I'm just reading my script

was her response to my interrupting her "just 4 quick" questions about what did I think about middle class families getting squeezed by American companies getting tax breaks to go overseas. Wow. How many times have we seen that ad on TV? It is Ohio, you know. Well, I threw it right back at her and asked where did she think these companies were supposed to go when our unions and environmentalists have driven them out of our major cities. I told her I was a pensioner, and where did she think my income was supposed to come from, yada yada. Poor thing. "I'm just reading my script" she whimpered. I hope she's getting minimum wage and not being paid under the table or working as a volunteer.

60,000 greet Palin at The Villages in Florida

The big question: Was Murray there or was he still in Mt. Morris playing golf?

The Villages, a vast, upscale planned community north of Orlando, has about 70,000 mostly adult residents -- many of them military retirees -- who vote reliably Republican in statewide races. Tens of thousands inched along roads into the picturesque town square of the complex, where they stood in sweltering heat for about four hours as local GOP officials and a country band revved up the crowd.

"Sa-Rah! Sa-Rah!" they chanted at every mention of her name, applauding loudly and waiving tiny American flags that were distributed -- along with free water bottles -- by local volunteers. The fire chief estimated the crowd at 60,000. Story here.

The first news story I found on this included so much editorializing, I had to skip it and find something more reliable. The "reporter" didn't even slip in quotes from other candidates to give his own point of view--just blabbed away. I don't mind opinions, but when I read a news story, I'd prefer something else--like reporting. Save opinions for blogs and the editorial page.

The Politics of Hollywood

Chris Matthews observed in an interview this morning that since the beginning of the Cold War in 1947, Hollywood hasn't made a single anti-Communist film. I had just turned on the radio, so I don't know the context. I suppose he meant Hollywood in the genre or form sense, not the place. I have no way of checking that information--even with Google that would be tough, because anymore, what is "Hollywood?" Someone would be sure to find something anti-Mao or anti-Stalin (although that's not anti-marxist, just the person) on film that got swept up. And they even make movies in Ohio--that's flyover country that liberals only visit during presidential campaigns. However, it does make some sense. There have been a lot of movies about WWII, Nazis, and blacklisting Hollywood communists. The Nazis killed far fewer people than the Communists did. Of course, the Communists have been in power longer, and killed millions upon millions of their own citizens (and it continues through starvation in North Korea), not just "others" like Jews, East Europeans, gypsies and the disabled.

But American liberals have out done even the Soviet, Chinese and North Korean Communists. We Americans killed probably well over 40,000,000 unborn babies since the early 70s, and untold millions of Africans by taking DDT off the market--our own Rachel Carson holocaust. Add to that record, our global warming hysteria and regulations which will bring death to people in undeveloped countries. Already our regulation-crazy Democrats have pushed the Iraqis to sell their oil to the Chinese rather than mess with our rules. And in case our warm and fuzzy liberals have forgotten, the Chinese are still Communists who need oil. So, who am I, or Chris Matthews who raised the issue, to criticize the blood money of rich Hollywood investors, producers, directors and actors?

Why the liberals want Obama

To assuage their guilt, which unless they have a history of owning slaves, carpet bagging, red lining, organizing to bus black children out of their neighborhood, guarding the school door with guns, or dissing their black co-workers, is most likely misplaced.

This is the final argument in a "Letter to the Dispatch editor," Sept. 2.

“Obama's election would tell this country and the world that America is better than it has seemed recently. Watching again Ken Burns' The Civil War epic on television is a grim reminder of where we were. Obama can be a telling statement of where we are now.”

JOHN W. VanDERVOORT
Columbus

This is the most pitiful reason I've ever heard to choose a president--because of what you've done wrong in the past and to please people in Europe and Asia (like they've never had an ethnic or racial problem!) rather than what he can bring to the office through his abilities and experience. What an impossible burden to put on Obama!

Wasn't this settled?

Eat less, move more, don't smoke. "Combined impact of lifestyle factors on mortality: prospective cohort study in US women," Rob M van Dam, BMJ 2008;337:a1440 Here.

I guess it needed more study. Alcohol consumption was also part of the study, but there are trade offs, depending on the amount. The danger is always that "light" will move on to "excessive," thus eliminating the health benefits.

Conclusions
Avoiding cigarette smoking is of pivotal importance for the prevention of premature death. In our study of middle aged women, adherence to lifestyle guidelines involving a healthy diet, regular physical activity, and weight management was also associated with markedly lower mortality. Of note, our results indicate that a healthy diet and regular physical activity have important health benefits independent of reducing adiposity. These findings underscore the importance of intensifying both efforts to eradicate cigarette smoking and those aimed at improving diet and physical activity.

The non-epidemic of AIDS

Just as people who aren't buying into the "we can control the world" pantheism theme of global warming are sneered at and vilified as deniers, so also were those who denied that AIDS was an epidemic EVERYONE needed to fear. You didn't even need much biology to figure out that it was gay men, bi-sexual men, intravenous drug users and sex workers who had the problem. But no, we were constantly bashed if we believed AIDS is a very specific problem that threatens some people with very specific behaviors. And even then, we knew intuitively that it was the extremely promiscuous gay men who were immune compromised from other venereal diseases who posed the most risk to other gays. The monogamous librarians raising some kids and a garden out back probably weren't the same threat as the swingers hitting the bath houses in San Francisco.

The problem is this; raising funds for a disease is a little gold mine--and once you're on a roll, no one wants to give that up. If cancer disappeared tomorrow, millions would be out of a job and a reason for living. It's incredibly political--think of the Bush-bashing if he doesn't pour enough money into AIDS; or how much love and warm fuzzies former presidents can get by funding a foundation to fight AIDS. In Africa, the money for AIDS is stealing from the general health of the population.

In his paper 'The myth of a general AIDS pandemic', Professor Chin argues that UNAIDS has been very successful in raising unprecedented global financial support for HIV/AIDS programmes, but has achieved this by 'grossly exaggerating the scope and trend' of the pandemic. While Professor Chin stops short of accusing the agency of deliberately lying, his implication is that UNAIDS has depended on inaccurate alarmism to ensure a continued flow of funds to the innumerable NGOs, government programmes and activist groups that constitute the AIDS industry.

While no-one is denying that AIDS remains an extremely serious problem in certain parts of sub-Saharan Africa, UNAIDS' distortions have had serious implications for global health. Because AIDS budgets in many African countries are now often bigger than the entire national health budget, this has led to distortions in the provision of overall primary care, with carers, clinicians and other scarce resources being diverted into AIDS, undermining funding for basic health services.

Story at Medical Progress

Maybe Chin won't call the UNAIDS a bunch of liars, but I will. Don't be manipulated by the disease mongers. Know where your own money and your tax money goes.

Same old Ellen

I thought for once I might agree with Ellen Goodman when the headline read, "Women need to get over Palinitis." Nope. It really sticks in her craw. She used the entire column to quote all the haters and fear mongers, and then adds her own snarky, snippity, cynical, trash-talking cant to insult and demean not only Palin, but those Republicans and Hillary supporters who plan to vote for her. How does this help her candidate? If you were even considering Obama, but liked the idea of a woman that close to power who didn't get there on daddy's money or hubby's coattails, are you really going to appreciate being insulted by some snooty, back biting, feminasti columnist? Is that how Democrats expand their base? By being base?

Family Religious History Chart

At my other, other blog, Church of the Acronym, I wrote about finding the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture at Wheaton College. I had started out looking for a modern translation of Egeria's travel guide to Jerusalem (a fourth century Spanish nun), but you know how it is on Google--it's really a delightful surprise package. Anyway, in addition to reading assignments, quizes etc. in the course (History 483), "Christianity in North America from the colonial era to the present," there is an assigned paper (a few exceptions) in which the student develops a chart for four generations of her/his own family beginning with self, listing the religious affiliations of each family member as fully as possible and briefly noting other important religious/social data.

This would be a piece of cake for me: my parents, their parents, and their grandparents and some of their great-grandparents were all part of the Church of the Brethren (the name since 1908; earlier name was German Baptist Brethren, or Dunkards). Mother's German-Swiss ancestors and Dad's Scots-Irish ancestors were all part of the same faith family. Going back any further, things get a little murky. I know there were Mennonites and Lutherans on Mom's side, and Presbyterians and Methodists on Dad's. In the chart the student is to include important conversion or revival experience, if they were part of an acrimonious church split (the Brethren frequently split) and if they were part of an ethnic minority (wasn't everyone except the English?). Then the 2nd part of the assignment is to write a 12-15 page research paper placing some aspect of the student's religious family history in the context of broader themes in the history of American Christianity. If it were me in the class, I'd write about education, because the Brethren came later than most Protestant groups to the importance of education (it was worldly), but then squabbled about it and established printing presses, Sunday Schools, high schools and colleges. So my great-grandfather (David) learned only enough to read the Bible and do some math for his carpenter job, and his daughter (Mary) went to college--a huge jump in just a generation. His psalter was in German (he was probably 4th or 5th generation American), and she knew only English.

Can you track your family's religious journey four generations?

Peggy Noonan worries

What if neither one is up to the latest crisis?

"A fearless prediction: My beautiful election enters its dark phase.

Lots of signs of the new darkness. Mr. Obama's army is swarming, blocking lines when Obama critics show up for radio interviews. A study out Thursday said the Obama campaign has become more negative than the McCain campaign. There is the hacking—no one at this point knows by whom—of Sarah Palin's personal email account. From Mr. Obama himself, a new edge. He tells an audience in Elko, Nev., to "argue" with McCain supporters and "get in their face." Bambi is playing Chicago style. No doubt everyone around him has been saying, and for some weeks now, "Get tough." But this is not how to get tough, and it does not reflect a shrewd reading of what the moment demands. People want depth, not ferocity. We've got nerves that jingle-jangle-jingle.

And it gives Mr. McCain a beautiful opening. He can now play Oldest and Wisest, damning the new meanness more in sorrow than in anger.

There's another reason things will get more mean than meaningful. Here is the tough, sad, rather deadly assumption I see rising among our media people, our thinkers, observers and chatterers, the highly sophisticated who've seen'em come and seen'em go: It is, again: What if neither of them is the right man? What if neither of them is equal to the moment? What if neither party is equal to the moment? Article here.

Remembering the Depression

I don't and most likely neither do you, and it looks like our Administration and the two presidential candidates haven't even read a magazine article about it, let alone a history textbook or taken an economics class. Couldn't they have at least listened to their parents tell stories of the "bad old days?"

I think the older McCains were out of the country, and Obama's father and his parents were in Africa in those years, so unless his Hawaiian grandparents mentioned it to him, he probably knows nothing either. Obama's confused about money anyway and where it comes from (Biden's son was a lobbiest, Fannie, Freddie, and Hollywood have funded his campaign with bazillions and still he poor mouths about a bad economy, etc., and he never had two nickles until the Bush years, but he's had a brain freeze), so we'll give him a pass.

But I do remember this, from what my parents told me. Dad and Mom were never unemployed and they owned their own home (maybe two different ones, but I don't remember when they bought the house from my early childhood). Their college closed after a bad fire and there was no money to rebuild. There must have been scholarship money, because that's how Dad went to college. However, a college education meant nothing then; they worked in a printing plant, took in roomers, and Mom worked as a housekeeper for awhile. My maternal grandparents lost most of their wealth in the 1920s equivalent of the tech bust of the 1990s--they had over speculated in farm land during WWI. After the war ended, no one needed all those commodities and the bottom dropped out for the American farmer long before it did for Wall Street investors. Also, my grandfather was just a careless manager. Even in bad times, personal skill matters. But they still hung on to three farms through hard work.

But things didn't really go south until Franklin Roosevelt took over. The U.S. could have been spared a lot of pain and loss if the government--all of them--had acted more responsibly and infused less socialism. If you think things are a mess now, just wait until Obama tries to equalize everything.

I've been listening to the media and the Democrats hammering "this economy" since the run up to the 2004 election, so to paraphrase what I heard on a CNN special today from a reporter who belatedly has realized that just maybe her job is on the line too if the media continues to dig this hole deeper--let's all just breathe.

The distorted Gospel of liberal Christians

A member of a UCC congregation thought I was singling out her branch of Christianity in a previous post. I wish it were only UCC-ans who had the problem of following another Jesus (the community organizer Jesus), but it's mainline Protestants in general. I simply observed that you can tell Obama is a Christian because he follows the path of the UCC by imposing change and repentance from the top down instead of allowing God to work in the sinner. I won't go into all eleven pages of a sermon given at a WordAlone convention in 2007 by Rev. Prof. Karl P. Donfried, Dr. of Theology, but here's a brief summary in that presentation of what's happening in my denomination/synod, ELCA, Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, with headquarters in Chicago.

“. . . the ELCA has, for all intents and purposes, jettisoned Scripture as the anchor of our faith by removing it from its creedal and confessional context and because the ELCA has allowed those who reject this Lutheran context to be among its most prominent interpreters. Instead of proclaiming a Gospel of grace and redemption that calls sinful humanity to repentance and new life, the ELCA adamantly promulgates a message based on secular humanism that is fixated on issues of racism and sexism, and that is more concerned with establishing new rostered racial justice monitors than it is with feeding and nurturing the ordained pastors of this church. This alien and distorted Gospel, no longer drawing on the deep wells of Scripture as classically interpreted, is now actualized through a political agenda of good works that is hell bent on rectifying the injustices of a selfish and violent world with superficial language about “social justice” that seems to aspire to the highest levels of naiveté. At every corner exuberant banality appears to be the order of the day."

As a way of explanation, UCC is way out in front in "good works" and revising Biblical texts to change the world (since Jesus didn't or couldn't), the latest being marriage of homosexuals, adding homosexuals to clergy rosters, and falling head first in the cesspool of modern environmentalism that will eventually destroy any hope for an improved life for third world citizens. But that's only because they are the oldest in the United States being descendants of the Puritans. The Lutherans didn't even have a hymnal in English until about 130 years ago, having come here not from England, but Germany, Scandinavia, the Baltics, etc. and eschewing "diversity" and the English for about 100 years.

The other day I took something into the church to be photocopied--a list of the beautiful paintings by Jeri Platt of mission work in Haiti (second floor, Mill Run campus). I glanced down at the staff member's desk and my eye fell on a printout that included the words, "diversity" and "social justice." Groan. Probably sponsored by a government grant like our summer lunch program, but I just didn't ask. It's too upsetting to see the church and the gospel co-opted by the "exuberant banality" of government-speak.

Will Bush follow FDR's bad legacy?

It wasn't the crash of 1929 that put this country into a 10 year Depression, it was the government policies that followed trying to correct from above. First Hoover, then Roosevelt. FDR cleaned up his legacy with WWII, but he drastically extended the Depression which preceded those years and set the ground work for a huge federal bureaucracy.

In 1933 there was a moment when the U.S. really did seem poised for recovery -- the moment of Franklin Roosevelt's inauguration. Confronting the banking crisis, President Roosevelt did what President Bush, Congress and the Treasury are likely to do in coming days: create a mechanism to sort out banks and their holdings, to separate good assets from bad. Story here at WSJ

I hope somebody in Washington has read American history. We know the direction Obama will take--any route that takes freedom away from the American people, especially people who have investments and personal assets who aren't dependent on the dole. But what about McCain? He's speaking out, but he was in Congress too. Obama was only "present," a newcomer who was basically a cut-out observer who has been running for president most of his term, but McCain actually was there. What's his record on Fannie and Fred and the Fed?

Charlie Rangel calls Palin disabled.

Even for a Democrat under investigation for tax evasion, this is the lowest of low. Keep going guys, you’re only helping the McCain-Palin ticket calling supporters and undecided “disabled,” “racists,” “clingers to religion,” and other words those among the beltway do-nothings think are pejoratives. But the “differently abled” folks aren't so thrilled with this comment either, even if they mistakenly think Democrats are their champions, you liberals of both parties who think the disabled should be eliminated before birth.

Don't give up your day job

Recently I switched my opening page from Dell(?) to Google, after trying RR for awhile. I'm happy with the Google page because it seems a bit more straightforward, not so dependent on pop culture, and it's easy to select the news source from its list. I was viewing Business Week looking for information on the recent government bailouts, but found their series of videos less than satisfactory. When the cable networks put up the talking heads, I think they've been vetted a bit, but these people need a good haircut, some decent make-up, and a little work with a voice coach. Back to reading the news for me. Let's see what Congress will do. Will the Democrats rather have the economy go to hell in a handbasket thinking they will win the election like they tried to sabotage the war effort?

Yesterday, SiteMeter was wacko again, don't know if anyone else noticed. And Blogger was posting constant error messages. I suppose some may be after affects of the storms. This threw my TTLB way off again, careening like a sunken polar bear on melting ice.

I made another pot of homemade cream of tomato soup and shared it with my son who couldn't believe I hadn't added any sugar--it's quite sweet.

Women paid less than men

The line in the Helskinki Compaint Choir that I love is, "women are still paid less than men." Yes, you're hearing this tidbit slipped into the anti-McCain campaign ads, too. It's a ploy to get women voters, although they are pretty much in the tank for Obama anyway. Yes, more appealing to the victim mentality. No wonder Sarah Palin was a breath of fresh air!

I've written more than once on this myth, even using my own experience when I went to my boss and complained, only to find out the other woman (a minority) had an additional degree, and the guy--well, he had asked for more in his job interview, which means we started out at different levels, levels on which our promotions and merit pay were built.

The September 10 issue of JAMA is all about medical education. After they get their school loans paid off, and practice loans under control, most doctors do quite well. So, how are women doctors doing? I didn't see anything about salaries, but the specialties women enter as compared to men are certainly revealing.

According to Appendix II, "Graduate Medical Education, 2007-2008" compiled by Sarah Brotherton and Sylvia Etzel, women are collecting in certain areas of medicine. A wild guess here, but these are fields that are not among the highest paid, but probably offer more flexibility in scheduling to accomodate family needs. If they start to whine in 20 years, I hope someone refers them to this article. And the male doctors need to watch out too--because if they choose a specialty dominated by women, their own incomes will go down. Sorry, folks, I didn't write the rules, I just live by them. Here's some areas of specialty where women are more than 50%. Keep in mind, some of these programs are quite small--if transplant hematology only as 3 people, and 2 are women, they have 66.7 of those slots. Also, you'll notice a preponderance of women in the areas of family and children, from OB/GYN, to peds, to geriatric.

allergy and immunology, 56.1
pediatric anesthesiology, 54.6
dermatology, 63.8
pediatric emergency medicine, 74
family medicine 54.4
geriatric medicine 58.7
endocrinology, diabetes, metabolism, 67.4
rheumatology, 58.3
transplant hematology, 66.7
medical genetics, 59.4
molecular genetic pathology, 58.3
neurodevelopmental disabilities, 87.5
obstetrics and gynecology, 76.7
blood banking/transfusion medicine, 70.3
cytopathology, 65.6
pediatric pathology, 62.5
pediatrics, 72.8
pediatric rheumatology, 75.4
pediatric rehabilitation, 75
psychiatry, 54.3
child psychiatry, 59.3
psychosomatic medicine, 66.7
a number of combined specialties included children
all with high representations by females

Also, it looks like most of tomorrow's abortion doctors will be women.

Who can clean up this financial mess?

I don't know, and neither does anyone else, but I have two observations.

1) We should stop being so hard on people who from time to time need help from the government, either because they've lost a job and didn't have savings, or because the boyfriend has walked out on a mother with three children, only two of whom are his. Stuff happens. And if it can happen to our best educated receiving king-sized paychecks and all sorts of breaks from the Government, then it can certainly happen to the little guy. These bail outs are corporate welfare.

2) McCain hasn't been too self-revealing about specific financial plans, but Obama through out his campaign has, so we know what he will do:

1. He will raise taxes, but only on the most successful, the brightest and best
   
2. It is patriotic to have your taxes raised, so quicherbitchen
   
3. He will demand more regulation, as though the financial industry doesn't have whip smart lawyers and accountants who know how to put Senators on their payroll
   
4. He will send more corporations who employ Americans rushing to set up shop overseas where regulatory climates are friendlier
   
5. He will take even more campaign money than he already has from the guys who have been causing this current mess, because TV ads and Hollywood parties are so expensive
   
6. He will set up more goon squads so that you can't hear on the radio or read on the net what he's up to, because that would be racism if his true colors were known

Now, that's just what I know from watching his campaign ads--I haven't read much of his web page except for what Daniel, a Catholic Democrat Librarian Obama-lover has posted on his own web site.

So it's time for John and Sarah to speak up. We've got the Obama message down pat. Speak up, John.

Is Washington fit for Sarah

"Forget the Tina Fey SNL mockery and all the marginalia being written about Sarah Palin now. She did four real things in Alaska that make her fit for anyone interested in a reform presidency.

She took on: her party's state chairman, her party's state attorney general, GOP Gov. Frank Murkowski's tainted gas pipeline project, and then she supported a GOP candidate who ran against Alaska's "untouchable" GOP congressional earmarker, Don Young.

One way or another, each episode involved severing the sleazy ties that bind public officials to grasping commercial interests, something even the Democratic left purports to favor.

It isn't just Washington and Juneau. You could open the nozzle on the same reform fire hose to wash the public-private slime out of the capital hallways of New York, New Jersey, California, Illinois and onward.

You say Sarah Palin doesn't have enough "experience" to run Washington? Washington is barely fit to be run."

Wonderland

Storm notes

The National Weather service says that the storm that hit the central Ohio area on Sunday Sept. 14 was the most severe in the region's history. I knew it was bad--many in our area are still without power--but because we weren't affected except for some cable outages, I didn't realize that. Forty-six state roads were closed or restricted on Monday and one third of the state's traffic signals weren't working according to the community paper. You can imagine what a mess that makes on city streets with people trying to get to work.

Our Lytham Road UALC was closed, and since it has the phone service for the other locations, they couldn't get much done either. I saw a friend at Lowes who lives in Clintonville (north Columbus) yesterday and he said they hadn't had mail delivery for 3 days because of downed trees and lines. The Lane Rd. branch of the UA library was open today, but the other 2 are closed, so I was able to unload about 5 boxes of books I've been carrying around in the van to donate to the book sale.

Tremont Shopping Center in our old neighborhood is still closed (as is the school, senior center and library). There are two restaurants, a bakery and a very nice grocery store there. I heard that Mr. Huffman told his customers on Monday to take what they needed, write it down, and they'd settle up after the power came back on. I can't imagine the losses of just those four small businesses and their employees. A lot of elderly live in the area in apartments and depend on those places, especially the Chef-o-Nette Restaurant for at least one hot meal a day.

The local hotels and motels are sold out, and restaurants that are open are very busy. The Panera's where I get my coffee in the morning has lines to the parking lot by 7 a.m. and people ordering lunch with with morning coffee and bagels. This morning I chatted with 2 women, probably in their 80s, who live in the area, but about a mile apart. At least they have gas hot water heaters--our unit is all electric, so if it had been us, we'd have to find a place to shower. Another man I talked to at Panera's had 2 teen-age sons who made $350 on Monday cutting up and stacking fallen limbs and trees.

Our Busiest Abortion Mill

Capital Care Women's Center. What a pleasant sounding, gentle name. And they are non-judgmental, respectful and friendly, according to the web site. So's my beautician. So's the Muslim cashier at Meijer's when I purchase pork. So's anyone who wants my business. So?

Strange images

I would never spend money on a Newsweek, or even pick one up to read at the library, but the Aug 29 issue (Republican Convention issue) was dumped in the basket at the coffee shop with McCain Palin on the cover, so I picked it up, just to see how the writers would twist the story to Obama's advantage. Oh, here it is. Table of Contents. "McCain's Surprise Attack." Biden was a huge surprise to me since he's just another white guy with about a thousands years in Congress, but I don't have that issue to see if it was called an "attack." Then leaf through an article on Pakistan, something about open season on gays, then why drill, the "Belief Watch" book review of The Shack, a page of jokes about Palin, something on culture like play dates and guys who won't grow up, a cartoon with Mitt dressed as a woman, until finally 2 full size photos of McCain and Palin with the tops of their heads cut off (this is not unusual in portrait photography these days--my U. of I. Library alumni magazine does this too). It's the cover I find so fascinating. I thought someone had spilled something on Palin's face--a big white glare on her glasses. Even with my freebie photo fixer, I can remove glare and clean up wispy hair. And half of Palin's face is actually darker than Michelle Obama's, whose gorgeous photo on the Feb. 18 cover (it came up for some reason when I clicked on "images") had every flaw photo-shopped, the way you would expect a Hollywood movie star with something to gain from such perfection. Palin's photo added 5-10 years, Obama's subtracted about that many. Why do the Obamas need so much help from the media to look and seem to be different than they are? Hmmmm.

Summer's bounty

My son brought over a huge kettle of tomatoes and peppers today. I know what to do with some of them, but how many salads can I eat? He makes and cans salsa, but says the batch wasn't large enough to bother with. Then I remembered that my mother used to stew them, so I got out my 1966 Woman's Day Encyclopedia v. 11, and looked it up. I just made fresh cream of tomato soup, and I must say, it is fabulous. I didn't use these proportions, and I didn't have a bay leaf, but it's close

2 cups chopped ripe tomatoes
1 medium onion, sliced
1/2 bay leaf
1/2 t. salt
1/8 t. pepper
2 T. butter
2 T. all-purpose flour
2 cups milk

Simmer tomatoes (I peeled them first) with onion, bay leaf, salt, and pepper for about 10 minutes (do not use water). Strain. (I also ran the leftovers through the blender.) Melt butter and stir in flour. (I skipped this and just added the butter and flour to the milk and warmed in the microwave and added to the stewed, liquified tomatoes). 2 cups of milk. (I was low on milk so I only used one cup.)

Thanks baby boy!

How to tell Obama is definitely a Christian

He has a top down, not a bottom up plan/ scheme to change people's lives for the better. That, my readers, is mainline Christianity all the way. I don't know a lot about the Muslim faith, but somehow, I doubt that either up or down to help your fellowman is a top priority. Main line Christianity, such as that of the United Church of Christ of which he is a member, has been struggling with how to best help the poor since the early 20th century but most specifically since a merger of two totally different streams of Christianity created it in 1957. In the 18th and 19th century, the poor, the immigrant and excluded in the United States were reached by various renewals and "awakenings." That's sort of our Methodist, Baptist and Pentecostal branches. Lives were changed from the bottom up--the only material help available was from your own church, which insisted that the drinking, gambling and womanizing had to go if you wanted to share in the fellowship. I know we like to believe the myth that we were somehow a more Christian nation around the time of the Revolution or War of 1812, but that's not true. For many, especially those Anabaptists in my family tree who began arriving in the 1730s, religious freedom was a component of the trip across the pond, but let's face it, they could have never owned land or even a small business in Europe with its rigid class system and rich state churches.

But those who were religious were most likely Protestant, and members of maybe 3 or 4different groups. The reason religious freedom is written into our nation's earliest documents is that these Christians couldn't get along, and each saw the other as a threat, so no one came out on top. Now that was good for our foundation, however, the splits and contentiousness have continued to this day.

The UCC is sort of the great-granddaughter of the Puritans and the German Reformed. The Puritans, or their descendants, gave us Harvard and Yale, the abolitionist movement and some terrific old time religion. They have always been about "purifying" first the church, and more recently society. There is magnificent history and tradition in that denomination. Obama's church, Trinity UCC in Chicago, added another layer to the struggle for justice and freedom, the Black Liberation Theology of Jeremiah Wright via James Cone. Unless you tune into black church radio on Sunday, it could sound quite foreign, but it's really a nice fit for the UCC for whom diversity, multiculturalism, redistribution of wealth, political debate, empowerment, victimhood, and community organizing are right up there with personal faith, the gospel, catechism, liturgy and the Eucharist in other churches.

Unfortunately for the UCC, Obama, and other mainline Christians (like ELCA), top-down change only works briefly if at all--except for the leaders and pastors, for whom it is a rich vein to mine. Mainline churches have shrunk in numbers and power, almost to insignificance. Members have fled to look for spiritual meaning elsewhere, or for none at all. Who wants to attend a worship service that sounds like an election campaign or a call to serve on a committee? In the 1950s the ecumenical movement was a big deal. Christian leaders looked around and said, Surely this isn't what Jesus wanted--that we're all squabbling and spending money on separate "good works" programming. So they merged, and merged, and merged, and fought some more, and split, and split, and after initial huge groups which closed offices in some cities and formed huge bureaucracies in other cities, they've dwindled to groups of angry demonstrators who have more in common with NGOs and government agencies than other gospel directed Christians. Because the poor and their version of "justice" has become their focus, not Jesus Christ, sin and evil is always "out there" somewhere and never their own personal responsibility and need to change. They have to be about rearranging the chairs instead of building the church.

There, doesn't that make sense? So stop spreading those rumors that Obama is a Muslim, and check out what your own church is about.

Some Hillary supporters do support McCain Palin

Although I don't think there are enough Hillary supporter cross overs to make a difference this site did surprise me a bit:

Watching the hysteria from the Democratic Party over the nomination of Sarah Palin has been deja vu all over again. The party of women is once again perpetrating a sexist onslaught!!! It is too bizarre----and twice in one year. And we are watching the Republican Party, the home of what we thought were the real sexists, stand up loudly and strongly and daily pushing back sexists attacks. Who knew they had it in them?

We Hillary supporters who have come out for McCain don't even know what to do as our fellow Democrats come after us SCREAMING about how the world will come to an end if we support this ticket with this terrible woman on it. They ask---"Are you that stupid? The Republicans have never been your friends!!" And then we get this whole litany of how the Republicans have never been friendly to women, blah, blah, blah.

Well, it's not exactly true. The Republicans actually have a pretty good track record when it comes to appointing women----remember Sandra Day O'Connor, the first female Supreme Court Justice? What about Condoleeza Rice----first African American woman Secretary of State? Sec. Rice, for all that we Democrats have tried to demonize her (and I'm ashamed to say that I was as bad as any Democrat where she was concerned) was the only one who was able to moderate Pres. Bush's positions, and thank goodness for that. Things would be worse without her influence. I could list others-----female Cabinet Secretaries, members of both houses of Congress, and others who have been by all accounts quite distinguished in their accomplishments.

And don't miss the young black woman, Patsy Rogers, refute all that "you must be racist if you don't support Obama." She's good!

How a bill becomes a law

by James Taranto in today's WSJ is very interesting, and he wrote it for the Kos Kidz misinformation being spewed at the Daily Kos, a far left-kook web site. By the time he finished I think I understood more about the 1999 Graham-Leach-Bliley Act which passed the Senate on a 90-8 vote, with both Reid and Obama running mate Joe Biden casting "aye" votes. ". . . without Gramm-Leach-Bliley, which abolished the barrier between commercial and investment banking, the recent deals that saved Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch would have been impossible, since both of them involved a commercial bank acquiring a troubled investment bank." Story here.

And Obama's links to Freddie and Fannie don't sound good to me.

Top recipients of Fannie/Freddie donations:

#1 Chris Dodd
#2 John Kerry
#3 Barack Obama
#4 HIllary Clinton

How do you get to be #3 of the top 25 when you've spent so little time in the Senate? Maybe he's been text messaging them while on the road running for President the last 2 years? Sen. McCain wasn’t listed in the report.

Do you need Mollom?

Blake, who runs LISNews.com battles spam all the time, and reports that he has switched to Mollom and has been amazed at the increase in comments the site has been getting (reports news about libraries and supports librarians' blogs). Apparently, the other spam filters he'd been using had been turning down comments or frustrating users. I don't know what filter blogger.com uses, but it certainly better than what my OSU e-mail service uses. I clean off 10-20 spam a day at my bruce dot site, and only a few at my other RR e-mail. But don't forward me jokes, smear stories on Obama, or cutsy photoshoped images of Palin, because I don't want your plate of cookies, thank you.

The Helsinki Complaint Choir

We all have the same complaints, except this one, "And the Finnish language is bloody difficult to learn." I laughed out loud and loved seeing the places we visited in 2006.



The video begins and ends in the train station designed by Eliel Saarinen.

Explain yourself, John

I agree with all the Democrats and Republicans who are crying foul on the new stem cell ad from the McCain Palin campaign. "Embryonic" is never mentioned, since right on his web page he says what he's against: "John McCain opposes the intentional creation of human embryos for research purposes. To that end, Senator McCain voted to ban the practice of "fetal farming," making it a federal crime for researchers to use cells or fetal tissue from an embryo created for research purposes. Furthermore, he voted to ban attempts to use or obtain human cells gestated in animals. Finally, John McCain strongly opposes human cloning and voted to ban the practice, and any related experimentation, under federal law." However, in 2006 he voted aye, as did Obama, on a bill the president vetoed. Later in 2007 a procedure was announced that didn't need embryos. Democrats haven't been happy about that. However, remember, it's never been illegal to perform embryonic stem cell research in the U.S.--it's just not for federal money beyond a few lines. Most stem cell research in the world has been done by U.S. researchers--it's just one more anti-Bush myth that we were falling behind.

But most people won't listen that carefully to this ad. They won't go to McCain's web page. Here's the script:

John McCain will lead his congressional allies to improve America's health.

Stem cell research to unlock the mystery of cancer, diabetes, heart disease.

Stem cell research to help free families from the fear and devastation of illness.

Stem cell research to help doctors repair spinal cord damage, knee injuries, serious burns.

Stem cell research to help stroke victims.

And, John McCain and his congressional allies will invest millions more in new NIH medical research to prevent disease.

Medical breakthroughs to help you get better, faster.

Change is coming.

Congressional allies is code for Democrats not conservatives like Palin; and stem cell research hasn't produced any of the claims in this ad. It's a hope for change--and where have we heard that? Investors love a good cure--there's millions to be made if it worked. So far, it's just expensive experiments. Unless he wants to lose those of us who jumped on board because of a true conservative at his side, he'd better pull this or listen to Mrs. Palin's team.

Besides, as I noted in 2006 after Bush's veto, "All you evolutionists should just wait around and see if some mold in the corner that the janitor missed turns into a highly developed, functioning human being. If it happened once without help from the Big Guy, you should be able to do it with a few spores, some ammonia and fairy dust."

Dear TTLB (The Truth Laid Bear)

I appreciate being restored to my mammal status, after all, I work hard at telling the truth and blogging. When I looked the other day and saw I had been demoted and had dropped several thousand points in the ranks of prominent bloggers, I figured you'd changed the game plan. But I guess it was that mess with Site Meter losing my total count. Anyway, thanks guys, it's nice to be back in great form.

Love ya!
#229

Sorry, Charlie. The people want interviews without bias, not bias with no interview

Remember the Starkist tuna commercial from the 1960s?

"Sorry Charlie. . .StarKist wants tuna that tastes good, not tuna with good taste."

"ABC's Charlie Gibson is only the latest to offer himself upon the altar of self-parody with his pop-quizzing of the Alaska governor during their interview last week.

Gibson: "Do you agree with the Bush doctrine?"
Palin: "In what respect, Charlie?"

Which was a sensible answer, given that no higher authority than Jacob Weisberg of Slate has counted six versions of the thing (including "absence of any functioning doctrine at all"). Further pressed on the subject, Gov. Palin explained that "what President Bush has attempted to do is rid this world of Islamic extremism," which better sums up the gist of Bush policy than Mr. Gibson's cramped definition of the doctrine as "anticipatory self-defense." WSJ article here

When I was a community organizer

I certainly wasn’t Jesus Christ. Although there are some nattering nabobs of punditry (that means chattering know nothings who think they are rich with words) who have tried to reframe what we did (Donna Brazile, Tom Brokow, Steven Cohen, etc. and other brilliant theologians) and who Jesus is.

Let’s be clear. Christians believe Jesus is God incarnate who stepped into the world he created for a very specific purpose, and it wasn't political, social or cultural. I, however, in those days was a friendly, well-intentioned young adult from the middle-class and middle west going door-to-door taking surveys and feeling benevolent in a poor and working class neighborhood in California. Our surveys were probably worded so that no matter what the residents answered about their needs, we already had the answer. I don’t remember, but I know that’s how it is done. Saul Alinsky and the Communists didn’t invent this, the churches did--maybe that‘s why from a 50 year perspective a very ignorant, in-the-tank for Obama, MSM has picked up on this mantra. I was idealistic and had a vision that I could make a difference. I suspect most of the families and certainly the teenagers my own age that I met in that African-American community moved into the middle class through their own efforts. There were a few female-headed households, but not too many. There were married fathers in the homes of that community. The adults in that neighborhood were the off-spring of migrant workers who had arrived in California in the 1930s during the Depression, leaving behind the poverty and racism of the South. Although their lives weren’t materially as good as what I had enjoyed growing up in Illinois, they were light years ahead of their parents and grandparents.

Food pantries, clothes closets and job assistance came later, maybe the 70s. In the 1950s we offered play ground supervision, Bible school, canteen type activities for youth, a community garden, and maybe some tool sharing like lawn mowers--not sure about all the services. Whatever we did, I’m quite sure we made no long term difference in the community. You’re never any smarter than the era in which you live, and the reason it’s better to give than receive, is because no one wants to be anyone else’s charity project. When was the last time you had to accept help and felt good about it?

I had a great time, learned a lot, got much more than I gave, and would never, never even consider that it belonged on my resume.

My recollections also

Wizbang writes,

"I have no grand unified theory that explains the collapse of the subprime mortgage industry, no overarching explanation for the events that led to the collapses that have shaken Wall Street to its very core this week (if that is what happened -- I'm not even up enough to know how much of the hysteria is hype), but I do recall certain things that seemed to me, at the time, bad ideas that would lead to major problems.

Many years ago, there was a huge push to approve a lot of mortgages that the banks had been refusing. There was a huge stink about "redlining," where banks were compelled to issue loans in areas they didn't wish to invest. And in the last couple of years, "creative" mortgages were all the craze -- especially the "no-documents" loans, where the applicants would just say how much money they made and the lenders would say "sure, we trust you!" " Full story here.

Yes, this is my recollection, although it wasn't "many years" ago. In 2004 we were helping our son look for a home he could afford on his income. We hadn't done much home buying since our primary home and our vacation home (1963, $14,000, 6.5% for 20 years mortgage; 1988, $52,000, 10.5% for 30 years mortgage), but we had a formula in mind--no more than 1/3 of his income should go toward housing and he ought to have some equity (which we'd planned to provide for him, just as my father had done for us). We found the "creative" financing available 4 years ago nothing short of stunning, and thought it looked risky. So we financed it ourselves and then he bought the home from us this past summer. The hoops he had to go through in 2008 compared to 2004 could have saved the country this mortgage and bank melt down.

Dear Valued Customer

Rarely do I get a letter from a company that starts that way and ends well, but this one did. I have used the freebie from SiteMeter since I started blogging 5 years ago, and so do most of the bloggers I visit, because yesterday I was frantically looking at them. SiteMeter had "upgraded" and I'd lost every reason I'd used them, including my total count, which I figured was about 245,500. What was available to me was totally worthless, so I fired off an e-mail of complaint. Apparently several thousand others must have too.

Dear Valued SiteMeter Customers,

As you’re no doubt aware by now, we’ve chosen to roll back our website to the previous “classic” version.

Based on some performance issues we were experiencing along with feedback from the community it appears we have pushed our new site live prematurely."

Ya think? Today, my old version with the features I like was back, but if I'd had more time to pursue it yesterday, I would have already replaced the code and would never have known I'd been switched back.

There's a very basic marketing principal in business and in relationships. You can't give away something and then later change your plan and expect people to value your product and pay for money what used to be given away.

Paper mills in Fitchberg, Mass

Another strange economic analysis in the USAToday today, to prove, I suppose how bad "this economy is." There's a large photo in the print edition with caption, "Troubled times: the paper mills have closed in Fitchberg Mass., on the Nashua River, and the city is in an economic slow down." We visited that part of the East in the late 70s, and most of the paper mills, furniture factories, and textile mills were on their way out then or were being turned into renewal projects from the perfect storm of union strikes, environmental regulation, and improved technologies which reduced the number of workers, or required expensive upgrades to old buildings. I've checked several web sites about Fitchberg, and can't find anything about a recent closing of paper mills, at least not since its unemployment rate of 5% in April 2008.

But also, I found on the web the 2000 census, and guess what? In 1999 (i.e., long before George W. Bush), Fitchberg was below the national average in college and high school graduates, it was above average in disabilities, it had fewer foreign born than the rest of the U.S. (was about 1/3 foreign born in 1920), had a lower household income than the rest of the country, lower median income, and families below the poverty rate was 12.1% compared to 9.2% for the country, and 15% for individuals, compared to 12.4% for the country. Clearly, Fitchberg was in trouble a decade ago, but it certainly wasn't "this economy" and the current slow down.

Also, the reporter decides to feature a 47 year old divorced mother of 17 year old twins who was 9 months behind on her mortgage before she sought help from the non-profit counseling agency. This is the example of what "change" is needed? Four years ago she had purchased a home for $210,000 on an income that was from 2 jobs--a house cleaner and a home health care worker. Her patient went to a nursing home, and she lost that part of her income. What she did to bury herself even further is not told, but clearly, she shouldn't have had that level of indebtedness no matter who was in the White House.

And yet she's hopeful that a "change" in Washington might make a difference in her life. Yes, 'mam the way FDR dug the hole deeper that Hoover started in the late 20s and extended for 10 years.

The good news about Fitchberg is its 29 year old woman mayor. Seems to be a trend, because she looks like a woman who plans on big things, just like another small town mayor who's been in the news lately.

Also, the rivers are clean now, not brown like they were when the paper mills were running.

From little ACORNS grow squirrelly fraud

Still seething at the idiots who called our Lord and Savior a "community organizer" at the level of these crooks.

Yid with a Lid writes “Well we finally know what a community organizer does, if that community organizer is ACORN what they do perpetuate Voter fraud. One quick google search will show all the times it has been sited for voter fraud. Now the Detroit Free Press reports that this group with ties to the Obama campaign is trying their dirty tricks in Michigan:”

Ike blew through here yesterday

and it's hard to imagine what they must have experienced in Texas, after seeing our downed trees and power lines and released roof shingles. I drove past the OSU Golf course this morning and there are many trees down--the Meijer's store where I'd been shopping was on generator power, and most of the stores along Henderson Road were closed, and traffic lights off. We got no rain out of this, but I've heard Chicago got some flooding. Last night we were hosts for our couple's group from church (planned that way) and the other 3 couples from different parts of the city had no power.

Here's some good news, though. Honey Crisp apples are in stock at Meijer's! You'll pay at least $1 a piece for them, but oh it is worth it to bite into one and have the juice dribble down your chin and shirt.

Update: A friend who lives in one of the NW Columbus areas without power was told by PUCO that it could be 7-14 days before their power is restored, and yes, our crews are on their way back from Texas. I invited them for supper, but she's taking her thawing meat to her son's home to cook it on the grill. The local TV stations are showing enormous damage in Columbus. My son is off work because they have no power, so he's picking up pieces of his roof today.

It's the world we voted for

I see brands of green,
dollar signs too,
regulations are growing--
for me and for you.

And I think to myself,
So we control the world?

I see inventors leave,
small businessmen too,
Unions are flexing--
for them not for you.

And I think to myself,
It's a Democrat world.

The colors of a rainbow
once thought so cool,
just special interest groups--
with power to rule.

And I think to myself,
it's a never change world.

Michigan, Ohio,
and Illinois too,
are ranked the lowest--
soon it will be you

And I think to myself
it's an Obama world.

Don't hear babies cry,
Or see them grow,
A lot were aborted--
More than we know.

And I think to myself,
Do we want such a world?

Finding Leslie

I found a terrific reviewer at Amazon this morning, her name is Leslie and that led me to her blog! Oh happy day--a reviewer of Christian books who reminds us to go beyond the anecdote and proof texting and points out what many Christian writers have forgotten

The gospel is the incarnation, sinless life, substitutionary death, burial, bodily resurrection, ascension, and eternal reign of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Not once does she [Fitzpatrick] indicate that the gospel is something "we do." It is a work that is done for us for the glory of God. Our only work is to believe, to look to the crucified. [from her review at Amazon of Elyse Fitzpatrick‘s Because he love me]

I’m so bored with Christian writers who make no or little mention of the cross, pick a verse or two on which to hang their latest need for grant money or donations, and jump into “community,” or “relationships” or “healing,“ or “saving the environment.“ I’m increasingly going back to read the classics or at least books older than me. And that's old!

Go to her web page or her Amazon profile and be refreshed!

Whatever happened to Joe Biden?

Don't see him much on TV. Is he out on the campaign trail, the sawdust trail for the chosen one? This can be sung to the tune of "Old Black Joe."

Gone are the days when Joe’s heart was young and gay,
Gone are Dem friends from the beltway far away,
Gone from the shore to a better sea a sailin',
I hear their vicious voices calling Sar-ah Palin.

Chorus: I'm going, I'm going,
but I thought it should be me,
I hear their nasty voices calling Hill-a-ry.

Why do I weep, when my heart should feel no Palin?
Why do I sigh that my friends come just a sayin’?
Grieving for polls now departed long ago.
I hear their shaky voices calling Old sad Joe.

Chorus: I'm going, I'm going,
for my choice is not so free,
I hear their nasty voices calling Hill-a-ry.

Where are the hearts once so happy and so free?
The party so dear that I held upon my knee?
Gone to the shore where my soul has longed to go,
I hear their sorry voices calling Old sad Joe.

Chorus: I'm going, I'm going,
I do it for my part-y,
I hear their nasty voices calling Hill-a-ry.

Sarah Palin Sexism Watch

Like shooting fish in the proverbial barrel. Wish I'd thought of this one! Sarah Palin Sexism Watch includes some awful, some hateful, and some unexpected folks. Mostly they're terrified Democrats, with a few on the opposite of the political fence. Me? I'm paraphrasing that old feminist line on abortion: I wouldn't run for vice president myself if I were a governor and had 5 children, but I support the right of a mother of 5 who governs a state and wants to go higher.

For the most part her group of shameful journalist articles (with links) seems to be in the same bag of obsequiousness that has paved the way for Obama.

Does Barack really send his own e-mails?

At Panera's where I buy my morning coffee there is a new desk with a computer next to the coffee and cream bar. It's for employee training, not the customers. They log-in, put on their head phones, and learn about all the latest products and procedures (nice photos). I'm sure it's a way to have all employees, particularly new ones, cover the same ground, but it also helps the long term employees catch up. We had something like this in the OSUL for training our student staff, but it was so primitive (in late 90s) I don't think my staff ever used it.

However, sitting at a computer is not too useful for senators, presidents or representatives. Better they should have to put the budget or census reports on their lap and experience the heft. In fact, government staff in general have gotten themselves in deep doo-doo sending e-mails, which causes our tax money to be used to hire battalions of lawyers on both sides to figure out what was purged, what was meant, and who sent it. Little jokes on the side when you think you're chatting with staff in on the background, sound pretty dumb when parsed by the hostile media or blogosphere.

I'm thrilled John McCain doesn't send e-mail. I'm not impressed at all that Barack Obama sent a text message (did his little pinky really press "send?") to his Gen-Next supporters to announce he's added an old guy, Joe Biden, a long time senator who with him holds down the ratings of Congress, to the ticket. Let them write long hand the way George Washington and John Adams did. If Barack writes the way he talks (multiple parenthetical and clarifying phrases per sentence), it could fill libraries of the future.

Update: Hot Air reports that this appeared in the Boston Globe and Forbes in 2000:

"McCain gets emotional at the mention of military families needing food stamps or veterans lacking health care. The outrage comes from inside: McCain’s severe war injuries prevent him from combing his hair, typing on a keyboard, or tying his shoes. Friends marvel at McCain’s encyclopedic knowledge of sports. He’s an avid fan - Ted Williams is his hero - but he can’t raise his arm above his shoulder to throw a baseball.
After Vietnam, McCain had Ann Lawrence, a physical therapist, help him regain flexibility in his leg, which had been frozen in an extended position by a shattered knee. It was the only way he could hope to resume his career as a Navy flier, but Lawrence said the treatment, taken twice a week for six months, was excruciatingly painful.

”He endured it, he wouldn’t settle for less,” said Lawrence, who rejoiced with McCain when he passed the Navy physical. ”I have never seen such toughness and resolve.”

Another update at Hot Air points out he regularly reads his e-mail even though typing is difficult, and was chair of the Senate telecommunications committee--probably knows more than Obama. Does not having served in the military disqualify Obama from being Commander in Chief, it's asked, since sending e-mail seems to be a qualification? I'm betting they pull that ad if it's not gone already! Sort of like Joe Biden asking that guy in a wheel chair to stand up, innit?

The Library Quarterly

If you are planning to purge your bookshelves, you shouldn’t place the stack at the door to take to the garage and then your car, and then the Friends of the Library Sale later. No, if you are really determined, place them in a dark garbage sack, hustle them to your husband’s car, and don’t look back, because they will call to you like a puppy who’s been left in the culvert by a farm, in hopes someone else will want him.

I looked at this old friend (in the 1960s I was a Slavic cataloger at the University of Illinois and at Ohio State University) lying on the floor this morning and made the mistake of leafing through it. What could be less useful than what librarians were saying about their collections in 1965--collections that specifically dealt with Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia, Islamic countries, and Russia (the former Soviet Union)? Today’s whiz kids librarians with their Twitter, air guitar and hip-hop programs and digital doo-dahs wouldn’t pause for a moment over a controversy on whether the Library of Congress should be spending time producing cards(!) in the original language or should speed things up with transliteration and English and catch up 20 years later to the incredible disgorging of the Soviet presses when improved technology permitted. Little did we understand in 1965 what “improved technology,” and a very young Russian immigrant who would invent Google, would do to our profession.

No, I just couldn’t do it. I carefully wiped off the mildew (it’s in pristine condition otherwise--none of the pages have loosened the way today’s paperbacks do after one reading), and it will go back on the shelf with all the other unread titles like The Federalist and SoDoku for Dummies. However, I did discard some of my old library school text books like AACR cataloging rules. Not too useful these days, in fact, a bit like reading recipes that call for dollops, swigs and “moderate oven.”

Slip-ups by McCain and Obama

Both candidates made very odd statements last night. First McCain mentioned that the confidence/popularity of Congress was at an all time low--I think he said 9%--lower than the President's. But he's going to restore faith in government if he's elected. Well, three of the four people trying for the new administration are Senators. If you know how to fix it, why didn't McCain, or Obama, or Biden do something?

Then Obama was asked about his plan to require (insist, suggest, encourage--he's vague on this) government service for all young people. But then he mentioned how hard the young people are working on his campaign. They are volunteers I assume, and truly committed. So if people really care, they do volunteer, so why more government funding for what's already available through the private sector? It's just another huge bureaucracy with political strings.

Friday Family Photo--Latin Class Doodles

When my husband left for exercise class this morning I had strict instructions to start cleaning off the bookshelves in his office. He had found mold on a number of the books, so he's in high gear today. I started with my sophomore Latin book and got no further. I found a band assembly program and just had to scan it and put it on my class blog (and also since I have a new computer the scanner is acting up, so that took about 30 minutes to figure out).

So when he got home, he asked how much I'd done. "I stopped after one book," I explained. "It was just too interesting." "You can't do that! How are we ever going to get done if you look at every book?" Obviously, the man never had to withdraw thousands of books from a library collection--it's like drowning puppies for a librarian.

I looked up cleaning mildewed books on google, and it seems I need some alcohol and some sunlight, or if the book is really valuable, I can put it in the freezer. Several people who had never tried it suggested 10 seconds in the microwave, but I'm already sneezing. I remember that freezer trick from my working days. Our library roof leaked spring and fall and also winter when the ice thawed (bad roof drain), so the preservation office dubbed its freezer, "The Veternary Memorial Freezer."


Latin class doodles. I think my girlfriend Tina drew Gene Autry to go with my horse and a note about "wrigglies spearment gum". We sat together and giggled a lot. She's now a great-grandmother! Still giggles.
Also written on the back cover of the lst year Latin book, "Living with the Romans":

Latin is a language
as dead as it can be.
First it killed the Romans
and now it's killing me.

Will ya won't ya can't cha
Don't ya wanta
Won't your mother let cha
Oh go on you said you would
Won't cha Huh?

They were not in my handwriting, so I flipped to the front to see if it was a used book. This book had been used by my two sisters in 1951 and 1952.

Shame on you, Charlie

The not-so-subtle sexism and hostility in Charlie's opening question for Sarah Palin about experience and hubris would have never been asked of Barack Obama, or any man running for public office. Fortunately, she was a lady as well as an experienced leader, and she "didn't blink." Ladies, we have a long way to go--vote McCain-Palin.

Mr. Gibson, she answered you the first time, you didn't like the answer, and then you just looked silly.

GIBSON: What if Israel decided it felt threatened and needed to take out the Iranian nuclear facilities?

PALIN: Well, first, we are friends with Israel and I don't think that we should second guess the measures that Israel has to take to defend themselves and for their security.

GIBSON: So if we wouldn't second guess it and they decided they needed to do it because Iran was an existential threat, we would cooperative or agree with that.

PALIN: I don't think we can second guess what Israel has to do to secure its nation.

GIBSON: So if it felt necessary, if it felt the need to defend itself by taking out Iranian nuclear facilities, that would be all right.

PALIN: We cannot second guess the steps that Israel has to take to defend itself. More here

Headline slants exist everywhere, not just politics

“No Connection Between Measles, Mumps, Rubella (MMR) Vaccine And Autism, study suggests.”

ScienceDaily (Sep. 5, 2008) — In a case-control study, the presence of measles virus RNA was no more likely in children with autism and GI disturbances than in children with only GI disturbances. Furthermore, GI symptom and autism onset were unrelated to MMR vaccine timing. Science Daily article

The heading in the original report from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health words it a bit stronger than “suggests.”

Study Firmly Shows No Connection Between Measles, Mumps, Rubella (MMR) Vaccine And Autism
Focus on children with autism and gastrointestinal symptoms; findings show GI symptoms and autism onset both unrelated to MMR timing. Mailman web page

Study findings are reported online in the Public Library of Science on September 4 (http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0003140).

Genetic determinism

This makes perfect sense. I already understand the Democrats better.

Looking through the Fall opportunitites

Our community has a wealth of opportunities for adults to learn, to create and to think. I have laid out on the kitchen counter Center Stage, the programming for the Senior Center (adults 50 and over), UAPL Fall Programs 08, with programs for adults, teens and children, and UA Lifelong Learning & Leisure, Fall 2008. I could be busy morning to night, and with the exception of a few pricey trips ($1800 for a trip to Charleston & Savannah or $900 for Tulip Time at the Greenbrier), at a very reasonable price or free. At the Senior Center I could hear on Friday at 10 a.m. Ed Lentz, local historian, talk about the American Presidential Elections for $5 per class ($30 for 6). Or I could go Tuesday evenings to 4 lectures in the City Council Chambers for $40 to hear various university professors, including John Quigley, Moritz College of Law, Ohio State. After looking up his research , I think I'll pass. Another blame US first guy.

Quigley points to a series of interventions by the United States after assuming dominance of the region in the 1950s: the facilitation of a coup in Iran that overthrew a democratically elected regime and replaced it with the totalitarian Shah; a similar attempted CIA-backed coup in Syria; CIA backing of Western-loyal parliamentary candidates in Lebanon precipitating a civil war; and the backing of U.S. friendly totalitarian King Hussein in Jordan.

“In the United States, none of these interventionist actions gained public attention,” he writes. “But in the Middle East, a perception developed that the United States was out to promote its own interests.” These anti-U.S. perceptions were further solidified by the continued one-sided U.S. backing of Israel and Cold War decisions to support causes like the Islamist revolutionary Mujahideen in Afghanistan, Quigley writes.

Ultimately, anti-American sentiment caused by these actions coalesced into the current Islamist movement that gave us 911 and the resultant “War in Terrorism,” he writes. “Osama bin Laden’s militias grew out of the Afghan resistance,” Quigley writes. “Bin Laden framed his anti-United States arguments in the language of Islam, but he was voicing the same anti-colonialist sentiments that had been directed against France and Britain in the early 20th Century.”

I heard enough of this at the Lakeside programming this summer to last awhile.

Then for more enrichment, I could go to classes offered by something called "Dating Directions Certified Matchmakers," which will teach me how to flirt, go online, and set dating goals. Hmmm. I've been married 48 years, so I think I'm beyond that. Oh, here's a good one: Exploring past lives with guided regression--wear comfortable clothing! Or I could do a 2 session "Living your Passions" with guided visualization and positive thoughts. Whew! This is getting way too hot.

I could study near death experiences with someone doing it for 20 years (and it has fundamentally altered her viewpoint on death!) or observe a real life death autopsy (90 minutes on tape) at COSI or attend a session with a certified laughter Yoga instructor--wear comfortable clothing!

Also the city offers belly dancing basics with finger cymbals (this should work well with the flirting class), composting the worms (might work with the autopsy class), and introduction to beer (for the laughing Yoga?).

One trip the Senior Center offers that looks within my price range if I could find a girl friend to go is a trip to two of the homes of Rosemary Clooney, girl singer of the 40s, 50s and beyond, actress and author (and aunt of what's his name). We would stay overnight in the French Quarter Inn (of Maysville, KY), and make rolls at a bakery. This is $269 per person, double occupancy. This doesn't sound like something my husband would be interested in, but mid-October would be lovely in Kentucky. Then for $15 I could do the Holiday Wildlights at the Columbus Zoo--that would be Christmas, you know. There are some financial classes that look good--tax free investing, investment and stock market trends and indicators, how to down size and organize, legal counseling and investment counseling one-on-one. Medically there is a hearing screening and Life Line Screen for various blockages like abdominal aortic aneurysm (I think a lot of communities are offering this) and nutrition classes.

The UAPL has some interesting art and movie series, like "Objects of Wonder," which will coincide with the Museum of Art's offering this fall. We're members, so that might be an interesting peek ahead of time of what we'll see at the opening. "Objects of Wonder" features "a trove of treasures held in the more than 300 libraries and collections at OSU. The curator of the exhibit will be speaking--free, no registration required. There's an Italy travel show--having just been there, that looks good. I'll skip the movie on Darfur and the Afghani cabbie who died in military custody, but Young @ Heart was at Lakeside this summer and I missed it. There are several law topics, like Domestic and Probate Law 101, and General Law. There's a guy talking about the war between Woody and Bo. Of course, there are classes about the internet and book clubs to join. There are two art lectures, one on Manet and one on Cassat that look good.

Democrats pick up the "Jesus as Organizer" theme

In Virginia, labor leader Cecil Roberts, said,

“I used to be a community organizer and I’m in good company,” Roberts said as he introduced Barack Obama at a town hall event “Martin Luther King was a community organizer. Listen, Sarah, Moses was a community organizer and yes, Jesus was a community organizer.”

Wow. Obama is sure in good company. Then Donna Brazile, big Democrat, repeats this nonsense after it got repeated on Daily Kos that Biblical brain trust, and adds that Pontius Pilate was a governor. Well, Donna, back to the Gospels for you. Jesus wasn't on trial for organizing, he was on trial because he called himself GOD as in, I AM THE WAY, I AM THE TRUTH, I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE, I AM THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD, and so forth. I AM has deep meaning in scripture, and it doesn't mean IAMACOMMUNITYORGANIZER. He wasn't organizing anyone to do anything except repent, get baptized and serious about worship. I don't think that's what community organizers following the Saul Alinsky model do. Having 12 ordinary type guys leave their jobs and listen to your teaching while you cast out demons, give blind people sight and feed 5,000 with a few fish and loaves of bread is not "community organizing," it's called proving who you are. Nor is facing down Pharoah and demanding that he free the Hebrew slaves and then leading them to the gates of the promised land called community organizing. You guys are embarrassing Obama, and he's got a big enough ego without this!

Plus, Pilate said three times he couldn't find anything wrong with Jesus, and then listened to his wife who said she'd had a dream. Pilate disclaimed any responsibility for Jesus' death (which is how the Jews came to be blamed, instead of all of sinful mankind), and put a guard at the tomb.

According to Philo and Josephus, Pilate was a mean old dude who infuriated the Jews by desecrating the holy city of Jerusalem. There were mass protests and many Jews were killed by Pilate, and supposedly he committed suicide when called to Rome to answer to the Emperor.

If Palin isn't influencing any women who weren't on board in the first place, if she's just dumb trailer trash with librarian glasses, why in the world are you guys so terrified of her that you are not only rewriting history, but ripping out pages of the Gospel and rolling them for a smoke?

Desperate Democrats who can count

Just like they used to count Vice President Cheney's military deferments, Democrats are now counting Vice President elect-to-be Palin's colleges. They found six (no one knows about Obama's undergrad record or transcripts or whether he attended on a diversity plan, because that would be racist to reveal; but it's not sexist to question a woman's record). Knowing that my husband (h.s. class of 1957) had about as many deferments as Cheney or more, I decided to count my colleges, and came up with at least five, including one in Indiana that has changed it's name, so don't ask which one, and one in Maine (I think it was Colby) where I partied too much and never transferred the credit I did get (a C I think), so the U. of I. has no record that I attended. What U. of I. does have for me is a record number of course withdrawals, because I would hit the road if my grades weren't high enough, and withdraw before the deadline. Now, my standards were a bit high--I didn't like getting B's and I didn't take easy courses, but that method did keep my accum in the A- range. Then when I went to graduate school (library science) we were required to take tests in four areas, whether or not we'd taken the classes for credit, although the tests would have no impact on our grade average or continuing in school. I failed all four, but had straight A's in grad school--obviously those tests didn't test anything we had in the courses.

You just can't please a Democrat. They didn't like George W. Bush's Ivy League credentials, didn't matter he had better grades than Kerry. All their guys but one (was it Biden?) voted to go to war, but it's all GWB's fault. They built the hysteria about WMD to cover for their guys, and then denied it to the high heavens. GWB ignores them and their criticism, he won't govern by polls and focus groups and a desire for a legacy--and they hate that because then they can't manipulate him. I hope Palin does the same. Democrats are such snobs and whiners. And to think I used to be one for 40 years!

Speaking of college educations, if all you did was invest your kids' college costs in an IRA for four years, when s/he retired he'd have much more than your neighbor's son who went to Yale, Columbia or Harvard with their huge endowments and Marxist professors. Or maybe send her to a small state university, save the difference and see how far she can go.

Deja Vu--the Clinton middle class tax cuts

Obama says he will give tax cuts to 95% of the American people. We've heard it before. Bill Clinton said he was going to give the middle class tax cuts during the 1992 presidential campaign. (Obama doesn't seem to know that the poor don't pay income tax, but that's another blog.) It didn't take long for Clinton to change his mind--about a month, because The NYT called him on it on February 18, 1993, about a month after his inauguration.

"In selling his economic plan, President Clinton is gambling that voters never took seriously his campaign promise to lower the tax burden of the middle class and will respond favorably to an aggressive pitch based on equal measures of hope, fear and class revenge.

After months of polling and research, Mr. Clinton's top political advisers say they are convinced that middle-class voters will support higher taxes. The advisers say the voters will see the new taxes as the price of great improvements in Government service and as inflicting a just punishment on the rich who profited during the Reagan and Bush Administrations." Complete story

Apparently, the voters did forgive him, because they gave him another term (I'd learned my lesson by then and didn't vote for him in 1996). But the lesson of history is, don't believe any candidate when he/she promises to reduce your taxes. It's just campaign rhetoric. What's scary is, Obama has actually promised to raise taxes--but of course not for you and me, just on corporations and the rich. Yeah.

Foul, Fowler and Fowlest

What is it with Democrat party poo-bahs named Fowler? First there was that Fowler guy who joked about Gustave arriving just in time for the GOP convention, and now Carol Fowler, who has an incredibly low opinion of women who use a choice she doesn't approve of. Choices, you see, are only for Democrats.

The South Carolina Democratic Chairwoman, Carol Fowler, offered the kind of shot at Sarah Palin that the Republicans have been complaining about, but which Democrats have largely avoided, in an interview with Politico today. Fowler said McCain had chosen a running mate "whose primary qualification seems to be that she hasn’t had an abortion." Politico

The change line from 2000 campaign

This morning on WOSU I watched a rehash of past presidential debates--Dole and Clinton, Gore and Bush, and I think there were references to others, but by then I was in the shower. It's interesting to listen to the Bush campaign promises of 2000--he was promising change, and was running as an outsider. Also he and Gore agreed on what to do if the U.S. were attacked--retaliate. So I looked at the transcript of the Oct. 11, 2000 debate, and see that Bush stayed with his vision for the Middle East, even if you don't think declaring war to preserve peace makes sense (it's a common theme through out history). Both men were equally firm about defending Israel and "friends." It was interesting how often they agreed on the Persian Gulf, Rwanda and Saddam. They could have easily been running together instead of on separate tickets.

Bush: Peace in the Middle East is in our nation's interests. Having a hemisphere that is free for trade and peaceful is in our nation's interests. Strong relations in Europe is in our nation's interest. I've thought a lot about what it means to be the president. I also understand that an administration is not one person, but an administration is dedicated citizens who are called by the president to serve the country, to serve a cause greater than self, and so I've thought about an administration of people who represent all America, but people who understand my compassionate and conservative philosophy." Gore: "We need to insist that Arafat send out instructions to halt some of the provocative acts of violence that have been going on. I think that we also have to keep a weather eye toward Saddam Hussein because he is taking advantage of this situation to once again make threats, and he needs to understand that he's not only dealing with Israel, he is dealing -- he's dealing with us if he is making the kind of threats that he's talking about there." Bush: "I think it's important to reach out to moderate Arab nations, like Jordan and Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. It's important to be friends with people when you don't need each other so that when you do there's a strong bond of friendship. And that's going to be particularly important in dealing not only with situations such as now occurring in Israel, but with Saddam Hussein. The coalition against Saddam has fallen apart or it's unraveling, let's put it that way. The sanctions are being violated. We don't know whether he's developing weapons of mass destruction. He better not be or there's going to be a consequence should I be the president." MODERATOR: People watching here tonight are very interested in Middle East policy, and they are so interested they want to base their vote on differences between the two of you as president how you would handle Middle East policy. Is there any difference? GORE: I haven't heard a big difference in the last few exchanges. BUSH: That's hard to tell. I think that, you know, I would hope to be able to convince people I could handle the Iraqi situation better. MODERATOR: Saddam Hussein, you mean, get him out of there? GORE: " . . . I was one of the few members of my political party to support former President Bush in the Persian Gulf War resolution, and at the end of that war, for whatever reason, it was not finished in a way that removed Saddam Hussein from power. I know there are all kinds of circumstances and explanations. But the fact is that that's the situation that was left when I got there. And we have maintained the sanctions. Now I want to go further. I want to give robust support to the groups that are trying to overthrow Saddam Hussein, . . ."

The amazing technicolor campaign

Lipstick? We're listening to pundits argue about what an old saw about a pig in lipstick means? A man makes a slip in discussing faith and says Moslem instead of Christian and the talk shows have a melt down? Come on, folks. Let's get real! He got a laugh from the lipstick comment, then he segued to something about a fish wrapper, and flubbed it. Consider my theory. Obama attempts to talk in four vernaculars--the Kansas, mid-western twang of the grandparents who raised him, the snobbish Kerry-esque of the Ivy League schools he attended, the obscure, murky language lawyers use, and the patois of the ghetto. Are you surprised he sometimes mixes up his idioms, jargon, slang and metaphors? Admit it. You would too if you weren't sure who your audience was.

Update: an 8 page list of figures of speech (used in scripture) with the English translation.

Another convert

He was a 60s war protester, a community organizer, a Jew, a New Yorker in the midwest and he hired Obama for his first job in Chicago. He's also a convert to Christianity and is now a Roman Catholic. Read the story of Jerry Kellerman here at Busted Halo. Watching the angry leftists attack Palin for her religion (Pentecostal, Bible based, pro-life), makes me think Christians are getting some payback for denying Obama's faith. Let's stop throwing stones at those the Lord has forgiven and welcomed into the Kingdom. Even if you (left and right) don't understand the concept.

15 reasons to like Palin

and why Janet Folger says Governor Palin on the ticket will lead to McCain's victory in November:

1) She is solidly pro-life. When running for office, Palin called herself as "pro-life as any candidate can be." But what about the tough cases? She's not only right on paper; she's put her faith to action. In April of this year, Palin gave birth to a child with Down syndrome and feels blessed that God chose her to care for this special baby.

2) She is pro-marriage. Palin opposes redefining marriage. She supported the Alaska Constitutional Amendment to protect marriage as the union of one man and one woman, which passed in 1998 by nearly 70 percent.

3) She is pro-God. While a lot of people talk about God and claim Christianity, we judge a tree by its fruit. And Sarah has it. We can see it all the way back to high school where she headed the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and led the team in prayer before games.

4) She's fiscally conservative. As mayor, Palin kept her campaign promise to reduce the salary of the office and reduced property taxes by 40 percent. Homeowners can stand up and cheer. Shortly after taking office as governor, Palin auctioned the state's jet on eBay. Taxpayers can now cheer – finally someone who'll pass up the perks to serve us.

5) She is pro-drilling. Palin has been an articulate spokesperson for drilling, including opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, in direct opposition to Obama, Pelosi and the Democrats who insist we buy our gas from the terrorists.

6) She is a woman. The 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling are about to shatter. Thank you, Hillary, for helping to pave the way. But Palin's not just a woman – she's the right woman.

7) She has executive experience. She is the only one running who has the executive experience needed to help lead this country.

8) She is outside the Beltway. You could hardly get farther outside the Beltway than Sarah Palin in miles and in philosophy.

9) She is pro-gun. A life-long member of the NRA, Palin is someone who really believes in the Second Amendment. She woke up at 3 a.m. to hunt moose with her father before going to school. When that 3 a.m. call comes, she's already up and ready.

10) She is pro-defense. She was visiting the troops in Kuwait and wounded soldiers in Germany long before she was running for vice president. That other guy didn't even visit them when he wanted to become commander in chief. Her son, Track, enlisted in the Army on Sept. 11 of last year and will be deployed to Iraq on Sept. 11 of this year.

11) She is against corruption. Palin fought corruption even within her own party and publicly questioned Republican Sen. Ted Stevens about the federal investigation that resulted in indictment.

12) She is young. The youngest governor ever to hold office in her state. Younger and more experienced than what's-his-name.

13) She has already won over McCain opponents. Dr. James Dobson, who has said in the past that he would not vote for McCain, with Palin on the ticket, is now enthusiastically behind him with "the same excitement he felt when Ronald Reagan was inaugurated."

14) She turns voters into workers. Callers on my radio program who were previously apathetic said the choice moved them to tears and would move them to action. It has not only turned non-voters into McCain voters, it has turned those who were only planning to vote into those who are willing to work – and work hard.

15) She represents "change." While the other ticket talks of "change," the first woman on a GOP ticket is a far cry from the same ol' same ol' Washington insider choice Obama made.

The Republican Party is breathing fresh air. And hope is now more than just a word in this election.

Story here.