Seriously out of practice

We're having guests for dinner this evening--small group from church, small menu--soup and salad. I'm so out of practice. Maybe we need to join one of those non-gourmet dinner clubs. These days I mostly stove-top grill or microwave leftovers. The oven might be turned on once a week. Desserts are too tempting, so if we need one, I buy it. It's a good reason to clean the house.

Scratch days are long gone here

A fall treat--Dairymens Eggnog

"Pumpkin pie spice eggnog" is back in the dairy case. Boy! Is that good in coffee! I usually cut it with some milk, but it's still delicious.

Dairymens is a Cleveland company with quite a history. I buy it at Marc's, but don't recall seeing it anywhere else.

Project 21 Black Conservatives

Just in case you thought Herman Cain was lone voice speaking as a black conservative.

Project 21 is an initiative of The National Center for Public Policy Research to promote the views of African-Americans whose entrepreneurial spirit, dedication to family and commitment to individual responsibility has not traditionally been echoed by the nation's civil rights establishment. Maybe you need a speaker?

Project 21 Black Conservatives

Canada ranks No. 1 in “Best Countries for Business”

"Canada ranks No. 1 in our [Forbes] annual look at the Best Countries for Business. While the U.S. is paralyzed by fears of a double-dip recession and Europe struggles with sovereign debt issues, Canada’s economy has held up better than most. The $1.6 trillion economy is the ninth biggest in the world and grew 3.1% last year. It is expected to expand 2.4% in 2011, according to the Royal Bank of Canada. . .

What hurts the U.S. is its heavy tax burden. This year it surpassed Japan to have the highest corporate tax rate among developed countries. The U.S. also gets dinged for a poor showing on monetary freedom as measured by the Heritage Foundation. Heritage gauges price stability and price controls and the U.S. ranks No. 50 out of 134 countries."

The Best Countries For Business - Forbes

Instead of liberal celebs threatening to relocate to Canada, maybe we'll see American entrepreneurs go there. It's closer than China, safer than Mexico. For starting a new business, the U.S. ranks #13 (New Zealand is #1).

RMIT--The Richest Man in Town

The total wealth of America's RMITs (some are women) is $355 billion.

• These 100 people employ more than 91% of Americans.

• All of the fortunes are self-made.

• Only one of them is a professional manager as opposed to a company founder.

• Less than 10% of them have taken their company public.

• Eighty-one percent of RMITs are doing business in their hometown.


Who Are the Richest People in Town? - BusinessWeek

To paraphrase an anarchist--Benjamin Tucker*

This blog is written to suit Norma, not its readers. She hopes that what suits her will suit them; but, if not, it will make no difference. No reader, subscriber, or body of subscribers, will be allowed to govern her course, dictate her policy, prescribe her methods, or choose her topics. Collecting My Thoughts is published for the very definite purpose of advocating certain ideas, such as faith in Jesus Christ, the free market, conservatism, education, recent medical and technological break-throughs, pro-family issues like not killing the unborn, family memories, and public policy; no claim will be admitted, on any pretext of freedom of speech, to waste its limited space or Norma's time in hindering the attainment of that object. Norma is not afraid of discussion, or even an argument, and shall do what she can to make room for short, serious, and well-considered objection to her views, but intolerance of Christians, Christiphobia, church bashing, blasphemy, name calling, bullying, and long boring essays on atheism should be posted on the reader's own blog. Also, since Norma in an earlier career translated Soviet medical material heavily laced with Marxism, she probably knows more than the reader about the joys of attaining socialist goals, so don't bother cluttering with that clap-trap either. As a former humanist, a career public employee (although not a union member), a librarian and a 40 year registered Democrat, there are few arguments from the other side or from the basement archives Norma hasn't heard.

*Tucker wrote a journal called Liberty in the 19th c.

Uncertainty holds back economic recovery

Politicians, policy experts and business leaders gathered in September to try to make sense of the economy and what the government is doing about it. I noticed this panel and the burden our non-elected appointees and czars are imposing on the economy. Small businesses, particularly, can't keep up with the rules, or even hire the staff to wade through them to be in compliance, so why hire or expand, even if you have the money or credit? We were discussing the business climate with a retired friend last night who has passed his firm on to his sons (who divided it), and they no longer have permanent workers, everything is contracted. The complexity of running a small business is overwhelming them. This is why stiffer regulations are supported by some very large firms--puts the competition out of business.

"The next panel “The Uncertain Environment and what it Means for American Business” was led by Bob Norton, chief income tax officer for Vertex Inc. Panelists included David A. Heywood, vice president, tax and general counsel, Lockheed Martin Corp.; Hal S. Jones, senior vice president and CFO, The Washington Post Co.; Michael Kenny, CFO, Panduit Corp.; and Cathy Santoro, vice president, finance and assistant treasurer, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Norton listed areas that are replete with uncertainty on many fronts. Among them: global economy, geo-political sea changes, technology revolution, security (cyber and other) and regulation. He also provided statistics to reinforce reasons why businesses are facing uncertainty. For example, federal agencies issued 3,573 final rules in 2010, while Congress enacted 217 bills into law. The result of this, he added, is that ”significant law-making power is being delegated more and more to unelected bureaucrats;” the number of pages in the Federal Register last year topped 81,405; and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act requires 11 new federal agencies tasked with creating 235 rulemaking provisions – 100 rules by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alone.

Jones said that two-thirds of The Washington Post Co.’s revenue comes from education and training, and that this year more than 400 pages of new regulations have been issued related to education. Dealing with so many new rules has caused the company to hold back on hiring, marketing, planning or expanding. The company is willing to comply with the rules, he said, but not knowing what they are is causing the business to stay on hold.

Kenny expressed concern about tax reform and stated he favors business tax reform – not corporate tax reform. (With more than 90 percent of U.S. businesses operating as pass-through private companies, thus taxed at the individual rate, just doing corporate tax reform won’t help these private companies.) He also noted concern for companies that are not large enough to stay abreast of the constant flurry of new rules and laws, not a issue for his company, but a real challenge for untold others."

FEI

Does Obama get the credit for killing Qaddafi?

Ilya Somin: Ilya Somin's response to 'Credit due Obama for Qadhafi death?' - The Arena | POLITICO.COM

President Obama deserves credit for facilitating the overthrow of a brutal dictator at little immediate cost to the United States. Republican critics were wrong to claim that this result could only be achieved with a much larger commitment of U.S. forces.

On the other hand, it is far from clear whether the new regime in Libya will be any better than the old. The new Libyan government includes many different groups, including an influential radical Islamist faction..... If radical Islamists do take over Libya, the result could well be a regime that is just as oppressive as Gadhafi’s and much more hostile to American interests.

The United States may also pay a price for violating our 2003 agreement with Libya, under which Gadhafi agreed to stop supporting terrorism and give up his nuclear program in exchange for the US and Britain implicitly committing themselves to not seeking his overthrow....

Obviously, Gadhafi deserved to be overthrown. He certainly had no “right” to tyrannize over the people of Libya. But, after seeing what happened to him, other dictatorships such as Iran may be less willing to sign similar deals....

Finally, by going to war without congressional authorization, the president violated both the Constitution and the 1973 War Powers Act. Then-Senator Barack Obama got it right back in 2007, when he wrote that “[t]he president does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.”

So stay tuned for the unintended consequences.

Update: LA Times--not real pleased and pointing out it's not going to help him much with his friends or enemies. This year, he has sent U.S. troops into action on land or in the skies of seven countries on two continents. More serious, in my opinion, is his encouragement of "Arab Spring" which is bring out of the wooodwork a whole new batch of bad guys.

What’s on the I-pods of the Occupiers?

Take the Money and Run; Eat the rich; Let’s go crazy; Shakedown; All I need is a miracle; Tax man; Been caught stealing; Money for nothing; Money’s too tight to mention; Smooth operator; Money changes everything; Little lies; Burning down the house; Money, money; Material girl; 9 to 5; Gold digger; Putting on the Ritz; Free money; The pretender;

Actually, I used to be very fond of Jimmy O'Bama

Friday family photo

This was her after breakfast nap. The click on the phone awoke her, so she shifted positions to her before lunch nap. She got up long enough to investigate what I was fixing for lunch, and now she's in her after lunch curl position. She wasn't really reading the book; but you probably knew that. She prefers fiction. She's a calico, a rescue from Cat Welfare in Columbus. Her name, however, is from a horse catalog. Horses have much nicer names than cats.

Note to a successful California architect supporting "Occupy"

You're a little late to the gate realizing how dependent architects are on the wealthy of this country, and also, I might add, the federal government. I'm not sure it's ever been that different--yesterday we toured the home and gardens of F.A. Seiberling, Stan Hywet, in Akron, OH. 65,000 sq. ft, 23 bathrooms, and preserved to be the absolute latest in everything, ala 1915. There were 3,000 separate blueprints and drawings. A special railroad spur to bring in building materials and workers. We were told the landscape architect walked the 3,000 acres (now only 70) for a year just to site it properly. It boggles the mind to think of the thousands and thousands of jobs he created globally in the rubber industry, as well as right there in Akron. And in those days there was no income tax deducation for "doing good"--he just did it. And after the recession following WWI in the 1920s, he went bankrupt from a bad business decision, and started all over at age 62. His next company wasn't as successful as Goodyear, but it did become 7th in the nation in rubber.

There are some good, sincere people wandering around the Occupy movement--I've visited (on the web) about 15 cities/states from Nova Scotia to Missoula to West something Missouri. For the most part, they know nothing about the laws, codes, zoning and tax structure of the business world; they are completely ignorant on the taxes paid or percentage the wealthy contribute to the government or the economy or their own lives; they've taken out student loans for degrees like social work or English that can never be a ROI ($250,000 at Columbia) and racked up huge debts for living expenses; they want "fair" but can't say why Tiger should be paid more than his caddy, Oprah more than the camerman who may work even harder; they are clueless about how dependent they are on the successful, smart, risk takers like Steve Jobs who dropped out of college. They have more greed, envy and lust for material goods than any wealthy person I've ever met.

I'm disappointed you're going down this rabbit hole filled with swampy socialist dreams, when the upper 10%--probably even the upper 20% have created work space for you in their lives. Which from your web page and blog looks a whole lot spiffier than our life.

Road Trip

Hope to have some good photos to post when I get back, but it is very gray and rainy. Conestoga is a great group which supports the Ohio Historical Society. Ohio is part of the original expansion of the colonies, the old Northwest Territory. The NW Ordinance set the bar very high--no slavery, the importance of education and religion, setting up elections, etc. There are so many interesting historical sites in Ohio, that it would not be possible to visit them all--but we'll make a stab at it.

Ohio's Health Care Freedom Amendment Issue 3

Vote Yes. This from National Review Online.

"Most ballot initiatives have little resonance outside the states that consider them. That’s not so with the upcoming vote in Ohio. Ohio’s November vote on the Health Care Freedom Amendment (Issue 3) will have national implications, and could play a role in determining the future of our nation’s health-care system.

The Ohio Health Care Freedom Amendment preserves the freedom of Ohio citizens to choose their health care and health insurance. It makes clear that no government has the right to force free people to buy a government-approved health-care package from a government-approved insurance company.

In this, it’s following in the footsteps of efforts made in numerous other states, from Idaho to Missouri to Georgia, that have adopted measures to reject aspects of the new Obamacare law and reclaim some basic freedoms for citizens from an overreaching federal government.

Ohio’s ballot initiative, however, will be particularly significant because of its timing. Earlier this month, both the plaintiffs and the Department of Justice filed petitions for certiorari, asking for an ultimate review by the Supreme Court of HHS v. Florida. In all likelihood, the Supreme Court will review the case in January or February 2012, with a decision coming by June. That means the vote in Ohio will be the last expression of popular will on the question of Obamacare before the Supreme Court hears and rules on the health-care law’s constitutionality.

Generous Giving Stats & Trends

Dream weaving seen today at a philanthropy web site:

"According to the Borgen Project, annual expenditures of $19 billion between now and 2015 could eliminate global starvation and malnutrition. Another $12 billion per year over that same time period could provide education for every child on earth. And an additional $15 billion each year could provide universal access to clean water and sanitation."

Not true. Global starvation, malnutrition and sanitation have never been about enough money or calories. It's about power held by the governments which hold the people, which make the laws, which ignore the terrorists (like Uganda and Libya); it's about resources diverted from infrastructure like roads which move food and goods to market into glittering palaces like those that housed Saddam Hussein and his sons or Idi Amin or Pol Pot or Joseph Stalin. 35 years ago when I worked with agricultural credit files as a librarian, the evidence was clear, and it's never changed. We the people still believe you can fight evil with more money.

Generous Giving Stats & Trends

Can't always trust what you read on the internet

Herman Cain sings "Imagine there's no pizza" in 1991

This was in Omaha for a Press Club event. Not a bad voice.

One of the 53 percent

Today I talked to an assistant manager--mid twenties--at a nice chain restaurant--asked him about his college loans. "Don't have any," he said. "I didn't go to college--don't need to." Next he'll get his own store with the chain, then he hopes to some day own his own restaurant; probably started at minimum wage running the register or bussing tables. I believe in eduction--especially would like to see more students graduating from high school that didn't need remedial work in college. But this man had good people skills, excellent English, no nose or ear rings or tattoos (showing), he shows up on time, works hard, is friendly to old ladies, and he has a plan. And then there are the "occupiers" . . .

I'd be mad too if I were paying $65,212 a year to attend Columbia School of Social Work (I checked the website), and then found out my first salary wouldn't pay the postage to mail the laundry back home to mom, let alone buy pizza and beer. You might think that before investing over a quarter of a million dollars in an education a student would check out how much writing grants or visiting poor children paid. Now they want us, the 53%, to pay their college loans.

"The protesters' [at OWS] online manifestos read like a Marxist child's letter to Santa Claus, demanding everything from college loan debt forgiveness to a living wage "regardless of employment." " Ben Boychuk

Where's my bailout?

BEN BOYCHUK: "If the Occupy Wall Street protests were merely a gathering of liberals angry at the pathetic state of the economy and the incestuous relationship between Big Government and Big Business, most Americans likely would be on their side.

But something else is happening here.

We don't have much real data about who these protesters are or what exactly they believe. But we have a few hints. The protesters' online manifestos read like a Marxist child's letter to Santa Claus, demanding everything from college loan debt forgiveness to a living wage "regardless of employment."

New York Magazine took a snapshot poll of 100 protesters camping at Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan. About 34 percent of the "young, smart, educated young people" the magazine surveyed are "convinced the U.S. government is no better than, say, Al Qaeda."

So it's fair to say a sizable minority of the people camped out in New York and dozens of other cities around the country are on the fringe of mainstream American politics.

And yet Occupy Wall Street has touched a nerve for the right reasons.

"If you're a bank or an insurance firm, and you create a product that your investors and your regulators can't understand in a crisis, you aren't punished...Instead, you get rewarded with bailout money," my City Journal colleague Nicole Gelinas observed recently. "It's hard to argue with the Zuccotti protesters' manifesto on this point: 'They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity."

The difference between the Tea Party marches of 2009 and the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations of 2011 is the difference between "No more bailouts!" and "Where's my bailout?" For the Tea Party, Big Government -- too many regulations, too much federal meddling in Americans' lives -- is the problem. For Occupy Wall Street, bigger government-more taxes, more regulation, more subsidies -- is the solution. The choice is yours."

Red and Blue America; what does Occupy Movement mean?

Michael Moore Occupies Wall Street

Michael Moore has made a fortune criticizing and lying about capitalists. Recently, he’s been on the front lines of Occupy Wall Street. He gave aid and comfort to the enemy during the Iraq War (when it was Bush’s problem). He makes films about the racist, evil, greedy United States which are forced on American students in high school and college. Then with his profits from the films he invests in American companies. His own “investment portfolio has included owning significant shares of stock in medical, health, pharmaceutical, defense and big oil companies, such as Pfizer, Merck, Eli Lilly, Pharmacia Corporation, Tenet Healthcare, Sunoco, General Electric and even the “evil” Halliburton. He has also invested in firms that outsource jobs to the Third World – including China, where slave labor is rampant. He wants to soak the rich with higher taxes, but uses accountants to exploit every loophole and exemption to reduce his burden to Uncle Sam.” The left is filled with such hypocrites. You can bet that as they destroy your retirement portfolio, they’ve figured out how to make a few more dollars.

KUHNER: The hypocrisy of Michael Moore - Washington Times

A hole in their souls

I’ve visited many Occupy sites (west coast, east coast, Canada, mid-west, south, as well as Columbus and Toledo) and read their complaints, demands and suggestions. It’s obvious that this movement, at least in North America, is not an economic or political problem, but a spiritual one. People who have more “stuff” than they know what to do with are unhappy because some people have more--more stuff, more debt, more bling. It’s the opposite of need. It’s the black mold of selfishness and greed--the very thing they see in others. And they want others to be sucked into their misery. They aren’t poor, they’re suffering from income-envy; they aren’t hungry, they’re overfed and underexercised; they aren’t sick, they’re over medicated; if they‘re thirsty, they just open a plastic bottle and trash the environment. They’ve got a huge hole where there should be wholeness in God.

This should be a great mission field for Christians. We've been there--we used to think stuff, or power, or position, or a relationship would satisfy the spiritual cravings of our sinful nature, too. They don't even know what riches are out there for them, and they are scrambling for pennies!

One job, created or saved--$800,000

I was browsing the government ARRA "transparency" site for the first stimulus (looked like it had been months since it was updated), and I came across a place in Georgia, Huston County, I believe, where upgrades to a public housing project TJ Calhoun was to get $800,000. Under jobs created or saved category, the word "one." But nothing had been done, so I guess that's a moot point. Meanwhile, on the radio, I can hear the familiar voice castigating Republicans for wanting people to stay unemployed. ARRA money went to unions and to government agencies. ARRA Junior won't be any different.

Why has the President sent troops to Uganda?

We're supposed to believe that an African country with a stable government, an army, marines, air force and national defense group, with over 800,000 young people turning 18 each year can't beat back a rag tag band of terrorists numbering 500-3,000 calling itself The Lord's Resistance Army.

Only 100 troops you say? That's all Kennedy sent to VietNam in 1961--fifty years ago. From little acorns. . .

Could be:

Oil

Minerals (80 something)

Wag the dog, pt. 4

Something even more sinister

or

Just because he can.

Jodi and Susi plan for retirement

Note: The story of Jodi and Susi is fiction--at least the main characters. The amounts and the disparities in the pensions are true. This is why I’m voting for Issue 2 in Ohio.

Jodi and Susi are both 55 and were roommates at a Christian college. After graduation Jodi went on for an MBA right away, but Susi took a teaching position in a poor community because she could get assistance paying her college loans from the government. Later she got an M.S. with assistance from the school district where she settled. Jodi spent years paying off her school loans; Susie invested her windfalls from the federal and local governments.

Both women today make $90,000 a year, Jodi as a manager of several Wendy’s restaurants working about 60 hours a week, 12 months a year, and Susi as an assistant principal working about 40 hours a week, 10 months a year. Susi goes interesting places in the summer to teach teachers in 6 week workshops, does a little touring on the side, and invests her additional summer salary, looking ahead to when she can retire with 35 years next year at 56 in the state teacher‘s system. Jodi would like to travel, but keeps it modest because she needs to invest in her 401-k and private savings, looking ahead to when she can retire at age 67 or later.

Next year Susi will begin drawing her $70,000 pension and will begin substituting in different districts, selecting carefully only those jobs she truly loves--like working with low-income children slipping through the cracks of all the regulations imposed by the U.S. Department of Education and the State Board of Education, and the local board. There are days when she's reduced to tears by the burden of what is expected of her. The school districts will benefit because they won’t need to pay her as much as a regular teacher who will need union negotiated benefits, plus she’s an outstanding teacher with experience and will do a better job than a beginner.

Jodi has another 12 years to work and pay into Social Security, to which she began contributing at age 16. When she retires, her “government” pension will be $28,150 (this figure will be larger in 2023, but that’s what it would be today). She has paid much more into FICA than Susi has paid into STRS because restaurant managers don’t have a powerful union. Technically she’s Susi’s employer so she’s also been contributing to Susi’s pension. She has also worked longer days, and more days per year than Susi. She too is reduced to tears some days as she has to do basic remediation for some of her employees who attended schools where Susi taught because they are unprepared for the work world.

Susi, by the way, never actually joined the teacher’s union, but she had to pay dues anyway if she wanted to teach in a public system in Ohio. Like the majority of teachers in the United States, she votes Republican and doesn’t like it that the unions contribute primarily to Democratic candidates and causes. She’s also pro-life, and is really bothered that teachers unions contribute heavily to candidates and organizations that support abortion, and especially to Barack Obama, who is very pro-abortion and pro-embryonic stem cell research. She contributes to pro-life organizations, but not as much as she surrenders to the union.

In any case, next year at 56 she has great plans to enjoy her retirement with her pension and her private investments. Meanwhile, Jodi puts a smile on her face, her lunch in her briefcase, and heads for the free-way.

Friday Family Photo--The Wedding 1970

My husband's brother, James B. DeMott, died on September 14 at 63. This is a photo of them together before Jim's wedding in 1970 (not sure of the date).

Fall flavors

I bought pumpkin bagels this week. They are OK, but somehow the flavor of pumpkin and the texture of a bagel just don't seem right. Is this being too judgemental?

My new coffee thermos mug from Panera's is leaking . . . something. But there's nothing in it. I've sent the promo company a note. I think I'll take it back. It was made in China, and I violated my own rule about not putting things made in China in my mouth or on my body.

Teachers unions give more money to political campaigns than all the other unions combined, but very little to Republicans--$56 million to Democrats and $4 million to Republicans. But only 45% of the teachers are Democrats. So I guess we know why we've got crappy schools in cities run by Democrats. . . which is just about all the big ones. But the recorded dollar number is just the tip of the iceburg.

Waiting for Superman--the movie

Tuesday night I saw the documentary Waiting for Superman. The depiction of the familes trapped in bad public schools is gut wrenching, but in a way beautiful, as you see the deep love and commitment the parents (poor, middle class, black, white, Hispanic, inner city, suburban) have to their children and their belief in education. I'm the third generation in my family to attend college, and I'm not sure I'm that passionate about the value of higher education. One statistic surprised me: if we could get rid of the 6-10% of really awful teachers (can't be fired because of the union) and just replace them with mediocre, we could have a system as good as Finland's, which is rated best in the world.

Having lived in two very small towns, Forreston and Mt. Morris, Illinois, I think I had some outstanding teachers in the days before unions and high wages. But a few did get the boot before they could do much damage. Two on sex charges (and that seems to be about the only way to get rid of bad teachers today), one of was fired even before the school year started when the administration found out he liked to have "slumber parties" for the athletes and the other for exposing himself. Two male teachers were not prepared to deal with teen-agers, who even in the 1950s could think up a lot of mischief. My first grade teacher was really harsh, and just died a few years ago. She was too mean to die, but boy did I learn phonics!

My all time crush on a teacher was my third grader teacher, Miss DeWall. I've forgotten her first name, but she left after one year to get married and I believe she died while I was in college. She was kind, beautiful, attentive to all, very thorough, and lots of fun. Every child should be so fortunate to have a Miss DeWall in her life.

Marisa's Take: Occupy Wall Street looks like church to me

Note to Marisa: This doesn't look like my church.

The Occupy Wall Street movement where crowds of the ignorant, uninformed and unwashed, most of whom have never voted, have taken over private property and obstructed freedoms of other citizens. They are demanding the wealth of others to pay off their debt and greed. (You don’t need to be wealthy to lust after others belongings or God wouldn't have included it in the commandments.) Marisa Egerstrom, a PhD candidate in religious history, and a member of Protest Chaplains thinks the OWS looks like something built on Christ’s teaching, life, death and resurrection. Sorry Marisa, we aren’t reading the same Gospel. I had a number of classes in Russian and Soviet history, used to translate Russian medical material to earn my college tuition, and had a Chinese roommate in college whose family fled the massacres by Mao. The OWS really looks a lot like people demanding national socialism, not realizing that they are useful idiots, expendable in the next stage of the movement/revolution, just so much fodder to get people worked up.

I wonder how CNN would cover honest believers witnessing to the protesters about Jesus death and ressurection on their behalf.

My Take: Occupy Wall Street looks like church to me – CNN Belief Blog - CNN.com Blogs

Food buzz words

Food security (a buzz-word) and/or good nutrition is not food self-sufficiency (another buzz word). I've noticed that many political celebrities have photo ops at trendy, high priced Chicago or Washington restaurants or campaign events that serve waygu-steak or fancy ethnic foods, while the rest of us are encouraged to get dirty and harvest our back yard gardens or raise a few chickens in order to save the planet.

The biggest offender? Michelle Obama.

For the moderately obese--a chance to earn some money

and help other people. If you're willing to admit to being moderately obese, OSU Nutrition Study is looking for you (male or female) and has $300 for you to join a simple study. You don't even need to diet! Non-smoking, moderately obese people (body mass index between 30 and 44), with family history of obesity, aged 21-40, needed for study on body processes that affect weight control; must give 2 small blood and urine samples, do a 20-30 minute breath test that measures internal calorie use rates, and take vegetable oil capsules for 6 weeks; compensation of up to $300. Contact: 614-689-0954

Why is President Obama so anti-life?

Obama has failed miserably in many areas, but one promise he kept was about approving more embryonic stem cell lines, even though by the time he became president, adult stem cells were the gold standard. "As president, I will lift the current administration’s ban on federal funding of research on embryonic stem cell lines created after August 9, 2001 through executive order ..." The National Institutes of Health continues to waste more taxpayer funds on destructive embryo research adding more lines. What does Obama have against the unborn that he is so Hell bent on destroying them?

Two very famous men of our time, Barack Obama and Steve Jobs, were born to very young, unwed mothers (who eventually married their birth fathers, although Obama's father being a Muslim was already married.). It was not an auspicious beginning, but Jobs was adopted and Obama was essentially raised by his grandparents. Neither faced poverty, want or lack of love and they went on to achieve the highest in politics and wealth that our current culture offers (although not in spiritual matters--and that's what counts in the end as Jobs has discovered).

So it puzzles me that two men who should be grateful for life itself are so careless about their own responsibilities. Jobs denied his out of wedlock child for years, putting mother and child on welfare, and Obama is the most virulently relentless advocate for killing the helpless unborn that we've ever had in any branch of government, federal or state. One is left to wonder if deep down there isn't some pool of self-hatred and lack of self-worth that they, particularly Obama, would demand such power over others' lives.

Are flares back in style and I missed it?

I bought a pair of light colored (oyster) chino slacks today, hook and button waist, slightly riding low, Merona, nanotex, and although I wasn't surprised at the length, since I usually have to shorten slacks, I was surprised they are flared.

But for $2.99 (I bought them at Marc's a remainder outlet), I won't quibble. Now I'll go hem them.

Internments and relocations of Americans and aliens during WWII

The round up was ordered by President Roosevelt within hours of the attack on Pearl Harbor. . .

During World War II when Franklin D. Roosevelt was president, more than 158,000 U.S. residents were either relocated and/or interned under restrictive governmental actions, and another 836,000 individuals had their freedom restricted by the government. About 130,000 were Japanese aliens and Japanese Americans living on the west coast who were put in internment camps, of which about 58% were citizens. Other Japanese ancestry citizens who lived away from the coast and not near military bases were not disturbed.

Less well known is the fact that German and Italian aliens living in the U.S. were arrested by the FBI and interned in 55 camps created just for Europeans, as well as many German-Americans and Italian-Americans. 236,000 Americans of German ancestry and 600,000 Americans of Italian ancestry were subject to restrictions.

This M.S. thesis by Larry DeWitt says 31,275 Europeans were arrested, and 25,655 were sent to the camps. Some were put on parole, or released. Also arrested were foreign merchant seamen and other non-Americans unfortunate enough to be in the U.S. at the time.

Larry DeWitt's Master's Thesis: The U.S. Social Security Board and its Program of Assistance and Services to Enemy Aliens and Others During the Relocations and Internments of World War II- Chapter 1 (I removed the hot link to this document because it had been hacked for a not very pleasant web sit.)

Wormwood Occupies

In my e-mail box today, an offer to claim $4.5 million: "listen dear client all you need to do is only forward your information required.reason because this is legibly signed by this delivery security office and also we discovered this email reported in this office last-night telling us that this consignment box worth of this fixed sum of money was about to be scammed by 419scammers. so we the entire organization formed in order to protect the interest of our clients."

Is this from an Occupy group, do you suppose? It makes as much sense as they do--protesting student loans while attending Columbia University in the most expensive city in the country; demanding collapse of corporations while wearing and using all their products; storming banks and capital buildings on a holiday; chanting and repeating phrases while wiggling their fingers. It's raining in Columbus; we can only hope for some rain on Wall Street.

The 53%--a new website lauding Americans who face adversity and survive

Some are immigrants, some are disabled, some are single parents struggling to get through college, but they have this in common--they don't approve of those who say they are the 99% and want to destroy the economic base of our nation.

We are the 53%

There's a lot of pressure to abort. . .

Sometimes it's the woman's parents, sometimes the boyfriend, and increasingly it's the culture--her peers.

At the eighth week of pregnancy, my daughter had her first sonogram. She called and told me all about it, with great excitement in her voice. She didn’t know if her baby was a boy or a girl yet, but he or she had a head, body, arms, legs, fingers, and toes! My daughter overflowed with joy as she told me how her baby had wiggled around on the screen in front of her, moving tiny arms and legs.

Then she said, “And Mom, when I got back to my dorm room after the sonogram, I had an e-mail waiting for me … from a friend telling me it wasn’t too late to take the abortion pill. I still had one more week left before it would be too late!” Mifepristone (formerly known as RU-486) can be taken as late as nine weeks after the first day of a woman’s last menstrual period—in other words, until she is seven weeks pregnant.

Kristin continued, “Mom! My friend was telling me that I could take a pill and make my ‘problem’ go away. But it’s not a ‘problem’—it’s a baby! I’ve seen him! He has arms and legs, and even though I can’t feel him yet, he’s moving all around inside of me!”

And Baby Makes Two: A Pro-Life Profile in Courage | LifeNews.com

This political ad is a bit disingenuous

American Crossroads today (October 11) announced it is releasing a TV ad in Pennsylvania and Florida as part of a continuing campaign to aggressively counter President Obama's efforts to sell his second stimulus plan at state and local events.



When could we ever trust what he said?

How smart is WiseWoman?

In common parlance, the words "wise woman" mean someone who depends on cards and herbs and pagan rituals to heal or help someone. But not so in the federal government.

The WISEWOMAN program (Well-Integrated Screening and Evaluation for WOMen Across the Nation) is administered through CDC's Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention (DHDSP). The WISEWOMAN program provides low-income, under-insured or uninsured women with chronic disease risk factor screening, lifestyle intervention, and referral services in an effort to prevent cardiovascular disease. The priority age group is women aged 40–64 years.

CDC funds 21 WISEWOMAN programs, which operate on the local level in states and tribal organizations.

The current budget for this program which essentially screens women for health problems is $16 million and change. So I was browsing through the screening pie charts and was more than a little shocked to see that 84% with hypertension, 84% with high sholesterol and 88% with diabetes had previously been diagnosed.

It seems we have an awful lot of programs to meet the needs of the uninsured, but wasn't that the reason we needed to rush Obamacare through without reading it--because so many didn't have these things, which are clearly right under their noses, plus screening women previously diagnosed. A screening or a diagnosis or a counseling moment doesn't mean treatment, doesn't mean research. Actually, doesn't mean diddly squat if the patient doesn't follow through.

You can look at the list of accomplishments, but you'll find nothing about mortality or extended life for those participating.

A Pair Of (Nobel) Aces

The Nobel Prize for Economics goes to two Americans, Thomas Sargent of New York University and Princeton's Christopher Sims, who have separately exposed the flaws in government stimulus spending. For President Obama, a Keynesian, it's the Anti-Peace Prize. Stimulus spending is the equivalent of a "sugar high." Obama certainly didn't deserve a peace prize (in fact that looks pretty silly now), but these guys seem to know what they're talking about.

A Pair Of (Nobel) Aces - Investors.com

Working families party, SEIU, ACORN organizing the Occupy groups--this is definitely NOT grass roots

She says the capitalist system isn't working for any of us? Hmm. Wonder what she wants to replace it with? European socialism? National socialism? Communism?

"In 1992, Joel Rogers​ co-founded the New Party, a Marxist coalition that endorsed and helped elect left-wing political candidates; one of its most noteworthy members in the mid-1990s was Barack Obama​. After the New Party closed its doors in 1997, it was reinvented the following year by Joel Rogers’ partner, Daniel Cantor, as the Working Families Party, which became a powerful front group for ACORN." [FrontPageMag.com]

Obama's connection to the Working Families Party is probably why you'll not hear him chastizing the organizers of this, which if it works like the 1960s, will severly hurt his campaign.

1 Million Workers. 90 Million iPhones. 17 Suicides. Who’s to Blame? | Magazine

While everyone's all soft and gooey about the loss of Steve Jobs, let's all pause for a moment of silence for the American jobs that would have never been created by Jobs. American unions would not have tolerated any of this--especially not dormitories for workers. But it has been a boon for the Chinese economy.

1 Million Workers. 90 Million iPhones. 17 Suicides. Who’s to Blame? | Magazine

Monday Memories--Salt Fork State Park 1972

The colors weren't as brilliant as this year, and it must have been much colder since we're all wearing winter coats in the photos, but we took a 3 day vacation to Salt Fork State Park on October 15, 1972. As I recall I caught a terrible cold, was very sick so we went home early. The photos are starting to fade in the album. . . a bit like my memory. Camping, even when you have a cabin with a bare bones kitchen, isn't much fun with small children--or at least it wasn't for this mom.

The note under this photo said, "Lost." I think we missed the trail we were looking for.

Our cottage was near the water.

Inspiration and perspiration

When I got home from exercise class this morning, I decided to tackle the mismatched storage boxes in the garage. I really don't like storage boxes that say STOR-ALL or Progressive. So now they are either white, green or royal blue. But. . . in order to do that I had to do some shifting and repacking, and thus came across a box full of VHS movies. Other than the Dagwood and Blondie series, most we've never watched. I think most of them used to be our daughter's who is quite a movie buff. I'm thinking we should have a movie night once a week, view them, then pass them on to the library. As it is, I selected about 12 to donate that I knew I would never be desperate enough to watch. I used to have a notebook with an alphabetic list of our movies and TV shows on VHS, but that seems to have been separated from the box of tapes.

When ART imitates Life

According to the data rich CDC 2008 report (dated Dec. 2010) on assisted reproductive technology (ART), 61,426 live births were recorded in 2008 from 148,055 discrete ART cycles. It was mandated in 1992 through the Fertility Clinic Success Rate and Certification Act (FCSRCA) that fertility clinics had to report the outcomes of assisted reproduction. This is an amazing database, regardless of your political or religious views, and has been a model for those for nursing homes, hospitals and physicians. (JAMA, "public reporting of clinical outcomes of Assisted Reproductive Technology Programs," Sept. 14, 2011, p. 1135-1136.

The ART database tracks oocytes retrieved, embryos transferred, embryos and gametes frozen for later use, donor eggs, non-donor eggs, age of mother, multiple births, etc. In the meanwhile, there were about 1.2 million abortions in 2008--over 28,000 just in Ohio. I'm guessing primarily the rich use ART; the poor and black are going the abortion route. Non-Hispanic black women account for 30%, Hispanic women for 25% of total abortions--blacks are about 12% of the population.

Occupy Columbus

A group has assembled in Columbus, the Occupy Wall Street wannabees, not to demonstrate on behalf of the poor, but to ask demand the stuff others have created or earned--their wealth, their companies and corporations, their money that goes to foundations, their lifestyles. They are calling themselves the 99%, saying 1% have 20% of the wealth (and pay 40% of the income taxes). Income isn't wealth, as we all know, and they demand a share of their wealth funnelled through the government, of which they will receive very little after the layers of bureacracy are paid their grand salaries and benefits. If they truly are representatives of the 99%, there would be Christians among this motley crew.

I find that hard to imagine, outside of the PAJAMA (Peace and Justice and More Aid) Christians. Christians, those called by the name of Jesus Christ, are those bought, purchased, ransomed with the blood of the Lamb who are a Kingdom of Priests called from every tribe and language and people and nation to serve God. (Rev. 5:9) They already have every possible riches, wealth, understanding, wisdom, and power to use in their worship of God, so why would they trade that for these trinkets?

When the Tea Party gathered to demonstrate, they won elections, but. . .

George Will: “I disagree with some of the Republicans. I wish the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators long life and ample publicity for two reasons: I think they do represent the intellectual spirit of the American left, but also I remember 1960s. We had four years of demonstrations like this led up to 1968 when the Nixon/Wallace vote was 57 percent — the country reacting against demonstrators, and Republicans went on to win five of the next six presidential elections.”

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/10/09/george-will-i-wish-the-occupy-wall-street-demonstrators-long-life-and-ample-publicity/#ixzz1aKSuPxc3

Republicans should not get their hopes up

Just because Democrats are moaning and groaning behind the skirts of the MSM, doesn't mean they will give up on Obama. He's not stupid, and he's learning this how to be president thingy bit by bit, although always shifting the blame to someone other than himself for his failures, which is extremely unpresidential and adolescent.

Barack Obama was created by the media who found him photogenic and liked how he spoke (didn't speak like a Rangel or Jackson). Also helping were the genuinely liberal (generous, interested in liberty) whites wanting to undo years of bad behavior by the Democrat party toward blacks (Jim Crow laws, Tuskegee experiments [ended by Nixon admin after 40 years], civil rights bills fought by 90% of the Democrats before the Republicans finally pushed through the 1964 Civil Rights Act signed by a Democrat president, neighborhood abortion clinics which have targeted black babies, urban renewal projects which have destroyed many black neighborhoods, etc.) which caused them guilt and angst.

Yes, they all have buyer's remorse and they don't know what to do with him, but I believe he will go for a second term. They just have too much invested, and I don't think Republicans should even imagine he won't run, or they'll get soft and go all RINOish again like they did in 2008.

Obama fooled the Democrats; don't let him fool the Republicans and Libertarians.

The Ohio Education Association squabbles with its staffers' union

I’ve been reading some of the pro- and anti-Senate Bill 5, Issue 2 (restricts public unions in Ohio). For those of you outside (or inside) Ohio, all teachers in Ohio public schools must pay union dues, but technically they don't have to be members. Since a lot of their money goes toward political issues in which they have no say, a lot of teachers are muzzled with their own money. Make any sense to you? Me neither. But. . .

Seems that the OEA (Ohio Education Association aka “union” with revenue of nearly $62 million) has a problem with its employees' union called PSU (Professional Staff Union of the OEA) and some of the dirty linen was being aired, so the PSU blog was taken down. Yes, I can see the OEA wouldn‘t want this circulating, but it was copied to PDF and posted by The Columbus Tea Party.

“The truth of the matter is that OEA failed to bargain in good faith with PSU. In fact, they wasted five bargaining sessions before even responding with a written counter-proposal. Does that sound like collaborative leadership?

No doubt both the teachers, their highly paid (nearly $200,000 a year) union reps and the lowly PSU staffers will all be out on the streets of Columbus joining raised fists in solidarity against the evil rich tomorrow with "Occupy Columbus." It will keep their minds off the "public" and children.

This is really working well for the anti-American forces behind the Occupy Wall Street movement. The first few weeks they couldn't get any traction, but now that it has spread to cities like Toledo, Columbus, and Cincinnati and people are already unhappy about a number of things messed up by the government and particularly Obama's leadership (although they would never say that), the socialist/marxist crowd is practically wetting itself with glee and anticipation.

Discord Riddles Libyan Factions--send in the drones

"Six weeks after the fall of Tripoli, the palmy days of rebel unity have begun to disintegrate into a spiral of infighting, political jockeying and even the occasional violent flare-up threatening to derail Libya's post-Gadhafi transition.

Regional rivalries between fighters from the western mountains and Tripoli have in recent days come perilously close to exploding into open warfare in the capital. In some neighborhoods, multiple leaders claim sovereignty for their groups amid a deepening battle over the makeup of a citywide military council."

No surprises here, and let's hope Mr. Obama stays out of this one.Discord Riddles Libyan Factions - WSJ.com

Holding hands?

I'm sorry, but I almost dropped the cat when I read this advice column at Ask Jen & Barb.

My children are 9 and 11. Girl and Boy respectively. They fight all the time. Spout hateful words at each other constantly. I have tried things like making them hold hands and of course lectured them. Any ideas on how to get my children to show each other they love and care for each other.

Hi Jessica, They need major consequences. There needs to be a zero tolerance for hateful words. Take away whatever it is they hold near and dear to them (i.e. time on the computer, toys, play dates, etc.). They need to know that if they treat each other that way, they will have consequences. Stay strong and do not waiver. Good luck! Jen

Probably Mom is yelling at them. And she wonders why they are nasty to each other? And what sister and brother want to hold hands? Yuk!! When are these kids together? In the car--when Mom is on the cell phone ignoring them so they quarrel to get her attention. Or she's on the computer at home so they fight in order not to be ignored. This case needs a bit more investigation.

How can I get my children to show they love and care for each other? | Jen and Barb, Mom Life

Obama's Thursday news conference

This isn't how I perceived it, but littletboca is indulging in some wishful thinking that Democrats actually see through this guy:

"[Democrats] sat and listened to a man who’s acting like a caged animal – he’s on the fight and will attack any and all who get in his way. His body language along with his rhetoric reveals his anger and discontent. Americans, it looks like we have a problem that could be worse than the economy.

The Commander in Chief alienates himself from his duties in the White House; he’s in a campaign mode and oblivious to the real world. Obama appears to be functioning on hot air and incapable of facing reality. This person truly is living in a fictitious make believe world.

Democrats know the Obama’s jobs plan isn’t paid for and they know the brunt of the cost for this second stimulus will be placed on taxpayer’s shoulders. Democrats must be thinking about several things this morning: (1) How can we replace this person in the 2012 elections, and (2) How do we get him to stop campaigning and, (3) What do we do with him between now and 2012?

Obama Dealt Democrats a Losing Hand | RedState

Party of Whiners

"Our current President is callow and incompetent. Does anyone doubt that any of our three top candidates are FAR superior to His Oneness?" So why, Barleycorn asks, are Republicans such whiners?

My personal preference right now would be in the order Perry, Cain, Romney, but my problems with Mitt Romney are not over whether he could handle the job. I feel certain he is a big enough man to sit in the Oval Office and fulfill the oath. If Romney is the nominee I will support him to the nth degree next Fall.

The same goes for Herman Cain. I worry some about his tendency to allow the media to frame the soundbites in interviews, but I’ve no doubt he has the brains, knowledge, and temperment to fill the office.

Rick Perry is a horrible debater but presidents are not Debaters in Chief. They assemble, delegate, persuade, and lead. Debating is a fine exercise for young minds but a foolish part of our presidential elections.

Party of Whiners | RedState

41 Obama White House aides owe the IRS $831,000 in back taxes -- and they're not alone

This is old news (Sept 2010) so the figure may be higher now:

"Federal employees across the nation owe fully $1 billion in back taxes to the IRS. As in, 1,000 x one million dollars. All this political jabber about giving middle-class Americans a tax cut. Thousands of feds have been giving themselves one all along -- unofficially. And these tax scofflaws include more than three dozen folks who work for the president with that newly decorated Oval Office." Maybe the "Occupy Wall Street" crowd could expand their horizons to the federal gov't which created the regulations they are protesting.

41 Obama White House aides owe the IRS $831,000 in back taxes -- and they're not alone - latimes.com

I sort of backed into this story (which I think I've written about before) because I came across a tax law professor Alex Raskolnikov who had written a paper that began, "Crime and punishment. . . and so forth." If you are familiar with Russian literature, Raskolnikov was the main character in Crime and Punishment, a novel by Dostoevsky.

Guide to Obama’s Floundering Foreclosure Programs

I knew from blogging occasionally on this topic that the results of Obama's foreclosure help programs were miserable, but I just had no idea they were this bad!

Making Homes Affordable 2009
The Home Affordable Refinance Program 2009
Emergency Home Owners Loan Program 2010
Housing Finance Agency Innovation Fund [billions to the states to figure it out]
Change bankruptcy laws 2011
Reduce principal on underwater mortgages 2011
Turn foreclosed homes into rental properties 2011

All have failed, or achieved so little they are laughable.

There are many links in this story which you need to read. Obama's advisors and Chicago carry-alongs are like kids in the U.S. candy shop.

Our Guide to Obama’s Floundering Foreclosure Programs - ProPublica

Repeal the Death Tax--from 0 to 35% in 2011

"America’s family businesses and farmers were hit by a large estate tax increase, from 0% to 35%, at the beginning of 2011, making planning and passing on farms and businesses to the next generation even more difficult. As it stands, more than 70% of family businesses do not survive to the second generation, and a full 90% of family businesses do not survive to the third. In 2011, the political landscape has changed but family businesses are still struggling, family farms are liquidating, and even more jobs are at stake."

I didn't realize the death tax had made such a comeback. Why does the Obama administration hate small businesses and farmers so much? Easy. They are the backbone of the economy, and he wants it to collapse. So when conservatives say we want him to fail, we mean we don't want him to collapse the economy with oppressive taxes and regulations that destroy businesses and jobs.

My mother and her siblings inherited their parents' farms in Illinois and Iowa when they died in 1963 and 1968, however, the taxes then were so oppressive, most of the land had to be sold in order to pay the taxes.

"As part of the tax deal struck at the end of 2010, Congress set the death tax at 35 percent with a $5 million exemption for 2011 and 2012. The death tax did not apply in 2010 because the 2001 and 2003 tax relief abolished the harmful tax. Even though the death tax is resurrected, the new rate and exemption levels represent a substantial improvement from where the death tax was in 2000 before the tax cuts: 60 percent with just a $1 million exemption. Despite the positive advances the death tax is back in place and therefore has resumed destroying jobs and slowing the economy."

Death Taxes

The Latest Book on Obama

I wish I had more confidence that people still read books today. The new one on Obama sounds like a winner--Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President, by Ron Suskind.

R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. writes at American Spectator, "The book tells us what we Obama critics have all been saying since early on. This President is the most incompetent and ideologically rigid president in American history. . . How are all the Liberal sages going to get out of their absurd exaggerations of Obama's modest gifts? Increasingly they admit that Obama has chosen the wrong policies, but he speaks so beautifully -- using a teleprompter for the most measly address. Ah, but he is so forceful. So is his former chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, when he dons his tutu. But he is curious, adventurous, a sponge for new ideas. Actually he has been a hopeless socialist, lost in Fabian abstractions. . . Skip the first 150 pages. The author needs an editor. Settle with Suskind's discussion of the fights between the boys and the girls on the White House staff, and Obama's utterly insensitive meeting with the aggrieved ladies at a dinner he held to placate them. . . Suskind contains his narrative to Obama's economic policy and, to a lesser degree, healthcare. There is nothing in the book about foreign policy or the way this President has conducted two foreign wars and a worldwide effort against terrorism. My agents tell me Obama's conduct of foreign affairs and of the war on terror are even more appalling."

The American Spectator : The Book on Obama

Steve Jobs 1955-2011

Jobs was born out of wedlock to two graduate students, and was adopted by an Armenian-American couple rather than aborted or raised by a single mom. Armenians (Christians) themselves had been slaughtered by the Turks (Moslems) and some escaped to the U.S. His birthfather was a Syrian immigrant. How the threads of ethnicity and history are woven in the United States where freedom to live and explore and invent come together!

As Jobs' life was slipping away this week, thousands of ungrateful, whiny, manipulated college students, using his inventions which made him incredibly wealthy--with more cash than our government--protested in "Occupy Wall Street" on the streets of New York and campuses all around the very country and values that gave him that opportunity. They want "redistribution" (aka communism) of other people's wealth, whereas Steve Jobs dropped out of college and went out and created wealth and jobs. Maybe we need a few drop-outs from that "Occupy Wall Street" crowd to go out and do some real work like cashiering or flipping burgers and put their faculty in the unemployment lines.

Steve Jobs, brilliant entrepreneur, however, was a moral midget and cad himself. He had an out of wedlock daughter with his high school girl friend and denied paternity for years, so his daughter was raised with the help of his fellow Californians on welfare. His birth parents later married (after his adoption) and he has a full sister, but he steadfastly refused to even meet with his birthfather. And I don't think it was the money. So in addition to being extremely talented, wealthy, and a cad, he was also hard hearted and unforgiving to the end.

http://www.minyanville.com/special-features/articles/lisa-brennan-jobs-business-icons-rich/8/31/2010/id/29768

Democrats Anonymous

The first step is admitting you have a problem. . .

The redistribution rants

Harry Reid wants more taxes from millionaires and billionaires which won't create jobs, but it will make the great unwashed, sniveling whiners picketing on Wall Street happy. Obviously, these Occupy Wall Street antics don't help Obama's phony plea for more jobs (aka campaign 2012), so we know their intention is to bring the economy to a halt--with the President's help. It's too bad these gullible students didn't take more Russian Soviet history--the first to the barricades are the first to be put on trial by their fellow revolutionaries, imprisoned and killed.

The autum leaves--taking a break from blogging

Next time, I'll try to not get the trash container in the view.

Was an American citizen deprived of due process?

According to government reports and news sources from around the world, the well-known American-born radical Islamic cleric Anwar al-Awlaki was killed in Yemen on Friday, September 30, 2011, along with American jihadi propagandist Samir Khan. This report is designed to provide background on al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the organization al-Awlaki headed, and the influence he and Khan had on global terrorism. The report includes information on:

-Terrorist activity by al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula and al-Qa'ida in Yemen;
-Terrorism by the larger al-Qa'ida network;
-Anwar al-Awlaki's involvement with terrorists targeting the United States; and
-al-Awlaki's rise as an English-language jihadi propagandist.

Anwar al-Awlaki was a leader of the al-Qa’ida (AQ)-affiliated group based in Yemen, known as AQAP. Samir Khan was the editor of AQAP’s English-language publication, Inspire.

Read more here.

Van Jones Warns Of A Progressive "October Offensive" Against Tea Party

Isn't it interesting that with college students tearing up the streets of New York, getting arrested, being cheered on and rallied by the likes of Susan Sarandon, Cornell West, and Michael Moore, there are those out there, like former Obama staffer Van Jones, who see the Tea Party as a threat to their own take over of the United States? Amazing times we live in.

And if you're a Democrat who's been grumbling in the background about the Tea Party without knowing a thing about what they stand for (smaller government, less taxation), you're aiding this insanity. Obama came out for his buddy Prof. Gates in Boston in 2009 against the police who were investigating a break-in, and I suppose Van Jones is hoping for more of the same.

Around here Tea Parties have wild, crazy gatherings in Unitarian churches and public libraries. Not exactly Moore and Sarandon's hangouts.

Van Jones Warns Of A Progressive "October Offensive" Against Tea Party | RealClearPolitics

Texting while driving--ban it!

Yesterday on TV I watched a rally at the statehouse about H.B. 99--to ban texting while driving. I learned there's even an app for cell phones that will disable it while driving. Many people spoke at this rally, but none was more effective than Tina Yanssen who tearfully told the story of her dad's death in 2010.

Tina Yanssen's father was killed by a 19 year old neighbor texting while driving. It's already illegal in many cities, but wasn't in their rural Ohio area. Her dad had lost 165 lbs by walking after being told at Disney he was too big to go on the rides with his grandchildren. He lost the weight, but had postponed a trip with the grandkids to FL to attend his mother's funeral, but ended up at his own. He was 55.

At the time of his death, he wore a fluorescent green shirt with stripes of reflective tape. He walked along the side of rural Middletown Road, facing oncoming traffic. . . Another Unity Road resident, Whitney Yaeger, 19, was on Middletown Road that morning too. As she was driving — she would later tell an Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper — she was texting on her phone.

". . . she didn’t hit him, she ran over him,” Yanssens charges. “She left tire tracks up his right leg, across his pelvis and up his right arm. He didn’t stand a chance because she fractured his pelvis, pulverized multiple major branches of his right femoral artery, and bruised over 25 percent of his liver.”

He died early that afternoon in St. Elizabeth Health Center.

I googled the case to see what became of Yaeger, but without a texting law, this wasn't even "reckless driving" but a misdemeanor. Yaeger thinks even a misdemeanor charge with 6 mo. jail time is too severe for killing Muslovski, so she has chosen to go to trial.

http://www.vindy.com/news/2011/aug/29/coming-to-grips-with-the-dangers-of-dist/

Whether you're a pedestrian or a driver, if you see no hands on the wheel and eyes looking down, get out of the way--a driving texter is worse than drunk--at least drunks usually have their eyes open.

Money woes for the Obama campaign?

Saw this in James Taranto's WSJ column--he's on the e-mail list:

The Great Deflation also seems to be hitting the president's campaign treasury. The emails used to ask for $5, so the request for $3 amounts to 40% off. At this rate, pretty soon Obama will be asking for change rather than promising it.

For bigger donors, discounts run as deep as 75%. Next week in St. Louis, Obama speaks to Generation 44, an organization of supporters who aren't as young as they used to be. "The group has a limited number of $1,000 tickets available for $250," KSDK-TV reports.

Blighted property in Columbus, Ohio

Tonight I clicked through to channel 2 "Just the Facts" (local issues) and came across a program on how the city deals with blighted property. You wouldn't think that would be too fascinating, but it was well done. The narrator/host, Columbus City Attorney Richard Pheiffer was on Myrtle Avenue, which had some very nice homes, and some homes that were boarded up and overgrown with weeds and hazards. Nice trees. So I googled it, and although I don't have a photo of the house he was explaining, I do have the page. The house was built around 1910, as was the first home we bought in 1962 in Champaign, IL for $14,000. This house is for sale for $15,500, and of course, needs a lot of work, but so did ours. What was remarkable was Pfeiffer's explanation of how difficult it is for the city to track down an owner (a real person to talk to) since many are owned by a limited liability company (LLC) to even serve if taxes are in arrears or the building unsafe.

Newt 'n me

I was a big fan of Newt before I was ever a Republican--I liked his American history tapes. Not anymore.

The Tea Party over on Facebook asked in an opinion poll:Aside from who you favor for president, who do you think has the most knowledge, experience and history...
And then Newt was the runaway choice, because yes, he does have knowledge, experience and history. A history as a philandering womanizer, and sorry bubba, we've been that route in the 90s. Now I know that will eliminate a lot of candidates, but if your wife can't trust you, why should I? Why should the British or the Turks?

And when these politicians drag the Roman Catholic church through this annulment muck, I loose respect for everyone involved, including Callista, 23 years his junior, a former staffer with whom he had an affair while married, and Newt's current wife. They were both adults, they knew what they were doing, so let them be grown up about it and live with the results. Just don't ask me to participate.

Holding Obama's Party Accountable

Peter Ferrara is Senior Fellow at the Carleson Center for Public Policy, Director of Entitlement and Budget Policy for the Heartland Institute, and General Counsel of the American Civil Rights Union. He thinks Obama has reshaped the Democratic Party, making it weaker; but I think he has reshaped the Republican party even more, and until it can gather a little strength from have all its RINOs kneecapped by the Tea Party, I would get too confident.

The American Spectator : Holding Obama's Party Accountable

Safer sex vs. safe sex

I noticed in the JAMA article about topics doctors need to cover to prepare for barriers that LGBT patients face, safer sex was on the list. Wasn't familiar with that, so I googled it.

It's another term in our ever changing lexicon. It is now used instead of "safe sex."

"When people speak of "safe sex" today, they are referring to abstinence. Abstaining from sex and sexual play is the only sure method to avoid catching an STD and to prevent an unplanned pregnancy. Although it may not prevent a pregnancy, having sex within a committed, monogamous, long-term relationship with someone who has tested free of any STDs is also generally considered to be safe sex."

Actually, because an inflected comparative such as "safer" or "handsomer" or "brighter," would mean "more than safe," or handsome or bright, the term "safer sex" to mean something less safe than no sex (abstinence), really makes no sense at all. This might be difficult to understand for a non-native speaker--or even a native speaker!

The World from Berlin: Obama's Euro-Crisis Lecture Is 'Pitiful and Sad'

I learned in college 50 years ago that Europeans looked down on Americans (except to take our money), and they HATE advice.

The World from Berlin: Obama's Euro-Crisis Lecture Is 'Pitiful and Sad' - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

Catching up with my Glenn Beck notes

For less than $1.00 a week, we're watching Glenn Beck on the internet. It sort of looks like his old show on Fox News, but longer with more audience participation, and probably fewer commercials. I don't know that he needs commercials as much as before (leftist groups were threatening advertisers) because he's made a huge bundle by offering subscriptions-- 230,000 paying subscribers even before the launch. That eclipsed the viewership for the Oprah Winfrey Network.

Some things are the same--the chalk board, a monologue (although much longer), religious leaders as guests, discussions with authors, an audience of intelligent viewers, but there are some new things like some attempts at comedy by other actors, and his own news organization presenting news stories. Sounds like he's got some great opportunities for interns and journalists who want to work 12-14 hour days and do "real investigative journalism." It was one of his people who followed up on the Wall Street protestor/law student Robert Stephens who turned out to be the son of wealthy Minnesotans who actually hadn't lost their home as he announced to the world. Because he was black (in my opinion), the lefties ran with the story without checking it.

Other stories this past week noted along the way:

Big story on history of unions and corruption; billions in tax money going to the unions; you can't be forced to join a union, but you can be forced to pay their dues; top 2 visitors at the White House are union thugs Trumka (AFL-CIO) charged in the death of Eddie York a non-union contractor and Andy Stern (SEIU); create a crisis and collapse the economy is Stephen Lerner's mantra; the unions, not the students, are coordinating the violence on Wall Street right now.

Glenn was in Israel in August for a very successful show--and at the ned of these 2 hour segments, there's often a clip from that event; tonight in response to a student who said he was having problems doing a topic on Israel because of the liberal professors Glenn said, "The Gates of hell open up if you support Israel; he also told students not to accept the revisionist term "anti-zionist" or "anti-Isarel," because they are, in fact, anti-Jew, anti-Semite; a Fatwa, which GB considers a death threat, has been issued on a Muslim who appeared with Glenn Beck in Israel.

Glenn said he knows what's wrong with his generation, and asked the student audience what's wrong with their generation. They are afraid to speak up and don't do any research; even if teachers' lectures are OK the bibliographies are biased and one-sided; one student of economics had to read Paul Krugman's book (he thinks Keynes saved capitalism); another said a good friend had told him that Karl Marx invented capitalism (and this is a college student!); Glenn interviewed the head of the diversity bake sale which is in the news right now (based prices of their baked goods on customers' race and gender).

Speaking of race and gender, I've noticed that GBTV has many minority and female researchers, camera staff and reporters--I haven't seen that on network or cable TV.

One day he had sort of a history lesson on Frederick Douglass, black abolitionist of the 19th century. Said Douglas understood the 3/5 clause--that there would have been no United States or eventual abolition without it because the South would have counted every slave in the census; Douglass was at first critical of Lincoln, but they became friends; the word SLAVERY didn't appear in the U.S. Constitution, but was in the Conferate States constitution--in fact was required for admission; he was the only man at a women's rights meeting in 1895, the year he died.

One of Glenn's frequent themes is the peril of National Socialism, aka Nazism. He spent a lot of time discussing how naive academia was in the 1930s catching on. He says progressive are always on the wrong side of dictators when it comes to Hitler, Mussolini, and Mao. Harvard welcomed Nazi representatives and in the 1990s the Black Muslims called Jews "blood suckers." GB says, don't wait for progressives to change. The first place in Germany that anti-semitism became acceptable was the university campuses. There are workshops for anti-Jews at UC Irvine (I haven't checked that) and UC Berkeley encourages conservatives NOT to sign up for anti-Israel courses.

A 50s kind of guy

A friend from high school sent a message asking how I could spend so much time on Face Book and still have time to do all the chores a wife is supposed to do. Now there's a real 50s kind of guy! God love him!

Do I detect some redundancy?

Or is it a religious or caste thing?

"The Central Ohio American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin and the Association of Indian Physicians of Ohio will hold a fundraising gala on Saturday, October 15 at 6 p.m. at the Easton Hilton Hotel to benefit the opening of the India Gateway."

Coverage of LGBT related topics in medical schools

Medical schools are being pressured to include more course work in an already jammed curriculum to address LGBT barriers to good health. The list of 16 topics includes: sexual orientation; HIV; gender identity; sexually transmitted infections; safer (not safe) sex; disorders of sex development; barriers to care; mental health issues; LGBT adolescents; coming out; unhealthy relationships--intimate partner violence; substance use; chronic disease risk; sex-reassignment surgery; body image; transitioning.

Gays and Lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered folks are an extremely small percentage of the general population, but because of my profession, I may know more LGBT persons than most. With the exception of two or three who died rather young before the drug cocktails that are now available for AIDS, those I knew were/are in monogamous relationships, well educated, economically high in the quintile chart, and pleasant, hard working co-workers. Their health problems, I assumed, included things like COPD (too much smoking), obesity related problems (too many pot-lucks and too much eating out), and various familial diseases like cancer, arthritis, and depression. I can only hope they can find a good doctor who has spent enough time studying and treating non-gay related problems.

How long before this list (published in JAMA, Sept 7, 2011) is considered insulting inducing cognitive dissonance and stereotypical and homophobic attitudes among medical staff?

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender–Related Content in Undergraduate Medical Education, September 7, 2011, Obedin-Maliver et al. 306 (9): 971 — JAMA

MSNBC labels AP ‘inherently racist’ for accurate translation of Obama speech

I call this the Don Imus rule of journalism. A bi-racial President who learned to talk black as an adult can try to jive the Black Caucus, but Associated Press is racist if it records the mess he made of it.

During his speech, Obama attempted to fool the black audience into thinking he was one of them and not a paid teleprompter reader for Wall Street by dropping the g’s at the end of his words.

“Take off your bedroom slippers. Put on your marching shoes,” Obama lectured the audience. “Shake it off. Stop complainin’. Stop grumblin’. Stop cryin’. We are going to press on. We have work to do.”

However, after the Associated Press accurately transcribed Obama’s dropped g’s, MSNBC aired a debate segment asking whether the decision not to “clean up” Obama’s words was “racist”.

MSNBC labels AP ‘inherently racist’ for accurate translation of Obama speech « InvestmentWatch – The best source of news, analysis, and intelligent discussion

Myths vs. Truth about Issue 2 in Ohio

Vote YES on ISSUE 2.

Issue 2 would not cut salaries or benefits for any government employee. Employees would simply be asked to pay a modest share of their benefits, just like employees in the private sector do.

It does not eliminate collective bargaining. The new law states the same as the old law: "Public employees have the right to… bargain collectively with their public employers to determine wages, hours, terms and conditions of employment." The only difference is that Issue 2 helps to better define what those "terms and conditions" are. Since the old law was passed nearly 30 years ago, government employee unions have successfully expanded the definition to include a laundry list of costly perks and fringe benefits that taxpayers can no longer afford.

Issue 2 only affects government employees who pay less than 15 percent of their taxpayer-funded health care premium. The new law requires all government employees to pay at least 15 percent. That's hardly unfair when private sector workers are being asked to pay an average of 31 percent.

Government employees will still get a very generous pension benefit – an annual payment that averages their three highest annual salaries. That's a pretty nice deal, when many private sector workers get no retirement benefit at all. State Issue 2 only ends a practice where some government union contracts require taxpayers to pick up the tab for BOTH the employer AND employee shares of a required pension contribution.

Myths vs. Truth | Building a Better Ohio

Law students chokes on his silver spoon

The first arrest came shortly after noon near the stock exchange. Several blocks away, another protester, who identified himself as Robert Stephens, was arrested after kneeling in the middle of the street outside the Chase Bank building.

"That's the bank that took my mother's home," said Stephens, a law student, before being handcuffed. . . Reuters

Poor helpless, poverty stricken law student Robert Stephens, graduated from Carleton College (average cost: $42,942/year) in 2010 and now studies law at The George Washington University Law School (average cost: $70,449/year).. . He was at the Wicked Wall Street Occupy/Demonstrate against the banks saying the bank had ruined his parents' lives.

It's all bogus, but he's had his 10 minutes of fame on the liberal new media sites, his face zipping around the internet in minutes. His Dad is a PhD, with 2 masters, his Mom who has a Master's earns mega bucks, plus county property records & taxpayer services office reveal that the Stephens family home is not in foreclosure, that property taxes had been paid in full and the remaining balance on their mortgage for the half-million dollar home is less than one year’s worth of tuition+fees at their son’s law school. You gotta love the way the left manipulates the media and then wonder why there's no way to make their case, other than lying.

Daily Kos got punked, and it couldn't have happened to a group more gullible.

Liberal law students chokes on silver spoon