooming like a bed of bright flowers. They could finally get in and out of the car gracefully (remember skirts were extremely short back then--not great for chubby or vein lined legs) and accommodate an expanding waistline. Yes, the rising of the mini-skirt put millions of older women into pants suits. I eventually succumbed and bought some myself--pale green, bright fuchsia, and yellow polka-dot. Oh, I felt quite smart--and comfortable.

Now it's khaki Capris, low sling-back sandals with a tiny heel, and fashion T's with just a little decollete to tease. The new polyester pants suit for the working Mom in her 40s-50s. I see so many women dressed like this at Panera's where they stop by for coffee and bagels to take into the office, that it makes me wonder if they called each other first and asked, "Whacha wearing today?"

On October 1, WSJ reported [paraphrased here]:

After years of fashion shows inspired by homeless people and biker chicks [Dior] promises to focus on grown-ups--prim, pricey and sophisticated.

I won't hold my breath for Columbus' Capri-wearing Mamas.

Movie making and politics

There's always been a bond between film makers and politicians. Both get rich and powerful by preaching; but you feel a little jerked around if you grew up with the films of the 40s and 50s, or watch them on TNT or AMC, and compare them to 21st century garbage. Last week Kyle Smith in the WSJ asked, "What's come over liberals?" He says their Bush-era movies are muddled, condescending, violent, vigilante, with trash talking points and weak plots with the usual predictables. Seeing a pro-American film in a theater today is as likely as seeing a pro-Stalin film in the 1950s, says Smith.

I'd just call it the "Law and Order" template; the little screen leading the way.

Bad guys (gang) are white.
Good cops are black.
Saintly friend (minor role) is black.
Real villan is white business man (if they use the L & O template, could also be clergy or husband of the female victim).
Behind the crime there is never personal responsibility
Give the "hero" or "heroine" amnesia or victimhood so they can become a killing machine but still spout leftist propaganda.
Important talking points:

acceptance or glorification of gays
unprepared military
whimpy or non-existant clergy
blame the Jews or
life in the mean streets of Mega-metropolis

To an apple

Oh Fuji, and Gala
Sweet Braeburn and Granny,
I'll return in the winter,
But for now, I will stray.

Be still my heart,
rejoice my taste buds.
It is the season
of the glorious Honey Crisp.

4167

Is this a bribe?

While the Ohio State University Libraries main library is closed (for another 2 years, at least), its temporary location on Ackerman Road is much closer to me, but not particularly convenient if you are actually attending or teaching classes there. I noticed this in the campus online version of OSUToday:

University Libraries is accepting proposals for the 2008 Course Enhancement Grant program. Grants of $2,000 will be given to instructors for the enhancement of courses by substantially integrating library resources and services. The deadline for proposals is Friday (11/2) for courses to be taught during Winter or Spring quarters 2008."

Do bus route maps to find the relocated collections count?

4166

Attention John Edwards' supporters

RealClearPolitics provides a lesson in economics.

"Of the charter members of the first Forbes 400 in 1982, only 32 remain today. Far from a country where only the rich get richer, the wealthy in the US are very much a moving target. While there are 74 Forbes 400 members who inherited their entire fortune, 270 members are entirely self-made. Though many attended Harvard, Yale and Princeton, there are countless stories within of high school and college dropouts, not to mention others who grew up extremely poor. Politicians who regularly engage in class warfare would do well to keep the Forbes 400 out of the hands of their constituents, because it makes a mockery of the kind “Two Americas” rhetoric suggesting the existence of a glass ceiling that keeps hard workers at the bottom of the economic ladder. To read the Forbes 400 is to know with surety that the U.S. is still very much the land of opportunity. . .

For the hard of hearing, Advanced Bionics founder Alfred Mann (#204) developed cochlear implants, and for those who are immobile, Stryker Corp. CEO John Brown (#380) makes artificial hips and limbs to help the bedridden stand. With cancer still a tragic fact of life for many, Abraxis CEO Patrick Soon-Shiong (#117) presently has the patents for 30 different treatments that will hopefully over time help to make cancer go the way of polio." [unless crafty politicians can tax or sue them out of creativity and existence]

HT HP

It's never about health, it's always the "gap"

The USA imports working-poor people because we have trouble growing our own. Our own poor may be homeless, or mentally ill, or elderly or in fragile health--essentially, unemployable; our own social agencies don't know what to do except offer them government assistance, insurance and welfare. So we wink at the working-poor from other countries who because of language or illegal status, must live a reduced lifestyle. We have a broken, unworkable, 20 year old immigration law, and a Congress who can't figure out how to fix it without swamping our social services and education system. The primary goal of both Republicans and Democrats appears to be to log more constituents for their parties.

Even with a jump start over the border, or a generational family tradition of government assistance to replace fathers-in-the-home (the primary cause of home grown poverty in the USA is single motherhood), our poor are better off than the poor in most countries because we set the bar very low. To qualify for SCHIP, our health insurance for children of low income employed people, the family of four income eligibility is at at 250% of the poverty level, or a little over $51,000 for a family of four. I don't know about you, but that doesn't sound like poor to me--remember, income isn't wealth.

No matter, though. It's always about the GAP between the rich and poor or the poor and middle class; it's never about the poor as real people with real health problems, or even their income. Even if every poor person in this country had full health, dental, vision and cosmetic surgery insurance with pet insurance thrown in for Spot or Fluffy, if someone richer had more, could elect a higher standard of care, it would be a terrible burden to bear for the psyche of liberals.

Here's the latest gap. Help for the obese. Bariatric surgery can reduce diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, sleep apnea, osteoporosis, etc. and improve general sense of well-being. Did you know that there is a gap between white, obese women who have bariatric surgery and black and Hispanic obese, women who have it? Also, a gap between white, obese women and white, obese men? Yes, 84% of the patients who have the surgery are women and 90% of those are white. But black and Hispanic women are more likely to be obese.

However, even people who can elect to have this surgery--rich, obese white women who live in cities that have special surgery centers--often choose not to have it. 15 million people are obese enough to have the surgery, but only a tiny fraction do. I'm just guessing here, but 1) there is a fairly high morbidity and mortality rate--you can survive, loose weight, but reenter the hospital several times--that ain't fun, 2) you still have to diet, 3) you still have to exercise, 4) after all that pain and frustration and giving up the comfort food you love, there are no guarantees you will live longer or save your marriage or job, 5) some minority groups and white males do not see obesity as quite the cultural sin that wealthier, white women do and have no wish to change their behavior, 6) this surgery is usually performed on those who have the best chances to survive and comply to the lifestyle changes which significantly helps the statistics of success, and 7) you can, with persistence, gain it all back!

For more information see, "Toward the rational and equitable use of bariatric surgery," JAMA, Sept. 26, 2007, pp. 1442-1444

4164

Passengers' Bill of Rights?

You can drive a 747 through the loopholes according to this travel editor. The legislation was introduced by Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) to provide the Airline Passenger Bill of Rights Act. I guess we know which sex has to handle a wet, poopy baby who's been crying for four hours, don't we?

The legislation requires airlines to offer passengers the option of safely leaving a plane they have boarded once that plane has sat on the ground three hours after the plane door has closed.

This option would be provided every three hours that the plane continues to sit on the ground.

The legislation also requires airlines to provide passengers with necessary services such as food, potable water and adequate restroom facilities while a plane is delayed on the ground.

The legislation provides two exceptions to the three-hour option. The pilot may decide to not allow passengers to deplane if he or she reasonably believes their safety or security would be at risk due to extreme weather or other emergencies.

Alternately, if the pilot reasonably determines that the flight will depart within 30 minutes after the three-hour period, he or she can delay the deplaning option for an additional 30 minutes.

I've never had to sit on a runway longer than an hour (most recently when our flight was diverted from Shannon to Dublin, Ireland because of fog), but even I can figure out that all you need to do is open and close a door after 2 hours and 58 minutes to get around that 3 hour rule. And the restrooms are already inadequate, so what is "adequate?"

4163

Gas Guzzlers

Bring back the grid! This plan is unsafe for children, impedes walking or biking any where, jams up artery roads if you can find them, and drinks up your gasoline as you wander around, turning around looking for an exit street.

Business 2.0, Sept. 2007, Indianapolis, "How to play the real estate bounce-back," p.61

4162

Who funds Media Matters?

Wealthy Democrats, most with ties to the Clintons, either from former cabinet posts, or heavy campaign supporters. George Soros, an immigrant who has done extremely well with our economic system and wants more government in our lives just like the old country, is another brick in this wall against free speech. Media Matters was founded by David Brock, yes, the former conservative who came to fame writing about Anita Hill, then had an epiphany and rushed down the sawdust trail to switch parties. Media Matters goes after conservative talk radio--that's its whole reason for being. The name, "Media Matters," is brilliant. I'll give them that. It does matter--and most of the media are liberal, but like the babies who escape the abortionist mills and minorities who leave the plantation, some reporters, journalists, media executives, movie stars, sports figures and celebrities make it out alive to speak to the masses--those of us outside the beltway living in fly over country.

Harry Reid (D) is an important talkinghead/spokesperson/mouth for Media Matters. He almost would have nothing to say if they weren't coaching him from behind the curtain.


"And you, Scarecrows in radio land, have the effrontery to ask for a brain! You billowing bale of bovine fodder!!"

4161

Pay back time for the MoveOn dot Org fiasco

Poor old Harry Reid. Can't get it right. Has to take his sound bites from Media Matters and haul it up to the halls of Congress. I doubt that he's ever listened to a Rush Limbaugh radio show.

Although Americans of goodwill debate the merits of this war, we can all agree that those who serve with such great courage deserve our deepest respect and gratitude. That is why Rush Limbaugh’s recent characterization of troops who oppose the war as “phony soldiers” is such an outrage.

Imagine old Harry defending the troops! Respect and gratitude, what a laugh. Rush is probably the biggest supporter of our troops out there. You can go to Rush's web site to see what the fuss is about. Don't EVER take the MSM's word for what is said on his show. Media Matter slices, dices and runs it through their blender.

4160

Mischa Berlinski's Fieldwork

The novel we're reading for book club provides an anthropological investigation (fieldwork) for several interesting species--The Walker family [Christian missionaries], the Dyalo [fictious tribe based on a mix of real people that Berlinski researched], a beginning anthropologist [Martiya, anthropologist daughter of a Dutch linguist], academics, and to a lesser degree, couples who live together, stringers for magazines, American and European ex-pats, former college friends digging out letters from their basement storage and memories, Asian towns and prisons, teachers of English in exotic lands and linguists who create written language, whether Christian or academic. I fully expected Berlinski to speak ill of the Christians and laud the anthropologists, but it was just the opposite. He is neither, but definitely sees the anthropologists the more strange and misguided of the two, although both Martiya and the Walkers believe in the reality of evil spirits.

"The thirty years in China had seen the Walkers [Christian missionaries] occupy a dozen houses, all of them drafty, dreary places, with dirt floors and sod walls; and Laura had lived in them prepared to leave at a moment's notice should the good Lord need the Walkers elsewhere. She had lived the last fifteen years in the Mission House in Abaze, which was filled with spiders and simply did not get clean no matter how she scrubbed it. Laura never complained about her choices in life, but for thirty years now she [had wanted a real house like her sister in Kansas]. . . No Dyalo had ever thought to build a house with wooden walls--a Dyalo home had thin walls of thatch and woven bamboo--and organizing the labor in the wild country was a difficult job. . . The Dyalo wouldn't even consider the idea of working for wages; and if a man gives you his time as a gift, Laura felt, she really couldn't complain if he decided to take a week off. . . She was more than 50 years old, and although everyone helped, in the end, Raymond, Paul, and Laura built most of that house themselves." p. 111

"Farts-a-Lot [Martiya's host in the village, in whose hut she lived] kept a row of bottles of homemade rice whiskey, neatly lined up. In each bottle, there was some repulsive embalmed animal: a snake, a scorpion, a centipede, a few huge termites. These were added to the whiskey . . . to increase his potency, which, to judge by certain late-night mutterings was faltering. . ." p. 178 "The taste of the morning soup, more than the strange costumes and songs, and the weird language and the panoply of rites and sacrifices to please mean spirits, . . .that soup made Martiya feel as if she was living with the people from National Geographic. The vile soup was recycled day after day, and spiced with bitter herbs and a creepy brown fungus; it tasted as if everything that was the Dyalo and Dan Loi had been distilled into a concentrated broth; it seemed almost alive, slithering on her tongue like an oyster; it was as intense as eau-de-vie. All morning long, no matter how many times she brushed her teeth, Martiya could taste the forest on her teeth." p. 179

"It sometimes seemed to Martiya that half of the village was involved in bitter quarrels with the other half, and Dyalo feuds ran deep: there were people in the village who had no idea that a new baby had been born just one hut down, despite the agonized howling that accompanied Dyalo childbirth, so deep did their antipathies run. Watching the Dyalo snipe and bicker had disabused Martiya of the naive notion that tribal peoples would live in peaceful harmony with one another, just as watching the villagers hack down virgin forest and set it on fire for their fields had disabused Martiya of the notion that the Dyalo would live in placid harmony with nature. But as an anthropologist, she couldn't indulge in such diverting pleasures as blood quarrels. She needed to be a neutral Switzerland, an unencumbered Sweden. Farts-a-Lot [her host] was a leading member of the largest clan, the clan of the Fish, and Martiya suspected that if Farts-a-Lot felt in any way slighted, she'd never swim with the Fishes again." p. 188

Martiya thought that when "she got back to Berkely, all the other scholars and anthropologists and students of human behavior would help her understand the things she couldn't. Instead, Martiya found herself positively shunned in the department for having visited a preliterate society. The window of anthropological fashion had shifted while Martiya was in the field, and preliterates were out. . . It was an irony that 80 years after Bronislaw Malinowksi told all the anthropologists to get off the veranda of the mission house and go and live with the natives, the only people in all the world who seemed to share Martiya's obsessive interest and fascination with the Dyalo were a family of missionaries waiting for the world to end." p. 251-252

4159

Thank you, 60 minutes!

Years ago I was a regular 60 Minutes viewer. Then I watched a smear job they did on the people of little Polo, Illinois. I don't recall the details of the story, but I think the town had cut off the utilities of a down-and-outer who was scamming the whole community. Then there was the Dan Blather flap. But I did watch Steve Kroft's interview of Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas last night, and it was extremely moving with lots of added footage, plus an actual conclusion that gave Thomas the last word. How refreshing. What we know now. . . It was all about abortion for the hate-smear Clarence Thomas foes (I could have sworn it was racism, pure and simple). It was about standing on principle for him.

Flipping through blogs today, I saw one whiner that thought Thomas smeared Anita Hill. Not at all. He said she wasn't the meek and mild, demure young lady portrayed by the press. The Anita Hill he worked with was a fighter who would have never tolerated the indignities of what he was accused of, not for 10 minutes, let alone 10 years. What's demeaning about that? If she became a pawn of the press, slurping up the bright lights, she certainly wasn't the first.

Buy My Grandfather's Son. Let's show the Just-us Brothers (Al and Jesse) what a real man sounds like. Let's get this book into the school library. Ask my public library to buy 16 copies like they did for the anti-Bush titles. It will restore your faith in the very sorry mess that is Washington.

What are the chances?

At 1:47 this afternoon, two people, one in Chicago and one in Colorado, googled searches about Roger Vernam, an illustrator of children's books, and both found my blog. I hope they found the second one too. Maybe they were discussing him on the phone?

4157

An October resolution

Making resolutions isn't my thing. Or maybe making them is, and keeping them isn't. I just couldn't tell you how often I start the month saying something like, "This month I'm going to try a new recipe," or "This month I'm going to see a movie," or "This month I'm going to learn how to use Lulu.com and upload my memoirs." Tomorrow is October 1 (book club, and I'm only on p. 50 of Fieldwork, which one review describes as a fictional account of "3 separate tribes--the fictional Dyalo, American Protestant missionaries, and the tribe that lives in ivory towers . . .studying other tribes"). But I did find a wonderful peach crisp recipe I might try, I mean, if I were going to make a resolution. It's not peach season, but it sounds good, and easy to modify for Splenda. I'll let you know if it's really yummy, and if I finish the book.

Fresh peach crisp recipe is a delicious dessert with cinnamon and whipped topping or ice cream.

INGREDIENTS:
2 1/2 pounds fresh peaches, peeled, pitted
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup soft butter

PREPARATION:
Butter an 8-inch square baking dish. Preheat oven to 375°.
Slice peeled, pitted peaches into the prepared baking dish. Sift together the flour, sugar, salt and cinnamon into a medium bowl. Cut butter into flour mixture with pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal.

Sprinkle crumbs evenly over peaches in baking dish. Bake at 375° for 45 to 50 minutes, until topping is golden brown and peaches are tender. Serve peach crisp warm with cream or whipped topping.

From About Southern U.S. Cuisine

4156

What teens can do to help the world

St. Francis DeSales High School seniors were protesting the death penalty at the Ohio Statehouse last week (Columbus Dispatch, 9-27-07). I don't support the death penalty (there were 2 executions in Ohio this year) because I don't want to be drawn into doing evil by the evil deeds of others. However, these teens could save thousands of lives each year by working for raising the legal driving age to 18. Yes, it's that simple. About 6,000 teens are killed each year in auto accidents because they don't have the maturity and brain development to handle the constant decisions about safety and driving that it requires. Anyone driving with a teen in the car, even adults, increase their risk of an accident.

I won't hold my breath that they'll try to make a real difference about something they face every day. Maybe they could start small and just turn off their cell phones while driving.

Nationwide, car crashes are the leading cause of teen death — among especially 16-year-olds, according to the highway safety group. Statistics include motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles.

Teen motor vehicle fatalities declined in the 1980s, almost entirely because of crackdowns on underage drinking. But the decline leveled off in the 1990s, and the rates haven't changed much since.

A number of factors make teens vulnerable to auto crashes. They lack experience behind the wheel. Their brains are not mature enough to handle the multiple mental tasks driving requires. They don't always wear seat belts. They're more likely to speed, especially at night and especially with other teens in the car.Tennessean.com

4155

NPR's liberal bias is aggravating

Usually I don't listen to our local NPR, WOSU Radio, but you all know what's the fare on Saturday--garden shows and sports. So three different times today my dial stopped at WOSU-AM.

First in the car I got Wesley Clark, complaining about Bush in Iraq but suggesting, I think, that we need to take out Iran. I only caught about 5 minutes, so I'm not sure of his drift or if he's running again. Then about an hour later on a return trip I got a book interview, and the author was genuflecting before the memory of FDR and complaining that conservatives portray liberals as spendthrifts taxing us to the poor house, but liberals haven't been in control since the 1960s. Huh? Where was this guy during the years the Democrats ran Congress and Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton were in office? The interview was so worthless, I'm not even bothering to track it down for you.

But the absolute worst was around 5 p.m, when needing noise while I fixed dinner, I heard on WOSU-AM a tiny clip of Bush's speech at the U.N. about dictators, and then a whole bunch of sound bites from various dictators slamming President Bush charging violations of the Universal Declaration for Human Rights and dripping blood of the innocent Iraqis. They could have at least balanced the time.

Right after the Bush slamming with my tax dollars where NPR became a mouthpiece for dictators I might not otherwise had to listen to, I got Nina Totenburg just aghast by Justice Thomas' new autobiography. Boy, is she miffed that he's escaped the plantation. Successful black folk should be more respectful and know their place, I suppose.

"Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' autobiography My Grandfather's Son hits bookstores Oct. 1, coinciding with the start of the court's new term. Justice Thomas received a $1.5 million advance for the memoir, which is being promoted by conservative interest groups. It covers his life up to his swearing in as a member of the high court. He offers vivid, and at time seething, details about events surrounding his nomination, the charges of sexual harassment against him by Anita Hill, and his memories of growing up poor in rural Georgia. NPR obtained an advance copy." [from promo]

Nina's shocked, just shocked, that he's made this book so personal. It's just unseemly, you know? Now, any other black leader or celebrity growing up poor without his parents would be lauded for "a tortured soul," but Justice Thomas is a conservative. He's also been skewered in another book, according to Eugene Volokh in WSJ.

Thinking about what to have for dinner

I've thawed some steak, but pizza sure sounds good.

What Your Pizza Reveals

Your appetite is pretty average. You don't go overboard - but you don't deprive yourself either. You are a very picky pizza eater. Not any pizza will do. You fit in best in the Northeast part of the US. You like food that's traditional and well crafted. You aren't impressed with "gourmet" foods. You are dependable, loyal, and conservative with your choices. You are cultured and intellectual. You should consider traveling to Vienna. The stereotype that best fits you is geek. You're the type most likely to order pizza to avoid leaving your computer.

What Does Your Pizza Say About You?

Are the smartest and best educated becoming more helpless?

or do they just expect more? In a survey of faculty and staff at Ohio State, the staff rated higher on job satisfaction than faculty. 68% of staff said they were satisfied; 65% of faculty were. The faculty (43%) also had more problems finding backup child care or temporary child care than the staff (38%).

When you think benefits, you're probably out of date--vacation, health, holidays. Both the faculty and staff have bunches of benefits--many of which I never used at all when I was faculty (but our net salaries are reduced to pay for all of these):

same sex domestic partner health benefits
sponsored dependent health benefits (I think that means they live in the household)
child care facilities
state of the art recreation facilities
special rooms for nursing parents
paid parental leave
lunch and learn programs
weight and tobacco management programs
elder care resource and referral
tuition assistance
adoption assistance
relocation assistance
and so forth

But they can't find back up child care. Tsk. Tsk.

What book would you most want your kids to read?

Here's a really odd response, showing great narrowness of mind and ignorance of what's on the shelves of bookstores and libraries, from an Ohio State University Professor of English, Kathy Fagan:

"I would be glad for my kids to read anything. Except maybe books by Anne Coulter." onCampus, Sept. 20, 2007, p. 16

See? Didn't I tell you about banned books starting in the selection process? I wonder what sort of grades she gives to conservatives. A sample of her poetry

4151

Fannie, Fred and Sam and the subprime mess

Most of the folks both parties in Congress want to bail out of the widening home mortgage mess are not the poor minority Pedros and Letitias in the red lined neighborhoods of Cleveland you read about in the newspaper sob stories. They are very wealthy investors who were flipping houses in Sarasota, or hiding from the tax man in Colorado, or packaging jumbo loans or going after no doc and low doc loans in Chicago.

Here's an ad in one of my newest premiere magazines, Vertical Living.

A $1,000,000 loan with payments of only $2,528 per month
1.000% start rate / 7.516% APR
Fixed payment for 1st year
No prepayment penalties
Interest-only payments
Unlimited cash out-refinancing available

Adjust those numbers a little, and the appeal is the same as it was for all those low income buyers a year ago. How long before this buyer is asking you for help?

At this time, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac* can't go that high, but oh, they are knocking, knocking at the door of Congress. Last Saturday the WSJ Hot Topic pointed out that FHA (Federal Housing Authority, a New Deal program that long ago outlived its usefulness) wants to suspend downpayment requirements to insure even zero-equity loans. :

It's a testament to the FHA's underwriting ineptitude that, even during the biggest housing boom in a generation, the agency's delinquency rate has somehow doubled over the last 10 years. In 2004, 2005 and 2006, the FHA's delinquency rate was 5 times higher than the rate on conventional prime mortgage loans, double the rate on loans with private, mortgage insurance, and even slightly high than the rate on subprime loans. . . Downpayment assistance program has suffered default rates as high as 20%. "Uncle Sam: Subprime Lender" 9-22-2007, WSJ

Freddie and Fannie
went up to Capitol Hill
to fawn for a bigger profit
Sticking you and me with the bill.

With help from our taxes
They'll package and resell,
a windfall for the banks and rich,
for the rest of us, economic hell.

Years ago the original aim
was to help the struggling poor.
Now they seek those jumbo loans--
Congress and Bush! Show them the door!

*Freddie Mac is the actual name of The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, created in 1970. It buys mortgages on the secondary market, pools them, and sells them as mortgage-backed securities to investors on the open market. Fannie Mae is the former Federal National Mortgage Association, which used to be a government agency, but is now a private corporation. In some sort of quasi-nightmare, these two are supposed to be "competition" for each other.

4150

A mother of three teens writes:

" . . . will someone please tell me why I probably had forty classes teaching me how to give birth, and was even offered classes fifth time round, (as clearly nature had changed in the previous 20 months), why we were given midwives, health visitors and regular support in child rearing for the first five years of the children's lives, five times round, but, just when it starts to get really challenging, interesting, impossible to deal with . . .everyone has disappeared off the face of the earth"? [she's British--we don't get THAT much help in the USA unless we're on welfare] Sally Writes.

4149 Jenna Bush's book for young people

Jenna Bush has authored a book "Ana's Story; a Journey of Hope" (HarperCollins, 2007, 209 pp. $18.99). It is non-fiction, for teenagers and about AIDS, is based on 6 months of conversations with women and children with HIV or AIDS when the president's daughter was working with UNICEF. It was reviewed, probably reluctantly, by Bob Minzesheimer in USAToday. In general, he was positive, pointing out it was easy to read with 35 pages of sources addressing common myths about AIDS and HIV. The paper edition differed from the online version. In paper he wrote that it doesn't address how much U.S. support should go to organizations that distribute condoms as opposed to religious groups that promote only abstinence. How picky is that? Reviewers and talking heads always want the book they themselves didn't make the effort to write and publish. I wonder if Minzesheimer would board an airplane that had the same failure rate as condoms?

In another column this reviewer points out that when Oprah even mentions a title (Eat, pray, love; Middlesex) it leap frogs to the top of the best seller list. That won't happen to a book by a conservative, even if the topic is one of her favorites.

The commenters at the revised online article are the usual collection of Bush-haters and author-wannabees complaining about favoritism. They are well worth reading for their ignorance, pomposity and narrowmindedness, just in case you'd forgotten how green the left is. If even five young people read this book and decide that HIV is probably something in their future if they don't change their lifestyle, she will have achieved her goal.

4148

What are the Democrats up to now?

Politics would be my guess. They probably prolonged the war by at least two years by giving the terrorists encouragement and comfort (as in Vietnam), now with the taste of the presidency on their tongues, they're bleating a new baaa baaack off. Not a single one of the front runners would promise to have brought the troops home by the END of their first term as President. "It is very difficult to know what we're going to be inheriting," said Hillary Rodham Clinton. "I think it's hard to project four years from now," said Barack Obama. "I cannot make that commitment," said John Edwards.

"Iraq is getting better, and the opposition to the war is, in the current campaign cycle, is starting to shift away from the "war is lost" to something more like "stabilizing the government over time would not be worth the cumulative cost in American lives and treasure."

All sober Democrats realize not only that the Moveon.org ad was a political disaster, but more importantly, that the Moveon.org/Michael Moore/Cindy Sheehan/Hollywood ticking bombs actually scare off Americans, even as they demand more influence among the candidates." Victor Davis Hanson

Still, I don't trust them not to flip again. Hillary's sneaking in her health care all dressed up like it's the early 90s while we catch our breath about Iraq. She talks tough on national security. Now. Wasn't it just a few weeks ago . . . Politics.

4147

Do you think we have enough photos?

Would you believe we've actually winnowed these down to our favorites? We viewed the disk several times, discussing each one. My husband is returning the album he bought because there weren't enough slots. Now I've just gone through mine and ordered about 45 on-line. That's the problem with digital cameras!

I think the cat has been playing with the layout

Friday Family Photo

Tonight we're going out with our daughter and son-in-law to celebrate their 14th wedding anniversary. I've never seen a prettier bride, nor had more fun at a party! For the first and only time I had all my own family here in Columbus; we had a fabulous reception and wonderful wedding breakfast the next day. It was just lots of fun.



Saying their vows

My brother, niece, two sisters, great-nephew, me and Mom

Aside: Wedding dresses with some coverage are much prettier and more graceful than strapless or slinky-slip styles with body parts falling out.

The fascination eludes me

Although I'm not into entertainment statistics, when the first day opening sales of a computer game go beyond popular movies and books, beating out movies like "Spider-Man 3" and books such as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows I at least take notice.

Gamers have made "Halo 3" the biggest launch in entertainment history by scooping up enough units to bring in an estimated US$170 million in its first 24 hours on store shelves, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) announced Thursday. TechNewsWorld

But I don't get it. Even mentioning this should uptick my site meter. Oh well. Back to my October Book Club selection.

Thursday Thirteen

A week ago we returned from a fabulous trip to Ireland, the ancestral home of about 45 million North Americans. Here's a few of the things I saw in Ireland that were new, unfamiliar, or unexpected.

1. Laundry drying on the clothes lines--rural and urban communities both. In many U.S. neighborhoods this is against zoning or neighborhood regulations. You don't realize it has disappeared until you travel where it is common.

2. Unusually large windows, even in modest homes--there used to be a "window tax" in Ireland, but they're over that now! Glass enclosed entry ways for front doors of homes and town houses so the house can be open but not exposed to the weather.

3. Very strict no-smoking rules. Fines for public places could be over 3,000 euros (over $4,000).

4. More auburn and red-haired people in one location than I'd ever seen in my life, and I married a red head. Even so, most are brunette with very pale skin and light eyes. Recent DNA testing show the Irish are probably not Celtic at all, but descended from an area of Spain from which they migrated after the last glaciers melted in Ireland (earlier global warming). When the Celts arrived from Europe, the native Irish absorbed them and took over their culture.

5. Dark skinned, head covered nannies pushing prams of chubby, pale Irish babies on cobble stone and brick walks. The Celtic Tiger has spawned 2 income couples with few or no children.

6. Immigrants from many countries--Eastern Europe, Africa, middle east, far east, Pacific islands, even the U.K. and Germany. They were working primarily in the tourist industry (I'm guessing strict unions keep them out of the skilled trades), so that's who the tourist from America sees. Looks just like home!

7. More Mercedes and BMWs than I've ever seen in Central Ohio, even in our wealthiest suburb, Dublin. However, there are one-car garages attached to the most upscale, newest, elaborate homes. There might be 4 or 5 luxury cars in the drive-way, but the building space is being used for the house, not the automobile. A welcome change from our pattern where the garages often dwarf the main house and the cars are still in the drive-way.

8. Platters of food with mashed potatoes hiding under the fish, and roast potatoes mixed with either parsnips or rutabagas on the side.

9. The most beautiful large, healthy grass-fed animals I've ever seen--the soil is very thin and rocky but extremely nutritious. Pastures are ribboned in stone fences, with cattle lying down, calves frolicking, and horses grazing.

10. Brightly painted stucco homes of yellow, maroon, blue and red in the city and white stucco houses on the farms. An artist's dream (except for the barns which aren't very attractive) when found on curving streets and gentle hillsides. Our Midwestern climate has such extremes that stucco is not a good finish building material--Ireland's climate is very mild with few extremes.

11. Public toilets in Ireland are very clean and modern with ample t.p., but with the same long lines for women as we have in the states. Separate spigots for hot and cold in the sink; every toilet is water-saving, which means you flush 2 or 3 times. Yes, Ireland like all the EU is very "green."

12. Very exotic landscaping. Some yards looked like postcards from Florida or Hawaii. Fabulous flowers, especially roses.

13. Bill Clinton is Ireland's newest saint. He is revered everywhere for helping to broker the current peace in the North. That achievement abroad and welfare reform at home (forced on him by the Republican Congress in the 90s) should be enough legacy for any 2-term President, without the need to be First Laddie, and we can all be proud.

You Are Sunrise

You enjoy living a slow, fulfilling life. You enjoy living every moment, no matter how ordinary. You are a person of reflection and meditation. You start and end every day by looking inward. Caring and giving, you enjoy making people happy. You're often cooking for friends or buying them gifts. All in all, you know how to love life for what it is - not for how it should be.

What Time Of Day Are You?

Time to spill your beer, folks

Pulling the logo just doesn't do it for me. Hit 'em where it hurts. In the wallet. What about you?

"Miller Brewing Company has decided to pull its logo from a "Last Supper" poster-featuring homosexuals and sex toys-advertising the Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco, Calif. But a Catholic group is urging the company to cut all ties with the homosexual "leather" street fair." CNS news

It's not easy to leave a message at their site, but take the time.

4141

As you contemplate the auto workers' strike

One of the things that reducing trade barriers has given us is more choices in auto makes and styles than 30 years ago; another is better prices for the consumer; another is better cars through competition. It also created full employment for ad writers. At the high end, the automakers, both home and foreign, do make some outrageous but often charming promises. The photos remind me of the angles of the agricultural breed magazines' prize milkers or bulls--lots of rear end shots.

A car that listens to your every word. Jaguar S-R

To other traffic, it's a brush-back pitch. Cadillac STS

Let's always be open. Let's be pacifists on the roadway and pure evil on the race track. Cooper Mini


The luxury vehicle that tows other luxury vehicles. Lincoln Mark LT

Welcome to the luxury hybrid. Lexus

Can you resist? Absolutely nothing in moderation. Jaguar XJ

Designed for all weather conditions including good. Honda Acura RL

It won't change the world. Just the way you look at it. Toyota Avalon

Moving at the speed of surround sound. Honda Acura.

Freedom isn't knowing your limits, but realizing you have none. Aston Martin

You're so close to owning one, you can almost feel the g-forces. Porsche

Sometimes fast isn't fast enough. Honda Acura

Tell better stories. . . start living the kind of life that'll make your camcorder dizzy. Nisson Pathfinder

It's all grown up. Drivers wanted. Jetta

A luxury car designed to protect you from blending in. Saab

Holds four keisters. Kicks all the rest. Mazda

Rockets' red glare. Now in silver. Buick

Always choose "dare." Toyota Matrix

Take no prisoners. Well, no more than six. Cadillac SRX

Take everything you know about design and nudge it. Push it. Simplify it. Modernize it. Liberate it. Nisson Infiniti

However unwarranted, improvements were made. Land Rover


Not every important decision is taken in the boardroom. Bentley

Why some who own private jets prefer to drive. Maybach


The sedan that will engage your soul. Maserati

Power. Beauty. Soul. Aston Martin

The LR3. Created for the One. Land Rover

You don't buy a Bentley. You inherit. Bentley

A dream car for the real world. Maserati

Everything you love in a car plus more. Suburu

Expedite the dream. Porsche

Your wallet can thank me later. Honda

You took the risks. Now reap the rewards. Bentley

4140

Laura proves the point

David Frum has this to say about Laura Ingraham, whose new book Power to the people came out September 11. I think it's on the best seller list.

Laura was among the very first to come out in opposition to the Harriet Miers nomination — not because she is undeliberate, but because she is one of the best-informed journalists in America on everything to do with the legal system and the courts. It's not just that she knows a lot of law (although she does). She also does the work to stay plugged into the discussions among lawyers and legal scholars.

Laura's show is truly very funny, but it is also very sophisticated and smart. For all that we are supposed to denigrate the evils of life inside the Beltway, there's no substitute for being connected and knowledgeable.

Best of all, Laura's radio persona remains remarkably untainted by ego. Radio is no medium for the bashful, of course, but when I listen to Laura, I hear the voice of someone who has much to share — but also never pretends to know all the answers.

Her new book has one copy in my public library with 4 saves (holds, requests, etc.) and one audio-book copy. If she were Michael Moore or Bob Woodruff, they'd be handing copies out with the book bags.

Tomeboy has done another survey on library bias and used Laura Ingraham (Shut up and sing) as an example. I don't know how to crunch numbers, but I know how to wait in line for a conservative title at the library.

Why I won't answer a library survey

Your library or mine, it's a waste of time, so I don't even bother. I got an e-mail last week suggesting I go on-line and respond to a survey (isn't it too soon for another bond issue?) Gracious! I've composed enough surveys in my career to know how to word them so you look good! But more importantly, the staff (director) of my PL won't listen. I've made suggestions for purchase and complaints about problems with the on-line catalog; I've written the local paper; I've blogged. I've even complimented them when they do something I like (on-line genealogy sources, excellent art instruction collection, great book sales). The Diddly Squat retreat is the only movement or direction this group knows.

Here's today's example. I've only spent 5 minutes researching it, but you'll get the idea of my level of frustration. My husband just walked in from his Wednesday morning men's group. The current study (by the leader, not the group) is from Josh McDowell's The new tolerance, a 1998 imprint by one of the best known, popular conservative authors in Christendom--not a favorite of mine, but thorough and well researched stuff the last I checked, with oodles of references and a Christian world view. My poor husband has been assigned the "old and new absolutes about women" in the church.

So I googled the title, find out McDowell wrote it and check my library catalog. First, it tells me "there is no exact match for McDowell, Josh, please try Josh McDowell." Next, I'm about to move on thinking they are more anti-Christian than I thought, when I scan the list that did appear and see, "McDowell, Josh 5 titles." I haven't a clue why this glitch shows up--surely the hostility doesn't work its way into the query!

Then, I look at the 5 titles. McDowell is probably best known for a title he wrote about 30 years ago for youth called Evidence that demands a verdict. I used to have a copy, but loaned it, and it never returned. Yes, the library has that title and 4 others from the 1980s. 1980s? This author even gets reviewed in Publisher's Weekly and Library Journal (public librarians find it difficult to move beyond their own safe bible for reviews). He has a marketing machine! Where is Evidence for Christianity (2006) or American idols (2006) or Handbook of todays religions (1992)? He has produced tapes and CDs and DVDs. Why can my library buy every book and format for Michael Moore and 16 copies of anti-Bush titles, and continue to deny the Christian taxpayers their due? Actually, that is a rhetorical question--librarians are 223:1, liberal to conservative, and the place books get banned is during the selection process, not after they are on the shelves after parents or old ladies complain.

In today's multicultural, PC world, "tolerance," not honesty, or bravery or patriotism, or truth, or hard work, is the primary virture--tolerance for everyone except those in the Western Christian world.

The lost hat

I was talking to my daughter after supper tonight to wish her Happy Anniversary (14th). She had just returned from a medical conference in Chicago, thrilled that she neither had a cold or DVT.

"Have you called the airlines about dad's lost hat?" she asked. "No, but that would be a good idea. We're just sick that it's gone. It was the right size, color, warmth, and of course, was a souvenir of the trip."

She then went on to tell me that a colleague they'd met with had lost her cell phone on this last trip and had called the airlines, it had been turned in and was being mailed to her. She also told me that she always takes off the book cover of a new read and puts it in her bag, but had lost one a few months back. She is meticulous about her books (must be hard cover and never a library book). Even though she'd used that suitcase several times since losing the cover, it fell out of the bag in the hotel room. She thought she'd examined every square inch of it.

And a thought came to me. I'd taken my husband's word for it that he'd gone through the suitcases--every zippered pocket. This is a man who can't find the quart of milk in the refrigerator because I moved it 2 inches. So after we hung up, I went up to my closet and took out the suitcases and unzipped and went through them one by one. Nothing. As I put the last one away, I ran my hand through it one more time and felt something. The hat. It was folded up and in a side pocket.

4137

Who's the nutritional gatekeeper at your house?

Snacking has no affect on my husband's size, so if he wants crackers or peanuts, I'll purchase them, but he has to hide them from me. He can buy a package of brownies at Cheryl's Cookies, put them in the freezer, and eat one a day. I'd have to put them in my neighbor's freezer.

According the the U. of Nebraska newsletter, Food Reflections,

Through eating more mindfully, whoever in your household is the "nutritional gatekeeper" can influence his or her food intake as well as that of everyone else as much as 72 percent.

Make less healthy foods inconvenient to eat. Promote reasonable portion sizes through the size and shape of dinnerware. Encourage people to measure out and see the total amount they're eating rather than eating directly from a container.

There's no way to justify what Columbia did

They refuse a forum for debate to patriotic Americans, government officials who don't toe their party line, and the military. They invite the international terrorist criminal leader of Iran, a "renowned intellectual and cultural icon" to speak who denies history and everything we believe in and who would destroy us and Israel if possible. They then insult him and speak ill of him to his face during the introduction--their own invited guest--making Americans look like clods and extremely ill-mannered hosts. Their student audience top it off because they are so naive and dumbed down that the only thing they can think to boo is Iran's treatment of homosexuals. For everything else, they cheer him when he repeats the Democrat's party line, something we can hear from the halls of Congress every day.

You don't entertain ideas
You simply bore them
You couldn't find your feet
If you were looking for them. . .
Stiff little fingers
Is this the best that academe can offer? Parents--save your tuition money. Send your kids to the community junior college and save your local economy.

4135

Welcome to libraryland, lawyers

For years, library graduate schools have been churning out more librarians than there are jobs. The best jobs are usually in the larger cities with a few amenities. If you're willing to take a job with a low salary and all the turnips you can eat, you might get an interview or two. Annoyed Librarian blogs about this, and she has a good job which she loves, but the periodic news stories about shortages (so they can keep the faculty busy) don't fool her (or him--AL is a pseudonym).

Today's WSJ reports the same thing is happening to newly minted lawyers, the only difference being they have much larger college debts than librarians usually ring up.

"The majority of law school graduates are suffering from a supply and demand imbalance that's suppressing pay and job growth. The result: Graduates who don't score at the top of their class are struggling to find well-paying jobs to make payments on law school debts that can exceed $100,000. Some are taking contract work reviewing documents for as little as $20 an hour without benefits. And many are blaming their law schools for failing to warn them about the dark side of the job market. . . Schools bright salary figures only report a small percentage--maybe top 25%. Possibly half of the graduates don't respond to the surveys.

Un- or under-employment is essentially a college enrollment problem. They might have been left-wing, tenured-radicals left over from the war protests of the 1970s, but the faculty of our colleges, universities and professional schools have had to fill their programs year after year or lose their funding, privileges or rank--not unlike the managers at Wal-Mart--especially the PhD programs, in order to travel to conferences to give presentations and to have access to publishers for their papers.

William Pannapacker of Hope College suggests that you absolutely avoid any career field that is reporting a shortage. It's a scam, pure and simple. And if you're getting a PhD because you think teaching at the college level might be cool, do something patriotic and become a plumber or go take a job away from an illegal. Better yet: Go to a library and get some real research help on careers. They'll be thrilled to see you.

Aside, non-lawyer stuff: Check out some of these comments on the glut of librarians. Found out it is all Bush's fault--I kid you not. Just read through some of the deranged-Bush-syndrome anonymous comments.

4134

Is this good Latin?

I'm referring to use of "alumni/ae". Do we have to take our political correctness into a dead language? I by myself all alone may be an alumna, but I prefer to be part of the alumni. Can't remember where I saw this, but I don't like it.

Fat TV Faces

I love my daughter and son-in-law and they take good care of us, BUT don't make me watch TV at their house. They have one of those awful hi-def TVs. Just because it is huge (probably the size of all of ours put together), doesn't mean you have to stretch out a regularly transmitted show to the edges, but they do. This makes everyone look about 50 pounds over weight, and terribly out of proportion. Joe Morgenstern (WSJ, 9-22) agrees:

Almost all flat panel TVs are tailored to the proportions of the hi-def transmission--they have screens with 16:9 aspect ratios--but they don't all receive hi-def signals, and most programs are still being beamed conventionally, in a squarish 4:3 format that was never meant to fill a wide screen.

Since they made the investment, they want their programs to fill the screen; never mind that 4:3 programs are correctly displayed on 16:9 panels ONLY WITH BLACK BARS FLANKING THE IMAGE. Compact cars resemble stretch limos and puffy faces look lik their cheeks have been pulled out in opposite directions."

I feel a lot better now.

4132

The Coldest Winter by David Halberstam

You won't catch me reading another book about a hopeless war--I just finished "1776" by David McCullough not too long ago. But I was interested in the review of "The Coldest Winter" in Saturday's WSJ by Peter Kann. Halberstam died in an auto accident before it was published, but many reviewers say it is his finest work.

Kann sets the scene for us, and the landscape might look vaguely familiar:

"Korea was a war waged by a centrist Democratic administration and undermined at home by the Republican right.

Two decades later another war effort, in Vietnam, was undermined by the radical left.

And today that scenario is being repeated as the Democratic left, virtually every Democratic candidate, is demanding that the U.S. abandon Iraq."

The reviewer then concludes

. . ."post WWII America has proved incapable of the national unity needed to keep military commitments and support its troops in a meaningful way."

He also concedes that the unsatisfactory truce that ended the Korean War did result in a booming South Korean economy and that our time in Vietnam, for all its failures, bought time for other small Asian nations to develop and become stronger to stand up against China. Gee, I would have thought the starvation deaths of those millions of North Koreans (death through Communist democide) would have gotten more space. Maybe starving children only look pathetic after a few generations? Maybe I'm just too recently returned from Ireland?

4131

Now who's BeTrayUs?

So the NYT gave MoveOn.org a special cut rate to run their smear ad against General Petraeus? That was against their policy as is smearing the reputation of someone in a political ad. No! I'm shocked. Just shocked. Bias in the press. Oh say it isn't so! Read Betraying its own best interests. And this apparently isn't the first time they gave the Movers a special rate.

By the end of last week the ad appeared to have backfired on both MoveOn.org and fellow opponents of the war in Iraq — and on The Times. It gave the Bush administration and its allies an opportunity to change the subject from questions about an unpopular war to defense of a respected general with nine rows of ribbons on his chest, including a Bronze Star with a V for valor. And it gave fresh ammunition to a cottage industry that loves to bash The Times as a bastion of the “liberal media.”

Yup.

4130

A short list of movies about Ireland

Some fellow tour members, John and Jan, are movie buffs, so I asked for a short list (I think they knew 20+) of movies about Ireland I might check out. I'm pretty squemish about violence in movies (and sex, suspense, terror), but I think I can do a few of these.

The Field (1990)
The secret of Roan Inish (1994)
Michael Collins (1996)
Millions (2005)
Angela's Ashes (1999)
Quiet Man 1952
The wind that shakes the barley (2006)
Bloody Sunday 2002
In the name of the father 1993

Our Ireland Trip from U-Z

United Dioceses of Cashel and Ossory: Couldn't figure out a "U" entry until I saw that the St. Canice's Cathedral in Kilkenny was in this diocese. I didn’t visit this Cathedral and round tower, but my husband went with Joe and Pam and they climbed it together--what a challenge. But a fabulous view of the city.



The stairs to climb the tower

View of Kilkenny from the top of the tower

St. Canice's Cathedral

Vikings: The Vikings destroyed or pillaged many monasteries and churches, taking slaves and booty, decimating those communities of learning in the late 700s. Eventually over a few hundred years they stayed and established towns, intermarried with the Irish, and became Norse-Irishmen, contributing to Ireland's economic growth and trade. Placenames left by the Vikings in Ireland include Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford, and Wexford. Brian Boru, High King of Ireland (Rock of Cashel) was supposed to have united the Irish against the Vikings, but they were probably just Irish by then (11th century).

Waterford Crystal: On Monday September 17 we had a very interesting tour of the glass factories. We saw every step in the processes and heard about the long training and apprenticeships. We spent some time in the gift shop, but I stood firm.







X: Mark your calendar for a trip to Ireland

Yeats, William Butler, John Butler, and Jack Butler: W.B. Yeats was a famous Irish poet, and we visited his home, Thoor Ballylee in County Galway. His father was the artist, John Butler Yeats, and his brother Jack was also an artist.

Yeats study in Thoor Ballylee

The copper beech at Coole Park where W. B. Yeats and other Irish carved their initials

Zip:We still had plenty our last night for our graduation party . . . it was the trip home that zapped us.

Our Ireland Trip from S-T

Sanachi: Irish story telling with singing was our entertainment Saturday evening September 15 at Brod Tullaroan. These guys were fabulous, we participated, and ended the evening with a cup of Irish coffee.






He also quoted poetry and Shakespeare.

Shopping in Blarney: About half the tour group went into Blarney to shop while the rest of us had a day of leisure in Ennis on September 13. They were delayed getting back because of a traffic accident, so we waited dinner and all had a late supper together.

Thomastown: Just outside on the banks of the River Arrigle, stands Jerpoint Abbey, a well preserved Cistercian monastic ruins. It was self-sustaining, so there were many buildings to suit the needs of the community. The wind was brisk and a drizzle started and my cold was coming on, so the carvings and crosses were starting to all look alike by this time, but it really was a magnificent place.







Travellers, Irish: It didn't seem appropriate to take photos, but they are an ancient people, sometimes called Roma or Gypsies, which travel in caravans. We did see small groups parked along the road with vans and trailers and laundry. When I googled the term I was surprised to see there are a lot of social workers and about 80 organizations making a living trying to fight for their civil rights and new regulations to protect them. If I might just editorialize a moment, I’d guess that if they want to preserve what's left of their culture they should dump the camp followers! They've made it a few thousand years without them. There are also Irish Travellers in the United States, having come here from Ireland in the 19th century, living in their own communities, but becoming ever more assimilated and middle-class moving from trailers to McMansions, old vans to new SUVs.

Our Ireland Trip from Q-R

Quebec: The Dunbrody, (we visited a replica of this 3 masted cargo ship), was commissioned in Quebec in 1845 and had a low mortality rate. It took Irish emigrants to Canada and returned to Ireland with timber, cotton and fertilizer. Actors playing the parts of passengers, one first class, one steerage, talked to us about the conditions

This cubicle might hold a family of 6 or more, or if they had no family, it might be people unrelated. They were sick and starving, so many didn't live through the passage. The passenger/actor who talked to us, a widow with 6 children, didn't make it.

First class passengers had more space and better food. Sort of reminds me of the difference between first class and coach on the airlines, but at least the time is less.

Only first class passengers could come up for a little fresh air--I suppose it helped control the spread of disease, but just worsened conditions for those already sick and using slop pails. I think only the most hardy Irish-Americans and Irish-Canadians survived to pass along their genes and desire to make it in a new location.

Residents of Kilkenny: Three people from the community met with our group on September 17th and fielded questions about the country and city. They were well informed, and our group asked good questions. My husband rarely takes photos of people, and I think I left my camera in my room.

Rock of Cashel and the fortress of Brian Boru: The word "cashel" is from the Irish word caiseal, meaning "fortress." The Rock of Cashel is several ruins, the largest structure is the remains of St. Patrick's Cathedral, built in the 13th century. It was destroyed by fire in the 15th century and later restored. Cromwell's forces destroyed it again burning to death hundreds of townspeople who had fled there. The British version is that this was a civil war; The Irish Catholic version is that it was a brutal invasion by a foreign power. I don't know that you could find a single person more hated to this day in Ireland than Oliver Cromwell.

If this sight doesn't put your heart in your throat, it's as hard as a rock from the Burren! Call it a castle, a fortress or cathedral, but it is incredible. Our guide Bridget seem to be one of the few guides who talked to us who believed with her heart the Christian symbolism she discussed.