The Reckless bad boys of Columbus

The project was intended to construct a model program to divert young boys from crime by developing their inner controls with a positive self-image. Walter C. Reckless was a well-known, frequently published criminologist who published in the 1950s and 1960s on self-concept as an insulator against deviant behavior. In 1972 he published, with Simon Dinitz, "The prevention of juvenile delinquency; an experiment (Ohio State University Press), on the role of self concept in preventing juvenile delinquency.

The authors theorized that if a youngster had a good self-concept, he would be less likely to slip into delinquency, so they studied over 1700 pre-adolescent boys in a blue-collar, deprived, working class neighborhood and school system of Columbus, Ohio for four years. They already knew that most of the children in this neighborhood, despite sharing similar lives, would NOT grow up to be criminals, but what made the difference? They divided the boys into three groups, all selected by their teachers and principals--The Experimental Group (bad boys), The Control Group (bad boys) and The Comparison Group (good boys). The first two groups, the teachers decided, were prime candidates based on their early years in school to become delinquents. The third group was considered to be well-adjusted, ordinary kids, rarely in trouble.

The Experimental Group received the same academic curriculum, but were put in special classes where they received additional attention and the teachers had had special training. They had a special "role model" interpersonal component which included relationships at work, school, government, family and getting along with others. They also had a different outcome for discipline, with strong emphasis on the rights of others, and their peers helping to bring them back into the group when they misbehaved. The other group of bad boys received nothing extra.

All the boys were evaluated at the end of their 10th grade (4 years later), and much to the disappointment of the researchers (I'm guessing) there was no difference in police contacts, seriousness of behavior problems, the drop out rate, attendance, grades or achievement level between the enriched role model group and the control group. The good boys had continued on their way, causing no problems and doing well.

If I'd spent 15 years of my life invested in this self-worth concept to reduce crime, I think I would have been distraught. But as far as I know, the researchers just decided their model program wasn't tweaked right, and I think Dr. Reckless is still being cited in the literature for his self constraint theories of criminal behavior.

What I found most interesting was that when the researchers interviewed both the students and the teachers after 4 years, they thought the program was a success! The teachers rated the bad boys in the experimental group as much improved in behavior, even though there was no evidence, and the boys themselves were enthusiastic and recommended it for their friends! But it didn't translate into better grades or less contact with the police and courts.

The Canada Geese and I

were puzzled by all the sparkly, twirly blue things in the park near the Church at Mill Run this morning. The first thing I thought was, "I hope this organization has a clean up crew ready in case we get some bad Spring weather that scatters these." Fortunately, it turned out to be a sunny, and only slightly windy day for the pinwheel demonstration for Prevent Child Abuse Ohio (www.pcao.org, 1-800 CHILDREN) in which one of the ministries of UALC, Speak Out, is participating.

April is Child Abuse Prevention Month and to draw attention to the problem, Speak Out is distributing blue and silver pinwheels with a prayer and Bible verse attached, as well as information about preventing child abuse. Their goal is for members to put the pinwheels in their yards to show we care and to use them as an opportunity to speak with others about preventing abuse.

I know nothing about child abuse--I wasn't abused, and I didn't abuse. When I was taking education and sociology courses in college it wasn't even on the radar. Supporting pro-life causes and speaking out about public libraries that don't prevent porn at their computers is about as far as I've stepped in. The Prevent Child Abuse Ohio website includes a newsletter which provides more detailed research and opinion if you wish to investigate so that's a place one could start.

Whenever I see our church cooperating with or assisting an organization (Prevent Child Abuse America operates in 41 states and UALC is listed as a resource at the local level for Ohio) funded and supported by government grants, corporate gifts, and fund raisers (pinwheels cost $1), I take a second look because this means I'm supporting it several ways, through my taxes and my tithe, the products I buy in corporate gifts, or directly with donations. So I want to know its mission and vision and whether it is Christ centered and based on Truth as found in God's Word. Hosting meetings, assisting in charter revisions, and organizing new chapters to study the reasons for child abuse (2006 annual report summary of PCA) may be important, but does it bring Jesus to the hurting parents and children?

So I looked at the national organization's web page, went to the 2006 annual report and immediately saw research (not sourced) that most abuse is by biological parents in married, two parent households. That seems to be in conflict with what I've read in other sources which do have citations. Where's the research that shows an overwhelming percentage of abuse is caused either by a step-parent (male or female) or a live-in "other?" This means there are disagreements in the studies, and therefore, the solutions. Also, percentages without numbers or years or even country, mean little. If I'm reading correctly, it looks like after 35 years, they've decided to set up some type of evaluation system of their methods with other prevention groups. I'd like to know: Does "community awareness," the education component of this program, really stop child abuse? The material seems to be pro-parenting skills, but I didn't see anything about marriage.

That's all the further I've gotten. But it seems that the definition of "child abuse," with which PCA began in 1972 has expanded to include child neglect, domestic violence, gang violence (related to absent father), access to pre-natal health care and immunizations, internet safety, gun safety, and bullying by other children.

Could it be our choices?

Would more government regulation of the fast food industry really protect Americans from obesity, which is now a bigger health problem than smoking? Would posting calorie count and fat content at casual dining places influence most consumers?

Grocery store food is labeled. There's a reason for these "loss leaders" being on the front page of this grocery store flyer--a store with low prices and no loyalty card to jack up the cost to the consumer. I'll take a wild guess--no one buying 8 liters of pop and assorted varieties of chips is reading labels for calories content, sodium and calories. Even if sold at a loss, if these items bring people into the store, and they then pick up other items, even broccoli and carrots, the manager has chosen well. The cashiers, stockers, office staff, truckers, packagers, ad designers, marketers, the utility companies, the rental agent, the stockholders and eventually the farmers will all be paid a living wage. (I'm so old I remember when milk was a loss leader--but that was before global warming and corn in the gas tank!) Now it's pop*, chips, beer, and bottled water. There's a tiny column on the inside of the flyer which reveals what a good deal we can still get at the grocery store: seedless cukes from Canada, $1; 1 lb bag of mini-carrots, $1; 3 lb. bag of onions, $1; 3 lb. bag of potatoes, $1; 8 oz. pkg of whole mushrooms $1; cantaloupe $1; pears, $1/lb.; Gala apples, $1/lb.

I use as much processed food (canned and frozen) now as I did when I worked. Using frozen instead of canned often cuts down on sugar and sodium**, and sometimes there is better protection of nutrients than using "fresh" produce that's been out of the field or off the tree for a long, long time. (I think my "fresh" turnip greens have been in the frig over 2 weeks and the cabbage more than 3, and the peppers are looking sad.) In my opinion, we'd all do better and consume fewer calories if we'd cut back on variety and choices--stick with the basics and contribute your own preparation. However, that action would put people out of work, so there's a trade-off.

*The cost of corn syrup should soon be forcing soda drink prices through the roof, too.

**In the U.S. diet, 77% of sodium comes from processed and restaurant foods, 12% occurs naturally in foods, 6% is added at the table, and 5% is added during cooking. (figures may be dated: J Am Coll Nutr. 1991; 10(4):;383-393 via JAMA)--but they weren't checking my kitchen--I add way more salt than the average cook.

Vespers, prayer and bratwurst

Until Molly Ziegler in WSJ covered the problems concerning a radio show cancelation at the LC-MS owned station, Issues, etc., I had never heard of this controversy. I did have to chuckle that concerned Lutherans are gathering for prayer and bratwurst to chew on the problem and solutions.

Interview with Molly Ziegler Hemingway on Issues, Etc.

Hillary H. Hoover

I'd planned to write an entry that the economic solutions that Miz Hillary is recommending were what President Herbert Hoover cooked up to fix the 1929 slump. It didn't work for him, and then FDR made it even worse, plunging the country further into depression. A true bipartisan mess. Well, this blogger already said it with links, so I'll refer you to Music City Oracle.

Hillobama must be products of the public schools. They don't know what happened in the 1930s with the economy, the 1950s in Korea (how our negotiated settlement of that war led to the deaths of millions of North Koreans by slavery and starvation), or the 1970s in VietNam (when millions of our allies were either sent to reeducation camps or murdered because of our abandoning them) and now they want that for the Iraqi people; they don't even see their current campaign and party problems as the outcome of their plantation mentality and gender gerrymandering.

Stuckert on race

I watched a program the other day where the topic, "What is race," was presented to teenagers. One question they were asked was, "What is the race of Barack Obama." I wondered that when I saw photos of him next to Jeremiah Wright, who appears to be whiter than I am (I'm German and Scots-Irish ancestry). The light skinned Wright made a reputation and followers with hate speech against whites; Obama, the darker one, was raised in Hawaii by white grandparents.

If research published in the Ohio Journal of Science 50 years ago is credible, then Obama apparently isn't the first African American who might become President of the United States. We've probably already had a few, if Robert P. Stuckert's research is correct (because the research was done in the 1950s, the immigration statistics or assumptions about Europeans made in his article would no longer be correct). I tracked the piece forward and see that Time Magazine picked it up in June 1958, and then others cited this work (usually not the original journal article, which probably wasn't held in many libraries, but others who had cited it) in the 1960s and 1970s and later. After leaving Ohio State, Stuckert later became Professor of Sociology of Berea College, 1975-1992, and also wrote on blacks in Appalachia.

Here's what he said in that 1958 article to point out that the idea held in the 1950s of racial purity was a myth. It was just recently added to Knowledge Bank at OSU.

"The data presented in this study indicate that the popular belief in the non-African background of white persons is invalid. Over 28 million white persons are descendants of persons of African origin. Furthermore, the majority of the persons with African ancestry are classified as white."

In 1950 he estimated that 21% of white people had African ancestry and 73% of American blacks had non-African ancestry.

The citation is, "African Ancestry of the White American population," by Robert P. Stuckert, Ohio Journal of Science, 58(3):155, May 1958. It was a revision of a paper given a year earlier.

Columbus Colored Pencil Guild Spring Show

The Visual Arts Ministry of Upper Arlington Lutheran Church (located in UA, Hilliard, and Columbus, Ohio) is pleased to present for the first time the artists of the Columbus Colored Pencil Guild. Their Spring Show will be at The Church at Mill Run, 3500 Mill Run Dr., Hilliard, OH 43026, 2nd floor gallery, between March 29 and May 8, 2008.

Formed in 2001, the CCPG meets monthly at the High Road Gallery, 12 East Stafford Avenue, Worthington, Ohio, the 2nd Monday, 7-9 p.m. They have teaching sessions and members share their work. New members are always welcome and there is no membership fee. If you've been looking for a way to express your artistic talent that won't require a huge investment in supplies, why not contact them? I bought a little pack of paper and pencils at Marc's today for $.99--just to doodle. The show is small, but mighty with cats and kittens, roses and lilies.

Also at the Church at Mill Run,

you'll find the work of photographer, Rick Buchanan, hanging in Library Lane (first floor, turn right as you go in the front doors). Rick's photography show hung at UALC, 2300 Lytham Road, Upper Arlington, in February and March. VAM has recently been using this space for smaller shows, and will continue to seek out artists looking for for show space (UALC doesn't take a commission and has the best space in town). You can contact VAM (call the church 614-451-3736). Our guidelines and show information are on the church web page, and we do follow them.

Also hanging in Library Lane

is the drawing by Lee Sattler, whose ballpoint pen art appears in the film "Dash," recently produced for submission to the 168 Hour Film Project. Lee attends UALC on the Hilltop and also appears in the film as do many other church members. The world premiere of the film, "Dash" will be held Saturday April 19, 2008, 7:30pm at the Church at Mill Run, 3500 Mill Run Drive, Columbus, OH 43026.

The final show

of this season will be the Upper Arlington Art League Spring Show, May 10-June 12, 2008, then we put the hanging system away for the summer (and for VBS). We are currently scheduling for 2009.

Why I worry about the Boomers

God bless 'em, are they ready? Ready for retirement? That story this week in the WSJ was really outrageous. Jennifer Levitz opened with a story of a 59 year old who is "postponing" his retirement. Then she moves to a liberal economist who says what is happening today hasn't happened since the Great Depression. Oh really? That was before my time, but I did hear a few stories from my parents, and grandparents, and it's insulting to their memory and struggles to be whining like this. According to the article, their homes are worth less (than when, a year ago?) and their stocks are worth less (than last quarter?) so that makes it worse than the Great Depression. With all the information available in books and on the internet, do these people never look at charts?

She also wrote about Ellen Minter, 57, who had a 6 figure income before retiring--she probably made more in a year than I did in a decade. She and hubby sold their San Francisco home and bought real estate in California wine country; he retired and then their portfolio started to collapse. He's looking for work again. Why, unless you are a boomer for whom the waters have always parted, would you think the good times would always roll? If they were willing to cut back I'm guessing they could still make it, but high living is addictive--isn't it?

I retired at age 60, but I wouldn't have even considered it if a very unusual thing hadn't happened. My mother-in-law died. Now, she was in her 80s and had been in poor health at least 20 years, so that part wasn't a huge surprise. She had outlived her husband (who wasn't ill) who had retired (actually was pushed out) and moved his pension into a privately controlled account, so she got it all at a time when the stock market was on its way up. Shortly before she died, it was on its way down again, and we were going to start dipping into her principle to pay for her nursing home care. Her three children shared her estate equally, which included the primary residence and some property in Florida. Never in a million years would we have expected a dime from my husband's parents. We invested the money and I decided the income plus my pension just about matched my income if I continued to work. Now, obviously, we'd have a lot more if I'd continued working and banking that, but for what? What if I'd died or became ill at 64? Who wants to die at the reference desk answering questions about Cushings Disease in dogs or cryptorchid horses? Time is money, and I'm a millionaire if minutes count.

In 1999 and 2000, while I was still working, my 403b had three bad, bad quarters, and had really flattened after a very nice run up in the 90s. There was a technology bubble that burst. From 2001-2007, I had three bad quarters. Probably the biggest run up in history. But what did we hear from the media and the Democrats? We were told we were in the worst economy since the Great Depression. We may actually be on the cusp of a recession, and why shouldn't we? Smart people and dumb people both made bad choices on real estate investing.

But the boomers have a lot of years left to live in retirement. I hope they breathe deeply and put away a little for a rainy, down down day, because there will be more. They will further be hurt if they elect a Democrat who promises to raise taxes, tries to destroy businesses and jobs with global warming scares, and won't make us energy independent.

A sign of the times

I noticed an engagement announcement in the paper today that had seven parents mentioned for the young woman and man who will be getting married in June. And I have seen eight.

VA healthcare providers

are entitled to immunity from medical malpractice claims as provided by the Federal Tort Claims Act according to an employment ad in JAMA.

$15,568 a year

is the personal cost of obesity, including medications and food according the Helmuth Billy--but he's got a dog in this fight since he's a gastric banding advocate and that's about what the operation costs. Noted in WSJ 3-31.

My heart breaks for Ellen Minter

who at age 57 retired and is barely scraping by on her portfolio after years with a 6 figure income and real estate in California wine country. She's sold her Chanel suits on e-Bay and her convertible and is just going to ride out these tough economic times, according to a WSJ tear jerker yesterday.

God in the classroom?

At another blog I saw someone speculating on those pathetic third graders who were plotting against their teacher--something about "that's what you get when you take God out of the classroom." Wasn't that in the 1950s that Madelaine Murray O'Hare brought her law suit to stop prayer? I think God's been gone from the schools for some time, and in many communities he was never too welcome.

Can churches end poverty?

Maybe--if they toughen their message on chastity and marriage instead of having conferences and meetings about it. In 1970, 71% of all U.S. households were 2 parent families compared to 51% in 2007. Larry Elder says the 38 most important words about poverty are: “Finish high school, marry before having a child, and produce the child after the age of twenty." Only 8 percent of families who do this are poor; 79 percent of those who fail to do this are poor.

The Bureau of Labor Chart

showing restaurant growth corresponding to the increase of women working outside the home since the 70s seems to parallel the climb in obesity.

The Ohio Historical Society

is scaling back its Archives hours from 3 days a week to 2 days because of a 2% budget cut. Ohio spends less on its Archives than any other state. Something doesn't sound right in this story which appeared in the Dispatch.

Guess which state

ranks no. 1 in the nation for technology in schools.

Give up?

Sure surprised me.

Limbaugh's silliness

His "operation chaos" is silly, and so is his claim "it's working." If the Democrats are going to fail, let them fall on their swords of divisiveness, poor planning, sense of self-importance and the American people wising up to their thinly veiled socialist rhetoric. He's always saying his listeners aren't mind-numbed robots, so let's assume they won't do anything stupid he suggests. McCain, on the other hand, is actively soliciting lukewarm Democrats to vote for him and offending Republicans by ignoring most conservative principles. This is really a strange election. Is it possible we have 3 Democrats running? A socialist, a liberal and a moderate?

By the way, I heard another reason to support McCain the other day--the third. It might be the last chance to elect someone from the generation born before the Boomers, like 1930-1945. (I think he was born in 1937.) That group hasn't had anyone in the White House. Bill Clinton and George W Bush are boomers. Reagan, Carter, Bush I, Kennedy and Johnson are/were Greatest Generation, all WWII vets. So that's three: national security, Supreme Court appointments, and his generation's place in history. Sigh. Any other ideas? Help me out here.

Update: Two more opinions at Thinklings on Rush's silliness:it's unchristian and unpatriotic, demeaning our vote.

The grocery cart chart

in today's WSJ showed how food costs have jumped since the Democrats took back Congress in 2006. The change in consumer price index for food at home shows 2006 at below 1% and Feb. 2008 at 5.1%. Ouch.

Actually, I don't blame the Democrats specifically, but I do blame them generally because of their liberal policies, and Republicans RINOS helped. George Bush may be a Republican, but fiscally he isn't conservative.

1) Hostility to big retailers like Wal-Mart, Target, Costco, etc. at the local level which drives up costs for the poor and deprives them of jobs. Wal-Mart brings down prices in the area.

2) Hostility to drilling for oil and development of new refineries. This keeps us dependent on foreign oil and raises our food costs (transportation).

3) Deeply held, fundamentalist faith that man controls the climate. Regulations put in place by fear of global warming (while China and India do nothing) are promoting changes to less efficient and not yet highly developed biomass fuels.

4) Scare mongering by the main stream, liberal press even when we were experiencing the best economic upswing since the post WWII years.

5) Victimization and dependency building of minorities and lower income workers, increasing their need for government intervention, such as the latest housing problems when the meaning of "Adjustable Rate" came as a huge shock to home owners with no equity.

6) The threat of higher taxes, which both Democratic candidates are promising, has really cooled interest in investing just as boomers begin their retirement years. Hillobama makes rich people and corporations who produce goods and services out to be demons and bad guys while they and their families live luxuriously and send their children to private school. Even Mrs. Obama who earns a 6 figure income encouraged low income women in Zanesville, Ohio not to dream or aspire to a better life but to choose a service (less than $40,000) career.

But back to the grocery cart. When Kroger started its "loyalty card" program about 8 years ago, they lost me as a loyal customer. Loyalty plans are just a fancy name for couponing, and I refuse to play games with my food. (The original coupon was a wooden nickle.) So I switched to Meijer's, a nice medium sized Midwestern chain that doesn't use loyalty cards and gimmicks to save the consumer money. However, the nearest one is over 5 miles from here, so I've been trying out Marc's on Henderson Road. It is a small Ohio chain, and looks pretty low end when you first walk in with crowded aisles and check out counters that don't move. But I've been pleased with their organic selection, meat and fresh produce. Also, I'm less tempted to stroll through the household section and add to my food bill by picking up things I don't really need.

4744 I'm no math whiz

Are these statements true? Mickey, a high school friend of my husband, sent them along. (People who e-mail my husband don't know he doesn't use the computer and that I read his e-mail first.)

111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

The cost of raising a medium-size dog to the age of eleven: $ 16,400

The percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28%, but the percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38%

Q. If you were to spell out numbers, how far would you have to go until you would find the letter 'A'? A. One thousand

Interesting.

4743

Liberal Christians who speak in tongues

The editorial last week in our SNP (neighborhood) papers by Lyndsey Teter was titled "Can Columbus churches unite to end poverty?" made me think of Paul's first letter to the church in Corinth (ca. 53 A.D.). Corinth was a wealthy city with a global commerce and a flourishing art center. I don't think the tiny Christian church necessarily participated in or built that wealth, but the Christians were exposed to it and suffered under its pagan influence, much like Christians today suffer and scatter under the influences of our hyper-sexualized, hyper-materialistic culture. It's hard to always know what local problems he was addressing since we don't have their letter to him, but we know this--pride in certain types of gifts and behavior when they gathered for worship was one of them, and Paul addresses this in Chapter 14.

Ms. Teeter first tells us that Columbus churches of various traditions will join for a revival on April 16 and set their faces to fight poverty in a "justice revival." It is being led by Jim Wallis of Sojourners, who "has come to represent the Christian left, a counter to right-wing pastors such as Rod Parsley of World Harvest Church. . ." [if there is a pastor representing liberal churches who are silent on the Gospel, she doesn't provide a name]. After 3 days of praise and worship, the Christians will fan out to do service projects. So far, I'm underwhelmed because every Christian I know, liberal and conservative, mentors, or visits the sick and elderly, or works with Habitat, or Big Brothers, or Kairos Prison Ministry, etc.

Then she continues: ". . .getting left-leaning and right-leaning Christians united under one banner may be its larger accomplishment. . . half in the pews believe fearlessly protecting the unborn and the sanctity of marriage are tops on the agenda, while the tree-hugging hippy Christians like myself think leaders have alienated potential church-goers by pushing those two issues to the surface. Improving the social conditions of people in this world ought to be far more important, we say."

This is a well-meaning liberal Christian "speaking in tongues," code for all the social justice language and meaningless programming we've come to expect from guilt ridden Christians who struggle with having more when some have less. Read her words carefully (and she's far more accurate than most journalists). Her error is this: Conservative churches are the ones growing; studies show conservative Christians are the ones that give sacrificially. Not only do they give to their own churches to support staff and programs, but they also are more motivated to give to non-religious, helping organizations like United Way and Red Cross. As individuals, they have left the seeker status and have moved on to response mode.

What I remember most from my years in the liberal church is that everyone was always looking for the TRUTH and never hearing it from the pulpit or in Sunday School or small social groups. So they would join Vaud-Villities or run for breast cancer or jingle a pail for Charity Newsies and hope that counted for something. They were like starving little chicks, peeping and pecking away at the rocks of government programs, pebbles of good works and gravel of mystical seances, while the beckoning plump mother hen with the Gospel clucked and called from nearby.

What makes her think that Christians of all stripes are not speaking to each other unless an outsider from DC brings us together? I regularly meet with other Christians who are pro-choice and believe in evolution. Their beliefs do not represent mine, nor mine theirs. I get e-mails about end-times and the rapture, and special healing and herbal recipes, also from well-meaning Christians.

Yet Lyndsey Teter says potential church-goers are being pushed away by stances [of conservatives] on gay marriage, abortion and euthanasia. Where? Membership and growth figures prove her wrong. Why not point out the potential church-goers who are put off by what they hear and find in liberal churches? It's terribly hard for a church to grow if it has no message except commissioning a task force to end hunger or hymns to a clean environment and a Mother-Father primal parent [God]. Potential members can join a non-profit or NGO and keep Sunday open for leisure and sports if that's the extent of the message.

In their zeal to "get along" or "make a difference," conservative churches often wander away from their core truth, the message of God's redemption plan for mankind, believing and preaching it as a good starting point instead of the whole point. I hope this event is not a sign that this is happening in Columbus to some of our larger, more dynamic evangelical churches.

Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying? You will just be speaking into the air. . . Since you are eager to have spiritual gifts, try to excel in gifts that build up the church."

Challenging the common view

The press release from the National Science Foundation didn't raise eyebrows in this household:

"New research suggests political freedom and geographic factors contribute significantly to causes of terrorism, challenging the common view that terrorism is rooted in poverty."

I am tired of poverty or the "wealth gap" being the dead horse constantly flogged by academics and politicians so they can line their own pockets with government grants. Everything from obesity to learning disabilities to the digital divide is blamed on poverty, to say nothing of terrorism domestic and international, as though the non-poor never have social, spiritual, psychological, political or economic struggles.

The NSF has an annual budget of almost $6 billion to research these things. And it took them this long to figure this out? Who says people with money don't have problems?

Don't judge Obama by his pastor!

Conservative media are having a blast rerunning video of Jeremiah Wright's racist sermons and repeating the story that Barack Obama should have done something about his pastor. There may be 50 reasons to not vote for Obama, but his pastor isn't one of them. People who say this don't understand the structure of Protestant churches. First of all, if you criticise the pastor, the assistant pastor, the Sunday School staff, the organist, or even the janitor, you will be told nicely, and with love, that there are other churches (probably 5,000 denominations) which can meet your needs and perhaps it's time for you to go look at the alternatives. Second, for millions of Christians, their church is their home base, their family in a society where the nearest relative might be 500miles away, or friends live on the other side of the city, 45 minutes away. Third, many Christians are "Chreasters"--they attend only on the big holidays, and sermons at Christmas and Easter are usually standard fare. Where would they go where they would agree with everything? Especially Obama. He was not a Christian before meeting Rev. Wright. He was raised in the home of his white secular grandparents. How would he know what he might hear elsewhere in another black church after he'd given up a mentor and his church family?

If people have asked why Chelsea Clinton didn't stop her mother from lying about Bosnian snipers, I haven't seen it discussed. But the dynamics are similar. She loves her mother and respects her, warts and all. They've been through a lot together. Where is she going to find another family who will give her the visibility and power few women her age have? She knows her mother was lying about having war experience; she knows her father is a philandering liar. Where is she going to get another family if she turns her back on them because of their lies?

4740

Poor, lonesome, soundless letter "C"

Lately I've been reading William Tyndale's New Testament, it's excellent introduction by Priscilla Martin, and Tyndale's introduction and prologues to the NT books (1534, based on the 1938 ed). It's amazingly easy to read--large parts of the King James Version are based on this translation. Getting the Bible into the language of the English people was the dream he died for (he was strangled and his body burned). Anyway, one speech form that hasn't been modernized in this 1534 translation is the use of -eth and -th at the end of verbs. No one knows what 15th and 16th century English sounded like--we have no recordings. And there are those who think the -th and -eth were actually prounced not with a lisp, but a hiss, as an "S." And if you've ever tried it, it makes reading those older English Bibles much easier. Many more people heard the word than read the word in those days. The KJV was meant for the ear. "For God so loveth the world, that he hath given his only son, that none that believe in him should perish, but should have everlasting life."

That lead me to thinking about the letter "C" which has no sound of its own in English, but which is essential in so many words. It is either an "S" or a "K" or is combined with a consonant "H" to be hard or soft ch or sh. Sometimes a C with a T has an SH sound--but it might have the same sound combined with an I. Sometimes it is just completely ignored, as the first C in SCIENCE. I've blogged about this letter before, as in "concrete cellar chute."


Our sermon series right now is on "Faith Training," and today's sermon by Buff Delcamp was on the word "run." These are the "C" words I noted during the service:

race
face
grace
church -- Russian has one letter for the CH sound, Ч ч
come
cross
coast
command
confidence
accepted -- this word has both the k sound and the s sound
acclamation --this word has two k sounds, side by side
challenge
peace,
picture
resurrection
choir
sanctuary
precious
Nicene Creed

Tyndale's translation changed the politics of England (yes, I know why Henry VIII left the Catholic church) with just a few words. He used the Greek manuscripts instead of the Latin Vulgate (Wycliff used that 2 centuries earlier) in his translation. This means that PENANCE became REPENTANCE (Mark 1:1-3), and CHARITY became LOVE (1 Corinthians 13). Ecclesia was translated CONGREGATION instead of CHURCH. This undercut the power of the Catholic church even without the doctrine of justification which was the big issue among the German Lutherans.

Isn't language interesting. And if you depend on a translation that is either a paraphrase, or is burdening you with 16th century English, then Tyndale died for nothing! He was a stickler for accuracy, beauty and sound.

Think local, act short term

You'll do far more good. Sixteen year olds are just not going to get turned on to a project to help their grandchild inherit a better earth. On our way to Worthington last night to have dinner with our friends Wes and Sue, we were stopped at a light at 315 and North Broadway. What a mess. There is trash--bottles, bags, old political signs, posters, grocery sacks, newspapers--embedded in all the branches and grasses, smashed up against the wire fences, and strewn along the easements and berms. I'm not sure if this is a county problem or a city problem, but I know it is a local problem. Everytime a piece of paper breaks loose from a garbage truck bin, it collects itself with other trash along a fence row. Everytime a wise guy tosses a beer bottle from the car window, he's invading my space. All the schools have community service requirements "to incorporate classroom skills with the real world." A few stints of cleaning up these areas instead of the cushy inside jobs at the senior center or the local library would probably teach teens a lesson they'd never forget. Litter hurts.

Night Terrors

On radio and TV, at 3 a.m. the weirdos come out to spread lies, terrors, fears and falsehoods. The radio guys are not quite as well funded as public TV so they just report on outer space aliens, faces in syrup on pancakes, and major government plots. The stuff that shows up on your tax supported public TV channels is a lot more anti-capitalist, anti-American and more subtly about government plots. They can make Jeremiah Wright (Obama's pastor who preaches black liberation theology) look like a beginner, but with less shouting.

This morning on WOSU-TV about 3:30 a.m. I came across "Unnatural causes: Is inequality making us sick," by California Newsreel--your source for "social justice." The title is a no brainer--of course they think inequality makes people sick. There was no discussion--it was incredibly lop sided. I don't know if Heritage Foundation puts out films on health, but if it does WOSU should provide equal time. In the few minutes I watched this propaganda, there was no information on wealth and class mobility (I've been in 4 of the 5 quintiles), or the wealth of households which have married parents compared to those that don't, or the fact that in Western countries with a base of socialized medicine, wealth will still buy a person a level of care (and speed) that the lowest paid subsidized worker can't have (we have friends in Finland and have seen this). We have many levels of government health care in the U.S., Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, the VA health care system, and the people who use it most effectively also use their private wealth just as in Canada, England, France, Finland, etc.

Every socialist, well-dressed think-tank CEO, consulted for this film from Warren Buffett to lobbyist, black, brown or white, was himself well-off--it was everyone else (oddly enough only since the 80s--hmmm, must be a clue) who was hurting. That's how they make their income (except Buffett whose wealth has softened his brain). No mention of the damage to the health and welfare of children that moving masses of women into the labor force since the early 1970s has done. Or the damage done to children who are scraped from the womb into garbage pails and never have an opportunity to earn any income at all. Most poor children don't have married parents. That's their gap. No, these folks want more money for daycare to push more children out of the home. And more power for government run schools (while they send their children to private schools). If only there were less of an income gap they say, there would be better health all around--i.e., redistribute middle class wealth into government grants for various pork infested programs. Maybe that will bail Arnold and California out of their spiraling debt?

After you get safe water, which we've had since the early 20th century, good health is primarily genetic and behavioral--remove the genes you inherited and your bad eating habits, your smoking and drinking, and see what this looks like. But don't compare the U.S. to countries that haven't become the home of immigrants from every continent's gene pool for 500 years.

I've composed a song just for California Newsreel to use in its trailers after viewing its list of high priced titles. Haven't got a tune yet.

California Newsreel Theme song

Oh sing along, along with me
about a socialist choppy sea
in which we all can drown drown
equally and all around 'round.

Oh, fiddle-dee-dee,
but not for me
I'm way too smart
for my good heart.

It's for you, it's for you
Your taxes, not just a few
Gimme, gimme oh let me see
The first cut will come to me!

Refrain:
Gimme, gimme oh let me see
The first cut will come to me!

Friday Family Photo 1968

Forty years ago, February 1968, I took my baby daughter to the Ohio State University Libraries catalog department, where I'd been a Slavic cataloger, to show her off. I had resigned when she arrived and didn't return to work for 9 years. Looking at this photo, what I find so remarkable is not how gorgeous she was, or that my winter coat had fur cuffs and collar, but how dressed up we all were. It almost looks like a party, but I had simply dropped by to let them see her. In those days, women library staff didn't wear slacks to work, and jeans were unthinkable. Look at that! High heels, jewelry--that's amazing. As skirts got shorter and shorter in the late 60s and early 70s, making it impossible to be graceful or comfortable, women welcomed the pants suit, and haven't looked back! And we did a lot of walking in those days--everything you did at your desk had to be checked and double checked in various printed sources or the card catalog. Looks like we stayed trim. The main building, Thompson Library on Neil Avenue, is closed now for remodeling, but at that time the catalog department was on the first floor approximately where the offices of the reference department staff were a few years back (technical services were in the basement since the mid-70s.)

If her lips are moving

Whether it is about her pre-Bush belief in the threat of WMD and Saddam Hussein, or dodging sniper fire in Bosnia, or the right wing conspiracy to bring down Bill with LIES about his sex life, or her financial scare stories about all the industries she currently denounces, you can't believe her. And the media mavens let us know what they think of truth (all quotes in today's USAToday) It's just not a big deal.

AP writer Ron Fournier: "over compensating"

Boston Globe, Joan Vennochi: "selective memory syndrome"

Slate, John Dickerson: "we should stop pouncing on every little thing"

David Brooks: "The candidates are sniping and we have to endure. . ."

Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Cynthia Tucker: "snarling and vicious smears"

Update 3-29: Peggy Noonan thinks the press and some supporters might finally be wise to her.

4735

If I were younger

I'd buy a house. The bargains right now are fabulous compared to 3 or 4 years ago when buyers were bidding up the seller's price. And 20 years ago? My goodness! We got a mortgage at 10.5% and were happy to get it. We checked at our local bank this week about some property we plan to sell, and the rates for either conventional or FHA were 5.75%. That's lower than we paid in 1962 when we bought our first home, a duplex in Champaign, Illinois. We were in the bottom quintile, the down payment was a gift from my father, he took the 2nd mortgage so we paid on two mortgages (renters paid one), and we lived on the first floor and rented the second floor. Being a landlord is a huge hassle, particularly when you are 22 years old, but that rent put us where we are today. When we sold the house on land contract upon moving to Columbus in 1967, the mortgage payment also covered our car loan. Then it turned out the bank had made an error in calculating the principle, so we got a little unexpected cash bonus when the new owner finally paid it off. Young people today have many more options, but they complain more and are less willing to sacrifice. (My parents thought the same of us because they were young adults during the Great Depression.) One option that we didn't have, which was a blessing, was that banks would not consider a wife's income in figuring what you could pay. So many people have lived to the max the last 30 years that when the economy "hits a rough patch" as it will do in cycles, they have no resources.



By the time this photo was taken, the house had been painted charcoal grey, my husband had installed a separate door for the tenants, put a wall between the stairs and our apartment, and built a wall through the upstairs kitchen to create a small second bedroom. He also remodeled our kitchen, divided our dining room so we would have two bedrooms, and built a linen closet in the bathroom. He was quite handy with a limited set of tools. The basement had a dirt floor, so on damp days it could be creepy with crawly things. There was no garage, and although that looks like grass, I think it was mainly weeds. That's my mother's car on the gravel driveway from the brick street, but eventually we bought that too.

What are you waiting for? Here's some bargains I saw in today's paper: In Chicago, on north Astor you can get a Gold Coast penthouse with 10' ceilings, living room, dining room, 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths for $1,150,000. Fabulous location. If I could choose anyplace in the world to live (and had my children near by) it would be Chicago.

In West Virginia there are some bargain homesites at New River Gorge for $60,000. The only interesting property I saw in Ohio in the WSJ was an auction for 2-3 acres near Hinkley (isn't that where the buzzards fly to?) with wooded, scenic ravines. But there are great properties all over central Ohio.

Another one under the bus?

First Granny, now Tony. Does anyone in Obama's campaign like Jews? Tony McPeak's anti-Israel, anti-Jewish "comments are worse than McCarthyism [of which he accused the Clintons]. They reflect the views of Reverend Wright and other Obama advisers who believe that Israel is just a problem to be solved, not an ally to support.

McPeak is not the only member of the Obama campaign who holds such twisted views. Others such as Robert Malley or Zbigniew Brzezinski have found themselves downgraded to "informal" advisers as their anti-Israel views are made public. Samantha Powers was dismissed for calling Hillary a monster, not for sharing McPeak's belief in the malign omnipotence of the "Israel lobby."" American Spectator

Small waist, heavy hips

We're not in great demand as movie stars or models, but I've never seen any medical studies attributing cardiovascular disease, psoriasis, breast cancer or Alzheimer's to my body shape (the classic pear). Yes, there's more bad belly news, according to the latest issue of Neurology. Large amounts of belly fat are associated with declining cognition. Just being over weight or obese nearly doubles the risk of dementia in old age, according to this study by Rachel Whitmer which looked at 6,583 who were middle age between 1964-1973. Central body fat increases the risk even more, and normal weight people with high belly fat have an elevated risk of dementia.

"What that tells you is the effect of the belly is over and above that of being overweight," Whitmer said. "One of the take-home messages is it's not just your weight but where you carry your weight in middle age that is a strong predictor of dementia."

But here's a bright spot: it's much easier to lose belly weight than those dimpled thighs or buttocks. So cut those calories and start exercising--it's the only way.

WaPo story which has been reprinted in most major newspapers.

There may be something different in this latest study, but this information also appeared 3 years in BMJ: Whitmer RA, Gunderson EP, Barrett-Connor E, Quesenberry CP Jr, Yaffe K. "Obesity in middle age and future risk of dementia: a 27 year longitudinal population based study." BMJ 2005;330:1360.

Learning to read

Everyone learns differently, and if you're lucky, when you were learning to read you had phonics. Some people have a good eye and a tin ear. Others an outstanding memory. Some will never enjoy reading no matter what method is used--it will be only utilitarian. Theories of reading have been changing for 200 years. Since I had both Dick and Jane (see and say, or repeat the words until you know them) and phonics exercises (my first grade teacher recently died at about 103 and she was a killer for phonics, punctuation and spelling), I had a good blend. Here's Jeanne Chall's summary from Learning to read (1967, rev. 1983) as reported by Dr. Diane Ravitch.

Chall said that there are two primary approaches to teaching reading: one stresses the importance of breaking the code of language; and the other stresses the meaning of language. Phonics programs had a code emphasis, and look-say programs had a meaning emphasis. The research, Chall said, unequivocally supported the use of a code emphasis for beginning readers—and she stressed “beginning readers.”

She found that the first step in learning to read in one’s native language is essentially learning a printed code for the speech we possess. The code emphasis was especially important for children of lower socioeconomic status, she said, because they were not likely to live in homes surrounded with books or with adults who could help them learn to read. Knowing the names of the letters and the sounds of the letters before learning to read, Chall said, helps children in the beginning stages regardless of which method is used. She concluded that for a beginning reader, knowledge of letters and sounds had even more influence on their reading achievement than the child’s tested IQ did.

Her report was followed by an even more interesting one about the differences in achievement of black students living and attending public school in Fairfax County (wealthy DC suburb) and those in Richmond, VA. In Richmond schools that were 99% black were outperforming the black students in schools that were 99% white. Apparently the Richmond administration had decided to stop blaming poverty and the parents for the students' poor showing and decided it was their job to teach, and to use the best methods to do that (there's not a lengthy discussion of phonics, but it was included).

Read the entire discussion here.

4731

How was your Easter?

Were you asked to be a witness to history, to what happened to Jesus, or were you asked to examine your inner life, motives and attitudes? Was it all about you, your problems, your solutions, your purpose on earth, your good moral behavior and example; was it about renewing the environment and saving the earth for the bunnies, flowers and blue skies, ending the war in the Middle East, Sudan, or Somalia, fighting AIDS or poverty? Did you get a long list of do's and don'ts, or did you get the full Gospel? Was the miracle of the resurrection explained away, with a patronizing pat on the head if you chose to believe? Were you asked to crucify those bad thoughts and roll away the stones in your life that keep you from reaching your spiritual goals, or were you asked to see and believe what happened to Jesus Christ? 1 Corinthians 15 (NIV):

Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel . . .By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word . . . Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

Paul didn't preach "personal relationship," or about life's purpose, he preached Christ crucified and raised from the dead.

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. . . .If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith."

Can you imagine Paul enduring (2 Corinthians 11) prison, stoning, shipwrecks, hunger, thirst, bandits, and 40 lashes minus one for the sermon you heard on Easter? If you didn't hear what Paul believed on Easter Sunday, he says you are to be pitied. And if you only hear it on Easter and not the rest of the year, I'd suggest that's a pity too.

4730

Does this seem honest to you?

"Selective Service does not collect any information which would indicate whether or not you are undocumented. You want to protect yourself for future U.S. citizenship and other government benefits and programs by registering with Selective Service. Do it today."

Back during the 18th and 19th century the U.S. government used to sometimes grab the new immigrants and put them in the service before they knew what was happening. That's why you've got Irish immigrants as heroes in Mexico, because they switched sides being so disgruntled because of mistreatment as a Catholic minority. Immigrants since the Revolutionary War have always enlisted in the service as a fast track to citizenship. There were German divisions in our Civil War. In the sense that immigration wasn't as codified then as now, I think we can still say it is dishonest to promise benefits to an illegal for registering for the draft. Luring illegals (who apparently can read English) with the promise that by registering for the draft their status within the country will be secure doesn't quite seem right to me. Not right for us; not right for them. They've already violated the law. What other law violators do we want in the armed forces?

HT Where's your brain.

Selective Service site.

4729

Bad reporting on the uninsured

Jane Zhang reports on the growing number of uninsured government contract workers in today's WSJ. Unfortunately, she hangs the story on the case of a 44 year old, obese woman with MS. The woman, you find out at the end of this sad story, was working for a blind contractor as a food service worker earning $7/hour. She worked approximately 2 years before being diagnosed with MS and had no health insurance.

Under the federal Randolph-Sheppard Act, blind vendors get priority in winning certain federal contracts. In an illustration of the thicket that contract workers face, there is disagreement over what benefits blind vendors who participate in a government program that gives them preferences, are required to offer employees. The Labor Department says blind vendors must comply with the Service Contract Act and provide benefits. But the Education Department, which administers the Randolph-Sheppard program in conjunction with states, says that is decided on a case-by-case basis. The District of Columbia administrator of the program says the blind vendors aren't required to provide benefits.

Zhang builds her story of uninsured contract workers on a case where we find out (at the end) the woman gets full disability from Social Security, Medicare, and $19,000 worth of free drugs a year from the drug company. It's a matter of conjecture (one doctor's) that insurance could have done anything about the MS.

What Zhang points out, but barely, is that contract workers can receive a cash equivalent of $3.16 an hour to buy their benefits according to the McNamara-O'Hara 1965 law which covers private contractors. So what's the gripe? Well, most federal employees have outstanding perks and $5,587 (average) apparently isn't enough to purchase what they would get as full government employees. But the big problem as I see it is the workers, who are often at the low end wage scale, don't use the cash bonus to buy health insurance--they use it for rent, or clothing, or cigarettes and beer. Who knows. But given the choice, they choose not to buy health insurance. There are on-going investigations to catch and punish contractors who don't abide by the law.

There were 650 investigations of contractors by the Labor Dept in 2007, and I assume something triggered the investigation. If there are 5.4 million contract workers, how many are not getting either the insurance or the cash benefit to buy insurance? She uses only anecdotes. There's no information on which is what. This may be a serious problem--but based on the flimsy evidence she has reported, we'll need to look elsewhere for the answers.

When we find out why people who can buy health insurance either privately or through their employer but don't, then maybe we're getting somewhere. It's odd that there isn't a law as there is for car insurance putting the responsibility on the worker.

4728

New endeavor

This is probably a difficult time to start a new magazine, but I did buy one for my collection this morning and have posted it at my In the Beginning blog about premiere issues. This perky blogger is responsible for the artwork and content, I think. Its original title was Homegrown Hospitality, and it has already changed it to Home and Heart. An inside librarian joke was to create a serial with the name Title Varies*--the topic, of course, was title changes. The issue I purchased said, "display until 10/9/07" but it must have become wedged behind some others and wasn't pulled. Lucky me. The hobby angel saved it.

*A piece of history at Serials Round Table history site: "One periodical which reflects this flurry of serials activities was Title Varies which began in December 1973. Those familiar with this publication remember the infamous acronym, LUTFCSUSTC (pronounced “lootfasustic”, or “lutfasustic”, depending on who was pronouncing it) which stood for Librarians United to Fight Costly, Silly Unnecessary Title Changes. Texas serialists were a very vocal group in their contributed letters, articles, and serial title changes." One librarian wrote in Title Varies in the 1970s wondered who puts up the money for new serials (high mortality, high cost) and who subscribes (libraries) even pondered what we would do without new ones appearing all the time . . . "Imagine what would happen if all that information kept building up and had no way to disseminate itself until finally it would have to propel itself outward in random directions at high velocities, accompanied by heat, light, and noise. That would be a real information explosion." Doesn't that sound like a prediction of cyberspace?

Easter 2008

We served communion at the Sunrise service, 7 a.m. When we've done this other years, we've gone a second time with our children, but this year we told them they were on their own. So our daughter and son-in-law went to the 11 a.m. traditional service in the sanctuary and heard Pastor Dave Mann, back from Haiti for Easter week, the organ and the choir, and our son went to the 11:15 a.m. x-alt service in the fellowship hall and heard Joe Valentino, and the loud rock band, which he thought was excellent (he has a band), except he thought the drums were too loud.

Sunrise services don't seem to have the appeal they used to--at least not when Easter is this early. Counting the choir, I'm guessing we only had about 90 people--and almost no young people. When I was a teen-ager it was a big event to go to the school athletic field for a community shared service in Mt. Morris dressed in our Easter best--hat, gloves, high heels, etc., and sit and shiver on the bleachers. Even kids who didn't go any other time, would attend that service. I remember one year I over slept--must have been a junior--so when my date got to our house it was dark. We lived in a small town and people didn't lock the doors. So he let himself in, realized everyone was asleep, and walked upstairs to my bedroom and woke me up.

Here we are for Easter 1969. Bad quality polaroid, but my husband had red hair.



Easter 2007

4727

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.