Richard's Fear

He writes a blog called Three Score and Ten or More, and sometimes calls himself an old coot. He's seen and done it all--was a Mormon missionary as a young man in Finland, had a career in theater, he's a father, grandfather, husband, handyman, traveler, and writer of a blog. Recently he wrote about fear--with a lead in about things that go bump in the night through out our life times. Every thing from stage fright to jumping out of an airplane. Then he gets to his current fear--for our way of life and country.

"These have always been the kinds of things that I felt were frightening, but they are immediate things, and you either survive them or not (obviously I did). When I say I am frightened, I don’t fear an immediate strike of lightening, but my fear is as vivid, just not as immediate and my fear is not of personal death, but for the death of the type of nation I have come to love.

A number of things which have happened since the election of President Obama which have made me nervous and distrustful, but I never felt an emotion that approached real fear until the administration launched its attack on the Fox News network, (The Fox Network such as it is, holds no special place in my heart) an act, which, if upheld, essentially vitiates any hope we have for freedom of expression, a central focus of our Constitution and our way of life. Political correctness forces have been picking at this freedom for some time, but this is a frontal assault on the core of Bill of Rights. Almost at the same time it was revealed that our country (as one of a group) has endorsed a United Nations resolution that could become law in our country if some have their way, making public speech or criticism of an faith or religious group an international crime (the article I read implies that it identified this form of criticism as a form of terrorism).

The implications are mind boggling and hold more threat to our existence as it is than could be completely imagined.

I was calming down on this subject, but as I sat in our Cardiologist’s office, the President was shown being interviewed by some lady newsperson and his answers to her softball questions were so self convicting of Obama’s feeling that any organized criticism of his programs deserve stifling that my feeling rose again."

He has calmed down some now and recently wrote about avocadoes--still, he reflects the concerns of many.

We the People--it's poetry

We the People of the United States,
in Order to
form a more perfect Union
establish Justice,
insure domestic Tranquility,
provide for the common defence,
promote the general Welfare, and
secure the Blessings of Liberty
to ourselves and our Posterity,
do ordain and establish
this Constitution for
the United States of America.

This book was on the bargain shelf at Barnes and Noble. There's almost no commentary or hoopla. Just the words of the writers. It includes the U.S. Constitution, the Amendments to the Constitution, The Declaration of Independence, The Articles of Confederation, and Common Sense by Thomas Paine. Most of us haven't looked at this since high school when some knowledge was probably required.

By the way, are you smarter than a 1954 eighth grader?

What's wrong with this book?

Nothing that I can see. Here's a review from Amazon by a reviewer who has eclectic tastes and writes frequently.

"The Way Into Torah" is a superbly written, highly accessible introduction for the general reading seeking guidance on how to effectively read, study, and understand the Torah, including the other books of the Bible and the related sacred texts that grew up around it. Norman Cohen is Rabbi and Professor of Midrash at Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion, and brings his expertise and experience to bear in presenting just what the Torah is and how it came about, the different approaches to studying the Torah, the various levels of understanding the Torah, and what the Torah study is an essential aspect of the Jewish experience. The Way Into Torah is an ideal beginning point for commencing a personal study of the Torah.

I checked the publisher, Jewish Lights, and it seems fine as near as I can tell from the other titles in its catalog. The copyright is recent--2000--at least for a religious book, and the Torah is thousands of years old so probably not much has changed. It's part of a 14 volume series, "The Way into. . ." which has many interesting titles. It's not damaged or moldy or water marked. No foxing. There's a smidgen of tomato sauce on the title page, but that might be mine from yesterday's lunch.

I found it in the freebie box at church, but its most recent provenance before it was purchased at a used book sale for $2.00 then donated to our church, was the Upper Arlington Public Library. So, it isn't only Lutherans and Evangelicals they don't like there. I went into the catalog and did a word search on "Torah," and found 2 titles, both for juveniles. Then I did a subject search on "Judaism," and found a hodge podge, bits and snippets. This book was truly needed for some balance and fleshing out of the collection.

Someone who knows more about the range of possibilities for good books on Judaism and its sacred texts needs to go there and review the collection. Not that you'll get far, of course. When I pointed out to them that their most recent book on Lutherans was over 40 years old despite having one of the largest Lutheran churches in the country right here in Upper Arlington, they made a real effort and bought ONE additional title, a collection of essays published in the 21st century. Wow. They're only nice to us when there's a bond issue, so have your list ready early.

Banned Books week is over for this year, but here's my friendly, insider reminder: objectionable books are banned before they ever get to the shelf--it's called book selection in library-speak. But "deacquisition" of one that slipped through is also a useful technique.

Matching thread for my matchy matchy outfit

The other day I mentioned that I'd bought a 3 piece outfit--slacks, sweater, long sleeve shirt--the shade of infant formula spit up at the Discovery shop for $3.00. At that price, I figured I could wear it to exercise class, washing the car or for swimming in Lake Erie. However, the slacks are a bit too long. So I dug around in my mother's sewing cabinet, through Neno's (my husband's grandmother born in 1887) wooden spools and those from the years when I used to sew. No matches for my matchy matchy bargain. I'll have to check with the neighbors. A new spool of thread would probably cost more than the outfit.

4150 OSU students

That doesn't seem like a very high number--on a campus of 50,000+. The weasel word is "chose." I'm guessing several thousand were either busy working, studying or didn't have the opportunity.

OSU now has a fund to provide $500 for a student who has experienced sexual assault or "intimate partner violence." This is to cover things like broken stuff, cell phone with prepaid minutes, emergency housing, help in breaking a lease, court costs, etc. This supplements other funds and insurance for students in distress. "Any OSU student who has alleged to a university official that they have experienced sexual violence can apply for assistance. A police report is not necessary in order to access the funds." Hmmm. There is a list of people--university staff and officials--who are consulted. If the student didn't report anything to the police, does the official have to? Wonder if the parents get to know too? And if he/she returns to the abusive one, do they get a second request for funds?

The Sexual Wellness Program at the Ohio State Student Wellness Center is devoted to promoting safer sex and healthy relationships. This program is home to The Condom Club, which offers condoms to OSU students at an extremely low cost--50 condoms for $5.00 and also access to free oral dams, latex gloves, finger cots and lubricant. Must be going after the GLBT group. And because 44% of the couples who use condoms do so incorrectly, The Center has volunteers called "sexperts" to help with this problem.

I worked with hundreds of student employees over my career at OSU (and U of I)--it was the small town and rural stock that worked the hardest and had the best values. Asian and Indian students were also outstanding, if you could keep them before a higher tech unit snatched them up. 99% were serious about their education and didn't party on week-ends or sleep around. When they graduated, many started at more than I made, but librarianship has always been at the bottom.

Do you suppose there was this much assault, violence, STDs, and abortions for college men and women back in the bad old days of the 40s and 50s when women had hours, didn't share dorms or apartments with men and the doors were locked at an appointed hour? Sometimes fences are more useful than ambulances.

Mind games of conservatives and liberals

One can't remember the past they came from, the other can't figure out the future they're creating despite all the evidence of what's happened in other countries.

If it's one thing that frustrates me about conservatives and Republicans it's their thinking that we used to inhabit some sort of capitalistic, entrepreneurial, free market paradise. We never did and never will. When I hear my peers who've been sucking on the Medicare teat for years, moaning about socialized medicine I'm just gob smacked.

I received a good K-12 education, a bachelor's and master's degree in tax supported institutions. The U.S. and Illinois government and my local town fathers didn't do that to be kind and benign. They figured I was a good bet and would return the favor with more taxes for them. I had pure water, vaccinations, and safe (modified with vitamins and minerals) food courtesy of the government's public health and agriculture programs. The townspeople in the little towns where I lived taxed themselves for the good of the entire community, even those who couldn't pay. Before I was born my blind grandmother got a "pension" which sometimes fed the family.

Even I know who built our interstates and why--I was around then. I know that the biggest recipient of government welfare over the years is agriculture and that I benefit from those prices every time I go to the store (even though I've paid up front through my taxes). Even I know the federal government has been tinkering with the housing market since the great land rushes of the 19th century. I never had a VA or FHA insured loan, but I certainly knew Republicans who did, and I always had a break on my taxes in the days I still had a mortgage. My dad didn't use the GI Bill, going right back to work when he got out of the Marines in 1945, but millions of men bettered themselves on the government's dollar as a pay back for the risks they took, going from farm boy and mechanic to doctor and lawyer. My husband brought home the bacon many times on pork construction projects funded by the U.S. or a state or a local government. My career was in academe--can't get much more government dependent than that!

Even I know that when you do favors for the government, it repays you in kind. My ancestors, who were pacifists and didn't bear arms, supplied the fledgling American government food stuffs (probably would have been taken from them if they hadn't) during the Revolution and were rewarded with land in Ohio before it was a state. One of my ancestors, Michael Danner, was the King's Commissioner of Highways in the colonies and helped to lay out the famous Monocacy Trail; I'm guessing that led to some pretty good perks and he moved on up when Pennsylvania became a state. The same guys who were given land to build the canal system to open up the Midwest to commerce and transportation got to also destroy it for the benefit of railroads, with state and federal favors and help.

But as naive as conservatives seem to be, that's not as frustrating as the blindness of progressive/socialists and Democrats who don't seem to be able to read history. They don't believe that what happened in Nazi Germany (state controls the business owners and uses the proceeds for war), the Soviet Union (state owns business, labor and agriculture and creates famines and misery) and Red China (state murders its own citizens to achieve its economic goals) can happen here--because they're too smart.

The health care take over (don't call that 2,000 page bill a reform), the energy scam under the guise of saving the planet, the holier than thou diversity and multicultural blather that is really about losing our free speech and creating globalism. The huge fortunes that were amassed in energy, commerce and transportation in the 19th and 20th century built with government help were just Al Gore and George Soros doing business today with the phony CO2 credits and cap and trade. It's just harder to see since there's nothing tanglible. There's no there there. Gore's become a millionaire many times over by just doing what Americans have always done--using the government to build their fortune. That is capitalism, American style, dressed up to save the world.

Really, progressives/marxists/democrats are smart people who have lost all sense of both history and the future. Despite all the gun laws they've put in place, they are willing to put a loaded gun to their head and blow out what's left of their brains. Which wasn't much.

Where is my new van?

Is it asking too much? A 2010 Dodge minivan ? Actually, I'd love to be able to reward Ford for staying in the free market and not becoming part of the state automobile industry run by a car czar. But they don't make minivans anymore, plus, even when they did, the seats were horrid.

I've looked at the Chrysler models online, and usually the web page bumps me back to 2009, which is not a good sign. I haven't see a van on a lot in a year (except for used). I do not want to be squished and smashed into a small car where instead of seeing over the traffic at Ohio cornfields I'm looking at mudflaps and dead deer.

My Dodge 2002 is very comfortable and at 26 mpg on the highway I haven't seen anything out there to match it. I suppose my son can keep it running another 10 years (Jack Maxton) but really I'd rather get a 2010.

Have cash will deal. Call me (do I sound like Gleen Beck?). I can give you a good price on a sweet, lovingly cared for, used van with good tires and mileage driven by a little old lady librarian. But I want my new one first.

Putting on the kid gloves for the jobs report

In today's WSJ there's a real sentimental softy worthy of the 2008 campaign coverage on the stimulus and jobs. Louise Radnofsky opens with this grabber:

"The number of jobs the Obama administration credits to federal stimulus money could be overstated by at least 20,000 of the 640,000 claimed, a Wall Street Journal analysis found.

If 20,000 were the only mistake, I'd probably take it. But there's so much more. Did you think when he touted this "recovery" that the money would go for "Head Start" jobs--a program that's been in place for 40 years, absorbing billions of dollars, and has yet to show any academic improvement for minorities, so they've moved the goals to nutrition and health? But according to Ms. Radnofsky, who apparently didn't dig very deep, it was misunderstanding how to report that caused the misreporting. Maybe the directors were victims of their own programs?

But then, what's the excuse for colleges and universities who misreported jobs created and saved, counting part time and work study students as discreet numbers instead of FTEs? And how about those low-income housing landlords, who've been on the federal dole for decades. Do you really think they'd want to show no jobs? How would they get their next installment? And those confusing forms and no accountability? Who designed that, Louise? Was that Bush's fault too? Or the money that went for raises and bonuses. Yes, I suppose you could say it's a job saved--except where would they have gone?

If it clunks like car loan, or crashes like a $8,000 mortgage credit, or bails like a rich bank lobbyist, let's call it what it is. F-A-I-L-U-R-E.

Thomas Frank on Glenn Beck

You've probably never heard of Thomas Frank. He's a "real" journalist--I think. I read him in the WSJ. He also writes for Huff and Puff and NYT, all their opinion all the time. He's really pissed at Glenn Beck, who has a fatter subscription list than the NYT. It's that red phone shtick-- doesn't set well with him, because it's only for the White House and not for Frank's progressive sources. Why not attack the black boards or blue curtains? So he spouts the White House mantra. Beck is odious, Beck is a panic peddler. Beck is (play scary music here) Fox! Through some mysterious, closed-minded reasoning that infects many liberal writers/journalists/bloggers/entertainers, Frank suddenly gets a revelation that "ideas have consequences," which is exactly what Beck says too, but better, and with higher ratings. So here he is, on that side of the fence where only warm fuzzies for Obama grow, lobbing stones at a guy who actually uses the investigative methods that journalists could be, but aren't. Guys like Frank have to play it safe. If they don't, the White House will come after them like they did Fox.

Ohio approves crime and disaster at the polls

They've really got the Obama Flu. He has so dispirited Americans that they seem to think things will never, never get better, so let's bring out of state gambling interests and plump the state coffers with something besides federal pork. Sad story at Columbus Dispatch

Only the people voting NO made any sense at all in their choices:

"Many voters who cast "yes" ballots noted that thousands of Ohioans gamble in other states without benefiting their home state. The casinos would jump-start economic development in the state's largest cities and retain tax money in Ohio, they said.

"I don't go to casinos, but lots of people go elsewhere to gamble, so they might as well keep the money here," said Regina Lee, 35, of Westerville. "We need the tax dollars and the jobs."

Some who voted against Issue 3 cited the potential for crime and other social problems as well as exaggerated promises of jobs from casino proponents.

John Goettler, 45, an Upper Arlington consultant for nonprofit organizations, said he is opposed to expanded gambling in Ohio. He is worried the casinos could bring more crime and other problems and thinks the pro-casino television ads promising thousands of jobs contained "blatant lies."

"As bad as the economy is ... legalizing casino gambling is not the answer," he said.

Ohio voters had rejected gambling issues four times before, including twice in the past three years. Last year, nearly 63 percent of voters rejected a proposal for a casino in Clinton County."

The casino owners and union bosses got out the vote in our already crime ridden, struggling major cities.

"The measure benefited from a strong appeal by unions and urban politicians to get voters in the four casino cities - Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Toledo - to the polls. The measure carried by large majorities in the Cleveland and Cincinnati areas, won with a smaller majority in Toledo, and lost in Franklin County."

Our neighbor Detroit has 70,000 abandoned buildings. Doesn't it have casinos bring in billions? One of the pushers set to benefit (besides our former Methodist pastor governor) is Dan Gilbert, owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers and owner-to-be of two of the casinos. And they said Rush Limbaugh was unfit to own an NFL team?

Not a referendum

That's the talking point direct from the White House, why, Gibbsy didn't even stay up to watch. And the media, every one of them, are repeating it right on cue. They know their lines and their role. Actually, I agree. Two governors and a district in NY are hardly a landslide for Republicans/conservatives. Especially since it's hard to get a piece of dental floss between the parties. But if this were 2006 and Bush were in the WH--Oh my, would they be singing spinning a different story.

Flutrina

Tonight we were watching the evening news coverage of the H1N1 vaccine lines here in Columbus. It looked like a miserable day for parents of young children (who stood in line for hours, and probably didn't get to the polls). "Do you remember your small pox vaccination?" I asked. He didn't. I do. We lined up at school and got it from a nurse. Same for the polio vaccine in 1955. In a town of less than 3,000 that probably had 2 doctors and a few RNs. If they could do it in the 40s and 50s, with Truman and Eisenhower in charge, what in the world is wrong with this bunch of clowns who want to take over, not just shots for a disease that may be blown out of proportion by the media, but health care for the whole nation?

"So here you have it, a dry run for the Obama Administration’s performance on nationalized health care. All vast governmental forces were focused on a single disease rather than the entire gamut of America’s health care problems. There was no greedy, profit–riddled private sector in this fight, only the saintly public option. The program had universal coverage and no pre–existing condition exclusions.

The result? Missed deadlines, rationing, incompetence, blame–shifting, arbitrary decisions, random displays of authority and don’t forget: long lines.

There’s a word for this preview of socialized medicine under Obamacare.

Call it Flutrina."

Story by Michael Shannon at The Absurd Report

How the public option is working in Florida

You've probably read about insurance companies pulling out of Florida, and wondered about that. Well, Florida has a "public option" for property insurance. How's that working? They're waiting for the big one, and other policy owners are paying a surcharge to support the public option. Sound familiar? From the Beacon Blog)

"After Hurricane Andrew hit Florida in 1992 some Floridians were having difficulty purchasing homeowners’ insurance. (The reason: rates are regulated, and at the regulated rates some properties are too great a risk.) So, the state government formed Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, which is owned and operated by the State of Florida.

As originally envisioned, Citizens would charge rates above those charged by private insurers, to make Citizens the insurer of last resort. Nevertheless, Citizens found plenty of customers.

After two bad hurricane seasons in 2004 and 2005 property insurance rates in Florida rose, and in his campaign for the office, current Governor Charlie Crist promised voters that if elected he would see that their property insurance bills “dropped like a rock.”

One tactic he used was to change Citizens’ rate structure so it was competitive with private insurers. His idea, like President Obama’s idea with health insurance, is that with a public option, private insurers would have to keep their rates in line or risk losing customers to the government insurer.

That’s what’s happened in Florida. Today about 30% of homeowners’ policies are written by Citizens, which is the largest property insurer in the state. It’s about to get bigger too. The largest private insurer, State Farm, had a rate request rejected last year, and now is pulling out of the state altogether (for property insurance; they’ll still insure your car). As the largest private insurer pulls out over a three-year period (that period negotiated with the state), Citizens will get an even larger share of Florida’s property insurance.

Everybody in Florida knows Citizens is a fiscal time bomb. Already, every Florida insurance policy (on homes, boats, cars, etc.) pays a surcharge that goes to Citizens, but Citizens still doesn’t have sufficient reserves to weather a major hurricane. When one comes, Florida taxpayers will be on the hook for the bill.

Globe trotting Obama is too busy

"In his first year in office, Barack Obama has visited more foreign countries than any other president. He's touched ground in 16 countries, easily outpacing Bill Clinton (three) and George W. Bush (eleven). It's an itinerary befitting a "citizen of the world."

But there's one stop Obama won't make. He has begged off going to Berlin next week to attend ceremonies commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall. His schedule is reportedly too crowded. John F. Kennedy famously told Berliners, "Ich bin ein Berliner." On the 20th anniversary of the last century's most stirring triumph of freedom, Obama is telling them, "Ich bin beschäftigt" - i.e., I'm busy."

See Rich Lowry at Real Clear Politics

This is a no-brainer for him. It wasn't all about him like the campaign event in Berlin, and 20 years ago was not a good time for Marxists.

Rocco Landesman's suit

Recently I saw a color photo of Rocco Landesman, Obama's appointee to head the National Endowment of the Arts, wearing a shiny, glow in the dark, cream colored suit. It gave me hope for the 3 piece outfit I recently bought at the Cancer Discovery Shop for three dollars which is sort of shiny and the color of baby formula spit up. Apparently "matchy matchy" is out for women, but not for men in government who've come up through the entertainment industry (he was the producer of Angels in America about aids, homosexuals, closets and religion). There's an article about him in today's WSJ by Lee Rosenbaum with easily arranged descriptive sentences.

• veteran Broadway producer
  
• free wheeling
  
• brashly candid
  
• provocative
  
• St. Louis native who demeans Peoria, Illinois
  
• ridicules past NEA efforts
  
• partisan agenda
  
• Obama operative
  
• baited congressional critics
  
• [not] politically savvy
  
• father owned Crystal Palace caberet
  
• abrasive, combative
  
• vendetta against some arts non-profits

I can hardly wait. Sounds like we're in for more crucifixes in urine art.

It's not about health, energy or the environment

All Obama's policies reflect a core liberal mindset that spans policies and endures decades, according to Heritage Blog (and mine too if you've been following it).

And that is, "the willingness to forego jobs and wages for American workers to achieve other goals liberal policymakers deem more worthy. In the case of tax rates, [Laurence] Summers admits growth will be sacrificed at the altar of a soak-the-rich mentality married to the need to fund Obama’s spending surge.

Health care reform has become an excuse to expand the reach of government and levy even higher taxes. The new House health care bill has yet higher rates than Summers was talking about: another blow to jobs and wages.

Cap and trade, a.k.a. pack and move for what it would do to the nation’s manufacturing sector, is an explicit, enormous trade off of lower economic growth for environmental goals. Recognizing the damage this policy would do to the economy, proponents anxiously argue that a few “green jobs” building subsidized windmills can compensate for the millions of real jobs destroyed if this legislation reaches the president." Read the entire piece here.

New shoes and voting advice

This morning I went to Kohl's (15% off for seniors) to buy a replacement for my Nikes. This would be my third pair in 2009--having discovered that the way to combat hip pain in the middle of the night is to make sure I'm wearing sturdy shoes when exercising or walking during the day. So I did find an exact match for what I bought in the summer, Nike Steady VI, "Nike Steady VI Leather Women's Training Shoe, with textile upper and satin webbing detail." What attracted me to this shoe is its simplicity. It doesn't blink or bling, is plain white and relatively trim. Why women wear ugly fat purple and black shoes, I have no idea. If I do run an errand after exercise class I'm not embarrassed to walk into the grocery store. In fact, until I saw the photo, I didn't even realize the Nike logo was in grey--I guess I can't see it when I'm wearning them.

When I got to the check-out, the beautiful, young cashier noticed my "I voted today," sticker and asked me about the issues, because she was going to vote later--her first election. I told her there were 3 constitutional changes on the ballot, all unneccesary, and I specifically told her about Issue 2, because that's the one that has everyone confused by the conflicting ads. Is it pro-agribusiness or pro-animal rights? Or neither. I advised her (since that's what librarian types do) to vote no on all 3 because regardless of their merits or faults, it wasn't necessary to change the constitution to do what laws or regulations could do. The people in line behind me chimed in and agreed. They were in Columbus from a confluence of two other states that do have casinos (issue 3) and were vigorous in their condemnation of what happens, regardless of what money it brought to the state. Gambling always gets a foot in the door by pleading a good cause--like the lottery was going to solve all our education funding problems--but it's like opening the door to let out a fly, and bats, bees, and burglars come in.

I took a different route home because of the road construction in front of our house and you don't want to have to turn left going or coming. I passed a shopping center I used to frequent in my working days and was amazed by the changes, including a restaurant that is now under another name where my colleagues and I went many times.

Obama makes Bush his Blame Czar

"The Senior Adviser [Valerie Jarrett] seems to have forgotten that she is the power [fretting about the tea parties and town halls]. Admittedly, this is a recurring lapse on the part of the administration. There was Barack Obama only the other day, blaming everything on the president – no, no, silly, not him, the other fellow, the Designated Fall Guy who stepped down as head of state in January to accept the new constitutional position of Blame Czar. Musing on problems in Afghanistan, Obama blamed the "long years of drift" under his predecessor. The new president – OK, newish president – has been Drifter-in-Chief for almost a year but he's too busy speaking truth to the former power to get on top of the situation. It could be a while yet. In his more self-regarding moments, such as his speech to the United Nations, he gives the strong impression that the "long years of drift" began in 1776. Mark Steyn

Dear Mary Jo Kilroy

What are you people doing? HR3926 is even worse than the last one. And do you really believe that people your age with a serious illness like MS will be better served with Medicaid-lite? You are destroying one of the best health care systems in the world. Are you planning to give up your insurance and take the public option?

You have the worst e-mail template I've ever used. You don't use the extra 4 digits on your website--why do you want us to?

H.R. 3926

You can track it, or any legislation, here. Here is the pretty, but distorted and bloated, title: "To provide affordable, quality health care for all Americans and reduce the growth in health care..."

And there's a word of caution at the site: "This bill is very large, and loading it may cause your web browser to perform sluggishly, or even freeze. This is especially true for old and/or bad browsers. As an alternative you can download the PDF of the bill or read the text on THOMAS." And they were right. I clicked. It spun a bit, then sputtered.

If you can get to Washington by Thursday there is a protest being planned. They are ignoring our letters, phone calls and e-mail. Congress just doesn't get it. They should have cleaned up the mess in the government plans we already have wasting millions a year. But no. They wanted something even bigger and messier.

I don't know anyone who has had their health insurance cancelled for going beyond the limits of the policy, or for not disclosing a prior condition. I'm sure it happens. However, I do know several who have waited months or years through numerous appeals, and piles of documentation, waiting for some level of government to act on their case. We also know, that this bill will cut the benefits for seniors, and that will immediately put a burden on the "sandwich" generation who will then need to be doing more hands on care--along with that garden the President wants you to plant in the back yard, and the clothes line you'll need as we become energy starved. Oh, hope and change.

Third Party Power

All the talking heads and political hacks are painting the congressional race in NY-23rd as a rift in the Republican ranks. It is not. It is a third party candidate proving that the Republicans and Democrats can be made irrelevant in the face of tea party power. It is proving this in the full glare of the national spotlight. And the only way that the entrenched politicians can save their own bacon is by spinning the story to distract the public from the obvious truth. All the king-makers’ horses and all the king-makers’men cannot defeat an honest tea party patriot once ordinary Americans wake up.

Read about it at American Daughter.

Vote NO on Issue 2 Ohio

What is Issue 2?

Issue 2 is a ballot issue that Ohio voters will decide tomorrow, in the November 3, 2009 general election. The issue proposes an amendment to the Ohio Constitution that addresses the care of livestock in Ohio.

The ads are even more confusing than issue 3, sometimes making the same argument for and against. But having worked in the agriculture library for three and a half years and the veterinary medicine library for fourteen (yes, I know that's strange for a Russian major, Spanish/History minor), I'm very, very familiar with the animal rights organizations and agribusiness. Either way, I smell a rat. There is absolutely no need for this. All areas of agriculture and animal health are extremely regulated both for safety and health of humans and animals. No one needs to amend the Constitution for this any more than they need to amend the Constitution to fix sidewalks, repair sewers, or build wind mills.

It's important to remember--there is no definition for "family farm." Not in the dictionary, not in the state constitution. It's just a useful tool for advertising and can mean anything you want it to mean.

The Ohio Department of Agriculture already has the authority to do all the things this newly created board is supposed to do.

Ohio is well covered by animal cruelty laws.

No other state in the nation has anything like this, not even wacko California.

See "Legal Questions and Answers about Issue 2,
The Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board Ballot Issue"

Business Reply University of Illinois Foundation

Faculty Profile

The best and the brightest? Who?

"I don’t actually remember anyone accusing Obama’s team of being the best and brightest. I do remember one calling himself a Communist, another saying in public that Mao was her favorite philosopher, and another being Joe Biden. They were last seen picking a fight with Fox News that everyone agrees was idiotic, and getting in another public fight with their own handpicked general over the strategy they announced earlier this year." Dave Price at The blog formerly known as. . . commenting on Ted Sorenson's article

If you lived in the 60s, I guess all wars are Vietnam. Does anyone remember we abandoned our allies and sent millions to their deaths?

Isn't this how we got this mess?

Putting people into mortgages who couldn't afford them? And have you seen the fraud in the first period?

Administration Calls on Congress to Approve Key Housing Measures

"WASHINGTON, DC – Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan called on Congress to approve three important measures to improve housing and the housing market for Americans: extension of the First Time Homebuyers Tax Credit for a limited period, extension of higher loan limits for home mortgages, and secure funding for the Housing Trust Fund.

"We welcome efforts taken by Congress to extend the First Time Homebuyers Tax Credit for a limited period. This credit has brought new families into the housing market and contributed to three consecutive months of rising home prices nationwide," said Secretaries Geithner and Donovan. "In extending the credit, we urge Congress to include strict measures to combat tax fraud and protect responsible homeowners. We also urge Congress to act swiftly to extend the loan limits that currently apply to most mortgages, helping make rates more affordable for middle-class families. Finally, we will work with Congress to identify a financing source for the Housing Trust Fund, which will help provide decent housing for families hardest hit by the current economic downturn."

"These three measures will help support our efforts to stabilize the housing market by providing support for the recovery in housing prices, keeping mortgage rates low, and helping people who can afford their homes to avoid foreclosure," said Secretary Geithner.

HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan said, "These three measures provide comprehensive support to our recovering housing market and continued access to affordable housing. While extending the tax credit and higher loan limits will help promote homeownership, funding the Housing Trust Fund will provide assistance to renter households impacted by the economic crisis." " from U.S. Department of the Treasury, October, 29, 2009

It feels good to be a victim

AlfonZo has another one. Rapping about victicrats.

HT Michelle Malkin

Geithner and Rangel combating tax evasion?

I think this message from tax cheat Geithner about tax cheat Rangel would be amusing if we can laugh and gag all at the same time.

"The legislation introduced today by Chairman Rangel and Chairman Baucus follows through on the Administration's commitment to combating offshore tax evasion and ensuring a level playing field. For too long, individuals have taken advantage of the system by hiding money in accounts overseas, while millions of families and small businesses here at home pay the price. This legislation will reduce the amount of taxes lost through the illegal use of hidden accounts and is the next step in making sure that everyone pays their fair share.

"This legislation fits well into the Administration's dual-track strategy of improving our domestic tax laws while increasing global cooperation on tax information exchange to help narrow the tax gap and create the fairer tax system we need. We have had great success recently in working with countries around the world to increase tax information exchange as part of the global effort to end offshore tax evasion.

"In addition to the leadership of Chairman Rangel and Chairman Baucus, I want to acknowledge the work of Senators Kerry and Levin and Representatives Neal and Doggett in support of a strong international tax enforcement agenda."

Rangel has out of the country real estate that rents for over $1000 a night but he claims just a mild oversight for 20 years. You try that. Geithner misreported his overseas income until he was caught, and then continued.

And these are the non-Marxists in the administration! Yikes.

ObamaCare and your insurance premiums. There’s no free lunch.

Despite indignant Democratic denials, the near-certainty is that their plan will cause costs to rise across the board. The latest data on this score come from a series of state-level studies from the insurance company WellPoint Inc. Using their own data it modeled ObamaCare in 14 states. Democrats who can‘t read their own bills or return calls and e-mails of worried voters, were lightning fast on trashing WellPoints data:

In all of the 14 states WellPoint scrutinized, ObamaCare would drive up premiums for the small businesses and individuals who are most of WellPoint's customers. (Other big insurers, like Aetna, focus on the market among large businesses.) Young and healthy consumers will see the largest increases—their premiums would more than triple in some states—though average middle-class buyers will pay more too.

Not even two hours after Wellpoint had presented its materials on the Hill, Democrats were already trashing it—which, considering that it runs to some 238 pages and took weeks to prepare, must have required remarkable powers of digestion and analysis. Link

HT Pauli

Sensibly green

I would call it just good stewardship and being frugal, but these days, green is a marketing term too. This Bed and Breakfast, The Artist's Inn and Gallery, in Pennsylvania has an interesting list suitable for most people.

Green PAJAMAS

Go to Michelle Malkin’s blog and read her “small list of “Peace and Justice” shakedown organizations connected to SEIU” (ACORN‘s evil twin).

There are thousands of these groups, gobbling up money from foundations, churches, private corporations, individual donors, membership drives, United Way/community chest apportionments, state and local governments and the federal government. Not all are connected to ACORN like SEIU, of course and many do a lot of good. But they speak a common language and can easily be manipulated by the party in power through their financing. I call them PAJAMA Organizations--Peace and Justice and More Aid Organizations. There is every manner of non-profit set up to drain off even more tax and private money with special programs to “help the poor.” Much of this provides employment for a huge clutch of people from administrators to janitors. I sometimes think that if families earning less than $35,000 disappeared tomorrow, half the remaining citizens would be without jobs--and so would fill in the gap to keep the cycle going. At an earlier blog I wrote about the Ohio Housing Trust Fund (Ohio Dept. of Development), that resulted from an effort in 1990 to help the homeless and has managed to grow into a $56 million item in the state budget focusing on “moderate income housing.” Now they’re disbursing ARRA money, passing out $17 million for the homeless, putting on conferences at nice resorts and giving millions to organizations to recruit unpaid volunteers to help people winterize their homes. Not to worry--the national NHTF was signed into law by George W. Bush in 2008, and its budget is in the billions. I'm sure your state has one too.

The Peace and Justice movement is propped up by think tanks and academics, as well as the government--the government, universities and the non-profits are a co-dependent revolving door. Think John Podesta. Clinton retread, Obama's transition team, now taking in Obama's rejects into his $25 million a year think tank. I’ve done it myself, although not in the PAJAMA game. As a researcher in the early 80s I moved from university department to non-profit to state government to university all on federal money filtered through grants to the state and foundations as a self-employed contractor (that way they don’t have to pay benefits).

Many Peace and Justice organizations have been reengineered in the last decade to assure a steady income stream by bringing in “green” issues--very big in poverty programs now--just the way many marketed products are. I think a number are simply black “reparations” spray painted green. I just looked through the web-site of the library non-profit I worked for in the early 80s and the first item on the page was on “greening.” That should be worth a few bucks on the next grant.

NY RINO Scozzafava quits

She was a loser before she started. It was a mystery to me why she didn't run as a Democrat. Or weren't they having her either? Maggie thinks she wasted a huge amount of money.

HT Maggie's Notebook and Real Clear Politics.

Red grape skin may help sickle cell sufferers

"AUGUSTA, Ga. – An extract in red grape skin may be a new treatment for sickle cell disease, Medical College of Georgia researchers say. Link

The extract, resveratrol, a natural chemical typically found in red wine and various plants and fruits, has been found to induce production of fetal hemoglobin, which decreases the sickling of red blood cells and reduces the painful vascular episodes associated with the disease.

Most fetal hemoglobin production ceases after birth, but in patients where it remains the predominant form, it can result in fewer complications, says Davies Agyekum, a second-year Ph.D. student in the MCG School of Graduate Studies.

In sickle cell disease, abnormal hemoglobin causes red blood cells to sickle. The abnormal shape impedes blood's passage through vessels and can cause excruciating pain and other complications because of the blood's oxygen deficiency.

Davies is working with Dr. Steffen E. Meiler, vice chair of research for the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, on an eight-week animal study to determine if the combined anti-inflammatory and fetal hemoglobin-producing properties of resveratrol, a dietary polyphenol, can reduce the severity of sickle cell disease.

Hydroxyurea, an anti-cancer agent and the only Food and Drug Administration-approved therapeutic drug for sickle cell disease, increases fetal hemoglobin. Davies says reseveratrol-based therapy might be easier on patients.

The Ghana native recently received a three- to five-year $15,000 scholarship from the Southern Regional Education Board State Doctoral Scholars Program, a program aimed at increasing the number of minority students who earn doctoral degrees and become college and university professors."

One of the worst education stories I've read

A blogger from Detroit who has a fascination with photographing abandoned buildings came upon a middle school building abandoned in 2007. I was browsing his photos of the library (it would rip out the heart of any librarian) and then found this horror story. He could find no one who cared, so he's destroying the stash himself.

"After my first visit to the shattered middle school, I am haunted by what I found in one office: hundreds of file folders containing student psychological examinations complete with social security numbers, addresses, and parent information. I sat and thumbed through them. Many contained detailed histories of physical and sexual abuse, stories of home lives so horrifying I still can't get them out of my head: sibling rape, torture, neglect that defies belief. The detailed reports explained emotional impairments, learning disabilities. There was another box full of IEPs. The dates revealed that many of these students are still in the school system somewhere. I found several of their faces in the 2007 yearbook.

I spend the next few months trying to track down someone who cares. I send e-mails to the school's former principal, offering to go back and collect these records for her or destroy them. She never responds. I call my mom, a retired special education teacher and erstwhile administrator to determine the extent of malfeasance. Then I call the school district's legal department and leave voice mails warning them of the liability of this gross violation of student privacy. I never receive a response. I track down the school psychologist to some address in Troy. Nothing. It turns out a daily newspaper reported abandoned records like these within many of the 33 schools closed in 2007 and the district did nothing. No one is responsible. Someone else was supposed to destroy them. The company that had been paid to secure the school never did its job."

It's enough to make you homeschool, isn't it? And to cry for those poor, pitiful children that no school, no matter how good, will ever be able to save. But what excuses do the adults--the administrators of Detroit's school system have? They took the tax money to teach, test, classify and pigeon hole the children, and then abused them yet one more time. I'm ill. I'm sorry I read this.

Is Obama a Muslim?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCAffMSWSzY

Did he lie to us during the campaign? I watched this video, and although it is disturbing, it's hard to know how much has been edited out which may have explained the statements. I see what the left does to Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck to rile up the net wackos and extremists, watched that Congressman distort and lie about the Republican health care plans, and I'm sure it can happen with our President.

He says he is a Christian, I've heard his Christian testimony, so I'll accept him at his word. Christians aren't saved by what they do or say, but by the work of Jesus Christ on their behalf. If he IS a Muslim, as the video purports, then blacks, homosexuals and women should be the most worried. Plus it would make him a infidel for claiming he's a Christian.

What I found deeply disturbing was hearing him talk in the glowing terms about other countries, their accomplishments and culture (Muslim all) and yet he doesn't have a decent, kind, knowledgeable word to say about his own. Birthers believe he was born in Kenya; I sometimes think he was born in another century or on another planet, he's so out of touch with what it means to be an American! That obsequious, smarmy behavior in itself ought to clue the Muslim leaders and our own that something's very fishy about this guy.

Seven months ago

I didn't buy into The Obama Deception movie conspiracy theories, which was also extremely hostile toward Bush. But here's what I said on April Fools day this year, and that hasn't changed. His poll numbers are plummeting here in Ohio, both for job, economy and the war, so others are catching on to what many knew even in 2007. This misnamed "health care reform" [it's health care take-over], the clap and trade bill, the bowing and butt kissing to foreign enemies and banana republic dictators, the sneering at our history and accomplishments--it's all taking a toll in the polls.

Someone said on the film, forgotten who, that if they cataloged all his lies, the film would never end, because they continue. Yes, I'd agree with that charge, too. It is truly amazing that a man who worked as a "community organizer" for nearly a decade, and never became a tenured law professor or wrote a law article or even practiced law, but wrote 2 autobiographical books, got hired by Illinois to represent a district for which he did nothing and which is still poor, and then got elected President on the basis of his looks and ability to speechify and talk black (something he had to learn as a foreign language as an adult). Call it a conspiracy against the American people if you wish, but really, Obama simply makes us look like a bunch of vacuous fools. . .if we're so great and wonderful and good, why would we let this happen?

Take off your apron, Mom

I'm going through the photo albums, starting with the piles of extras, to select some for a special album to display at our 50th celebration next year. I thought this one was sort of funny, taken at Lakeside summer of 1984 with our friends Ron and Jane who had come up for the day from Columbus. I'm always reminding people to take off their sun glasses when being photographed, but apparently I forgot to take off my apron. We were all thinner, didn't wear glasses yet, and had more hair, and I still use that apron purchased at one of the Lakeside antique shops twenty-five years later.

A few years ago we attended Ron and Jane's 50th, a surprise party at a downtown hotel--they thought they were going out for dinner with their daughter and son-in-law who live in Ireland, and their sons who live locally. It was a great party, but we'll be doing something a bit more modest. Jane is a retired RN and Ron for years owned a painting business. Now he leads a Bible study my husband attends each week for which he produces reams of research and personal thoughts. We met them when we were all members of First Community Church back in the 1960s.

World's cutest studio

Sandy blogs at Thistle Cove Farm. A serious artist with the world's most adorable studio.

1,990 page health care reform bill--on line for 72 hours

Bob C. writes: "Why so many pages and who, in just 72 hours, could even hope to read it let alone understand it??!! If asked and told not to lie, how many in Congress could honestly tell you they had read ALL of it and UNDERSTOOD all of it??

This is a big deal folks and somehow, no matter how it turns out (this way, that way, anyway) I have a distinct feeling that a year or two from now a LOT of people (more than a simple majority) will be saying "Oh s___!! What have we done this time??" Look back at the history of such things and list the positive results from government programs like this. A small Post-it pad should do. And after the fact, how many of the negatives have EVER been corrected??"

Jack Cafferty of CNN notes the length of other important documents for comparison.

• The original draft of the 1935 Economic Security Act, which established the Social Security Administration was 64 pages
  
  
• The Civil Rights Act of 1964 - forbidding discrimination based on race and sex: 8 pages
  
  
• The 19th amendment to the Constitution, giving Women the right to vote in 1920: 1 page
  
  
• The Emancipation Proclamation, with which Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves in 1863: 5 pages
  
  
• Or, if you really want to get back to basics: The Declaration of independence came in at 1 page in 1776
  
  
• And the Constitution: 4 pages long in 1787
  
  
• Health care reform, Pelosi version - almost 2,000 pages.

It's not Halloween--it's Detroit

Photo from Sweet Juniper and there are many more

Feral Detroit. What handing out entitlements and destroying the white middle class will get you. The President needs to tour some of these neighborhoods where the current mayor Dave Bing "recalls how, during the campaign, he would travel through neighborhoods where only a house or two remained occupied on each block, where weeds had reclaimed abandoned lots, and where storefronts sat empty. Today, officials estimate, the city contains an astonishing 70,000 abandoned structures—many of them houses, but also some commercial properties. In downtown Detroit alone, a local newspaper identified 48 office buildings with “no outward sign of life.” " . . .

"Though some blame Detroit’s population losses on larger economic forces, economists Edward Glaeser and Andrei Shleifer argue in a groundbreaking paper that the city’s problems are mostly self-inflicted. (The paper, called “The Curley Effect,” gets its name from legendary Boston mayor James Curley, who favored Irish residents and pushed other groups out.) After winning election in 1973, Detroit’s first black mayor, Coleman Young, consolidated his power, driving white residents, who had voted against him, out of the city by withdrawing services from their neighborhoods. Eventually, Glaeser and Shleifer write, Detroit became “an overwhelmingly black city mired in poverty and social problems”—and shrinking fast." From City Journal, Autumn 2009.

The cash for clunkers clunk

Now the White House is going after Edmunds for telling the truth.



"A total of 690,000 new vehicles were sold under the Cash for Clunkers program last summer, but only 125,000 of those were vehicles that would not have been sold anyway, according to an analysis released Wednesday by the automotive Web site Edmunds.com.

Still, auto sales contributed heavily to the economy's expansion in the third quarter, adding 1.7 percentage points to the nation's gross domestic product growth. [That's a gummit lie because moving government money around is not expansion.]

The Cash for Clunkers program gave car buyers rebates of up to $4,500 if they traded in less fuel-efficient vehicles for new vehicles that met certain fuel economy requirements. A total of $3 billion was allotted for those rebates.

The average rebate was $4,000. But the overwhelming majority of sales would have taken place anyway at some time in the last half of 2009, according to Edmunds.com. That means the government ended up spending about $24,000 each for those 125,000 additional vehicle sales." Money CNN

A beautiful day in the neighborhood--75 degrees

The city workmen and contractors seem to leave early on Friday, so I was able to walk on the new, but not quite finished sidewalks into a rather high-end, snitzy snazzy neighborhood and enjoy the beautiful color, landscaping and winding streets. First I need to thank you all for the sidewalks--I'm sure they saved one or two jobs. I saw a report the other day that said we pay $32 for each person who rides on Amtrak, but that's probably a bargain compared to what you're paying per walker in my neighborhood!

I saw a lot of well off women and one man working in their yards, raking, blowing leaves, and digging around. Slim, well-dressed, tanned, mid-forties. These people are probably the ones Obama wants to tax for your new health care plan. Doctors, lawyers, businessmen, university department chairs. Although I don't think there are enough of them to cover the entire nation on the public option, his goal. Plus, they probably have kids in college, car payments, mortgage payments, workmen to keep employed around the house. Here's one home I passed--the price has been reduced to $725,000--don't know in what range it started or how long it's been on the market. It was built in 1964 (that pine tree definitely needs to go) and has obviously had all the upgrades that people want--new bathrooms (5) and gourmet kitchen. Also an in ground pool--not as common around here as California or the southwest, hot tub, irrigation system, landscape lighting, paver patio, whole house water purification system, and nearly 4500 sq. ft. Ohio only gets 37% sunshine--be outside all you can. It would be a lot cheaper to buy a membership at a private club than have your own pool.

The Green MBA

Somedays I'm just overwhelmed by the green hype. As a Christian I take stewardship and conservation very seriously. We are commanded by the Creator God to do that. The record is clear in Genesis--God created everything, including the first couple, a man and woman, and gave them two commandments: 1) Be fruitful and increase in number and 2) rule over his creation--plants and animals, oceans and air, beasts, birds and seeds. And then he declared it all good.

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.

You can look through any academic program at Ohio State (or any college or university near you) and see the endless moralizing, preaching and nagging about the environment, but there's no foundation--nothing about God's creation, the fall, justice, mercy or why other than self interest we should be caring for planet Earth. At the top level (very thin) it's humanism (man is in charge); dig deeper and the middle level, really thick, is Marxism (the state is in charge and a one world government would work best); but at the sludge level which is bottomless, it's pantheism (we are all one divine being, one consciousness, animals have the same worth as people).

Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business came in 24th on the list of the “Beyond Grey Pinstripes Global 100” of the Aspen Institute Center for Business Education. “The CBE equips business leaders for the 21st century with a new management paradigm—the vision and knowledge to integrate corporate profitability and social value. . . CBE is a part of the Aspen Institute Business and Society Program (BSP), an organization dedicated to developing leaders for a sustainable global society [which] creates opportunities for executives and educators to explore new pathways to sustainability and values-based leadership.” Van Jones, the White House Green Jobs czar who escaped to John Podesta’s think tank when his Communist and radical ties were exposed, was one of the invited speakers at the 2008 Ideas Festival of the Institute.

Hello Agriculture, Political Science and Social Work students--I guess you’ll have to become the bankers and financiers, the investors and CEOs. It has captured all your buzz words -- global sustainability, greening the business world, building a just economy, climate change, climate justice, economic justice, emerging green economy, environmentally responsible. Now all we need is someone to make money and invest again in America.

The founder and “mother” of the CBE, Judith Samuelson, wants the White House to go much further in its plan to control executive compensation. She seems completely unaware of the extent that government interference in business has brought us where we are in this Wall Street Journal article.

Friday Family Photo--little Louis

During exercise class the instructor's little boy loves to come to my husband; he ignores the ladies. He's very well behaved and last year he just napped through the noise; now he plays with his trucks and books, and if my husband is on the floor he scoots himself over with a book.

UALC has three options for exercise--this class which meets at the Lytham campus at 9:15 on M-W-F and is a combination of weights, stretching and cardiovascular with three different instructors; a more gentle exercise group for older people at 10 on M and Th which focuses on mobility; and a killer work out at Mill Run called Boot Camp on T and Th at 9:30. I've seen them when I do the mail run on Thursdays. You don't want to mess with that instructor in a dark alley.

Sweet memories--white cake and one car

Ah, the memories I cherish of the Tremont Goodie Shop. When the children were small and we had only one car, I'd call my husband about 4:30 and suggest he swing by the Goodie Shop on the way home and pick up the 7" double layer, cream filled white cake with coconut frosting. On Saturdays we'd stand in line with our neighbors, sometimes all the way out the door and into the shopping center, for warm cinnamon bread, or frosted, melt in your mouth, sugar cookies in the shapes for the season. Some items you had to reserve ahead. On really, really special days when I was having a chocolate attack, I'd slip in and buy 2 fat chocolate eclairs, and divide them for the evening dessert for the four of us. On birthdays (3 days apart) even when our children were grown and living in their own homes, it would be a cake from the goodie shop with their names and fall decorations.

Birthdays 1996
So when the Goodie Shop closed this fall due to the recession and rising costs, it was a terrible shock. I hadn't been there in years, but it was like hearing an old friend you'd lost touch with had died.

But a former owner and volunteers from the community have come to the rescue--and the Goodie Shop is back in business!

"Just in time for Halloween, fans of the Tremont Goodie Shop can look forward to the reopening of the longtime Tremont Center establishment.

The shop, which closed just before Labor Day after 54 years in business, is scheduled to reopen on Oct. 26. Debbie Smith, who previously ran the family business for 13 years, acquired much of the shop's equipment during a Sept. 27 auction.

The Goodie Shop opened in 1955 by original owner Bill Wood, who sold the business to James Krenek (Smith's father, who passed away in 2007) in 1967. After her father retired, Smith ran the Goodie Shop from 1993 until 2006, when Smith's sister and brother-in-law, Doraine and Paul Cooper, took over.

The Coopers cited increased supply costs and declining sales due to the economy as the reason that the business closed.

A groundswell of community support has arisen since the Goodie Shop closed. Dozens of loyal customers from all over the country have posted comments on a Facebook page created by Smith's daughters, indicating how much they miss the Goodie Shop and would like for it to reopen.

Prior to the Goodie Shop's official reopening on Oct. 26, Smith plans to hold an open house at 9 a.m. on Oct. 24."

Our fading heritage

Remember to vote Tuesday, but be informed--all politics is local as the saying goes. If there's anything distressing to me about our being in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is that Bush took us into war believing they deserved democracy, and meanwhile we are destroying it in our own country through desire for entitlements, redistribution of our wealth and property in the name of marxist "social justice," and corrupt, power hungry politicians on both sides of the aisle.

“How about a few civics questions? Name the three branches of government. If you answered the executive, legislative and judicial, you are more informed than 50 percent of Americans. The Delaware-based Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) recently released the results of their national survey titled "Our Fading Heritage: Americans Fail a Basic Test on Their History and Institutions." The survey questions were not rocket science.

Only 21 percent of survey respondents knew that the phrase "government of the people, by the people, for the people." comes from President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. Almost 40 percent incorrectly believe the Constitution gives the president the power to declare war. Only 27 percent know the Bill of Rights expressly prohibits establishing an official religion for the United States. Remarkably, close to 25 percent of Americans believe that Congress shares its foreign policy powers with the United Nations.

Among the total of 33 questions asked, others included: "Who is the commander in chief of the U S. military?” "Name two countries that were our enemies during World War II." "Under our Constitution, some powers belong to the federal government. What is one power of the federal government?" Of the 2,508 nationwide samples of Americans taking ISI's civic literacy test, 71 percent failed; the average score on the test was 49 percent.

More at Walter E. Williams.

Don't be offended, but. . .

I don't Facebook, Twitter, or Linkedin. I rarely "exchange" links--if I like a blog, I just add the link and don't tell them. So if I haven't responded to your request--it isn't you, it's me. According to this article at CNN, people feel rejected when turned down in cyberspace. That's probably why I don't do this social networking thing--I remember junior high school girls' cliques.

CNN) -- If you harbor a bit of angst over Facebook friend requests gone unanswered, a surprise "defriending" or being deserted by your Twitter followers, you're not alone. . .

"People tend to think that these relationships are trivial and not very deep, but this is what we're moving towards, having a lot of our communications play out over the Internet," Purdue University social psychologist Kip Williams said. "That's the way it's becoming; this is how we interpret our worth. People care how many [online] friends they have."

Or, increasingly, how many Twitter followers they have. This year, a third-party service launched Qwitter, which allows Twitter users to determine who's stopped following them and which tweet may have turned them off.

Experts say rejection on social networks can hurt worse than an in-person snub because people are usually more polite face-to-face than they are online."

My blog has been "delinked" by a number of followers--usually I know the reason--and that's bad enough. Why would I want more of that? In a moment of weakness I did sign up for Classmates dot come, and now I get pestered from the website to pay money. No thanks. If there's anything that hasn't changed about me over the years of a hundred hair styles, and wide ranging political views, it's that I'm frugal. Blogger dot com is free and doesn't ask for anything from me. Not even undying friendship.

Would you call this a hate crime?

"Richmond, California (CNN) -- Investigators say as many as 20 people were involved in or stood and watched the gang rape of a 15-year-old girl outside a California high school homecoming dance Saturday night.

Police posted a $20,000 reward Tuesday for anyone who comes to them with information that helps arrest and convict those involved in what authorities describe as a 2½-hour assault on the Richmond High School campus in suburban San Francisco."

I only ask if it's a hate crime, because we know unless she's a lesbian, it won't be called that. Singling out some forms of evil as "hate" because the victims are members of a specific, protected group is just dumb and intended to increase tensions between groups. I don't know if the victim was black, white or Hispanic (the two female friends of the victim who spoke at a news conference about it were white), but we know if she were an African American and the attackers white, it would be called a hate crime. I think the "boys" are all Hispanic and black (some have been identified and charged as adults; photos showed relatives).

Update: "As horrendous as the allegations against the young men are, there is an even greater shock in revelation that the multiple raping took place outside, in an open area, with at least a dozen onlookers and an untold number of people passing by. Because the gang rape of the 15-year-old girl outside Richmond High School wasn't just the fevered sexual attacks of young men, it was a time-consuming two-and-a-half-hour ordeal where they beat, brutalized, raped, and even robbed the victim. And not one among them bothered to call the police or inform someone in authority.

Not one.

But they did find time to go in and out of the homecoming dance, according to Melissa McEwan at Shakesville, taking place at the time and inform others, who came out and watched and/or participated as well. It was not until after the incident ended, when someone overheard others talking about it, that a phone call was made to Richmond Police that something had occurred." AC Content

Counting on igorance

Dan Kennedy in Dumb and Dumber by Choice begins by pointing out that reading is down 20% in the last 25 years and that 40 million Americans don't read, can't read or won't read, and that most of the people who voted for Obama didn't read his books in which he outlined his socialist beliefs and anti-American plans. Nor does Congress read it's own legislation before it votes.

"This past week, some clowns in Congress proposed a tax credit of up to $3,500 a year for pet owners. It was reported as something amusing by the media. But is it funny – or frightening? Doesn’t it speak to the confidence our Royalty in Washington has about the ignorance and stupidity of the peons they rule? As does Obama’s proposed $250.00 bribe to seniors, the asinine contention that they will magically take $500-billion from Medicare without cutting the benefits it delivers, the even more asinine assertion that the near trillion dollar costs of the new socialized medicine plan will be offset by savings from stopping fraud and waste in the already existent, smaller socialized health care plan. These are all the very same kind of insults to intelligence.

All these insults display the same run-amok arrogance. The same power mad abuse of authority. The same contempt for you and me. They have decided that more than enough of us are ignorant idiots, easily pacified with empty promises and a piece of candy, happy to be done with all responsibility to think, busied with funny videos on YouTube and 146-character Tweets and X-Box and ordering complicated drinks at Starbucks. They know that five times as many people watch the climactic episodes of “American Idol” than watch TV news programs, let alone read a newspaper and news magazines. They know that more people participate in fantasy football leagues on one Sunday than watch “Meet the Press” in a year of Sundays. They are certain of – and rely on – the growing ignorance of the American public."

The $8,000 fraud for beginners

And it wasn't entrapment. It's as though the government really intended the $8,000 housing credit to be so easy to steal. Not since we saw Katrina "victims" shopping at high end stores for designer purses have we seen such chaos in a government program. According to testimony:

• 19,000 filers for the $8,000 tax credit hadn't purchased a home
  
• 74,000 filers (for $500 million in credits) weren't first time buyers
  
• The refundable tax credit was even for those who don't pay any taxes
  
• Required very little documentation
  
• 53 of the criminal filers were IRS employees [following in Geithner's footsteps?]
  
• Congress plans to extend this abusive, wasteful, chaotic plan. . .because?
  
• It costs $1 billion a month, $15 billion so far this year
  
• It drives capital into homes instead of other investments which could help restore the economy
  
• It hasn't boosted sales--most of the buyers (the honest ones) would have bought a home anyway
  
• It delays housing prices returning to "normal"

See today's Wall Street Journal for confirmation.

Oh, and that IRS employee story? Broken by Fox Business channel.

Write what you know

And David Myers certainly knows about prisons--he worked in corrections for 30 years. He and his daughter Elise have authored his second title for Arcadia Press, Central Ohio's Historic Prisons. Here’s the story.

We spent a lot of time in Ohio prisons back in the 70s, following a friend around for visiting hours on Sunday afternoons when our children were small. Most recently we added a fourth to our list when we participated in a closing ceremony at Marion for Kairos.

The Myers family belongs to UALC, and is active in many arts projects and local theater, Dave having written a history of the local music scene, Columbus; the musical crossroads.

Do you really want to invite Chicago in when you’re viewing Picasso and Matisse?

“James Cuno, president and director of the Art Institute of Chicago, walks us through the Museum's Renzo Piano-designed Modern Wing. He explains how the addition, a "luminous box" that opened in May, creates optimal conditions for viewing art.”

I like the old Museum. I prefer that museum design not distract from the art. Don’t care much for scrims, flying carpets and curtain walls. Let’s see if this holds up for a hundred years.

The photo album

Last night I e-mailed a photographer from Wisconsin asking permission to use his photo as a reference for a painting, and he graciously responded OK (very interesting photos from all over the world). Then I decided I needed a special folder for this, because I ask and then forget where I saved them. When I changed computers about a year ago, my e-mail didn't transfer. Sooo....one thing led to another and I started moving other files--it began to take on a life of its own--like when I clean my real office. Then I came across this story, written in November 2004 for NaNoWrMo. When I write fiction, I have no middle or ending in mind, only the first sentence, so I wrote what came to mind, saved it, and didn't reopen it for five years. At this point, the inspiration is gone, but here it is.

Paula Bearfoot. I knew her the minute I saw the old photos glued to the page of the crumbling scrapbook laid out on the table at the reunion. I’d seen her photo a few times back in 1959, and the scrapbook was from the 50s--the kind with the ugly black paper. Something like a shoestring provided the flimsy binding.

How prissy the girls all looked then in black and white glossies, caught and preserved by a little Brownie Kodak. Neat, straight, pencil thin wool skirts, a short sleeve sweater with stitching on the sleeves, a white collar “dickey,” and white anklets in saddle shoes. What pride they took in their appearance. Oh, the wasted hours in front of the mirror. Leafing through the album, I realized somewhat belatedly that teen-agers weren’t fat then, they didn’t wear jeans when trying to impress guys, and they wore way too much lipstick. I looked around the room. Times had certainly changed. Fat mamas, all. Pale lips. At least no jeans.

P-B they called her. With a name like Bearfoot, she probably got a lot of questions. I mean, I would’ve asked--if I’d known her. What do you suppose she answered? Did she make up something clever or tell the truth? Did anyone ever hear the truth from PB? She was my husband's steady. Even at the reunion, he heard of yet another guy who had dated “his” girl. Even after 40 years, I felt just a little sorry for him.

No one had seen her since college. No one knew where her family had moved. Did she even finish college? Occasionally, letters were read at these every decade affairs. No one seemed to remember exactly what they said when I inquired, discreetly of course. She was a social worker. She was a lawyer. She was a secretary. She’d never married. She married three times. Her step-daughter was in the Clinton administration. Her sister had drowned in Hawaii. She lived in Maine. She lived in Arizona. The stories were told in such an off-hand, quasi-authoritative way, I just gave up.

The guy who owned the photo album looked carefully at her pictures. “I think I dated her,” he said, “or maybe her sister. June? Julie?” (371 words)

And that's all I wrote. NaNoWrMo should have been a natural for me, but it means writing on command (it's sort of a contest to write a novel in one month), and nothing will kill my inspiration like someone telling what, when, where or how to write.

The Grayson Cavuto interview March 31

I'm glad Cavuto replayed this one tonight. When I saw Grayson do his "Republicans want you to die" shtick for all the world to see, I thought, "Where have I seen this clown before?" Because Cavuto held his feet to the fire asking for specifics on salary caps (which he could not supply) he called Cavuto rude. No wonder Washington doesn't like Fox commentators--they ask those tough questions.

89% of Americans are satisfied with their health care

That was the findings of a study done by ABC News/USA Today/Kaiser Family Foundation poll in September 2006. Obama assured Americans that if they liked their health insurance, they could keep it, and as we've watched these huge, multiple bills overwhelm the legislators and the public's ability to understand, we've learned that there's no way that can happen. Either we'll be taxed more if the plan we like is better or covers more than someone else's, or our employer will drop our plan because something cheaper is available from the government. The latest ploy from Reid is for states to "opt out" of the public option. Oh yes, calling it something other than public option is also a plan (Pelosi).

Let's take another look at that 2006 poll, and ponder why health care "reform" became number one on Obama's agenda, so important that he even had to put our troops in danger in a war that he said was more important than Iraq (during his campaign). Why was it so urgent when 89% of the people were happy with their health care, and even 70% of the uninsured were satisfied with their health care and nothing would happen for four years?

A survey conducted jointly by the Kaiser Family Foundation, ABC News and USA Today, released in October 2006, found that 89 percent of Americans were satisfied with their own personal medical care, but only 44 percent were satisfied with the overall quality of the American medical system. . . .

Those with recent serious health problems, possibly the people with the best knowledge of how health care is working, were generally the most satisfied. Ninety-three percent of insured Americans who had recently suffered a serious illness were satisfied with their health care. So were 95 percent of those who suffered from chronic illness. . . .

70 percent of the uninsured who indicated their level of satisfaction said they were either "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with their health care, and only 17.5 percent said they were "very dissatisfied." . . .

"It is a common finding in public opinion research," Henry Aaron, a senior fellow for economic studies at the Brookings Institution, told FOXNews.com. "People are satisfied in the small, but dissatisfied in the large. People are satisfied with their child's teachers or school, but dissatisfied with schools generally.... They are satisfied with their doctor or their last visit to the hospital, but they are dissatisfied with what they perceive is happening with medical care as a whole. This finding is just one additional example." . . .

A majority of the uninsured are not desperately poor; about 60 percent of them have personal incomes over $50,000 per year and pay out of their own pockets when necessary, rather than paying for insurance. Others manage to obtain care at highly discounted rates as charity cases.

But there are two other reasons why most uninsured are satisfied: About 14 million of the "uninsured" qualify for Medicaid, and pre-existing conditions do not exclude people from joining the government program. As a result, many who are eligible for Medicaid wait until they need care to register, so they are effectively insured at all times even when they are not formally enrolled in the program.

In addition, once those who are already effectively covered by Medicaid are excluded, nearly 70 percent of the remaining uninsured are without insurance for less than four months. The large majority may be uninsured for such short periods of time that being uninsured is never relevant for their ability to get health care. Summary here.

His reasons for "reforming" the health care that most of us are happy with, even the uninsured, are his own.

1) He wants, needs and craves, a signature event for his first year--a bauble for his first Christmas in the White House.

2) It's a critical step in taking all other freedoms away from the American people, particularly the massive computerization of records that he wants. It will make the Patriot Act look like a drop in the ocean.

3) It's a huge industry--something like 1/6th of the economy, $2.2 trillion in 2007. It will only temporarily satisfy his voracious quest for power, however.

4) Socialized medicine is the hallmark of all socialist countries--he can't drag us kicking and screaming in that direction without that notch on his belt and he can't be a global leader/czar/dictator without proof he's up to the challenge.

The updated enemy list--Glenn Beck

There's a not-so-scary, but very long hit piece on an associate of Glenn Beck in the Washington Post today. Isn't it amazing. Afghanistan and Pakistan Muslims are killing each other at an alarming rate, Obama fiddles or plays golf and jets around the country doing a little of this, a little of that preparing for the 2012 and 2016 campaign, and Jason Horowitz consumes time, money, trees and pixels, talking about a former disc jockey's PR person. Beck has offended the Obama White House by asking questions Horowitz should have asked, pointing out the Marxists on staff, the regulator czars, and the "fundamental transformation" Obama promised us days before his inauguration. But instead of doing his job, he does the bidding of the White House to look for dirt about Beck. You can almost see Axelrod snarling--"I don't care if you have to go through his grade school transcripts. Find me something I can use!" I looked through the Horowitz article, and it's about as alarming as the Carville marriage--a liberal and conservative cooperating. The leftist media, steadily losing in readership, subscriptions, and viewership, have tried attacking Beck from every possible angle--his religion, his addictions, his family, his sponsors (which weasled out under pressure from leftist pressure groups), so now it's moving on to any one close to him. Look out, Stu.

Thomas Sowell--would you have believed it a year ago?

"Just one year ago, would you have believed that an unelected government official, not even a Cabinet member confirmed by the Senate but simply one of the many "czars" appointed by the president, could arbitrarily cut the pay of executives in private businesses by 50% or 90%?" Actually, I was calling him a Marxist long before last October, so I'm not surprised with anything except the speed of the collapse. And that so many of you who voted for Obama continue to wear blinders. Read the rest of his column.