Detroit Attack

The CounterTerrorism blog, Dec. 27, by Roderick Jones asks:

"What has caused this [new round of inconveniences for the passengers]? At this point, it is the reaction of United States Department of Homeland Security to any terrorist event involving aviation [which then spreads throughout the global aviation system], which heightens the operational success of militant Islamist terrorists against aviation targets. The noted, counter-insurgency expert David Kilcullen expertly puts this into focus [in his book Accidental Guerrilla] by highlighting the detrimental effects of US counter-terrorism policy. In short al-Qaeda does not represent an existential threat to the US, it has no path to victory looking at any reasonable scenario including the use of WMD-- but the US can defeat itself by unnecessary over-reaction and a fundamental misunderstanding of basic risk management and terrorist theory. Once again this is being demonstrated by the events in Detroit and the DHS reaction, which creates more disruption than the attack itself, destroys DHS and US credibility by mandating absurd responses, which focus on securing events after they have happened (for example, turning off in-flight entertainment because passengers can see a map - passengers can still look out the window or use their watches).

If the US and other states are to contain terrorism they needs to adopt the more thoughtful responses, which have been developed within and outside of government. The work of inside/outside experts such as Killcullen largely moves in one direction conclusive direction -- less is more and multi-agency approach is paramount. The central thesis of Kilcullen's book is that the west creates 'accidental guerrilla's' by using military force and thus creating 'guerrilla anti-bodies'."

Apparently, even when we change presidents, it's still our fault. Call me crazy but I think profiling for militant islamists (act smartly and speak softly) might be called for instead of pulling my husband over and asking him to practically disrobe when we were already late for our connecting flight. But maybe that's what he was implying and wants to keep his day job.

Napolitano claims the system works?

If you include a sharp eyed, very brave Dutch vacationer as part of your "system." Nothing worked, lady, including the terrorist's parents alerting authorities that their son had disappeared and been radicalized, his name, Umar farouk Abdulmutallab, being in a watch database, the Netherlands not agreeing to use our information (wasn't our president going to use his charm on the European nations, not clout?), his side trips to Yemen, his paying cash for his ticket, and his smuggling explosives aboard when the rest of us can't even get a water bottle or shampoo smuggled in. Now she wants to inconvenience the rest of us with a final one hour proscription against bathroom use (no one will want to sit next to me since I've had vomiting and diarrhea on my last two international flights). I hope she's retracted this ridiculous statement that no one, not even her boss, believes.
Link. Now he'll get a pro-bono lawyer and sue the airlines for his burns, I'm guessing.

Update from all sides of the political spectrum: Hell No, it didn't work! And she has now admitted it didn't, but her words on CNN Sunday were "taken out of context."

Update 2: This administration's backpeddling is just amazing. A day after his fourth day wimp-out that sounded like a weather report followed by a game of golf, Obama comes out with "new information" trying to pretend a little fire in his belly, but he's hopeless. Either he was hopelessly uninformed yesterday for that speech, or he doesn't care, never has, never will. Obama's second speech link. Never mind, couldn't find one except Tadjikistan.

Snow by Loreena McKennitt

I think some is predicted for tomorrow. Christmas day it was 47 here with green grass. I looked at a number of videos of this lovely song--and this one had the words and most looked like what we have when it snows.



Music: Loreena McKennitt; Lyric: Archibald Lampman (1861-1899)

Life isn't fair

A mother and her two young adult children. Read it here. "The fact is the worst age for a human being on this planet is between 13 and 23. If we’re honest with ourselves and each other we’ll admit that those were our STUPIDEST years . . . "

Read the manual day--a new holiday

I need to invite my children over for a "Read the Manual" day so they can create a log for me about buttons, bangles and basics. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by new and high tech. I just want to go back to the days of #2 pencils and black and white TVs. For my son, I'd ask him to go through the manual of my new Town and Country (800 miles on it) and help me put it through some of its paces. I'm still unsure just what it does and doesn't do. I could swear it locks sometimes when I don't lock it after parking. I have learned that some of that extra 14" is in the rear cargo space, and that it's easy to pull my back when bending and reaching. I've put a low tech laundry basket back there so my groceries are a bit more accessible.

My daughter is the go-to-techie source. I need to stop her long enough to learn how to use my I-Touch, now six months old and used about 3 times. Also, we have a new flat screen TV in the living room (our Christmas gift to each other) which we are trying not to play with much until we switch cable companies and will have to relearn channel numbers and settings for new cable boxes (high definition and DVR).

However, she bought us a small flat screen (13") TV for the kitchen and an under the cabinet AM-FM-CD player. These two appliances will take the place of my tiny B & W $14 TV-radio that was even too cheap to work with a converter box, otherwise I'd be using it. We aren't very good at figuring out our disc player or VCR, and have to call for help each time we use them. Our new cable service is supposed to include boxes for all the TVs, but I don't think I want that. Two is plenty.

Meanwhile, I've started in on the low tech jobs, I know how to do, like

1 putting away ribbons and boxes, and finding things I can't use anymore like the Clairol make-up mirror. Do you reuse ribbons and paper? We do. I took the time to sort the tissue paper by hue this morning. I rolled up ribbon and separated them from the ready made bows.
2 write thank you notes and sympathy notes and get-well notes (life goes on during the holidays too)
3 clean out every possible storage area in the kitchen to accomodate the newbies. I don't have a large kitchen, and counter space is at a premium. Do you have a kitchen junk drawer? I do. Everything from scotch tape to night lights to paper clips to candles for emergency.
4 take the cat to the vet to see why she's sneezing.
5 I'm anticipating our two new membership/magazines one on birds and the other on Great Lakes history from our son. That just requires a cup of coffee, a good lamp, and curling up on the couch for a good read. Can hardly wait.

Recipes I've never tried

Have been found while I was cleaning my kitchen shelves, rearranging things to find just the right spot for the new TV.


They include

The Saturday Evening Post Family Cookbook, c1984--supposed to be healthy stuff, bran raisin bread, carrot muffins, barley soup, which is probably why I bought it (library sale, $2.00

Joyce's Amaretto Peach/Blueberry pie with a note from her, 2005

Florida Key Lime Pie, on a post card purchased in Florida

"Fun food for football," real easy munchies from Columbus Parent Magazine; includes Mexican Chili dip and those meatballs made with grape jelly--plus a few I've used before--super easy

Chocolate chip ice cream pie, creamed chicken and biscuits and others on some fancy cards that must belong to someone else's set. "Grandma's Kitchen" www.grandmaskitchenreceipes.com

Hillary Rodham Clinton's chicken and rice deluxe clipped from the Columbus Dispatch.

Poached Salmon--hand written recipe, with note, "Norma--call me" but I don't remember who wrote it.

Blueberry muffins using Splenda

Sausage cheese balls using Bisquik.

Slow-cooker lasagna from the Dispatch

Corn stuffing--I think I might have made this a few Thanksgiving days ago.

Soup recipes from our Germany river tour in 2005, on MS Switzerland. They were fabulous on board as I recall. Probably not quite the same from my stovetop.

I think they'll all fit inside the Sat. Evening Post book, so I'll keep them.

Vintage make-up mirror

CLAIROL True-to-Light, 3 Way Lighted Make-up Mirror. Purchased for Christmas 1979. It has 2 adjustable fold out side mirrors, and a large center mirror. Center mirror can rotates for magnification. The light bulbs are replaceable (2026 lamp)--or were 30 years ago. It has 4 settings for Day, Office, Evening, and Home plus ON and OFF button. Gently used by former 30-something housewife turned librarian who rarely wore make-up.

These things are outrageously priced on the various on-line web resale sites. I'm cleaning closets today, and it will go for a song, a poem, or possibly nothing if I take it to the Discovery Shop. The guide book says the lamps last 4,000 hours, so I figure there are at least 3,750 left, and I turned it on--everything works--I just don't want to be that close to my face anymore.

As you age, you need less make-up, not more. I dab a bit on about 5 a.m. in the morning--takes about 2 minutes after I wash and moisturize my face (with Watkins if I have it). Some foundation, a whisk of cheek blush and I'm good to go. Mascara and liner makes my eyes itch. I rarely wear lipstick anymore because it has a tendency to want to climb into my lip lines. Not a pretty sight.

The other day I was talking to an old friend and we were trying to remember the name of a woman we knew 30 years ago. I'm sure she was younger then than I am now, but he described her as the woman with all the make up and smeared lipstick. Then I remembered her! Isn't that just so sad? To be remembered by the wrong hair color, or the make-up collecting in your wrinkles, or smeared lipstick. Oh. Dear. Soul.

J.R. Watkins Lemon Cream

At Hokulea's blog, Christmas cancelled, she writes about trying to help customers whose orders have expired. Although I don't understand the procedures or what she does, it sounds like sometimes you can get a caring, kind representative like Hoku at a large company. And it doesn't hurt that she has a very specialized skill (makes jewelry) and knew what to do to expedite a ring. So here's my try--again--to get a cream I like that has been discontinued, only I wrote a paper letter and put it in an envelope with a first class stamp, and hope I get a Hokulea clone:

Dear J. R. Watkins Customer Service, I apparently sent my daughter on a wild goose chase when I asked for your Shea Butter Lemon Cream in a jar (4.6 oz.). This product no longer is available, anywhere, either from your sales staff or local stores like Walgreens. So she purchased Shea Butter Body Cream in a tube (3.3 oz.) which the web site more or less said was the same thing. It isn’t. Read the label. I know ingredients are listed in order of quantity, and although many are the same in the two products, many are different in quantity and type. The first five of the jar product are water, shea butter, glycerol stearate, PEG-100 stearate, and steric acid. The first five in the tube are water, shea butter, glycerol stearate, steric acid and cetearyl alcohol. Both lists are followed by Macadamia seed oil. Both PEG-100 stearate and cetearyl alcohol are an emollient, an emulsifier, and a moisturizer, and the cetearyl alcohol is also an opacifier and a thickener. That’s the difference I see on the label, and probably makes the tube product work. But I don’t like tube products--too much of the product is left inside the tube, plus I just like the jar product. You don’t mention on the label that it is a moisturizer for the face, but I use it on my face, and it doesn’t interact with my cosmetics. Do you still have some in the vault of discontinued products that I could buy? I’m 70, and not to give you a sob story, but I think my skin looks fine for my age, and I don’t want to try something new. Please check around for me, and get back to me soon--I only have 2.5 jars left (plus 2 tubes). The lavender is OK, but I love the Lemon Cream.

Update: Here's something I wouldn't have thought of when thinking Watkins--an architectural tour.

Update 2: I now have 3 more jars of Lemon Cream Shea Butter sent to me by Lynne at Seasons for Success. Excellent service!

New Christmas carol for the troops

Matt Hodge, a Campbellsville University graduate student, has dedicated this new carol to the troops. It was recorded by the Campbellsville University Choir.

Campbellsville University is a private, comprehensive institution located in South Central Kentucky open to all denominations. Founded in 1906 by the Russell Creek Baptist Association, Campbellsville University is affiliated with the Kentucky Baptist Convention and has an enrollment of 2,601 students who represent 93 Kentucky counties, 27 states and 31 foreign nations.

Santa Clauses in the cash for cloture deal

Michelle Malkin in Beltway Christmas peeks inside this Congress' stimulus spending where more money went to higher income areas than low income and then analyzes the costs to the taxpayer for the fatso, flatulent Demcare. She reports Democratic districts have raked in nearly twice as much porkulus money as GOP districts -- without regard to the actual economic suffering and job loss in those districts.

• $54 million no-bid contract was awarded to a firm with little experience to relocate a luxury Bay Area wine train due to flood concerns. [Pelosi]
  
  
• $1 billion for the dubious FutureGen near-zero emissions "clean coal" plant earmark championed by disgraced Democrat and former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin. [Burris]
  
  
• billions in high-speed rail stimulus earmarks to fund a pie-in-the-sky public transportation line from Los Angeles to Las Vegas [Reid]
  
  
• Wall Street regulatory "reform" bill larded with $4 billion in payoffs to minority special interests -- including former failed Air America radio partner Inner City Broadcasting Corp run by Percy Sutton [Rangel and Sharpton and Frank]
  
  
• $12 million in TARP funds for OneUnited, a minority-owned bank that is one of her key campaign donors and a company in which both Maxine Waters and her husband own massive amounts of stock.[Waters]

Then she looks inside Santa's bag for all the goodies we just had to have before the Christmas recess.

• $300 million "Louisiana Purchase" [Landrieu]
  
  
• $45 million "Cornhusker Kickback" [Nelson]
  
  
• cash for cloture votes also included a Hospital Helper of $100 million [Dodd ]
  
  
• bennies for insurance companies and hospitals in Michigan
  
  
• "frontier freebies" for hospitals in Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota and Wyoming
  
  
• New England's Special Syrup for Vermont and Massachusetts -- similar to Nebraska--$1.2 billion over 10 years. $10 billion to Vermont for “community health clinics”. [Sanders]
  
  ACORN/community organizer-friendly provision for minority health bureaucracies in Illinois [Burris]
  
  $10 billion socialized medicine sop to Vermont for "community health clinics" serving in essence as universal health care satellite offices. [Sanders]

HT Bill L.

Last minute shopping on the 24th

Today my husband was putting away the wrapping paper and ribbons when he found a gift card from last Christmas that had a receipt on it and it had been tossed into the sack. Beginning 1 year after purchase (12/24/08) a $2 monthly charge would go into affect. By this time I was a bit gooey from slathering the turkey and cooking the liver for the kitty (oh, she loves it), so I suggested he run up to Barnes and Noble (1/2 mile) and buy himself a book. He did that about 1:30 p.m., but when he got back, he wouldn't let me see what it was, so I suspect he didn't buy a gift for himself. This was really last minute shopping.

Google’s PageRank

I was using the command, "link:collectingmythoughts," and came across Who links to me site and it reported that my Google PageRank was 6. So I looked that up. It doesn’t get its name from “page,” as I thought, but the surname of one of the founders of Google, Larry Page. It‘s been patented and sold to Stanford University for stock worth many millions, but Google gets to use it. I glanced through the formula/algorithms, but I'm math challenged.

“PageRank is an independent measure of Google’s perception of the quality/authority/credibility of an individual web page. It does not depend on any particular search phrase. For the public (you and me), Google conveniently reports this as a number from 0-10 (10 being the best).”

Well, that’s nice, I guess. Six is better than five or four. Given all the webpages out there, it's nice to know I rank that high. Probably nicer if I were selling something. Anyway, if I ever ask you to be a guest blogger, don't mess up my ranking.

My solution for the health care dilemma

I haven't crunched the numbers, but just knowing how the government pads everything and costs go up everywhere when their sticky fingers go into the pie, I think my plan would not only be better, please everyone but would also be cheaper.

First, it would only be for U.S. citizens, native or naturalized.

Second, it would be clear and easy for anyone to understand; changes would have to fit into 10 pages or less.

Third, it would be the best health care found anywhere in the world based on the life expectancy and useful working years of a 40 year old.

Fourth, it would be completely portable and not dependent on an employer or a union.

Fifth, the federal government, not the states, would be responsible for the poor, and no pork would be allowed in determining those benefits, and children would need to be under age 18. The states, however, would have the task to getting the poor into the proper, competitive, market-driven program.

Sixth, Medicare is such a mess, I haven't figured that one out, because my generation has become accustomed to socialized medicine and don't want any claw backs. But then, neither has your esteemed and brilliant Congress. Whatever I come up with couldn't be worse than the current overpriced and easily scammed system.

So what is it?

The current health care system for federal employees.

"The Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program can help you and your family meet your health care needs. Federal employees, retirees and their survivors enjoy the widest selection of health plans in the country. You can choose from among Consumer-Driven and High Deductible plans that offer catastrophic risk protection with higher deductibles, health savings/reimbursable accounts and lower premiums, or Fee-for-Service (FFS) plans, and their Preferred Provider Organizations (PPO), or Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO) if you live (or sometimes if you work) within the area serviced by the plan."

Just the choices and options and the number of companies providing the services would bring costs down drastically. If a federal worker moves from HHS to HUD, she doesn't lose her insurance--it's portable. If he's unmarried and has no risky behavior, why shouldn't he take a high deductible and save oodles? If she wants tattoo removal and lasix surgery, she'd be able to buy it with her health savings plan (that's going away under the new take over). If genetic testing shows there's a problem down the road, she'll have plenty of notice.

What's for Christmas dinner

Most of the food is ready. I dashed into Giant Eagle this morning--ran out of butter and milk of all things. Don't like that store, but it was close. I thought I'd beat the crowd since it was still dark. For our Christmas Eve dinner we're having roast turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, colorful green beans (with red peppers and white mushrooms, onions and bacon), carrots with a dab of honey and herbs, and my daughter is bringing a sugar free cherry pie with real whipped cream. Yes, I know it's not terribly original, but the left-overs are good. Church service is at 9 p.m. at Lytham Road. Then tomorrow we're serving communion at 10 a.m., so I'm serving two kinds of soup--broccoli and chili (already made and ready to be warmed up) with assorted spreads on bread and crackers, a few sweet sour meatballs, and probably some homemade applesauce if I have enough apples. I think we'll skip a rich dessert since none of us really need it. Only one member of the family lost weight in 2009, and the rest of us are enlarging our footprint and our sitprint.

I've had a real problem with my chili. For years, I made it with Brooks chili beans which has a nice sauce and flavoring. That was a tip from my mother-in-law 50 years ago--she never used anything else and always made fabulous chili. After 3-4 stores and not finding it, I bought another brand. The beans were pale, the sauce tasteless, so I've added a can of dark red kidney beans, and now it looks like something a new bride would make with the neighbors pitching in.

Now all I have to do is shift a little clutter and vacuum. I woke up about 1:30 thinking of everything I needed to do, but most of it I've forgotten. Oh well. I never have been a list maker.

Senator Brown responds

Just so we know. . . "there is continued debate related to provisions that would establish a public option, insurance reforms, tax credits, and an excise tax on “Cadillac” insurance plans. Additionally, the Senate continues its dialogue on Medicare issues, including provider payment rates, program eligibility, patient access, medical malpractice, and further improving Medicare benefits for the more than 44 million current enrollees."

In other words, they have no idea what they are voting for because no one can figure out the bill, nor have they read it. There's no bone here for pro-lifers, probably because he doesn't have my position on record (I think pro-lifers are being tricked into voting for Reid's bill and Pelosi's), but there is an oblique reference to tort reform, and lots of squishy phrases like "patient access" and "provider payment rates." All I asked was why he didn't get a huge bribe for Ohioans like Nebraska and Louisiana and caved so early in this game of the government buying up and running private industries.

Ornament for the White House tree

We've been hearing some stories about some of the odd and hyper-political ornaments on the White House Tree--like Obama's face on Mt. Rushmore, Mao Tse Tung and drag performer Hedda Lettuce. The left wing bloggers/journalists are criticizing the right for being upset (although they don't refer to themselves as left wing). Actually, Mao wouldn't be the first marxist at the White House. Last year the only ornament out of 370 submitted that was rejected was political. The artists was anti-everything, including life, and that's not particularly appropriate for a Bush Christmas tree. That the Obamas kept the highly political ornaments that pleased and agreed with them, reflects their tastes.

Too bad bloggers at both ends don't focus on some of the really great ornaments, like my friend Jeanie's, a local artist, retired teacher and member of my church. She created an ornament to reflect the history of the Ohio Theater in downtown Columbus.

"The tree on which Auseon's bulb hangs is one of several trees First Lady Michelle Obama asked artists nationwide to help decorate. Obama said she wanted as much input from the country as possible when it came to celebrating the holidays in the White House.

That meant recycling about 800 ornaments left over from previous administrations and sending them out to community groups nationwide for artists to decorate. . .

She artfully covered the orb in glittery red and green ribbon and rhinestones, mixing in pictures and facts about the theater's history in three days.

"It's very ornate," she said of the piece which incorporates decoupage vintage photo of the theater on the bulb's face and nearly a foot of hanging ribbon.

Looks aside, the bulb's design is meant to tell a story, Auseon said.

"I just hope that ... they might go up to look more closely at it and, as they look more closely, that the story might reveal itself and that they'll think, 'Hey that's really neat,' " she said." SNP News

From an archival viewpoint, I would have preferred that White House ornaments not be recycled, and I don't know how far back they went (at least the 8 years of the Bush administration) and I don't know if they are federal property or belong to whoever lives there. But it would seem a "blank" canvas ornament/bulb could have been sent to the artists rather than reusing the old ones.

Reid quotes his hero, the other King

After comparing Republicans to opponents of outlawing slavery during Civil War times (remember, that was the forerunners of the current Democrats, but let's ignore history) just days ago, Haughty Heartless Harry Reid now quotes peacemaker Dr. King Rodney King (badly) and asks if we can't all get along. Reid is probably the most contentious politician hiding behind the blandest personality and most unpleasant demeanor I can remember in my life time. Story at Gateway Pundit. He was one of the worst and most vicious of the Bush bashers, declaring the war in Iraq lost and giving comfort to the enemy. Who elects people like this?

The Democrats.
Constant in criticism, sniveling in surrender, but bold against the unborn and the elderly.

Today’s new word--dyad

A dyad consists of two. It’s two units treated as one; a couple, a pair. It comes from the Greek, dyas. I’ve never used this word. Have you? The context was academic, of course.

“The FAST team structures repetitive, positive interactions sequenced in dyads (parent to youth, parent to parent) and in small groups (the youth's family, peer groups for parents, peer groups for youth).” Huh?

Oddies and endies in e-mail

I'm always surprised that so many people in other countries have died and left me, little ol' me, bunches and baskets of money! Here's today's catch. Did you get one?

"On behalf of the Trustees and Executor of the estate of Late Engineer Reinhard Hermann, I once again try to notify you as my earlier letter to you returned undelivered. I hereby attempt to reach you again by this same email address on the WILL. I wish to notify you that Late Engr. R. Hermann made you a Beneficiary to his WILL. He left the sum of Seventeen Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars ($17,500.000.00 USD) to you in the codicil and last testament to his WILL. This may sound strange and unbelievable to you, but it is real and true. Being a widely traveled man, he must have been in contact with you in the past or simply you were recommended to him by one of his numerous Friends abroad who wished you good."

The spelling and sentence structure is improving however, (must have out of work college students employed in these schemes) and this guy was UK not Nigeria, and an engineer, member of the Helicopter Society, and a philanthropist, not just a scumbag prince or potentate. Still, the capitalization of nouns doesn't look right. But maybe that's the UK way.

When Fed Ex called for our address yesterday I was hesitant. That's another scam going around, although that one usually comes via e-mail--a "delivery problem." But in that case, the insurance company had left out part of our street name, and since there are 15 or so streets around here with a similar name, and ours doesn't appaear on some maps because we are private, they couldn't find us.

One of the Christian groups to which I subscribe has apparently sold their mailing list--or maybe an organization went belly up and some other company got possession, because I've been receiving a really odd collection of end-times, money appeals, and book announcements in the past week or two. Groups I've never heard of and haven't visited their web sites. Although data mining is very sophisticated these days. I just hate to visit Amazon and then have the site tell me where I've been and what I looked at. It's just creepy. Like each click has a little RFID embedded. Since I visit Christian bloggers and many of them have ads, and you have to leave an e-mail address to comment, it's possible these companies found me that way.

But Helicopter Society? The UK philanthropist? Who falls for this?

Vote for Grande Conservative Diva Blogger

Gay Patriot is having a poll to vote for your favorite Conservative Diva--I'm not on the list--no one knows who I am, but Tammy Bruce is. Right now, Neoneocon is leading. She got my vote. But I just might vote again.

My note to Sherrod Brown

Ohio Senator--Democrat

"Why didn't you hold out for the bribe and corruption that Nebraska and Louisiana got? What exactly did you get for voting for this mess?"

Mindful meditation

Your child probably can’t sing Christmas carols at school this time of year, but you will find wide acceptance of Buddhism in classroom exercises, taught as “mindful meditation.” In the western way of thinking, if you’re not “doing” --reading scripture, praying, singing, volunteering--then you’re not technically practicing a religion. But in the eastern way, it’s the technique, not the teaching or the doing, that matters. You can "believe" anything you want. That’s because the godhead is inside, not outside, the body in that faith tradition. Therefore, lots of schools close their doors to our traditional religious practices--prayer, religious symbols in the classrooms, daily Bible readings, Bible stories of heroes, teaching creation, and songs--while welcoming warmly religions from other cultures with wide open arms if they can masquerade as something "healthy" like meditation, thought control for a good purpose, anxiety and stress control, and drug and alcohol reduction tools. It's ignorance of religious thought and teaching on the part of your school board and administration that allows this.

If you are a Christian, "man up" and object to your child being taught that god is within. That's a religion. It's not our religion, it's not our culture, and what's sauce for the Christian is sauce for the Buddhist, Hindu and Humanist. Don't let the word "meditation" fool you. In the Christian and Jewish traditions, that is mediation on God's word. It is content, not a blank mind stilled to allow anything in with the power of suggestion from the teacher or guru.

NYTimes

Meditation therapy

How to, from Shambhala Sun

Alcohol relapse prevention U. of Wisconsin

With children, academic studies

Mindful schools

Mindful techniques to use with children

Staples on a dollar and a head

I was looking for information on whether it is legal to staple a $20 bill to a letter and came across a story from Florida where a woman took her 8 year old to an ER for a small head wound caused by a pillow fight, and left with one staple over the wound and a bill for $1,654, of which $754 was covered by the family's insurance. Both the article and the readers' comments are mostly filled with the outrage over the cost of medical care for such a small accident. Duh! I wonder why?

It appears that few read it, or know anything about insurance, medical care or the costs of doing business--any business. Isn't it odd that other workers seem to want to be paid for their labor, to get their benefits paid by their employer, to receive unemployment and worker's comp, but doctors, nurses, lab techs, schedulers, and janitors in clinics should work for nothing or minimum wage? Isn't it strange that your landlord, electric company, gas and water utilities, gardeners, and street pavers all need to be paid and factored into your business costs, but not hospitals (she took him to the ER) or "doc in a box" clinics. And I found it odd that most people can grasp, when they get the bill, what 4 years of college costs, but are in la-la land about tacking on another 4-8 years of medical school to those costs. It appears from the article that no further testing was done to pad the costs (regardless of what Obama says about wrong foot amputation), so we can assume the doctor recognized from his training that a superficial head wound would bleed--a lot.

That ER where Mrs. Tobio took her child is also treating people who have no regular doctor, no insurance and no intention of ever paying. By law, it has to treat them too. So that cost is picked up by the people who do have insurance. And the doctor that stapled the wound has to carry malpractice insurance so that's factored into his costs--and no tort reform will be included in the current Senate or House bill because the lawyers have a powerful lobby. Also, in order to save costs, and they've already saved a bundle, the Tobios carry a very high deductible policy--$2500--choosing instead to cover the out of pocket expenses and pocket the savings. Some years they win, and some they don't. Even a few months of savings covered that $900 they had to pay. And their state regulates who they can buy from so that reduces competition and increases cost. That too isn't addressed in the current "reform."

When I was a kid, I was jumping on a bed like a trampoline and hit the ceiling cracking my head open. I don't remember if Mom took me to Dr. Dumont or not--there were puddles of blood everywhere so she probably did. Head wounds bleed like crazy. He probably used a needle and thread. I still have a bump and it's covered by my hair. But parents would not settle for that today. Childhood bumps have to have first class, non-scarring treatment. And no one had health insurance.

The reporter did her job--she got the scoop on what the real costs are behind that little staple in Ben Tobios head, but that's at the end. Most readers commenting, never got that far.

His staple paid for all the things the hospital does not, or cannot under current laws that regulate government programs such as Medicare, charge for, Sullivan said: bed sheets, plastic medical tubing, privacy drapes.

"Staples may be something we can charge for, so those things end up with what looks like a very high charge based on what the cost is," Sullivan said.

"At the same time," he added, "what drives the cost of health care is people get in a facility and they want the best doctors, the nice MRI machine that costs $1.5 million; they want the best of everything because we have very high expectations in a time of need, and there is a cost to that."

If I make coffee at home, it costs about ten cents a cup; if I go to Panera's it's about $1.80 plus my driving costs which includes auto insurance.

Unintended consequences--livestock production

Or was it? New laws in Europe regarding the caging of chickens might destroy the industry and remove a valuable food source from the table.

How to destroy an industry

"Are EU consumers to be deprived of eggs based on the misplaced perceptions of flock wellbeing by extremists intent on destroying established intensive livestock production? Will EU consumers be supplied with eggs from countries with a lower cost of production from cages or cage free systems or even eggs labeled as "cage free or free range" but derived from conventional cages? Either way consumers will be deprived of the nutritional value of eggs or will be required to pay more for their purchases.

We should carefully monitor events in the "old world" and be careful not to emulate the folly of the EU in our industry."

Brr it's cold

Yesterday was the first day of winter, and although we haven't had the snow that the east coast and midwest have experienced, I think my blood has thinned. I checked and still have plenty of fat layers. When browsing my site meter today I found someone looking at this, apparently I had linked to it in the past. Looks mighty good today. Even the prices didn't blow me away. And I don't even like Florida! Time to put on my heavy coat and mittens and go to the coffee shop.

The w.c. is from 7 years ago--you can tell we're all from Indiana and Ohio by the amount of clothing and the umbrellas--and it was a hot day.

New words, familiar sound

Last week when our young Haitian friends were visiting and we were sitting in traffic waiting to get into the Zoo, Frandy and Zeke sang "O Holy Night" for us in French. Here's a treat if you like language--the Christmas album, of Jana Mashonee singing ten traditional carols in different Native American languages – “O Holy Night” in Navajo, “Silent Night” in Arapaho, “Winter Wonderland” in Ojibwe, “Joy to the World” in Chiricahua Apache, etc.



Jana’s website You can hear her new album. In addition to providing all the vocals and piano, Jana wrote and co-produced the album. I think she was on Fox this morning if I got the dates right, although I'm not sure it was local or national. Which ever, I missed it.

For native youth, through her organization Jana's Kids, “Jana addresses the issues of cultural pride and identity, motivation and ambition, education, alcohol, tobacco and drug awareness, and gang association. She proactively involves her audiences in this extraordinary interactive presentation. Music, lecture, questions, answers, and demonstrations are the main components of this educational, entertaining, and motivational program.”

What makes the leftists unhappy about Obama

Although they don't seem to mind his spending trillions for more socialism, it's his spending it and getting the same ol' same ol' that ties their shorts in a knot.

"Somehow the president has managed to turn a base of new and progressive voters he himself energized like no one else could in 2008 into the likely stay-at-home voters of 2010, souring an entire generation of young people to the political process. It isn't hard for them to see that the winners seem to be the same no matter who the voters select (Wall Street, big oil, big Pharma, the insurance industry). In fact, the president's leadership style, combined with the Democratic Congress's penchant for making its sausage in public and producing new and usually more tasteless recipes every day, has had a very high toll far from the left: smack in the center of the political spectrum."

I had that spotted in 2007. Even with strings to a puppet master, it's hard to get an empty suit to dance. Although unlike Drew Westen at Huff'npoof, I think he's still way left of center. I still think he's a marxist; it's just that he had a few ethical, smart and patriotic Democrats in his own party that he hasn't knocked over yet or bribed into silece. And Drew--Joe Wilson still did and said the right thing, "You lie." Only now you libs know it too.

The peacemakers

This is Shane. I don't know him--just came across an item about him. He's going to talk to youth. Notice the ear stud, head bandana/scarf holding back the long hair, and scruffy but endearing face. The outfit hasn't changed in 40-50 years, much. He's a professional peacemaker going here and there. Willowcreek, Iraq, Calcutta. The usual. We need a few peacemakers in a suit and tie, or at least a button down oxford, khaki slacks/dress jeans and loafers. Someone who doesn't dress the part. They are needed first in families, church councils, schools, board rooms, cafeteria lines, muffler shops, prisons, factories, twitter, Facebook and Blogger, and the halls of congress. Then when they are sufficiently battle scarred and wise, send them into other war zones. The exciting thing about peace seminars and radical faith workshops is, you get to hang with people who think just like you do.

Academe's bias against white males

Any parent who would pay to send a kid, male or female, into this hell hole should be charged with wallet abuse.

"You might think that a university whose students were victims of the most notorious fraudulent rape claim in recent history, and whose professors -- 88 of them -- signed an ad implicitly presuming guilt, and whose president came close to doing the same would have learned some lessons.

The facts are otherwise. They also suggest that Duke University's ugly abuse in 2006 and 2007 of its now-exonerated lacrosse players -- white males accused by a black stripper and hounded by a mob hewing to political correctness -- reflects a disregard of due process and a bias against white males that infect much of academia.

In September, far from taking pains to protect its students from false rape charges, Duke adopted a revised "sexual misconduct" policy that makes a mockery of due process and may well foster more false rape charges by rigging the disciplinary rules against the accused.

Meanwhile, none of the 88 guilt-presuming professors has publicly apologized. (Duke's president, Richard Brodhead, did -- but too little and too late.) Many of the faculty signers -- a majority of whom are white -- have expressed pride in their rush to judgment. None was dismissed, demoted, or publicly rebuked. Two were glorified this month in Duke's in-house organ as pioneers of "diversity," with no reference to their roles in signing the ad. Three others have won prestigious positions at Cornell, Vanderbilt, and the University of Chicago." The rot at Duke

The bios and photos of those 88 should be tacked on public bulletin boards along with the faces of other identity theft criminals.

Need a bowl game printout?

All on one page. Save a twig.

Ohio State Buckeyes are in the Rose Bowl playing the Oregon Ducks. Bucks vs. Ducks. But if they were playing Oregon State, we could say OSU vs. OSU!

A very teary Christmas

This song always makes me teary, not cheery:

I'll be home for Christmas
You can count on me
Please have snow and mistletoe
And presents under the tree
Christmas Eve will find me
Where the love light beams
I'll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams

It makes me think of all the promises I've heard in my life time (or made), only to have them dashed. And yet, every time I hear it, whether Bing Crosby, Andy Williams, Josh Groban or the local high school choir, I'm lulled into believing--yes, this year the promise will be kept. I make it all the way to the last line with the beautiful words, and find out it was all a dream. I assure you, you have the job; we'll get together soon; I'll stop by just as soon as. . . ; I'll never take another drink, I promise; she is doing so well she'll be discharged from the hospital Tuesday; look this present is for you; congratulations you're pregnant; you can't miss it; I'll always love you, and so on.

But I still love the song.

When the globe was really hot

From 600 to 200 BC there was a cold period, followed by a warming, called Roman Warming, from 200 BC to about 600 AD. You know what's neat about that? God used it for the spread of the Gospel! Then from 600 AD to 900 AD there was another cold period, and we call that the Dark Ages, probably because it's difficult for science, technology and learning to flourish when you're so cold you have to migrate, and the crops won't grow so you spend all your time looking for food and fighting off bigger people with better horses and spears from warmer climates.

But, looky here, more "global warming" before the industrial age and sooty smoke stacks and coal mines--the Medieval Warming period from 900 AD to 1300 AD, followed by the Little Ice Age, which went right up to about 1850--around the time people began to notice it was getting warm again. It's "normal" I suppose for humans to be so self-centered that they believe their own life time is the way it's supposed to be, but we've had far more cooling periods than warming, so look out! And other warming periods have been longer and hotter than this one.

The Chinese have even better records for this--notice how similar the warming periods are (note the line going up around 1000 AD). Don't take my word for it. Hundreds and hundreds of studies from ice, sedement, tree rings, tree lines, fossils, etc., show that warming and cooling are natural cycles for the earth, and for humans to survive, warming is definitely better than cooling. Read earth's own story free of political scam and hands out for higher taxes in Unstoppable global warming by S. Fred Singer and Dennis T. Avery (rev. ed. 2008, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers). Or for a summary of studies on the medieval warm period, read it here at Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change.

Stop the hot air of Cap and Trade Plunder. Tell your senators and congressional representative, NO.

Perspective of an immigrant

"When I came to America in 1980 and experienced life in this country, I thought it was fortunate that those living in the USSR did not know how unfortunate they were.

Now in 2009, I realize how unfortunate it is that many Americans do not understand how fortunate they are. They vote to give government more and more power without understanding the consequences." Read Svetlana's article here.

Laughing at the left

'Taint funny, though. Just a few examples here.

"They believe we can spend our way out of debt.

They believe people who have never run a business can run a business better than people who have spent their whole lives running businesses.

They believe that teenage girls who aren't allowed to get even minor cosmetic surgery without a parent's permission should nevertheless be able to procure an abortion without a parent's permission.

They believe it is unconstitutional for a legislature to mention Jesus but perfectly okay to mention Allah.

They believe explicit words in the Constitution protecting contracts, and gun ownership rights, and property rights against government seizure, are to be ignored; but that wholly invented "rights" that cannot be found in any words of the Constitution, but that merely "extend" from "emanations" from "penumbras" of other judicially created "rights," are somehow sacrosanct and essential parts of the Constitution."

No, not funny. And he goes on and on.

Nelson caves

"Sen. Ben Nelson has said he would support the health care bill, all but ensuring that Sen. Harry Reid will be able to secure the 60 votes he needs to set up final passage on Christmas Eve." American Spectator

Blackmail, corruption, bribery (he also gets more Medicaid money), deceit, lies, Chicago thugery, and God know what else--oh yes, no Christmas recess if you don't fall in line. Well, at least the air force base is safe. What a backbone.

Update: There is a rally in Omaha, Nebraska Sunday Dec. 20 demanding Senator Nelson switch his vote back to NO. The rally will be held at the Omaha Music Hall, 17th and Capitol. Doors open at 2 PM. Rally starts at 3 PM. Other participants besides Mike Huckabee will include Congressman Terry, Auditor Foley, Senators McCoy, Fulton, Krist, Price and Lautenbaugh.

Are we at the end of a natural warming period

There are two strong memories from my childhood: the snow was very deep and we were at war most of the time. I was born at the end of a warming blip that had existed during most of the the lifetime of my parents (1916-1940) which was part of a larger trend that began around 1850 after a cold period of several centuries. Whereas their formative years contained memories of dust storms, shriveled crops and nights so hot in Illinois they couldn't breathe, I remember giant snow drifts and winters that seemed to last forever followed by warm, idyllic and pleasant summers. Of course, I was shorter then, so it wasn't that tough to say it was up to my waist. However, another warming blip began in the 1970s, and I can remember driving to Illinois in the winter with our children and not seeing a snowflake. I still remember the summer of 1988--it was so dry and hot in Ohio, the Bruces broke down and bought an air conditioner for our Columbus house, and took a lake cruise to get out of the heat of Lakeside. Now things seem to be getting cooler again with lots of ragged, wild weather around the edges. I wouldn't even think of driving to Illinois in the winter now--the last five years where I grew up have been brutal with deep snow. Here in temperate mid-Ohio we muddle through gray winters as we always have with one or two blizzards a year and then weeks of melting snow drifts. This morning I woke up to the sound of snow plows, but didn't recognize the noise. We may get 2-4" as the northeast is pummeled.

The other memory--that of war--is a reminder that we need to be vigilant. Hitler was marching through Poland (Polenfeldzug) when I was born. I believe our President was trying to work out some sort of "accord." During my youth and right up to the collapse of the USSR, some version of socialism has been the enemy of our republican form of government--either the National Socialism of Hitler, or the Communism of Lenin/Stalin/Mao--both of which chewed up most of Europe and Asia. The other, centuries old absolute loyalty to a monarch, was Japan, now a democracy. This is another thing that is cyclical. Our ignorance and forgetfulness. Socialism doesn't need armored tanks anymore.

Sports and Greed

Recent events in science, politics, national security and the economy have caused many of us to completely lose faith in our so called “free and independent press,” because broadcast and print journalists carried the water for Obama in 2007-2008, downplayed the pinholes in the expanding housing bubble when there was still time to do something, research institutions and gatekeepers of the peer review sources manipulated data and blacklisted colleagues for the sake of government grants and personal gain in science, and cable, new media “fact checkers” and news aggregators played up every mistake of the military during the Bush years while ignoring the big picture with an end result of helping our enemies. The final straw has been the Tiger Woods story, at least for me. Yesterday I was reading How Tiger Protected his Image, in the WSJ. As I tried to work my way through the convoluted, complex story of Tiger’s deal with Golf Digest, I stumbled over many other media sources--Conde Nast, Tiger Woods’ own foundation, American Media, Inc., The National Enquirer, Men’s Fitness, News of the World, News Corp., Woods’ handlers, representatives, photographers, Laveley & Singer law firm in LA, spokespeople, editors, Media Industry Newsletter, and finally (but not the first) the hapless, untipped waitress in the church parking lot and her family.

And no, this isn’t just a story about sex, or even possible redemption, which for some reason many Christian writers are playing up. It’s a story about a systemic problem--greed. When his wife or babies test positive for an STD, then maybe we can say it’s about infidelity and sex, but in the meantime, the sports and information industries have some explaining to do their values.

Obama has led us off the cliff

We've all been wondering--why are they doing this to us?

"This week the president told the nation that we are "on the precipice" of passing historic health care legislation. He could not have chosen a better word, because that's what a majority of readers -- and the American public -- believe: that we're about to plunge into a health care system that is more expensive and offers lower-quality care than what we have now." Byron York

HT Murray

Why I believe in global warming

"The Earth has recently been warming. This is beyond doubt. It has warmed slowly and erratically for a total of about 0.8 degrees C since 1850. It had one surge of warming from 1850 to 1870 and another from 1916 to 1940. The official thermometers suggest the net warming since 1940 is only about 0.3 degrees C. If we correct the thermometer records for the effects of growing urban heat islands, for widespread intensification of land use, and for the recently documented cooling of the Antarctic continent over the past thirty years, the net warming since 1940 would be even less.

Physical evidence from around the world tells us that human-emitted CO2 has played only a minor role in the planet's recent temperature increases. Instead, the mild warming seems to be mostly due to the natural 1,500-year climate cycle (plus or minus 500 years) that goes back at least one million years." (p. 6, Singer and Avery, 2008)

You don't have to read very far into the book Unstoppable Global Warming to see how much and how long we've been manipulated to be fearful and loathing of a natural cycle, or how politicians on the right and left both could take advantage of this. It's not a long book; you don't have to give up believing in global warming. An open mind is all you need--and just a suspicion that man doesn't control the climate but that he does have the capability and technology to relieve the suffering, poverty and pollution he has caused.

Read it for yourself. I'd hate to think Americans are repeating the story of the Vikings who sailed from Iceland to Greenland around 985 finding green pastures and a wonderful, productive land to colonize, only to be starved and frozen out 400 years later when the weather patterns changed, as they had been doing regularly. Now we have technology and science on our side. Or do we?

Let's consider the motivation of the AGW scare mongers. The big three of all ages comes to mind: wealth, power and religion.


Welcome home from the Global Warming conference, Mr. President.

How the government can make you an outlaw

Wendy Williams of Massachusetts writes in the Wall Street Journal

My husband retired from IBM about a decade ago, and as we aren't old enough for Medicare we still buy our health insurance through the company. But IBM, with its typical courtesy, informed us recently that we will be fined by the state.

Why? Because Massachusetts requires every resident to have health insurance, and this year, without informing us directly, the state had changed the rules in a way that made our bare-bones policy no longer acceptable. Unless we ponied up for a pricier policy we neither need nor want—or enrolled in a government-sponsored insurance plan—we would have to pay $1,000 each year to the state.

My husband's response was muted; I was shaking mad. We hadn't imposed our health-care costs on anyone else, yet we were being fined ("taxed" was the word the letter used).

We've spent much of our lives putting away what money we could for retirement. We always intended to be self-sufficient. We've paid off the mortgage on our home, don't carry credit-card debt, and have savings in case of an emergency. We also have a regular monthly income of about $3,000, which includes an IBM pension. My husband, 61, earns a little money on the side, sometimes working as an electronics consultant on renewable energy projects. I'm 58 and make some money writing science books. We are not wealthy, but we aren't a risk of becoming a burden on society either. How did we become outlaws?

Read more how what was supposed to save the middle class from the costs of the uninsured ended up costing every one more and offering less. But then, have you ever known the state or federal government to take over a private industry and then save you money? Wendy concludes, "The mandate in Massachusetts was sold as something that wouldn't penalize people like my husband and me. But those political promises were only good for as long as it took to get the mandate enacted into law." And that's exactly what will happen with Obamacare, which at this time, no one even knows how it reads or what it is, not even the sponsors. "Getterdone--we'll hope 'n change it later" is Reid and Pelosi's motto.

HT Bob C.

EPA targets wrong enemy

We've known for half a century or more that our biggest health problems are self induced--misused sexuality, legal drugs we take voluntarily like cigarettes and alcohol, and overeating. Our personal habits are difficult for the government to control, although it does take a regulatory stance, primarily through taxes, when companies make huge profits from our bad behavior (the diet industry is huge, the "health food" industry massive, smoking cessation remedies are covered by government health plans with little proof they work, big pharma has made a fortune from AIDS and STDs. Now EPA is going after those evil toxins, not for our health, but to kill more industries and put more people out of work.

Despite the ongoing epidemics of cigarette-related disease, novel influenza and obesity, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson is focusing on a very different set of purported health risks: deadly toxins and chemicals in "our bodies." This effort will do nothing to promote public health while raising needless anxiety and spurring expensive, useless regulation and litigation. . .

Administrator Jackson's program is amazingly unscientific--even for the EPA. Since the EPA addresses "risks" that are too small to be measured, and thus not amenable to quantification, they have resorted to ignoring benefits [of chemicals] and assessing only hazards. . .

Even the American Chemistry Council has signed on to EPA's new crusade--squirming to avoid the heavy penalties for non-compliance. Too bad ACC thereby implies that its member companies' products have been poisoning our kids all these years. That isn't the case; nonetheless they now want to be perceived as very sorry, eager to mend their ways and thankful for the EPA's help.

Full story at Forbes.com

What has been accomplished at Hopenchangen?

First, and most importantly, it's another stage for our President who holds the record for a president spending the most time outside the country. I think because he really dislikes America.

Second, an opportunity for Kleptocracies to rattle their sabres.


Third, an excuse to burn fossil fuel and make huge carbon footprints before they outlaw jets, automobiles, and speaking out, all of which emit huge amounts of CO2.

Fourth, a fun time for marxist/socialist/progressive protesters, who all thought their grandparents had all the fun in the 1960s and a free night in jail.

Fifth, Hugo Chavez got a megaphone for Karl Marx.

Sixth, Glenn Beck got to joke about how to pronounce Copenhagen, driving Media Matters crazy because those people are humorless.

Seventh, yet another pulpit for the non-debater, Al "The science is settled" Gore.

Eighth, chance for greenies to attack a polar bear.



Ninth, not to forget why this happened, it showed how bankrupt, silly and meaningless all the climate change hoopla really is, and that it's just another wealth transfer to the pockets of dictators while keeping the poor in desperate poverty in third world countries.

Tenth, and finally, Hopenchangen, by showing the violence and thieving motives of the left really made the tea party people who have been meeting around the country planning to take their country back look even more sensible, well-behaved, strong, intelligent and patriotic.

Our Christmas gift, a new TV

Maybe I'll just put a bow on the new Town and Country minivan we bought 3 weeks ago. We've started (a bit late) researching a 32" flat screen TV for the living room, and by the time our daughter got done explaining LED, LCD and plasma screens, HD, USB ports, resolutions, etc. plus the costs of the various box options from Time-Warner, our eyes had glazed over and our enthusiasm for today's shopping trip to Best Buy had waned. Any suggestions? So far we've compared (on line) Vizio, Sony, Insignia, and Panasonic. The living room set is ca. 1994, the family room ca. 1985. I truly doubt that we can expect that type of longevity from the new models. And you know what? With wearing glasses I hate and falling asleep in the middle of the programs, I'm not sure it matters. Also, we've been told by the cable company that our wiring is bad, but that we have to hire someone to redo it.

I'll accept recommendations and cautions, but no scolding for being lazy slugs who don't like to shop.

Update: We looked at all of them and selected the Sony Bravio 32L5000 and bought the 4 year extended warranty, which usually we don't. However, the life expectancy of today's models aren't even close to our old "fat" models--we have 3 TVs of various sizes from the 1980s, and one from the early 90s. The clerk said 6-8 years for this one. They'll fix it if one or two pixels go bad whereas the company warranty requires much more. We've been less fortunate with the VCR and disc players. We rarely use them and they seem to be a waste of time for us (one was actually stolen in a home burglary in the mid-80s) and then the technology changes. And we still have to call our daughter for instructions each time we turn it on.

Still blaming Bush!

Only now it's his absence! E.J. Dionne Jr. just can't accept the fact that the health bill is just down and dirty awful. Now it's that the Dems don't have their nemesis and hatred to energize and unite them. Mr. Dionne, there's no there there. This is old, rehashed FDR, early 20th century stuff that has driven Europe to its knees. You've elected a Chicago thug-marxist. Don't be fooled by the Wall Street fat cats he hangs with. Marxists don't mind making oodles of money--they're crooks for goodness sake. The American people don't want this socialist stuff. Stop blaming Bush! Obama never intended to restore the economy, only to destroy it.

"For his part, Obama has not appreciated until recently how closely he has been tied to Wall Street and the banks. He has been too reluctant to underscore how much of Washington's dysfunction has been pushed to new levels by the Republican Party's decision to grind the Senate to a halt. He has tried to make clear the size of the mess he inherited from Bush, but has not sold the country on the extent to which he has begun to clean it up.

Americans may not be sold on anything until unemployment starts dropping. Even then, Democrats will have a tough time making the sale if the process that produced the health-care bill comes to define the image of how they govern the country. Democrats have every right to blame Bush for the fix we're in. They can't blame him for the problems they're creating for themselves."

Friday Family Photo--college 1958

In 1958 I tranferred from Manchester College in Indiana to the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana to study Russian and Spanish. It didn't hurt that my high school boyfriend studying engineering was also there. However, that didn't last, but there was a young man from Indiana living about a mile from my dorm, McKinley Hall (owned by the YWCA) in Armory House (privately owned) who was studying architecture. Our first date was for the St. Pat's Ball in 1959. These photos were taken the first day of classes 1958 in the dorm room my husband shared with Lou Wozniak. This was truly Mr. Neat living with Mr. Clean. Looking at these photos I'm guessing there wasn't a pencil or hair out of place. He was about 25 lbs lighter, solid muscle (cross country runner) and had curly red hair.

The ghost of capitalism stalked the Copenhagen scam

That's a loose translation of Chavez' speech.

From the Australian: "Then President Chavez brought the house down.

When he said the process in Copenhagen was “not democratic, it is not inclusive, but isn’t that the reality of our world, the world is really and imperial dictatorship…down with imperial dictatorships” he got a rousing round of applause.

When he said there was a “silent and terrible ghost in the room” and that ghost was called capitalism, the applause was deafening.

But then he wound up to his grand conclusion – 20 minutes after his 5 minute speaking time was supposed to have ended and after quoting everyone from Karl Marx to Jesus Christ - “our revolution seeks to help all people…socialism, the other ghost that is probably wandering around this room, that’s the way to save the planet, capitalism is the road to hell....let’s fight against capitalism and make it obey us.” He won a standing ovation."

Well, if those applauding the demise of our economy want that climate blackmail money, they better hope capitalism isn't a ghost just yet, or they won't get a dime of the billions Hillary has promised them. Marxism is a broke, busted bamboozle that murders its own citizens in every country where it's been tried--maybe 100 million in the 20th century counting China, USSR, Vietnam and North Korea. If Chavez thinks Karl Marx is so great, and capitalism so bad, let him get help and pay offs from Cuba. They're close by. He probably didn't get points ridiculing his buddy, Obama, over the Nobel prize.

However, in a way I have to say that Ahmadinejad and Chavez do have a point. We had it all, and threw it away in our last election by choosing a marxist thug to run a quasi-capitalist economy sinking deep into deficit territory through 70 years of wealth transfers. How smart was that?

Where's our moral right to tell any country how to run its affairs, its industry or its military?

• We have the technology to clean up pollution and to help our neighbors to the south and in Africa both, but not if we let our federal government continue to destroy private business, initiative and free markets. Not if we destroy our fossil fuel industries.
  
  
• We have free elections which Venezuelans and Iranians can only dream about and which would give Chavez and Ahmadinejad nightmares. Yet we reelect the Barney Franks and Harry Reids and wonder why we're in a mess with the White House controlling the Congress.
  
  
• We stay home from the polls and don't object when the left goes to court to aid illegals and the non-registered who were denied the vote.
  
  
• Our president gives away like it was nothing one of our most precious rights--trial by jury--to admitted terrorists who should have been tried by the military tribunals set up by law.
  
  
• We have freedom of religion guaranteed by our Constitution, yet we're fast placing legal muzzles on preachers in the name of gay rights, and our mainline churches are ripping their Bibles to shreds.
  
  
• We're infantilizing huge segments of our population, check any city--Detroit, New Orleans, Cleveland--overrun by helpless poor, and its been run for decades by Democrats, keeping them forever at the bottom, discouraging hope and progress until it's time to vote.

Yes, who do we think we are giving green advice!

Who is behind all this, asks guest blogger Murray

Time Magazine's missed opportunity--photo of the fed up American patriot in Washington DC.
If you’re tired of bad news, I’ll give you some more. I believe we have a behind the scenes enemy with an agenda to destroy our economy--an enemy who has placed Barack Obama in office and is now using him and our legislators to destroy our great country from within. Who, I don’t know, perhaps some form of a secret society. However, if you review the last several years, it leaves little doubt regarding the possibility. This enemy has developed a strategy over many years to create a massive crisis for our great country to bring it down.

Bush and the Republicans were demonized to the point that the people began to hate them. It's still being done every day. If you back a Democrat or Obama into a corner, they start playing the “Blame Bush Game” because they have no other excuse or answer to justify their destruction. I was no Bush fan. I believe that the Bush administration did a lot of things wrong, but the Democrats played a huge role in the downturn of our economy and promoted the excessive spending DURING the Bush Administration and then later turned up the volume as they came into power. They now all deny their participation. Going backwards and blaming Bush solves NOTHING!

Why do I think there is an enemy group behind the scenes? Could one man be this bad all the time all by himself?

1 We have a President who came out of nowhere, who has a questionable background and associations with known communists and who continues those relationships.
2 . . . who signs unread bills laden with PORK after promising to end PORK barrel spending.
3 . . . who constantly blames the previous administration for our economic crisis.
4 . . . who builds his administration with liars, tax cheats and communists.
5 . . . who encourages bribery as a tool to get votes for his agendas.
6 . . . who stymies us with "political correctness".
7 . . . who thinks terrorists and war prisoners should be treated like citizens.
8 . . . who refuses to try to win the wars, puts out timelines for withdrawals and shares our war plans with the enemy.
9 . . . who travels abroad and downplays our great country's past role in the world.
10 . . . who has professed to be Muslim.
11 . . . who has agendas that promise to economically destroy our country.
12 . . . who claims to have created 600,000 jobs when in reality we lost 7 million more.
13 . . . who promotes and finances the activities of SEIU and ACORN and they him.
14 . . . who ignores our Constitution and allows others to do the same in the name of change.
15 . . . who TOTALLY ignores the very citizens that he pledged to work for while they try in every way just to get him to listen to them.
16 . . . who turns a blind eye to illegal immigration.
17. . . who demonizes and attacks anyone who is critical of his actions.
18 . . . who feels the need to constantly campaign to sell his agendas. (While I'm typing this I just seen on TV that Obama is at Home Depot today selling HIS "cash for caulkers" tax credit which is on its 2nd round, but with a new name.)
19. . . who promises us one thing (transparency, for instance) and then does the opposite and lies to the taxpaying citizens on a daily basis.
20. . . who has promoted various hoaxes like Global Warming, Swine Flu, gate crashers, slap the bad guy CEOs hearings, etc., to distract from the damage his administration is trying to accomplish.

All presidents have used some of these tactics and misused their power from time to time, but a watchdog press has been on duty to warn us. Today’s MSM, the mainstream media, are also being controlled by someone. In the past, there has been no group powerful enough to completely control the news. The politicians aren't organized or smart enough. Now there no longer exists any investigative reporting among them. There are only a few outlets for the "behind the scenes" stories that expose what is really happening in our government and to our economy. One being Fox News. ABC, CBS, NBC, all fail to report the facts regarding the destruction taking place every day. All you get from them is a high profile personality with daily drivel. They accept Obama's deception.

The enemy knew there was no way our great country could be taken by force so the way to put it down was the economy. Obama was selected to orchestrate and direct this destruction. They wanted a person that could appear to ride in on his white horse and "save" us from the evil doings of that nasty Bush Administration. The enemy picked a person that could "sell" himself and their agendas. The Democrats were so power hungry that they easily went along with Obamanomics. Besides, it allowed them ample PORK for reelection.

So where are we now and what do we do? Well, if you consider yourself a grass roots taxpayer, middle class or over 65, you're pretty much screwed. Obama, the MSM and the Democrats refuse to listen to the masses. You can call all of them, write to them, e-mail them, march against them and they refuse to respond. The polls all show the masses are not pleased, but the polls get ignored. The grass rooters can say they will just vote them out of office, but the first opportunity isn't until November 2010. While were waiting for that date they are burying us with political correctness, debt., taking away our freedoms, destroying our healthcare, raising our taxes, indoctrinating our children, destroying Social Security and Medicare, devaluing the dollar and expanding their power over us.

Now if you don't think those actions will economically destroy this great country then continue to sit back and relax. Or if you don't think this is what's going on, you could get a job with the MSM and hope you will be able to look your children and grand children in the eye 5 years from now. The unions and community organizers will be doing the same thing in 2010 they did for Obama. They will be hauling anyone that breathes to the polls and falsify registration wherever possible for a Democratic incumbent. Both the Senate and the House voted unanimously to cease funding ACORN but Obama never signed the bill plus a Federal judge in a district court has ruled it UNCONSTITUTIONAL. Also, only about one third of the stimulus money has been spent at this time and that will be released in time for the next election to buy House votes.

Unstoppable global warming

It's waiting for pick-up after I do my mail-run today. There are probably used copies available for sale, but I like to use the public library when I can, since so many of the books I want to read it doesn't buy.

Author: Singer, S. Fred (Siegfried Fred), 1924-
Title: Unstoppable global warming : every 1,500 years / S. Fred Singer and Dennis T. Avery.
Call Number: 363.73874 Si, 2008 c. 1
Item Class: 28 Day Circ 10 Cent Fine 1002145441
Hold Expiration Date: 26-DEC-2009
Pickup Location Name: (20000) Lane Road

From the Amazon review: "Since the 1,500 year cycle was discovered in the early 1980's it's general characteristics have been confirmed by measurements in: tree rings (living, preserved and fossilized), pollen, coral, glaciers, boreholes, stalagmites, tree lines, and sea sediments. The most recent cycles have been recorded in human history with forced migrations, starvation, and disease during the cold portion of the cycle and greater population, expanded farm land, greater crop variety, and extra building during the warm portion.

The causes of the 1,500 year cycle are not well understood although 600 of them have been identified in the last million years. This permits us to be relatively confident that we have been moving into the warm phase of the cycle for the last 150 years. It also suggests that we may have one or two degrees more warming if we are to get to the typical high of the warm phase."

If believing that man controls the climate is part of your humanist based religion and it gives you comfort and makes you feel powerful, you probably wouldn't consider reading a broad overview or even entertain the thought that you are probably sitting on a spot formerly covered by a glacier. So, go look somewhere else for comfort.

Visit a Nursing Home Week in Ohio

It's official. Our governor wants us to visit a nursing home this week.

"The department [of aging] created "Visit a Nursing Home Week" to encourage people to look at nursing home residents not as patients with conditions that need care, but as individuals with thoughts and feelings, some of them isolated from the ones they love, who might appreciate some fellowship, particularly during the holidays. With the help of the Office of the State Long-term Care Ombudsman, the department also encourages facilities to design special events during the week to welcome visitors.

"Many nursing home residents have family and friends who visit them regularly," said Strickland. "Others seldom have visitors and some have no one to visit them. Visitors help residents stay connected to the world around them and give them a sense of friendship and belonging. And that's why this week is so important.""

In the 80s when I returned to Illinois to visit my parents, I'd usually drive to Oregon and visit my grandparents at the nursing home. Anyone would have taken in grandma (despite what you read, most frail elderly are cared for by relatives), but grandpa had dementia, and after 70 years of marriage, she thought it best to go with him.

I don't know any churches who don't have volunteers who regularly visit nursing home residents. All levels of government in developing their social programs take their ideas from the churches, whether it's the penitentiaries or the Peace Corps or universities and colleges. In fact, the volunteers are essential for keeping staff and management on their toes because they might notice things (sores, urinary tract infections, missing glasses, wrong dentures, etc.) that staff miss, although it is usually a family member who spots this first. One time when I was volunteering with Kay, a member of our church who'd had an aneurysm at 18, I heard something that sounded like a bird chirping in the next room. Thinking there might be a trapped animal, I went to investigate. It was an elderly woman left alone strangling in the restraints of her wheelchair. I desperately tried to free her, but couldn't lift her, so I ran to get help. The staff didn't seem any too concerned and just ambled down the hall.

But if you do visit, you need a special heart. Ignore the odors; ignore their desire that you be someone else, perhaps long deceased; ignore your own frailties. Also ignore their forgetfulness that makes them believe and say, "no one comes to visit." You probably passed their daughter or spouse or niece in the hall, and they've already forgotten. Twenty-five years ago, I never heard anyone crying out for "daddy," it was always "mommy." Maybe that will be different 20-30 years from now.

When I was in elementary school, one big event of the season was walking over to "the Brethren old folks home" (now Pinecrest, with apartments, duplexes, nursing care and dementia care) to sing Christmas carols. My friend Lynne includes that in her Christmas story at the class reunion blog.

Jane Hamsher's attack on Hadassah Lieberman

Kathleen Parker at WaPo writes about Jane Hamsher’s attack on Mrs. Lieberman, but never calls her out as a leftist radical. Even "progressive," a much too gentle word for her, isn't used. What’s the deal? Parker blames the “new Media,” and the internet, and defines the attack as “anti-feminist” calling Hamsher a “political activist.” Huh? That’s like calling a terrorist a freedom fighter.

Let’s move on to Breitbart’s Big Hollywood for the real Hamsher story.

After cutting her teeth in the business by producing what many feel is the most offensive and degrading main-stream film of the past twenty years (and, some would say, screwing Quentin Tarantino in the process) Hamsher seems to have finally found her calling as a more abrasive, and dangerous version of Arianna Huffington. With her oddly named blog FireDogLake (named after her three favorite things, sitting by the fire with her dog watching Lakers games) she has created a left-wing haven for bloggers not merely content with attacking their opponents with words, but with some serious action.

Hamsher’s latest foray into the realm of on-line coercion is her latest call to arms is against Hadassah Lieberman, wife of Sen. Joe Lieberman (I, CT). Mrs. Lieberman’s crime? She is the wife of a Senator who has proclaimed his opposition to Obama Care. Hamsher is targeting Susan G. Komen for the cure, a breast cancer charity that Mrs. Lieberman serves as Global Ambassador for. . . through her blog and her tangled web of PACs and non-profits she foments rage and builds momentum and loyalty from extremists who read her pages and then targets those readers on behalf of candidates and authors/film makers who are looking to sell to that demographic.

Hamsher's blog is really ugly, and not afraid of telling off the White House. And apparently, she also used to be Andy Stern's (SEIU) girlfriend (isn't there a huge age gap or is he not aging gracefully?), or still is--didn't bother to go that far. That's how she went from just ordinary leftist wet behind the ears to raging, anti-semitic, racist, obscene, violent radical.