Obama is never investigated by the press no matter how juicy the story

“The allegation [that Obama’s friend Eric Whitaker tried to bribe Wright into silence]  is contained in The Amateur, a new book by conservative journalist Ed Klein. While Klein may or may not be reliable – some conservatives have distanced themselves from him – it appears Wright did make the allegation.

The only mainstream White House reporter to do some follow through on this, Jake Tapper of ABC, reported that he listened to one of Klein’s tapes of his conversations with Wright in which the reverend didn’t deny suggestions that it was Wright who bribed him.

Whitaker denies he did it which, guilty or innocent, is what you’d expect. Wright refuses to answer questions from Tapper, which is not quite what you’d expect.

And no one in the press is doing much investigating that we know of – which is exactly what we’d expect.

http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2012/06/04/investigation/

I be so cool, man

“The dispassionate man from Chicago is proving every day what rare stuff he's made of. The president sees how the Iranians mock him - and does nothing. He sees radical Islam approaching the nuclear brink - and does not budge. With amazing courage Barack Obama watches the tsunami rolling toward America's shores - and smiles. . . “

“President Obama is a thrifty president. America isn't what it used to be, but it still has vast strategic, economic and military resources. The United States can stop the Iranian nuclear program by using a small part of these resources.

But the extremely thrifty commander-in-chief is not prepared to pay any price for stopping the 8,000 Shi'ite centrifuges. That's why Obama didn't stand by the Iranian Spring of 2009 as he stood by the Arab Spring of 2011. That's why Obama didn't act firmly against the underground facility near Qom, which was discovered three years ago. That's why Obama has not touched, to this day, Iran's central bank, nor has he stopped the flow of oil distillates to the country's ports.

The cautious president sees not the catastrophic price the West will pay for Iran's nuclearization, but the political price he will pay if oil prices rise. Never in its history has the United States had such a thrifty leader as its 44th president.”

http://www.haaretz.com/misc/article-print-page/the-world-should-focus-on-obama-not-netanyahu.premium-1.432287?trailingPath=2.169%2C2.225%2C2.227%2C

How divorce affects the children

She’s an adult. Capable.  Stable. Talented artist and writer. A strong Christian. And her father has been unfaithful and left her mother.  The other woman has left her husband and children. The unfaithful couple flaunt their infidelity in front of family and friends.   Thirteen people in the immediate families including grandchildren mentally and emotionally destroyed by infidelity.  “Divorce is a death without a funeral,” she writes, where there are no calls, meals brought in, or offers to help.  And nearly 70 readers write back about their deepest hurts—some after 30 years, or even after never having known their parents as a “couple.”

 http://jeanneoliverdesigns.com/blog/2012/05/27/sometimes-in-the-pain-you-find-your-most-tender-heart/

A viral divorce agreement

DIVORCE AGREEMENT (political humor)

Dear American liberals, leftists, social progressives, socialists, Marxists and Obama supporters, et al:

We have stuck together since the late 1950's for the sake of the kids, but the whole of this latest election process has made me realize that I want a divorce. I know we tolerated each other for many years for the sake of future generations, but sadly, this relationship has clearly run its course.

Our two ideological sides of America cannot and will not ever agree on what is right for us all, so let's just end it on friendly terms. We can smile and chalk it up to irreconcilable differences and go our own way.

Here is a model separation agreement:
--Our two groups can equitably divide up the country by landmass each taking a similar portion. That will be the difficult part, but I am sure our two sides can come to a friendly agreement. After that, it should be relatively easy! Our respective representatives can effortlessly divide other assets since both sides have such distinct and disparate tastes.

--We don't like redistributive taxes so you can keep them.
--You are welcome to the liberal judges and the ACLU.

--Since you hate guns and war, we'll take our firearms, the cops, the NRA and the military.
--We'll take the nasty, smelly oil industry and you can go with wind, solar and biodiesel.
--You can keep Oprah, Michael Moore and Rosie O'Donnell. You are, however, responsible for finding a bio-diesel vehicle big enough to move all three of them.

--We'll keep capitalism, greedy corporations, pharmaceutical companies, Wal-Mart and Wall Street.
--You can have your beloved lifelong welfare dwellers, food stamps, homeless, homeboys, hippies, druggies and illegal aliens.
--We'll keep the hot Alaskan hockey moms, greedy CEO's and rednecks.
--We'll keep the Bibles and give you NBC and Hollywood.

--You can make nice with Iran and Palestine and we'll retain the right to invade and hammer places that threaten us.
--You can have the peaceniks and war protesters. When our allies or our way of life are under assault, we'll help provide them security.

--We'll keep our Judeo-Christian values.
--You are welcome to Islam, Scientology, Humanism, political correctness and Shirley McClain. You can also have the U.N. but we will no longer be paying the bill.

--We'll keep the SUV's, pickup trucks and oversized luxury cars. You can take every Volt and Leaf you can find.
--You can give everyone healthcare if you can find any practicing doctors.
--We'll continue to believe healthcare is a luxury and not a right.

--We'll keep "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "The National Anthem."
--I'm sure you'll be happy to substitute "Imagine", "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing", "Kum Ba Ya" or "We Are the World".

--We'll practice trickle-down economics and you can continue to give trickle up poverty your best shot.

--Since it often so offends you, we'll keep our history, our name and our flag.

Would you agree to this? If so, please pass it along to other like-minded liberal and conservative patriots and if you do not agree, just hit delete. In the spirit of friendly parting, I'll bet you answer which one of us will need whose help in 15 years.

Sincerely,
John J. Wall
Law Student and an American

P.S. Also, please take Ted Turner, Sean Penn, Martin & Charlie Sheen, Barbara Streisand, & ( Hanoi ) Jane Fonda with you

Obama’s over his head; voters are over their depth

Another dismal job growth and unemployment report with the highest tax increase in history looming. Obama’s response? More of the same.  If Romney let’s this slip by him, maybe we’ve got what we deserve.

“On Friday, the same architects who designed this economy built to stall were calling for one more rescue by the Fed. And gold jumped more than $60 an ounce, suggesting that markets believe that Chairman Ben Bernanke will oblige with some version of QE III. But the lesson of the last four years is that easier money can provide at most a temporary reprieve from otherwise rotten policies. Markets rally for a time, but then they fade when the money-fix is withdrawn.

Far more constructive would be a bipartisan attempt to remove the tax cliff that the economy is rolling toward in January 2013. One of the biggest fears among investors and businesses is that tax rates on capital gains, dividends and personal income are all scheduled to go way up at the same time.

This is an entirely artificial crisis created by the mantra of "temporary, targeted" tax cuts, combined with Mr. Obama's campaign strategy to run against high-income earners with his Buffett rule and attacks on bankers and Bain Capital. If Mr. Obama wants a better chance at re-election, and especially with troubles in Europe and China, he'll call off the class war and call for no change in taxes for at least another two years until there is a larger tax reform. He'd find he'd get little resistance from Republicans.

As for Mitt Romney, the latest slowdown in jobs and growth gives him an enormous opening to offer the American people a better way. Criticizing the results of the last four years and saying that Mr. Obama is in over his head are not enough. “

An economy built to stall

The post turtle

While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75 year old rancher, whose hand was caught in the gate while working cattle, the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man.  Eventually the topic got around to Obama and his role as our President.

The old rancher said, 'Well, ya know, Obama is a “Post Turtle''.
Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked what a “post
turtle” was.

The old rancher said, “When you're driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that's a ‘post turtle’”.

The old rancher saw the puzzled look on the doctor's face so he continued to explain.  "You know he didn't get up there by himself, he doesn't belong up there, he doesn't know what to do while he's up there, he's elevated beyond his ability to function, and you just wonder what kind of dumb ass put him up there to begin with."

Seen at Two Sisters from the Right facebook page.

George W. Bush on steroids—Barack Obama

Personally, Obama isn’t worthy to tie Bush’s combat boots or zip his flight jacket, not after he did all he could to throw a monkey wrench into the war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan while he was a senator, and then did a flip flip to become Mr. War Hero using all the advantages gained by the very methods he voted against.

Indeed, newspaper revelations last week about the "kill list" showed the Obama administration defines a militant as any military-age male in the strike zone when its drone attacks. That has raised the hackles of many who saw Obama as somehow more sophisticated on terrorism issues than his predecessor, George W Bush. But Guiora does not view it that way. He sees Obama as the same as Bush, just much more enthusiastic when it comes to waging drone war. "If Bush did what Obama has been doing, then journalists would have been all over it," he said.

But the "kill list" and rapidly expanded drone programme are just two of many aspects of Obama's national security policy that seem at odds with the expectations of many supporters in 2008. Having come to office on a powerful message of breaking with Bush, Obama has in fact built on his predecessor's national security tactics.

Obama has presided over a massive expansion of secret surveillance of American citizens by the National Security Agency. He has launched a ferocious and unprecedented crackdown on whistleblowers. He has made more government documents classified than any previous president. He has broken his promise to close down the controversial Guantánamo Bay prison and pressed on with prosecutions via secretive military tribunals, rather than civilian courts. He has preserved CIA renditions. He has tried to grab broad new powers on what defines a terrorist or a terrorist supporter and what can be done with them, often without recourse to legal process.

The sheer scope and breadth of Obama's national security policy has stunned even fervent Bush supporters and members of the Washington DC establishment. In last week's New York Times article that detailed the "kill list", Bush's last CIA director, Michael Hayden, said Obama should open the process to   more  public  scrutiny.  "Democracies do not make war on the basis of legal memos locked in a [Department of Justice] safe," he told the newspaper.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/02/drone-wars-secrecy-barack-obama?CMP=twt_gu

Friday family photo—The Memorial Tournament 2012

Our son got tickets for the 2012 Memorial Tournament, May 31, in Dublin, Ohio, north and west of where we live.  The weather was gorgeous, the greens fast, and the spot we chose to put our folding chairs was very close to the second hole right on the water, near a grove of trees for shade to flee to when we needed it, close to the restroom, and close to a food tent, was fabulous.  We left after we saw Phil Mickelson play in a group with Rickie Fowler and Bubba Watson, a favorite of my guys, and were home by about 2:30.  It was my first experience of any length with golf, other than walking through the living room saying, “Isn’t there anything interesting on TV?”

       

             

"Shrewd as serpents and simple as doves"

Christians who take their faith seriously — unless called to a monastic lifestyle — are not supposed to withdraw from such a world, but to transform it; their influence, example, and prayers are intended to demonstrate God's love for the world — a love so great that He sent His only Son for its salvation (cf. Jn. 3:16). Fulfilling this mission, however, requires an awareness of the challenges we face — challenges which, while they can only be overcome through divine grace, require us for our part to be as "shrewd as serpents and simple as doves" (Mt. 10:16).

Fr. Joseph M. Esper, “Spiritual Dangers of the 21st century,” 2010, introduction

Contraception won’t end abortions—it encourages abortions

The following appeared at Renew America:  http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/abbott/100325

Responding to a March 15 story on EmaxHealth.com titled "Free Contraception Can Cut Abortion Rate in Half," Brian Clowes, Ph.D., director of research for Human Life International, said in an e-mail (slightly edited):

'After 40 years of widespread contraceptive use in the United States, we should have learned that more and more contraception is not the answer to less abortion. This is because two things are imperfect: the contraceptive methods and the people themselves.

'According to the Guttmacher Institute, the research arm of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, there are more than two million contraceptive failures in the U.S. each year. Two-thirds of women seeking abortions were using contraception when they got pregnant.

Contraceptive Technology, the 'Family Planner's Bible,' states that condoms, perhaps the worst offender, break, tear or slip off one time out of twelve, which means that the average condom user experiences eight failures every year.
'Contraception is obviously not the answer to ending abortion, as history has shown us. And it is certainly not the answer to ending sexually transmitted diseases. The only answer to ending these [evils] is living by nature's plan — abstinence before marriage and fidelity after. Those who sneer at this solution are both unscientific and tend to select the easier wrong over the harder right, claiming the former is 'impractical.' What is truly impractical is doing the same thing for decade after decade and expecting a different result.

'The Norwegian study purporting to show that women use the pill more when it is free flies in the face of human experience. In general, people tend to use and maintain products better if they have to invest in them. The Norwegian study must have missed one or more factors that impacted the behavior of these women.'

Four more years, suggests WSJ

“The most significant policy change during President Obama's first term was his health-care "reform," the movement of 17% of our economy from the marketplace of ideas and physician-patient decision-making to control and management by the federal government. The Supreme Court is now considering whether ObamaCare is constitutional, and is expected to decide by the end of June.

ObamaCare is a huge governmental mandate, the impact of which we are just beginning to feel. If the Supreme Court upholds the law, full government control of health care will start next year, with the new ObamaCare taxes on investment income. The individual mandates and other rules and regulations will begin in 2014. If the court upholds ObamaCare and Mr. Obama is re-elected in November, the scope and size of our government's control over health care will increase dramatically.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304707604577425232476213016.html

What's it all about, Al "race hustler" Sharpton?

The Democrats came up with Jim Crow and the KKK, they undid all the Civil Rights laws passed by Republicans after the Civil War, then took credit for the Civil Rights laws of the 20th century.  The Democrats are pushing abortions, 40% of which are for black babies.  So just what is he saying about Republicans? Just who is wiping out whom?  Who is the only president ever endorsed by Planned Parenthood which systematically kills minorities?

"It seems like [Republicans] act as though, some wiping out of people, some of the right-wing, is all right. It's not all right to do to any innocent people. If you had war and people that's one thing, but to wipe out innocent people just because of who they are like what was done in Hitler's Germany or what was done to Native Americans is not justifiable."
http://nation.foxnews.com/al-sharpton/2012/05/29/sharpton-compares-republicans-hitler

Eric Holder is possibly the worst Attorney General ever!

Eric Holder is correct when he says the right to vote is under attack.  But he’s saying it to increase racial tensions, not to quash voting threats.  Or he’s saying it fearful that blacks will be leaving the plantation as Obama continues to lead against their best interests on abortion, marriage and religious freedom.

When we Americans accept fraud, double and triple registrations, no ID, dead people voting, and voter intimidation by special interest groups and unions, they are in fact stealing our valid vote. Holder is trying to scare blacks that the old timey Democrat Jim Crow is back, but in fact, it is he who won't do anything about fraud. No one will dislodge the black vote from Obama. So why is he playing the race card? He may be the biggest racist in government.

http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/holder-brief-black-pastors-campaign-2012/567501

http://michellemalkin.com/2012/05/15/the-hits-keep-coming-project-veritas-exposes-non-citizens-dead-people-registered-to-vote-in-nc-and-so-much-more/

http://www.chron.com/default/article/Tea-partiers-confer-in-Houston-to-fight-vote-fraud-3518567.php

Obama and the Polish death camps

To the prime minister of Poland: Sir, we have been dealing with "ignorance, lack of knowledge, bad intentions" since January 2009, also from our more experienced vice president, and we so sincerely apologize that our leader made such a horrible mistake in referring to Polish death camps. He wasn't around in 1939, and God knows no one taught him (or his speech writers) history. His parents and grandparents were socialists and statists as are his mentors and friends. Some children do grow up to live out their parents' expectations. http://catholicglasses.com/2012/05/30/obama-nazi-death-camp-gaffe-hurt-all-poles-prime-minister-said-yahoo-news/

Most of us know Romney isn’t a Conservative, but Obama, doesn’t—he’s too far to the left

“RUSH: The Obama campaign intends to portray Romney as, quote, "the most conservative nominee Republicans have had going back to Goldwater." I hope they do. This is Romney's big problem. He's not conservative enough for many on the Republican side of the aisle. So if Obama tries to tag this guy as Goldwater or Reagan, bring it on, that would be the best possible endorsement Romney could get. People don't fear Barry Goldwater anymore. People are not afraid of Barry Goldwater. They fear Obama.”

No, they aren’t afraid of Barry Goldwater, but they are afraid of Barry Obama (his name before he ran for political office).

Support Governor Walker

Dana Loesch subbed for Glenn Beck tonight, and she's really good. Don't know where her regular program is, but she's certainly comfortable on camera. She interviewed Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch of Wisconsin, where everyone is watching the recall vote of Gov. Walker. This could happen in all our states, if we continue to let the public unions have this kind of power. Wisconsin has balanced its budget, hasn't laid off teachers, and has attracted industry to the state. Support Walker if you can. Now the unions have sent Wisconsin organizers to Louisiana to try to take out Bobby Jindal, one of the best governors in the country, in my opinion. Since Jindal is a minority, I wonder if the unionists can be accused of "hate speech?"

Also, there was a segment of Glenn interviewing Ari Horowitz who has a new movie called U.N. me about the corruption and ineffectiveness of the United Nations, now 60 years old and still doing nothing except sopping up our money. The United Nations doesn't answer to anyone

Dana also interviewed Madeleine Mcauley, a 16 year old who is the newest face on the War against Women. She made a video and posted it on YouTube in support of traditional marriage. She didn't say anything hateful or mean, but she sure is getting the hate mail. Brave young woman. She says marriage is a covenant with God. She also points out the hypocrisy of the left.


John Fund of the Wall Street Journal (plugging his new book "Who's counting" due in August) and President and Founder of True the Vote, Catherine Engelbrecht, were also on the show. Catherine says, "If our elections are not fair, we are not free." So why are Democrats and leftists so against this organization? Thirty-two states now have True the Vote organizations. It's like exposing mold to sunshine. It was started by a few women in 2009 who decided to be observers at the polls, thinking it would be a one time thing, and were shocked by what they found. For instance, 1200 felons voted in Minnesota who shouldn't have. Al Franken won in a recount. Obamacare passed by one vote. Every vote counts--and unfortunately fraudulent and illegal votes count even more--they cancel out your legal vote. In Ohio, we have only two cases of voter fraud--2 counties that is where there are thousands more registered voters than people over 18 in those counties. Our President used to represent one of the most crooked organizations in the country--ACORN. He is the organizer in chief.

Nearly all of the concern over voter fraud [in 2008] has focused on one group, the Association Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN), which is under investigation or facing serious allegations of fraud in 13 states over how it has conducted voter-registration drives. ACORN insists, incredibly, that its voter-registration drives are nonpartisan activities. However, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has endorsed the group’s activities in the past and taught at their seminars. His campaign has paid them $800,000 for get-out-the-vote efforts, and ACORN’s political action committee has endorsed Obama. http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/225997/community-organizer-chief/mark-hemingway

Elevating Chris Hayes

Chris Hayes has a little watched program on MSNBC called Up with Chris Hayes.  He’s come under fire (the only type he gets since he's never been in battle) for what he said about the meaning of the word "hero" in connection with Memorial Day.  It was sort of his his Sandra Fluke moment.  Now, the MSNBC political pundit has had to apologize.  But was it an apology?  He apologized for not living up to his own standards of rigor for political speech.  Huh? Then the 300+ comments are people arguing over Limbaugh, Fox, who is Chris Hayes, MSNBC ratings, etc.  Just read the apology.  It wasn't.

http://upwithchrishayes.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/28/11924150-statement-from-chris-hayes#comments

I’ve never heard of him.  Now he’s famous for saying something really dumb and hurting a lot of people.  My uncle was killed in WWII in an exploding airplane due to the negligence of his commanding officer. Perhaps this is the type of war death that Hayes doesn’t want to call heroic.  Has he ever looked at the accident statistics for WWII or Vietnam?   

Adele—Make you feel my love

This young lady from Britain, Adele Adkins, now known by her first name,  has had an amazing career in just a few short years.  I think this one is lovely – nice to know beautiful love songs are still enjoyed. Many artists have covered this since 1997.    She has won a Best Songwriter Award, but this one was written by Bob Dylan.  She says criticism of her first album, 19, was that her songs weren’t as good as her voice.  She took it to heart, and now with her album, 21, she’s won songwriting awards.

When the rain is blowing in your face,
and the whole world is on your case,
I could offer you a warm embrace
to make you feel my love.

When the evening shadows and the stars appear,
and there is no one there to dry your tears,
I could hold you for a million years
to make you feel my love.

I know you haven't made your mind up yet,
but I would never do you wrong.
I've known it from the moment that we met,
no doubt in my mind where you belong.

I'd go hungry; I'd go black and blue,
I'd go crawling down the avenue.
No, there's nothing that I wouldn't do
to make you feel my love.

The storms are raging on the rolling sea
and on the highway of regret.
Though winds of change are throwing wild and free,
you ain't seen nothing like me yet.

I could make you happy, make your dreams come true.
Nothing that I wouldn't do.
Go to the ends of the Earth for you,
to make you feel my love.

http://www.billboard.com/news/adele-wins-songwriting-honors-at-ivor-novello-1007093552.story#/news/adele-wins-songwriting-honors-at-ivor-novello-1007093552.story

Gaydar is more accurate than you might think

From the press release about the Public Library of Science article, “The Roles of Featural and Configural Face Processing in Snap Judgments of Sexual Orientation.”

“After seeing faces for less than a blink of an eye, college students have accuracy greater than mere chance in judging others' sexual orientation. Their "gaydar" persisted even when they saw the photos upside-down, and gay versus straight judgments were more accurate for women's faces than for men's.

The findings, published May 16 in the open-access online journal PLoS ONE, suggest that we unconsciously make gay and straight distinctions.

"It may be similar to how we don't have to think about whether someone is a man or a woman or black or white," said lead author Joshua Tabak, a psychology graduate student at the University of Washington. "This information confronts us in everyday life."

Tabak says that our ability to spontaneously assess sexual orientation based on observation or instinct conflicts with the assertion that if people just kept their sexual orientation to themselves then no one else would know and discrimination wouldn't exist, an argument frequently used by opponents of anti-discrimination policies for lesbian, gay and bisexual people.” . . .

“It's unclear why some have better gaydar than others, since studies have only tested this aptitude in college students. Tabak speculates that "people from older generations or different cultures who may not have grown up knowing they were interacting with gay people" may be less accurate in making gay versus straight judgments. “

For this article.

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0036671

Why I stopped blogging about libraries

When I first started blogging about 9 years ago, I actually still wrote occasionally about libraries.  I retired in 2000 and for awhile kept up with library news and information by participating in discussion groups.  Five years out, and it was pretty much hopeless. Today I came across some “library humor” (funny to no one except librarians) called Award for the Worst Title Change of the Year, or something like that, except it seems to have self-destructed around 2005.  So while back tracking I came across this paragraph, which reminded why I don’t write about libraries any more.

RDF and microdata both use the same fundamental triple data model. Please note that schema.org is just a specific set of vocabularies that can be used with HTML5 microdata, HTML5 microdata goes beyond this. schema.org is a pretty good microdata tutorial though, if you remember you don’t have to use it’s vocabularies. Here’s the actual microdata spec. Here’s a good microdata tutorial that pre-dates schema.org and is not schema.org-specific.

http://bibwild.wordpress.com/

Abortion laws in DC need to be changed

In our nation's capital, abortion can be performed right up to the final day of gestation, and for any reason. Is it any wonder our country has sunk so low?

 
"The toughest part of a D&E abortion is extracting the baby’s head. The head of a baby that age is about the size of a large plum and is now free floating inside the uterine cavity. You can be pretty sure you have hold of it if the Sopher clamp is spread about as far as your fingers will allow. You know you have it right when you crush down on the clamp and see white gelatinous material coming through the cervix. That was the baby’s brains. You can then extract the skull pieces. Many times a little face may come out and stare back at you. Congratulations! You have just successfully performed a second-trimester Suction D&E abortion.”

http://www.lifenews.com/2012/05/28/doctor-who-once-did-late-abortions-now-says-ban-them/

Did Romney and Bain Capital create jobs?

Many,  many thousands at Staples, Sports Authority, Gartner Group, Steel Dynamics, and save others by creating turn arounds.  Now let’s compare those tens of thousands of jobs created with how many Barack Obama’s administration has created by frivolously throwing tax dollars at campaign contributors and union buddies.

“There are two ways to look at job creation. The first is to look at jobs created and lost in Bain Capital’s companies at the time Romney left Bain Capital at the beginning of 1999. The second is to look at jobs created and lost in those same companies today. This gives Romney and Bain Capital credit for having invested in those companies when they were young. It is inappropriate to include companies that Bain Capital invested in after Romney left because he did not have any impact on those investments.” . . .

“Among Bain Capital’s investments under Romney, the large job creators are clearly Staples and Sports Authority. Both of these were small, young companies when Bain Capital invested in them. Bain invested in Staples when it had only one store, so there were likely fewer than 200 employees at the time. Bain appears to have invested in the Sports Authority when it had fewer than ten stores. Unfortunately, there are no public data to say how many people were employed at that time. At the end of 1998, Staples had more than 42,000 employees, Sports Authority had almost 14,000, Gartner Group had almost 3,000, and Steel Dynamics had over 500. So at the beginning of 1999, when Romney left Bain Capital, these four companies alone employed almost 60,000 total employees. While some of the job growth at Sports Authority came from acquisitions, there is no doubt that these four companies created tens of thousands of jobs over the period.

Fast forward to today. By the end of 2011, Staples had about 89,000 employees. Sports Authority is now a private company. The last time it reported employee numbers, in 2006, it had 14,300 employees. In addition, Gartner Group had over 4,400 and Steel Dynamics had over 6,000 employees. Using the most recently available data, these four companies alone employed almost 125,000 total employees.

Bain Capital also successfully turned around several existing businesses during Romney’s tenure. For example, Bain Capital bought Wesley Jessen Vision Care for $6 million in 1994. It had been a division of Schering Plough and was not profitable. Bain Capital and a new CEO turned it around and sold it to Ciba Geigy for over $300 million in 2001. When it was sold, it appears to have had 2,600 employees. Today, the company is part of Ciba Vision.

Overall, then, the companies Bain Capital funded under Romney have created tens of thousands of jobs using any measure.”
http://www.american.com/archive/2012/january/how-many-jobs-did-romney-create-at-bain

It's about relgious freedom--The First Amendment!

Catholic Charities in Boston, San Francisco, Washington DC and Illinois have had to give up foster care programs because they will not place children in the homes of gay couples, or co-habiting, unmarried couples. This is our government, state and local, interfering with religion and prescribing the beliefs and actions of the churches which have been commanded by Jesus to do certain things for society (see Matthew 25). However, it is also the logical result of churches, whether Baptist, Catholic or Pentecostal accepting government contracts to do the Lord’s work of taking care of the poor. Even so with the HHS Mandate (federal) the government is now prescribing what is a religious activity. If Catholics or Baptists serve only their own members (and what church does that?), then they can ignore these mandates. Can you picture this, however, a church turning away someone from a food pantry who wasn't a member? How will that play with the "hate all Christians" media?

You'll hear the current administration refer to "freedom of worship" rather than "freedom of religion." They are not the same--even the constitution of the USSR guaranteed "feedom of worship." Our Constitution guarantees us that the government will not interfer with religion--that is the "separation" we are to have, not the other way around. Our founders came from Europe where the King was often also the head of the church. It looks like that is happening again, with the President deciding what is worship and what is religion.

How was your Winter?

That’s the Lakeside greeting for the first meeting of the summer whether it is Memorial Day week-end or the first week of the season 4 weeks from now. I just heard it at the Coffee and Cream shop, and last night we had Marion and Jim over, so we heard it then, and when our neighbors Scott and Carol rolled in, we heard it. Margie from Delaware said it as did Jan from Virginia. Of course, those of us in Ohio had a very mild winter with little snow--although certainly more around Lakeside than Columbus since it gets the Lake affect snow.

I’ve had 2 wonderful morning walks along the Lakefront enjoying the iris, roses, poppies and the annuals that many people have already planted. I bought 2 flats of impatiens on Thursday which my husband planted yesterday. We are hoping we can keep them alive on a limited watering schedule until we’re able to be here on a daily basis at the end of June.

The Heritage Society is having its sale at South Auditorium, and many cottage owners have set up tables in front of their homes, too. One I stopped at this morning seemed to have all manner of furniture of various eras and designed painted in the same 4 colors--white, soft green, light yellow and cream, plus many attractive home décor items. Sort of “shabby chic” but not quite. So I asked the owner, who was putting them out. He said every thing had come from the dump or dumpster or put out for pick up. He repairs them, paints them and then has a sale. Not sure if the sale is for one of the local organizations, or his own purse. There was a lovely wicker 2 seater, with a slightly damage leg--better condition than ours--for $19, but I passed on that. The next one, if I replace this, will have to be sturdier. So often they come in sets, and we have 2 good chairs.

The deck has been scrubbed down, the porch roof swept, the grass mowed, the flowers planted, the weeds pulled, and the bushes were trimmed a week ago. Last October we planned to replace the toilet with a taller (old folks) more efficient model, but when it came up, a leak was found which damaged the floor, so that all had to be replaced, and then we decided to also raise the sink 3 inches to a more comfortable height, so the plumbing had to be extended. We also had the basement cleaned out and painted white. It looks very nice, but all this is to say that a cottage isn’t a boat with a hole in it where you throw money, but it sure is close!

Getting to know you, getting to know all about you . . .

“According to hagiography, Barack Obama was born to a hippy girl from an insignificant family and raised in poor circumstances, out of which he rose through brilliance. Yet his haughty demeanor, his stilted language when off the teleprompter, his cultural likes and dislikes, bespeak an upbringing in an environment at once so upscale and so leftist that it makes him almost a foreigner to ordinary Americans. No one raised in ordinary American circumstances, much less straitened ones, would cite with a straight face, as Obama did, the price of arugula at Whole Foods, the yuppie boutique, as an example of the cost of living. No one at home in American culture could refer to a U.S. Marine medical corpsman as a "corpse-man." Nor do ordinary folk talk about (or even understand) the need to "change the rules of power" in America. "Rules of power" belongs to the argot of doctrinaire nouveau socialists. How many American college kids would describe, as did Obama, his studying with Marxist professors as an attempt not to look like a "sell out"? No. Obama's official story is counterintuitive.

Consistent with the Barack Obama we know, however, are his real family, his real upbringing, and his real choices of profession and associates. His mother's parents, who raised him, seem to have been cogs in the U.S. government's well-heeled, well-connected machine for influencing the world, whether openly ("gray influence") or covertly ("black operations"). His mother spent her life and marriages, and birthed her children, working in that machine. For paradigms of young Barack's demeanor, proclivities, opinions, language, and attitudes one need look no further than the persons who ran the institutions that his mother and grandparents served—e.g., the Ford Foundation, the United States Information Agency, and the Central Intelligence Agency—as well as his chosen mentors and colleagues. It is here, with these people and institutions, that one should begin to unravel the unknowns surrounding him.”

“. . . In sum, though the only evidence available is circumstantial, Barack Obama, Jr.'s mother, father, stepfather, grandmother, and grandfather seem to have been well connected, body and soul, with the U.S. government's then extensive and well-financed trans-public-private influence operations.”

http://www.claremont.org/publications/crb/id.1852/article_detail.asp

Pow Wow Chow

“Elizabeth Warren was touting her claim of Cherokee heritage as early as 1984, according to a cookbook titled “Pow Wow Chow” edited by her cousin that includes Warren’s recipes for a savory crab omelet and spicy barbecued beans.

The cookbook, edited by Warren’s cousin Candy Rowsey, is a compilation of “special recipes passed down through the Five Tribes families,” according to the introduction in a copy obtained by the Herald.

Warren, who has been under fire for claiming Indian lineage despite a lack of documentation, is identified as “Elizabeth Warren, Cherokee” under each of five recipes she contributes in the cookbook, published in 1984 by the Five Civilized Tribes Museum located in Muskogee. Warren is not listed as an official member of the Cherokee tribe and she has been unable thus far to document her claim of any Native American heritage.”

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/us_politics/view/20220517pow_wow_factor_liz_touted_native_roots_in_84_cookbook/srvc=home&position=0

Grandpa, tell me ‘bout the good old days

Grandpa, everything is changing fast
We call it progress
But I just don't know
And Grandpa, let's wander back into the past
And paint me the picture
Of long ago

The New Left of the 60s and 70s is the parent and grandparent of today's Occupiers making a mess in Chicago, Boston and New York.  Instead of Vietnam, they are protesting NATO, or anything else that isn’t nailed down. What they have in common is the belief that evil is outside man, somewhere out there in society, and if they scream and yell and march enough, they might be able to come up with a plan. It seemed to work for Bill Ayers, who bombed some buildings in his youth as a member of the Weather Underground, and then after obtaining a cushy tenured position at the U. of Ill. helped groom a president.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/11/books/no-regrets-for-love-explosives-memoir-sorts-war-protester-talks-life-with.html?pagewanted=all

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/167989/bill-ayers-unrepentant-lying-terrorist-andrew-c-mccarthy#

Jay Carney has developed the Obama stutter

“Wendell Goler: The President has voiced support for the Occupy folks in the past, or at least their goals, did their actions in Chicago sour his support?

Jay Carney: Well I think you’re making broad comparisons between . . . uh . . . uh . . . different groups, what the President has said in the past is . . . uh . . . he has understood . . . uh . . . the frustrations Americans have about (pause) the (pause) failure in particular of Wall Street in some cases to . . . uh . . . uh, (pause) well obviously Wall Street’s role in the financial crisis that precipitated the worst recession since the Great Depression.”

Disco—it’s not just about Donna Summer

Wonder why race relations don't improve? While browsing a news story about Ohio State I found a piece of it: Faculty of Color Caucus of the Department of History; the Race, Ethnicity, and Nation Constellation of the Department of History; and DISCO, Diversity and Identity Studies Collective at OSU. Great for expanding opportunities for bureaucracies and listings on resumes, but do they benefit students or just expand grievances and victimhood? What can you do with a degree in victimology? Become a community organizer?

When job opportunities expand, neighborhoods are integrated, black and white children play together, the need for "leadership" drops as people do what comes naturally--friendships, collegiality, neighborliness--the definition needs to be expanded to keep the race baiters employed and receiving their block grants and research money.

If both sides are reasonable. . .

The left and right can discuss political issues--when it's Glenn Beck and his guest Canadian Muslim Marxist Tarek Fatah ("The Jew is not my enemy" is the title of his latest book) tonight on GBTV.  So why not friends, neighbors, fellow church members and families?  I personally believe it’s because “liberals aren’t.”  Views different than their own are threatening because they are rarely outside their bubble protected by the media. Beck, however, wants his listeners to hear more than one viewpoint even when he disagrees with it.

Tarek Fatah actually has respect for the rights and traditions of Western civilization. Born in Pakistan and a Canadian citizen, Fatah was very candid about the hatred many Muslims, including his own relatives, have for blacks and how they sat out the civil rights movement. He considers the Muslim Brotherhood fascists, racists, homophobes and haters of women. He also believes the Saudis are funding programs in many American liberal universities. He said Arabic for "my slave" is the same word for "black man."  I know of no country that has espoused Marxism that has been tolerant of blacks, so I’m still puzzled that he claims Marxism as his political choice.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarek_Fatah

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/popular-canadian-marxist-muslim-obama-has-white-mans-guilt-sharia-has-no-place-in-islam/

Arab Spring brings in Sharia Law

What a shocker. The Right was right again! The Arab Spring so touted by liberals, including the President and Pelosi, a year ago is turning out exactly the way the crazy conspiracy talkers said--imposition of Sharia Law. Liberals just don't learn.

" . .women’s rights activists are particularly worried that the well-organized Muslim Brotherhood will use its religious and charitable groups to encourage uneducated and poor women to vote for its candidate, Mohammed Morsi. Morsi opposes women being allowed to serve in the presidency. He has called for the implementation of Islamic law and, at campaign rallies, referred to Islam’s holy book, the Koran, as the constitution."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/egyptian-women-feel-excluded-despite-the-promise-of-the-revolution/2012/05/21/gIQAXeEkgU_story.html

http://thepartyofknow.com/2012/02/05/glenn-beck-sharia-law-arab-spring-iran-emp-and-the-scary-future-for-america-and-the-world/

Snorkeling, surfing and Zumba?

Yes, that’s on the Judges’ agenda at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals judicial conference on the beautiful island of Maui, HI (tax payer funded).  They have the tastes of the 1%. And probably the income. Schedule from The Kitchen Cabinet, a political site.

Saturday, August 11
1...2:00 p.m. – Conference Registration desk opens
Sunday, August 12
5:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. – Sport Fishing
12:00 p.m. – Golf Tournament
Monday, August 13
9:00 a.m. – Yoga
9:00 a.m. – Surfing Lessons
9:00 a.m. – Stand-up Paddle Board Lessons
12:00 p.m. – Welcome Luncheon & Book Review for Spouses & Guests
2:00 p.m. – Zumba
4:30 p.m. – Opening Program
6:00 p.m. – No-host Cocktail Reception
7:00 p.m. – Maui Dine Around
Tuesday, August 14
9:00 a.m. – Yoga
9:00 a.m. – Surfing Lessons
9:00 a.m. – Stand-up Paddle Board Lessons
1:00 p.m. – Tennis Tournament
2:00 p.m. – Floral Design Workshop (includes flowers & supplies)
7:00 p.m. – District Dinners
Wednesday, August 15
9:00 a.m. – Yoga
9:00 a.m. – Surfing Lessons
9:00 a.m. – Stand-up Paddle Board Lessons
9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. – Day Trip and Tour of Upcountry Maui
11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. – Gemini Catamaran Snorkel Trip (includes gear & lunch)
2:45 p.m. – A special treat! Ice Cream Social
6:00 p.m. – The Aloha Experience
Thursday, August 16
9:00 a.m. – Yoga
9:00 a.m. – Stand-up Paddle Board Lessons

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/05/19/Exclusive-9th-Circuit-Takes-Another-Plush-Maui-Vacation-At-Taxpayer-Expense-As-Others-Cut-Back

http://thehill.com/video/senate/228791-sen-grassley-criticizes-9th-circuit-judges-going-to-maui-for-conference-

http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/judicial_conference/index.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/25/us/25sfninth.html

A few book suggestions for your conservative dad for Father’s Day

** means I checked it in the UAPL library and it has been ordered or purchased.  In the past (aka Bush years) there was a very poor selection of conservative titles.  This has changed.

On President Obama

The Amateur: Barack Obama in the White House by Edward Klein, Regnery Publishing, 2012. **

 Blacklash: How Obama and the Left Are Driving Americans to the Government Plantation by Daneen Borelli, Threshold editions, 2012.  **

Fast and Furious: Barack Obama's Bloodiest Scandal and the Shameless Cover-Up  by Katie Pavlich, Regnery Publishing, 2012  **

 Masters of Audacity and Deceit, by William E. Been, Tate Publishing, 2011.

 Democracy Denied: How Obama is Ignoring You and Bypassing Congress to Radically Transform America - and How to Stop Him, by Phil Kerpen, BenBella Books, 2011.

We've Been Had: How Obama and the Radicals Conned Middle Class America, by James R. Keena, Twin Creek Books, 2010.

 Breaking the System: The Obama Team’s Strategy for Changing America, by David Horowitz and Liz Blaine, David Horowitz Freedom Center, 2010.

The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America, by Pamela Geller with Robert Spencer, Threshold Editions, 2010. **

To Save America: Stopping Obama’s Secular-Socialist Machine, by Newt Gingrich and Joe DeSantis, Regnery Press, 2010, 2011 **

 The Manchurian President: Barack Obama’s Ties to Communists, Socialists and Other Anti-American Extremists, by Aaron Klein with Brenda J. Elliott, WND Books, 2010. Rev. updated ed. pb **

Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies, by Michelle Malkin, Regnery Press, first edition, 2009, 2010 reprint edition in paperback. **

The Audacity of Deceit: Barack Obama's War on American Values, by Brad O'Leary, WND Books, 2008.

The Case Against Barack Obama: The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media's Favorite Candidate, by David Freddoso, Regnery Publishing, 2008. **

On other issues

The Voting Wars: From Florida 2000 to the Next Election Meltdown, by Richard L. Hasen, Yale University Press, forthcoming: expected publication summer 2012 **

The New Leviathan: How the Left-Wing Money-Machine Shapes American Politics and Threatens America's Future, by David Horowitz and Jacob Laksin, Crown Forum, 2012. **

The Compromising of America: An American Tragedy, by Richard McKenzie Neal, AuthorHouse, 2011.

Resurgent: How Constitutional Conservatism Can Save America, by Ken Blackwell and Ken Klukowski, Threshold Editions, 2011.

The New Reagan Revolution: How Ronald Reagan's Principles Can Restore America's Greatness Today, by Michael Reagan with Jim Denney, Thomas Dunne Books, 2011. **

Death by Liberalism: The Fatal Outcome of Well-Meaning Liberal Policies, by J.R. Dunn, Harper, 2011.

 Global Governance, Poverty and Inequality, by Rorden Wilkinson and Jennifer Clapp (editors), Routledge, 2010.

Dissed Trust: America's Crisis of Truth, Faith, and Freedom, by William DeMersseman, WestBow Press, 2010.

Wake Up, America! We're Headed in the Wrong Direction, by Suzanne Vergotte, iUniverse.com, 2010.

Power Grab: How Obama’s Green Policies Will Steal Your Freedom and Bankrupt America, by Christopher C. Horner, Regnery Press, 2010.

The Blueprint: How the Democrats Won Colorado (and Why Republicans Everywhere Should Care), by Rob Witwer and Adam Schrager, Speaker's Corner, 2010.

Courting Disaster: How the CIA Kept America Safe and How Barack Obama is Inviting the Next Attack, by Marc Thiessen, Regnery Press, 2010. **

Candidate Obama vs. Author Obama

In 2008, Candidate Barack Obama said some very different things than the autobiographical Barack Obama (listed as Kenyan born by his agent for 20 years) wrote in 1995, Dreams from my father.  Some people caught on, like Michael Gledhill of NRO—but most people ignored the warnings.  As we’ve discovered in these past 3+ years, he doesn’t tell the truth,  lives in a fantasy world, and is a huge narcissist, even to the extent of inserting his name and alleged accomplishments  into all the biographies of the presidents since Coolidge except Gerald Ford at the White House web site.  Was he telling us his true feelings in his book, or on the campaign trail, or in the self-absorbed behavior of his presidency?  I think the book was closer to his real feelings—he disliked the United States then, and hates us now.

Candidate Obama claims that “throughout my life, I have always taken my deep and abiding love for this country as a given.” He tells us his “heart swells with pride at the sight of our flag.”

In Dreams, his heart swells at many things but the sight of the flag certainly isn’t one of them. There he presents a warts-only history of the U.S., a story of evil and suffering. U.S. society is a “racial caste system” where “color and money” determine where you end up in life. He tells us of white children’s stoning black children, Jim Crow, and heatless Harlem housing projects. He describes “Japanese families interned behind barbed wire; young Russian Jews cutting patterns in Lower East Side sweatshops; dust-bowl farmers loading up their trucks with the remains of shattered lives.”

Obama says the Hawaiian islands, where he grew up, are beautiful, but quickly reminds us that behind the beauty lurks the “ugly conquest of the native Hawaiians . . . crippling disease brought by missionaries . . . the indenturing system that kept Japanese, Chinese, and Filipino immigrants stooped sunup to sunset in [the fields].”

Candidate Obama proudly tells audiences that his white grandparents were raised in the American heartland. But in Dreams he describes this heartland as the “landlocked center of the country, a place where decency and endurance and the pioneer spirit were joined at the hip with conformity and suspicion and the potential for unblinking cruelty.”

Candidate Obama fondly tells audiences that one of his earliest memories is of sitting on his grandfather’s shoulders proudly watching the Apollo astronauts return to Hawaii after their splashdown in the Pacific. But in Dreams, even this event is an occasion for outrage, as Obama asks: “How could America send men into space and still keep its black citizens in bondage?”

American affluence offends Obama. The vast upper-middle class lives in a land of isolation and sterility. As a teenager, he envies the white homes in the suburbs but senses that the big pretty houses contain “quiet depression” and “loneliness,” represented by “a mother sneaking a tumbler of gin in the afternoon.” American consumer culture is comforting but mentally and spiritually numbing, yielding a “long hibernation.”

Studying U.S. law at Harvard, Obama concludes it is mainly about “expediency or greed.” Working in a large modern corporation, he sees himself as a “spy behind enemy lines.” Even science and technology draw his disdain as he warns of “technology that spits out goods from its robot mouth.”

Finishing Dreams, I could not recall a single positive sentence about the United States or European society.

Why 43 Catholic institutions are suing the government

“Effectively, the mandate prohibits us from asking what we’ve asked for more than 200 years, “Are you hungry?” Now we also have to ask, “Are you Catholic?” To qualify for the exemption, and so to be permitted to follow their beliefs, Catholic institutions may have to stop providing educational opportunities to as many non-Catholics as they currently educate, stop serving as many non-Catholics in need as they currently serve, and stop employing some of the non-Catholic employees they currently employ. But this kind of withdrawal from the world violates our religious commitment to serve all in need without regard to religion.

The exemption also involves an invasive federal government inquiry into an organization’s religious beliefs and practices, conferring powers on government forbidden by the Constitution. Specifically, for an institution to know whether it meets the government’s definition, it must submit to a governmental investigation whereby federal employees determine the religion of those employed and served by the entity, whether their beliefs are the same as the institution, and whether the institution hires and serves “primarily” those of in agreement.”

http://www.preservereligiousfreedom.org/issue/

Christians on the left

The Religious Left consists of three groups – the evangelical Left, the mainline Protestant Left, and the Roman Catholic Left.  The Religious Left parallels the Political Left.  Through their own organizations (all tax exempt) they advocate for “distributive justice,” not God’s justice.  They receive money from the government and from their own denominations and members to achieve their goals—feeding the poor, training the unemployed, rehabbing houses, and offering a variety of shelters for the illegal, the battered woman—everyone but the unborn.  The Good News of Jesus written in the Gospels and in the Epistles is a reflection of the values and ethics of the Old Testament, but leftist Christians have distorted the Biblical view of justice with the idea that government needs to redistribute goods and services through taxation to achieve justice.  This can only be done through coercion and force, but for Christians it should be through charity and tithe.  These Christians fail to see that they are enslaving people to the state, both the “donors” and the beneficiaries and muzzling their own pastors in the pulpit with “tax breaks.”

Obama pandering to women

So college grads don’t have their dream job and are mooching off or having bills for tech toys and vacations paid for by mom and dad? Bigger government can give you "unemployment benefits," but not necessarily "employment benefits." They need to re-read the history of the Great Depression—how FDR extended it for a decade while convincing the voters more government was the answer. 

Look, Obama chose this route when he went after healthcare in 2009, further shaking up the economy and pressing it down.  If you're unemployed, or your kids are, think about who you're voting for in November.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/20/opinion/sunday/obama-condescending-to-women.html?_r=1&smid=fb-share

This writer gets it right, but still is an Obama supporter.  I don’t get it!

The women I know who are struggling in this economy couldn’t be further from the fictional character of Julia, presented in Mr. Obama’s Web ad, “The Life of Julia,” a silly and embarrassing caricature based on the assumption that women look to government at every meaningful phase of their lives for help.

My cousin in Louisiana started a small company with a little savings, renovating houses. A single mom, she saved enough to buy a home and provide child care for her son. When the economy went belly up, so did her company. She was forced to sell her home and move in with her parents. She has found another job, but doesn’t make enough to move out. Family, not government, has been everything to her at this time of crisis. She, and they, wouldn’t have it any other way.

The Democrat who launched the War on Poverty

"The personal experiences that [Lyndon B.] Johnson and Robert Kennedy had with race in the sixties were completely different. Kennedy began visiting the ghettos early in his brother's presidency and continued to do so for the rest of his life, but Johnson had relatively little contact with blacks. His favorite story about his own experience with the horrors of segregation had to do with the time his servants, Helen and Gene Williams, transported his dog by car from Washington to Texas and were unable to stay in motels or eat in restaurants. He felt uneasy with civil-rights leaders to the left of Roy Wilkins, of the NAACP, and Whitney Young, of the Urban League- including Martin Luther King, Jr., whom Johnson considered to be vain, preachy, Communist-influenced, and, when King began to oppose the Vietnam War, a man who cared more about posturing than helping his own people. (Robert Kennedy didn't especially like King either.) Up close, Johnson had a hard time treating the many civil-rights landmarks of his administration with the dignity they deserved. He summoned Louis Martin, his closest black political adviser, to the White House for the announcement of the appointment of the first black Cabinet member by saying, "I was sitting in the toilet here and I got to thinking about you." Johnson never completely shed the racial language of his youth: he occasionally used the word "nigger" in private."

Atlantic, "The unfinished war," January 1989

The life of Julia

I haven’t seen the campaign cartoon by the Obama camp called “The Life of Julia,” only reviews and parodies.  Is it appearing on YouTube?  I think it would be too long for TV attention.  It’s about Obama sucking up to the women’s vote, although why women want to be portrayed as such helpless, hopeless victims in constant need of a man like Uncle Sam, I have no idea.

  

Breaking the spiral of silence

I would love to host a “Spiral of Silence” group, but when I go to the website, the first thing I see is not information, but BUY http://breakingthespiralofsilence.com/ Websites that sell rather than tell are a big gripe of mine.

Does my butt make these jeans look tight?

At Panera’s this morning there was a woman and a teen-age athlete (knew this from the school name and sport on his jacket) waiting for their take-out orders.  An attractive blonde came in whose jeans were so tight, they could have been painted on her skin.  How she got in and out of the car without bursting a seam, I don’t know. How she breathed. . . you get the idea.  The waiting woman took a long, hard look at her back side, then looked away.  The teen was trying to look any where butt there; I think he’d just signed a chastity pledge.

Who’s fault is it?

       

[snark] I know who ordered that pizza, who bought that bag of chips and forced open my mouth. Yes, someone in the 1% who needs to be taxed more so I'll eat more fruits and vegetables which I grew in my backyard.

Have you ever looked at photographs of the over 50 crowd in 1910 or 1950—before the days of fast food restaurants, or 32 oz. bottles of coke?  Yup.  They are fat.  What’s different today is how heavy the young people are.  For that I think we can give thanks to the women’s movement of the 1970s, and less time playing outdoors. Women in the 1970s didn’t really calculate how much of their income was being taxed at a confiscatory rate [tacked onto their husband’s rate], and they were tired after working and driving, so they began taking the kids out to eat.  The restaurant industry and the processed food industry responded to the market, and so the next generation barely knew how to make a white sauce or hard cook an egg.  That gave rise to cooking shows and gourmet clubs and more food advertising, which lent itself to more and more government regulation.

See how neatly this all fits together?  Instead of blaming an industry or an agency, just eat less and move more.

From the fabulous fifties

One of the most popular TV shows in the 1950s was Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, a handsome Catholic priest.  I'm not sure how I knew about him because my parents didn't have a TV, but I knew.  Everyone knew who he was.  He was drawing 30,000,000 viewers a week when our population was only about 172 million and 42 million households had a TV. 

                                    

The other day I heard a story about him.  A man sat down next to him on a plane, and noticing his collar, began to unload on him all his gripes about the church. Just a bunch of hypocrites, liars, losers,  pettiness, etc.  So Bishop Sheen looked at him and said, "How much did you steal?" Turns out he was an usher at his church and had been dipping into the collection plate (which he confessed to Sheen probably in shock). By then I was in the garage and turned off the radio, but it was probably the end of the story.  Might be why he was so popular--he really knew people.

John Willson on Education

"The thinking in the Educational Establishment is overwhelmingly progressive, just as it is political culture. The idea behind democracy is equality, and it has become a matter of faith that democracy depends on education, which translates into equal education, which in turn requires centralized standards. The only way to impose centralized standards is through politics. Thus we have politically sponsored, powerful teachers unions, great educational bureaucracies at the state and national levels, incredibly expensive school systems, K-forever, all staffed by idiots who never tire of saying that the only thing they need to make the whole thing work is more money."
Testing for PC Truth

The dogs are cute

but I have no idea what this group is about.

Elizabeth Warren should be laughed out of the race—the political race, not the Cherokee race

I heard on the radio today that slightly over 50% of babies born in the U.S. today are minority/ethnic. I'm not surprised. All it takes to be a native American these days is high cheekbones and a story your grandmother told. Blond and blue eyed Elizabeth Warren was named Harvard's first woman faculty of color.

http://bostonherald.com/news/opinion/editorials/view/20220517harvards_woman_of_color

“. . . Politico.com reported a 1997 Fordham Law Review piece described the blue-eyed, blond-haired Warren as Harvard Law School’s “first woman of color.”

A footnote attributed the information to a telephone interview with then Harvard Law news director Michael Chmura, who was also apparently the source for a 1996 Harvard Crimson piece describing Warren as Native American.

In the Fordham piece on the subject of affirmative action its author Laura Padilla wrote, “In my three years at Stanford Law School, there were no professors who were women of color. Harvard Law School hired its first woman of color, Elizabeth Warren, in 1995.” “

Co-opting the churches

Before the Nazis of 1930s Germany began killing homosexuals, gypsies, the disabled and Jews, they infiltrated the Christian churches, both Catholic and Protestant. Christians became divided into 3 groups, the "brown shirt" Christians who owed their allegiance to Hitler not Christ and were allowed freedom of assembly, the nominal Christians whose lives went on as usual with time out for baptisms, confirmations and weddings as though nothing evil was going on, and the "confessing Christians" who attempted to keep in place the teachings of Christ and met and prayed in secret.

It wasn't difficult to divide them--they were already weak. The 19th century German theologians had pretty much decided that the Bible was a collection of fables, tales, and pieces of edited material from other ancient cultures. The Nazis then stepped in and declared the Old Testament was Jewish, and therefore, condemned it. Sort of declared it "hate speech" as it were. Wasn't to be read, taught or followed.

How far distant are we in 2012? How many pastors and priests in the pulpit today learned at the dead clay feet of 19th century German scholars at seminaries; how many Christians today think God's justice, peace, and blessings must come at the command and hand of the state through taxation, regulation and 501 C 3 non-profits which muzzle the church’s prophetic message?

From reading Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas.

                                         

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p1828.pdf

Booker T. Washington meets Occupy Wall Street

“In meeting crowds of people at public gatherings, there is one type of individual that I dread. I mean the crank. I have become so accustomed to these people now that I can pick them out at a distance when I see them elbowing their way up to me. The average crank has a long beard, poorly cared for, a lean, narrow face and wears a black coat. The front of his vest and coat are slick with grease, and his trousers bag at the knees.

In Chicago, after I had spoken at a meeting, I met one of these fellows. They usually have some process for curing all of the ills of the world at once. This Chicago specimen had a patent process by which he said Indian corn could be kept through a period of three or four years, and he felt sure that if the Negro race in the South would, as a whole, adopt his process, it would settle the whole race question. It mattered nothing that I tried to convince him that our present problem was to teach the Negroes how to produce enough corn to last them through one year. Another Chicago crank had a scheme by which he wanted me to join him in an effort to close up all the National banks in the country. If that was done, he felt sure it would put the Negro on his feet.”

From Up From Slavery, an autobiography http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/washington/ch15.html

HIV and HBV

Worldwide, hepatitis B virus (HBV) is the leading cause of chronic liver disease and death, accounting for up to half of all cases of cirrhosis and liver cancer.  Four hundred million people are infected with HBV in Asia and Africa with the infection occurring through perinatal transmission (before and after birth).  In more developed countries HBV is most often acquired during adolescence or adulthood through sex and drugs. Statistics from NEJM May 10, 1012.

Human immunodeficiency virus  (HIV) infects about 33 million people worldwide, the majority in Asia and Africa. According to the CDC, gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM)¹ represent approximately 2% of the US population, yet are the population most severely affected by HIV and are the only risk group in which new HIV infections have been increasing steadily since the early 1990s.  Since the beginning of the US epidemic, MSM have consistently represented the largest percentage of persons diagnosed with AIDS and persons with an AIDS diagnosis who have died.

“HBV is 100 times easier to transmit sexually than HIV ( the virus that causes AIDS). HBV has been found in vaginal secretions, saliva, and semen. Therefore, it doesn’t matter if a person’s sexual partner is of the same or the opposite gender. If one partner has hepatitis B, the other one can get it. Oral sex and especially anal sex regardless (whether it occurs in a heterosexual or homosexual context), are possible ways of transmitting the virus.” http://www.liverdisease.com/hbvtransmission.html

Medical advancements can help, but humans obeying God’s laws of chastity and marriage will do miracles for global health.

NOISE, newly revised book on media culture

                                

“NOISE, by Teresa Tomeo, a veteran broadcast journalist in both the Catholic and secular markets, makes a compelling and irrefutable case about the dangers of our dominant media culture—and the liberalism and immorality that comes with it.

Tomeo gives a sobering analysis of each of the nine dominant forms of media, revealing how they are rapidly dismantling families and destroying lives, and what we can do about it.”

Are you sick of “The View”

It’s not a TV program I watch, but occasionally I do catch a reference to it, or see it when flipping/clicking channels in the summer when we don’t have cable.  Now there is “The Catholic View for Women.”  WHOA!  You’re not Catholic?  Your beliefs and ethics probably don’t reflect what you see on The View, or Oprah, of Ellen either, but they are tolerated.  I heard about this show because I occasionally listen to Teresa Tomeo on the radio when I’m in the car. She’s good. These women sort of have the classic “coming home” Catholic stories—swept up into the women’s movement, cafeteria Catholic, no training in their faith, and attended church at Christmas and Easter—just like a lot of Protestant women. Although I’m a Lutheran, the women on Catholic View for Women are much closer to God than the women on secular, sexy, sexist television.

You have a lot more in common with these women than you do Oprah or Ellen or, God forbid, Joy Behar.

http://www.thecatholicviewforwomen.com/episodes/episode-1.aspx

How does a Tea (taxed enough already) Party Congressman vote?

This is the record for Raul Labrador (ID-1)who got 100% in the vote study important to the Tea Party. Steve Stivers from my district in Ohio only got 45%. Asterisk item is considered a bonus and can boost score. Labrador technically isn't a member of the Tea Party, but endorses all the principles and is very conservative. He was born in Puerto Rico and is a Mormon. http://www.labrador4idaho.com/

Repeal ObamaCare YES
Strike pork funding for drug intelligence center YES
Eliminate Legal Services Corporation YES
Cut energy subsidies YES
Strike funding for NLRB NO [Yes]
Cut Amtrak grants YES
Cut most continuing appropriations spending 5.5% YES
Stop many new leases for oil and gas drilling NO
Roll back most spending in the bill to 2006 levels YES
Limit Davis Bacon YES
Passage of continuing appropriations billNO
DC school vouchers YES
Bar EPA from passing greenhouse gas regulations YES
Disapprove Internet regulations YES
Republican Study Cmte. Budget YES
Bar funding for speech regulations YES
Cut agriculture dept. spending bill by 5% YES
Cut ethanol subsidy YES
Strike new flood insurance programs YES
Eliminate federally subsidized flood insurance program YES
Cut Energy - Water appropriations bill spending by 5% YES
Pass Cut, Cap and Balance YES
Cut Botanic Garden funding by $3 million YES
Cut Interior-Environment appropriations by $3 billion YES
Increase debt limit NO
Limit NLRB's powers YES
Pass Colombia trade agreement YES
Pass Panama trade agreement YES
Pass South Korea trade agreement YES
Revive expanded trade adjustment assistance NO
Pass bloated spending bill for five departments NO
Require congressional approval of major regulations YES
Impose 3.6% income tax surtax NO
Pass bloated omnibus appropriations bill NO
*Didn't sign discharge petition on anti-trade bill YES
*Sign Cut, Cap and Balance Pledge Letter YES
*Sign Letter in opposition to debt ceiling increase "compromise"
YES

Club for Growth Tea Party Freshmen Study

Get over yourself isn’t good advice for Obama

"Obama should get beyond his own narcissism and realize that, win or lose in November, he's just a temporary part of something that's bigger than himself."

http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/obama-vandalizes-wh-presidential-biographies/543386

This is dumb advice. A narcissist doesn't believe he is bragging, haughty or shameless, and he believes the most important event in the history of the world is his own existence. So he can't very well move beyond what he doesn't know is there.

                    

Browsing through “For the Good of Illinois”

This website for corruption and fraud in Illinois works similar to one we have in Ohio. “We educate, engage and empower citizens to demand a transparent, accountable and limited government.”

“United Neighborhood Organization is getting $98 Million. Sounds like a nice organization. I decided to google them. Their home page is http://www.uno-online.org/. It states that it is “Modeled after the Saul Alinsky style of community organizing.” If you don’t know who Saul Alinsky is, google “Saul Alinsky Marxist”. The CEO of UNO is a gentleman by the name of Juan Rangel. He also happens to be one of Rahm Emanuel’s campaign co-chairman. “

http://forthegoodofillinois.org/blog/2011/01/springfields-dirty-little-secret/

Roger Eddy [Hutsonville superintendent]  is a poster boy example of Illinois public greed. We are confident that Roger Eddy’s total compensation will exceed $300,000 per year- when our Freedom of Information Act Request regarding Roger Eddy’s taxpayer funded health insurance as a state rep is fullfilled. We’ve called on Eddy to release the number, he refuses to do so. UPDATE: State of Illinois rejects request saying that the citizens DON’T have a right to know what the state is paying for the Eddy family health coverage, click here to read.

With two base salaries equaling $181,969; Roger Eddy outearns every governor of the 50 states. Source: The Book of States 2010.

http://forthegoodofillinois.org/blog/2012/02/roger-eddy-makes-289078-per-year-at-taxpayer-expense/

In late 2010, the Bellville News Democrat “reported that nearly 389 Menard employees received $10 million from taxpayers for workers’ compensation injuries. More than 230 claims were filed by guards for repetitive trauma damage to their wrists and elbows that were caused by locking and unlock cell doors.” This must be due to the extra hard springs and mechanics inside Illinois prison doors. Regardless, the story triggered a Federal investigation, which seems to be on-going.

It also triggered HR 131, which can be read here.

http://forthegoodofillinois.org/blog/2012/05/auditors-report-proves-the-need-for-forensic-audits/

2016: Obama's America | Official Movie Trailer

2016: Obama's America | Official Movie Trailer

Only in America, a viral e-mail worth posting

Usually I "Snope" viral e-mails and find them "mixed," or "false," but this one I can remember most of these incidents--although I'm not sure about Nike. Only in America is the name of a cable TV show, a Brooks and Dunn CW song, a blog. . . but this isn't those.

ONLY IN AMERICA ...

Only in America could politicians talk about the greed of the rich at a $35,000 a plate campaign fund raising event.

Only in America could people claim that the government still discriminates against black Americans when we have a black President, a black Attorney General, and roughly 18% of the federal workforce is black.

Only in America could we have had the two people most responsible for our tax code, Timothy Geithner, the head of the Treasury Department and Charles Rangel who once ran the Ways and Means Committee, BOTH turn out to be tax cheats who are in favor of higher taxes.

Only in America can we have terrorists kill people in the name of Allah and have the media primarily react by fretting that Muslims might be harmed by the backlash.

Only in America would we make people who want to legally become American citizens wait for years in their home countries and pay tens of thousands of dollars for the privilege while we discuss letting anyone who sneaks into the country illegally just become American citizens.

Only in America could the people who believe in balancing the budget and sticking by the country's Constitution be thought of as "extremists."

Only in America could you need to present a driver's license to cash a check or buy alcohol, but not to vote.

Only in America could people demand the government investigate whether oil companies are gouging the public because the price of gas went up when the return on equity invested in a major U S oil company (Marathon Oil) is less than half of a company making tennis shoes (Nike).

Only in America could the government collect more tax dollars from the people than any nation in recorded history, still spend a trillion dollars more than it has per year for total spending of $7 million PER MINUTE, and complain that it doesn't have nearly enough money.

Only in America could the rich people who pay 86% of all income taxes be accused of not paying their "fair share" by people who don't pay any income taxes at all.

Newsweek’s gay president cover

An awful lot of people don’t read, they glance.  Many don’t read well, they skim. They do know, however, what the words “gay president” under the photo of Barack Obama means even if after 12 years of public school they can’t pass a 4th grade reading test in Cleveland or Detroit. What were they thinking? Especially with that YouTube video that’s been going around for several years.