Republicans--hopeless or helpless?

Although I never voted for George H.W. Bush, I thought Republicans were silly to toss him over for the "no new taxes" broken promise. Obama started breaking promises from the get-go, and our brave, proud media have scarcely batted an eyelash, nor his loyal supporters. Was it Jan. 21 that he raised taxes on the poor with that huge cigarette tax increase? Do you know a single rich guy who smokes hurt by that? Everything he's done in the last 7 months has either intentionally, or unintentionally hurt the economy. The rich can just ride it out. Republicans in Congress still look like idiots. If they can't make a difference because of their small numbers, they could at least stand on principle.

Yesterday I read in our local paper about a closing of a small bakery business--53 years old. Not only that, but the owners have also lost their home. I feel badly because I used to go there all the time when we lived on Abington, but I've probably only stopped in once or twice in the last 7 years. Their cakes, cookies and bread were to die for. The line to get things before an OSU football game went outside the door when my kids were little. The number of times I'd call my husband at work about 4:45 and ask him to swing by there and bring a dessert home--ah, I'm salivating.

The savings rate is up; that's good. But when people don't buy those little extras, and in this case the business employed about 20 people, everyone in the local community is hurt, the city gets fewer taxes, the state gets less, and the U.S. gov't, which thought the owners were "rich" will really get less. So then Obama will raise our taxes to make up for what he can't get from the "rich."

"When's the last time a poor person gave you a job" may be a cliche, but it is oh so true, and investment came to a screeching halt last July when the business world could see who would be the next president, a man very hostile to capitalism.

The education speech Obama should have given

If he wants to make a difference to minority children (although why he wants them to succeed isn't clear--is it to volunteer? To become a government bureaucrat? To become a social worker and visit people receiving welfare? He definitely doesn't want them to be rich) he needs to talk to their parents, the NEA, the Department of Education and Congress about school choice and supporting home schoolers. Particularly, the parents in DC need to hear this message. Obama and other minority government officials and civil servants send their children to tony private schools that need minorities for "balance" and government grants. Not everyone can afford the school where the Obama girls go or where Jesse Jackson and Al Gore sent their kids, but vouchers do work and its been proven to be very helpful, especially for minority children who most need to escape the prison of the public system. There is a bigger gap now than 20 years ago between minorities and whites. Part of this is, I'm sure (if they are measuring public schools and not all schools), the better students have been pulled out by their parents, or the parents have fled to the suburbs to avoid forced bussing leaving the city schools to struggle with minorities, mix and match quasi-families, immigrants, and special needs students.

". . . students at inner-city [NY] Catholic high schools, who are mostly minorities, achieve nearly 90 percent graduation rates," and these schools could be saved with an adequate voucher program according to the City Journal article. Cleveland would be thrilled with figures half of that. The disabled also get a better chance with the voucher system, and indirectly it prevents the public schools from funneling children into special programs in order to get government money which isn't used on the children with problems.

"You Lie!" Joe Wilson

From Blogsphere: HT Nancy at American Daughter

". . .tonight Obama stood before Congress and lied to the members. Rep. Joe Wilson has read the bill. Barack Obama has not read the bill, and is relying on his handlers to tell him what to say. Politicians on both sides of the aisle called upon Wilson to apologize, which he did. Many, including John McCain, seemed to think that Wilson was rude for calling out from the audience. Personally, I believe that Obama was rude for lying to Congress and to the American citizens who were watching and listening. And Obama was arrogant and disdainful for assuming that we are stupid enough to believe his lie. ActBlue immediately created a fund-raising page for Joe Wilson's 2010 Democratic challenger Rob Miller titled No More Name Calling. So far they have raised a grand total of $100 from three supporters. And Wikipedia had to disable editing of their article on Joe Wilson due to vandalism. Which is more important -- the veneer of manners or the gut of honesty? Have any of these pantywaists ever watched a session of the British parliament? In any event, the future probably will favor Wilson. We understand that he has aspirations for higher office, and the governorship in his state may soon be vacant. In this timely moment, he has just become a national ideological hero. He gave voice to the frustrated silent majority, and they are ecstatic:"

The new battle cry of all TRUE AMERICANS:

YOU LIE!!!!!

Blogger: "Joe has just been launched into superstardom. We just watched history being made."

Blogger: "I want to bear his rebel children!!!"

Here again are the phone numbers to contact and congrat Joe:
DC office: 202 225 2452
SC office 803 939 0041

Blogger: "Joe's switchboard is melting down!!"

Blogger: "we need to protect Joe Wilson Now!!!!! after Nancy was looking at the seating chart...she is gonna try to start some shit"

Blogger: "I'm definitely adding him to my list of Great Americans!"

Blogger: "Joe now has 4200 followers on Twitter and growing by the minute, lol. An hour ago he had 2,800"

Blogger: "If there is no concrete plan then why did Obama say he was going to "clarify" on TV tonite. There was a lie right there..."

Blogger: "Good for him, I say. Exercise your first amendment rights before they're taken away."

Blogger: "Bravo Mr. Wilson. Bravo."

Steve Jobs (Apple) is back!

About a year after his liver transplant, he's back in control (at least visibly). Could he have done this recovery with Obamacare and no private wealth?

At 54, he probably would have been considered expendable by whatever government panel needed to make the decision, assuming of course that while he was waiting during the application process, he hadn't become too ill to survive the operation. That happens even now with people on gov't care. As a private businessman, at least he didn't have to worry about losing his job due to his disability.

Still, we all know, that rich guys even under socialism have other options (see Finland or England). Even under Obamacare, he would have gone to the front of the line.

Liberals and fascism

“Scratch a "liberal" and you'll find a fascist. I've never met a leftist yet who does not despise ordinary people and who does not harbor a hankering for authoritarian dictatorship by elites.” Patrick Joubert Conlon commenting on Thomas Friedman who thinks we need liberal fascism.

I'm always surprised by the liberals who can forget or ignore the millions and millions of Chinese murdered by their own government and then praise the result as benign. Although it happens so often, I don't know why I'm always caught off guard. Heard the same sentiment at the lectures on China this summer at Lakeside from people in the audience old enough to remember what happened in the 1940s.

A mostly lovely day

A bit of rain, but mid-70s low 80s most of the day. Finally got my hair done (cut and color), postponed from last week when I decided to spend week 11 at Lakeside. The sun had pretty much bleached it out. I truly had considered going gray (or white?), but don't like it. Reentry has been a challenge. No place to walk that has sunrises, but I have walked mostly on drive-ways and asphalt, this morning in the Meijer's parking lot. We came home to plumbing repair--in the middle of the night Sunday/Monday I heard a drip drip drip. Got that fixed today after being banished from my bathroom for 2 days. I got 1/2 the tar cleaned off my van, a gift from some inconsiderate truck ambling along Rt. 4 dribbling as he went. The cat has diarrhea, and we've been trimming her tail, since she hasn't quite figured out how high to lift it! Like me she's getting old and creaky--doesn't seem quite sure about jumping up on my lap. The dryer switch has died, so I have wet laundry hanging around the lower level (but no clothes line). My husband has matted and framed four of my summer paintings, so I'll be ready for the art show at Mill Run next week. Tomorrow we're doing some sort of art adventure with 3 other couples, but I'm a bit fuzzy on the details since I didn't plan it. Sunday we're invited to a party for a couple celebrating their 50th. The invitation has their wedding photo, which is a nice touch--wedding dresses were much more beautiful and not so revealing 50 years ago. But my goodness, they look young!

Dinner tonight: bratwurst, lightly steamed and buttered beet tops, fried new red potatoes, and strawberries topped with dark chocolate ice cream.

Summer's over. I'll be back at the lake to volunteer for the Midwest Bird Symposium later in the month, but for now, it's just a pleasant memory.

What Obamacare will look like for older women

Osteoporosis. After all, Dr. Zeke says if you are over 65, you can't contribute much and aren't worth treating.

Emanuel, however, believes that "communitarianism" should guide decisions on who gets care. He says medical care should be reserved for the non-disabled, not given to those "who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens . . . An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia" (Hastings Center Report, Nov.-Dec. '96).

Translation: Don't give much care to a grandmother with Parkinson's or a child with cerebral palsy.

He explicitly defends discrimination against older patients: "Unlike allocation by sex or race, allocation by age is not invidious discrimination; every person lives through different life stages rather than being a single age. Even if 25-year-olds receive priority over 65-year-olds, everyone who is 65 years now was previously 25 years" (Lancet, Jan. 31).

NY Post, "Deadly doctors."

It's an imperfect document, said Obama

“[The Constitution] is an imperfect document.” Barack Obama

“Why should we be governed by people long dead? … In any case, the group that ratified the Constitution included just a small subset of the society; it excluded all women, the vast majority of African Americans, many of those without property, and numerous others who were not permitted to vote.” Cass Sunstein

“We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.” Signers of The Declaration of Independence

I am not aware of Barack Obama or Cass Sunstein pledging their lives, their fortunes or their sacred honor to preserve the US. Citizen Wells Read the full article here.

More on Sunstein’s ideas to control you through more regulations about which you‘ll have no say, because he‘s appointed and needs no confirmation. It's almost impossible to take this guy out of context--he hides nothing!

Here's a fun idea. Go to Google and type in "Let's get rid of Cass Sunstein." Using that phrase, you can find both the progressive/marxist blogs and the conservative/alarmist blogs.

Weeping with WaPo

It could really tear at your heart strings--Washington Post's version of how Obama was first tested on health care while an Illinois Senator. After the first page I thought I'd gag at the obsequious adulation, so I don't know if the writer got around to what's happened in Illinois with all the mandates that now deny people doctors, or that Medicaid, a state run program, has been broke for years. Our Illinois friends chose to keep their mother in an Ohio nursing home (she's on Medicaid) and make the grueling drive back and forth. (They are, of course, union members, DINKS and Democrats.) However the writer did let it slip that the 2004 speech at the Democratic convention was a rerun he'd used many times. That with a phony blaccent and pulpit flourishes was enough to make liberals swoon.

"Summoning a story he would repeat during his 2004 speech at the Democratic National Convention, Obama talked about a father he met who would soon lose his job and health insurance after being laid off from a plant in Butler, Ill. His son needed $4,500 worth of drugs because of a liver transplant, Obama said. . . "

It's great drama, syrupy fiction, and just what we've come to expect from WaPo.

Mainstream Media Fails Again

says Nancy Matthis at American Daughter.

"The mainstream media made no mention of the controversy surrounding Van Jones until AFTER he resigned. The usual suspects, who have shaped the news for years, -- CBS, NBC, the Washington Post, and the New York Times -- carried no news at all until the Jones affair was over. Then they reported, briefly (trying to minimize the damage to Obama), that Jones had resigned as the result of a vicious right-wing smear campaign. That is a very biased way to characterize an expose consisting entirely of video clips of the man's own speeches."

Yes, the explanation of his own midnight escape on a holiday, slow news week-end could be funny, but we haven't heard the end of Van Jones, I'm sure. He's becoming more famous by the minute and will really be raking in the honoraria for his speeches. He has never denied his own words and charges of hatred and racism against 80% of this nation. There are plenty more well off, handsome, whiny marxists in the O-Admin looking for victims to scam. Bloggers just need to peek under a few more rocks. Just look at George Soros. Well, he's not handsome or in the administration, but he's one of them as is Michael Moore, Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, etc. This line of business (taking over a country) requires a constant but small stream of unhappy people overseen by clever and well-educated organizers infiltrating the colleges, non-profits, churches, and professional organizations, and they know just which levers to pull to release the dam.

Unelected, Unconfirmed, Unaccountable

Just in case you were counting.

1. Richard Holbrooke — Afghanistan Czar
2. Jeffrey Crowley — AIDS Czar
3. Ed Montgomery — Auto Recovery Czar
4. Alan Bersin — Border Czar
5. David J. Hayes — California Water Czar
6. Ron Bloom — Car Czar (moved to Manufacturing Czar today)
7. Dennis Ross — Central Region Czar
8. Todd Stern — Climate Czar
9. Lynn Rosenthal — Domestic Violence Czar
10. Gil Kerlikowske — Drug Czar
11. Paul Volcker — Economic Czar
12. Carol Browner — Energy and Environment Czar
13. Joshua DuBois — Faith Based Czar
14. Jeffrey Zients — Government Performance Czar
15. Cameron Davis — Great Lakes Czar
16. Van Jones — Green Jobs Czar (resigned)
17. Daniel Fried — Guantanamo Closure Czar
18. Nancy-Ann DeParle — Health Czar
19. Vivek Kundra — Information Czar
20. Dennis Blair — Intelligence Czar
21. Ron Bloom — Manufacturing Czar
22. George Mitchell — Mideast Peace Czar
23. Kenneth R. Feinberg — Pay Czar
24. Cass R. Sunstein — Regulatory Czar
25. John Holdren — Science Czar
26. Earl Devaney — Stimulus Accountability Czar
27. J. Scott Gration — Sudan Czar
28. Herb Allison — TARP Czar
29. Aneesh Chopra — Technology Czar
30. John Brennan — Terrorism Czar
31. Adolfo Carrion Jr. — Urban Affairs Czar
32. Ashton Carter — Weapons Czar
33. Gary Samore — WMD Policy Czar

"The departments raided of their authority in favor of Czars include the Departments of State, Defense, Homeland Security, Justice, Treasury, Health and Human Services, Labor, Interior, Energy, Commerce, and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) — that’s the entire cabinet except for the Departments of Education, Transportation, and Veterans’ Affairs."

HT Hot Air and Belmont Club.

Google a few of these characters. It's darn scary!

"In today's world, however, the number of children in a family is a matter of profound public concern. The law regulates other highly personal matters. For example, no one may lawfully have more than one spouse at a time. Why should the law not be able to prevent a person from having more than two children?" John Holdren, Obama's Science Czar, p. 838, Ecoscience.

"Taking Machine politics nationwide was one of the great dangers of electing Barack Obama to executive office. Appointing run of the mill political actors like Valerie Jarrett, Arne Duncan, and now Cameron Davis [Great Lakes Czar] takes limited local players onto the national stage, which begs the question…is Congress and the National Press up to the task of checking the Chicagoans?" Chicago Daily Observer

Cass Sunstein, next to go?

Let's have a bit more transparency, some sunshine on the Obama appointments, the ones that need confirmation. The crazies--animal rightists, statists, marxists, and Nudge-nuts.

"Cass Sunstein is another of member of President Obama's administration. His nomination to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) has been stuck in committee since June because of his extreme ideas. Sunstein is an advocate of something called libertarian paternalism, which means give people the choice to make their own decisions, but instead of just laying out the facts, control the number of choices, then use knowledge of behavioral sciences (like psychology) to guide them to do what you want. In other words treat the voters the way you treat young children." Yid with a Lid

"Cass Sunstein, President Barack Obama’s nominee to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), has advocated a policy under which the government would “presume” someone has consented to having his or her organs removed for transplantation into someone else when they die unless that person has explicitly indicated that his or her organs should not be taken.

Under such a policy, hospitals would harvest organs from people who never gave permission for this to be done." CNSNews" Should fit nicely with the death panels, right?

"Cass Sunstein, a Harvard Law professor who has been appointed to a shadowy post that will grant him powers that are merely mind-boggling, explicitly supports using the courts to impose a "chilling effect" on speech that might hurt someone's feelings. He thinks that the bloggers have been rampaging out of control and that new laws need to be written to corral them.

Advance copies of Sunstein's new book, "On Rumors: How Falsehoods Spread, Why We Believe Them, What Can Be Done," have gone out to reviewers ahead of its September publication date, but considering the prominence with which Sunstein is about to be endowed, his worrying views are fair game now. Sunstein is President Obama's choice to head the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. It's the bland titles that should scare you the most. . . Czar is too mild a world for what Sunstein is about to become. How about "regulator in chief"? How about "lawgiver"? He is Obama's Obama. Kyle Smith "

"Cass Sunstein says: An example of a little nudge is that Congress should enact very soon a greenhouse gas inventory, by which American citizens see who are the big contributors to the climate change problem. Amazingly, there isn’t a climate—a greenhouse gas inventory. That little nudge, there’s every reason to think, would achieve considerable good, because no company likes to see in the newspaper that it’s one of the worst contributors to the climate change problem. So information disclosure is a really simple, often costless and sometimes very effective nudge." Interview at Democracy Now! [Wow, is that name a stretch!]

Calling the school answering machine

Homosexual adoption update

About 2.5 years ago I wrote about the strange case of the heir of the IBM fortune who had adopted her lover, and then they split up.

Honest, I was looking for the amount of CO2 termites contribute to global warming, and somehow wandered into this strange story of the granddaughter of IBM founder, Thomas Watson, who adopted her adult lesbian partner, then they split, and now about 15 years later, the ex-partner is trying to get herself listed as the 19th grandchild of her ex-lover's biological mother so she can help support her own biological mother, who apparently had no objections to giving her up for adoption. Serves the greedy little twit right if she loses her suit. Serves the flaky IBM granddaughter right if she loses in court to her ex-lover. Some people give adoption a bad name. Some people give women a bad name. Some people give money lust a bad name. Some do all three.
Posted by Norma at 3/19/2007

Today I checked to see what had happened. A lot. Court rulings. Reversals by a higher court. I wonder if this will go higher?

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled on July 23 that the adoption of Patricia Spado by her then-same-sex-partner, Olive Watson, in 1991 was valid, reversing a Probate Court ruling that had threatened to derail Spado’s attempt to claim a portion of the trust established by Thomas J. Watson, Jr., son of the founder of International Business Machines (IBM). Adoption of Patricia S., 2009 WL 2195428. Full story here.

Archivist or Librarian--does anyone care?

"On July 28, President Obama announced his intent to nominate David S. Ferriero to the position of Archivist of the United States. Mr. Ferriero currently serves as the Andrew W. Mellon Director of the New York Public Libraries (NYPL). Mr. Ferriero succeeds Professor Allen Weinstein who resigned as Archivist last December." National Coalition for History

Well, he's not an archivist, and as a librarian I can tell you these are different specialties, but it's much closer than the Librarian of Congress ever came to being a librarian. And closer than the last guy, Allen Weinstein who had been a history professor, writer, editor and head of a think tank/non-profit. These position usually don't change with the administration but he has Parkinson's Disease and cited ill health. It's probably just a title and I wish him well. To the victor belongs the archives. And the appointments.

And it requires confirmation! Since none of the czars do, and they will affect our lives far more than this position, it's time to demand a little sunlight on them. There are plenty more Van Joneses in the O-Administration; besides it sounds like he's just moved on over to John Podesta's Center for American Progress Action Fund. Sandy Berger's daughter works there. He definitely had a strong NARA connection. (He's the guy who stole the documents from the Archives and stuffed them in his socks.) See Guide to the Political Left for information on CAP.

Only Americans can save the economy

Stop waiting for the President to do something. Stop applying for phony "shovel ready" stimulus money (as of yesterday less than 14% had been spent by federal agencies).

1. Go out and buy something from a local business today. Skip the internet.
2. If you are in business, put an advertisement in a local newspaper or magazine or TV channel.
3. Take the kids to the zoo or go to a movie and then out for ice cream.
4. To to the lumber yard or hardware store and buy that item to do the home repair you've been promising.
5. Leave bigger tips--bus boys pay rent too, you know.
6. Buy school supplies for a low income family at the neighborhood five and dime dollar or drug store.
7. Have a party--invite the neighbors.
8. Put $5 more in the collection plate next Sunday.
9. Buy stock in an American company whose products you know and trust.
10. And if you live in a state like Ohio that is proposing more gambling to bring in jobs, consider the fall out, the outside interests, and cost of social problems before you vote.

Off shore drilling, the rest of the story

I saw a reference to this in my cousin’s last weekly letter, and thought it quite interesting. You may not agree, but let’s agree we’re only hearing one side from the environmentalists. Offshore Oil Drilling: An Environmental Bonanza By Humberto Fontova. Excerpts:

"Environmentalists" wake up in the middle of the night sweating and whimpering about offshore oil platforms only because they've never seen what's under them. Louisiana produces almost 30 per cent of America's commercial fisheries. Only Alaska (ten times the size of the Bayou state) produces slightly more. So obviously, Louisiana's coastal waters are immensely rich and prolific in seafood. These same coastal waters contain 3,200 of the roughly 3,700 offshore production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. These oil production platforms off the Bayou state's coasts also extract 80 percent of the oil and 72 percent of the natural gas produced in the Continental U.S., without causing a single major oil spill in half a century of this process. This record stands despite dozens of hurricanes -- including the two most destructive in North American history, Camille and Katrina -- repeatedly battering the drilling and production structures. So for those interested in evidence over hysterics, by simply looking bayou-ward, a lesson in the "environmental perils" of offshore oil drilling presents itself very clearly. Fashionable Florida, on the other hand, which zealously prohibits offshore oil drilling, had its gorgeous "Emerald Coast" panhandle beaches soiled by an ugly oil spill in 1976. This spill, as almost all oil spills, resulted from the transportation of oil -- not from the extraction of oil. Assuming such as Hugo Chavez deign to keep selling us oil, we'll need increasingly more and we'll need to keep transporting it stateside -- typically to refineries in Louisiana and Texas. This path takes those tankers (as the one in 1976) smack in front of Florida's panhandle beaches. Recall the Valdez, the Cadiz, the Argo Merchant. These were all tanker spills. The production of oil is relatively clean and safe. Again, it's the transportation that presents the greatest risk. And even these spills (though hyped hysterically as environmental catastrophes) always play out as minor blips, those pictures of oil-soaked seagulls notwithstanding. To the horror and anguish of professional greenies, Alaska's Prince William Sound recovered completely. More birds get fried by landing on power lines and smashed to pulp against picture windows in one week than perished from three decades of oil spills."

But then, I never thought it was about safety, bio-diversity, wildlife, fish, etc. Did you? It's about shutting down the economy, about not using petroleum at all, for any reason.

Please sneeze in your sleeves

Alice’s e-mail from the University of Nebraska has been coming to me for well over 10 years. I don’t know if there is a “real” Alice or not, but she always has good things to say about food, nutrition, health and safety. This month she had a number of humorous videos on hand washing.

I liked this one the best. It’s from the Maine Medical Association (c2005). If you are Obamaphobic, you don’t have to worry. The sneeze in your sleeve message has been going around for a long time. But they are right--it's a difficult concept when you've been taught all your life to use your hand or a Kleenex.



Some of the videos showed proper hand washing technique, but most left the water running the whole time. Isn't that a bit wasteful? Will it be the Greenies against the germophobes? I think "passing the peace" at church will probably evolve to a shoulder or hip bump. And I'm sure many of the old time Lutherans will be happy to stop that frivolous act of fellowship. I saw in the paper the French are giving up cheek kissing, too.

With a midwestern twang

Obama stuttered through this challenge in today's Labor Day speech in Cincinnati:

"I've got a question for all these folks who say, you know, we're going to pull the plug on Grandma and this is all about illegal immigrants -- you've heard all the lies," Obama said. "I've got a question for all those folks: What are you going to do? What's your answer? What's your solution?

"And you know what? They don't have one."

An out and out lie. Only about 15 million citizens (not 47 million) are without health insurance and no one is denied access. Those trumped up numbers include illegals, people between jobs, people who could buy it but don't, and people who are already eligible for government care and are having trouble applying (which can sometimes create 4 years of documentation and expensive lawyer fees to get declared disabled). He just flat out ignores all the other possibilities, like creating more competition by allowing sales across state lines for health insurance; the tort reform that Democrats run from because of their lawyer buddies (did lawyers write all these rules and lobby for this bill?); reduction of federal mandates that few people need; and reducing fraud and waste in Medicaid and Medicare and SCHIP; kick out the lobbyists, like you promised.

Your turn Mr. President. Take the plugs out of your ears. You'll hear lots of solutions.

Finger wagging from the White House

"Changing its tactics in the health-care debate, the White House has begun stressing the moral imperative to provide health insurance to all Americans. "I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper," President Obama now argues. "And in the wealthiest nation on earth right now, we are neglecting to live up to that call." But Obama is just plain wrong that America is neglecting its obligations to the most vulnerable. The real health-care problem is not moral but structural and systemic.

We already spend hundreds of billions of dollars every year providing health care to the elderly, through Medicare, and to the poor, through Medicaid. The first of these programs—which, experts estimate, may squander up to $60 billion every year in waste, fraud, and abuse—is running a staggering, and unsustainable, long-term deficit of $38 trillion. The second is in even worse shape, with a 2006 survey finding that as many as half of all physicians have either stopped accepting new Medicaid patients or limited the number they'll see because reimbursements are so low. On paper, poor patients have great government insurance; their only problem is that they can't find a doctor." Continue reading at City Journal, It's the system.

No narrative

That's why Obama is in free fall.

"No narrative. Obama doesn't have a narrative. No, not a narrative about himself. He has a self-narrative, much of it fabricated, cleverly disguised or written by someone else. But this self-narrative is isolated and doesn't connect with us. He doesn't have an American narrative that draws upon the rest of us. All successful presidents have a narrative about the American character that intersects with their own where they display a command of history and reveal an authenticity at the core of their personality that resonates in a positive endearing way with the majority of Americans. We admire those presidents whose narratives not only touch our own, but who seem stronger, wiser, and smarter than we are. Presidents we admire are aspirational peers, even those whose politics don't align exactly with our own: Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, Harry Truman, Ike, Reagan.

But not this president. It's not so much that he's a phony, knows nothing about economics, is historically illiterate, and woefully small minded for the size of the task-- all contributory of course. It's that he's not one of us. And whatever he is, his profile is fuzzy and devoid of content, like a cardboard cutout made from delaminated corrugated paper. Moreover, he doesn't command our respect and is unable to appeal to our own common sense. His notions of right and wrong are repugnant and how things work just don't add up. They are not existential. His descriptions of the world we live in don't make sense and don't correspond with our experience." Geoffrey P. Hunt, American Thinker

Oh, he has a narrative all right. I read it all the time in editorials of professional and academic journals and see and hear it from the talking heads of the MSM. But it's not personal and doesn't connect with you and me; but does with many. It's the drumbeat narrative of the left--America suffers spiritually and psychologically under capitalism; we're like a Soros funded bad movie--a sinister influence in the world; the War on Terror is a fraud; terrorists are misunderstood freedom fighters; markets are fundamentally unjust. Americans distrust their government and authority in general; we reject universal health care because we are mean and opportunistic; we are immoral to care about the individual; we care about outcomes and investments and don't see society as a whole. Americans are bad because they rebel against their Mother--Earth. Only America and Somalia have rejected the UN convention on the Rights of Children, yada yada. A just society depends on collective wisdom. Castro is a good, kind decent man who only took property from the rich to elevate the poor workers, and it was rightfully theirs. Chavez too. Just an old sweety. The unborn and the elderly cannot contribute to the greater good and are therefore expendable. Only community should be considered, never money or financial gain for the individual (bureaucrats and politicians excepted, of course). Only national leadership in all sectors of society and morality can pull us out of our ethical cesspool of aggression and outdated biblical beliefs of right and wrong.

Oh yes, there's a narrative all right, and unfortunately Mr. Hunt, it resonates with a lot of Americans who still support him and who will insist you're talking about his race and not culture or beliefs or character.

Cap and Trade--what a nice gift for workers--lost jobs

"The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis found that, for the average year over the 2012-2035 timeline, job losses will be 1.1 million greater than without a cap and trade bill. By 2035, there is a projected 2.5 million fewer jobs below the baseline. Some of these jobs will be destroyed completely. Others will move overseas where carbon capping isn’t in their country’s agenda and therefore the cost of production is cheaper.

We’re not the only ones who project unemployment from cap and trade. The Brookings Institute, for instance, projects that cap-and-trade will increase unemployment by 0.5% in the first decade below the baseline. Using U.S. Census population projection estimates, that’s equivalent to about 1.7 million fewer jobs than without cap-and-trade. A study done by Charles River Associates prepared for the National Black Chamber of Congress projects increases in unemployment by 2.3-2.7 million jobs in each year of the policy through 2030–after accounting for “green job” creation."

Happy thoughts for Labor Day from President Reagan

As the unemployment rate soars (9.7% and some areas of Michigan and Ohio would be thrilled with that figure), and jobs are not being created, it's time to look at a stimulus that really did work. Notice. If Obama wants to improve health, he should first correct the continued downward spiral of this economy, the worst in 26 years. Job insecurity and unemployment are not good for health. If he just wants to take over more of the private sector, he should continue on his current course.

"Common sense told us that when you put a big tax on something, the people will produce less of it. So, we cut the people's tax rates, and the people produced more than ever before. The economy bloomed like a plant that had been cut back and could now grow quicker and stronger. Our economic program brought about the longest peacetime expansion in our history: real family income up, the poverty rate down, entrepreneurship booming, and an explosion in research and new technology. We're exporting more than ever because American industry became more competitive. And at the same time, we summoned the national will to knock down protectionist walls abroad instead of erecting them at home." . . .

"Ours was the first revolution in the history of mankind that truly reversed the course of government, and with three little words: "We the people." "We the people" tell the government what to do, it doesn't tell us. "We the people" are the driver, the government is the car. And we decide where it should go, and by what route, and how fast. Almost all the world's constitutions are documents in which governments tell the people what their privileges are. Our Constitution is a document in which "We the people" tell the government what it is allowed to do. "We the people" are free. This belief has been the underlying basis for everything I've tried to do these past eight years."

Ronald Reagan Farewell speech, Jan. 11, 1989.

It looks like we the people, the citizen politicians, have some work to do. Or we won't be a beacon much longer.

Using MS Paint to draw

I've done really simply lines using MS Paint, usually to figure out perspective; but this sketch of a woman (see link) is amazing. Of course, it is a big help to be a good artist to begin with, but this shows what can be done with a simple program (came with my last 3 computers). The trick is knowing when to let up on the mouse and have an extremely steady hand (I don't).

http://sketchingdrawing.com/?p=20

This artist has many instructional videos and well worth the look for all my artsy readers.

The H1N1 Pandemic?

It seems we have a pandemic because the definition of pandemic was changed?

"Before the arrival of novel A/H1N1 virus, pandemics were said to occur when a new subtype of influenza virus to which humans have no immunity enters the population, begins spreading widely, and causes severe illness . . . But the 2009 pandemic, taken as a whole, bears little resemblance to the forecasted pandemic. Pandemic A/H1N1 virus is not a new subtype but the same subtype as seasonal A/H1N1 that has been circulating since 1977. . . Experts are unsure that the 2009 pandemic—which the World Health Organization presently characterises as moderate—will be any worse than seasonal flu." from article by Peter Doshi, doctor student, MIT, BMJ 2009;339:b3471

HT Junkfood Sciene

What did you do this summer?

Almost too much to think about it--especially, since I probably missed about half of the programming! It wears me out to think of it, so I'd better blog before I forget. Last night Kevin said there had been 90 days of programming at Lakeside. Somewhere I saw a note that Rhein Center had about 6,000 signed up for classes. So here's what I did, other than the 70 sunrise walks (and 3 sunsets), and I didn't do everything there was to do--don't have that much energy. Like during Health and Wellness week I was too tired to go to the lecture on Fatigue. Also, sometimes my husband was sailing when I was at seminars or lectures:

SEMINARS

Ohio Week
Canal Craze, Randall Buchman
Ohio and Erie Canal, Randall Buchman
Miami and Erie Canal, Peter Wilheim
Milan Canal, Ken Dickson
History of Tofts Dairy, Eugene Meisler (with Moose Tracks samples)

Civil War Week
Lincoln and his Admirals, Craig Symonds
Battle of Mobile Bay, Craig Symonds
Religion and Faith in the Civil War, Fr. Robert J. Miller
God's storm troops, the Jesuits, Fr. Robert J. Miller
Civil War sketch artists, Ken Bach

American Writers and Composers
Aaron Copland
Mark Twain
Some of the evening programing fit this theme too
I had a lot of conflicts with arts classes that week

Interfaith Week--lectures on Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity
I only attended Gene Swanger's Buddhism lecture--had conflicts with arts classes. Also attended Gene's lecture on ancient Greek insights during another week. I'd go to hear him give a weather report.

Peace and Justice Week
Topics on moral theology, global issues, juvenile justice, sustainability, malnutrition, none of which I attended, as I was busy with some tours, and I think that was also the week Gretchen did her talk on Aprons

Great Lakes
Shipwrecks--Anthony Wayne and Cortland
History of Passenger Travel
U.S. Coast Guard Temporary Reserve during WWII

Hot Button Issues--didn't attend--topics were terrorism, immigration, globalization, etc.

Health and Wellness week
Integrative medicine, Laura Kunze
Health Maintenance, John Weigand
Future of Medicine, John Weigand
Exercise, Kitty Consolo
Nutrition for healthy seniors

China (M-W)--attended all lectures by Kerry Dumbaugh--I think there were five
Astronomy (W-F) attended all by Dr. Thomas Statler and wife of Ohio University, 4 or 5

Sports and Faith
Lord's Day-Eric Liddell, Greg Linville
Biblical defense of sports, Greg Linville
Coaching today's students, Sue Ramsey, women's basketball coach at Ashland U.

MUSIC, most of these were in Hoover Auditorium at 8:15, some on the lakefront on Sundays, or early evening. Hoover also has many non-music programs, like acrobats, comedians, ventriloquists, but usually I don't go to those.

Dwight Lenox--tribute to Lou Rawls
Terra College Harpist group
Barbershop Festival, 60th
Corky Siegal & Chamber Blues
Jay Ungar & Molly Mason Family Band
Johnny Knorr Orchestra
Lakeside Symphony (I think there 8 performances) included Jean Geis Stell, pianist, a Lincoln portrait (Copeland) during Civil War Week, an opera, Don Pasquale, ballet Point of Departure
Hoagy Carmichael tribute
Black Wire (strings)
Debbie Boone
Matt Dusk (Canadian singer)
Air Force Band
Von Trapp Family Singers (great grandchildren of Maria)
OSU Alumni Band
Leahy (Canadian siblings)
Melissa Manchester
Phil Keaggy and Fernando Ortega
Glenn Miller Orchestra
Lima Marimba Ensemble
Pantasia Steel Drum Band from Findley, Ohio
Kings Brass
Mike Albert--Big E--very popular Elvis impersonator
Hey Mavis--Ed Caner
Pavlo
Chapter 6
Lowe Family
Dave Bennett--in the style of Benny Goodman
Beatitudes Cantata by Mike Shirtz

REENACTORS--this is a great way to enjoy history or biography

Anthony Gibbs--U.S. Colored troops, Civil War
Eleanor Smith--Helen Noye Hoyt, Civil War nurse
Karen Vuranch--she did Pearl Buck and Clara Barton 2 different weeks
Marvin Cole--Mark Twain

ART CLASSES at the Rhein Center

Watercolor with Robert Moyer
Watercolor with John Behling
Drawing with Geddes Levenson
Pastel with Joan Garverick
and I also took at class in English sonnets, with Steve Ricard which I blogged about, at the Rhein Center

MISCELLANEOUS

Guided bird walks (4)
Herb classes (7) and events, a tea, blending and making tea, and tour of an herb farm
Walking tours with guide of Lakeside (2)
Guided tree walk (identified 36 trees, I think)
Nest egg seminar (1); there was a whole series, but usually during my nap time
Heritage Society lectures (2)
Chaplain's Hour (1)
Lakefront worship (9), Dr. Irwin Jennings
Hoover worship (1), Cantata
Antique Show, 49th
Drama, "Sword of the Spirit" about John and Mary Brown
Community theater, "Cheaper by the Dozen"
Gladiolus show
Art Show
Photography Show
Antique auto show
July 4 fireworks
Country Dance in the street
Adirondack Chair auction
Reception at home of Trustees President
Women's Club program on Aprons
Movies (3)
Tour guide for Hotel Open house
Lecture on trees of Lakeside, Bill Smith

EATING OUT!

The Garden in Port Clinton
Bruno's in Marblehead
Avery's in Marblehead
The Patio in Lakeside (9)
Hotel Lakeside Cafe
Society of Old Salts Picnic
Ice cream social and band concert at the Hotel
Breakfast at Idlewyld B & B

And I read four books (Yancey, Wenger, Lewis, Morgan) and some essays and magazines on Ohio, because I have a nice little collection of Ohio books at the lake that I don't have at home. Usually I walked 4-6 miles a day, not much biking this year. Four week-ends we had guests and that was a lot of fun since some had never been to Lakeside.

Jones is just the tip of the iceberg

How many Czars? In Russian it means Caesar. Van Jones? One black conservative blogger called him the "Watermelon Man," green on the outside and red on the inside. Besides, all that green talk hurts minorities the most. As does marxism in general where ever it's been tried.

"Not since the administration of Franklin Roosevelt has an American president appointed a known communist to such a high position in the federal government. Not only is Green Jobs Czar Jones an avowed Marxist, he has joined together with such certifiable leftist loonies as Cynthia McKinney, Ralph Nader, and Howard Zinn in signing the 9/11 Truth Statement, and expressing his belief that the 9/11 attacks on New York’s World Trade Center was “an inside job,” involving a conspiracy within the administration of George W. Bush. He has acquiesced in the claim that the government response to Hurricane Katrina was a Bush conspiracy, as well, and that the levees may have been dynamited as part of some sinister plot." Thomas McAdam

"When Ronald Regan was president, he appointed 3 Czars, over 8 years. George W. Bush appointed 14 in 8 years. In his first one-half year, Obama has appointed 34 Czars. At this rate, we can anticipate 272 Czars in Obama’s fist term; and 544 Czars if he lasts two terms. Lots of grist for your Louisville City Hall Examiner’s mill. Mne nuzhna praktikovat’sa v Russkam." Also McAdam in the same article which lists all the czars' names. I think the transliteration says, I need to practice my Russian.

Update: I just read that Jones has resigned. I'm sure he'll hang around in the background, because after all, it's all just a smear campaign. Someone made up all those words and past events of his life! "On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me," Jones said in his resignation statement. "They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide."

Don't relax folks. There's more where he came from. These are the kind of people Obama has surrounded himself with his entire life--even as a child with his mother's friends. Pulling up one weed doesn't guarantee a harvest.

Why you need an independent guidance group for end times

Who would that be--the group that Obama said in April you needed to help you make decisions about end of life. Well, maybe his chief medical advisor, Ezekiel Emanuel.

"Someone like Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, health advisor to Obama, and Zeke's brother Rahm, who loves to hurl thunderbolts from Mount Olympus and bully freshman congressmen. They and their ilk will give us "guidance" about who is worthwhile, who is ready to die, who shall live a week or two longer. Zeke is a Harvard academic who is arrogant enough to believe that he can change human nature and decide the most intimate and complex of human issues -- those of life and death. The man, a bona fide MD, clearly prefers writing bushels of words about what's good or bad for society to caring for people and being responsible for suffering patients. The soft-spoken arrogance and vanity of this administration is sometimes stunning.

Dr. Emanuel thinks health care must be distributed according to the group to which an individual belongs. Valued groups include young and healthy persons, and favored racial and gender groups. Those of less value, of course, are those with medical problems and the elderly.

According to Emanuel's "Complete Life" plan, society's scarce resources should be spent mostly on those under 40 years of age. ["Unlike allocation by sex or race, allocation by age is not invidious discrimination. . . . Treating 65 year olds differently because of stereotypes or falsehoods would be ageist; treating them differently because they have already had more life-years is not." Dr. Emamuel, Lancet, Jan. 31, 2009] Old folks get what's left over as determined by him and his ilk. How they will make their decisions is not at all clear." American Thinker.

Let's be nice to condemned murderers, terrorists, and abortionists. Those old timers need to go. They've lived their time. It's the liberal, caring way.

Why bother going to college?

Or getting an advanced degree, or filing a law suit when you can just lie about it? Rapper/Doctor Roxanne Shanté's house of cards collapses. If investigators can find out so much about an obscure has-been musician from the 80s, why is it so tough to get college records for politicians? But she apparently did attend some college for 3 months. Not quite the PhD she claims.

Should Presidents talk to school children?

Libertarians, Democrats, some Republicans and Socialist/Progressives/Communists were horrified that George W. Bush was reading to school children on 9/11. I wasn't. He is a big reader of history and biography (despite his enemies' claim he's an illiterate boob) and his wife is a former school librarian (whom the hypocritical, liberal librarians tried to boycott at the NOLA ALA). I didn't really have an opinion--still don't. But where are those critics today with Obama planning to be piped into classrooms nationwide with lesson plans, no less, by-passing school boards and superintendents. I think it's a bad idea from his handlers-- 1) he's way over exposed, 2) besides a swiveling head with eyes glued to the teleprompter that's very annoying, he's lost that lovely "blackcent" that white liberals loved during the campaign, and 3) few audiences are more fickle than children who often want to do just the opposite of what an authority figure says.

Releasing children from the class routine to watch the inauguration was quite appropriate. It was an historic moment. They did that for us for Eisenhower back in the 50s. However, if he wants to see what goes on in the classroom, he needs to actually visit public schools and meet the children face to face. Afterall, his girls go to private school and it's probably not the same.

That said, I think conservative groups need to focus on major problems, like the scandal of his czars, his economic plan that is killing us with trillions of debt and take-overs of business, his hostility toward everything this country has stood for in the past, and his "no victory" war plans for the future. Let's skip the kid stuff.

Good works among Christians--a bit of history

As I've noted several times at this blog and my other blog, I believe churches have compromised their message and mission by taking money from the state and federal governments to run their programs. There was very poor oversite of this during the Bush (1 and 2) and Clinton years, and probably before. One only has to review the very early years of the USDA's food surplus programs--originally intended to help farmers--in which food pantries (most run by churches which had soup kitchens during the Depression) have participated for over 60 years. Once there was no more surplus to distribute, tax money was used with church volunteers doing the management. Obama has promised to tighten any religious connections--another promise he'll probably keep if the Georgetown speech is any indication.

The following item is about a tiny church with a tiny program, all of which was supported by church members, not the government, and which probably had very little waste or corruption. I'm posting it (originally an e-mail) because it combines 1) a book I was reading this morning by A.C. Wieand, 2) my interest in first issues of serials, 3) my interest in genealogy, and my early years in the Church of the Brethren (my own baptism, as well as that of my parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents). I found this in cleaning out my webmail box this morning, written to someone who asked about a photograph of nursing students taking the train from Oregon, IL to Mt. Morris, IL during WWI to attend a program at Mt. Morris College.

I have a copy of the Bethany Bible School Evangel, vol. 1, 1921 which gives many of the names of the graduates and classes beginning with about 1909 (opened in 1905). I looked through it and didn't see any of those names. However, I know that there were training institutes held at Bethany that weren't part of the curriculum because my grandparents attended. I'm sure there's a better history than what I have, but the original building was President Emanuel Hoff's home on Hastings, and then several buildings were built but there continued to be a Hastings St. Mission. On p. 55, "All who knew the crowded condition of the Hastings Street Mission will be glad to know that the situation has been temporarily relieved by the purchase of another building. Through this additional building, it is hoped that some of the many boys and girls who have been turned away in the past may be given an opportunity to attend the classes. . .[these are listed as] knitting, basketry,
handwork, printing and wireless telegraphy. Classes have been organized among the Polish and Bohemian mothers. They are being taught cooking and sewing. [also listed for this mission] Daily vacation bible school in the summer (many photos), mid-week prayer meetings, junior Christian workers' meetings and junior church services. There was also a Douglas Park Mission, and service opportunities at the County Hospital, the county home (Oak Forest), the police station. A hospital opened on Dec. 31, 1920 called "Bethany Sanitarium and Hospital."** On p. 101 it says "A Nurses' Training Class, offering practical training in caring for the sick, has been offered since 1914. This course has appealed not only to the single sisters but perhaps more mothers have been enrolled in it than in any other course." "While a regular Nurses' Training course cannot be offered in this small insitutiton, as it grows this will no doubt be its largest mission."

The 1905-06 photo shows the 2 founders (Hoff and Wieand) and 33 students. A hand drawn graph on p. 89 shows 375 students in 1919-20, and 350 in 1920-21.

Truly a work of love and following the great commission.

**Land for the original hospital was donated by my great grandfather.

Seventy sunrises

We've been here at Lake Erie for 10 of the last 11 weeks, and I've walked the lakefront every morning at sunrise. I think I needed a jacket only 3 times--the rest of the time was just a long sleeve shirt and sweat pants. I didn't always have my camera, but when I didn't I always regretted it--each sunrise is different, and the September is about an hour later than the late June. First I was watching the 6 o'clock ferry from Marblehead to Kelley's, then the 7 o'clock. I wasn't alone; I saw the gate keepers arrive, dog walkers, freighters, sail boats, fishermen, kayak, coffee drinkers, Bible readers, lovers, coast guard maneuvers, families of mallards swimming and purple martins breakfasting, feral cats and an occasional skunk and bat. Only once did I get caught in a shower, and it was brief. The big storms seemed to be in the evening.

I'd rather be sailing

This is from the musical, “The New Brain,” written by William Finn, and the musical is autobiographical. It is sung here by Kevin Smith Kirkwood, but there are other versions on the internet. A few years ago my apple pie won a prize--sailing lessons, which I didn't use, but my husband did. Now our Lakeside time revolves around sailing, the wind, the sun, is the flag up, and biking down to the lake every 15 minutes to check. He absolutely loves it.



Synopsis from Wikipedia: "Gordon Schwinn, a talented young songwriter, works at his piano to meet a deadline. Gordon is irritated because he must write a song about Spring for a children's television entertainer who dresses as a frog. He takes a break from his writing and meets his agent Rhoda at a restaurant for pasta. During lunch, Gordon clutches his head and falls face first into his meal. Rhoda calls an ambulance, and Gordon is taken to the hospital. He learns that he has an arteriovenous malformation. Gordon needs an operation, and if he doesn't have it, he could die or never regain the use of his faculties.

While in the hospital, Gordon contemplates his situation. His greatest fear is dying with his greatest songs still inside of him; and so from his hospital bed, and while in a coma, and all throughout his ordeal, he begins writing the songs. He also has several hallucinations that involve various people whom he has encountered. In particular, a homeless lady that he met on his way to get pasta with Rhoda continually pops up.

Gordon eventually has the surgery and recovers completely. The creative block he was experiencing before his ordeal lifts, and he gains new insights. His near death experience encourages him to re-evaluate and better appreciate the people and relationships in his life."

A Cowboy Named Bud

You don't have to be a Conservative to enjoy this joke; it's beyond politics. And it's going around. Charlie Rowland, a talented watercolorist, sent me this version. No source was noted, and I haven't looked.


"A cowboy named Bud was overseeing his herd in a remote mountainous pasture in California when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced toward him out of a cloud of dust.

The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, RayBan sunglasses and YSL tie, leaned out the window and asked the cowboy, "If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, Will you give me a calf?"

Bud looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing herd and calmly answers, "Sure, Why not?"

The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, connects it to his Cingular RAZR V3 cell phone, and surfs to a NASA page on the Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo.

The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany. Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored. He then accesses an MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, receives a response.

Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi- tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer, turns to the cowboy and says, "You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves."

"That's right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves," says Bud.

He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on with amusement as the young man stuffs it into the car trunk and says "I like this one; it's a little different and seems smarter than the others".

Then the Bud says to the young man, "Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my calf?"

The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, "Okay, why not?"

"You're a Congressman for the U.S. Government", says Bud.

"Wow! That's correct," says the yuppie, "but how did you guess that?"

"No guessing required," answered the cowboy. "You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked. You used millions of dollars worth of equipment trying to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you don't know a thing about how working people make a living - or about cows, for that matter.

This is a herd of sheep. ..

Now give me back my dog." "

HR 3200 and Marriage and Family

It seems page 838 of HR 3200 is a popular Google search--where young children and families expecting children are discussed. The alarm is spreading through conservative sites. Yes, it stinks to the high heaven of government heavy nosed snooping. However, this isn’t new to the Obama people. Follow the money back through the previous 3 administrations. It started to smell 2 decades ago, maybe before.

The federal government has been aware since the Clinton administration research publicized it that unmarried families are far more likely to be dysfunctional and living in poverty, so that does make marriage a legitimate concern. A woman who has not finished her schooling, who has her children before age 21, and doesn’t marry the father of her children, has a very good chance of becoming the responsibility of the taxpayer (and yes, that includes the Palin family), and Uncle Sam is not a generous, kind step-father. Yes, there are exceptions--usually when the grandparents take over as in our current president's case. The Bush administration carelessly threw money into the marriage consulting and advice business with very little oversite--whether it went to ACORN or Lutherans or Agnostics, made little difference, millions of tax dollars went to workshops, research and publications that probably amounted to little except paying the salaries of quasi-government workers in academe, churches, non-profits and state children‘s agencies.

That said, co-habitation before marriage (a k a "living together," "shacking-up") is not just a one way street to poverty, it is dangerous for women and children, and doesn’t result in strong marriages, according to the Rutgers’ National Marriage Project (I haven't checked their funding, but I'm guessing it came from us taxpayers, so you might as well take a look.)

"It is important to note that the great majority of children in unmarried-couple households were born not in the present union but in a previous union of one of the adult partners, usually the mother. This means that they are living with an unmarried “stepfather” or mother’s boyfriend, with whom the economic and social relationships are often tenuous. For example, unlike children in stepfamilies, these children have few legal claims to child support or other sources of family income should the couple separate.

Child abuse has become a major national problem and has increased dramatically in recent years, by more than 10% a year according to one estimate. In the opinion of most researchers, this increase is related strongly to changing family forms. Surprisingly, the available American data do not enable us to distinguish the abuse that takes place in married-couple households from that in cohabiting couple households. We do have abuse-prevalence studies that look at stepparent families (both married and unmarried) and mother’s boyfriends (both cohabiting and dating). Both show far higher levels of child abuse than is found in intact families.

In general, the evidence suggests that the most unsafe of all family environments for children is that in which the mother is living with someone other than the child’s biological father. This is the environment for the majority of children in cohabiting couple households."

The best thing President Obama can do for women, children and the institution of marriage is remain true to his wife, children and marriage vows and set a good example, particular for black men, whose communities are filled with female headed households and absent men. The Obamas are a beautiful family with a lot of pressure. It’s not easy to live in a fish bowl, and although Michelle comes from a middle-class, intact family, he doesn’t, which increases the risk greatly.

Gambling in Ohio--Issue 3, guest blog

What can I say? Nothing good, and that's a fact. I hope the voters say no in November. Gambling is a tax on the poor; it makes former Methodist pastors who become governors greedy hypocrites; it brings with it a number of social and economic problems which kicks the cost problem down the road; and oddly enough, a major financial drain on casinos is the money spent on replacing the cushions on stools in front of slot machines--people won’t get up from machines even to go to the bathroom, so yes, it is indeed addictive. Former Governor George Voinovich says it's better to raise taxes than rely on gambling to pay the bills. Buckeye RINO has this to say on the topic.

"In theory, we can all govern ourselves, with no need for government structures beyond self. In reality, governing ourselves creates dilemmas for no one is an island unto themselves, and the free exercise of one's liberty will often interfere with the free exercise of another person's liberty, thus we create government structures beyond self.

In theory, the consequences of actions accrue to the individual that decided upon those actions. Reality is much messier. The decisions of individuals reap consequences that are far-reaching in scope.

As applied to gambling: In theory, there is no need for intervention. Individuals can govern themselves. If they ruin themselves by gambling, they have only themselves to blame. In reality, gambling is not a solitary pursuit. If one engages in gambling, others must be involved. Therefore, there is need for governing principles beyond self. Furthermore, when ruin results from gambling, the ruin is not confined to the persons who participated in gambling. The costs are socialized whether one wishes them to be, or not. Intervention is sought for these reasons.

Gambling is not an exchange in the sense of a stock trade. What instruments of value are being exchanged in gambling? The gambler is defrauded, and his wealth plundered. The gambler receives nothing of value, so there is no exchange. This is piracy.

There is a set admission price for entering Cedar Point. Consumers know in advance what they will be paying for the entertainment they receive. The transactions of an amusement park are open and transparent. Likewise for a video game arcade, there is advance knowledge of what one pays and what entertainment one will receive in exchange. Open and transparent. Gamblers have no idea how much "entertainment" they will receive for a set price. Conceivably one gambler can be entertained all day for $20, while another will lose that same $20 within seconds. Casinos are thieves that try to seize all that they can. Casinos are not open, not transparent, which is why they are the preferred venue for money laundering.

Somali pirates create jobs. Nigerian scammers create jobs. Of course casinos create jobs, but the jobs that are created are not the product of newly created wealth. They are parasitic jobs that feed off the plundered wealth that others created. Similarly, taxes, which are confiscated wealth that others created, also fund jobs. But just as we cannot tax our society into prosperity, we cannot gamble our society into prosperity. Producers are the wealth creators, and casinos aren't producers.

I believe that laws against scams, fraud, theft, and piracy are legitimate exercises of government power."

You can read his blog here.

NIMFY--Not in my front yard

It seems I’m destined to be the lone voice shouting into the wind that highly visible trash cans and recycling containers intended to improve the environment cause ugly visual pollution. I got absolutely nowhere complaining that our large suburban church put its Abitibi Consolidated Paper Bins (bright green and yellow) virtually in the front yard of the Mill Run Church, and is almost as obvious at the Lytham Road campus.

This year Lakeside has started a recyclable program with each cottage owner being charged $60 a year to have an extremely large, bright blue rolling container --where? Our properties in some areas are small--about 30’ wide, with driveways, set backs, landscaping, and garden sheds or garages which hold boats, bicycles, and junk. So guess where the trash and recyclable containers are? Either at the street for several days between pick-ups, or sitting in the front or side yard. At one place I stopped today I counted at least 10 trash cans from where I stood and Thursday isn‘t a pick up day. Sometimes it’s a renter problem. The renter checks out on Saturday, puts the trash at the street (we don’t have curbs), and it is not picked up until Tuesday morning. If the cottage isn’t occupied the next week, the trash cans may sit there for days, or until a neighbor drags it to the side of the house, where it’s only slightly less obvious. If I were to replace every trash can I see on my morning walks, I'd be gone 4 hours instead of 30 minutes. Some containers have a permanent home in the front yard. Since writing about garages, I’ve seen plenty of garages and sheds that could be used to hold the containers, but no one thinks of it. It would also keep the raccoons and skunks under control. Our shed is tiny, and so is our lot, but I've seen cottages with 3 sheds, a garage, and the trash cans in front. Our "big blue" is just as obvious as everyone elses, but it's not at the street.

One of the oldest streets, lots of room in the rear

One of the newest streets, beautiful paving and landscaping; no plan for trash

President Hayes once stayed here; the trash can never moves

Not a good first impression for a potential buyer

This is a park, so even the Association is careless

25 styles of blogging

Here's one for those of you who think you can't write a blog, or who just go anonymously to write comments at those blogs you don't like. 25 basic styles of blogging . I do most of them--some several times a day! Life blogging. Piggyback blogging. Guest Blogs. Memes. Events. Book reviews. And so forth. I didn't know anyone was keeping track or naming these styles. Must be librarians.

I came across the More Things on a Stick web site while poking around the topic "digital storytelling." I'd like to explain why this is important in academe, but haven't been able to figure out why it is all the rage. There was a workshop at Ohio State this summer. A former colleague, Karen Diaz, has written a book on its use in libraries. I can't learn anything in 2-3 minutes, especially not on video.

My grandmother Mary was a scrapbooker in childhood--began with pretty postcards and advertisements probably before she could read and then moved on to clipping cute sayings, recipes, and stories and pasting them into the old account books of her father to save on paper. I used her scrapbooks to determine what magazines and newspapers a 19th century farm family read. I would love to be able to lift some and read great-grandfather's farm accounts, but whatever homemade glue she used is like cement. Then my mother kept a "commonplace book" for years in a small 3-ring notebook of items she liked and clipped out of magazines. After her death, my niece Julie photocopied it and so its poetry, cartoons and stories from the 1940s through the 1970s were shared with a wider audience of grandchildren.

And of course, I blog. Eleven, or is it twelve, blogs. But digital story telling? Now that sounds like all work and no fun, and not enough writing.

Suits from central casting

Excerpted From VIN SUPRYNOWICZ: “His [Ted Kennedy] monument stands all around us”

"I was raised a New England Democrat. Far from hating the Kennedys, I suppose I almost worshiped them. I wish John and Bobby had not been killed. Though you would have had to be deaf not to hear older New Englanders note that the family money had come from crime (bootlegging, specifically); that JFK's multiple adulteries (including with Sam Giancana's Mafia moll, Judith Campbell Exner -- in the White House!), creating so much cover-up work for the press and the Secret Service, so disrespectful of the lovely mother of his young children, only echoed his father's famous affair with Hollywood actress Gloria Swanson; that he was asking for trouble when he asked the unions and the mob to help him steal the presidency by rigging the returns in Illinois and West Virginia -- and then turned his back on them, actually siccing his younger brother Bobby on them like an attack dog, as soon as he got elected.

Republicans fail by losing the presidency when they do the sensible thing: nominating old Washington hands like Bob Dole, a perfectly decent fellow who knew the ropes and probably would have made a competent if uninspiring administrator. A "go-along" kind of guy with unarticulated (if any) economic principles who never stood in the path of the profligacies of Ted Kennedy and his ilk, Bob Dole was no hero of mine.

But Democrats do something far more interesting. Democrats fail -- not incrementally but massively, disastrously -- by winning the presidency, which they do by nominating virile younger men in whom Americans see the image of the brave, handsome, smooth-talking, dapper guy they wish they were.

John F. Kennedy was woefully unprepared to be president. His lack of experience and his health problems, so obligingly covered up by a press corps that loved him -- Addison's disease, colitis and back problems so severe he had to wear a brace, possibly caused by his decades-long steroid treatments, while all we got to see was touch football on the beach -- left him woefully inadequate in his summit meetings with Khrushchev in Vienna. Khrushchev read the callow young president as a playboy dilettante and decided he could get away with deploying missiles to Cuba, bringing the world to the brink of war.
Did Kennedy "bravely stand him down," as we were all taught? Kennedy agreed to pull our own missiles out of Turkey. (We're told "they were obsolete, anyway." We won the battle of Guadalcancal with stuff that was more obsolete.) Khrushchev won ... in the short run, which is all the victory a socialist can ever hope for, given that their underlying philosophy will always breed poverty and disaster in the end.

Bill Clinton was of the same mold but worse -- a greedy crook with his hand always out for a check (whether it be a corporation looking for a contract in Little Rock, or the Chinese military seeking our satellite and missile technology), but nonetheless a big, handsome teddy bear of a foul-mouthed multiple adulterer, if not (as I believe) something closer to a serial rapist.

And now the Democrats have given us Barack Obama, a handsome, dapper, smooth-talking, virile younger president who is -- hard as it is to believe -- vastly less qualified for the presidency than John F. Kennedy.

He has no idea he has taken an oath to protect a Constitution that promises us a government of sharply limited powers. (Where in that Constitution does he find any authority for federal bureaucrats to manage auto companies? To meddle in medicine or insurance?) He has no experience commanding even the small military units once officered by JFK or Jimmy Carter -- let alone the mighty administrative experience in matters of life and death once shouldered by Washington, Jackson, Eisenhower.

He has never worked in, let alone managed, a small business that had to meet payroll by selling actual merchandise to actual customers. (At least Harry Truman once sold shirts.) He is the perfect creature of the arrogant leftist academy -- actually believing in the magic power of rhetoric to alter reality, seeing no need to test out such theories on some little hamburger or yogurt stand before attempting to micro-manage the largest economy in the world.

For six months, Barack Obama has had it all his way, with a populace virtually hypnotized into allowing him to advance a far-left agenda learned at the knees of his mother's communist friends, aided by such powerful and privileged yet philosophically hollow allies as Ted Kennedy."

Bob Latta (R-OH) read HR 3200

A reminder for seniors about health

As I've noted before, "you can't beat good genes. That's still the number one factor in good health and a long life, and you didn't have a thing to do with it. If you're still alive tomorrow, give thanks for your parents and grandparents who gave you a good start. My mother died in her 88th year, her brother at 99, her father at 94, and her sister is still going at 92. Dad died at 89, his father at 92, and his grandfather was 88 in 1950 when he died, and one of his daughters (my grandmother's sister) recently died in her 93rd year.

Second, don't smoke;
third, drink alcohol only in moderation, and if you think a 6 pack after work is moderation, you need to relearn the meaning of the word;
fourth, reduce your calories;
and fifth, get some regular exercise."

And then, fight the President and Congress tooth and nail against their take-over of the health care industry. It won't be good health for you, that's for sure.

It's about love

"Lakeside is for lovers" is a phrase I’ve seen on cards, buttons, t-shirts and other memorabilia. And it’s true--and not just for the strolling, hand-holding lovers you see on the dock.

Several years ago I wrote a poem which was published in the weekly newspaper called “The last day of July” about a young couple who met and parted at Lakeside during WWII, planning to see each other the next summer. But it didn’t happen. Finally, when both were great-grandparents some 60 summers later, they met again, but it was the last day of July and their summers were over.

Another type of love I see so often at Lakeside is that of adoptive and foster families. On my corner of Lakeside I’ve seen the American melting pot of special needs and international adoption. Now some of those children are grown and bringing their bi-racial, multi-ethnic children to be Lakesiders too. I saw these children only a few weeks of the year, so their growth and maturity are compressed. First they were toddlers and then it seemed overnight pouty teen-agers with more than the usual identity issues, and now their kids are almost as tall as grandma and grandpa.

At Lakeside I see a love for a past that is often a nostalgic fantasy. In the 70s Lakeside looked to me like the sleepy towns of the 1940s or 1950s, and now it seems to be a spiffy stage set for a 1970s or 1980s TV show, but with i-pods instead of boom boxes and rip rap along the lakefront instead of flat rocks easing into the lake. But it is always “that’s how life used to be” to people who came here as children, like my 92 year old neighbor who began coming when she was 6 months old.

Lakeside has porches often filled with four generations of family--laughing, telling stories on each other, playing monopoly or scrabble. I’ve attended 90th birthday parties and 50th wedding anniversary celebrations for people who were younger than I am now when I met them in our early years at Lakeside. But I’ve also written a poem about a college student who spent the summer riding her bike up and down the streets gazing at the homes where her family used to be--a family now torn up by divorce and scattered, a family that would never again have all those generations together.

On my walks along Lakeside streets (around 100 this summer) I see memorials and plaques for people I didn’t know had died--and family and friends wanted them to remain a part of the community with a tree, or flower bed, or a shelter for a potato digger.

At Lakeside, one can compress a love of learning into a week or a season--environment, Civil War, literature, music, politics, current events, health or finances. We do more and hear more these few weeks than all the rest of the year. I go home to Columbus in September vowing to find similar activities, but as the cold weather and early sunsets descend, I give up on being a Lakeside lover until the next year.

Reagan statue unveiled in Dixon, Illinois

The city of Dixon, Illinois on the Rock River hopes to revitalize the downtown area and has developed "Heritage Crossing Riverfront Plaza." Poet William Cullen Bryant, a proponent of Manhattan’s Central Park, called the Rock River “one of the most beautiful of our western streams,” and Ronald Reagan who was a life guard at near by Lowell Park in 1926, remembered the "Hudson of the Midwest" fondly. On August 14 a statue Reagan, "Begins the Trail" by Dixon native and sculptor Don Reed was unveiled and dedicated. The artist said "he hoped the figure captured some of Reagan’s “energy and warmth” and that residents would be able to “identify with him as someone a lot like us.” Nancy Reagan sent a letter thanking the city, and said "Ronnie would be pleased." The statue "depicts the future California governor and two-term president of the United States as a 39-year-old movie star riding a horse in a hometown parade, prior to his entry into politics." (All information from various editions of saukvalley.com) Another account reports that the dammed up swimming area where he was a lifeguard for 7 years was very dangerous and he is credited with saving 77 swimmers.

I haven't had much luck with a good photo to download, but here are two from Shaw News Service. Didn't find one in the Rockford paper. Reagan lived in Dixon until 1933; he attended Eureka College.

DNC Astroturf

The DNC (Pelosi, too) has called grassroots tea parties and protests "astroturf." Now they have the nerve to call their own organized group a "grassroots project." [for a Columbus, GA gathering]

"As Members of Congress get ready to head back to Washington, Organizing for America (OFA), a grassroots project of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) dedicated to supporting the President’s agenda for change, will hold a rally Tuesday, September 1, 11:30 . . . "

HT IMAO and it wasn't a joke (a humor site)

Health Care for Obama Now (H-CON)

Here's a video of Health Care for America Now (HCAN) instructing the ethically challenged in how to prevent the opposition from having a voice at Jan Schakowsky's (D-IL) townhall meeting. Nice. "Be civil, but shut 'em down with HEALTH CARE NOW until they get frustrated." I wonder if they've ever been smacked with a cane? Seniors are getting a bit testy at free care for illegals, and limited care for those who paid for the system.

State of Emergency--dialysis for illegal immigrants

The University Medical Center in Las Vegas is a tax supported hospital and is required by federal law to treat illegal immigrants. Illegals (or foreign nationals) come to the ER for kidney dialysis and the cost at UMC can run from $11,000 to $18,000 per visit for an emergency dialysis patient because of the testing required and because they are so sick when they come. The federal government has kicked the can down the road on the immigrant health issue as it has on many unfunded mandates, and the costs land on the local medical facilities. Read the full story. This is just one hospital spending $24 million a year; it's even worse in California, and nationwide it’s in the billions.

This story punctures the myth that the poor don’t have health care, or that the billions spent on illegals for their health care isn’t a huge problem which the federal government, regardless of who’s in the White House or Congress, has steadfastly refused to solve. Mexico really doesn’t want its citizens to come home. If the brilliant minds from anarchist to liberal to libertarian in Washington haven't been able to solve this small piece of the puzzle for just one disease for one specific group, what makes you think they can take over the whole enchilada without a huge, ongoing case of indigestion?

Recommended on-line medical journal

I recommend journals, as well as websites. I can't help myself. If you or anyone you care about has a problem with thyroid, you can sign up for a free subscription to Clinical Thyroidology, published by the American Thyroid Association. Oh sure. I can't understand everything. But I can read an editorial, abstract, summary and conclusions. Waiting for CBS or ABC to give it a snippet really isn't satisfactory.