Free at last--from pain--guest blogger

A former colleague of mine comments on my comments on Dr. Blumenthal's 2 part series on HITECH which appeared in December in the New England Journal of Medicine. I was concerned about a number of issues, including the rush to push it through and the shaky privacy issues, but here's an alternate view of how advances in digitized health records mandated by PPACA could benefit the patient. She is now pain free after surgery and it has given her back her life, but some of her experiences in getting there were extremely unpleasant.

I thought this was an excellent article evaluating the benefits and challenges of bringing one part of American health care into the 21st century. I recommend we all read the full Blumenthal article. It's short and accessible. I took away something very different from it. It left me hopeful that things might change for the better.

Although we all rightly are concerned with the privacy of our health care data, as the article mentions, paper data is not secure either. But online data does present more challenges because no system is un-hackable. However, that's not a good excuse to stay in the 19th century forever.

My doctor's office automated their records and system a few years ago, making him an early adopter. There was slow down in the first 6 weeks, they told me, but then it got VERY efficient. When I go in now, it is faster, he knows exactly which tests are due and he prints out any prescriptions right from his laptop or faxes it directly to the pharmacy. He spends time talking to me, not flipping through paper files looking for previous test results, which are all on his laptop. I love it. He does too. After the initial few weeks of learning the new system, everyone in his office is fluent in it and very efficient.

None of these systems are developed from scratch in each doctor's office. They are turnkey systems with training provided. So the analogy of creating LCS from scratch isn't comparable.

Here's my example of why I think a state-of-the-art health care information system is desirable. Before my second hip surgery, I was in a wheelchair and in excruciating pain. I realized I couldn't keep working unless I got "real" painkillers. So I was referred to an OSU-affiliated pain clinic.

The biggest fear that pain clinics have is that patients will game the system, get painkillers from multiple doctors and sell them on the black market. This does happen. But I didn't realize that this fear made some pain clinics abuse their patients.

The waiting room was NOT filled with 20-somethings in black leather strung out on illegal drugs. It was filled with about 30 moaning elderly middle-class men and women, some in wheelchairs, some with canes or walkers, most were accompanied by worried relatives. One women was in such pain, she passed out during the wait. The office staff wouldn't help her. She said: "They do that to get sympathy so we'll give them drugs."

Her husband, who was almost shouting, had to be calmed down by other patients and we all demanded someone come out and help her into the bathroom to put cold water on her face, since not of us was strong enough to help her out of her wheelchair. They begrudgingly helped this "potential" drug abuser.

When it was my turn to be seen, the questions the doctor asked had to do with whether I was being seen by another doctor and if I was getting drugs from them too. If it had been said for my benefit to make sure I didn't overdose on a combination of things, it would have been appropriate. But it wasn't. It was an interrogation that implied I was a drug addict trying to cheat the system. I had never been treated so nastily by a doctor and I was really surprised. But pain clinics act this way because there is NO WAY TO CHECK RECORDS TO SEE IF OTHER DOCTORS are also handing out prescriptions. Finally, the doctor said he'd give me a prescription, if I passed the drug test, which was required of everyone.

So I went to the drug testing clinic he mandated. I had to be there in 20 minutes (or it was invalid), so I wouldn't have time to get a "clean" sample elsewhere. If you've never had a drug test (some states want all welfare recipients to pay for one themselves, before they can sign up for benefits), it isn't as easy as you might think.

A same-sex attendant accompanies you into a bathroom and watches you. You pee in a cup while someone watches your hands to make sure you don't substitute another sample. It was not handicap-friendly. The commode was on a platform in a small room with nothing I could hold on to easily. Because of my hips, it was excruciatingly painful. It was humiliating. I thought of the women in their 70s and 80s in the waiting room of the clinic who had to do this. It made me angry at our backward system.

The clinic said the test was a nominal cost, like $30. (Just like states say the charge will be nominal for welfare recipients, who must pay for the drug test themselves.) Turns out it was $250. I refused to pay that much and after weeks of arguing over paperwork, the price was changed.

Had there been a centralized health information system in place, this entire traumatic episode would not have been necessary. The pain clinic could have pulled up my x-rays, seen the bone-on-bone hips, seen I had no other prescriptions, and prescribed an appropriate painkiller. Instead, they were ruled by fear and lack of information. The prescription they gave me was inadequate; the surgeon said he didn't know how I managed the pain with only what the clinic prescribed me.

I, and all those suffering people, would have gotten better, cheaper, less humiliating care. The people who REALLY are gaming the system might be caught faster and punished. The insurance companies and we might have saved a small amount of time and money, but multiplied by millions of people resulted in huge savings, if there had been an investment by the government to create a unified medical information infrastructure.

I'm afraid of abuse of medical information. But that won't keep me from wanting to have a modern medical information system to allow better care, better tracing of public health concerns (like food poisonings from unknown sources), better tracking of outcomes using different types of procedures, and brings us closer to the care provided by other industrialized nations.

Do you know where you should move if you are a Type 1 diabetic? FRANCE. Because they have proven the slower speed of their dialysis treatment provides better patient outcomes and longer life. U.S. hospitals don't have a system to track outcomes, unless they do a special (costly) research study, because we don't have any medical information infrastructure. So we do what the insurance companies will pay for, which is the faster version, which results in more deaths for US diabetics than in other industrialized countries overall.

I went to my doctor years ago with what could have been either food poisoning (after eating at a new restaurant) or a flu bug. I asked him if other people in the area were coming in with similar symptoms, in case it was food poisoning. His answer: we don't have any way of knowing. They would have gone to different doctors and no information is shared. How's that for public health? We have to wait for multiple people to die to find out if there is a public health issue in an area, because deaths are reported.

I know I'm not going to convince anyone who, like the clinic doctor, is guided primarily by fear of abuse. But I believe shared medical information is vital to us as a country and as individuals. Everything can be abused. That clinic was so afraid of abuse that they were abusing people in a different way, by treating everyone as a criminal. They provided expensive, inadequate care. They had no way to track the outcome of the treatments they prescribed or even if their patients lived or died.

The only follow-up I ever received from the pain clinic was a post card a few years later saying they moved to a new address. We deserve better health care than this.

This is certainly an eye-opener, however, if patients can be abused in such a manner with face to face, 21st century care, I can hardly see EHR improving on that!

Abbott and Costello discuss unemployment

Unemployed vs. Out of Work from Abbott & Costello's Point of View.
COSTELLO: I want to talk about the unemployment rate in America .

ABBOTT: Good Subject. Terrible Times. It's 9%.

COSTELLO: That many people are out of work?

ABBOTT: No, that's 16%.

COSTELLO: You just said 9%.

ABBOTT: 9% Unemployed.

COSTELLO: Right 9% out of work.

ABBOTT: No, that's 16%.

COSTELLO: Okay, so it's 16% unemployed.

ABBOTT: No, that's 9%...

COSTELLO: WAIT A MINUTE. Is it 9% or 16%?

ABBOTT: 9% are unemployed. 16% are out of work.

COSTELLO: IF you are out of work you are unemployed.

ABBOTT: No, you can't count the "Out of Work" as the unemployed. You have to look for work to be unemployed.

COSTELLO: BUT THEY ARE OUT OF WORK!!!

ABBOTT: No, you miss my point.

COSTELLO: What point?

ABBOTT: Someone who doesn't look for work, can't be counted with those who look for work. It wouldn't be fair.

COSTELLO: To who?

ABBOTT: The unemployed.

COSTELLO: But they are ALL out of work.

ABBOTT: No, the unemployed are actively looking for work... Those who are out of work stopped looking. They gave up. And, if you give up, you are no longer in the ranks of the unemployed.

COSTELLO: So if you're off the unemployment roles, that would count as less unemployment?

ABBOTT: Unemployment would go down. Absolutely!

COSTELLO: The unemployment just goes down because you don't look for work?

ABBOTT: Absolutely it goes down. That's how you get to 9%. Otherwise, it would be 16%. You don't want to read about 16% unemployment do ya?

COSTELLO: That would be frightening.

ABBOTT: Absolutely.

COSTELLO: Wait, I got a question for you. That means they're two ways to bring down the unemployment number?

ABBOTT: Two ways is correct.

COSTELLO: Unemployment can go down if someone gets a job?

ABBOTT: Correct.

COSTELLO: And unemployment can also go down if you stop looking for a job?

ABBOTT: Bingo.

COSTELLO: So there are two ways to bring unemployment down, and the easier of the two is to just stop looking for work.

ABBOTT: Now you're thinking like an economist.

COSTELLO: I don't even know what I just said.

Pro-abortion people hysterical over plans to save babies

This is just terrible. There are babies escaping the abortionists! "Lawmakers across the nation pursued a record number of reproductive health and rights-related provisions in 2011, a new report from the Guttmacher Institute finds, enacting 135 measures in 36 states — “an increase from the 89 enacted in 2010 and the 77 enacted in 2009.” Sixty-eight percent of the provisions — 92 in 24 states — restricted access to abortion services."

Well, not so much. An outright ban on abortion was rejected by voters, and some other states banned abortion after 20 weeks (probably because of viability issues and unlike the President they didn't want to let the baby die flopping around like a fish out of water).

And Oh the Horror--a waiting period to think it through!!! The most egregious being 72 hours and counseling.

Ultrasound requirement! Whoa! That's positively medieval in it's cruelty. Imagine showing a woman an ultrasound of her baby.

States can't charge the abortions back to the tax payers through insurance coverage of employees. Oh, that's mean. How unfair--of course, the woman can get coverage if she pays for it--but the tragedy here to the pro-death people are that everyone isn't forced to pay for other people's abortions.

And stricter standards for abortion clinics. Now that's really hurtful, isn't it?

But it make the above chart just . . . almost go off the chart.

Breast Cancer and Planned Parenthood goons

Breast cancer isn’t the biggest killer of women—I think heart disease is. But the point about what has been happening between Susan G. Komen and Planned Parenthood is politics, how women (and some men) are manipulated by the media in cahoots with big pharma and the government, and if you wish to broaden the range of the net, how powerful non-profits like Komen and Planned Parenthood have become.

I believe someday in the future, citizens and historians alike will be scratching their heads wondering why people of the late 20th century couldn’t figure out that if women began taking powerful hormones as teen-agers (sex education in schools and hormones for 12 year olds) it just might have an affect not only on their children, but their grandchildren and great grands through the cellular level. They might even by then decide there’s a connection to autism spectrum, allergies, hyperactivity, etc. and all those conditions we never saw in our classmates when I was growing up. Health officials of 20-50 years from now will be as puzzled as we are now when we wonder how the industrialists and farmers couldn’t know that the filth, manure and chemicals they poured into the water would be affecting people down stream because waterways are a living organism.

If poverty researchers and social workers of the future are smarter than the ones of today, they might even look at the soaring statistics for out of wedlock babies which parallels the increased use of contraceptives by unmarried teenagers and its relationship to poverty and low income. Although that’s almost too much to hope for.

The breast cancer industry, like the poverty industry, has some big players. And don't you forget it if you value your knee caps.

Full employment at Planned Parenthood guaranteed

The illegitimacy rate for births among teenage girls hovered around five to seven percent for decades, until about 1960. Between 1960 and 1970, it doubled as the birth control pill helped usher in the 'Sexual Revolution.' After 1970, the teenage illegitimacy rate literally exploded as comprehensive sex education programs and school-based clinics were introduced. Currently, the illegitimacy rate among teenage girls is about forty percent.

Link

Have you ever wondered about how contraceptives are developed and tested?

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the abortifacient Norplant, [developed by the Population Council] for public use on December 10, 1990. Norplant was formally introduced to the American public in February 1991.

As of December 2004, about one and a half million North American women had used Norplant. More than 50,000 of these women have brought more than 200 lawsuits, including 70 class-action suits, against Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories.

The Population Council with roots in the eugenics movement (like Planned Parenthood) is headquartered in NY, but has 18 offices in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and does work in more than 60 countries. It employs more than 500 people from 33 countries ($74 million budget). It develops abortifacients and contraceptives (Norplant, Jadelle, IUDs, Mirena) and tests them on third world women before bringing them home to us as "safe and effective." Even so there are many law suits pending because these chemicals can really mess up a woman's body for years. Population Council was established and funded by the Rockefellers. http://popcouncil.org/who/leadership.asp

I've always wondered how they round up a group of sample women who've just had sexual intercourse, then take the drug to be tested from the researcher, then take a test to see if an embryo has implanted, then compared to women who took a placebo or nothing (how much did they know?). Same with AIDS research.

Anyone know how you procure women for research like that? What job title do the people have who go out and find them? “Randy round-up,” “Rustlers for research,” “Corral and collect.” I read a lot of medical literature. That's never been explained.

Look. New drugs have to be tested on a mammal somewhere along the line--either animals or poor people. This could be why strong links are showing up between contraceptives and breast cancer and abortion and breast cancer.

Bill Clinton and the fight to save Social Security

Bill Clinton had planned to reform Social Security with private accounts and Medicare with vouchers. What happened? Monica Lewinsky. "Left wing Democrats in Congress threatened to throw him under the bus in the impeachment proceedings unless he completely dropped the reform ideas they regarded as
heresy. Unfortunately for the country, he obliged." John Goodman reports at Health Blog.

Clinton was serious. He had his Treasury Department draw up detailed plans. In fact, when Pat Moynihan, the colorful intellectual senator from New York, was appointed by President George W. Bush to co-chair the Social Security reform commission, the first thing he did was ask the Treasury to send him the Clinton-era planning documents so that the commission could continue where Clinton’s policy team left off.

Now think about the motives of the Democrat left here. Private plans for retirement--same thing as Bush wanted--something all of us with half a brain have been doing for years even if covered by SS; vouchers for Medicare--isn't that what Federal employees have--choices? Wouldn't that have cut down on waste and fraud by increasing competition? So what would be the problem? Democrats can't stand the word choices, unless it's killing an unborn child--then they're all for it. It would have cut into their power over the people. Democrats just have to have the power, because then they control the votes.

Why is Obama offending so many voters?

Answer is becoming clear: So he can create chaos and have an excuse to call off the elections. The Occupiers probably won't have the stamina or desire to stick it out--but the Catholics might. They'll be peaceful, just like the Tea Party or the 9/12 groups, but that won't matter. To the leftists like Pelosi, they are "terrorists." So if they do take to the streets, Obama can seize control. Very clever, and right out of Saul Alinsky's little guide book and Bill Ayers coaching.

The battle over the Obama administration’s contraception mandate continues to heat up. On Monday, Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, made some bold proclamations regarding just how hard the Catholic Church plans to fight the government’s requirement that religious-affiliated schools and organizations cover contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs.

“Never before, unprecedented in American history, for the federal government to line up against the Roman Catholic Church,” said Donohue. “This is going to be fought out with lawsuits, with court decisions, and, dare I say it, maybe even in the streets.”

Here, Donohue is calling for Catholics and supporters of religious freedom to join in peaceful protest against the mandate. Similar action (peaceful marches and events) has been taken in New York City, where religious groups have converged to fight a local ban on the use of public schools for worship.

Upon reading the news this morning, Glenn said that “every alarm bell in me went off.”
“Because something is not right here. There’s no way this President can lose the Catholic vote.”
Glenn said that President Obama relies heavily on the Hispanic voting bloc for support, the majority of whom are Catholic. There were also many members of the Catholic clergy who helped lobby for ObamaCare to pass just a few years ago. Glenn said that the Catholic community believes in social justice, but that a segment of them believe that government should play a role in bringing it to fruition rather than relying on individual charity. Those that follow the more progressive philosophy sided with Obama on ObamaCare, not now he has turned against them.

Glenn Beck radio show, Feb. 7, 2012

Save our Country

Dog and Pony Show--a Supreme and a McFaul guy

Ruth Bader Ginsberg tells Egypt our Constitution is old and shouldn't be their model--after all, in the U.S. the citizen is higher than the government and the Constitution is actually written to protect the citizen from the government. Plus, and she didn't say this or even think it, if you have our Constitution, people will be always crossing your borders attempting to get away from their own governments.

Wrote [John] Hayward of Ginsburg’s advice: “The last thing an Egyptian populace struggling for freedom from the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood needs to hear is a paean from a fashionable liberal about ultramodern state charters that enshrine the use of compulsive force in the service of leftist ‘positive rights,’ such as the right not to be offended.” He added that “the more fervent Muslims trying to turn Egypt into a theocracy are very good at becoming offended, and they love the notion of using compulsive force to remove the objects of their ire.” Link

U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul tells NPR that President Obama's policy when it comes to Russia is that we're "going to support what we like to call universal values" and "not American values." The Senate confirmed McFaul as ambassador on December 17, 2011.

Title inflation at The Ohio State University

From recent announcements at The Ohio State University:

On April 29, 2011, Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee and Executive Vice President and Provost Joseph A. Alutto recommended the appointment of Bernadette M. Melnyk, PhD, RN, CPNP/PMHNP, FNAP, FANN, (Dean and Distinguished Foundation Professor in Nursing at Arizona State University's College of Nursing Health Innovation) as Dean of the College of Nursing and Associate Vice President for Health Promotion and Chief Wellness Officer. Subject to approval by the Board of Trustees, her appointment will be effective on September 15, 2011.

"Dr. Melnyk's role as Ohio State's chief wellness officer is, I believe, the first such position at a university and sends a strong signal about our commitment and proactive approach to ensuring a healthy workforce and student body," Provost Alutto said.

But not to be outdone, the OSU Medical Center then had to have a VP of Care Coordination and Health Promotion.

On February 4, Ohio State announced that Larry Lewellen, current Vice President for Human Resources, will be joining The Ohio State University Medical Center as Vice President of Care Coordination and Health Promotion. Subject to approval by the Board of Trustees, his new appointment will be effective March 1.

Hard to know how the salaries inflate with the number and complexity of the titles.

Some people still think homelessness is a housing problem

In order to provide work for architects, this fellow writes at an architectural forum: "I would suggest that the AIA Housing KC develop a National Housing Policy that says, in effect, that it should be a right for every citizen in the United States to go to bed each night in a safe, secure and weather tight environment. In other words, we need to eliminate homelessness from our nation's vocabulary."

Substance abuse is often a cause of homelessness. Addictive disorders disrupt relationships with family and friends and often cause people to lose their jobs. For people who are already struggling to pay their bills, the onset or exacerbation of an addiction may cause them to lose their housing. A 2008 survey by the United States Conference of Mayors asked 25 cities for their top three causes of homelessness. Substance abuse was the single largest cause of homelessness for single adults (reported by 68% of cities). Substance abuse was also mentioned by 12% of cities as one of the top three causes of homelessness for families. According to Didenko and Pankratz (2007), two-thirds of homeless people report that drugs and/or alcohol were a major reason for their becoming homeless.
In many ["some" would be a better word choice, nb] situations, however, substance abuse is a result of homelessness rather than a cause. Link

Further more, a tiny percentage of the homeless are chronically homeless.

5% of the nearly 2 million homeless people reported by the USHUD in 2009 categorized as chronically homeless, nearly all people living without a home for more than a month have family problems and some kind of disability, including drug or alcohol addiction or mental illness. Based on the 2009 HUD Homeless Assessment Report to Congress, Link

So unless the architects have found some sort of super-human solution to drug and alcohol addiction, mental illness and chronic family problems, they need to look elsewhere for a solution to their own employment problems.

Occupiers continue to challenge our freedoms

"An Allegheny County Common Pleas Court judge has issued a supplemental order compelling the county sheriff to oust all Occupy Pittsburgh protesters and tents from Mellon Green.

Judge Christine Ward had previously given the protesters three days to vacate the space. The deadline passed this morning at 11:15 a.m. as protesters continued to gather and about a dozen tents remained.

But Sheriff William Mullen said he would not have his deputies enforce it until they got a specific order to do so, which came this afternoon."

About 6,500 occupiers have been arrested across the country since last fall. How does that compare with the awful, terrible terrorist-bent Tea Party? It was reported that an Oakland, California couple who'd been active in the community and helping poor people were strangled to death by their teen-age son--who'd been skipping school lately to hang out with the Occupy Oakland crowd. Well, isn't that what Bill Ayers advised radicals back in the 60s. He was a spoiled rich kid, too. Your remember good old Bill--he helped with the Obama campaign last time around.

Read more

Obama won't back down on contraceptive requirement for Catholics

[Jay Carney] said the president had no plans to reconsider the mandate in spite of the outcry from leaders of the Catholic Church and other religious organizations.

“This is not a decision of politics,” Carney stated. “This provides an important preventive service for people around the country and is not in any way a violation of the conscience clause.”

However, this is not the viewpoint of many legal experts who say the new mandate clearly violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).

Read the rest of the article here.

In my opinion, this is not an issue about contraception or abortion insurance, this is an issue of power. Who will stand up to the mighty federal government. No one, says Obama.

As a Lutheran, formerly in the ELCA synod, I was very disappointed to learn that ELCA has mandated insurance coverage that includes elective abortions, even for gender selection. I didn't know this, and neither did any member of UALC that I've talked to.Read a statement about this here.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America maintains a pro-choice position for fetuses that are aborted before viability outside of the womb. The ELCA position statement says abortion should be an option of last resort, the ELCA community should work to reduce the need for elective abortions, and that as a community, "the number of induced abortions is a source of deep concern to this church. We mourn the loss of life that God has created."[47][48] The ELCA Social Statement on Abortion adds: "The church recognizes that there can be sound reasons for ending a pregnancy through induced abortion. These are the threat to a woman's physical life; when pregnancy has resulted from rape, incest or sexual violence; and fetal abnormalities incompatible with life.[49] The church opposes legal restrictions on abortion and provides health-care benefits to its employees that cover elective abortions. Some hospitals affiliated with the church perform elective abortions.[50] Wikipedia based on ELCA.org

http://www.elca.org/What-We-Believe/Social-Issues/Social-Statements/Abortion.aspx

Pigmentocracy and shadeism is world wide

Note to readers: I was asked to research the topic of why among people of color in every culture the darker are often lower, socio-economic class. I haven't spent a lot of time on this, but here's my opinion.

Although I don't like President Obama as a leader because of his regressive 19th century based social and economic policies where citizens are considered pawns and tools of the state, there are three positive cultural check marks in his column as a role model for American blacks. 1) He is educated and employed and thus a positive role model for young men who may find glamor and self-esteem in a gansta life style. 2) He is married to the mother of his children, and lack of marriage of their parents is the number one reason for poverty among children, whether black or white. 3) He did not use skin tone in selecting a wife. This is a huge plus for darker skinned, African American women, and certainly can't hurt him at the polls.

He's one of the few high profile blacks in American culture of any age, time, income, or profession who is married to a woman darker than himself. When you analyze that, it's not hard to figure out why. He was raised in a white culture, by his white mother and grandparents, and in that culture any black person, regardless of skin tone is simply . . . black. Not so for black men raised culturally with African Americans. For them, a lighter skinned girl friend/wife is preferred.

And this isn't an exclusively American phenomenon, although some would like to brand us with that and link it to years of racial mixing with the slave masters. See this biased link whose authors apparently have never traveled. Sorry folks, that war ended in 1865 and black men are still choosing women of light skin tone to be the mother of their children. It also happens in Brazil, Haiti, Dominican Republic, and also in India and many Asian countries. It was also apparent among Russians, where many Russians were ethnically part Asian or descendant from people who had worked the land for centuries. In India, the caste system is also a system of color. In China, before the Communist revolution, the higher better educated classes were very light skinned. The Laplanders of several Scandinavian countries are all darker and of lower social/economic class than the majority Swedes, Finns, Norwegians and Russians with whom they share citizenship.

It's called "pigmentocracy." My theory is it's roots are in labor--the darker a woman was, the more likely her family worked in the sun; they were laborers, slaves, serfs, servants. The freedom to choose a spouse based on relationship or love is just a little blip of recent history even for Europeans and Americans. If a man's wife and children didn't labor in the fields or mines, he had status. For most of history, it's been an economic decision made early in life for the betterment of the family. If you can't change your own skin color, you can change that of your children by selecting a fair skinned wife. Now it's an economic decision made by media--have you ever seen the women hosts of Spanish/Hispanic TV? Or even the desk clerk in a hotel in San Antonio compared to the maid who cleans your room?

Shadeism from Shadeism on Vimeo.

This video was made by a woman whose family is from from Sri Lanka. But notice the young black women shown on this documentary, who apparently haven't seen the pigmentocracy among their own people! The young Bangladeshi woman had discrimination even among her own siblings and parents. If it's in your own family--do you really want to condemn dead colonialism and society years later? In south Asia, colorism existed long before the British arrived as one gentleman observed. The Hip Hop culture really promotes shadeism. Ironically, Nayanni (film maker's name, I think) will get better attention and coverage because she is light skinned.

I've seen one exception and that's the Berbers of North Africa which DNA studies have shown to be Eurasian, not Arab, not African. I used to help in an ESL class a lovely hazel eyed, fair skinned Berber from North Africa who told me they came to the U.S. due to extreme discrimination in her home country. Although they were Muslims in a Muslim country, they were fairer skinned than the majority. They were the last educated and the last hired and they wanted a better life for their children. There is speculation that Berbers descended in part from white European slaves, so whether it's true doesn't really matter if that was the perception.

This woman wants to be the first female President of Mexico. Look at the color of her skin. If she were more Indian, more ethnic with darker skin, instead of European, what would her chances be?

The Earth Charter and Agenda 21

The differences. The similarities.

"Unlike Agenda 21, which is a document that provides a framework for hard laws, the Earth Charter is a set of principles that underscore and facilitate the strengthening and implementation of those laws. The Charter “was drafted in coordination with a hard law treaty that is designed to provide an integrated legal framework for all environment development law and policy.” This hard law treaty is called the International Covenant on Environment and Development and is being prepared by the Commission on Environmental Law at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a behemoth agency which oversees 700+ governmental agencies worldwide. Interestingly, Maurice Strong is on the IUCN’s Board of Directors." (Link)

Lots of religious language in the environment worshipers. The Charter sounds like the Gospel; and the Agenda 21 the Law. In the old days, it was just plain old pantheism.

The Earth Charter is the outcome of a process initiated in 1992 at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Eight years later, in 2000, it was promulgated in Paris by UNESCO. According to Boff (2006) it is intended that the Charter will eventually be added to the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Charter is an attempt to expound a global ethic for the twentyfirst century based upon sustainability and the interconnectedness of all on planet earth – all living entities and the systems upon which all life depends. It makes and invites commitments to ecological integrity, social and economic justice, democracy, non-violence and peace. A sense of the tone of the Charter can be glimpsed from its Preamble. . .
British Journal of Religious Education

Another Health Care plan gone awry

“Dietrich Bonhoeffer rebuked German Christians who stood silent while Hitler intimidated church leaders to accept the socialist, anti-life agenda of the National Socialist Workers Party (NAZI).

The New York Times reported Oct. 10, 1933:

"Nazi Plan to Kill Incurables to End Pain; German Religious Groups Oppose Move...The Ministry of Justice...explaining the Nazi aims regarding the German penal code, today announced its intentions to authorize physicians to end the sufferings of the incurable patient...in the interest of true humanity.

The Catholic newspaper Germania hastened to observe: 'The Catholic faith binds the conscience of its followers not to accept this method.'...In Lutheran circles, too, life is regarded as something that God alone can take...

Euthanasia...has become a widely discussed word in the Reich...No life still valuable to the State will be wantonly destroyed."

Bonhoeffer warned Germans not to slip into the cult of Führer (leader) worship, as he could turn out to be a Verführer (mis-leader, seducer).”

From American Minute

Orothodoxy Today

Try Before You Buy?

"In spite of the social pressure, a growing number of brave singles are making the promise to wait. Still others who have been sexually active in the past are committing to what might be called a "second virginity." Regardless of their history, they're making a commitment to start over, to live as "virgins" until they make a lifelong commitment in marriage.

The reason is not that they've got crooked teeth, bad complexions, or don't bathe. Rather, they're choosing to wait because they believe the Judeo-Christian tradition holds the best insight on building strong relationships and durable marriages."

Salvo Magazine - Try Before You Buy? by Greg Koukl

He voted for Obama

Robert Burns party

Tonight we're attending a Robert Burns party. The hosts were ill last week when his birthday was, so it was moved to February 3. Robert Burns was Scotland's greatest poet, and every year all over the globe Burns Societies celebrate his birthday, read his verses, sing his songs, and sometimes eat authentic food. . . porridge . . . or something gray made with oats.

Black History Month

A lot to memorialize, remember and challenge

Planned Parenthood is the largest provider of abortions in the country. And over 36% of the abortions in the country are black babies, so do the math if it's primarily the poor who come to Planned Parenthood. Minority women constitute only about 13% of the female population (age 15-44) in the United States. According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute [research arm of Planned Parenthood], black women are more than 5 times as likely as white women to have an abortion. On average, 1,876 black babies are aborted every day in the United States.

Interesting isn't it, that women who aren't getting a disproportionate share of dental care, or chest x-rays, or pap-smears, somehow get so many abortions.

Now, I wouldn't testify or preach that Planned Parenthood is a racist organization, but only because they're doing a pretty good job of doing that with their own statistics.

Many of the medical research articles I read include race and poverty. But for some really odd reason, I can't find any breakdown by race or income of the clinical trials for mifepristone (RU-486), done in the early 1990s. Poor and minority women are often used in tests for all manner of things. For the life of me I don't know how researchers found the women who had been pregnant such a brief time in order to include them in the experiments.

Four Chaplains Day

February 3, 1943 -- Hundreds were killed when a Nazi torpedo struck the U.S. Army Transport ship Dorchester near Greenland. Four chaplains, including two Protestant ministers, a Catholic priest, and a Jewish rabbi distributed life jackets to those who survived the initial blast. When there none left, they ripped off their own life jackets and gave them to four young men. They bowed together in prayer as the ship sank and all four perished in the icy waters. Congress honored them, declaring this to be "Four Chaplains Day."

We need this kind of support from Christians working together to make the Obama Administration back down on its grab to destroy the First Amendment through mandating Catholic institutions to provide birth control and abortion services.

Friday Family Photo, a little different

This is my sister Carol's grandson, Chris, who is a freshman in college and a talented artist and cellist. I'm not sure how this process is done--obviously on the computer, but I sort of like it.

A very tasty pineapple dessert

Yesterday I heard something in the kitchen that sounded like a rifle shot. I went in to look, and the lid on the fresh pineapple had blown off! Yes, it was getting a little long in the tooth. So I made a dessert.

Cut up whatever fresh, but overly ripe, pineapple you have and put on low heat with a couple of Tablespoons of butter. While that starts to simmer, add two cut up peeled and cored apples. Sprinkle with some Splenda, or sugar if you can have that. Cover with lid and let it simmer for as long as you want--but pineapple doesn't really soften much.

Then look in the frig. Mix half and half (or milk) with some flour and Splenda until smooth, then add an egg and whip. When the fruit mixture is soft and juicy, mix in the flour/milk/Splenda, stir while it thickens, then take the sauce pan off the stove to cool. Serve cold or warm with a little sugar free Cool-Whip, or eat plain. It's really yummy. Sort of pineapple pie filling without the crust.

The Madison Project

I hate going to the "about us" tab on a website and still not know what sort of a group is posting it, or who is funding it. I liked the clarity and simplicity of this one, but haven't searched through the archives to verify it:

"Madison Project raises money for conservative candidates through our network of grassroots conservatives. We provide our members with campaign profiles of selected candidates, and each member decides which candidates they want to support.

Our values are Pro-Life, Pro-Family, Limited Government, Defenders of Religious Freedom. We only endorse candidates who clearly demonstrate their conservatism. We evaluate every Congressional and Senatorial race in America, and our endorsements are only extended to key competitive races which have a strong conservative candidate with the ability to win."

R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. on the 60s

"As I wrote last week, Newt is a 1960s generation kid. Allow me to elaborate. That generation -- my generation -- was the most ballyhooed generation raised in the 20th century, and it was -- at least in politics -- a failed generation. Gingrich, the Clintons, Al Gore, and the rest of the 1960s hustlers began their political careers in college when they were the first generation to actually believe that student government was on campus to govern. The weak Liberal administrators went along with them and gave them a say in the running of their universities. The universities have yet to recover. Yet, beyond the damage they did to the universities was the damage they did to themselves. They became the most self-absorbed generation of narcissists ever heard of. From their student government days to their days in national politics they all lived out a fantasy. Now it is over. It would be eminently fitting if Romney won the presidency and set the country on course in 2012. He is from the normal half of that generation, a man who was a student in the 1960s and afterwards a businessman, until he had secured his fortune and entered public life in middle age. By then the Clintons and Newt had been supping at the public trough for years."

Yep.

Except for Obama. He's not one of them, but he definitely exceeds their narcissism. Even as prepared as we were having seen, heard and experienced it for years from co-workers, friends and politicians, we've never quite seen anything like him.

Are Protestant churches standing up for religious freedom?

I haven’t seen any evidence that Lutherans, Methodists, Brethren, Baptists, Presbyterians, Anglicans, etc. have stepped up to support or comment on the U.S. Bishops’ letters read to their parishes throughout the USA on January 29 calling for civil disobedience related to mandated insurance coverage for contraception, sterilization and abortifacients for Catholic institution employees.

They might want to take another look at something completely unrelated but still a challenge to PPACA, and that’s Medicaid mandates. Medicaid was created in 1965. It is the nation’s largest health insurer. In 2010 Medicaid spending totaled $400.7 billion from the federal government and $129.8 billion from state and local governments, with a 20.3% increase by 2014 projected because of PPACA’s expansion. (figures and story from New England Journal of Medicine, Jan. 12, 2012)

You’ve probably heard about the challenge in the courts of the individual mandate to purchase insurance. Were you aware that 26 states (Florida + 25) are challenging the mandated expansion of Medicaid as a violation of the U.S. Constitution? (The spending clause) The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the challenge.

Do you know what the number one argument the government will have? The states were warned from the beginning that Congress reserved the right to make changes to Medicaid, and it has done so many times over the years, and with each subsequent amendment you didn’t challenge it.

It’s time to challenge the government in this intrusion into church teaching and it’s stripping us of our first amendment rights.

Soul Train videos

Don Cornelius who created Soul train has died.

Don Cornelius, the South Side native who founded and hosted the iconic TV music and dance show “Soul Train,” shot himself to death Wednesday morning at his home in Sherman Oaks, Calif., Los Angeles police say.

Officers responding to a report of a shooting found the 75-year-old at his Mulholland Drive home at around 4 a.m.

He was pronounced dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at 4:56 a.m. at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said Los Angeles County Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter. Chicago Sun Times

10 videos of Soul Train

Soul train video channel Love the clothes! Aretha was so thin!

My brother reads my blog

But he never leaves a comment.

AIDS memorial--Why?

"A design that calls for a grove of trees reflected infinitely by 12-foot-long mirrors was selected today for New York’s first large-scale AIDS memorial."

The AIDS Memorial Park organization, Architectural Record, and Architizer have announced the winner of a competition to design a memorial for victims of AIDS and an education center in Manhattan’s West Village. Studio a+i of Brooklyn, N.Y. won the blind competition with a plan to surround an existing triangular park with mirrored walls and a grove of white birch trees. Architectural Digest, Jan. 30, 2012

Why do we memorialize this particular disease's victims, a disease which is mostly self-inflicted through promiscuous, indiscriminate sex and multiple partners? We don't memorialize death by smoking, drinking or over-eating, or driving too fast, or not exercising. Where is the memorial to those who have died from malaria because environmentalists pulled DDT from the market? Where is the memorial for 50 million dead American babies?

Men who have sex with men--MSM account for nearly half of the approximately 1.2 million people living with HIV in the United States (49%, or an estimated 580,000 total persons).

MSM account for more than half of all new HIV infections in the United States each year (61%, or an estimated 29,300 infections).

While CDC estimates that only 4 percent of men in the United States are MSM, the rate of new HIV diagnoses among MSM in the United States is more than 44 times that of other men (range: 522 – 989 per 100,000 MSM vs. 12 per 100,000 other men). CDC Fact Sheet

Happy Birthday Jacob Duche', first chaplain

Jacob Duche' was born January 31, 1738. He was pastor of Christ Church in Philadelphia. As recorded in the Journals of the Continental Congress, their first official act after receiving news that British troops had attacked Boston was to request that Rev. Jacob Duche' open Congress in prayer:

"Tuesday, September 6, 1774. Resolved, That the Rev. Mr. Duche' be desired to open the Congress tomorrow morning with prayers, at the Carpenter's Hall, at 9 o'clock."

On September 7, 1774, Rev. Mr. Duche' arrived at Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia, and read Psalm 35, which the Anglican Common Prayer Book had as the Psalter for that day:

"Plead my cause, Oh, Lord, with them that strive with me, fight against them that fight against me. Take hold of buckler and shield, and rise up for my help. Draw also the spear and the battle-axe to meet those who pursue me; Say to my soul, 'I am your salvation.' Let those be ashamed and dishonored who seek my life; Let those be turned back and humiliated who devise evil against me."

After reading the prescribed prayer for the day, Rev. Duche' proceeded to pray extemporaneously:

"Be Thou present, O God of Wisdom, and direct the counsel of this Honorable Assembly; enable them to settle all things on the best and surest foundations; that the scene of blood may be speedily closed; that Order, Harmony and Peace may be effectually restored, and that Truth and Justice, Religion and Piety, prevail and flourish among the people...

Preserve the health of their bodies, and the vigor of their minds, shower down on them, and the millions they here represent, such temporal Blessings as Thou seest expedient for them in this world, and crown them with everlasting Glory in the world to come. All this we ask in the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ, Thy Son and our Saviour, Amen."

American minute

The assault on the First Amendment through Obamacare

The President has taken on the 77 million Catholics of the United States. Why in an election year would he do this? It's not like a drone that can selectively take out a single enemy in a foreign country. This "enemy" is the church, all Christians, and this is the United States. And the church is big--next to government, it's the biggest, richest entity in the world. Why would he do this? Bishop Campbell of Columbus--a version of this letter was read across the nation this past Sunday in every Catholic parish--called for civil disobedience. But just because we're not Catholics, it doesn't mean we aren't affected. I don't think Obama is stupid; I think he's sly. He wants a confrontation, an excuse to quash the church. Who else can speak truth to power but the church? In the days of the monarchies the clergy who spoke against the king was sent to the tower or the gallows. Our Constitution and Bill of Rights was written by Christians to prevent that by keeping the government out of the churches.

It’s not what you and I as Lutheran or Methodist or even the Catholic in the pew believe about birth control pills. It’s what the Catholic church teaches about contraception and abortion based on its searching the Scriptures, tradition going back to Peter, and historic teachings about the significance of life. We (you and I) don’t have a say in those teachings and beliefs anymore than Obama does, because this is protected by the first amendment. It's the first amendment that protects all our churches, even little old 50,000 membership in Church of the Brethren, from interference by the state. It's the reason there was massive exodus from Europe as Protestants and Catholics alike suffered under the whims of various monarchs. And until Obamacare, those beliefs about life taught by the Catholic church were also protected by this president who made numerous promises to Catholic institutions who insure both Catholics and non-Catholics, that he would respect their beliefs if they would support his plan to take over the healthcare industry. They did; he didn't.

I also don’t believe in purgatory or 7 sacraments, but I believe the Roman Catholic church has a right to teach, believe, and act on those beliefs. Just as I believe it has a right not to pay for contraceptives or abortions of employees or clients in its hospitals and universities, its social service agencies and its elementary schools, its job training programs and its food pantries, its low income housing complexes, its adoption agencies and nursing homes. On the near horizon under Obamacare, we will come to a point when insurance plans under government mandate will be weeding out the disabled as not worthy of care, or the expense, just as now 93% of unborn children with Down Syndrome are "weeded." If you don’t believe it, please do more research into the articles written by some of Obama's Czars, advisers and "bioethicists." It will be the Catholic Church, not your Democratic party or Republican party, and certainly not President Obama, who will be guarding the door for you.

Finger pointing is now racist

Last Thursday after Jan Brewer, governor of Arizona, said Welcome to the President, he attacked her for what she'd written in her book. The two had words, the big guy started it, but the libs are going crazy over finger pointing photo. Apparently, when a white governor does it, it's racist, but when a black President does it, it's just righteous.

More on the auto bailout

"U.S. Treasury Department boosted its estimate of government losses in the $85 billion auto bailout by $170 million.

In the government's latest report to Congress this month, the Treasury upped its estimate to $23.77 billion, up from $23.6 billion.

Last fall, the government dramatically boosted its forecast of losses on the rescues of General Motors Co., Chrysler Group LLC and their finance units from $14 billion to $23.6 billion.

Much of the increase in losses is due to the sharp decline of GM's stock price over the last six months.

GM was trading at noon today at $24.24. It's down 35 percent over its 52-week-high of $37.23, but the Detroit automaker has rebounded from a low set last year of $19.05.

The Treasury, [that's us, folks] which initially held a 61 percent majority stake in GM, now holds a 26.5 percent share, or 500 million shares in GM. To break even, the government would need to average $53 per share for its remaining stake."

Detroit News

Why is Obama uniting Catholics?

It’s darn near impossible to unite this country’s 77 million liberal and conservative Catholics, but Obama has done this with his mandate through HHS that Catholic health care institutions and colleges (and other religious groups, mostly Christian) must provide contraception and abortifacients (also Plan B, morning after, etc.) in their insurance plans. We’re not stupid, sir. We know requiring them to perform abortions will be the next step—we’ve been watching how liberals do this inch by inch since by the yard it’s hard. And then it will be no prayers in the hospitals because it might offend their non-Christian patients!

Three years ago the liberal Catholics were all kissy face at Notre Dame with him as he assured his Catholic hosts that he would do nothing but respect their religious beliefs. He used the event to promote embryonic stem cell research, even though adult stem cell was the big news in medicine without a single success for embryonic. He used it as an opportunity to thumb his nose at the pro-life movement. Liberals let it slide—they had his promises about their precious institutional authority. Big Whoop! Then the Supreme Court, even with his liberal appointees decided 9-0 in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC, that religious institutions have rights, too. The justices ruled that religious workers may not sue on the basis of job discrimination if it’s in the best interest of that institution that they not be employed. (The end result of going the other way would be Christian churches could be required to hire Muslims, and conservatives and Catholics forced to hire women pastors.) The knives have come out.

President Obama isn’t responsible for the declining membership of the churches—that’s been going on since the 60s—and the church has no one but itself to blame for catering to the culture and ignoring the gospel--but he seems to hope to be the one to make the church as helpless and weak as it is in Europe. Now with the rest of us, the liberal Catholics have had to wise up.

From the beginning of his candidacy, I have defended Obama as a Christian. I said he was a convert, not a Muslim; I read his testimony given at a UCC conference long before he became a candidate. It sounded heart felt and authentic. I said he can’t be held accountable for the sins of Rev. Wright. But as pointed out in the Gospel of Luke, even the demons know Jesus is the Christ—they knew before the general public did--they just don’t worship him. This action of the Obama Administration in an election year is so bizarre, so antagonistic to the largest Christian group in America, that it’s hard to any longer cling to this fragile evidence that he has any intention other than destroying Christianity.

Not only is he uniting Catholics, but conservative fundamentalist Christians are with them who’ve probably never stepped inside a Catholic church, and will be joining them in legal cases. So why would he do this, unite Christians against him, in an election year? Is the cost of law suits going to take money away from conservatives running against him? Will it divert attention, even temporarily, about his reelection? Have you got an explanation?

Addiction to pain killers

Overdoses from prescription pain killers result in 40+ deaths a day and 1.2 million emergency room visits a year, a 98.4% increase since 2004. Sales of opiods in 2010 were 4X more than 1999. Unlike users of illegal drugs, these addicted people usually aren't injecting, they are employed, and they have family support. But as with users of illegal drugs, short term treatment isn't very successful. JAMA, Jan. 4, 2012.

Just a wild guess here--I'm not a researcher or doctor--but it would seem that addiction can happen without poverty and societal breakdown (numbers are higher than for cocaine and heroin). It happens even with excellent health insurance. So when creating new government programs to help the addicted- low income, I hope someone looks at this report. Addiction to prescribed drugs according to this report also varies by state--so look for older people with a lot of surgical procedures for knees, hips, back, cancer, etc., to account for an increase as the population ages. States like Florida and New Mexico have a greater problem with this than Illinois and Nebraska. Also, what year was it the drug plan for Medicare kicked in?

Crawling bots

Instead of being "crawled" by Google which allows my blog to be found by others, I've picked up a bot called "Performance Systems International." I don't know what it does, but it definitely bumps the Google crawler.

Celebrities visit the Villages in Florida

It seems the celebrities and political candidates love The Villages, a retirement community of 85,000 residents located 20 miles south of Ocala, Florida on route 441 with a total of 504 holes of golf. Murray recently sent his e-mail list this item about their visitors. "In the past 2 years we've had Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck (twice), Bill O'Rielly, and Sean Hannity visiting us. This week we had Rick Santorum and John McCain with Newt Gingrich tomorrow and Mitt Romney Monday. Also the Tea Party Express bus will be here tomorrow." In fact, he adds, they've even had Occupiers show up to protest.

"One thing you can be sure of and that would be Obama will NOT be coming to The Villages. He already knows that The Villages special interest group is not potential supporters. They consist of the old and wise. He avoids these people plus most of the middle class that he's trying to screw and doing a dam good job of it!"

Pushing the broken, 3 wheel Obama bus over the finish line

"Former presidential candidate Herman Cain has endorsed Newt Gingrich for president. Cain joined Gingrich at a Republican Party dinner in West Palm Beach, Fla., Saturday night to make the surprise announcement.

Cain urged his supporters, tea party members and other conservatives to back the only true conservative in the race, Newt Gingrich." Newsmax source

Google's new privacy rules, March 1, 2012

Google has many products and over 60 privacy policies. It is going to standardize them to create a "beautifully simple and intuitive experience" based on five principles. The "information" referred to in the principles is what we the users have provided the company and what it has collected about us in the years we've been using Google--which is a lot, by the way.

1. Use information to provide our users with valuable products and services.
2. Develop products that reflect strong privacy standards and practices.
3. Make the collection of personal information transparent.
4. Give users meaningful choices to protect their privacy.
5. Be a responsible steward of the information we hold.

For instance, Google tracks every search I make using its search engine--I do use some other products, but rarely. Yesterday I read a number of articles in print/on-line newspapers--I can either look at my search history provided by Microsoft or click on a Google feature that will tell me the top 8 sites I visited recently including Facebook, my blog, my site meter, articles about Charles Murray, articles in a Tea Party aggregator of news stories, Glenn Beck TV, electronic health records, and something about the welfare state. This tab is color coded to tell me how actively I've been searching those topics. I can click to the next page, which suggests that since I read the New York Times, perhaps I'd like to visit some other newspapers (I'm pretty sure I visit WaPo more often than NYT, but perhaps the origin of the article is what is counted).

I certainly don't keep my politics a secret since I hit a lot of hot button topics here, but just what does "responsible steward" mean when a huge mega-corporation lobbies and donates heavily to political candidates, has recently lost a court case brought by the government and been fined for illegal activity (pharmacy ads), and it carefully tracks every possible angle I research? I also search a lot of religious and theology sites--is that algorithm suppressed? Is it stewardship of their resources or my privacy that matters? (I know the answer to that!) They do, after all, have a responsibility to their stockholders and employees, their "owners." The fact that I can click on a tab and see just what Google is tracking about me I suppose meets principle 3, transparency.

Always keep in mind that Google is not your servant, slave, or employee--it is a highly sophisticated tool that exists only to sell a product/products to keep its investors happy and well paid. You only have to read to learn this, but because it does such a good job, you can be lulled into believing "Google is your friend."

Knowing a little bit about you can help make Google products better, both for you and for others. By understanding your preferences we can ensure that we give you the search results that you’re looking for, and by analyzing the search logs of millions of users in aggregate, we can continually improve our search algorithm, develop new features, keep our systems secure and even predict the next flu outbreak.

The Obama Generation

The mainstream press on the drug PC

When I first read the story in the Washington Post today of Brittany Norwood brutally murdering her co-worker Jayna Murray in a Yoga store of Bethesda, MD of all things, I thought two things immediately: 1) Yoga--that eastern religion that’s supposed to bring peace? and 2) how can any woman stab another 331 times, then stage her own assault to deflect the guilt, and not have some prior warning that she was evil to the core?

I read the whole thing, and saw the photos of Jayna’s family (for awhile I thought the photo of Jayna's mother was actually a photo of Brittany the killer so I thought the perp was a white woman) without any knowledge that Brittany was black and Jayna was white. If it had been reversed, if the victim was black and the killer white, do you suppose any reader of the Washington Post could have come across that story and not known that?

Another item in this case not reported in WaPo is that the employees of an Apple store next door could hear the screams of the victim, and did nothing.

The mainstream press on the drug PC.

Come on IN!

Let's hope Illinois and Michigan wake up soon. It's not that far a move for business, or for people who want to work without being coerced into joining oppressive, outdated unions.

"The Indiana State House on a 54-44 vote today passed House Bill 1001, paving the way to make Indiana the 23rd right-to-work state in the nation. The vote took place after House Democrats finally attended session Wednesday afternoon, ending their work stoppage over the issue.

Under the legislation, unions would be barred from collecting mandatory representation fees.

HB 1001 will now be sent to the Indiana Senate. If the Senate passes the bill without amendment, it would go the the desk of Gov. Mitch Daniels as quickly as this week. Earlier this week the Senate passed its own right-to-work bill, SB 269, which is currently residing in the House."

CapCon story

Decrease honors courses to increase Advanced Placement for minorities

Fairfax, VA had decreased its honors courses in high school in order to push minorities into enrolling in the more difficult Advanced Placement courses. That seems counter productive to me. What about minority and non-minority students who aren't ready for Advanced Placement? Wasn't this policy hurting them in order to reach some imagined administrative goal for a small minority of blacks and Latinos (higher percentage in AP) which probably gets the superintendent a prize? Apparently parents felt as I do.

"Honors-level courses are a middle track between standard-level and college-level Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate classes. The school system began phasing out some honors courses several years ago to encourage students — especially low-income, black and Latino students — to choose more rigorous courses.

That appears to have made a difference. The number of students taking AP and IB tests has risen somewhat, and so has the proportion of black and Latino test-takers.

But eliminating honors courses provoked criticism from some parents, who argued that it forced students to decide between standard-level courses that are too easy and college-level courses that are overly demanding."

The school board voted 11-1 to add back in five additional honors courses in the fall. Don't you just hate it when kids are the lab animals in social engineering theories?
Washington Post story

Laptops and sperm count in men

On someone's Face Book page I saw a photo of a lecture hall where everyone had a laptop on knees or lap. I was pretty sure I'd seen something years ago about heat killing sperm or reducing sperm count. I know my laptop can create heat even through a thick pillow on my thighs, so I looked it up. Here's what was at the bottom (no pun intended) of advice on taking a laptop to college classes.

Guys: if you put the laptop on your lap, please also be aware that the increased temperature can reduce your fertility. The effect is not so strong that you can count laptop use as a contraceptive, but it’s something to think about. You might also think about the effect of elevated temperature on spontaneous mutation rate in those little gamete vehicles you have on board.

How bundling helps the bundlers as well as the candidate

Obama has used 357 bundlers in 6 months during the current campaign. 81 of the bundlers work at law firms--what a surprise there. He’s raised 56 million. Bundlers often receive special treatment because of their ability to raise big money. Obama, in fact, elevated some two dozen bundlers from his last campaign to serve as ambassadors during his first year in office.

Ron Paul has used zero; Mitt Romney eight. However, no one is actually required to say how many, so we only know what’s been offered--and that includes the Obama campaign. Obama provides the information because he sponsored legislation on it when he was a Senator (it failed).

Open Secrets Blog

The six agency consolidation

Remember the big deal Obama made about asking for power to consolidate executive agencies? Big Whoop!

The savings, as reported in NYT, is $3 billion and change over 10 years. . . 2/3 of one day’s interest on the national debt.

But it gets better. No one will loose his job. It will all come through retirements. (We’ll still be paying the benefits, however, which I’m sure are very generous.)

So this is Obama's version of a smaller government. Was this gratuitous slop for his followers and the press, or what?

Obama cuts the government

Newt and Bill

Who you going out with tonight?

"Newt and Bill, as 1960s generation self-promoters, share the same duplicity, ostentatious braininess, a propensity for endless scrapes with propriety and the law. They are tireless hustlers."

American Spectator

The generic candidate

According to a Fox News report this morning, Mitt Romney more closely resembles the "generic candidate" who can beat Barack Obama.

Good.

Dwindling oil supplies

"The impact of dwindling oil supplies on the economy is a persuasive
argument for shifting away from fossil fuels, write James Murray and
David King in a Comment piece in Nature this week."
An e-mail announcement from Nature Magazine

No surprise here. Restrict fossil fuels by not building refineries, don't allow deep water drilling leases and send the business to Brazil and stop pipelines and let Canada sell to China who can restrict our energy, and you have the perfect excuse (dwindling supplies) to dump more money both federal and private into alternative fuels. The crazy smart thing is, I think the same mega-conglomerates control both the fossil and the green fuel. Sort of like when the investors in railroads bought up the canal land, and then let the established canal system die.

Siemens Energy which has about 88,000 employees worldwide, generated total revenue of €25.5 billion and profit of €3.6 billion, uses the same phrase in its PR material--"dwindling oil supplies."

http://www.energy.siemens.com/entry/energy/hq/en/

Don't blame President Obama

1. The law schools were adrift before he was born. Jurists were substituting opinion and passion for knowledge and precedent before he was an implanted embryo in his unmarried, teenage mother's womb. Whether it’s the 9th circuit or the Supremes, don’t blame the President for the mess lawyers have made. He’s a “constitutional lawyer” who’s been taught only what his professors knew.

2. Don’t blame Obama or any of the Presidents since Wilson for the failures of American education. John Dewey who pioneered social outcome, progressive education was born over 100 years before Obama. Progressive education was incubated and thrived at America’s universities, and then was passed on into the general education system to meet social and political goals. That social goals are more important than math or science or even western civilization can‘t even be put at the feet of Presidents Bush, Clinton or Carter, who created the Department of Education, not even Eisenhower who ordered the schools desegregated, so don‘t lay that expensive, overfed turkey on Obama‘s plate.

3. Don’t blame the President for moral and ethical failures of the church and family. The churches, pulpits and Sunday Schools began buying into 19th century scholars at seminaries and universities challenging the truth, history and moral teachings of the Bible well over 100 years before his grandparents who raised him became agnostics and Jim Wallis‘ grandparents were probably still Bible thumpers. And those academicians and theologians were pointing back to theories and challenges centuries before them cooked up by Germans.

4. You can give him credit for the rise of the Tea Party movement--but even most of that credit goes to Glenn Beck and the Libertarians who birthed it and are now struggling over who’s going to raise the mischievous active toddler. With the infusion of the youth of the Libertarian party, the average age of a Tea Party group (there is no actual political party) is dropping a bit. But it did have a lot of appeal for my generation. People raised during the 1950s have a clearer view (although part fairy tale in my opinion) of the 1950s and pre-Vietnam 60s than they do what they had for lunch yesterday. When they heard candidate Obama talk in 2008 about “fundamentally transforming society” or “transferring wealth,” they had enough time in retirement to reflect on just where the trillions on social engineering since LBJ’s War on Poverty went. Younger business people paid attention too, so that after July 2008 they virtually stopped investing and hiring for expansion. Would more never be enough? And it was a recession, those born in the 30s and 40s were retired, and had time to attend town halls, rallies, and participate in social media. The Tea Party is grass roots. It will evolve and become more main stream. But right now it’s the only American political movement with any blood, guts and brains.

The cost of the stimulus

"Last week, President Barack Obama refused to allow private citizens to spend $7 billion improving America's energy infrastructure. Three years ago, he insisted that taxpayers spend more than 100 times that amount on an outlay that also addressed the nation's energy needs, among other goals. But while the Keystone XL pipeline that Mr. Obama rejected was certain to deliver a product that people want, the benefits of the president's 2009 stimulus program are harder to discern.

Sold as a way to create jobs while building infrastructure and an environmentally sensitive economy, the stimulus plan was drafted in haste by Democrats in Congress and then signed by Mr. Obama on Feb. 17, 2009. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was priced at $787 billion when enacted; the official estimate is now more than $800 billion."

From the WSJ book review of "Money Well Spent?"

This sounds really scary!

Using a person's social network information instead of a resume? Based on the remarks, jokes, and opinions I've seen on blogs, Twitter and Facebook, some people ought to be more cautious about building a different profile! And that list of friends? And family? The future employer just might decide the person is too social, or not social enough and not even know she might be in a book club, or volunteer at a hospital, or belong to a bowling league, and therefore doesn't socialize on-line.

Companies are increasingly relying on social networks such as LinkedIn, video profiles and online quizzes to gauge candidates' suitability for a job. While most still request a résumé as part of the application package, some are bypassing the staid requirement altogether.

A résumé doesn't provide much depth about a candidate, says Christina Cacioppo, an associate at Union Square Ventures who blogs about the hiring process on the company's website and was herself hired after she compiled a profile comprising her personal blog, Twitter feed, LinkedIn profile, and links to social-media sites Delicious and Dopplr, which showed places where she had traveled.

The world of technology is just getting too strange and scary. I just learned today that even if your cell phone is "off" you are being tracked. Also, if you have any sensitive financial or political data, do not keep it on a computer that is hooked to the internet.

Insofar as tracking phones, if you believe yourself or the person you are with is a target worth tracking, and that the opponent has the ability, best is to not carry any phone. Smartphone or not. The phone is constantly tracked by the company. Your travel habits can be mapped retroactively or in realtime. Think of the cell phone as a strobe light that's always blinking. We can't see them blinking, but the phone company can.

Insofar as smartphones, iPhones for instance have a battery that cannot be removed. With a BlackBerry you can pop off the back and take out the battery. When I was with certain units on the Iraq/Iran border, everyone with a phone was to take out the battery. An officer said that if you leave the battery in, you can practically watch it drain as the Iranians ping the phone. If they see thirty phones travelling together in a remote area on their border, they likely would take notice. But imagine ten people have phones. If one guy doesn't take out the battery, that's enough to track the unit and even hit you across the border with rockets, artillery or an airstrike. Michael Yon, Iraq war reporter

John Stossel's State of the Union

I watched a replay of Stossel's program of last night while riding my exercyle this afternoon--after the State of the Union. The blueprint idea really resonated--I've got a little experience with that. I know what goes into it before the stamp, and that it can't be changed or products substituted without the architect's approval. An economy can't run by a blueprint (no one uses blue these days, either). . . that called "central planning" in socialist countries.

Has Barack Obama learned nothing in three years? During his State of the Union address, he promised "a blueprint for an economy." But economies are crushed by blueprints. An economy is really nothing more than people participating in an unfathomably complex spontaneous network of exchanges aimed at improving their material circumstances. It can't even be diagrammed, much less planned. And any attempt at it will come to grief.

Politicians like Obama believe they are the best judges of how we should conduct our lives. Of course a word like "blueprint" would occur to the president. He, like most who want his job, aspires to be the architect of a new society.

But we who love our lives and our freedom say: No, thanks. We need no social architect. We need liberty under law. That's it.

The rest of it here, The real state of the union by John Stossel

How the left sees the EPA economy killing regulations--it's really Bush's fault

Not only is it Bush's fault, but also Gingrich's--just in case he's the candidate Obama needs to run against.

What’s happened under Obama is that green drift has become a green sprint; his [Environmental Protection Agency] EPA’s schedule is, comparatively speaking, incredibly aggressive. This isn’t because Obama is a government-loving socialist; it’s because of two factors that played out before he even took office.

First, the Bush administration spent eight years slowwalking scientific review and cranking out rules too weak or ill-formed to withstand judicial scrutiny. In cases where the Bush EPA’s rules were challenged in federal court, the agency’s decisions were rejected in whole or in part eighteen out of twenty-seven times. That left an enormous backlog of court-mandated work for the EPA under Obama—more than any sane president would want, given the choice.

Second, there was a turning point in 2007: the Supreme Court ruled that carbon dioxide, as long as it can be shown to “endanger public health or welfare,” qualifies as a pollutant within the EPA’s purview. The agency then conducted an “endangerment finding,” consulting the latest science, and determined that, yes, climate change is a threat. It e-mailed the results to the Bush administration’s Office of Management and Budget, which promptly … refused to open the e-mail. (Really.) That left the task of developing the first-ever regulations on CO2 to Obama’s EPA chief, Lisa Jackson.

The pace of rule making combined with the extension of the rules to greenhouse gases has given conservatives the “regulatory overreach” story they need to declare war, not only on the individual rules coming out of the EPA, but on the agency’s ability to implement rules at all.

This is not the first time a Congress full of hotheaded freshmen has gone after the EPA. When Newt Gingrich rode to power in the Republican Revolution of 1994, he made the agency one of his first targets. However, as National Journal’s Ron Brownstein recounted in a recent column, Gingrich’s efforts quickly died out as more and more moderate Republicans turned against him. Back then, it was seen as politically dangerous to be pro-pollution.

Washington Monthly

Obama is lying to you about GM

The Obama administration, and its media backers, have seized upon news that General Motors made a $3.2 billion profit in the first quarter of 2011 as proof positive that its auto bailout is a success. President Obama is so buoyed that he is reportedly planning to make the bailout a major part of his reelection campaign. . .

For starters, included in the $3.2 billion figure is the net $1.5 billion that the company generated from the one-time sale of Delphi, its auto parts supplier, and Ally Financial, its financial arm. Subtract that, and its performance looks much less impressive, especially compared to its rival Ford that really didn’t receive a dime from taxpayers yet made $2.6 billion last quarter—or nearly a billion more than GM. . .

GM got Uncle Sam’s special bankruptcy package that allows it write off up to $45 billion of old losses going forward. That puts its total bailout at up to $75 billion. Even that’s not all. The Treasury gave GM $10 billion of the $60 billion as a loan; the rest was through the purchase of equity.

The equity means two things: 1) GM has zero interest payments. Ford, by contrast, had to pay $251 million in debt-service costs. Despite this, GM’s real per vehicle margin was over $1,000 less than Ford’s, thanks to the heavy incentives it was forced to give buyers. 2) Taxpayers have no guaranteed return as they would have with a loan. Therefore, market valuation of GM’s stock will determine what they will recover. They got back $20 billion when the Treasury sold half of its equity when GM floated its first post-bankruptcy IPO in December. But that still leaves a $30 billion shortfall (excluding the $45 billion tax break). . . GM’s labor costs are still too high . . . But United Auto Workers President Bob King has declared that workers have already sacrificed enough to keep GM solvent and now expect givebacks.

General Motors will never repay taxpayers

Today's new word--Retrocommission

If the Congress is going to find out about "retro-commissioning" we'd better know what it is because that means it will cost us money, right?

“In a climate of escalating utility costs and increasing operating budget pressures, building owners are seeking ways for energy and operational savings to be realized. It is through the process of retro-commissioning that untapped savings potential is achieved while creating a high return-on-investment, and improving building performance.”
Briefing for House of Representatives, March 15, 2011, ASHRAE

I'd never heard of retro-commissioning, so here's what I found on the internet, but it sure sounds like building maintenance to me.

Commissioning of existing buildings or “retrocommissioning,” is a systematic process applied to existing buildings for identifying and implementing operational and maintenance improvements and for ensuring their continued performance over time. Retrocommissioning assures system functionality. It is an inclusive and systematic process that intends not only to optimize how equipment and systems operate, but also to optimize how the systems function together. Although retrocommissioning may include recommendations for capital improvements, the primary focus is on using O&M tune-up activities and diagnostic testing to optimize the building systems. Retrocommissioning is not a substitute for major repair work. Repairing major problems is a must before retrocommissioning can be fully completed.

Hayek on Keynes (1978)

The author of "Road to Serfdom" F. A. Hayek talking about Keynes.



I got the book "Road to Serfdom" for Christmas, but haven't read it yet.

March for Life--January 23, 2012

This morning I listened to an inspiring Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine in DC on EWTV radio, locally on 820 a.m. where it's packed with Marchers for Life, after an all night prayer vigil. Beautiful music and homily, scripture and liturgy. The reporters said at least half of the marchers they've seen are under 35, with bus loads of junior and senior high school students. Weather was mild in the morning; estimate about 400,000. ABC covered at length a few days ago some Occupiers being evicted from a Presbyterian church in New York because a few were stealing, urinating and trashing the place. Wonder if they'll talk to a Marcher for Life or just a protester standing around?

Mid-morning on the way home from exercise class, I heard the cheering and yelling at Verizon Center where the young people are meeting. A bittersweet moment--commemorating and memorializing their lost peers, but supporting each other in the movement with typical youthful enthusiasm. One girl said she'd been on the bus for 33 hours.

This afternoon I watched a steady stream of Republican Congressmen and women (my husband says he did see at least one Democrat) stand before thousands in the rain in Washington and declare their support for life, each had about 30 seconds and boy did they make it count. No notes or teleprompter. Rep. West of Florida was inspiring--they all were. He read from the Bible, and quoted Reagan. Frankly, I'd never heard a group of politicians speak so inspiringly about God, country and life. If you missed it, I hope it shows up somewhere on YouTube, because it sure won't be on the news. I was in tears when Terry Schaivo's brothers came forward to speak for the dying and disabled.

There was a firey black pastor from Maryland who closed with comments (a sermon, really) and prayer with members of his family and congregation beside him. He got so emotional, I thought he'd have a heart attack. He called for defeating Obama in November, detailed the geneocide of blacks, said the President has spent more time with/on Planned Parenthood than any issue of importance to blacks. "They are lying and we are dying." "They have stolen our children, stolen our future," he screamed using aliteration. He quoted MLK, the Bible, called the present administration "hirelings for murder." I doubt a white man could have gotten away with it. He called out Obama, Jesse Jackson, the Black Caucus, and the entire Democratic party--held them responsible for the deaths of so many children, particularly black children, and the destruction of our country.

WHFoods: 5-Minute Kale

I can't imagine why you'd need a recipe for steamed kale, but here it is. I just put a little olive oil in a skillet, chop up some onions, and peppers red or yellow if I have them, and drop in washed and chopped or torn kale.

WHFoods: 5-Minute Kale

Kale is increasingly gaining notoriety as a superfood — and for good reason. It's packed with pro-vitamin A & C, is also rich in potassium, calcium, and phytonutrients, and is bursting with antioxidant properties . . . A one cup serving of cooked kale contains a whopping 192% of the daily value (DV) for provitamin A, 89% DV for vitamin C and 27% DV for manganese — and all of this for only 34 calories!

Who will employ these college graduates?

These numbers don't look good. Apparently a lot of students go to college just to keep the professors employed, because they aren't finding jobs in their fields. According to Alexander Tabbarok we are graduating too many in the humanities and not enough in the sciences to maintain a sound economy. Hmm. Maybe this is an area where "free markets" and "choice" aren't working?

In 2009 the U.S. graduated 37,994 students with bachelor’s degrees in computer and information science, less than 25 years ago; 2,480 students with bachelor’s degrees in microbiology—about the same number as 25 years ago; 5,036 chemical engineers in 2009, no more than we did 25 years ago. In mathematics and statistics there were 15,496 graduates in 2009, slightly more than the 15,009 graduates of 1985.

In 2009 the U.S. graduated 89,140 students in the visual and performing arts, more than in computer science, math and chemical engineering combined and more than double the number of visual and performing arts graduates in 1985, and 95,000 students a year in psychology, more than double the number of 25 years ago and far in excess of the number of available jobs. And everyone knows what is happening with the print media, but journalism and communications graduates have doubled since 1985!

Debbie Wasserman Schultz blames the Tea Party, but denies it

What do you think? She mentions incivility, Gabby Gifford, and the Tea Party all in one statement. And this is what she calls "toning down" the rhetoric? Yes, Misinformation, you did it very cleverly. She doesn't blame the Occupiers for being uncivil in hundreds of cities even though they confiscated private property, assaulted people, burned neighborhoods and screamed at the press. When did this happen with the Tea Party, Misinformation? The Tea Party is grass roots, and in fact, it isn't even a party in the sense of the Republicans or Democrats. They are, however, a threat to the power structure of both parties, so her method of incivility is to demean their behavior and patriotism. Everyone knows the political climate had nothing to do with the Gifford shooting, but Obama did use the memorial/funeral event for the other victims to launch his 2012 campaign.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: The American people are losing faith in Congress. [inaudible] because of the lack of civility. What do you think can be done to bring that faith back and then we can start thinking that they're doing their job instead of just fighting with each other?

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Well, as someone who spent 19 years as a member of a legislative body, I really agree with you, that we need to make sure that we tone things down, particularly in light of the Tucson tragedy from a year ago where my very good friend, Gabby Giffords, who is doing really well by the way, and I know everybody is so thrilled, as I am, to hear that, making tremendous progress.

But the discourse in America, the discourse in Congress in particular, to answer your question, very specifically, has really changed.

And I'll tell you, I hesitate to place blame, but I have noticed it take a very precipitous turn towards edginess and a lack of civility with the growth of the Tea Party movement.

After the 2010 elections, when you had the Tea Party elect a whole lot of their supporters to the United States House of Representatives and you had town hall meetings that they tried to take over and you saw some of their conduct at those town hall meetings, you know, in the time that I've been in my state legislature and in Congress, I've never seen a time that was more divisive or where discourse was less civil.

Actually, Congress isn't showing a lack of civility--the members go out and have a beer together or attend parties together. The Democrats didn't approve Obama's budget buster. Is that uncivil? Republicans wanted the pipeline, and so did the Democrat unions. Are they being uncivil, or are the DOING THEIR JOB?