Sometimes things aren't as they seem

Have you been wondering about the more than usual chaos in the vaccine supply this year? First they hype the H1N1 flu; then tell everyone to get the seasonal flu vaccine; then waffle on who should get H1N1; leak stories about health providers not wanting it; then show long lines of people waiting.

So, is this 1) intended to induce panic so you'll feel out of control and turn even more to the government or 2) it's a preview of how the socialized medicine system will work.

Here's today's item from OSUToday, which every day sends me something different

". . . only faculty and staff who have previously registered for an appointment will receive their seasonal influenza vaccination. Walk-ins can no longer be accommodated due to the remaining supply of vaccine dedicated for campus use. Keep in mind, the university's supply is running very low, as stated yesterday."

There's two more click throughs to find out about swine flu, which will also require prior registration and supplies will arrive on a weekly basis.

Our church (UALC) has cancelled its two seasonal flu shot Sundays (with Kroger Pharmacy), something it does each year. Wasn't a problem last year. I got mine at Walgreens before they ran out, and my husband found a dr. office that had 2 left and he went there directly.

The lies we believe

Lies have been in the news lately. How about those lies we tell ourselves? Dr. Chris Thurman has written a book, "The Lies We Believe" which he says are at the root of a lot of our personal problems and unhappiness. Give up those lies and you're on your way to . . . well, maybe a healthier life? My copy came from the church library and seems to be a 2nd ed., although it doesn't actually say that--a combination of the original book and workbook. It's a Christian book published by Thomas Nelson. As part of the "growthwork" he lists 30 lies, and the reader is to rate herself from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree) avoiding if possible too many 4s which would sort of be fence sitting. These are the lies we believe, and the rest of the book explains how to recognize them in your thinking, and try to go for the truth. Because who wants a life based on lies? (Apparently a lot of people!)

1. I must be perfect.

2. I must have everyone's love and approval.

3. It is easier to avoid problems than to face them.

4. I can't be happy unless things go my way.

5. My unhappiness is someone else's fault.

6. You can have it all.

7. My worth is determined by my performance.

8. Life should be easy.

9. Life should be fair.

10. I shouldn't have to wait for what I want.

11. People are basically good.

12. All my marital problems are my spouse's fault.

13. If my marriage takes hard work, my spouse and I must not be right for each other.

14. My spouse can and should meet all of my emotional needs.

15. My spouse owes me for what I have done for him/her.

16. I shouldn't have to change who I am to make my marriage better.

17. My spouse should be like me.

18. I often make mountains out of molehills.

19. I often take things personally.

20. Things are black or white to me.

21. I often miss the forest for the trees.

22. The past predicts the future.

23. I often reason things out with my feelings rather than the facts.

24. God's love must be earned.

25. God hates the sin and the sinner.

26. Because I'm a Christian, God will protect me from pain and suffering.

27. All of my problems are caused by my sins.

28. It is my Christian duty to meet all the needs of others.

29. A good Christian doesn't feel angry, anxious, or depressed.

30. God can't use me unless I'm spiritually strong.

If you are not a Christian or even if you have no religious faith at all, you can probably substitute something that fits. Some of these don't sound like lies (18-21), but I'll read further to see how he explains that.

Also, if you're not married, or don't have significant problems in your marriage, I'm guessing you can fill in those with parents, siblings, friends or work colleages.

I see lies number 1-11 as those you believe when you're young--at least up to age 40. One day you wake up and realize . . . Life isn't fair, You can't have it all, Not everyone is going to love me and I really don't care, I can too be happy if I don't get my own way--in fact, I just might be happier, and People aren't basically good--some are real stinkers, some evil, and some are depraved and seem to have been so since the beginning.

There are other lies we buy into, especially when we're older. The ones about family and friends, for instance. This is not Thurman's list--just mine.

1. They had good parents, a great education and all the advantages--they shouldn't be acting this way (be in jail), (divorcing the wonderful long suffering spouse), (living in poverty), (failing at careers), etc.

2. I shouldn't be this sick--I've been very careful.

3. All you need to do is set limits.

4. If you expect the best, you'll get the best.

5. Other families don't have these problems.

6. Other people have more (better, richer, smarter, etc.) friends.

7. I don't have time to (fill in the blanks--read, play tennis, join a gourmet club, travel, knit, paints, etc.)

8. Everyone at church is a hypocrite.

9. Science has all the answers.

10. Poverty is the root cause of crime (assault, mental illness, terrorism, homelessness, abuse, etc.).

11. When I get that next promotion (car, house, outfit), I'll be happy.

12. I can fix other people.

13. If they had just listened to me. . . then. . .

14. If the pastor doesn't visit me in the hospital, the church call doesn't count.

15. I'm always the one who has to clean up the mess others make.

16. It's easier to lie than to tell the truth.

17. One more bite won't matter. . . I'll just even this up a bit.

And there are more--can you make your own list?

However, if you are over 60, it's the "shoulda coulda woulda's" that hobble us, more than the lies. I'll have to make a list of those.

More on the Kinston NC nanny case

More on Attorney General Holder treating southern blacks like children. Although the majority of registered voters in the town of Kinston are black, they don't vote in proportion to their registration, therefore they are considered the "minority" and apparently in deep need of nannying.

This item appears in James Taranto's column (Oct. 21).

. . . the Aug. 17 letter in which Loretta King acting assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division, informed the Kinston's lawyers of the decision:
According to the 2000 Census, the City of Kinston has a total population of 23,688 people, of whom 14,837 (62.6%) are African-American. The total voting age population is 17,906, of whom 10,525 (58.8%) are African-American. The American Community Survey for 2005-2007 estimates the total population to be 22,649, of whom 14,967 (66.6%) are African-American. As of October 31, 2008, the city has 14,799 registered voters, of whom 9,556 (64.6%) are African-American.

Although black persons comprise a majority of the city's registered voters, in three of the past four general municipal elections, African Americans comprised a minority of the electorate on election day; in the fourth , they may have been a slight majority. For that reason, they are viewed as a minority for analytical purposes. Minority turnout is relevant to determining whether a change under Section 5 [of the Voting Rights Act] is retrogressive.

Black voters have had limited success in electing candidates of choice during recent municipal elections.

The letter does not allege any effort to suppress the black vote. Assuming the absence of such efforts, the reason that "black voters have had limited success in electing candidates of choice" is that so many of them have not bothered to vote!

The Justice Department's position, then, is that the Voting Rights Act requires the department to intervene on behalf of the political preferences that it imputes to people who cannot be troubled to go to the polls. This may well be a correct reading of the law--in which case, it's a screwy law.

Also, it's quite possible that black voters in Kinston didn't go to the polls because there was no one running for whom they wished to vote. Here we are electing city council members soon, and I don't recognize a single name, haven't followed the issues, and my vote will just be a wild guess (unless I start doing my duty as an informed voter). There are many reasons for low voter turn out--youth, old age, and disinterest probably being the big three.

Biden quoting Reagan

Although without attribution I think it's called something else.

David A. Ridenour at National Center: "Speaking to the AFL-CIO's 2009 legislative conference in Atlantic City, Vice President Joe Biden said, "When a guy in Minooka is out of work, it's an economic slowdown. When your brother-in-law's out of work, it's a recession. When you're out of work, it's a depression."

Hmm... Sounds a bit familiar.

Didn't Ronald Reagan say on the campaign trail in 1980, "Recession is when your neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his"?

I hate it when people remake a classic."

It doesn't end with gay pastors

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has been sparing over its sexuality statement for 20 years (1989 the task force was formed), and in August 2009 the liberals won--by a tiny margin. The English in the document is so obscure you'd never get out of Writing 101 if you tried this at the college level. Now hundreds of Lutheran churches are leaving as soon as they can secure their buildings and pensions and work out the business relationships with new umbrella organizations through which they can continues missions, teaching and publication. As I have often pointed out to my clueless (and holier than thou) friends, it wasn't going to end with gay marriage, or ordaining gay pastors in "loving committed relationships." Polygamists and man-boy love advocates were waiting in line for us to lower the bar.

So I hate to say "I told you so," but I will. Obama's nominee Chai R. Feldblum, to the Equal Employment Opportunity Council, is a lesbian who believes any number, any mix and match, makes a family and a household. Read her story at InsideCatholic.com

Obama has flip flopped on so many issues, his backing off of marriage between a man and woman is no surprise.

Feldblum's advocacy of the homosexual lifestyle is quite startling, given the fact that she teaches at a Catholic law school. As a matter of fact, she is seen in this video arguing not only that the government has a duty to promote homosexuality but also proclaiming, "Gay sex is morally good."

Since President Obama nominated Feldblum on September 15, his outreach to the homosexual community has rapidly accelerated. His keynote speech to the Human Rights Campaign on October 11 contained all the positions advocated by his EEOC nominee: "You will see a time in which we as a nation finally recognize relationships between two men or two women as just as real and admirable as relationships between a man and a woman."

Obama's declaration "to repeal the so-called Defense of Marriage Act and to pass the Domestic Partners Benefits and Obligations Act" reflects Feldblum's commitment to employ the power of government to encourage the growth of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender social units, thus presenting a direct challenge to traditional marriage."

My only question is what is this woman doing at a Catholic school? A question we soon won't be able to ask because it is hate speech to believe what God said in Genesis 1-2. Hate speech legislation isn't about protecting minorities from violence--that happens most in their own communities--it's about shutting up and outlawing anything you don't want to hear, including the truth.

Rt. 66 Norwegian style

This is on Renny BA's blog. Stop by for a visit. He features many interesting sights, sounds and foods of Norway--even commented on the Nobel mess, although he's not at all political. I just thought this was a great video and I love the enthusiasm.



If you ever plan to motor west
Travel my way, the highway that's the best.
Get your kicks on Route 66!

He also has some great autumnal photos on his blog--seems to come a little earlier than here in Midwestern USA.

I think my mother used Rt 66 when she drove the family from Illinois to California and back during WWII.

And Rt. 66 Toledo style

Rt. 66 Kitchen Bar and Grill near the University of Toledo in Toledo, Ohio--it's a miracle these clowns didn't kill anyone.

Short memory--the paranoid conspiracies of the right, never the left

Thomas Frank at the Tilting Yard in the WSJ today displays a very short memory. The only paranoid conspiracies and talkers he can think of are all appearing on Fox News. He's forgotten Rosie and the Dixie Chicks; Carville and Dean; Carter and Gore; Rahm and Dunn; Moore and Soros. I guess he got the Obama memo on denigrating Fox. Next he’ll be touting volunteerism and green tips. He apparently doesn’t remember the Hollywood stars and talkers who bought into the conspiracy theories about 9/11, accusing George Bush of plotting the whole thing; or the Katrina Hurricane when an entire state and city firmly in control of Democrats managed to blame President Bush for years of their neglect, Corps of Engineers, environmental EPA decisions, etc.; nor does he remember all the Democrats who pounded the podiums about WMD in the late 90s when they thought Al Gore was going to be President; or how the Republicans were accused of stealing not only the 2000 election but the 2004; and who can forget the Patriot Act conspiratists? And have you read Janet Napolitano's latest dictionary of terrorism words? I mean before it got pulled for really, really bad press. Wow. Talk about paranoid. It's her middle name! And who could be kookier than the global warmists? They make the birthers look absolutely reasonable, but with less evidence. Yes, Mr. Frank, Mr. Pseudo-journalist, you ought to see a doctor--your short term memory is really slipping.

So whose news is biased? Associated Press?

Here’s the Fox News account on Sept. 14 of the Senate vote resulting from videos which Brietbart TV supplied Glenn Beck radio and Fox News (Sept. 10 airing), followed by the accounts of CBS (page not available except in cache), MSNBC/NBC, and ABC, all of which used the identical Associated Press report which gave more coverage to ACORN's excuses than the tapes. I cut and pasted the first part--they are all identical. I wonder which one Mr. Gibbs thinks isn't news?

Fox News, Sept. 14, 2009 (AP) WASHINGTON -- The Senate voted Monday to block the Housing and Urban Development Department from giving grants to ACORN, a community organization under fire in several voter-registration fraud cases.

The 83-7 vote would deny housing and community grant funding to ACORN, which stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

The action came as the group is suffering from bad publicity after a duo of conservative activists posing as a prostitute and her pimp released hidden-camera videos in which ACORN employees in Baltimore gave advice on house-buying and how to account on tax forms for the woman's income. Two other videos, aired on the FOX News Channel, depict similar situations in ACORN offices in Brooklyn and Washington, D.C.
----------------
CBS News Sept. 14, 2009 (AP) Washington --The Senate voted Monday to block the Housing and Urban Development Department from giving grants to ACORN, a community organization under fire in several voter-registration fraud cases.

The 83-7 vote would deny housing and community grant funding to ACORN, which stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

The action came as the group is suffering from bad publicity after a duo of conservative activists posing as a prostitute and her pimp released hidden-camera videos in which ACORN employees in Baltimore gave advice on house-buying and how to account on tax forms for the woman's income. Two other videos, aired frequently on media outlets such as the Fox News Channel, depict similar situations in ACORN offices in Brooklyn and Washington, D.C.
---------------------
MSNBC Sept. 14, 2009 AP WASHINGTON - The Senate voted Monday to block the Housing and Urban Development Department from giving grants to ACORN, a community organization under fire in several voter-registration fraud cases.

The 83-7 vote would deny housing and community grant funding to ACORN, which stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

The action came as the group is suffering from bad publicity after a duo of conservative activists posing as a prostitute and her pimp released hidden-camera videos in which ACORN employees in Baltimore gave advice on house-buying and how to account on tax forms for the woman's income. Two other videos, aired frequently on media outlets such as the Fox News Channel, depict similar situations in ACORN offices in Brooklyn and Washington, D.C.
----------------
ABC News Sept. 14, 2009 AP - The Senate voted Monday to block the Housing and Urban Development Department from giving grants to ACORN, a community organization under fire in several voter-registration fraud cases.

The 83-7 vote would deny housing and community grant funding to ACORN, which stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

The action came as the group is suffering from bad publicity after a duo of conservative activists posing as a prostitute and her pimp released hidden-camera videos in which ACORN employees in Baltimore gave advice on house-buying and how to account on tax forms for the woman's income. Two other videos, aired frequently on media outlets such as the Fox News Channel, depict similar situations in ACORN offices in Brooklyn and Washington, D.C.

Note: On September 15, four days after the tapes were first aired on Fox, Charlie Gibson laughed when asked about it on WLS (Chicago) saying that he was unaware of the scandal.

Fixing troubled mortgages for the elderly

Sometimes older is not wiser. It seems that Pedro Garcia, a retired corrections officer, refinanced the home he bought for $23,000 40 years ago for $490,000 with what is known as an exotic "option ARM." In 2009 the house was valued at $150,000. When his payments had balooned beyond his pension's monthly income he quit paying. Bank of America, under pressure from tax cheat Geithner to remedy these bad decisions and "predatory lending" when money was flowing, refinanced it for $85,000 and then gave him a reverse mortgage on that, so he is now paying nothing. Of course, he'd already used that refinancing money--$70,000 to fix up the house, medical bills for his ill wife, and monthly living expenses. I guess the bank just eats that. But he still has a small second mortgage, which has also been modified by that lender. Something like 500,000 borrowers have been rescued by Obama's $75,000,000,000 foreclosure prevention plan. (WSJ story here) According to the article, Mr. Garcia and others were misled by these predators and the ARMs they pushed. No mention in this article about the number of non-profit organizations (like ACORN) that worked with banks and pushed both subprimes and ARMs especially for minorities. 32% of option ARMs were in foreclosure or delinquent as of August, compared to 48% of subprime. The difference is the option ARM people were good credit risks, sensible and wiser. Go figure. Pot. Rainbow. Free money.

And we're still seeing schemes from the government to put people into more housing debt, this time it's Obama instead of the Bushes or Clinton. Earlier this week there was an article on the tax credit plan for first time buyers. Claims for the $8,000 tax credit might have significant fraud. What a surprise! This little goodie if it is extended, will cost the tax payers an additional $16.7 billion. The new proposed ceiling might be $300,000 income per couple instead of the current $150,000. Under the current stimulus plan we the tax payers pay $43,000 for each borrower who uses that $8,000 tax credit. If they raise the ceiling, each tax credit will cost us $250,000 per home sale. (WSJ story here) Folks, you all took second grade math. Does this make any sense to you?

Update: On April 3, 2008 Michelle Malkin exposed the housing counseling racket, deep within the Bush Administration: ". . . mortgage counseling is a thriving racket that benefits far Left groups ranging from the AARP to ACORN to La Raza and Legal Aid. The Department of Housing and Urban Development funds hundreds, if not thousands, of these groups across the country. In October, HUD announced more than $44 million in new housing counseling grants to over 400 state and local efforts. The White House has increased funding for housing counseling by 150 percent since taking office in 2001." http://michellemalkin.com/2008/04/03/the-left-wing-mortgage-counseling-racket/

But wait--she appears on Fox News from time to time, so it must not be reliable.

The jargon creep

Not a creep that uses jargon, but a description of a program so filled with gooble-de-gook you either skim over and don't notice it, or gag:

"Ohio State University College of Social Work [description] First accredited in 1919, the College of Social Work is the oldest continuously accredited social work program in the country. The college, through excellence in teaching, research, and service, prepares leaders who enhance individual and community well-being, celebrate difference, and promote social and economic justice for vulnerable populations. It fosters social change through collaboration with individuals, families, communities, and other change agents to build strengths and resolve complex individual and social problems. As an internationally recognized college, it builds and applies knowledge that positively impacts Ohio, the nation and the world. Social Work's vision is to “embrace difference, seek justice, and be the change.”

• prepare leaders (I hope they prepare a few followers, because without sensible, educated, skilled followers, there's no one to lead)
  
• enhance (vt from old French via Latin; improve, increase
  
• community well-being (a moving target--depends on the amount of the grant)
  
• promote social and economic justice (guidelines from Saul Alinsky, Mao, small sects and cults living on Pacific Islands, various dead, and some living in Chicago, heros from the 1970s and Latin American revolutions--whether in church or college these are code phrases for some form of socialism, never capitalism, the system for which most immigrants come here and with which they succeed)
  
• vulnerable populations (whatever group brings in the most government money--could be Appalachian resettled miners, mentally ill street people, Vietnam vets, unemployed TV and toaster repairmen)
  
• celebrate difference (convince middle class rural and suburban college kids that their own lives and values are worthless)
  
• foster (v. from Old English word for food and feeding; giving parental care or nurture; encourage; promote growth or development)
  
• social change (what academics and government officials do for a living which affords a comfortable life style and sense of purpose for the agent; what they promote when they don't like someone else's values, religion, appearance, beliefs)
  
• collaboration (lots of meetings, task forces, papers, and empire building)
  
• other change agents (non-profits, churches, local government officials, members of the DNC, assorted useful misfits--most surviving on federal grants)
  
• families (any mix and match group)
  
• social problem (crime, education, voter behavior, smoking, obesity, or any people or personal structure that will not respond to government intervention so that the income stream is steady)
  
• you get the idea, jargon.

I've written so many mission statements I could do it in my sleep. You take 3 columns of words, (usually nouns, verbs, adjectives with as little specificity as possible) and start building sentences that will be as vague as possible, and never hold you accountable come evaluation time.

First column: university, college, department, program, unit, committee, community, individual, agent, purpose, class, victims, technology, change, hope etc. etc.

Second column: best, finest, newest, oldest, complex, simple, collaborative, positive, negative, vulnerable, weak, strong, sustainable, eco-friendly, green, digital, economic, social, cultural, diverse, digitized, etc., etc.

Third column: prepare, promote, enhance, foster, nurture, involve, increase, decrease, build, remove, improve, resolve, recognize, change, equip, engage, etc.

Fourth possible column: these would be adverbs, or other squish words, but use sparingly.

Just for fun and comparaison, Google this phrase, "mission statement school of social work" and just browse what the individual universities describe as their mission. Stoneybrook is big on "oppression," and Georgia is concerned about families. Some are specific about skills and expectations; some just float in a sea of meaningless words. You can almost guess the age and political preferences of the writers.

Obama's manufacturing czar is just a thug

Quoting Mao once doesn't make him a Marxist--I'd need to see the rest of his record, but he sure sounds and acts like a thug or goon in a business suit.



Ron Bloom, giving a speech in which he says that "the free market is nonsense." Where does he find them?

“Generally speaking we get the joke. We know that the free market is nonsense. We know that the whole point is to game the system, to beat the market, or at least find someone who will pay you a lot of money because they’re convinced that there is a free lunch. We know this is largely about power, that it’s an adults only, no limit game. We kind of agree with Mao that political power comes largely from the barrel of a gun. And we get it that if you want a friend, you should get a dog.”

Can we trust government cost estimates?

No. They are never accurate. War. Peace. Highways. Social Security. CO2. Schools. Even pork (earmarks) aren't accurate. Never. Does the government ever "contain" costs. No. In today's Review and Outlook in the WSJ:

Start with Medicaid, the joint state-federal program for the poor. The House Ways and Means Committee estimated that its first-year costs would be $238 million. Instead it hit more than $1 billion, and costs have kept climbing.

Thanks in part to expansions promoted by California's Henry Waxman, a principal author of the current House bill, Medicaid now costs 37 times more than it did when it was launched—after adjusting for inflation. Its current cost is $251 billion, up 24.7% or $50 billion in fiscal 2009 alone, and that's before the health-care bill covers millions of new beneficiaries.

When our legislators get to Washington, or Columbus, or Springfield, or Albany, or Sacramento, they forget it's real money taxed from real working people. To them it's funny money; Monopoly money. All they can do is pass legislation that will 1) fulfill the dreams of their party's philosophy, and 2) win voters back home, who understandably want some of their money back in exchange for sending that person to Congress. When the Congress person's term is up, they slip into "think-tanks" or become lobbyists, and continue on the government dole. Besides, you can't predict what's going to happen in the medical field. They estimated 11,000 renal patients for Medicare and got almost 400,000. The only thing that has come in below projections is the Bush-Kennedy drug plan. We know competition brings down prices, but Democrats don't want that. We know tax cuts induce investments which provide jobs, but Democrats don't want that. They want control and power.

A high tech net for volunteers

I hope everyone contributing to buy nets and t-shirts noticed the article about malaria in today's Wall St. Journal. It's about high tech epidemiology and volunteers who help with malaria vaccine modeling. The simulations could take months or years as millions die or become disabled by a disease that about 30 years ago had practically been conquered. That is until Rachel Carson told about her vision of a silent spring, and DDT as a killer of mosquitoes that spread the disease was essentially taken off the market. In its place we have bed nets and local spraying, and do-gooders buying orange t-shirts and having basketball games and bake sales to feel like they're doing something. Meanwhile, millions of children, mostly black and brown, mostly poor, mostly not using bed-nets because they aren't accessible, are dying.

So while they slice and dice the genes of the female mosquito becoming famous for writing articles in peer review journals, they can only hope for that enzyme that will cure the disease. But doesn't volunteering just feel so good? Isn't that what counts? The feeling, not the results?

How Well Do You Know Illinois?

Recently, a high school friend sent me quiz, "How Well Do You Know Illinois?" I got most of them right, although I didn't know the original name of the Chicago Bears, and guessed at the state flower. So I wouldn't win a million. Also, if Peoria is the oldest town, there are four or five others ready to call her a liar, although it may be the oldest of the four listed. However, I also knew Ronald Reagan wasn't born in Dixon, Illinois, which means at least one answer was wrong--so maybe there were others--like the oldest town.

Could you go through these questions, not miss any and win a million dollars, if the opportunity arose.

1. $100 What is the Capital of Illinois?
a. Chicago
b. Champaign
c. Springfield
d. East St.. Louis
***********************************************************
2. $200 The State Motto is . . ..
a. Home of Ronald Reagan
b. Prairie State
c. Land of 100 Lakes
d. Land of Lincoln
***********************************************************
3. $400 - State that DOES NOT border IL?
a. Iowa
b. Missouri
c. Texas
d. Indiana
***********************************************************
4. $1000. Which is furthest down south?
a. Chicago
b. Decatur
c. Carbondale
d. Bloomington
***********************************************************
5. $2000 What is the State bird?
a. Chicken
b. Cardinal
c. Pheasant
d. Eagle
***********************************************************
6. $4,000 - Which community is oldest in Illinois?
A. Chicago
b. Peoria
c. Effingham
d. East St. Louis
***********************************************************
7. $8,000 - The Chicago Bears were known as...?
a. Always has been known as Chicago Bears
b. Decatur Bears
c. Sucky Bears
d. Decatur Staleys
***********************************************************
8. $16,000 - What town is home to Superman?
a. Harristown
b. Pana
c. Metropolis
d. Peru
***********************************************************
9. $32,000 - City that has never been the capital of IL?
a. Springfield
b. Peoria
c. Kaskaskia
d. Vandalia
***********************************************************
10. $64,000 - State Flower?
a. Corn Stalks
b. Yellow Dandelions
c. White Daisies
d. Purple Violets
***********************************************************
11. $125,000 - how do you pronounce "Moweaqua"?
a. Mo-we-qua
b. Mow-wee-aqua
c. Mowey-qua
d. Mow-aqua
***********************************************************
12. $250,000 - Jesse Jackson stuck his nose into the business of what town concerning the 6 criminal kids?
a. Springfield
b. Decatur
c. Peoria
d. Chicago
***********************************************************
13. $500,000- Going to the boat means?
a. Cruising Lake Decatur
b. Going to your mother-in-laws house
c. Riverside Gambling
d. Going to jail
***********************************************************
14. $1,000,000 - Which President was born in Dixon, IL?
a. Reagan
b. Clinton
c. Jefferson
d. Nixon
*******************************************
ANSWERS ARE BELOW.....................
1. 100 C - Springfield
2. 200 D - Land of Lincoln
3. 400 C - Texas
4. 1000 C - Carbondale
5. 2000 B - Cardinal (even though hunters like to claim it as the pheasant)
6. 4000 B - Peoria -- Even though East St Louis looks as if it should be the oldest [others also claim to be the oldest, Cahokia, Palestine, Shawneetown]
7. 8000 D - Decatur Staleys --- Even though C (sucky bears) would work too:)
8. 16000 C - Metropolis (yep its a real city in southern IL)
9. 32,000 B - Peoria
10. 64,000 D - Purple Violets -- Even though (a) Corn Stalks should be.
11. 125,000 A - Mo-we-qua
12. 250,000 B - Decatur
13. 500,000 C. Riverside Gambling --- Better not mean (b) going to your mom in laws
14. 1,000,000 A - Reagan [wrong!]

A story of love and determination

My friend Helen sent this story e-mail. It's going around. So I checked it as I usually do, and Snopes says it is true, and it appears on a number of blogs. Here's a longer version without photos.

"While it is tragic that someone should die, especially so young, it's difficult to see the story of Katie Kirkpatrick Godwin as a sad one.

She did not allow illness to make her weak, she did not allow it to change her relationship with her God or her family or her husband. She did not let sickness stop her from living, take away the hope or faith that made her believe she had a future. She had a lovely wedding and she had love and she gave love and love doesn't die.

And that is how Katie beat cancer."

Why doesn't Obama trust black voters?

Al Gore was the same way in the 2000 election in Florida. Remember the hanging chads? That happened because a black district hadn't voted the straight Democrat ticket and Gore's people wanted a recount by eyeballing little bits of dangling paper to determine intent. Now Eric Holder, Obama's Attorney General, has decided black voters in Kinston NC couldn't possibly vote if the "Democrat" designation wasn't beside the name of the candidate. The story is at the Washington Times, but never you mind, I'm guessing Obama's White House doesn't approve of this one as real news either.

The Justice Department's ruling, which affects races for City Council and mayor, went so far as to say partisan elections are needed so that black voters can elect their "candidates of choice" - identified by the department as those who are Democrats and almost exclusively black.

The department ruled that white voters in Kinston will vote for blacks only if they are Democrats and that therefore the city cannot get rid of party affiliations for local elections because that would violate black voters' right to elect the candidates they want.

Now which is more serious--made up lies about Rush Limbaugh being racist, or the highest offices in the land saying blacks can't vote without the Democrats telling them how?

The appeal of celebrity

Because of reality shows on TV, the ordinary people with little talent can now be a star--if they are fat, have a beat up truck, a house falling down, have multiple births, are little people, are former cheerleaders, want to swap wives, or have a terrible wardrobe.

The balloon fiasco is just the latest example of what can go wrong. Millions of people watched and prayed and soon became very dissolutioned when first they thought the 6 year old had died, then he was hiding, then the family had pulled a hoax.

"A celebrity is a person who is know for his well-knowness." (Daniel Boorstin) It isn't even about money anymore. It's a craving for the public's attention.

Here's People Magazine's rules for a successful cover.

Young is better than old.
Pretty is better than ugly.
Rich is better than poor.
TV is better than music.
Music is better than movies.
Movies are better than sports.
Anything is better than politics.
And nothing is better than a celebrity who just died. (Richard Stolley, quoted in Neal Gabler, Life; The Movie, 2000. See also The Magazinist

Obama's Human Rights record

Not so great. Much worse than Bush's--actually, not even close. He at least freed all those second class citizens, aka women.

Bret Stephens examines Obama's Human Rights record.

China: no pressing whatsoever on human rights
Sudan: "incentives and disincentives" for the genocidal Sudanese government of Omar Bashir
Iran: denied funding for a human-rights group working the Iran beat to appease Tehran
Burma: where 150,000 died of starvation in plain view being denied humanitarian aid, Obama is going to change to constructive engagement
Tibet: ignore the Dalai Lama and concede to China with constructive engagement (see Burma)

International Day of Climate Action

World wide stupidity and insanity. It always amazes me that people who sincerely believe God couldn't speak the creation into existence in 6 days, just as sincerely believe they can organize themselves into committees, focus groups, clubs and dictatorships to change the climate.

Plan to restrict free speech

A proposal sponsored by the Obama administration at the United Nations that purports to seek protection for "freedom of opinion and expression" actually is a call for a worldwide crackdown on freedom of speech and a mandate for nations to ensure "that relevant national legislation complies with … international human rights obligations" – a clear threat to the First Amendment, according to critics.

The resolution was submitted recently by the United States and Egypt. It was approved by the U.N. Human Rights Council as a first step in its process through the international organization.

It demands that all nations condemn and criminalize "any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence." Steven Groves of the Heritage Foundation told WND the issue is not about free speech at all but about installing international precedents to stifle any criticism of Islam.

Full story at World Net Daily.

The United Nations has become a totally worthless organization, filled with petty tyrants and dictators who won't obey our laws when their here strutting their lies, and don't allow any freedoms in their own countries, from which people flee to come here to find what they don't have at home. Now Obama wants us to become just another third world, banana republic where everyone can be equally poor to fit his narcissistic personality. Unfortunately, he's succeeding.

Changing sheets listening to Fox

Fox News was on in the background while I was changing sheets today. Sounded like news to me. Can't imagine what the WH is so in a snit about. The stories I heard were H1N1 vaccine--reasons to get it, who, where, etc. That was an interview with a doctor. Story about Christopher Dodd wanting more rules for banks. Straight line reporting, quoting him--didn't even point out his ethical failings and his sweetheart deals. Then there was a science feature about a blob robot, again an interview with an expert. It appears the White House can't tell the difference between opinion and news. Probably watching too much ABC, NBC, NBC and CNN--because on those channels, you really can't tell. Today the Fox Business Channel starts for us on our cable service--we enjoy Neil Cavuto on regular Fox and look forward to seeing him and a few others on the Business Channel, like Dave Ramsey, Elizabeth McDonald and John Stossell.

People who demean Fox News don't recognize unfiltered, non-Katified news, and don't notice that the panels have more than one viewpoint--sometimes 3 or 4! Oh, the horror of it. It's not Obama 24/7!

Socialism sells. . . then kills

Joe Wilson and his opponent have now both raised $2 million for their campaigns. His "You Lie" statement of truth energized both campaigns. The Democrats are now the party of the fat cats, rich energy moguls going green, foreign born lobbyists and smelly Euro-socialists, in addition to their usual supporters, Hollywood celebrities and the public librarians. So they have a lot more money than we do.

So time to chip in, Conservatives. Yes, both parties are full of pork-fed liars, but for now, getting Congress out of the clutches of the White House Statists is important. These are very deep pockets among the Obama crowd. I used to think it wasn't ethical to get involved in other states' elections. But that was before we knew the extent of Soros, ACORN and the Chicago machine.

Joe Wilson for Congress blog.

Photo from Stop blaming capitalism for socialism's failures at But now you know.

Captured CO2

Last week there was a dust storm over Australia that dumped tons of red dust in the ocean. The dust contained nutrients which fed huge blooms of phytoplankton. Those tiny plants provide food for larger ocean creatures. The plankton has captured about 8 million tons of CO2. This will be deposited on the ocean floor. That's one month of emissions from a dirty coal-fired plant in China making energy conserving light bulbs for Americans so they can sit in dim rooms feeling good about themselves for not using American clean coal mined here in Ohio and other Appalachian states providing good jobs. The DC and California greenies don't like the ocean doing the natural CO2 capture and storage primarily because they can't make any money that way or tax it.

Ohio State sets new enrollment records

According to OSUToday: "Ohio State has set new records this fall – in the size, quality and diversity of its student body. There are new records in the number of students attending the Columbus campus and several regional campuses. New autumn quarter enrollment figures show a 2.7 percent increase in Ohio State enrollment, with a record 63,217 students on all campuses and a record 55,014 on the Columbus campus – a 2.4 percent increase. Across all campuses, there are a record 49,915 undergraduates including 9,510 new first-year students — providing more students than ever access to higher education." Read more: the full report (51 pages) or the press release http://osu.edu/news/newsitem2575

The library has now moved back to the main campus, so in order to go there, I'll have to compete for parking again. I loved having it on Ackerman Rd. The ACK STAX. I think I used the library more those 3 years than all the other years in my retirement (9).

Cash for Oldsters

"No one ever went broke underestimating political cynicism, but these days even we can't keep up: On Wednesday [Oct. 14], President Obama announced that he wants to send every American senior a $250 check.

"Even as we seek to bring about recovery, we must act on behalf of those hardest hit by this recession," Mr. Obama said. Of course it's a mere coincidence that these checks are being proposed, and probably passed, just as Congress is about to vote on health care."

So says Review and Outlook at Friday's WSJ. Keep in mind, only the opinion page in the Wall Street Journal is conservative--the news section follows like a puppy at Obama's heels. (Nice doggie, good doggie, here's a bone, now don't bite or I'll bury you with the other chickens in the Fox Den.)

A group of us seniors was talking Sunday evening in our home. Actually, we aren't the "hardest hit" at all; one observed that we have all lived at a much reduced, simpler lifestyle when we were younger--it is no sacrifice or terror for us to reenter that territory like it might be for children and grandchildren who have enjoyed all the perks and materialism that a booming free market economy offers, and much of it sterile and unspiritual to boot! Also I know couples my age and older with 5 and 6 pension streams, their two or three homes and cars are paid for, and their "gotta have it" odometer is no longer functioning. A few born in the 20s and 30s remember the Great Depression, but most remember their parents' stories and advice. We are the fortunate generation, not the hardest hit.

In a recent e-mail, the ever vigilant Murray observed:

Now remember, the reason to rush the [stimulus] Bill through without reading it was to avoid a another crisis to go along with the housing bubble burst that was ALL Bush's fault. So why has only about 15% of the $787 billion stimulus been released? Gee, I thought rushing this money into the economy was the key point. But wait, take another look at Emaneul's statement again [never waste a good crisis]. They don't want to waste a crisis so therefore what's the best strategic plan for the Obama team? (not for you & I silly) It seems to play out like this. They are trickling the money into the economy and plan to dump 2/3 of it in just before the next election. So let's see, 1/3 over the first two years and then wham, 2/3 just before the next election. Hmmmmm! Who does that help?

In the meantime, in order to keep the peasants at bay, they will extend unemployment benefits. Thus they will be using your tax dollars to enable them to delay the so called stimulus money until THEY can best take advantage of it while the masses are beating the bushes looking for jobs. I guess the rush wasn't so important after all !!

This is the kind of deception and lying that we've become used to but shouldn't be comfortable with. It's like the other day when things weren't going well for Obama so he says he wants to give S.S. recipients $250 checks to offset no COLA for 2010. (your congressman gave himself a $4,700 raise on his 174,000 dollar salary) Obama throws out crumbs with your tax dollars so he can milk it for all it's worth. In this case he's hoping to get the seniors off his back by waiting to cut the checks until right before the midterm elections. Hmmmm! This must part of the transparency he promised.

It's just like his ObamaCare. If it passes Heh,Heh,Heh.... benefits won't start for the uninsured until 2013 after the elections. Why? Because that's when we find out just how bad this plan is and how much it's really going to cost after it's too late. Why do I say it's bad? Well, if they won't bother to read it, won't post it on the Internet and use trickery to calculate the cost, what other conclusion can you come to? Besides, the 4 things that need to be in any healthcare plan that would lower the healthcare costs aren't in it. In fact, the largest cost to the healthcare industry (free healthcare for illegals) is being totally ignored as are the illegals themselves. That in itself tells you this package stinks. Today I find out that one of the ways the Democrats used to help lower the overall cost of the healthcare bill was to take some of the expensive provisions out of the Bill and put them in a separate bill to pass. Ahhh, isn't transparency wonderful? Isn't this the kind of information that should be exposed on the 6 o'clock news or make the headlines?

The latest polls show that 54% oppose and 35% are for the healthcare plan. But that doesn't matter. We're dealing with what Obama wants. The Obama team has ignored us at the town hall meetings, tea parties, our e-mails and the March on Washington. Obama stages his own town hall meetings and runs them like he's campaigning. Welcome to ObamaWorld!

New editor in blogger

For several days I tried "new editor" in the basic posting template at blogger. Didn't like it. When I copied and pasted text from another source, I couldn't control the paragraphs; I couldn't see what I was editing; there was no spell check, had to use IE's; sometimes in the window things ran off the margin. Really, I could see no advantage. Still haven't seen a correction to the label problem (2000 limit) and I've read through the discussions at the blogger.com forums. Some people seem to be in worse shape than I. So I continue to use the labels I have and hope someone fixes this problem. If you don't have an "Anita Dunn" label there's really no work-around.

Monday Memories--giving Caleb the boot

Last week I posted a photo of me hold newborn baby Caleb. Here he is now at the party for him before he leaves for Army Reserves Boot Camp. His mom is a fabulous hostess, and it was great to see all the friends and relatives and catch up on what everyone is doing.

We will all go together when we go

It's about the bomb, but listen and think about freedom of speech and press. If the President can attack and take out one, he can take them all.



And we will all go together when we go.
What a comforting fact that is to know.
Universal bereavement,
An inspiring achievement,
Yes, we all will go together when we go.


And then think about the President cozying up with our enemies--leaving us defenseless. Yes, this 1959 song is sounding quite appropriate.

HT Tsedek Tsedek

Dunn explains how it's done

How to keep the press in your pocket and suppress all other views.



She says: "Obama's presidential campaign focused on "making" the news media cover certain issues while rarely communicating anything to the press unless it was "controlled," White House Communications Director Anita Dunn disclosed to the Dominican government at a videotaped conference.


"Very rarely did we communicate through the press anything that we didn't absolutely control," said Dunn.


"One of the reasons we did so many of the David Plouffe videos was not just for our supporters, but also because it was a way for us to get our message out without having to actually talk to reporters," said Dunn, referring to Plouffe, who was Obama'schief campaign manager.


"We just put that out there and made them write what Plouffe had said as opposed to Plouffe doing an interview with a reporter. So it was very much we controlled it as opposed to the press controlled it," Dunn said.

HT Chicago Ray


Here's Plouffe (Obama's Campaign Manager) keeping the press out of the National Press Club

Reading Mao isn't the same as admiring Mao

"Taking its cue from the White House, CNN, the 4th most popular cable news network and fact-checker of Saturday Night Live skits skewering the president (even Jon Stewart snorted at that one), picks up the canard and runs with it.

But it's not just Dunn, a Democrat, who has used Mao as someone she reads.
Media Matters for America, a liberal media watchdog group, points out that former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, also a Fox News contributor, quoted Mao in a 1995 Roll Call profile.

"War is politics with blood; politics is war without blood," Gingrich said, citing Mao.

Karl Rove, another Fox News contributor, wrote in a December 2008 Wall Street Journal op-ed that President Bush "encouraged me to read a Mao biography."

Sometimes people read books to understand the depravity of their opponents and those who would destroy them. After all, lots of Republicans like Rove and Gingrich have read Mao, right along with Rules for Radicals and Dreams from my Father."

CNN's lame excuse

Emboldened White House

Those of you who think the White House is just acting a bit like a snotty, rebellious child caught with his hand in the cookie jar, ought to wake up and see the seriousness of Obama's henchmen attacks on a news agency

The White House stopped providing guests to "Fox News Sunday" after host Chris Wallace fact-checked controversial assertions made by Tammy Duckworth, assistant secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, in August. Dunn said fact-checking an administration official was "something I've never seen a Sunday show do." "She criticized 'Fox News Sunday' last week for fact-checking -- fact-checking -- an administration official," Wallace said Sunday. "They didn't say that our fact-checking was wrong. They just said that we had dared to fact-check."

Each day I am getting more and more chilled and concerned by this mess you guys elected for us. It doesn't even sound like my country any more.

Story

A grieving father blogs. . .

Robert J. Avrech is an Emmy Award winning screenwriter, an observant Jew, a religious Zionist, a conservative Republican, and a member of the NRA. He writes the blog, Seraphic Secret. His son died of cancer at age 22 in 2003. He writes that time has not healed.

It's not health care reform

This op-ed piece in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette finds the real problem, and it's not insurance:

Health care costs too much in our country because we deliver too much health care. We deliver too much because we demand too much. And we demand it for all the wrong reasons. We're turning into a nation of anxious wimps. I still love my job; very few things are as emotionally rewarding as relieving true pain and suffering, sharing compassionate care and actually saving lives. Illness and injury will always require the best efforts our medical system can provide. But emergency departments nationwide are being overwhelmed by the non-emergent, and doctors in general are asked to treat what doesn't need treatment. In a single night I had patients come in to our emergency department, most brought by ambulance, for the following complaints: I smoked marijuana and got dizzy; I got stung by a bee and it hurts; I got drunk and have a hangover; I sat out in the sun and got sunburn; I ate Mexican food and threw up; I picked my nose and it bled, but now it stopped; I just had sex and want to know if I'm pregnant. . . . Our society has warped our perception of true risk. We are taught to fear vaccinations, mold, shark attacks, airplanes and breast implants when we really should worry about smoking, drug abuse, obesity, cars and basic hygiene. If you go by pharmaceutical advertisement budgets, our most critical health needs are to have sex and fall asleep."

HT Kat

Medical marijuana

I'm sure most conservative commentators and bloggers will jump all over Obama for this one--the new federal guidelines. Not me. Maybe there is no benefit, maybe medical marijuana is just another placebo, but we'll never know until there are large clinical studies, and there won't be any if we make criminals out of the doctors and patients who are trying to ease chronic, debilitating pain. It certainly can't be worse or more addictive than some of the prescription medications like Oxycontin. Is this another follow the money fight? Now let's see if the state and federal regulations can control this as a medical treatment. Probably not.

Need a fact checker

Our church went to plastic communion cups years ago, not for sanitation but because there weren't enough ladies left in the altar guild to wash them when the congregation grew. Some congregations/denominations are doing away with the common cup due to fear of disease transmission. Somewhere years ago when I first started serving communion (and we do occasionally have common cup in small services), I heard that someone had tested a common cup against the individual glass cup, and found more germs on the glass due to inadequate washing and storing. Anyone know more about this? I would think the alcohol will kill some germs, although not handling the bread so much would make sense.

Obama's military expenditure projection

"To carry out the Obama administration's defense plans, the Pentagon will need its non-war-related spending over the next 18 years to average 6 percent more than the amount sought in its fiscal 2010 budget request, according to CBO testimony Wednesday before the House Budget Committee.

Despite efforts to cut unnecessary programs and otherwise rein in defense budgets that have spiked since 2001, the Pentagon still will need roughly $567 billion annually, in constant 2010 dollars, for its base budgets between fiscal 2011 and fiscal 2028, Matthew Goldberg, CBO acting assistant director, told the panel. That figure, which does not include war costs, marks a $33 billion increase over the fiscal 2010 base defense budget request. . .

Meanwhile, spending on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan still makes up about 35 percent, or $154 billion, of the total defense budget request for fiscal 2010. Long-term estimates on war spending hinge largely on whether and how many additional troops President Obama decides to send to Afghanistan.

Daggett also noted that each U.S. soldier deployed to Afghanistan for one year costs about $1 million. By comparison, one Afghan soldier costs $12,000 annually.

Meanwhile, the current monthly "burn rate" in Afghanistan is $3.6 billion. But that would grow to about $7.2 billion -- or the same rate that the United States is spending monthly in Iraq -- if Obama decides to send in 50,000 additional troops, he said." Link

White House goes Palin with Sotomayor

"Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor says her nomination process was so tightly scripted that even her clothes were chosen for her.

Sotomayor made the comments when she appeared at her 30th Yale Law School reunion on Saturday. . . Sotomayor talked about shopping for clothes to wear to her acceptance ceremony. Government officials, however, told her to bring five suits and they recommended which one she should wear."

Source: Newsmax

Maybe the parties do this with male candidates too, and they just don't make the news because people don't care? Pin stripe or plain; yellow tie or blue stripe; tiny flag pin. What do you think, Mr. WH Clothing Czar?

800 U.S. war dead in Afghanistan

Since October 1, 2001. Think about that. That's less than the murder rate in most major American cities (see Forbes, "America's most murderous cities"). It's far below the death rate for teen drivers and passengers (16-20), which is something like 5,000 a year (NHTSA)! If the soldier is your son or daughter, father, husband, brother, then the totals don't matter. But I think war protesters ought to think about totals. The Iraq War protesters extended the war, just like they did during the Vietnam era. It gives courage and resolve to the enemy and makes little difference to the people in government. The Iraq War had the backing of many Democrats in Congress, until they decided there was political capital in changing their minds and blaming Bush saying they were misled. That's an ugly thing to do. Either they are liars or easily intimidated wimps. Maybe both. And now we have a President who doesn't believe in victory, waffles on Afghanistan and has changed his mind on Sudan, endangering every military family and America's security in general. And Democrats are still divided, still trying to blame Bush.

But back to the numbers. Did you know the recession has saved lives? Yes, less driving, fewer deaths. Fewer in 2008 than 2007--down 9.7%--and 2009 will probably drop even more. And motorcycle deaths are increasing--probably some folks trying to save gasoline! And did you know that the decade following 1995 when the speed limits went back up (had been 55 mph), studies show an additional 12,500 people died and about 36,500 injured through 2006, even though overall deaths are going down due to safer cars, more seat belt use, and alcohol crack downs.

So why does the media and special interest groups try to get political mileage out of 800 deaths in 9 years, and pretty much ignore 12,500 deaths in 10 years which resulted from societal pressure and special interests? Are those families grieving less because the white cross is along interstate 70 or Rt. 64 and not in a military cemetery? Also, a new study shows that texting increased the danger of driving by 23.2 times--taking your eyes off the road is a lot more dangerous than talking on a cell phone. So what's up? Why is one story so much more compelling, more political, and yet the carnage is so much worse on the highways? [from "Studies probe US traffic injuries, deaths" by Mike Mitka, JAMA, Sept. 16, 2009, p. 1159-1160 using figures from NHTSA]

Kiss and Tell Books

If I'd never known about Bwabwra Walters affairs, or that McKenzie had sex with her father, I would not be impoverished. I wish these attention seekers would just stay in the closet of family secrets. So too with the people who guard the Presidents. I think its a bit creepy. They aren't too kind to Jimmy Carter, but at least the revelations sound like what we all guessed in Ronald Kessler’s book In the President’s Secret Service: Behind the Scenes with Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents they Protect. My other two examples, not.

Carter is portrayed as a phony according to the agents interviewed by Kessler. Carter would put on a show for the public to convey himself as a common man, but it was never anymore than an act. For instance, we are told that when Carter would make a point of carrying his own luggage in front of the press, he was really carrying empty bags. He expected others to carry his real luggage. Unfriendly, Carter “didn’t want the police officers and agents looking at him or speaking to him when he went to the [Oval] office,” explained an assistant White House usher. “The only time I saw a smile on Carter’s face was when the cameras were going,” one former agent told Kessler. After his presidency, Kessler reports that when Carter would stay at a townhouse maintained for former presidents in D.C., he would take down pictures of other presidents and put up more pictures of himself! “The Carters were the biggest liars in the world,” one agent told Kessler of the Carter era. Carter, not surprisingly, denied to Kessler through a lawyer many of the allegations in the book. from Hot Air

Sigh. If he'd just kept building houses instead of trying to have a 2nd and 3rd term while others were in office, he probably could have recovered from his record and been a well-loved ex.

HT Sister Toljah

Calling Dr. Glenn

I noticed this comment at Dr. Sanity's blog--she's out ill.

For the past five years, researchers in a modest office overlooking the New Haven green have carefully documented cases of assassination and torture of democracy activists in Iran. With more than $3 million in grants from the US State Department, they have pored over thousands of documents and Persian-language press reports and interviewed scores of witnesses and survivors to build dossiers on those they say are Iran’s most infamous human-rights abusers. But just as the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center was ramping up to investigate abuses of protesters after this summer’s disputed presidential election, the group received word that - for the first time since it was formed -- its federal funding request has been denied.

You just never know the accuracy of these comments--God knows I get some weird people here! So I checked for the original news story and found it at the Boston Globe by Farah Stockman.

Many see the sudden, unexplained cutoff of funding as a shift by the Obama administration away from high-profile democracy promotion in Iran, which had become a signature issue for President Bush. But the timing has alarmed some on Capitol Hill. “The Iran Human Rights Documentation Center is at the forefront of pioneering and vitally important work,’’ said Senator Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, in a statement yesterday. “It is disturbing that the State Department would cut off funding at precisely the moment when these brave investigations are needed most.’’ Michael Rubin, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington-based think tank, said, “It is a shock that they did not get funding.’’ A reason, he asserted, may be that “the Obama administration is so focused on engaging Iran that they don’t want this information to get in the way.’’

When Joe Lieberman left the Democratic Party it not only lost its soul, but its conscience.

Who is Andrew Breitbart, MSM slayer and acorn crusher?

James Taranto looks at the man who scooped all the media with an ACORN story so outrageous, they finally had to take a look at its corruption, scamming of the poor, and links back to Obama.

Mr. Breitbart, 40, grew up in Hollywood, though his parents weren't in show business. (His father was a restaurateur, his mother a banker.) After graduating from Tulane University, he returned to Southern California, where he dabbled in film production and music journalism before finding his calling online in the mid-1990s. "I just like the Internet," he says. "I feel more natural in this environment, where I am part of the media and not a passive receptacle of the media." He worked for a time on the Drudge Report, and Matt Drudge introduced him to Arianna Huffington, now the doyenne of liberal bloggers. Mr. Breitbart designed a Web site for her back when she was still a Republican.  He held inchoate liberal views until 1991, when the Clarence Thomas hearings occasioned a conservative awakening. He came to loathe the left-wing show-biz culture, the subject of his 2004 book, "Hollywood, Interrupted," and of his group blog Big Hollywood, launched early this year. "These people believe that Christians and conservatives and Republicans and libertarians are all variations on the Nazi theme."

Read the whole story--there’s more to come.

I remember listening to the Thomas hearings on my lunch hour in the car. That's when I really started to catch on about the party of my choice. It took another 9 years, of gag reflexes, ignoring the problem, and then soul searching, but I finally fled. But it began with Alanon.

Dunn doesn't mind a double dip salary

For someone who finds Chairman Mao a man to be admired for his methods, results and goals, Anita Dunn doesn't mind burning the salary candle at both ends--from the White House as interim communications chief and at her own firm, Squier Knapp Dunn.

“From Anita Dunn—referred to in Time magazine as Obama's "mega-advisor" to Bill Knapp, one of the nation's savviest campaign strategists – we have helped countless Democratic candidates and campaigns navigate tough races and win.” No other firm had as far-reaching a role in President Obama's election than Squier Knapp Dunn, with Anita Dunn serving as one of the top officials of the campaign and the firm producing both television advertising and direct mail for the campaign.

From her position at the White House, Ms. Dunn attacked the right of dissent and free speech of every American with her attacks on Fox News, claiming it was an arm of the Republican party (as if the rest of the media hadn't helped elect Obama), then down played the video of her speech through the leftist Media Matters. She attacked the messenger for her own words which millions saw and understood, spoken at a high school graduation. SKD also helped elect Ohio's own Senator Sherrod Brown.

Label: Anita Dunn

Teaching queerly--Kevin Jennings, the bullying czar

I've been out of school a few years, and my youngest graduated from highschool 22 years ago. I didn't know there was such a thing as "teaching queerly." Calling someone a "queer" used to be an insult, but that went out in the 70s--I knew that because I was a librarian. Not that librarians are queer, mind you, but I used to get all kinds of publications coming across my desk and kitchen table, including a newsletter from the Bay Area radical librarians for anarchy in the stacks (or something like that). Their newsletter was lavendar, I kid you not.

Fox News has been roundly criticized for even reporting this story, and of course, the opinion shows on Fox are running with it--you'd never see CNN or MSNBC even touch it. Jennings apparently wrote the introduction for this book, now 11 years old. So you would think someone would have figured out in the vetting (who? what? when?) process that this just might come up.

"Those who teach queerly refuse to participate in the great sexual sorting machine called schooling where diminutive GI Joes and Barbies become star quarterbacks and prom queens, while the Linuses and Tinky Winkies become wallflowers or human doormats. Queeering education means bracketing our simplest classroom activities in which we routinely equate sexual identities with sexual acts, privilege the heterosexual condition, and presume sexual destinies. Queer teachers are those who develop curriculum and pedagogy that afford every child dignity rooted in self-worth and esteem for others. In short, queering education happens when we look at schooling upside down and view childhood from the inside out. This groundbreaking volume demands we explore taken-for-granted assumptions about diversity, identities, childhood, and prejudice." From the Product information on the book at Amazon.

A review of the book in Washington Times: “Advocating the indoctrination of kindergarten children based on anecdotal evidence or flawed science isn't Mr. Jennings' worst offense. But it's certainly not what Americans expect from a White House "safe schools czar" who is responsible for making policy decisions that impact children's safety.”

But here's the incident that got Jennings in trouble with conservative law makers, and which the MSM is defending.

Jennings, the founder of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, has described in writings and speeches how a high-school student confided to him in 1988 that he was having a relationship with an older man.

The student has since spoken out in defense of Jennings, claiming he was 16 at the time, which was the legal age in Massachusetts, and that he was not sexually active.

But Jennings has described the relationship as sexual, and in 2000 he said the boy was 15 years old.

A Columbus principal was fired, her assistants put on leave, and she lost her license when she called the father first instead of the police when a mentally challenged girl was sexually assaulted in her school. (Dispatch story) So whether the liberal news agencies believe Jennings did the right thing to protect the boy, there are procedures and rules for these things.

Huffpo slinking away from the Limbaugh quotes

From NewsBusters.

"Earlier today, the Weekly Standard’s John McCormack reported that the Huffington Post had asked author Jack Huberman to document quotes allegedly from Rush Limbaugh declaring that slavery “had its merits” and that the assassin of Martin Luther King, Jr. deserved the Medal of Honor.

The quotes were widely cited as real by several sports writers and on CNN and MSNBC in the past week as proof that Limbaugh was a racist who did not deserve to own part of the St. Louis Rams football team. But the Huffington Post has now removed them, saying the author has not been able to substantiate them."

Oh, I so hope Rush sues! It's going to track back to Obama--you wait and see.

It has now been discovered by tracking IP addresses where the false quotes in Wikipedia (source of all the lies that no one checked) came from, and also that there are ties back to Attorney General Holder in the Obama Administration. NFL Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith served as counsel to Attorney General Eric Holder and was a member of Barack Obama’s transition team.

Another Marxist in the White House

No wonder Anita Dunn won't call Glenn Beck to correct his errors.



She was already on schedule to leave--she's "interim."

Obama says he's not tired--critical of the "socialist mop" group.

Mr. President, I'm tired of this nonsense. Is there no one close to you who is not a radical, a socialist, a Marxist, a Communist, a tax cheat, a crook, or a National Socialist? Have you gone so far 'round the bend that no one can bring you back?

Label: Anita Dunn

Obama's not tired, he says, just getting started

Glenn Beck says he’s tired of socialism and the corruption in Washington; Obama says he’s not. Tired, that is. Someone at the White House is listening to Beck and mimicking him.

“When I’m busy, and Nancy’s busy, with a mop cleaning up somebody else’s mess, we don’t want somebody sitting back saying, ‘you’re not holding the mop the right way’ … ‘you’re not mopping fast enough’ … ‘that’s a socialist mop.’”

“Grab a mop. We need help.”

Obama, at the Westin St. Francis Hotel here after visiting New Orleans earlier in the day, addressed a small group of donors at an intimate dinner for 160, and then moved several floors downstairs to a larger ballroom, where he addressed a sold-out crowd of about 900 attendees. The singer Tracy Chapman warmed up the ballroom crowd with her 1988 hit, “Talkin’ ‘Bout a Revolution.”

Guests at the dinner contributed $34,000 per couple, and tickets for the main event ranged between $500 and $1,000. The DNC expects to have raised about $3 million in total.

. . . “I hope that all of you guys understand that we’re just getting started.”

“Some of our opponents think that they can wear us down,” he said. “I’m not tired. I’m refreshed. We are not going to stop.” Politico

The WSJ Washington Wire didn’t mention the “socialist mop” statement, maybe because they know that’s the only one he’s got?

Remember, folks, he said he intended to fundamentally change the United States of America. He said he was going to redistribute wealth. He was going to raise energy costs with cap and trade. He was going to take over the health care system. He told us. Think back a year ago, two years ago. Was your life so awful before he began the run for the White House? Are you better off now with all this "change?"

Rotten sausage is being made in Congress

This is a really excellent summary of the mess in Congress prepared by the Arkansas Republican Assembly (ARRA). Includes

2010 Energy and Water appropriations bill, H.R. 3183

2010 Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations bill, H.R. 2847

McConnell and Boehner joint press conference on the biggest tax increase ever (health care)

Henry Reid's closed door meetings

Republicans prepare for floor debate

"Making a new law that takes away individual freedom, choice and even property through mandatory taxes is anathema. The intended final sausage - the health care bill - is already rotting. It stinks not only in the halls of Congress and Washington, D.C., but the stench has reached the heartland of America."

Snooping on Joe the Plumber

And still insulting Sarah Palin. My goodness. Don't these guys ever give up?

"A former contractor for the Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police has been charged with rummaging through state computers to retrieve confidential information about "Joe the Plumber."

Brett A. Gerke, 52, of 2329 Woodcreek Place on the Far North Side, is charged with attempted unauthorized use of property.

Gerke entered a diversion program on Oct. 2, which typically results in the dismissal of a criminal charge. He has not entered a plea. The charge is a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail.

The State Highway Patrol says that Gerke used a law-enforcement computer network on Oct. 16, 2008 to access personal information about Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher."

Columbus Dispatch

No word yet if Gerke is a Democrat operative. Or whether Dave Letterman is a jerke.

Obama's war against Fox

"This weekend, after White House communications director Anita Dunn forthrightly declared war on Fox News, some people thought she might have gone a little too far in explaining a tacit understanding in the Obama administration that they didn't deal directly with the right-leaning network. One almost expected to see a clarification of the remarks afterward, as Fox anchors like Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck gleefully ran with the story. But of course, Dunn's statements had been carefully scripted by the Obama team — as is pretty much everything you hear from them, except things that are supposed to be off the record. And what's more, Dunn herself was selected to fire off the opening salvo for a specific reason: On a strategy team largely dominated by men, she's acknowledged to be the toughest member."

The rest of the story at New York Magazine.

Hint: She's expendable, she's female, she's interim.

Update: Anita Dunn is also an ardent admirer of Chairman Mao. Glenn Beck showed a very long clip of a speech she gave, apparently to a graduating class in June, about how much she admired Chairman Mao, a man who killed 70,000,000 of his own subjects/citizens. And folks, these were not easy deaths. My college roommate's family fled China for their lives to Brazil. Heads chopped off. Brains blown out. Starvation. Worked to death in labor camps. Go to your library and get out an old Look or Life Magazine. These are the people our President surrounds himself with now, and with whom he grew up and went to college, and schmoozed with in Chicago's fancy Hyde Park. The people who saw real possibilities in his acceptable appearance and speeches, and tapped him on the shoulder to be their front man.

The formerly Main Stream Media, now increasingly the Irrelevant by-stander media, can't find John Kerry's military records; can't find John Edward's mistress' baby; can't find Van Jones' prison record; can't read Ezekiel Emanual's article about rationing health care for the elderly; can't figure out polar bears aren't dying; can't find Valerie Jarrett's Communist background; and certainly couldn't find out Anita Dunn's admiration and love for Mao Tse Tung.

Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings

"Fifty-three House Republicans have written President Barack Obama asking him to remove "safe schools czar" Kevin Jennings from that position.

The lawmakers accused Jennings of "pushing a pro-homosexual agenda" and said that Jennings's past writings exhibit a record that makes him unfit for the position.

"We respectfully request that you remove Kevin Jennings, the Assistant Deputy Secretary for the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools, from your Administration," the Republicans wrote. "It is clear that Mr. Jennings lacks the appropriate qualifications and ethical standards to serve in this capacity." " The Hill

I hope that the people who signed this have actually read the publication in question instead of relying on gossip they way the media did with Rush Limbaugh. Just because liberals depend on smears, doesn't mean conservatives need to.

Let's have that conversation about racism

Today I've been browsing some left of left blogs--they are very angry at Obama. Are people calling them racists or realists? You know the answer. Progressives and Socialists never call themselves racists. (But conservatives do.)

So here's a piece from City Journal by Harry Stein about the Boys who cry racism.

"That conversation is long overdue, so let’s have at it. Let’s talk, for starters, about the shocking double standard in the way liberals and conservatives are allowed to deal with race and racism. Why is it okay for liberals to belittle Clarence Thomas endlessly as an Uncle Tom? And how does liberal cartoonist Ted Rall get away with calling Condoleezza Rice a “house nigga,” and his colleague Jeff Danziger with drawing her as a mammy in a caricature as cruelly demeaning as anything in Julius Streicher’s Der Stürmer?

Let’s talk, too, about racial profiling—and start paying appropriate attention to the statistical evidence cited by Heather Mac Donald establishing that the disproportionate arrest and incarceration rates of minorities are explained not by racism but by disproportionate rates of criminality. Let’s talk about how American business has long been subject to blackmail by Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton in the name of social justice, and about the many other ways in which the regime of racial preferences has sowed division and corruption in this country. Let’s talk about how even after the Duke rape fiasco, the media continue to give credence to every racism charge; indeed, how just this week, vicious (and transparently phony) statements about race attributed to Rush Limbaugh uncritically disseminated by mainstream outlets helped sink Limbaugh’s bid for NFL ownership. And yes, let’s talk about white liberal bigotry, the bigotry of low expectations, and how it cripples and demeans those it supposedly aims to help. Exhibit A might be the recent call by the Tucson Unified School District to revamp its disciplinary system to cut down on the suspensions and expulsions of minority students (but not white ones) so that the numbers reveal “no ethnic/racial disparities.”

Are such conversations possible in contemporary America? With the liberals’ racism charge losing its power to intimidate and silence, there is at least some hope. Because finally, more and more of us are getting the message that it’s the fear of having these conversations that is truly racist."

I've also been listening to Robert Reich's speech at Berkeley Sept. 26, 2007 explaining what presidential candidates won't tell you. It's very enlightening, and I'm surprised how much he sounds like Glenn Beck, about corruption in government, in corporations, and in politicians, crazy foreign policy, why cap and trade will cost a lot of money, etc.--the villains just change. He also reminds listeners that Ben Bernanke has more power over the economy than Obama--I think Glenn has said that too. He urges the listeners to overcome cynicism and organize--the same plea that Beck leads with. But I don't think the Bush White House ever went on TV and condemned him.

What an honest President would say

This clip baffles me. Here is a Democrat actually describing Obamacare (before the fact, 2007, but after Hillarycare, 1993)--what someone would say if he were honest and honored the citizens. He seems to be joking as though it could never happen, and the audience is clapping--particularly when he said old people would need to die without treatment. What is going on here?



HT Roger's Rules

Reich is speaking at a Colloquium on Political Science at UC Berkeley on Sept. 26, 2007. You can listen to the entire speech at http://webcast.berkeley.edu/course_details.php?seriesid=1906978463. "What are the candidates not going to tell you" was the assigned topic.

Noonan used to think he talked so purty

I never could understand why Peggy Noonan ignored his words and was enamored by his style instead. She was a speech writer--words were her trade--although one with hurt feelings. But she's apparently catching on. She never looked into the Marxist beliefs that gave birth to his fuzzy words. And now that she can't understand any of it, it's like a light bulb has gone off on.

"Every big idea that works is marked by simplicity, by clarity. You can understand it when you hear it, and you can explain it to people. Social Security: Retired workers receive a public pension to help them through old age. Medicare: People over 65 can receive taxpayer-funded health care. Welfare: If you have no money and cannot support yourself, we will help as you get back on your feet.

These things are clear. I understand them. You understand them. The president's health-care plan is not clear, and I mean that not only in the sense of "he hasn't told us his plan." I mean it in terms of the voodoo phrases, this gobbledygook, this secret language of government that no one understands—"single payer," "public option," "insurance marketplace exchange." No one understands what this stuff means, nobody normal.

And when normal people don't know what the words mean, they don't say to themselves, "I may not understand, but my trusty government surely does, and will treat me and mine with respect." They think, "I can't get what these people are talking about. They must be trying to get one past me. So I'll vote no." " Pull the plug on Obamacare

You know Peggy, you can be called a racist if you disagree with his plans, policies and politics. But words are your business, and you know that isn't the definition.