Food insecurity--a buzz word for government waste

The December 1, 2010 JAMA has a commentary by two MDs on "Addressing food insecurity; freedom from want, freedom from fear," beginning with an appeal of the four freedoms of Franklin Roosevelt (4 term president who extended the Great Depression and took us into WWII). The four freedoms were made famous by Norman Rockwell's paintings for Saturday Evening Post in 1943. The authors, with no citation and apparently very young, claim that the number of underfed Americans, aka "food insecurity," is on the increase.* Let's set aside for a moment that term, which is so squishy it might as well be a pool of quicksand. Two of the four freedoms, freedom from hunger and freedom from fear, if they haven't been achieved through the market, will never be achieved under our present hyper-regulated economy.

First, "hunger" must continue in order to support a massive government bureaucracy that was created at the end of WWII to maintain prices for farmers who had geared up to support the war effort. Before that, hunger was very much a local problem handled at the town and county level or by charitable organizations. Second, FDR's interference in the economy in the 1930s, beginning with extending some of Hoover's social policies, made the Great Depression worse. It's bizarre that Bernanke and Obama and their economic clutch of advisors think more of a bad thing is better, and they are just continuing a failed solution that didn't work then, and won't work now. Third, we'll hardly get rid of fear because over half of the American public fears the encroaching, nanny state government, most specifically losing their representation in Congress to either an over-bearing law making Supreme Court, or an overarching Presidency who just appoints whoevery he wants without confirmation or election to put in place a wide variety of regulations affecting the environment, the economy, the education system, the health-care system, or social behavior. Now that is REAL FEAR! It's much more substantial than lack of calories or fresh fruits and vegetables.

I have some Great Depression balanced and nutritious ideas for today's "food insecure."  First, eat at home; second, learn some basic cook skills.

Red beans and rice

navy beans cooked all day with a soup bone

Macaroni and cheese

Scalloped potatoes

Cooked oatmeal with raisins

Bread pudding

Water instead of soft drinks

A mess of greens--collard, turnip, kale, etc. as a side dish

**This term was introduced in 2006 by the USDA to indicate reduced quality, variety, or desirability of diet, or disrupted eating patterns and reduced food intake. No hunger is necessary for this term to apply.

What Muslims in Britain are saying about killing Christians in Egypt

At least 21 people attending a Christian Mass were killed and 79 injured when a bomb exploded outside an Alexandria church in the first hour of the New Year, Egyptian officials said.

The blast struck Coptic worshipers as they exited the Qidiseen, or saints, church just after a New Year's Eve Mass in the eastern section of Alexandria, the ancient city along Egypt's Mediterranean coast. LA Times

This ain't pretty, folks. Hold your nose. Link.

copts are a disgusting people who worship a skinny anonymous jew nailed to a cross

May Allah guide all those whom we have failed to convert the last 1400 years or have them all kill each other for us or make the Muslims do it with valid excuse ameen, and may Allah protect the weak amongst the muslims.

Christmas and Western Civilization -- what it really means

Christmas does a lot for the non-Christian, too, and it's not just a boost to the economy or lovely art and music.

"The celebration of Christmas has been a powerful teacher of the dignity of the human person. For Christians, Christmas is the feast of the Incarnation—the celebration of the moment when God became a man in order to live among men. It shows that God thought of human beings as worthy of being saved, and that he sought to save them by taking on humanity in a perfected form, thus opening the way to their own perfection. Christian belief in the Incarnation is thus inseparable from belief in the objective, and even transcendent, value of the human race as a whole, and of each human person as an individual.

Belief in the Incarnation further implies a certain egalitarianism that has also been important to Western Civilization. According to Christian teaching, all are sinners, and none can claim to be fundamentally superior to others in this important respect. Conversely, and more positively, God wanted to save all people, of all ranks, from their sins and to open the way to a lofty destiny for them all. Thus the Christian understanding of the Incarnation has been important in fostering the West’s sense that, whatever social order may require in terms of hierarchy and rank, there is an irreducible moral equality of all human beings: all are owed a certain respect, even the lowliest among us."

Christmas and Western Civilization « Public Discourse

Basic Economics--Thomas Sowell

No charts, graphs, and just plain English. New revised edition. How is wealth created? (Hint: not by government). The housing bust began the current melt down. Politicians created this by interferring and changing the rules (more home ownership, more affordable housing). Stimulus and bailouts in both the Bush and Obama administrations created boondoggles and didn't help the economy. Lending went down when money was given to banks. GM bailout? Bernanke's QE-2 (printing money)? What was he thinking? Bush tax cuts extension are an acknowledgement by Obama that his policies have failed--that cuts are superior to handing out money for stimulating the economy. All spending begins in the House--Clinton had a Republican Congress, so he can't take any credit for that era's tax policy or deficit reduction. 17% of GDP to health care. Americans chose much of that spending, so how can the government say it's wrong for us to have less waiting time, nicer hospitals, and more available drugs? We pay more and get more says Sowell--it's that simple. People buy what they want. If you're a Swede and you want more or better or faster, you can leave the country to get it, but you won't get it there. About 50% of our health care is already socialized--Medicare, Medicaid, S-CHIP--is this a good system or is there corruption and graft that could be reduced?

Watch the interview with Thomas Sowell.

Toxic reusable bags

My primary concern about all these "reusable bags" was they all bear the "Made in China" tag, and I thought it really strange with all the hullabalu about the environment why the greenies thought China's coal fired factories were so much cleaner than ours. It didn't occur to me that they might have toxic material, but why not after toxic paint on toys and toxic ingredients in pet food? A true greenie would sew her own from cotton grown in the USA. Plus these things can get really scummy after a few uses especially if the meat or dairy leaks.

Shoppers shrug off fears about toxic reusable bags | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment

Global warming causes blizzards theory of book sales

"In the two months, in just two months President Bush's “Decision Points” memoir has sold almost as many copies as President Clinton’s “My Life” sold in two years." What has happened she asks Alex Pareene, of Salone.

Unfortunately, Norah O'Donnell of MSNBC is interviewing an idiot who apparently doesn't realize that Amazon and B&N were selling books online in 2004. And he apparently can't grasp that President Obama has made the patriotic Bush look extremely good for Americans hungering for a few crumbs of approval.

Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2011/01/01/msnbc-bushs-book-popular-because-he-was-so-hated#ixzz19oCgF5xC

Happy New Year 1884

This is the cover of my grandmother's scrapbook--and I'm guessing the date, 1884, was fairly close to the time she started it. I've often wondered if the Studebaker Brothers were distributing some advertising material in preparation for buying up the Mt. Morris College Buildings. The following account is from the Brethren Encyclopedia, 1983.

"By 1883, Mount Morris [College] had entered a very difficult period. Leadership of the college was crippled by [President] Stein's sudden departure and [D.L.]Miller's lack of academic training. The college also faced a financial crisis, one which was so critical that negotiations were begun for the sale of the property to the Studebaker wagon manufacturing company. However, this move created concern and anger among students and the citizens of the town, resulting in the boards search for a president and another financial commitment to assure the college's future. J.G. Royer, superintendent of schools at Monticello, Indiana and founder of the Burnett's Creek Normal School, came to Mount Morris, invested heavily of his own funds in the college, and accepted the presidency of the institution. He served for the next twenty years as president of Mount Morris College and placed it on a firm foundation."

Mt. Morris the town (college closed in 1932) needs such a financial angel to rescue it today.

Is it you or is it WalMart?

Twenty two million Americans have diabetes. Logan Co. WV has the highest rate of type 2 diabetes in the country and their WalMart sells more snack cakes than any WalMart in the World! Whose responsibility is it to consume fewer snack cakes for this at risk population group? The people purchasing and eating or the WalMart stocking and selling?

If you are a liberal (why are you reading this blog) you probably change the question to something about should WalMart be allowed to shut down Mom and Pop stores, or does WalMart cover its part time employees with insurance. If you're a conservative, you just say, it's the individual's responsibility to control her diet.

But to complicate this even further, worldwide 330 million people have diabetes, and most don't live anywhere near a WalMart. So whose fault is that?

Shopping when she had no money

I was at Macy's today to exchange a gift. Because I needed to try on the dress after the clerk determined the price, I lost my place in line. When I came back I was behind a woman with 8-10 garments--sweaters, tops and whatever you call the long thingy you wear over leggings. Her total came to about $100, which I would say was a great deal considering the quantity she bought. "I don't think I've ever bought that much at one time," I commented to her. She laughed. "You should see what I buy when I have money!" She gave me her card--she was a real estate agent. Wish I could see what she was going to take out of her closet.

JAMA seeking articles on terrorism

According to today's Wall St. Journal, Islamic terrorists have been engaged in their annual tradition of blowing up Christian churches. "An attack by a radical Muslim sect on two churches in northern Nigeria killed six people on Christmas Eve. On the Philippines' Jolo Island, home to al Qaeda-linked terrorists, a chapel bombing during Christmas Mass injured 11." You'll remember last year's wealthy, educated Christmas bomber from Nigeria who came close to blowing up Detroit and was on the terror watch-list. Somali terrorists are threatening Barack Obama if he doesn't embrace Islam, so I'm sure scenes of his Christmas worship in Hawaii will not make them happy. Athens and Denmark are under attack by Islamic extremists.

JAMA is going to specifically include terrorism in its special theme issue on violence due August 11, 2011 for the 10 year anniversary of the terrorist attack of September 11, 2010. Since they are encouraging any article on the health effects of terrorism as well as any topic related to violence, war, civil conflict, and human rights abuses, I sure we'll have a mixed bag of anti-American, anti-free market articles, most supported by our tax dollars through government health grants.

Terrorist attacks, according to JAMA, target civilians and that has mental health effects on the community. However, remember that any such focus has political implications since one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter, as in Turks and Armenians, Serbs and Albanians, the Catholic and Protestant Irish and Russians and Chechens. So perhaps a narrower focus on what's on our mind at this time in our history--Islamic terrorism--might be appropriate?

Henninger: Popes, Atheists and Freedom - WSJ.com

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/wealthy-quiet-unassuming-the-christmas-day-bomb-suspect-1851090.html

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/12/28/radical-nigerian-muslim-group-claims-terror-attacks/

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/12/27/somali-islamist-insurgents-threaten-attack-627018837/

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,737115,00.html

Inalienable moral and legal right to life comes before health

Eli Y. Adashi, MD, MS
Brown University
272 George St.
Providence RI 02906

Re: The right to health as the unheralded narrative of Health Care Reform, JAMA, December 15, 2010, p. 2639

Dear Dr. Adashi,

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776

I suppose you could stretch "Life" to include health care, but then you'd first need "life," and have to include the "right to life" as one of those rights too, and until you do, all the UN global health care standards, government regulations, and universal reforms fall flat. Once a baby is chopped up or burned alive and dropped into the trash, all the health standards in all the acts, panels, conferences and world organizations won't make a bit of difference.

Norma Bruce
Faculty Emeritus
The Ohio State University

Twenty years later has anything changed?

In 1990 I attended a pre-conference meeting for a White House Conference on Libraries, and I wrote in my notes (and I was a liberal then):

". . .libraries will be killed off too if they don't put the brakes on seeing themselves as the social change agent for the nation, believing: they can correct what the churches did wrong; they can teach what the schools didn't; they can prevent what the social workers missed; and stop what the government couldn't. . . Librarians will do more good in the long run if they leave Mapplethorp to the cultural arts commissions and instead see to it that a child can check out material on photography to become the best photographer she can be."

Right now because their man is in the White House, maybe librarians have lowered their expectations and will let politicians handle these things?

More unintended consequences caused by Congress

Last night's Glenn Beck program was a rerun of some features he's done on American history and the treatment of minorities and aliens, primarily by Democrats. Woodrow Wilson and the reinstatement of segregation in government employment and the military, aka, Jim Crow; Andrew Jackson and the forceable relocation of American Indians; FDR and the internment of Japanese, German and Italian Americans in camps.

And I just came across a little known problem dealing with minorities and Democrats during the FDR years that I'd never heard of: The Tydings–McDuffie Act of 1934, named for two Democrats in Congress, Maryland Senator Millard E. Tydings and Alabama Representative John McDuffie. It provided for the drafting and guidelines of a Constitution for a 10-year "transitional period" which became the government of the Commonwealth of the Philippines before the granting of Philippine independence, during which the US would maintain military forces in the Philippines.

Furthermore, during this period the American President was granted the power to call into military service all military forces of the Philippine government. The act permitted the maintenance of US naval bases, within this region, for two years after independence.

The act reclassified all Filipinos that were living in the United States as aliens for the purposes of immigration to America. Filipinos were no longer allowed to work legally in the US, and a quota of 50 immigrants per year was established."

Sounds to me like the Filipinos lost much more than they gained on this one, particularly if they were already living and working in the U.S. or the Territory of Hawaii, and needed to send money home to their families.

The Honolulu Record

is/was a Communist newspaper published in Hawaii. Frank Davis, President Obama's mentor and friend of his grandparents, wrote for this paper because he was a Communist. However, tracking down links to the archives is a bit iffy--they seem to be "broken." But I did finally get one to work--the archives at the University Of Hawaii, Center for Labor Education & Research.

I thought Communists, at least the CPUSA, had tired of hiding and were now out in the open, after first removing any mention of themselves from current history books--published since the mid-90s, at least. This description of the Honolulu Record is an example of a cleaned up summary of a political system that managed to murder about 70,000,000 people in the 20th century, and the first to go are often their own party comrades with whom they squabble, put on trial, then shoot or send to a gulag.

"In 1948, Koji Ariyoshi, a social activist, published a labor focused newspaper called the Honolulu Record. Founded on social change, Koji wanted to present another view on local and world issues, especially issues that affected the working class people of Hawaii."

For another "view" all Ariyoshi would have needed was an account of some 1930s purge trials in the USSR looking for someone to blame for their economy.

The House of the People

"This will be the fight of 2011: the unelected central planning “experts” of the Obama Administration versus the newly elected House of Representatives and state and local governments. The people are not powerless. Congress still has the power of the purse and can withhold funding for implementing Obamacare or writing global warming regulations. There is also the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to review and overrule regulations issued by government agencies. State and local governments can also thwart the federal administrative state by asserting their rights whenever possible. We can return power from Washington back to the people. Saying good-bye to the 111th Congress is a great first step." Morning Bell

Not sure the newbie Republicans are strong enough to lasso and hog-tie the Obama goons, but we'll see. It's worth a try.

Third world children are America's lab rats

Parul Christian, DrPH
Center for Human Nutrition
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
615 N. Wolfe St
Room W2041
Baltimore, MD 21205

Dear Dr. Christian,

Today I read the account of your research done on Nepalese children in the Dec 22/29, 2010 issue of JAMA.

My first pregnancy was in 1961 and I received prenatal vitamins containing iron, and I believe the need for folic acid has been known and added to prenatal vitamins since before 1990. For some years it has been known that the relationship between zinc and iron is iffy, with the benefits of each perhaps cancelling the other.

Why is it ethical to experiment on third world children when we already know the benefits of prenatal supplements, and have known for 50 years or more? The control group will remain behind the supplement group for the rest of their lives. Just looking through other studies on the interaction of zinc and iron, I see Bloomberg is supporting research on poor children in other countries. So was that the real point of this research, to show that zinc is not useful as a supplement?

Norma Bruce
Faculty Emeritus
The Ohio State University

Parul Christian, Dr. P.H., of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, and colleagues conducted a study to assess intellectual and motor functioning in a group of 676 children, aged 7 to 9 years in June 2007-April 2009, who had been born to women in 4 of 5 groups of a community-based, randomized controlled trial of prenatal micronutrient supplementation conducted between 1999 and 2001 in rural Nepal. Study children were also in the placebo group of a subsequent preschool iron and zinc supplementation trial. Women whose children were followed up had been randomly assigned to receive daily iron/folic acid, iron/folic acid/zinc, or multiple micronutrients containing these plus 11 other micronutrients, all with vitamin A, vs. a control group of vitamin A alone from early pregnancy through 3 months postpartum. These children did not receive additional micronutrient supplementation other than biannual vitamin A supplementation. Through various tests, intellectual (including memory and reasoning), executive (such as processing speed) and motor function (such as manual dexterity and balance) were assessed.

The researchers found that maternal prenatal supplementation with iron and folic acid was positively associated with general intellectual ability, some aspects of executive function, and motor function, including fine motor control, in offspring in a rural area where iron deficiency is prevalent. In general, the differences in test scores between the other intervention groups and controls were not statistically significant.
http://pubs.ama-assn.org/media/2010j/1221.dtl#3

Dear Mom and Dad, December 22, 1980

1980 has not been one of my healthier years. I went to the doctor today and had chest x-rays and blood tests. My chest is clear, viral bronchitis, he says, and gave me an antibiotic to keep it from becoming pneumonia. I get my glasses in a week, and that will be a relief. If life begins at 40, I'm in trouble.

We received your Christmas packages safely, and they've been put under the tree, to be felt, shaken and poked by two eager kids. We've been reading the nice Advent book and calendar Joanne gave us at breakfast.

We went to a tree farm this year and cut our tree. I wouldn't say it is quite like the TV commercials, but it was fun. There was a roaring fire at the barn, and lots of jolly people around.

We've had a few holiday get togethers. A neighbor had an open house, and the art league had a pot luck dinner, and the AIA had a reception (but I was sick) and the office party is tomorrow, but I may not be able to go. It will be a lovely affair--dinner at the hotel in the Ohio Village, a 19th century reconstructed village which is a nice tourist attraction. They have carolers in costume and everything is deorated like the last century.

Sure wish my mommy was here to make me tapioca pudding.

Blogging break for Christmas

I'm never busy (by other people's standards) but I do get distracted by the computer's presence, so I'm taking a break. In addition, I'm gob-smacked by what's going on in Washington right now. I'm not a birther, but I'm beginning to believe our President is an alien, not from Africa but from outer space. A being no one, not the left and certainly not the right, knows how to deal with. This tax bill is by far the worst piece of legislation since Obamacare, and Republicans even with the help of the Tea Party, just can't stop this steamroller of debt and deception. And either his critics on the left are too dumb to catch on, or they are in on it for the media's benefit and are laughing at the Tea Party which has been defeated before the battle even started in Congress. In either case, I just don't even want to blog about it, so better I just enjoy the time of real peace, which is Jesus, not party, not politics, and not nation.

Donald Hall, poet laureate of the U.S. 2006

During 2000, I carried a small 3/5 notebook in my purse, making notes on everything from recipes, to grocery lists (ground chuck was $.99--really?), to things to take to Illinois when I visited my Dad, book reviews, and an item about an 1820 brick house for sale with 8 fireplaces and 41 acres for $263,000 (it was either near Pitsburg, OH, or New Pittsburgh, OH or Pittsburgh, PA--can't tell).

And flipping through the notebook I see I recorded a poem that really resonated with me, published in the Atlantic, April 2000, by Donald Hall. This was 5 years before he was selected as Poet Laureate for 2006--I could spot a winner.

"You think that their
dying is the worst
thing that could happen.

Then they stay dead."

His wife, Jane Kenyon, also a poet, had died of leukemia, and this was within a series called Distressed Haiku.

To hear Hall read his own works.

Tip for the holiday parties

Talk half as much as you listen.  If you drink, talk 1/5 as much as you listen.

I found this quotation in a 2000 notebook I kept in my purse.  I gave no attribution.

Addressing Christmas Cards 1974

At least I think that's what I was doing--red envelopes  Look at that lime green and yellow vinyl wall paper!  I think 1974 was the year because that's when I got the "serf" haircut.  I can spot at least 3 things posted next to my desk from my friend Lynne.  Her mother was an artist and used to whip out adorable cards.  See the cabinet and shelves behind me?  Originally, that unpainted pine unit held children's toys; then all my office stuff; now it's in the basement holding light bulbs, vacuum cleaner bags, tools, nails, screws, and general junk.  The desk I'm still using--that might have been the reason for the photo (a polaroid) to show off the desk. Looks like the desk lamp was from the children's nursery. The shelves above my head are still with us somewhere in the basement.

About 365 Less Things--a blog for decluttering

We declutter about every 4 years. This method wouldn't work for me (I already have 12 blogs, so I don't need another one), but I think she has interesting ideas. I found her looking for the value of a small toy plastic toaster with cardboard toast, which I unwrapped while going through a box in the basement, which contained my old toys. Also found a tiny doll house 5" x 7.5".

About 365 Less Things

My husband the architect thinks you design the storage first, then declutter. No, you always use the storage you have. Better to purge first.

Marriage and income gap inseparably linked--Joseph Perkins

And that was the headline of the opinion page in the Jan. 26, 2000 Dixon (IL) Telegraph. I had saved the paper because it announced my mother's death on January 24. Today I was cleaning out a sack of old calendars and found it.

I'm not familiar with the work of Joseph Perkins (hated by Democrats for leaving their plantation), a black columnist for the San Diego Union-Tribune (at that time). I don't think any person who's seen the research doubts the relationship between wealth and marriage, or crime and a father in the home. Perkins points to a "new study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute which said that "the gap between rich and poor was significantly greater in the late 1990s than during the 1980s." Don't they always say that with a moving clock? At that time our country was in the longest period of economic expansion with the economy generating more than 20 million new jobs and $2 trillion in additional economic output since WWII, but the "rich have gotten richer, while the poor have remained in place."

Perkins says it doesn't have to do with tax policy or Republicans or spending on anti-poverty programs. "The reality is that the single biggest determinant of a family's upward or downward mobility is whether the family is headed by a married couple. . . Only one out of 20 married couple families are poor. He goes on to point out that single parent families have grown during the past three decades (1970s through 1990s).

The problem of the poor is not the availability of jobs, for the economy has generated so many new jobs during the past decade that anyone who can't find a job just doesn't want to work. And the problem isn't taxes because most poor folks don't pay taxes, and many actually receive checks from the government in the form of the earned income-tax credit. No, to close the income distribution gap, the next president will have to have the courage to say that the path to upward mobility for the nation's least-well-off begins at the marriage altar."

And here it is 11 years later, we don't have a 3.5% unemployment rate, and still our leaders think the solutions are rehabing houses, more stimulus money, and jobs programs. But women need to keep their legs closed and men need to keep their pants zipped, and they need to finish school and get married before they start a family.

Perkins apparently left his post in 2005, I found him as a columnist more recently at Examiner.com, but his e-mail bounced.

Liberals Leave The Reservation

The Republicans and conservative media got around to reading the bill, and Mike Gonzalez of the Heritage Foundation says it is indeed bad [as Krauthammer said the first day], "The tax cut deal, we now know, has been so freighted with liberal special interest tax giveaways that true conservatives cannot support it in good faith.

The blame for this state of affairs will be on the left. Tax rates will go up on all Americans on Jan. 1, hitting a country beset with 10 percent unemployment and a stagnant economy. It’s baffling that, two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the left has held fast to its belief that penalizing success will somehow incentivize hard work and produce wealth."

Personally, I think Obama is chuckling and rubbing his hands with glee. His far left base is too dumb to even understand what he did. And so are the Republicans. He's made the Republicans stumble and look silly on their campaign promises before they even get to take over.

Morning Bell: Liberals Leave The Reservation | The Foundry: Conservative Policy News.

Monday Memories--a visit from Lynne and Genie

Friends from Illinois came to visit on Labor Day Week-end 1972 and "Aunty Lynne" brought two handmade Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls (which I still have) for our children. We had a dinner party, according to the newspaper article, attended the Upper Arlington Art Show, an ice cream social, a band concert and the fireworks at Northam Park. Our friends had also visited in May that year and we toured German Village where we ate dinner at Schmidts, attended a Couples Circle group of First Community where we heard a presentation by the church choir director, and attended church on Sunday at First Community Church.

These little bits of history all arrived in the mail this afternoon. I think I have copies somewhere, but these are really good memories. I'm glad Lynne saved them.

Mark Madoff’--was he as dumb as a rock or in on the crime?

How was all this going on and he knew nothing? And how must he have felt that the man he trusted and loved screwed over everyone including his family. Dad got off easy--he'll be taken care of the rest of his limited life span in prison. Not so his sons and their families. How would he ever get a job? Still, it's awfully cowardly to leave his mother, brother, wife and children to face the public wrath.

Mark Madoff’s Suicide | Sense on Cents

If it hurts to fail, just keep doing the same thing until it feels good

In February 2008 when the economy was tanking, President Bush gave us a $152 billion stimulus. The President and his economic advisors believed that if you put money in the hands of the people, we'd spend it.

"In the past seven years, the system has absorbed shocks: recession, corporate scandals, terror attacks, global war; yet the genius of our system is that it can absorb such shocks and emerge even stronger," he said. "In a dynamic market economy, our economy will prosper and it will continue to be the marvel of the world." [He was wrong, but isn't it refreshing to see the words of a President who believes in us.]

If anything we went out and made purchases in 2008 we might have made in 2009 or 2010, making Obama's recession even worse, just like the cash for clunkers, or cash for drywall did in 2009.

By February 2008 people were starting to be cautious. So then Obama decided that the Bush stimulus wasn't big enough and he wanted even more. Was going to be for infrastructure, he said. Here a sidewalk (in Upper Arlington), there a bridge (to no where). Now that plan has really been a disaster and he makes Bush look like a piker, because very little even got to the hands of the American private sector--most went to save the unions and create more government jobs. Now he wants still another stimulus, aka extension of unemployment benefits another year, even though this will be the third beyond the usual 26 weeks people used to get and the others haven't stimulated the economy either. So how many stimuli do the economists want to try before they admit defeat?

Bush stimulus signed

The Progress Report: Obama's Stimulus Package

Charlie Gilmour, son of Pink Floyd guitarist Dave Gilmour, arrested in London student protests

If anyone should be able to afford tuition hikes, it should be this druggie, who when he woke up, claimed to be sorry. Yes, that's what they all say.

Charlie Gilmour, son of Pink Floyd guitarist Dave Gilmour, arrested in London student protests

Don't we wish!

Company Waivers to Affordable Care Act

As of late October, "thirty or so companies and organizations, from the fast food giant McDonald's (115,000) to Maverick County (1), have applied for and received waivers excluding them from the current healthcare legislation/requirements. These entities will not be required to adhere to the minimum annual benefit level which is included in low-cost health plans. These plans are primarily often used to cover part-time or low-wage employees, and will affect over a million people nationwide." There are probably many more now added to this list.

Company Waivers to Affordable Care Act

If it truly is "affordable care" and what we had wasn't, why the need for waivers?

Update: "more waivers to one provision of the new federal health reform law, doubling the number in just the last three weeks to a new total of 222. One of the more recognizable business names included on the newly-expanded list of waivers issued by the feds is that of Waffle House, which received a waiver on November 23 for health coverage that covers 3,947 enrollees. Another familiar name was that of Universal Orlando, which runs a variety of very popular resorts in the Orlando, Florida area. Universal was given a waiver for plans that cover 668 workers."

Conservatives for Patients' Rights

Thinking about snowy Minnesota

They are really socked in, aren't they? The roof of the Metrodome caved in! And it's snowing here in Columbus, too, and we're not good with snow. We'll be socked in the rest of the day, and I'm guessing the children's choir concert will be cancelled this afternoon, plus school tomorrow. Time to get out the Douglas County Record for some old fashioned, small town news. I've never been to Douglas County, MN but reading that paper sure brings memories of back home in Illinois 50 years ago--deer hunter ethics award; piano recital photo from the Baptist church; Republicans having a Christmas party (and even calling it that); all kinds of photos of the 4-H members' awards; and would you believe it, a 2 for 1 special at the Pit Stop Restaurant during NASCAR races! You can't find better snowy day reading than a small town newspaper. Last January, Pastor Borchardt of the Millersville Trinity Lutheran Church said, "When it hits 30 below I promise I will turn on the furnace."

Swedish security police: Violence was 'an act of terrorism' - CNN.com

It's small comfort, I know, but apparently the Swedes who can't define rape because of Feminism messing with their national intelligence (brain, not spying), can still determine terrorism and link it to Islamic Jihad.

Swedish security police: Violence was 'an act of terrorism' - CNN.com

Anna Ardin, Julian Assange Rape Accuser, May Have Ceased Pursuing Claims

Jon Stewart agrees with Glenn Beck--finally

This is really funny, even if he is a little late to the party.

Maybe it's someone's birth certificate?

Julian Assange has made a threat. He says he has a secret. If any harm comes to him personally, or if WikiLeaks is somehow wiped off the Web, there will be consequences. "It's locked up so tight that even sophisticated military computers can't crack it open. Assange has said that if he or WikiLeaks croaks, the key gets sent out as well, and the whole world gets to see the great big secret inside. Unless that happens, though, what's in that file is anybody's guess -- and the mystery is what makes it such a powerful life insurance policy." Technology News

If you wait long enough

everything comes back in style. But I'd probably have to take out the crinoline in the 1960 dress.

The Pigford President: Obama Signs Black Farmers Settlement

In Pigford I settlement the USDA said we had some 18,000 black farmers, and made payments to 14,500 for some loan discrimination. (The original investigation turned up a possible 205 problem loans.) Then in Pigford II they somehow found 97,000 black farmers who claimed discrimination, but not a single government employee has been investigated or fired? Remember that under Bush people went to jail for misspeaking about Valerie Plame's job assignment, but billions during a recession and no one loses his job?

And the Commander in Thief said, these billions (reparations under any other name . . . ) are "the principles of fairness and equality and opportunity."

This was all brought up by then-Senator Obama in 2007, who in a hanging chad moment, decided surely 80,000 black farmers must have missed the deadline for filing, and in probably the only significant act of his senate years, decided to reopen the case.

» The Pigford President: Obama Signs Black Farmers Settlement - Big Government

Pigford: Racism Against Black Farmers or Government Fraud? | The Stir

Weigel : A Black Farmer Against Pigford

CRS: The Pigford Case

Me & Mrs. Sherrod — And The $1.25 Billion Pigford II Black Farmers’ Settlement - Big Journalism

Faux finishes--are they gone yet?

I don't know when faux finishes became popular, but I know the guy decorators of our place were here before 1990. Most of the faux is gone now except for one tiny room. We discovered sanding down a faux comb glaze was virtually impossible and spread dust throughout the house, so we ended up just painting over it and having an odd texture show through the new paint.

The walls used to be the color of the blue carpeting, with a comb glaze.

According to the WSJ, the new color for 2011 is sort of a hot pink; the color for 2010 was turquoise. Not sure what khaki and peanut are, but that and this very pale gold will be with us for awhile.

Democrats help Chinese firm chase stimulus dollars

Although this is no big surprise, it is a bit of a shock that MSNBC is reporting it. Apparently, this doesn't count as "shipping US jobs overseas." We're just giving the Chinese the entire country, not just the jobs.

"Top Democratic fundraisers and lobbyists with links to the White House are behind a proposed wind farm in Texas that stands to get $450 million in stimulus money, even though a Chinese company would operate the farm and its turbines would be built in China.

The farm’s backers also have close ties with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who, at the height of his hard-fought re-election bid this fall, helped blunt congressional criticism over stimulus dollars possibly going to create jobs in China by endorsing a proposal by the Chinese company to build a factory in his home state. Although his campaign received thousands of dollars in donations from the wind farm’s backers and Reid stood on stage with them at a campaign event they hosted, his office declined to answer any questions about the wind farm’s organizers or their plans for Nevada."

It looks like one American had the decency to hang his head.

The Chinese still get to use coal and petroleum, while these same Democrats stop our energy souces in the Gulf, California, Texas, the Appalachian states like southern Ohio, our life blood, and Alaska. What a piece of work!

Dems help Chinese firm chase stimulus - Business - Going Green - msnbc.com

Fewer children adopted after equality rules force agencies to shut

Many Lutherans are misled about the end result of the push for equality for all things homosexual. Our congregation, UALC, has recently left the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which had decided to impose on its 10,000 congregations the minority belief that God will bless non-celebate gay clergy. As one Lutheran writer (not of that synod) noted, it is a form of secular fundamentalism, whereby the prevailing culture must be obeyed or you are not a loving, giving congregation. When I say misled it's because, 1) most of those 10,000 congregations never even got a chance to vote, or were unaware that the task force after of 20 years of failing kept rewriting and nudging and finally won in August 2009, and 2) this isn't the end of the story.

In the UK, there are adoptable children going without parents because Christian agencies closed rather than place children against their Biblical principles of married couples. In Canada, which has recognized gay marriage for some years and discussion of it negatively from church pulpits is hate speech, the courts are now reviewing polygamy, polyandry and polyamory for legal status and inclusion in employee benefits.

In the U.S. the definition of hate crimes was expanded in 2010 (and the word FAMILY was redefined for employee benefits) in the Defense Appropriations Act, and it's not a stretch to see that it will go from bodily harm to speech causing mental or spiritual distress. In the U.S., the most vulnerable population is not the unborn who can be sliced and diced and ripped from the womb with approval of our President, but an extremely small special demographic with the highest income and education.

So, even if a Christian agency or a Christian church decides to "go along to get along" with the culture, they will then have to face the next hurdle. I'm sure the next ELCA task force on sexuality is already meeting. If a gay couple in a loving stable relationship is acceptable, why not a family where wife #4 hasn't been able to conceive and wants an infant of her own to share with the sister-wives, or why not a woman with four boy-toys who decides she wants to raise a toddler and she can provide a more economically secure home with five incomes instead of one or two, than a married couple with one?

Fewer children adopted after equality rules force agencies to shut - Telegraph

Polyamorists decry anti-polygamy law - The Globe and Mail

Read The Bill: H.R. 2647 - GovTrack.us

Still taking applications

Almost 5 years ago I wrote a blog about the perfect daughter-in-law. Someone today responded and said she was having issues with her mother-in-law and would look at my list for help. Well, apparently my ideas weren't very good because I still don't have a daughter-in-law. I say that as a joke, because obviously, I have no say in the matter.

I suspect it's my son . . . he just can't get over the idea that he wants to be wrong only 50% of the time. Can you imagine?

This was most likely the proverbial straw

Although I didn't technically leave the Democratic party until 2000 when I voted for Bush (about whom I knew little) instead of Gore (whom I actually liked at that time), today I accidentally came across a straw--don't know if it was the "last straw"-- that I think mattered to me more than Clinton's deplorable behavior in office. The Rwanda genocide in 1994 and the United States' nonresponse (except for hand wringing). The USA didn't mind smacking other governments around if we needed their natural resources, but killing a million people in a matter of months? Black people? No big deal. Not even black Democrats cared much--their leverage was with the wrongs of the 18th and 19th century. And the United Nations? What a piece of worthlessness!

My disaffection with liberalism had a long history--we hadn't been a good match for a number of years dating back to the mid-1970s. I had always been pro-life and since I enjoyed reading history the humanism base of liberalism was pretty hard to swallow. It seemed pretty obvious just from the genocidal and "death by government decree" (USSR, Maoist China) and action in the 20th century, that humans were not perfectable no matter how much money you threw at them through government programs, and that there would be no perfect kum-by-ya harmony in any government's plan. And then in 1994 when we became a "small business" the barn door was left unlocked and all the horses upon which I'd ridden for years began to escape.

So it was personal, spiritual and political, but I left and have never been sorry. Conservatives turn into Republicans who turn into RINOs, but at least conservatives seem to understand that human beings are not perfectable, which all of history, common sense, and trillions of debt confirms. I don't know, maybe liberals don't really believe it either--but I know I did despite all evidence to the contrary, my own behavior, and the church's teachings.

Paula Priesse - "Petro Detector"

Paula decides to live petroleum free with her friend's help and a petro detector.

The Obama-Stockholm Syndrome

"Debates in Washington revolve around "saving" the people from crises Democratic policies exposed them to in the first place. The way it usually works is that the Democrats create a program the federal government shouldn't have established at all, the program inevitably fails, and then they rush in to "reform" it." writes George Neumayr

The American Spectator : The Obama-Stockholm Syndrome

Obama was elected, according to his far left base, to punish the rich and steal their wealth. The tax deal hammered out this week isn't going to fly, because although it amounts to a new stimulus (extending unemployment to 2012) and doesn't raise taxes on anyone (thus saving the Democrats' lunch), and could save the economy, it's no dice for the die hard Communists.

Tax-cut plan moving ahead in Senate - Carrie Budoff Brown and Carol E. Lee - POLITICO.com

I heard an MSNBC guy interviewed on a local program describe the extension of the current Bush tax rates as giving money to the rich (instead of taking it from them) and call the Republicans stingy and mean (I'm paraphrasing) for not wanting to extend unemployment payments to 2012 (a bigger gift to Obama than the original stimulus). Then Politico calls Obama's plan a tax cut (it isn't), and Morning Bell calls Reid's "tax cut" plan "buying votes" of Cantwell, Boxer and Harkin. Ah, political language. Isn't it something?

Tax-cut plan moving ahead in Senate - Carrie Budoff Brown and Carol E. Lee - POLITICO.com

Cybersecurity: Pro-Wikileaks Attacks More Slap in the Face than Kick in the Head

Technewsworld says, not to worry. It's just a front page of Mastercard, not the guts of the operation, or an inconventient slow down for shoppers. Yeah? What about if the dirty laundry of various technology news sites were spread around the internet, or information about their investors, or their bank accounts? Would it seem more serious then?

"Cyberattacks this week by supporters of Wikileaks on the home sites of Visa (NYSE: V) and MasterCard (NYSE: MA) may have been designed to grab headlines rather than actually disrupt the companies' financial operations.

The wave of electronic assaults, referred to as "Operation Payback" by the activists mounting the attacks, were aimed at the home sites of the credit card companies. Those sites have high profiles but relatively low traffic levels -- traffic levels that make them more vulnerable to a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. Such attacks deliberately spike the traffic to a site and make it inaccessible.

"These are their public-facing websites," Nicholas Percoco, a senior vice president with Chicago-based security firm Trustwave, told TechNewsWorld. "They're not taking down transaction processing. They're taking down brochureware websites."

"It's more of a pie-in-the-face tactic," he added."

We know Assange is a Communist and has Soros money behind him. So who exactly are these supporter/hackers?



Technology News: Cybersecurity: Pro-Wikileaks Attacks More Slap in the Face than Kick in the Head

Van Jones: Grab the whip, run the plantation

The Van Jones (former White House insider who was pushed out into the arms of John Podesta when his Communist ties were revealed by Glenn Beck) video shown last night on Glenn Beck was not a brief clip--but it was certainly chilling. Jones first complimented his audience (don't know who but from his speech they seemed to be black Obama supporters and liberal white mush brains who've never studied history) for taking Congress and the White House in their revolutionary struggle for power from 2006-2010. Then he said something to think about. He told them that once they had power, they didn't know what to do with it--they had overcome the Master, grabbed the whip, but didn't know how to run the plantation.

The plantation metaphor is very popular when speaking to African Americans--as though no other people on the planet are enslaved at this time, even though slavery has bigger numbers today than in the 17th century Atlantic slave trade. Now when conservatives say so-and-so (usually a black Republican) has left the plantation, they are called racists. It's OK for a Communist to say it, because they need to stir up trouble. When your downtrodden are driving SUVs, watching HDTV and getting fat at McDonald's, it's really hard to stir up the masses. He also said the 2012 campaign would be the "mean against the dumb"--imagine if a conservative said that, unless he meant the Tea Party against the RINOs, with which many of us agree.

But think about it all you leftists, Communists and Progressives. All you Democrats who think your party couldn't be swallowed whole by an outside group. Do you really want the SEIU running the pharmaceutical companies that produce the drugs keeping your son alive or treating your cancer? Do you want the released convicts determining your child's acceptance to college or what they are taught (Oh wait--scratch that--there's Bill Ayers, faculty at the U. of I. Chicago). Which disaffected, rabble rousing, sluggard who hasn't worked in 10 years do you think can get an automobile off the assembly line or drive a long distance refrigerated truck or fix your computer or even manage the bagel slicer and latte machine at your favorite coffee shop where you plan the revolution?

The second thing about the plantation metaphor is that he didn't say the slave and master relationship was evil or bad--just that he wanted to reverse the roles. That's probably the biggest goal for Communists--not that power is bad or evil, but it should rightfully belong to them, and the government should be the master and the citizen the slave.

Donor Pays For Marine’s Medical Flight To Boston

Laurel Johnson, whose husband Robert died of a brain tumor the day after Christmas last year, knows something about the pain and suffering of cancer. She has contributed the cost of a special medical flight for Jessica Shepard, who is too fragile and ill for a helicopter or a commercial flight.

Johnson says: “If he’d been alive he would have said we’ve got to send money to this family. It’s the kind of thing firefighters do,” she said. Johnson was a captain with the Harwich fire department for 30 years.

Donor Pays For MA Marine’s Medical Flight To Boston « CBS Boston – News, Sports, Weather, Traffic and Boston's Best

Has over 5 millions hits--the silent Monks

Forbes blogger falls for Soros lies--Warns U.S. Could Be On Verge Of Dictatorial Democracy, Slams Fox, Glenn Beck

I must have missed something in history class and 50 years of reading newspapers and watching TV news, but I can't recall a talk show host ever taking over a government, but a Communist? Yeah. Many times. Anyway, Robert Lenzer adds to Soros' smears by chiming in with:

"Soros was especially bitter and harshly critical of the rolke played in our political discourse by the Fox News Channel, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. as a very dangerous precedent for the “open society” that has prevailed in the U.S. for 200 years. Soros also characterized Fox newscaster Glenn Beck, who has been falsely vilifying Soros publicly, as a throwback to the wild and crazy radical elements that never before were given such a public pedestal to foment their hate. Beck has been trying to stir up public hatred of Soros, suggesting that the investment genius and significant philanthropist was maliciously trying to take over the U.S. for his own purposes."

Lenzer needs to stop having his information filtered through Soros supported Media Matters, and start watching Beck personally.

Forbes has probably lost credibility with millions of loyal Beck fans. Lenzer apparently doesn't grasp the difference between news and opinion, perhaps because so much of what we get from our media is opinion in place of news reporting. Soros is Beck's schtick--not the news team.

Then our legislators, most of whom are on the dole from their Democrat supporter fat cats, chime in about the "good old days" of honest reporting and bipartisanship. As Dan Witte of Forest Park, IL noted: "Politicians are consistently bipartisan on earmarks--self-serving and disingenuous."

Lenzer has been invited to appear on the Beck program to defend his point of view that Beck has falsely accused Soros of being something he isn't. Prove it Mr. Lenzer. As Beck always tells his viewers, DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH.

Soros Warns U.S. Could Be On Verge Of Dictatorial Democracy, Slams Fox, Glenn Beck - Robert Lenzner - StreetTalk - Forbes

E-mail scams--Oh the creativity!

Yesterday I got one with great graphics--was supposed to be from the FBI although I don't remember exactly what I was being offered. Here are excerpts from the 3 or 4 a day I get. I only get them through my OSU mail account. Road Runner, being a business seems a bit better at catching them and dumping.

I am delighted to inform you that the Guarantee Trust Bank Plc (GTB) Management through the office of Mr. President have decided to call back all approved fund payment through offshore payment center following directives from UNITED NATIONS & WORLD BANK and have concluded arrangements to pay your beneficiary/contractual fund by cash through Diplomatic Agent. The Agent will be delivering the cash in a Machine sealed consignment to your door step as my bank have temporarily stopped further payment via wire transfer this quarter.

----------------

Since his death, I decided not to remarry or get a child outside my matrimonial home which the holly Quaran is against. When my late husband was alive he deposited the sum of (£ 2.3 Million Pounds) with the a security company here in London, Presently, the fund is still with the security company. Recently, my Doctor told me that I have serious sickness which is cancer problem. The one that disturbs me most is my stroke sickness having known my condition I decided to donate this fund to an Organisation,Company or individual that will utilize this money the way I am going to instruct here-in.

-------------

For some time now,i have not be able to make any long distance travel because of my health, so i wanted my investment liquidated and transferred to my account by Swift, but the Investors insist, they can not transfer the funds to any bank account outside United State due to their new company policy trigered by the prevailing economic meltdown.

Meanwhile, i wanted to travel to the US to get the funds myself but my doctor advice against it ,that due to my present state of health i can not make such a long distance trip. So i was told to provide someone in the United State to receive the funds on my behalf.

Please let me know if you can handle the funds on my behalf and forward to me. You shall be entitle to 10% of the money you receive and forward me the balance 90% WITHOUT YOU SPENDING A SINGLE CENT FROM YOUR END.

--------------

I am Assistant Manager in banking institution, For your kind attention, I will be very glad if you do assist me to relocate the sum Million of Dollars to your personal bank account for the benefit of both of us as a foreign partner. The fund belong to a late Spanish contractor here, he died in an accident on his way going back to construction site four years ago.

------------------------------

To be precise; I am Dr. Huck Laman Senior manager of ABSA BANK Limited
Johannesburg South Africa. In my department, we discovered an abandoned sum of US$ 43 Million(Forty Three Million United State Dollars) in an account that belongs to one of our customers who died along with his entire family in 1988 Lockerbie Pan American Airline plane crash. Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next of kin to come over and claim his money because we cannot release it unless somebody applied for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking procedures, but unfortunately to no avail and nobody has come forward to claim the money.

-----------------------

My condition is serious and according to my doctor, he said it is obvious that I will not survive it. I have some funds that my late husband WILLED to me in cash, the sum of $3,700,000.00 million United States of American Dollars, which is deposited in my bank. After my prayers, I searched the internet were i found your email address and I decided to contact you for the usage of the funds for the less privilege or the poor.

--------------------------

I know that it will sound so strange when receive this Email. Hope you will treat it kind I want use this medium to ask for your assistance. My father died in bomb explosion, which occurred on Jan. 2008 in Republic of Togo. When he was alive he was an oil marchant and also the chairman of Republic of Togo Oil producing Development Area he lodge a ver huge amount of money into my account whats of $ 16million US dollars. My problem now is that my stepmother who want me died because of this money. She is after my life now also doing her possible best to get this money from me. Please I want you to assist to secure a foreign account where I will lodge this fund into without any delay.

--------------------------

Because of the elaborate global scam, we decided to contact you for confirmation. If after two working days, no responce is received from you, it will be assumed that you are dead and as such authorisation and approval will be granted on behalf of Messers Jacobs enterprises to claim/receive your fund.

------------------------

I was told by the doctor that I was poisoned and has got my liver damaged and can only live for some months. When my let husband was alive he deposited the sum of us$7.3 Million Dollars with one of the Bank here in Abidjan Cote D'Ivoire. and I cannot think of anybody trying to kill me apart from my late husband business associate in order to inherit the money, because my son is only eight years old. I will issue you the vital document that will prove to you the present beneficiary of the fund.

The poisoned liver one just came today. Nice touch. Occasionally I glance through them and wonder. . . Do people really fall for this? If they do, they deserve what they get--a scam and a hoax based on greed.

The government redefined "FAMILY" in June

I must have been out of town. The government redefined the word and meaning of family through a minor agency called Office of Personnel Management. I noticed it in

Federal Register 33491
Vol. 75, No. 113
Monday, June 14, 2010:

5 CFR Part 630
RIN 3206–AL93
Absence and Leave; Definitions of
Family Member, Immediate Relative,
and Related Terms
AGENCY: Office of Personnel
Management.
ACTION: Final rule.

As part of OPM’s
continuing efforts to support the needs
of the Federal workforce during times of
sickness, funerals, and medical or other
emergencies, we are making the
definitions of family member and
immediate relative more explicit to
include more examples of relationships
that are covered under the phrase ‘‘[a]ny
individual related by blood or affinity
whose close association with the
employee is the equivalent of a family
relationship.’’ These examples include
stepparents and stepchildren,
grandparents, grandchildren, and samesex
and opposite-sex domestic partners.
In addition, OPM’s final regulations
define the terms committed
relationship, domestic partner, parent,
and son or daughter. . .
Although it has always been appropriate
to consider same-sex domestic partners
as a family relationship under the
‘‘related by blood or affinity’’ clause for
the purposes covered under these
regulations, agencies have not been
consistent in their interpretation of the
clause. These changes do not reflect an
additional benefit provided to a ‘‘special
interest group’’ or a fundamental change
in the Government’s human resources
policies. On the contrary, these final
regulations are meant to ensure that an
employee has an entitlement to use his
or her leave for purposes authorized
under applicable law and regulation.
Therefore, OPM believes it is
appropriate to specifically include
same-sex partners in the definitions of
family member and immediate relative
to ensure consistent application across
the Federal Government. We are
keeping domestic partners as part of the
definitions of family member and
immediate relative under 5 CFR part
630, subparts B, H, I, J, and K, for the
use of sick leave, funeral leave,
voluntary leave transfer, voluntary leave
bank, and emergency leave transfer to
ensure agencies meet the needs of a
diverse workforce. . .
Based upon the
comments received, we agree to revise
the definitions of family member and
immediate relative to clarify that the
parent of a domestic partner is included
in these two definitions. Therefore, we
are revising the proposed definitions of
family member and immediate relative
to add language to paragraph (6) to state:
‘‘domestic partner and parents thereof,
including domestic partners of any
individual in paragraphs (2) through (5)
of the definition.’’

And much more too lengthy and complex to copy.

Black Christians condemned Obama's inclusion of gay fathers in his Father's Day Message in June

Obama Proclaims that Homosexuals "Two Fathers" Can be Considered Fathers, in the Normal Sense of the Word, in his Father's Day Proclamation;Question: Where are the Megachurch Pastors and Prophets of God to Publicly Rebuke this Unwise President - BCNN1

SIPRNet: The US army Secret IP Router Network

The primary reason you don't hear much about the real culprit of Wikileaks, PFC Bradley Manning, is that he is/was an unhappy homosexual in the Army and we're in the midst of a "don't ask don't tell" debate. We're also in a debate about the security of Muslims in the armed forces during our War on Terror, so you hear very little about Nidal Malik Hasan.

SIPRNet: The US army Secret IP Router Network | Privacy Lover

But both the Manning and Hasan stories, personal motivations of hate aside, show the Army is incredibly sloppy in its security.

Who will play Julian the Movie version?

I definitely have made my pick.

The religion of Julian Assange--one view

"Like other anti-American cranks on the planet, Assange holds firm in his warped faith that the U.S. is the leading source of global evil. The roots of this religion run deep, beginning with 18th century European aristocrats who despised the American Revolution. The anti-Americanism of Nazis, communists, tribalists, anarchists and now militant Islamists all rehash the same tropes, with their semi-schizoid baseline being the U.S. is simultaneously a vast authoritarian conspiracy and a heterogeneous menagerie of infidel-cowboy-capitalist idiots who dogmatically resist enlightened social policies.

Assange argues his revelations will force this conglomerate American monster to become more secretive and authoritarian. Limiting access to information, in order to stop future leaks, will reduce the monster's secretive and authoritarian effectiveness. The monster's "security state" will dumb down, and --here's the moment of religious rapture in Assange's prophecy -- this will increase global justice.

Assange also links this shackling of America to creating peace. Don't snicker too long. There are a lot of tenured gray-haired profs with ponytails who teach this dreck at notable universities and get paid for it.

Assange understands media grandstanding, but he doesn't understand people and certainly doesn't understand how American diplomats contribute to maintaining peace."

Read the whole piece. WikiLeaks' Bottom-Line Revelation

"Wikileaks obtained hundreds of thousands of secret American military and diplomatic documents from a U.S. soldier (PFC Bradley Manning) who worked in intelligence. As such, Manning had a security clearance and access to SIPRNet (Secret Internet Protocol Router Network). This was a private Department of Defense network established in 1991, using Internet technology and able to handle classified (secret) documents. But Manning got access to a computer with a writable CD drive, and was able to copy all those classified documents to a CD (marked as containing Lady Gaga tracks) and walk out of his workplace with it."

Read the rest. Information Warfare: Why Wikileaks Backfired

Benefits for gay couples, but not straight?

There are lots of reasons heterosexual couples don't get married, but live in "committed" relationships whereby benefits and legal and medical power of attorney might be helpful, or a tuition break for the girlfriend's out of wedlock teenager, or a gym membership, etc.

One or both might still be married to someone else.

If one or the other married, they might lose their alimony or a deceased spouse's benefits.

They are related to each other and live in one of the states that have consanguinity laws. One half of the states prohibit the marriage of first cousins. Some states also prohibit the marriage of a step-parent and a child, or an in-law and a child. But marriage among cousins is extremely common among immigrant groups.

One or both accept polygamy and don't wish to separate from their legal spouse.

Both have adult children from previous marriages and don't want to do anything to change the line of inheritance for wealth for their children, and prefer to take care of their partner in other ways.

They are different religions and can't come to an agreement and don't want to upset their parents.

They look down on the other's ethnicity or cultural group and don't want the association (Korean/Japanese or different first nations group or Sharia/Sunni).

They've been through a nasty divorce several times and have completely soured on the idea of marriage, but not relationships.

They are very close to former in-laws and don't wish to bring in a "new" spouse to the relationship mix.

Their place of employment has nepotism rules and one would lose a job or be transferred if they were married.

Same-Sex Benefits Ban Roils El Paso - WSJ.com

The Tax Treatment of Domestic Partner Benefits - NYTimes.com

New Benefits for Same-Sex Partners - NYTimes.com

Health Benefits: Dependent Certification - Benefits - The Ohio State University

So how long before the federal government, corporations and universities decide to be fair to straight, shacking-up couples?

Mike Huckabee knows

Huckabee's message today was about what he knows.

I know life begins at conception;

I know our economy grows and adds jobs when we have less government and lower taxes;

I know social issues are inextricably linked to economic successes;

I know traditional marriage isn't just a conservative principle it's a fundamental building block for our nation;

I know real border security isn't just securing our borders, it's enforcing existing laws on employers;

and I know a free nation is one that can feed itself, fuel itself and fight for itself.

Although I'm not going to send Huck-Pac any more money (at Christmas our donations go to Christian causes, not political movements), but I do agree 100% with his summary of conservative values.

Government bloggers

Not only are we paying these government employees their salaries, but we are paying them to blog about all the good deals we get by sending our money to the government and letting them spend it.

Blog Policies

Power Spin 210 U

This is our Christmas present. We went shopping Saturday with our daughter and son-in-law who are true "shoppers." They do the research (Christmas trees, clothing, technology, etc.) and then we go along for the ride. My husband and son-in-law both wanted me to get the new-in-the-box model for $200, but I said I'd take the 25% off the floor model. When scanned it came up already on sale, so we got... 20% off that. $80 instead of $200 was my take-away price. It measures heart rate, calories, mph, and mileage.

They also talked the clerk out of taking my old exercycle, which I offered to her. But I found a new and happy owner within a minute of mentioning it on my Facebook page.

Ceiling Repair--unexpected holiday expense

We were afraid the plumbing in the master bathroom was leaking, because we were getting bubbles on the living room ceiling, but they didn't seem to be under the drain. On a closer look, my husband decided the caulking in the corner of the shower was damaged.

A contractor looked, cut out a section, and yes, could see daylight in the corner of the shower. He also found some "outside of code" plumbing from when this shower was installed, probably in 1990 when the guy decorators lived here and all sorts of trendy, but not correct things, were installed. He also found out the previous contractor didn't remove his trash--even found a putty knife!

Notice the cat on the couch is not about to give up her napping spot just because there's a stranger in the room cutting holes in the ceiling! It's that curiosity thingy.

How St. Nick Became Santa Claus

Happy St. Nicholas Day, December 6. There truly is a real person behind our Santa Claus myth. Last night at the Conestoga Christmas party at the hotel in the Ohio Historical Village a St. Nicholas reenactor told us the story of his life and the giving of gifts (we each got a gold coin, i.e., chocolate wrapped in gold foil).
How St. Nick Became Santa Claus: Spiritual Life in God

The Dream Act

Call or e-mail your Senators now and tell them to vote NO on the DREAM Act.

"Last week, the Department of Labor reported that unemployment in America rose to 9.8 percent. Joblessness has now topped 9.5 percent for 16 straight months, the longest stretch since the Great Depression. Yet in the 11th hour of the 111th Congress, Democrats are attempting to pass legislation that would grant amnesty to an estimated two million illegal immigrants

The DREAM Act subsidizes education for illegal immigrants, grants them mass amnesty, encourages more illegal immigration and inevitably takes jobs from American workers. Simply put, the DREAM Act is a nightmare for the American people. ." Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas)


No one knows how many are eligible for this--it includes up to age 35, so it's "not for the children." Could be over 2 million. Also, a criminal record won't disbar anyone from this dream. If they don't complete the program--which could be vocational or junior college--they only have to claim hardship to keep their legal status.

Those who receive conditional legal status under the DREAM Act also would be ineligible for Medicaid, food stamps and other government-funded benefits.

Center for American Progress, a far left wing think tank supports it, as do many progressives, socialists, etc. They need more voters on their side, and what better way than to slip them in under amnesty. But, do your homework. Should the children of illegals get special breaks like in-state tuition to your alma mater, when your child has to pay double, and should an illegal get a fast track to citizenship or legal status when your relatives have to wait in line?

DREAM ACT is just another name for blanket amnesty.

Monday Memories--Weybright farm sale

These aren't my memories, of course, but about 106 years ago the two oldest sons, Josiah and George, of my great-grandparents Jacob and Nancy Wenger Weybright were selling off their deceased parents' property, a farm near Dayton, Ohio, in Montgomery County, presumably to be divided among the living children.  My own grandfather was still a teen-ager when his mother died and was only 8 years old when his father died.  The date of this poster is 1894, so that means with the help of her older children Nancy lived on the farm until her death in 1892.

According to my genealogy notes, George continued to live on the home place and something messy happened in an agreement with his daughter and husband to look after him in his old age, because he outlived his daughter, was taken in by a niece, Ethel Shoup, and I believe he died in a nursing home in 1962, but I'm not sure. *

Josiah, the other name on the bill of sale, married Rose Johnson, moved to Bloomington, Indiana and when I was living in Indianapolis in 1960 I think I may have met some of his daughters at a funeral I attended to "represent" our side of the family--Iva Bates, Edith Boruff, Isabelle Terhune and Margie Lowdermilk.

If I were a better researcher (or had the energy) I could probably find out what happened to the farm one half mile south of Union and one half mile north of Harrisburg, Ohio on the Dayton and Covington Pike. Nothing is forever; certainly not real estate or farmland.  However, the family Bible in which Nancy wrote all her children's names is in Canada with my cousin Sharon.

*The Wenger Database lists his death much earlier, but I think that is incorrect based on family correspondence I've read.

Update: " Find a Grave" gives his death as 1964.

Oral-B CrossAction Power Whitening Toothbrush

Last week I had my 6 month dental check up and got the usual lecture. Floss. Use an electric toothbrush. I always have tons of plaque and 30+ years ago I had a gingivectomy, for an early case of gingivitis, and I still have ALL my permanent teeth--including four wisdom teeth that are extremely hard to floss, even with a huge mouth like mine. So, when we were out purchasing my new Gold's power spin on Saturday we sorted through the battery and electric toothbrushes. We've had an electric toothbrush for years with replacement heads, but it resides in my husband's bathroom, so I've maybe used it twice. Well, I discovered at Wal-Mart that I could buy 4 Oral-B CrossAction power battery operated toothbrushes for the same cost of 3 replacement heads of our electric model. Duh. That's a no brainer--it even came with the batteries. Now for the good news. I just love it! I've looked on line, and I don't see any price better than the $5.97 I paid at Wal-Mart. And boy, does it have power!

Oral-B CrossAction Power Whitening Toothbrush

Just say no

This was not the scene--it was the dad

This morning a young family with five children was enjoying breakfast where I have my coffee. Gorgeous kids and parents. But lively. Oh my. Lots of screaching. Some rolling on the floor. Some dismantling. I just can't imagine my mother saying something like, "We need to think about. . . [using our quiet voice; sitting in our chairs; not running around when people have hot coffee]" if I had been acting up in public. Although I sat through a lot of Mary Evans' classes at FCC when I was a young parent, and that's what we were taught to say 40 years ago.

Please moms, just say No. The kids know what you mean and are probably confused that you seem to be leaving the choice up to them.

The story of Kables and Mt. Morris, a timeline by guest blogger Murray

Murray and I graduated from Mt. Morris High School in Illinois in 1956 and 1957. It was then a small town with several thriving businesses related to printing and publishing, an excellent school system, four churches, and a solid retail business district. When my parents and grandparents were young there had been a Mt. Morris College (two different entities, 1839-1932), but it closed in 1932. At one time Mt. Morris had a high school, junior high, and an elementary school, but those are gone too except for the middle school. Two years ago Watt Publishing, one of the largest publishers of agricultural journals, moved out. Last week, the announcement came that Quad-Graphics would be leaving too. That's the current name of a company that began in 1894. Here's how Murray explains the timeline from Kable Brothers Printing to Quad-Graphics.

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Norma, here are the events leading up to the demise of our beloved Kable Brothers Printing Company.

1957 - Western Publishing of Racine, Wisconsin, elected to compliment their strong children's books, games and toys business. They purchased Kable Printing. They were a great company to work for as they paid well and had great benefits including profit sharing. They allowed Kable management to continue to manage the daily operation of the plant.

1974 - This continued until the photo engravers decided to strike in May of 1974. Western Publishing handled the negotiations with the union. Kable limped though the strike under Western Publishing till 1979 as the strike weakened them.

1979 - Mattel purchased Western Publishing in 1979 [for $120.8 million in cash and stock] primarily for Western's lucrative children's books, toys and games business. They then divested themselves of Kable in 1980 to the Providence Journal because they really had no interest or expertise in printing and publishing.

1980 - The Providence Journal had a printing division called Providence Gravure. They added Kable printing to this division and allowed Kable to keep its name. [Murray transferred to Providence in 1981, retiring in 1995.] They also had gravure plants in Dallas and Richmond. They were an excellent company to work for as they were generous with their benefits and paid well.

1986 - In 1986 they sold the Gravure division to Robert Maxwell of Maxwell Communications. Robert Maxwell was determined to become the largest communications media in the world. He was obsessed with attempting to overtake Rupert Murdoch as the world's largest communications empire. Maxwell was ruthless in his attempt. He kept acquiring and expanding sometimes using the pension funds of his acquisitions for capital. Fortunately he didn't touch the pension funds of the Providence Gravure Printing division. Maxwell drowned mysteriously in November 1991 while cruising off the Canary Islands, investigators discovered that he had misappropriated hundreds of millions of dollars from his companies and their pension plans to finance his corporate expansion. Maxwell's companies were forced to file for bankruptcy protection in Great Britain and the United States.

1990 - Quebecor Printing, located in Montreal, Quebec, purchased the Providence Gravure printing division from Maxwell Communications in 1990. Kable became Quebecor Mt. Morris. Quebecor Printing had similar goals as Maxwell. They wanted to become the largest commercial printer in the world by overtaking R.R. Donnelly. Their business plan was based strictly on total sales. They were successful based on total sales, however it was at the risk of their bottom line. To help towards their goal they merged with World Color in 1999. Kable/Quebecor Mt. Morris became QuebecorWorld. The QuebecorWorld business plan failed.

2010 - QuadGraphics with 30,000 employees worldwide purchased the bulk of QuebecorWorld U.S. printing plants in June of 2010. QuadGraphics immediately began consolidating and closing down various printing plants. On Nov. 30 QuadGraphics announced that starting Jan. 1, 2011 the Mt. Morris plant will began reducing it's work force from 500 to 100 employees to be completed by April 1. 2011.

MURRAY