Behind every powerful man. . . is a smart woman

                              

Some might call La Malinche a traitor, but if you were a slave, and slaves were destined for sacrifice to the gods when the winners changed in ritual wars, who would you side with?  Pretty it up as much as you want with cultural anthropological chit chat, but the woman may have been ahead of her time.  She is the mother of the mixed races of Mexico. And God only knows what the radical feminists do to this story.

“Before the Spanish conquest, the Aztec civilization controlled trade routes from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico and as far south as Guatemala.  Its rich and populous empire was helld together by marriage alliances and ritualized battles in which large numbers of enemy warriors were captured and sacrificed to honor and sustain the gods.  When Hernan Cortes sailed from Cuba to claim the Mexican mainland for Spain in 1519, he could not have anticipated the odds against him and his small force of 600 foot soldiers and 15 horsemen.

His ultimate success in subduing the Aztecs was in large part due to the help of a Nahua slave woman called La Malinche, who became his chief interpreter, advisor, and the mother of his firstborn child.  She advised Cortes on the weakness of Aztec alliances with other indigenous groups, their respect for ruthlessness, and their preference for capturing rather than killing their enemies in battle.  Cortes used his information to defeat an army that was better supplied and much larger than his own.  After God, he said, La Malinche was his most important ally.” 

Thomas B. Cole, MD, MPH, JAMA March 28, 2012 describing the cover of the journal named for La Malinche.

Trayvon Martin, what we know for sure

“What we know is that two families and a community are suffering and being ripped apart because of the incident. It is also a fact that race mongers and the anti-gun cabals will attempt to use this tragic situation as currency to further their disastrous agendas.”

Sharpton and Obama Prostituting Martin Shooting

"If Trayvon Martin was a victim of white racism (hard to conceive since the shooter is apparently Hispanic), his murder would be an anomaly, not a commonplace. It would be a bizarre exception to the way so many young black males are murdered today. If there must be a generalization in all this—a call "to turn the moment into a movement"—it would have to be a movement against blacks who kill other blacks. The absurdity of Messrs. Jackson and Sharpton is that they want to make a movement out of an anomaly. Black teenagers today are afraid of other black teenagers, not whites."
Shelby Steele, WSJ, April 4

CBS, Consistently Biased Source

I watched the “balanced” story on billionaires supporting super PACs on CBS last night.  95% of the content was based on an interview with appropriate snarky and straw man questions for Julian Robertson, father of hedge funds and founder of a Mitt Romney PAC.  He’s given $1.25 million to get Romney elected, the man he says is the best in the history of the presidency in terms of qualifications.  At the tail end, almost as an after thought, the reporter included a reference to an e-mail (we don’t see it) from Hollywood’s Jeffry Katzenberg who has contributed to Obama’s campaign $2 million and  justifies his donation as fighting the right wing.  He had no tough questions and no face to face on camera time—just a throw away paraphrase of an e-mail. Katzenberg said nothing about Obama’s qualifications and accomplishments, at least not for this report. Nor was he asked if he would seek special favors.

I’m not sure the reporter even mentions how mad Obama was at the Supreme Court over PACs, and then decided to get one for his own campaign.  Nor did he note what a big supporter of environmental issues Robertson is—usually a cause to make the MSM swoon.  The point of this interview was to cut down on Romney who is starting to look like the guy to go after.  Don’t believe me when I tell you that if you watch only broadcast news you only get news for Democrats slanted to make the GOP look bad?  Watch the video.

Prager University—the power of the visual

“Men and the Power of the Visual.” Well worth taking a few moments for a refresher of how gender differences used to be taught.   This is the way I learned it in college psych classes, and the way I heard it in parenting classes in the 70s.  What is being taught to young people today? Is it now capitalism's fault, and a problem of a paternalistic, male-dominated system?

Who or what motivates the first lady to show up at public celebrity events dressed like a 16 year old whose parents don't know she escaped the house in that skimpy outfit?  Should she become enraged if men notice her long legs and exposed crotch with a skirt that doesn’t cover her derriere?  Whose fault is that--the designer, hers,  her husband who gives her no attention, or the men taking a longer look?
http://www.prageruniversity.com/Life-Studies/Men-and-the-Power-of-the-Visual.html .

Prager University has some interesting offerings to counteract the socialist left theories taught today.

The Redeemer (movie) 1965

This morning I turned on EWTN about 5:30 a.m. and the movie “The Redeemer” was just starting.  It appeared to be the story of the last hours of Jesus beginning with Judas’ betrayal, and since this is Good Friday, I sat down to watch it.  Something seemed familiar, but also odd, then I realized the face of Jesus was never shown and the faces of the actors weren’t familiar. So I looked it up on Google and learned it was a Spanish film from 1959, directed by Joseph Breen and Fernando Palacios, dubbed for American audiences in 1965.  Macdonald Carey was Jesus’ voice and the narrator was Sebastian Cabot, which is probably why something seemed familiar to me. In the style and mood of the 1950s, the well-known, but always fresh story of the cross and resurrection moves more slowly and thoughtfully with pauses for thinking—much less whip lash than modern films.

Here is a blog entry from Bible Films Blog which provides some information, but also in the comment window there is additional information with links to two other films in the series,  "The Savior" ("El Salvador") and "The Master" ("El Amo" or "El Maestro"). Some parts have been recut for use in Sunday School. The links to those other films no longer work, and one website that promoted them said “no longer available.”  The Amazon link is called “The Life of Christ the Amazing Trilogy,” and are for used DVDs.

Dependency on the Government at an all time high, but read the small print

One of the problems with a lot of right wing/conservative web sites that cite the Heritage Foundation Special Report of Feb. 8, “The 2012 Index of Dependency” is they don’t note that for purposes of reporting, Social Security and Medicare are included as government assistance programs—as in, my husband and I are lumped in with 67.3 million Americans who depend on the federal government for housing, food, income, student aid and other assistance.  “These programs [SS, Medicare, Medicaid] currently make up 42 percent of all non-interest federal program spending. . . Jointly, these programs will enable the government dependence of nearly 80 million baby boomers.”

Those of us who have paid into Social Security and had Medicare payments deducted from every paycheck don’t like being included in that. We just sent in our 2011 tax returns, and 85% of my husband’s SS check is taxed, as is my STRS pension. So we’re not exactly free loaders when it comes to paying taxes.

Index [of Dependence] measurements begin in 1962; since then, the Index score has grown by more than 15 times its original amount. This means that, keeping inflation neutral in the calculations, more than 15 times the resources were committed to paying for people who depend on government in 2010 than in 1962. In 2010 alone, the Index of Dependence on Government grew by 8.1 percent.

Bloggity bits about health

In Nauru, an island in the Pacific, the prevalence of diabetes has reached more than 40%, one of the highest in the world.  Nauru is the fattest country in the world, with over 95% of the population obese.  I can’t find any record of a McDonald’s or Wendy’s on the island, however.  (NEJM, Dec. 22, 2011)

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The “best buy” health interventions for non-communicable diseases according to NEJM, Dec. 22, 2011, is 1) tobacco, 2) alcohol, 3) bad diet—high sodium, high fat, and 4) lack of exercise.  The most bang for the buck and we not the professionals are the ones who make the difference.

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Overdoses from prescription opioids (painkillers) result in 40+ deaths a day, and 1.2 million emergency department visits a year, a 98.4% increase since 2004.  Isn’t that around the time drugs were added to many health insurance policies?  JAMA, Jan 4, 2012

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Brain food—eat fish that is baked or broiled at least once a week to protect your brain. It’s easier to protect your brain than repair it.

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I was reading about Charles Burchfield’s The Sun Through the Trees on the cover of April 4 JAMA and discovered he was a Lutheran.

In the early 1940s, partly prompted by his conversion to Lutheranism, his wife's faith, Burchfield returned to the natural landscape with renewed conviction. He reworked his early watercolors, often incorporating them into larger compositions by painting on strips of paper added to the edges. These monumental, visionary paintings evince a quasi-religious embrace of nature.  Link

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26.7 million adults aged 50 years or older have a clinically significant hearing loss, but fewer than 15% use hearing aids.  And now age-related hearing loss has been found to be independently associated with poor cognitive functioning and dementia.   Needs more research to find out why.  JAMA March 21

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When I was young, births at home were becoming increasingly rare. A friend of mine was named after the doctor who delivered him at home in our little town (also delivered me but in a hospital). Now there is an uptick among white women having home deliveries.  An increase of 36% among whites, and a decrease among blacks and Hispanics and other minorities. JAMA April 4.

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And finally, not in any magazine, but a miracle of sorts on my husband’s face.  About three weeks ago he had a tiny spot of malignancy removed from his face.  Probably from sunburns as a child.  Although it was tiny, it required a huge incision, and he looked like he’d been the loser in a sword fight.  Today, I can hardly see it. Our daughter, who works for a doctor, gave us his name after advising us not to let the dermatologist do it. She’d seen his work on their patients.  What excellent advice. She also can download photos to my computer without losing them, and glue our microwave back together.

Obama is giving community organizers a bad name

Is he lying, deceptive or ignorant? Commentary says he has jumped the shark (a term coined to apply to TV when the program had outlived its freshness and viewers had begun to feel that the show's writers were out of new ideas.)

“Set aside the fact that the House, despite a huge Democratic majority, passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act by a margin of 219-212, hardly a “strong majority.” In fact, it barely qualifies as a plurality. Let’s turn instead to the substance of what the president said.

Obama, a former community organizer who is perhaps unaware of the finer points of the law, might want to acquaint himself with an obscure 19th century case, Marbury v. Madison, which established the doctrine of judicial review and grants federal courts the power to void acts of Congress that are in conflict with the Constitution. What Obama describes as “unprecedented” has, in fact, been done countless times since 1803.

Then there’s Obama’s confusion about judicial activism. It is not, as he insists, simply the act of overturning an existing law; it is when judges allow their personal views about public policy, and not the Constitution, to guide their decisions and often invent new rights out of thin air. For Justices to invalidate a law they deem to be unconstitutional is precisely what the Supreme Court is supposed to do. (“No legislative act … contrary to the Constitution, can be valid,” is how Alexander Hamilton put it in Federalist #78.) If one takes Obama’s words literally, he believes an unjust and unconstitutional law, if passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress, cannot be overturned.”

Fudge phrases—rich, thick, gooey

“Experts agree. . . “

“The new model recognizes that. . .”

“While data are limited. . . “

“The answer probably has to do with. . .”

“While outcomes data on alternatives are limited. . . “

“Consistent with this proposal, . . .”

“It is also possible. . . “

These were all in Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel’s (Rahm’s brother and Obama’s house doctor) first third of a paper arguing for shortening medical training by 30%.  I have no opinion on this. However, once he’d warmed up to the topic with vague generalities, he then became very dogmatic and authoritarian about values and ethics.  On that, I do have an opinion.  It’s dishonest.  It should be noted that these are his opinions not based on data or a high power from which ethics flow.

“Efficiency has its own value.”

“Waste, especially wasting the time of some of society’s most highly educated and talented people, is unethical.”

“Changing the structure of training would force medical leaders to eliminate unnecessary and repetitious material and emphasize training physicians to become part of a care team.”

In the first half of his article he lists 3 medical schools, University of Pennsylvania, Duke University, and  Harvard, that have rearranged different parts of medical training, and one, Texas Tech that offers a 3 year program.  Then at the conclusion, he confidently states, “many medical schools and residency and fellowship programs have already shortened their training in various ways. . .” 

You can tell he’s worked in government (for both Obama and Clinton) can’t you? But that isn’t noted in the JAMA, March 21, 2012 “Viewpoint,” only that he’s in the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at University of Pennsylvania.  His NIH web site: “Ezekiel J. Emanuel is Head of the Department of Bioethics at The Clinical Center of the National Institutes of Health and a breast oncologist. He is on extended detail as a special advisor for health policy to the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. “ According to a quote at Wikipedia, he believes you and I have an obligation to participate in biomedical research as a civic obligation.

Obama has been wrong about a lot of legal points . . . and this is the latest flap

These judges can pass on ever getting appointed to anything by Obama!  What would be the point of taking this to the Supreme Court if it had no power to examine a federal law?  And it is not judicial activism, Mr. President.  That’s when your appointed guys make up things that aren’t in there.

“(CBS News) In the escalating battle between the administration and the judiciary, a federal appeals court apparently is calling the president's bluff -- ordering the Justice Department to answer by Thursday whether the Obama Administration believes that the courts have the right to strike down a federal law, according to a lawyer who was in the courtroom.

The order, by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, appears to be in direct response to the president's comments yesterday about the Supreme Court's review of the health care law. Mr. Obama all but threw down the gauntlet with the justices, saying he was "confident" the Court would not "take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress."”

Overturning a law of course would not be unprecedented -- since the Supreme Court since 1803 has asserted the power to strike down laws it interprets as unconstitutional. The three-judge appellate court appears to be asking the administration to admit that basic premise -- despite the president's remarks that implied the contrary. The panel ordered the Justice Department to submit a three-page, single-spaced letter by noon Thursday addressing whether the Executive Branch believes courts have such power, the lawyer said.  . .

In asking for the letter, Smith said: "I want to be sure you're telling us that the attorney general and the Department of Justice do recognize the authority of the federal courts, through unelected judges, to strike acts of Congress or portions thereof in appropriate cases."

CBS Link

Obama appointee had pledged responsible and ethical term

Why did it take so long to get her resignation?  This happened about a year and a half ago. In my working days I probably attending 20 some “team building” type exercises.  IMO, they are worthless.  They do employ trainers, caterers, janitors, speakers, etc., however, and Obama was all about getting people employed, wasn’t he?

“The General Services Administration is undergoing a total administrative overhaul after throwing an $823,000 conference in Las Vegas in October 2010. The four-day affair included "a clown, a mind reader and a $31,208 reception," as well as countless pillaged minibars.

GSA chief Martha N. Johnson resigned yesterday, in the wake of a year-long investigation and report by GSA Inspector General Brian D. Miller. The report, which provides hilarious details of the four-day event ("300 items of $5.00 'Boursin Scalloped Potato with Barolo Wine Braised Short Ribs'") called the conference "over the top" and blamed "excessive spending" on travel, catering, and vendor costs. Miller also targeted a series of "semi-private 'parties'" hosted in GSA employee suites and "catered at taxpayer expense." “

http://gawker.com/5898673/gsa-chief-resigns-after-hiring-clown-mentalist-for-greatest-govt+funded-vegas-party-ever

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-leadership/post/may-the-gsa-resignation-serve-as-warning-to-all-leaders-considering-lame-training-conferences/2011/04/01/gIQAvKgBtS_blog.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gsa-chief-resigns-amid-reports-of-excessive-spending/2012/04/02/gIQABLNNrS_story.html

The $50 light bulb

Apparently it wasn’t supposed to go over $22. 00.  Well, that’s comforting.

The Department of Energy awarded lighting giant Philips the $10 million L Prize despite the fact that the winning energy-efficient bulb failed to meet several contest criteria requirements, according to documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

Philips raised eyebrows when it debuted the winning bulb with a $50 price tag. That is far beyond the $22 cost recommended by the department, which is now working with utility companies to cut back on the upfront cost through rebates.

Department documents, however, cast doubt on whether the expensive LED bulb was even worthy of the prize.

Story.

1,070 days without a budget?

What’s up Democrats?  Isn’t this your job?

Dirty Harry’s little secret.

God had a better idea

Blue is nice for sky, but for trees, I prefer the original plan.

http://mydesignstories.net/profiles/blogs/blue-trees-by-konstantin-dimopoloulos#comments

Faith AND Works

“John Wesley died as he had lived from his conversion. For 53  years, he had faithfully preached that men need and are saved only by faith in Christ, but the corollary of that was that they would be judged by works—by how they live.  He  often  prayed, "Let me wear out, not rust out. Let me not live to be useless." Until a week before his death, when fever incapacitated and forced him to take to his bed, he had in his 88th year, continued to preach, write, supervise and encourage. He died on the morning of March 2nd 1791, and no sooner was his spirit released than those who had come to rejoice with him "burst
into an anthem of praise. "No coach, no hearse were needed for his funeral, for he had given instructions that six poor men, in need of employment, be given a pound each to carry his body to the grave.” “ from England Before and After Wesley, By Donald Drew

Global warmist is thief and forger

Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute and a believer in the religion of (AGW) man made global warming, stole documents from the Heartland Institute, a conservative, free market think tank the left loves to hate and attack.  At least any time I cite it you would think I’d just written, “Rush Limbaugh has personally baptized this.”  Gleick, according to various conservative news sources who know what the code word “sustainable” means, “obtained the documents under false pretenses and then passed them on to liberal blogs. Now a computer analysis by Dr. Patrick Juola at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, concludes that one the documents, the so-called “climate strategy memo,” is a fake, most likely manufactured by Gleick himself. “  CRC Green Watch, April 2012

The mischief is now known as “Fakegate,” and Gleick has taken a leave of absence from his position as President. I have no doubt his institution which is doing the investigation will find he has done nothing wrong because his heart was in the right (left) place.

Dr. Gleick has admitted that he impersonated a board member of the Heartland Institute in a series of emails to obtain confidential documents, a criminal practice known as “phishing.” Gleick, apparently, had hoped to obtain funding documents that he could use to discredit Heartland and scare off its donors by showing that it was simply shilling for Big Oil and Big Coal and other “dirty” corporate interests. . . the documents Gleick obtained from Heartland contained no smoking gun, so Gleick, or one of his over-zealous AGW alarmist confederates, had to spice things up by concocting a fake document entitled, “Confidential Memo: 2012 Heartland Climate Strategy,” which Gleick then mixed in with the purloined Heartland documents and sent off to blog sites of fellow activists. (New American)

These people need scandal and intrigue (hellfire and brimstone) to continue getting donations from the private sector and grants from the government.  Gleick’s supporters and fellow religionists consider him a hero and a martyr for the pantheist cause (global warming). The truth matters not.  Their science is weak and their politics is global, even if the warming isn’t. The regular “free” press doesn’t vet them anymore than they vetted Obama, so most Americans will never find the truth. Besides this is April, and it was news in March.

When Gleick is tried in a court of law for stealing and fraud and found innocent, I’ll post that—but these kinds of thefts rarely get that far.  Unless you’re on the right and pretty small potatoes.

Seniors encouraged to take college loans in 2010, and blamed in 2012 for doing so

One could get whip lash reading about senior citizens and college loans.  Is is a good idea or not?

In August 2010, this article appeared in USAToday. "There are more opportunities than in the past for senior citizens to take college classes and get help paying for them," says financial aid expert Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org and Fastweb.com.

Many community colleges and some four-year colleges allow seniors to audit classes for free and significantly reduce tuition for those who take them for credit. The financial arrangements vary widely by school and so do the age requirements — generally 60, 62, or 65 and over.”

Yes, in 2010, before the news about the next bubble burst, people were being encouraged to borrow money for college.  But in today’s USAToday, Washington Post and other sources buying the boilerplate from the NY Federal Reserve research, there’s a different story, although much overblown, since the small print says 5.8% of the college loan debt is for seniors, and 10% are in arrears.  That’s a pretty small portion of college debt.

“New research from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shows that Americans 60 and older still owe about $36 billion in student loans, providing a rare window into the dynamics of student debt. More than 10 percent of those loans are delinquent. As a result, consumer advocates say, it is not uncommon for Social Security checks to be garnished or for debt collectors to harass borrowers in their 80s over student loans that are decades old.

The fact that even seniors remain saddled with student loans highlights what a growing chorus of lawmakers, economists and financial experts say has become a central conflict in the nation's higher education system: The long-touted benefits of a college degree are being diluted by rising tuition rates and the longevity of debt.”

Think Progress, a leftist bloggity news/opinion site, uses the phrase “crushing America’s Senior citizens.”  Anything to avoid talking about what a bad job this administration has done with the economy, and to suck more people into a mentality of victimhood to be saved by BO. Obama is taking credit for an economy that could have rebounded in spite of the him, faster and healthier, by dragging us further trillions into debt.

Why recovery has taken so long

“If someone wants to build a new coal-fired power plant they can, but it will bankrupt them because they will be charged a huge sum for all the greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.”
-Candidate Barack Obama, Jan. 17, 2008.

Just for Democrats.  Republicans haven’t forgotten.

Woman loses her voice, continues to serve God

Need a good cry?  This is a wonderful story about Sister Noel Devine who is 85-years-old, and for 67 of those years has served as a Maryknoll sister.  She has now lost her voice to Primary Lateral Sclerosis, but continues to serve.  Watch to the end when a 93 year old sister sings a hymn.  Watch her eyes glow with the love of Jesus.

The earning potential of college athletes

Ohio State is out of the Final Four.  I heard a discussion about college athletes turning pro on the radio—speculation about one or two of our Buckeyes. If I were a 20 year old, talented, uninjured college athlete, I wouldn't need 20 seconds to decide. You can always go back to college; you get only one chance at being 20. What do you think?

Thomas Jefferson High School again

I don’t buy this.  The whole purpose of high school clubs is to learn leadership skills and develop friendships.  There are plenty of clubs which will mingle children of different races and cultures—math club, Spanish club, thespians—but the leader of the black students club should be an African American.  TJHS doesn’t have very many blacks now; don’t dilute their effectiveness and learning opportunities.  And no, I don’t want a guy in charge of young mothers club.

Of the 1,800 students who attended TJ last year, only 34 were black and 42 were Hispanic, school figures show. The overwhelming majority of their classmates were Asian (906) and white (787).

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/problem-or-progress-white-student-leads-black-club-at-n-virginia-high-school/2012/04/01/gIQArXXkpS_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines

Glenn Beck is on vacation

Tonight there is a rerun on GBTV.com.  He’s on vacation for 2 weeks.   David Horowitz is one of the guests.  Years ago I read his book Radical Son: A Generational Odyssey about growing up Marxist, knowing his parents’ friends were blacklisted Communists during the McCarthy years, and becoming a Black Panther.  Now he’s a conservative and a very active (and protested) speaker on college campuses.  He considers Ruth Bader Ginsberg the most radical of all the Supreme Court Justices.  Other guests on tonight’s rerun are David Barton from Wall Builders, Geronimo Aguilar, a pastor of The Roc who says he was conceived at Woodstock, and some other conservatives.  We’ve seen it before, but worth a second look. Discussing the important of a 2 parent home.

“Going to church regularly will add 7 years to your life (if you are white) and 14 years if you are black,” said one of the guests.  I think I need to fact check that stat. If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.  Check here.

Wait Till Next Year—Book club today

                     

“Set in the suburbs of New York in the 1950s, Wait Till Next Year is Doris Kearns Goodwin’s touching memoir of growing up in love with her family and baseball. She re-creates the postwar era, when the corner store was a place to share stories and neighborhoods were equally divided between Dodger, Giant, and Yankee fans.

We meet the people who most influenced Goodwin’s early life: her mother, who taught her the joy of books but whose debilitating illness left her housebound; and her father, who taught her the joy of baseball and to root for the Dodgers of Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snider, and Gil Hodges. Most important, Goodwin describes with eloquence how the Dodgers’ leaving Brooklyn in 1957, and the death of her mother soon after, marked both the end of an era and, for her, the end of childhood. “ (author’s website)

Question from leader of discussion, “Did her description of childhood trigger any memories of your own childhood such as neighborhood games, local Mom and Pop stores, best friends, church activities, family life, school and sports?”

Because in my early years our family lived on the same block as Nelson Potter and his family, I can claim at least what little interest I had in sports was because of a famous baseball player living near by.  He was in college with my parents, and his son was in my class in school, and we still stay in touch at Christmas.

This could be bad news for poverty pimps

There could be biological reasons for racial disparities in health!

Doctors long have thought that less access to screening and follow-up health care were the reasons black women are 40 percent more likely to develop cervical cancer and twice as likely to die from it. The new study involving young college women suggests there might be a biological explanation for the racial disparity, too.

Link to AP story

Fourteen people shot in Florida at a wake for young black man

Maybe race hustlers Sharpton and Jackson have time to show up to lead a protest and hamper the police in their investigation, and perhaps the President can take some time from his campaign events to call the parents.  Maybe Oprah can check in, and Spike Lee can tweet something inaccurate and Roseanne Barr can stir up a posse.  What?  Two dead?  Black gang violence?  Never mind.  Manhattan Institute notes that in New York City, there were nine civilian victims of police gunfire last year, whereas there were “several hundred black homicide victims in the city, almost all shot by other blacks or Hispanics, none of them given substantial press coverage.” 

Aventura Police Sgt. Chris Goranitis told CBS4 News the funeral was for 21-year-old Morvin Andre who died on March 16th, one day after he jumped from the 4th to 2nd floor of the Aventura Mall parking garage in an effort to escape pursuit by Bloomingdale’s loss prevention employees.

The Medical Examiner ruled his death a suicide because he chose to jump rather than be apprehended, according to Goranitis.

Meantime, a senior police commander told CBS4 investigative reporter Jim DeFede that Andre had some connection to several South Florida gangs and some of those gang members were in attendance at his wake to pay their respects.

The commander said someone at the wake touched Andre’s body in the casket in a way that other gangs took as disrespectful. This led to an argument inside the funeral home which spilled out to the street.

Link to CBS4

I was hoping this was an April Fool joke

But it wasn’t.  A First Lady of the United States actually wore this in public.

Not sure why it is called a system

Our health care system had a broken leg--no one disagreed on that. It was a bi-partisan medical diagnosis. Band-aids were liberally applied. So in order to fix it, the federal government under the control of progressives and Democrats decided to equalize things, break the other leg, both ankles, the wrist on one arm and the elbow on the other, just in case anyone would get the bright idea of offering crutches, and then prescribed a massive dose of hallucinogens mislabeled as pain killers.

The “Roe v. Wade” of this generation said the Manhattan Declaration Blog.  Charles Colson wrote in 2009: “This is a huge religious-liberty question. It isn’t about contraceptives or even abortifacients. It’s about whether the United States government can limit the free exercise of religion by telling us which of our beliefs are entitled to conscience exemptions. It would be one thing if this came through the courts; still another thing if it were passed by Congress. But this edict is handed down by unelected government bureaucrats [White House Administration Staff] ... This is a momentous issue. There have been other threats to religious liberty by legislation and sometimes by court order — but never at the whim of an unelected government official.”

The Enterprise blog said, “Scalia nailed it with the very first question asked by a justice. Why not “address directly” the main problem with American healthcare, the overconsumption of healthcare services driven by the third-party payment system?” Exactly what I thought from the beginning. Insurance created this problem--the dream that someone else pays while I select from the banquet table of tests, screening, vaccines, and advice about my own habits I should be controlling; why would more insurance cure it?

Palm Sunday

Today is Palm Sunday, and if attending any Christian church today you may hear something like this, compiled by  Sarah Ciotti. Some churches reenact Jesus' triumphal entry; some pass out palm branches to wave during the hymns. At our service we'll be hearing from Pastor David Mann, our missionary to Haiti.

“9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him shouted, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!’” (Matt 21:9)[1]

These holy words have inspired the Church for centuries. Known as the Sanctus, a part of the Eucharist Prayer, Christians have sung the end of this verse since before 400 AD.[2]

The Sanctus, listed below, hints at a juxtaposition innate in sacred mystery; God as Divine as expressed in the first stanza and God as man, riding on a donkey, in the second.[3]

“Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts
Heaven and earth are full of your glory
Hosanna in the highest.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest”(Sanctus 2010).[4]

Continuing the Holy Week reflection, Jesus’ triumphal entry highlights our need to make our new commitment public. We want to announce it and name it; whether it is a new goal, a project, a new partnership, etc. We long to celebrate with family and friends. Yet, in the joy of announcing our plans, sadness exists. Like in the Sanctus, we hope for something great; yet we know our human nature. What if we fail? What if we can’t bring our commitment to completion? We desire publicity; but we realize the fragility that comes with such an announcement. Hence, today’s paradox.[5]

[1] Revised Standard Version, s.v. “Matthew, The Gospel According To.”
[2] Michael G. Powell, “An Introduction to the History of Christian Liturgy in the West. s.v. ‘sanctus,’”http://www.yale.edu/adhoc/research_resources/liturgy/d_sanctus.html
[3] Ibid.
[4] Excerpts from the English translation of The Roman Missal © 2010, International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation.
[5] Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist, “The Mysteries of Holy Week,” Retreat, Pocatello, ID, March 2012.

Pro-Lifers disagree with Cheney on marriage, but. . .

they applaud the doctors, technology and his own bravery in getting a new heart.  Nasty people on the internet were complaining that Cheney was too old for a heart transplant (actually, what they really mean is he is a Republican).  I’m 72, and although I think that’s probably too old to run for President (first term), it’s not too old for a heart transplant.  And those nasties might change their minds if he were their father, brother or husband—or indeed, if it were their hearts that needed a replacement.  He waited 20 months; but there have been amazing changes even in that time.  Read the article.

How to ruin a beautiful view

Few people think of visual environment.  I saw this article in ENR Midwest Digital Wire. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501363_162-57406874/feds-5-states-to-push-for-great-lakes-wind-farms/

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. - The Obama administration and five states have agreed to speed up approval of offshore wind farms in the Great Lakes.

There are no wind turbines in the lakes at present. Proposals have met fierce opposition from people worried the structures would ruin views and harm the environment.

Under the deal, federal and state agencies will develop a plan to speed regulatory review of proposed offshore wind farms. Officials say the projects would have to meet safety and environmental standards.

States that signed the deal include Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New York and Pennsylvania.

Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin declined.

Hacktivism

From Technewsworld an article on hacktivism by Sam Glines.

“Hacktivism is the new, hip thing; it has become a hobby for people with higher-than-average computer knowledge. The movement is led by an elite few who have a deep, lifelong knowledge of computers, and it includes senior Fortune 100 corporate executives and highly placed governmental employees, as well as the ranks of the unemployed.

The elite world of hacktivism is at the center of the Internet's Dark Side. While governmental agencies are looking for the individuals responsible for various acts of hacktivism, they struggle with using their tried-and-true methods to move up the food chain to identify hacktivist leaders. What is not well understood is that these layers cannot be penetrated by the standard law enforcement methods that were once effective in collapsing organized crime groups.

Hacktivism exists because the Internet is an open society that has no boundaries in which normal legal process can be applied without taking significant and draconian action, like direct control of the systems that keep the Internet alive. The traditional legal requirements for evidence are hampered by the very void in which the elites live. “

You might be anti-Semitic if . . .

If you judge a Jewish state by standards that you apply to no one else; if your neck veins bulge when you denounce Zionists but you’ve done no more than cluck “well, yes, very bad about Darfur”;
if there is nothing Hamas can do that you won’t blame ‘in the final analysis’ on Israelis;
if your sneer at the Zionists doesn’t sound a whole lot different from American neoconservative sneers at leftists;
then you should not be surprised if you are criticized, fiercely so, by people who are serious about a just peace between Israelis and Palestinians and who won’t let you get away with a self-exonerating formula—“I am anti-Zionist but not anti-Semitic”—to prevent scrutiny. If you are anti-Zionist and not anti-Semitic, then don’t use the categories, allusions, and smug hiss that are all too familiar to any student of prejudice.

Please read the entire article at Dissent—it’s from 2008, but not much has changed.  http://dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=987

Americans stalking health

Today Americans will stalk the aisles of a natural foods store for the freshest and least contaminated produce, they will worry about power lines and microwave ovens, but will pour strange
chemicals and hormones into their own or their daughters' bodies in the name of either destroying an embryo before it implants or blocking the natural path of an egg.

As a former academic medical librarian well acquainted with the research and publication route of scientific literature, I can assure you NO ONE will ever receive a federal grant to investigate the increase in obesity, autism, allergies, depression, thyroid cancer and early stroke and heart attack in women since the 1960s rush to birth control pills--and if it has been investigated through non-governmental funding, it will never make it into peer-reviewed journals. The "reproductive health" industry is far more powerful and well funded than the tobacco lobby. And it has killed far more people--over 52 million. 

If nothing else, researchers should at least be looking at our water supply with 41 million women taking extra hormones and chemicals that when they are excreted from the body, are flushed into our water supplies where they can’t be filtered out.

The increase in breast cancer caused by abortion and
contraception, however, is not denied, and the increase in abortions caused by the increased availability (vending machines, drug stores, Wal-Mart, etc.) of contraceptive hormones, chemicals and tools to insert in the body cavity or apply to the skin was again confirmed in 2011 in the journal Contraception.

Please watch this video--even if you don't buy the book,
you'll learn a lot. Librarians are 223:1 liberal to conservative, so I'm quite sure you won't find it in a public library.
http://www.ignatius.com/Products/AEAP-H/adam-and-eve-after-the-pill.aspx

Not everyone can pass secrets publicly like the President

“The Obama administration has told the Russian government that it is concerned about the harassment of U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul, who suggested this week that his phone and e-mail account may have been hacked, allowing journalists from state-controlled television to track him.

McFaul, who took up his post in January, noted on his Twitter account that a crew from NTV seems to be aware of his every move, including meetings that have not been publicly announced.”

As noted in the Washington Post

Stats for the past week

Visits Total since 2003............... 450,514

Average per Day ................ 177

Average Visit Length .......... 2:15

This Week .................... 1,239

Page Views Total since 2003........... 660,500

Average per Day ................ 310

Average per Visit .............. 1.8

This Week .................... 2,172

That about sums it up

"So, in one week, Mr. Obama got caught whispering promises to our enemy, incited a race war, raised serious questions about his understanding of the Constitution, and then got smacked down over his proposed budget that was so wildly reckless that even Democrats in Congress could not support it."

Charles Hurt

Trying out Windows Live Writer

I’ve been having such a battle with the new(ish) template for my blog (long script, hesitation, etc.) I thought I’d try Live Writer (have no idea what it does). 

 

Then I’ll add a recent photo (last Saturday), then I’ll hit publish.

Something I'd never thought of

"The next time that you wash dishes by hand, here's an experiment I'd like you to try. Stop up the sink over which you hot rinse the dishes, and then at the end of the wash cycle, measure how much water is in there. I'll bet it's more than you thought you were using, because when it runs down the drain, you don't see it. How many gallons did you end up with?

I'm suggesting this experiment because, unbelievably, newer, efficient dishwashers use as little as five gallons of water for the entire dishwasher load. On the other hand, says the American Water Works Association, when you wash dishes by hand, the average person uses 20 gallons of water. Now maybe this figure comes from those that leave the tap on as they're washing and aren't conservative with water the way you are. But I'll bet that it would be a challenge for you to hand wash an entire day's worth of dishes using five gallons only-for the dipping, washing and rinsing."

I wonder if the writer factored in the energy to build and create the dishwasher? But it's good to know the new ones are so efficient. Mine isn't very old (a Maytag), but it's a piece of junk and will soon need to be replaced.

Link to Recyclebank

Research defines groups to watch--has anyone been left out?

To define the ideological motivations, LaFree and Bersani used START’s Profiles of Perpetrators of Terrorism—United States (Miller, Smarick and Simone, 2011), which briefly describes ideological motivations as:

Extreme Right-Wing: groups that believe that one’s personal and/or national “way of life” is under attack and is either already lost or that the threat is imminent (for some the threat is from a specific ethnic, racial, or religious group), and believe in the need to be prepared for an attack either by participating in paramilitary preparations and training or survivalism. Groups may also be fiercely nationalistic (as opposed to universal and international in orientation), anti-global, suspicious of centralized federal authority, reverent of individual liberty, and believe in conspiracy theories that involve grave threat to national sovereignty and/or personal liberty.

Extreme Left-Wing: groups that want to bring about change through violent revolution rather than through established political processes. This category also includes secular left-wing groups that rely heavily on terrorism to overthrow the capitalist system and either establish “a dictatorship of the proletariat” (Marxist-Leninists) or, much more rarely, a decentralized, non-hierarchical political system (anarchists).

Religious: groups that seek to smite the purported enemies of God and other evildoers, impose strict religious tenets or laws on society (fundamentalists), forcibly insert religion into the political sphere (e.g., those who seek to politicize religion, such as Christian Reconstructionists and Islamists), and/or bring about Armageddon (apocalyptic millenarian cults; 2010: 17). For example, Jewish Direct Action, Mormon extremist, Jamaat-al-Fuqra, and Covenant, Sword and the Arm of the Lord (CSA) are included in this category.

Ethno-Nationalist/Separatist: regionally concentrated groups with a history of organized political autonomy with their own state, traditional ruler, or regional government, who are committed to gaining or regaining political independence through any means and who have supported political movements for autonomy at some time since 1945.

Single Issue: groups or individuals that obsessively focus on very specific or narrowly-defined causes (e.g., anti-abortion, anti-Catholic, anti-nuclear, anti-Castro). This category includes groups from all sides of the political spectrum.

It's interesting that people who advocate the killing of the low-income and black if they are still in the womb, are not on the government watch list. Anyone in the age range of 60s or 70s complains of loss of "a way of life," and is not thrilled with Agenda 21 or China holding our debt. Are they dangerous? Islamic members of the military who advocate for their religion and then shoot up a military base, missed the filter of terrorist cells. If ones' beliefs are universal and international in orientation, or if one advocates peaceful revolution through fundamental change, or if the group can stand in front of mainstream media cameras and call for vigilanteism, START funded research will probably not notice them.

How refreshing!

"Our ministry is financially sound so we ask that only those who can afford to contribute to do so. Without your donations we will remain. What your donations do is move us more rapidly towards our goals of reaching more people in more ways with the hope that all Christians will join us in prayer in whatever way possible.

We will except donations, but we ask that you first take care of yourself, your family, and people who need your help in your own parish. If you have taken care of yourself and your family and have contributed locally and still feel you are fortunate to have “left overs” then we welcome your contributions."

This is at the tab "Want to help" at Divine Office--Liturgy of the Hours, a very peaceful way to begin, middle or end your day, with just the words of scripture, silence and a recorded hymn. Because I'm an early riser, often if I want to hear an entire podcast for morning, I have to the previous day.

From Russia with love

From Russia, John Quincy Adams wrote to his son:

"St. Petersburg, Sept, 1811

My dear Son,

In your letter of the 18th January, you mentioned that you read to your aunt a chapter in the Bible...every evening. This information gave me real pleasure...

So great is my veneration for the Bible, and so strong my belief, that when duly read and meditated on, it is of all books in the world, that which contributes most to make men good, wise, and happy-that the earlier my children begin to read it...the more lively and confident will be my hopes that they will prove useful citizens of their country."

"You must soon come to the age when you must govern yourself. You have already come to that age in many respects; you know the difference between right and wrong, and you know some of your duties....It is in the Bible, you must learn them all, and from the Bible you must practice them...

Those duties are to God, to your fellow creatures, and to yourself. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, with all thy soul and with all thy mind and with all thy strength, and thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments, Jesus Christ expressly says, 'hang all the law and the prophets.' ...

The Bible contains the revelation of the will of God...It is an invaluable and inexhaustible mine of knowledge and virtue."

This correspondence was published after his death as Letters of John Quincy Adams to his son on the Bible and its Teachings (Auburn, NY: Derby, Miller & Co, 1848).

As retold at American Minute with Bill Federer for March 27, 2012. The entire book has been scanned and is available through Google.

How to kill a Down Syndrome baby

Selected questions from the National Abortion Federation, an organization that continues to mourn the murder of Dr. George Tiller at its website, an active abortionist who was killed while ushering in his church. Murder, whether of the unborn or the (Although they also on their webpage talk about President Bush, so maybe they are just living in the past?)

Q. Is abortion legal?
A. Yes. Abortion is legal in the United States and Canada.

Q. Can my parents force me to have an abortion?
A. No. However, some states have laws that require a minor to involve her parents in the decision to have an abortion.

Q. Do I need permission from my husband or partner to have an abortion? Will my provider contact him?
A. No. The Supreme Court has ruled that requiring a spouse's consent in order to have an abortion is unconstitutional. You may decide to tell your husband or partner, but the clinic will not contact him.

Q. Does Medicaid or other state-assisted health insurance cover the cost of an abortion?
A. Medicaid is only required to cover abortion in cases of rape, incest, or life endangerment. However, some states do cover abortion as part of their Medicaid policies.

Q. Is it possible for an undocumented citizen to have an abortion in the United States or Canada?
A. Yes. The provider will require proof of identity, but your citizenship is irrelevant. Immigration Services will not be notified.

Q. Is there a difference between the morning-after pill and the abortion pill?
A. Yes. The morning-after pill (also known as Emergency Contraception, EC, Preven, or Plan B) prevents pregnancy and does not cause an abortion. It prevents fertilization of an egg or attachment of a fertilized egg to the uterine wall. The abortion pill (also known as RU-486, medical abortion, Mifeprex®, or mifepristone) terminates an already established pregnancy when used in combination with another medication.

Wait Till Next Year by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Our next book club selection is “Wait till next year; a memoir” by Doris Kearns Goodwin the story of a young girl growing up in the 1950s and loving baseball. I’m not very far into the book, and although I think I know where this religious memory will go as she ages out of innocence and trust, I thought this passage very charming, and so different from my own “believer’s baptism” on Palm Sunday 1950 and 6 weeks of instruction on Sunday afternoon for an hour or so with Rev. Statler.

“Sister Marian introduced us to the text familiar to generations of Catholic schoolchildren: the blue-covered Baltimore Catechism with a silver Mary embossed on a constellation of silver stars. The catechism was organized around a series of questions and answers we had to memorize word for word to help us understand the meaning of what Christ had taught and, ultimately, to understand Christ Himself. “Who made us? God made us.” “Who is God? God is the Supreme Being who made all things.” “Why did God make us? God made us to show happiness in Heaven.” Although it was learned by rote, there was something uniquely satisfying about reciting questions we had to memorize, both the questions and the answers. No matter how many questions we had to memorize, each question had a proper answer. The Catholic world was a stable place with an unambiguous line of authority and an absolute knowledge of right and wrong.

We learned to distinguish venial sins, which displeased our Lord, from the far more serious mortal sins, which took away the life of the soul. We memorized the three things that made a sin mortal: the thought or deed had to be grievously wrong; the sinner had to know it was grievously wrong; and the sinner had to consent fully to it. Clearly, King Herod had committed a mortal sin when, intending to kill the Messiah, he killed all the boys in Judea who were two years old or less. Lest we feel too far removed from such a horrendous deed, we were told that those who committed venial sins without remorse when they were young would grow up to commit much larger sins, losing their souls in the same way that Herod did.” pp. 90-91, hardcover edition

My goodness! That’s more than I know today about the Baltimore Catechism, or even Luther’s Small Catechism. I’ve never understood the difference between mortal and venial sins before. But ratcheting up venial to mortal because of lack of remorse does sound serious to me today--although in 1950 I’m not so sure I would have understood as well as she did. It sounds a lot like our own criminal justice system, doesn’t it? Awareness and remorse. But then, I only had a few hours of instruction, and I’m not sure we even covered sin! As well written as this is, and as intense as she was (she goes on to write about baptizing her dolls in case the need ever came up, having been instructed that Catholics could do this for an unbaptized, dying person), there’s no indication in this charming story of what she believes today--only what she was taught then. At least not by page 91.

Is this treason? Or just Obama giving away the farm

Obama was overheard on a microphone delivering a secret message to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev regarding the US missile defense. What is Obama up to, and what does his secret message mean for allies like Israel? Is Obama about to hang Europe out to dry? Is this message treasonous? Do our allies feel as betrayed as we do? Admits all he needs to do to sell us down the river is get reelected. Or maybe he means, then I'll be king for life, when he says his "last election."

A very damning video

Zimbabwean marriages in the Diaspora suffer the same problems as others

When men can't be the head of the household, what country they're from doesn't make a lot of difference. The marriage struggles regardless.

"The evidence suggests that a “dependent” husband lacks the authority to make major decisions within the family. Migration to Britain has catapulted some women from the confines of the domestic sphere into the public sphere of work. While women have moved significantly into the public sphere, men have moved to a lesser degree into the private sphere, a process that has shaken up men’s authority in the household. As Tonderai Ncube noted from his own experience: “Now she is going to work and she is getting £5 an hour and I am getting £5 an hour and now there is nothing I can tell her.”23 In this case, his primary breadwinner role had become less relevant and he was no longer the sole authority. His position within the marriage was thus becoming increasingly insecure. Moreover, he thought that the UK government had also usurped his power to maintain and control his children and family by giving them state benefits, which are directly paid to his wife: “So the government is the hero of my family. What would I say, that’s the end of the story.” Hence, men’s authority and power as head of the family, previously derived from having access to economic resources and through kinship relations, has been contested and weakened."

Regendering the household

Obama keeping campaign promise to kill coal industry

So Ohio is suffering. Congress dumped his crap and trade plan, so he'll just regulate instead, by-passing the representative form of government that has 3 branches. He sees himself as a monarch, not an elected official.

The mining industry criticized the rule. “Requiring coal-based power plants to meet an emissions standard based on natural gas technology is a policy overtly calculated to destroy a significant portion of America’s electricity supply,” said Hal Quinn, chief executive of the National Mining Assn. “This proposal is the latest convoy in EPA’s regulatory train wreck that is rolling across America, crushing jobs and arresting our economic recovery at every stop. It is not an 'all of the above' energy strategy.”

Article from LA Times

This isn't just a Catholic thing

Yes, there really is a war against women, and it isn't being waged from the Right. It's called the Sexual Revolution; women have been badly damaged and society has been permanently changed.

"In severing sex from procreation, humankind set into motion forces that have by now shaped and reshaped almost every aspect of life in the Western world. Families are smaller, birthrates have dropped, divorce and out-of-wedlock births have soared. Demography has now even started to work against the modern welfare state, which has become harder to sustain as fewer children have been produced to replace aging parents.

The sexual revolution has transformed economics, culture and law. Witness this week's Supreme Court case, in which the question at hand is whether an individual's Social Security survivor benefits belong to children conceived with his sperm months after he died.

Even on the religious playing field, this isn't just a Catholic thing. Christian teaching against artificial contraception dates back to the earliest Church fathers confronting pagan Rome. Christians remained united on that teaching until relatively recently—1930, to be exact, which is the year that the Anglican Communion made its first, carefully circumscribed exceptions to the rule. Orthodox Jews, Mormons and some traditionalist Protestants have also pondered the issue and ended up proscribing or limiting contraception in different circumstances."

Mary Eberstadt in the Wall Street Journal, March 24

What Obamacare forces on the state Medicaid programs

The amicus brief by Cato--states can't opt out, but still have to send money to Washington. Tim Sandefur of the Pacific Legal Foundation explains some of the implications of the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion. Obamacare forces more people on to Medicaid. States will lose all the federal money if they don't comply. "Your money or your life," is not exactly a fair trade. The demands exceed the constitutional powers of the federal government.



Four free market advocacy groups filed a 39-page amicus brief to the Supreme Court supporting the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals decision that the individual mandate in President Obama’s health care reform law is unconstitutional.

If the PPACA is upheld swelling insurance coverage by 32 million (leaving 18 million still uninsured, according to NEJM), they will be pushed onto the 2/3 of physicians who currently accept Medicaid patients. Then the government will have to force physicians, and costs will increase. People already don't like this legislation, so if the court backs the President, it could doom his reelection.

Obamacare shell game:

HHS has now finalized a rule requiring insurance plans operating in states that permit elective abortion coverage in their exchanges to segregate premium costs into two separate pools: one to cover abortion services and another to cover all other benefits. That abortion surcharge, which must be at least $1 a month, must be paid with private dollars by every enrollee in plans that cover elective abortion. The affordability tax credits, according to the Obama Administration, can then be used to subsidize other non-abortion-related benefits coverage for eligible enrollees.

With this shell game in place, the Obama Administration has attempted to declare itself free from accusations of using taxpayer funds for abortion. Nevertheless, this new rule will force all enrollees in plans that cover elective abortion to pay the abortion surcharge with private funds—or drop out of the plan entirely and hope a comparable one exists in the state exchange without abortion coverage. In some states, there will be options; in others, there will be few or none.

Moreover, under the rules finalized last week, insurance companies that provide abortion coverage are required only to disclose the abortion surcharge at the time of enrollment. It is possible that many individuals who would otherwise object to paying for coverage of abortion will not even be aware of the surcharge on their insurance, since the rule requires the premium not to be itemized and the required disclosure at the time of enrollment may be as little as a single sentence in a massive plan document. New rules for the shell game

Roy Rogers and Trigger

The cover of the Ohio Historical Society's Timeline, April-June 2012, is Roy Rogers and Trigger, rearing up. Rogers real name was Leonard Slye and he was born in Duck Run, Ohio. I just glanced at the cover, but it looks like Trigger has been airbrushed, so I checked the internet to make sure he was a stallion (yes, purchased when he was 4 years old and died in 1965). Rogers owned several Palaminos, so maybe this was a stand in. The saddle gear looks the same as the 1943 Life magazine pictured on the inside, but that Trigger has four white stockings, whereas the one on the cover of Timeline does not. Could explain the missing "other" gear. A picture of the cover is not on the OHS website yet. . .

Oil is expensive, but water is priceless

I own stock in Pentair. "More than one billion people worldwide – roughly one out of every seven – have no choice but to use unsafe, contaminated water. To help solve this issue, Pentair, Inc. (NYSE: PNR), a leader in sustainable water solutions, and its Foundation announced today (Mar 21) a new five-year grant totaling $1 million to the non-profit Water Missions International (WMI). The multi-year grant will fund the implementation of clean water and sanitation projects in developing countries, further building on the work of Pentair's Project Safewater initiative with WMI."

I don't get too excited about companies making donations to non-profits--their usefulness on the planet is job creation and supporting investors. However, it's good PR and brings attention to very worthwhile projects like WMI, a Christian effort.

From the WMI website: "At the core of our work with safe water and sanitation is something called the Great Commission. Jesus Christ told his followers to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them.” Those first followers of Christ spread throughout the known world, healing physical hurts and sharing the good news that God had reached out to people through Jesus Christ, making a way for us to know God and have a relationship with Him. Often, the healing that people experienced opened their hearts to hear the message about Jesus. The same is true today.

When people see the “miracle” of filthy disease-laden water turned into clean, clear water, they see a tangible picture of what God does in the lives of those who believe in Him. He cleanses us, washing away the filth of the past, so that we can offer our lives as vessels of hope to the world around us. This is the Living Water message. As we work all over the world to provide sustainable safe water solutions, we share this message of hope and transformation. And we marvel again and again at its power to transform the human soul."

A product of rape, a product of conception

Mike Adams, a criminology professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington wrote of his love for his fiance:

"After we became engaged, Anna revealed a secret to me. I always knew she was adopted. But I did not know that when she was 32 years old she embarked on a mission to locate her biological mother. She did this so she could learn the reasons why she was given up for adoption. She did it for peace of mind but the result of her research was unsettling: Anna found out she was a product of rape.

When I found out the news, I acted immediately. I killed Anna while she was sleeping and then dumped for body off of Johnny Mercer’s pier at Wrightsville Beach. And now I face a long legal battle in which my lawyers will attempt to argue that Anna, as a product of rape, does not have the same rights as other persons. In fact, whatever rights she may possess are outweighed by a compelled need to destroy evidence of rape, which might remind a rape victim of a past sexual assault.

My argument will be simple: I believe that Anna was no more or less of a person as an adult than she was as an unborn child. Therefore, it would have been permissible to kill her at either stage of development so long as that killing was motivated by compassion for the victim of rape."

And the arguments for and against will be: here.

The Manhattan Declaration

Sometimes I have to step outside my conservative Christian safe place and answer those who think I'm just weird or going over the edge. Really, friends, there are millions with my view. Perhaps it's you who is out of step or over the edge with your wish for government care 24/7? I had this viewpoint before they drafted theirs, but it's nice to find such confirmation.

"While the whole scope of Christian moral concern, including a special concern for the poor and vulnerable, claims our attention, we are especially troubled that in our nation today the lives of the unborn, the disabled, and the elderly are severely threatened; that the institution of marriage, already buffeted by promiscuity, infidelity and divorce, is in jeopardy of being redefined to accommodate fashionable ideologies; that freedom of religion and the rights of conscience are gravely jeopardized by those who would use the instruments of coercion to compel persons of faith to compromise their deepest convictions." From the Manhattan Declaration; a call of Christian Conscience, Nov. 20, 2009.

The Manhattan Declaration

Today's thoughts

Washington Post is reporting Islamists took more than 70 percent of legislative seats in Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party alone has nearly half of the seats in the newly elected parliament. My goodness. What paranoia. At least isn't that what the conservative talkers like Limbaugh, Beck and Hannity were told when they warned of this a year ago? When they didn't see a lot of hope and change in the Arab Spring?

Link to Washington Post , because some people think you're quoting Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh if you don't use their source.

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

Remember watching our current President, then campaigning in 2008, when he said energy prices would need to go up? Well, he sure called it. AEP is going along with it. He's even hurting the homeless.

"Jennifer Eschbach of the Ohio Association of Nonprofit Organizations said the rate increases faced under the most recent rate plan, which since was rescinded by the PUCO, raised the monthly rate of a homeless shelter in Canton from $786 to $1,728. Dispatch story"

"In classic Obama heavy-handed style, the President is using the regulatory power of the EPA to manipulate the free market to favor natural gas and renewable energy by regulating coal-fired electricity out of existence.

Obama’s blunder is ignoring the transition cost of eliminating about half of the country’s cheap and dependable source of electricity. Higher energy costs resulting from the shift from coal to Obama’s choice of electricity generation will drain the disposable income of consumers and, most important, be a huge barrier to the creation of new manufacturing jobs." Tom Borelli's opinion

----------------------------
We have a lot of family in California. High gas prices; high taxes.

"One of the last states to have a tax rate as high as California is proposing was Delaware in the 1970s. Its rate hit 19.8%. Then-Governor Pete du Pont cut the rate to 10.3% in 1979 and later to 5.95%, and after five years the state's revenues had nearly doubled and its credit rating went from the worst to one of the best. None of these facts matter to [governor] Mr. Brown or his allies because the tax increase is simply about the political power to deliver money to the interests that live off government."
Link to Wall Street Journal editorial comments

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

Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin

Stalin and Hitler were both rulers of socialist nations, just a slight difference of opinion on who should be killed. I've never forgotten the simple little museum we visited in Estonia. They really, truly thought the Americans would come any day and free them from the Soviets after WWII. In Finland the wounds are still not healed.

What the author Timothy Snyder "calls the bloodlands were the territories of eastern Poland and western Soviet Union, including the Baltic states, which had the misfortune to be controlled at different times by two of the most murderous leaders in history: Stalin and Hitler. As a result 14 million people were deliberately murdered in that zone between 1932 and 1945, until 1939 almost exclusively by Stalin and afterwards by Stalin and Hitler together." . . .

"Stalin could not admit that collectivization of the farms had failed in the early 1930s and so millions had to die for his refusal to face this reality. His commissars on the ground even saw peasants dying of starvation as saboteurs undermining the Soviet economy. And Stalin’s paranoia about foreign plots drove the Great Terror and his attitude to returning Soviet prisoners of war, most of whom were sent to the Gulag.

Hitler, in turn rather, than accept the folly of his war policy, blamed the Jews for the circle of enemies around him: Britain, the USA and Russian and therefore made their annihilation the only remaining war aim once he was on the defensive."

From the blog Creativeconflictwisdom

I won't read this book; I just began reading last week the Prologue and first two chapters of Bonhoeffer by Metaxas and that's about as much evil and demon possession I can handle for now. Those of you who fancy yourselves do-good humanists or socialists/progressives will continue to blame two crazy, psychotic sociopaths, and never examine the political system that allowed them to create their killing machines.

Bookworm didn't like Obama four years ago

For all the same reasons I didn't, but she's a better writer/blogger. I suspect she's a librarian, but don't know her name or profession.

The problem with Obama’s race is that you’re not allowed to dislike him simply because you don’t like him. From my point of view, irrespective of skin color, I find Obama boring and platitudinous, I dislike and distrust his friends, I find appalling his lack of practical experience, and I disagree with him from top to bottom when it comes to his political positions. He is, to me, an utterly undesirable candidate. However, in the world of identity politics, all of this is clearly a front for my unspoken racism. It is impossible for those on the Left to believe that, if someone is in a politically correct minority, he can be disliked for reasons other than his minority status. . ."

"It will be interesting, assuming Obama continues in politics for a while (whether as a 2008 presidential candidate or a 2012 candidate), to see if we’re allowed to dislike him without being tarred with the racist brush. It will also be interesting if, God forbid, he wins the 2008 presidential primaries, to see if the press will be able to make itself write anything even slightly negative about him. And considering the horror with which Hillary’s attacks against him are being greeted, will the Republican candidate be able to say anything negative, no matter how substantive, without being tarred with the racist brush? The one thing I can promise you is that, if Obama loses, it won’t be because he’s boring, antisemitic (or, at least, his friends are), uninformed, unexperienced and a leftist. In the eyes of the MSM, whose opinion will be disseminated around the world, he can lose only because he’s black. And that’s the problem with Obama’s race."

Flashback to January 20, 2008

Trayvon Martin

Not my blog, not my writing; but does bring up some interesting points, like why is a black life only valuable or a black killing tragic only if a non-black is the perp? Most blacks are killed by other blacks; most gays are killed by other gays; most rapes happen to men and take place in prison; most Hispanics, etc. etc. Except for women. And then the press only cares if she's a lesbian.

"First, in terms of characterizing America as a racist nation, the fact that we have a black president kind of, sort of, a little bit, makes it stupid to try to paint a whole nation with the “racism” brush just because a big Hispanic man in a bad neighborhood pulled a gun on a big black guy in the same neighborhood. That’s true whether the killing was motivated by self-defense, insanity, or racism.

Second, people are beginning to catch on to the media’s games. In a way, it’s useful that the Martin killing followed on the heels of the Toulouse massacre. It’s a reminder that the media has a few templates for murder: When a black person dies at the hands of a non-black person, it’s a front-page racially motivated crime. When a non-black person dies at the hands of black person, it’s a bottom of page 27 story. And when a Muslim kills people while shouting “Allah is great,” Islam has nothing to do with it. Here, the media is sticking to its narrative with regard to both the Martin and Mohammed stories, despite pesky little details that put the lie to the media narratives.

Third, this was a one-person crime. Zimmerman didn’t belong to a White (or Hispanic) Supremacist movement. He wasn’t a corrupt small town sheriff. This wasn’t just another in a long line of racially motivated murders in the same community. It’s awfully hard to make a serious case for institutional American racism based on a sordid neighborhood dispute."

And on to the next point.

Why does the left hate Sarah Palin so?

She isn't as conservative as many Republicans; she's not running for President; she had an athletic scholarship in college. Yet, they go on and on and on. Today I got an e-mail from a liberal friend who said he admired me but. . . how could I possibly share a world view with [gasp, choke] Sarah Palin? Like I should share a world view, as he apparently does/did with Ted Kennedy or John Kerry or Hillary Clinton?

I'm convinced the ridicule, antipathy, and vitriol directed at Sarah Palin is not about her politics, but what she represents--first because she allowed her child with Down Syndrome (93% of whom are aborted after screening finds them) to live and didn't encourage her teen-age daughter to abort her grandchild, and second because she energized a flagging and failing Republican party with her zest and no-shirt-tails rise in politics and perhaps gave birth to the Tea Party movement--or at least mid-wifed it (at least she knew the date of the original, and the libs didn't).

I went to a local college to hear her speak and I can't even describe the sparkle and energy and the fresh spirit she brought, even though I'm sure she'd given that speech many times. She's everything Barack Obama isn't--pro-life in every sense of the word including pep and energy, pro-family, pro-business, pro-little guy, pro-American and pro-Christian. I gave up on her as a politician when she abandoned her post in Alaska due to the harassment and ridicule from the highest offices to the lowest scumbags (like Bill Maher and Dave Letterman) on TV, but that doesn't deny what she was able to do within one week in 2008. And Barack Obama is still afraid of her and he is campaigning against her even though she's not running. If Sarah Palin's message of hope is allowed to survive, there really would be change and the Democrats know it. Socialism in America would be writhing and gasping for air.

When I was in first and second grade there was a boy in my class, who today if allowed to live, would probably do just fine with some attitude adjustment on the part of the school system. In 1946-47 he was ridiculed by the teacher and teased by the other kids, and dropped out to work on the family farm after second grade. I had 3 classmates who had siblings who didn't attend school, but one came to church and was cherished by her family and was never kept hidden away. My Uncle Ben had a son about my Dad’s age who after he became an adult was moved into a special home, and when he died about a decade ago, my father arranged for his funeral to be buried in the town cemetery with the rest of his family.

One of my sons was born with multiple physical and mental handicaps and died shortly after birth. Whether I would have been one of the brave parents fighting for his rights who helped to get the ADA passed, or whether our marriage could have survived those challenges, I never had to find out. But our little Patrick is one reason I think children should be allowed to live, even if it is just the 9 months of the womb life. I learned a lot from him and look forward to seeing him at the resurrection.

The primary reason I'm against the HHS Mandate is everything the Bible teaches about the sacredness of life and that is what the Roman Catholic Church is supporting. It's not the liberals who reach out to help the poorest and weakest, it is the church. When we see those in need and we help, even the ones who are sick or in prison, we are meeting Jesus. We are never promised that hunger or poverty will end the way the liberals do when asking for more money, or that people won't be unjustly imprisoned the way politicians do when running for office; only that we will meet Jesus when we love and care for them. You don't build powerful political allies with a philosophy like that.

How Media Matters deals with Rush Limbaugh

Rush Limbaugh insulted one woman taking on the sanctity of life teachings of the Catholic church, and apologized to her. Media Matters in an effort to shut him up permanently has launched a nationwide call to all progressives and leftists to destroy a popular, conservative radio talk show host by going after his sponsors--not just those with whom he has contracts, but anyone at local affiliate stations who advertise during the hours he is on and who have contracts with the local station. This is their business, they have employees, they contribute to the local economy. This is an attempt to destroy him, and in that effort is having a significant impact on these small businesses, many of whom can't supply their orders because their web sites have been snarled by leftists in a carefully orchestrated "book burning." The so-called fairness doctrine is just one more way to destroy the first amendment which has another clause being eroded by the HHS Mandate--the free exercise of religion. Be careful dear progressives, or you may be left with only turtles and milfoils (aquatic beetle) as your news sources.

"Anyone referring to the past to criticize the present should, together with all members of his family, be put to death. Officials who fail to report cases that have come under attention are equally guilty. After thirty days from the time of issuing the decree, those who have not destroyed their books are to be branded and sent to build the Great Wall. Books not to be destroyed will be those on medicine and pharmacy, divination by the turtle and milfoil, and agriculture and arboriculture."

Attributed to Li Ssu, in Records of the Grand Historian of China, 109 to 91 BC.

Spring Break 2012

Forsythia in bloom

I've been out for a 25 minute walk. Looks like some storms are on the way--very dark in the northwest. Our forsythia which were cut back to about 6 inches when the wall and sidewalk were built in 2009(?) are blooming gloriously--about 6 ft. tall now. New grow, new energy, we all need that. If you've got some ratty looking, spindly bushes, cut them back. They'll thank you.

A morning prayer attributed to Saint Patrick

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through the belief in the threeness,
Through confession of the oneness,
Of the Creator of Creation.

I arise today
Through the strength of Christ’s birth with his baptism,
Through the strength of his crucifixion with his burial,
Through the strength of his resurrection with his ascension,
Through the strength of his descent for the judgment of Doom.

I arise today
Through the strength of the love of Cherubim,
In obedience of angels,
In the service of archangels,
In hope of resurrection to meet with reward,
In prayers of patriarchs,
In predictions of prophets,
In preaching of apostles,
In faith of confessors,
In innocence of holy virgins,
In deeds of righteous men.

I arise today
Through the strength of heaven:
Light of sun,
Radiance of moon,
Splendor of fire,
Speed of lightning,
Swiftness of wind,
Depth of sea,
Stability of earth,
Firmness of rock.

I arise today
Through God’s strength to pilot me:
God’s might to uphold me,
God’s wisdom to guide me,
God’s eye to look before me,
God’s ear to hear me,
God’s word to speak for me,
God’s hand to guard me,
God’s way to lie before me,
God’s shield to protect me,
God’s host to save me
From snares of devils,
From temptations of vices,
From everyone who shall wish me ill,
Afar and anear,
Alone and in multitude.

I summon today all these powers between me and those evils,
Against every cruel merciless power that may oppose my body and soul,
Against incantations of false prophets,
Against black laws of pagandom
Against false laws of heretics,
Against craft of idolatry,
Against spells of witches and smiths and wizards,
Against every knowledge that corrupts man’s body and soul.

Christ to shield me today
Against poison, against burning,
Against drowning, against wounding,
So that there may come to me abundance of reward.

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the threeness,
Through confession of the oneness,
Of the Creator of Creation.

Amen.

Blago's gone to jail now, but. . .

We've still got a Chicago Democrat as head of the nation, and the press never even peeked at any funny stuff going on about his Senate seat. It was all swept under the rug. . . probably for a lower sentence or a hurry up parole for Blago. From April 2010:

Chicago Democrats have run Illinois into the ground. Since Rod Blagojevich became governor in 2003, Illinois state government has spent roughly $500 billion dollars (yes nearly half a trillion). Yet, we are:

48th in job growth
36th in education
Leading the nation in youth violent crime
3rd in the nation in gambling revenue.