Jihadist ideology can't be soft peddled by progressives, history shows

Obama's lectures about tolerance and understanding are indistinquishable from those of 1938. We will pay the price again. The Cordoba Mosque funded by foreign money with an Iman who says we deserved 9/11 attacks is not needed; it is a symbol of their power and distain for us. It is planting a flag on the soil of the defeated. Where is the tolerance on the Muslim side--do they get sermons from their leaders on love and understanding of the Jews and Christians? We have an America-loathing coward in the White House who feels morally superior to the rest of us.

Oprah, the stem cell debate is dead

In this video from Oprah.com, Dr. Oz explains to Michael J. Fox, who has Parkinson’s Disease, and Oprah, why the debate about embryonic stem cells in research and medical advancement is dead. It was already dead when President Obama announced on March 9, 2009, that he was lifting the government ban on funding additional embryonic stem cell lines research. Why would he do that? Are his health advisers so naïve? Or is it because most Americans still think “embryonic” when they hear “stem cell” and he thought he could fool them? With adult stem cells, no embryos need to be killed; no toxic regimen of rejection drugs is needed for your own cells. The government doesn't need to take over women’s wombs for research. Adult stem cell is the way to go. Thank you, President Bush, for drawing the line 8 years before Obama told this lie, the beginning of his many lies about health and medicine.

http://www.oprah.com/health/Dr-Oz-on-the-Medical-Benefits-of-Stem-Cells-Video

From Obama’s speech, March 9, 2009

“Today, with the Executive Order I am about to sign, we will bring the change that so many scientists and researchers; doctors and innovators; patients and loved ones have hoped for, and fought for, these past eight years: we will lift the ban on federal funding for promising embryonic stem cell research. We will vigorously support scientists who pursue this research. And we will aim for America to lead the world in the discoveries it one day may yield.”

Why would Obama do this? Lack of respect for life, ignorance or pure political gain? Whichever, it was an immoral act, not the first and not the last of his medical lies.

Federal court case--backs down Obama's funding of March 2009. If you read the comments from readers at the various sites reporting yesterday's decision, it is clear that most people (referring to Republicans as knuckle dragging morons) don't realize that successful stem cell cures are only from adult cells, not embryonic stem cells, from which not a single cure has ever been developed.

Many More Now Following Mosque Controversy

Call me crazy, but it was our President's careless comments a little over a week ago (on a Friday when he thought no one would notice) that increased the volume about the ground zero, Cordoba mosque. More Americans are hearing about it, more Americans don't like it, and more Americans are doubting that we have a president who is one of us. And this week he worshipped at our Lady of the Links. He thinks it would be disruptive to appear at a church service, although all other American presidents managed it. Doesn't mind disrupting the golf games of unbelievers.

Many More Now Following Mosque Controversy – And Don’t Like It - Rasmussen Reports™

Tammy Bruce gives Daisy Kahn some facts

"What Daisy Khan [on ABC News’ “This Week,”] doesn’t seem to understand is that perhaps this isn’t about Muslims at all, but about Americans protecting and defending a site that is now precious to us. The malignant Narcissism of these people is astounding and so encompassing they, like the Obama admin in fact, cannot see beyond their own self-obsession. Little Daisy is loathsome–we didn’t start this, they did. We didn’t choose the location, they did. And the gall to claim opposition to the GZ mosque is “metastasized antisemitism” is the same as our own government calling Tea Party Patriots Nazis, UnAmerican, and the Mob. They’re all the same. There’s only one group of people who were mass murdered on 911 and that was Americans, not Muslims. And there has been only one group continuing to implement mass murder since then–Muslims. And there is one country that still calls for the mass extinction of Jews in the world, and it’s a Muslim country.

As Khan and her gang point fingers at Americans, another little reminder–since 9/11 we didn’t set out to annihilate Muslims around the world–we set out to free them. Thousands more Americans have died voluntarily serving in our military knowing they would be sent to the front line and whom ultimately liberated 53 million Muslims. And this detestable woman and her parasitic husband call us names as they decry that we haven’t gotten over 9/11 yet.

I’m convinced this mosque was Obama’s idea. The notion of it and its location. I think he knows he’ll be a one-term president and wants as much destruction to the American psyche as possible. The legacy this man is now establishing is a continuation of the terrorism unleashed in the 90s and defined by 9/11.

So do not blink, keep the pressure on the stop this atrocity at Ground Zero and . . .

Remember in November."

Tammy Bruce


Jihad Watch

One-sided Amanpour

New York Post

Week 10 Lakeside 2010

Here we are at the end of the summer--every morning on my walk along the lake I see the sun moving south. Saturday night we enjoyed the songs of Frank Sinatra performed by Steve Lippia and his "big band" sound. It was really popular with the audience, whose average age rises as the summer closes out. Some cool weather returned with a clearing rain and we were finally able to have a meal on our deck.

Week 10 is Civil War week, and I always learn a lot. Isn't it amazing that people are still researching this and finding new things to talk about! I plan to attend the 10:30 presentations by Bob Bridges. Monday: John Brown, Robert E. Lee and the coming of the Civil War; Tuesday: Ulysses Grant, Jefferson Davis and the course of the War; Wednesday: Abraham Lincoln and the End of the War. Also the Thursday 3:30 book review, "The Widow of the South" by Robert Hicks, and the Friday 10:30 Battle of Franklin with Mel Maurer. Tennessee is the area where my Corbett and Ballard families lived, and had many families divided by loyalties to both sides.

Wednesday evening if the weather holds we hope to do another Picnic in the Park. My husband enjoyed John Salamon's piano at Steele Memorial last evening, and we'll probably take in a few shows at Hoover--a jazz trio on Tuesday, humorist on Wednesday, a Civil War era band on Thursday, and a Christian singer on Friday. Last Friday night we said farewell to the Lakeside symphony for this season.

And to think this was written a year ago! It's only gotten worse

This piece was written before the enormously unpopular healthcare bill passed, against the wishes of 70% of Americans; before all the evidence was in on the failure of ARRA; before the military commander meltdown when we found out what they really think of him; before he drug his feet on the Gulf clean up and worsened the economy; before we learned from CBO and other economist left and right that his policies have failed; before it was clear he would never own up to his own decisions and would always blame Bush, or white people, or dumb Americans; before he and his wife took ridiculously (and separate) expensive vacations while urging others to conserve resources; before his dumb statements about the mosque that he later tried to walk back; and before the radical marxists who funded and supported him in 2008 left him high and dry.

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

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

Read the entire account of Another Failed Presidency by Gregory Hunt.

Cordoba mosque protest rally Sunday near Ground Zero

I was watching the national ABC News about the mosque controversy. I really think the media is ginning up the hate by not acknowledging what the protests are really about. There are hundreds of mosques in New York, and there is no objection to them. When broadcast news reports on this, they barely report the horrific events of 9/11. So people need to look elsewhere for information. Like the Internet.

Cordoba mosque protest rally Sunday near Ground Zero | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment

Fighting hate can be very profitable--don't be conned

“The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) recalls an observation about the Holy Roman Empire, i.e., it was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire. Aside from its location in Alabama, the SPLC is about as southern as William Tecumseh Sherman. It has little to do with assisting poor people and much to do with enriching its already well-heeled directors. And as for law, its strident advocacy on behalf of illegal aliens suggests that the rule of law is not exactly one of its top priorities.”

“The SPLC serves as a cash machine for Morris Dees and his close associates. Building upon the George McGovern presidential campaign contributors lists, Dees has become one of the most successful direct mail fundraisers in history. Easily scared leftists have contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to the SPLC and it now has a fat endowment. Various Charity Watch Lists, such as that of the Colorado Secretary of State, recognize the SPLC as among the most dubious non-profit organizations currently soliciting funds.”

Read more at Fighting Hate for Profit

Could you use $19 a year to buy at a Farmer's Market?

Well, that's part of one of the government's wasteful projects--$123 billion a year on programs that have no positive impact on the target population. Take at look at PART's Expect More. I just picked one at random--the USDA "Senior and Woman, Infants and Children Farmer's market." In 2006 the Bush administration found it (useless) providing $19.00 per person per year. But in 2010, under Obama, it's still spending, providing jobs for government bureaucrats, and that wonderful food from a farmer's market--if you can get there. I checked Ohio--it's getting $1,779,625--your state may be different.

Do you think we could just buy these people an automobile and let them drive to a supermarket. Oh wait--we took the used cars off the road so the middle class could buy hybrids.

What's in a name? The Cordoba Institute

The Cordoba Institute is in over under around and through the plans to build a mosque at the site of Ground Zero, where a group of Islamic fanatics bombed the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Presidents Bush and Obama assure us that Moslems are peaceful, loyal Americans, and we should not fear them. If so, why when they could build a "cultural center" and mosque anywhere, do they chose this site? This is about symbols, not reliious freedom guaranteed by our Constitution. This is about rubbing the face of America in Islamic mud going back centuries.

"The historic city of Cordoba, Spain was originally Christian, but was overtaken by Islamic marauders and turned into an Islamic stronghold in the 8th century CE. The Islamic seizure of Cordoba began in the year 711 CE by Berber tribesmen who had recently converted to Islam. They crossed the 14 mile stretch of ocean between North Africa and Europe into what was then called Al-Andalus, which is now modern day Spain.Grand Cordoba became home to what was known as the "Caliphate," an Islamic political paradigm wherein the leader is regarded as a direct successor of the founder of Islam, Muhammad (570 - 632 CE). Emir Abd ar-Rahman I--who arrived from Damascus, Syria--took control of Al-Andalus. It was under the rule of he and his descendants that the Caliphate reached its peak based at Cordoba. Under various successors, there was always a part of Spain which remained under Islamic control until the year 1492.To radical Muslims of today, few symbols are as resonant as the downfall of the Caliphate at Cordoba, Al-Andalus. In the same way that Americans remember their defeat at the Alamo and use its name as a rallying cry in battle; Cordoba, Al-Andalus is a rallying cry for Islam."

Continue reading Shelomo Alfassa

Jim Wallis Admits to Soros Funding

The "peace and justice" Christians really mean, "Piece and Just us." Jim Wallis, one of Obama's spiritual advisors who is critical of just about everything Christian in America, has admitted to Soros funding. Well, it's no surprise, since Soros has been behind the Obama White House from the beginning and Wallis has been so critical of anyone who questions Obama's motives and political beliefs. Christians like Wallis have been perverting the Gospel and Jesus' words for 40 years and following the Marxist trail of crumbs into new bondage.

Further investigation of Wallis and his organization is warranted.

Wallis Admits to Soros Funding | Politics | Christianity Today

We are now alone

Last Saturday and Sunday we had guests from California, Columbus, and Indianapolis, with 14 around the dinner table Saturday evening (in the cottage we had rented across the street since ours is tiny). It was a fabulous celebration on Sunday with our Bruce relatives and Lakeside friends for our 50th wedding anniversary (which we will celebrate again in Columbus in September and Mt. Morris in October). After most went home we spent the week biking, walking, attending the evening programs at Hoover, and had a picnic in Perry Park with other Lakesiders.

Mister Bruce -- all of them


Sharing family photos


The cottage we rented for 9 extra family (plus 2 at our house and 1 in the Fountain Inn)


The sibs biking around Lakeside looking at the cottages and burning off the extra calories we were consuming


Eating breakfast at the Patio Restaurant with Bob and Jean

Just which religion does Obama profess?

Why do the MSM persist in blaming the right for suspicion about Obama’s religion? He reported his Muslim background in his books (father, step-father, extended family, siblings), he‘s the one who is soft on Islamic terrorism and praises Muslims' intentions. The MSM reporters and talking heads (like Carville) are the ones bringing it up--"it continues to haunt the President" says this morning's ABC story. Like this NYT op-ed by Edward N. Luttwak in May 2008. I've always thought he was in far more danger from Muslim fanatics for his conversion to Christianity than he was from any "persistent rumors" from the right. Muslims in modern times have a long history of killing aspostates and infidels.

"As the son of the Muslim father, Senator Obama was born a Muslim under Muslim law as it is universally understood. It makes no difference that, as Senator Obama has written, his father said he renounced his religion. Likewise, under Muslim law based on the Koran his mother’s Christian background is irrelevant.

Of course, as most Americans understand it, Senator Obama is not a Muslim. He chose to become a Christian, and indeed has written convincingly to explain how he arrived at his choice and how important his Christian faith is to him.

His conversion, however, was a crime in Muslim eyes; it is “irtidad” or “ridda,” usually translated from the Arabic as “apostasy,” but with connotations of rebellion and treason. Indeed, it is the worst of all crimes that a Muslim can commit, worse than murder (which the victim’s family may choose to forgive).

With few exceptions, the jurists of all Sunni and Shiite schools prescribe execution for all adults who leave the faith not under duress; the recommended punishment is beheading at the hands of a cleric, although in recent years there have been both stonings and hangings. (Some may point to cases in which lesser punishments were ordered — as with some Egyptian intellectuals who have been punished for writings that were construed as apostasy — but those were really instances of supposed heresy, not explicitly declared apostasy as in Senator Obama’s case.)"

I’ve read Obama’s Christian testimony, published when he was running for Senate. In his conversion story he has praised at various times two very anti-American, anti-mainstream Christian pastors, one Catholic and one UCC, as his spiritual mentors and close friends. No one should be surprised that with his own words and behaviors and close associates, many Americans now believe he is if not a closet Muslim, at least not a Christian that most would recognize.


President Apostate? - New York Times

Temporary hiatus

My laptop has failed so I'm writing from a neighbor's home. No more blogging for awhile. But it was a great party Sunday at the pavilion, and all family arrived safely and we're having a great time.

The Antiques Roadshow, Bruce version

We are taking our anniversary celebration on the road, so to speak. With friends and relatives spread across the country, some unable to travel, we are becoming party animals with an August, September and October celebration for our 50th wedding anniversary. Here's a selection of photos from the Lakeside event. Although the temperature was hot--90-ish--the breeze was great and we didn't have the predicted rain. Lake Erie presented a never ending show of color and fun, as we could hear the happy squeals and splashing of children right below the pavilion. It was a perfect day!

The Bruce siblings, Ohio, Indiana and California

The dessert table, brownies, cookies, iced tea, lemonade, and fresh fruit; another table had memorabilia

Families Bruce, Poisal, Poynter, Kelle, Doncevic--together in the same place, at the same time for the first time

Our children, all of whom have been Lakesiders from a very young age

Dinner at Hotel Lakeside

The Tuesday Wellness Seminar featured Rod Crane President/CEO of Ohio Medical Transportation (MedFlight of Ohio). He discussed medical transportation services that may be accessed from home, community, other states and international locations.

After the program, we and the Cranes went to Hotel Lakeside for dinner. They are members of our church.

Tea party groups plan Arizona rally against illegal immigration

This rally will be held on private property with private security in support of Candidate J.D. Hayworth, a former congressman turned conservative radio commentator (running against McCain) and in support of governor Jan Brewer on Sunday August 15. The Republican primary is the 24th. Leave long arms and rifles in your car.

'Tea party' groups plan Arizona rally against illegal immigration

Martin Luther King, Jr. - I Have a Dream

It seems that some leftists (Media Matters, Newscorpse) are unhappy that Glenn Beck is sponsoring a Restoring Honor gathering in Washington DC on August 28 because that's the anniversary (1963) of the Martin Luther King, Jr. "I have a dream speech." I seriously doubt that anyone, especially Beck, knew this was a "sacred day" on which other events could never be held. There are wonderful and moving passages in this speech, about which everyone should be reminded. Especially it speaks to Americans who have something coming due to them that the government has taken away in the last 100 years of Progressivism, which would pretty much be Beck's audience.

"In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds.""

Our current administration is in the process of bankrupting this and the next several generations if we don't stop them. MLK quotes many writers and sources in this speech from Lincoln to Isaiah to America the Beautiful. But the promissory note passage is, I think, the most powerful, given our current situation. We're not only getting a bad check, but we're going to prison for trying to cash it.

It's not easy to get space in Washington to hold an event. In fact, they limit the port-a-potties according to the number of buses coming. So if you're using public transportation, bicycle or walking, don't drink too many fluids.

Washington DC was built in a drained swamp (these days we call them wet lands), and the swamp is attempting to reclaim the land.

American Rhetoric: Martin Luther King, Jr. - I Have a Dream

Citing the 1939 Morgenthau quote

Sometime ago I blogged here about tracking down a 1939 Morgenthau quote that was going around the Internet, and I found Alan Caruba. There were a number of comments, some disbelieving. Another reader, Jared Nourse of Williams College, class of 2011, contacted me by e-mail with additional information:

"I was recently browsing the web for the 1939 Morgenthau quote and came across your blog post of Feb 2009, which motivated me to look into the question further. I'm sure you've long since come to terms with the mystery, but I uncovered the full language of the original quote in a scholarly article, which sets to rest some of Anonymous' unease with the quote.

Since your blog is the first result for a google search on "henry morgenthau quotes," I thought you might want to post a final update that includes the full language. Here it is:

[U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, Jr.]: No, gentlemen, we have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. And I have just one interest, and if I am wrong, as far as I am concerned, somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises…

But why not let’s come to grips? And as I say, all I am interested in is to really see this country prosperous and this form of Government continue, because after eight years if we can’t make a success somebody else is going to claim the right to make it and he’s got the right to make the trial. I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started.

Mr. Doughton: And an enormous debt to boot!

HMJr.: And an enormous debt to boot! We are just sitting here and fiddling and I am just wearing myself out and getting sick. Because why? I can’t see any daylight. I want it for my people, for my children, and your children. I want to see some daylight and I don’t see it…

—Transcript of private meeting at the Treasury Department, May 9, 1939, F.D. Roosevelt Presidential Library

Horwitz, Steven. "Great Apprehensions, Prolonged Depression: Gauti Eggertsson on the 1930s." Econ Journal Watch 6.3 (2009): 313-36. Web.10 Aug 2010.

He notes that Folsom cites the transcript as well.

Best,

Jared Nourse"

Thanks, Jared, I'm posting your e-mail with your permission. I always appreciate a good citation (paper would be better), although if Jesus Christ himself said it, an FDR true believer would not be swayed.

Let's hope there is someone of intelligence and character left within the Obama administration who will take him aside and explain the facts to him. Unfortunately, I think it is Obama's intention and desire to ruin the country financially, so he has no reason to change direction.

What is a Socialist and why is no one worried?

"While earlier generations of Americans understood the word [socialism] to describe a political system that coincides with the diminution of personal and economic freedom, too many Americans hear the word and simply think of it as an alternative economic system. They think Europe, with its pretty buildings and, until recently, high standard of living.

These same Americans do not think of the USSR and the Gulags, or the Nazis and the concentration camps, or the Norks and their concentration camps, or the Cubans and their political prisons, or the Chinese and their political slave labor. All of those, Americans would say, were communist, which is different, never mind that it’s not.

I can already hear some of you saying right now that Americans are proving, with their hostility to the Obama/Democrat agenda, that they hate socialism. But I’m talking semantics. They’ll say they hate “Big Government,” or taxes, or government inefficiency, or too much government spending, but they will be utterly blase about “socialism.” The word has lost its power. The underlying concepts may bother Americans, but to say Obama is a socialist probably has as much meaning as to say he eats potatoes."

Bookworm Room » What if they gave a socialist party and nobody cared?

Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)

If I ever saw Breakfast at Tiffany's, a 1961 movie based on Truman Capote's novella by the same name, I have no recall of having seen a single scene--not even the iconic little black dress and the long cigarette holder adorning Audrey Hepburn who plays Holiday Golightly (Holly). It was last night's offering at Hoover here in Lakeside.

I'd call it a dark, dark film, with endlessly repeating scenes of smoking, drinking to excess, hopping in and out of taxis, climbing in and out of windows next to fire escapes, and losing keys. And it's the old, old fairy tale of a young girl who constantly needs to be rescued by older, and less lovely men, men of questionable intentions but mostly men wanting her sexually and willing to pay for it.

It's a story of a man and woman who in the end do fall in love, but who in the beginning are both kept by the older and wealthier as sex interests as they pursue their "dreams." Holly wants to reinvent herself from an Okie teen-age, step-mom married to an older farmer to a glamorous party-girl New Yorker on the prowl for a wealthy husband. Paul (George Peppard) is a kept man by an older, wealthy married woman (Patricia Neal who died this week). Hepburn, who looked anorexic in so many films, look healthier and heavier in this film; Neal was only about 3 years older but was swathed in heavy capes and jackets, maybe to hide a pregnancy, or just to look less attractive.

Until you see a 50 year old film where the drinking and smoking is so over the top it is distracting, and a Caucasian impersonates a cariacature of another race (Mickey Rooney plays a stereotypical buck tooth, screaming Japanese landlord) you forget how far we've come in "correctness,"--thankfully. Also, you see how the strong, capable female film characters of the 1930s and 1940s fell off the pedestal in the 1950s-1980s films where they seem to be perpetual sex toys with no brains or ambition except to meet Mr. Right or Mr. Money bags.

Capote apparently wanted Marilyn Monroe for the part--a poor girl in real life who changed her name and made good through her sexuality. It might have been a good choice, because I had trouble translating Audrey Hepburn into this character.

And I'll always be mad at her for dumping the no-name cat out in the rain; yes, I know it was just a movie and it all turns out well in the end, but can you trust a fictional air-head who does that?

Blaming Bush Doesn’t Create Jobs, Nancy

"Today’s report shows our teachers, police officers, firefighters, and nurses are still feeling the worst of the Bush recession.": Nancy Pelosi. Does anyone believe this blame Bush stuff? They sound like children. When the government "invests" it takes money from people who actually do.

Remember in November.

Morning Bell: Blaming Bush Doesn’t Create Jobs | The Foundry: Conservative Policy News.

The toilet is closed

Dan Cornwall, the Alaskan Librarian on my bloglist, had a photo of an orange, hand made sign: "Dan Moller Cabin and Toilet closed until further notice," so I asked Google, "Who is Dan Moller?" Well, wouldn't you want to know--I mean if you were hiking in Alaska this might be important. So here it is--all you need to know about the Dan Moller Cabin. It was built in the 1930s by the CCC and you can stay there (when not closed) for 2 nights at $35/night. But it's pretty primitive; although many people lived this way in the 1930s without the luxury of propane, garbage bags and fire extinquishers.

Water is available from a nearby stream, uphill from the cabin. Treat all water before using. Bring your own sleeping bags, sleeping pads, cooking stove, lantern, pots, pans, plates, utensils, food, toilet paper, garbage bags, fire extinguisher and fire starter. This cabin contains a wood stove. Wood is not provided, so you must bring your own if you wish to use the stove. Cabin is heated by a propane wall furnace. Propane is supplied. Bears frequent the area.

But I still don't know who Dan Moller was, so I keep checking and finally find a guide book that tells me he's the guy who laid out the Dan Moller Trail in the 1930s. Whoop! That's not much to go on.

The cabin's logs are rotting so they will build a new one--ADA accessible. How the disabled get there may be another story. From the guide book it looks like an 1800 ft. upward climb on the Dan Moller trail. It is located three and one-half miles southwest of Juneau on Douglas Island. Access by 3 mile trail on Pioneer Street off Cordova Street, and at the end of Jackson St. above Blueberry Hills subdivision in West Juneau.

Lakeside Week 8

There was supposed to be a sailing regatta today but there is zip, nada, zilch wind. [Update: They finally got off.] My husband's gone down to watch, but I don't think anything is going on. If he could find a partner he was going to try doubles. His motto is (because he comes in last) he's way ahead of the guys who didn't enter! Good attitude for someone who took up sailing at 65+.

Speaking of sailing partners, we really enjoyed the send-off of the Lakeside Leadership Academy interns Thursday evening. Grace Kelmer who was my husband's sailing partner when she was in middle school gave us an invitation. Grace is the Cultural Arts intern and is a lifelong Lakesider. She attends college at Illinois Wesleyan in Bloomington, IL, is fluent in German, and an accomplished cellist. This was the third year of the program, so if you have a young person looking for summer internships next summer, check this one out. Most of this year's class had no prior knowledge of Lakeside.

I must say I got a little nostalgic and melancholy as I listened to the presentations of the 9 interns--hospitality, environment, finance, marketing, human resources, event planning, and eduction. They were all so incredibly talented and hard working, good speakers, lavish in their praise of their mentors and sponsors and fellow interns. One can feel good that young people like this will be going out into the work world soon, even if they choose grad school, but one can also feel like a "has been" and think about missed opportunities along the way.

Last night's guest performer with the symphony was Dmitri Levkovich, pianist. Born in the Ukraine and a citizen of Canada, he got a standing ovation (and provided a nice encore) for Concerto No. 25 in C Major by Mozart. I must say, that although I know little about pianos, the new Steinway is making everything sound brighter, sharper, and clearer. On the walk home we enjoyed the many homes decorated for "Light up Lakeside."

Ouch! Now that hurts!

We had our summer house sprayed for spiders yesterday--perhaps the second time this season. Now the windows will need to be washed again. But, here's the big news. The owner of the spray company didn't do the application this time. Apparently, the day before he was at a job and a dog bit him in the scrotum and he had to have stitches! So an assistant came out to our place because the owner will be laid up for awhile.

Dog bites are serious, folks. And remember this word from a former veterinary medicine librarian who has seen the photos of torn up faces of children--ALL DOGS WILL BITE. Don't ever encourage young children to pet a dog in the park or on a walk, even if the owner assures you it's OK. Most dog bites are by young male dogs, owned by young males, and the victims are most often male children.

Made in China--guest blogger Nelson

Recently I came to the railroad crossing on the Lowell Park Road on the way to Dixon, Illinois. The gates were down, the red lights flashing and presently a long freight train came through heading west toward the Mississippi River. Every flatbed held a Chinese container, empty and heading back home to be refilled and shipped again.

Factories close, people are let go and the economy slumps. And the reason started with greed.

I worked for a Mattel company in Orange County, California in the early 1970s and I can recall that one Christmas there was a stevedore's strike that prevented the freighters from coming into the San Pedro docks. Mattel was going mad, realizing that if they couldn't get the ships in and unloaded in time for Christmas, their profits would slump.

And why were these ships loaded with Mattel toys? Because Mattel had found that they could have them made much cheaper in Japan than in the US. Some might call that good business for them to go overseas; I call it greed.

And later, when the Chinese came into the picture, Mattel had toys made there. . .which meant that if any other toy manufacturer wanted to compete, they would have to go to China too.

I am appalled, horrified by this but maybe, if I were in the manufacturing business, I would have done the same thing. I hope not, but making money becomes a terrible obsession sometimes.

The problem is that this going to China for the cheapies has had a reverse effect. As more companies have closed here and opened in China, the local economies have staggered and fallen. if that nut-and- bolt maker in Rockford has to close, the people he had working for him have to get other jobs or do with less. The result - and I see this every time I go to Rockford - street after street of vacant factories; which has meant a loss of the tax base, increase in crime and fewer city services.

It used to be I would refuse to buy anything made in China. I cannot do that anymore because to refuse Chinese goods would mean I wouldn't be able to buy a thing.

BP's 20 billion--Obama was snookered by his inexperience?

This is flying around the internet in viral form, and I'm no expert on the figures, nor is the person who sent it. This piece is about BP's escrow account to compensate Gulf businesses. It's been posted, and reposted on various forums and blogs. So I googled to see where it might have originated, and found the earliest form (it gets revised as it moves along like most virals) by Dick Miller in the Savannah paper on July 1, 2010. I can't determine if it is his own work, although he has appeared in other op ed columns.

BP dupes the president

It seems a miracle that our beloved leader was able to convince BP to establish a $20 billion slush (oops, escrow) fund to compensate those hurt by the ongoing oil plume in the Gulf of Mexico. After all, he had no constitutional power to force them to do so; so had to resort to Chicago-style negotiating.

But, let us take a closer look at the effect on BP's finances:

1. BP will establish a $20 billion fund, but will pay only $7 billion into it during 2010.

2. BP is a British corporation, but has a very large operating entity in the U.S.

3. By generally accepted accounting principles, BP must book the entire $20 billion expense in the year accrued. Therefore, they will book a $20 billion expense in 2010, reducing their U.S. tax liability by $7 billion.

4. Our dear leader also convinced this massive corporation to show their concern for the "small people" by withholding dividends to their shareholders for the last three quarters of 2010. This reduces their outward cash flow by about $7.5 billion, including approximately 40 percent of that amount to U.S. citizens. Assuming the Bush tax cuts will survive through 2010, the U.S. Treasury will lose another $450 million in taxes on that amount. We won't even discuss the effect on the U.S. economy.

Let us review the results:

BP Cash Flow:

Escrow funding ($7 billion)

Dividend saving $7.5 billion

Tax savings $7 billion

Net favorable cash flow :

$7.5 billion

US Treasury Tax Receipts:

BP Corporate income tax ($7.5 billion)

BP Shareholders ($0.45 billion)

Net unfavorable tax receipts ($7.95 billion)

I guess we really should expect this. After all, our dear leader is the most inexperienced man in any room he walks into.

DICK MILLER

Savannah

HT Murray

Update: According to the Washington Post, hardly a right wing spoof, the U.S. taxpayer may get hit even harder by the deal between Obama and BP (one of his biggest contributors going way back to his Senator years).

Using Spike Lee's script

Neo Neocon remembers that speech: "Ya been took! Ya been hoodwinked! Bamboozled!" The words Spike Lee put in Malcom X's mouth in the movie about Malcom X. She says now Obama uses that theme, in the campaign and on the continuous trail, and it's not lost on Black audiences. He's a race baiter.

'CBS Evening News' Anchor Couric Ridiculed Palin from Day One; Mocks Son’s Name | NewsBusters.org

Sorry, guys, as much as I think Katie isn't the right person for the nightly news job, I didn't find this "raw" footage damning. She's self-deprecating, and jokes. She chats like a hundred other women I know, but she's respectful. How many of us knew of or heard of Wasilla, or mooseburgers before Sarah Palin? Give it a rest. Katie did a poor job on her critical Palin interview which suffered from editing over which she may have not had control, but this video tells us nothing. Not even MSM or journolist bias.

'CBS Evening News' Anchor Couric Ridiculed Palin from Day One; Mocks Son’s Name | NewsBusters.org

Gisele Explains Mandatory Breastfeeding Comments

Well, she sure got her name out there, didn't she? Nothing like making a really stupid statement, declaring it should be the law, and then saying it's just a personal opinion. Did she have an opinion on breast feeding before she had a baby? Maybe not. Hopefully she'll do early weaning--a 3 year old attached to mom's chest is a bit over the top. At least she provided a little relief from the non-stop Clinton wedding coverage. If I never see that dress again, or see George Stephanopulos swoon over the dance again, I will be grateful.

My grandmother breastfed all nine of her babies, and thought anyone who didn't bottle feed if she could was crazy. In her case, breastfeeding was practical and safe (she was blind), but I doubt if it was convenient.

Gisele Explains Mandatory Breastfeeding Comments | NBC Los Angeles

"Mission Accomplished:" President Obama's Iraq Withdrawal Speech

He's been claiming mission accomplished on the economy off and on since he entered office, but this one was reminiscent of Bush's speech early in the Iraq War. What makes this one different is he can only keep this "campaign promise" because Bush's surge worked, and Democrats fought it, including Senator Obama. Also, the war had quieted down so much because of the surge that even in 2008 you rarely heard Obama bring it up. It was a non-issue by the time he was getting close to the White House. And if Democrats had gotten on board and hadn't given aid and comfort to the enemy, we probably would have been out years ago.

President Obama's Iraq Withdrawal Speech: 'Mission Accomplished 2'?

From Bush's speech: Admiral Kelly, Captain Card, officers and sailors of the USS Abraham Lincoln, my fellow Americans: Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country. In this battle, we have fought for the cause of liberty, and for the peace of the world. Our nation and our coalition are proud of this accomplishment — yet it is you, the members of the United States military, who achieved it. Your courage — your willingness to face danger for your country and for each other — made this day possible. Because of you, our nation is more secure. Because of you, the tyrant has fallen, and Iraq is free.

Obama will not exactly be "withdrawing" all troops, 50,000 are staying. I guess war is over when the guy in power says so, . . . unless the guy is President Bush.

Week seven at Lakeside

This week I'm taking two very different art classes. The first offered by Rusty Levenson is on art conservation. I've taken this class before, but it's so interesting and her clients and projects change, so it's always interesting. A background in chemistry and art history are essential, as well as the patience to go through apprenticeship, internship and possibly a residency requirement. But the perks--traveling around the world and meeting fascinating people--are good.

The second class I'm taking at the Rhein Center is Portrait Sketching. In any art class I take, I'm usually the best on Monday, but the same on Friday and everyone else has passed me up. But today there was a woman in the class who could have been teaching. She was fantastic. Maybe that means I can be better on Friday?

We had some great music over the week-end. The American Tenors sang Friday night to a very appreciative audience, and Pointe of Departure Ballet with the Lakeside Symphony performed on Saturday. On Sunday we had the big Hotel Lakeside Ice Cream Social and enjoyed the music of the Genoa American Legion Band. My husband helped with the Kids' Sail program, and 126 children participated, which I think is a record. The weather was perfect for sailing.

The Mouse Island sail boat race was Saturday, and my husband's sailing partner of a few years back, Grace, took first place. She's now 20. Today was the Lakeside Triathalon, and I saw the runners going past our cottage. I think biking and sailing was also involved.

I took the Friday tree walk again--took it last year. I always learn a lot. I think there's a few trees we'll be saying "good-bye" to soon--like the ash trees which are slowing succumbing to the emerald ash borrer, which arrived in Michigan in 2002, and a lot of our silver maples are nearing 70 or 80 years old, and they do not enjoy a long life although they grow quickly and create shade.

Who murdered the vets?

Yesterday at the Women's Club book sale for 50 cents I picked up a signed copy of "The Key West Reader: The best of Key West's Writers 1830-1990." Published in 1989, and edited by George Murphy a resident and writer of Key West. It's a very interesting collection by known and unknown (to me) American writers, such as John James Audubon, Robert Frost, Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, and John Hersey.

I've never been particularly fond of Hemingway's fiction, but the non-fiction accounts of the Labor Day 1935 hurricane (category 5) that killed over 400 people in an area with a population of a thousand or so in this book are stunning. Every governor and city mayor of the gulf states should be required to read this. If Louisiana's state and local officials knew this story and how bad FDR looked for sending unemployed and mentally addled WWI veterans to their certain death in a hurricane, maybe the outcome of Katrina would have been different. Or not. Hemingway disliked FDR intensely, so Democrats probably don't read him. This is from HNN account:

"Shortly after the natural disaster had occurred, writer Ernest Hemingway was contacted by the editors of New Masses to write an account of the storm from an insider's perspective. Hemingway's response was the article, "Who Murdered the Vets?: A First-Hand Report on the Florida Hurricane," published September 17, 1935, just weeks after the event. Although billed as a personal account, in reality it was an outraged demand for accountability for the needless death of the veterans. A hostile tone was established within the first few lines. "Whom did they annoy and to whom was their possible presences a political danger?" Hemingway asked. "Who sent them down to the Florida Keys and left them there in hurricane months?" Hemingway presented the veterans not merely as murdered but almost as though they had been assassinated for someone's personal political gain or simply that they were disposed of as an unnecessary burden to the public after courageously serving their country.

The left will always blame Bush for damages and deaths during Hurricane Katrina because they can't face up to the Democratic controlled administrations of Kathleen Blanco, the governor of Louisiana, and Ray Nagin, the mayor of New Orleans, who were in charge of the first line of defense. Presidents through FEMA then send in aid. Like FEMA hasn't done for the people of Ohio after its June tornado which destroyed a town (too white, too rural and too small to matter). Here's some background on the veterans from the Veterans' Memorial page:

"Unemployed WW-I veterans staged hunger marches and demonstrations in several cities, but the most famous was the Bonus Expeditionary Force in Washington, D.C., in June, 1932. A WW-I bonus law was passed in 1922, but vetoed by the President. In 1924, Congress overrode the presidential veto and gave every veteran a certificate payable in 1945. The nation entered the depression and in 1931 the vets demanded to be paid the bonus early. In June, 1932, about 15,000 veterans descended on Washington to convince the Senate to pass the bill. They were unsuccessful and finally President Hoover chased the "bonus marchers" out of Washington with bayonets and tear gas. Some say this action "put Roosevelt in the White House." Anyway, FERA was created in May, 1933 and various work programs and camps were established throughout the country. The events leading to the presence of the veterans in the Matecumbe work camps followed this scenario."

Reminds me of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study

One of the most famous violations of human rights is the U.S. government's Public Health Service study of poor black men infected with syphilis which went on for 40 years and the researchers continued to study the effects of the disease even after penicillin was invented which could have cured them.

Now, fast forward from 1972 to 1993, to another deadly disease, and a "data set" made up this time primarily of poor black women. The WIHS, Women's Interagency HIV Study, (pronouced WISE) has resulted in 440 published research papers with a data base that can be mined for many more to determine the affects of HIV on (poor minority) women.

The population of 2625 women is 60% black and 27% Hispanic; less than 1/3 are employed; 2/3 report a history of physical, sexual, or emotional abuse. These women have a high smoking rate, high crack cocaine use, high alcohol and illegal substance abuse rate; they have numerous co-morbidities not realted to HIV such as cardiovascular disease, liver disease, cancers, cognitive disorders, and depression.

I've poured through the report, both as summarized in the July 21 issue of JAMA and the on-line site, and the newsletters (most very dated and containing recipes and weight tips on portion control) the participants receive. Through anti-retroviral drugs AIDS is no longer a fatal disease. This clinical study does not treat the women; it refers them for treatment. It offers them money for participation, child care for attending, transportation help, workshops, phone call reminders, and for a select few, a seat on the advisory board.

Well, whoop! Double whoop! Pardon me if I'm not impressed. If all participants were handed the pills and medical staff watched them take it (they do this in methadone clinics), and they were then in remission (there is no cure, but there is life extension), where would the studies be? Instead of being an HIV/AIDS study, and I think the women originally believed they would be treated, not just studied, it has become a data set for researchers (just like the Tuskegee study) for studying poverty, substance abuse, child rearing, and other diseases that may put these women at risk. It's also a study on why people may not follow doctor's orders or follow through on drug therapy--but at the cost of their own lives.

My question is this: How did a disease that began in a tiny demographic made up of privileged white men with higher than average education and income, become the scourge of the poor and black? Why, with 12% of the population, are blacks so affected, and black women? Ten years ago you could talk about "down low" sex, the practice of gay black men bringing the disease home to the wife/girlfriend and then to the children. But these days, that has become politically incorrect to even raise the issue. So you're left to your own devices by this study, JAMA (the American Medical Association's journal) the Gay and Lesbian Alliance, NPR, and any broadcast media, because they certainly won't tell you the truth.

Women's Interagency HIV Study

Current Cites: July 2010--20th anniversary

Although the editor makes a bit of fun with this, I always enjoy keeping up with the library stuff with "Current Cites." Just one of the many excellent publications that appear in my mailbox regularly--others include home extension from Nebraska, book reviews from Christianity Today, a genealogy newsletter, Glenn Beck's newsletter, American Spectator, WSJ snippets, Heritage Foundation, American Chemical Society, Nature magazine, Thyroid newsletter, and something on computer technology.

". . . unrestrained, unmuzzled, and unrepentant. Shield your inbox, throw up a filter, and otherwise gird your computer to resist our continuing assault, as we fully intend to sow the seeds of "current awareness" -- or more accurately our very much mistaken interpretation of such -- far and wide for many a decade more." Roy Tennant

Current Cites: July 2010

Made in the USA?

What if the environmentalists, greenies, sustainable eaters and tree-huggers got serious about "made in the USA" while they are saving the world?  These examples are for a very small town.  Here at Lakeside we have an active, but growing group called LESS, Lakeside Environmental Stewardship Society which sponsors programs on improving the community's impact on the environment and makes recommendations.  Some of their ideas are good, some not so good. Our Chautauqua seminars have a strong environmental component.

Today I paid $80.00 for three books about Ohio birds and wildlife.  They are wonderful books, I like the author (who lives near me), and they are a terrific asset to my collection, but all were printed in China.  We have a terrific farmer's market in Lakeside--the Association sells green canvass type shopping bags with its logo, made in China, of course.  There is a big push on here to change to CFL electric bulbs--to use less electricity.  However, most brands are made in China and we still have no really safe way to dispose of them.

 The not so good are the required huge bright blue recyclable containers which sit in the street sometimes for 48 hours, and even when put away are an eyesore. Because many of the cottages are rented, and these containers are only picked up on Friday, someone leaving on Sunday or Monday will roll them to the street to wait several days for pick up, and then there's no one around to put them away.  Sometimes on my Sunday morning walk I may roll 5 or 6 of these containers back to the house or drive-way. Because of our tiny lots, there really is no way to hide them.

HIV/AIDS JAMA special issue

JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) periodically has a topic specific issue, and July 21, Vol. 304, no.3, was on HIV/AIDS. Not everyone reads medical literature, but if you happen to pick up this title which is held by many public libraries, turn to p. 364, "JAMA Patient Page" first. HIV is a virus that causes a disease, AIDS, and it is primarily but not exclusively, a disease of gay men and IV drug users. Women get it from their male gay spouses and gay boyfriends (don't play games with terms like bi-sexual). Women can then pass it on to other men who are not gay, and to their children during pregnancy and nursing. And even then, that's a very small percentage; most transmission is through gay men. So that's where prevention should start, but that's not the emphasis in this journal because it is not culturally sensitive to expect people to change destructive behavior, unless it is smoking, drinking, overeating, not exercising, not recycling or wife beating. Even though gay sex has caused a world wide epidemic, after a push in the 1980s for closing of bath houses and spreading condoms and mouth dams around, the main stream medical people are too feaful to say, "Stop it."

The patient page clearly says, "Women with HIV infection can transmit the virus to their babies during pregnancy or delivery or through their breast milk."  It says nothing  "clear" about gay sex and the transmission of disease, and instead tip toes through "bodily fluids, including semen, " using condoms, and not having sexual contact with infected persons, including oral, anal or vaginal.

Call it anything you want, but it's still a tax increase

We got this from AIA today--just one of the many sneaky increases all businesses and private individuals will be getting in 2011 and 2012. This administration is a disaster, folks. Now I ask you, what business doesn't spend more than $600 to purchase goods and services? Obama says he wants to help small business, but he does everything he can to thwart them because he knows they are the backbone of a market, entrepreneurial economy. Even Apple and Microsoft were once small. No one goes into business to fail.

Effective 2012, architecture firms and other small businesses may be hit with a dramatic and unnecessary increase in paperwork and tax forms. If the current law takes effect, any company that makes payments of $600 or more to purchase goods or services from any vendor will be required to file a 1099 MISC tax form to report the transaction. In short, your business will need to complete this form for virtually every service or piece of equipment it purchases. Many firms, especially small businesses, will suffer disproportionately under these rules. But now we have a chance to stop this law from taking effect. Sen. Mike Johanns (R-NE) has offered an amendment to a small business bill, which is currently being debated in the Senate, that would repeal this requirement. The amendment could be subject to a vote as early as today, July 28. We urge you to contact your Senators and tell them to repeal the 1099 paperwork requirement.

Schedel Arboretum and Gardens, Elmore, Ohio

If you are visiting northwestern Ohio (or Lakeside) and would like to take a side trip, don't miss Schedel Arboretum and Gardens in Elmore, "America's hometown." Our Wednesday Herb Class from Lakeside went this morning, toured the gardens, had lunch and visited the gift shop, and everyone was ecstatic with the beauty and variety, and many were making plans to visit again.

A tornado ripped through the gardens in 1992, but they made lemonade from lemons, and used the open spaces created by the downed trees to plant flower gardens, whereas before it had been primarily trees, shrubs and bushes. They also lost 10 acres when the state took it for the interstate, but were able to obtain certain concessions which created the lakes. Even so, the noise from the freeway is ever present.

Schedel Arboretum and Gardens--the sculptures

There are many sculptures in the Schedel gardens that are part of the permanent collection, but many others by various artists are for sale. They really enhance the natural beauty.

Marblehead, Ohio Rock of Ages--Historic Inn

If you need a BIG place for a reunion or a church group, this would be the place. Today at lunch I sat with the owner. I was so impressed with her personality and love for her Inn, I decided to take a peek on the internet, although I was pretty sure I knew which house in Marblehead it was. They have done a fabulous job (based on the photos) with the upgrades. She says they book year around--in the fall and winter it is usually local church and hobby groups, and in the summer, family events. If you want to be by the water, and be close enough to Lakeside to take in all the cultural advantages of a Chautauqua season, this would be for you.

Marblehead, Ohio vacation rental by owner: 13 bedroom House rental that sleeps 36. Rock of Ages, Historic, Lakefront--Great for Reunions!

Every night the same conversation

At our summer home on Lake Erie in Lakeside, Ohio, we wash and dry the dishes together. At home we have a dishwasher. This is such a pleasant, companionable task we often say we'll do it in Columbus, but we never do. And as he washes, and I dry, my husband says the same thing every evening, "How can two people create all these dirty dishes and silverware?" So I go through it piece by piece--this fork was used for cat food, this spoon was for the Cool Whip, this spoon served the main dish, this one the vegetables. It's like talking to a toddler who asks "why," you explain, and he then says, "but why?"

Tomorrow the herb class is going on a field trip to Schedel Arboretum and Gardens in Elmore, Ohio. We'll have a guided tour and a box lunch. Our hostess is Carolyn Swanger. We met Gene and Carolyn Swanger a number of years ago when they bought a cottage at Lakeside and then needed an architect to make it fit their family's needs. He's faculty emeritus at Wittenburg, just some of the many wonderful people we've met here.

Each Wednesday there's a picnic in the park, but so far we haven't attended. There always seems to be something else, and tomorrow will be no different. After a box lunch I don't think I need hot dogs for dinner.

Nomad reviewed at Books and Culture

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is not a Christian, but in her new book about adjusting to life in America, Nomad, she writes:

Christian leaders now wasting precious time and resources on a futile exercise of interfaith dialogue with … self-appointed leaders of Islam should redirect their efforts to converting as many Muslims as possible to Christianity, introducing them to a God who rejects Holy War and who has sent his son to die for all sinners out of love for mankind.

Unfortunately, many Christian churches have been on a passionate hunt for social justice, or environmental justice, or economic justice, and have completely forgotten about the great commission, which will lead people to God's justice. If she's looking to "moderate" Christians, those she says don't accept the Bible as God's written word for us in these days, she's in for a disappointment.

Nomad | Books and Culture

E.J. Dionne certainly got this one wrong

The Obama crowd wasn't cowering before anyone--certainly not Fox News which didn't break the story. Certainly not Glenn Beck who defended Sherrod for the shabby way she was fired. The home team bench is so light (i.e. white) in the Obama White House they didn't even recognize the Sherrod name, didn't realize until after she was fired that she was married to a Civil Rights "hero." Nor did they even bother to give the woman a fair inquiry or check out the story that was going around the internet. Sorry Mr. Dionne, you're calling the wrong people wrong. Obama didn't act hastily because of right-wing propaganda--Shirley Sherrod really did give a full speech that insulted many of us--you can go on-line and read it--but she was fired because that's just what leftists do. Sometime they eat their own. You could be next.

Let's face it, Mr. Dionne. Fox is cleaning your bosses' clocks and you're worried. They have better coverage, more diversity, more topics, and better looking female talking heads. So what to do, what to do. Oh--let's call them names. That works!

E.J. Dionne Jr. - Enough right-wing propaganda

New notebook time!

The one on the left is the new one--designed by Legacy Publishing Group, Carol Rowan artist. The used up one is called Pattern Play, designed by Jaqueline Savage McFee for Carolina Pad and Paper.  Both, of course, made in China, but "created" and sold by U.S. companies.  Pattern Play has a nice feature of dividers with envelopes--I have another one in a slightly different pattern, but thought I'd switch to a floral theme.

People at the coffee shop think I'm journaling, and I am, sort of, but it usually ends up on one of my 12 blogs.

The Plain Dealer forms partnership with PolitiFact Ohio to help readers separate political fact from fiction

That's going to be hard to do--separate fact from fiction--because the editor of PolitiFact is an editor for the Cleveland Plain Dealer which owns Cleveland.com. It's all in selection of the facts to be analyzed. Does the conservative say something that seems soft on porn and the liberal forget a minor rule in registering something. Hardly the same story impact. I can say it's a fact that Jesus rose from the dead, and you can say it's a fact that it's recorded that way by his followers who wanted to see what they thought they saw. Totally different take--same "fact." Recently, a reader rejected the abortion statistics (50 million since legalization) cited by the National Right to Life because she is a liberal. NRL used statistics from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) of the federal government. It also reported that abortions are way down compared to the 1970s. So are those stats biased too, or is the reader by refusing a source because of its pro-life stance? I know the Cleveland PD has a political slant, both in its news stories, its editorial pages, and the letters from readers selected for publication. It's a private company and has a right to do that. But I have the right to be skeptical.

The Plain Dealer forms partnership with PolitiFact Ohio to help readers separate political fact from fiction | cleveland.com

Throwing Others Under the Bus Over Race

Apparently, looking at the Sherrod speech in its entirety, she called pretty much everyone who doesn't agree with Obama a racist. Those of us who don't like socialism/marxism are lumped with the people who enslaved African Americans (but if you go way back that would be other Africans and Arabs who rounded them up and sold them to Europeans). So who is the name caller? I still think the villain in this is the President who without checking the facts (a bad habit of his) had her fired, then had to blame others in his apologies. Does this man ever accept blame for his own mistakes?

She said: "So that's when they made black people servants for life. That's when they put laws in place forbidding them (i.e., blacks and whites) to marry each other. That's when they created the racism that we know of today. They did it to keep us divided. And ... it started working so well they said, 'Gosh, looks like we've come upon something here that could last generations.' And here we are, over 400 years later, and it's still working." McCarthy goes on to quote Sherrod apparently addressing the motives of some of Obamacare's opponents. She said: "I haven't seen such a mean-spirited people as I've seen lately over this issue of health care. Some of the racism we thought was buried. Didn't it surface? Now, we endured eight years of the Bushes, and we didn't do the stuff these Republicans are doing because you have a black president."

Has anyone told her it was a Democratic president who set up the Jim Crow laws, that the KKK helped Robert Byrd get elected, and that Democratic administrations are keeping blacks in poverty through block grants and food stamps in every major city of the U.S.?

Throwing Others Under the Bus Over Race - HUMAN EVENTS

Ms. Sherrod's Speech Was Most Certainly Not About Transcending Racism - Andy McCarthy - The Corner on National Review Online

And you can go to the NAACP site and read her entire speech and be hit up for money.

Video on lack of leadership

The hasty firing of Shirley Sherrod shows the WH can move quickly when it wants to.

Changes, changes

Blogger has changed its design template and Cutest Blog on the Block has apparently discontinued the skin that I loved. Sigh. Then nothing would work without upgrading my Internet Explorer. With a lot of blogs, that's a lot of changes for this old lady.

Yard sales at Lakeside

On Sunday I got some wonderful deals at a yard sale one street over:  a first issue (v. 1, n.1) of National Geographic Traveler (1984), a nice apron that looked like it had never been used, a kitchen towel with the knitted top so you can attach it to a drawer handle, lovely artificial hydrangea blooms in blue, and another magazine.  It was all marked down--to free.

Now I need to find a blender.  I could swear I had one here at the cottage and I have potato chunks, onions, and broccoli perking away on the stove for broccoli soup, and I can't find the blender!  I've looked everywhere--even in the basement.  No blender. Second choice would be a hand potato masher, but it's gone too!

Our wonderful five senses

One of the things that Jill Taylor suggests in her book "My stroke of insight" is that we pause and become more aware of and enjoy our senses. This morning during my 6 a.m. walk along the lakefront in Lakeside, Ohio, I did just that. We're in the middle of a heat wave in July, and had a wonderfully refreshing storm last night. The path is asphalt, close to the water and to the cottages.

1. TOUCH -- Skin is our largest organ. I could feel the wind on my face, arms and hair--and my sweaty clothes.

2. SMELL -- The wet grasses, flowers, rocks with moss, from last night's storm. It's a fresh, but somewhat moldy smell due to the hot weather we've been experiencing.

3. SOUND -- Waves splashing, birds chirping and calling, the chain on the flag clainging against the pole, a jet overhead, a distant motor boat, a teen-ager bouncing a basketball in the park, a car door slamming, a runner's footfall as he runs past, insects humming.

4. SIGHT -- The electric lights in the dimness on Put-in-Bay, Kelley's Island, Marblehead, the oar boat, the lakefront street lights, reflections on Lake Erie, a woman walking the lakefront with a red shirt and white pants, drooping wet flowers, robins, gulls, the tents closed up for the craft show to return.

5. TASTE -- This is a bit harder. But I had brushed my teeth after my morning coffee, so I could taste the toothpaste.

The strange case of Shirley Sherrod and a big government settlement

Nothing's ever simple or as it seems, is it? There's apparently a lot more about Shirley Sherrod and the USDA that we didn't know. She and her husband, a big Civil Rights leader, were involved in a lawsuit against the federal government and received a big payout. Also Breitbart didn't edit the film--showed it as it was given to him. Was someone setting up Breitbart or the Sherrods? Who was the source? Why were Obama and NAACP so quick to throw her under the bus? They certainly haven't acted that way about other charges of black racism in government. What were the circumstances of her hiring that she could be let go so unceremoniously and from all appearances, illegally? Aren't there rules about that? Maybe this isn't going to go away after all.

American Thinker Blog: Forty Acres & a Mule -- Sherrod Style?

And here's the left-handed view of this, although no mention that in the settlement, 4 times more black farmers showed up for the money than the USDA census recorded.

Julie Zickefoose

It has been a delight to have Bill Thompson III (Bird Watcher's Digest) and wife Julie Zickefoose, artist, writer and naturalist, here this week. I went to his lecture on Tuesday and the early morning bird watch with him on Wednesday. Today I went to her slide show and lecture and heard excerpts from her forthcoming book about rescuing injured birds and nestlings. The rescued baby chimney swifts (5) story was just the best. It was wonderful and I think will be a terrific Christmas book for any of you who love a good story, great art, and animals.

Ohio Magazine article on Julie Zickefoose

Some apologies just aren't--Spitz and Vilsack

Sara Spitz's apology about wishing to watch Rush Limbaugh die with his eyes bugging out wasn't an apology at all. She's sorry she was found out, and that's not an apology.

"As a publicist, I realize more than anyone that is no excuse for irresponsible behavior. I apologize to anyone I may have offended and I regret these comments greatly; they do not reflect the values by which I conduct my life."

Vilsack, the head of USDA, however, now that was an apology, even if the White House forced him, one that could be emulated by journalists, NPR hacks, and government officials.

Now then, when will Obama apologize to the Cambridge police for his hasty words last summer?

What Recovery?

Ben Bernanke was a huge fan of FDR who kept us in a Depression for over a decade. The Obama tactics are working out the same way. There is no recovery, and will be none, until he gets his boot off the neck of American business. And I just don't think that will happen, given his political philosophy.

Fed chief open to new steps to keep recovery going - Road Runner

The Jamestown Foundation

Browsing the Jamestown Foundation reports on terrorists groups in Algeria, Yemen, Somalia, Russia, Trinidad, Iran, Sudan, etc., I've got to wonder why the evening news programs wastes our time reporting on Lindsay Lohan and Mel Gibson.

Africa - The Jamestown Foundation

Shirley Sherrod, USDA, says White House forced her resignation

What is this flap about? Whether it is conservative bloggers, or Fox News, or the President of the U.S., it happened in 1984! No one has done more in recent years to enflame race relations than the President himself, whether it was calling cops foolish in the Gates incident last summer because they tried to stop a break-in, or ignoring Muslim terrorists in our midsts, or letting the DoJ decide blacks can't intimidate whites at the polling place. Come on, let's stick to the real problems, and they aren't Shirley's.


Shirley Sherrod: White House Forced My Resignation - Political Hotsheet - CBS News

Stroke of Insight by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor

This week I'm reading "Stroke of Insight," by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a Harvard trained neuroanatomist and advocate for the mentally ill who had a massive stroke in her left hemisphere when she was 37. In her book, she explains how the brain works, and tells of the hours and days immediately following her stroke, and her years of working through to complete recovery.

As a Christian I don't accept her spiritual, "oneness with the universe," insight (right brain) that she discovered during her "wound" to the brain which shut down her left brain, however, there are many helpful insights on brain function and recovery that are worth reading. Like this one, which applies for any illness or grief:

"Recovery was a decision I had to make a million times a day."

And for her, even moreso, because in her right brain she had found a peaceful tranquility and bliss with no cognitive function.

You can see an 18 minute presentation by Dr. Taylor on TED.

Black and female: Tea Party Candidate battles Illinois Democrats to Get on Ballot

Wow! Talk about jumping the fence of the plantation and going after the "massa" with his own whip! Cedra Crenshaw, an African American Republican with Tea Party support is taking on the Illinois Democrat machine. Democrats get real testy, even with their own black members (as Alvin Greene in South Carolina), when they see an African American is on to their tricks.

Tea Party Candidate Cedra Crenshaw Fights Illinois Democrats to Get on Ballot in Will County

Crenshaw, a 37-year old mother of three who studied accounting at North Carolina A&T, submitted hundreds more signatures on her nominating petitions than required. But Will County officials knocked her off the November ballot, saying one of the sentences in her filing should have used slightly different wording. "I am angry," said Crenshaw, an African-American who rejects complaints that the Tea Party movement is racist. "And a lot of the voters are very angry, as well. Right here in the State of Illinois, the vote is being denied to the voters of the 43rd State Senate District by a frivolous challenge." Sen. Wilhelmi told me the rules are the rules.

Wilhelmi is the one who filed the complaint--he is uncontested, also not unusual in heavily Democratic precincts in Illinois. Both Republicans and Democrats are threatened by the Tea Party candidates--because it isn't a party they can influence or control--it's an idea, it's young, it's fresh.

Obama is lying again

Ratcheting up the partisanship, Obama is lying again about Republicans. They aren't "blocking" extending unemployment benefits from 99 weeks to 126 (retroactive), they are asking that the President use one of his private slush funds, like TARP or ARRA, which aren't being used to create "shovel ready" jobs. Or cut some other government wasteful program--put a government employee in the "out of work" line. Wouldn't real jobs be better than government checks? Well, no, not to Democrats who know from the FDR years, this is how you build loyalty across the generations. You buy it. But even FDR used it to put people to work instead of leaving them standing on the street corners or hanging out in bars.

Christian Teacher Wants to Pray on High Court Steps

Let me make a wild guess. If these students had spread yoga mats, or stuck pins in black robed dolls, or danced in Native American attire, or knelt down and faced East, the police wouldn't have bothered them. But quietly standing together and praying after a lesson on civics, they were told it wasn't allowed. This isn't true, of course. I suspect now other groups will try it to see what happens.

Christian Teacher Wants to Pray on High Court Steps | Christianpost.com

Longest hop-scotch

The Lakeside association blacktopped all the streets this spring, creating a wonderful "blackboard" for the kids with boxes of fat, colored chalk. On our street I saw a hop-scotch grid that went for two blocks. I think they were so tired by the time they drew all the boxes, they didn't do the toss and jump part.

Then on Walnut (business district) there are large murals drawn by the children. With parents standing around texting and talking on cell phones. Well, at least the kids "get it" (what Lakeside is about).

I was walking the Lakefront this morning about 30 minutes before sunrise, but it was light enough to see Put-in-Bay, Kelley's Island, all the lakefront cottages, the Hotel, the Pavilion, and an ore boat docked at Marblehead. Think of the generations who lived without electricity. It was gorgeous!

PPACA aka Obamacare

or as I like to call it, Pee-pee and Ca-Ca (Spanish and French for poop). Liberals like to claim it will reduce the deficit by $143 billion the first decade, and $1.2 Trillion the second. Tell me the truth. Have you ever seen a government program, under any president or congress, actually shrink anything? Until Obama, a Democrat, the biggest spender on social programs was George W. Bush, a Republican. Obama has taken us to new heights of government control and new depths of hostility toward the market system which grew this country.

No one really believes these deficit reduction figures, not even the Democrats, Socialists and Obamacons who preach them. We know there won't be more consumer choice and that there will be millions still uninsured (the purpose of all this, we were told when Obama was in campaign mode). We know private practices will close due to increased taxes; that there will be death panels, regardless of whether you call them that. And why not, when we've elected a man who believes in late term abortion--why not early on eternal rest? The only way to cut costs is to cut services. Growing government has never saved a dime. Bailing out unions or insurance companies or automobile companies is not the government's job, and it's a given that eventually the "public option" will be the only option for Pee-Pee and Ca-Ca.