Monday Memories--1976 in Southern California

My husband doesn't write many letters, so what a surprise today when I came across a real gold mine of copies of letters--maybe 10--he'd written in the 1970s. Don't remember now what I was looking for because I got so involved in reading them. Our family took at trip to California in 1976 to visit my husband's father, step-mother, brother and sister. We didn't know them too well--his parents were divorced when he was about two years old and he'd only seen them about once a decade. But we had a wonderful time, and the siblings have grown much closer over the years. (See the photos of the siblings at his sister's wedding 30 years later in 2006). But I thought this letter to his California parents was quite sweet. It's written on company letterhead in precise architectural printing at an angle across the page with his unique spelling, so I'm pretty sure I didn't have a hand in it. I'm glad he thought to make a photocopy of it.

BRUBAKER/BRANDT, INC. ARCHITECTS PLANNERS

Dad & Rosie,

Well, what can I say after a 9 day, storybook, Southern California vacation that was perfect in every detail. I could talk about the places I saw, the beauty of the land and ocean, the make-believe of Disney or ocean marine animals doing fantastic tricks. The sun filled sky and the smiles and laughter of our children watching animated bears singing and sea lions balancing balls in the water. But that would only be half of the story.

The other half was the best for me. Seeing and visiting family which I had not seen in many years. To learn to love again the family which has been on my mind many times. To see and hold a sister which has grown and matured into a lovely lady of beauty and talent. Could it really have been 16 years since I saw her last? I hope never again that long.

To see and spend a day with a brother who Norma says reminds her of me, surely she doesn't mean physically, and learn of his goals and values. Aunts and cousins which brought back memories of boyhood days at Lake Webster. What a great visit we all had that day. And of course, you Dad, for the time you shared with us at breakfast, filling our cups with coffee and love. And with you Rosie, being with you for the first time since I was eleven or so. Learning to love you and visiting with you and the pictures in your photo album.

It was the finest vacation our family ever had. Give my love to all and come our way when you can.

Dad and Rosie and our family, March 1976
And there were hand printed letters also to his brother and sister in the file. It's enough to make an old lady cry.

Talking us into a Depression

With the January jobs report, the recent recession has become one of the five worst since WWII in terms of jobs losses as a percentage of the work force (I know you may, from reading the paper and listening to Obama, think it is the worst, but it is still only the fourth or fifth worst). Let me compare the job losses and the output declines at this point in the recession for these 5 recessions:

See Coyote Blog

"I ask every business owner or manager I meet for the personal evidence they have of economic cataclysm. Is their business down? And in a surprising number of cases, I get the answer that their business is doing OK, but they are cutting back because surely the worst is soon to come, based on everything they see in the media."

What if there were a recession

and the federal government and the Fed did nothing, with Congress going home on an extended vacation. Based on what has happened in the last 8 months (and what happened 1929-1943), we'd be way ahead. The stock market has done nothing but drop since the markets woke up one day and realized Obama would be president after the Democrats met in the summer. When the congressional whiz kids decided to bail out the banks with the Ben and Hank (Fed + fed govt) dog and pony show, nothing recovered and everything got worse. The President's solution? Do more interfering. If a lot didn't work, much more might! Obama's numbers are dropping like a Bush in Iraq, and he's heading for the heartland to drum up support. Hope and Change.
Hopeless change.
Less change,
changing hope.

Was it NCLB?

Depending on your politics, education statistics are fodder for your cause. While in office President Bush was roundly criticized by both conservatives and liberals for throwing money at education, particularly NCLB. Although if you look at the grant money available from HHS, USDA, and other agencies, the money for children extended far beyond the DOE and NCLB. No president in the history of the nation has better reason to be called “the education president” than George W. Bush, based on the money spent, (or wasted, depending on your viewpoint). However, today I came across some interesting statistics.

In 1998 Georgia had the lowest overall graduation rate in the nation with 54% of students graduating, followed by Nevada, Florida, and Washington, D.C. The national rate was 71%, according to the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. (Its figures differ from some government statistics which include GEDs in graduation rates). Nine years later, Georgia's graduation rate rose to an all-time high of 72.3 percent in 2006-2007, according to data released by State Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox and Governor Sonny Perdue.

Manhattan Institute for Policy Research tends to be conservative/libertarian. I don’t know about the state superintendent of schools in Georgia, but I’m sure she would want to make it as positive as possible, regardless of her party. But it looks like NCLB helped some of the worst school districts in the country, which I believe was its intent. The NEA and teachers in general complained bitterly about it, and I'm sure anything good about the program will go the way of all digital information agencies of the federal government don't want you to see. As I've said many times, the archives belong to the victor, and the public libraries to the Democrats.

However, here’s another statistic I found. In 1993 Georgia began to invest more (many millions) in pre-K education which included a component for working with the mothers of the children so they could get their GED and job training. This was under Governor Zell Miller, and was funded by the state lottery. Press release 1993. If even some of the poorest children were helped by that program, it should have shown up in the 2007 graduation rates, 14 years later.

During the last three weeks, we've seen the previous administration dissed at every possibile turn by current officials, from Obama on down, and it is in very bad taste. It will be interesting to see if he is criticized for not caring about children.

Pro-Cuba, anti-Bush group petitions Obama

Artists, clowns, poets, musicians etc. want "normal" relations with Cuba. Petition here. I wonder if Cubans get anywhere petitioning their government for more freedom?

Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are a holy and righteous God and that you love us and our President far more than we can even imagine, that your son Jesus Christ lived a perfect life and died a perfect death for us. Protect and enlighten our President. Guard him from false advisors and information, so that he in turn can lead the nation. In the name of Jesus, Amen.

Page after page, lustful thinking

The AIA report on how to spend billions and billions of federal money on local and state projects to help the building and construction trades, many of which no one will want or use (transit, model schools, etc.) or will forget about as it filters through the bureaucracy pipe line for several years (block grants to communities), was supposed to include a "tax cut for businesses." I searched and searched, and finally found it on the final (9th) page.

Repeal Section 511 of P.L. 109-222, which requires federal, state and most local government agencies to levy a three-percent withholding on all government contracts, grants and other payments.

Although this provision is not slated to go into effect until 2011, many businesses are in the process of developing their plans for the next few years and are having to invest funds already in preparing accounting systems to handle the new withholding. In addition, the withholding would come into effect around the time that many economists believe that the economy will begin to recover. It makes no sense to provide economic relief to businesses on one hand and yet punish them for
performing government work with the other.

This is an unfunded mandate from 2005 which could cost some of the building trades more than their margin of profit. Certainly worthy of cutting, but I doubt that it's enough to offset the huge gorging of green the architects are craving and the banquet table loaded with pork. The building trades have been under the thumb of the federal government for at least 30-40 years--not as long as the farmers, but they've lost control of their professions. Why are all these buildings, roads and bridges in such tough shape if the government knew how to do everything better 20-30 years ago?

How many calories does a 60 minute aerobics class use?

According to this nice little widget, Fitness Partner's Activity Calculator which I found on Gekko's blog, about 318. The same as digging in the dirt for an hour, or painting the house for an hour, or cleaning gutters. I think I'll stick with the exercise class.

Fotographia

Sometimes you just get lucky when you click on "next blog." Get a load of these photographs! http://ilustranatur.blogspot.com/. João Nunes da Silva, Portugal, Fotógrafo de Natureza. Not much in the archives, but what a feast for the eyes.

Good enough to run for Congress

FEMA sent money to crooks who simply applied for it after Katrina and Rita blew through Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. But as we see in the negotiations for the packaged stimulating pork, this is a tradition in government. Yesterday's Columbus Dispatch reported that 15 Toledoans, some applying from prison and others claiming property damage in cemeteries and empty lots received FEMA money. Link.

If there were that many from northern Ohio, imagine how many there must have been who actually lived in the states affected by the storms. I think Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi should check out these dipsticks for the Congressional farm club. These crooks (the Toledoans, not Reid & Pelosi) weren't thinking big, but in politics not everyone starts at or near the top. And these folks are innocent until proven guilty (the Toledoans, not Reid & Pelosi).

No brainer Book Talk

Glancing through the paper copy of OnCampus yesterday I came across "Book Talk," an interview of Tanya Erzen, author of "Straight to Jesus: Sexual and Christian Conversions in the Ex-Gay Movement," which received the 2008 Gustave Arlt award from the Council of Graduate Schools. Despite the intriguing title, there was no doubt in my mind that this wasn't an evangelical Christian book about gays finding freedom in the love of Christ. It would be highly unlikely that such an author could make her way through the arduous promotion and tenure process, or even get hired in a Department of Comparative Studies (religion, folklore, ethnography) at a major university if she were a conservative Christian with historic, traditional views on marriage or even a liberal Christian with traditional views like I was for 35 years.

But if I'd had any doubt, Prof. Erzen, who says she doesn't believe in censorship or banning books, said:

What book would you most want your kids to read? What would you want them NOT to read?Since my daughter already likes Dr. Seuss, she’s off to a good start, and I have books by Roald Dahl, Ray Bradbury and Madeleine L’Engle waiting for her. I hope she’ll read Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States when she is older. I wouldn’t mind if she never wanted to read The Purpose Driven Life or the Left Behind series.

Lots of conservative Christians don't recommend Rick Warren's book because of its lack of a straightforward message about sin and forgiveness, but I suspect she dislikes his traditional capitalism and marriage views. No tender, inquiring mind will be damaged by reading its happy, sweet message of comfort. I'm not into dispensational theology either, or any Christian fiction for that matter, but Left Behind is no more fanciful than Bradbury.

The Democrats' view of prosperity

"That's what got us here." Whether it's Daniel the Catholic Alaskan Librarian or Obama the President who campaigned for two years I just shake my head in disbelief when I hear that the booming economy of 2003-2008 is what caused the meltdown. No interest loans. Mexicans flooding over the border to grab really high priced construction jobs in Ohio and drop their anchor babies. Managers frantically looking for workers--and giving them bonuses and parties for just showing up. On paper we had a phantom 3rd person living with us who just turned over his paycheck and asked for nothing but reinvesting his money. That wasn't disaster, that was a boom, and booms go bust if you're not careful about who you lend money to. Would you have preferred than the economy didn't recover after 2000 so you could blame that on Bush too?

Here's Daniel commenting at my blog

But having said that [he doubts the stimulus will work], we have been in serious tax cut mode since 2001 and failed to stave off what could be the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression. I think it's probably time to try something different.

And here's our President a year ago, blaming tax cuts, ignoring that they pulled us out of the last recession by stimulating the economy

"He criticized Bush for giving tax cuts to corporations and the rich while spending billions on the war in Iraq. Obama also rebuked Democratic rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Republican front-runner Sen. John McCain for supporting the war."

He gave up disparaging the war and our military commanders (although he plans to release unrepentant terrorists onto the world stage), but he hasn't given up his very unsound socialist belief (and loyal Dems follow on this) that tax cuts were "bad." Yes, my retirement funds have collapsed, but they are not yet where they were in 2000 during the last Clinton recession, not yet as low as they were in the months following 9/11. I disagreed with Bush in many areas, particularly the money the government passed out for mortgages under the CRA which created the toxic paper that brought us into a global recession, but his tax cuts were the right thing at the right time. As a nation, we've just come out of a drunken spending binge, with the Bush Administration forking out grant money with very little oversite for years, and Mr. Obama wants more of the same. It's insane.

It was a crazy idea in September

Just pay off all the home mortgages for people earning less than, say, $100,000 a year. That wouldn't have been "fair" to people like the Bruces whose 20 year fixed mortgage was paid off in 1988, but looking back, it would have cost me less money than the insane plan the Democrats have come up with to kill the economy and give us European socialism ala FDR in his decade extension of the 1929 Depression. Think of the money that would have been released for Americans to restore the economy. We would still have some retirement money! Too late now. The Democrats have had what they've been aiming at for decades. Rape and plunder. Complete government ownership of the American people. Michael Steele, the new chair of the RNC notes belatedly since the Republicans totally wimped out and RINO'd us

"The fastest way to help those families is by letting them keep more of the money they earn. Individual empowerment: that's how you stimulate the economy.

"But the Democrats have a different philosophy. Instead of leaving money in the family checkbook, they want to send it to Washington, run it through a slow and inefficient government, and hope that does some good.

"When families keep the money, they spend it, save it, or invest it. And the private sector economy benefits when families and businesses buy consumer goods or invest it for the future. But when Washington spends the money, some of it may flow into the economy, but all too often, much gets wasted. Michael Steele, chair RNC, GOP.com

Letter from an American Taxpayer

Phil Marx at My Hud House says he's sending this letter to his creditors. I took at quick look at Google to see if this is something going around, but his was the only one that matched.

Dear Sir or Ma’am;

I am currently unable to pay my bills due to circumstances beyond my control. It seems my government keeps taxing me and printing out new money. The first action leaves me further in debt to my government (more accurately, to foreign governments), the second action devalues my current savings and income. I am simply unable to keep up and must therefore default on my payments until such time as the federal government decides to bail me out.

I do realize that my actions here will cause hardship for you. I sympathize with your circumstances and would like to offer a remedy. It is my understanding that the government is largely handing out my money to corporations who already have lot of money, and now they are being given even more. I seems to me that the opportunity exists for you to appeal to them for financial assistance.

A partial list of these corporations includes: JP Morgan, $25 Bil.; Citigroup, $25 Bil.; Wells Fargo, $25 Bil.; Bank of America, $15 Bil.; Bank of New York Mellon, $3 Bil.; Capital One Financial, $3.55 Bil.; Fifth Third Bancorp $3.45 Bil.

Sincerely, An American Taxpayer

Hope he can change says VDH

"Anyone who cares about the U.S., at home and overseas, must be worried, very worried, about the disastrous last two weeks. Even the fawning media — that is responsible in some way for the crisis, given that they chose to be Pravda-like in encouraging the messianic style that got a haughty Obama in his present mess — will soon start bailing in efforts to restore their last fides. If a Dick Morris figure does not come to the rescue soon, Obama’s soaring rhetoric of hope and change will become the stuff of Leno/Letterman and general laughter. Bush was unfairly demonized, but no one abroad thought he was predictably soft and would be so-so about protecting U.S. interests, or that his words and his deeds would be so often in direct antithesis."

. . . the most exalted ethical rhetoric ever, and the greatest ethical lapses of any incipient administration in memory. Over 10 lobbyists now appointed, plus all the tax problems.

. . . the Blago tapes yet to be released.

. . . inflated lectures on historic foreign policy made by the clumsy political novice who trashed his own country and his predecessor in the most ungracious manner overseas to a censured Saudi-run press organ

. . . shrill campaign rhetoric about FISA, Guantanamo, Patriot Act, Iraq, followed by ‘all that for now staying the same’

. . . the stimulus is an ungodly disaster

. . . Robert Gibbs, the new press secretary is, is a Scott McClellan nightmare that won’t go away

. . . Biden has ridiculed the Chief Justice, trashed the former VP and bragged on himself ad nauseam

. . . really creepy people abroad are now lining up to test Obama

. . . Read the full article, if you dare, by Victor Davis Hansen

Mindful of the hypocrisy, they do it anyway

"Members of Congress were quick to shame corporate executives for over-the-top extravagance during the economic crisis, flying private jets and taking luxury junkets. But some lawmakers are strolling fancy resorts spending tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars and mingling with lobbyists." Link

The Wesleys must be rolling in their graves

"The United Methodist headquarters in Washington, DC, is hosting a month-long exhibit that portrays the founding of Israel as a catastrophe.

The display, which is titled "60 Years of Dispossession," chronicles what Palestinians call the "Nakba" -- the Palestinian word for "catastrophe." Palestinians use the word to describe Israel's founding, an event that is reviled in the Arab world. The photo exhibit trumps what it describes as "the 1948 mass deportation of Palestinians, massacres of civilians, and the razing to the ground of hundreds of Palestinian villages" following Israel's creation." Link

What a sad end to a once great leader in the Christian church.

Speaking of prayer

There is a newsletter for parents called theParentLink that comes from the Erie Christian Fellowship in Pennsylvania. There were three prayer requests in a side box, one reading, "Ask God to help your children embrace and celebrate people's differences." (The theme for February seems to be diversity.) Since most adults don't do that, it might be more honest to say, "help me embrace and celebrate people's differences." But that aside, what do you think of using the word "celebrate" in this way? I know, I know. I'm being picky, but that poor word has practically been destroyed by the touchy, feely, gushy language of multiculturalism and diversity, which in fact is a very divisive movement, in calling on people to recognize their differences rather than their similarities and commonalities. The dictionary meaning of "celebrate" has some meat on its bones. ". . . to observe a holiday, perform a religious ceremony, or take part in a festival. To observe a notable occasion with festivities." It's a nice 15th century word meaning to honor with solemn ceremonies or deviation from routine.

If you'll ignore my chin hair and wrinkles, I'll avert my eyes at your tattoo and nose stud. Let's not celebrate our age differences, let's serve God together.

A prayer for the President

Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus who died for all, I ask you to hear my prayer for the president. I read that he got very angry with people over the failures in the stimulus package. That's certainly understandable, and I'm angry too. Remind me and him that we can take our anger to you--you are a great big God as the children's song says, and you can handle our tiny, weak fists beating the air over things that are out of control. Your word is so clear; we are not righteous. Only you are. Be with those for whom this face of anger is a new thing. Forgive them for making the President, or any king or dictator or despot or official, more than a mere mortal who has flaws and makes mistakes just like the rest of us. As it says in your holy practical book of James, may we, the president and I, be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. Yes, Lord, that would be good. And thank you for that good word. Amen

Today's new word is DEFENESTRATION

Even in context, I couldn't figure this one out. “That's Wednesday of this week--i.e., roughly 24 hours after the defenestration of Nancy Killefer and Tom Daschle. Possibly Solis will skate by on the theory that the Killefer Standard does not apply to spouses." It means the act of throwing a person or thing out through, or by way of a window. It comes from the Latin de + fenestra, meaning window. The Defenestration of Prague in 1419 was throwing the burgomaster and others from the windows of city hall onto the spears of those below.

February 7 is National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

"Blacks are disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS. While making up only 13 percent of the U.S. population, they account for more than 49 percent of AIDS cases. AIDS is now the leading cause of death for Black women ages 25 to 34, and the second leading cause of death for Black men ages 35 to 44." Link to CDC site

MSM is reported in MMWR. That's the problem with acronyms. MSM can mean mainstream media or men having sex with men.

There’s an article in the Feb. 6, 2009 MMWR on the increase of HIV among gay and bisexual young black men. It’s a fairly small study done in Jackson, Mississippi, but I’ve seen very similar ones for other areas of the country. Men having sex with men, younger men with older men, anal intercourse, multiple partners, are primarily the causes of HIV/AIDS. It’s not a national epidemic--it’s a very specific disease caused by very specific behavior. Between that and abortion, blacks are destroying their families. Yes, women do get AIDS, but primarily from their men who don’t admit to their infidelities or sexual taste for men. I have no idea why it’s so high among black men, but I’m really tired of reading that homophobia and poverty are the problem, but that's the best way to get the grant money for these studies.

“Reducing HIV transmission among young black MSM is challenging because of many factors, including sexual network patterns, sexual partnering with older men, high prevalence of STDs, lack of awareness of one's HIV status, homophobia, HIV-related stigma and discrimination, and socioeconomic issues. CDC's Heightened National Response to the HIV/AIDS Crisis among African Americans aims to reduce HIV/AIDS in this population by expanding the reach of prevention services, increasing opportunities for diagnosis and treatment, developing new prevention interventions, and mobilizing broader community action. In the United States, reducing the toll of HIV/AIDS on young black MSM will require a combination of strategies, including culturally specific behavioral interventions, expanded testing programs, and comprehensive campaigns to combat stigma.”

Homophobia and no meaningful paycheck don't cause a man to have anal intercourse with another man, and then go home and crawl in bed with his girl friend. Sorry, I just don’t buy it. You could eliminate every last vestige of dislike or fear of homosexuality, you could give every gay man a middle class income, and HIV/AIDS will not go away as long has men continue to have sex with men and bring the disease home to their wives and girlfriends. Ask any rich man who's had several young male partners this past year. Ask the widow of the artist, professor or musician who cared for him as he wasted away when there was no one else.

Is this the change we were promised?

Have you seen the fawning press stories about Obama's apology for "messing up?" The media threatened and whined for 6 years that Bush should apologize for freeing the Iraqi people even with the bad intelligence he inherited on WMD from the previous administration. But oh by golly, here was Obama apologizing within the first 2 weeks for doing something stupid--appointing Daschle on the heels of Geithner. Oh, he's just so wonderful. He admitted to a mistake! Now if he'd just admit the stimulus package is a total failure and will plunge us even deeper into economic chaos.

"The Daschle affair was more serious because his offense involved more than taxes. As Michael Kinsley once observed, in Washington the real scandal isn't what's illegal, but what's legal. Not paying taxes is one thing. But what made this case intolerable was the perfectly legal dealings that amassed Daschle $5.2 million in just two years.

He'd been getting $1 million per year from a law firm. But he's not a lawyer, nor a registered lobbyist. You don't get paid this kind of money to instruct partners on the Senate markup process. You get it for picking up the phone and peddling influence.

At least Tim Geithner, the tax-challenged Treasury secretary, had been working for years as a humble international civil servant earning non-stratospheric wages. Daschle, who had made another cool million a year (plus chauffeur and Caddy) for unspecified services to a pal's private equity firm, represented everything Obama said he'd come to Washington to upend.

And yet more damaging to Obama's image than all the hypocrisies in the appointment process is his signature bill: the stimulus package. He inexplicably delegated the writing to Nancy Pelosi and the barons of the House. The product, which inevitably carries Obama's name, was not just bad, not just flawed, but a legislative abomination.

It's not just pages and pages of special-interest tax breaks, giveaways and protections, one of which would set off a ruinous Smoot-Hawley trade war. It's not just the waste, such as the $88.6 million for new construction for Milwaukee Public Schools, which, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, have shrinking enrollment, 15 vacant schools and, quite logically, no plans for new construction." Charles Krauthammer, continue reading Link

Tougher government regulation

The Bernie Madoff case is a good reason you shouldn't have crooks setting the rules. Link.

"Bernard Madoff was the former chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange and a respected figure on Wall Street for nearly half-a-century. For decades, his firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, had been one of the top market makers on Wall Street. In Washington, regulators had sought his advice on any number of regulatory issues over the years.In 2000 he served on a government committee established to protect investors by ensuring accurate and full public disclosure of information to them. In an old video of Madoff that’s come to light, he tells an audience it’s tough to skirt the law.

BERNARD MADOFF: In today’s regulatory environment, it’s virtually impossible to violate rules. And this is something that the public really doesn’t understand. And if you read things in the newspaper and you see somebody, you know, violate a rule, you say, well, you know, they’re always doing this. But it’s impossible for you to go—for a violation to go undetected, certainly not for a considerable period of time."

Madoff Swindle might give some children a chance at life

"By swindling clients out of up to $50 billion, hedge fund manager Bernard L. Madoff has caused at least two left-wing charitable foundations to fold. Through his Social Security-like Ponzi scheme that paid older investors with funds from newer investors, liberal Madoff, a heavy donor to Democratic candidates, has caused the collapse of the Picower Foundation and the JEHT Foundation. Picower gave generously to NARAL, Planned Parenthood, Southern Poverty Law Center, and ACORN affiliate Project Vote. JEHT gave big to the ACLU and its foundation, the Center for Constitutional Rights, ACORN affiliate American Institute for Social Justice, and the Tides Foundation and its affiliates."

But. . . there will be bailouts for those supporting Democratic causes, such as abortion. Welfare for charities.

"Independent Sector, a coalition of liberal charities and foundations, wants to cash in on Washington’s bailout fever, the Chronicle of Philanthropy reports. "There’s simply not enough cash to respond to the amount of the needs," said Diana Aviv, president of the group. "The demand is much greater and the dollars that are secured from traditional sources are shrinking." Call it charity welfare. If you don’t dig deeply enough into your pockets for charity, the government will force you to, or at least that’s what Aviv wants." Capital Research Center

Dear President Obama

When I found out you had paid your parking tickets from 1989-1990 when you were a graduate student at Harvard in 2007, I decided it was time to pay my Ohio State University Libraries over-due book fines. Who knows, I might be tapped to be someone important in the future. So today I went to the Ackerman Road location (temporary home while the Main Library is being rebuilt /restored/ revitalized). After asking directions twice (I don't pay my bills on-line like you did--it's a generational thing), I finally found a nice lady who said she could help me pay my fine. I gave her my name, and there it was on her computer. $16.00 for 3 fines, one of which just happened last week. The other two I had no idea how old, but from before I retired, so I thought maybe the late 1990s.

I wrote her a check, she printed out the information, took it to a copy machine to copy the check, then gave me a copy of the bill. It's not that we weren't hi-tech in the old days nine years ago, but for some reason I was really surprised to see how much detail there was. I had no idea what had been overdue--maybe it's on my accessible record and I never noticed. When I saw the titles (1999 and 2000, so the fines were from 2000) I only remembered "Horse heaven," by Jane Smiley. I was the veterinary medicine librarian, you see, so I suppose I thought a novel about horse racing would be interesting. But it wasn't, and I think I only read about two chapters, until I forgot about it and it went over due. Truth be told, Mr. President, I really don't care much for fiction.

The second was one about which I have no memory at all but I'm assuming it was non-fiction, Anthony Arthur's "The Tailor-King," an account of the 16th-century takeover by Anabaptists of the city of Münster and its rapid descent into despotism and anarchy. Oh my! I can see why Martin Luther was so unhappy with the Anabaptists--the 16th century guys were certainly not the pacifist Mennonites and Brethren I grew up knowing! This guy ended up with 16 wives, one of whom he beheaded!!

"It says much about this strange young man's personality and character that he could so effectively turn his mentor's disaster into his own triumph. Of all the qualities that the preceding episode reveals about Jan van Leyden - ingenuity, imagination, timing - the one that stands out most is his intuitive mastery of what would later, in our own century, be called the technique of the big lie. Told with sincerity to a people anxious for reassurance, deriving from some source beyond and greater than its speaker, the big lie is so outrageously improbable that no one could possibly make it up. Therefore, it must be true." (p. 73)

Although some of this does have a familiar ring to it, doesn't it? The part about the big lie so outrageous and the people being so gullible.

But I was just thinking--I mean about the detail in my book fine information after all these years that even I had forgotten. You said you didn't remember you had fines, until the Boston Globe reporters began sniffing around asking questions. (This was back when they were tight with Hillary.) It was really smart of your advisers to get those tickets off the books before the Clintons even realized that you really were serious about becoming President of the United States. I don't know how a poor grad student in 1989 was able to even afford a car in Boston, but the ticket records would have had your DL number, the auto registration, whose house you were parked in front of, how many times it happened, and any other registered autos who were ticketed around the same time. Considering the hay the anti-Bush crowd tried to harvest over an old DUI, this could have gotten nastier than the certificate of live birth or the transcripts from Columbia and Harvard that have disappeared down the rabbit hole.

Anyway, just wanted to let you know I'm one of the many you've inspired to do the right thing. Also, I respect you for not pulling any strings to just make those parking tickets go away. Tim Geithner probably would have. Watch your back with that guy.

Friday Family Photo--1975

"Unfortunately, we need a recession," writes Jim Manzi, noting that we can't borrow our way out of debt. "Americans are going to live in smaller houses, drive older cars, vacation nearer to home and have less expensive digital camcorders than they expect."

You mean like the 1970s when we lived on one income in a 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath home, managing with one car, a vacation to my parents' farm in Illinois, an instamatic camera, and "gaming" was racing toads in Aunt Muriel's drive-way?

How to thrive in a bad economy

And I didn't see a word about going for the green. How refreshing and innovative! This architectural firm in Memphis has "work on the boards" because of its can do attitude, excellent care of its clients, careful managing of its assets--people, equipment and cash, its flexibility and common sense. Story here.

You look just like your mother

When my college roommate met me at the Seattle airport in 1996 after many years of not being together, I said to her, "You look just like your mother," and she said to me, "And you look like yours." Both our mothers were younger (mid to late 30s) when we first met, so that shows you how "elderly" mid-life adults look to children. Reading G. Campbell Morgan this morning made me realize how much we Americans look like our mother, England. He is preaching from that passage in Amos, which is a powerful word from God to the people of Israel of that time, but resonates down through the centuries to all peoples, Amos 8:11-13. Amos tells of a famine not of bread, but of the word of the Lord, a famine that will hit the young and healthy the hardest. And so a hundred years ago, early in the 20th century, Morgan is preaching on this passage to Londoners, citizens of the most powerful country in the world. The sun had not yet set on the Union Jack when he said this--the tiny island still ruled India and much of Africa, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and parts of Asia and the annihilation of generations of its sons in WWI and WWII was yet to come

"The prophet of today will see quite clearly the cruelty of Russia, the frivolity of France, the rationalism of Germany, the civic corruption of America. But the prophet cannot forget the relation of privilege and responsibility, and he cannot forget the fiery, burning, searching words of his Lord, that it is to be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for the cities that heard his voice. . . Russia will have a far better chance in the final judgment of the nations than England, because England has had infinitely more light. . . we are living in the midst of a great famine, not of bread, but of the Word of God, what is this famine? It is a curse upon our idolatries. . . The curses of God are the harvests of man's own wrongdoing.

If we have lost our sense of the Word, and
our love for the Word, and
our confidence in the Word, and
our appreciation of the Word,
why is it?
It is God's judgement, but it is an effect following a cause. . .

So Morgan challenges the people of England to first give up the idolatry, then turn to the Word, and then there will be no famine.

The other morning I heard Father John Corapi on EWTN speaking on the culture of death and anti-life forces in America say we Americans have been "educated into embicility" and we are "slaves to our culture." Physical poverty is a terrible thing to see, he said, but if we had eyes to see the spiritual misery of our nation, we would die of fright.

Notable Quotables of 2008

Everyone in the world probably laughed at, not with, Chris Matthew's tingly leg for Obama, so he got the big one at the award ceremony of the 21 awards for the year's worst reporting, but some others are just as hilarious. Since I have a gag reflex at most of the prime time "news" reporting, I've missed most of these. Two I enjoyed in the reruns

The Obamagasm Award
Some princes are born in palaces. Some are born in mangers. But a few are born in the imagination, out of scraps of history and hope....Barack Hussein Obama did not win because of the color of his skin. Nor did he win in spite of it. He won because at a very dangerous moment in the life of a still young country, more people than have ever spoken before came together to try to save it. And that was a victory all its own.”
— Time’s Nancy Gibbs, Nov. 17 cover story. [65 points]

From Camelot to Obamalot Award
“Today, the audacity of hope had its rendezvous with destiny. No mere endorsement this, more like a political anointment from the Kennedys, merging ideals from two different eras....Obama is now an adopted son of Camelot. His candidacy blessed not just by the Lion of the Senate, patriarch of the clan, but by JFK’s daughter.”
— ABC’s David Wright on Nightline, Jan. 28. [55 points]

As we used to say in the olden days, "Gag me with a spoon." Reading through these awards, and the runners-up, you see the days of the free press are over. As awful as the constant Bush bashing was, this is much worse for the country. He could handle it; I'm not sure Obama can.

Does Associated Press do this to Obama speech when he talks black?

"If I were giving advice to myself back on the day my candidacy was announced, I'd say, 'Tell the campaign that you'll be callin' some of the shots. Don't just assume that they know you well enough to make all your decisions for ya," Palin said.

That Obama is 1/2 European-American and was raised as a white is rarely mentioned, but a black linquist certainly noticed it, McWhorter. So when he speaks "black" it is a language he learned as an adult, and doesn't sound authentic. But even then, I haven't seen AP being meticulous in recording how he speaks "street" or "church." (Now that he's in office, I rarely hear it.)

I say "ya" and "Warshington." But the MSM tries to make Palin look like a dope. The people trust her a lot more than the NYT or Washington Post. The article headline was "Palin Rails Against 'Anonymous, Pathetic Bloggers'", but they could have made her sports comment the headline, or that she played trombone (you gotta love that).

Update: Excellent article at Commentary on the elitism vs. populism in the Sarah Palin love her or hate her story:

"This form of intellectual elitism is actually fairly new in America, though it has been a dominant feature of European society since World War II. It is not as exclusive or as anti-democratic as cultural elitism is in other countries, because entry to the American intellectual elite is, in principle, open to all who pursue it. And pursuing it is not as difficult as it once was, at least for the middle class. Indeed, most of this elite’s prominent members hail from middle-class origins and not from traditional bastions of American privilege and wealth. They can speak of growing up in Scranton, even as they raise their noses at dirty coal and hunting season."

Geithner's a pox on Obama's House

Another appointee in trouble for taxes.

"Labor Secretary nominee Hilda Solis became the latest Cabinet nominee to face questions about unpaid taxes Thursday as a Senate panel abruptly postponed a scheduled vote on her confirmation.

The postponement came after revelations that Solis' husband settled tax liens on his California auto repair business this week that had been outstanding for as long as 16 years." CNS News

Didn't she have to sign his tax returns? Different standard for Hispanics? I think until Obama releases Geithner from his "one and only" status as the guy who can save us, he'll continue to attract people who have "forgotten" to pay their taxes. "Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., says lawmakers are committed to giving Solis "the fair and thorough consideration that she deserves.” " Yes, and she's definitely lacking and deserves the door--out.

Someone's trying to scare you

Pass it on. Don't be a victim of Al Gore's snow job.

Pork is turning green for education

"Both the House and Senate versions of the [American Recovery and Reinvestment Act] bill include a multi-billion dollar ($14 billion in the House and $16 billion in the Senate) provision for modernizing public schools (including charter schools) with technology upgrades and energy efficiency improvements. Unfortunately, religious and independent schools are EXCLUDED from this provision, even though a companion provision relating to higher education includes religious and independent colleges and universities." Council for American Private Education

I've seen all the pleas to architects (my husband's e-newsletters) to rally around every green project because it's big bucks for the building trades (everything in the package is turning a magic green), so this one is a plea to private religious educators to get in the fray. I disagree that stimulus money should go to religious schools. No matter what shade of green.

Dirty Harry brings home the bacon

"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is leading the fight to push President Barack Obama's economic-stimulus plan through the chamber by week's end. He's also working to make sure that his home state of Nevada benefits from the nearly $900 billion plan. . .

Dozens of other senators have sought to add their own measures to the stimulus plan.

Last week, Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas failed to win approval for an extension of tax incentives for her home-state timber industry. On Tuesday, California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer failed to win a majority for a provision backed by Silicon Valley high-technology firms and home-state drug companies that would have allowed them to bring overseas profits back to the U.S. at reduced tax rates.

On Wednesday, Sen. Patty Murray (D., Wash.) fought to change the way transportation funds are doled out in a way that could benefit home-state interests. New York Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer this week sent a news release to constituents outlining his plan to direct millions in new federal funds to public-transportation projects in New York City. And Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson angled to include tax incentives for citrus growers." WSJ
Hope and Change.
Change and Hope.
Hoping for change.
Changing the hope.

How's that release program working for you?

"Saudi Arabia said Wednesday that 11 men released from the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay are now on the kingdom's most-wanted list despite having attended its touted extremist rehabilitation program.

President Barack Obama has signed an executive order closing the detention center at the naval base in Cuba, leaving countries scrambling over what to do with released detainees.

Saudi Arabia and terror experts defended the program for terror suspects, saying it is largely effective. The Pentagon has said it's unlikely to change its policy on prisoner transfers to the kingdom."

Apparently, Mr. Obama sees some good in closing Gitmo. Wasn't it just around 11 Saudi guys who flew the planes on 9/11 looking for martyrdom? After they lose the excess pounds they gained on Gitmo from the good food and free legal advice in the "rehab" program, they're good to go. And how many of the freed detainees are going to want to go home if they face a "touted extremist rehabilitation program." Send them to Canada. Most of the American leftist movie stars who threatened to go there in 2004 if Bush won went back on their promises. So there should be welcoming arms there. Or maybe George Soros has an island somewhere with a mansion.

Faith based initiatives are in for a jolt

Hate to say I told you so, but I told you so. Obama's "common ground" initiative doesn't broaden the base, it narrows it. The new regs will be so sticky, so complex and expensive, to say nothing of forcing Christians to deny the Great Commandment of Christ (which many were doing anyway without help from Obama), that most small ministries won't be able to participate, and only the most liberal, largest most non-evangelical quasi-Christian and Warrenized churches will dabble in government grants. That means more grant money for the ACORNies, pantheistic warmists, and Muslim groups, which of course in the name of diversity, won't be held to the same standard as evangelical Christians.

However, it was a bad idea for churches to become so dependent on government money, and in effect, become an arm of the federal government in housing programs and food distribution plans (my church does both, maybe more). Folks, it's time to get back to saving the world for Jesus instead of the USDA, HHS and HUD.

The eight babies blindfold

Both conservative and liberal talking heads, bloggers and comics are beating this one to death. I'm guessing the "sperm donor" and the "doctor" are one and the same for all her babies. I can't believe the conservatives calling for special laws. Just how often does some dysfunctional woman do this that it needs legislation that isn't already on the books?

But in the few minutes the media spend to update their outrage, twice that many anchor babies will be born in California. Then with Congress's "new" open borders and family values shtick, those babies' grandparents, siblings and aunties will be urged to come and sup at the table of the rich Americans. You know them. The ones who won't do the construction jobs, the restaurant jobs, the retail jobs, the trucking jobs so we've got to import workers. At least these 14 babies' relatives say they are returning to Iraq, or where ever they came from. The Democrats want two things out of this border mess--enough gardners, maids and laborers for their private vineyards and estates, and enough voters to keep them in office.

My library fines

Before I retired in 2000, I went to the business office to pay my library fine--$12.00. I don't remember how I got it because there's no penalty until it gets to $50, or at least that was then. I was a library manager, so I could have used my password and deleted it, but I didn't. I forget who was out of the office, but I was told to not worry about it. So everytime I checked something out for the last 8 years, I was reminded I had a $12 fine. Then last week I forgot to renew an Ohiolink book, and $4 was added. Now my fine is $16. I have a book about the Apostle Paul waiting to be picked up at Ackerman Road (location of all the offices while the Main Library on campus is being "revitalized.")

Barack Obama had nearly $375 in parking tickets from his Harvard days almost 20 years in arrears, and he didn't pay them until he decided to run for president in 2007. His staff said it was nothing. Another one of those, "everybody does it," I suppose. Look at me. A librarian with a $12 fine going unpaid for 8 years. The woman he decided to crack down on for being less than $1,000 behind in her taxes, Nancy Killefer who had paid it long before he tried to appoint her, had to meet a different standard than either the President or the Head of Treasury, Timothy Geithner, who wasn't just forgetful, but an out and out cheat and crook. After he was caught the first time, he paid his taxes and penalties, then did it again and was trying to outrun the statute of limitations, which apparently I don't have on my library fine, or Obama on his parking tickets. But then, Geithner is the only genius in all the Federal Reserve System or among all the lobbyists from the Clinton era, or all the guys to choose from the Congress, who can save us. Never mind he headed the powerful NY Fed and noticed nothing coming that even hinted at a sub-prime meltdown, just like the SEC whiz kids who thought Madoff was too big to fail.

But I better pay my fine. Obama might just call on me to be the official blogger of the opposition.

Sometimes you don't need the whole story

According to the LA Times, Obama is putting the heat on the Republicans. I didn't read the whole story--just saw it pop up on my Google News page. That won't take much--they melt in a hurry with even an angry glance. After all my years of voting Democrat, this was the most difficult thing to get used to. An opposition party that didn't oppose, a party that fell for every Democrat "bi-" line that oozed across the aisle. Even Bush. He could stand up for the unborn and the embryo, he could fight the terrorists, but he was putty in Teddy's hot hands.

Obama says "the 'half steps' now urged by the GOP for the stimulus bill are the same ideas that led to the financial crisis." No sir, that's not how we got here. Open your recent history book if it hasn't been digitally modified yet. READ as the ALA poster you posed for says. We got into this mess from our elected officials (aka the government) interferring in the economy; first in social programming, then in housing. Some with good intentions, most from lobbying efforts. Or, social mortgage programming trying to make a mortgage a civil right for the low income, the illegals and the single moms. Of course, the clever investors and house flippers just drove their fancy SUVs and Mercedes through the loop holes. Then the builders and developers became as dependent on government funds as the farmers. To get out from under the "new deals" our Congresses from Carter through Bush 43 forced on the banks, the risk was simply passed along to investors. Now you demand BO's New Deal Redux to dig us deeper in debt and socialism like a decade of FDR. There aren't enough Republicans around DC to stop your power grabs, but it was nice of you to give them a nod.

Today's new word is AGW

Another acronym, and I'm only listing it because once I knew it and today I said it wrong. AGW isn't Al Gore Warming, which is what I said while reading through a bunch of meteorology and weather blogs and journals (my oh my--there is definitely no consensus--not on anything). AGW is Anthropogenic Global Warming. Anthropo meaning human being, and -genic meaning producing or formed. Here's the quote, and you can see that my Al Gore Warming fit just fine in the context, and how I could make such a silly mistake, but it's just wrong:

In its most extreme form, this approach has AGW supporters labeling skeptics as equivalent to “holocaust deniers” and “tobacco lawyers.” Efforts have been made in several quarters to decertify climatologists or meteorologists who show any skepticism for AGW theory, making public adherence to the theory a minimum qualification for publication and professional standing. Enormous efforts are made to squelch skeptical speech. Just as one example, the BBC has run a zillion shows and specials sympathetic to AGW. When Channel 4 ran one single show (called the “Global Warming Swindle”) which outlined parts of the skeptics’ position, 37 scientists attempted to have it suppressed by the government." from Skeptic's guide to global warming, Ch. 2

People really become threatened when you speak against their religion, AGW and it's high priest AG.

Executive compensation

“I don’t get too worked up about this one way or another. Once the government is a part owner of these companies, it is perfectly reasonable to expect them to dabble with things like compensation policy, and no surprise that focus of such dabbling would fall on whatever particular hobby horses the party in power seem to obsess about. Which is reason #4097 why government shouldn’t be bailing these guys out.” Coyote Blog When are we going to cap Congress? Didn't they just give themselves a $93,000 raise that wasn't called a raise. When does the Secretary of Treasury get the same rules as the rest of us. How can a guy who plans to spend a trillion dollars of our tax money to wage a war against our economy with pork and pay-offs complain about a CEOs salary?

One of Bush's last proclamations

National Sanctity of Human Life Day, 2009
A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America (January 15, 2009)

All human life is a gift from our Creator that is sacred, unique, and worthy of protection. On National Sanctity of Human Life Day, our country recognizes that each person, including every person waiting to be born, has a special place and purpose in this world. We also underscore our dedication to heeding this message of conscience by speaking up for the weak and voiceless among us.

The most basic duty of government is to protect the life of the innocent. My Administration has been committed to building a culture of life by vigorously promoting adoption and parental notification laws, opposing Federal funding for abortions overseas, encouraging teen abstinence, and funding crisis pregnancy programs. In 2002, I was honored to sign into law the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, which extends legal protection to children who survive an abortion attempt. I signed legislation in 2003 to ban the cruel practice of partial-birth abortion, and that law represents our commitment to building a culture of life in America. Also, I was proud to sign the Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004, which allows authorities to charge a person who causes death or injury to a child in the womb with a separate offense in addition to any charges relating to the mother.

America is a caring Nation, and our values should guide us as we harness the gifts of science. In our zeal for new treatments and cures, we must never abandon our fundamental morals. We can achieve the great breakthroughs we all seek with reverence for the gift of life.

The sanctity of life is written in the hearts of all men and women. On this day and throughout the year, we aspire to build a society in which every child is welcome in life and protected in law. We also encourage more of our fellow Americans to join our just and noble cause. History tells us that with a cause rooted in our deepest principles and appealing to the best instincts of our citizens, we will prevail.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 18, 2009, as National Sanctity of Human Life Day. I call upon all Americans to recognize this day with appropriate ceremonies and to underscore our commitment to respecting and protecting the life and dignity of every human being.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fifteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-third.

GEORGE W. BUSH

Yes, a just and noble cause.

Is this a rerun?

I've packed away a number of nice wool slacks I bought 2 years ago, and slipped them under the bed. Maybe next year, maybe not. Life's too short at this end of it to sit uncomfortably. But I stopped at the Discovery Shop today and picked up two lovely, 100% wool, top brand, completely lined slacks for $4 each. Up a size. They are a little loose (a 10), but that's better than a tight 6 or 8. Upon examining one, I think it may have been one I donated last year. It looked awfully familiar.

I'm in an exercise class 3 times a week (new year's resolution), but if I have to do something I don't like, I'd prefer to walk. Too cold and too icy. My daughter who hates exercise even more than I do, is going great guns with the treadmill--she's up to 5 miles a day and has added weights. My SIL told me the other day that she's up at 5:30 a.m. When she was a baby she'd sleep 18 hours a day--should have known then she wasn't just a "good" baby. Although she was--huge blue eyes and big smile. She has a ton of health problems, and rather than add one more medication which would have to clear her liver, she decided the only alternative was exercise. She says she has much more energy now. I'm very proud of her. I have an exercycle in the garage that's about 15-20 years old and has maybe 100 miles on it. It used to be in the basement but it gathered laundry.

The vacuum cleaner's been making a funny whine. Today my husband was running it in the bedroom and called down stairs, "I think there's something wrong with the vacuum." (This morning he called up from the lower level and said, "The cat's thrown up all over everything. I have to go to the bank.") So I went up to investigate and took the bag cover off. Oh. My. Goodness. That poor little bag was bursting full, and returning last week's dirt to the carpet. So I scrounged around in the basement and found a new bag and replaced it. It's much quieter now and doesn't squeal when you don't make it work against itself. If your vacuum cleaner has been talking back, check it's little tummy.

About the cat. Yesterday I gave her a new, dry cat food--just for a treat--supposed to be good for hair balls. Oh, she loved it--has been making goo-goo eyes at me. Now, I didn't see any hair balls when I investigated, but I doubt there could be a single thing left in her tummy either. She's pretty small--not quite 7 lbs (although in the middle of the night on my head she feels much heavier) and from the looks of the laundry room, she's lost about half her weight. I'm thankful for small things--it was the laundry room and not the living room (white loopy rug).

I'm having guests for lunch tomorrow--soup and salad. I've made broccoli soup and corn chowder. I serve corn every chance I get because my husband doesn't like it (loathes it), so unless I have guests, or sprinkle some out of a freezer bag, I never get to have it. While I was at the Discovery Shop, I saw a great deal on some china (Mikasa) that was a dead ringer for my Syracuse, plus I liked the shape of the cups better. I was really tempted--but I don't really need 11 more plates and 7 cups.

There are two professions who need to go to a terrorist reeducation camp--urban planners and lighting designers. This morning in my very dim living room, one of the ceiling can lights burned out. Right over the couch where I was reading (it's a little like using a flash light under the covers). The trim piece on can lights end up painted to the ceiling, so you can't get to the bulb, plus it's like reading by spot light when they do work. Twenty years ago the city of Columbus rezoned downtown, taxed the people and gave tax breaks to retail and restaurants to build a "city mall." I don't think these "let's revitalize down town" ideas have worked--like creating pedestrian malls and forcing people to walk. It was a big success for about a year or two, but it was not built because of market forces, but by government fiat talked into it by urban planners. $116 million to build. Now they've decided to tear it down and make a park, at the cost of $165 million. I'm sure the next big "urban planning" will be multiple use, green something. And the rest of you will be helping, because I'm betting our mayor and governor, both Democrats, will be begging for bailout money. They've just let the last class of police recruits go a few weeks before they graduate and are discontinuing yard waste pick up. Brilliant. But let's spend money to tear down a mall and make a park no one will use because without police it won't be safe.

Local politics is the farm club for the guys who eventually go to Washington and spend even more money. Although some actually skip the local level, go straight to the state capital, for a term then to the U.S. Senate to do nothing for two years, run for President for two years, and then go to the White House.

Reading to children

You won't find me criticizing this president or the former president for reading to children. This is one important aspect of the Obama presidency no one can quibble with--he's a role model for young men who know nothing about husbands or fathers, and one more--when he was an Illinois senator he posed for a reading poster to encourage children.

But I do wonder about Obama's PR people. Have they never seen how Bush was reviled and ridiculed for being caught in a classroom with children when 9/11 happened? And he was caught out of the White House when Katrina happened? And the Obamas have only been there 2 weeks and are already escaping from the pressure! No, my criticism is for his managers. This is not good. It sets him up for comparison with Bush, who did it first and ignored the criticism--which I doubt that Obama does as well.

Also, some of us even remember how librarians, who vote 223 to 1 Democrat to Republican and choose the books, DVDs and e-sources that are placed on the shelves of your public library and in the minds of your children, dissed the First Lady. They tried to keep Laura Bush, a former librarian, from appearing at the American Library Association. Yes, President Obama, books are dangerous things. Or, at least photos of presidents reading to children are dangerous.

An honest mistake?

Healthcare workers are now giving the GAD (Geithner and Daschle) excuse. A mistake. They've been reusing needles and syringes, according to a story in the WSJ today. I guess we haven't heard much about it since it wasn't AIDS, just Hepatitis C.

"It isn't that health-care professionals have malicious intent or a desire to shortchange the patient, but they just aren't thinking through and understanding how they are putting the patient at risk."

And that was said by a victim of hepatitis C. Wonder what excuse the administrators of the clinics give? And honest mistake? I didn't know? Well, it was only reused once or twice? Will this hurt my confirmation for Surgeon General?

Why should we trust Timothy Geithner?

Now the media are touting something he said, or wrote, 20 years ago about Japan. Hey--what about all that experience with the Fed? Did he see the meltdown coming? And if so, who did he tell?

Geithner did not see the current collapse coming. And if you think about it, the idea that he did makes no sense. He foresees this huge economic mess and his reaction is to give a speech in Hong Kong, not actually do anything about it here at home--although he runs one of the Fed’s most important branches. Like so many others in positions of power and trust, Geithner was eminently well placed to see the developing crisis and avoid or mitigate its worst effects. He should have known, but he didn’t. His view was much more conventional. He saw no shocks that the financial system couldn’t handle. He could not have been more wrong, but this is the guy that Obama wants for his Treasury Secretary.Link

Why does Obama think this guy is, next to him, our only salvation? Why do only the rest of us have to pay our taxes? What happened to hope and change, or is this the change he was talking about? Tax crooks are known BEFORE they take office.

Vocabulary Review

New words are nice; but let's review.

Global warming vs. climate change

One is a political, social and economic juggernaut designed to bring down global investments, high employment and capitalism, requiring hysteria and lemming like behavior; the other is a scientific, measurable fact, something that has been going on since Ohio was covered with glaciers, Lake Erie was flooding Cleveland, and Greenland was green, requiring some humility, hard science and common sense. I've noticed in the last 2 or 3 years the terms "climate change" and "climate extremes" are replacing "global warming" in the media. Usually in cities where the writers are buried in snow up to their green tushies for the first time in 50 years.

Animal rights vs. animal welfare

One is a political movement designed to bring down or stop medical research and pharmaceutical companies, various industries and capitalism in general; the other is a compassionate, moral and scientifically sound way to treat animals for the best interests of people.

Feminism vs. women's rights

One is a far reaching political movement designed to stomp out certain patriarchal cultures and behaviors by replacing them with matriarchal forms just as repressive and capitalism in general; the other suggests that although not a better or more moral species, women have a lot to offer society especially in government and business.

Pro-choice vs. pro-abortion

One is a political movement in which struggling people fearing loss of convenience and power, destroy the weakest and most frail, often with cruel and painful methods, choosing death today; the other is the same but a tad more truthful. The first means "this is for you, not for me;" the second means, "it's OK for me, too."

Undocumented workers vs. illegal aliens

One is a political and social term used by most politicians, business CEOs and union officials, all looking for more votes, higher profits, or more members; the other is the term the rest of us use for the people flooding across our borders, swamping our social services, taking our jobs and sending money back to their villages to prop up a corrupt and failing government, primarily run by people of Spanish European ancestry whose ancestors used to control most of North and South America and now want it back. People who use the second term are more realistic and truthful. And sometimes the truth hurts. Usually, but not always, the more syllables, the more obfuscatory.

Technorati: climate change, global warming, animal rights, abortion change, illegal aliens

The real problem is pork

It's a trillion dollar bridge to nowhere says the Morning Bell (Heritage Foundation):

"According to a Gallup Poll released today, 54% of Americans either want Congress to reject Obama's debt plan entirely, or they want major changes to it. Only 37% support the plan in its current form. A full 78% of Americans are significantly concerned that the plan will not stimulate the economy fast enough and 53% of Americans believe the plan will not have an effect at all."

I'm against it because I don't like being lied to, whether by Democrats, Socialists, Marxists, Republicans, RINOs, or Libertarians; Methodists, Muslims, New-Agers, or pantheistic warmists; white, cream, black, brown, taupe or bi-racial; men, women or transexuals; old, young, boomer, tweens or 20-somethings. The fact is, we got into this hole by overspending at every level of society, from our personal households to the White House, encouraging spending from the highest level. We're here because the government interferred at every level of our economy and society. We've not going to reverse it by giving the folks who created the problem even more power. We are not going to spend our way out of it by raising taxes to kill more businesses. And I don't for a fraction of a second think that Obama's cap on CEO salaries (a mote in the eye when compared to the boulder of government greed blinding us) will be only for those companies getting bailouts. Do you?

Outsourcing the news to India

Apparently the Times of India is tracking Obama's revisions of his pledges and promises, even if the U.S. media aren't. According to them, via Hot Air, in just 2 weeks there were 17 promises of hope and change that were tossed. I doubt that the U.S. press will ever allow Obama's ratings to drop--they've invested so much energy and money in getting him elected.

HT Recliner Commentaries

March will be a 2-fer for me

March is Women's History Month and Irish Heritage Month in the United States. According to the U.S. Census Bureau 36.5 million
U.S. residents claimed Irish ancestry in 2007 (the year we visited Ireland). This is more than eight times the population of Ireland itself (more than 4 million). Irish was the nation’s second most frequently reported ancestry, trailing only German. My ancestors also came from Germany and Switzerland and were Lutherans and Mennonites many of whom became German Baptist Brethren (Church of the Brethren) shortly after arriving. The Scots-Irish I'm assuming were Presbyterian types--but I don't have much evidence.

Although I have no idea why, Irish Americans make more money. The median income for households headed by an Irish-American is $56,966, higher than the $50,740 for all households. In addition, 8 percent of people of Irish ancestry were in poverty, lower than the rate of 13 percent for all Americans. Appalachia is heavily Scots-Irish and they sure aren't rich. 72% of Americans of Irish heritage own their own home, which is also higher than the national average of 67%. After visiting Ireland and learning its history and how brutally they were driven off their land, I can sort of see that one. There are 9 cities in the U.S. named Dublin, one right here in central Ohio where famous people like Jack and Tiger play golf at Muirfield and others and librarians go for millions and millions of shared records (OCLC).

There were 154.7 million females in the United States as of Oct. 1, 2008 and 150.6 million males. By age 85, there are twice as many women as men in that age group, but I don't hear of too many government grants going to address that situation. They all go the other direction--to give women even more advantages and health benefits. $34,278 is the median annual earnings of women 16 or older who worked year-round, full time, in 2007, up from $33,648 in 2006 (after adjusting for inflation). Women earned 77.5 cents for every $1 earned by men. But that's a pretty silly statistic because men and women doing the same job with the same education and the same family situation, make virtually the same salary--women may even edge ahead on this, if you're comparing single people. During the ice storm last week I saw two women and a truck at 6 a.m. cleaning the parking lot and side walks where I get coffee. I'm guessing that if they are private contractors with some hustle in their bustle, they are pulling down just as much money as the guys, and getting home in time to fry up some bacon in the pan.

There were 116,985 women-owned businesses with receipts of $1 million or more and nearly 6.5 million women-owned businesses in 2002. Women owned 28 percent of all nonfarm businesses and employed more than 7.1 million people. 38% of women 16 or older worked in management, professional and related occupations, compared with 32% of men. So you can see that President Obama's confiscatory tax policies are going to really hurt business women, which makes the Lilly Ledbetter Act a piece of poo.

There's a pretty good chance that those taxes will be prepared by a woman--62% of tax preparers were women in 2007--our accountant owns her own firm.

Playing with demographics

The latest doom and gloom story (USAToday) about the economy is that more siblings are home sharing, and more older parents are living with adult children. Of course, no percentages based on population, just numbers. I wonder if these giants of journalism remember that we had a baby boom from 1945 to ca. 1962, which means now in the 21st century we're having an elder-boom. We'd have that even if our Fed and Congress hadn't cooked up our subprime meltdown. One of the highest foreclosure rates is Las Vegas--which if you were watching HGTV the last 2 or 3 years, was a hot bed for speculators from California, as was Florida for just about everyone from Georgia and north. Many of the people who took out these mortgages never lived in the homes, nor intended to. They just drove off in their Mercedes and left it empty. Flipping was the name of the game. And the early-in speculators did extremely well. We have friends and family who sold homes and bought homes where the price was bid up beyond the asking price, and at the time, everyone thought it was just wonderful. What goes up, comes down.

Also, elder-boomers have no problem living with their gen-x children--they are quite close; I suspect it's the elders helping the youngers with the mortgage. Also, many 40-50 somethings would rather live with Mom and save on the nursing home because they can inherit more money. There was really a relatively small blip in history when the generations didn't live together under one roof.

Nearly 3.5 million brothers or sisters are living in a sibling's house, according to 2007 Census Data, up from 3 million in 2000. And 3.6 million parents live with their adult children, up from 2.3 million. About 6.7 million householders live with other relatives, such as aunts or cousins, compared with 4.8 million in 2000.

Also, let's not forget the millions who flooded over the borders during the booming Bush economy, who are counted in the census, who live with relatives, use the social services system, but are not Americans. And I ask you, am I supposed to feel sorry for these people featured in the story?

Colt Phipps, 40, of Scottsdale, Ariz., worked in the mortgage industry until his business failed because of the housing crisis. His home, which was worth nearly $1 million, was foreclosed upon. So Phipps and his fiancée moved in with his parents, going from their 5,000-square-foot house to a 1,400-square-foot house. He also brought his two Shar-Pei dogs along and does what he can to pay rent to help his parents with the mortgage. He is still looking for work, and his fiancée, formerly a loan processor, is now working at Home Depot.

I can just imagine what sort of a deal he worked for himself to get that million dollar house. If it were my house, they could live there--without the dogs and only if they were married.

Ice storm misery and deaths

The governors, mayors, churches, local Red Cross volunteers and friends and neighbors have handled last week's devasting ice storm blamed for 55 deaths and the cold and misery of thousands, to say nothing of the loss to the economy and taxes of those states due to closed businesses. When we were at dinner Friday night we ran into friends from our old neighborhood whose daughter and 3 grandchildren had come "home" from another state that was still without power. A good reason to keep a full gas tank in cold weather since gasoline pumps need electricity.

The Democratic governor of Kentucky has, of course, praised President Obama even though I don't think FEMA has come through yet, and I doubt that Obama has visited the devastation. If Bush were still in office, we'd be hearing a different tune--Kyoto failed and therefore the temperature extremes and ice; the Guard was all out of the country, yada yada. Ah, hope and change. You've gotta love it.

Remember, it's up to the locals to ask for help from the federal government and to have their local emergency plan (and busses) in working order. That was the big mistake of Katrina, not a President vacationing in Texas. NOLA had an ineffective mayor and the state a poor governor.

Aren't you afraid?

Our cruise to the Holy Land and sites of the early Christian church (Cairo, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Galilee, Antioch, Tarsus, Antalya, Aspendos, Perga, Ephesus, Athens and Corinth) is coming up, and as recently as last Thursday was revised and rescheduled. I have no idea what's going on, but I do know that I don't remember a time in my life when there wasn't something scary going on in that area of the world.

It's been a year since a lone gunman killed five women working at a Lane Bryant store near Chicago. He's never been caught. And yet every American is less safe than a year ago when they were shot, but the President has a 70% approval rating. He's weak, apologetic and a puppet of the left within our country and abroad--and so don't tell me it's not safe to go to Israel or Turkey! There might be dangerous waters in the Mediterranean Sea, but those Illinois women simply went to work in a quiet suburb of Chicago minding their own business and not looking over their shoulders. Just like us today.

Post Office in trouble

A very naive reader of USAToday suggested today that all we need to do is cut out the junk mail to save the Post Office. Sorry, dearie, then your postage would really go up--what you call "junk" is what floats the rest of the boats. And who are you to tell me that the grocery store flyer is junk, or the appeal from Lower Lights medical ministry on the west side is junk, or the church newsletter (ours is no longer mailed, but I still get one from my former church) is junk, or the pizza and spaghetti coupons from Iacono's, or the post card from the guy running for city council or the office supply store are junk? Hello! How much more of our economy would you like to see go under and ask for bailouts with your tax dollars?

"The Postal Service lost $1.1 billion in its latest quarter. That number would be even larger if it weren't for direct mailings, which now constitute 52 percent of mail volume, up from 38 percent in 1990. Revenue from direct mail "is the financial underpinning of the Postal Service—it could not survive without it," says Michael Coughlin, former deputy postmaster." Newsweek

NBC rejects pro-life ad for Super Bowl

Some pro-lifers are unhappy that NBC rejected a very tasteful, non-political ad about hope and change from CatholicVote to run during the Super Bowl. Not me. I think they should have the right to reject any ad that works against their business plan which includes ads demeaning to women and putting animals above people. Soon, under the current administration, businesses may not have the right to pick and choose to benefit their stockholders--it may be the government's way or no way. Vote with your remote on objectionable ads. Then write and threaten never to buy their product again.

The pro-life people who raised money to show a baby in her mother's womb (a concept much more offensive to sports fans than watching young women prance around showing surgically enchanced body parts to oogling, drooling old men) now have more funding to show it on other channels, like BET where it might reach the African American community much at risk from the leftist drive to eliminate them before they see the light of day.

More GAD--Geithner and Daschle

They apologized for tax mistakes to get their jobs; they really aren't crooks with friends in high places, they're just stupid and inept. Not so the same deal for the little guy with little problems.

My son who manages an automotive quick serve at a dealership received a very threatening letter about his taxes last week. He said he'd mail it to me so I could scan it for my blog, but I'll try to reconstruct for you the double standard for the working stiff and the ones stiffing us in Congress and the Oval Office. The notice said that if he didn't comply immediately he'd be in deep doo-doo.

HE OWES $.50--YES, FIFTY CENTS!!!! No forgiveness for the little guy. The computers can't even be programed to save the government money by not sending notices that cost more to send than to collect.

GAD! Geithner and Daschle.

Today's new word is GAD

Actually it's an acronym for Generalized Anxiety Disrorder, and I read about it in the January 21 JAMA (Vol 301, no.3:295). It's not that I'm unsympathetic with people who have these vague symptoms, but it really does sound like it's a created disease to give the pharmaceutical companies something to sell. The most interesting part of any medical article is the paragraph I can understand, and that's usually the first one that provides a mini-review of the literature. Here's the story on GAD, and you'll recognize it immediately because 15 of your best friends, 7 of your lunch buddies and 10 choir members at your church probably have these symptoms. At least if they are my age. You just didn't know what to call it:

"Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is the most common anxiety disorder in primary care and is defined by chronic, difficult-to-control worry and anxiety. Related somatic and psychiatric symptoms include muscle tension, sleep disturbance, and fatigue. Individuals with GAD have poorer quality of life, with impairments in role functioning (encompassing social, occupational, and family functioning) on par with those observed in major depressive disorder and other common medical problems such as arthritis and diabetes."

Wow! Not only that but the prevalence of GAD "is as high as 7.3% in community-dwelling older adults and higher in primary care where they are most likely to present for treatment." And with the baby boomers getting older, you know what that means. . . more GAD and increasing human and economic burdens. More for the universal health care plan of the president and his socialist staff to cover! Not only that, but older adults have been excluded from some of the large scale studies, so we need new studies and new drugs to determine the safety, efficacy and tolerability of new SSRIs.

The other day I was reading the blog Crazy Aunt Purl, and she has found a wonderful cure for this type of vague, anxious feeling--she's opted out of the recession. First, before the meltdown, she gave up extreme consumerism, buying only the essentials. She just decided not to be a slave to it, found out she liked having less clutter, less waste. When the meltdown came, she was in good shape--because it was her choice. Second, she switched her alarm from an all-news, all-the-time station, didn't turn on the TV cable news, didn't read the financial news articles or the sad stories about lost dogs, dropped her e-mail subscriptions to the bad-news bears, and didn't listen to the news in her car. She took a vacation from the anxiety and worry that the constant yammering of 24 hour news, most of it bad, spews at us. Smart lady, that Purl. No GAD for her!

Sit down, shut up and pay attention

My brother has asked for a repeat, so here it is.

Lilly Ledbetter Act--It's not about equal pay

The 1963 Law already is the equal pay act--this is about comparable worth. And it's about destroying what's left of our economy so you can be even more dependent on the federal government. Here's a discussion at the Independent Women's Forum. Personally, I'm not fond of podcasts, so if you'd rather read about it, go here.

Pray for the president

Obama on the radio news break is a good time. I pushed the off button while leaving the coffee shop and prayed:

Oh Lord, your servant, our president, is feeling the responsibility placed upon him, and we know he is unworthy, as we all are. May you abundantly bless him with a believing heart, and make him a valiant soldier of the cross. Protect the smallest and weakest in our world by raising up legislators to defeat legal measures to kill them. Give him and the women visiting the PDC for an ultrasound today a tender heart for the unborn in their wombs. Amen

Today's new word is PUSILLANIMOUS

The Latin word pusillus is the source--it means "very little" from pusus, meaning boy. Not exactly a compliment, even if you're referring to a group of toddlers playing soccer (I've seen them at the park with their hyper dads). Webster's in the dining room says destitute of manly strength and firmness of mind; weak or mean spirit; cowardly. I didn't jot down the origin of the quote, but here it is: "In the old days a guy who voted "present" on 130 bills while a member of his state senate was rightly viewed as pusillanimous." And that, not the battle going on in Gaza, is what worries me about our trip to the Holy Land.

The day google ate its young

I thought it was me--that I'd opened something in e-mail that attacked my computer. Everything I looked up seemed to have a warning that the site would harm my computer. So I shut everything down, removed cookies, history, etc. (I had no idea what I was doing, but it seemed a good idea). I walked away for awhile, and when I came back and turned it on, everything seemed fine. Now I find out it was Google, attacking itself.

A major hiccup at Google this morning caused the entire Internet to be flagged as malware.

The problem appears to be centered around the Google Safe Browsing API — even that returned a “This site may harm your computer” warning — the security diagnostics service that powers Firefox’s malware blocking service. ZD Net

And here I thought I was some sort of genius for getting rid of it. Sigh.

Trying to appease the PUMAs

Although he can't do for women what President Bush did--he freed millions more women from tyranny in Afghanistan and Iraq than Lincoln freed slaves--he can undo a 2007 Supreme Court ruling about the statute of limitations on filing a job discrimination claim. It was easy. No deliberation. No discussion. No stats, just myths. Stroke of the pen. I don't know why 6 months was bad and 12 months is good. I guess if you don't get a new job, you can look back and say, "Now that I've been unemployed for awhile, I think it was discrimination and not my performance, but I just didn't realize it until now."

I read through the complexities of this, and it still is no piece of cake, even though it will be full employment for trial lawyers, as are most of these government regs. Never you mind--the media have put a feather in Obama's cap. (Lawyers should kiss his feet, or go higher.) Most smaller companies won't be able to afford to fight it, so we'll see some incompetent, unhappy people staffing various offices and boards. And more reluctance on the part of employers to take a chance on placing women in line for top positions. Was Michelle Obama on that Chicago hospital board because of her brilliant legal abilities, or because she was Mrs. Obama? What spouse of a white legislator would be allowed to complain or file a discrimination suit and not kill his/her future with the party? The actual facts are that when you sift all the numbers nationwide, black women are making more than white women and Hispanic women. Now, sociologists and economists try to blame this on a number of reasons, like maybe white women stay home longer after a birth of a baby, or black women may have a second job, but they really don't know. Maybe it's the Oprah factor.

If women, of any color, won't play the game, they won't have the gain. Here are the items you need to look at when comparing incomes of men and women, or even women with women: Women who

first and foremost are married, because most top male executives are--today marriage is the big divider between getting by and doing well

have a spouse who manages the home, the nanny and the housekeeper

have a spouse willing to chauffer the children to sports and activities, take the pets to the vet, serve on the school committees, meet with the teachers, make all the appointments for doctor, dentist and hair cuts, hire and supervise the lawn service, oversee the nutritional needs of the household, and help out mom and dad at the retirement home

are willing to work 60-80 hours a week

spend hundreds of hours a year on the Bluetooth while sitting in airports, sleeping in first class on airplanes

are willing to have no personal relationships with other women, or maybe occasional casual sex with lower ranked male colleagues

willing to endure the long commute from the fashionable suburban McMansion

can show, and this is critical, that they have never bumped anyone better qualified out of line because of affirmative action or need for diversity in the company (which brings huge resentment with networking colleagues whether or not they admit it)

Today's new word is CRUCIFER

When I was checking my robe this morning in the robe room at church, I noticed there were instructions for the CRUCIFER taped to the wall with some diagrams. After reading it, I understood that the crucifer is the person who carries the cross into the church service when we process in or out of the sanctuary. I'd always called him, "the guy who carries the cross," but then I didn't come from a liturgical background. CRUCIFER comes from the Latin word for cross, crux, crucis. I looked around the internet to see what other churches suggested for their crucifers, but most of the instructions were for acolytes to ask the crucifer what to do. On our instruction sheet it does tell the crucifer not to hold the cross with an awkward hand position which makes your elbows stick out like wings, and lower it when under the balcony. I have seen people who do that. So I don't know if these are our homegrown, UALC rules, or if they were copied from another's church manual.

We had people there at 7 a.m. to pray in the sanctuary, including two pastors, then about eight of us processed in and sat in the front rows, ready to go up to serve communion. We said the liturgy, sang the hymns. But during "passing the peace" one of the choir members noticed there were no communion rails (lowest step below the altar). So he came to the front, alerted some of the men, and there was much hustling to get the rails back into place.

I noticed a small water bottle at eye level, some incorrect knots, a wine stain on someone's robe, and the word crucifer, but not that the communion rail was missing.