Does Retirement Kill You?

No.

Didn't think so. All the retirees I know are too busy to die. Now, retirement accounts. That's another matter.

Abstract:
The magnitude of the effect that health has on the retirement decision has long been studied. We examine the reverse relationship, whether or not retirement has a direct impact on later-life health. In order to identify the causal relationship, we use unexpected early retirement window offers to instrument for retirement behavior. They are legally required to be unrelated to the baseline health of the individual, and are significant predictors of retirement. We find that there is no negative effect of early retirement on men's health, and if anything, a temporary increase in self-reported health and improvements in health of highly educated workers. While this is consistent with previous literature using Social Security ages as instruments, we also find some evidence that anticipation of retirement might also be important, and might bias the previous estimates towards zero.

"Does Retirement Kill You? Evidence from Early Retirement Windows"
by Norma B. Coe, Maarten Lindeboom
(November 2008) IZA DP No. 3817

California fires

Today's WSJ included a story about a 1930s 2-bedroom home at 486 Conejo Road that had survived the Sycamore Canyon fire of 1977, the mudslide of 1984, the El Nino rain storm of 1998, the mudslides of 2005 and the fires last week. Or course, only one other house in the neighborhood was left standing. But the view of the ocean, they say, is worth it. I'm not sure where you could live in California where you'd be safe from disaster, but whether you've got an ocean view on the east coast, a forest setting in California, or you're enjoying the balmy breezes of Florida, and the gulf view in Texas, I suspect those of us in the plain vanilla midwest, fly-over country, are sharing the pain in our insurance bills and the government disaster insurance plans.

I think I can give the folks in Iowa a pass for those terrible floods last summer. Who would have expected all that heavy snow (isn't there global warming?) and then the spring rains on top of that. But they've been fiddling with those California fires since the late 1700s, and although it is known that fire is essential to the healthy growth of the local trees and plants, residents, builders, environmentalists, forestry officials, local and state administrations and academics just keep dabbling and getting it wrong. See The burning wind, Los Angles Magazine, Nov. 2008.

Atop the Santa Monica Mountains and in Orange County, Santa Ana winds have been clocked at speeds above 110 mph—the force of a Category 3 hurricane like Katrina when it made landfall in Louisiana. . .
Usually wind blows into L.A. from the Pacific, a daytime airflow generated as the sun warms the desert and coastal plains. When in early October the year’s premier Santa Ana stirs, it wakes at night. The sun is no longer dominant, the desert is cooling, and the Santa Ana can begin its flight to the sea. . . If you look at just three years—2007, 2003, and 1993—more than 6,000 homes were destroyed by Santa Ana fires, housing loss that surpasses that of the Northridge earthquake. Given the annihilating potential of the Santa Ana winds, you’d think by now we’d be able to define them.

This web site with Santa Barbara Outdoors has many interesting accounts of the fires over the years beginning around 1955.

Colored people

That was an OK, acceptable term when I was young. Versions of it still are. I frequently see terms like "people of color" and "communities of color." Odd that you can use the noun in a round about way to modify, but not the adjective "colored." Then there was NOLA Mayor Nagin talking about his "chocolate city," as a way to send a message about who was going to be welcome in the rebuilding. Saturday I read in the paper that we in Columbus will be treated to "the Chocolate Nutcracker." Isn't this getting a bit silly?

Hearing about the tribal killings in Kenya last year instigated by the followers of Odinga, Obama's cousin, and the genocide in Rwanda based on tribe, you see that color isn't the great divide we think it is. The Germans and the Jews were the same color; the Irish Catholics and Protestants were the same color; the Hutus and Tutsis were the same color. In Darfur you have Arab Africans killing black Africans but they are the same religion. Trying to google this topic is slogging through a swamp that wants to blame everything from 19th century imperialism to Bill Clinton to ancient tribal practices. I think it proves even sane, well educated people who have been living side by side for years in cooperation and understanding can be whiplashed into a frenzy of hatred by clever leaders. And it starts with word games.

Led by Faith

Immaculee Ilbagiza has an amazing story. I've been watching her today on book TV. Her website. Her story of neighbor killing neighbor and friend murdering friend is chilling. She and 7 other women lived in the bathroom of a pastor for 91 days, hiding from the Hutus. But her story of forgiveness which she knew she had to do to survive is inspiring. It looks like she will be in Columbus in February; Clearwater, FL this coming week-end.

The Hoover-Roosevelt Redux

As I watch George Bush swing helplessly in the wind, abandoned by both his party and common sense, unable to control a Democratic congress and see Barack Obama and the Clinton Team already over the starting line, not even waiting for the bell, I am so reminded of the Great Depression, and the myths I was taught in school. But here's the truth:

"Hoover and Roosevelt administrations -- in disregarding market signals at every turn -- were jointly responsible for turning a panic into the worst depression of modern times. As late as 1938, after almost a decade of governmental "pump priming," almost one out of five workers remained unemployed. What the government gave with one hand, through increased spending, it took away with the other, through increased taxation. But that was not an even trade-off. As the root cause of a great deal of mismanagement and inefficiency, government was responsible for a lost decade of economic growth."

Roosevelt gave us 8 more years of bad economic policies, some of which we still live with; let's hope Obama doesn't go the same destructive route.

Obama's trifecta

Before I choose a title (about which I know little), I usually google it. Sure enough, this one has been used a number of times--concerning the primaries, concerning his relationships with shady characters, and his showing in the debates (his followers always thought he won). But I was referring to what has happened since he became the president elect, not even waiting for Joe Biden's threat which was supposed to come during his presidency, not before: 1) Continuing melt down of the stock market which gave us the biggest 2 day drop since 1987 after he was elected on a platform of higher taxes on business and investors; 2) Russia's deploying missiles near the Polish border before the votes were dry on November 5; 3) quickly increasing violence in Iraq after he was elected since Iran figures he won't do much, or will withdraw the troops. I'm not surprised that he's backing down or running for cover or from some of his most ardent leftist supporters and leaning so heavily on the Clinton team. The man must be scared sh witless with what he has rot wrought.

A poem based on Habakkuk*

Though the fig tree does not bud
and the 401K does not bloom
And there are no grapes on the vine
and I store food in a basement room,

Though the olive crop fails
and the internet goes blank
And the fields produce no food
and there’s no money in the bank,

Though there are no sheep in the pen
except the ones I count to sleep
And no cattle in the stalls
and war news makes me weep,

Yet I will rejoice in the Lord
I will be joyful in God my Savior.

* Habakkuk 3:17-18
From my blog archives

At the Rusty Bucket, our date spot, last night

Christmas is coming
now go out and spend
don't your nose be a thumbing
Jingle Bell's around the bend.

Your neighborhood retailer
needs your help right now;
save after Hank the bailer
makes you say oh wow.

Take your sweety to dinner
buy a book or a ring;
we'll all be the winner
when cash registers sing.

Housing and health hype

The non-profits, government agencies, and foundations are thoroughly invested in the housing/health/wealth gospel and it controls every aspect of funding from the seed grant to do the study from the foundation, to the energizing and funding and marketing of the non-profits, and the distribution of your tax money to rehab or create "affordable housing." There are huge holes in this idea, dream, nightmare, fantasy of upside down reasoning.

Housing generally represents an American family’s greatest single expenditure, and, for homeowners, their most significant source of wealth. Given its importance, it is not surprising that factors related to housing have the potential to help—or harm—our health in major ways.

The idea that a decent, affordable home not only builds families, strengthens neighborhoods, but improves health, provides access to better food, which makes people choose more fruits and vegetables, and loose weight, and want to use bike paths which are better in safe neighborhoods and go past good schools built according to green regulations which in turn improves the health and wealth and the neighborhood, yada, yada, it goes on and on and on. Reading through this gospel of faith in the partnerships of government, businesses, non-profits, church groups, and academe is enough to make a sane person scream STOP! So don't try to read too many annual reports of funding streams at one time.

You're not going to believe this, but the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation has actually done a study on the benefits of recess ($18 million)

In 2007, RWJF issued “Recess Rules,” a report that named school recess the single most effective strategy for increasing physical activity among children. Yet recess remains undervalued as little funding is dedicated to improving the quality of recess.

If this follows their other reports, there will be millions from the federal government shoveled into state coffers to study and support recess--but for obesity management, and green regulations, with a possible tie-in to housing if they can find one.

Occasionally there are major breakthroughs in legislation or public health that significantly affect vast numbers of people. The 1964 Civil Rights Act comes to mind. Or the polio vaccine. Fluoridation of water. Addition of various vitamins to milk and flour. Standard pure water and plumbing codes. The interstate highway system. USDA meat inspection standards. The Homestead Act. But even these all had negative consequences and didn't benefit everyone. I'm sure the Native Americans weren't thrilled with the homesteaders. The interstate highway system probably destroyed lots of prime farm land and made developers disgustingly rich in the cities as vast neighborhoods were condemned for public use.

No, I'm talking about our most recent boondoggle--the fueling of the housing boom between 1995-2006 to "empower" low and moderate income families and more minorities. According to USAToday 49% of the increase in homeowners were minority, and many were not ready financially for a mortgage. Many of the community leaders and government officials pushing this were quite wealthy themselves, never really stopping to realize that they weren't wealthy because of their home--stucco, brick or vinyl clad. Very few saw their dreams dashed because of predatory lending by banks or fraud (about 9%), but by their own judgement and poor managing skills. Then wealth investors got into the act through various loop holes.

And we still have neighborhoods with bad housing stock, boarded up houses, druggies and vagrants wandering the streets, women and children living without a husband and father in the home, poor schools, bad transportation, and sprawling suburbs. Trillions and trillions wasted, first in the programs, now stolen from our retirement accounts and failed businesses, all for a gospel that didn't save. Yes, people need safe, decent places to live but just as we learned with the public housing high rises built in the 1950s, then the low rise townhouse public housing of the 60s and 70s, and the voucher plans of the 80s and 90s, housing itself doesn't change the person--the person changes (downgrades or upgrades, destroys or improves) the housing.

Note: my husband just returned from a meeting at the Westerville Community Center. He was raving about the facilities--swimming pools, indoor tracks, lounges, art studios, aerobics room, gymnasiums, magnificent installed art and sculpture--you name it, they had it--and a full parking lot. Are the people in Westerville wealthier, happier, or healthier than the people in Upper Arlington or Worthington? I doubt it. But the gap between their facility and ours (we don't have one) is just as big as the housing gaps between UA and Hilltop.

Mayor Coleman's budget cuts

Tough times. Not so tough cuts. They will primarily affect programs aimed at the poor, in my opinion. All the better to plead for or demand new revenue. "It's for the [low income] children." It's a game they play. And if the program is eliminated, the employee can be shifted (if liked and a faithful in the party) or dropped (if not doing a good job or is not supportive of the party).

Mayor Michael B. Coleman proposed a 2009 budget yesterday that slashes services and lays off more city workers, he used the word sacrifice nine times and said "it is clear we're going to need new revenue. Columbus Dispatch, Nov. 15, 2008

Here's how it shakes out, although there were proposals in August and September also. Here are the cuts:

1. Community crime patrol funding, 54%
   
2. Neighborhood Pride Centers, 38%
   
3. Downtown Development, 60%
   
4. Neighborhood Health Centers, 18.5%
   
5. Alcohol & drug services eliminated
   
6. Public health reduced to $22.1 million from $26.3 in 2008
   
7. reduce waste collection to once every 2 weeks from once a week
   
8. less bulk (sofas, etc. at the curb or yard) collection
   
9. close 10-12 recreation centers
   
10. close 3 swimming pools
    
11. no funding for Jazz & Rib Fest or Festival Latino
    
12. reduce summer jobs for kids
    
13. after school programming cut 18%

Congratulations--50 years

Today is Richard and Janet's 50th wedding anniversary. He's one of my blogger links. Stop by and say hello or amazing or fantastic.

If you work for a non-profit

you are fronting for the government--either federal, state or local. That's the conclusion I've come to after days of looking bleary-eyed through hundreds of websites on housing and nutrition. I've learned that we have thousands and thousands of these organizations, mostly mushrooming in the 80s and 90s, but now growing like black mold (excuse the mixed fungal metaphors). These organizations look my like genealogy charts with cousins, funny uncles, great-great aunties, and step-children of your sister-in-law's third marriage. Before the Johnson Great Society era, I think non-profits were pretty insignificant, although I can't be sure. What seems to really have grown under the last three presidents, is the public-private partnership concept where private business is thrown into the mix of tax games and government grants. Foundations have a huge role too--they often get the ball rolling with small grants to hire researchers who find a bigger problem, then get government grants to hire staff, to find more money, to hire more staff, etc. etc.

I've learned we don't really worry much anymore about the homeless (lack of housing is the least of their problems); now it's "affordable" housing. And hunger seems to be yesterday's news; it's now food security.

Yes, the government is much, much bigger than I thought. And you are probably working for the government and didn't realize it thinking that of course the USDA should be pushing "culturally appropriate food," and housing for low income people should now be "green" in addition to building wealth, reducing obesity and sending children to college.

I was a librarian. I always knew I worked for the government. I just didn't know you did!

Men: are you depressed?

And I don't mean about a serious international incident as Joe Biden promised us if we elected Obama. No, this is the depression we were told about in the Surgeon General's report in 1999: About 20 percent of adults will experience depression during their lifetime. Within this 20 percent, an estimated 6.4 million American men will suffer from depression each year. So you see, you are already a minority in this problem, just by being a male, because women have cornered this health problem.

But there's no money in studying depressed white men even though they would be the majority of this minority--German Americans, Irish Americans or descendants of Swiss Mennonites. So "disparity" is the necessary key word to get funding just as it is in many lucrative health grants. If you can't find it in the lab with real research and cure it, or develop a drug to treat it, then find it in the data, graphs, charts or neighborhood anecdotes and put people into race based studies. On November 6, 2008 there was a conference, Symposium on Health Disparities in Male Depression, supported by a $25,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to alert the various professional organizations, non-profits, insurance companies and government officials of the cultural barriers, stigma and treatment minority men suffer with depression. When wealthy foundations provide this kind of money to launch something, it is the signal that prevention and policy money from the government will be forthcoming for this problem. Oink, oink. Come to the trough, for all is ready.

Rolled over 255,000

Yesterday at some point my site meter logged 255,000 hits. It would be nice if that meant everyone read something, but they don't. Some of those are "pings" sort of like waving from an airplane instead of stopping by to chat. I think someone fell asleep, staying 14 hours 38 mins 8 secs. I mean, I'm fascinating, but no one would read this blog for close to 15 hours. Just like the economy and employment, my stats are down. Here's the October 2007 to October 2008 chart.



The low point June is understandable. I was out of the country or ill for almost two weeks and didn't blog. And then everyone else was on vacation in July and August and not checking in. In January, the high point, I was still doing Thursday Thirteen and the Poetry sites fairly regularly. Those are sort of participation blogs, where bloggers visit each other and leave comments, but after awhile I just had nothing to say to 13 favorite movies, or game shows, or 13 favorite photos of my babies. And the time I wrote 13 things about illegal immigration, well, I got some really unhappy readers who said they didn't want to read anything political--ever. Then came the run up to the election, and even my close friends and relatives were voting for Obama, so they sure dropped me. Now I'm digging through government and non-profit acronyms that are costing us millions, so that bores people too.

One thing I've noticed about statistics is that if you leave a comment, even anonymously, the next reader is more likely to spend more time, or leave a comment. I do that myself. It's a bit more like a conversation. That's also how I find new blogs to read. I read a blogger I like, look at the comments, then track back to that person. It's really easy. Click on comment, when the window comes up, type something, then go down and poke that little button for anonymous (or leave your initials if you think I know you), then publish, or submit, or what ever they call it. Or you can create a blogger dot com account with any name you choose but not actually have a blog. You'd just be a niche in the wall of cyberspace that goes no where.

Friday Family Photo

This photo is from November 1992 and we had gathered to celebrate birthdays. This was probably the first family event to which our future son-in-law was invited, as they had only been dating about two months. We really liked him and were hoping for the best. Down in the lower left I see a photograph album, so I'd probably shown our Lakeside album (saving the adorable baby photos for later in the relationship), because his parents who lived in Cleveland had also vacationed there, stopping around the time we began going there. We seem to be dressed for church, and the future SIL was also a Lutheran. We were afraid to let her know how much we liked and approved of this guy!

Our daughter had her first short hair cut in years--and it would grow out before the wedding to about shoulder length. I had one of those curly wash and wear and scrunch perms, but I had straightened it for that day--must have had some extra time. I'm holding reading glasses in my left hand--I didn't yet wear them all the time. I remember practicing walking with trifocals the next summer, but still took them off for the wedding photos (September 1993).

The furniture was all replaced before the wedding--I think we gave it to someone, but I don't remember who. There was a pull-out queen size mattress inside that couch--truly the most uncomfortable bed in the world, and I apologize to any relative reading this who may have spent a night or two on it. The blue chair on the right was purchased in 1963 and the couch around 1979, so they had done their time. The painting in the upper right is an old truck on a farm between Mt. Morris and Oregon, Illinois. My husband had stopped to photograph a barn, and when he got closer he realized there was a truck that had so blended with the weeds and trees, we hadn't seen it from the road. I think it is hanging at our son's house--at least I haven't seen it for awhile.

What you don't see here, and we had no way of knowing what was ahead, is our daughter's health was potentially fragile. We couldn't see that her thyroid was slowing down because she had Hashimoto's Disease, a form of hypothyroidism that usually appears in 50-somethings, not in women so young. Also, in her neck a goiter was growing downward which would eventually become so large it would impair her breathing and swallowing. The inflammation of the thyroid from Hashimoto's (an auto-immune disease) also causes constriction. Within a few years her weight would balloon, her thick curly hair would become brittle and thin, her personality would start changing and she would always be exhausted, sleeping for 18 hours if no one disturbed her. The weight gain hid the growing bulge in her neck. And, she was in the early stages of thyroid cancer. All lab tests put her within the "normal" range for thyroid function. Fortunately, both her employer (a doctor) and her hair dresser noticed, and she consulted an endocrinologist. But even then, the cancer wasn't found until the surgery to remove the goiter. So you might say it was a blessing in disguise. At the time, there wasn't conclusive evidence that the cancer and the Hashimoto's were related, but newer research seems to be pointing that way. (Repplinger, Daniel et. al. "Is Hashimoto's Thyroiditis a Risk Factor for Papillary Thyroid Cancer?" Journal of Surgical Research, Volume 150, Issue 1, Pages 49-52 (November 2008)).

Unique and inexpensive Christmas gifts

High Road Gallery in Worthington (across from the library) announces its much loved and much awaited special event for 2008 :

NIFTY GIFTS FOR UNDER FIFTY.

This event will begin on Sunday, November 30th from 1-5 PM when you will meet the artists, sample cookies and punch and find a wide range of exciting personal gifts for your loved ones handmade by Ohio artists.

The show will run for JUST ONE WEEK, DECEMBER 1ST-DECEMBER 6TH . Hours for the gallery are extended this week from 10 AM to 5PM and open until 8PM on Tuesday and Thursday so you can come in after work. Visa and M/C available for for this show.

This is your chance to stock up on very unique hand made gifts prepared by a wide range of Ohio artists. There will be small paintings and photographs hanging on the walls, many varieties of jewelry, fiber creations to use or wear, paper creations, ornaments and all types of greeting cards, purses and totes, scarves ceramics, embellished serving pieces and many items you would not have imagined. The gallery website is www.highroadgallery.org (from their e-mail) .

Ouch! That hurt!

This morning I reached around the kitty with my left hand for my coffee cup while reading Martin Luther and felt a sharp pain in my ring finger. I wear 3 rings--wedding, engagement, and a special band that I think was a Valentine gift about 3 or 4 years ago. But I'd worn a different 3rd ring for years before that--anniversary of our first date I think (my husband is very romantic). Something got pinched. After each move toward the cup, it would hurt more, so finally took the rings off. Oh my. All the fat is gone on that finger from 48 years of wearing rings. So when it's naked, it looks sort of deformed. It used to be a 5, but I think it's gone down a bit. Just rubbed it away--probably went to my hips, that's what happened to my ear lobes. I finally put the wedding band back on, but put the other two away--I won't say where because the cat sometimes reads my blog, and she loves to climb up on the furniture and knock things on the floor.

Palin Africa Story fake?

Nobody knows you're a dog on the internet, as the saying goes. Blogger poses as McCain policy adviser and disses Palin. Well, what a surprise. I'm really a 16 year old posing as a retired librarian so I can use big words to fool Murray. And the media buy into it (Palin stories). I wonder if he was the source of the clothing cost stories too?

24-hour network news channel MSNBC has retracted a story it ran claiming a source inside the McCain campaign that Governor Sarah Palin was unsure of whether Africa was a country or a continent.

The channel says it was duped by a filmmaker named Eitan Gorlin and partner Dan Mirvish, who posed as a McCain policy adviser in a blog. The men allegedly took the name Martin Eisenstadt, a senior fellow at the Harding Institute for Freedom and Democracy. But neither that person nor the institute exist.

The "fake" adviser claimed Governor Sarah Palin mistakenly believed Africa was a country instead of a continent.

The former Republican vice presidential candidate has denied the report from the time it was released.

This isn't the first time "Eisenstadt's" name has been used in a phony report. The Huffington Post once quoted the phony adviser in a story on John McCain and the Hilton family. Other duped outlets include the Los Angeles Times and The New Republic. 700WLW

But how many believed Palin who never tried to be anything but what she was?

NYT story.

Pathologizing the unfortunate and blaming the rest of us

Two stories were featured in the Columbus Dispatch August 27 article about the working poor not having health insurance, but both demonstrated the government insurance system for low income families is working--they do have health insurance--they don't have the employment they desire. But that's not the government's fault, it's not my fault, and in neither case, is it their fault. Getting a teaching degree isn't the same as getting a job in a market like Columbus, Ohio, loaded with colleges and plenty of teachers; getting diabetes may mean you chose the wrong parents.

One family has dual incomes, $80,000 in student debt, and 5 children, and therefore qualifies for Medicaid. The other is a single parent with a debilitating disease, who lost her job, and was given free medication until she qualified for assistance. In other words, the system, patchwork though it is, is working but it doesn't allow for the perks of a "middle class life style."

Four years ago, Gwen Brown, 31, and her husband were struggling to make ends meet while raising their five school-age children. Then she worked as a resource leader for the Girls Scouts and her husband worked as a barber.

She hoped her finances would improve after earning a bachelor's degree last May at Capital University. But with no full-time teaching position, she still qualifies for Medicaid for her children.

She owes $80,000 in student loans and wonders why she's still straddling the poverty line with a college degree.

"We did things to change our lives and nothing has changed," said Brown of the West Side. "That's where my frustration lies."

Last year Penny Self of Grove City, who has had diabetes for about 12 years, lost her job and health insurance. Free samples of her medication from her former doctor kept her healthy until she got Medicaid.

Even before Self lost her job at Sofa Express as a credit representative last year, she tried not to make too many doctors' office visits because she could barely afford the $25 co-payments on her company insurance, she said.

"Now if I get sick or if my son gets sick I don't have to struggle with the co-payments and I don't have to try to be a doctor at home when he is sick," said Self, 43.

The author of the article intended to write about Ohio's working poor without health insurance, but her examples were just the opposite.

The non-profits and housing agencies swing into high gear

The same agencies who decided that low income families and middle class minorities needed to build wealth through home ownership (and if you ever owned a home you know this like floating a boat with an unplugged hole in the bottom), are back at the money spigot.

These are the agencies who

1. helped the clients apply to the state housing trust fund for the down payment,
   
2. who took them to the bank or loan company for money guaranteed by the federal government for the sub-prime mortgage,
   
3. who then took fees to keep their own staff paid,
   
4. who provided them with a one hour workshop on home ownership in their native language,
   
5. who found them rehabbed or low end homes in “at risk” or “weak market” neighborhoods which this agency first purchased and rehabbed,

these same agencies are now asking for more federal and state money to run foreclosure programs and assistance for the very people they helped put in their homes; or money to bulldoze, board up or acquire them for future rehabbing (and start it all over). And if they can’t stop the “disinvestment and decline”, they propose to use the money to buy the home, and lease it back. In other words, put low income people into rentals, which might have been a better plan to begin with. Link to “Columbus and Franklin County Foreclosure Working Group, Prevention and Recovery Advisory Plan, October 2008”

There may be a combination of reasons for a person or family to be “low income.” I know it sounds mean to suggest that there are differences between rich people and poor people and the people in between, but someone needs to address the elephant in the living room if I may borrow a phrase from AA. There are some things a nice home just can't be expected to fix.

Low job skills,

low education level,

low intelligence,

poor interpersonal skills,

poor communication skills either as a native speaker of English, or English as a second language--speaking and writing,

high family disruption and dysfunction--divorced or single parent trying to compete with a 2 parent family,

high alcohol and drug use, contributing to failed drug tests, DUI, short term prison stays,

high mobility, frequent moves, grass is always greener syndrome

low mobility, refuses to leave an area of bad employment opportunities

poor health, disability

age--either too young, or too old to be useful to an employer

small ambition, not competitive, won't take in-house training or transfers

lazy or incompetent.

HIV alarmism has fiscal and behavorial consequences

Sometimes, I don’t understand alarmists. On September 16, David R. Holtgrave, PhD Professor and Chair, Department of Health, Behavior & Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health testified before the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (Waxman, chair) on prevention funding for HIV/AIDS.

He began by reporting that the HIV incidence is higher than previously thought (55,000 or 56,000 instead of 40,000 infections per year) and is rising particularly among gay men. Shocking right? Probably that statement made the evening news, but not what followed. He then went on to report that “the HIV transmission rate dropped from 92.3 in 1980, to 31.2 in 1985, to 6.6 in 1991. It stayed at roughly this level until 1997 when, after the advent of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), the transmission rate went up temporarily to almost 7.5. Thereafter, it continued once again on a downward trend. In 2006, we estimate the transmission rate to be approximately just under 5.0 (4.98). This means that for every 100 persons living with HIV in the US, there are just under five new infections on average in a year. That also means that over 95% of persons living with HIV in the US are not transmitting the virus to someone else is a given year. Because the transmission rate is rather low in the US, it will be very challenging for the nation to push that transmission rate number down even further.”

I thought that sounded pretty good. Not only are infections down among gay men, but they have almost disappeared from the blood supply, from infants getting it from their mothers, and the IV drug users. So what’s the alarm? No one comes to a committee to say their funding needs are down. No, they need more funding to get that rate down to zero, as near as I can tell. Current funding for prevention is $18.6 billion, or $52,000 per infection NOT transmitted. And that saves on treatment money. Holtgrave was concerned that in real dollars, prevention funding was slipping since 2002 (Hmm, seems to coincide with Bush years even though transmission rates are down since the Clinton years.)

HAART (highly active antiretroviral therapy) works, abstinence works, keeping bi-sexual men away from women works, and reducing intravenous drug use works. However, after the advent of HAART transmission rates went back up--before that, the accomplishments were in behavior, not drug therapy. After HAART, it would seem gay and bi-sexual men thought they could go back to the fun, games and wild times of the 80s.

Here’s my idea for prevention. Let’s ask for a more responsibility and volunteerism from the gay community--the way it used to be when people were afraid of this disease. They are the best educated and wealthiest demographic in the country. They worked very hard 25 years ago to combat this disease, now it’s time for the younger generation of gays who never saw friends die or lifted a spoonful of soup to a wasted skeleton to step up and do the prevention thing, and not wait for the government to funnel even more money into their bad behavior and life style.

Can you afford to defend your beliefs in court?

A Christian, Jewish or Muslim organization ought to be able to select its own members, but they may have to defend themselves. I think under President Obama we'll see much more testing of Christian groups who don't buy into the party sex line.

Alpha Delta Chi, a Christian sorority with 14 active chapters nationwide, is straightforward about its membership requirements: churchgoing Christians only; no smoking or illegal drugs; no premarital sex; and please, no drinking to the point that it would reflect poorly on Christianity. A small committee works with members who break the rules, said [a someone who asked me in 2021 to remove her name]  at Georgia Tech, where a chapter began five years ago. But the group says it isn't just about rules, it's about young women trying to live like Christ. "All the girls are in Bible studies. We also do sisterhood retreats and outreach," she said. Many campuses welcome the combination of old-time religion with Greek-letter social groups, but others haven't. At the University of Florida, Beta Upsilon Chi filed a federal discrimination suit last year after administrators refused to officially recognize the fraternity because it required members to be Christians. The school considered the requirement discriminatory, and the fraternity said it was wrongly deprived of meeting space and the ability to recruit on campus. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ordered the school to recognize the group as a fraternity while the lawsuit winds its way through the legal system, and Beta Upsilon Chi has asked the court to make that recognition permanent. An attorney for the Christian Legal Society, Timothy F. Tracey, said Christian Greek-letter groups have been opening on the nation's campuses more frequently since the mid-1990s, and such court fights have been rare. Link "Religion and Greek Life"

Taxing the rich is not the solution

We saw even before the election how afraid of an Obama presidency the markets were. And it has only worsened. You can't say we weren't warned. You can't just blame out right subsidies for the poor and low income, lo these many years, a gravy train Obama wants to enlarge. For many, many years partnerships of private industry, city and state governments and the federal government have been encouraged at every level, especially in construction of housing stock and rebuilding the inner core of cities. Even churches got in the game with their non-profits. So what happens when all levels are struggling? Private businesses lay off workers, the state then gets less tax revenues, runs low on unemployment funds (scraping the bottom in Ohio), the church tithes are cut back and the federal government is bailing out the banks, insurance companies and Detroit who are calling in their markers and favors. It's not unlike when a married couple both work for the same company, living well in a nice house, SUVs and big vacations, and have all their retirement assets in company stock. When the company goes belly up, there's no plan B. Mr. Obama, you can't get blood from a turnip. Time to reject all your lefty buddies and do what's right. Keep the Bush tax cuts, and cut government spending to reinvigorate the economy.

A sermon on preparing to die

Martin Luther wrote some very practical material. This one written November 1, 1519, might be a good to read while listening to Henry Paulson and other government officials try to explain all the bailouts that will ruin us. Luther actually makes 20 distinct points, but only the first three matter, because 4-20 expands on three. At my other blog.

CityLiving Network and Homeport of Columbus

Here’s another one.

With this much money and effort over 20 years, how can there be a single person or family in the Columbus, Ohio, area who doesn’t have adequate, safe, dry shelter? The reason is federally or state supported housing programs are not just about housing, they are about changing lives. And what's this? October 24, 2008 grant for Homeport. Haven't we just been through a bailout?

Millions of dollars in tax credits will be steered towards the redevelopment of low-income communities in Ohio and Columbus thanks to a U.S. Treasury Department award.

Dear reader--housing doesn’t change lives. Marriage does. Parenthood does. Faith in God does. Employment does. Education can. Art and music can. Pets might. Leisure activities don't. Substance abuse will definitely change your life downward. But not housing. Ask any landlord who turned the keys over to a careless, slovenly tenant. Housing doesn’t create safe neighborhoods; it doesn’t get transportation issues funded; it doesn’t improve health; it doesn’t pass bond issues. In partnership with the private sector, this kind of housing for low income people creates jobs and profits for . . .the construction companies.

"Columbus Housing Partnership (CHP) is a private, nonprofit organization [when you see this term linked with housing, it means government grants fund it, but it hides how many workers are dependent on the government for their income] founded in the belief that a decent and affordable home is the cornerstone of family life and a healthy community. For over twenty years, CHP has provided quality, affordable housing and related services to low to moderate income households in Columbus and the surrounding area. CHP has developed over 4,000 affordable homes which have served over 23,000 people.

To further that belief and in 2004, CHP created Homeport the sales division, to build communities for sale that provide buyers with the blend of urban sophistication and suburban style. CHP’s Homeport division’s commitment is to provide quality homes at an affordable price. Our specialty is helping first-time homebuyers get the most value for their hard-earned money. Homeport partners with you to help you realize your dream of homeownership.”

North of Broad (NOBO)- North of Broad is a development in the King-Lincoln District, developed by Homeport and in collaboration with the City of Columbus and Trevor Custom Homes.

The Crossing at Joyce - Homeport has partnered with Rockford Homes to offer buyers a new suburban style home with an urban location at the intersection of Joyce Ave. and 24th Ave. Buyers can select from several models to build.

Restore Columbus is a comprehensive rehabilitation program to renovate existing homes throughout the City of Columbus and in partnership with the City's Home Again initiative.

Home Again was created in February, 2006 in an effort to eradicate the 3,200 vacant homes in the Columbus. Mayor Coleman has committed $25 million over 6 years with a goal of putting 1,000 vacant properties back into productive use by 2012.
"In 2006, Home Again was responsible for initiating 105 roof repair cases; 96 completed at a cost of $1,355,833.* The City demolished 27 properties at a cost of $117,112 and another 52 were demolished by private owners." Link

*Does that roof repair of 96 homes sound a tad high? That's over $14,000 a piece. Advent Lutheran Church at Tremont and Kenny Rds. in Upper Arlington had to have it's entire roof replaced after Hurricane Ike--and it cost $5,200--and it's very large with peaks and elevations.

Problematize--the word that invents problems

Did you ever wonder how we get meaningless jargon, particularly in government documents, feel-good academic fields such as women's studies and black studies, anthropology, and American literature? First you find a word or term that everyone understandands, like illegal immigration, and you declare that you have a problem with it. You problematize the term by writing scholarly papers with words no one would ever use, "denaturalize the reification of this distinction," (don't ask me, I just wrote it down). Then you start substituting words to cover up the phrase or term you have said is a problem (for you). If need be, you can even present a paper at a conference about the problem word or phrase.

Illegal immigration has two terms that had to be problematized by academics who write about it to get promotion, tenure and a paycheck: 1) illegal and 2) immigration. Both words imply someone is where he doesn't belong because someone has said so. In this case, you get rid of both. Illegal becomes undocumented, irregular, unauthorized or clandestine, or if really desperate you can use extra-legal. And immigration becomes migration, or labor, or worker, or visitor--choosing a less obnoxious term because there is no sense in academe that a nation might have rights to a border. Unless you're speaking of a non-western, socialist or communist nation. Alien absolutely is not a good choice, because that too has been problematized. It needs to sound sort of like the migration of birds, or seals. No boundaries. Freedom. No problema.

Notice I have not put quotation marks around the words that scholars problematize. But they do. And they do that to show the reader that they recognize the word or phrase is a problem, and will cause upset to the reader's sensitivities. So a scholar writing about illegal immigration would write it like this: "illegal immigration."

This has been a public service from a retired librarian.

The 2008 Election Map

Although they were out marketed by the Team Obama geniuses, money raisers and crooks, and totally bamboozled by the press and poling agencies, the voters didn't overwhelming elect Barack Obama--not even the much lauded and sought after youth vote. It wasn't even the record turn out that was predicted--all that early voting just was a cover to register more illegal voters. And most of the country had great weather on voting day (remember in 2004 Democrats blamed the rain in the midwest).

No, it was just like the Bush-Clinton election of 1992. It was the Republicans who stayed home and refused to vote or voted 3rd party because they didn't like the candidate they had. Republicans elected Bill Clinton; Republicans elected Barack Obama. That's who gave us the most far left President in our history. I'm sure they were out there somewhere, but I didn't meet a single supporter of the McCain/Palin ticket for whom McCain was his first choice. Only when Palin joined him was there any spark of enthusiasm. But Republicans have never had the party solidarity of the Democrats, who are the real mind-numbed robots, despite their self-image as sophisticated, astute, thinking voters. That's the number one thing I noticed when I changed party registration in 2000. It was almost culture shock. And although it was refreshing to not be chained to party-think, at election time it was a bit disconcerting.

When polled about the issues alone, voters rarely put Obama's plans on top. He and his fellow Democrats participated in the biggest economic meltdown since 1929 in the economy, yet only his coaches knew how to take advantage and blame it on Bush, or you the voter, or the greed of Wall Street. Have you looked at his list of bundlers or mega-donors? They are huge in Wall Street banks and hedge funds, whether Asian, Indian, middle eastern, or pork fed Americans. Why malign your own donors? Easy. 1) It takes the focus off Congress, who is the real culprit, and 2) To bring down and take over the smaller entities to reduce competition. The same reason the corporate giants support all the e-regulations and are dancing behind the green band wagon--it destroys the real competition--the smaller, innovative, quicker guys. It's not all that different than giving away your software at no cost to put the competition out of business, or offering two dollar off coupons to temporarily refocus the housewife's attention to your product at the market until they can't compete (and then raise the price when the competition is dead).

I don't blame Republicans for being angry that McCain wasn't their choice, but they sure shot themselves in the foot. Look at the map. Where are the major social problems in the country? Which cities and counties have been investing in and expanding the War on Poverty of the 1960s for forty years? Where are the expanding crime, the biggest job loss, the strongest unions, and the most fatherless households? The bluest of the blue states. That's the direction the whole country is moving.

Questions that found my blog today

Roten cheese and saling ships.

why isnt good for the health the fungus from the roten cheese

phil dirt and the dozers lyrics to aarp song

rachel carson silent spring professor sierra club 43 fiction years pheasant shell

short poems on saling ships std 1

look how fast i can type without even looking at the words i can type so so fast. i bet you are jealous! so, i can teach you for this one time fee of $25.99!!!

senior citizens earn their paychecks

Living with my 88 year old father-in-law is affectinf my health

Obama--the most anti-life official at any level in the USA

Whether or not the executive orders will come as fast as the press says--

• removing morality clauses from PepFAR funding (Africa where condoms are pushed for HIV protection, but don't work well in the culture),
• granting more government money for embryonic stem cell (it has never been illegal as the press loves to report and the majority of all stem cell research happens in the USA),
• or removing all the inroads the pro-life forces have made at the state level (1.2 million abortions performed in the USA in 2005, down 25% since 1990),

it was clear even in the campaign literature and speeches, that he will be the most anti-life President we've ever had, even considering the almost non-stop wars we've been involved in since the 17th century for a variety of power and political reasons.

To encourage more abortions when they have decimated generations of African Americans? Thirty-two percent of legal abortions are of African American babies, yet blacks are only about 12% of the population. I've never seen Barack Obama as a black man, and I wonder if he does either.

To promote embryonic stem cell research when great strides have been made for cheaper and better uses of other cells from skin to testes?

To remove the rights of parents to have a say in their female child's health? How anti-family and anti-life is that? To allow an aborted baby born alive to struggle without even palative care before it meets its pitiful end--what monster would vote for that fearing it might weaken Roe v. Wade? I don't think he's spoken to euthanasia of the terminally ill, Alzhiemer's patients, persistent vegetative state patients, or bloggers over 70, but I'm sure he'll provide guidance since we're all just taking up space and wasting health care dollars.

And for all you Roman Catholics who have a fantasy that by throwing even more trillions at WIC, food stamps, housing block grants, job training, and day care for infants, somehow you will reduce abortions and replace fathers, think again. It hasn't stopped the murder of millions of unborn in the last 30 years. And do you really want your Catholic hospitals performing abortions?

"Along with their theological opposition to the procedure, church leaders say they worry that any expansion in abortion rights could require Catholic hospitals to perform abortions or face legal sanctions. Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Chicago said the hospitals would close rather than comply.

During the campaign, many prelates had spoken out on abortion more boldly than they had in 2004, telling Catholic politicians and voters that the issue should be the most important consideration in setting policy and deciding which candidate to back.

Yet, according to exit polls, 54 percent of Catholics chose Obama, who is Protestant. The new bishops' statement is meant to drive home the point in a way that cannot be misconstrued. Link."

Abstinence--The Scarlet Letter of the Left

There are few things as political as AIDS and poverty. And sexual abstinence pretty much wipes out both, but since you can't tax it, and it has a religious and moral connotation, it is maligned as impractical at best and unconscionable at worst. Take PEPFAR reauthorization. That's the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, and the original 2003 act was reauthorized on July 30, 2008. In just 5 years, the treatment with life saving medicine went from 50,000 to 1.73 million, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa. This was applauded even by its critics. However, the most successful focus country in prevention was Uganda, which waged a strong abstinence (Africa style) program. And yes, now the "don't condemn the condom" troops are on full attack against the "zero grazing campaign" of Uganda, which is probably why the 2008 reauthorization caved on the abstinence funding. The powerful pro-abortion groups need more ways to reduce the populations of blacks, whether in the U.S. or Africa, and our new president will certainly be going along with this. According to the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute

"Uganda’s rejection of the condom-emphasizing approach, also known as the ABC model (Abstinence, Being Faithful, Condoms as a last resort), has earned it the enmity of the orthodox AIDS lobby. AIDS 2008 featured a symposium session chaired by Frances Kissling – the former president of “Catholics for Choice,” who stepped down last year – aimed at discrediting the ABC approach as “ideological.”

Still, the Ugandan model is attracting notice. India’s National Council of Educational Research and Training recently announced that it would embrace the Ugandan emphasis on abstinence and fidelity in its sex education curricula. Significantly, a study authored by a research team headed by Harvard’s Daniel Halperin that appeared in the May 2008 issue of Science magazine, “Reassessing HIV Prevention,” found empirical evidence supporting aspects of the Ugandan approach."

The 2003 requirement that 33% of prevention funds be spent on abstinence-until-marriage programs was removed in the 2008 renewal, reduced to "meaningful support of monogamy and fidelity." Critics consider abstinence and faithfulness programs a distortion of priorities (i.e., Christian moralizing), preferring instead the unreliableness of the occasionally used and leaky condom. Also, groups counseling abortion services may now get funding for HIV services. You will read hundreds of studies and documents saying women and children are at risk from abstinence based programs--but it's rare to see anything that says abstinence is really the only solution.

While western based liberals in both the government and the increasingly politicized medical field have wrung their hands over the "moralizing and constraining spending mandates" of PEPFAR (JAMA, Nov. 5, 2008 p. 2047), Uganda excelled in controlling AIDS by using the common sense approach--the African way. Helen Epstein’s new book, “The Invisible Cure: Africa, the West and the Fight Against Aids" is reviewed and linked at Abstinence Africa which may show just one more way Westerners have misjudged the African culture, particularly polygamy.

"In Africa, HIV spread among ordinary people who were nowhere near as promiscuous as high-risk Western groups such as prostitutes or gay men. By contrast, about 40 percent of Ugandan men and 30 percent of women have ongoing relationships with a small number of people -- perhaps two or three -- at a time. These ‘concurrent’ relationships might overlap for months or years, or even, in the case of polygamous marriages, a lifetime.

As Epstein explains, these concurrent relationships are at higher risk for spreading HIV for two reasons. First, a person recently infected with HIV may be a hundred times more likely to transmit the virus than someone who has been infected for a few months or years. Most Westerners tend to practice “serial monogamy,” having only one partner at a time, and will usually only infect a current partner. By contrast, a polygamous man who becomes infected with HIV is likely to infect all his concurrent partners.

Concurrent relationships are also at higher risk for spreading HIV because the degree of intimacy and trust in these relationships means that people don’t think they need to use condoms. Many faithful African women became infected with HIV because of their husbands’ behavior. Few health officials from international aid organizations were aware of any of this.

Many western AIDS researchers believe that promoting condoms among high risk groups, such as prostitutes and their clients is the best way to slow the spread of HIV. But HIV continued to spread throughout eastern and southern Africa, even when condom use soared. Epstein argues that some of the condom campaigns backfired. “By associating AIDS with beer drinking, premarital sex, prostitution … womanizing and rape, the lusty condom ads ... clashed disastrously with local sensibility concerning decency and self-respect,” Epstein writes. One of her African sources stated bluntly: “The campaigns were totally wrong. The message was you had to be a prostitute or truck driver to get AIDS.”

A Ugandan prevention campaign focused specifically on issues of concurrent relationships. They developed the slogans “Love Carefully” and “Zero Grazing” – meaning, in the words of the head of Uganda’s AIDS Control Program, “avoid indiscriminate and free-ranging sexual relations.” These slogans were posted on public buildings, broadcast on radio, and bellowed in speeches by government officials. The Ugandan Association of Co-Wives and Concubines -- hardly something any Western aid organization would have instituted -- contributed as well. These women policed the behavior of polygamous men, encouraging them to avoid the casual affairs that could endanger all their wives and future children. One of their messages was: “If your husband is unfaithful and is going to kill you with AIDS, you divorce him.”

The result of all this was a steep decline in the number of sexual partners, a basic step in controlling any sexually transmitted disease."

Of course, AIDS gets the focus and money, but that's not what kills most vulnerable African children--it's diarrheal diseases and malaria. In their concern over bird eggs launched by the non-scientist Rachel Carson over 30 years ago, western governments and companies were quickly pressured into removing DDT from the arsenal of weapons in the war against disease before anything else was available (this method continues today in most environmental issues). This killed millions of Africans and disabled millions more. Instead, the missionaries for malaria when viewing the havoc they created, moved to the mosquito condom--the bed net, which probably requires even more care with application than the other type on an eager body part. And of course, installing wells to pump clean water means someone has to take of them. Where's the money in that?

Yes, there's just not much money in clean water, dead mosquitoes and women taking control to guard their own and their children's health through chastity and faithfulness.

And on money, both the left and the right can agree.

Pray for another Carter

I noticed this at a comment at another blog--no identification, so I can attribute: "As for right now, Republicans should pray Obama is a new Carter. If he is the next FDR, prepare for forty years in the desert."

What Michelle Obama's example says to women

Michelle Obama is about to become one of the most powerful women in the world, with more influence than Oprah and more scrutiny than Hillary. She has an education and a husband, and that is the key to unlock the poverty door for women with children, and not a single additional nanny state program is needed for that. There are hundreds of grants, loans and scholarships for college; and for marriage, just hold out for the right guy and start the family after you tie the knot. I know it's not Hollywood's way, and all the Hip-Hoppers flashing bling will tell them otherwise, but all the studies show it to be true. The more we try to offer women Uncle Sam as a step-father and sugar daddy, the more we keep them in poverty.

An education : In 2006, the working poor rate for Black women workers with less than a high school diploma was 28.9 percent, compared with 15.4 percent for Black men.

Among high school graduates (no college), the working-poor rate of Black women (15.3 percent) was higher than that for Black men—9.0 percent.

Among both White and Black college graduates, differences in the working poor rates of men and women essentially disappear.

A husband : Married-couple families, regardless of whether the husband or wife was the family member in the labor force, were those least likely to fall below the poverty level (7.5 percent).

By comparison, 12.0 percent of families maintained by men and 22.4 percent of families maintained by women were below the poverty level.

2007 Annual Social and Economic Supplement to the Current Population Survey (CPS).

33 Minutes

After inking the deal with Poland in August, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice summed up its importance: “Missile defense, of course, is aimed at no one. It is in our defense that we do this.” Obama would be wise to follow that logic and build on the success as president.

Obama's mixed signals

Taken any tests lately?

Like HIV? Me either. At least, not that I know of. But apparently, according to CDC Guidelines health-care providers (i.e. doctors) should routinely screen all patients aged 13-64 years for HIV. I'm not sure about those of Medicare age--maybe we're too old to count and they like to bump us off the rolls, or we're staying out of bath houses and not shooting up. Here are the risk factors for HIV:

A man having sex with another man even just one time.

Taking street drugs by needle even one time.

Trading sex for money or drugs even one time.

Sex, even one time, with someone who would answer yes to any of the above.

You have hemophilia and have received clotting factor concentrations.

According to a report in JAMA (CDC/MMWR) Nov 5, 77% of persons with HIV risk factors were not tested in the preceding 12 months, and the recommendation for them is an annual test. However, 40% of the general population has been tested. 60.7% of pregnant women were tested for HIV in 2006 (lower than other infectious disease). In 2006, non-Hispanic blacks accounted for 49% of all reported cases of HIV/AIDS, and the HIV prevalence among non-Hispanic blacks was 2.1% compared with 0.4% in the over all U.S. population. (I'd cite the sources, but they aren't printed with the article which is really dumb.) Depending on how often you go to the doctor for allergies or the flu, you might be tested multiple times, and someone else scoring BINGO on all the risk factors, is never screened. Something's very wrong here. They can't keep track of the MSM who are doing all sorts of disgusting things with body parts, so they decide to test everyone? And they still can't get the gay and bisexual guys to come in for screening by changing the rules? These tests must be awfully cheap.

They don't need to have you sign anything or give you anything in writing either. Here's the rules.

Here's the take from the ACLU.

If you've gotten a 3 page list of "services provided" for the last time you were in the hospital, here's the coding guidelines.

These guidelines from 2006 were part of Bush's Domestic HIV Initiative. (Approximately $18.9 billion (83%) of the FY 2007 HIV/AIDS request was for domestic programs; $3.9 billion (17%) for global programs. Only 4% was for prevention, however. Here) The CDC allocated funds to: 23 jurisdictions in clinical settings; 67 grantees in 25 states through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration; 41 family planning clinics grantees in 34 states through the Office of Population Affairs. And the funds were allocated primarily to test blacks. Of course, testing isn't research or treatment or behavior change--it's just to figure out if they have successful strategies in place to overcome barriers to--testing.

Test product

This is the only article I found on the cost effectiveness of testing the entire population. And obviously, if it's your life, or that of someone you love, you think the cost is worth it.

A collection of odds and ends

Extortion with your personal information

And it isn't even Joe the Plumber and Gov. Strickland's snoopers.

Express Scripts, which handles prescription drug benefits for millions of Americans, is the subject of an extortion attempt, and it has called in the FBI for help. Someone claims to have the personal information for millions of customers and is threatening to reveal it unless the company pays up.

I'm reading it here, and have forgotten if you need to register.

Reese Witherspoon

Watched her first movie last night, "Man in the Moon" (1991). Really good. She was 14 playing a 14 year old who falls in love with a neighbor boy who falls in love with her older sister. Sigh. A period piece. 1957.

Reworking and editing

Today I spent several hours pulling out my blogs on the housing crisis, CRA, faith based initiatives, etc. (28 pages) Had to stop and clean up some errors. Blogger dot com has a problem I wish could be fixed--or that I'd remember how to work around it. (Not difficult, just open 2 windows.) If you save your entry in DRAFT, then go out and check the internet for something and click back, you may be on an earlier DRAFT and not notice it. I don't know how this happens, but I kept reversing the words "National City" and "City National" then I'd correct it, but going back, I'd get the old draft and not notice it. So I found it today. Obviously, no one read it, because on the internet everyone is an editor or critic. To add to the problem, the mistakes don't actually go away when you correct and hit PUBLISH, even if you go back and correct.

Joined a new ministry this morning

I'm an early riser, so I joined the group at church (7 a.m.) that reads scripture and prays before the service. Nice, quiet, peaceful. Only four of us plus the pastors. My first time, but I liked it. And it's not like choir where I had to recover the voice I lost or never had. Nobody sounds too terrific at 7 a.m.

Fabulous art show

Thursday evening about 5 p.m. we went to the opening of the Ohio Watercolor Society 31st Annual Exhibition at the Riffe Center Gallery, 77 South High. It will run through January 11, 2009. Oh my. Made me swoon. Don't miss it. Not only that, but God was at his artistic best with a golden sunset over the city buildings which were glistening. That was twice in one week I'd been down town. Don't get around much anymore, as the old song goes.

When you leave down town during evening rush hour do you ever wonder if the civil engineers had stepped out for a break while designing that access to 315 North? One lane? Were they crazy? Asleep? Cruel? There must be 100,000 people trying to get to the NW suburbs. And to think there are people that do that every day.

What he'll miss about President Bush

"I remember coming to the West Wing one morning before the daily 7:30 senior staff meeting and seeing Mr. Bush at his desk in the Oval Office, reading a daily devotional. I remember the look of sorrow on his face as he signed letters to the families of the fallen. When he met with recovering addicts whose lives were transformed by a faith-based program, he spoke plainly of his own humiliating journey years ago with alcohol. When a Liberian refugee broke into tears after recounting her escape to freedom in America, the president went over and held and comforted her.

Little acts behind the curtain like these inspired intense loyalty by staff members. They spoke of someone never too busy or burdened to care -- like when he took time on Air Force One to call my wife when she was sick. The president's true character rendered his media image pure caricature."

Jim Towey writes a very touching remembrance of President Bush. He was director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives from 2002-2006 and is currently president of Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa. When I write analytically of the faith-based initiatives that are in almost every branch of the federal and state governments, I don’t do it to be mean or hostile to "good works." I am sounding an alarm based on Obama's promises. He may be too busy in the beginning dismantling the courts, but it will come.

People in social programs of housing, nutrition, food pantries, summer lunch programs, post prison work, nursing home ministries, fostering abused children, etc., particularly conservative Christians who are heavily involved in these areas to live out their faith with works, need to realize this can be taken away from you much faster than it was given (over a period of almost 20 years). Once you take government money (or, even if you don‘t) to train ex-convicts, or feed Somali immigrants, or provide outings for medicaid patients at the nursing home, the administrators of that program by law, law suit, regulation or political pressure can tell you who you have to hire (Obama has already said he will do this), can pull your tax exempt status which will destroy your funding, your building plans which need to pass code for an expansion, your retirement plans for your staff, your Medicare and Medicaid funding for the nursing home for your people, your right to have adoption programs limited to married heterosexual couples. And don’t forget what you’re allowed to preach from the pulpit about abortion, euthanasia, same-sex marriage, stem-cell research, or any type of morality from polygamy to sex with children in a society whose values come from Hollywood, Wall Street and the Federal government bureaucracy.

Christians, we need to get back to the business of God. Gospel first, works resulting from faith second. And stop depending on kick backs from the government to change lives. The Bible never tells you to do this, nor does it ever say that even if you do it without government help, that the service you perform to clean up, feed or house a person on the outside will change his life or turn him to God. That's an inside job, and it belongs to God.

Business as usual in the Obama White House?

"Rahm Israel Emanuel, who turns 49 on Nov. 29, was born on Chicago's Far North Side, with his family moving to Wilmette when he was a youngster. He is a graduate of New Trier West High School, with an undergraduate degree from Sarah Lawrence and a master's in communication from Northwestern University. He is a ballet dancer and a swimmer.

Emanuel's Israeli father, Benjamin, is a pediatrician, and his mother, Marsha is a social worker. Emanuel is an observant Jew who did not, contrary to some of the mythology that has grown around him, serve in the Israeli army. Rather, Emanuel in 1991 volunteered for a few weeks in a program run by the Israeli army where civilians could help the Israel Defense Force with support work on an army base.

He is one in a trio of superachieving brothers: Ari is a Hollywood superagent, the chief at Endeavor, and Ezekiel, a breast oncologist, is the chairman of the department of bioethics at the National Institutes of Health. An adopted sister, Shoshana is rarely mentioned.

Through his Wilhelm connection, in 1991, Emanuel joined the Clinton campaign as a fund-raiser, rewarded with the White House political director post. He flamed out in a few months, to be resurrected and end up as a senior adviser to Clinton.

After seven years in Washington, Emanuel moved to Ravenswood, making millions of dollars as an investment banker in a few deals, and making more money when tapped by Clinton for a plum spot on the Freddie Mac board." Sun Times.

Hmmm. I can see the beginning of a trend here. A Clinton third term. Well, I feel much better about Obama's marxism drift--Clintons we know. It's just old fashioned Democrat cronyism, Wall Street millionaires, and Fannie covering, so far so good. A ballet dancer? Other than that, same-old, same-old.

Obama's tax cuts for the middle class

This was published before the election, but still well worth reading. After all, it's not the conservatives who will be surprised.

"Just as Bill Clinton promised a "middle-class tax cut" in 1992 only to raise taxes on the middle class in 1993, Mr. Obama will quickly find that his tax-revenue math doesn't add up. Add in the demands on Capitol Hill to spend more and to offset the Alternative Minimum Tax, and our bet is that even $150,000 would soon prove to be a moving tax target. Remember when the AMT was only supposed to hit 21 millionaires? Next year, without relief, it could hit 26 million taxpayers. Tax increases always hit the middle class because that's where the money is."

Read Biden's Tax Truth
However, it was never about revenue, was it? It was about "fairness."

Dear Sarah Palin

That was the google search a few moments ago--I think I found 3,700,000. I was looking for an apology from John McCain for the way his staff has been scrambling for cover trying to find someone to blame. I even went down to the dregs--like page 57 or something--almost all were September and October. The vilification, misogyny, and sexism just went on and on. Like a huge leaky pustule on the nose of a Bush Derangement Syndrome Blogger. Really bizarre. I really didn't know there was such hatred and fear of capable, charismatic, talented women. I attended the rallies and did one volunteer shift--and from what I could tell, without her, he would have been lucky to draw 100 people. So I don't know what his staffers are upset about; she was a pure gift and they blew.
Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah

The purpose of a house

By poking around in the Plum Book for 2004, I think I've found the root of the housing problem. The government. The Plum Book explains the 7,000 Federal civil service positions, so as soon as the next one is published, Democrats will be all over it like flies on honey to see what's up for grabs. So anyway, I was browsing the Assistant Secretary for Administration of HUD, and came across the Center for Faith Based Initiatives and its Director, Ryan Streeter. Found this dandy little article by him about a viable return on housing investments (by the government) that he'd done for ROMA, Results-Oriented Management and Accountability (ROMA), U. S. Department of Health and Human Services in August 2001. He says there are two purposes for housing programs, but that they came about with no overarching plan (surprise!):

(1) There is the conventional view that says housing programs are a good in themselves, and
(2) There is the (more recent) perspective that says housing programs should promote the economic self-sufficiency of the people they serve.

Most federal housing is #1--designed to be shelter, with little plan or thought about the client's long term need. Block grants for shelter or for rehab or construction. But in the last 20 years (can we all say CRA?) HUD began to think more about self-sufficiency combining supportive services with housing services to get people off welfare (can we all say Republicans?). "These have become much more common in recent years. Approximately 1,200 local housing authorities sponsor a Family Self-Sufficiency program."

Of course, Mr. Streeter, continues, #2 is waaaaay more complex (and expensive) than #1. What he says the client gets is very vague--something about not living in an unstable environment and possibly increasing wealth if he becomes a homeowner. The other parties to this transaction are definitely not poor--they are developers, investors, contractors, the real estate market, surrounding homeowners and finally, we taxpayers. In other words, the government housing programs are a lot like the food assistance programs--they do a lot more for the producers than they do for the poor.

Ask yourselves how this has worked out in your own life. Unless you purchased investment/rental property, or were a home flipper in the last housing boom, owning a home didn't do diddly squat for your wealth. You think it did because of the home sale prices, but because of inflation and everything you poured into the house that you wouldn't if you had been a tenent, you are lucky to break even let alone accumulate wealth. What owning a home did for my family was provide shelter, a good school district for the kids, nice neighbors, a life style that suit my tastes and education, and a lot of job opportunities for other people in the housing field--real estate agents, plumbers, electricians, animal and pest control, house painters, pavers, lawn services, tree trimmers, and window salesmen.

We live in a lovely condo complex now with beautiful vistas, trees, ravine and creek, because in 1962 we purchased a dump--a 1912 duplex in a mixed zoning neighborhood in Champaign, Illinois. The student renters paid the mortgage, allowing us to eventually move out, rent both units and get a nicer place, plus have enough left to make a car payment. All other wealth we have accumulated in 48 years has come from salaries, savings, inheritance, and investments (one really strange one where we bought a building lot on a lake in Indiana for $10,000 and sold it the next year for $25,000 not putting a penny into it, except the guy who mowed the weeds, and never spending one night there.) We paid $28,500 for our Abington Rd. home in 1968, sold it in 2002 for $325,000 and paid $275,000 for this one. But we lived on Abington 34 years, put about $170,000 into various additions and remodeling, to say nothing of the general maintenance and decorating (taking out trees, putting up fences, taking down fences, putting in drive-way, replacing garage doors, fixing gas line leaks, rewiring the mess the previous owners had made, building closets everywhere (no basement or attic), treating carpenter ants, treating termites, mopping up after flooded toilets or washing machines, replacing things in the 90s that we'd replaced in the 60s, etc. We paid fees to sell it, and then had to put money into the condo to redecorate brown walls and red ceilings, bring it up to code with insulation, and got hit with a $7,000 roof assessment the first year. Just last week we had someone here to replace some rotting wood on the deck.

No, whether you do it for yourselves, for your children, for your parents, or the government does it for a low income mom with children from several boyfriends, you don't change lives through housing subsidies or grants. Take a tour through any prison, hospital, school or nursing home, and you'll see that it is not the building that changes lives or educates or makes people well. It's the same with us.

Now, will someone tell the government. Someone might need help with safe, comfortable shelter, but they probably don't need the nanny state trying to babysit and redirect their lives.

Setting the Record Straight on GSE's role in the economy

Since we're in for another round of FDR type "fixer-uppers" to weigh down the economy, the response to who's at fault is up at the White House Web page. Even if you're an avid Bush basher, you really ought to take a look, because your 401-k or 403-b has been just as damaged as mine, but for some reason, you just might think that by raising taxes, you'll get some back. Don't think it works that way--at least it didn't in the 1930s.

The chronology starts in April 2001 with the FY 2002 budget, "the size of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is "a potential problem," because "financial trouble of a large GSE could cause strong repercussions in financial markets, affecting Federally insured entities and economic activity." (2002 Budget Analytic Perspectives, pg. 142)" Democrats forget Bush inherited a recession and was probably trying to figure out how to fix it. Having poor people borrow both the mortgage and the down payment from the government was not a healthy way to go. Foreclosures were already showing that.

Read all the way through to August 2007 (chronology ends in September 2008), the last time I think this steam roller could have been halted and around the time I started blogging about it: "August: President Bush emphatically calls on Congress to pass a reform package for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, saying "first things first when it comes to those two institutions. Congress needs to get them reformed, get them streamlined, get them focused, and then I will consider other options." (President George W. Bush, Press Conference, the White House, 8/9/07)" I even wrote a poem about it in September 2007--not only were Barney and Chris not listening to the President, they weren't listening to Norma! Once the Democrats controlled Congress, there was no turning this thing around. Now they get the whole sticky wad.

Obama's team was much faster at taking advantage of this problem (by lying) than was the disorganized, flabby McCain team, so most of you bought into the, "it's the President/Republicans fault" meme and that action was needed immediately. I've spent more time deciding what to have for Thanksgiving Dinner than these Porkers did figuring this one out. We'll stay in this mess until someone smart about not raising taxes figures it out. I'm already retired, so please hurry up!

Too old and too female

There are a few old timers in the Senate and House who have become flabby porkers with 20-30 years of "service" to their country/state (in fact, one from Delware comes to mind). But too old and too female to own a gun? When her disabled husband who is older hasn't had the problem? Seems like state workers are just taking on a whole bunch of corrective and protective responsibilities never assigned to them.

"Delaware State Police stopped Alvina Vansickle from purchasing a .22-caliber pistol for self-defense because she was too old and a woman, said Superintendent Col. Thomas MacLeish.

The outrage that followed led to the revelation that Delaware State Police had been keeping lists of gun buyers for years; state law requires them to destroy these records after 60 days.

Without so much as a traffic ticket, the 81-year-old Lewes resident should have sailed through the mandatory state police background check when she tried to buy a Taurus revolver from Charlie Steele's Lewes gun shop last August.

Problems started after Steele made the required phone call to state police for approval of the firearms transaction." Delaware online

Now check out this video by Dr. Suzanna Gratia-Hupp of Texas whose parents were killed by a gunman: "What the Second Amendment is REALLY For," October 2003

Unity, social action and the weakened church of Europe

So what was happening to the church in the early 20th century that allowed it to be mowed down like wet grass by the National Socialists? (see previous entry) My grasp of 20th century history is pretty much limited to what I was taught in school or saw in the movies (i.e., FDR was our savior even though he extended the Depression 8 years; we were the good guys in WWII and bad guys in all following wars) and what I lived through. Keep in mind, I was either a humanist or a Democrat most of my adult life, or too busy raising a family, and working toward academic promotion and tenure to pay much attention to anything beyond the campus and home on Abington. Here’s a brief summary of about the first 40 years of the European Lutheran church in the 20th century from History of Lutheranism by Eric W. Gritsch (Fortress, 2002).

1) Ecumenism
2) Doctrine divides, service unites

Now, I realize it was a bit more complicated than that, but the leader of the ecumenical movement and all the cleverly named organizations and conferences that mushroomed (mostly in Europe with some participation of American churches) was a Swedish Lutheran, Nathan Söderblom (January 15, 1866-July 12, 1931). He was a man of deep longing for unity among Christians, a goal to which he devoted his life and studies, while pursuing eastern religions and dabbling in Marxism. Just skipping through the highlights of his life in Chapter 7, "New Ventures, 1918- :

1890 International Student Conference (New Haven)
1901 Young Church Movement, with links to Swedish socialists; studies Persian religion in Paris
1908 Proposal for Christian unity with Anglicans and mission work in India
1912-13 Professor at University of Leipzig, Germany
1914 Appointed archbishop of Sweden; Declaration of Peace and Christian Fellowship
1914 Unity efforts set aside by WWI with focus on helping orphaned German and Austrian children as head of World Alliance of Churches for Promoting International Friendship as a way to unite Christians in social action despite national and doctrinal differences
1917 Manifesto signed by leading clerics of Europe calling for a durable peace;
1917 International Christian conference--hand picked delegates; unity, life in society, international law were the topics
1919 World Alliance International Committee, 60 attendees from 14 countries (Netherlands)
1920 Negotiations for Ecumenical Council/Conference for unity and renewal of society (Geneva)
1925 Universal Conference of the Church of Christ on Life and Work (Stockholm) with six topics: 1) church’s obligation to the world, 2) church and economic and industrial problems, 3) church and social and moral problems, 4) church and the mutual relations of nations, 5) church and Christian education, and 6) methods of practical and organizational cooperation between Christian communions
1927 World Conference on Faith and Order (Lausanne); seven topics many doctrinal on sacraments, gospel, nature of the church--much tension--no vote taken
1930 Received Nobel Prize for peace
1931 Gifford lectures, honoring his work on world religions and the mystical unity of humankind

With his life, the chapter parallels what was happening in Germany to the church (mostly Lutherans, since this is a book about Lutherans) who have been participating all along in these calls for unity, cooperation, and mission to social causes

1932 German Lutherans who support Hitler (Reichskirche) and “heroic piety” call for a revival of inner mission and a platform to fulfill the intentions of the Reformation of the 16th century
1933 Hitler elected during economic crisis with the Jews blamed for all of Europe’s economic woes (i.e., evil, greedy, capitalist CEOs); he promises a new Germany; rise of secularization, churches lose influence; the government coordinates all sectors of public and private life.
1933 The Nazis first affirmed support of religious freedom, except when public security was threatened, and ties with ecumenism in other parts of Europe are halted
1934 German confessing church (bekennende Kirche) putting the gospel first, repudiates the false teachings of the government and many eventually go to prison camps and death.
1937 Second Conference for Faith and Order (Edinburgh)
1937 Conference on Life and Work (Oxford) Hitler barred Germans from attending
1938 German pastors are required to sign a loyalty oath or lose their ministry and salary
1939-1945 (World War II) The rise of German National Socialism (and Italian Fascism) during which the believing churches are suppressed; those who support the government (majority) allowed to continue.
1945 Surviving leaders of the German Confessing church establish Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany

In an effort to save the environment, I think the churches of today could just dust off a few of these documents (if they can find them), especially that one in 1925 with the 6 main topics has a very familiar ring, don't you think? Works for PAJAMA Christians.