Lakeside Cottage Architecture, pt. 9

Dutch Colonial Revival

The Dutch Colonial Revival style is obvious from its gambrel roof (think of a barn or the Amityville Horror movie house), with or without flared eaves, and the frequent use of dormers. It's more American than the 19th c. "victorian" style. This was a popular style in America in the 1700s--they were less expensive to build because most of the second floor walls were the roof--and the owner wasn’t taxed for a two story house. The Federal Direct Tax records of 1798 shows that gambrel-roofed houses were classified as one story. Then in the late 19th and early 20th century, there was a “revival” of this style, and there are a number of them spotted around Lakeside. Here’s what you could find in this style home according to one style page I found. http://www.antiquehome.org/Architectural-Style/dutch-colonial.htm

1½ to 2 stories
Clapboard or shingle siding, but occasionally with brick or stone facing
Typically symmetrical façades, but also found with side entries
Gable-end chimneys
Round windows in gable end
Porch under overhanging eaves
8-over-8 windows
Shed, hipped, or gable dormers
Columns for porches and entry

We have two classic examples on the lakefront--one at the end of Oak Street right on the lake that is quite elaborate with various gables, dormers and shingle siding and another at 320 Lakefront, that hasn't had as many modifications as the Oak St. house which was in an estate for years and quite run down when we first bought our cottage here, and has now been extensively remodeled twice in the last 15 years or so.

This Dutch Colonial has been extensively remodeled.

This one at 320 Lakefront is probably very close to its original intent and is a classic. The new owner caused quite a stir in wanting to demolish it and build a "victorian" cottage. For now, that hasn't been approved by the Design Review Board. Many cottages here replaced wooden porches early in the 20th century with shaped concrete block from nearby Marblehead.

There are others probably built from around 1910-1940 and they fit nicely into Lakeside’s eclectic style catalog of homes. Like many other Lakeside cottages, they reflect a hodge podge of add-ons to suit the various owners' needs over the years.











This was a 2 story barn built in 1918, and was converted in the 1980s to a cottage with added dormers, and remodeled again with a large porch to the north.

Obama Health Plan: Rationing, Higher Taxes, and Lower Quality Care

This study will explain how the health policy changes President Obama and Congressional Democrats support would cause millions of Americans to lose their choice of doctors and insurance coverage, require that access to care be strictly rationed, and cause the quality of care to deteriorate. Despite all this sacrifice, nationalizing health insurance in America would require major tax increases, slow economic growth, and increase the national debt.
Read the full report here.

The lurch to the left

I don't know who Pat Toomey is, or if he's a good man, but this assessment of what's happening in Pennsylvania from the WSJ ("Arlen Specter's Dilemma" Aug. 22) needs to happen in all the states.

At the picnic, Mr. Toomey railed against government bailouts and spending on a "breathtaking scale." He warned of coming tax increases, a pending government takeover of health care, and of the Employee Free Choice Act, which would allow unions to organize employees without secret-ballot elections. He also said that while the Obama agenda is cause for despair for conservatives, it also opens a door for Republicans.

"This lurch to the left is unacceptable to voters, including lots of Democrats and an overwhelming number of independents," he told the crowd. "This wildly ambitious agenda is their Achilles' heel—and our opportunity."

Indeed, what is different this time is that Democrats in Congress are going out of their way to provide grist for Mr. Toomey's mill—cooking up thousand-page, trillion-dollar helpings of reform and bailouts, and pushing health-care legislation that's driving independents into the GOP camp.

Many of us were not fooled

And many who were, are recovering their sanity and common sense.

"What if the first African-American president isn’t? Doesn’t that change everything? And dash some mighty big hopes? It’s not a question of skin color or mixed blood, it’s about where he places his heart and soul. And how he scooped up oceans of American benevolence toward black people and double-crossed it into a tidal wave that swept him into the White House where he has been living on so many false premises that even the mainstream media are starting to get shaky.

He fooled white people who don’t know enough about blacks to spot an imitation. He fooled black people who wanted so much to believe that they’d finally got their place in the sun that they squinted their eyes up and fell into the trap. He fooled conservative media that still today haven’t asked themselves what was wrong with the daily, weekly, monthly anti-Obama articles they hemstitched, carefully skirting the real issues. Many of his opponents are still pussyfooting. He fooled the Jews big time, but he didn’t pretend to be Jewish. Just put some of our boys in high places, did a cut rate seder, wore a kippa to Yad Vashem and reaped the benefits as sure as a token opens a turnstile." Read the entire article.

And it's not just conservatives who are catching on. The left is waking up to his scam, too. A Scandanavian blogger, Tundra Tabloids writes: So now even the Left is waking up to the reality that Obama will lie at will to suit his purposes, this time around it's doing what he said he would never do, that is, strike a deal with big drug companies for a deal that offers Obama's plan a short term gain, but to the drug companies, an even greater gain in the long run. Listen to the short broadcast.



If this is how he wheels and deals (back room deals and lying with a smile to his base supporters) in getting his health care scheme rolling, think of how he's acting in connection with the "peace process" between Israel and the Arabs. Obama shouldn't be trusted as far as one can spit.

UALC: it’s time to go

For years our huge, evangelical congregation in suburban Columbus with 3 locations and 9 services on Sunday and many ministries has been told we would leave if this happened. Let’s see if promises are kept. In April 2008 I wrote about the "Social Statement on Human Sexuality" at Digging for the Pony.

This ELCA draft does violence to our English language--verbal abuse, noun abuse, adverb abuse and adjective abuse, to say nothing of abusing our Christian faith. It is Scripture twisting and gymnastics! This draft criticizes "Lutheran historical teachings concerning homosexuality" with no footnotes (Book of Concord? Luther? Lutheran Brethren? Missouri-Synod Lutheran? Wisconsin Synod? the old ALC?). It does not analyze or reference any teaching, research or biblical criticism by known Christian homosexuals, theologians or Lutheran pastors who promote ordination and marriage for gays. It does find space to comment on and condemn children's clothing, playground bullying, consumerism, date rape, dangers of the internet, early sex education, grandparents raising grandchildren and inappropriate touching of female pastors. If you throw in the kitchen sink maybe no one will notice there is no Biblical foundation?

I checked the website today, and found out the temperature in Columbus is 63, but didn't see anything about this issue. Nor did I really expect to. ELCA (our synod) has been spiritually wandering in the wilderness and losing members ever since it was created in 1988 out of a liberal and a moderate synod whose ethnic differences had blurred over the years.

From Episcopal Life online: The 2009 Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) on August 21 approved opening the ministry of the church to pastors and other professional workers living in committed same-gender relationships.

The resolution passed by a vote of 559 to 451 and overturns previous church policy that prohibited participation of gays and lesbians in church ministries unless they were celibate.

Discussions about human sexuality have dominated the August 17-23 assembly in Minneapolis, the chief legislative authority of the 4.6 million-member denomination. More than half, or about 1,045, of the 2,000 participants are voting members at the gathering, themed "God's work. Our hands."

The assembly also approved a resolution committing the church to find ways for congregations that choose to do so to "recognize, support and hold publicly accountable life-long, monogamous, same-gender relationships." It did not use the word "marriage." It also approved, by a vote of 771-230, a resolution committing the church to respect the differences of opinions on the matter and honor the "bound consciences" of those who disagree.

In 2008 I concluded with, "I don't know what our congregation (UALC) is waiting for--it took this sexuality task force seven years to write a mish-mash and hodge podge and submit it to the people of God as a serious work. Every paragraph looks like the sentences were drawn from a hat of former reports and pasted to a page. It is an insult to our common sense and a travesty of our faith. It's time to go. It really is. These people will not back down; they'll just wear us out."

Who are those 47 million Obama says are without insurance?

First, this issue isn't about the uninsured, nor the cost of health care. That's scare tactics. This is a power grab full of lies and deception. If you've ever gone to the ER, you know there are plenty of uninsured people who have access to good treatment--maybe better than yours.

The statistic comes from the latest U.S. Census Bureau Report, “Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2007,” which can be accessed through the U.S. Census official website, according to Liberty Counsel.

"On page 30 of the report, the number of “PEOPLE” who were uninsured in 2006 was 46,995,000, which actually dropped by 1.3 million in 2007 to 45,657,000. But who are these people? Of the 46 million “PEOPLE” without insurance, 10,231,000 are listed as “Not a citizen” in 2006. In 2007, this figure is 9,737,000.

Beyond the noncitizens, a large number are high-income earners. Under the “Household Income” section, the number of uninsured who make $75,000 or more is 9,283,000 in 2006 and 9,115,000 in 2007. An additional 8,459,000 in 2006 had a household income of $50,000 to $74,999. In 2007 this number was 8,488,000.

In addition, a May 2003 nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office report, “How Many People Lack Health Insurance and For How Long,” says, “It is frequently stated that about 40 million Americans lack health insurance. That estimate, however, overstates the number of people who are uninsured all year. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that between 21 million and 31 million people were uninsured for the entire year in 1998 – the most recent year for which reliable comparative data are available. Since then, the number which is uninsured all year probably has not changed substantially, given historical trends. The uninsured population is fluid, with many people gaining and losing insurance.” "

Unfortunately, Obama is actually forcing more people into uninsured status by doing everything he can to keep us in a deepening recession, from cap and trade to higher taxes which reduces investment, to demonizing the people who actually pay the bulk of the tax load.

If you refuse to read right wing think tanks, like Liberty Counsel, check out the CBO report. The stats and figures come from that report. Obama is taking a sledge hammer to swat a fly. The purpose is not to protect or help the sick and poor--that's just to get your attention--it is to take control of a large segment of the economy. If he cared about all the uninsured illegals, he could have just sent an invoice to the Mexican government. If he cared about the costs, he wouldn't have proposed all those mandates in order to bankrupt the insurance system.

Or he could have asked me a vet med librarian

I had noticed this back in the 1990s when I was writing my own articles and/or helping professors do their research. On-line didn’t mean better research, and sometimes it didn’t mean faster.

James Evans writes for Britannica Blog: “For a report published in Science (July 18, 2008), I used a database of 34 million articles, their citations (1945 to 2005) and online availability (1998 to 2005), and showed that as more journals and articles came online, the actual number of them cited in research decreased, and those that were cited tended to be of more recent vintage. This proved true for virtually all fields of science. (Note that this is not a historical trend…there are more authors and universities citing more and older articles every year, but when journals go online, references become more shallow and narrow than they would have been had they not gone online.)

Moreover, the easy online availability of sources has channeled researcher attention from the periphery to the core—to the most high-status journals. In short, searching online is more efficient, and hyperlinks quickly put researchers in touch with prevailing opinion, but they may also accelerate consensus and narrow the range of findings and ideas grappled with by scholars.”

When professors came to the library, sat down with their favorite, generalist journal on medicine, biochemistry, nutrition, or cancer, they would scan the table of contents, and couldn’t avoid seeing areas of interest outside their own, something to perk a brain cell in a new direction. On-line database searching narrows and refines, but it also imprisons the mind.

Holding my breath

This morning we're taking our house guests to the Patio Restaurants for pancakes. They love those, and it's this food critic's opinion that the Patio has the best on the peninsula. So this morning after my walk I poured my chubby legs in some linen short pants (don't know if they are Capri's) of a gorgeous aqua color and left the waist unbuttoned. They didn't fit at all in June, because I'd washed them (tag said dry clean only). However, how dumb would I have to be to pay $4 at the thrift shop, then $6 to dry clean them? I'd never buy this at a retail shop--the pants have little beads around the cuffs with a shear fabric insert. But for $4, they looked like they said, "fun in the sun."

I thought it would be easy to lose my Ireland and Italy gained weight this summer--maybe 1/2 lb a week sounded reasonable. However, even without a fast food restaurant within miles, and Abigail's Tea Room closed, I managed to find my way to the crackers and cheese and peanut butter in my own kitchen, as well as second helpings.

However, I have been walking every day, some days even 4 or 5 miles. My friend Lynne is now up to 10 miles a day--I think it's the competition from her favorite Republican slug. So although I haven't lost anything, the clothes are looser. My daughter, who was told about 6 months ago that she would need yet another medication to control her fast approaching diabetes, said NO, I'll do anything, even exercise. This is my sweet baby who smiled up from the crib the 4 hours she was awake, and then slept the rest of the time. (If you have an exceptionally "good" child who never minds going down for a nap, and sleeps 12 hours at night, Hashimoto's might be in her future.) And boy,has she exercised, dropping 4 sizes, now getting into size 10 slacks. So it can be done. Also, all her lab numbers are now normal. That's the good news--she's beautiful at any size, it's her health that's important.

Enjoying our teen-age guests

After a visit to the Marblehead lighthouse and lunch today, my husband will drive our young friends back to Kent and their host families. Monday they begin intensive English classes at University of Akron. I think their English is superb--E. scored the highest in his class--but it isn't sufficient to pass a college class on another topic. We invited another Haitian over to visit with them, and although he is a U.S. citizen and has lived here for 24 years, the boys were much easier for me to understand. But still we had to explain idioms and slang--some of which are so common to us we don't even think of it that way. Imagine trying to explain what a "clunker" is when an automobile ad comes on TV for Obama's program (they love Obama and are thrilled that a black man has been chosen seeing him perhaps in more messianic terms than even American blacks who thought he would pay their mortgage and car loans--they think he'll rescue Haiti!). My son has been on the receiving end of that clunker scam (auto dealership) and has to destroy Jags and Mercedes in that give away sponsored by us taxpayers in the name of a green environment (really just a token for the unions). But I digress. Or watching Judge Judy yell at a defendant, "Do you catch my drift!" TV is both a help and hindrance to learning English. It is loaded with exaggeration and misinformation, people shouting, promising, cajoling, etc. I hope they can learn to filter what they see and hear--many Americans cannot.

E. showed me some of his photos on his digital camera taken the day my husband took them for their first sail. They were excellent--he seems to have a natural eye for composition, something we haven't learned since digital cameras are a bit new for us. I just haven't figured out how to get them from his camera to my laptop cache.

They've been willing to try a few new foods--but are cautious. Teen-agers generally aren't eager to eat the unfamiliar. They both passed on fresh sliced peaches--a real treat for us this time of year--but were eager for bananas which they quicly spread with peanut butter. Last night again they passed on blue berries, but were happy for a bowl of grapes. We had grilled bratwurst, a first for them, but they asked for seconds so that passed. Also, peas was a first, and they cleaned that up. Corn is no problem either, although my husband won't eat that. I fried up some onions and peppers just to top anything that looked unfamiliar, and that they really liked.

When they are bored with old people (my husband will talk them to death), they go in their room and play cards or take a walk. Yes, it's been great fun and we've thoroughly enjoyed their company.

The Council for Affordable Health Insurance

"At a time when both Congress and state legislatures are considering health care reform, it's very important to recognize that government usually makes health insurance more expensive, not less expensive," said Dr. Merrill Matthews, CAHI's executive director.

CAHI has regularly tracked all state mandates since 1992, and its actuarial team estimates the impact those mandates have on the cost of a health insurance policy. For the year ending in 2008, CAHI has identified 2,133 state and federal mandates, an increase of 172 over last year's figure of 1,961 state mandates. This year CAHI is also including federal mandates because they affect state coverage.

"Mandates come with a cost," continued Matthews. "While mandate advocates like to claim that mandates lower the cost of coverage, that's not the actuarial experience. They raise costs because utilization goes up. Those costs are then passed on to consumers in the form of higher health insurance premiums -- increases that make coverage unaffordable for millions of Americans."

Check the web site HT Dave

Here's Obama's health care mandates that raised insurance costs in Illinois.

What Obama said about death guidance groups back in April

This was after he didn’t actually say what he would have done if told his Grandmother couldn’t have a hip replacement when she was terminally ill . . . He just said it would be upsetting. Well, yes, Mr. President. That‘s why people are showing up at Town Halls--it‘s upsetting. (At Bloomberg. Com April 29)

THE PRESIDENT: So that's where I think you just get into some very difficult moral issues. But that's also a huge driver of cost, right?
I mean, the chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives are accounting for potentially 80 percent of the total health care bill out here.

LEONHARDT: So how do you - how do we deal with it?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think that there is going to have to be a conversation that is guided by doctors, scientists, ethicists. And then there is going to have to be a very difficult democratic conversation that takes place. It is very difficult to imagine the country making those decisions just through the normal political channels. And that's part of why you have to have some independent group that can give you guidance. It's not determinative, but I think has to be able to give you some guidance. And that's part of what I suspect you'll see emerging out of the various health care conversations that are taking place on the Hill right now.

HT Baldilocks

How did Bill Ayers get tenure at U. of Illinois?

Every envelope I get from the Alumni Association or Foundation of the University of Illinois is returned with a note, "Not as long as you employ terrorist Bill Ayers." Accuracy in Media has an interesting theory on how and why he and his wife are teaching at the college level and why there is no investigation.

The University of Illinois, which employs communist terrorist Bill Ayers as a professor, has been hit by an admissions scandal which has forced the resignation of the chairman of its board of trustees. An investigation by the Chicago Tribune found that more than 800 undergraduate applicants received special consideration from 2005 to 2009 because "they had powerful patrons, including elected officials, trustees and donors." It added that "Dozens more law and graduate school applicants also got preferential treatment."

But how did Bill Ayers get his job? All signs point to his rich father, Thomas Ayers, who was CEO of Commonwealth Edison and a major power player in the Chicago establishment.

Will the Chicago Tribune investigate this? Thomas Ayers sat on the board of the Tribune Company, which publishes the Tribune. Thomas Ayers also sat on the board of Northwestern University, where Bill Ayers' wife and fellow terrorist Bernardine Dohrn got a teaching job.

Story here.Too bad they didn't kill some dogs; PETA could go after them. Why do Illinois taxpayers put up with this travesty?

Our guests, two Haitian teen-agers

My husband called yesterday to let me know we'd be having two guests for three days, two young men he met when he was teaching architectural drawing in Haiti. So my mind is looking through the cupboards and frig wondering what to feed them. It's been many years since I had a teen-ager in the house, and I seem to remember they eat constantly. Haitians actually appear healthier than Americans because most are not overweight. In fact, they are quite thin. From my husband's visits I know beans and rice, rice and beans, and the occasional chicken or goat are standard fare. You don't want me fixing rice anymore than you'd want my coffee, and well, goat meat's a bit scarce this time of year. E. and F., who speak 4 languages but are having some intensive training in English right now, are in for an amazing ride--they are coming to the U.S. with the help of Christian sponsors to become doctors. That's what--10 or 12 years of education? I guess no one from Communist Cuba or Venezuela offered. Their first Ohio winter should be a shocker to their systems. Right now it's hot and humid, with nothing to worry about except air conditioning. Not so Akron in February.

Last week I attended a seminar by Dr. Gene Swanger on Buddhism. He noted in passing that when he'd take college students to Japan for 6 weeks the first thing they'd notice were similarities, "They are just like us!" This is because we are all--everyone of us--mind restricted to the culture we know best. It's only after some familiarity that we notice and become comfortable (or uncomfortable) with the differences, which are so vast it could take years to really understand another culture. And you don't get this sitting in the classroom.

I've never seen a study on this, but I think we first notice color and clothing (or fashion if you are female) because everyone has skin and we all wear clothes! "They are just like us!" You see smiles, gestures, state of health, and then later begin to see that a gesture or movement doesn't mean what your culture taught you.

It should be an interesting three days of learning and sharing from both sides. If a Haitian woman found out on short notice she would be having guests, she'd also be thinking about what to feed them to make them feel at home and to put her family's situation in the best light. In that, we are very similar.

Clean up your own trash

If the green-goes would set a good example, maybe picking up trash 10 minutes a day instead of flying across the globe to attend meetings, they might be more inspiring. If everyone took care of her own yard, carried baggies to clean up after his own dog, always put his trash cans promptly back after pick up or kept them covered to protect from animals, didn't toss cigarette butts in the street, and carried home her own trash from picnics, it wouldn't be long before we'd all have a better environment.

I can remember my mother saying while digging thistles instead of using chemicals, "I can't save the world but I can clean up four acres."

Trash in the creek
Pop on the rocks
Ubiquitous bags

The issue is trust

Neo-Neocon says it best: ". . . it appears to be dawning on an increasing number of Americans that President Obama cannot be trusted. There are two reasons for this. The first is that so many of the things he promised during the campaign—transparency, bipartisanship, unity and an end to blaming, a post-racial presidency, no catering to special interests and lobbies, and posting of bills in a timely fashion online, to name just a few—have not only been violated, but have been boldly, flagrantly, and shamelessly violated. The second thing is that his pre-election stance as a moderate is seen to have been a lie as well, and that’s even more basic—at least for the moderates and Independents who gave him the support he required to put him over the top and guarantee his election.

One can talk about this policy of Obama’s or that one, and agree with certain elements of his program and disagree with others. But although these are very important issues, they are not the issue. Trust is."

Good health is worth the price, part 2

This is part 2 of a guest blog written by Joan Barris of Lakeside. Here's the first part.

For years I battled neck pain, sinus congestion, chemical allergies and the resulting vertigo. Traditional medicine gave me this response: "The only answer to chemical allergies is avoidance." Easier said than done. The vertigo and sinus issues were treated with prescriptions that simply didn't work and had side effects. Physical therapy for the neck pain exacerbated the problem. As my symptoms worsened, the doctor ordered first a CT scan and then an MRI, which showed nothing. I was a "healthy senior" with mild hypertension. I began complaining to anyone with the patience to listen--"these issues are real and make my daily life not enjoyable."

At my last visit to the ENT, he reported that the tests were negative and dismissed me with, "I'm here if you need me." He saw me as a hypochondriac, I surmised. Then I discovered Susan Mikolic (see www.SteppingStonesMentalHealth.com) and read her story about overcoming mental maladies with diet. Her journey began with Dr. Keith Jordan, a holistic practitioner/chiropractor (see www.owcenter.com). Her simple advice was shop the perimeter of the stores. All fresh meats, fruits, vegetables. No preservatives or additives. That I knew I could do, but I needed more.

In March 2009 I called Dr. Jordan's office and miraculously got in on a cancellation by a new patient--18 ready-made appointments. In the first two weeks he adjusts my neck, pulling so hard on my skull I thought my head would come off. Then he gives me a paper about sugar metabolism, Sweet Nothings which asked: Is your body metabolizing sugar properly? Do you experience fatigue, moodiness and cravings, weight gain, headaches, hyperactivity/attention problems, or allergies? There are key guidelines to a sugar control diet. There is a list of DO NOT EAT foods and a list of RECOMMENDED foods. I will be drinking lots of water, eating whole foods, limiting intake of grains, avoiding sugars of all kinds, not ingesting caffeine and combining foods appropriately. The admonition is, "If in doubt, don't eat it." Snack ideas: Fruits--up to two pieces per day, berries, vegetables, cheese, raw nuts. Dr. Jordan gave me some nutritional supplements and prescribed a series of infrared saunas. For the next 21 days I would be detoxing. I was primed for the task, set with the intention to do this exactly right.

It took only two weeks of this regimen and I knew I was on to something that worked. I was already beginning to feel better. I am now 6 months into the program and have lost 20 pounds. I feel so much better in every area that used to bother me. I've never felt ravenously hungry because there is no caloric restriction. And no cravings! Not once had any medical professional asked me what I eat. If we were all on the Sweet Nothings program we wouldn't be needing their services?

I have to admit is is difficult to run a bed and breakfast and be away from home and stay 100% on the plan, but I do my best. Having a Farmer's Market here in Lakeside twice a week helps my cause. And if I simply must have ice cream (3 times this summer), I bring my stash of organic raw cacao nibs and sprinkle them over a small dish of vanilla ice cream.

So here's my bottom line. For the price of good food, and some holistic treatments, I achieved wellness I had not known for a number of years. It was worth the price--every cent!

Joan recommends these titles:

Barbara Kingsolver, "Animal, vegetable, miracle."
Joshua Rosenthal, "The energy balance diet."
Renee Loux, "The balanced plate."
Jacqueline Paltis, "The sugar control Bible and cookbook."

End Part 2.

The dying young maple tree

This morning on my walk along the lakefront at sunrise, I stopped at a memorial tree, about 15 ft tall, dedicated to a young man who had died at age 20, over 20 years ago. Those types of memorial plaques are sad to read and I always think of the parents and siblings, who may still note the special days. "This year he would be 41," or "I wonder if he'd be married and bringing his children to Lakeside."

Unfortunately, the tree was dying too. I think it is a combination of our dry weather this summer, and over mulching. It had the "volcano" mulch style instead of the donut hole, so what little natural watering we've had through rain couldn't get to the roots. This tree still needed gallons and gallons of water each day to survive. It was born and bred in a nursery, not particularly hardy like the "volunteers" I see growing up through the boulders that were brought in to protect the shoreline.

Last Friday classmates from my high school graduation class gathered on the campus (the college closed in 1932, but it is still called the campus) to dedicate a tree to memorialize our deceased class members and friends. Over the years, many of the trees have died, and last summer a terrible wind storm took down many. A few words were spoken about each person and an original poem written for the occasion was read. What a nice idea. I hope to have some photos soon to put on the class blog.

Good health is worth the price, guest blog

By Joan Burris, owner Idlewyld B&B, Lakeside, Ohio

When Norma Bruce asked if I would like to write a guest blog about my holistic journey leading me to better health, I agreed. I've been munching and crunching ideas, not potato chips, to best explain the changes in my lifestyle to overcome a number of health issues.

I begin with the story of how we met--the fortuitous events that led to our connection. After years of believing that only my older sister had artistic talent in our family and that I was doomed to visit galleries and lament that I'd like to paint like those people, I decided to take a watercolor class at the Rhein Center in Lakeside. It was a safe place where I could fail without humiliation, or at least paint something I would like. Two years later, I can honestly say there might be a modicum of latent talent--or what one instructor kindly called enthusiasm.

So, carrying this enthusiasm further, two years later I enrolled in the Watercolor and Perspective Drawing Class taught by Norma's husband. Although now comfortable with the medium, I knew I avoided the drawing part. Again, I surprised myself. I actually was able to draw something that I liked. Having a good and patient instructor added to my own enthusiasm helped.

In another class at the Rhein, I met Norma, this time in Bob Moyer's class (my instructor during the winter months). It didn't take long for us to make the connections--her husband, my teacher, and our enjoyment of watercolor. We discovered we both like to write, and I checked her blog. I take writing classes at Rocky River Senior Center with Sally Leamon, another Lakesider. As Norma and I began to chat--perhaps it was herb class with Jan Hilty--our conversation turned to how food impacts our lives--and mine in particular. I think of the old overused adage: "We are what we eat." It is timely.

End pt. 1--look for Joan's story of how she changed her health problems and complaints by changing her diet.

Health care worker on HR 3200

This is a viral e-mail, if that makes you toss it, so be it. I won't even try to track it down, because the numbers make some sense, and I'm a bit math challenged.

From a health care worker

Rationing HealthcareShare

Today at 1:23 pm I was able to be a part of a large roundtable on healthcare reform last week. I refuse to be one of those people who criticizes but never gets involved. It's like the people who complain about politics but never vote. The hypocrisy, to me, is over-whelming.

After reviewing (endlessly) HR-3200 and reading countless people's interpretations of it, I am back where I started: This is a common sense issue. We can't make a trillion and a half dollars appear by wishing it into existence. We can't create Medical Clinics that can survive without income. We can't make doctors work 24 hours a day. None of the 'math' in any of this proposal makes sense.

There are some facts in health care that people 'outside' of health care don't understand. One of these issues is a 'payor mix.' Using arbitrary numbers to make it understandable, it goes something like this:

It costs 25 cents on every billable dollar to actually see a patient (a bill for a hundred dollars actually consumes 25 dollars in resources). Private Insurance reimburses 40 cents on every dollar (leaving 15 cents for 'profit.' [40 cents - 25 cents actual cost]) Public insurance reimburses 10 cents (creating a deficit of 15 cents per patient). The healthcare facility takes the 15 cent loss away from the 15 cent profit made on the privately insured patient, so that the facility doesn't lose money. So, if a Physician is able to see 20 patients a day, they have to be careful that no more than 10 of them are publicly insured. That number is realistically lowered to 5 because there must be some money for future expansion, charity care, research, and (God-forbid) some profit for the people who make it work. Because of this FACT in healthcare, every provider must watch their 'payor mix.' If there are more publicly insured patients than privately insured patients, then money runs out really quickly. So what does this mean under the 'new' healthcare plan? There is only one logical conclusion: rationing of healthcare. Not mandated by law, but mandated by necessity. Since the number of 'public' slots is rationed to 25% already...what happens when the number of people needing those slots triples? Well, to be frank, nothing. The facility can only see 5 patients (25% of 20), or they don't remain financially soluable. So what will happen is, wait times will triple. Right now, in my practice, the wait time to see a Physician (even if you are privately insured) is about 6-8 weeks. Publicly insured can be two to three times that, depending on specialty. Using 2 months as a really conservative estimate, means that the wait time goes from 2 months to 6 months.

And so, current (and future) problem number 2: Since the patient can't get into the clinic to see their doctor, they go to the emergency room for a non-emergent issue. Emergency Rooms are substantially more expensive to operate. Here, the cost may be 50 cents on the billable dollar instead of 25. And, it is a fact that most of the people who go to the emergency room at the hospital that I work for are publicly insured patients (not UN-insured, as the government would like us to believe). They go there because their healthcare is already rationed. Privately insured patients have a tendency to avoid the ER for non-emergent issues because they, most often, have a co-pay percent. They won't pay 20% of the ridiculously high priced ER if they can wait and pay it on a lower-priced clinic visit. The publicly insured do not care because it costs them NOTHING either way. And so, more and more go to the ER. Since the public insurance reimbursement does not cover the costs of being seen, that deficit is passed on, again, to the privately insured, causing the facility to 'raise' their payor mix to offset the costs.

This is a factual cycle that already exists in healthcare, and will only get worse as public insurance expands.

And it will expand far beyond the currently uninsured. Smaller businesses who currently offer health insurance (averaging between 12 and 15 percent of their payroll expenses) would possibly see the 8% fine (for dropping their employee's coverage) as the only way to stay afloat. There WILL be a mass exodus from private insurance companies. People who like their coverage WILL lose it. Healthcare will become even more rationed. But look at the bright side. It will only cost us 1.5 trillion dollars, according to the Federal Government's projections. . .by the way, the federal government's projected cost for the 25-year Medicare start up was 10.6 billion....it actually cost 107 billion.

To try to put the amount of money that we are talking about into perspective, let me put this forward:

Counting seconds backward:
1 million seconds ago was about 11 days ago
1 billion seconds ago was in 1979
1.5 trillion seconds ago was approximately 46,000 BC.

We can't afford any part of this math, even if the $1.5 trillion estimate weren't 1000% off.

Call your congressman. Really.

Now, I don't have a name to track down for that e-mail, although the reimbursement plan and ER problems sound just like what I've heard about from people who work in medical care. However, this "pediatrician" was apparently a plant, and not a doctor, just a woman pretending to be, at a Texas Townhall. Whether the Obama folks planted her we don't know, but I've never heard a doctor (expect Toes' brother) who supported this.

See her story at Patterico's Pontifications. The Houston Chronicle ran with her story, and didn't check it out. Is anyone who she says she is any more?

How liberal is your church?

Christians fight about almost everything--baptism, end times, Bible translations, role of women in the church, clothing (is a zipper more worldly than a button?), but on politics, they do have some agreement. You are probably a member of a liberal congregation (although not necessarily a denomination) if you can spot the key words in your literature, sermons, workshops, retreats, magazines: Healthcare reform, social justice, inclusiveness, peace at any price, Bush blaming or bashing.

If you find yourself nodding in agreement (or nodding off) with most of your religious life speakers, academic faculty and government retirees/CNN wannabees hired to inform and entertain you, then you're in a liberal church. And that's probably where you are comfortable, and where you belong. Peek in the congregational wallet. Conservatives give more than liberals at every level from voluntering time to donating money, but all churches could benefit if the $5/week folks would just double that. Churches could then be right up there with the gambling industry, which incidentally would fall apart without Christians like Governor Strickland, a former Methodist pastor.

Journalists vote 100:1 Democrat party to Republican. Librarians vote 223:1 Democrat to Republican. So that reflects what we see in the news, what gets published and which titles are purchased for public libraries. This is your community; do you really want it from the pulpit? Or check the speaker or preachers' resumes. A Congregational, Episcopal, Lutheran or Methodist pastor who believes marriage is for one man and one woman is probably on his or her way out the door in career terms. Many churches now have their sermons on-line--that might be a clue. Major universities don’t promote conservative faculty (if their views are public) and faculty at 2nd and 3rd tier colleges are probably hoping to move up. For that they'll need to carry the liberal union card. There is no freedom of thought, speech or publishing at major name universities; there is some at the smaller schools. Check the buzz words in the publication or sermon or workshop titles. Terms like “food insecurity,” “health disparities,” "income gaps," “intervention research,” “community-based,” “upstream,” or “racial bias” ought to be red flags. If sin is an old fashioned word in your church, except where it appears in criticizing the Republican party, yes, you are in a liberal church, and I hope you find it safe and comfortable with your beliefs never challenged by Scripture. When you find out you can't even reform yourself, let alone a whole town or country, we will welcome you home with open arms.

The smoking violin

Each week in the Lakesider (our weekly newspaper) there's a notice about smoking in "public areas." By next summer you won't be able to step outside a shop, restaurant or auditorium to smoke, because you'll be on public grounds. Depending on how that's interpreted, everything here belongs to the association except your cottage. An oldtimer told me last week (because we've only been coming here since 1974 we aren't oldtimers yet) that when he was a child, the cars and luggage were searched carefully before visitors were given a gate pass to be sure no one was bringing in alcohol. Not sure what they'll do about the smoking violinist I've been seeing for 30 years. Every day during symphony season, he walks the streets when he's not performing or in rehearsal. This man probably walks 4 or 5 hours a day and looks no different than the first time I saw him.

Smoking is rather rare these days among the educated middle and higher income group. It's just not reinforced among your peers, the way it was in high school, or the working place of blue collar workers. Obama's first tax was on the poor, less educated and lower income people. His plan to tax the middle income is buried with the health care premiums combined with the tax code in his single payer plan. The Lakeside violinist is probably not wealthy, but the new tax didn't defer him. I imagine his wife, mother, colleagues, doctor, pastor, friends, everyone has told him to stop. I don't think Lakeside rules or the President (who hasn't stopped smoking himself) with higher taxes, will stop him. It's a mind altering drug, and terribly addictive, particularly if started young when the brain is still developing.

What's happening week 9 at Lakeside

It's hard to believe that we are almost at the end of summer, half way through August. I've seen the sunrise every day--just later and later. Yesterday I watched the 7 a.m. ferry instead of the 6 a.m. I'm also reliving my March 2009 trip to the Holy Land by reading A.D. Wenger's account of 1899-1900, and brushing up on architectural styles of the cottages each day, getting ready to write about Dutch Colonial Revival. This is week 9 in programming, and the seminar topic is "American Writers and Composers." I learned my lesson from Health and Wellness week when I was too worn out to attend the lecture on fatigue, so I'm picking carefully.

The 10:30 seminar time is the most convenient for my body clock. I'm up by 5 a.m., so lunch and a nap are important parts of my day. That gives me time to walk, hit the coffee shop, visit the farmers' market and blog before I head off for the "Green Room" in the Fountain Inn (2 blocks). However, most of those are about musicians, a topic I find not as interesting as writers. So I'll have to also look at 1:30. If I hadn't signed up for drawing again at 3:30, that would be fine. So here's what it looks like for me on paper: Monday, Aaron Copland; Tuesday, Mark Twain; Wednesday, Eudora Welty; Thursday, Emerson. As I've noted before, because I was a foreign language major in college, I didn't have any British or American literature courses, so I walk into these classes as a novice. Friday is contemporary vocal music at 10:30, but the drawing class is moved to 12:30 that day so the Rhein Center can close early, so I may not get to that one. No time for lunch or a nap if I did that.

Last Tuesday I wouldn't have dreamed of a second week of "intensive drawing." But I did fill the entire 70 pages of the sketch book, something I would have never done if I hadn't signed up. After I was in the class, I found out she meant 140 sketches on 70 pages, front and back. But I stayed with my original interpretation. I'll miss today's class because Joan of the Idlewyld B&B is having a paint in/out on her porch and I've been invited.

Week 9 began with the Opera on Saturday night with our terrific Lakeside Symphony. I'm not a huge fan of opera, but it's such fun to see it live, especially with the English words flashed on screen so you can follow the story. Sunday's service on the Lake front with pastor Jennings was wonderful as usual. A friend whispered to me that her granddaughter (Ivy league college) doesn't consider this "real church" and won't attend (I think she's high church Episcopalian). However, God's handiwork, even with an August haze, is far superior to the most glorious cathedral in Germany, and there is a blend of traditional (19th and/or early 20th century) hymns with a beat and some contemporary provided by a guest singer. The sermon was "Shoulda, coulda, woulda," and just the title is food for thought at my age.

In retirement I've been able to do most of the things I could only dream about when I was younger, thanks to penny-pinching, good health, and early retirement, but I do wish (shoulda coulda) I'd done more memorizing when I was young--it's a learned skill, but it's also a solid foundation. Remember, even in the 40's and 50's, memorizing had gone out of style with educators and was thought unneccessary--except maybe for those in drama or literature. I'd love to be able to recall an entire poem or section of scripture instead of just a title or line. Google is a wonderful gift for finding just that right/write item, but it's of little help when viewing a sunrise.

Key features of HR 3200

from Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, Inc.

New bureaucracies: These include State Health Help Agencies (HHAs), with a federal fallback plan should states refuse to create them; an advisory committee to report annually on modifications of benefits, etc.; some mechanism to “adjust” the Medicare Part B premium based on whether or not each individual “participates in certain healthy behaviors”; other agencies to calculate payments, monitor individual behavior, set standards as for chronic disease management, check compliance with standards, monitor loss ratios and outcomes of chronic-care management, etc.

Individual mandate. All adults must buy a government-approved Healthy Americans Private Insurance Plan (HAPI) and constantly report on compliance, at every interaction with federal, state, and local government, including at voter registration, motor vehicle departments, or other checkpoints, as well as when filing tax forms. This applies to all legal residents, including non-citizens, although not to illegal aliens.

Penalties. The penalty includes the average monthly premium, plus 15%, for all “uncovered” months. Penalties are not subject to discharge by bankruptcy. This means that the HHA, which receives the penalties, takes precedence over other creditors.

Insurance mandates. Guaranteed issue, community rating, coverage of “wellness” without copayments, annual physicals, a required “health home” (gatekeeper), mental health parity, and reconstructive surgery post mastectomy are all mandatory. Each HAPI plan “shall” make available supplemental coverage for abortion, unless affiliated with a religious institution.

Progressive taxation equivalent. Premium subsidies are phased out incrementally up to 400% of poverty. This means that working harder and earning more is punished by higher mandated health insurance “premiums” (which are the functional equivalent of taxes). People will constantly be reporting on their income status.

School-based clinics. Care must be provided at no cost, or on a reimbursable basis, by school-based clinics, which must provide, “at a minimum,” mental health services, and use electronic medical records by 2012.

Job killer. Every employer “shall pay an employer shared responsibility payment,” which increases for each additional employee in excess of 50. Employers must deduct the individual shared responsibility payment from wages “as and when paid.” This amount is not allowed as a deduction from the employer’s taxable income.

Savings. To offset the costs, Medicare and 90% of Medicaid disproportionate share (DSH) payments are to be “recaptured.” Tax exclusions for health benefits will be limited (sections 661-666). According to section 801, “private insurance companies will be forced to hold down costs and will slow the rate of growth because they are required to offer standardized Healthy Americans Private Insurance plans.” It is also easy to see that prevention, management, reporting, determining best practices, behavior modification, etc., will lead to massive savings even before sickness (or treatment thereof) is completely eliminated.

“Americans want affordable, guaranteed private health coverage that makes them healthier and can never be taken away,” the Act states as a congressional finding.

Nigerian Churches burned, members killed

I noticed a small prayer request in a church newsletter, "Plea from our brothers and sisters in the Church of the Brethren, Nigeria: "Please pray for all Christians in northern Nigeria, more especially in Bauchi, Yobe, and Borno States. Pray for peace in Nigeria and these places." 13 churches have been burned (including EYN Maiduguri Wulari anf EYN Jajer), and 50 Christians have been killed since Monday in Maiduguri." No date on the request, so I didn't know what Monday, and I hadn't seen anything in the papers, and haven't caught much news. So I checked Google, and found a lot of stories at Christian sites. It apparently happened on July 27.

"At least six churches were destroyed in the last few days in Northern Nigeria as a result of the violence by members of a radical Islamic group. Militants of the group Boko Haram, which translates to “western education is sin,” have damaged at least half a dozen churches across four states ruled by Sharia, or Islamic law, according to Open Doors sources. A Baptist church was burnt to the ground in Potiskum, Yobe state. Another five churches were reportedly burnt in Maiduguri, Borno state. Moreover, the Christian ministry has learned that unlike what the government is saying, the number of deaths may be over 250 people. The official figure is about 50 deaths. This past Saturday, the group Boko Haram, also known as the Nigerian Taliban, launched a series of attacks in Bauchi state against police stations and state facilities in Northern Nigeria. The violence soon spread to three other states: Borno, Yobe and Kano states.

Another site said churches in Bauchi were not torched. I looked through about 40 stories, all reporting the killing of Christians, even one from Japan. Finally I got to the New York Times account, which reported clashes between the police and a fundamentalist Muslim group, and that the cause was economic problems. Muslims lashing out at Muslims. The Times reported that people died, but not that they were Christians. Nice touch. It's the economy, not ethnic hate. If the roles had been reversed, I wonder what the headlines would have been?

Update in 2015 on Boko Haram: http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-horror-of-boko-haram-1432163481?mod=rss_opinion_main

NYT buries Obama story

New York Times today does report in a story by Sheryl Gay Stolberg on p. 14 (paper ed.) that Obama wants to "ease the debate," and wants US to "lower our voices." He could start that process by dropping the jokes about grandma, being less combative and making inflammatory remarks about doctors amputating for money and insurance companies overcharging, the professional choice of millions of his supporters.

What does make page one of the Times? Greedy, lying Christians. I actually find the "health and wealth" and "prosperity gospel" to be a complete distortion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and also wish they'd stop hiding behind their tax exempt status to fatten their wallets. I don't care if you are a fan of the Copelands or Joyce Meyer, whose followers have made her extremely rich, they preach nonsense when they talk health or money. And the peace and justice Christians who preach a form of humanism and promise you will save the world (eventually) by funding one more of their projects (with well paid directors and staff) aren't far behind them. However, these guys, who take up collections in buckets, not plates, are small and insignificant compared to what Obama wants to steal from us. They may collect millions, but he's going after trillions. Both call their programs a "stimulus package." One for God, the other pretending to be one.

California Medical Association denounces Obama’s inflammatory rhetoric

A very small percentage of doctors belong to the AMA, but most doctors do maintain memberships in statewide organizations or board certification groups. President Obama, in attempting to get sympathy and support for his massive take over of health care, has gone from insuring the uninsured (including a huge number of illegals and middle class who chose not to buy insurance), to saving money (old people cost too much), to insulting the insurance companies which currently insure adequately the majority of Americans, to demonizing doctors.

Truly, this man is gathering an enemies list but not from your neighbors' e-mails. He’s creating enemies out of former supporters. This loss of support has nothing to do with racism, as his true believer sycophant followers claim, but his own “acting stupidly” and speaking out about what he believes on the role of government expansion. He’ll soon be as popular with liberals as the gaffe-prone Biden. He has become his own worst enemy at these town hall meetings saying things off teleprompter we didn‘t hear during the election months and months of “hope and change.”

“CMA is deeply concerned about two examples of medical treatment recently used by President Obama to make his case for health reform.

“In the first example, he stated that surgeons make $30,000 to $50,000 to amputate a foot of a diabetic. This assertion is false. Medicare pays surgeons $589 to $767 for a foot amputation. Medi-Cal pays $420 for the same. Hospital and other associated costs may add up to the greater amount, but it is incorrect and misleading to suggest the surgeon’s costs are responsible for that figure.

“We share the President’s belief that we need to put greater resources towards primary and preventive care in order to keep people healthier and help address the nation’s rising health care costs. However, preventive care will never obviate the need for qualified physicians and surgeons to take corrective action to improve or save people’s lives.

“In the second example, the President suggested that physicians take out children’s tonsils to make more money. This implication is inaccurate and offensive.

“Doctors treat patients based on the health needs of the patient, not the financial incentives. When science suggests over utilization may be occurring, the medical profession has responded with improved guidelines to more fully inform physicians of the risks and benefits of any treatment or procedure.

“The California Medical Association is committed to reforming our health system to increase access to quality care and reduce rising health care costs. To achieve health reform, the American people must be able to trust our elected officials and the statements they make regarding health care.

“Patients trust their doctors. That trust is critical to an effective and successful doctor-patient relationship. We urge the President to stick to the facts and avoid the kind of misleading and inflammatory rhetoric that would erode that trust and derail our efforts to increase access to quality care and control rising health care costs.”

Dr. GnanaDev, the CMA President, is a trauma surgeon and chief of the medical staff at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, San Bernardino County’s public hospital

U.S. seniors smarter than their congressmen?

That study hasn't been done, but there was one at the U of Michigan that seems to show American seniors are about 10 years better off than British seniors. Maybe it's all that waiting in line for medical care that the over 65s in England have to put up with?

"U.S. seniors performed significantly better than their counterparts in England on standard tests of memory and cognitive function, according to a new study.

The study is the first known international comparison of cognitive function in nationally representative samples of older adults in the United States and England. The report is published in the June 25 peer-reviewed journal BMC Geriatrics."

Full report here.

Vegetarian pizza

After our prayer for all the pastors presenting the gospel of Jesus tomorrow (or not, who need prayer even more), my husband asked:

"Why does the pizza taste like broccoli?"

"Because it's vegetarian."

"When I eat pizza, I want PIZZA, not vegetables."

Rules need to be understood. It's a good thing we have that advanced directive. Everyone should, and talking about it with your spouse or clergy is not the same as having it regulated by the federal government who also controls your meds and doctors.

Brother Wenger finds medical care 110 years ago

A.D. (Amos Daniel) Wenger's 14 month trip around the world, with "Six months in Bible Lands," the title of his 1902 book has been a fascinating read. A widowed Mennonite evangelist and teacher, he relates everything he sees to scripture, theology, and modern (19th century) times. He must have been in extremely good condition, because although there was good train service in those days, probably better than today, for any distance they used a carriage, donkey, or went on foot. He believed in nonresistance, so wouldn't arm himself or hire armed guides. And it was very dangerous territory with many robberies and assaults. Sometimes he appears to be traveling alone except for his guides, other times he mentions people he meets--Europeans and Americans, some with children--and they go in groups. Since about 3/4 of our group got sick in March 2009, I did wonder about their medical care. On p. 332 he mentions it, and develops a sermon of sorts:

"Thinking there was a bug in my left ear I crossed the valley to the English Ophthalmic Hospital a short distance southwest of Jerusalem. The examination revealed the fact that I had taken a severe cold.

At this hospital as well as at several others in the city a great many persons are treated for diseases of the eye. In our country the proportion of blind is only about one in a thousand while in Palestin and Egypt there is one to every hundred. It seems to me that the dust, the rapid changes of temperature between day and night and the glare of the brilliant sun from the white limestone rocks and stones in all parts of the country have something to do with causing eye diseases and blindness; but the chief cause of the spread of eye disease is very likely through the medium of flies. Apparently, mothers never brush the pests from the faces of their babies and it is quite common to see the flies clinging in half dozens round the eyes of the children. Mothrs allow this when the babes are yet helpless in order to keep off the "evil eye." Thus the children become habituated to it in infance and do not resent it when they grow older. The diseases are spread by the insects carrying infection on their feet from one child to another. . .

Blindness is mentioned so many times in the Scriptures that we must conclude it was very prevalent in Bible times, especially in the time of Christ. (notes John 5:3, Luke 7:21) Everyone who will not see it to his best interests to prepare for a home in glory is awfully blind, but the case is not beyond the healing power of the great Physician, whenever employed..."

Here he notes a visit to some German colonists living near the hospital, members of a religious order called Templars, who do not believe in Jesus Christ, although they give him honor. He is grieved that some Mennonites from Germany and Russia have united with them, and tries to turn them from their error. From there he visits a leper's hospital built and maintained by the Moravians. He describes their hideous conditions, limbs rotting, and body sores. He thinks if marriage could be prevented the disease would be reduced, but many lepers refused to live at the hospital and preferred to beg on the streets, where their pitiful condition could support several people. Again, A.D. quotes the appropriate passages about lepers.

"Leprosy is a most striking type of the more deadly leprosy of sin. Often the children of leprous parents are just as pretty and as healthy looking as other children, but by and by some of the signs indicated in the 13th chapter of Leviticus make their appearance. There is no escape from it, every child born of such parents must fall a victime to the dread disease. It is just so with sin. . . The Lord alone can heal the leprosy of the soul. He who cleansed the leper with a word can forgive sin and save the soul. All are invited to come and be healed of the leprosy that eats as doth a canker and mars the beauty and loveliness of the soul." (p. 337-8)

As I noted before, I have been impressed with his readability--and he can even spell ophthalmic, one of the few words in English that has the "phth" and is even misspelled in medical journals! He's a lot easier to read than William Dean Howells, a prominent 19th century American writer just a few years his senior.

Liberals boycott Whole Foods: ABC

"The myth about liberals being tolerant and open-minded, respecting everyone's views was busted once again recently. Last week John Mackey, CEO of heaven on earth for organic , natural fiber wearing, earth worshippers, Whole Foods, wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal advocating "The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare" which consisted of "Eight things we can do to improve health care without adding to the deficit." Needless to say, not one of the eight things demanded the government supply it or taxing the evil rich to pay for it.

Spitting up their expensive artisanal, pesticide free bean sprouts and ruining the planet by traveling further, some tolerant (not!), open-minded (definitely not!) liberals have reacted to such apostasy by boycotting the stores according to Emily Friedman of ABC News." Story here.

You know, that's not a myth; it's a fairy tale. There's a difference. A myth has supernatural beings and heroes in the background somewhere. A moral grounding. A fairy tale is about tiny, immature, troll-like beings who can be very spooky when they break up town hall meetings, leave comments at blogs, or pretend to be Republicans.

Mackey does an excellent job of outlining changes that reduce or destroy the need for Obamacare--increase competition, reduce government mandates, reform Medicare, change the tax laws, etc. That's enough to get his company boycotted. I'm not sure if he's being branded a racist. . . yet. But that will come, I'm sure.

Then he wanders off the reservation claiming eating better (his product) is our health induced salvation, can reverse disease. I'd have to disagree, at least if you're talking health care dollars. As individuals, we can certainly improve the years we're given with good nutrition, no tobacco, and exercise, but we will still grow old, we will have auto and home accidents, there will be wars and pestilence, antibiotics will fail, and we will still have to daily live with our genes (my grandfathers lived into their 90s, but not my grandmothers who fed them). And if you live a more active and healthier life in your 70s and 80s, you just might have a very expensive, extended old age. You can stop smoking today and in 20 years still find yourself with cancer or COPD.

Michael Vick and punishment for crimes

The animal rights people are out for blood--blood and a pound of flesh of a human, an athlete, an African American, a celebrity, a rich guy. Not only has Michael Vick received far more punishment, jail time and faster justice than athletes who beat up girl friends and wives, but now they want to take what's left of his sorry career, too. After a good part of my professional life in the agriculture and veterinary libraries of Ohio State--where I collected their publications--I'm not surprised, and yet I am. Animal rightists baffle me (don't confuse with animal welfare). People who go all soft and quivery over cruel and despicable actions toward animals, who liberate research lab rats who could save the lives of children and pets, who think your pet dalmation has the same rights as you and therefore you can't own him, don't bat an eye lash at chopping up an 8 month old human fetus in the name of choice, or depriving millions of African children of protection from malaria with DDT in the name of saving the environment.

What's wrong with this picture?

Just about everything.

To begin with, my materials. I was using cheap colored pencils on paper that wasn't appropriate for this medium, so the colors didn't blend. I didn't have a good range of colors to use. Almost nothing dark. Using colored pencil is becoming extremely popular because they aren't messy or toxic, and good for on location work. However, I've never seen how it is done.

In art, even if it's practice, use the best quality materials you can afford. Skip the "student" grade. These were materials used at the art center pulled from a box, not my own. My husband, who has sold 7 paintings this summer, is using some of the brushes he bought for college art class 50 years ago (it was a requirement for architects, but it was almost another 20 years before he took up painting as a hobby). A good watercolor brush can cost $50.

Second, either this duck is terribly fat, or I've misplaced him (Mallard) in the water. If you're going to put animals in paintings, they need to have the appropriate weight, shape and shadow.

Third, I was working from a tiny (about 2 x 2") black and white sketch, then realized I needed to know his color markings, so I used Google to find a photo. Probably should have started with a photo instead of a tiny drawing.

Fourth, here's the biggest, and I knew it the minute I drew it. The sun. When you stand on the dock, pier or shore facing a rising or setting sun, the reflection in the water is not going to angle away from you. It looks like this reflection of the sun over Lake Erie taken this morning about 7:30.



I drew this Mallard for "Intensive Drawing" class, and because I'd just seen a family of 12 on my walk. Our 22 year old instructor wanted 140 drawings; I finished 56 and thought that was pretty darn good for an old lady. I even drew 55 and 56 last night in the living room--my cat's head and a floor lamp. But there is a sense in which this really does work. The more you draw the better you get--just like tennis, golf, sewing, writing, exercising, knitting, etc. Practice may not make perfect, but it does move you along.

And now they gather and groove at Tea Parties and Obamacare Town Halls

Woodstock. 40 years later. The boomers can get real mad at you when you try to take something away from them, like drugs (the helpful kind), hip replacements, valve repairs, prostate exams, colonoscopies, MRIs, heart monitors, AIDS cocktails, flu vaccines, radiographs, echo cardiograms, insulin, Lipotor, etc. It's nice that recent research continues to find the long term benefits of aspirin, but "take one and call me later," is just not going to fly with this group. They are not their parents' elder generation!

YUP pulls images of Muhammad

Yale University Press has banned images of Muhammad in a new book, according to a story in the New York Times by Patricia Cohen. Wouldn't it be a pleasant world if our academic reservations and colonies were so discreet and careful about observing the sensitivities of the other children of Abraham, the Jews and Christians?

"The book’s author, Jytte Klausen, a Danish-born professor of politics at Brandeis University, in Waltham, Mass., reluctantly accepted Yale University Press’s decision not to publish the cartoons. But she was disturbed by the withdrawal of the other representations of Muhammad. All of those images are widely available, Ms. Klausen said by telephone, adding that “Muslim friends, leaders and activists thought that the incident was misunderstood, so the cartoons needed to be reprinted so we could have a discussion about it.” The book is due out in November."

But then, I haven't seen many NYT reporters or owners or editors beheaded by Christians or Jews recently, either. Fear, even third or fourth hand, can help in making many decisions about life or death, advertising, editorial content, profit etc.

Tracking down your Tea Party friends

So who are you going to trust? I have no idea, but here's a suggestion. Go click on the side bar ads (on the left side, sorry) for the Sept. 12 March on Washington. All sorts of political and non-profits I've never heard of. Not as many as the progressives, leftists, marxists and socialists have, but there's a good start of grass roots conservatism. Some for sure on the President's snitch list. Read their "about us" on their web pages and figure out who does the funding.

Smart Girl Politics, for instance, began with a blog. "Smart Girl Politics, SGP, started as a blog in July of 2008. In November of 2008, Stacy Mott, Founder and President of SGP, placed a help wanted ad on her blog asking for conservative women to join her in a new conservative women’s movement. Within a week, she had 60 emails from women who wanted to get involved.

Once the group made the decision to remain with the name that started it all, Smart Girl Politics, they grabbed the name in every form they could find on the internet. Finally, a home was found on their community website www.smartgirlpolitics.ning.com where one of the fastest growing and hottest organizations on the internet began to take shape. Many of the women in leadership positions for SGP were some of those first to respond to the ad, including Co-Founder and Executive Director, Teri Christoph."

So far, their primary acticity seems to be fund raising and making press releases. It costs money to have an Executive Director.

When Fancy Nancy favored disruptions

When they were against President Bush.

"January 17, 2006: "So I thank all of you who have spoken out for your courage, your point of view. All of it. Your advocacy is very American and very important."



Now they are Nazis.

Brother Wenger explains how to bargain in the Middle East

6 months in Bible Lands

A.D. Wenger grows wiser by experience as the Mennonite evangelist travels through the middle east. He has several close calls, but always maintains his dignity and nonresistant stance, but not always his money. Everything he writes about is analyzed either from the teachings of Jesus, or stories from the Old Testament. When Abraham sought a suitable burial site for his wife Sarah, A.D. explains how it is done even thousands of years later. It made me remember our encounter with the camel jockey in Egypt who stole our 50 euros (I grabbed it back).

"To one who has witnessed how how bargains are now made in Palestine, it is exceedingly interesting to read the 23rd chapter of Genesis and observe the manner of the bargain when Abraham bought the Cave of Machpelah.

Whenever you wish to buy anything and ask the price of the article the owner first praises you. He calls you master, lord, prince and other like names and says that he is your servant and will gladly give you anything in his possession. If you want to buy a piece of goods worth fifty dollars he will tell you just to take it, he will charge you nothing. Even the carriage drivers will do likewise and offer to take you anywhere for othing and with the greatest of pleasure.

All this is a mere form of words preliminary to a sharp bargain. (Reminds me of our Congress.) The merchant would soon stop you if you should start away with his goods. The carriage driver would take you, but would charge you 3 or 4 prices afterward. Every time the price should be fixed beforehand. Finally you succeed in getting a price named which he will claim is so low that he is almost giving you the goods or hauling you for nothing as the case may be, but in reality is from two to five times the actual worth. The purchaser begins by offering a very small sum and then raises the offer as the dealer lowers the price. After much time and many words have been wasted they finish the bargain."

He goes on (p. 317) to explain how Abraham bought the cave from Ephron the Hittite. Abraham did not drive a hard bargain Brother A.D. says because he was in deep sorrow, but the price was agreed upon before burial.

You can forget local control

Take a look at the proposed "green codes" of the building trades, and note they are to be "international." When I see the struggle we have here at tiny Lakeside with issues of private (but poor) taste, preservation, dues, taxes, and costs, I really wonder what you can do with an international building code for sustainability, except keep the 3rd world from developing, and the developed world in complete chaos.

When passed by the International Code Council (ICC) through its consensus process and adopted by code jurisdictions, such a code would make sustainable design a mandatory practice, not a suggested alternative. . .

Through the working document, the Sustainable Building Technology Committee (SBTC) and participants have been looking at codes and rating systems in Europe, Australia, and the United States. “The strength of the finished code will be in its unity,” Green says. “It will give architects, states, and municipalities one single tool in the I-Codes they need to guide sustainable development.”

The National Association of Governors (NGA), as part of its comprehensive national Energy Conservation and Improved Energy Efficiency policy, adopted in July the promotion of carbon neutral new and renovated buildings by 2030, a commitment proposed by the American Institute of Architects. Maybe ALA should follow. That's a lot of hot air. Or AMA. Or AARP.

Once we get all these oldsters to stop breathing (not really, even greenies know that is carbon neutral), eating meat and burning fossil fuel or using plastic or modern technology, maybe then we can reach the carbon neutral state so longed for by people whose religion believes Mother Nature has too much flatulence.

A child upstages the President

Damon is a cute little guy interviewing President Obama, his dream, on all the major networks this morning, but I changed channels after about 20 seconds. Same old, same old. The President blaming someone else, never his own generation or group, instead of inspiring a child to greatness. Here we are in 2009 with two minorities (and four Catholics?) on the highest court in the land, a biracial, out of wedlock son of a Kenyan in the White House, and all the President can do is dump on the American culture when a child asks him about poverty in his school district. Can you imagine Justice Clarence Thomas responding as Obama did? But it was Thomas who really experienced poverty. Obama was the proverbial silver-spoon-rich kid whose own children have always attended private schools. Compared to Thomas who was raised on a share cropper’s farm by his grandparents, he knows nothing about which he speaks from personal experience. Justice Sotomayor may call herself a wise Latina, but even she’s a born in the city, raised in the projects by an educated mother, child who despite what she sees as racism and discrimination, has managed also to make her way to the top. Democrats never see this as a success story--they seem to be embarrassed that America is the land of opportunity and are currently engaged in a war to bring everyone down to the projects-level standard of living.

Obama could have begun his halting and stammering (where is the teleprompter?) with pointing out to this smart, gutsy child, that he was well on his way like Thomas and Sotomayor, but instead, chose his words to remind everyone, not that we’ve come a long way, but that we have even further to go.

Thanks for nothing, O Great One.

Traveling the Holy Land with AD Wenger

As I noted 2 weeks ago, I bought a book recently for ten cents, “Six months in Bible Lands” by Amos Daniel Wenger (doesn't seem to be one of "my" Wengers), an account of his 14 months traveling through Europe, the Holy Land, and Asia in 1899-1900. Because we were on a “Steps of Paul” tour in March 2009, in Ireland and Italy in 2007 and 2008, in Finland and Russia in 2006, and Germany and Austria in 2005, many of his stops and descriptions whether of cathedrals in Europe or the waters of the Jordan are quite vivid, even though he experienced them 110 years ago.

My questions to AD and travelers of the 1890s are quite practical: first of all toilets, then shoes, clothing, traveling companions, arrangements for money and translators, food, medical care, suitcases, etc. But just as we know that there used to be a two-story outhouse attached to the hotel here at Lakeside (for men only) a hundred years ago, there is no photo of it in existence, because those necessities were just a way of life, and usually not recorded in guide books. So we are left to wonder what the women used, or who were the poor servant staff who emptied chamber pots from the hotel rooms of 19th century Methodists.

In our diversity-obsessed and PC academic culture, some academics or liberal Christians might find his descriptions of the people he meets and cultures he experiences “ethnocentric” or “xenophobic,” but I found his honesty and true compassion and love quite refreshing. When he sees a fierce, dark skinned, armed Bedouin he mentions his fear, but also is firm in his unwillingness to arm himself or even travel with an armed guard, because he is a “nonresistant” Mennonite. He thinks that nonresistant missionaries (I don’t think he uses the word pacifist) who hire armed guards are hypocrites. When he sees women doing the work of pack animals, he mentions how much better off and respected are women in America. When he observes lascivious, drunk women on the train in France, he makes note. When he compares the differences among the Turks (area was controlled by the Ottoman Empire), the Arabs, the native Palestinian tribes, Druses, native Christian groups, Palestinian Jews, European Jews and various European and American travelers either guides or missionaries who live and work there, it is with the eye of a Christian, American Mennonite evangelist who believes the living water of the gospel of Jesus more important than digging a local well for fresh water and moving on. And he is quite distressed and saves his harshest words for squabbling Christian sects.

He observes the irony and pain, as did we, of the various Christian sects--Armenians, Greeks, Roman Catholics and others--sharing worship space in churches build over holy places, such as the Church of the Holy Sepulcre, and the Church of the nativity in Bethlehem. These places then and now are controlled by Moslems, and they, not the Christians who squabble and refuse to worship together, keep the peace. When AD was at these sites, he was told of killings and fightings among the Christians going back to the times of the Crusades, and he grieves that this is such a poor witness to both Jews and Moslems. I'm sure the Mennonites' squabbles back home over whether to use a pulpit or table, or whether Sunday Schools are an evil concession to the larger culture, paled by comparison, because he never mentions them.

His experience inside these holy shrines sounds very similar to ours. For instance, in Bethlehem:

“We went beneath the floor of the church into a chamber in the natural rock. A silver star is pointed out as the place of the birth, and a stone manger is shown, but it seems painful to see it all so changed and embellished by the hands of idolizing sects. It seems more painful however that the Christianity of the land has so degenerated since the Pentecostal shower of heavenly grace that Mohammedan soldiers must be kept on the spot to keep peace among the Christians--to keep even priests from flying at each other’s throats.” (p. 122)

Of course, you don’t have to read far into Paul’s letters to the New Testament churches to see the first thing Christians did was to start creating factions and disagreements, even in the first century. There is a 2,000 year history of squabbling over baptism, food, times of worship, end times prophecies, which holy days to observe, whether to marry or tarry, etc. And dear brother Wenger spends more than a few pages showing his readers why the Mennonites have the proper way to use water in baptism, using Scripture, archeology and his own observations.

The Obamacare Dog and Pony Show

We need a lot of pooper scoopers to keep up with the Obama machine the last few days. For awhile he seemed to be sleep walking, letting his underlings handle it. But once Sarah Palin weighed in, WOW, he and millions of Democrats rushed to the rescue of the beaten and bloody health care bill. Misnamed, "America’s Affordable Health Choices Act" (HR 3200) Health Care Blog:

"As more Americans delve into the disturbing details of the nationalized health care plan that the current administration is rushing through Congress, our collective jaw is dropping, and we’re saying not just no, but hell no.

The Democrats promise that a government health care system will reduce the cost of health care, but as the economist Thomas Sowell has pointed out, government health care will not reduce the cost; it will simply refuse to pay the cost. And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.

Health care by definition involves life and death decisions. Human rights and human dignity must be at the center of any health care discussion.

Rep. Michele Bachmann highlighted the Orwellian thinking of the president’s health care advisor, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, the brother of the White House chief of staff, in a floor speech to the House of Representatives. I commend her for being a voice for the most precious members of our society, our children and our seniors.

We must step up and engage in this most crucial debate. Nationalizing our health care system is a point of no return for government interference in the lives of its citizens. If we go down this path, there will be no turning back. Ronald Reagan once wrote, “Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth.” Let’s stop and think and make our voices heard before it’s too late."

- Sarah Palin

You may not like her, you may be afraid of strong women who don't ride their husband's coat tails, but Sarah Palin speaks for millions on this issue. As the mother of a special needs child I'm sure she'd opt for the government plan if she thought he'd be better served. But in the back of her mind is probably that pro-choice president and the 93% death rate of pre-born babies with Down Syndrome. Why would he feel any different about those who got out alive? I've read Dr. Emmanuel's stuff, and he's one scary dude, brother of Obama's chief advisor.

Will the real Obama please stand up?

No, I'm not referring to his birth place, Kenya or Hawaii, to a teen-age mother. Birthers are wasting their time. Now this on the other hand--Single payer health insurance.

Obama in 2003: ‘I Happen to be a Proponent of a Single-Payer Universal Health Care Plan;' Obama in 2009: ‘I Have Not Said That I Was a Single-Payer Supporter’.

Dodge. Word games.

In 2003, Illinois state Sen. Barack Obama received a big round of applause for telling a gathering of the AFL-CIO, “I happen to be a proponent of single-payer, universal health care plan.”

This week, speaking at a town hall gathering in Portsmouth, N.H., President Obama said, “I have not said that I was a single-payer supporter because, frankly, we historically have had a employer-based system in this country with private insurers, and for us to transition to a system like that I believe would be too disruptive. CNSNews.com

And then in a Philadelphia Town Hall, the goons didn't get the President's latest lie.

"WHAT DO WE WANT?"
"SINGLE-PAYER!!"
"WHEN DO WE WANT IT?"
"NOW!!"
“Toward the front of the line, that's where I saw the most venom and vitriol. That's where the hardcore socialists were, the people who would gladly destroy the ingenuity and innovation inherent in our health care system for the sake of "social justice." Many, it seemed, were college students. Most, it was apparent, came in groups. I counted two people in ACORN shirts, one of which was getting an earful from an event attendee who came to protest the health care reform legislation.” Stranger in a strange land

Yes, that group was in Columbus, Ohio, in October and November--the “college students” and ACORN, innocently registering to vote, and our Secretary of State, an old softy, and a Democrat, did nothing. I think she said there wasn't time.