Where our nation has gone wrong

I've only skimmed it, but I'd say, along with this reviewer at Amazon that it's right on target. It's easy to spot the liberal book reviewers. They rarely speak to the overwhelming content and intent of the authors--just to the typos or incorrect citations, even if they are minor. Then that's the grounds for the rant.

". . . those who find fault with the citations cannot really overcome the overwhelming evidence in this book that the current courts have far overstepped anything that the founders intended in not recognizing and establishing a single church vs. their views that religion is a fundamental foundation for the Declaration of Independence as well as the Constitution. If you read this book, you should also read the Federalist Papers, the words and works of the founders, including Washington's first inaugural address to understand that the current courts have radically departed from the intentions of the founders when it came to the role of religion, vs. established churches in the USA. For many generations, the original intent of the founders was well understood, but it was only until the 20th century that judges decided to re-write the Constitution and take on the role of "a national theology board" that makes earlier debates about how many angels fit on the head of a pin look enlightened.

p. 241: "As a result of the two distinctly differing philosophies of constitutional interpretation, there have now been two distinct eras of judicial decisions. . . the second era, which began with the slow accumulation of positivistic Justices on the Court throughout the 1930s and 1940s, was not fully actuated until the Court's 1962-63 decisions. Those decisions openly repudiated the transcendent, Biblical, natural-law standards which had prevailed--or had at least not been set aside--since the time of the Founders. and institued legal positivism as the replacement."

Now, you might love and support the changes of the 30s and 60s, you might say "The Founders are dead and gone and I'm here and I want an entirely different constitution." That's your right as an American the last time I checked. But then you might not like the results, and there are a number of disturbing charts to chronicle the unintended consequences. This is just one scan, and like it or not, agree or disagree, we pay for both results either in health care for long term and life time consequences of STDs, or in poorly educated citizens.


This book, Original intent; the courts, the constitution, and religion by David Barton, WallBuilder Press, 2000, is available both at the Upper Arlington Public Library [342.73 Ba, 2000] and the Upper Arlington Lutheran Church Library, Lytham Road, [973 Bart]. Whether you're liberal, progressive, conservative or libertarian, and even if you hate the theme of the book, you'll find the 200 pages of citations useful.

I'd never heard of this publisher, WallBuilders, so I took at look at their webpage. It gives a pretty good idea what to expect, which is more clear in intent than the real meaning of say a Norman Lear patriotic song, "Born again American" that's been whipping around the globe or an ACORN mortgage assistance website.

"In the Old Testament book of Nehemiah, the nation of Israel rallied together in a grassroots movement to help rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and thus restore stability, safety, and a promising future to that great city. We have chosen this historical concept of "rebuilding the walls" to represent allegorically the call for citizen involvement in rebuilding our nation's foundations. As Psalm 11:3 reminds us, 'If the foundations be destroyed, what shall the righteous do?' "

The housing mess has a long history

We've all seen the pressure to lower standards and make homeowners of people who can't save the downpayment, can't pay the mortgage, can't meet the minimum standards, but I was unaware how far back government interference in the housing market went--back to the early 1920s with Herbert Hoover when he was Secretary of Commerce. Or even 1913, if you figure the home mortgage deduction. And I knew about rent controls creating an artificial "housing shortage" after WWII. I knew what had been required of us even with our first home purchased in 1962, but we never used FHA or VA, and sort of assumed that's the way it was until the 70s or 80s. Guess not. There's a lot I didn't know about how housing became a political football for both parties and invited crime and corruption to flourish. Catch up on the history beginning with Hoover, and follow it all the way up to now. See Obsessive Housing Disorder.

"The next stop on the road to 2008 was a fateful campaign to lower lending criteria, which, the housing advocates argued, were racist and had to change. The campaign began in 1986, when the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (Acorn) threatened to oppose an acquisition by a southern bank, Louisiana Bancshares, until it agreed to new “flexible credit and underwriting standards” for minority borrowers—for example, counting public assistance and food stamps as income. The next year, Acorn led a coalition of advocacy groups calling for industry-wide changes in lending standards. Among the demanded reforms were the easing of minimum down-payment requirements and of the requirement that borrowers have enough cash at a closing to cover two to three months of mortgage payments (research had shown that lack of money in hand was a big reason some mortgages failed quickly).

The advocates also attacked Fannie Mae, the giant quasi-government agency that bought loans from banks in order to allow them to make new loans. Its underwriters were “strictly by-the-book interpreters” of lending standards and turned down purchases of unconventional loans, charged Acorn. The pressure eventually paid off. In 1992, Congress passed legislation requiring Fannie Mae and the similar Freddie Mac to devote 30 percent of their loan purchases to mortgages for low- and moderate-income borrowers."

So we're doing more of the same, trying to refinance these failed homeowners, offering rock bottom rates, wondering why it isn't working?

"As Harvard economist and City Journal contributing editor Edward Glaeser has observed, mortgage lenders have finally “recovered their sanity”—only to have government dangling subsidized low interest rates and tax credits in front of them and their potential customers all over again. Behind these efforts is a fundamental misconception among politicians that housing drives the American economy and therefore demands subsidy at virtually any cost."

The author points out the damage the home mortgage deduction has done, as well as other government subsidies, regulations and programs. Good article. And Obama owes ACORN big time, so we're in for more of the same on the road to "recovery." Go read it.

It didn't work, but alarming nevertheless

"The Connecticut state legislature recently considered a bill to wrest property away from the Catholic—and only the Catholic—Church, giving ownership of Catholic parishes to boards of local parishioners. The bill never had much chance of enactment: Nearly every available law professor declared it wildly unconstitutional, and a quick bout of agitation from the state’s Catholics sent the leaders of the legislature back­pedaling in panic.

Still, the sheer fact of the bill revealed something about the character of our present moment. It had about it a mildewed, musty scent, as though we were witnessing the return of, say, 1979—as though thirty years had rolled back without a trace. The effort to strip the public square of all religious content may have sat in angry abeyance for a while, but it now feels bold enough to overreach, and who’s to say that what appears overreaching today won’t seem the norm tomorrow? The exercise carried a revenant, graveyard odor: the stench of ideas we had long thought buried, clawing their way up to confront us once again." The Public Square
No, it's not the 70s. It's much, much worse. It's not even the 30s, unless you count the mock Soviet trials. Oh, 'scuse, please! Is that hate speech? Or is it just a look back on recent history?

Happy Mother's Day

Even if you're not a mother, you had a mother, or maybe two or three, so go ahead and celebrate. This is the most amazing mother story I've ever read, and you'll think so too.

The bat, the cat, and the splat

I don't even step on ants; when I find an insect in the house, they are waterboarded into the toilet, where I'm pretty sure most survive the cruise through the pipes and live to fly another day. I certainly don't kill animals! But when desperate to protect my health, family and pet, I can call on some reserves of evil.

Last night about 8:45 I was checking my e-mail, the cat was in my lap and something making a shadow flies past my head. There was no noise so I am pretty sure it wasn't an insect, and the cat went berserk. I look around and can't see anything. Kitty is sure there was something--maybe Abbie our grandpuppy come to pester her. I call to my husband in the living room--"There's something flying in the house," I shout. "What?" he shouts back. Then he said, "Oh my gosh, there's a bat in the living room," and he leaves to use the rest room. Faithful kitty, who is 11 years old and weighs 7 lbs, goes into action and transforms herself into a large mountain lion protecting her territory. I'm ducking, cowering and yelling as the bat swoops lower and lower, first my office, then the hall, then the living room, around and around. I am afraid to open the door because the cat might chase the bat outside, and she's an indoor rescue cat who used to be homeless and has serious issues to this day about being on the street. Also, I have no idea how the bat got in--and maybe he has cousins and brothers looking for him. I had just walked in the front door at 8:30, so possibly he quietly crossed the border then.

I run to the basement and grab the first weapon I can find, a yellow, pink and green duster with a long handle--I think it cost $1 about 10 years ago and is very fluffy and colorful. Meanwhile, the cat has actually made contact on several swoops of the bat by jumping up, and the bat is tiring, gliding more slowly and lower. Smack--the cat knocks the bat to the hall floor, blending with our tasteful brown and gray marble; splat--I hit the bat with the duster. The bat, completely covered now with the colorful fringy duster is squealing and screaming. On my knees I reach for the door knob. The door is locked! Holding the bat down firmly with the duster, I unlock the door, and with my other hand scoot the bat across the marble, across the threshold and flip it out the door, my eyes tearing as it screams in its little bat alarm voice (probably calling for reinforcements).

Bats are some of God's most amazing creatures--he must have had a blast designing their incredibly ugly faces. I know bats are very useful creatures--they eat 2000 insects a night and pollinate plants, and only a few are rabid, but I couldn't take any chances--he might be one of those few. Their little bat bites are so tiny, we might not even know if we or the cat were bitten last night. After all, he was confused, and tiring easily--signs of a virus, possibly. Maybe he was sick. Ten minutes later (my husband was out of the bathroom by then) I open the door just a bit (they can enter spaces as small as 1/4")--he had stopped struggling and was in a little brown ball on the green porch mat. I look again in 20 minutes--and breathe a sigh of relief seeing he is gone. I didn't want to pick up a dead bat on my way to coffee on Sunday, and really was hoping he'd survived my cruel blows. I probably just stunned him, and in the cool air, he collected his thoughts, spread his wings, and flew off to catch some bugs. With a great story to tell the other bats.

Hate Crime bill is hateful

"The hate crime bill that passed the U.S. House of Representatives April 29 is an attempt by democratic socialists and progressives to silence dissent against alternative lifestyles. Their incessant iconoclastic attacks on once established values and morality have nearly eroded this nation’s spiritual and cultural legacy. Instituting same-sex marriage and prosecuting hate speech will complete the process and shatter the remaining hopes for cultural regeneration and tear down the last vestiges of the country’s Judeo-Christian ethic.

In America’s brave new post-modern multiculture, homosexual and transgender people will become a federally-protected class under the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009, HR-1913. Under this act, anyone who publicly opposes the practice of homosexuality or any of the 30 other sexual orientations as designated by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) could be charged with expressing “hateful words” and convicted of a “hate crime.” Continue reading here.

I didn't even know we had 30 forms of sex we shouldn't speak of disrespectfully, although I had read about that amputee thing, and strangulation (sometimes they die getting a high and it's passed off as a suicide), but here they are. Among those sexual orientations being protected by S.909 (and HR1913) are these:

Apotemnophilia - sexual arousal associated with the stump(s) of an Amputee
Asphyxophilia - sexual gratification derived from activities that involve oxygen deprivation through hanging, strangulation, or other means
Autogynephilia - the sexual arousal of a man by his own perception of himself as a woman or dressed as a woman
Bisexual - the capacity to feel erotic attraction toward, or to engage in sexual interaction with, both males and females
Coprophilia - sexual arousal associated with feces
Exhibitionism - the act of exposing one’s genitals to an unwilling observer to obtain sexual gratification
Fetishism/Sexual Fetishism - obtaining sexual excitement primarily or exclusively from an inanimate object or a particular part of the body
Frotteurism - approaching an unknown woman from the rear and pressing or rubbing the penis against her buttocks
Heterosexuality - the universal norm of sexuality with those of the opposite sex
Homosexual/Gay/Lesbian - people who form sexual relationships primarily or exclusively with members of their own gender
Gender Identity Disorder - a strong and persistent cross-gender identification, which is the desire to be, or the insistence that one is, or the other sex, "along with" persistent discomfort about one’s assigned sex or a sense of the inappropriateness in the gender role of that sex
Gerontosexuality - distinct preference for sexual relationships primarily or exclusively with an elderly partner
Incest - sex with a sibling or parent
Kleptophilia - obtaining sexual excitement from stealing
Klismaphilia - erotic pleasure derived from enemas
Necrophilia - sexual arousal and/or activity with a corpse
Partialism - A fetish in which a person is sexually attracted to a specific body part exclusive of the person
Pedophilia - Sexual activity with a prepubescent child (generally age 13 years or younger). The individual with pedophilia must be age 16 years or older and at least 5 years older than the child. For individuals in late adolescence with pedophilia, no precise age difference is specified, and clinical judgment must be used; both the sexual maturity of the child and the age difference must be taken into account; the adult may be sexually attracted to opposite sex, same sex, or prefer either
Prostitution - the act or practice of offering sexual stimulation or intercourse for money
Sexual Masochism - obtaining sexual gratification by being subjected to pain or humiliation
Sexual Sadism - the intentional infliction of pain or humiliation on another person in order to achieve sexual excitement
Telephone Scatalogia - sexual arousal associated with making or receiving obscene phone calls
Toucherism - characterized by a strong desire to touch the breast or genitals of an unknown woman without her consent; often occurs in conjunction with other paraphilia
Transgenderism - an umbrella term referring to and/or covering transvestitism, drag queen/king, and transsexualism
Transsexual - a person whose gender identity is different from his or her anatomical gender
Transvestite - a person who is sexually stimulated or gratified by wearing the clothes of the other gender
Transvestic Fetishism - intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors involving cross-dressing
Urophilia - sexual arousal associated with urine
Voyeurism - obtaining sexual arousal by observing people without their consent when they are undressed or engaged in sexual activity
Zoophilia/Bestiality - engaging in sexual activity with animals
APA's "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders," Fourth Edition, Text Revision (Washington: American Psychiatric Association, 2000), pp. 566-582 (DSM-IV)

And all you Methodists and Catholics thought it was about playing nice together and getting cozy in the privacy of your bedroom. Ha. It's a great time to be a liberal, isn't it?

GM to move jobs overseas--with our bailout money

"A simmering pot is reaching the boiling point. Did GM forget that Barack Obama owns them now? Obama doesn't like those overseas jobs. Obama doesn't care a fig about profits. His plan is to provide jobs and infinite union benefits. Who needs profits. Socialism doesn't need profits." Maggie's Notebook. I guess that's what you get when you don't read the small print.

He will take the credit and shift the blame

The recovery funds really aren't out the door yet, not even the extended unemployment benefits or the $250 boost; certainly not that tax cut for 95% of the people. That first sidewalk hasn't been poured, and no spreading around of trickle sideways dollars has begun so people can buy cars or go out to eat to help the salesmen and busboys. And yet the media have been mildly optimistic recently--have you noticed? Unemployment, which shot up as soon as it was known in the summer that Obama would be the Democratic candidate and most likely the President, has started to level off. The stock market is making a weak recovery--at least that's what our retirement accounts show. This is pure and simple because of the efforts of the American people and their backing off from fear--fear of a collapse, fear of Obama, fear of the steamroller roaring down at us.

But Obamaides will claim victory if it continues even though no ARRA programs have begun to work, and they will blame Bush if they fail. Heads he wins; tails he wins. But he really wins if we let him destroy our economy in the process of "saving" us. All industrialized nations are struggling more than the U.S., have slower growth, higher taxes, more stagnant work force--and why not? Their workers get more generous time off before they really need to look for work. And it's self-fulfilling. Take a vacation; fix the car; read some good books; build a web page, hike in the mountains. Then maybe after 18 months of 90% salary replacement you can dust off the resume. What's the hurry? It's just the economy--it will be there when you get back.

There's only one way to jump start and fuel the economy--reduce taxes and reduce government spending. It works every time. It's just hard to get re-elected if you don't bring home the pork if a Republican, and hard to get reelected if you don't punish the rich if you are a Democrat. It even partially works if you just reduce taxes the way George Bush did--but he threw money at every domestic program he could think of, particularly education--President Bush increased federal education spending 58 percent faster than inflation--instead of dialing back. Democrats who supported him on the war screamed bloody murder about the tax cuts--said it was criminal--but he brought in more money than they ever did--and he spent it too. President Bush became the first President to spend 3 percent of GDP on federal anti-poverty programs, but President Me-Too Obama has already in­creased this spending by 20 percent. He won't be bringing in more tax money the way Bush did and will have to raise taxes. Social spending was out of control during the Bush years. That's another big lie the Democrats love to tell--that Republicans are stingy on DoE, USDA, HHS, HUD. Oh, that it were true, we'd be so much better off with a smaller federal government.

The BushBamBudgets
WaPo graphic
Bush 8 years includes 2 wars

Biden Says Act As if "We're At War"

Joe Biden--the gaffe that keeps on giving. After the 20th of January we saw less and less of him. He called the economic crisis a WAR requiring hasty action at this ABC site, in January, shortly before the coronation. The readers thought otherwise--their comments in boxes. And 3 months down the line, they are still right on target.

“Someone tell Joe Biden that if you’re at war, you need to identify the enemy first. That means one of the first orders of business is to remove Barney Frank from the Chair of the House Financial Services Committee.”

“Biden declares war!! That's a hoot!! This man is a TRUE coward and HE declares WAR!! If the POTUS and VPOTUS were serious about this they would get to the bottom of who started this, who allowed this to continue and start tossing Congress and Senate BUTTS in the Federal Prison system and collect every penny back from those criminals!! Sell all their property and assets! Stop all the photo-opts and the posturing.

How dare you people criticize the GREATEST PRESIDENT ever before he takes office!

Barack Obama doesn't take on Washington politics, he takes on Republicans. He knew Gov. Blagojevich was selling his Senate seat, and he said nothing. When Gov. Murkowski bought a private jet for the Governor's office with taxpayer money, Sarah put it on eBay. Gov. Richardson was giving away state government contracts in exchange for campaign contributions, and in exchange for his endorsement in the Democratic Primary, Barack Obama nominated him for Sec. of Commerce. When Sen. Stevens brought home $300M in federal pork for the Bridge to Nowhere, Gov. Palin said "thanks, but NO, thanks." I'm a Democrat that supports Sarah Palin because unlike Barack Obama, she doesn't think her party can do no bad.

I used to support President Elect Barack Obama, but the Bush-Obama bailout is an outrage. Only George and Barack can call their record deficit spending "investments" "in the future." We the American people voted with our dollars to put General Motors out of business. The Untied Autoworkers Union makes $73/hr, $150K/yr for assembling vehicles, but when we, the American people, say "that's too much" by buying Toyota, and Nissan, and Hyundai, the United States Government says "noooo... if you don't buy their cars, we're going to give them your tax money." They don't deserve to exist. The UAW striked GM's only profitable factory, the Chevy Cobalt's, as soon as GM turned in a profitable quarter last year; by definition, they will never be a viable company, ever.

And now Blue states want "federal" money because they can't keep up their spending. New York Gov. David Paterson (D), New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine (D), Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D), Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland (D) and Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle (D) just said they need $1T of "federal" money to "stay afloat," and by "stay afloat" they mean to keep up their frivolous spending. They spent and spent and spent, and now that they're out of money, they are asking the "federal government" to give them money. But ladies and gentlemen, what they mean by "federal government" is red states that actually lived within their means, states that spent no more than they collected in taxes. Now they want the "federal" government to send the message, if you spend too much, don't worry, we will take it from someone that saved. And if you don't spend like drunken sailors, if you actually save your tax revenues for a rainy day, like today, you're wasting your time, because the federal government is going to come in and take it from you anyway. Red states make and Blue states take.

Presidential Pixels

Reason has posted an article by a man who did at-home computer piece work for the Obama Campaign for under $3.00 an hour; the promised "transparency and sunshine" for legislation we were supposed to be able to see before Congress voted, has never materialized (nor does our congress read the bills); the scary fly over of Air Force One could have easily been photoshopped by any high school kid, so there are rumors that wasn't the real reason, but the official (who says it was discussed in front of Obama) has taken the fall; webpages with campaign promises are being altered to fit the crisis of the moment; the viewing of ARRA money infusing the economy isn't up yet because the economy is recovering without it. [This one is "total gross outlays = zero, but you can check others--not that they shouldn't be careful in spending, only that with or without planning it will make no difference]. In some ways, it's business as usual--good 'ol boys, back room deals, calling in your markers. In many other ways, we've never seen anything like this in the history of our country. It's always been easy to be a criminal in office; but technology has certainly given that a big boost.

The Obama Campaign was oh, so high tech--remember? Ridiculed John McCain, the old fogy who let others do his e-mail (he has crippled arms, but the Obama campaign teeny-boppers didn't notice his war time sacrifices). They hired ChaCha to do the work which was farmed it out [but to American workers we assume].

"For every query I expedite, I make three cents. If traffic is heavy, and when I'm in top form, I can average four queries per minute, or $7.20 an hour—but these high volume periods are rare. I calculate my career average to be approximately $2.85 per hour. That's less than half of the federal minimum wage. ChaCha Search Inc., in other words, is a high-tech 21st century sweatshop.

Headquartered in Carmel, Indiana, ChaCha has approximately 55,000 home-working guides and expeditors under contract. The expeditors are all paid the piece rate described above; the guides receive 10 or 20 cents per query, depending on the quality of their answers and their level of expertise. It's a young, hip company whose advertisers have included AT&T, McDonald's, and the Barack Obama presidential campaign.

The Obama campaign's use of ChaCha was simple and brilliant. Messages would go out advising customers to vote early for Obama and to text back the keyword OBAMA for more information. That would direct them to pro-Obama websites such as VoteForChange.com. If the keyword failed to trigger the automatic response, an expeditor like me would route it to a guide."

Clouds without rain, trees without fruit--twice dead

That's the message of Jude to the 2009 U.S. Congress, attempting to foist all manner of evil on the citizens of this country. He wrote a letter 2000 years ago warning the church not to be fooled by people who reject common decency and morality--the big word would be antinomians. They perverted the Gospel of Jesus Christ and filled their own minds and bodies with perversion, particularly sexual, basing their "truth" on their own personal experiences and beliefs. The real problem was the Christians were allowing these lawless folks who thought they were beyond criticism and the law to take over. Sounds like reading today's beltway news, doesn't it? Jude, very short and right to the point:

Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.

In the very same way, these dreamers pollute their own bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings. But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!" Yet these men speak abusively against whatever they do not understand; and what things they do understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals—these are the very things that destroy them.

Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam's error; they have been destroyed in Korah's rebellion.

. . . They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted--twice dead. They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever. Jude 3-12 NIV

Jude's letter uses a lot of Old Testament images--and even if you're not a church goer, you've probably seen some movies or read a novel or two with themes of rebellion, licentiousness, or greed. Cain, of course, committed the first murder; Balaam was an ancient pagan sorcerer who was greedy, and Korah led a rebellion against Moses.

Congress is again attempting to foist "hate crime" legislation under the guise of protection for special interest groups, although we are loaded with laws that prohibit murder, assault, libel, etc. The FBI statistics show that in a nation of 300 million people, there were only 242 "violent" crimes against homosexuals, bisexuals or drag queens in 2007. This is hardly an epidemic worthy of liberals' attention--but it is really a cover-up and an attempt to silence any criticism (not prevent violence) from the press, from the churches, from private discussion, from bloggers, or even playground teasing of sexual perversions. Most crimes against ethnic groups, minorities, gays, wiccans, polygamists, etc. are committed by their own kind--black on black crime, gay men against gay men, etc. Women are not protected in the bill proposed by Kennedy unless they are lesbians, yet assaults on women continue despite all manner of laws, protection orders, self-defense classes, and light the night programs. Based on percentages of assaults on a special group, maybe Ted could introduce legislation to protect women with the name of Peterson.

Wake up folks--especially liberal and moderate Roman Catholics and main line Protestants. This is not what you think it is. It is an assault on the First Amendment masquerading as something warm and fuzzy--like mold in your basement eating the foundation, causing a stench. An assault onn freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom to choose your associations, and your right to redress grievances.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

"A bill that would provide federal money to train law enforcement officers to identify and criminally prosecute speech and thought offensive to homosexuals has been introduced into the U.S. Senate, matching a House-approved bill that critics fear will be used to crack down on biblical teachings.

The proposal, from Democratic Sens. Edward Kennedy and Patrick Leahy, aligns with H.R. 1913, which was approved in the U.S. House yesterday.

It denies protections to classes of citizens such as pastors, Christians, missionaries, veterans and the elderly that would be granted to homosexuals and those with gender issues." Link

The Left keeps the mustard story going

Obviously, William A. Jacobson did not support the president, "Obama won the popular vote 52.9/45.6%, with the media cheering him on and refusing to ask hard questions, hundreds of millions of dollars raised through questionable credit card tactics, and the inability of anyone to question him for fear of being called a racist. I guess that makes him President-for-Life, means that Republicans are on their way to oblivion, and prohibits anyone from poking fun at him or his party. Sorry, but this isn't Venezuela... yet."

But an innocent little post about Dijon mustard has the "Obamakins" really mad.

“Like most of my posts, Dijongate could have and probably should have fallen into the black hole of internet punditry, never to be seen or heard of again. But the reaction from the nutroots was widespread and swift, and they have kept the story alive,”

but why he asks?

"The nutroots and mainstream media understand that Obama and the corresponding Democratic majorities in Congress were elected through a unique confluence of circumstances which may never be repeated. The historic election of the first black president; an unquestioning mainstream media which embarrassed itself with its biased coverage; an economic credit crunch just weeks before the election; a Bush administration which lost its will to fight for its policies soon after the 2004 election; a Republican candidate who refused to attack Obama's relationships with seedy characters even though Democrats showed no such restraint as to the Republicans; and a generalized discontent with the existing Republican power structure.

There is a lingering question, however, as to just who Barack Obama is, and whether we elected a blank slate who makes it up as he goes. This point is made not just by conservatives (who made this argument prior to the election), but also by Democrats and left-wing activists who openly wonder whether Obama's election promises on terrorist detention, gay rights, and a host of other issues were "just words." The nutroots doesn't know who Barack Obama is anymore than I do, and anything which fills in the void in a negative way [the mustard post] is viewed as a threat."

Story with more mustard updates here.

Today’s New Word, Specterenfreud

It was coined by William A Jacobson, but I like Obi’s Sister’s definition:

"That’s what happens when you stab your party in the back by switching to the other party, but the other party, which is now your new party, reneges on all their promises, stabs you in the back and boots you to one step below the guy who scrapes the gum off the bottom of the Senate hot tub.

There is justice in the galaxy, and sometimes it’s a mite painful, there, sport."

Friday Family Photo--the cost of having a baby

An article in the WSJ health section really caught my attention--Anna writing about the cost of her newborn--$36,625. I dug around in my file for the medical costs of our oldest son's birth in 1961 (see photo), but could find every tax return except 1961, which means I've looked at it before and misfiled it. So I looked at 1964, for Patrick, and found the total medical costs for all of 1964 were $459, and it looks like $315 of that was for the clinic, so the doctor's bill was probably included in that. Our hospital insurance was $114, which paid $45 of that bill. However you slice and dice it, I was able to itemize the entire event in about 7 short lines for our taxes even though there were many complications, follow up visits, and I was high risk. I recall that I paid cash at the business office of the Carle with each prenatal visit, and I think the doctor's invoice was folded into the clinic because I had no separate item for him. Anna writes:

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles provided excellent care and thoughtful treatment during my uncomplicated traditional delivery in December. Then the invoices started coming. The hospital sent one for me, and another for my baby. The doctors billed separately. The total charge for three days: $36,625.

People lucky enough to have good health insurance, including me, don't have to come up with such sums. Insurers typically pay a lower, negotiated price for hospital care, and patients pay a portion of that amount. Even people without insurance often get sharp discounts from list prices on their hospital bills.

She then attempts to decipher that $36,625. She’s on a preferred provider plan and her employers negotiated with the insurance company.

“For hospital and surgery services from these providers, I am on the hook for 15% of Aetna's negotiated price. [She later found out, probably researching this article, that Aetna’s price was about $17,300 (much higher than average) and her percentage was based on that.] I also have a $400 annual deductible. Fortunately, there is a $2,000 cap on how much I might have to spend out of pocket each year for my in-network care. I owed a total of $2,118.90, a sum I arrived at only after adding figures from five separate documents.” [Her son had his own deductible when born.]

She decided to check the itemized invoices, 34 items for her and 14 for the baby, not including doctors' fees. “Those charges I could decipher seemed stunningly high. A "Tray, Anes Epidural" cost $530.29. (After inquiring, I learned this was the tray of sterile equipment used to give me an epidural anesthetic injection.) An "Anes-cat 1-basic Outlying Area" was billed at $2,152.55. (I was told this was the cost of the hospital's resources related to the epidural.) These items were in addition to the separate anesthesiologist's charge of $1,530 for giving the epidural. Even though the pain-killing epidural shot felt priceless during my 20 hours of labor, I was amazed that its total cost could run so high.” Then there was $2,382.92 for her recovery, when there had been no Caesarean section. It turned out the charge was for the 90 minutes in the birthing room after delivery.

In the end, patient reader, there is no way to know what the real cost of this newborn was--and she was told it was a mistake that Cedars didn't give her the estimate she had asked for before the baby was born.

There's also no way to know what 1964 dollars are worth in 2008--there are perhaps 6 different ways to figure it (on-line). But using purchasing power figures (we're buying a baby here), $315 (my costs after insurance payout) in 1964 would buy $2,186 in 2008, or higher than what Anna said were her out of pocket costs of $2,119 at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles.

Insurance, both private and government, is what caused health care costs to sky rocket (keeping in mind she didn't pay anything near $36,625 or even the negotiated cost). Notice Anna's comment on how good her insurance is? Well, her "costs" are high because her insurance company is also paying for those people who don't have insurance--they don't put them on the street to have those babies when they show up in ER--they get the same excellent care Anna does, maybe better, because they don't have to negotiate with anyone!

In the 1960s, we purchased our own hospital insurance--our employers didn't. My own parents had no insurance at all--Dad bought "polio insurance" in 1949 because there was an epidemic (a real one, not like the Swine flu scare), but that's all. My parents paid cash for their babies, and I think Mom had a hospital stay of 10 days to 2 weeks. That had shortened to about 5 days in the early 60s, and now--do you even get to stay 48 hours?

When we have Obamacare, and it is definitely coming, it will be even more costly and more limited and more difficult to find out what it really costs. Just go back to the early 90s scare of Hillary and Magaziner and see what happened to health insurance costs when everyone feared a government take over. That nice epidural Anna was so grateful for (as was I)? I'm guessing that will have to be negotiated or rationed several months in advance, and only politicians' daughters will make the cut (no pun intended).

Bill of Rights
Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Read that paragraph 3 or 4 times, and think about how precious it is, how few countries have this. Then think about what has happened since September 2008, and specifically in the last 100+ days. Our government has done more to encroach on this important amendment, than at any period during my life time, and that includes the McCarthy era, that little blip the Communist Party of the USA looks back on as their shining moment of martyrdom and glorious myth. But they are very clever. Now, no law has to be made. Only a regulatory commission or agency is needed to silence political speech on the radio or marriage sermons from the pulpit; only a charge of hate speech to silence a preacher or synod or priest; the press can be silenced by destroying advertising (no market, no competition, why advertise?) so what’s left is a mouthpiece of the government; only comedic goons such as Garafalo or Hilton on TV threatening with impunity those who peaceably assemble to redress grievances of taxation or voice their sincere beliefs about what is in God‘s Word.

Today's new words

You probably thought I'd forgotten my New Year's Resolution to learn new words. I haven't done too well keeping this up, so here's a whole batch, and I found them all in the same book review of What the nose knows By Avery Gilbert published in JAMA, 2009;301(16):1719-1720. It was the mention of David Sedaris by reviewer Alan R. Hirsch of the Chicago Smell & Taste Treatment & Research Foundation that sucked me in:

"Avery Gilbert is the David Sedaris of the nostril, the Mark Twain of the nasal passages. In this irreverent tome, he manages to interweave olfaction and the science of smell with virtually all aspects of human endeavor, from the scatological to the heavenly. This fun, relaxed approach can be vaticinated from the opening page, which quotes the 1967 Mad Magazine satire "Fantastench Voyage." Like the Ygdrasil, the mythical Norse ash tree that unifies heaven and earth, Gilbert seamlessly intertwines the scientific with pop culture, enlightening the reader all the while about common, oft-repeated olfactory misperceptions. For instance, how many odors can humans detect? 10,000? 30,000? 400,000? As Gilbert traces the evolution of this answer, he exposes the number as a myth perpetrated from generation to generation of smell researchers, like a perverted game of telephone. (The answer: no one knows.)"

You probably spotted some unfamiliar words--like vaticinated, which means foretold or predicted. New to me. As were decoction, phantageusia, ventoseness, noisome, hyposmia, anosmia, retronasal, orthonasal and habromania. In fact, I'd settled down to read a short book review with my lunch, and it took 30 minutes and 3 dictionaries, a Webster's New Collegiate, a Webster's 2nd International, and a Taber's. I'm not sure if these are Gilbert's words, or Hirsch's, but I think I'm caught up for awhile. Ygdrasil?

.

National Day of Prayer

I've never been big on ecumenical, national observances because they usually have to be pretty watered down to please everyone. Today was a little different. I went over to the Mill Run Church at 7 a.m. (after my early coffee down the street) and joined other members and guests for breakfast and a delightful film made by our own Steve Puffenberger and his Run of the Mill Productions for the UALC 168 Project. I've seen a lot (OK, a little) of Christian films using "the folks" and most of them look pretty homemade. The viewing public, even me who may see only 3 movies a year, and embed the occasional YouTube in my blog, has become quite sophisticated on visual messages. Steve is a pro--he's the owner of Advent Media--and somehow the pastor and the prayer team working with Steve put together an outstanding product. It's not preachy, not particularly Lutheran, and could be used for any program on prayer, not just for this event. It's personal, professional, prayerful, and possibly the best production of its type I've ever seen. You can get a copy to use with your church or group by making a donation to the 168 Project Team, 2300 Lytham Rd., Columbus, OH 43220. I watched it again after I got home.

And yes, we did pray for the President and Governor.

LAT and Kerry worry about bloggers?

They should have worried about advertisers--business, commerce, capitalism, free enterprise, the markets--whatever you call that which the media have been systematically killing the last 20-30 years. Yes, we lost the local newspapers first--why did LAT, NYT and WSJ think that somewhere down the road it wouldn’t be their turn? Yes, advertisers need customers (readers, subscribers), but customers need someone besides the government (at all levels) to be in business, to be providing a service, to be competing to out do the next guy. Yes, technology and instant everything have changed the dynamics of information--but killing the golden goose of business by denigrating it sure didn‘t help. And bloggers will be next--we have nothing to say if the media collapse under the weight of their own foolishness and government regulation. Tweeting and Facebooking are much easier than blogging--and that will also contribute to "citizen journalism." However, if journalism has “values” as the author of the piece below claims, it certainly isn‘t objectivity or providing the facts (who, what, when, where, etc.). After 8 years of Bush bashing, and 3 years of Obama coddling, the media today are standing first on one foot and then the other, not knowing how to procede.

“There also is the important question of whether on-line journalism will sustain the values of professional journalism, the way the newspaper industry has. The new digital environment certainly is more open to “citizen journalism,” bloggers and the free expression of opinions.

In the last eight years, we have gone from zero bloggers to more than 70 million, and news is broken over twitter feeds and cell phones instead of on local broadcast networks. Just look at the way Janis Krums, a New York City ferry passenger, broke the news that flight 1549 out of LaGuardia had landed in the Hudson River -- he took a picture himself and tweeted the feed to an audience of thousands.” Top of the Ticket blog, LAT

Will Obama be able to match Bush's record on women?

From Elinor Burkett's So many enemies, so little time, pp. 104-105

“But everything in Afghanistan was about gender. While men were punished for what they did, for defying the authorities, the Taliban’s relentless war against Kabul’s middle-class women wasn’t a simple equation of crime and punishment. There was a desperation to the floggings and the stonings meted out to these women, a hysteria behind the ruthless and uncompromising humiliation that spoke to just how powerless the fundamentalist leadership felt in the new world that had taken root in Kabul, the world inching toward modern values like diversity, tolerance and equality. The sight of an unveiled rosy cheek or a lock of hair tousled by the wind was the most intimate, thus the most potent, symbol of a world they could no longer control, despite Allah’s command that they control it. Only by concealing that swath of flesh, by reining in those unruly tresses, could the men in power regain the sense that they were masters of their perversion of a Koranic domain.”

George W. Bush has freed those women. He has done more for women than any American president in history. He freed more people than Lincoln. Millions of women in Afghanistan can again have jobs, education and civil rights because of him. And the Left (who would all claim to be feminists) in this country and Europe won’t even mention it except to castigate him. From my blog, December 07, 2004, "The Taliban--It was about Gender"

Cash for your clunker?

Obama and his Dems can fool CNN, but not me.

"WASHINGTON (CNNMoney.com) -- The Obama administration has signaled its support for a congressional effort that aims to boost the troubled car industry by subsidizing new cars sales for consumers who scrap old ones.

Congressional Democrats, emerging from a meeting at the White House on Tuesday, said they had struck a deal on a bill to establish a one-year program to encourage the purchase of 1 million new cars and trucks that get better gas mileage."

Who's to determine what is a clunker? And when they've taken the 20 year old automobiles that burn a lot of oil, why not my 2002 Dodge van that gets 28-29 mpg on the highway, or my husband's 2000 SUV? Why not force pensioners like us and low income people into buying new cars by removing all the alternatives, or force them to use public transportation (which we don't have in Columbus, OH)? Or how about they just force them into signing up for new car loans to resuscitate the credit business which the government (Obama and the Dems) now own but don't have a clue how to manage? Or force out of business all the auto repair shops, auto repair training programs, or classic auto restoration businesses, or all the auto parts and junk lots, the scrap metal recyclers? What's another 20-30 industries destroyed when you already control the banks, the unions, the auto makers, the school loans programs, the entire education business, and can tell churches where they can display religious symbols and what they can preach from the pulpit. All in the name of "protecting" the environment and the messiah's favorite projects. Let's make the earth unsafe for people. Even the junk yard dog can be euthanized under the Obamachine plan--people shouldn't have pets anyway, right?

The face of our nation

You've probably seen photographs of the incredible face of Connie Culp who survived a shotgun blast to her face and through a "face transplant" from a cadaver, is now able to breathe, smell, blink, drink from a cup and eat solid food. Connie's original face wasn't perfect, but she was quite attractive--perhaps more so than 85% of the women you might know. Her eyes didn't have 20/20 hindsight, her complexion wasn't unblemished, and her smile was a bit crooked, and she probably didn't always make wise decisions with the brain behind that face. But after the shotgun blast, her face wasn't even human, and she could do nothing a human face usually does, like see, smell, taste, talk, breathe, etc. She was afraid to even go out--people made fun of her. I don't know why her husband Thomas shot her, but he must have hated her enough to kill her, but didn't succeed. And she must have originally loved him, or she wouldn't have chosen him--perhaps she was so in love she didn't pick up on his evil tendencies or thought she was strong enough to change him, or perhaps he developed them later. But he was in fact evil to the core.

And this is America today. We weren't perfect before--never claimed to be--we even took for granted the blessings we had and were often careless. But someone very evil has taken a shotgun and blasted away what we had. A new face will be transplanted, soon people like Ben Bernacke and Congress will pronounce it "the best we can do" and future Americans after a time of great upheaval and pain will be thrilled because they can drink and be merry and never know what their parents and grandparents had. They'll be told how imperfect and arrogant the old face was, and no one will show them a mirror.

Who in the devil wrote this poem?

G. Campbell Morgan preached a series of sermons about 100 years ago on "The world, the flesh and the devil." [The Westminster Pulpit, book 3-4, pp. 183-208] He said that this trinity of forces are distinct from each other but that any two of them are powerless without the third. Then he went on to preach three sermons, one on each. I've reread them several times, and think they could easily make a series of 6 or 9 sermons for today's shorter sermons and shorter attention spans.

Attribution was not a big thing for Morgan and he didn't provide the author of this poem, very clever and timely, considering what the polls say today:

Men don't believe in a devil now,
As their fathers used to do;
They reject one creed because it's old
For another because it's new.

There's not a print of his cloven foot,
Nor a fiery dart from his bow,
To be found in the earth or air today!
At least—they declare it is so!

But who is it mixes the fatal draught
That palsies heart and brain,
And loads the bier of each passing year
With its hundred thousand slain.

But who blights the bloom of the land today;
With the fiery breath of hell?
If it isn't the devil that does the work,
Who does? Won't somebody tell?

Who dogs the steps of the toiling saint?
Who spreads the net for his feet?
Who sows the tares in the world's broad field.
Where the Saviour sows his wheat?

If the devil is voted not to be,
Is the verdict, therefore, true?
Some one is surely doing the work
The devil was thought to do.

They may say the devil has never lived,
They may say the devil is gone;
But simple people would like to know
Who carries the business on?

So I went to Google, and found most attribution were to Alfred J. Hough, one as early as 1885 in a New Zealand newspaper. When I Google this name, I found a poet of the same name in Oddfellows of Vermont publications of the late 19th century (haven't taken the time to determine if they are one and the same).

Then there were two Catholic publications of recent years (one citing the other, I think) that listed Herbert Trench, Irish-born playwright (1865-1923) as the author, and he seems to believe the rumor, but wonders who's creating the mischief just the same. That version had some slightly different verses:

Who dogs the steps of the toiling saint
and digs the pit for his feet?
Who sows the tares in the field of time,
wherever God sows His wheat?

The devil is voted not to be,
and of course, the thing is true,
But who is doing the kind of work
the devil alone should do?

We are told he does not go
about as a roaring lion now,
But whom shall we hold responsible
for the everlasting row

To be heard in home, in church, in state,
to the earth’s remotest bound,
If the devil by a unanimous vote
is nowhere to be found?

Won’t somebody step to the front forthwith,
and make his bow and show
How the frauds and the crimes of the day spring up,
for surely we want to know.

The devil was fairly voted out,
and of course, the devil is gone.
But simple people would like to know,
who carries his business on?

Of course, it's possible that Trench was publishing as early as age 20, but given the early dates of circulation, I think I'll swing toward Hough with some borrowing, tweaking and weak copyright law by Trench.

Book Club Selections for 2009-2010

Can you believe we're writing 2010 already? Where did Y2K hysteria go? Into the current Swine/Mexican/Sebelius Influenza zone? Usually, I have the list up on my blog next day, because I take notes, but last night I was in the kitchen pouring lemonade and iced tea while the ladies lobbied their titles for next year. I remember a few--my choice of "Dewey," about the library cat of Spencer, Iowa; Three cups of tea; memoir of the lady who writes Ann Landers; The Virginian; something about Julia Child with a cooking lesson; Pilgrim's Progress; a really long title about a ladies' club on an island during WWII. I'll add the rest when I get the list.

The hostess doesn't need to supply the snacks, she has a co-hostess for that. Marcy brought dessert, so all I had to do was put out plates and serve the drinks--iced tea and lemonade and decaf. I used my good china--which I'm doing more often. What am I waiting for? No one touched the decaf and I had tea and lemonade left, so I mixed that together, but sent the yummies home with Marcy so I wouldn't be tempted. She'd made ginger snaps to go with the fresh fruit and dip, and my goodness! they were good. I think the only kind I'd ever had were factory made. Huge difference! My husband directed traffic to the neighbors' drive-ways--someone in another condo was also having a party, so parking was very tight.

Voting--finally--NO

We voted today. It wasn't easy. We've lived here since 2002, and this is our 4th polling location. No wonder some people just give up. I went to the location I thought was right and nothing was there. Came home, looked it up on the internet, and didn't even recognize the name of the building, but we eventually found it. The Catholic church where we last voted had purchased a fraternal building across the street and turned it into a parish hall, so that was the new location. However, when we got there we followed signage to nowhere, because what the arrow meant was "next door" not follow the arrow. We told the ladies at the bake sale about it, but nothing was changed when we left. I have always found polling places to be the most obscure, poorly signed buildings I've ever been to--for years we voted at St. Mark's in our old neighborhood, and they were always changing the room within the building. The voting machines are confusing for people who don't use computers--or even those of us who use them a lot. But that only matters in "ethnic" neighborhoods where Democrats might have a close vote. Anyway, just in case there were others who think our $25 million library levy is absurd and outrageous for the challenging times but couldn't figure out where to go to vote NO, I also voted against the Franklin county park issue. Normally, it would have had my vote easily. I can't take a chance on two local tax increases with Washington going crazy with economy killing measures.

Ohio will be hit very hard economically by Obamanomics, so we don't need more local taxes, although Mayor Coleman (an Obama-wannabee) is looking for "loose change." (He's as light skinned and handsome as Obama, but is a more fluent and traditional Democrat--seems to manage the English language without heavy reliance on the teleprompter. His wife's DUI problem has held him back.) Not only does Obama intend to kill our coal industry, but he has already killed the auto industry for us (yes, we are very close to Michigan in this area, not just geographically). The death of the auto industry will help in shuttering our local newspapers and local TV coverage, since they were heavy advertisers. But that's fine--all we need is the national media, right? And when they too are gone, there's always the government.

. . . the costs of accepting federal dollars from the ARRA will be a long-term drain on the private sector. The ARRA will increase the government expenditure wedge from 49.16% to 52.41% for an overall 3.25% increase. This increase will reduce the growth in real net business output by 2.5%, which translates to a reduction of 1.7 million jobs nationally - of which between 66,400 and 91,200 jobs will be lost in Ohio. Buckeye Institute

Oh NUTs
Nagging
Unfinished
TaskS
Blogging brake ahead.

Our health care system

And I use the term loosely, since it really isn't a system in any sense that we understand that word.

"In 2009 Medicare expenditures will exceed $400 billion, representing 13% of the federal budget and about one-fifth of all US expensitures on health care." JAMA, Feb. 11, 2009 citing Medicare: A Primer 2009,

and remember please, it isn't "free" for those of us who use it. Also, the early boomers hit 64 this year. Someone didn't do the math back in 1965. All the years I worked, I paid into Medicare (because I wasn't on Social Security), and now I pay quarterly to use it, plus I have to buy Supplemental to a private company if I really want any coverage that's meaningful. Of course, this can't be sustained, but we also have Medicaid and SCHIP, so don't kid yourself, Obamacare will cost even more. Also keep in mind, that the more successful our Nanny State is at getting people to stop smoking, eat more vegetables and fruits, lose weight, exercise more, and not visit bathhouses to have sex with infected men, the longer people are going to live, which is just going to add to the health costs as 90 and 100 year olds eventually wear out from all that healthy living.

Obama Bans Waterboarding Terrorists, But Pentagon Won't Say If It Still Waterboards Military Trainees

"Although President Obama has prohibited the use of waterboarding in interrogating captured al Qaeda terrorists, the Defense Department will not say whether it has stopped using waterboarding in its training of certain U.S. military personnel, as was discussed in a 2002 government memo made public last week. CNSNews.com April 22, 2009"

You might have seen a letter circulating around the Internet--it details the "torture" that our own U.S. Navy Survival Evasion and Resistance Escape (SERE) used to train pilots--this one during the Carter years. It has gone "viral" I'm sure, so if you haven't seen it yet in your e-mail, just google it. It's pretty gruesome and goes way beyond waterboarding. The DoD memo stated, "that waterboarding had a “near 100 percent” effectiveness rate in extracting information from [our Navy] trainees, while no soldiers were harmed physically or psychologically by it."

The retired pilot suggests that if there are any charges brought against the Bush administration officials, then there should be a class action suit against all those presidents in office, including Carter and Clinton, whose administrations participated in torturing our Navy pilots.

He also asks why John McCain, who is against torture, supported SERE.

Good point. HT Howard.

Counter Terrorism at the liberal Aspen Institute

On April 9, 2009, Michael Leiter, Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, a holdover from Bush in the new Obama administration, addressed members of government, industry, media, and the public policy community convened by the Aspen Institute’s Homeland Security Program at the Institute’s Washington offices. I'm sure he would have preferred being invited to Aspen in the summer, but oh well. . .

Director Leiter discussed the current state of Al Qaeda. According the the Aspen Institute website . . . "he argued that efforts to kill or capture senior leadership in the last year or so have succeeded in significantly diminishing Al Qaeda’s ability to strike the homeland. Still, the group continues to be a major security threat, and defeating it must remain a top priority for policymakers, notwithstanding the economic crisis and the many other domestic and foreign crises that now vie for our leaders’ attention."

During Q & A (very hard to hear the quetions) he sets the record straight--it's no accident that the U.S. wasn't attacked during the Bush years. But if we are attacked during the Obama years, it doesn't mean we have failed. "Intelligence is an imperfect business . . . " It's called CYA.

I sensed the host was trying to trip him up a bit, but he really is covering his bases here. This was before Napolitano's Tea Party fiasco. This is not the most scintillating talk I've ever heard, but these kinds of things are going to become less and less available, unless a non-government, non-Aspen site is archiving them (unlikely). I'm guessing that Mr. Leiter will soon be among the unemployed and that the NCTC will either disappear or quietly be folded into something else, and never be heard from again. After all, our current President believes his personal charm will protect us.

Accuracy in Media noted in 2006 that "the Aspen Institute is the number one sponsor of privately funded travel for members of Congress, having spent $3.4 million on Congress from 2000-2005. Aspen is one vehicle whereby left-wing billionaires like George Soros work to influence politicians on Capitol Hill by bringing them to luxurious places, hotels and resorts, and listening to mostly liberal and left-wing speakers."

Repeating myself on George W. Bush

I wrote this in December 2008 after looking through a Sept. 18, 1939 Life magazine about the WWII we hadn't yet entered. It's even more true now.

"The writers even called it a world war--and we weren't in it. I looked through several issues. Despite Bush's failures on the financial front in 2008, I was again so glad that he pursued the terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq and has kept his word for all these years. He acted with virtually total support of both parties, and one by one they fell away, abandoning principals and allies.

Really folks, the USA's record for the 20th century is pretty crummy. Yes, you can talk about the "greatest generation"--they did respond after millions had already died in Europe and China. But we dawdled around in WWI, jumping in at the last moment/months of the war. We abandoned millions of our east European allies to the Soviets in 1945. We negotiated Korea and 55 years later we're still messing with north Korea. Then we ran out on the Vietnamese thanks to our home-grown spoiled boomers like Bill Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn and Jane Fonda.

God bless George W. Bush and we'll let history decide if we had any Presidents in the last 100 years who had all the body parts those guys are reputed to possess--spine, balls, and guts."

This week's bargain--Urbie Green and Umpteen Trombones

Doing jumping jacks in aerobics class can cause heart rate problems for me (born with an extra circuit that causes A-fib), but so can finding a great bargain. But a bargain with trombones! Be still my heart!

Thursday at the Discovery Shop (resale shop for American Cancer Society) I found a CD titled, "Umpteen Trombones" featuring Urbie Green and 20 other trombonists (Kai Winding, Eddie Bert, Wayne Andre, Will Bradley, Bill Elton, Phil Giardina, Mervin Gold, Mickey Gravine, J.J. Johnson, Barry Maur, Lou McGarity, John Messner Jr., Buddy Morrow, Jack Rains, Sonny Russo, Charles Small, Chauncy Welsch, Jimmy Cleveland, Harry Di Vito). I knew nothing about it, but for one dollar, it would have to be very bad or a pirated copy not to be the deal of the month, or year. I bought it and 3 others for a total of $4.00, Regis Philbin (2004), Charlotte Church (1998), and Jack Widner at the Clarmont (local pianist, n.d.). I popped it into my CD player in the van on the way home--and WOW! I thought I'd cry, it was so beautiful. My right hand was trying to do that little slide vibrato movement while I drove, and that's just not safe!

So I needed to find out something about it and turned to Google. Here's the most helpful item I found about Umpteen Trombones after looking through what seemed like dozens of newsletters about jazz and listservs about trombones and prices ranging from $4 to $200:

Rich Woolworth on The Trombone Forum in 2005 wrote: " "Umpteen Trombones," released on CD in 1987, is "Twenty-One Trombones" (Volume 1), originally released in 1967. Several years after Volume 2 was released (1968) Project 3 re-released both as a two-record set. To my knowledge Volume 2 was never released on CD.

Volume 1 is mostly ballads and showcases Urbie's gorgeous tone and tasty style. Volume 2 is nowhere near as good as Volume 1. Volume 2 leans more heavily on pop tunes of the day with a boogaloo beat and novelties ("The Green Bee" is of course a rock version of "Flight of the Bumble-Bee" and was considered for the the theme song to the 1968 TV show "The Green Hornet". It seemed like a perfect match but Al Hirt's version was selected). Volume 2 does have some nice Ellington tunes, and "Timbe" by Tommy Newsome is a study in bell-tones."

At All About Jazz I found a brief bio about Urbie Green and his son Jesse Green:

"[Urban] Urbie Green was born [Aug. 8, 1926] and raised in Mobile, Alabama, and by the time he was sixteen was working professionally with Tommy Reynolds band. There followed music and years with Jan Savitt, Frankie Carle, Gene Krupa, and finally, Woody Herman. In October 1950, Urbie became part of Woody Herman's Thundering Herd, and in 1954 won the Down Beat International Critics Award for NEW STAR.

Urbie became one of the most sought-after trombonists for recording and club work in New York City. He is a multiple winner of the Most Valuable Player Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, and perhaps the most recorded musician of all time. He has recorded with Gene Krupa, Woody Herman, Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Leonard Bernstein, Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, Tony Bennett, Peggy Lee, Pearl Bailey, Ella Fitzgerald, Mile Davis, Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Barbara Steisand, Perry Como, Aretha Franklin, Quincy Jones, J.J.Johnson, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Burt Bacharach, Buck Clayton and Herbie Mann, to name a few. . . Urbie Green actually settled in the Poconos and raised a family with his wife Kathy Preston, herself a big-band singer. Pianist Jesse Green is their talented son, and he still calls Delaware Water Gap home. . .Jesse Green dips his toes into the New York scene occasionally, but he spends most of his time teaching piano and trombone out of the home he shares with his wife and three daughters.

So I'm happy.

The Charlotte Church CD turned out to be a Christmas album, but that's OK. The Regis CD wouldn't play in the car, but worked in the office. The Widner CD has some serious issues--a little faint background squeek, and some burps, but I gave it a good rub on my sweater, and it improved a lot. (David Meyers notes that Widner is in the Columbus Senior Hall of Fame, 2003).

Soapy, the Germ Fighter

So, it looks a little corny for today's audiences, but it gets the message across about washing your hands. Good information, fun piece.

From Internet Archive. It's got great old movies and documentaries and commercials.

Perspective on the Sebelius Flu

"In 2005, the flu killed 63,001 people in the United States, according to the CDC. But that year the President of the United States did not use a primetime news conference to admonish the American people that they must wash their hands, and the Vice President did not say he would not want his family to have to ride on a plane or a subway because someone might sneeze near them.

An average of 36,171 people died each year of flu in the United States from 1993 to 2003, according to a recent CDC study.

Despite the recent fervor surrounding swine flu, conventional flu viruses have killed far more people than other, more publicized, strains in recent years. Avian flu, for example, has killed 257 people worldwide since 2003, according to the World Health Organization. It has killed no people at all in the United States."

Finish reading the article here.

On March 15-20 about 170 of us from the Columbus area returned from the Middle East. About 20 of us got sick on the way home. Some got sick after arriving home--some 2 or 3 days later with fever, aches and chills. It took about 4 weeks for my GI track to return to normal, although I didn't go to the hospital. Still I was lying on the floor of the airport for several hours, and someone had to get me to the front of the line at customs. I'm just thankful it wasn't during this scare. I'd still be at LaGuardia!

The illiberal left

It's never more apparent than in a discussion about Sarah Palin--one of the few women politicians I can recall who didn't get to office on her father's death, or her husband's coattails (or wealth). Liberals hate her for being successful without them, and for not aborting her baby whose disability was known before birth (93% of babies with Down's are aborted). This is terribly threatening to feminists. But they can get riled up at a photo of a bear sofa.



The comments confirm it. They'll wear leather jackets, or sandals, though. . .

Two areas of concern where I support Obama

Better rail service between cities and reducing the prison sentences for possession of crack. Those are totally unrelated issues, but both needed some high profile attention. We love to travel by train, but unfortunately AMTRAK is exhibit one of the way our the government runs a business. In 2003 we took the train to California and back to my father-in-law's 90th birthday. We stopped to visit the Grand Canyon on the way, and Glacier National Park on the way back. It's a relaxing, friendly way to travel. Another time we parked the car in Toledo and rode the train to downtown Chicago for about $6.00 (it was a special)--cheaper than we could pay to park.


Prisons are schools for crime, and they are universities for young black men sentenced for crack possession when young white men would get much less time for powdered, if they got time at all. It's probably one of the most racist laws still on the books, and if it takes a black president to get it removed (black legislators pushed for it, as I recall, because of related crime in black neighborhoods, not realizing the unintended consequences), so be it.

Saving a culture through its books

99% of the people who visit the National Yiddish Book Center can't read the books, and neither could Aaron Lansky when at age 23 he set out to save thousands and thousands of priceless Yiddish books, books that had survived immigration across many countries and destruction by Hitler and Stalin. The older, Yiddish speakers were dying, and their treasures were being thrown out. Yiddish books were a portable homeland, and after Jews had a homeland, many people forgot them. His first visit to an elderly man involved sitting down with him to hear the story of each book. Stop at the home page and click on the brief film about the National Yiddish Book Center. (I was unable to embed the video.) I had tears in my eyes and marveled at the story of this young man who saved a culture that spanned hundreds of years and many cultures.

And now, through Internet Archive, you can visit too. The National Yiddish Book Center, founded in 1980, "is proud to offer online access to the full texts of nearly 11,000 out-of-print Yiddish titles. You can browse, read, download or print any or all of these books, free of charge. These titles were scanned under the auspices of our Steven Spielberg Digital Yiddish Library, and have been made available online through the Internet Archive."

The index isn't difficult to use, the tags are self explanatory, and even if you don't read Yiddish, you can enjoy the pictures, like the 1926 vegetarian cook book I looked through.

I started my professional career (as a graduate assistant) unpacking and dusting off hundreds of PL 480 books in the bowels of the library at the University of Illinois. I can start sneezing from the memory of mold of the boxes and boxes of books brought to the vet library from the barn after grandpa died and no one knew what to do with his books. So I have a tender spot for this story. Many years ago I'd read about Lansky's efforts--probably before he had a building, and long before digitization made it possible for me to see his efforts. A truly amazing rescue work.

Government waste

Obama certainly isn't the first president to burn tax dollars at an alarming rate, although he's gone far beyond anyone's wildest dreams last fall. Even so, I wouldn't have given approval for GWB to establish the National Counterterrorism Center for Kids, and if Obama eventually gets around to taking it down, he'll have my full support. Kids should be out riding bikes, or fishing, or climbing trees, not surfing the internet looking for information on terrorism. (You can tell the age level by the cartoon figures.)

The NCTC was created to defeat and deter international terrorism. We were created in order to bring together all the abilities of the United States Government to help in this cause.

The people who work for the NCTC and our partner agencies have a vested interest in keeping the country and the world safe from terrorists and terrorist acts. Thinking of their families, friends, and country is more than motivation enough in this fight against terrorism.

Does Geithner know this?

Here's what it says on the Treasury Taxes web site--this could be serious for Timmy and other Obama appointees if they were serious

"Collecting taxes in a fair and consistent manner is a core mission of the Treasury Department. Treasury's priorities in tax administration are enforcing the nation's tax laws fairly and efficiently while balancing taxpayer service and education to promote voluntary compliance and reduce taxpayer burden."

But while I was there I signed up for a newsletter on taxes. Should be fun. Now that Obama has killed Chrysler, I probably won't be needing this. I love my Dodge van. I doubt that I've ever seen a 2009.

Country Reports on Terrorism 2008, April 2009

This recently released report for 2008 is just fascinating--not only for what it reports on terrorism (don't know how that word slipped past the current censors), but for all the "soft" influence such as media--TV, radio, internet, books--and education we've been supporting, particularly in Muslim countries. Country Reports on Terrorism 2008 is submitted in compliance with Title 22 of the United States Code, Section 2656f (the "Act"), which requires the Department of State to provide Congress a full and complete annual report on terrorism for those countries and groups meeting the criteria of the Act.

For instance, I don't know if Sesame Street (It's not easy being green) has ever been proven to have any long term affect on the education of American children (it's over 40 years old so we should be able to see something if it has had an influence), but it is a huge hit in Bangladesh.

USAID also supports the extremely successfully television program, Sisimpur (Sesame Street), which is the most widely viewed children‘s television show in Bangladesh. It is estimated to reach 7.5 million young children weekly, nearly half of all three to six year olds. The television episodes aim to improve skills such as literacy, numeracy, and critical thinking, as well as hygiene practices such as hand washing and dental hygiene. The TV program also portrays positive socio-emotional and cultural knowledge, values, and skills; appreciation of diversity; illustrates the capacity of children with disabilities; depicts successful women across professions; and demonstrates self-respect and respect for others. Combined, the two programs have helped to combat traditionally low achievement and high dropout rates in the lower primary grades.

Also there's a detailed list of terrorist organizations with brief, pithy descriptions, acronyms and A.K.A. names beginning about page 282:

Abu Nidal Organization (ANO)
Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG)
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade
Al-Shabaab Ansar
al-Islam Armed Islamic Group
Asbat al-Ansar
Aum Shinrikyo
Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA)
Communist Party of Philippines/New People's Army
Continuity Irish Republican Army (CIRA)
Gama'a al-Islamiyya
HAMAS
Harakat ul-Jihad-i-Islami/Bangladesh (HUJI-B)
Harakat ul-Mujahideen
Hizballah Islamic Jihad Union (IJU)
Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
Jaish-e-Mohammed
Jemaah Islamiya (JI)
Al-Jihad Kahane Chai (Kach)
Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)
Lashkar e-Tayyiba (LT)
Lashkar i Jhangvi (LJ)
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)
Libyan Islamic Fighting Group
Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group
Mujahadin-e Khalq
Organization National Liberation Army (ELN)
Palestine Liberation Front – Abu Abbas Faction
Palestinian Islamic Jihad – Shaqaqi Faction
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command
Al-Qa’ida
"Description: Al-Qa‘ida (AQ) was established by Usama bin Ladin in 1988 with Arabs who fought in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union. The group helped finance, recruit, transport, and train Sunni Islamic extremists for the Afghan resistance. AQ‘s near-term goal is uniting Muslims to fight the United States and its allies, overthrowing regimes it deems "non-Islamic," and expelling Westerners and non-Muslims from Muslim countries. Its ultimate goal is the establishment of a pan-Islamic caliphate throughout the world. AQ leaders issued a statement in February 1998 under the banner of "The World Islamic Front for Jihad against the Jews and Crusaders" saying it was the duty of all Muslims to kill U.S. citizens, civilian and military, and their allies everywhere. AQ merged with al-Jihad (Egyptian Islamic Jihad) in June 2001, renaming itself Qa‘idat al-Jihad."
Al-Qa’ida in Iraq (Tanzim Qa‘idat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn)
Al-Qa’ida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM)
Real IRA Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
Revolutionary Nuclei
Revolutionary Organization 17 November
Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front
Shining Path
United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia

Read the full report--about 330 pages with a statistical annex by Gary LaFree, University of Maryland, dated March 2009.

Help Wanted

Looking for a gay (or bi- or ambivalent or transgendered), disabled, Hispanic-Asian biracial female who was a teen-age mother on welfare (or the daughter of one), but has overcome all those challenges and finished high school, and possibly college. An abortion or two is a given, of course. If you know anyone, Obama needs a fail-safe nominee to please the most donors to his campaign for a Supreme Court appointment. Oh yes, tax problems would be a plus.

Brand Loyalty

Yes, we are a consumer society--authors published mega-hits writing about how we shouldn't buy so much because it was rotting our souls--all the while, hawking their books on Oprah or Dr. Phil. When unemployment was 4.5 in Ohio, newspapers were still writing sob stories about "this economy" and why we should elect a Democrat. Now it's 9.7 and they are just starting to see how they contributed to the problem. But that's history. We've got the man. So what will you give up now that we're in a recession and you can't whip out the credit card, or you're looking forward not to the next career step up, not the next promotion, but just hoping for the next payday.

Would you be willing to change. . . in no particular order

Laundry detergent? Yes, and I have, but occasionally purchase my favorite because I love the fragrance.

From dryer to clothes line? I'd love to have a clothes line, but our city doesn't allow it. It's also good exercise. I use one at Lakeside in the summer. Added advantage of bleaching the hubbie's underwear.

Dishwasher detergent? Yes, and I have, however, I discovered I was using too much.

Beauty school hair cut rather than your regular hair dresser or barber? Absolutely not.

Veterinarian? I've heard people say they'd give up their family doctor before they'd give up their vet. I love our internist, and wouldn't change. The vet's nice, but . . . yeah, I'd change, or use her less frequently.

No hair color? Hmmm. That's still on the table. My mother looked awful with gray hair, very smart with white hair. I have her coloring (very pale). I may have to wait a few more years for white. Although it would save money. It might depend on Obama and how long he can extend this poor economy.

Thrift shop, or remainderer rather than a "sale" at a major retailer. Sure, do it all the time. Those items are often newer than what's in my closet since I retired in 2000. Other bargains too. Yesterday I got a fabulous trombone CD for $1.00.

Library instead of book store? Normally, I'm a heavy library user, or was for many years. I've been using OSU more than UAPL because it's so handy in its temporary location on Ackerman (soon to close). I think I did purchase more books in 2008 than any other year, however. If UAPL manages to fool the public and get this $25 million levy passed, I may just have to boycott it.

Dollar movie or first run? We see so few movies, that they are almost always at the dollar theater by the time I notice them. Two tickets plus a small bag of pop corn equals the price of one first run ticket.

Sit down or carry out? I'm not much for carry out except for the occasional pizza. A meal out with friends is entertainment plus a meal.

Supermarket frozen pizza prepared at home or pizza shop fresh and hot at home? Definitely not the frozen. Like eating cardboard--no savings there if your tastebuds rebel.

Invite friends for dinner at home or eat out? Either, but serving friends dinner is cheaper than eating out, even at McDonald's and the plus is, you'll probably clean the house.

Coffee at home or designer coffee at the shop? For me, it has to be "out." I read the newspapers, write in my blog notebook, talk to friends and neighbors, and listen to music--that's a lot for $1.69. Also, I don't make very good coffee.

Public pool (or tennis) membership for the family or private club? It's been since the early 80s that we had a family membership at the pool, but if you live in a nice town with a good recreation program for which you're being taxed, why would you not do this (ours was within walking/biking distance)? Snob appeal?

Change banks to avoid high fees? We haven't done that--yet. We've been at Huntington since 1967. I think they are all high, but we don't use a lot of services that could get us into trouble. Same with credit cards. We've never had a fee or interest charge.

Change churches to avoid stewardship sermons? Our church has "the talk" so seldom, that wouldn't be the issue if change were in our future.

Use cheaper or free exercise facilities and drop the club membership? Yes, exercising at UALC Lytham is about $1.33 per session which probably doesn't even cover the utilities. We get weights, resistance, stretching and cardiovascular. Walking outside is free, of course, the last I checked.

Buy house brand frozen vegetables rather than name brand? Yes, but only certain vegetables would I buy frozen--except for corn and peas, most of them taste like mush. Fresh is better.

Tithe regularly from the top or pitch in occasionally from the bottom as the plate goes by? For us, the tithe (10% of gross) has been the way to go--no problems since we started that about 35 years ago. Then pitch in for the extras like special campaigns, other good causes, diseases, disaster relief, etc. But this works out differently for other families.