Onion paraody--Obama talks with California fire

Some people thought the first announcement of the Nobel prize was an Onion parody. So they had to outdo themselves on this one to find something even more bizarre.


Obama To Enter Diplomatic Talks With Raging Wildfire

Michelle Malkin

I wonder why the Obama White House Lady didn't go after Malkin, whom African American Conservatives blog thinks inspired many political bloggers? Maybe because she's female and a minority?

"It is hard to measure the impact Michelle Malkin has had on the world of Internet political investigative journalism. She is not only the founder of her own site, michellemalkin.com, as well as the invaluable hotair.com site, but she has also been the inspiration of countless of other political sites. It is difficult to imagine that there would be a Newsmax, or a Smart Girl Politics, or even an African-American Conservatives, without the trailblazing of Ms. Malkin. She is to political blogging what Rush Limbaugh is to talk radio, and what William F. Buckley is to punditry. We are all in her debt."

And the reviewer of her latest book, Culture of Corruption, also brings up some questions.

I would have liked to have seen more attention paid to both Valerie Jarrett and George Soros, who, as Obama’s most trusted advisor, and primary source of funds, respectively, deserve much more scrutiny than received in this book. Perhaps this will be forthcoming it later editions. Michelle Malkin makes clear in the interview she granted to our site that she considers Culture of Corruption to be a work in progress.

Others might have liked to have seen more of a right-wing attack on Obama. But I don’t see this as a “Conservative” book per se. True, there are numerous examples of Ms. Malkin wearing her conservatism on her sleeve throughout the book; but at heart she is not a Conservative pundit, philosopher, nor a political partisan. She is not Mark Levin railing against the statists or Ann Coulter explaining how if Democrats had brains, they’d be Republicans.

This bill is a travesty

Life expectancy needs to be looked at within the context of the success rate of treatments. If you can't get treated because of rationing, or you're too old to fit into the comparative studies, or there have been no innovations for Alzheimer's or diabetes due to the death of free markets, it won't make any difference how many of those 10% not currently insured get it, or how many illegals you sign up for benefits.

HT Mary

Snowing out west already?

Boy that darn global warming!

My site meter is already showing hits on my frozen car door blog! It's only Columbus Day, October 12!

A Canadian blogger recommened this little gadget in the comments for a frozen car door. It's not very expensive and if it works would certainly be worth the investment ($4.00).

And that would make CNN and broadcast news a what?

These people are such whiners.


"Let's not pretend they're a news network," White House communications director Anita Dunn said on CNN's "Reliable Sources," firing the latest salvo in the long-simmering feud.

"Fox News often operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party," Dunn said.

"What I think is fair to say about Fox, and certainly the way we view it, is that it really is more a wing of the Republican Party," she added. Link.

The only REAL news is coming out of Fox but all the other sides (I guess Anita thinks there are only two) are given a fair share of time to respond and they aren't shouted down or sneered at or ridiculed . . .they're treated with respect. Dunn apparently can't tell an opinion show from the news. And when I watch Katie Couric or Charlie Gibson, I can't either.

Anita needs to get her Fox News from someplace other than a Soros or Move on created news watch dog or left wing blog and watch an entire show instead of cut, sliced and diced snippets. Why didn't she go on Fox and complain instead of running to CNN?

Well, this should make the ratings go even higher.

Friedman pens Obama's non acceptance speech

Here's a shocker. Thomas L. Friedman suggests a speech honoring the real peace keepers. Now that Obama is our Commander in Chief, I think he feels better saying what he couldn't have said when Bush was in charge. Even so, I got a bit weepy remembering my Dad and uncles.

"Here is the speech I hope he will give:

“Let me begin by thanking the Nobel committee for awarding me this prize, the highest award to which any statesman can aspire. As I said on the day it was announced, ‘I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who’ve been honored by this prize.’ Therefore, upon reflection, I cannot accept this award on my behalf at all.

“But I will accept it on behalf of the most important peacekeepers in the world for the last century — the men and women of the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps.

“I will accept this award on behalf of the American soldiers who landed on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944, to liberate Europe from the grip of Nazi fascism. I will accept this award on behalf of the American soldiers and sailors who fought on the high seas and forlorn islands in the Pacific to free East Asia from Japanese tyranny in the Second World War.

“I will accept this award on behalf of the American airmen who in June 1948 broke the Soviet blockade of Berlin with an airlift of food and fuel so that West Berliners could continue to live free. I will accept this award on behalf of the tens of thousands of American soldiers who protected Europe from Communist dictatorship throughout the 50 years of the cold war.

“I will accept this award on behalf of the American soldiers who stand guard today at outposts in the mountains and deserts of Afghanistan to give that country, and particularly its women and girls, a chance to live a decent life free from the Taliban’s religious totalitarianism.

“I will accept this award on behalf of the American men and women who are still on patrol today in Iraq, helping to protect Baghdad’s fledgling government as it tries to organize the rarest of things in that country and that region — another free and fair election.

“I will accept this award on behalf of the thousands of American soldiers who today help protect a free and Democratic South Korea from an unfree and Communist North Korea.

“I will accept this award on behalf of all the American men and women soldiers who have gone on repeated humanitarian rescue missions after earthquakes and floods from the mountains of Pakistan to the coasts of Indonesia. I will accept this award on behalf of American soldiers who serve in the peacekeeping force in the Sinai desert that has kept relations between Egypt and Israel stable ever since the Camp David treaty was signed.

“I will accept this award on behalf of all the American airmen and sailors today who keep the sea lanes open and free in the Pacific and Atlantic so world trade can flow unhindered between nations.

“Finally, I will accept this award on behalf of my grandfather, Stanley Dunham, who arrived at Normandy six weeks after D-Day, and on behalf of my great-uncle, Charlie Payne, who was among those soldiers who liberated part of the Nazi concentration camp of Buchenwald.

“Members of the Nobel committee, I accept this award on behalf of all these American men and women soldiers, past and present, because I know — and I want you to know — that there is no peace without peacekeepers.

“Until the words of Isaiah are made true and lasting — and nations never again lift up swords against nations and never learn war anymore — we will need peacekeepers. Lord knows, ours are not perfect, and I have already moved to remedy inexcusable excesses we’ve perpetrated in the war on terrorism.

“But have no doubt, those are the exception. If you want to see the true essence of America, visit any U.S. military outpost in Iraq or Afghanistan. You will meet young men and women of every race and religion who work together as one, far from their families, motivated chiefly by their mission to keep the peace and expand the borders of freedom.

“So for all these reasons — and so you understand that I will never hesitate to call on American soldiers where necessary to take the field against the enemies of peace, tolerance and liberty — I accept this peace prize on behalf of the men and women of the U.S. military: the world’s most important peacekeepers.”

Thank you, Mr. Friedman; it's the best thing you've ever written.

Comparing the 2009 Health Care Agenda with the 1993 plan

About 16 years ago, on September 22, 1993, President Clinton delivered an address to the nation outlining his plans for health care reform. It was based on "The Task Force on Health Care Reform," organized by his wife Hillary in January 1993 who appointed 550 persons to 35 different working groups, each focusing on one specific feature of reform. One working group addressed the ethical foundations of the new health plan. Some members of that ethics group say there were 14, some say 15 ethical values and principles submitted. It was reported in the Feb. 1994 issue of the Journal of Family Practice and the HEC Forum 1995 and in Journal of Medicine and Philosophy in 1994 as “Ethicists and Health Care Reform: An Indecent Proposal?” by Laurence J. O'Connell, Ph.D. (a Lutheran) who then contributed his views on the 15 ethical values and principles to the “Special Report: Health Care” in The Lutheran, December 1993.

Hillarycare was a lot shorter, clearer and better researched than any of the present House and Senate versions (Obamacare), and involved much more input from the general public and specialists as opposed to just staffers and lobbyists writing what Congressmen needed to say. However, the public didn’t like an unelected official taking over their health care, and disliked her personally, although in hindsight and considering what we’ve got today from a group of Marxist and socialist advisors in the White House, her version seems much less bureaucratic and cumbersome. In any event, within a year, it was dead. Obama and friends think it was talked and debated to death, and that’s why they’ve renamed a crisis and tried to ram jam cram it down our throats in the dead of night during a recess period in August. The Republicans have been helpless to stop it; it's all in the Democrats' lap now. The start date for Obamacare is so far in the future there is no way to know what diseases, technology or cures may be on the horizon by then, so cost projection is just a fantasy. Think what has changed just within the technology of medical records, surgery for obesity and the treatment of AIDS since 1993.

But essentially the ethical underpinnings of Obamacare is unchanged Hillarycare. It has just grown to obese proportions.

The 15 ethical values as the base of the Clinton Plan as printed in The Lutheran, Dec. 1993 p. 32. These will look very familiar.

1. Health care is a fundamental human right.
2. Access to health care must be universal.
3. Benefits must be comprehensive and basic.
4. The benefits must be distributed equally to be a fundamental social good.
5. No pre-existing conditions can deprive a person of this community good.
6. It will be supported in a proportionate way by those most able to pay.
7. It will be intergenerational without weighting toward the elderly.
8. It will be rationed in a prudent and humane way because resources are finite.
9. Only truly effective treatments will be offered.
10. It will be high-quality.
11. It will be streamlined and will simplify the bureaucracy.
12. Individual choice will be evaluated and balanced against the community good.
13. Each person will contribute to the common good by being responsible and not wasting health-care resources.
14. Physicians will not be asked to engage in activities that are inconsistent with their professional commitments and their integrity will be protected.
15. There must be an effective appeal mechanism to protect individuals.

Folks, there is NO CRISIS. About 10% of American citizens (30,000,000 according to the President's last speech) do not have adequate health care. We have a huge government medical program now which covers some very well, and others very poorly, and some have chosen to not have either government nor private insurance. Under the "new" improved plan, there will still be about 5% not covered. This is a power grab. Not a reform.

Shabby chic or forgot to dress?

Ever since I made the mistake a few weeks ago of thinking the woman wearing fuchsia leggings with high heels at the drug store was a fashion aberration I've been reluctant to make observations. I'm so out of the fashion know. However, let me ask you about this one. What am I missing here?

A very attractive young woman (ca. 30), brunette, tasteful make-up, nice figure (what I could see), came in the coffee shop. She was wearing a large, gold color sweatshirt hoodie, khaki colored, above-the-knee baggie shorts, a very long, skinny plaid scarf wrapped once around her neck and draped across her body, below the knee, bare legs, and medium high heels, sort of a wedgie.


It wasn't as bad as this gal, but it did make me wonder if it is this year's look. I'm sure shabby chic went out a few years ago, so does "rolled out of bed" or "missionary barrel" or "pot luck" have a name?

Monday Memories--Clyde

This memory piece was written about 15-20 years ago and I found it undated in long-hand on yellow lined paper, apparently written specifically for a class, although never used. There are several layers of memory here--mine, my neighbor's, his deceased siblings, and his father's. We all hear family stories--write them down! I think the reason I caught this one is it reminded me so much of a similar story my father told about his grandfather's trip by train from Tennessee to resettle in northern Illinois in the early 20th century, with his wife and 6 or 7 children.

Sadly, a few years after Clyde told me this story, he began to show signs of Alzheimer's and then the library really did burn down--everything he'd known was gone and he no longer recognized us or even his family who continued to bring him back to Lakeside for many years. Yes, write down those stories!

---------------

Our Lakeside neighbor, Clyde, doesn’t let “grass grow under his feet”--literally. His side yard is gravel so he doesn’t worry about grass, and he’s so busy, you just know he’s the kind of guy who fits that expression. At 77 he is a tireless worker.

The youngest of nine children, Clyde is now an “orphan” and has outlived all his siblings. Two brothers and a sister died this past year and Clyde pauses before he runs up the ladder long enough to comment on the loneliness of being a survivor.

Surviving is a tradition in Clyde’s family. He claims to not have the family stories that his oldest brother carried in his memory. The older brother was known to pump the aunts, uncles and cousins for family stories, and he enjoyed telling them at family get togethers, but no one recorded them. Clyde says sadly, “When he died it was like burning a library. I just don’t have those stories.”

Then as if to call himself a liar, he launches into a family story. The recent deaths of his siblings reminds him that back about 75 years ago three of his father’s friends were killed in a mining accident in southeast Ohio. His father packed up his family--wife and nine children--and rode the train to Cleveland to begin a new life away from the mines.

His father knew one person in Cleveland and recalled only that he worked for the railroad. The family camped out in the Cleveland train station for three days waiting for his father’s friend, who only came to the station every few days.

The children slept on the benches and swept floors and ran errands to earn a little money. When his father's friend arrived and learned of their plight he helped the family resettle. Within a few days Clyde’s father had a job, a rented house and within a year he bought a home.

------------------

That's all I wrote--don't know if I had planned an ending, but I'll just add that I see Clyde's great-grandchildren at his summer cottage each summer and have watched them growing up, after seeing their parents when they were just little kids. The photo is from 1994 when we were at Lakeside in the fall raking leaves.

How to make Chinese noodles

I appreciate good art.



HT Cookin' at Cafe D

It's making the rounds

of the internet with no attribution attached to a Joel Pett cartoon of a conversation in a nursing home. But it's pretty funny any way.

Let me get this straight.

We're going to pass a health care plan
*written by a committee whose head says he doesn't understand it,
*passed by a Congress that hasn't read it, but exempts themselves from it,
*signed by a president that also hasn't read it, and who smokes,
*with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn't pay his taxes,
*overseen by a Surgeon General who is obese, and
*financed by a country that's already broke.

What could possibly go wrong?

Sounds like a plan to me!
HT Dave B.

A conversation about race

A conversation about race is a 58 minute documentary by film maker, Craig Bodeker, who spent 10 years abroad living and working in different cultures who then became aware of disconnects and double standards when it came to white citizens of the United States. So he made a documentary about race, and asked some basic questions.

Why do white students score better than black students on standardized tests?
Why is the NBA nearly 90% black?
Have you ever been "racist?
Are whites better at anything than blacks?
Do blacks commit more crimes than whites?
Can you name a public figure who is "racist"?
Can you give an example of the racism you see in your daily life?
Did Native Americans ever go to war against each other?
How do you feel about immigration from Mexico?

The double standard quickly becomes apparent, as does the teaching about racism in our schools and curricula.

This would be a good film to show students, about age 14-25--or at least their teachers. No one is made to look foolish in this film; all interviewees are treated respectfully, even when you as the viewer and interviewer immediately can see the flaws in their arguments. Particularly, the beautiful blonde. Somehow, you just hope she will catch on she‘s in quick sand, but she never does. Many ethnicities are interviewed.

The film can be purchased or viewed on line.

A junior high crush?

Left-wing TV entertainer Keith Olbermann just loves to bad mouth and smear Sarah Palin. Remember when that meant the guy had a crush on a girl? Hmmmm. He is quite juvenile. Is he really mad that her book is more popular than his show, or is it just another reason to talk about her to his locker room buddies.

Tougher EPA standards mean sluggish economic recovery under Obama

Another woman after power--Lisa Jackson. She's not waiting for a climate bill, either.

Even a very brief google search shows she intends to bring recovery to a halt. But Obama never was serious about it anyway. Hasn’t yet released most of the money for the “shovel ready” projects. No matter. Joe Biden says recovery has succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. I hope so. I'm tired of seeing so many businesses go under.

EPA is suppressing climate data because it doesn’t fit the power grab. Link

“Though she is willing to use current law to cut greenhouse gases, Jackson said it would be better if Congress passed climate legislation. A new law would forestall lawsuits, she said. The House of Representatives passed a climate-change bill in June. The Senate has not yet acted. Link.


Most metropolitan areas in South Carolina face potentially tougher air-pollution rules that critics say will make it harder for industries to locate or expand in the Palmetto State. Link

The Environmental Protection Agency issued a revised set of standards for hospital, medical and infectious waste incinerators that will require facilities to reduce their emissions. . . The agency estimates that it will cost the existing 57 medical-waste incinerator operators roughly $15.5 million annually to comply with the new standards.Link

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency says the government will consider tougher standards to limit the production of ozone, and that has raised concerns in Southeast Texas. Link

June 30, 2009: The Environmental Protection Agency announced on Tuesday that it will grant a waiver for California and 13 other states to set automobile emission standards that are higher than national ones—at least for the next two years. . . The Clean Air Act allows states to follow either national standards or California’s standards. Thirteen states have chosen to follow California: Arizona, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington, as well as the District of Columbia. Link

Is Barack Obama Jesus Christ?

From PJTV Andrew Klavan



HT Public Secrets

Friday Family photo--Caleb

Next week-end we're heading to Indianapolis for a going away party for Caleb, who is going into the Army. It's hard to believe. This is me holding him when he was 2 weeks old in 1990. It was taken at his grandmother's home on Heritage Lake, Indiana.

Alternative to coupons

I found the article--it was in the September 2, 1981, Upper Arlington News--about 28 years ago. Here's the points I made.

• I did the research after a conversation with co-workers who felt guilty that they didn't clip coupons, or didn't like it.
  
  
• At the time I was a librarian in the OSU Agriculture Library and had access to little known publications that provided the answers.
  
  
• If homemakers would use their time in preparation instead of coupon clipping and sorting and parties, they would save much more and serve their families better food.
  
  
• Coupons were most often available for highly prepackaged food which are the most expensive.
  
  
• I attributed women's (housewives) need to do this to being convinced they needed a paycheck to feel valuable (remember, we were only 10 years into the rush to go back to work as a result of the women's movement). "Clipping, filing, storing, redeeming--why it is just like office work, and you sometimes even get a check in the mail for your efforts. At last there is tangible reward for all your efforts," I said.
  
  
• Homemakers are given a false sense of contributing to her family's economic well-being by being convinced that she's saving money.
  
  
• The writer found my food budget very interesting--"she feeds her family of 4 (including a teenage son and daughter) for $50 or less a week. That's less than the government figures a family of four using food stamps must spend."
  
  
• I'd gradually changed my shopping habits to include more fresh items and I "shopped the walls" for produce, dairy and meat avoiding the sea of prepackaged foods found in the center aisles.
  
  
• I didn't drive around looking for bargains, read labels, bought generic brands.
  
  
• Our children thought "real cheese" tasted funny when I made the change, so I recommended making changes gradually and ease the family into healthier, lower cost eating.
  
  
• And of course, because I was a librarian, I recommended some books, "The supermarket Handbook" by the Goldbecks, and "Diet for a small Planet" by Frances Moore Lappe, and More with Less Cookbook by Doris Longacre. I still use the Longacre book occasionally.

I get a chuckle out of today's greenies who think they invented this.

Speaking of old letters--a 1981 thank you

I mentioned I found a 1993 letter I'd written to "The Lutheran" about 15 Health Care values and principles. I also found a 1981 letter thanking me for my views on coupons which apparently stemmed from an article about me in the Upper Arlington News (or possibly the Columbus Dispatch, don't remember). [Loyalty cards are just the more up to date form of couponing.] This woman "got it." But not many do. If there's anything harder than convincing the American public that the government doesn't create jobs, it's convincing them that businesses don't exist to give away their products. She wrote:

"Thank heaven someone has finally spoken out to say what I have thought about couponing for some time now! Although I am not a Northwest area resident, I work in the area, and saw the article about your views in this week's paper.

Since I am a working mother who drives 36 miles each way to and from work everyday, I don't have a lot of time to read anything other than the essentials, or to learn new skills (i.e. couponing), but I kept asking myself why everyone else seemed to be able to save so much with coupons (or at least that is what the avalanche of articles about couponing would lead you to believe), when I could rarely find coupons for anyting I buy other than Pampers.

I didn't think I was dense (I have a degree in home economics, although I am not working as a home economist at this time), but either I was not cooking like all those who were couponing, or I had missed the boat somehow, because I never found coupons for fresh fruits or vegetables, whole wheat flour, meat or frozen vegetables that weren't suced, friend, or practically pre-digested!

Thanks for your views speaking out for those of us who seem to be losing out to all the convenience food junkies. I can only guess that the myriad of articles pertaining to nutrition and good health are falling on deaf ears, if they are noticed at all. Why is it that the extremists always seem to get the most press? In this case, the convenience food freaks must just have more time for publicity than those of us who are spending time preparing good, wholesome meals. Thanks again for your well-reasoned input into a subject which has been irritating me for some time now."

Update: I checked this woman on google and found her at the Plaza of Heroines at Wichita State University to honor everyday women who are heroines in people's lives.

Connect the dots, says Thomas Sowell

Will you call him a racist too, or just an Uncle Tom?

"Fidel Castro, Hugo Chávez, Moammar Qaddafi, and Vladimir Putin have all praised Barack Obama. When enemies of freedom and democracy praise your president, what are you to think? When you add to this Barack Obama’s many previous years of associations and alliances with people who hate America — Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, Father Pfleger, and so on — at what point do you stop denying the obvious and start to connect the dots?"

Read his entire essay. It was in today's Columbus Dispatch.

Report on Health care, 1993 edition

The apple cake tasted a bit dry, so I decided to go through my files to see if I could find the source sent to me in 1993 (3 different relatives). Didn't find it. But I did find a letter I'd written in 1993, when I was still a Democrat (but obviously catching on) to "The Lutheran" magazine about health care. It had a special report on Universal Coverage in the December 1993 issue which included 15 ethical values and principles. It reminds me of something I heard this summer from the Catholic priest who lectured at Lakeside on religion and the civil war. He said the churches had split up long before the regions went to war. In my letter I addressed the draft on sexuality (homosexual marriage and gay pastors), so you can see how long that's been dragging on. The ELCA hierarchy split from the people in the pew years ago.

First, I don't have the entire report--I apparently photocopied just enough to attach to my copy of the letter. But here's the gist--the classic leftist, cop-out. . . "Others are dying because we have too much." The specific phrase on p. 32 was, "When we see our brothers and sisters dying on Chicago's South Side due to the lack of prenatal care there's something wrong--because too many of us have too much."

Many Americans, including some minorities, immigrants and native Americans, have cradle to the grave government health care, food stamps, housing allowances and/or public housing and still, nothing is healthier for a baby or assures a climb out of poverty like having a married mother and father. (And first they have to make it through the birth canal, something the liberals don't necessarily support if it's an inconvenient truth.) Married parents--you would think that would be a natural for a church magazine to point out--it's a big deal in both the Old and New Testaments. Its imagery is the foundation of God's relationship with Israel, and Christ's relationship with the church. But no. More government reassignment of wealth is their plan. "The resources are available here--they just have to be redistributed. And we have to distribute them justly. . . Justice in the deepest most fundamental biblical sense refers to balanced relationships. Relationships between individuals, between individuals and community, between individuals an communities and their God. That's what I see in health-care reform. It's an attempt to do justice, to balance the relationships."

Now, I have no idea who Laurence O'Connell is (or was), but he was obviously reading Saul Alinsky, not the Bible, because there's nothing in the Bible about the government taking from one and giving to another and renaming it justice. Here's my letter, November 28, 1993.

With the coverage given the disastrous sexuality draft in the December 1993 issue, it would be easy to overlook an equally suspect document--the Health Care 15 values and principles published on p. 31-34. Instead of placing personal responsibility for good health as the first principle, the task force put it as number 13. We would not have a need for such a document or billions spent on health care if it were not for abuse of alcohol, cigarettes, food and sexual behavior. Once those health problems, all of which are personally manageable, are set aside, we can afford the rest with pocket change.

How can Laurence O'Connell decide it is ethical for me to pay the social and economic costs of someone else's abortion, drunk driving, obesity, STDs, or even failure to floss? Where are the Judeo-Christian values and traditions to back up rights with no responsibilities? He needs to study American religious history and see that it was the strength of the moral values of the Methodists, Baptists, Pentecostals and Presbyterians that pulled people out of poverty and degradation and cleaned them up, educated and sanitized them and pushed them into the middle-class (where they have forgotten that it wasn't government programs that got them there).

Where is the justice in "redistributing" our resources? Hasn't socialism, which is what "redistribution" and "communal sharing of risks" means, shown itself to be a complete failure in Eastern Europe and the USSR in the past 80 years? Would O'Connell ever want to have a blood transfusion in a Russian hospital? O'Connell claims the 15 principles "resonate" with the Christian message (p. 32) I didn't hear a single jingle, clink or tone that sounded like the Gospel."

Note, the reason I didn't include Lutherans in my list of which religious groups pushed people into the middle class is that I was referring to the various "great awakenings" or revivals that swept the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries. For the most part, Lutherans stayed within their ethnic communities and just helped each other. I'm not a cradle Lutheran, but I don't recall them being a part of those revivals.

Aunt Gladys' Apple Cake (or pudding)

Tomorrow our "community" at UALC is having a brunch. We have 9 services, and after a number of experiements, our leadership has decided we're not a megachurch, we're 9 communities. Everyone we knew or did things with since 1976 when we became members are scattered around, but we like to go early, so we are part of the 8:15 traditional service. Personally, I would prefer a mix of music with liturgy, the way we did about 15-17 years ago before music defined everything, but no one asked me.

Anyway, back to the title of this blog--Aunt Gladys' Apple Cake or Pudding. I decided to use the family cookbook (1993) for this event, and was quite charmed by my cousin Judy's remark about this recipe of her mother who died in 1976.

"When I take a bite of this it brings tears to my eyes--it brings back so many memories of Mom."

That's the beautiful thing about using a family recipe--you can spend some time thinking about that family member.

Aunt Gladys and Uncle Ken lived in Byron, Illinois during my young years. They would bring my 3 cousins, Melvin (Mike), Kirby, and Judy to my grandparents on Sunday afternoon, and we'd all be together, because my parents brought the four of us from Forreston before we moved back to Mt. Morris in 1951. Then later they added a fourth--Rodney. As a youngster I thought my aunt was terribly old to be having another baby, but I just took a look at my genealogy, and she would have been 32! That shows you how children perceive their elders--they are always, always old and usually very wise!

It's still in the oven, and the mix was terribly stiff. It has no liquid and no salt. I substituted Splenda for the sugar, and often it doesn't cream the same way.

Beat together
1 cup of sugar (Splenda)
1/2 cup butter
1 egg

Add
3 medium apples, cored, peeled and sliced
1 1/2 cups chopped nuts (I used walnuts)
1 1/4 cups of flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. soda

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.
Judy suggested a 3 qt round casserole dish, which I don't have, so I reserved a bit, so I could taste it, and she suggested 325 degrees. Several other relatives of Gladys submitted this recipe, so I sort of blended it.

I'm guessing this works best if it is served warm, which it won't be tomorrow when it appears (if it passes my taste test) in Founders Hall at Lytham Rd. UALC traditional service brunch.

Update: Tasted sort of dry--I'm looking for the original--I must have it somewhere.

Update 2: Found all three versions of this. No liquid. It is what it is. Dry. I think I'll take some Cool-Whip along.

Leftist attacks on Glenn Beck, go after his advertisers

Isn’t it strange--every conservative and libertarian who disagrees with Obama's economic policies is being called a racist, but when Glenn Beck calls Obama out on much more evidence--his personal behavior--it’s a crime against humanity worthy of destroying the man. When SNL mildly poked fun at Obama, his supporters scaffolding in the media went crazy! Look. Bush withstood 8 years of pounding by the DNC, European heads of state, South American dictators, late night talk show hosts, the hyper-hysterical left wing press in the United States, Puffington Post, the Dixie Chicks and the View. He was called Hitler, Stalin, a Rove-puppet, a Cheney-puppet, and the Devil incarnate. But Obama has to be constantly propped up and coddled by these same people who are delighted that he was selected for the Nobel peace prize after 11 days in office for nothing except promoting the Euro-socialist view of the USA.

Here's an interesting take Is this news or a comedy tour :

"When news organizations consistently slant their coverage and ignore major stories because they don’t fit their template or further their agenda it’s time to re-evaluate what they are. They portray themselves as objective yet everyone can see they’re partisan publicists for a particular party and a particular radical left-wing of that party. Study after study shows the Corporations Once Known as the Mainstream Media are perceived by the public as advocates whose left-wing agenda is self-serving and deceptive. Instead of the fourth branch of government, honest brokers working to keep the public informed they’ve degenerated into craven corporate cheerleaders for Progressivism.

Then there’s Glenn Beck. If you’re missing Glenn Beck’s daily television program you’re missing some of the most honest, hard-hitting television journalism ever produced. Despite a leftwing inspired boycott his daily ratings for the time-slot are through the roof. He’s so honest and forthright he’s become the bell-weather for journalistic freedom. Glenn is doing the heavy-lifting when it comes to exposing the corruption that’s destroying the tap-root of American democracy…..As long Glenn is still on the air we know freedom of speech still exists in America."

Note: that should be bell-wether, one who leads.

It could be 7-8 years before we get back to the Bush economy

84 months. Economists are hopeful that unemployment won't go beyond 10.2%. Is that enough change for you. He did promise that he would fundamentally change the United States.

Global warming scare is science used as a political tool to steal liberties

They are predicting snow for Chicago this week-end and they are already skiing out west. Temps haven’t changed in a decade. But politics is politics. And the lobbyists and CEOs are getting on the bandwagon. But don’t you just hate it when speakers say, “very unique.” Folks, something is either unique or it isn’t.

A mean spirited law suit

Read the whole story at American Daughter. If the Sunrise Rock cross comes down (right now they've just covered it with plywood), don't you think for a minute that will be the last of it.

Currently, the Supreme Court’s nine justices are divided on the issue along progressive and conservative lines. Progressive justices view the Constitution as a living, breathing document emanating meanings from ethereal penumbras of the actual text, which often contradict the plain understanding of the words themselves; and conservative justices focus on a strict interpretation of the text of the Constitution based on the originally intended meaning of the text.

When it comes to the Establishment Clause, progressive justices have interpreted the emanations from the clause to mean government hostility toward religion in general and Christianity in particular; whereas conservative justices have interpreted the clause to mean government neutrality toward religion and accommodation for Christianity in particular.

However, the final battle won’t be won until the Supreme Court decides on the constitutionality of Ninth Circuit’s ruling, and that could take weeks. It’s also quite possible the high court will ignore the broader question of whether the presence of the cross on a federal preserve establishes a religion, and will address the narrower question of whether Congress was right to transfer the land on which the cross sits to private ownership.

It's not called the 9th circus for nothing.

$54 billion in 10 years

That's all. The CBO says tort reform would reduce health care spending by .05 percent. Lawyers must be wetting their pants. Now, to the rest of us, that sounds like A LOT of money, but in government, which now doesn't bat an eyelash at trillions and thinks the stimulus actually stimulated something, that's nothing. That's play money. That's Monopoly money in pretty colors. We could save more than that by just cleaning up graft in the food insecurity programs in USDA.

Tort reform could affect costs for health care both directly and indirectly: directly, by lowering premiums for medical liability insurance; and indirectly, by reducing the use of diagnostic tests and other health care services when providers recommend those services principally to reduce their potential exposure to lawsuits. Because of mixed evidence about whether tort reform affects the utilization of health care services, past analyses by CBO have focused on the impact of tort reform on premiums for malpractice insurance. However, more recent research has provided additional evidence to suggest that lowering the cost of medical malpractice tends to reduce the use of health care services.

CBO now estimates that implementing a typical package of tort reform proposals nationwide would reduce total U.S. health care spending by about 0.5 percent (about $11 billion in 2009). That figure is the sum of a direct reduction in spending of 0.2 percent from lower medical liability premiums and an additional indirect reduction of 0.3 percent from slightly less utilization of health care services. (Those estimates take into account the fact that because many states have already implemented some of the changes in the package, a significant fraction of the potential cost savings has already been realized.)

Saving these lives gets no peace prize or international praise

"I think after September 11th the American people are valuing life more and realizing that we need policies to value the dignity and worth of every life. And President Bush has worked to say, let's be reasonable, let's work to value life, let's try to reduce the number of abortions, let's increase adoptions. And I think those are the kind of policies that the American people can support, particularly at a time when we're facing an enemy, and really the fundamental difference between us and the terror network we fight is that we value every life. It's the founding conviction of our country, that we're endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights, the right to life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Karen Hughes, former Bush adviser, speaking on CNN April 24, 2004.

But the No-bel judges were correct in stating that Obama had caught the world's attention--during the long campaign and his 10 months in office he talks mostly about himself (which may have cost Chicago the Olympics), which necessarily deceases the emphasis on the United States, which enormously pleases both our enemies and envious friends. Link.

Wealth For Life Principles

These were found at Black Enterprise. I was reading an on-line article on how to survive on one income for a formerly 2-income household, although I'm not sure these 10 were part of that article.

1. I Will Live Within My Means
2. I Will Maximize My Income Potential Through Education and Training
3. I Will Effectively Manage My Budget, Credit, Debt, and Tax Obligations
4. I Will Save At Least 10% of My Income
5. I Will Use Homeownership as a Foundation For Building Wealth
6. I Will Devise An Investment Plan For My Retirement Needs And Childrens’ Education
7. I Will Ensure That My Entire Family Adheres To Sensible Money Management Principles
8. I Will Support the Creation and Growth of Minority-Owned Businesses
9. I Will Guarantee My Wealth Is Passed On To Future Generations Through Proper Insurance And Estate Planning
10. I Will Strengthen My Community Through Philanthropy.

I think it is an excellent list, although most of them we didn't follow (especially #8--even most hair products and hiphop music are white controlled). We were in our upper 40s by the time we even thought about saving for retirement (there weren't as many tax shelters back in the old days for the ordinary citizen). That's when I went back to work and joined a tax deferred savings plan. Before we became DINKS, everything that didn't go for the kids went to the house. We learned in our 30s about tithing our income (loosely #10), and I think that's a tremendous advantage to start at a young age. Just take it off the top, from the gross, not the net. I have my personal doubts that home ownership (#5) builds wealth. . . although its better than owning a boat. Owning income property and renting does create an investment, however. It's a huge hassle and one I wouldn't recommend for the faint of heart, but that crummy duplex we bought in 1962 put us on the road, not to wealth, but to better housing and income growth for us. For the first 25 years of our marriage our savings (#4) was "put and take" certainly nothing for the long run.

Catching up with California

That's what Lisa Jackson, EPA, wants the rest of the country to do. From her speech analysis at The Foundry, Heritage Society.

"According to Jackson, climate change regulations have their “roots” in California, and much of what the President is trying to accomplish is guided by what California has already achieved. She touts that the United States is finally “catching up with what’s happening [in California]”

But what do we want to catch up to? A report by the American Lung Association from May 17, 2009 shows that Los Angeles, Fresno, Bakersfield, Sacramento, Visalia, and Hanford all rank in the top ten of one or all three categories of pollution: short-term particle pollution, ozone pollution and year-round particle pollution. Maybe the results will come in the future but it’s highly unlikely the economic pain will be worth the negligible environmental benefits.

California’s unemployment rate for August 2009 was 12.2 percent, nearly 5 percentage points higher than a year ago and tied for fourth highest in the country. While supporters argue that thousands of green jobs will be created, David Kreutzer of the Heritage Foundation warns that green job growth is “grossly overstated because they don’t take into account the jobs lost elsewhere.”

The irony of mainstream environmentalists praising one of the most polluted states as a model to follow in one of the most polluted cities in America has not been lost on critics. It has become very clear that the concern is not so much for the pollution itself: mainstream environmentalists offer effulgent praise to California, calling it a “green state” not because it is clean but because it has installed stringent greenhouse gas regulations. The California energy plan should be used as a lessons learned model rather than hailed as a success.

In April she spoke to Black Enterprise, praising Van Jones, who is the unvetted, avowed Communist with a prison record, who resigned in the middle of the night when the president's closed circle of marxist appointees decided he was expendable (moved over to Podesta's think tank).

"We’re already seeing political and local leaders be very thoughtful about ways to really be transformative [with her share of $7 billion in ARRA]. Obviously the job part of it we touch, but we’re not leading. The White House has hired Van Jones from Green for All to be the special advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at the Council on Environmental Quality." Lisa Jackson, EPA

How long to read the bill?

I actually know Bonnie James, quoted in this article, who teaches speed reading.

"We read the entire House version when it came out in July. Certainly, at just over 1,000 pages, it was long. At times, it was exceedingly boring. We took frequent Diet Coke breaks. Day passed into night, then day, then night, then ... memory fails. We're sorry to report that we didn't think to time how long we took.

So to explore Bachmann's comment, we wanted a back-of-the-envelope estimate of how much time it might take the average person to literally read the text of the bill. A computer program told us the House bill weighed in at 163,000 words. The average adult, meanwhile, can read passages aloud at an average rate of 154 words per minute, according to a 2003 measurement of basic adult literacy by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics. At that rate, the average person would need about 18 hours to read the bill aloud. So if you had the three days Pelosi would guarantee, you'd only have to spend six hours per day reading the bill.

Most people, though, can read faster when they're reading silently. The estimates we found for adult readers ranged from 200 to 400 words per minute. At those rates, a person could conquer the bill in seven to 13 hours.

Let's say that you're a better-than-average reader, though -- even a speed reader. We spoke with Bonnie James, the president of Advanced Reading Concepts, an organization that teaches speed reading to students at weekend courses and in corporate settings. James said that graduates of her classes can read, on average, anywhere from 1,000 to 1,500 words per minute. At that rate, you could read the bill in about two or three hours.

But those times would be for someone who had a general understanding of the material and what it contained, James said.

"A trained speed reader, looking for specific things, could probably go through it at 1,200 words a minute," James said. "But you don't just open the bill and then read it really, really fast. You need to be looking for information, looking for certain words. You don't just go into a trance." Polifact.com

The real cost of the Baucus bill--$2 trillion

"The CBO score of the Baucus bill is like a mystery novel with the last 50 pages missing. It fails to reveal both the full cost of the bill and the budget gimmicks that Mr. Baucus uses to hide that cost.

The Baucus bill will not reduce the deficit, and it would ultimately cost taxpayers more than $2 trillion—just like every other bill Congress has produced so far."
Cato Institute

Social media

I guess I'm still back in the dark ages.

Ideas on downsizing the government

Now this should shake a few people up, the Cato Institute's Downsizing the Federal Government. Downsize agriculture? Although if the problem is shifted to the states, the taxpayer won't save anything.

All agricultural and rural subsidies in the Department of Agriculture’s budget should be abolished to save taxpayers $25 billion annually. In addition, agricultural trade barriers should be repealed. Current agricultural and rural policies are economically and environmentally damaging, and they create unfair transfers of wealth.

The department's food subsidy activities—food stamps, school lunches, and WIC—are properly local and private functions. They should be devolved to the states, with each state determining appropriate policies for its own residents. Such reforms would save federal taxpayers $79 billion annually. Some states may decide to fund food subsidies on their own, but competition between the states would likely result in smaller, more innovative programs.

Forest Service subsidies to state governments and private businesses should be ended. Congress should also explore options to transfer the national forests to the states or to new independent trusts that would be self-funded from forest-related receipts.

The table shows that these reforms would eliminate more than 90 percent of the USDA’s budget, saving federal taxpayers $108 billion annually, or about $923 per U.S. household. Under the proposal, the USDA would retain responsibility for animal and plant health inspections, food safety, grain and packing inspections, and conservation activities. Department of Agriculture

Notice Medicare and Medicaid together total more than defense. And bailouts and interest total more than Medicare. I wonder what's in "other."

But they can't do anything about illegal immigrants?

Local law enforcement agencies aren't allowed to do much about illegals--they aren't Homeland Security or ICE trained, they aren't federal agents. So why were police in Missouri last year asked to participate in Obama "truth squads?"

"One year ago on September 23rd, KMOV Channel 4 in St. Louis reported that St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCullough and St. Louis Circuit attorney Jennifer Joyce joined a high-profile group of law enforcement officials (including Jefferson County Sheriff Glenn Boyer) threatening to invoke “Missouri ethics laws” against anyone the prosecutors determined had spread misleading information about Obama." Big Government

Which is a more serious infraction of the law and more expensive to the state: illegals taking jobs from Americans, joining criminal gangs and sucking up benefits or a nasty campaign ad?

"Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has just ordered Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio to stop arresting suspects based solely on the fact that they are illegal aliens. The Arizona sheriff who has been called the “toughest” in America, defiantly said he will continue his sweeps which have netted thousands of illegal aliens.

Sheriff Arpaio has vowed to maintain his “crime suppression operations,” conducting street patrols looking for suspected illegal aliens. He says that he can still operate within the law, under Arizona human smuggling laws.

“It’s all politics,” Arpaio told reporters.

Earlier this year, the Maricopa County Sheriff said: “If I'm told not to enforce immigration law except if the alien is a violent criminal, my answer to that is we are still going to do the same thing, 287g or not. We have been very successful."

Under Sheriff Arpaio, his department has either identified in jail, or arrested on the street more than 30,000 illegal aliens in and around Phoenix, AZ." Examiner.com

"The issue under consideration today is the use of the E-Verify system in Ohio. Although the E-Verify system is not a panacea, it is a relatively inexpensive ($100 or less per employer), efficient (an inquiry takes 15 seconds or less), and reliable (96 percent) online method of ensuring that Ohio jobs are filled only by Ohioans and those who are lawfully present. With Ohio's unemployment rate at 10.8 percent and increasing, such a law would provide much-needed job opportunities for those out-of-work Ohioans at both the unskilled and skilled lev­els. Specifically, many entry-level jobs currently filled by illegal border crossers (who make up 60 percent of all illegals) and some technical-level jobs currently filled by individuals who have overstayed their work or education visas (40 percent of all ille­gals) would become open as those holding the jobs illegally were let go." Controlling Illegal Immigration, Ohio House Bill 184.

"Eight officers returned Tuesday from four weeks of special training that allows them to perform some limited immigration-related duties.

As a result, the Butler County Sheriff's Office became the first police agency in the Midwest to receive immigration enforcement powers that are typically reserved for federal agencies, authorities said Thursday - about a year-and-a-half after Sheriff Rick Jones first tried to get those powers." Feb. 8 2008, Cincinnati Enquirer.

This ACORN mess is in Ohio

"The activist group ACORN, which has long worked with criminals as it preys on the weak and the troubled, is on the verge of yet another public relations catastrophe.

That's because a cross-dressing Ohio male escort whom ACORN registered multiple times to vote was convicted of full-fledged vote fraud in addition to the lesser crime of voter registration fraud. A spokesman for Cleveland prosecutor Bill Mason confirmed yesterday that a local investigation of ACORN remains wide open."

Story at American Spectator

After seeing what went on here in Franklin County where they bussed in the voters and brought in the phony registration workers, I don't expect much action on this Cleveland case.

ACORN worker claims they threw out Republican votes

Interesting comments from a Black Republican, who registered voters, and voted for Barack Obama.

" “This is my first experience” with ACORN, [Fathiyyah] Muhammad said. “This was before Obama got the nomination, long before then….I heard about this group that was paying $3.00 per person, to go out and to get people to sign up to vote. So I went over, I thought that well this is a good way to make some money because I know everybody, you know. I went over there and this guy signed me up and everything, and gave me my little pad, all this stuff.”

Muhammad went to the ACORN office in Jacksonville. There she encountered a young man speaking to a room of about twenty people. “He was telling us, you know, about his experience, he was from Brooklyn, he wasn’t from this area. He was just here recruiting people to register people to vote. They had a big office here, and I would say maybe about ten or twelve people at there.”

She went to work: “Well, I went out and got a lot of people, homeless people, but of course I signed everybody up as a Republican, and I would have put people had they been Democrats.” She was not forcing people to sign up as Republicans: “You could put down anything you wanted.” But when she got back to ACORN, a group leader was not pleased: “So I showed what I had, and he said, “No, no, you a fraud, there can’t be any black Republicans,’ and oh, he just kind of hung me out to dry…. But of course their main aim was to register only Democrats. They’re not interested in registering Republicans.”

She saw ACORN officials in Jacksonville throw out the Republican registrations she made. “They just discarded those, they weren’t valid. All of the registrations… they just threw those out.” Yet she says that she is sure that the people she registered were actually going to vote: “Yes, they all were going to vote, I just didn’t want to get anybody just to get the three dollars, I wasn’t desperate for three dollars.”

ACORN did not honor its agreement to pay three dollars for each registered voter. “He took my papers,” says Muhammad, “didn’t pay me anything and I just left, I just figured that this is just another scam…. Everyone else got paid, all the other people got paid, but I didn’t. And I didn’t make a big deal about it, I just figured that it was another one of life’s experiences.”

Now maybe she's no more reliable than other ACORN employees, but this wouldn't be the first time Democrats have tried to claim there are no black Republicans (which is really odd because I link to a lot of them). ACORN in Minnesota which helped that comic get elected also needs to be investigated for not being able to find Republicans. These would be much easier to track down than hanging chads.

Link to original article at Big Government.

Medical education

The Sept 23/30 (v302, n.12) of JAMA is on medical education. Just a few items gleaned to throw into the health care mix and to ponder whether universal health care will help or hurt medical care.

• Up to 60% of practicing physicians report symptoms of burnout, defined as emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and low sense of accomplishment.
  
  
• Physicians can now get CMEs for "mindful meditation," i.e. learning to pay attention and listen.
  
  
• 60% of the schools that responded to a survey on web 2.0 reported medical students were posting unprofessionally online.
  
  
• Although medical educators have been working on better feedback for 25 years, learners still complain. There seems to be evidence that physicians overestimate their abilities.
  
  
• There is little evidence that continuing medical education improves practicing physicians' clinical reasoning and the quality of care. Electronic sources aren't too great either.
  
  
• Getting information faster doesn't mean you remember it. There are two types of memory--verbatim and gist. As we age, our verbatim box is less accessible so we rely more on the gist box.
  
  
• It seems medical schools aren't doing a great job of teaching doctors about health care for people with disabilities. The report was issued in 2005 so I assume the research pre-dates that. And since those goals weren't met, bigger better larger and more expensive goals are suggested.

As I found out from my years in academe, educators are terrific at setting goals; not so great at solving problems. I think you get money for setting goals. Not so much for solving problems.

Carol Diedrichs named Director of Ohio State University Libraries

"Carol Pitts Diedrichs has been recommended to serve as Director of University Libraries at Ohio State. Subject to approval by the Board of Trustees, her appointment will be effective Jan. 5, 2010. Diedrichs is currently serving as Dean of Libraries and the William T. Young Endowed Chair at the University of Kentucky, the flagship institution of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. She has vast experience in library administration and at UK provides intellectual leadership for the educational and service programs of 12 libraries; administers a budget of more than $21 million; and is a member of the Provost's Dean's Council.

Diedrichs served at Ohio State from 1987-2003, most recently as assistant director for technical services and collections and professor." OSU Today, Oct. 9

I worked with Carol during my years as Veterinary Medicine Librarian, and I am quite happy with this choice.

George Gilder on Silicon Israel

In the Summer 2009 City Journal there is a must read article about Israeli Jews and investment in technological innovation.

“The most precious resource in the world economy is human genius, which we may define as the ability to devise significant inventions that enhance survival and prosperity. At any one time, genius is embodied in just a few score thousand people, a creative minority that accounts for most human accomplishment and wealth. Cities and nations rise and thrive when they welcome entrepreneurial and technical genius; when they overtax, criminalize, or ostracize it, they wither.

During the twentieth century, an astounding proportion of geniuses have been Jewish, and the fate of nations from Russia westward has largely reflected how they have treated their Jews. When Jews lived in Vienna and Budapest early in the century, these cities of the Hapsburg Empire were world centers of intellectual activity and economic growth; then the Nazis came to power, the Jews fled or were killed, and growth and culture disappeared with them. When Jews came to New York and Los Angeles, those cities towered over the global economy and culture. When Jews escaped Europe for Los Alamos and, more recently, for Silicon Valley, the world’s economy and military balance shifted decisively. Thus many nations have faced a crucial moral test: Will they admire, reward, and emulate a minority that has achieved towering accomplishments? Or will they writhe in resentment and plot its destruction?”

It would seem like a no-brainer that Israel should have gone to the top with all those talented, creative Jews, but no, in the early years of that tiny nation they repeated all the mistakes of 20th century European socialism--high taxation to redistribute wealth, a welfare state mentality, communal experiments in which both the family and private property were put at risk, public ownership of major companies, and huge bureaucratic barriers. Yes, it was, in my opinion on a smaller scale, our own Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod experiment with Barack Obama fronting the show. But all that has changed now, says Gilder. In the last 25 years there was an flood of Soviet Jews, disdainful of socialism, who had honed their minds in math and science, and an influx of Americans bringing Silicon Valley know-how with them.

“Mix the leadership of these dynamic capitalists with a million restive and insurgent Soviets, and the reaction was economically incandescent. . . Today, immigrants from the former Soviet Union constitute fully half of Israel’s high-tech workers.” [And having been there in March I think the rest are in the diamond retail industry.]

This is a critically important article on capitalism and the economy for you to read. Don’t miss it.

Sleep Apnea Research at OSU

Occasionally I stop by the web page of the Center for Clinical and Translational Science at Ohio State University--mainly to ponder "what does translational mean." Believe it or not, it's getting ARRA (stimulus) money--over $1.6 million for some new computer grid--and I also ponder how that will do one thing to improve the economy. Although I still haven't answered those questions, I did note some interesting research on sleep apnea, which if successful, looks a whole lot easier than wearing one of those awful masks in order to have a good night and safe night's sleep.

"Dr. Magalang, an Associate Professor in the Divison of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, along with his research team will examine the effects of mandibular advancement devices [MAD] treatment on insulin sensitivity, blood pressure, psychologic well-being, and quality of life in patients with OSA who are unable to tolerate Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) therapy.

Sleep apnea affects more than 20 million Americans and occurs when the area behind the tongue and soft palate becomes obstructed repeatedly, causing a person to stop breathing numerous times during sleep. It can range from mild to severe and the condition has been associated with an increased risk for stroke, hypertension, heart disease, depression, and diabetes.

The most common treatment for OSA patients is CPAP, delivered by a machine through a specially designed mask that prevents the throat from collapsing during sleep. While CPAP is a highly effective treatment for sleep apnea, it is estimated that at best, only 50% of patients tolerate and continue to use the machine long term.

Thus, Dr. Magalang and his team have proposed a study to better understand the effects of MAD for the treatment of sleep apnea. MAD is a dental device that is worn by the patient only during sleep and protrudes the lower jaw forward, preventing the airway from collapsing.

“There is a need for alternative therapy for sleep apnea,” says Magalang. “MAD has been used in the past to treat OSA, but the health outcomes as a result of this treatment have not really been evaluated. Some patients just cannot tolerate CPAP and we need to know the health outcomes of these alternative therapies.”

Dr. Magalang hopes that by providing evidence for the effects of MAD therapy on selected health outcomes, practitioners will consider this form of treatment when the patient is unable to tolerate CPAP.

“There is good evidence that the hypoxic stress, caused by the repetitive dipping of the oxygen levels in sleep apnea, is associated with insulin resistance, a marker for the development of diabetes and also an important risk factor for heart disease,” he said. “We need to know whether MAD treatment improves insulin resistance.”

Over the course of 3 months, the study will examine 40 randomized subjects who have reported that they cannot tolerate CPAP. The research team also includes: Dr. Allen Firestone, Department of Orthodontics; Dr. Dara Schuster, Divison of Endocrinology; and Dr. Sharla Wells-DiGregorio, Department of Psychiatry."

My husband says that when I lost 20 lbs I stopped snoring. Do thin people snore?

After they get the death panels in place . . .

there should be more room in nursing homes. "Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced Tuesday that she is pursuing plans to remove some captured illegal aliens from “prison-like or jail-like circumstances” and put them in converted hotels and nursing homes . . . Our detention system has some who have committed crimes, others whose crimes under federal law is a misdemeanor, others who have as I said before not committed a crime at all,” Napolitano said, apparently not including being arrested from breaking federal immigration law as a crime." CNS News

The H1N1 vaccine

"A recent poll by Consumer Reports found that two-thirds of parents plan to delay or skip getting their children the H1N1 shot altogether.

Some believe the vaccine was rushed and not adequately tested. Others just don’t trust flu shots in general and avoid them each winter like the plague.

But government officials say those concerns are irrational. H1N1 flu has hit children particularly hard — 36 youths in the U.S. had died from it through August — so they are advising parents very strongly to do what's best for their kids and get them vaccinated." Fox News

There's an easy way to reassure the public. The HHS and CDC families get it first. If all goes well, it's probably OK.

WSJ reported that state and local budget cuts coupled with limits on who can administer the vaccine would hamstring the delivery of the vaccines, even if you convince people to get it. Manufacturers are still in production, and it has been rushed to market.

But never mind. Rahm Emanuel assures us they'll never waste a crisis, so it's all for the good.

Update: Carol's granddaughter has cancer. She wants everyone to get the vaccine. Read why.

Don't they have insurance?

I was reading a blogger today who was enjoying Britain's health system and couldn't imagine why Americans didn't want it. Maybe it's these stats:

"According to Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development data, there were 26.6 MRI machines in the U.S. per million people in 2004. In Canada, there were 4.9 such devices, while Britain enjoyed 5. For every 100,000 Americans, 2006 saw 436.8 receive angioplasties. Among Canadians, that figure was 135.9, while only 93.2 Britons per 100,000 got that cardiac procedure.

Maybe that’s why, among American men, heart-attack deaths in 2004 stood at 53.8 per 100,000. In Canada, 58.3 men per 100,000 died of cardiac arrest, while coronaries buried 69.5 of every 100,000 British males.

The fatality rate for breast cancer, according to the National Center for Policy Analysis and Lancet Oncology, is 25 percent in the U.S., 28 percent in Canada, and 46 percent in Great Britain.

Among those diagnosed with prostate cancer, 19 percent die of the disease in America. In Canada, 25 percent of such patients succumb to this disease. And in Great Britain — an Anglophone NATO member and America’s closest ally — prostate cancer kills 57 percent of those who contract it. That is triple the American fatality rate." Deroy Murdock

In comparing life expectancy you need to start at about age 40--that's when we start falling apart, and that's when you need decent medical care.

A Bill Ayers theory

Ann Althouse has a plausible theory on why Bill Ayers would admit to authoring Obama's book, Dreams from my father. Wanting to get back in the news would get my vote. Getting back at Obama who has been a big disappointment to the far left would come in second. But Marxists lie, so who would believe him? I'll let this one pass.

How we came to own Government Motors

"Autos are an industry that, for decades, has not been able to rationally restructure itself to provide a competitive return to investors. Politicians won't allow it. They wouldn't permit the necessary short-term job loss. The result, finally, is what we see today: a global auto sector increasingly dependent on taxpayer subsides." Holman W. Jenkins on the UAW and Nummi

The crooks are getting lazy--going after Medicare

And these crooks are not in Congress. This is just old fashion street crime. Kelly Kennedy of Associated Press has gone all Glenn Beck on us and is actually reporting with a front page story (in the Columbus Dispatch) on Medicare fraud. Now if Medicare is so expensive, poorly managed and there is crime and fraud, and it is government health care for a very small percentage of the American public, why not clean it up first to demonstrate the government can take on a bigger job--that of insuring all of us?

"Lured by easier money and shorter prison sentences, Mafia figures and other violent criminals are increasingly moving into Medicare fraud and spilling blood over what was once a white-collar crime.

Around the nation, federal investigators have been threatened, an informant's body was found riddled with bullets, and a woman was discovered dead in a pharmacy under investigation, her throat slit with a piece of broken toilet seat.

For criminals, Medicare schemes offer a greater payoff and carry much shorter prison sentences than offenses such as drug trafficking or robbery." Google News

To answer my own question. Obama's take over of the health care system has nothing to do with cost, improving coverage, or reducing waste. It's all about power. More for him, less for us.

Congress catching on about czars

OK. So they are finally noticing the power grab of the executive branch from the legislative. It's been a small drip; now it's a flood. Joe Markman of McClatchy Newspapers reports (story varies somewhat depending on which paper you read) that members of both parties realize the appointments circumvent their authority. A panel of experts brought in to testify can find no legal issues--it apparently began with FDR. But the issue isn't dead. Time to again alert your representatives and senators that we still want to be represented.

In a letter sent to the president this week, Sen. Susan Collins (R- Maine) and five other Republican lawmakers criticized the administration for encroaching on Congress's authority in establishing too many far-reaching czars.

Collins identified 18 positions created by President Obama which "may be undermining the constitutional oversight responsibilities of Congress." The letter asks Obama to respond with information about each position, including the administration's vetting process and whether the officials will be available to appear before Congress. . .

Democrats have also questioned the use of czars. On Tuesday, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) raised concerns in a letter to Obama. And Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) had sent a similar letter earlier this year, noting that czars in past administrations had "rarely" testified before congressional committees "and often shield the information and decision-making process behind the assertion of executive privilege."

Saturn's "new" ring

"Scientists at NASA have discovered a nearly invisible ring around Saturn -- one so large that it would take 1 billion Earths to fill it." CNN technology.

Who knows why it took so long to find it. These stories always strengthen my belief that the Genesis record is true and completely trustworthy, and decreases my confidence that pea-brained experts and politicans have any clue what to do about controlling climate. Look what tiny little "Phoebe" was able to do--with no visible industry or cities or capitalists in sight.

"Phoebe, a Saturnian satellite measuring only 214 kilometres (133 miles) across, probably provides the record-breaking tenuous circle of dusty and icy debris, they report on Thursday in Nature, the weekly British science journal." Canada.com

Way to go, Anne!

A joyful place in which to kill babies

I get most of my green schemes and screams from my husband's architectural, urban planning and construction e-newsletters. But not usually items on abortion. This morning, my two interests came together in this handsome video of the Planned Parenthood Golden Gate and interview with Anne Fougeron, architect, and Dian Harrison, of PPGG. I was going to ridicule the "joyful" nature comment, attractive, artistic jars filled with condoms, and the architect's sense of bonding with the "mission" of the client. But then when I researched it, I found Jill Stanek had already done the research on this organization, and that Dian Harrison had been the model for a PPGG cartoon featuring violence against pro-lifers.

Host shouts down guest on MSNBC

So much for thugery.

Listen up, you overweight couch potatoes who voted for Obama

"Wednesday, the Senate Finance Committee approved a healthcare reform amendment that would penalize employees who are not following “healthy lifestyles” and participating in wellness programs. Employers will be allowed to raise healthcare premiums by as much as 50 percent for workers who are fat, smoke, don’t exercise, are noncompliant with preventive care, and not meeting certain health measures, such as lower cholesterol levels." Read the full story at Sandy's Junkfood Science.

Guess which insurer denies the most claims?

The government.

"The Medicare denial rate found in the study was, on a weighted average basis, roughly 1.7 times that of all of the private carriers combined (99,025 divided by 2,447,216 is 4.05%; 6.85% divided by 4.05% =1.69)." Read the whole article here. The research used the AMA's 2008 report.

There's a solution for everything

HT Ann Althouse

The door swings both ways Bertha!

"[Bertha] Lewis said many conservatives have used the videos to act on a longstanding grudge against Acorn. “I think you make some powerful enemies…when you organize poor people to have power,” she said. Washington Wire, WSJ The left gets very nervous when their schemes to keep the poor in their grasp is loosened, and they'll come out with all guns firing, even in no firearms cities. The most recent example of McCarthyism we have has been during the Obama Congress when they hauled people in to ridicule and threaten them for doing their jobs and making too much money. Bertha says ACORN can survive without government grants, and I say good for you. Go for it! I think all non-profits, right, left, center, and religious, ought to stop taking government money to run day care centers, foreclosure workshops, AIDS clinics, women empowerment programs, children's sporting events, "think tanks," tutoring for immigrants, races for disease of the week, and any number of do-gooder programs that are politically or religiously slanted and ultimately dance to the government's wishes. Let's get the government out of our cupboards, churches, sporting events, and arts organizations and make those boards, trustees and CEOs earn their own money and stop using ours.

COWS Fall Festival of Paintings

Sunday afternoon we went down to German Village to enjoy the opening of the Central Ohio Watercolor Society Fall Festival of Paintings. It is a lovely show, in a delightful environment--Caterina Ltd., which sells French, German, Italian and other European ceramics and linens.



The COWS show is on the third floor. On the second floor is a show by a photographer, Debbie Rosenfeld, who worked in the World Trade Center until 9/11. She and her husband started their lives over here in Columbus and I thought her use of black and white with some color was quite stunning.

Caterina is a wonderful place to beginning your early Christmas shopping, either selecting from their quality pieces of hand painted items (I have some Polish hand painted coffee cups I purchased there last year, and when I have my morning coffee I apologize to Poland), their nativity scenes, or the art from individual local artists and groups.

On writing memories

I don't do as much as I used to--hard to do it without involving other people whose memories differ, and also there just wasn't that much going on in my life--married to the same guy for 49 years, lived here for 42 years, not many hobbies, most really big questions are settled, career moves and events are becoming a bit dim and more removed from the high tech environment of today. I have 40 years of letters to my parents, but really, they were just early unformed blogs. But. . . today. . . a comment.

About 3 years ago I did a Monday Memories about Heritage Lake, Indiana, and today got a nostalgic response. That’s one of the nice things about blogging. You never know who is going to find the entry or when. Other oldies that seem to get a lot of interest are boy paper dolls, Roger Vernam, children’s book illustrator, Halls of Ivy (the song and radio show), the Cimarron toilets, and of course, the old stand-by fixing a broken zipper. Last night at book club someone told me she'd flagged one of my blogs about my mother (a letter she wrote to a friend as a teen-ager when the family had gone west), and when the flag box filled up she finally read it and enjoyed it. From that she got to my sewing patterns blog, which is basically all memories since I no longer sew.

I don’t know what affect having no labeling will have on people finding me by accident through Google or Yahoo. For a long time, Blogger didn’t have a label function, and now it does, and suddenly without warning they’ve imposed a limit of 2000 labels. So unless I want to go back and delete labels, I can’t use that feature.

Label: blogging, memories

Gaspard, ACORN and the Big Reveal

Move that BUS!

"With the revelation that White House Director of Political Affairs, Patrick Gaspard, has close ties to Bertha Lewis and to ACORN, Matthew Vadum and Erick Erickson appear to be onto something significant. While the Gaspard matter needs further investigation before we form any hard conclusions, it certainly seems to confirm that President Obama’s ties to a whole series of ACORN-controlled organizations are neither minor nor by any means long-past. In fact, making use of what Erickson and Vadum have discovered about Gaspard, we can trace these links still further." Please leave rude and disbeliving comments at NRO The Corner

Politico, the blog for gob-smacked Obamatites, doesn't like the research of Matthew Vadum, but I think he's one of the best on the internet. He's a senior editor at Capital Research Center, a Washington, D.C. think tank that studies the politics of philanthropy. When you follow the money, you just never know what will turn up. Here's a good one on ACORN's lawyer. Here's the memo he mentions.


Note: Label in blogger is currently not working.
Labels: Patrick Gaspard, ACORN, Capital Research Center,

Funny moment during a sad event

My husband and I were drafted into ushering at a funeral the other night at our church. The congregation was going to be asked to sing (some rather unsingable tunes as it turned out), so the pastor asked us to suggest that people sit near the front, close to the family members. My husband speaks softly, and to be kind, sometimes I can't understand him. He said to one couple, 70-ish, "We're requesting that you sit near the front." "What'd he say?" the husband whispered to the wife, and she responded, "He said crazy people should sit near the front." I overheard this and saw her rolling her eyes, so I darted up the aisle and repeated the correct instructions.

Ohio Pro-Life event

"Many local churches and anti-abortion groups will take part in Life Chain events on Sunday, Oct. 4.

Supporters will line up along East Stroop Road in Kettering from 2 to 3:30 p.m. and form a line nearly 2 ½ miles in length.

This national, annual event draws 1,800 people from more than 70 area churches and organizations in the Miami Valley each year." Dayton Daily News