John Boehner remembers why he got into politics

"I grew up in a small house on a hill in Cincinnati, Ohio, with 11 brothers and sisters. My dad ran a bar, Andy’s Café, that my grandfather Andrew Boehner opened in 1938. We didn’t have much but were thankful for what we had. And we didn’t think much about Washington.

That changed when I got involved with a small business, which I eventually built into a successful enterprise. I saw firsthand how government throws obstacles in the way of job-creation and stifles our prosperity. It prompted me to get involved in my government, and eventually took me to Congress."

It's a good lead in for a speech, but power and the beltway have a funny way of changing people. We'll have to see if a traditional Republican has gotten the conservative message from the voters who are a thousand times better informed than they were in 2000 or 2004. I'm quite sure we've heard this "no more business as usual" from other pols--specifically Barack Obama, the biggest fraud of them all. We were promised that his enhanced use of technology would have us all reading the bills, when in fact these gully washers weren't even read by Congress, let alone us!

Again, Boehner: "I have maintained a no-earmarks policy throughout my time of service in Congress. I believe the House must adopt a moratorium on all earmarks as a signal of our commitment to ending business as usual in the spending process.

• Let Americans read bills before they are brought to a vote. The speaker of the House should not allow any bill to come to a vote that has not been posted publicly online for at least three days. Members of Congress and the American people must have the opportunity to read it.

Similarly, the speaker should insist that every bill include a clause citing where in the Constitution Congress is given the power to pass it. Bills that can’t pass this test shouldn’t get a vote. House Republicans’ new governing agenda, “A Pledge to America,” calls for the speaker to implement such reforms immediately.

• No more “comprehensive” bills. The next speaker should put an end to so-called comprehensive bills with thousands of pages of legislative text that make it easy to hide spending projects and job-killing policies. President Obama’s massive “stimulus” and health-care bills, written behind closed doors with minimal public scrutiny, were the last straw for many Americans. The American people are not well-served by “comprehensive,” and they are rightly suspicious of the adjective.

• No more bills written behind closed doors in the speaker’s office. Bills should be written by legislators in committee in plain public view. Issues should be advanced one at a time, and the speaker should place an emphasis on smaller, more focused legislation that is properly scrutinized, constitutionally sound, and consistent with Americans’ demand for a less-costly, less-intrusive government."

As long as presidents are allowed to appoint people who can regulate the Congress into powerlessness and the people into slavery, what legislators do and how much pork they send home to their cronies really won't make much difference, now will it?

Obama thinks he just didn't get his message out . . .

. . . but I think he communicated loud and clear.

"Republicans picked up at least a record 680 state legislative seats nationwide. That's more than even the 472 seat gain in 1994, according to the American Legislative Exchange Council, and more than the previous record of 628 seats by Democrats in the Watergate election of 1974. Not since 1928 have Republicans held so many state legislative seats. . . Voters clearly said on Tuesday that they want state leaders to control spending, reform pension and health-care benefits for state employees, and attract new job-creating businesses.

From today's Review and Outlook, Wall St. Journal

Stem cell face lifts--we're not there yet

Sherrell Aston, MD, answers some questions about face lifts, including the so called stem-cell face lift, which is apparently a new term for fat transfer. I'd like a little of that, but by the time it is perfected, I either won't care, or won't remember that I cared.

"Right now, there is no such thing as a stem cell face-lift, although the hope is that stem cells can help rejuvenate tissues and fill in volume. Stem cells are obtained with liposuction. We frequently inject fat into different areas of the face to return fat that is atrophied, or to improve the contour of the jawline, or over the cheekbones to improve contour. Stem cells show promise for the future, and I anticipate that we'll do more with stem cells as part of facial rejuvenation in the years to come."

The Modern Face-lift: An Expert Interview With Sherrell J. Aston, MD

I've been using the Medscape/WebMD site for years and have found it to be reliable. Usually go there when all I can find are the heavily advertising supported sites.

A return to the norm--I disagree

Sorry, Charlie, I love you, but you missed it on this one. The huge win on Tuesday was not a default, it was not a return to the norm. It resulted from the American slumbering giant, many the retired electorate, rising up, getting informed, going to the library and book store, going to rallies, talking to their friends, organizing small groups without any headship, and supporting candidates for smaller, more responsive government. Conservatives, not all true Republicans, have won big both at the state level and the national. I sent no money to the National Republican party, but did support candidates in about 5 or 6 other states. I've learned the hard way that how they vote, and the bills they don't read, directly affect me.

Charles Krauthammer - A return to the norm

At last, some honesty at MSNBC

Lawrence O'Donnell admits he's a socialist and chides other liberals for playing with terms.

LAWRENCE O'DONNELL: Glenn [Greenwald], unlike you, I am not a progressive. I am not a liberal who is so afraid of the word that I had to change my name to progressive. Liberals amuse me. I am a socialist. I live to the extreme left, the extreme left of you mere liberals, okay? However, I know this about my country. Liberals are 20 percent of the electorate. Conservatives are 41 percent of the electorate, okay? So I don't pretend that my views, which would ban all guns in America, make Medicare available to all in America, have any chance of happening in the federal government, okay? You can sit there and pretend that liberals should run more liberal in conservative districts. You love the loss of the Blue Dogs. The only way, the only way you have a chairman Barney Frank, there's only one way, that's by electing Blue Dogs. It's the only way. That's the only way you have a Speaker Pelosi.

Now if he could just admit that socialists are Marxists, the air would be a lot cleaner in the studio. He's also an actor, pulls down big money by selling his image and his knowledge, which is sort of like being a private company not controlled by the government, so in my opinion, he's also a hypocrite in wanting to impoverish other people.

Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2010/11/05/lawrence-odonnell-i-am-socialist-i-live-extreme-left-mere-liberals#ixzz14RY2LrhI

The jobs report

I'm sure Obama is taking credit for the uptick in the October jobs report, however, I remember how the econmy literally fell off a cliff when it looked like Obama would be the president after he was selected as the candidate. Business knew he would not be for them, and they were already struggling. Then in the fall of this year, the predicting of the Republican take overs not only of Congress but in the states also was gaining steam. So people took hope that the Bush tax cuts would stay in place and we could finally stop the Pelosi, Obama and Reid steamroller which was flattening the will and wallets of the American people.

A serious subject treated humorously, golf and terrorism

Second-generation Indian Americans 'Return' to India

"In 2004, The New York Times reported there were 35,000 "returned nonresident" Indians in the Indian city of Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore). In 2009, The Economist noted that between 2003 and 2005, approximately 5,000 tech-savvy Indians with more than five years' experience in America returned to India.

A 2010 report by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with The Boston Consulting Group found that in 2006, 32,000 second-generation Indians born in the United States or Europe returned to India. Although the report does not define return in temporal terms, it observed that the availability of challenging job positions, strong demand for experienced workers, and the promise of economic growth were crucial in creating such reverse talent flows."
Migration Information Source - For Love and Money: Second-generation Indian Americans 'Return' to India

I don't think this is too unusual. It happened after the break up of the Soviet Union with many 2nd generation Poles, Lithuanians, Latvians, etc. returning to the country of their parents. Also, after China loosened up, a number of Americans of Chinese ancestry saw new opportunity. When Ireland had its boom economy in the late 90s, many Irish diaspora returned home. It will be interesting to see if they are welcomed with open arms, since they had so many advantages the people who stayed behind didn't.

Our most famous granny terrorist speaks again

Still spewing after all these years--Bernadine Dohrn, Bill Ayer's wife, the Obamas' Chicago neighbor and friend, unrepentent terrorist still thinks conservatives, and not her ilk, are the ones to fear.
See the video, feel the chill wind blowing.

CNN debunks the cost figures from India

. . . but doesn't have any numbers to replace them.

Story here.

Rob Portman's US Senate victory speech

One last campaign appeal--Joe Miller

It's not over until it's over.

Statement from Joe Miller “The campaign remains optimistic that Joe Miller will be the next U.S. Senator from the state of Alaska. Previous write-in campaigns in Alaska have demonstrated that as much as 5 to 6% of returned ballots have not met the standard to be counted as a valid vote. As with any write-in campaign, the burden of execution rests with the candidate whose name is not on the ballot. Candidates who mount a write-in campaign opt for an uphill battle. At this point, without a single write-in ballot counted, Lisa Murkowski has no claim on a victory. To complicate the matter, the Division of Elections has yet to adequately explain how a ballot will be marked in favor of a candidate. The current standards are extraordinarily ambiguous. We trust that officials will conduct the hand count with propriety and consistency. In short, this campaign is not over! “

Joe Miller for US Senate
PO Box 72838
Fairbanks, AK 99707-2838
(907) 452-8559

http://joemiller.us/

CAIR wants OSU Christians to be more tolerant

From OSUToday: "Join us to discuss recent hostility and intolerance facing the Islamic community in America and the appropriate Christian response to the attack of other faith traditions. Indianola Presbyterian Church welcomes representatives from the Council on American-Islamic Relations."

109 verses in the Koran command Muslims to make war against the unbeliever. The Hadith says that even the rocks behind which a Jew hides will call out for his death.

Islam teaches that the Christian Bible, the Torah and the Psalms are all corrupted, even though those manuscripts and extant copies are much, much older than Islam's holy books, and no scholar is allowed to do critical research on the Koran.

Muhammad's followers are commanded to believe in Allah and to wage war against their neighbors.

Jesus' followers are commanded to love God and to love neighbor as themselves.

Perhaps the Christians who attend this meeting could have a few words for the CAIR representative about centuries of hostility and ignorance on their side?

Bullying on social networking sites

Today's Wall Street Journal has an interesting article on the history of shaming--from the scarlet letter, to names of tax delinquents in newspapers to publicly charging for plastic bags at the grocery store to "encourage" responsible behavior. But the story lead is one of the most interesting. It involves rich, socially advantaged, well-educated young adults--the senior class at Dartmouth attempting to shame their classmates into donating for the class gift, using blogs, social networking sites, names, photos, and personal slurs. Techno-rats without a moral clue.

Oh yes, the names came from the school administration. Link.

The cost of the Civil War

From Measuring Worth, which provides seven indicators for making comparisons in US dollars between any two years from 1774 to the present (2009):

"The Civil War was one of the most devastating events in the history of the United States. It lasted from 1861 to 1865 and has been estimated to have direct cost about $6.7 billion valued in 1860 dollars. If this number were evaluated in dollars of today using the GDP deflator it would be $139 billion, less that one-fourth of the current Department of Defense budget. This would be inappropriate, as would be using the wage or income indexes. The only measure that makes sense for an expenditure of this size is to use the share of GDP, as the war impacted the output of the entire country. Thus the relative value of $6.7 billion of 1860 would be $22 trillion today, or over 150% of our current GDP.

The $6.7 billion does not take into account that the war disrupted the economy and had an impact of lower production into the future. Some economic historians have estimated this additional, or indirect cost, to be another $7.3 billion measured on 1860 dollars. This means the cost of the war (as a share of the output of the economy) was nearly $46 trillion as measured in current dollars."

Michelle Bachman's Plan for Republicans to restore America

As told to tingly leg Chris Matthews:

"BACHMANN: Well, the plan that I've been talking about all through this election is really four things. And I would encourage the new Republican leadership to take this on as the agenda in 2011. And it's very simple.

It's keep the current tax policy so no one has increased taxes.

Number two, we need to put a full scale repeal of Obamacare passed through the House, hopefully it can get through the Senate, and then

number three, we need to make sure that we secure the United States borders.

And number four, we need to make sure that we don't have a huge increase in national energy tax.

Those are the four issues that the American people want the Congress to deal with because they want to get certainty back into the economy."

Works for me.

No, Mitch. He needs to fail.

It seems that, like Obama, Mitch McConnell doesn't get it either. What is it? Is the air too thin in Washington? Why is it people don't get the Tuesday message?

"Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) said Thursday he wants President Obama to “change,” not fail, and said Republicans will force him from office in 2012 if he does not. “I don’t want the president to fail, I want him to change,” McConnell said in remarks at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington."

What good is a "changed" failure who doesn't know he failed? I do not want Obamacare, I do not want Cap and Tax which will further destroy the economy, I do not want a bazillion sneaky regulations brought to us by his appointed czars, I do not want more leftist, squishy judges on the Supreme Court. No, Obama needs to fail at trying to destroy our country. If it isn't too late.

After Bernanke's move this week--the additional $600 billion--I'm not sure any of it matters at this date. Hasn't anyone read what the Fed did in the 1920s which brought on the Great Depression? John Maynard Keynes who advocated "managed currency" and constant government interference neither foresaw that the Depression was coming, nor how long it would last.

"A country that doesn’t understand its own history is not well equipped to deal with its future. The Great Depression was not a failure of the old order. It was the failure of the new order that had just begun. The Federal Reserve is the most powerful institution of a new order that believed in the efficacy of government and its ability to do good. The same Federal Reserve caused the Great Depression when its wise men made a series of cumulative mistakes that contracted the money supply by one-third and wiped out purchasing power in an unprecedented fashion." The Fed's Depression and the New Deal

Humbled? Hardly!

What a silly concept. A humbled Obama? That's unimaginable for a narcissist.

"A conservative wave roared across the American political landscape last night, humbling President Barack Obama and instantly redrawing the landscape in Washington with a new place on the high perches of power for the flag-bearers of the ultra-conservative Tea Party movement." The Independent

Here's what Armstrong Williams wrote: "Judging by his words yesterday, Americans should settle in for more gridlock during these next two years. Yes, at times the president seemed conciliatory. His "shellacking" comment was as accurate as it was self-deprecating. But that's where the humility ended.

Phrases such as "I didn't communicate my message better" and "We should have started earlier in convincing the American people" are not admissions of mistakes or even acknowledgements that, if he'd had a chance to do it all over again, things would be done differently. No, those are remarks from a person who to this day believes in his heart he was right all along. A supermajority of the voters didn't see it that way, but doggone it, Obama sure did, and that's all that matters.

Folks, that thought process achieves new levels of arrogance, and leaves me with little hope for the next two years. "Communicating our message better" is what losers say when they're too proud to admit they lost. That's not presidential, that's pathetic. As smart as the president is, he knew exactly what he was doing when he chose those words, and that alone makes his sincerity yesterday all the more suspect."

Please! It's o-p-h-t-h-a-l-m-o-l-o-g-i-s-t

"Moisturizers are important for the skin around the eyes, which contains no oil glands. Ms. Cryer uses two eye creams, a day cream that offers sun protection and a night cream without the "extra chemicals" of sunscreen. In the winter, Ms. Cryer even applies a little extra eye cream in midafternoon to "refresh" the skin. She sticks to "opthalmologist-tested" moisturizers that won't irritate the eyes themselves."

Today's Wall Street Journal, article by Cheryl Lu-Lien

Now that ophthalmologist Rand Paul is heading for the Senate, maybe reporters will start getting this one right.

"Dr. Paul completed a general surgery internship at Georgia Baptist Medical Center in Atlanta and completed his residency in ophthalmology at Duke University Medical Center. Upon completion of his training in 1993, Dr. Paul moved to Bowling Green, Ken., and began his ophthalmology practice.

In 1995, Dr. Paul founded the Southern Kentucky Lions Eye Clinic, an organization that provides eye exams and surgery to needy families and individuals. He has also provided free eye surgery to children from around the world through the Children of the Americas Program." Becker's ASC Review.

Alice Dancing Under the Gallows

She never hated. Will be 107 this November.

Forty years ago--our dilemmas were . . .

In 1973 in an introduction to Baker's Dictionary of Christian Ethics, Carl F. H. Henry wrote about the concerns of the day. We were a decade beyond Rachel Carson's misguided "Silent Spring" which has lead millions of Africans to their deaths through the resurgence of malaria, five years past the alarmist, best-seller, "The population bomb" by Paul Erlich, three years beyond the first Earth Day, and in the middle of a bunch of street people for Jesus.

So in the introductory essay Henry writes about spending too much money on the space race when millions went to bed hungry, about the exploding population, about junk and toxic waste being spewed into the environment, and of course, the blame the USA needed to accept for the world's problems. And he wrote about the disillusionment in the scientific/technological enterprise and the political arena.

"In the USA the Watergate scandal, worst since Teapot Dome, brought the world's most powerful nation to a political watershed. The disappointing performance of many modern democracies, the frustrated hopes of those who relied on revolution and growing disenchantment with world political organizations--first the League of Nations and now the United Nations--was wrapped the whole cultural enterprise in a mood of gray doom. . . Is the suppression of a clearly defined national interest a reasonable expectation when the alternative is a murky global communality? Are nations facing extinction by totalitarian superpowers likely to agree that a global police force must replace any and every recourse to military response, if such agreements may portend their own eclipse? On the other hand, if national self-interest is to reign unchecked, in what dread calamity will modern history inevitably explode? It is no secret that the present course, if unaltered, could eventuate in full-scale nuclear warfare before the end of this century."

He goes on to call on evangelicals to not ignore God's purposes through government as an instrumentality of justice and order in a fallen society, and to be salt and light in a fallen society.

When one sees the hunger of Christians of all denominations and theological bents starving their souls while nursing at the government grant teat for food pantries, housing and neighborhood renewal, job training programs, and even marriage workshops, it's obvious that churches now find their calling in meeting bureaucratic goals.

"Not since the fall of the Roman empire have social decay and political unrest been as widespread as today," he concludes. It seems to be a very human frailty to believe you have it worse than any who came before, whether you are evangelical, atheist, humanist, or spiritually eclectic.

Bucks for Charity 2010--the list

Back in the 80s I received recognition at Ohio State for my donation to their community drive/campaign (don't recall what it was called then--United Way, I think). I got a pin, a certificate and an invitation to gather at the Union with the President, various board members and maybe a coach or too. Imagine my surprise when I found out the party was paid for by a beer company. Alcohol probably destroys the lives of more young college students than bad grades, unrequited love, and over reaching professors. That was the last time I donated--but I always read the list of organization that get a percentage.

First on the aggregate list this year is EarthShare Ohio. I just clicked through a few names on the list (there are more at the web site than on the printed list), and you don't have to go far to find some fairly radical names, events, and causes. If you see "environmental justice," "just us" turns out to be blacks and they'll take white people's money. So it looks like Earthshare Ohio gets 3.5% of the total, and then each group on its list gets a percentage of that (that is not clearly explained in the book), like American Farmland Trust gets 20.1% and The Wilds gets 11.6%, etc. Just glancing quickly through the page of Farmland Trust I see it pushed with some reservations the 2009 Food Safety Enhancement Act, which should increase the numbers of government workers and the cost of our food while promoting more safety, and most of the provisions look like they will hurt the little grower/farmer. Not sure I understand water quality trading.

EarthShare: Who We Support - America's most respected environmental charities

After EarthShare Ohio there is United Way of Central Ohio (11.8%), United Way of Delaware County (19.7%), United Way of Fairfield Country (9.9%), United Way of Licking county (21.6%), United Way of Pickaway County (14.5%), United Way of Union County (19.0%), United Negro College Fund (13%), Community Shares of Mid Ohio (6.3%), which supports NARAL Pro-Choice, and Community Health Charities of Ohio (9.6%).

So here's my suggestion. Look through the Bucks for Charity book and if you see something that interests you, look them up on the Internet, check out their mission statement and the names of the people on the board and what legislation, particularly environmental, they support. Remember this when you see the hoopla about man made global warming. They didn't begin measuring the climate's temperatures until the end of the last little ice age, so yes, it is getting warmer. . . that happens after an Ice Age. Also, a lot of those temperature gauges are on asphalt parking lots near concrete and brick buildings. I'm just saying. . . When you're satisfied you've found an organization that matches your values and life mission, send a check directly.

Morgan Stanley Feeding America ad

Today in the Wall Street Journal I saw a very clever ad sponsored by Morgan Stanley about "food insecurity."  It was a large graphic of a piece of broccoli in the shape of a brain.  The text: "One out of four children in this country struggles to get enough food for their bodies and minds to develop properly."

I think it's very nice to have corporate donors for food banks (Feeding America is the new name for Second Harvest). However, let's take a look at this 1 in 4 statistic. As of July 2009, the gross income ceiling to use a government funded food pantry (and that's virtually all of them, even the ones run by churches) was $21,659 for one person. There are probably many people in their first jobs who would qualify, but do they consider themselve "poor" or "hungry?" Then for a family of four the gross income figure is $44,099, and for a family of 6, it's almost $60,000.  Link.

So you see what's happening here, don't you? If you get a raise to $46,000 a year, you might lose certain "poverty" benefits. Maybe it's a special health program for a disabled child, or a certain housing allowance, or a tuition waiver (I haven't looked all those up because I think you need a PhD in government grants to figure out all 70 programs for the poor).

The very programs intended to help people get a toe hold on the middle class, to become independent and strong, in the long run hold them back unless they are exceptionally healthy, young and educated. And that's how voting blocks are created, serviced and maintained.

Remembering what it was like

She's older than Bookworm, who didn't even remember what Democrats did to blacks in the South, and I'm older than she, so what did we think of Republicans back in the days we were Democrats?

Read it here.

Obama's $200 million a day trip to India

This man just has no class. He's like the funny hat and smart uniform dictators they elect in Haiti.  He's totally oblivious to the messages he sends out. He has thrown his entire party under the bus. He calls over half the American population "enemies" and then he flees the country in the wake of an election he claims is a vote on his agenda!! Jon Stewart's Sanity Rally obviously had no affect on the President. This really is insane. I can see the need to take over an entire 600 room hotel, especially one that could be set up to be bombed because in Moslem countries, he's an infidel, not a Christian. Maybe he doesn't want to command an army, but a battalion of secret service, that's OK.  But $200 million a day when unemployment hovers at 10%, the food pantry lines are getting longer, and his abominable tax increases are set to kick in?

Will we see long term change for these women?

Last Tuesday I heard a very inspiring talk on our local NPR WOSU station, Ann Fisher's All Sides, with Judges Paul Herbert and Scott Van Der Karr about a court program to rescue women from prostitution. Link. They talked about drug treatment, safe housing, workshops, and Johns Schools, to go after the buyer.
Saving money, changing lives | The Columbus Dispatch

While browsing resources for women involved in prostitution, I've come across many sites that as a Christian, I wouldn't support, even if they are fighting prostitution. For instance, look what the curriculum for "Sanctuary for change" (funded in part by the HHS) provided its students, whose minds and bodies had already been abused for years!

"Women identified the following components of the curriculum as the most important piece of information that they would put into practice:

•“That I will use protection if I engage in sex ever.”
•“My learning to be assertive and living without my worrying about what others think of me. Living my life as being worthy.”
•“To be able to have an open dialogue about safe sex with a partner.”
•“My feelings are valid and I am in control of my body.”
•“Taking time out for me and safe sex.” "

I hope they don't give up showers and baths!

"Ohio State is participating in the first real-time, nationwide contest among colleges and universities to reduce electricity and water use in residence halls. Starting Monday (11/1), 40 colleges and universities are taking part in the Campus Conservation Nationals 2010, which challenges institutions to see which can conserve the most during a three-week period." OSUToday, Nov. 2, 2010

Spooky Dude--The George Soros Empire

I know a lot of Democrats personally who seem deathly afraid of Glenn Beck's influence. You know, the guy who next to Oprah has probably sent more Americans running off to the library or book store than any other modern commentator. They've never listened to or watched him, but do watch broadcast and cable shows that smear him and tell lies. They seem to be in favor of reading books and information on the web, unless it disturbs their favorite biases. These Democrats and/or "Independents" aren't afraid of Ariana Huffington, or Michael Moore or George Soros, all of whom are truly frightening in their power within the media and anti-American agenda, but they fear a man who tells you to do your own research, get down on your knees and pray with your children, and read the Constitution and founding fathers. Go figure.

But Beck IS very hard on George Soros. Beck is first and foremost an entertainer, and pretty good at cartoonish voices--he does a great imitation of the heavily accented (Hungarian) Soros. As Communists go, Soros is an extremely successful Capitalist. He couldn't have become so wealthy (richer than Bill Gates) living in a Communist country where he'd have to be active in the party to be a really good crook, but could in a free-market country, so he just tries to bring about our downfall by "buying" us. He's buying reporters for NPR, Secretaries of State offices, judgeships, advocating the legalization of marijuana to further stuptify brains, and running boycotts against those news organizations who tell the truth about him. Spooky dude, indeed!

The Soros Empire - George Soros - Fox Nation

Diversity, unity and multiculturalism

Ohio State's Board of Trustees has changed the name of the Office of Minority Affairs to the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. So what do all these words mean. Let's think about crackers.

Unity is the sign that says CRACKERS above your head in the supermarket.

Diversity means there are 13 different boxes of Ritz crackers--salted, unsalted, 2 stacks, 4 stacks, mini-crackers with peanut butter, whole wheat, snowflake design, low fat, more fiber, cheese flavored, etc.

Multicultural is the section with crackers from Israel, Mexico, Canada, with different shapes and textures, sometimes in small metal boxes screen printed in bright colors.

Inclusion is everything in that aisle, including the ones that look more like cookies than crackers, animal crackers, pretzels made in a Ritz cracker shape, English biscuits, graham crackers, etc., but which the stockers just didn't know where to place.

The New Left and today's liberal progressives

This article, about why the voters are so deeply dissatisfied with Obama and his policies, plays around with terms. He left out Communists and Socialists when describing the splits in the Democratic party. There's nothing "new" about the New Left, and there's nothing progressive about a liberal. Look at any American city attempting to enact their policies and you see more poverty, more crime and more hopelessness than ever before.

Henry Olsen at AEI.

Obama Is Heckled by AIDS Protesters

It's not often I have to defend President Obama, but truly, he really didn't mean he was funding AIDS--he meant he was funding the fight against AIDS. There's a huge difference you know. Get that man off teleprompter and you just don't know what he's going to say! Many extremist groups actually believe that the USA has released the AIDS virus on innocent Africa. But twice during his speech in Bridgeport, where he was be heckled not by religion clingingRepublicans or angry Tea Partiers, but leftist radicals, he said he was funding global AIDS. Even if he had said it correctly, it was Bush's program PEPFAR that was successful beyond their wildest dreams, and Obama hasn't been able to come even close. That's what the hecklers were mad about. Their guy stinks on their one and only issue.

"Obama was interrupted by college-age hecklers demanding more funding for the global fight against AIDS. They chanted, "Keep the promise," and unfurled banners with the same message. The protesters were booed. "Excuse me! Excuse me, young people!" Obama said, trying to regain control. "These folks have been, you've been appearing at every rally we've been doing. And we're funding global AIDS, and the other side is not. So I don't know why you think this is a useful... Link

Obama Is Heckled by AIDS Protesters - NYTimes.com

However, even when Bush is acknowledged as a leader in this area, he is disparaged by the media. Obama has done next to nothing, but arouses no criticism in the press.

UALC has final vote today

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which claims a membership of 10,400 congregations and 4.6 million baptized members, accepted a task force on sexuality recommendation to remove the celebacy restriction for its gay and lesbian pastors in August 2009. This was not a vote to have gay pastors marry each other or to marry congregants--this was a vote to remove the celebacy requirement for openly gay and lesbian pastors. The old "committeed, loving relationship" routine.

This caused splits in many congregations, and not a blip in other. Under the ELCA’s rules, congregations that wish to disaffiliate themselves must take two votes passing by a two-thirds majority, with a 90-day consultation period with the local bishop scheduled between the votes. The congregation officially cuts off ties with the denomination upon passage of the second vote.

According to an Illinois paper by the end of June, 462 congregations had cast their first votes to leave the ELCA, with 312 adopting the resolution. Of these, 196 congregations have taken their second vote, with only 11 congregations opting not to leave the ELCA. Our church voted almost 92% to leave on the first vote and 95% on the second. The crowds were the largest I've ever seen in our church, outside a special musical concert.

I know members of other Lutheran congregations who will never have the opportunity to discuss it, or to vote on leaving, because either the church board or pastor won't allow it to even come up. You can have all the constitutional documents you want, you can all use the same Bible, but if no one is reading either one, it doesn't make a lot of difference.

In the ELCA homosexuals are invited to be full members, to share in the sacraments, and to be treated in all ways as heterosexuals. But let's remember the gold standard in virtually all churches is chastity and celebacy outside of marriage.

I was going through Google to see when ELCA (created in 1988) began accepting openly gay pastors, and it appears the local congregations never had a say in that. Some pastors finishing seminary simply announced shortly before ordination that they were gay, so they were told in order to have the church's blessings they'd need to be celebate. That may have been the early 90s. Maybe they (I think they were all women) didn't exactly lie when entering seminary, but they surely had their fingers crossed when the discussion of sex outside of marriage came up.

If a heterosexual, married pastor declared love for a non-spousal other, saying they have a "loving committed relationship" about which they need to be open in order to be culturally relevant for our times, and that Jesus didn't address a ménage à trois as a sin, not many congregations would swallow that line of reasoning, no matter how "normal" the sex drive is of the pastor. But give ELCA a few years, and it will be up for a vote.

21st-Century Social Media Literacies

This author writes, in part, about crap detection. I think I've found some.

Attention, and Other 21st-Century Social Media Literacies (EDUCAUSE Review) | EDUCAUSE

Morgenstern needs to get out of the East coast bubble

Joe Morgenstern wrote a review of the film "Wecome to the Riley's" in last week's Wall Street Journal. He didn't particularly like it. Sounds pretty awful to me--would I pay that much and go to a theater for that or wait til it comes to the dollar theater?

But what I noticed was this line, "Doug (James Gandolfini) speaks for unspecified reasons, in a Southern accent" although the play takes place in Indianapolis.

I guess he's never lived in Illinois, Indiana, or Ohio, just a little below the center line, because a Midwestern speech pattern here (and I've lived in all three) might just sound "southern" to someone living in the northeast or New York City. We have a heavy dose of Appalachian English around here, which by the way, is the way the Scots Irish immigrants spoke English in the 17th and 18th centuries, Mr. Morgenstern. Their English just might be more pure than yours. To my ear, most of my Indianapolis relatives sound "southern," but then I grew up in northern Illinois, and still put and R in Washington.

Welcome to the Rileys, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, and Monsters | Film Reviews by Joe Morgenstern - WSJ.com

A holy experience

"It killed my Dad that he worked the dirt to pay the taxes to pay the checks of teachers who told his kids that working the dirt wasn’t worthy work."

A beautiful love story.

In defense of food. You'll love this.

There is no Gay Teen Suicide Epidemic

This morning in a class at church a retired teacher commented on the gay teen suicide epidemic. I told her there were no statistics to back up this claim that gay teens are bullied and then commit suicide. "Oh yes," she said, "I've attended workshops on this." Now that I believe. However, the so called statistics are urban legends and are from a jumble of bad information. This was disproved 8 or 9 years ago. Ritch Savin-Williams says gay teens are just as psychologically healthy as other teens and just as resilient.

Just like the phony "death by abortion" statistics we got in the 1960s, these are politically based and biased for a different agenda. Even one suicide, for what ever reason, is too many, but there is no gay teen suicide epidemic. As a demographic, gay men and women are very successful, the best educated and highest paid group in our society. I suspect that as teens they were rather resilient, smart and brave. . . maybe more so than other groups. Also, they do their share of bullying, of each other, and straight teens.

Do you know what is killing and maiming teen-agers at an alarming rate? Automobile accidents and sports injuries. Each Year over 5,000 teens ages 16 to 20 die due to fatal injuries caused by car accidents. About 400,000 drivers age 16 to 20 will be seriously injured. These are not urban legends--these are reportable, verifiable statistics, plus they are deaths that in many cases could be prevented if we had the collective guts to raise the driving age to 18! Snowmobiling, with speeds of 90 miles per hour and vehicle weights of more than 600 lbs., causes 200 deaths and 14,000 accidents yearly. And school buses? In 2002, 26 children ages 14 and under were killed, and in 2001 an estimated 4,500 were injured in school bus-related incidents. More than 40 percent of these deaths were child pedestrians.

What about dog bites? From 1979 to 1996, 304 people in the USA died from dog attacks and 30 in 2009 alone. How does that compare to deaths by suicide caused by bullying--a statistic that just doesn't exist?

How do you know a gay teen doesn't commit suicide from unrequited love--just like straight teens--he is madly in love with someone who rejects him. Because of his youth and inexperience, life seems without value and meaning. If he was teased or bullied on Tuesday and commits suicide on Thursday after a text message from his boyfriend who is dumping him, is it the bullying, the boyfriend, or his own insecurities?

Is There a Gay Teen Suicide Epidemic? | Homosexuality, Lesbian & Gay Teen Suicide, Sexual Orientation | LiveScience

The holiday food drives are coming!

You can help the unemployed and low-income while helping your local economy. As the holidays near, you'll be getting a lot of appeals for food drives and food pantries. Many will ask for checks or donations because they can buy a lot of food for each donated dollar, much more economically than we can, because those bulk warehouses and food producers/brands are based on federal grants to states and agricultural surplus created by government planning (i.e., they aren't really cheaper if you look behind the curtain).

However, I suggest you actually purchase the food locally to help your local businesses and their employees and the whole chain of supply that isn't government sponsored or getting government grants. This time of year health and beauty aids are always appreciated. I don't like to buy giant bottles of shampoo for our use, but I've seen some brands for under $1.00, so I will buy one or two for each bag that goes to the food pantry.

Many food pantries are stressing healthier foods, so salt-free and sugar-free canned items are also appreciated. Thirty years ago we volunteers were told that many poor people didn't have adequate cooking equipment--like refrigeration, stoves or microwaves--but these days, I suspect they don't have adequate cooking knowledge. Macaroni and cheese, potato soup, navy bean soup and red beans with rice are all very inexpensive and nutritious, but how many women (or men) know how to make those Depression era delights?

The Ford Women

In today's Wall St. Journal there is a very attractive ad for women in the automotive industry. Apparently Automotive News did a feature on 100 of them. The photo includes 19 executive women at Ford (2 are not in the photo). So I took a closer, fashion look to see if there's something to be learned. I'm assuming they all had a little help with make-up and style, maybe not the two from "What not to wear" on TLC, but at least an advisor.

Of the 19 women in the Ford photo

1. 15 are in pants, 4 are in skirts
   
2. 13 are wearing black and white
   
3. 5 are in shades of grey
   
4. 1 is wearing a taupe jacket with black (Barb Samardzich, 51, who might be at the highest level, although I don't know the meaning of all the job titles
   
5. only one woman is black, none are Asian, if any are Hispanic, they must be more Spanish than Indian because I couldn't tell
   
6. only one had a really short hair cut
   
7. 7 had shoulder length or longer hair styles
   
8. 9 had chin length hair styles
   
9. one had ear lobe length hair
   
10. one had below the chin, above the shoulder length hair
    
11. only two appeared to be overweight
    
12. only one appeared to really thin (hard to tell)
    
13. all had fabulous shoes and good make-up

Good job, ladies.

Maybe he can answer my question

Today I wrote to Patrick P. O'Carroll, Jr., Inspector General of the Social Security Administration. In September he wrote (or his staff did) a report on the dead people and convicts who received the $250 stimulus check back in 2009. 71,688 beneficiaries were deceased and received about $18 million and 17,348 beneficiaries were incarcerated and received $4.3 million. I always wondered why I received one because people with teacher's pensions aren't allowed to "double dip" so I don't get a Social Security check. If there's going to be a clawback, I don't want to wait until they've added a few hundred in interest. I won't hold my breath to see if he answers.

Zombie payments

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) has just released a new report on the payments by the U.S. government to over 250,000 deceased individuals--$1.1 Billion of that was to farmers. The title is Federal Programs to Die for. This is a decade long report, so it spans both the Bush and Obama administrations, however, the failure belongs to Congress which has oversite over these Agencies which have misspent the money.

"Since 2000, the known cost of these payments to over 250,000 deceased individuals has topped $1 billion, according to a review of government audits and reports by the Government Accountability Office, inspectors general, and Congress itself. This is likely only a small picture of a much larger problem. Among the agencies making payments to the deceased:

• The Social Security Administration sent $18 million in stimulus funds to 71,688 dead people and $40.3 million in questionable benefit payments to 1,760 dead people.

• The Department of Health and Human Services sent 11,000 dead people $3.9 million in assistance to pay heating and cooling costs.

• The Department of Agriculture sent $1.1 billion in farming subsidies to deceased farmers.

• The Department of Housing and Urban Development overseeing local agencies knowingly distributed $15.2 million in housing subsidies to 3,995 households with at least one deceased person.

• Medicaid paid over $700,000 in claims for prescriptions for controlled substances written for over 1,800 deceased patients and prescriptions for controlled substances written by 1,200 deceased doctors.

• Medicare paid as much as $92 million in claims for medical supplies prescribed by dead doctors and $8.2 million for medical supplies prescribed for dead patients.

• Congress has established HIV/AIDS funding distribution based on historic numbers of deceased HIV/AIDS patients, while many individuals living with AIDS desperately wait for medical care."

Since almost 72,000 deceased individuals got the $250 stimulus check through the Social Security Administration, I guess I shouldn't worry that I got one, even though I don't get a Social Security check.

The Cat Club Register of 100 years ago

The National Library of Agriculture has a digital archive of fascinating publications--The Cat Club Register, is one of them. I've chosen my cats' creative, interesting names from horse registries, because they seem to have all the great names. But 100 years ago, there were some good ones for cats:

The Prince of Orange

Oliver Woolleepug

and Tortietumtee, a tortoiseshell female whose sire was unknown, but her mommy, who was out catting around, was named Toddiegoloddie

In this archive I also found a 1942 typed report of a government lab attempting to create rubber from the goldenrod plant--this was an invention of Thomas Edison who had used this process to create tires for his friend Henry Ford's Model T. He had turned it over to the U.S. government in 1930, which did nothing about it until it was desperate for rubber during WWII.

This one, Small gardens for small folks, 1912, is really precious. The author, Edith Loring Fullerton, uses photos of her own children, and it was published by W. Atlee Burpee for distribution by the USDA.

Thomas Friedman's predictable election rant

Who is Friedman kidding by blaming Republicans (and indirectly the Tea Party supporters and candidates who are the only life in this current campaign) for our economic mess? Democrats have been in control of Congress for the last four years (and most of my life time), so let's plot a graph. They are in charge of all the major cities; they've pushed all the major social legislation since FDR's New Deal and the Johnson War on Poverty, which statistically he is showing has failed, and under their President Barack Obama, have spent more money with fewer results than any administration in our history. And then with Katie Couric and Barack Obama, he blames the great unwashed, the vast fly-over couch potatoes and gun clingers watching TV evangelists, for the mess instead of the well-heeled, well- educated, beltway revolving door lobbies, and Ivy League crowd that have gotten us here with misguided, incredibly expensive social engineering.

Thanks, Mr. Friedman, for your usual, insightful drivel.

Thomas Friedman: Election rhetoric shows you can't keep a bad idea down | Viewpoints, Outlook | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

Video Shows MoveOn.org Activist

Have you seen the video of the "stomping?" Someone wrestled a woman in disguise to the ground who was lunging at Rand Paul. Another person, Tim Proffit, held her down by placing his foot on her shoulder. No one stomped her head. Don't you wish someone would have wrestled Sirhan Sirhan to the ground before he shot Bobby Kennedy? How about the instructions we get these days about being the first line of attack in tackling terrorists on the plane? Go for it! So how is anyone suppose to guess an agitator's intentions, especially since she was in a rather obvious disguise? Now it turns out there is new video which shows her to be a liar, too, about where she was and what she was doing. The video shows that Valle reached in the candidate’s window with her “RepubliCorp” sign and shoved it in his face. It was the people who nabbed her who told the man to back off and got the police. Lauren Valle is a professional agitator for MoveOn.org.

The American Spectator : AmSpecBlog : New Video Shows MoveOn.org Activist Lunging at Rand Paul's Vehicle

Law and Order and the Soda Police

Yes, this is the bias that drove me crazy about Law and Order--any version of it. The criminal was never a minority, or the homeless person, or the career criminal scum bag--the criminal was usually, 1) a religious, pious person, 2) the spouse, 3) a policeman or a judge or 4) a family member. Ripped from the headlines--oh yeah!

[Law and Order: SUV, Oct. 13] "Not only is she [the dead victim] guilty of killing children with soda, she’s also guilty of building gyms for underprivileged communities in her corporation’s name. Good thing she’s dead! In true Law & Order form, the episode has a (predictable) twist: it seems that Lindsay wasn’t killed for her soda-peddling after all, but over a personal grudge. Yet the real message of the episode is clear: soda is the new tobacco. It’s the monster in the closet; it’s coming for your children; and it’s to blame for whatever’s wrong with your life.

ObamaTV on NBC: ‘Law & Order: Soda Police’

Most ridiculous scare tactics

Today I heard a leftist radio commentary tying Timothy McVeigh not only to the Republicans but to the Tea Party (which isn't a party, no one is registered, and no one is in charge). McVeigh wasn't a Republican. He also wasn't a Christian, as Juan Williams suggested in his own misguided defense of himself for being fired for saying something about Muslims. McVeigh was a crazy agnostic who hated the United States of America. Then the appeal was for Sarah Palin to take charge of all these right wing crazies so we could avoid another Oklahoma City--like they care. But if he were a Christian right wing political crazy, he was caught and executed pretty darn fast. That's more than we can say about captured jihadists. Even mentioning their religion can get you fired.

Come on guys. Get a grip. Point A will never get to point B if you jump to X Y and Z.

Chevron ads

A few years ago, the Chevron ads were trying to tell us how beautiful it is that we have abundant supplies of natural energy. Now they are trying to tell us how green they are. I sort of like this ad, and I think we could all really be inspired by the words . . . saw it in the Wall Street Journal.

"Something's got to be done.

So we're going to do it."

Actually, oil, coal and natural gas are beautiful . . . put there by God through decayed vegetation for use later by the people he created. In God's economy nothing is wasted--not even dead plants. If you've ever created a mulch bed to put on your organic garden, it's the same principle.

The interesting thing about rich corporations is that they didn't get that way by hiring dumb people or designing and selling stupid ads. Chevron and all the other petroleum giants are heavy into wind, biofuels, carbon exchanges, and anything else that can be marketed as "green."

All our energy is still going to be controlled by the same global entities. When the EPA puts the Ohio coal miners out of work, you can be sure that the stockholders won't be hurt all that much, although the businesses in Ohio certainly will be. These companies have huge lobbies that control the regulations, and those regulations will always take advantage of the smaller companies--even those worth billions. The more companies, local or state, or national, that a global entity can put out of business through higher taxes and more regulations, the better for them. That's why you often see giant corporations supporting Democratic candidates. Follow the money.

Ophthalmologist

On October 17 I notified the CMS that it had misspelled ophthalmologist on the web page about glaucoma. No one replied, and it hasn't been corrected as of today (October 27, 2010). I guess they are too busy planning the next Obamacare bill.

https://www.cms.gov/GlaucomaScreening/

Mixed Findings in Study of Vegetables and Breast Cancer Risk

Speaking of burst health bubbles--vegetables/fruit intake apparently has no association with overall breast cancer risk.

"High vegetable consumption is associated with a significantly lower risk for estrogen receptor-negative/progesterone receptor-negative (ER-/PR-) breast cancer in black women, according to results from the Black Women's Health Study reported online October 11 in the American Journal of Epidemiology. However, there was no association of total fruit/vegetable intake with overall breast cancer risk, and the investigators suggest that their significantly positive finding of a lower risk for ER-/PR- breast cancer could possibly be due to chance as a result of multiple comparisons."

Mixed Findings in Study of Vegetables and Breast Cancer Risk

Everyone seems to be looking for that big vitamin C/scurvey or clean water/cholera or hand washing/infection break through. Don't smoke. Eat all the colors, exercise, and do a lot of your own food prep. It may not cure your ailments, but you'll look and feel better. Then stop the government nanny state mentality and don't let your city council or the federal government tell you what you can and can't eat.

Out of the darkness with a smile

Two weeks ago the world watched and waited while 33 coal miners were brought up out of a dark cave. As they emerged one by one, they had big smiles on their faces, they were praising God and hugging friends and family. A few days ago my Aunt Betty, 78, was also released from a dark cave--Alzheimer's Disease. I'm sure she was greeted by her Lord and Savior and her friends and relatives, and she had that gorgeous smile we all remember and probably was telling a joke and looking for her golf clubs. We'll all miss you Betty, and we rejoice with you in your release and homecoming!

Why Most Published Research Findings Are False

The current issue of Atlantic has an article by David H. Freedman, "Lies, damned lies, and medical science." It's primarily about the work of one man, John Ioannidis (pronounced yo-NEE-dees). I had just been reading a current issue of JAMA about the ongoing controversy about HRT for women experiencing hot flashes during menopause. "Estrogen Plus progestin and breast cancer incidence and mortality in postmenopausal women" JAMA p. 1684, Oct. 30, 2010. Truly, you could get whip lash trying to follow this! In the early 90s, I remember a nurse friend of mine saying that HRT was practically the magic bullet for women--benefitted the heart, controlled osteoporosis and could fight Alzheimer's. There was, even then, some concern about elevated estrogen levels and breast cancer, but heart disease is a bigger killer of women than breast cancer, and osteoporosis kills many older women in falls and deforms their bodies worse than a lost breast, and Alzheimer's? That is a frightening disease.

In 2002, the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) was stopped early because of evidence that estrogen/progestin (made from horse urine) was increasing the risk of breast cancer AND myocardial infarction AND risk of stroke and pulmonary embolism. Big oops, right? And while reading this I started to jot down other big oops we've heard over the years like Vitamin E, fish oil, Fosamax, and drink 8 glasses of water a day.

One ongoing medical/social controversy is DDT. Millions and millions of Africans have died since U.S. environmentalists in the 70s scared it off the market. The research is terribly contradictory, but facts are facts--millions of people, mostly children, who would have been alive are dead or injured for life. There could have been something done that reached a middle ground before the parasties were again allowed free rein to multiply to a trillion cells in a few days and consume half a person's volume of blood. Folks, this is an excruciating way to die! All for thin shells of birds.

Then when I met AZ for coffee she gave me a copy of Freedman's article. It seems it is based primarily on the 2005 article that John Ioannidis published in Public Library of Science: Medicine. Ioannidis has recently been appointed to Stanford Prevention Research Center.

PLoS Medicine: Why Most Published Research Findings Are False

Good writing of dirty stories?

I think I'll pass.

Samuel Steward [OSU alum] became a tattoo artist, a gay porn writer, a researcher with Alfred Kinsey on his landmark sex project, a friend of Gertrude Stein and other modernist writers, and the lover of Rudolph Valentino, Thornton Wilder, and Rock Hudson, to name just a few."

No, considering the amount of disease and grief that promiscuous gay sex has brought to modern life, I don't think I'll attend Justin Spring's lecture.

Wexner Center for the Arts: Public Programs - Writer's Reading / Justin Spring on / In Search of Samuel Steward: Rediscovering an OSU Professor Turned Sexual Revolutionary

From PW publicity at Amazon.com: "Life in the closet proves boisterous indeed in this biography of an iconic figure of the pre-Stonewall gay demimonde. Steward (1909–1993) was an English professor, a novelist who wrote both well-received literary fiction and gay porn, a confidant of Gertrude Stein and Thornton Wilder, a furtive but exuberant erotic adventurer whose taste for sailors, rough trade, and violent sadomasochism endeared him to sex researcher Alfred Kinsey; later in life, he became Phil Sparrow, official tattoo artist of the Oakland, Calif., Hell's Angels. Spring (Paul Cadmus) fleshes out this colorful story by quoting copiously from his subject's highly literate journals and sex diaries—his Stud File contained entries on trysts with everyone from Rudolph Valentino to Rock Hudson—which afford an unabashed account of Steward's erotic picaresque and the yearnings that drove it. (His swerve from academia into tattooing, with its mix of physical pain and proximity to nubile male flesh, was essentially a fetish turned into a business.) Spring's sympathetic and entertaining story of a life registers the limitations imposed on homosexuals by a repressive society, but also celebrates the creativity and daring with which Steward tested them."

Residential Knowledge Community

As a librarian, I've been called a lot of things (never over-paid, though)--information specialist, database architect, knowledge manager, associate professor, department head, etc. So I'm used to odd titles. Architects? Not so much. So "residential knowledge community" was new to me. Apparently means those careers and professions that design and build homes suitable for living and lasting longer than a generation.

Here's the assessment of David Andreozzi of Rhode Island, and interestingly enough, this was exactly how I've felt about architecture the last 40 years--especially Frank Lloyd Wright in the early 20th century and the 80s guy who designed the Wexner Center on the OSU campus, Peter Eisenman:

"A century long love affair with modernity combined with a desire to create star architects have morphed our profession into celebrating architecture, that at times goes so for to the extreme that it begins to ignore building codes, fails to adequately satisfy program requirements, and encourages state of the art experimentation over proven technology, in order to proclaim invention over creating architecture. We live in a time of starchitects that design sculpture with secondary program placed upon it, and we all celebrate this as good. It can be argued that our current paradigm actually discriminates against history, environmental scale, and individual culture in architecture in whole."

To say nothing of on-going costs! Eisenman's design won out in a competition and has locked Ohio into a perpetual repair program due to the design which has cost us millions more. The building is dysfunctional and disorienting to the senses. Entire foundations exist to do nothing but restore Wright's buildings which ignored everything then known about environmental damage and we're paying for it now as buildings fall apart and anyone over 5'5" feels squashed walking through one of his homes.

More on Vivian Schiller firing Juan Williams at NPR

"Schiller, a former New York Times executive, is one of a few dozen power players working with the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and a leftist group called Free Press to ‘reinvent journalism.’ That’s how the FTC describes it. The FCC calls what they are doing the ‘Future of Journalism.’ Free Press, a think tank funded by leftist billionaire George Soros, among others, calls it ‘the new public media.’" Link

So the next time NPR asks you for money during one of the excutiatingly boring fund raisers, just say you gave with your taxes. If you google "NPR Project Argo" you'll see there is no need for your subscription, nor your taxes. NPR's doing just fine in the money department. The government owns the health industry, automobile industry and is soon to take over much of energy, so why not media?

Florence van Erb Left Wall Street for a Non-Profit Career with Making Mothers Matter

It's easier to make an impact resolving societal injustices if you skip the social work or education degree, do something to create wealth, then switch careers or retire, and put your money and your business experience to work. Florence von Erb has an MBA and a successful Wall Street career and now saves women involved in international prostitution. Yesterday on our local NPR station I heard a program about prostitution in Franklin County and a program to redirect their lives. Also the man said they expect a large increase in prostitution when the new casino opens. See what we get when we want easy money?

Florence van Erb Left Wall Street for a Non-Profit Career with Making Mothers Matter - WSJ. Magazine - WSJ

Let's not get theological . . .

A lesbian Lutheran pastor is proud of her role in "ending discrimination" against non-celibate homosexual pastors in her church.

See my church blog.

How we got here--2006-2010

800 rooms in Mumbai

Yes, that's probably a record for a presidential visit. Despite his bowing and scraping, I suspect President Barack Obama is viewed as an infidel, and thus worthy of being taken out by some jihadist who'd like martyrdom status for the next life. (Muslims have a works based system for eternal life; Christians are saved by grace.) So frankly, I think he needs all those rooms for his security forces and maybe decoys. Although I don't understand the need to visit the red light district. Don't we have plenty of that in the USA?

Barack Obama's Indian delegation 'books 800 rooms in Mumbai' - Telegraph

Aren't you proud to be an American?

Sarah Palin appeared at a Tea Party gathering in Arizona today. She encouraged the crowd to vote. Trig seems to enjoy politics just as much as his Mom, and clapped when she said "Aren't you proud to be an American?"

Photos from Yahoo.

The liberal no-nothings chastised her for the 1773--thinking it should have been 1776. But 1773 was the Tea Party, not the revolution. Something to think about--not only do the libs support aborting little guys like Trig, but they know nothing about our history.

Reporting the news without the facts

I just watched a video of a Professor of Political Science of Iowa State University called Dr. Politics and he was commenting on the firing of Juan Williams by NPR. He got so many of the actual facts and details wrong, I won't even link to him. What's the point, when you have an obviously liberal commentator in fly over country who hasn't even watched the tape of the exchange of Juan Williams with Bill O'Reilly?

He thought the problem was that an NPR employee was even appearing on Fox. Well, where else will they be able to find a liberal point of view to be fair and balanced? With one of their competitors? Technically, NPR belongs to we the people, right? And isn't Fox people? Fox pays NPR's salaries, building costs, equipment and utilities through the funnelling of money from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (15% from feds, but it's actually higher if you figure out all the tax breaks to foundations and members to contribute) to the local stations (who don't have to follow any of the rules the other commercial stations do), which then pay NPR for their own programming. It's called laundering federal grant money.

Hey, Dr. Politics. Do your homework!

Plus, he never even took off his dark glasses for the little rant. I don't like it when they interview bumble bees.

In her own back yard

Condi Rice was a Professor at Stanford University, a world traveler, a news analyst, an author, but most importantly for her, the daughter of two educators who sacrificed for her education, piano lessons, and her involvement in sports like skating and tennis. So she was shocked to discover when asked to deliver an elementary school graduation address that the ceremony was elaborate because 70% of the children would not finish high school. She was embarrassed that she'd lived in Palo Alto for a decade and knew little about the community.

"In 1991, Peninsula philanthropist Susan Ford and then Stanford University Professor Dr. Condoleezza Rice co-founded the Center for a New Generation, an innovative after-school academic enrichment program. The goal of the program was to increase the high school graduation rate in the Ravenswood City School District by helping middle school students prepare for high school and college. To accomplish this, the program focused on core subjects including Math and Language Arts. Electives such Art and Music were offered to help students express their imagination and creativity. Since the mid-1990s, CNG has been located at the James Flood Magnet School in Menlo Park . 130 students are enrolled in the program at Flood this year.

In 1996 CNG merged with the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Peninsula . Since that time, the program has continued to evolve. In recent years, 100% of graduating eighth graders have been accepted to prestigious private high schools including St. Francis, Sacred Heart, Eastside College Prep or other college matriculation focused programs in the community." Link

In her book (ch. 32) she points out that their efforts were not welcomed by the various nonprofits in East Palo Alto run by resident of the city. They were little more than job programs for the staffs of the organizations, money flowed to them from foundations and corporations, and there was little accountability. Misguided noblesse oblige, she says does little to help kids and is in fact guilt money.

Reading between the lines with Condi

Having almost finished Condoleezza Rice's memoir, Extraordinary, Ordinary People, I'm impressed and alternately bored. First, it's a remarkable story of a loving, supportive family and a dutiful daughter, an only child. Second, she's quite a name dropper, and I think has included everyone who was anyone or could become a someone or is now a has been. Maybe all autobiographies are that way--I usually read biographies. However, I think she has some subtle messages for conservatives who are so quick (like me) to criticize Barack Obama's administration.

1. Her father was obviously a powerful influence in her life, and the friends he made along the way, who sat at their kitchen table in days before public accomdations for blacks were as good as what whites had, would cause great concern if someone wanted to stir up trouble about her "associations." Her father was, however, a conservative Republican, but believed in honest, confrontational dialogue with those whose political ideas were different--i.e., radical blacks. She also numbers among her friends today many black Democrats. Based on the black Republicans I've seen on Glenn Beck's show, I'm guessing she voted for Obama. If you were black, wouldn't you in 2008, before you really understood what he was about?

2. She makes no apologies for affirmative action that most likely got her established at Stanford at a young age and before she had a strong publication record--she knows she was good enough, or better than other candidates, but she is honest about the need of the department to move ahead with minority faculty hiring.

3. She makes no apologies for the academic tenure system, in fact, calls herself a fan. Even so, she says, "it's true that university faculty since the 1960s have been overwhelmingly liberal. I strongly believe that students would be better served by a wider range of views and an environment that challenges the liberal orthodoxy that is so pervasive in universities today . . . conservative colleagues say that they simply censor themselves in political debates. I have never felt the need to do so." Odd that she doesn't see the similarity to blacks in the south who needed to submit to indignities to keep their jobs and security, nor that being a black female she has a double layer of protection against the anger and narrow mindedness of the left wing academics.

4. She notes from her early experience as a staffer in the National Security Council how many offices and agencies make decisions that could/should be made by Congress or the President. (Iran-Contra was devised and carried out by NSC.) This today is one of the big issues about the Obama government and its growing list of "czars," people appointed who have great power, but have never been vetted or confirmed and who by-pass the representative government. On p. 247, she called Brent Scowcroft "the most important man in Washington whom few Americans could identify in a photo lineup" and who wanted his NSC staff out of the limelight (something she couldn't do as a black woman).

Biblio Magazine for sale

The day had to come. I just don't have enough space to keep things I don't use or need.  I wasn't a very good collector--when I was a subscriber I always intended to buy Vol. 1, but never did.  You always think you have more time than you really do.   I have complete volumes (12 issues) of Vol. 2 and Vol. 3, plus 4 issues of Vol. 4 (discontinued at vol.4 no.4) of Biblio magazine, probably the sweetest magazine about books, manuscripts, ephemera, collectors and publishers that ever was published (issn 1087-5581).  Top quality paper and printing, too.  Will sell as a set, not individually.

I also have the first 6 issues (Fall 1994 to Spring 1997) of Counter, published by the University of Iowa Center for the Book with articles and reviews concerning the history of the book and the arts and technologies of the book.  Not sure who would be interested except libraries missing an issue or two.

NPR Announces Plan to Bolster News Coverage of State Government Nationwide

George Soros, powerful wealthy Communist, is funding NPR journalists so they can be more "open and transparent," and then Juan Williams gets fired for admitting he's occasionally fearful of men in Muslim garb. Woot! That was fast, wasn't it. Doesn't some of our tax dollars go to fund NPR (National Public Radio) and don't many of my liberal friends and relatives just hang on every word? Whew! Well, at least NPR is an equal opportunity boss--Juan Williams is black, and he occasionally appears on Fox as the liberal commentator. A real two-fer, but I want my tax money back! Dump, turn off, excoriate NPR! Not only is it taking money from an open Communist, but it is practicing employment terrorism by firing anyone who doesn't toe the standard line.

Soros also created (with help from Mrs. Clinton) Media Matters, and is giving money to Huffington Post, which really didn't need any more help to fall over the cliff, but it probably wasn't making enough money to support all those nut cakes who after all, want to be paid their fair share too.

NPR Announces Plan to Bolster News Coverage of State Government Nationwide | U.S. Programs | Open Society Foundations

Canadian killer Russell Williams

I'm guessing there are more dead women in the cold case files, but what I found surprising (AP report) is the sentence may be only 25 years? Maybe if one of them were a lesbian he could get life?

The 47-year-old, who until nine months ago was running Canada’s busiest air force base, pleaded guilty to more than 80 sex crimes, including two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of sexual assault and dozens upon dozens of thefts of lingerie and women’s clothing. But his guilty pleas – which were so extensive it took a court clerk 34 minutes to read his crimes into the record – were a sideshow to an almost theatrical exposé of his sexual depravity. In his address to Mr. Justice Robert Scott, assistant Crown attorney Robert Morrison underscored how more than a dozen of his victims were under the age of 18, girls young enough to have dolls placed on their beds, or Tweety bird emblazoned on their underwear. In the end, the colonel’s steadfast routine of photographing and documenting every last step of his lingerie thefts was his undoing; the prosecution displayed photo after photo on two flat-screen televisions of the colonel sprawled out on numerous beds adorned with flowery duvets and wearing all manner of women’s and girl’s clothing: bras, slips, thongs and negligees. In most of the photos he is fondling himself, and in all of the photos he is wearing the same focused and determined look on his face. His method of breaking into homes varied from slipping through an open window, to picking locks, to cutting open screens.

Not only evil, but creepy. So much for harmless cross-dressing and sexual fetishes never leading anywhere.

Liberals on Conservatives

A conservative who veers to the left is "growing," "sensitive to complexities," "nuanced," and "puts public interest ahead of ideology."

A conservative must not "impose their views" on the rest of society," and is suspect as a candidate for public life if those views are formed by Christianity (but not Islam, Buddism or Judaism).

Choice is good if killing an unborn child, but bad if the child's mother wants him to attend an alternative, charter school.

Murders at Ft. Hood trial of Muslim doctor need to be on the 5th or 6th page of the newspaper; bullying of a gay teen deserves front page story.

Serial murders of women that go on for years are just a crime, but a murder of a homosexual is a hate crime.

Disinformation in marketing by a for-profit company needs congressional hearings; disinformation in inflation (3000%) of illegal abortion death statistics to get Roe v. Wade passed was necessary for the greater good.

A gay politician like Barney Frank who is crooked and lies, whose partners have loose lips, is lauded and applauded, but a gay politican who is Republican like Mark Foley is hounded out of office. If a gay Democrat harrasses a staff member, it's business as usual; if a gay Republican does it he's a pervert especially if he's been in the closet. The victim, apparently, matters not at all.

Liberals push condoms, not marriage and fatherhood, and are very critical of conservatives who push chastity as a solution to poverty.

Christine O'Donnell and Sharron Angle, Republican candidates who have never spent a penny of your tax dollars or declared a war lost while our soldiers are still in harm's way are kooks and radicals, but Harry Reid, Chris Coons and Nancy Pelosi, entrenched Democrats, are just fine and trustworthy.

If bank employees don't read all the documents in a foreclosure, they are evil tools of the fat cat bankers; if congressmen or the President don't read a healthcare or a banking bill of 2,000+ pages, well, that's just the cost of doing the government's business.

More to come.

Pot to Kettle--Arne Duncan to investigate "for profit" education

Don't you just love it? With most of the failing students in the U.S.A., including here in Columbus where drop-out rates are deflated and graduation rates are inflated (only include those who started 12th grade) and even our local Columbus Dispatch doesn't really investigate the figures, Arne Duncan, Obama's Secretary of Education decides that for-profit schools need to show they are worthy of taxpayer money,

"These schools and their investors benefit from billions of dollars in taxpayers subsidies, and in return, taxpayers have a right to know that all of these programs are providing solid preparation for a job," Press Release, Sept. 24

Taxpayer dollars are going for all sorts of gimmicks and geegaws, Mr. Duncun, public school and teachers have to pay union dues whether or not they are union members. And NEA and AFT donated mega bucks for the Obama campaign. Considering this puff piece (do you hate teachers' unions, how old are your kids, do you see the President often), I don't expect much from our alert media now that there are no Bushes or Reagans in office.

And here's a press release about collusion collaboration between Arne Duncan and the AFT and NEA, to restore the public image of teachers' unions. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours, as the saying goes.

At least Arne Duncan sends his children to Arlington (VA) schools and not to private school like most legislators, the president, and government high level employees. Arlington's schools are perfectly fine, so he's not making any sacrifice, but could he make this attack against for-profit education if his daughter were in private school?

How to Nudge Consumers to Be Environmentally Friendly

It wasn't so long ago we were being urged to switch to plastic bags to save trees, and to use electric wall mounted hand dryers that blow fecal material around rest rooms to save the environment. Some of them can damage the ear drums--sound like jet planes taking off. The recycling instructions for paper and plastic are so complicated, I just don't bother any more. Now we're not supposed to use any bags at all, except those we bring with us. We Bruces use up most of our plastic bags--we have a cat, and we have paper, food and plastic garbage, books that need to be transported in the rain, and goods donated to worthy causes. Most plastic bags these days are so thin that we can only use half of what I bring home.

This summer at Lakeside, the association was selling reusable canvas bags for us to take to the farmers' market. Problem for me was they were made in China where they still use dirty coal.

Does peer pressure work? All your neighbors are . . . yada yada. I liked this response

"When George Binns, a retired engineer in Beverly, Mass., received an OPower report from his utility showing that he was using 64% more energy than his most efficient neighbors, he resolved to do exactly nothing. "I'm not a traveling man," he says. "I don't go on guilt trips.""

How to Nudge Consumers to Be Environmentally Friendly - WSJ.com

Bloodlands -- new book on Stalin and Hitler

To the victor go the archives (or history telling), but I don't think I'll read this one. The review is stunning enough. I was surprised to learn that Germany only had a small population of Jews--about 400,000. Most of the Jews the Nazis killed were in territories controlled by the Soviet Union, however, Joseph Stalin had started what Hitler tried to finish.

National Socialism and Russian Communism were flip sides of the same coin of Karl Marx, who is alive and well in American politics of 2010. Hitler wanted to control all of Europe; Stalin all the world. When the war was over and Russia was our ally so we could defeat the Germans, FDR handed the countries Stalin had helped to decimate back to him. When we were in Estonia in 2006, the saddest thing we saw was a small museum about the Soviet occupation of Estonia. Those poor people. They kept waiting for the Americans. They were so sure they would come.

The display of strength on October 2 at the Washington Mall of the U.S. Communists was stunning. Perhaps there aren't enough people alive today who remember Russia in the 1930s and 1940s and what Communism really is.

"Among his other goals in "Bloodlands," Mr. Snyder attempts to put the Holocaust in context—to restore it, in a sense, to the history of the wider European conflict. This is a task that no historian can attempt without risking controversy. Yet far from minimizing Jewish suffering, "Bloodlands" gives a fuller picture of the Nazi killing machine. Auschwitz, which wasn't purely a "death camp," lives on in our memory due in large part to those who lived to tell the tale. Through his access to Eastern European sources, Mr. Snyder also takes the reader to places like Babi Yar, Treblinka and Belzec. These were Nazi mass-murder sites that left virtually no survivors.

Yet Mr. Snyder's book does make it clear that Hitler's "Final Solution," the purge of European Jewry, was not a fully original idea. A decade before, Stalin had set out to annihilate the Ukrainian peasant class, whose "national" sentiments he perceived as a threat to his Soviet utopia. The collectivization of agriculture was the weapon of choice. Implemented savagely, collectivization brought famine. In the spring of 1933 people in Ukraine were dying at a rate of 10,000 per day.

Stalin then turned on other target groups in the Soviet Union, starting with the kulaks—supposedly richer farmers, whom Stalin said needed to be "liquidated as a class"—and various ethnic minorities. In the late 1930s, Mr. Snyder argues, "the most persecuted" national group in Europe wasn't—as many of us would assume—Jews in Nazi Germany, a relatively small community of 400,000 whose numbers declined after the imposition of race laws forced many into emigration at a time when this was still possible. According to Mr. Snyder, the hardest hit at that time were the 600,000 or so Poles living within the Soviet Union."

Book review: Bloodlands - WSJ.com

I find it distressing that loyal party Democrats don't see who is absconding with their party. The crowd wasn't huge on October 2, but it was blantantly anarchist and communist; Democrats, particularly Jewish Democrats, need to give each other a kick in the pants, then kick out the Communists, George Soros, MoveOn dot org from their leadership.

Maureen Dowd and Ann Coulter

I've never cared much for Ann Coulter. She's a true sister under the skin of Maureen Dowd, who is so sarcastic, full of hyperbole, and nasty, she's really hard to read. Ann's not that bad, but close. I'll bet they go out drinking together and yuk it up over their silly fans.

Tony's Ready to Move the Party

My site meter rolled over to 385,000 yesterday primarily because I wrote about a HGTV program which featured Tony Chau of Las Vegas buying and remodeling a home in Hollywood. That entry is getting about 35 hits a day. I think most people are looking for an easy way to make millions on the internet, and Tony apparently did that. I don't know if HGTV even uses real names--after all, it is a "reality" show.

Collecting My Thoughts: Tony's Ready to Move the Party from Las Vegas to Los Angeles with the purchase of a Hollywood Hills Vacation Home

What are some practical principles for using social media?

The current issue of Christian Research Journal has a thoughtful article by Douglas Groothuis, "Understanding Social Media," in which he analyses the benefits and dangers of Facebook and other social media like MySpace and LinkedIn. He writes on a blog (which I don't think he classifies as "social"):

"things like Facebook and Myspace, although that’s declining in influence, have dangers, and part of that is what you are saying, overexposure, not being careful, not exercising confidentiality, there’s the danger of gossip, rumors, and so on, and also the general tendency to simply be very superficial and very quick to speak. Scripture says not to be quick to speak, but to be quick to listen, and slow to judge. And the Book of Proverbs repeatedly says that a wise man or a wise woman holds his or her peace but a fool proclaims his folly. . . "

What are some practical priniciples for using social media?

Today's WSJ has a front page article about Facebook Apps (Farmville, Mafia Wars, etc.) and the sharing of users' identifying information. I don't use the apps, but I am "overexposed" in the sense that Facebook is so easy to upload what I'm reading and comments are easy, that I spend way too much time on it.

So my new Facebook/Internet rules are

1. Do not log on before 7 a.m. or after 7 p.m.

2. Commit to finish my hobby blog--then sell the hobby (a collection of over 100 first issue journals and magazines dating from the early 1970s).

3. Always be polite and kind in commenting on posts I don't agree with.

4. Rely more on face to face interaction rather than faceless social media.

5. Promote more artists, authors and small businesses that I like.

If this is successful, I'll add more, like no logging on before 9 a.m. or after 5 p.m. But cutting back on social media is probably like dieting. Don't buy that gorgeous dress in a smaller size as incentive, or it will hang forever in your closet.