How to screw up the language

I could swear President Roosevelt declared war after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, but apparently not--he declared a discussion or negotiation, as Bush should have done, but didn't. Congress must have misunderstood him. And it was his words, and not Japan's actions, that propelled us into war.

"I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire." FDR, December 8, 1941

Yet that's what this article in Scientific American Mind implies. We have terrorists because of the words we use. Reminds me of the mothers of pre-schoolers, "Now sweet dumpling, use your words not your fists. Johnny's nose is bloody." It's not their fault--we're inflaming them with our choice of words. We should have treated the attack like street crime. Declaring war is for a country, and this was just a world wide movement. And apparently Obama read the article!

"The Bush administration’s framing of terrorism as an act of war is a departure from past administrations’ ways of thinking. Presidents Richard M. Nixon and Ronald Reagan, for example, preferred a disease metaphor. President Bill Clinton’s general themes were the pursuit of justice, law enforcement and international cooperation. Clinton wanted to deny “victory” to terrorists, but he and other previous presidents stopped short of the word “war.”

President George W. Bush adopted the war construct immediately. On the morning of September 12, 2001, after a meeting of the National Security Council, the president told reporters: “The deliberate and deadly attacks which were carried out yesterday against our country were more than acts of terror. They were acts of war.”

Refresh my memory. Did Nixon or Reagan or Clinton field any attacks on US soil the way FDR and GWB did? Must have missed that in the news.

The author is hoping now that there are more academics in counterterrorism, we can develop more successful strategies. Must be working. We haven't had any attacks for 7 years, thanks to Bush and Cheny. Article here. I wonder if these are the guys who gave us "enhanced interrogation techniques."

Whoopi and Rachel exchanging misinformation

Walking through the living room to wash the dirt off my hands and straighten up my back (working in the yard, a task I'm not accustomed to) I heard Rachel say to Whoopi that obese people tell her they'd love to cook some of her recipes but they can't afford broccoli and fruits and vegetables. That's such an outrageous lie! If they want to believe it, that's one thing, but she shouldn't be spreading gossip. Yesterday I was in the "12 items or less" line and the woman in front of me bought 7 packages of Jello and a small can of mixed fruit. She paid more than I did and I bought 4 apples, 2 bananas, l lb. of carrots, a pint of organic grape tomatoes and a pound of strawberries--I know I paid with a ten and got back change and some bills.

The myth that the poor are obese because of "expensive" processed food (i.e., it's the fault of capitalism) is just ridiculous. They are fat for the same reason everyone else is--too many calories and too little exercise.

Come on, Whoopi--you aren't skinny and you sure aren't poor!

The weather is cooperating

We're at the Lake. My husband is painting the house this year. The weather has cooperated--in fact, a bit too hot yesterday--84. Milder today with a slight cloud cover. I keep reminding him about sunscreen, but you all know how husbands love to be nagged about their health and safety.

I did make an important reservation yesterday. I reserved the pavilion for our 50th anniversary party (for lake friends) on August 15, 2010. We've got a rain room too, because the weather here is very iffy. We have not a single computer model that can tell you what Lake Erie will be doing this afternoon, let alone a 15 months from now. We'll have our Columbus event on the real date in September.

I'm cleaning. Decided to tackle the throw pillows. Two will be tossed. There is no way to wash them. I'm washing two that my mother made for me about 20 years ago. From the looks of the stitches to close, I've washed them before. She was neat and careful; I just get the job done and hope for the best. I remember when my parents visited for the first time in 1989 and she and I went shopping over in Marblehead to pick out the fabric. She took the pieces home and made pillows. They are very special. It would be nice to be able to pick up the phone and wish her a Happy Birthday (next week).


I'm going to plant a few more flowers--white impatiens. We already put in 2 flats, but they always seem too thin. When our daughter-in-law planted our flowers one year for Mother's Day they were fabulous--only year they looked really good. A good cook, too. I have the proverbial brown thumb and don't like dirt under my fingernails.

We actually had an offer to buy the cottage yesterday. Although it was a bit of a joke. The neighbor said, "I'll pay you twice what you paid for it." That got a good laugh. I'm not sure how real estate is holding up here, but the county, the people who want to kill the golden goose that is supporting their school system, says it is worth about 6 times what we paid. It's interesting how home values come down, but the taxing entity doesn't reevaluate. They just want more. But we will be selling (he promised) in about 5 years. We'll need the money to pay the higher energy costs as the President destroys Ohio's coal industry and auto plants and everyone has to put a windmill in their back yard. And the higher food costs. And the higher cost of everything made with petroleum products from highway paving to shoes to carpet to windshield wipers. And health care (if you think it's high now just wait 'til Obama Amtracs it).

Sigh. Life is just political, isn't it?

Update: I just checked a real estate list. Prices here are still crazy. I noticed a tiny "fixer upper" that would get you laughed out of town at $80,000 if it were on Columbus' west side listed at $209,000. The coffee shop building is listed at $689,000 and that's not the business--just the building. There's a wooded lot on our street (waaaay back) for $174,000.

Today's new word--less unaffordable

What ever happened to "affordable?" Now it's "less unaffordable"

"It is well known that the largest percentage losses in house prices occurred early in the housing bubble in inland California, Sacramento and Riverside-San Bernardino, Las Vegas and Phoenix. These were the very southwestern areas that housing refugees fled to in search of less unaffordable housing in California’s coastal metropolitan areas (Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and San Jose).

Yet now the prices in these hyper-expensive markets are beginning to fall. Once considered widely immune from the severe housing slump, the San Francisco area now has muscled its way into the list of biggest losers. The newly published first quarter 2009 house price data from the National Association of Realtors indicates that prices are down 52.5 percent from the peak. Only Riverside-San Bernardino and Sacramento have experienced greater losses out of the 49 metropolitan areas with a population of more than 1,000,000 for which there is data (see table below). Other metropolitan areas that have seen prices drop more than 50 percent include Phoenix, Las Vegas and, for very different reasons, that rustbelt sad sack, Cleveland." Housing downturn update

We may have more relatives in California than Illinois--so we keep a close watch, and don't like what we see.

And of course, we like to eat, too. Environmentalists along with Mother Nature seem to be conspiring to bring down the agriculture industry in California. Governors of either party are helpless and hopeless. That's higher priced food for the rest of us, shipped from a "country" that won't use its own energy resources.

Friday Family Photo--Biggie

Sunday I was moving winter coats to storage when I pulled out a forgotten maroon, hand-knit, zip front sweater in a dry cleaner bag that had belonged to my husband's grandfather, Stanley, or Biggie as he was known to his grandchildren. I think I have the story straight when I say that the oldest grandchild, whose name is Norma Lou, gave him that nickname. Probably because she was little and he was "big." She was raised by her grandparents; her cousins, my husband and his sister, visited on week-ends. These three little ones were all children of divorce, so Biggie was the one monumental and consistent male figure in their lives. Yes, he was BIG. The whole family always called them "Neno and Biggie," and so did I (although I never knew his grandfather).

I decided to take the sweater out of the bag and check for moth holes because it is 100% wool and probably close to 90-100 years old. It was made at a time when knitting or sewing for the family was just a feature of the homemaker's life, a necessity rather than a "craft." (Neno had been a police woman before marriage.) I had a vague recollection of my husband wearing it on very cold days back in the 70s (when all the talk was about global cooling and we couldn't keep our house warm enough), and I think I used to occasionally wear it to work in the 80s because we couldn't control the air conditioning in Sisson Hall. Frankly, I'm not sure either one of us could get this sweater zipped today. And no, the dry cleaners didn't shrink it. It would definitely be an XXS in either a men's or women's size.

The item on the sweater is Biggie's gold pocket watch, and we don't have much else that belonged to him. When I asked my husband where it was, he couldn't remember, but then found it in the first box he checked--along with the silver cuff links we bought our son for his wedding or graduation--don't recall which--and a few other odd items.) The photo below is Biggie, Neno and brother Jimmy, and was probably taken about 1948.





There seems to be a strong family resemblance--photo of my husband at about the same age in 2003.

Ed Asner--a very hate filled man

My little converter box here at the lakehouse works great--except I get programs I'd never watch at home. This morning in the background (can't see the TV from this angle) I can hear Tavis Smiley interviewing Ed Asner who is spewing the most hateful, anti-American drivel I've ever heard from the Hollywood left. It's enough to make you stop watching old re-runs. This man desperately needs to retire.

Here’s what the Waxman-Markey energy bill will do for you

“Nothing. Zip. Zero. Zilch. There are no benefits for the American people in the Waxman-Markey energy tax bill. Whenever defenders of the free market point out how much an energy tax will cost the economy, the enviro-left always tries to change the subject to “the cost of inaction.” But here is the dirty little secret about Waxman-Markey: it does nothing to prevent global warming/climate change whatever you want to call it. And that is before House Democrats gutted the bill.” Heritage.org Indeed, in a Congress full of downright scary people, thieves, murderers, adulterers, and brain dead, Henry Waxman reigns supreme.

Here are the numbers. My detractors always want the facts, not the unintended consequences, not the run up to the War on the Economy by smart investors and CEOs who were ducking for cover hiding their assets in foreign countries as soon as an Obama presidency was on the horizon, while contributing to his campaign. Not an historical survey of the Kulaks loss of property and life by Stalinists. OK, here they are. Here’s what higher prices on everything for the sake of a global warming myth looks like. Waxman's energy bill will mean the loss of your job (especially if you are paid on local tax money such as a teacher, librarian, policeman, street sweeper, dog catcher, etc.)

By the year 2050, the “clean” version reduces projected global temperatures by 0.044ºC (or ~3% less than the rise without the legislation), the “dirty” version gets you about half of that, or 0.022ºC (~1.5% less), and the “dirtier” version saves half of that again, or 0.011ºC (<1% less). By century’s end, you don’t do much better–the temperature reduction amounts to, respectively, 0.112ºC (0.20ºF), 0.046ºC (0.08ºF), and 0.013ºC (0.02ºF).

They only crunched the job loss numbers on the clean version and found it would reduce aggregate gross domestic product (GDP) by $7.4 trillion by 2035 and destroy 844,000 jobs annually. Maybe on your planet that sounds like a worthwhile trade, but not on mine!

Burying the lede

It probably pained the NYT to even report on the foiled terrorist plot against two Jewish synagogues, but since they were in New York, it is sort of local news. They didn't mention until the end that all those arrested in the year long investigation were Muslims. And of course, Chuck Schumer (D-NY) calls them unsophisticated. That should be a comfort if it is your family that is blown up. According to James Taranto's column, May 21, in WSJ:

At the end of the ninth paragraph comes the revelation that the suspects "are all Muslim, a law enforcement official said."

According to Rod Dreher of BeliefNet.com, "This is what is called 'burying the lede.' Some editor in that newsroom found this to be an inconvenient truth, and tried to hide it. You can practically hear the Times cringing when it has to disclose this fact, which most fair-minded readers would find rather pertinent."

According to the NY Daily News:

Among those arrested was [James] Cromitie, of Newburgh, who is the son of an Afghan immigrant and his African-American wife. Cromitie, who also called himself Abdul Rahman, has served a long stretch in prison.
David Williams, Onta Williams and Leguerre Payen - his alleged henchmen - were busted with him. Cromitie allegedly recruited them at the Newburgh mosque.

Cheney, a man who will protect us

from enemies without and within. It was shocking to hear Obama, as a first act of his presidency, criticize the former administration like he was some third world potentate ready to throw his opponents in prison. Then when he also threatened the people in the administration who kept us safe for 7 years, it was time for an answer. Al Gore brags that he kept quiet for 2 years before criticizing Bush for using the security developed on his watch--Obama/Biden couldn't wait even 2 weeks. They are lackeys for the leftist who got them elected.

" When President Obama makes wise decisions, as I believe he has done in some respects on Afghanistan, and in reversing his plan to release incendiary photos, he deserves our support. And when he faults or mischaracterizes the national security decisions we made in the Bush years, he deserves an answer. The point is not to look backward. Now and for years to come, a lot rides on our President’s understanding of the security policies that preceded him. And whatever choices he makes concerning the defense of this country, those choices should not be based on slogans and campaign rhetoric, but on a truthful telling of history." . . .

"To make certain our nation country never again faced such a day of horror, we developed a comprehensive strategy, beginning with far greater homeland security to make the United States a harder target. But since wars cannot be won on the defensive, we moved decisively against the terrorists in their hideouts and sanctuaries, and committed to using every asset to take down their networks. We decided, as well, to confront the regimes that sponsored terrorists, and to go after those who provide sanctuary, funding, and weapons to enemies of the United States. We turned special attention to regimes that had the capacity to build weapons of mass destruction, and might transfer such weapons to terrorists.

We did all of these things, and with bipartisan support put all these policies in place. It has resulted in serious blows against enemy operations … the take-down of the A.Q. Khan network … and the dismantling of Libya’s nuclear program. It’s required the commitment of many thousands of troops in two theaters of war, with high points and some low points in both Iraq and Afghanistan – and at every turn, the people of our military carried the heaviest burden. Well over seven years into the effort, one thing we know is that the enemy has spent most of this time on the defensive – and every attempt to strike inside the United States has failed." The Cheney Speech on national security

And they didn't even mention Ohio State

Even Library Journal doesn't call OSUL a "research library."

If this were Jeopardy, the answer might read: “This academic tool has been around for 500 years, but is slowly being replaced by its electronic counterpart.”

Can you guess the question?

There’s no Daily Double involved, but if you asked, “What is a book?” you’re right.

Is this an overstatement? Maybe yes, maybe no.

Take a look at these facts, and you be the judge:

Princeton, Case Western, Reed, Darden School at the University of Virginia, Pace and Arizona State are partnering with Amazon to try out the Kindle e-book reader on their students.

Missouri School of Journalism students will be required to buy an iPhone or iPod this fall, so they can electronically download course material.

Columbia University added four times the number of electronic books to its collection this past year compared to traditional books.

While 99% of individual buyers still purchase traditional books, it seems the move of higher ed institutions toward e-books is picking up speed.Read whole story at Higher Ed Morning.

The speech Notre Dame grads didn't get to hear

Here's a graduation address that could have inspired them to go forward and be their best, given to 2009 graduates of University of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio, Texas, May 9, 2009 by the Most Rev. José H. Gomez, S.T.D., Archbishop of San Antonio.

Now the world you are entering into, dear graduates, sees things very differently. In fact, our society today is a lot like Pontius Pilate—it doesn’t recognize the truth. It doesn’t believe there can even be any one truth. Our culture believes instead that there are many truths—as many different truths as there are individuals, and that it’s wrong to try to decide or judge among these competing “truths.”

This sounds like a very fair and reasonable way to live in a free society where there are many different religions, lifestyles, and points of view. But in practice: when nothing is true, everything is permitted.

When the only truth is that there is no truth, then we end up with what Pope Benedict has called the “dictatorship of relativism.” What’s right or wrong, true or false, good or evil, is decided by majority vote or imposed by powerful special interests. As a result of this dictatorship of relativism, our society not only allows evils such as abortion, it also protects them under law.

ConservativeHQ.com Poll

91% of Conservatives believe Obama is a Socialist, Marxist, Communist or Fascist. On-line polls are certainly not fair, balanced or authoritative. Only the people who use a particular site get to vote. Sort of like the newspaper polls from NYT or LAT and their "sources" and anecdotal evidence.

During the Bush years, the people who didn't like him screamed Nazi or Hitler because yelling "communist" would have been a compliment. But there is a very fine line between National Socialism (Nazi Germany and Italy) and Marxist Communism (USSR or China variety. The Bush haters claim it's the war--"Bush lied people died." He brought out the ladies in pink who joined forces with the greenies. Bush didn't go to war, Congress did, read the Constitution, and they were using all the evidence they had been hearing and voting on from the previous administration. There was actually great bipartisanship in 2002 and 2003--Kerry, Edwards, Kennedy, et al were all for the war and believed the intelligence about WMD. Bush was fairly elected, not with the popular vote, which he didn't win in 2000, but the electoral system which provides smaller states with a say. The county in question was heavily minority--so Democrats claimed they didn't know how to vote. They were confused. Well, whose fault was that with a Democrat machine in place? The Supreme Court didn't put him in office as the Bush-Deranged claim--it ruled on a state law of Florida. And the Bush-Deniers refused to see what was coming down the road, when the hanging chads in Florida were all swept up. Examination of all the close votes in other states--say, in Illinois where the dead Chicago democrats reappear like zombies to vote and who are probably happily receiving their stimulus checks even today. After all, they are the ones who chose Kennedy over Nixon back in 1960. If Nixon had done the right thing--demanded the same kind of endless recount Gore got--he could have saved JFK's life, but then, who would have made all those conspiracy movies?

Kris over Adam

Idol isn't a show I follow--but you can't open your on-line page or a newspaper without seeing that Kris won. I mean, this is terribly important to millions of Americans, and maybe Europeans too. It's certainly more important than the War on the Economy, which no one seems to care about except people losing their livelihood. This is the gladiator game put on for the public to keep them happy and thinking they are voting about something. Something that matters. Like no performer was ever able to make it before this type of prearranged showcasing.

Anyway, I've never heard either one of them sing, but seeing the photos, I think I would have gone for Kris. I don't mind make-up--eyeshadow, lip rouge, etc.--and earrings and tight leather on the girls--but on the boys, it's just a bit too carnal.

Q. Who is not eligible for this [$250 Social Security] payment?

We are going around and around on whether I should cash the $250 "stimulus" check. I say no, my husband says yes. The government doesn't care if they sent it, only that you spent it when it wasn't yours.

A. In most cases, the following individuals will not receive the one-time payment:
Anyone living outside of the United States or its territories;
Individuals who no longer are lawfully present in the United States;
Individuals whose benefits have been suspended under the law for giving false or misleading statements;
Social Security beneficiaries who are minor children;
SSI beneficiaries who receive benefits at a reduced rate of $30 because they live in a medical treatment facility (such as a nursing home or hospital) and Medicaid pays over 50% of the cost of their care;
Individuals only entitled to Medicare and not to Social Security or SSI benefits; and
Prisoners, fugitive felons, and probation and parole violators.

I am entitled to Medicare, not to Social Security. What would you do?

I'm going to miss newspapers

On a good day, I can read the Columbus Dispatch, USA Today and WSJ in just a few minutes. The advertising is disappearing at a fast clip, and that's what keeps the printing presses rolling (do they still roll, or has that changed too?).

It's ironic that the hostile-to-business, hate-the-capitalists-media are digging their own graves. Once they are all on-line, they'll be easier to shut down completely by the man they all supported to exercise the biggest hatchet job on freedom ever recorded. And then that record will be buried, too.

Sweetie, honey, dearie, babe

My father called me "Baby" even in my 60s. I didn't mind at all, even though I knew I wasn't a baby. He wasn't belittling me and that was also about as affectionate as he got. However, when I was a little girl I can remember watching the blood rise in my mother's face if we were in a dress shop and the saleswoman called her "Honey," or "Dearie." Usually, Mom's fingers clutching her purse would start to twitch (a bad sign) and that was the end of that store for that day, regardless of the need. The other day I overheard a young, accomplished, educated woman say, "The little girl who works for us had her baby and will soon be back at work." If a man had said that about a female employee it would have raised eyebrows, or even caused disciplinary action. Women often use the phrase, "little girl," or just "girl" as a term of endearment, but it can also describe a woman in a lower social status, the same way men use the term.

I'm not saying it's in the same category as a hip hop artist using "nigga" or "Ho," but I think we're in the ballpark.

More Than 700 International Scientists Dissent Over Man-Made Global

Scientists Continue to Debunk “Consensus” in 2008 and 2009. You are going to be heavily taxed and perhaps your job destroyed on faulty, bogus "scientific" claims about the dangers of C02. Read this Senate report before you accept a word of Obama's threats to destroy more of the American automobile industry and tax Americans with an additional $1300 per car.

“Creating an ideology pegged to carbon dioxide is a dangerous nonsense…The present alarm on climate change is an instrument of social control, a pretext for major businesses and political battle. It became an ideology, which is concerning.” Environmental Scientist Professor Delgado Domingos of Portugal, the founder of the Numerical Weather Forecast group, has more than 150 published articles.

“It is a blatant lie put forth in the media that makes it seem there is only a fringe of scientists who don’t buy into anthropogenic global warming.” U.S Government Atmospheric Scientist Stanley B. Goldenberg of the Hurricane Research Division of NOAA.

“For how many years must the planet cool before we begin to understand that the planet is not warming? For how many years must cooling go on?" - Geologist Dr. David Gee the chairman of the science committee of the 2008 International Geological Congress who has authored 130 plus peer reviewed papers, and is currently at Uppsala University in Sweden.

“There are simple facts in such abundance that the media never reports. When the media lambastes a great (skeptical) scientist and brave patriot, Jack Schmitt, a geologist, astronaut and former senator for apostasy, you know that it isn't science they're talking about, but agendas. Schmitt knows more about the Earth and its environment than all the staff at The New Mexican put together. Listen to a proven scientist,” Geologist Dr. Seymour Merrin, a Fellow of the Geological Society of America and a research scientist.

. . . and many others. We are being deceived for a social agenda.

Following the FDR rise to fame

Edging us closer and closer to a Depression through government interference in the markets

Notice what happened in July 2008 when the nation's and global investors woke up and realized Obama would be the next President.

The coming threat to religious liberties

". . . in a society that redefines marriage to include same–sex unions, those who continue to believe marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman can expect to face three types of burdens.

First, institutions that support the traditional understanding of marriage may be denied access to several types of government benefits, and individ­uals who work in the public sector may face cen­sorship, disciplinary action, and even loss of employment.

Second, those who support the traditional understanding of marriage will be subject to even greater civil liability under nondiscrimination laws that prohibit private discrimination based on sexual orientation, marital status, and gender.

Third, the existence of nondiscrimination laws, combined with state administrative policies, can invite private forms of discrimination against religious individuals who believe that marriage involves a man and a woman and foster a climate of contempt for the public expression of their views."

Same–Sex Marriage and the Threat to Religious Liberty by Thomas M. Messner

Rip and Read

Now when I hear news stories like this, it means so much more--we were in the Holy Land in March.

"Pope Benedict XVI prayed at Christianity's holiest site on Friday as he wrapped up a Holy Land tour in which he pleaded for Palestinians and stirred criticism he lacked remorse over the Holocaust. In the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, . . "

The problem was the young woman reading the news on the radio pronouced Sepulcher as ska-PAL-ter. Yes, Church of the Holy skaPALter. Reminds me of when he first became Pope and there were people who didn't know how to read Roman Numerals. Poor guy was all over the place--13th, 14th, 17th.

Cat Yodeling

After she finishes her breakfast (1/3 can 9 Lives), my cat walks into the living room with a loud yowl or two. Sometimes she races up and down the stairs, too. But only after breakfast. Also, she can hear cheese. If you open the frig for an apple, she doesn't stir from her nap, but if you pull out a package of cheese, she's right there. Usually, she says nothing when kissed or pestered.

No torture necessary for Ol' Joe to blab secrets

Some in the media are saying no big deal. Probably the same who screamed bloody murder on the Valerie Plame blame game, when everyone already knew who she was. But for Biden to reveal the secret hiding place for the second in command. Well, that's almost as scary as contemplating the third in command, the liar, liar pants-on-fire, Pelosi. Even the most die hard conservative needs to pray for Obama's continued good health.

"Joe Biden, the gaffe prone Vice President, has revealed the secret location of the Vice Presidential bunker. The Vice Presidential bunker has been revealed to be located under the Naval Observatory where Vice Presidents reside.

The gaffe was reported by Newsweek's liberal correspondent Eleanor Cliff. Vice President Joe Biden apparently gave a detailed account of being taken on a tour of the Vice Presidential bunker by a Naval officer

Joe Biden's Bunker Blunder to his dinner companions at the Gridiron Dinner, a Washington soiree attended by print journalists.

Thus far Vice President Joe Biden's various gaffes have been amusing at best, embarrassing at worse. But the location of the Vice Presidential bunker, designed to help the Vice President and his staff ride out an attack, is classified information. The idea that Vice President Joe Biden is so unable to govern his tongue that he would blurt out classified information to a table full of reporters should be a cause for concern." AC Content

Does he drink a lot? Off his meds? And are reporters supposed to always report what they know?

Applying the Golden Rule to Abortion

Obama's speech writers just amaze me--the twisting and distorting of the English language is just stunning. I was driving home from the coffee shop this morning and wasn't fast enough to push the button when the news clip of Obama's speech at Notre Dame came on and I caught his recitation of the number of religions that cling to the Golden Rule, "Do unto others. . . " In the context of abortion it was such a distortion of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, etc. I was afraid I might cause an accident. I'm not sure there is a major religion that gives this one a pass.

... the law that binds people of all faiths and no faith together. It is no coincidence that it exists in Christianity and Judaism; in Islam and Hinduism; in Buddhism and humanism. It is, of course, the Golden Rule - the call to treat one another as we wish to be treated. The call to love. To serve. To do what we can to make a difference in the lives of those with whom we share the same brief moment on this Earth.

Some people's moments are a bit briefer than others, it seems.


Just what is the "Golden Rule?" Usually it's a reference to Jesus' statement in Matthew 7:12/Luke 6:31. "So whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them; for this is the law and the prophets." Who in the world wishes death and dismemberment on himself?

Confucius' negative slant was "What you do not like if done to yourself, do not to others," and Isocrates said, "Do not do to others that at which you would be angry if you suffered it from others." Rabbi Hillel said, "Whatsoever you would that men should not do to you, do not that to them" and it appears in Leviticus 19:18.

For Christians, however, Jesus takes it to an understanding of the highest good, for the self and for others. He is calling us to anticipate the well-being of another--and in the context of the speech a very helpless "other." I'm often shocked when liberals, progressives, marxists and feministas will claim that the aborted child would have lived a life of poverty, pain, or disease and therefore the abortion is an act of mercy and good. Really? You mean the 40 or 50 million abortions since Roe v. Wade was all about malformed or poor children, and not malformed values and self-centered fears? I only know a few mothers who have aborted their babies, and it was with deep regret, and it certainly wasn't because of poverty or disease or mental retardation. Carrying the child to term and placing it with an adoptive family certainly would have been an option.

If death were such a great solution for poverty, why in the world are we putting all this time, money and effort into poverty programs (especially those that don't work--like the government handouts). Just kill the poor people when we know for sure they aren't viable tax payers, if that's your motivation! And you guys try to make Republicans look bad just because they suggest a welfare to work program. Talk about screwed up values!

The Obama administration has gone to a great deal of effort to destroy the livelihood of many well-off, well-educated, talented people--for no reason other than they were rich people who supplied jobs and investment opportunities for others. So if they kill off the potentially poor before they are born, and the unacceptably rich after they are successful, who will they come for next. You?

What Joe Branin said two years ago about Thompson Library

Last week I parked at the Vet Med campus and walked to Bricker Hall to participate in a tiny, and probably useless protest, about saving books. It was a beautiful day and I stopped to stare at and photograph the RPAC, a gimungous building with flashy, reflective pink glass and covered walkways devoted to recreation and physical fitness. Joe Branin, the director of OSUL was at the protest with his professional marketing hand-out and his dusted off fund raising bon mots used hundreds of times to sway the press and TV reporters. If ever a man could out-nuance President Obama on the golden rule and abortion, it would be Joe on the value and usefulness of the physical book, on a actual shelf, inside a bricks and mortar building. So I was interested to read what he said two years ago in an interview with Library Journal.

[After a bit of wandering, the reporter finally gets to it] What’s it like running one of the nation’s top public university libraries while simultaneously tearing it down, setting up interim space and services, and managing one of the state’s largest construction projects? “I still spend most of my time directing the library system,” OSU director Joe Branin insists, giving his staff praise for their hard work. But let’s not mince words: this massive project will define Branin’s tenure at OSU, and he is clearly proud of and invested in it. “We expect the library to be a major gathering place for faculty and students, because of its architectural beauty but also its functionality as a learning and research center,” he says.

“I’ll also continue looking for new ways we can reach out to the larger Ohio community, and make the Thompson a resource not just for the university but for learners and scholars around the state and the whole country.” Part of achieving that mission is not to be limited by space or formats. “Flexibility has been a key design principle for us,” Branin explains. “So we can modify the building as we see formats of information and use patterns change.” The new Thompson library, he stresses, will use space and technology together to offer new opportunities as well as preserving the best of traditional library service, including, of course, books. “Print resources will continue to be a significant presence, and special collections will be highlighted in ways that have never been possible.”

I've moved, withdrawn and disposed of thousands of books in my library career and I think I know how to measure and count; there's no way that a million + volumes are going back, nor is there room for growth without pulling out thousands more.

Notice, LJ never refers to OSUL as a "research library."

Joe's next and probably last job is to develop a completely digital library for the Saudis. Maybe by the time he's finished, Saudi women will be allowed to drive. After all, by the 1980s, most were allowed to attend school.

The double whammy of aging

I've blogged about the verbs for death and dying used in obituaries, but I hadn't really thought about the photos. Most announcements don't carry photos, and usually I can tell from the eye glasses and hair styles (of women) the age of the photograph. And I'm not surprised when the subject or his children select a military photo--which sends several visual messages--youth, vigor, patriotism, camaraderie, history. This research at OSU on "ageism" and bias, did surprise me, however, I suppose in the conclusion. The last "formal" portrait I have of my parents is from a 1991 church directory when they were in their late 70s. They died in 2000 and 2002. It's a nice portrait, and informal photographs I have of them later are nice, but it's that one I keep displayed. Glancing around my office, I think that one may even be better of my father than the one taken in 1984 for their 50th--the year he was recovering from heart surgery and he was very gaunt and thin. And we have a family portrait of my father-in-law with his four children taken on his 90th birthday which is quite nice. My mother-in-law was in such poor health the last 25 years of her life I would probably select a nice Valentine photo of 1963 with her husband if it didn't have other negative memories (death of our oldest son same week).

"Results of the study showed that age-inaccurate photos increased steadily each decade: from 17 percent (1967) to 27 percent (1977) to 30 percent (1987) and finally to 36 percent (1997). The researchers found that each additional year in age at time of death increased the odds of having an age-inaccurate obituary photo."

The author of the research, Keith Anderson, Assistant Professor of Social Work at Ohio State University, says it's a double whammy for women--ageism and sexism. It may also be cultural--how often do you have a formal portrait taken after, say, the grandchild's wedding, or the 50th anniversary? And who's to say that person in the mirror at age 85 is more you than the one who used to be there 25 years ago?

What do you think? Do you have a photo in mind?

Another reason to wash your hands

Today I was watching the Learning Channel about a pork parasitic tapeworm disease that had infected a number of people in an Orthodox Jewish community. It takes quite awhile to develop once the eggs are in the body, but eventually the worm makes it to the brain and the formerly asymptomatic victim may develop headaches, seizures, blindness and other neurological disturbances. After some careful investigation by the CDC, it was discovered that all the Jewish families were employing housekeepers from Mexico and Central America.

Cysticercosis (i.e., tapeworm infection) is the most common parasitic disease worldwide, with an estimated prevalence greater than 50 million persons infected. It is endemic in Mexico, Central and South America, and parts of Africa, Asia, and India. Neurocysticercosis, the neurologic manifestation of cysticercosis, is the most prevalent infection of the brain worldwide, and more than 1,000 new cases are diagnosed in the United States each year. Neurocysticercosis is one of the leading causes of adult-onset seizures worldwide and was found to be the etiologic agent in 10 percent of new-onset seizure patients in one Los Angeles, Calif., emergency department. American Family Physician

It's called oral-fecal contamination--people not properly washing their hands after using the toilet, and then preparing food. Third world and developing country immigrants may be skilled in food prep, but novices in the bathroom.

Because neurocysticercosis takes a long time to develop, the waitress, cook, housekeeper or domestic may have long ago moved on to a different job leaving the customer or employer to deal with the problem.

Which looks worse to you

Eight years of Bush or eight weeks of Obama?



Notice the mid-point of 2008--right around the time of the Democratic convention when investors woke up and realized who would be the next president.

We're bleeding red, white and blue

For lunch today I served red, white and blue dessert--raspberry jello topped with blueberries, slathered with Cool Whip. This is to honor the USA’s survival of almost four months of the War against the Economy, War against the little guy, War against the hard working taxpayer and the War against the pensioner. Some of you are seeing this in terms of your grandchildren, but unfortunately, I don't have grandchildren. I don’t know where it stands today, but here’s what it was the first 6 weeks (Feb. 9), as reported in Bloomberg

"The stimulus package the US Congress is completing would raise the government’s commitment to solving the financial crisis to $9,700,000,000 (9.7 trillion) enough to give $1430 to every man, woman and child in the world. It is 13 times what the US has spent on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Congressional Budget Office data, and is almost enough to pay off every home mortgage in the US, calculated at $10.5 trillion by the Federal Reserve."

Last night I noticed flipping through the channels Glenn Beck interviewing a Chrysler dealer. He's been in business almost 70 years (his father before him), and poof, thanks to President Obama, it's gone. About 20 people sent home to go on the unemployment rolls. I couldn't stand it. I kept flipping. You can only take so much stupidity, hurt and watching your country's economy be dismantled brick by brick, street by street, business by business, family by family.

You're a Democrat? A RINO? An FDR fan? So you're not worried. Hey--it only took 13-14 years the last time we did this, how bad can it get? Too many unsuccessful dealers--too many models? This guy's business was successful. You don't stick around 70 years if you don't have customer loyalty and you aren't providing a service. The Chrysler contract was given to another dealership two miles down the road. Ever wonder how much that guy donated to the 2008 campaign?

Go ahead. Claim paranoia. But next it will be your flower shop; dry cleaners; furniture store, craft outlet; printing company, book store; office supplier; sporting goods store; coffee shop; pharmacy. Obama, Micromanager in Chief, may decide you advertise too much, or there are too many of your kind in a 50 mile radius. And when your local tax bucket goes dry? Who's going to fill it? Higher property taxes? What if you don't own a business, you just supply a business sector. What if Obama decides you can only sell a certain amount of janitorial supplies (to save the environment and not hurt your competition); or that you've met your quota of jewelry designs to market to that new mall store; or No, you can't have a start up on the internet--there are too many now.

We've always (in my life time) had these rules at the local level. You don't build your bar next to a school or a church; you can't leave junk autos from your repair shop on the street; you must mow your lawn. But from Washington DC? Did you, Democrats and fraidy cat Republicans, you elected a man with no business experience and almost no time in the US Senate just so he could drive us over the cliff while reading a teleprompter scrolling words about not exporting American jobs? He's right in a way--there won't be any jobs to export because only those global companies with a base overseas will be profitable.

Disclaimer: I drive a Dodge van; my third Chrysler van; my brother does too--his second; my father had several; my sister as a PT Cruiser; my niece and nephew had Chrysler vans. I'm very sad that my 2002 van that gets 28-29 mpg on the highway may be my last.

Calvin blew it!

He knew and had ridden both horses. Only one had the chance at the triple crown--Mine that Bird, the 50-1 winner of the Derby. The little gelding that sold for $9,000. Now, he and Rachel Alexandra did win the Preakness, and Mine that Bird came from last to place second. With Calvin Borel, who is fearless and can find those holes where none exist, I think he would have been first by a number of lengths. But that's just me. A sucker for a good horse story.

Obama at Notre Dame

Actually, if I were a student or faculty member there, I just wouldn't attend. Marching around seems a bit disrespectful to the Office of the President. And that would be last time they'd see a dollar from me during the annual alumni funds drive. Each time the U. of I. hits me up for money, I write a note on the card, "Not until you get rid of terrorist Bill Ayres," and mail it back in the envelope.

Support an honorary degree? For what? After all, he believes it is OK to stab an unborn baby in the skull and suck out her brain so that she can be technically born dead before the rest of the body emerges. No other President that I know of has ever held such a radical, inhumane view, and very, very few American law makers are feministas to that extreme. Notre Dame is a Roman Catholic institution, a church that has always protected the unborn, the sick and diseased, the aging, the mentally challenged and ill. They've lost their marbles or dropped their rosary on this one.

However, when liberals, Democrats, progressives and anarchists demonstrate on campuses, traditionally nothing happens to them. Instead, the speaker usually goes home, or is shouted down or is removed for his own safety. Perhaps I just haven't found the right source but I'm trying to find links to the pre-emptive arrests for the various Bush protests. Was it Cindy when she was camping out on his private property? Or maybe the Code Pink Chorus line dancing outside the hospital when he was visiting wounded war veterans? There are records of people getting arrested at the actual event because I'm sure that's a real crowd control and safety problem. But the people at Notre Dame are getting arrested and harassed two weeks in advance when the President wasn't even there.

"Former Illinois U.S. Senate candidate Alan Keyes and 21 other protesters were arrested this morning [May 8] when they refused to leave the Notre Dame campus during a protest of President Obama's upcoming commencement address there, authorities said.

"Former Republican presidential candidate Alan Keyes and 17 others have been arrested [May 14] after marching on to the University of Notre Dame campus to protest President Obama's commencement speech Sunday."

“On May 1, anti-abortion activist Randall Terry and another man were arrested on campus while pushing strollers containing dolls covered in fake blood.

On May 8, Keyes and 21 others, many of them pushing strollers containing dolls covered in fake blood, were arrested.”

“[On May 15] About 35 people, many of them carrying anti-abortion signs, were standing on the four corners outside the school's front gate shortly before noon when a group of about 40 people led by Keyes and Terry marched up. . . After speaking, Keyes then led a smaller group onto campus. They made it about 100 yards on campus before they were stopped by campus security. Keyes was taken into custody immediately, and the others were told to leave or they would be arrested.”

Librarians, who are very brave, bold, and politically left, protested Laura Bush, a former librarian, who gave a speech at the American Library Association. I don't remember if anyone called in the cops on them. Laura and George Bush are class acts. So different from that noisy, hyper-belligerent gang of thugs in charge of the country now.

Al Gore, “I waited 2 years.”

That’s rich. He, Carter and Clinton should have kept their mouths shut. We were in a War. It was not in the presidential tradition to try to drive from the back seat (or the trunk). So do the rule breakers now get to set the rules for speaking out for the next time, when Obama didn’t wait 2 days before he started slamming the Bush administration? Get a life, Al. Go back to watching polar bears swim.

Belly fat, shin splints and bumble bees

The clouds in the west are very dark this morning. I know Illinois* had some tough weather, and it is probably our turn. So I changed into my newish athletic shoes and walked briskly for a mile. Boy! I just hate to sweat, and I'm not athletic, but I read that it's easier to get rid of belly fat through brisk walking even if the same amount of calories are burned with a stroll. Belly fat was not in my range of vision until about 7 or 8 years ago, and then suddenly it appeared. If your bottom rib doesn't reside on your pelvis, you have a huge advantage, but when you get broad band and write 11 blogs, that advantage leaves you. (That's my excuse, not aging.) Yesterday our exercise class couldn't get in the room to get out the weights, so we all took a walk (started briskly, slowed to a crawl) over to Thompson Park, then to Rita's house for a bathroom break, then back to UALC Lytham.

But when I walk, I get shin splints, so I stop and do some stretches--and that seems to help. For me, stretching during the walk helps even more than stretching before, although that seems backwards. Still, when walking around the condo grounds I think I must look a little odd in the half crouch--but at 9 a.m., maybe everyone was still in bed.

On my walk I saw a dead bumble bee--a big one in someone's driveway (there are more than 250 species and subspecies in 15 subgenera, so I can't say which one). Not sure what happened. Maybe he had a collision, wasn't looking both ways when a car backed out. Death. Have you read Genesis lately? There was no death before Adam and Eve disobeyed God. They had tried to use vegetation to hide, but God gave them animal skins. Death of animals even before Cain murdered Abel. But the theory of evolution, the original hate speech, teaches us that millions, maybe billions of years of death transpired so that poor dead bumble bee could throw his magnificent body away on May 16 here at the condo.

*The 3 story apartment building reported in this story is the former Kable Inn, built in 1894, but it had several names before the Kable Brothers Co. bought it in 1921. The earliest family story I heard about this place was that my great-grandfather checked in there with his large and growing family when they arrived from TN, and he was told to get a house.

Photo from Bird Perch She has great stuff!

Electronic Health records and GPS Census Records

[Disturbing side-bar: my spell check in Microsoft Works still tries to change Obama to Osama]

Not too many years ago my liberal/progressive colleagues in the library profession (223:1 liberal to conservative--several of whom post here as "anonymous") were screaming about the dangers of RFID on Wal-Mart pallets, which the marketing giant uses to reduce inventory costs and speed delivery from warehouse to outlets. Of course then, it was a right wing, Nazi conspiracy caused by Karl Rove because President Bush was in office. And they were definitely right to worry. Look what Oba-Mart is settling for now. Electronic surveillance of everything in our lives.

When President Obama won approval for his $787 billion stimulus package in February, large sections of the 407-page bill focused on a push for new technology that would not stimulate the economy for years.

The inclusion of as much as $36.5 billion in spending to create a nationwide network of electronic health records fulfilled one of Obama's key campaign promises -- to launch the reform of America's costly health-care system. WaPo

One can only hope that these billions for a “network” of health records doesn’t work any better than what we’re all experiencing locally at our own doctor’s office. If this is any evidence, not one dollar will ever be saved. It's just a coup for the industry.

I stopped by to pick up a prescription at my doctor’s office because the “electronic transfer” of information between that office and the pharmacy I used hadn’t been able to manage the job in 3.5 days, and I was out (old methods of fax and phone aren't used anymore). Normally, I would have just told the receptionist what I needed, and my file (paper) would have been retrieved (human). No. I waited about 10 minutes as she struggled getting the right screens up, then worked from screen to screen, asking me questions I didn’t know, like date of my last appointment and address of the pharmacy. A line was forming behind me. When she finally found it, she said there was no record from the pharmacy requesting permission for a refill, but the doctor would decide.

That night we got a call from the doctor’s office that “it was ready,” i.e. the prescription script. My husband went to pick it up and waited about 15 minutes in line as the receptionist struggled with the screens of 2 or 3 people ahead of him. Fortunately, it was in a paper envelope with my name hand written on the outside. We can only hope and pray that the national “network” that Obama is forcing thousands of small offices to buy into (causing many to close their doors), doesn’t work any better than what you’ve all experienced at the local level as your doctor or clinic transitions.

My first Social Security check

Some of you will be deciding what to do with the $250 "stimulus check." I suspect mine will have to be given back, so I haven't cashed it. Although today I heard that someone who had only been in the country 7 months in the 1930s and had been dead for years had gotten the $250 stimulus (I wonder if he voted in 2008 election). At least I'm alive. But I don't qualify for SS because I have a teacher's pension. It's called an "offset." Now it's possible that they couldn't figure out how not to give it to me, because only teachers and a few others get hit with this "double dipping" pension charge--God knows, it doesn't affect Congress or auto workers' pensions. Technically, I'm on their books as the spousal benefit of my husband's SS, it's just that STRS cancels it out--unless maybe Obama is feeling generous, and he hasn't figured out how to micromanage enough computers to toss me completely out of the system. Sigh. I do know this. That if I cash it, and 3 years later he wants it back because I wasn't supposed to get it, I'll owe $3,967.87 interest on that $250.

It's really unfortunate that in this high tech world you can't just pick up the phone and call some one.

If she would just stop lying

about what she knew when, about how much she understood, about how she was mislead (you know how we women are--just can't keep the facts straight). Our grandfathers were right about suffrage.


It would

eliminate distracting lip lines

Firm, smooth and tighten skin

Add shape and definition to nose

Return a natural fullness to lips

Maybe she could get a flight out of Washington to return to California after she resigns for lying and cheating her constituency by not paying attention at the Jack Murtha Airport stocked and paid for with pork. No one else is using it.

Update: Pelosi's redux of "I support the troops not the war" hit tune of the Bush years.

We all share great respect for the dedicated men and women of the intelligence community who are deeply committed to the safety and security of the American people. My criticism of the manner in which the Bush Administration did not appropriately inform Congress is separate from my respect for those in the intelligence community who work to keep our country safe. What is important now is to be united in our commitment to ensuring the security of our country; that, and how Congress exercises its oversight responsibilities, will continue to be my focus as we move forward. Weekly Standard Blog via Who runs Gov

What happened to the Democrat bean counters?

You remember--the ones who screamed about what that Iraq war money could be doing for the poor if we weren't protecting them from terrorists?

"The director of the Congressional Budget Office today [May 11] updated his projections for the budget and economic outlook and is now anticipating a $1.8 trillion deficit this year, and $1.4 trillion in 2010.

This is up from CBO director Douglas W. Elmendorf's January 2009 projection of a $1.2 trillion deficit this year. In short, the US government is borrowing 50 cents for every dollar it spends.

The new projected deficit is four times the 2008 deficit, which was a record high for its time.Deficit Now Projected at $1.8 Trillion for 2009.

It seems so long ago, but I can remember when I thought Henry Paulson was the most misguided man in the government. Peanuts. 700 billion? What a piker.

Ohio Artists Collection Show at UALC

Upper Arlington Lutheran Church has one of the best galleries in Columbus, Ohio, for individual and group shows at the Mill Run Campus. The current show is the Upper Arlington Art League Spring Show which will run through June 10 (3500 Mill Run Dr., Hilliard, OH 43026, closed Friday and Saturday). At the Lytham Road campus (2300 Lytham Rd., Upper Arlington, OH 43220) we don't have a gallery space per se, but we do have the Arakawa hanging system in the hall near the administrative offices, next to the library, and in the library lounge. So we have space for a small show. In April we hung 20 of our Ohio artists paintings there, plus another 7 smaller items in the display case in the library lounge. Although I've been looking at these paintings many for years, they look very different hanging out with a whole new crowd.

Howard Trump, left; Barbie Bright, right

Robert Moyer, left; Charles Rowland, right

Ned Moore, left; Fritz Hoffman, right

Ken Becker, Jeanie Auseon, Judith Vierow, Sharon Borror

James DeVore, Janet Nicodemus, David Schachne, Don Dodrill

If you or your artists' group are interested in providing a show, you can call the Visual Arts Ministry, 614-451-3736, to meet with the ministry group and receive the guidelines.

Friday family photo--new baby, new house 1968

When I was looking through the album I wondered why someone had sent us a beautiful bouquet. Our daughter is about 2.5 months and needed to be propped up for the camera. Then I looked closer. Sheets at the window? Pictures stacked in the corner? Yes! We'd recently moved from the apartment on Farleigh Rd. to our home on Abington Road, and someone (don't remember who) sent us flowers. We'd made an offer after one walk through during a January snow storm--first people through an open house by owner. The furnace failed in December 1967, so when we moved in we had a brand new furnace. It looks like I dressed her up just for the picture--a pink knit dress with matching booties. We lived there for 34 years.

Shamed into cleaning my car interior

I've cleaned out my car. I was shamed into it. On Wednesday I'd parked at the UAPL Lane Rd. next to a gray Sebring convertible (top up), with a Zanesville dealer plate holder. As I got out of my van, I looked into that car's interior--sits very low. Trash filled the entire interior up to the dash. A Columbus Dispatch unread was on top, sliding onto the dash, disgorging all the glossy adverts. There was just enough room for the driver to slip behind the steering wheel. There was more "stuff" in that 2 door sports car than in our entire garage (not counting our cabinets); more stuff than our basement storeroom; more stuff than my office. Gracious! I thought. Is that what people think when they look at that handy net between the driver and passenger seat of my van? About 4 magazines, various tissues, an umbrella, 3 or 4 pens and pencils, gas receipts, small water bottle, CDs, grocery store flyers, church newsletters from February, a bath towel/floor mat for exercise class, gloves, sun glasses, etc. At my next stop, I grabbed a plastic bag and filled it with everything that was disposable and not needed and put it in a trash can. Hoarding I don't do. Clutter, yes. Hoarders can't dispose because of the fear that something terrible will happen--like a need or desire to use it. Imagine your worst fear, and that's what they experience throwing out their "treasures." Then today I dropped off the package of donated items that had been in the back seat for 4 or 5 months. I was tempted to open the sack because I couldn't remember what that hard thing on the bottom was, but thought better of it. You can get into big trouble asking too many questions. Don't seek, don't spill.

How does this save the auto industry?

Or the unions? 3,000 auto dealerships with Obama as the CEO of the auto industry will close. Thousands and thousands of people put out of work (average of 50 per dealership). Did you Democrats and RINOs and guilt ridden Republicans know what you were voting for--destroy the little guy? Here's how much Obama knows about running the auto industry. He is destroying the local tax base in thousands of communities--city, suburban and rural.

". . . manufacturers do not own dealerships. Independent business people do. These new car dealers have invested their money to purchase real estate, build buildings, and buy inventory, tools and equipment.

The money invested by new car dealers provides customers with the opportunity to shop locally for new and used vehicles. These same new car dealers provide warranty, recall and repair services for the motoring public.

These independent business people pay real estate tax, property tax, sales tax, FICA tax, income tax (state and local), and unemployment insurance. These dealers provide employment. They pay for their employees' training, health insurance and benefits.

The dealer is the auto manufacturer's customer. That being the case, does it make any sense to claim the manufacturer's problem is that they have too many customers?" A Nebraska car dealer

Of course it makes sense to the Obama Administration! They have declared War on the Economy and on the American people.

The Four Great Pillars of Ohio

The Centennial History of Columbus, Chapter 6, reports:

The growth of the common school system of the state of Ohio is one of the marvels of the nineteenth century, not only in the cities but the towns, villages and country districts as well. What may be called the principle on which this system was founded was enunciated in opening of the third article of the ordinance of 1787, a prophetic declaration of coming things, in these far-ringing words: "Religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good government, and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged." How wonderfully has this prophetic declaration been amplified by the history of the splendid galaxy of states, extending from the Ohio river to the great northern lakes and to the Father of Waters, carved out of the Northwestern Territory. We may well remember that his ordinance antedates the National Constitution "Done by the United States congress, the 13th day of July, 1787," since the constitution was not adopted until the 13th day of November. 1787. and did not become effective until the first Wednesday in March. 1789.

The descendants of the pioneers who settled the states of Ohio. Indiana, Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin, comprising the original Northwest Territory, are entitled to be proud of the fact that they are descended from the founders of the first government built upon the four great pillars: Religion, Morality, Knowledge, Liberty. The first commonwealth in history with a rescript as its unalienable birth-right, only to become more potential as it automatically divided into four great soverign states of the five and forty sisters. . .

One hundred years ago in Columbus, Ohio there were 21,675 pupils in all the schools--normal, high and elementary--10,650 were male and 11, 025 were female. The average daily attendance was 18,036, of whom 8,892 were male and 9,144 were female.

The most cherished value of many Christians--doubt

I am reminded that "doubt" and "questioning" are cherished values among many Christians--liberals, evangelicals and fundamentalists. See my thoughts on a well-known Christian author here.

Micromanaging

Have you ever worked for a principal who micromanaged recess, the janitorial supplies, and the phonics workbooks for second graders; or a library director who thought you didn't need 2 copies of a certain title you knew was in great demand and 3 would be better service; or an architect who thought that just by taking up space at the opera he was marketing with his magnetic personality; or a CFO who wanted to select your version of software for tracking funds; or hired a tone deaf pastor who wanted to chose all the hymns; or been married to a spouse who opined you didn't need to buy bay leaf when the jar from 1977 was still half full? Micromanagers. They are everywhere, aren't they? Especially in the White House. But really. We know for a fact that President Obama has never even run a lemonade stand, let alone a new car lot. But here he is making decisions on credit, advertising, model viability, location, and regulations for automobiles. He isn't even the one doing the micromanaging, despite the fact he's wearing that hat. Sort of makes you wonder who is? When a socialist/marxist team makes all the key economic decisions in a capitalist country, what do we have?

The Recession Did Not Create Our Entitlement Crisis

There have been some whoppers fed to us at the Obama buffet table of lies, but this one is almost beyond belief. Our entitlements have been in trouble for as long as I've been paying attention, which is about 25 years. Social Security and Medicare are 1/3 of the federal budget. That didn't just happen in 2008! There is no "trust fund"--and we've killed off the workers who could have paid into that fantasy program before they were born. Our population's birthrate is almost below replacement rate--just the way environmentalists want so they can save poor, tired Mother Earth, the goddess stand-in of their pantheist drivel. If every woman of child bearing age could have a baby tomorrow, we'd still have to wait 20+ years for them to contribute to our health and old age care. Talk about poor planning! Or no planning. The job losses from the Waxman Markey climate bill which will raise energy prices by 55-90 percent will kill whatever hope we had of funding not only alternatives (and their fantasy jobs), but any job growth anywhere, and create more unemployment resulting in even more of a shortfall in entitlement programs.

Here are some reform ideas. I'm sure Obama won't listen--after all, he wants this to be another crisis on Bush's watch so he has an excuse to take over even more of the economy--which so far hasn't done a thing but put us more in debt.

Miss USA 1957

Queen for a day. I couldn’t figure out why my Leona Gage blog was getting so many hits. Then I realized it must be because of Ms. Prejean and her battle with Perez Hilton, who savaged her during and after the current pageant. Gage was Miss USA 1957 for just one day--then her mother-in-law told on her, that Gage was twice-married, had two kids, and had lied about her age. She was 18, not 21.

No boys allowed?

I think single sex education is very beneficial. Kids can really buckle down and study when they don't have to worry about attracting or performing for the opposite sex. But if there were special programs excluding young girls from getting a step up to a good career in the sciences, I can't even imagine the line of lawyers ready to take that case.

Here's a few summer engineering programs just for girls I noticed, beginning with Ohio State. I also noted that "fun" and "social life" were promoted features of these camps. So that's what it takes to attract girls to the sciences?

The Ohio State Women in Engineering Program is still accepting applications to the 2009 CheME & YOU @ OSU Summer Camp, a six-day residential summer program for girls who will be entering ninth grade in the fall of 2009. Participants will live in a university dorm and will explore chemical engineering through fun, hands-on activities. The camp will run from Sunday (8/16)-Friday (8/21). Applications must be postmarked by Friday (5/15).

At Penn State we have the MTM Engineering Camp for girls--An engineering day camp for girls entering grades 9 - 12 in Fall 2009. Hands-on engineering design projects and career experiences featuring 5 engineering disciplines such as: Architectural Engineering, Bioengineering, Chemical Engineering, Product Design & Innovation/Industrial Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering, each offered in one-day modules. Choose to attend one day, or all five! ($30/day or $125/week) A fun way to explore careers and meet friends! Full scholarships are available.

At Purdue they call it EDGE. Session I: July 19 - July 24, 2009, Session II: July 26 - July 31, 2009. EDGE is for students who have just completed 9th or 10th grade. Apply your creativity to hands-on engineering projects with teammates! Meet women engineers who are shaping our world! Discover how your talents can lead to an exciting career in engineering! Have fun working with current Purdue engineering students!

At the University of Cincinnati, the hands-on camp, which ran July 28 to Aug. 1, 2008, allows young women in grades 9 through 12 to explore careers in engineering as they work with University of Cincinnati faculty.

"Kathy Johnson, director of undergraduate student enrollment in the College of Engineering at UC, says that the camp helps motivate high school students. “It’s a chance for students to come see if they are interested in math, science and engineering,” she says. “Through the camp, the girls get a great overview of what’s available. They get to meet our faculty members and receive information on all the disciplines offered here at UC.”

My alma mater, the University of Illinois, calls it Girls Adventures in Mathematics, Engineering, and Science, or G.A.M.E.S. It is an annual week long camp, designed to give academically talented middle school aged girls an opportunity to explore exciting engineering and scientific fields through demonstrations, classroom presentations, hands-on activities, and contacts with women in these technical fields."

Oregon State University has a variety of engineering summer camps for all ages, and when the boys are very young, they are allowed to attend, but by middle school the organizers are only looking for girls. So Mom, don't get his hopes up--send the little duffer to basketball camp--it's probably co-ed.

The Women in Engineering Summer Camp at the University of Dayton is a Sunday-through-Friday experience that gives girls the chance to dabble in engineering through hands-on, learn-by-doing activities they can't get in high school [why not?].

“Guided by UD professors, you'll conduct experiments, innovate, make cool stuff, take things apart — then put them back together again — in engineering classrooms and laboratories on campus. You'll visit a job site. Meet women engineers. And spend time checking out new innovations and more.”

They've been running these special science camps for women at least since I was involved back in the 1980s (through the libraries). When will the public schools be able to pull off attracting girls to the sciences without denying boys the same summer opportunities?

Death at the Camp Liberty Counseling Center

“Monday's shooting also raises new questions about how the U.S. military screens and treats soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and other combat-related psychological maladies.” Wall St. Journal story . WSJ, the most liberal newspaper in the country, provides a nice side bar chart of all the military deaths for the last 7 years--less than the number of teens we lose in a year of auto accidents or soldiers in one battle in WWI.

Yes, and the anti-war, anti-military talking heads will come out of the wood work on this one. Actually, have you ever worked or associated with a mentally ill, depressed or “stressed” person and tried to get help? There is no easy way to do this--I’ve experienced it and you might be safer to transfer or quit rather than try to battle the system that protects everyone except the friend, co-worker or boss who knows there’s a problem. Just yesterday I stopped to visit an OSU friend--we worked together 30+ years ago, and Oh the stories we could tell about our former boss whose mental stability was fragile (she was brilliant, but thought everyone else was dumb and against her). At one incident (physical danger) we just stood in terrified disbelief and one of the calm Christian student employees, who probably didn’t know enough to be scared or felt closer to God than I did, softly and quietly talked her down. She wasn’t fired or transferred--but her contract wasn’t renewed the next year and she went on to become someone else’s problem at another university.

The Virginia Tech Korean immigrant student Cho had a long history of problems and “help” dating back to middle school before he went on a killing rampage, as did the immigrant center killer Wong in Binghamton. And for all the talk about “bullying” in schools after Columbine launched a thousand workshops, that turns out not to be the case in so many situations. We have a local case in Ohio where a teen has committed suicide after sexting her own nude photos, but the parents want to blame the school for not confiscating cell phones and checking them (this is illegal). And like the unfortunates at those other “gun free” zones, “Troops at Camp Liberty are supposed to keep their weapons unloaded, which may have made it harder for soldiers at the clinic to defend themselves when the assailant started shooting.” Obviously, the shooters don’t follow all the rules, do they?

I’m thinking a lot of people who worked with Army Sgt. John M. Russell knew he was in trouble--the trouble he hid from his family and close friends, because if you are stressed or depressed or even paranoid--you aren't that way 24/7. He loved the military and obviously wanted this career--he wanted to stay in, and he hadn’t risen in rank. The investigation hasn't happened yet but we know the military and the war will be blamed--at least in the media. We don’t even know how much combat he’d seen; but someone knew there was a problem and referred him for help. And 5 people died. At least six families are suffering, and our prayers are for them.

Mayo Alanen on Dancing with the Stars

We watched "Dancing with the Stars" Season 1 which was a fun summer replacement and enjoyed it, but lost interest as its popularity and complexity grew. I was flipping through the channels last night bemoaning all the “reality shows” wondering how crazy is it that people watch "reality" with a script and camera crew, believing it is real. Everything from housewives gutter sniping, to brides being bridezilla, to the obese exercising in the desert, to little people going to work, to fashion police trashing wardrobes of sweats and t-shirts, to parents raising 8 children with the papparazzi: all so the fans can thank God for their own lives. Then suddenly I saw this flash on the screen “Mayo Alanen” and a phone number to vote. I nearly fell out of bed! Unfortunately, that's all I saw--he had already performed to be voted on as the professional for next season.

Mayo’s father Erkki, a very talented tall, blond architect and cartoonist, lived with us for a few weeks back in the early 70s when he first came to the United States from Finland. Eventually, he and his wife settled in El Paso and raised three children. I have school photos of the children sent with Erkki’s original Christmas cards, although I can’t tell one boy from the other now that so many years have gone by. Somewhere I think I have a either a bookmark of a website or a disk of him and his dancing partner that his mother sent us.

Anyway, our phones are dead again, or I would have voted for Mayo Alanen. Bio and details here .

One Republican with a backbone--are there any others?

Here's one who won't roll over. A rare bird. I've never seen such a bunch of wimps--they are really an embarrassment. They should have been more concerned about conservative values and less about pork and getting reelected as "moderates."

"Cheney, who has taken heat for remaining so vocal, told FOX News that the Obama administration is "dismantling" the national security policies that kept the country safe since the Sept. 11 attacks. He said he continues to speak out to combat the mounting criticism of Bush-era interrogation policies and weigh in on what he called the "outrageous" debate over whether to punish the officials involved with designing those policies.

"I don't think we should just roll over when the new administration ... accuses us of committing torture, which we did not, or somehow violating the law, which we did not," Cheney said. "I think you need to stand up and respond to that, and that's what I've done."

Bigots attack Christians and Jews for their beliefs on marriage and family

Homosexual “marriage” and religious liberty cannot co-exist—because gay activists will not allow it. As marriage expert Maggie Gallagher puts it, same-sex “marriage” advocates claim that religious faith “itself is a form of bigotry.” Perez Hilton's recent attacks on a white, heterosexual woman are just the tip of the iceberg of bigotry and intolerance.

Read why at Chuck Colson’s BreakPoint

Don't call my van "crap"

Sorry, Glenn, but my van isn't crap--I'd probably buy a 2009 if it weren't for the fact my 2002 runs nicely and gets 28-29 mpg on the highway. But all that other stuff? You're right on!

Photos of the library protest

Pretty quiet as protests go. A grad student told me someone from security stopped by and left--I guess a bunch of old folks waving signs about books isn't too threatening. I wore scarlet and gray and made my own signs. Some of the media was there--must have been a slow news day in Columbus. I did enjoy talking to some of the grad students--they are very knowledgeable about computers, but believe the books too are necessary. They don't want to wait 3-4 days to get it from Akron or Youngstown. One man married to a librarian who works in another city says her public library depends on DVDs to keep the circulation records up.

Story about the protest here.

Channel 4 story here. I'm on about 2 seconds in the video at the beginning.