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Why Democrats are anti-choice when it comes to schooling

This morning I heard a radio interview about school choice in Ohio and the nation's capital. People who support school choice--school vouchers--are usually conservatives or libertarians. Liberals, Democrats and "progressives," usually do not. On this issue they are illiberal. The reason, of course, is not quality of education--they can read the charts and scores--but the power of unions. Democrats do not support the poor and weak if the unions have anything to say about it. The guest on 91.5 FM was Virginia Ford, (D.C. Parents for School Choice) and she has done a survey for the state of Virginia and not a single federal legislator puts his/her child in the DC public schools. The teachers of the DC children don't put their own children in DC public schools. Obama's daughters go to private school; Hillary's daughter attended a private day school; Al Gore's children went to an exclusive school; Jesse Jackson's grand children, whose father claims a link to every major civil rights event since he was born, don't. If Nancy Pelosi brought her grandchildren to Washington, I'm sure she wouldn't enroll them in public school. Even suburban DC parents don't use the public schools if they can help it. Democrats control all the major cities--Cleveland, Chicago, New Orleans, New York, Atlanta--and parents have to fight tooth and nail to have a choice.

All children will benefit when there is competition, was the theory behind tax supported vouchers. When schools have to be accountable and the best they can be in order to get the federal and state dollar, they will drop some of the silliness that passes for education. You may not like NCLB, but it is the result of generations of professional educators leaving the poor and minority children behind. Choice is why Catholic schools are better than the public. That's why homeschooled children with parents untrained in pedogogy do much better than publicly schooled children. Sol Stern writes:

"Public and privately funded voucher programs have liberated hundreds of thousands of poor minority children from failing public schools. The movement has also reshaped the education debate. Not only vouchers, but also charter schools, tuition tax credits, mayoral control, and other reforms are now on the table as alternatives to bureaucratic, special-interest-choked big-city school systems."

But school choice groups are struggling. They are being worn down by the powerful and well-funded unions who fear losing control. In Ohio, our former Methodist pastor Governor Ted Strickland, who ran a touchy feel-good, family values campaign to get elected, is not supportive of choice and better education for Ohio's children. The Catholic schools, the only viable alternative in many cities, will probably not survive without vouchers for the poor, according to Stern. [In my opinion, the Catholic church's pockets are deep enough in Rome from centuries of wealth building to do this without government aid, but that's another blog.]

"Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C., recently announced plans to close seven of the district’s 28 remaining Catholic schools, all of which are receiving aid from federally funded tuition vouchers, unless the D.C. public school system agreed to take them over and convert them into charter schools. In Milwaukee, several Catholic schools have also closed, or face the threat of closing, despite boosting enrollments with voucher kids."

Stern says competition hasn't had the results hoped for--individual children have benefited but the systems haven't changed. I'm no math whiz, Mr. Stern, but if only 25,000 children have been able to use the voucher system and there are 50,000,000 children in the public schools, that's not exactly a fair test of market incentives! Stern says he's now leaning toward the problem of teacher training, not market forces. It's hard for me to believe 62 years after my husband and I started elementary school, me with phonics and he without, that the "experts" are still fighting that battle. I'd call throwing a child into reading without phonics is child abuse.

"Professors who dare to break with the ideological monopoly—who look to reading science or, say, embrace a core knowledge approach—won’t get tenure, or get hired in the first place. The teachers they train thus wind up indoctrinated with the same pedagogical dogma whether they attend New York University’s school of education or Humboldt State’s. Those who put their faith in the power of markets to improve schools must at least show how their theory can account for the stubborn persistence of the [Soviet style] thoughtworld."

Ironically, New York has embraced "market" forces in giving principals and teachers bonuses for improved scores, according to Stern.

"While confidently putting their seal of approval on this market system, the mayor and chancellor appear to be agnostic on what actually works in the classroom. They’ve shown no interest, for example, in two decades’ worth of scientific research sponsored by the National Institutes of Health that proves that teaching phonics and phonemic awareness is crucial to getting kids to read in the early grades. They have blithely retained a fuzzy math program, Everyday Math, despite a consensus of university math professors judging it inadequate. Indeed, Bloomberg and Klein have abjured all responsibility for curriculum and instruction and placed their bets entirely on choice, markets, and accountability."

I wonder where their children attend? Stern is able to cite one success with improved test scores, and it isn't vouchers or bonuses, it's curriculum reform and better teachers; and it's in Massachusetts.

The squeaky shoe gets the boot

The current flap isn't a security breach, unless someone wants to steal the identity of Barack Obama or John McCain. But it certainly shows the problem of the vast amounts of information that can be mishandled by employees of hospitals, libraries, schools, banks, insurance companies and all manner of federal, state, county and local government sub-contractors to which we send our personal information. My personal information has been stolen about 3 times in security breaches at Ohio State University. It's always been an error of a low level, poorly trained employee. I don't even report it on that form they suggest. Why should I trust those companies any more than Ohio State? The founder of Facebook is a billionaire because he first hacked his university's student records. And look where it got him. He's not as rich as Warren Buffet, but he's only 23 and not far off.

But what idiot would use Hillary's passport information in a training session? I sure hope they fired that mental midget. That's definitely a little peon trying to act important for all the new employees. I'm sure there are folks who want Condi micromanaging this, but it sounds as though the security flags worked as they were supposed to. It's the person who reported it to WaPo we need to be concerned about.

When I was a librarian in the agriculture library in the early 80s--and that's the stone age as far as information storage and retrieval goes--one of our student assistants who was gay thought it would be funny to run up a phony circulation record of lascivious homosexual titles on the library director's record and have them sent to his office. He was the best night time supervisor we ever had, but it wasn't hard to track it back to the terminal, time and date. Kid was a genius, but not smart. Have you seen that new book on sex by Mary Roach, "Bonk"? Another wise guy, and we don't know who it was, created a catalog record for a dummy book called, "Sex life of the cockroach," and made the previous director the author. It was probably in the catalog for about 15 years before I came across it when I worked in the Veterinary Medicine Library and got suspicious. Maybe others had seen it and thought Hugh really did write about cockroaches, or just chuckled and moved on.

Some of the student employees were way ahead of the librarians at a fraction of the salary, especially on anything dealing with computers (in those days we had a dedicated system). I don't think that has changed.

So about security breaches: always look to your lowest paid, newest, youngest employee, or the old timer who never had to sign anything because they were grandmothered in before 2001 and has had a couple of slow days with nothing to do but browse.

It must be working

Ohio State University recently upgraded it's webmail--I now have a two step process to get in. This morning I had 180 spam messages instead of the usual 10. But about 20 were in Russian.

It's Spring

Do you know where your New Year's Resolutions are? I just came across my Thursday Thirteen of 13 Resolutions. I have only been able to keep two of them--#1 and #7.

1. When I see an outrageously dressed person, brown cotton eyelet full circle skirt, gray pumps and pink bandana I will turn my head or close my eyes instead of drawing a sketch.

7. When I accidentally come across Katie Couric or another gloomy news reader, I'll just change channels.

Actually, on #1, I didn't turn my head, I did stare, but I resisted sketching. and I cheated a little on #7 too. I'm watching almost no national broadcast news.

Evaluation of diaper product

Clarity needed. I saw an ad in the paper today recruiting parents for a study. For two weeks, if they pass the interview test, they will evaluate "diaper product." Is that a new name for what we called poopy pants or is the product being evaluated a diaper?

More Ohioans dying without a verb

You probably think I have too much time on my hands, but this research project goes back about 11 years. I watch the verbs in the obituaries. In the Cleveland Plain Dealer, almost no one gets out of here with a verb of any kind, but almost everyone is "beloved." In Columbus, we are more verbal. Today seven people died without a verb; 22 passed away; 12 died; one entered eternal rest; one closed her eyes; and one went home to be with the Lord. That last gal definitely had the right idea. That's the verb I want in my obituary. Here's my poem written in 1997, on my blog 3 years ago.

The IRS

The clerk at Panera's told me this spells THEIRS.

Beijing's air quality

is so bad it is a risk for Olympic athletes. Those "energy" efficient, mercury containing light bulbs you're buying to save the environment? They're made in coal fired factories in China. That's your soot in their lungs.

Estrogen and Alzheimer's

Elderly women who took estrogen replacement were 50% less likely to develop AD later in life, if they took it during the critical period of 10 years after menopause. Taking the hormone later (65-79) may cause harm. WSJ 3-18-08.

Ireland 2.0

"Sixteen of the 41 U.S. presidents and 25% of U.S. citizens can trace their ancestral roots to Northern Ireland." Celtic Tiger 2.0 ad in WSJ on St. Patrick's Day.

Rising food prices caused by rising gasoline costs

The cost of gasoline is going up because of our current flailing, misguided, disastrous Gore-inspired bio-energy program and the bloated USDA programs to bail out US farmers. The USDA programs are older than Al Gore, so he definitely isn't to be blamed for what his senator father might have helped put in place to protect agricultural interests (he was a tobacco farmer). Dead vegetation stored in the ground for centuries with heat and pressure becomes petroleum deposits. And we aren't running out--we're just out of common sense. Corn was hugely overproduced in 2007--no place to store it, plus it took acreage normally used for wheat and soybeans. Milk was being called "white gold" in ag circles, the price went so high. How are you helping the poor by taking milk from children?

No one knows how safe the emissions from the blended gasoline from corn or grass or wood chips will be; we only know that the trade offs are more expensive food and more expensive fuel which doesn't get as good mileage as real gasoline. Even if we had let gasoline prices float to $4 or $5 a gallon, it would have been cheaper than all the food cost increases--which are causing riots in some countries. The pizza we had Wednesday evening was $2.50 higher than a year ago; my Philly Cheese on Friday at the Bucket is $2.00 higher than a year ago. It adds up.

In my Ohio county, the cost of gasoline has gone up an average of $486 per household between 2005 and 2007, according to today's Columbus Dispatch. [I plan to fill up this morning at $3.12/gal.] That means for some people with Hummers and light trucks, it's gone up much more, and others with little Hondas and Saturns, much less. I have a 6 cyl. Dodge mini-van, which gets good mileage, so I'm probably the average. For this household, if we made smart choices, we'd change our routine Friday night date, to 40 nights instead of 52 a year. Those other 12 nights maybe we'd have friends in, instead of going out--much cheaper. That's all it would take to make up the difference. Or, we could eliminate our one glass of wine from our restaurant dinner ($13 for 2 of us counting the gratuity), and have it at home ($1.50, Charles Shaw, three buck chuck). For other families, it might mean eliminating 4 packs of cigarettes a week, or a 6 pack of beer, or a large pizza or stop going to Starbucks for a latte and going to the 7-11 instead. Maybe it would be dropping broadband or HBO. But eventually, those cut backs affect the restaurant servers, and the quick-stops, and the Starbucks staff, and then those people have to start laying off employees or reducing hours, and then they can't pay their utilities, baby-sitter, etc.

The answer, of course, is to have the discipline to save in good times--some experts say have 3 months living expenses set aside for emergencies. Never were we able to do that when our children were young (one income), but we always had a savings account to cover emergencies. Tithing your income is another good discipline--keeps you from slurping up the excess each month or hitting the mall when you have nothing to do. Also, pay your bills promptly--don't live on plastic.

Rising costs for food banks

Today's newspapers are full of stories about struggling food banks and pantries. Where to even begin on that one. The examples the reporters use are quite anecdotal--guy driving a truck to work now needs $50 a day. Lost his house. Utilities unpaid.

Food banks were set up to help farmers, not the poor. Now farmers are busting a gut and ripping out fences that provide sanctuary for birds to fill up the acreage with corn or other biofuel stuff, and there's no more surplus.

"Ohio food banks have received less in federal aid in recent years. The decline is attributed to a sharp drop in excess agricultural commodities."

But the farm bill isn't jammed up over debate about nutrition programs. Much of the dispute is focused on billions in government subsidies for farmers of crops such as wheat and cotton.

[Sherrod] Brown said the subsidies are excessive and favors scaling them back by providing farmers a "safety net" during bad times. "Too many on the agricultural committee want the subsidies to continue," he said. CD story, March 20

These food banks were set up 30-40 years ago to help the poor, but in fact they functioned as a place to sell (through distributors which sold to food banks) the surplus food our farmers were growing. The government also paid farmers (called soil banks) NOT to produce. I work occasionally at a Lutheran food pantry. It is a wonderful facility, called a "choice" pantry, because the client is able to choose with the assistance of a volunteer. It has commercial freezers and refrigerators to take advantage of surplus produce, shelving for staples, seating for the clients, staff areas and offices. However, churches have made a Faustian deal--most of our members who respond to the appeals (we have a big one going on right now) don't even know that probably 95% of this is funded by the government--90% by USDA, the rest in smaller local grants, which originates with various federal agencies and is filtered down to the cities and counties. Although those of us who work there on a rotation system through various churches are volunteers, there are regular paid staff whose salaries come from the government grants. The summer lunch program our church sponsors in a suburban school district is also funded by the USDA.

I am not familiar with the restrictions about evangelizing, but I'm sure there are some if the church food pantries are doing the government's food distribution job. We used to put evangelistic literature and church magazines into the grocery bags; now it is laid out for the clients to pick up if they wish.

This blog entry is my personal opinion and does not reflect the sentiments of my fellow volunteers or church members, but I don't think what we're doing for the poor meets the Matthew 25 standards.

Interest in Rezko

There's a new website tracking only blogs and media mention of Obama and Rezko, called Rezkorama.com. The site meter isn't blocked, so I took a look at it. The site went up on March 6, and is getting about 4500 page reads a day. I must be blogging the wrong topics. Referrals indicate most come from Hugh Hewitt's Townhall blog, but some are finding it via Google. A lot of interest.

Also it's tax season, and where is Hillary's returns so we can see how much Bill profits from campaign speeches for her? Why does Michelle Obama get to mention her husband's race and how important it is in this campaign (and the only good thing that's happened in her lifetime), but the topic is off limits for Geraldine Ferraro, the 1984 VP Democratic candidate? I think the Obama advisors are making a mistake by trying to hush up mention of his race by anyone but his own supporters, wife, or enemies of the USA like Latin American dictators.

"I was talking about historic candidacies and what I started off by saying (was that) if you go back to 1984 and look at my historic candidacy, which I had just talked about all these things, in 1984 if my name was Gerard Ferraro instead of Geraldine Ferraro, I would have never been chosen as a vice presidential candidate," Ferraro said on ABC's "Good Morning America." "It had nothing to do with my qualification."

Ferraro said she has a 40-year history of opposing discrimination of all kinds, including race, and that she was outraged at criticism of her remarks by David Axelrod, Obama's chief media strategist, because he knows her and her record.(AP story)

On the other foot, the shoe hurts. Many people have been fired or forced to resign for pointing out the obvious, unless the minority is a Republican, of course.

Hell hath no fury etc.

There's a lot of free floating sympathy for Mrs. Spitzer, and none for her pompous, pimping husband, a wealthy man envious of others who earned their wealth, so he grew his fame and fat threatening and defaming them. It brings to my mind one of the episodes of "Law and Order," not all of which I remember. I think the wealthy husband who had some enemies was accused of murder--can't remember if the victim was a call girl, but prostitution was part of the story. His loyal, faithful wife stood by him through out insisting on his innocence. But in the end, it turns out she had set him up, and the final scene is a melt down and harangue in the court room as she pours out her venom as a wife not just wronged, but humiliated and tormented by his sexual perversions while she endured a loveless marriage. If Mrs. Spitzer knew her husband made special arrangements to be with a prostitute on Valentine's Day and all she got was a cheap card and a box of candy--I'm just saying--maybe she decided to blow the whistle to his enemies. Money, position and kids be damned.

I'm sure there will be more. I'm thinking up a poem just for his downfall. The news story on the front page of WSJ today was a puff piece, not unexpected since the press overlooked for so many years his other sins. You remember the drill, don't you? It's just sex. So there were shell companies. Big deal. OK, a violation of the Mann Act, and that's a felony. What's a little money laundering? Republicans are just mad because he used arm twisting threats instead of legal methods to bring CEOs down. They made too much money anyway. Selling women on the internet? Using a friend's name? Setting himself up for blackmail. What's the big deal? This has a familiar ring to it, doesn't it Hillary?

On the editorial page of WSJ Kimerbly Strassel describes how the press treated him

"What the media never acknowledged is that somewhere along the line (say, his first day in public office) Mr. Spitzer became the big guy, the titan. He had the power to trample lives and bend the rules, while also burnishing his own political fortune. He was the one who deserved as much, if not more, scrutiny as onetime New York Stock Exchange chief Dick Grasso or former American International Group CEO Maurice "Hank" Greenberg.

What makes this more embarrassing for any self-respecting journalist is that Mr. Spitzer knew all this, and played the media like a Stradivarius. He knew what sort of storyline they'd be sympathetic to, and spun it. He knew, too, that as financial journalism has become more competitive, breaking news can make a career. He doled out scoops to favored reporters, who repaid him with allegiance. News organizations that dared to criticize him were cut off. After a time, few criticized anymore."

God's plan made a hopeful beginning
But man spoiled his chances by sinning
We trust that the story
Will end in God's glory
But at present, the other side's winning
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes

If your link has disappeared,

not to worry. I'm just struggling through some changes. Eventually. . . I'll get this figured out.

I much prefer coding to squeezing things into "widgets." I can't use my scroll feature; can't put my changing quote where I want it. I used so many widgets they rolled off my layout screen and I couldn't see them, although they were there. So I did it over and put all the blogrolls in one widget instead of three, two site meters in one widget instead of two, and so forth. Anyone else who changed to layout from template having that problem? Blogging used to be much easier.

The week I couldn't read

Finnish is a daunting language. In Finland, you're better off to try Swedish, their second language--at least it might sound like something you'll recognize. Here's what I wrote two years ago this July on not being able to read--I was so desperate I bought Time Magazine:

I paid 4 euros (about $5.00) for 52 pages of Time, 19 of which were photos of the World Cup. Photos I can figure out in Finnish. Five pages were devoted to bashing the "Bush Doctrine." No mention or credit for liberating the Iraqi people from a cruel dictator; no credit for identifying North Korea within months of taking office as part of the Axis of Evil; no mention that his neo-con advisors are former Democrats; or the 500 WMD that have been found; that the Iraqi people have voted in free elections. Although Bush has always acknowledged we were in for a long battle against Islamic terrorists, when he reiterates this, the MSM seems to think it is a victory for their side.

So what does Time recommend? Some Truman era reruns. They don't mention how extremely unpopular Truman was his second term--I think he was lower in the polls than Bush. Another article by Jos. S. Nye, Jr. pined nostalgically for the days of FDR and containment. Tell that one to the Estonians and the millions of other east Europeans who died in the Gulags waiting for the Americans to come and free them. Sixty years ago we sold out 40 million East Europeans to the USSR; let's not repeat that mistake by selling out the Iraqis.

Even so, it was good to be able to read again.

Only the kitty died

Every year thousands of teens die in auto accidents. They get STDs and HPV; they develop obesity problems that will lead to heart attacks and diabetes; they have a soaring rate of unwed pregnancies and abortions; they start smoking and that leads to a life of misery and money going up in smoke; their musical tastes are leading them to early deafness. But let a little kitten they played with be diagnosed with rabies, and the public health departments of four states and the federal CDC launch into action. Public Health Response to a rabid kitten.

During the July 2007 South Atlantic Summer Showdown softball tournament 60 teams of 12 players each from multiple states along with families, friends, coordinators, coaches and one little kitten gathered for at least six games. The coach of the NC team took the kitty home, and then decided it was behaving abnormally, so she took it to an emergency vet, who euthanized it and held it for cremation.

Three days later the mother of one of the girls found out the fate of the kitten and she contacted the vet because she'd been bitten while trying to feed it during the tournament. The vet hadn't tested it because no one had reported any bites. The mother went to the clinic and got the dead kitten and took it in her car to her local health department for testing. About a week later the dead kitten was identified as having a raccoon variant of rabies.

Well, Mom had been around a bit by then, so she had to give her travel itinerary to the NC Div. of Public Health which then contacted the SC Dept of Health and Environmental Control and they got the team rosters and then notified Georgia and Tennessee who also had teams in the tournament and the CDC. Exposed-to-the-kitten people had to have postexposure prophylaxis (PEP), so they used e-mails, newspapers, telephone and TV to alert the public. In that process they found out there were other kittens in that litter handled by other people, plus a lot of the girl softball players had played with the first kitty. These girls were interviewed by the health department personnel, who couldn't track down all the spectators, but I think they decided they hadn't handled the kitty, just the players. Out of 38 people connected with 60 teams a possible 27 had direct exposure to that one kitty! They got the PEP test. No one got human rabies; and there were no adverse reactions to the PEP. Only the kitten got sick; only the kitty died.

Reading through this amazing chain of events, which shows how quickly health and government departments can respond to a threat, I thought that Ray Nagin of NOLA's Katrina in 2005 needed a few more mothers of softball players to put his plans in action. I'm betting a few concerned mothers could have moved those buses.

Are there more Scientologists than Lutherans in Upper Arlington?

Although I was unaware the Upper Arlington Public Library policy forbids meeting space to groups that pray during their meetings, I'm not surprised (Columbus Dispatch, March 8). The UAPL collection policy is quite hostile to both political conservatives and to conservative Christians. Although these two groups are not necessarily the same, the group that is bringing a law suit is both. For almost 30 years I was a Democrat and a conservative Christian, and before that I was a humanist, a member of First Community Church and a Democrat. One does not necessarily mean the other. By the way, any UAPL librarian that classified the 2003 film on Martin Luther with the subject heading, "Lutheran convert," is probably not up on the finer points of the faith.

The collection policy at UAPL seems to be to buy everything possible in the special interest areas of the staff (if they are liberal, progressive or Democrats) rather than select those titles which reflect the majority of the community. Remember the outrage about the gay free-circ newspapers left in the lobby of the library a few years back? With explicit sexual "guidance." The library director held her ground against concerned parents and community leaders. Although she wasn't obligated by any policy I've ever heard of to provide space and distribution for free advertising fish wrappers, she then brought them from the lobby INTO the library and had special shelving built. UAPL has a first class collection on film and theater and a jazz CD collection larger than rock or pop music. And although I'm not familiar with the size of the genre, the UAPL collection on homosexuality for young adults is large.

I'm sure liberals more often request and use titles owned by the library--conservatives by default have learned to go to bookstores, trade titles with each other, or go to their church libraries. Most people don't complain--they vote with their feet. They stay away.

Several years ago I reported in writing to the [position title unknown] staff that the most recent book on Lutherans was 40 years old. There's been a lot of water over the theological dam and numerous mergers since then. Plus, UA has three Lutheran churches, one being one of the largest in the country. They got right on it--and in a year or so, they purchased ONE book with Lutheran in the title published in the 21st century. I can't be positive it was the result of my request since I never got a response. "We've always done it this way," doesn't happen only in churches. Trust me.

But to get to my point. Imagine my surprise this morning when I saw sixteen hardcover Scientology titles on the New Book shelf at Lane Road branch, all by L. Ron Hubbard (these were not his fiction titles, but his church titles and guidebooks). If the on-line catalog weren't so difficult to use, I'd check to see if there is an equal number at Tremont Road, because the author search certainly brought up more than 16. Martin Luther, John Wesley and John Calvin have probably written 500 or more titles, and I'd make a guess that not even one unique volume in their own "Works" appears in the collection in a nice new clean edition (there is a volume or two in a Christian series).

Advent Lutheran, Trinity Lutheran and Upper Arlington Lutheran Churches can probably seat about 2,000 folks on a Sunday morning in 15 or so services. I wonder how many Scientologists the librarians could gather up to do whatever they do.

Difficult passages

In our abbreviated service this morning Pastor Paul noted that the topic of Israel had been suggested by Pastor Jeff in the planning of the series. He has since left for a new position in Minnesota, so Paul had the challenge of preaching on Israel.

But probably not quite the challenge that I Kings 14:10 presents. I found this sermon at another blog and I laughed so hard tears were rolling. But gosh, the preacher makes some good points about wimpy men.

"Therefore, behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel, and will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as a man taketh away dung, till it be all gone."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDxcyqeRc-4

Snow aftermath

Between yesterday's blizzard and the time change, our 8:30 a.m. church service at Lytham was pretty sparse--about 25 people in the pew and 20 in the choir. Our former choir director played the piano because the organist couldn't get there; our former children's choir director organized the choir and played the hymn she selected in place of the anthem; another former children's choir director directed the choir because the choir director couldn't get in; the prayer team didn't get there, so two men from the congregation stepped into that role. They invited us all to sit up front--first 3 pews, and also had the choir up there, so really we sounded pretty good. It was a good sermon, and the Holy Spirit showed up, as he has promised. Many in our congregation live in Hilliard, Worthington and Columbus, and some areas hadn't had their streets plowed yet, or if they had, their drive-ways were covered up by the street clearing.

But if you really want to see snow, visit these photos from near Ottawa. Mr. Cloud's snow problems. We have nothing to complain about.

Good to Great

Among Democrats, 56% rate their own financial situation as good to excellent, but only 7% think the rest of us are doing OK according to a story in the week-end WSJ. Those Democrats. Don't they have just the biggest, softest hearts? It makes a great campaign issue, because perception trumps facts every time. To be fair, it isn't just Democrats. About a decade ago I remember reading a happiness survey. The people surveyed scored very high on their own satisfaction and happiness scale, but felt so badly for everyone else whom they perceived as not doing as well. Then I noticed a story about the family leave act. Most people are satisfied with the law--they like being able to use up to 12 weeks when THEY need it, but they think others are abusing it and the laws should be tightened up.

Stolen, Borrowed or Misrepresented Links

Have you ever visited a link that was recommended by a reliable site, or which appears in a Google search to match your topic, and then discovered that in some sort of weird way, its body has been taken over or occupied by an evil spirit or advertiser? Today I was looking through the caregivers links from Family and Consumer Sciences at Texas A & M--something I'd recommended years ago, but now had a broken link (error). So I thought I'd try to track it down. In the course of that search I saw a link to a bioethics site, so I clicked to it. It was just advertising: A Rolling Stones T-Shirt (for elderly rockers?), a blue collar "ethic" belt buckle, Wolfgang Puck hearty vegetable soup, Rabbit Air BioFresh Ultra-Quiet Air Purifier w/ Germicidal Protection, 1/4" Extra Thick Deluxe High Density Yoga Mat, and so forth. Not a very ethical way to do business, in my opinion.

The hype, hysteria and hopes of the new greenies

The Earth Day grows up and brings death to the Third World.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOp0LcRvdj8

HT National Center Blog

Thinking about Mom

It's not her birthday; it's not the anniversary of her death; there's nothing going on that reminds me of her. But yesterday I wrote a blog at my church page about her. Today when I was making a dessert, I took special care to use the one little mixing bowl of hers that I have and always try to use even though it's a little small. And now by accident I've found the perfect birthday gift. A book about magazine paper dolls. I don't know why I am always surprised when someone publishes a book on a topic I know a little about, but didn't think there was enough to write a whole book. There always is, because someone collects or saves or archives that topic. How many times did I look at my grandmother's Ladies Home Journal (which went back to the 1890s) only to find the paper dolls were gone. Well, of course! My mother and her sister probably cut them out and played with them. I have a few of them. Based on the WWI uniform, I'd guess these to be 1917 or 1918. The magazines covered by this book are The Delineator, Good Housekeeping, The Housekeeper, Ladies Home Journal, Ladies World, McCall's, Pictorial Review, and Woman's Home Companion, all of which my grandmother subscribed to or purchased. Notice, there's only one outfit for the girl(s)--just guessing here, but they probably played more with the girl dolls and that's why their clothes didn't survive. The toys I have from my childhood are those I didn't use much or love to pieces.

The blizzard of '08

That's what they are calling it here in central Ohio. Those of you in Illinois, Wisconsin and northern NY would probably yawn and go back to bed, but it's a lot for us, especially since it was near 70 degrees last Monday. It's 12-14" where my husband is shoveling, and the condo crew had cleaned it all off last night by 11 p.m. Our daughter lives in a south west suburb and our son lives in a south east suburb, and they both have more than we do--but it's a good reason to talk on a Saturday morning.





I shoveled a path behind my van this morning, thinking things didn't look too bad, but once I got out on a main street, I discovered that although it had been plowed by the city crews, I couldn't see anything, nor could I turn around. So I continued driving until I got to Panera's and pulled in. I struggled up to the door only to see a sign that said, Sorry, but due to the weather, we aren't opening until 8 a.m. A staffer took pity on me and let me in, turned on the fireplace, and brought me a cup of coffee and a newspaper. Wasn't that sweet? Now that is customer service! I asked him if he'd like to be my grandson. I didn't stay long, and when I went back to my van, it took about 10 minutes to scrape and clean enough to see the road I couldn't really see. Two good things. No one but me and the snow plows were out there. Also, I'd replaced my tires in the fall--and they really came through for me.

Update: 20.4 inches in 24 hours--a new record. The old record was 15" in 1910. We had more snow in 1978, but it was over several days.

Dumbing down is not the best plan for survival

Churches who have tried to go the "seeker" route have found this; those of us on government health care have found this; the trend in entertainment to the cheaper reality shows have proved this. Maybe newspapers could have been saved.

"I never thought I would see the day newspapers would dumb-down, but I’ve seen it. They argue they must do so to survive. I would humbly suggest they took the easy way out, instead of taking the time to rethink their role in society and create new revenue streams to reflect it. But what do I know? I just edited them, I didn’t own them." Djelloul Marbrook, text from a pod cast for journalism students

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I love Google, but. . .

this plan was really dumb. High tech route to terrorism and treason.

"The Pentagon has put the kibosh on Google Street View's access to military bases. The access restriction surfaced after a Google street mapping team took photos on the grounds of Fort Sam Houston in Texas and posted them to the site. U.S. Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart, chief of the U.S. Northern Command, reportedly said the images compromised security by showing the location of guards, details about barrier operation and building portals. Google removed the images at the Department of Defense's request." Story at TechNewsWorld by Jim Offner, 3/7/08

I think that some of these companies like Facebook, AOL, Google, Yahoo, etc. who claim they are "sensitive" to privacy concerns are run by people too young to understand security--personal or national. For instance, if I wanted to, I could purchase a site tracker for my blog that could probably figure out exactly where your computer is, then what you're buying from AOL, and then through a subscription to another program where your medical records are; but there's no cost to find out what you look like, and how close the 2nd story window of your house is to an access road. I occasionally wander into a website by accident that tells me more about me and my behavior on the computer than I remember, including a comment I made on a listserv or usenet bulletin board 13 years ago and who my grandparents were! (I don't post my genealogy on the web, but others do.)

I won't even go into what I could uncover about your hospital records--I spent some time fiddling with that a few years ago and was so frightened, I just stopped. I really didn't want to know--and I was just using the limited, "free" access to find out the profit of "non-profit" hospitals. Before my husband retired (sole proprietor with me as the staff), I used our county auditor's website extensively--it saved us the time of driving to the property, taking photographs and measuring the set backs and access. What? You think criminals don't use computers?

One time I alerted our church pre-school director about how much information I could track about families of her staff in just a few minutes, using completely free things like Google mapping, on-line local newspapers, and the image feature. Most of my e-mails to the church are ignored or don't address my concerns, so I don't know if anything was done. For years I would suggest to the OSU Libraries that our SS# not be our library access number--I don't know if that has been changed, and God only knows what else it is linked to. Here's my real concern: the university runs on low paid, student labor much more knowledgeable about computers than the faculty or administrators--if it (and other universities) had to find staff that smart and at those wages, they'd have to close down (many are foreign, non-citizens, btw, and all our universities have become dependent on foreign governments to pay their tuition costs).

Just a note about Facebook--no, two notes: The creator, Mark Zuckerberg, is now 23 and has a personal worth of 3 Billion dollars, and Facebook is valued at 15 Billion, according to WSJ. He started at age 19 by illegally hacking into the university's database of student records. The second question: did either of the 2 college women whose murders have recently been saturating the cable news networks have their photos and activities on an internet social networking site, like Facebook?

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Time to set a new ticker

Didn't make my goal, but I did better than last month.




We've got 4" of fresh snow on the ground and expecting much more tomorrow, so the first day or so won't be good. Will have to make it up later.

Friday Family Photo--Spring snow 1975

Today we're supposed to have 8-12" of snow dumped on central Ohio, but because Columbus sits in a trough, our weather is always iffy, and snow and rain easily go north or south, and we stand in an inch or two with cancelled activities and a lot of salt on the roads. But not in the Spring of 1975. We'd had one of those big wet early spring snows, and the kids rushed out to make a fort before it all melted.


I don't have a date on the photo, but it's between the January and Easter 1975 photos in the album. When you look at an old photo, you see a lot you hadn't thought about in years. See the fence? My husband designed, built and painted it and talked a friend into helping with the post holes on the hottest day of the year 1970--the intention was to keep our children, particularly our little, very active, very risk taking little boy where I could see them. The city planners of Upper Arlington had decided (our street was platted around 1938) huge front yards with no sidewalks and tiny back yards would make the community look pastoral. This meant we had a very long drive-way, also very difficult to shovel after a snow storm, which we also gated. You can see if you look closely that there is a gate in that fence--that was so our babysitter, Kristy Mellum, could walk through. She and her 40-something widowed mother, Ruth, and brother Bobby lived behind us. They attended Upper Arlington Lutheran Church, which I knew nothing about and had never seen because it was so well hidden in a neighborhood north of us. Someone told me that Ruth was the first woman president (chair?) of UALC's council/board. (We have been members now since 1976.) Later, all the kids who lived on Brixton Rd. used that gate to cut through. Eventually, we removed it, and new neighbors built a huge privacy fence with no gate--they had no children, nor did most families who lived in that house.

The coats the kids are wearing were in their last season. I tried to be thrifty and get 2 seasons out of winter coats which were expensive. That meant the coats were too big the first season and too small at the end of the second season. Our boy looks taller in this photo, but that's because she is bending over. They are 12 months and 3 days apart in age, and around age 13 he passed her up and has been the biggest in the family after years as the smallest.

You can't see them, but they would have been wearing over-the-shoe boots, which meant stuffing wiggly feet into plastic bags, then into the boot, all the while straddling a squirming, struggling child who was in a hurry to get outside to the snow before it melted. You also can't see the attached garage which was on the left, but around 1979 we converted it to a family room, and built a free standing garage on the other side at the end of the drive-way, further reducing the small backyard. You also can't see all the mud and water puddling on the hall and kitchen tiles after they came inside, wet and cold, ready for snack time.

Thursday Thirteen--Our life in verse

You younger parents are learning as you go along that nature seems to have a lot more to do with your children's behavior than nurture. All the books you've read; all the programs you've tried; the special diets and home schooling; all your plans to mold and form the next generation. Then junior picks up a dolly and uses it like a toy gun, toys you've abolutely forbidden, or sissy wants frilly dresses, heels and make-up instead of the sweat pants, earth shoes and natural look you love to wear. We've all been through it, and in the long run they will grow up to be the person that popped out of the womb, formed by God, with personality, talents, physical appearance and intelligence all in place. So here's my verse of 12 things I think I know and then the 13th, for sure. There are more, but this is about doing 13 of something, right?

Nature vs. nurture
Our life in verse

On Abington we once did dwell
34 years my children will tell,
Where life’s events we did behold
Collecting memories now worth gold.

They said I was the mom most mean
that even our food was boring and lean.
I do admit I was often too strict,
but a few family values appeared to stick.

Smile, be pleasant and polite,
Don’t in public look a sight.
Be honest, the weaker one defend.
Work hard and don’t the rules you bend.

Use good grammar when you speak,
Go to an art show for a treat.
Take care of your parents and your pets
On everything else, I’ll hold my bets.

Thursday Thirteen

Luther on marriage and the parents

On February 29 I wrote about what Luther said about who was allowed to marry and what were marriage impediments. His words certainly don't have the authority of scripture, but he uses scripture in deciding questions. In another tract, probably written in 1524 he discusses the parents' role in a child's marriage.

He had pointed out that no where in Scripture is there a case where an engagement was entered into without the parents' consent, expressed or implied. He also noted that parents' didn't have the authority to forbid a child to marry, but should never force a marriage. He said that if the parents broke up two who were in love, the grief would be brief, but if they forced two who didn't love to marry, the grief would be an eternal hell and a lifetime of misery.

Luther writes that in all of Scripture "we find not a single example of two young people entering into an engagement of their own accord. Instead, it is everywhere written of the parents, "Give husbands to your daughters and wives to your sons," Jeremiah 29; and Moses says in Exodus 21, "If a father gives a wife to his son,", etc. Thus, Isaac and Jacob took wives at the behest of their parents, Genesis 24. From this the custom has spread throughout the world that weddings and the establishment of new households are celebrated publicly with festivity and rejoicing."

There are probably groups that follow this pattern today--where the parents choose or approve the mate--but I'm not familiar with them. I do hear Christians saying, "we need to have a Biblical lifestyle or world view," but I doubt they would go this far. What do churches preach and teach about marriage these days? Also, in another volume of Luther he did complain that in former times children showed more respect and obedience than today (the 1500s).

Three Word Wednesday, #76 for March 5

Today Bone has given us

Rest
Sidewalk
Twice

to think about for 3WW. This is a true story-poem. And this could be any one of the little boys who rode their trikes past my house--I used them all. Although only one sang.

When we would meet
our boundaries were Main
and Hitt Street.
We’d ride your tricycle
twice around and back again,
over the bumpy sidewalk,
you peddling and me hanging on.
Then I would peddle
bumping my knees
and you would rest,
sometimes singing me a song.
Wasn’t life simple and sweet
when we were little on Main
and Hitt Street?

The genealogy prayer list

My prayer job jar gets a lot of hits. Here's another list I've been using recently. I participate in a genealogy listserv for the Brethren--Church of the Brethren, Brethren Church, Old German Baptist Brethren, Brethren in Christ, Dunker Brethren, etc. That group is celebrating the 300th anniversary in 2008 of its founding members rebaptizing themselves (that's what anabaptist means) and coming together as a group, first going to Holland from Germany, then on to the United States. So as I do my prayer walk I go through the list in my mind:

Grandchild of my maternal great grandparents (Jacob and Nancy Weybright) and grandchild of my paternal great, great grandparents (James and Elizabeth Williford)--these ladies are 91 and 93, and still Brethren as were their parents, grandparents and great grandparents, and are members of the same church, although they aren't related to each other; one is my father's aunt (although born later), the other my mother's sister. Then I move on to the grandchildren of my paternal great grandparents--these are my father's siblings and their first cousins and their spouses and a few are Brethren. Then the grandchildren of my paternal grandparents who were Brethren and my maternal grandparents who were Brethren--that would be my siblings and my first cousins and spouses. And then the grandchildren of my parents--my nieces and nephews, my children and spouses. I think Dad's grandma had 12 children and Dad's mother had 9. I don't think there are any in the current generation (my parents' and their siblings' grandchildren) who are Brethren.

So by the time I work through the list, my time is about up!

Hillary takes Ohio

We had a big discussion at the coffee shop this morning. There would probably be law suits and disenfranchisement charges if we still had a Republican Secretary of State, but we don't. Obama wanted polling places kept open in those counties he had the strongest turn out--Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati--our big three. Weather got bad; ran out of some ballots, etc. He was turned down, and being as far behind as he was, I don't think anyone's brought out the legal beagles. But if it had been 50.5% to 49.5%? Probably still would have found a way to blame Republicans!

One coffee shop friend thought maybe Governor Strickland might be her choice for veep. I hadn't thought of that, but he'd be a good choice. Like Obama, he has no record on anything. He's a former Methodist minister. And he doesn't have any big city machine backing him.

When I was walking at the UALC Mill Run church I saw the polling results taped to the door, like a very long grocery receipt, signed by the election judges. Is that the law? Normally, at UALC we don't have bad door hygiene--which is a term for taping posters and notices on glass doors like they were bulletin boards. Bulletin boards cost $15; doors, thousands. So I looked at it. 305 Democrats voted, 170 Republicans, and 22 non-party. Hillary got 164 and McCain 87. Seems like a pretty poor turn out--I don't think that is a Democrat area, however, most Republicans figured it didn't pay to come out to vote, but there were other issues--like a bond.

Ability to generate buzz and excitement while maintaining order

And you thought librarians were dull! That's a line from a job description for a gaming librarian. This job is in River Grove, Illinois. I didn't know kids needed a librarian to show them how to do this stuff. Actually they don't. Libraries do this for the same reasons they show movies, offer concerts, have Halloween parties, and rent gardening tools. They need bodies in the building to tick off statistics so they can get money to do the things they are supposed to do like collect, preserve and circulate information.

HT Annoyed Librarian

The Chinese tooth fairy has struck

I hate loyalty schemes--don't use coupons, sweepstakes, mileage points, or a plastic loyalty card if I can help it. Staples has the only loyalty card worth bothering with--you actually can get their products or $$ off your next purchase at the copy shop. But somehow, my husband has a rewards scheme attached to his gasoline purchases. One day I found a small box under a bush in the yard--apparently it was intended for the mail box, but didn't quite get there. I forget what was in it--something really tacky in bright paper. Then a few more things started arriving like a lighted magnifying glass that doesn't even work as well as my 2003 eye glasses and a bulky 100% PVC credit card holder and wallet with a handy dandy calculator inside. All made in China. All trinkets useful only for today's consumer who thinks that we need to be rewarded for shopping. But today's prize. Well, it's really special. A genuine Orbiter Hands Free Can Opener.



Cooking hint: I was preparing a roast for supper, and ladies, pour cream of mushroom soup over a roast and it will be wonderfully tender with lots of gravy and no lumps, 2 hours at 325. So I decided to open the can with my new Orbiter. I put that baby down on the can and pressed the button. Nothing. Pressed it again. Nothing. Then again and WOW it just took off. I removed my hand (was afraid it'd get eaten) and it worked all by itself. In fact, it wouldn't quit. Around and around. I could see parts of the can we're being cut off. I picked it up and pulled it off the can, but that little sucker just kept on working, around and around, mushroom soup going everywhere. I grabbed it and punched the button on the underside, but it kept going. So I just put it down and watched it struggle, gasping, until it finally stopped.

The instructions with Orbiter say to prevent food borne illnesses I need to clean the blade after each use, and never with a solvent or detergent. But I should remove the batteries first. Then following the enclosed diagram I can remove the blade and clean it with a slightly damp cloth, dry it and replace the blade door. Now, I shouldn't leave it in sunlight, or in a hot humid place, nor should I immerse it in water or other liquids. When I'm done using it, I should remove the batteries, if it will be awhile. But I'm to keep the batteries away from children because they might swallow them. The instructions are also in Spanish and French.

I've been using the same hand-held can opener for about 30 years. Seems to work OK and occasionally I clean it when it gets really gunky. I don't think it is in any danger from this sleek, younger model.

Pieces of string too short to use

There's a story, apocryphal most likely, that when cleaning out the home of an elderly deceased woman, her family found a large ball of string labelled, "pieces of string too short to use." So here's a few pieces too short to use:

1. Hillary's "shared prosperity" theme. I doubt that she will share hers.

2. If you're overweight, are you wasting energy fretting about the chemicals in your dry cleaning? Which is more likely to hurt you over the long run?

3. The decline of the angry left? I think they are just keeping them under wraps for this campaign so they don't get a repeat of 2004.

4. Would you want your address to be on "Landfill Road." I saw one. Still, we have a Cemetery Rd nearby.

5. Google makes bundles of money for the government (taxed profits, taxed wages, taxed businesses that advertise there, taxes on new businesses that have developed) and libraries take money from the government. But Google has revolutionized how people seek, store and use information.

6. Why do the AFT and NEA hate vouchers and school choice? Why wouldn't teachers' unions want children to have the best that's out there?

7. Men trade 45% more than women when investing in stock.

8. Women pull ahead in the longevity race around age 13. At birth, the boys are numerically way ahead. God must have known. . . about risk. See #7.

9. Hundreds of thousands of sexual predators are at-large within the U.S., and law enforcement has the evidence to locate, arrest and prosecute them, but officials estimate they are able to investigate less than 2 percent of known child exploitation offenders, due to lack of resources, primarily personnel.

10. Unionized cleaning people in NYC make $20+/hour with full benefits. Think of that the next time you feel undervalued when you clean.

11. Didn't I tell you? "It's a lying, cheating, dirty business," says
Chris Balsiger who ran the nation's biggest clearinghouse of discount coupons redeemed by consumers at supermarkets.

12. John Erickson, chairman of Erickson Retirement Communities and developer of continuing care communities, is investing in Retirement Living TV, a cable network.

13. Charles Barkley, the basketball player, believes that people who express beliefs on behavior and life style different than what he believes are being judgemental, but he isn't. Must go with the name "Chuck."

14. Socially conscious Vermonters are willing to emit carbon to drive to tax-free New Hampshire to buy at WalMart and other big box stores. Same with the folks in Santa Cruz, CA who keep WalMart, Costco and Target out of their city, and raise local prices.

15. In Massachusetts, people with high deductible health insurance were forced to switch to more expensive policies to meet the state requirements.

16. Save a life. Donate to a Pregnancy Health Center.

17. Patients who go into cardiac arrest while in the hospital are more likely to die if it occurs after 11 p.m.

18. HIPAA is hopeless. I called the pharmacy to get a printout of our prescription costs. They would mail our records to me, but if I picked them up, I had to bring my husband and ID.

19. Reed Elsevier buys Choice Point Inc., the largest seller of personal data, and is selling its trade magazine division, including Publisher's Weekly. What must privacy conscious librarians think?

20. How many women control anything in Hollywood? I'm guessing it is far less than in the board rooms of conservative businesses.

21. Government affirmative action programs haven't given women and minorities a long term boost. They are hired and held hostage in HR positions or promoted to positions to fill quotas they weren't qualified for and then can't move forward on merit.

22. Bailing out by the government of those facing foreclosure will just postpone the agony--especially if they had poor credit, no savings, and spent beyond their means before applying for a subprime loan. Not everyone should be a home owner.

23. Airlines are not hospitals. The relatives of an obese woman, 44 years old, with heart disease and diabetes who was treated within minutes by staff and passengers who were doctors using oxygen and defibrillators, are suing the airlines. No one wins but the lawyers.

24. Daylight Savings Time actually uses more energy, according to a recent study based on Indiana's experience.

25. Unclaimed tax refunds from the IRS totaled 2.2 billion for 2003. Too late now.

26. 84% of Americans believe that cheating on your taxes even a little is unacceptable. Isn't that about the same as the number who believe in God?

27. I saw an ad selling an Ethics/Faith Company reporting the original investors made 700% return on their investment. Does that sound ethical to you?

28. The Turkish Airlines is looking for someone to supply them with jet fuel. Submit your bid by March 11.

29. Michelle Obama had some nice educational advantages, but most importantly, she had what divides the rich and middle class African Americans from the poor. Married parents and a strong nuclear family. 70% of black children do not have a father in the home.

30. Just in time for Hillary's election campaign, Bill has apologized to the black community for rejecting the 1995 Commission on Sentencing recommendation that the 100:1 disparity for drug sentencing for crack and powder cocaine be removed. This is probably the #1 reason there are so many black men in prison--see #29.

Why our college faculties are so liberal

It may not be what it seems. Some campus faculty are 100% liberal/progressive; the least liberal might be 80%! For my field, library science, it is so out of wack we fall off the edge and make the ACLU look like the John Birch Society. A new study looks at the various strawmen that both liberals and conservatives build to explain why liberals are more likely go on for the doctorate (the license to drive on the big time campuses), than conservatives. It isn't grade point. Moderates score lower than either liberals or conservatives, who score about the same. It isn't a hostile environment on campus (that would have been my guess as the number one reason). It seems to be based on ideas and ideals based on differing personality traits.

"Instead they hypothesized that the bulk of the ideological imbalance in academia is the result of differing personality traits. And so the scholars picked four traits -- the importance placed on raising a family, making money, contributing original work to a particular field and developing a meaningful philosophy of life -- and matched them up with students' political self-definitions. "Ideology," they wisely write, "represents far more than a collection of abstract political values." Liberalism, they found, "is more closely associated with a desire for excitement, an interest in creative outlets and an aversion to a structured work environment. Conservatives express far greater interest in financial success and stronger desires to raise families."

Yes, that makes a lot of sense. Conservatives keep the economy running, providing the taxes for the sandboxes of the liberals. I wonder if they've looked at the relationship between liberals' desire for risk and other harmful behaviors like gambling, drug use, promiscuity, living with diseased and dying trees in the forest rather than removing the fire hazard, building on fault lines and on coastal hurricane zones, and riding a bicycle to work on busy hi-ways. Story here; the report is for the American Enterprise Institute by Matthew Woessner of Penn State, Harrisburg (the conservative), and his wife, April Kelly-Woessner (the liberal), of Elizabethtown College -- called "Left Pipeline: Why Conservatives Don't Get Doctorates."

Texas and Ohio, Clinton and Obama

I just shake my head in disbelief when I see these ads. I finally told my husband he had to hit the mute button. I couldn't stand it. Why is it the President's responsibility to improve Ohio's economy? Especially when many of our jobs aren't going to China or Mexico (as the ads imply), but just going to other states? In defense of our new Democratic governor, 'taint his fault either--he hasn't been around long enough to screw things up (a former Methodist minister with a good heart and pious thoughts). But we have many large and medium sized cities in Ohio--all controlled by Democrats--Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati, to name just three, with Akron, Youngstown, Dayton and Toledo following along. To watch the Hillobama ads, you'd think the steel mills closed under Bush! Here's some details from today's WSJ:

"Ohio Governor Ted Strickland, a Democrat who supports Mrs. Clinton, blames his state's problems on President Bush. But Ohio's economy has been struggling for years, and most of its wounds are self-inflicted. Ohio now ranks 47th out of 50 in economic competitiveness, according to the American Legislative Exchange Council. Ohio politicians deplore plant closings even as they impose the third highest corporate income tax in the country (10.5%) and the sixth highest personal income tax (8.87%). A common joke is that Ohio lays out the red carpet for companies -- when they leave the state. By contrast, Texas has no income tax, a huge competitive advantage."

What do Obama and Clinton both suggest? More taxes on the rich, the source of investment, and on business. Way to go, guys. Hit us again! But Democrats fall for that every time. Every time. If the economy sucks, tax it. If it's in the death throes, tax it. If businesses are fleeing, tax them. Make it totally impossible--turn them all into lil' New Orleans helpless in the face of the winds of change and the rising tides of helplessness.

The article hints at, but doesn't nail down the problem. Unions. Stikes have killed small towns in Illinois, and big cities in Ohio. The guys at the top just move on; the little guys and the service industries and small businesses that grew up around the industry that the unions killed just have to suffer and look for hand-outs from Washington.

"Ohio's most crippling handicap may be that its politicians -- and thus its employers -- are still in the grip of such industrial unions as the United Auto Workers. Ohio is a "closed shop" state, which means workers can be forced to join a union whether they wish to or not. Many companies -- especially foreign-owned -- say they will not even consider such locations for new sites. States with "right to work" laws that make union organizing more difficult had twice the job growth of Ohio and other forced union states from 1995-2005, according to the National Institute for Labor Relations."

Hillobama rides into town on the white horse ass and the crowds part and faint and think someone will rescue them. But after they grab the vote, they'll be gone and the plants will still be closed. Short of throwing the remote at the TV, what's a voter to do?

The MCC Mailing list

It's a lot easier getting on a mailing list than getting off. After the Tsunami, I sent relief money to the Mennonites, people I figured could be trusted to run a program economically and see that it got to the places that needed it most. Years ago I'd done some research and they seemed to have the lowest overhead, with the most dollars going to the neediest. Later, I found out that their money was co-mingled with a larger church organization, one that never presents Christ as an alternative. Forget rice-Christians! There'd be no Christian propaganda handed out with their food and blankets.

But the Common Place magazine, a bi-monthly that reports on the activities of the Mennonite Central Committee, sponsored by Mennonite and Brethren in Christ churchs in Canada and the USA, just keeps coming. I suppose I could e-mail them and ask to be taken off the list--after all, I want my funds to go to people who will preach, not just demonstrate, the good news of Jesus.

The latest issue reports that MCC is planning to grow its educational sponsorship program from $1.5 million a year to $5 million a year by 2017. Why? To help "children develop a sense of identity and history and thereby enables them to engage the stories and histories of others." Isn't that odd? Not so they can earn a living, or enjoy good literature, or read the instructions on their medicine, or read the Bible, but so that can "engage the stories and histories of others." Then further gooble-de-gook--education will enable children to "uncover the questions" and will happen "where love and curiosity are present." Huh?

From that, he's on to educating girls because they stay in the community and become leaders. I worked in the agriculture library in the 1970s on a government grant and the U.S. AID believed the same thing, so they were focusing small credit grants and water projects on the women, who were the farmers and gatherers. The men just waged war, hunted and watched the women work. I'm not sure what happened to those Department of State programs I helped with 30 years ago, but Africa is still terribly poor and the only countries moving ahead are those that have been able to attract investment and create stable governments, avoiding hand-outs.

Maybe the Mennonites have another magazine for the U.S., but I didn't see a single story here about the United States. I guess we've got poverty licked with all our government programs (actually, that's close to the truth). This issue includes Yasir and Kawthar Abed in northern Iraq; Amira Slawa whose father was slain by Iraqi police in 1987; Puja Rana in Kolkata, India; Priya Bhadani and her family in Kolkata, displaced 15 years ago; Ayesha Kader who works in an MCC office in Kolkata; Ismael Ramiro Cucul Rax of Guatemala who is in a Saturday school sponsored by MCC; and then shorter blurbs about school kits, puppets, scholarships, Hurricane Felix relief, farmers in Zimbabwe, ex-offenders in Saskatoon, suffering in Colombia because of a local war, helping children in North Korea with food shipments (note: the Communist government of N. Korea has killed millions of its own citizens by starvation, and now western countries and Christian programs are bailing them out); a garage sale in Winnepeg to pay for scholarships for children in India; and a Mennonite living in a seminary owned by the Chaldean Church in Iraq.

According to Matt 25, these people are Jesus, and so it is a wonderful privilege to serve Him (them). But then who will be Jesus for them? The Beatitudes are not a list of rules and guidelines for Christians to follow concerning the poor and down trodden. They are an announcement, based on the OT book of Isaiah, of who Jesus is. I didn't see a word about Jesus Christ in the entire issue.

Sleeping with cats

Actually, I only sleep with one cat, and she has certain habits. In the evening, she will only sleep on my husband's thighs in his lounge chair. Yes, she'll move if she has to, but then she's right back. I'm not 18" away on the couch, but it has to be his legs or nothing. If he's in Haiti, she'll sleep on me, but I don't watch much TV.

Then about 11 p.m. it's my legs, on the bed spread, never under it. But if I wake up about 3 a.m. and can't sleep because she's been rattling the window blinds, I get up and go to the guest room. She follows, thinking, hoping it might be time for breakfast. I'm all settled in, the TV on quietly picking up one of the few channels I can get in that room with no cable. Then THUMP. She's in bed with me. This time, she wants to be under the covers, kneading my tummy 'til we both go to sleep. It's the only time she wants to be under the covers. As soon as I move or roll over, she jumps out.

But this morning there was a mishap. As she struggled to get out of the covers, she landed on my face. I raised my arm to protect myself and she dug in her back claws (no claws on the front which makes a cat's balance unstable). Wow, did that hurt. She got me on my lower lip which started to bleed. So it was into the bathroom to mop up. She looked embarrassed. She didn't mean it. I overslept until 5:45.

A poem for today's dilemma

From a story I heard at the coffee shop today.

Health Insurance Woes

Look at me strut
and show off my stuff.
Can you see my thong?
It's not so tough.

I can barely move--
my jeans are so tight,
And guys look at me so,
now, that just ain't right!

At the top of my grade
and the job is secure,
three kids and a guy,
my home life is sure.

Except for my shape--
He wants implants for me!
Would S-CHIP cover it?
I think I'll go see.

I thought it was a cheap shot lie

Those right wing talk show hosts--at it again, misreading or misquoting, I thought. No woman with an Ivy League college degree and big bucks income would be advising other women to go into "the helping professions," not with feminists and progressives whining about the lack of women in the board rooms of America! But there it was, in Byron York's column. Michelle Obama speaking to my fellow Ohioans, telling them not to strive, not to be proud, not to struggle, not to become wealthy or even middle class, but to become--government workers. Weeee! Then you can qualify for SCHIP and EITC--if you're really lucky, maybe you can sign up for free lunches and breakfasts for your kids! Oh, for shame, Michelle.

"A former attorney with the white-shoe Chicago firm of Sidley & Austin, Obama explains that she and her husband made the choice to give up lucrative jobs in favor of community service. “We left corporate America, which is a lot of what we’re asking young people to do,” she tells the women. “Don’t go into corporate America. You know, become teachers. Work for the community. Be social workers. Be a nurse. Those are the careers that we need, and we’re encouraging our young people to do that. But if you make that choice, as we did, to move out of the money-making industry into the helping industry, then your salaries respond.” Faced with that reality, she adds, “many of our bright stars are going into corporate law or hedge-fund management.”

What she doesn’t mention is that the helping industry has treated her pretty well. In 2006, the Chicago Tribune reported that Mrs. Obama’s compensation at the University of Chicago Hospital, where she is a vice president for community affairs, jumped from $121,910 in 2004, just before her husband was elected to the Senate, to $316,962 in 2005, just after he took office. And that does not count the money Mrs. Obama receives from serving on corporate boards. She would have been O.K. even without Jack’s magic beans.

This was apparently a carefully worded slam at Hillary's daughter, near as I can tell, because the Obamain couple certainly aren't poorly paid government workers, unless being a Senator and a veep at a hospital count.

If you want to make your life count, get that top flight job--make the 6 figure income, then take a buy out or retire at 55. Then do the service opportunity you've always dreamed of, or set up a foundation. Don't spend your best years tied up with government red tape, driving druggies to the food pantries supported by the USDA so farmers can over produce, cleaning up feces in the parks inhabited by homeless who've been turned out of their safe institutions by earlier do-gooder theories, don't put your life in danger with vile students that the school administrators have decided are safe to transfer to your classroom from an even worse school, don't become a paper shuffler with tenure and civil service protection. Work someplace that has competition and standards, that will demand the best of you, challenge your mind. Earn a decent living and if you want to live modestly, donate to a program that is entirely out of bounds for the government--like saving abandoned animals or babies about to be aborted or become a safety net for your parents.

Don't ever, ever listen to a rich woman saying you shouldn't be rich like her!

Heeding the warnings

Driving to the bank this morning after my walk, I pushed the radio buttons and got that monotonous recorded weather channel. Storm warnings. Flooding. But the sun is shining and it's a delightful spring day. Snow. Sleet. Ice. Flooding. Starting tonight. It's already in Indiana. Make appropriate preparations now for those of you in [three] Ohio counties.

I glanced in my rear view mirror and the woman driving the small red Ford truck was puffing away on her cigarette like a hungry baby at the breast. I'd just cleaned my back window on the van and I could see her pasty, pale skin, wrinkles and slack skinned face--puff, puff. Her male passenger looked worse--he was obese, with jowls hanging over his coat collar, and even more pale. In Ohio, we know what pale in March means--it's been a long, dark winter. But these folks were sickly pale, not Ohio-winter-pale. Cigarette, oxygen deprived pale. She's read the warnings; she's heard the warnings; at least one loved one, and maybe 20, have told her to quit. She's looked in the mirror and it's told her to quit. She knows the only cigarette that works is the first one--the rest are just habit.

Heeding warnings. Flooding or smoking. Who listens? "It will never happen to me" plays much louder.

4688

George W. Bush is right about a lot of things

Not that right is popular. Not that right doesn't bring unintended consequences. Not that right will unite the people. He's definitely right about these--either morally, spiritually, politically or economically--but not all for each. In no particular order.

1. George W. Bush is right to keep his very talented, beautiful, smart, librarian wife at his side, in the sidelines, and in the bleachers cheering him on, supporting him, but not making policy. I like Laura Bush a lot; I didn't vote for her. I didn't even realize how important this was to me until I've watched Bill Clinton and Michelle Obama in the current campaign. Way too much focus on them and what they say and think. And Hillary Clinton, too, when she was First Lady is probably the best reason for the spouse to stay by the president's side and not under foot. Part of the hostility toward her from conservatives and libertarians is the way she tried to take over important segments of the economy when she had no elected office, nor ever had one. Her "35 years" experience mantra includes her years as a President's wife and a Governor's wife. That makes her as big a cheat as her husband in my mind.

2. George Bush was the right man to lead us calmly out of the chaos that followed 9/11. In my life time, I'll probably not see two stronger leaders in a crisis than George W. Bush and Rudy Giuliani.

3. George Bush was right to cut taxes to release money for investing in the U.S. economy, thereby helping American workers and the global economy both, strengthening us all around. The cut in taxes put many Americans to work, and also brought increased revenue into the coffers of the federal government--which may or may not be positive considering our Congress will spend all it gets. But it is a far superior plan than punishing success and driving our investment money overseas so foreign workers benefit.

4. George Bush was right to veto the huge SCHIP increases last fall, leaving the dismantling of private health insurance to be on the conscience of the Democrats. The 1997 SCHIP was Hillary's plan to begin with and she will see to it, either as a senator or president, that we all come under the government's thumb, that all but the richest in society, or our highest level government officials, will have low level, dumbed down universal care.

5. He was right to invade Iraq and remove Saddam from power and to free millions of Afghans from the control of the Al-Qaeda. We won the war, but huge mistakes were made on the clean up. The biggest mistake was not securing the borders, something Americans aren't very good at. Also, although it was not his fault, he listened to the intelligence gathered in the previous administration about WMD accepting the wholehearted but duplicitous support of the likes of Kennedy and Edwards, Kerry and Clinton. He was mistaken that they would keep their word the way he does. He cannot be moved once he sets a course; they waffle, blow in the wind, and melt in the heat of unhappy supporters. Huge mistake to trust them.

6. Bush was never better than in his choices of John Roberts and Samuel Alito for Supreme Court. I'm still wondering if that misstep of nominating Harriet Miers was just a tease--to show he could nominate a woman knowing she couldn't be confirmed. It's not in the same category of turning over policy to your wife, but it lost him a lot of friends among Republicans who questioned his sanity! These two men, along with Clarence Thomas, are our best chance of keeping a tricameral federal government, instead of a court that makes laws, a president who keeps his wife happy dabbling in policy while he fondles female staff, and a Congress that just passes out the bacon slabs to each other, crossing the aisle with a wink and a handshake. If you think Bush has too much power, ask yourself why Hillary with "35 years experience" or Obama with the power of his charming personality, will fix it if not by usurping more power from the other branches?

7. George Bush was right about stem cell research. By forcing researchers to go back to the lab and look beyond using human embryonic stem cells of 4-5 day old embryos (pre-born human beings), he rescued our nation from a worse ethical dilemma and battle than abortion and slavery, earlier versions of devaluing life in our history. Embryonic stem cell research was never illegal, but he forced the researchers to look beyond the American people for the money--and private sources wanted to see results--but there were none. Many millions of lives will be saved because GWB stood fast.

8. Morally, he was right to be concerned about our schools failing so many of our children, leaving millions of kids behind and unable to function in our technological society. The results from NCLB haven't been great, in my opinion because the federal government's hold on education was way too big to begin with. It should not be allowed to reach into the classroom and tell a student how to behave or a teacher to teach. But that certainly didn't start with Bush. He took on the teachers' unions, even though they didn't have the answers either. Standards weren't being met. Crummy teachers and awful school administrators had protection. Well, being morally right, but wrong in outcome gets a president no friends, plus he's spent more on education than any president before him and still the kids are failing. Indirectly, he's proven once again that more money isn't the answer.

9. Morally, he was right to care that millions are in our country illegally taking jobs from Americans, weakening our neighbors to the south, and experience personal suffering. Trying to fix the horrible 1986 law that allowed this with bits and patches just isn't practical--it was a social experiment of the 1960s gone bad--the belief that too many Europeans and white people were immigrating and we needed more brown, black and Asian to be "fair." Plus it cost him the support at the grass roots--those Americans who do not think La Raza should come here and take back 4 or 5 states because they don't like the outcome of the 19th century Mexican War. That's history. The backing of big unions and big business really make this amnesty issue look messy for Bush, and it didn't win any friends among the Democrats. Playing fast and loose with core beliefs in a mish-mash of bipartisanship never helps either side.

10. Morally and spiritually, he was right to want to reach out to Democrats to unite the people and heal all the hostility of the Clinton years in the 1990s. We hear Obama preaching the same sermon. But that's another thing that won't happen in my life time. George W. Bush is not a true conservative, but he is a Republican, and so on both sides of the aisle, he's got problems. He's bitterly hated and opposed because of the 2000 election and no amount of good ole boy glad handing will change that. Cowboy, that's a tough dogie to rope.

11. Economically and morally, he was right to try to fix Social Security, even as his own party gave him little support and caused his good intentions to fail. All the successful retirees I know have a combination of the plans he wanted--403-b, 401-K, IRA, and private investments. Government employees have such a plan. Unfortunately, leaders of both parties fought him on this and I'm left to believe that they have a vested interest in keeping a large part of the elderly population poor and dependent on government handouts. It buys votes, is the only explanation I can come up with.

I tried to make this a tidy list of 10, but George has just done too many things right in his 7 years as president.

Grain into gas tanks

for the global warming hoax, the unintended consequences. WaPo reports: "Soaring Food Prices Putting U.S. Emergency Aid in Peril: The U.S. government's humanitarian relief agency will significantly scale back emergency food aid to some of the world's poorest countries this year because of soaring global food prices."

Does AD/HD really exist as a disorder?

It's been a busy day. I walked about 45 minutes inside the church for exercise, then walked through an exhibit in the narthex of an organization for people interested in AD/HD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and learning problems, then went to women's Bible Study (Jennifer Rothschild), then helped a friend with her MS Walkathon mailing, adhering labels, stuffing envelopes, sorting zip codes and stuff. In my walk through the narthex I looked at some of the vendors materials and picked up some reading material. I also noticed that about 99% of the people attending and the vendors were women, although supposedly most of the people with this disorder are males.

I'm concerned that what is probably fairly normal little boy or male adolescent behavior, at least at the milder end, is labeled, pathologized, medicated, and sometime criminalized. I picked up a free issue of Attention, December 2007, published by an organization called CHADD, Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder. Leafing through it, I see that AD/HD has become a big business in the last 20 years. Here's the advertising I saw: many colleges and special schools; the drug Concerta; the drug Vyvanse; a study funded by the government to see if there are specific genes that contribute to AD/HD; special summer camps for AD/HD kids; transitional curricula for getting into college; boarding schools; nutritional supplements; numerous appeals to send money to or join CHADD, which has special VISA cards, vehicle donation, workplace donations through United Way, a discount medical insurance card, estate planning and a corporate contribution program; special toys for LD kids; and special watches for behavior modification and self-monitoring for medication.

There was an article on having a proactive strategy to deal with difficult behavior, such as each parent having a role, establishing a daily routine, teaching organizational skills, and clearly communicating your expectations and being consistent. Fine. I have no problems with those. But the #1 strategy? Well, the author called it "Maintaining a disability perspective,"--in other words, seeing that your child has a legitimate medical condition that undermines self control. The worst article was "The price we all pay," with the most outlandish statistics I've ever seen in my life, none with citations. Would you believe that incarceration costs due to AD/HD (40% of the prison population) cost over $16 TRILLION just for the AD/HD prisoners. That's so bizarre, I can't even imagine it got past the editors.

"Signs of [ADHD] may be minimal or absent when the person is under very strict control, is in a novel setting, is engaged in especially interesting activities, is in a one-to-one situation, or while the person experiences frequent rewards for appropriate behavior" (DSM-IV, p. 79). How many diseases or conditions--like depression or diabetes, OCD or cystic fibrosis--go away or are controled with attention from someone else? Is drugging children worth it, if keeping them busy with interesting things or other rewards work too?

We are pathologizing our children--especially little boys. Send them outside to play; get them a rowing machine for raining days. Turn off the TV. Hire someone to teach them tennis or horseback riding. Give them interesting and exciting things to do--like work. If medication is necessary, have something prescribed for you.

Update: I e-mailed the editor with a list of questions and received a reply: "That $16 trillion figure was the author’s mistake, and we regret that the error was not caught prior to publication. Please see the correction of that figure, which was published in the February 2008 issue of the magazine." She also said that references for the article are in the on-line version. That's really poor form, in my opinion. If they are printed with the article, it is much easier for the reader to spot the mistake. If I hadn't just read the Pew article, I probably would have skipped over it. But at least she responded. When I published in library journals in the 90s, the editors selected and checked, and the peer reviewers checked, and then I had to check the galleys.

An economist looks at illegal drug costs

Boston University Economist Jeffrey Miron argues on University of California TV that legalizing drugs would lower the crime rate, cut the demand for guns, reduce the spread of AIDS and improve race relations in this address to the UCSD Economics Roundtable. Series: Economics Roundtable [Public Affairs] Take a look and see if you think this makes sense. The speech was given in April 2000. So some of the figures may be out of date. The incarceration rate is probably higher.

He is not a boring speaker, however, if you prefer to read high lights from his book, check here.

Record high ratio of adults in prison in today's USAToday.