"An open letter to Melinda Gates from Obianuju Ekeocha"

Why do rich liberals think they know better than Africans about their families or babies -- or everything? What?--we don't have enough unsolved problems in the USA or Europe? In the US babies increasingly (particularly in Democrat households) are seen as burdens. In Nigeria they are welcomed with joy and hope. After killing millions of Africans by yanking DDT off the market, now it's "family planning," and instead of pre-natal clinics, clean water, good roads, and schools for girls, liberals in their vast wisdom and deep pockets will distribute contraceptives and perform abortions. One Nigerian woman became so frustrated she wrote a letter to a TV program, and it's gone viral.  She writes (as recorded in Catholic Free Press) but it originally was read on Teresa Tomeo’s radio show www.teresatomeo.com

*                           *                             *                        *          

Growing up in a remote town in Africa, I have always known that a new life is welcomed with much mirth and joy. In fact we have a special “clarion” call (or song) in our village reserved for births and another special one for marriages.

The first day of every baby’s life is celebrated by the entire village with dancing (real dancing!) and clapping and singing - a sort of “Gloria in excelsis Deo.”

All I can say with certainty is that we, as a society, LOVE and welcome babies.

With all the challenges and difficulties of Africa, people complain and lament their problems openly. I have grown up in this environment and I have heard women (just as much as men) complain about all sorts of things. But I have NEVER heard a woman complain about her baby (born or unborn).

Even with substandard medical care in most places, women are valiant in pregnancy. And once the baby arrives, they gracefully and heroically rise into the maternal mode.

I trained and worked for almost five years in a medical setting in Africa, yet I never heard of the clinical term “postpartum depression” until I came to live in Europe. I never heard it because I never experienced or witnessed it, even with the relatively high birth rate around me. (I would estimate that I had at least one family member or close friend give birth every single month. So I saw at least 12 babies born in my life every year.)

Amidst all our African afflictions and difficulties, amidst all the socioeconomic and political instabilities, our babies are always a firm symbol of hope, a promise of life, a reason to strive for the legacy of a bright future.

So a few weeks ago I stumbled upon the plan and promise of Melinda Gates to implant the seeds of her “legacy” in 69 of the poorest countries in the world (most of which are in Sub-Saharan Africa).

Her pledge is to collect pledges for almost $5 billion in order to ensure that the African woman is less fertile, less encumbered and, yes, she says, more “liberated.” With her incredible wealth she wants to replace the legacy of an African woman (which is her child with the legacy of “child-free sex.”

Many of the 69 targeted countries are Catholic countries with millions of Catholic women of child-bearing age. These Catholic women have been rightly taught by the Church that the contraceptive drug and device is inherently divisive.

Unlike what we see in the developed Western world, there is actually very high compliance with Pope Paul VI’s “Humanae vitae.” For these African women, in all humility, have heard, understood and accepted the precious words of the prophetic pope. Funny how people with a much lower literacy level could clearly understand that which the average Vogue- and Cosmo-reading-high-class woman has refused to understand. I guess humility makes all the difference.

With most African women faithfully practicing and adhering to a faith (mainly Christian or in some cases Muslim), there is a high regard for sex in society, especially among the women. Sex is sacred and private.

The moment these huge amounts of contraceptive drugs and devices are injected into the roots of our society, they will undoubtedly start to erode and poison the moral sexual ethics that have been woven into our societal DNA by our faith, not unlike the erosion that befell the Western world after the 1930 Lambeth conference! In one fell swoop and one “clean” slice, the faithful could be severed from their professed faith.

Both the frontline healthcare worker dispensing Melinda’s legacy gift and the women fettered and shackled by this gift, would be separated from their religious beliefs. They would be put in a precarious position to defy their faith – all for “safe sex.”

Even at a glance, anyone could see that the unlimited and easy availability of contraceptives in Africa would surely increase infidelity and sexual promiscuity as sex is presented by this multi-billion dollar project as a casual pleasure sport that can indeed come with no strings – or babies – attached. Think of the exponential spread of HIV and other STDs as men and women with abundant access to contraceptives take up multiple, concurrent sex partners.

And of course there are bound to be inconsistencies and failures in the use of these drugs and devices, so health complications could result; one of which is unintended abortion. Add also other health risks such as cancer, blood clots, etc. Where Europe and America have their well-oiled health care system, a woman in Africa with a contraception-induced blood clot does not have access to 911 or an ambulance or a paramedic. No, she dies.

And what about disposal of the medical waste? Despite advanced sewage disposal in the First-world countries, we hear that aquatic life there is still adversely affected by drugs in the system. In Africa, be rest assured that both in the biggest cities and smaller rural villages, sewage constitutes a real problem. So as $4.6 billion worth of drugs, IUDs and condoms get used, they will need safe disposal. Can someone please show us how and where will that be? On our farm lands where we get all our food? In our streams and rivers from whence comes our drinking water?

I see this $4.6 billion buying us misery. I see it buying us unfaithful husbands. I see it buying us streets devoid of the innocent chatter of children. I see it buying us disease and untimely death. I see it buying us a retirement without the tender loving care of our children.

Please Melinda, listen to the heart-felt cry of an African woman and mercifully channel your funds to pay for what we REALLY need.

We need:

• Good healthcare systems (especially prenatal, neonatal and pediatric care).

Needless to say that postpartum and neonatal deaths are alarmingly high in many Sub-Saharan African countries. This is due to the paucity of specialized medical personnel, equipment and systems. Women are not dying because they are having “too many” babies but because they are not getting even the most basic postpartum care. A childbirth or labor complication can very easily be fatal, for both mother and baby. To alleviate this problem new, well-equipped and well-staffed birthing centers with neonatal units need to be built in easily accessible parts of the poorest communities. And if Melinda Gates really insists on reducing population, she can have highly trained Natural Family Planning (NFP) instructors strategically placed in these women’s healthcare facilities. At least then there would be a natural and wholistic approach.

• Food programs for young children.

This would serve a two-fold purpose if it is incorporated into free or highly subsidized nursery school programs. It would nourish and strengthen the growth of these children, who are so, so vulnerable to malnutrition, and it would also serve to encourage parents to bring their youngsters, ages 3 or 4, to nursery school. In so many parts of Africa, children miss out on nursery school education because it is expensive and considered a luxury reserved for the rich and middle class. As a result, the children miss the first few crucial years when basic math and reading are easily learned. By the time they are considered “ready” for school, at age 7 or 8, they struggle academically. Many of them never quite catch up and so drop out after six or seven years. This is when a lot of young girls are married off as mid- to late-teenage wives who unfortunately would become the perfect recipient of the Melinda Gates comprehensive contraceptive care!

• Good higher education opportunities

Not just new school buildings or books, but carefully laid out educational programs that work – scholarships, internships at higher levels, etc. – are needed. Despite the problems and obstacles to primary and secondary education, a significant number of young girls make it into universities, polytechnics or colleges. The problem however is that, most of the schools and resources are substandard and outdated. As such, the quality of higher education is low and cannot compare to that of more privileged countries. Even though the teachers put in their very best and the students work hard, the system is inadequate and will always produce disadvantaged graduates who are not confident enough to stand with their counterparts who have studied in other parts of the world.

• Chastity programs

Such programs in secondary schools, universities and churches would create a solid support system to form, inform and reassure our young girls and women that real love is that which is healthy and holy. Many African girls are no longer sure about moral sexual ethics thanks to the widespread influence of Western media, movies and magazines. More support should be given to programs that encourage abstinence before marriage and fidelity in marriage. This approach would go a long way to combating the spread of HIV and other STDs through the continent. And it would certainly lead to happier marriages!

• Support for micro-business opportunities for women

The average African women is incredibly happy, hard-working and resilient. Any support both economic and through training would most probably be used well and wisely.

• Fortify already established NGOs that are aimed at protecting women from sex-trafficking, prostitution, forced marriage, child labor, domestic violence, sex crimes, etc.

Many of these NGOs do not have much success because they are not well-funded. Though most of them have good intentions, they lack professional input from those such as psychologists, logisticians or medical personnel needed to tackle various problems.

$4.6 billion dollars can indeed be your legacy to Africa and other poor parts of the world. But let it be a legacy that leads life, love and laughter into the world in need.

Palin on Obama’s performance

On 9/11 yesterday radical Muslims attacked—again in Egypt and Libya. Sarah Palin responds, since the president didn’t:

It’s about time our president stood up for America and condemned these Islamic extremists. I realize there must be a lot on his mind these days – what with our economy’s abysmal jobless numbers and Moody’s new warning about yet another downgrade to our nation’s credit rating due to the current administration’s failure to come up with a credible deficit reduction plan. And, of course, he has a busy schedule – with all those rounds of golf, softball interviews with the “Pimp with the Limp,” and fundraising dinners with his corporate cronies. But our nation’s security should be of utmost importance to our Commander-in-chief. America can’t afford any more “leading from behind” in such a dangerous world. We already know that President Obama likes to “speak softly” to our enemies. If he doesn’t have a “big stick” to carry, maybe it’s time for him to grow one.

The Planned Parenthood vs. Komen story

Karen Handel, former Susan G. Komen’s For the Cure Senior Vice President of Public Policy writes about how Komen was bullied back into supporting Planned Parenthood.  It was supposed to be on book shelves today.  We’ll see if it makes it to my public library.

HIV Infections and ART

Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM) represent approximately 2% of the US population, yet are the population most severely affected by HIV.

• In 2009, (men who have sex with men) MSM accounted for 61% of new HIV infections in the US and 79% of infections among all newly infected men. Compared with other groups, MSM accounted for the largest numbers of new HIV infections in 2009.
• Among all MSM, white MSM accounted for 11,400 (39%) new HIV infections in 2009. The largest number of new infections (3,400) occurred in those aged 40–49.
• Among all MSM, black/African American MSM accounted for 10,800 (37%) new HIV infections in 2009. Whereas new HIV infections were relatively stable among MSM overall from 2006–2009, they increased 34% among young MSM—an increase largely due to a 48% increase among young black/African American MSM aged 13–29.
• Among all MSM, Hispanic/Latino MSM accounted for 6,000 (20%) new HIV infections in 2009. The largest percentage of new infections (45%) occurred in those aged 13–29.

I’ve looked through the guidelines given to doctors to combat HIV/AIDs in gay men.  They include counseling for condoms, screening and treatment for other sexually transmitted diseases, hepatitis vaccine, and PrEP, short for Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, the combination medication tenofovir disoproxil fumarate plus emtricitabine (TDF/FTC).   PrEP was approved in July, 2012 and treatment costs about $14,000 a year, requires constant monitoring, and absolute adherence to the drug regimen. Giving it to uninfected people who don’t have HIV might prevent those already infected from receiving it. 

In the guidelines I saw nothing about chastity or celibacy, the only two methods which are 100% effective in combating HIV and have no toxic side effects.

Obama’s love affair with Wall Street

Source of graphic: http://gerarddirect.com/2012/05/25/3090/

“Candidate Obama had been their [finance titans] guy, accepting vast amounts of Wall Street campaign money for his victories over Hillary Clinton and John McCain (Goldman Sachs executives ponied up $1 million, more than any other private source of funding in 2008). Obama far outraised his Republican rival, John McCain, on Wall Street—around $16 million to $9 million. As it turned out, Obama apparently actually meant what he said at that White House meeting—his administration effectively would stand between Big Finance and anything like a severe accounting. To the dismay of many of Obama’s supporters, nearly four years after the disaster, there has not been a single criminal charge filed by the federal government against any top executive of the elite financial institutions.”

The four takeaways from Charlotte

Four lasting impressions remain from the Democratic Convention in Charlotte:

(1) Delegates raucously booing the chairman's phony ruling accepting the amendment which put God and Jerusalem as the capital of Israel back into the official Democrat platform,

(2) an obsessive focus on "reproductive freedom" -- contraception and abortion,

(3) a disproportionate emphasis on "women's equality" in the face of a U.S. economy that is in crisis, and

(4) rhetoric permeated with desperation, distortions, and demagoguery.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/09/the_democratic_partys_polarizing_convention.html#ixzz265BQckM8

The Bail Out/Take Over Party

Editorial at National Review On-Line

"The Democrats have decided to run in 2012 as the bailout party. It is an odd choice — the 2008–09 bailouts were deeply unpopular among the general public, and even their backers were notably conflicted about the precedent being set and the ensuing moral hazard. But Democrats have nonetheless made one of the most abusive episodes in the entire bailout era their economic cornerstone: the government takeover of General Motors.
{...}
At their convention, Democrats swore that GM is “thriving,” but the market doesn’t think so: GM shares have lost half their value since January 2011. And while the passing of the Great Recession has meant growing sales for all automakers, GM is seriously lagging behind its competitors: Its sales are up 10 percent, a fraction of the increases at Kia, Toyota, Volkswagen, and Porsche. With its sales weak, its share price crashing, and its business model still a mess, some analysts already are predicting that GM will return to bankruptcy — but not until after the election."

Worth reading all of it: http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/316379/democrats-gm-fiction-editors

Our freedom to speak out

It was Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson in 1954 that pushed using the IRS code to silence churches.  Let’s put a stop to that.  Our current President is using the IRS to help take over the healthcare system.  Let’s put a stop to that. 

Monday Memories—Graduation May 1955

Carol and Stanley graduated from elementary and high school in 1955.  At first I was going to crop this to get a better close up, but then I realized I didn’t have many photos of the back yard of our house on Hannah Avenue where we lived from March 1951 to August 1958 when my parents moved to Lincoln Street where they lived until 1996. I was in college when they moved and felt like I didn’t have a home.

I can’t remember if the little arbor behind Carol was for roses or grapes.  I know there was a row of tall pines probably about 40 years old along the property; some had died, but you can see one on the right.  They were used for wind breaks.  You can see the back porch steps, which we didn’t use because that porch had been enclosed many years before for a half bath, and mother also had her washer and dryer there.  The concrete steps are right behind the lilac in the back left.  I visited this house, a 4-square with 4 rooms up, 4 rooms down,  about 2 years ago.  It was huge in the 1950s, but is much smaller now.

The building on the far right is a garage/barn, and it had a second floor with 2 levels, and a shop in the back.  Mother had a garden behind the barn, and our Dalmatian “Lady” is buried there.  For awhile further beyond the pine trees I used to stake my horse, and Mother briefly raised chickens.  I think the eggs were costing about $1.00 a piece, so she gave up on that.   The house was on the edge of town, so it’s possible that at one time it had been part of a farm.  Obviously, zoning was rather casual in 1955.

Let’s give it up for Ted and Bill

The cupbearer and the baker

In Sunday school this morning we were looking at the Joseph story (the church is doing "The story.") I asked if the cupbearer and baker who were in prison with Joseph were a foreshadowing of the wine and bread, but no one knew.  When I got home I Googled it, and found this.

"The story of Joseph in Genesis is filled with Eucharistic imagery. The entire deliverance segment of his life is shrouded in the typology of the sacrament. While in an Egyptian prison, Joseph was joined by Pharaoh’s baker - of bread and the cupbearer - of wine. The baker was sentenced to die but the cupbearer was to live. Because of this, we see both death and resurrection linked to the Eucharist typology. Finally, it was through Joseph’s relationship with these two that he is delivered from the dungeon. The cupbearer, who lived, pleaded Joseph’s cause to Pharaoh. As a result, Pharaoh released Joseph, giving him his life back. The typology provides bread and wine, death and resurrection, and a new life for Joseph, all elements of the Eucharist. Minus the “Eucharistic events” in this story, Joseph was destined to rot in prison."
http://www.holytrinityparish.net/Links/EucharistNscriptureI.pdf

Are we better off than four years ago?

IRS agents in your doctor’s office

The Democrats were too busy lauding free birth control and pushing God aside to examine the damage Obama has done. The media was quiet about Obama giving us the largest tax increase in history (according to the Supreme Court which says he has a right to tax us for health care) in addition to taking away religious freedom. So therefore, he needs a lot, a humongous, a gigantic increase in the enforcing agency, IRS. Feminists worry about religious nuts getting between them and their doctor? It's getting crowded in the examining room. How about the Internal (no pun) Revenue Service? "The IRS is expected to spend $881 million on the law from 2010 through 2013, hiring more than 2,700 new workers and upgrading its computer systems. But the IRS has not made public information about its spending plans in the following years, when the bulk of the health care law takes effect." And that's the low hiring figure.

 http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/07/07/ObamaCare-Irs-Agents

Do you remember Velma Hart?

I blogged about her back in September 25, 2010.  She was at a Town hall meeting with President Obama and calmly confronted him with her concerns about the economy.  She made a big media splash, and frankly, I didn’t buy it.  I thought she was a plant so he could look caring and reasonable.  But. . . I followed up on my own story, and it seems I was wrong.  She lost her job with a non-profit (I was wrong in my blog about her job—I thought she worked for the government but it was AmVets)  in November 2010, just 2 months later.  However, I kept poking around, and found that in 2011 she did indeed have another job with a different non-profit, and I thought her resume looked extremely good and the title of the position was impressive, although I don’t know if the salary matched what she had before.

Then I kept looking, wondering if she still supported Obama in 2012 and for the next four years and found out someone else wondered too.

“I still don’t feel like I have enough. I still don’t know that any of us have enough,” Hart said in an interview Monday with Gut Check. “I just wish there were some banner, some lighting rod that we could point to that has happened in the last 3½ years that showed how he changed things for the good.”

“I am just a regular person trying to make ends meet,” Hart continued. “I still very much appreciate the president but I really am worried though that I don’t see enough traction for the average person. I worry about the people. I worry about the ineffectiveness on the Democratic side and the meanness on the Republican side.”

There she does it again. Hart has a way of putting her finger on the weakness of the current political debate: connecting with the middle class, especially a middle class weathering a tough economy.

When asked how she is doing now, Velma Hart answered quickly, “Struggling to figure out what is going on. ... Everything is so uncertain.”

When asked whom she believes she speaks for, she said: “I am talking for everyone who cares like me; everyone who has kids like me; everyone who like me is thinking about retirement or wondering if we have to work until we die.”

But there is hope. Hart has no regrets about leaving the cloak of anonymous citizenry to brave the open microphone and klieg lights of the political spectrum, “I always tell my daughter if we really don’t stand for something, we’ll fall for anything.”

It’s my guess she’ll still vote for him.  Sigh. Come on, Velma.  Mitt can’t do worse and he just might do better.  What have you got to lose? Except a broken heart, failed promises, and a guy totally stuck on himself.

She’s not a slut, thank you, just a ninny and a fool

About Sandra Fluke, Peggy Noonan wrote:  “What a fabulously confident and ingenuous-seeming political narcissist Ms. Fluke is. She really does think—and her party apparently thinks—that in a spending crisis with trillions in debt and many in need, in a nation in existential doubt as to its standing and purpose, in a time when parents struggle to buy the good sneakers for the kids so they're not embarrassed at school . . . that in that nation the great issue of the day, and the appropriate focus of our concern, is making other people pay for her birth-control pills. That's not a stand, it's a non sequitur. She is not, as Rush Limbaugh oafishly, bullyingly said, a slut. She is a ninny, a narcissist and a fool.”

Wall St. Journal,  September 8, 2012, on page A15 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: The Democrats' Soft Extremism.

Bush-Obama, Hoover-FDR

President Clinton likes to bask in the glory of the brisk economy of his years (like he did in the convention), when with a Republican Congress government spending was cut more than any other president's term in modern history.  There was a slight recession at the end of his term and beginning of Bush’s but not many remember since it was 9/11 that really sent the economy spinning.  In the final 2 years of Bush's term he was weakened by a Democratic Congress and tried bailouts and redistribution to turn around the economy (it's odd that Obama bad-mouths him so since he loves that too, but FDR did the same to Hoover). Hoover didn't cause the Great Depression--the Fed did that by inflating the value of money--and it isn't even part of the government. To goose the economy in 1932 Hoover not only increased government spending, but increased taxes by raising the marginal tax rate from 24% to 63%, and then FDR took it to 79% and then 83%, extending the Great Depression by many years. Bush and Obama had plenty of history to go on for their failed policies since 2007-2009 wasn’t our first rodeo, but they blew it.

I could give you pages, if not books, of citations, but you wouldn’t read them, so here are just two cites.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303753904577450910257188398.html

http://www.mtpioneer.com/March-deal-Hoover.html

These are the liberals . . .

Sorry, I can’t even quote them . . .

http://twitchy.com/2012/09/07/liberals-cuss-out-archbishop-timothy-cardinal-dolan/

And they probably vote.

What I did on my summer vacation

at Lakeside, Ohio, 2012

Ice cream social on Hotel Lakeside lawn

Week 1: June 25-29

2012 Elections Seminars on the 2012 elections, with a focus on the nomination process, presidential election, congressional/state elections and campaign finance
War of 1812 Presentations on the causes, major campaigns and outcomes of the War and a look at the War specifically in North Central Ohio

Download Week 1 brochure.

Week 2: July 2-6 (We missed some of this week, but were back on the 4th)

All Things Americana Seminars on topics related to American history and culture

Download Week 2 brochure.

Week 3: July 9-13

The Printed Word Seminars about the future of newspapers and libraries
The Sounds of Music Music-related seminars presented by several Hoover evening performers, including traditional, jazz and big band music

Download Week 3 brochure.

Week 4: July 16-20

The Great Lakes Seminars related to all five Great Lakes
Ethics in Society Seminars on state, national, international, and business ethics

Download Week 4 brochure.

Week 5: July 23-27 (we missed this one)

The Chautauqua Movement In conjunction with the National Chautauqua Network Meeting, gain further insight into the history of the Chautauqua Movement and the new Chautauqua Trail
The Olympic Spirit Presentations about the history of the Olympics, current happenings in London, and famous Olympians
9th Annual Vearl Smith Memorial Historic Preservation Workshop Historic preservation seminars presented by experts in the field (July 27)

Download Week 5 brochure.

Week 6: July 30-August 3

The World Today Issues of national/international importance selected in the spring based on current world events
Environmental Stewardship Seminars related to environmental issues and responsible use of natural resources

Download Week 6 brochure.

Week 7: August 6-10 (I skipped these)

Seeking Peace in a Multi-Faith World Speakers from Christian, Jewish & Muslim faiths present interfaith dialogue and “Peace with Justice” themes

Download Week 7 brochure.

Week 8: August 13-17

East Asia Experts on this geographic area address current political, business and cultural topics
Trends in Medicine Presentations about current happenings in the medical field

Download Week 8 brochure.

Week 9: August 20-24

9th Annual Civil War Week Seminars on numerous topics related to the Civil War

Download Week 9 brochure.

Week 10: August 27-31

26th Annual Senior Venture Week: Ohio Museums Representatives from Ohio museums explore museum concepts within the context of their unique collections

Download Week 10 brochure.

The Boyfriend

Ladies—you deserve better!

Women exposed to partner violence

There was an interesting study done in Cook County, IL about abused women (these days it's not even called "domestic violence," it's been down/up graded to "partner violence). I think the idea was that if identified as abused through screening by their doctors (aka primary health care setting), and then given the proper tools and resources, the women would do something to stop the abuse and improve their quality of life. Didn't happen. It's the second study that shows universal screening for partner violence does not prevent abuse. Sort of made me think of all the women who voted for Obama in 2008, have all the knowledge and resources to recover their dignity and pride in 2012, but will vote for him anyway. (JAMA, Aug. 15, 2012) The the answer is, more studies, more rigorous methods. I know a sample pool of several million women . . .

Not that I care much for Newt, but truth is truth

no matter where you find it.

Two womanizers, two excellent politicians, in the worst sense of the word. And both are Christians!

Yes, it certainly was an entertaining convention

Friday family photo—my Gators

My sister Carol’s grandchildren.

God and Jerusalem weren’t the only items deleted

Noonan on Good ol Joe

“As for Joe Biden, I love him and will hear nothing against him. He's like Democrats the way they used to be, and by that I do not mean idiotic, I mean normal—manipulative only to a normal degree, roughly aware of the facts of normal life, alert to and even respecting of such normal things as religious faith. I wish he did not insist on referring to his wife as "Dr. Jill Biden." I'm sure she has many doctorates, but so do half the unemployed in Manhattan.” WSJ 9/7/12

What Joe Pags got from the DNC and the RNC conventions

The Dems put on a good convention. President Obama gives a very inspiring SOUNDING speech. I'm confident 20,000 people in that arena will be voting Obama/Biden -- that's wasn't the job though. They lied, told half-truths, pandered, and made fun of the other side. What I took away from the RNC was, if you try, have drive, desire and ambition, YOU can realize the American Dream. What I got from the DNC was, you should get the spoils of someone else's work, strive to be in the Middle Class and trust that government knows better how you live than you do. The choice is very clear. Now, Romney/Ryan have to go on the offensive continuing the mantra that this current president has had four years to do what he said he would -- and the reality is, he's made things much worse. Pags

Northstar

We watched a horrible story on 10TV tonight about a horse that had deliberately been set on fire. He’s being treated at the OSU vet clinic and an anonymous donor is paying for his care and many people are making donations. The video was just awful. Did you know that fetuses are burned this way until dead so they can be aborted? Some are dismembered, removed piece by piece and struggle to live until they are stabbed in the brain. And you support abortion at anytime for any reason like our President?

Marriage is good for children and the economy

So why are Democrats discouraging both? The party platform is anti-traditional family, and anti-life.

What Obama inherited

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/06/us-usa-debt-downgrade-idUSTRE7746VF20110806

http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNU04000000?years_option=2005-2012&periods_option=specific_periods&periods=Annual+Data

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2012/09/04/u-s-debt-now-exceeds-16-trillion/

Barack and Michelle—middle class kids going to Ivy League schools on your dime

Everyone agrees--Michelle Obama gave a flawless presentation. I've only seen a few clips, but I'd judge her a better speaker than her husband, with a rich, authentic voice. That said, some of it sounded a bit "hard luck" for such a middle class girl.

I had a nice life growing up in a small, midwestern town. My father owned a small business--2 trucks, one employee and a gas station, as I recall. What we called middle class in the 1950s, they call poverty today. No TV, no AC, one phone, one car, no health insurance, clothes made at home, and a garden for fresh produce. One thing I do know is Michelle and Barack Obama's parents/grandparents were far wealthier than mine, and I didn't finish my degrees at the University of Illinois (about a fourth the cost of Harvard) owing any money. What I couldn't earn in summers or after school, my parents paid. I know these "I came up from nothing and struggled and look what I've accomplished" memes are great for politics, but they really belong with those "I built that" stories. And neither one of them did that.

• 
  Fellow blogger LadyBug Crossing says:
  

  We were middle class, too. Dad worked as an engineer for a large company. Mom was a nurse - she worked weekends. We traveled the world with him. We lived in the same house (except when we were overseas and they rented it out) my whole life....

  We made do. We shopped the sale racks. Mom made our dress clothes. We kids didn't get cars when we turned 16. I went to public school. I went to college and graduated without debt thanks to Mom's nursing job providing the extra. I worked every minute I was home from school. I lived at home until I got married. My graduate degree was earned while i was working. It wasn't easy, but I did it! We scrimped and saved for our house. Our cars are 10 and 11 years old. We have no debt except the mortgage. If we can't pay for it, we don't buy it. imagine that? Will I apologize for having a great childhood? No. Will I apologize because I have a nice life? No. Will I apologize for giving my children a similar life? No. They know the value of a dollar, the value of their education, and that family is where it's at. :-)

P.S.
I won't show you photos of Michelle's wedding gown because there are probably copyright issues, but you can google. Gorgeous and she looked fabulous. Definitely the 1% type dress and the men wore tuxes, whether or not she had to skip a few school loan payments to pay for it.

Why Obama will have to tax the middle class even more

In a recent study of the Tax Policy Center (Brookings-Urban Institute, a liberal think tank) the researchers "looked at how high income-tax rates would have to rise in the top two or even three tax brackets to lower debt to sustainable levels under something akin to CBO's estimate if we continue the way we are. They conclude that even if the top rates hit 100%, the budget "cannot achieve the debt-reduction targets in some or any of the target years." Though conceding that near-total confiscation is "completely unrealistic," they report the results anyway "to indicate the infeasibility of achieving a high debt-reduction target simply by increasing top individual income tax rates." And this is from economists who favor higher taxes."

And undoubtedly, there are anti-life, anti-God Democrats in Charlotte today (the ones who booed at putting God and Jerusalem back in the platform) who would say go for it--100% rates for the "rich." But when the rich are gone, they'll come for you. The intention is not to have better social programs—it has always been about control.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444914904577615392065706990.html

The Clinton Tax Hikes and cuts

“It was not until after a 1997 tax cut, passed by Congress—a tax cut President Clinton resisted but ultimately signed—that the spectacular growth kicked in. While small in static revenue impact, the 1997 cuts included a reduction of the capital gains rate from 28 percent to 20 percent. This opened the capital floodgates necessary for entrepreneurs to develop, harness, and bring to market the wonders of the new information technologies.” from Heritage http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/09/clinton-tax-hikes-slowed-growth

Down the memory hole with the Democrats

From Mike Huckabee’s email update, Sept. 5, 2012

“You have to give the Democrats props for successfully sending the housing crisis down the memory hole. From their campaign rhetoric, you’d think the so-called “failed policies of the past” were all Republican ideas like smaller government and lower taxes. No, the economic crisis had nothing to do with the housing bubble that began with a massive Democratic push to force banks to give home loans to people who couldn’t qualify for them. But with terrible timing for the Democrats, that inconvenient truth has burst out of the crypt and back into the news, just as they were convening in Charlotte.

Yesterday, the Daily Caller revealed some previously unpublished court information about a landmark case that many consider the fuse that set off the subprime mortgage boom and eventually, the economic meltdown. It was a 1995 discrimination lawsuit against Citibank, on behalf of a group of African-Americans who claimed they couldn’t get loans because of their race. It was part of a coordinated effort at the time by progressive groups. The banks didn’t want to be sued or accused of racism, so they loosened requirements for credit history and down payments. What the Daily Caller discovered is that among the original plaintiffs in that case, there was a startling loan failure rate. Out of about 186 homebuyers, roughly half have since gone bankrupt or received one or more foreclosure notices. As few as 19 still own homes with clean credit ratings. Even some of the plaintiffs now say the banks never should’ve made those loans.

And here’s the kicker: the lead attorney on that case that prompted banks to start making home loans to people who couldn’t qualify for them was a young Chicago community activist named Barack Obama.”

Definition of marriage and spouse

US Code, Title 1, ch. 7: "In determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, or of any ruling, regulation, or interpretation of the various administrative bureaus and agencies of the United States, the word “marriage” means only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife, and the word “spouse” refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife."

What is she trying to figure out?

Her president is offering her free birth control so he won’t have to discuss the economy, but what she’d really like is a job so she can pay her bills.

Who’s Obama’s brother’s keeper?

"Barack Obama Jr. first met George [Obama] in 1987, when George was five years old.  He met George again in 2006 when he visited Kenya as a U.S. Senator from Illinois; George was then in his early twenties.  Had Obama helped George along the way, perhaps this young man would not have ended up dirt-poor and living such a degraded life. So what’s the real story here?  Where’s George Obama’s “fair share”?  George’s tragic situation exposes President Obama as a hypocrite."

Barack Obama is an extremely wealthy man--not as rich as Romney by any means, but he's in the 1% easily.  And even if he loses in November, he will probably draw a bigger speaking salary than Clinton, who has become enormously wealthy. He could be helping all his siblings and never miss it. Instead, he wants my money.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/08/16/how-became-george-obama-brother/

Catholics for Choice at the DNC

“There are just under 300 active U.S. bishops  . . .  and neither they, nor their lobbying arm, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, really speak for the 68 million U.S. Catholics who share the belief that the use of contraception and the decision to end a pregnancy can be moral decisions and rightly should be made by individuals in accordance with their own conscience,” says Sara Hutchinson, domestic-program director of Catholics for Choice speaking to 6 people who showed up for her talk at the DNC convention in Charlotte. 

Catholics for Choice are supported by foundations, are not considered Catholics by the church and do not represent any of the teachings of the Catholic Church.  And apparently they can't even draw much of a crowd, even with the anti-Catholic press on hand.

Maybe my math is weak, but I think the Bishops speak for many more than this organization.

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/315896/planned-parenthood-s-little-army-katrina-trinko

What has Obama done for the poor?

We know what Obama has done to the wealthy; what he's done to the middle class. He's redistributed their income and passed the largest tax increase in our history. But what has he done for the poor, the minorities, the people who depend on coal mining, or the oil industry in the gulf; what has he done for women--really--other than tossing birth control like M&Ms at them? What has he done for small business, the engine of the economy, other than slapping them with more regulations and impossible to follow insurance laws?

Today’s Wall Street Journal Review and Outlook reported: "The food-stamp boom began with the George W. Bush Republicans, who expanded benefits in the appalling 2002 farm bill. But the supercharger was a 2008 bill out of the Pelosi Congress that goosed eligibility and rebranded the program as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, to reduce the stigma of being on the dole. Then there was the 2009 stimulus, which expanded the program again. Liberals argued then and still do that food stamps are one of the most effective ways the government can juice the economy. Really, they claim to believe this. . . "
Since the recession supposedly ended three years ago (before the stimulus package could even take effect) and Obama floated a massive stimulus and still the rolls grow, that obviously hasn't worked.

A woman earning $29,000 a year with Uncle Sam as her live in lover, can receive many government benefits to bring her usable income to that of someone earning $69,000. Where is her incentive to kick Sam to the curb under this president?

The news about HIV/AIDS isn’t good

Antiretroviral therapy (ART) was introduced 25 years ago, and thus there are now millions living with AIDS rather than dying from AIDS. ART is even providing protection for those who don’t yet have HIV infection. That’s good, right?  Not so fast.

JAMA, July 25, 2012: “In the United States, 1.2 million people are estimated to be living with HIV infection—20% are unaware of their infection—and about 50,000 people are estimated to become infected each year.  The cumulative number of AIDS deaths is approaching 650,000.  The most severely affected groups include men who have sex with men, blacks, and Hispanics or Latinos.”

Plus, ART doesn’t remove the increase in heart disease, cancer, dementia, low bone mass, co-infections with other venereal diseases and psychological problems of AIDS patients, plus a sense of invulnerability has returned and young gay men are back to the irresponsible, casual sex habits of the men who spread the epidemic back in the 1970s and 1980s.

This is fuzzy, but the top blue line is those living with undiagnosed HIV infection. The flat red line at the bottom is AIDS deaths.

There are two articles in this special JAMA issue on HIV/AIDS (July 25, 2012) that deal with the future.  Would you believe neither suggest celibacy or chastity as weapons in this battle? Yet both are completely effective.  Monogamy and marriage will not eliminate this scourge as long as gay men continue to bring the disease to the marriage bed and infect women, who in turn infect children.

Decision and choice

…"The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to make decisions regarding her pregnancy, including a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay."

Some studies show that as many as >60% are coerced into this “decision” by parents, boyfriend, spouse.  Where does a 17 year old go if Mom says it’s either Planned Parenthood or no funds for college, or you’re out on the street, or I will take away your smart phone?

She’s is so done with liberals, progressives, socialists, etc.

“I started out as a working man’s Democrat gung-ho for Clinton back in 2007. But watching the sexist mauling of Clinton and Palin by Obama’s frat boys while the press hurled charges of racism against anyone who dared criticize the creepy community organizer made me mad. I was so angry I finally coughed up the liberal Kool-aid and purged my system of the rot-gut drink I’d been swallowing for decades.

It’s been liberating. After toeing the liberal line for so long with all that political correctness I felt like I was trudging through quicksand with twenty pound weights. Defending the parasitic, oppressed masses and their entitled cries for “more, more” while trying to feed my own family on less and less, was sheer insanity.

I’ve heard people in self-help programs say they are grateful for all of their troubles, grateful for their dysfunctional spouses, parents, children, employees and friends because those circumstances and people woke them up. Well, it took a sociopathic Marxist to make me a pro-life principled real grass-roots conservative.

There’s freedom in true conservatism: freedom from anger, resentment, victimhood, dependency on government and hatred. They say conservatives give more to charitable causes. I believe it. Ever since I threw off the chains of liberalism, I feel more giving. If a co-worker slaving away at three jobs needs something, I’m there. When the usher passes around the basket at church I put in a little more than I used to, and I’m checking out area organizations truly dedicated to those who can’t help themselves and seeing how I can be of service. “

http://potterwilliamsreport.com/2012/01/07/obama-presidency-exposed-creepy-cronies.aspx

Who would want to be middle class?

When I was young, or even when I was middle age, politicians talked about helping the poor.  Now they talk about helping the middle class.  Maybe it’s because if a woman earns $29,000 a year (low income) and has 2 children, she qualifies for enough benefits from the government that she’d need a job that paid $69,000 a year to leave poverty and move up to the middle class.  So if she took time out to go to college so she could earn more money, and then had to pay off loans too (supplied by the government), it’s possible she just couldn’t get ahead and would rather stay poor. 

Should women be allowed to vote?

Frankly, I'm shocked that Democratic women are falling for this war on women, free contraception, Mitt will put us in chastity belts meme. If anything makes it look like we didn't deserve the vote 90 years ago, it's this issue. Hello--$16 trillion in debt; expanding the wars; exploding the clutch of czars; removing consumer rights; making health care industry an arm of the federal government when it can't manage Medicare and Medicaid.

Just in time for the Democratic convention

2016 Obama’s America

We’re planning to see the documentary “2016 Obama’s America “today, although I'm not sure I want any more bad news about Obama than I already know. I realized in 2008 he was completely out of touch with the average American and that he didn't like us much. Finding out why won't help much.  You are called a racist if you say he isn’t one of us, but he doesn’t act or sound like any politician, black, white, or brown, liberal or conservative that I’ve known before, but he has all the slick tools to accomplish with his mentors and cronies what he wants. Whether it was the politics of his parents and grandparents or because he was raised in his formative years outside the U.S., I don’t know, but he doesn’t know us, doesn’t understand us, and he hopes to end the U.S. that has become his enemy.

Update: It was different than I expected. The New Yorker says it is propaganda, but believe me, I see way more anti-Obama propaganda than I care to report, and some is really awful and poorly researched. D'Sousa uses Obama's own words, the audio of his book and his political speeches--at length--he doesn't do snippets. He also uses our $16 trillion dollar debt to come to his final conclusion. Neither are propaganda.

American Airlines—needs to respond

I was listening to Glenn Beck's account on his radio show of his rude treatment by an American Airlines employee, who said he deserved it when Glenn mentioned it to him. Even other passengers where noticing. The guy didn't like his politics (libertarian), or maybe his religion (Mormon), or perhaps his state (Texas). Glenn often talks about the importance of good service, because his parents owned a bakery and he worked there as a teen. 

AA’s employee was not a good representative for a service industry that takes our money. A complaint has been filed. So we'll see. Glenn and his employees won't be flying AA anymore he said, and I'm guessing after that description neither will some of his 10 million listeners, users of his TV network, his book clubs, or buyers of his best selling books, or those books he publishes for others. He's a bigger communications phenomenon than Oprah (who hasn't succeeded in launching her own TV network, and he has).  There's a steward working for AA who needs some retraining on keeping his politics to himself.

Update: Glenn reported last night he had received a response and AA says they will investigate.

Gorgeous curls

I got my hair cut today.  Oh my.  It’s so easy now (gray).  15 minutes and I’m done.  Anyway, I was watching another stylist work on the most gorgeous head of white hair across the room. I could see nothing but the face in the mirror and the body was covered. She just fluffed and fingered and the result was lovely. Imagine my surprise when she took off the cape and it was a husky, tall, 50-ish man!

After he saw 2016, the movie

He thought some of the talk show hosts on the right sounded too scripted in their enthusiasm for the new documentary about Obama.  So he went to see it himself—some applauded when it was over, but he was upset.

“Those who have already decided to vote for Obama will probably not even see the movie. It’s sad but they probably don’t want to know the truth when it is laid out so clearly for them in this documentary. The independents who are still deciding who they are going to vote for ought to see this film. I’m quite confident that any undecided voter who sees this film will know who to vote for after viewing this documentary. If you know you’re not going to support the “left” in this coming election, see the film out of interest if you like. But, fair warning, it’s disturbing – and quite frightening – to say the least.

Scott Paulson writes political news and commentary for CBS Local and Examiner.com and teaches English at a community college in the Chicago area.

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012/08/17/2016-obamas-america-movie-is-disturbingly-necessary/#blogbio

Democrats require a photo ID for the convention

It is said that the Democrats will be bussing college students and union members into the convention in Charlotte,  because the seats won’t be filled.  In any case, they are very strict about IDs.  Just not for voting.

Hope and Chair

Today is Empty Chair Day.  All over the country people are putting empty chairs on the lawn, drive way, balcony, and taking photos and circulating them.  We all got Clint Eastwood’s message.  Here’s mine:

Narcissist in Chief

Obama’s tribute to Neil Armstrong.

Today is Empty Chair Day

To support Clint Eastwood’s conversation with an empty chair at the Republican convention, put an empty chair in your yard today.

 

Monday Memories—The Wedding Dress

I came across this photo today in a package of photos I was planning to send my niece, Cindy, my sister Carol’s daughter.  She’s the young lady in the photo, and it was in a file of my Aunt Muriel, who died in 2011 and her daughter gave me some photos to return to family members.

Here’s what I know from the note on the back of the photo. The occasion was a display of family mementoes at the Church of the Brethren in Mt. Morris, Illinois, for the bi-centennial in 1976. My mother and her sister Muriel had a few items that belonged to their grandmother, Susan George, who had travelled to Illinois as a bride in 1855 from Pennsylvania. This seems to be Susan’s wedding dress, as it looks like the dress in the only photo we have of her, so we’re assuming it was saved for that reason. The photo isn’t very clear, but I think the item in the plastic bag is her straw bonnet.  In those days, Brethren women kept their heads covered, but the bonnets might be a simple covering with ties of sheer white net, or a straw hat, or black bonnet for Sunday dress. I don’t know where the dress is now, but I have the black bonnet.

Because of the 70s fashions, I’m not sure if Cindy is wearing her own dress with lacy sleeves, or if she might also be wearing a gown of the 19th century.  I’ll have to ask her and update this when I find out.

Let’s not repeat FDR’s mistakes

Many of President Obama’s failed policies to stimulate the economy are bit like Viagra, temporary and not a permanent solution for something systemic. They are out of FDR’s playbook in the 1930s when the Great Depression was rolling along for 10 years, with the blame always going back to President Hoover (who as a liberal Republican had actually tried many of the same government programs to boost the economy and was criticized by candidate Roosevelt). Using the excuse of the economy FDR put in place social programs.  In early 1941 Congress gave FDR unprecedented authority and funds to act militarily with speed in case the war in Europe got worse.  If you recall your history, Hitler a democratically elected Socialist, was rampaging through Europe installing his Aryan Nazi puppets.  Americans had been averse to war, especially the Communists, despite the horror stories about Jews, the disabled, the Gypsies, and the non-German nationals and how they were suffering.  Then when Hitler attacked the USSR, the darling of the American Communist Party, opinions changed.  When Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941, FDR immediately went into action. Close to a million Americans—Germans, Italians and Japanese—plus foreign nationals who were in the country for business or tourism, were either detained, imprisoned, or moved to relocation camps away from the two coasts.  Congress had never foreseen that the money would be used against Americans, but it was too late.  This could happen with any President, but for those of you who were outraged by Iraq and Afghanistan, just check the internet for the Congressional debates that went on in 2002 and 2003, and note that in the 1990s it was the Clinton administration, (Kennedy, Pelosi, Kerry,  etc.) warning of WMD.  Bush had Congressional approval for Iraq and Afghanistan regardless of whether it was a mistake or he had poor motives.  He had a lot of company (Obama who has continued those occupations for 4 years did not support him or the U.S. forces).  Obama has increasingly set himself up as a dictatorial monarch and ignores our Congress.  Let’s put a stop to this in November, and if Romney proceeds on the same course, boot him out too!

Golf, PGA and Chicago are now racist slurs—the dog whistling Democrats

“On the matter of those racist dog whistles all these middle-age white liberals keep hearing, the Wall Street Journal's James Taranto put it very well: "The thing we adore about these dog-whistle kerfuffles is that the people who react to the whistle always assume it's intended for somebody else," he wrote. "The whole point of the metaphor is that if you can hear the whistle, you're the dog." And a very rare breed at that. What frequency does a Mitch McConnell speech have to be ringing inside your head for even the most racially obsessed Caucasian NBC anchorman to hear the words "PGA tour" as "deep-rooted white insecurities about black male sexuality"? That's way beyond dog-whistling, and somewhere between barking mad and frothing rabid.”

No one explains the racism of pasty white men better than Mark Steyn.

Ryan’s extreme health care plan

"Paul Ryan’s Medicare reform proposal is as extreme as the health plan available to every member of Congress. Ryan envisions average seniors enjoying Capitol Hill-style medical options. This, itself, would be a choice. Seniors who oppose choice in health coverage will be 100 percent welcome to remain within traditional Medicare.

Ryan’s “far-Right” Medicare reform is co-sponsored by Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon liberal Democrat. (2010 Americans for Democratic Action rating: 100 percent) Unlike most Democrats, Wyden understands that if Medicare traverses today’s path, by 2024, it will tumble into a canyon."

Read Deroy Murdock’s article here.

You’ll continue to hear scary stories about Bain Capital.  If it’s so awful, why do so many government pensions, union pensions, state teachers’ pensions, and left of center foundations all have their investments with Bain?  Billions and billions in Bain.

The story here.

I wonder what happened to the beach?

Is it environmentally friendly to haul 15 tons of sand from a NC beach to build a sculpture of a president who has failed?  It’s not a very good likeness.

Update: There has been a bad storm in Charlotte, and part of the Mount Obama has been washed away or damaged. Not a good sign.

Labor Day yard and rummage sales

So many holiday week-end yard sales! At the Heritage Society sale, I saw a beautiful set of white china with white decorative flowers with silver trim approx.7 place settings for $5, made in Japan. Right next to it was a cheap looking set of plates, big box store type, made in China, no cups or serving pieces for $10. These days women with dishwashers and microwaves don't want nice china with gold or silver trim. But why wait to set a pretty table? So I bought the $5 set and put my heavy Pfalzgraf in the neighbor's sale.

I just had to google it--the dinner plates at replacement site about $10 ea., cups and saucers about $12, and bread and butter plates $6, and I seem to have 7 of everything. 

 

Replacement China in the Wakefield pattern 364 made in Japan from Robbins Nest.

White on white, platinum trim

http://www.table-settings.com/tptanks/japan-fine-china/wakefield-364.html

Don’t settle for less under Obama

A good word from Dietrich Bonhoeffer

You might see hateful things at non-Christian web sites, but those are not as disturbing as what Christians say about each other.  Christ has a solution for that.  “A Christian community either lives by the intercessory prayers of its members for one another, or the community will be destroyed. I can no longer condemn or hate other Christians for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble they cause me. In intercessory prayer the face that may have been strange and intolerable to me is transformed into the face of one for whom Christ died, the face of a pardoned sinner. That is a blessed discovery for the Christian who is beginning to offer intercessory prayer for others. As far as we are concerned, there is no dislike, no personal tension, no disunity or strife that cannot be overcome by intercessory prayer. Intercessory prayer is the purifying bath into which the individual and the community must enter every day.

Biblical Wisdom:  Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints. Ephesians 6:18

Socialist ideas, race baiting, dog whistling, free contraception, higher taxes, smaller economy . . .

A letter home from a new American, 1737

In a genealogy workshop this summer I met another Lakesider (she heard me mention Manchester College and asked me if I was Brethren) whose maiden name was Studebaker, a name I recognized not just from the automobile, but from the wagon company which at one time had some intention to save the Mt. Morris College in Mt. Morris, Illinois.  Today we met again and she loaned me her huge Studebaker genealogy book, “The Studebaker Family in America,” published in the 1970s by the Studebaker Family National Association.  One of the association’s links back to Europe was a letter written by 2 brothers, which is translated, and is an interesting peek at life for new immigrants in Pennsylvania. . . with our conventions and campaign speak in full force, some of these phrases will be familiar, yet extremely foreign to us.  We don’t remember today how burdened Europeans were with taxes and assessments, how if you were born poor, you stayed poor. . . or that people actually sold their children into labor contracts if they were too poor to pay for passage to get here!

“As to your question regarding brother John, there is, thanks to God, no reason for complaint, for life is pleasant here. For we are better off than in Europe, because anyone who is willing to work can make a good living here, except for certain craftsmen.
The craftsmen are not organized here as with you. [The reference is probably to the toolmakers of the district from which the writers came]. Yet things could be better organized here, if only there were some masters here. For steel and iron are plentiful in this country. Good steel and iron and coal and grinding stones are imported from England, and the coal is for sale here as with you. Also there are many rivers.

Yet anybody who wants to work on a farm, can live a life without worries, for not much has to be paid to the sovereign, the maximum is six shillings per one hundred acres in the national currency. Some give corn and some give peppercorn and others give one shilling per one hundred acres and some don't pay anything, once the sovereign has received his money. Much that was bought from the late Count [William Penn], as indicated above, has to pay one shilling per one hundred acres.
Furthermore let me tell you how a poor man be able to come across, who lacks the money to pay the passage. There is the following agreement: If a man has children, he can put them into service. A boy has to remain in service until he is twenty one. The girl has to stay until eighteen years of age. For this, people pay a lot of money. In that way, a poor man is able to free himself and his wife.”

After praising the crops one could grow, the writers go on to say in an almost amazed tone about the honesty and integrity of the authorities, and they were just folks like the ordinary people,

“Furthermore a word about the authorities. The authorities here are good ones. You can go to a person in authority in the same way as to a peasant. You don't have to take your hat off for a person in authority. They administer justice. Nobody suffers violence or injustice from them. They live a pious and God-fearing life. They don't harm or vex anybody as they do with you. When you sell something here, e.g., inheritance or tools, it does not concern the authorities.

Also an interesting insight into religion, especially since there are progressives among us who are downplaying this today. . . (note: Dunkers is the old term for Church of the Brethren and related groups which practiced adult baptism):

”As far as religion in this country is concerned, it should be said that there are all kinds of faiths here. Firstly, where authority is as it were, within; congregations, in which they have no baptism, neither for infants nor for adults. Then there are also here whole congregations of Baptists and Seventh Day Baptists [i.e., Dunkers] who also practice adult baptism, and they keep their Sunday on Saturday, yet lead a good life. There are also many "monists" [Unitarians?] as well as Reformed and Lutherans, and also a few Catholics in Philadelphia, whom the late Count [William Penn] wanted to expel, but they insisted on the franchise granted to them by the late Lord. So he had to keep his peace. But afterwards both we and all new arrivals of the male sex must go to the town hall before the magistrates to give up and renege allegiance to the Pope in Rome [illegible] of Great Britain in England. For the rest the authorities permit all faiths. If a person lives a quiet and pious life, he may believe what he likes.”The writers continue on to discuss labor—the shortage—and the problems with slave labor which the rich used, and relations with the Indians.  Read the rest of the letter here.

My grandmother’s childhood scrapbook showing advertising for the Studebaker Wagon of South Bend, Indiana.

And still the majority of blacks will vote for failed policies of Democrats

Democrats don’t applaud success, they apologize

Think about it—the party you support—is it pro-life?

Condi Rice is called Uncle Tom by Democrats

Obama supporters are calling Condi Rice and other black republicans "Uncle Toms" and pejorative, racist, ugly words. Perhaps they need to review the history of Stowe's book, how it influenced generations for good, and perhaps another story about a man who gave his life for others and then people change their lives of evil based on his life of good. Then perhaps look at the Jim Crow laws and the KKK which were arms of the Democrat party to undo the freedoms accomplished by amendments to the Constitution. It seems Democrats do a lot of that and use 19th century tactics to punish those who escape their clutches. Stowe's book was based on real slave narratives, particularly a man named Henson who after securing his own safety and freedom returned to the South to free others. Many black republicans are trying to lead their friends and family away from the Democrat plantation, but it's a tough struggle. There are some successes, therefore the name calling. Twitter and FB comments on Daily Beast are just frightening in their anger, fear and hate.

2016 the film

It’s doing very well at the box office.  Here from Patriot Post is a summary of Dinesh D’Souza’s film.

D'Souza's film is based on his books, "The Roots of Obama's Rage" and "Obama's America," in which he asserts that Obama's worldview was shaped most directly by the anti-colonialist views of his father, and that Obama is now intent on unmaking American so that he can remake it according to his worldview.

In a 2010 Forbes Magazine editorial on Obama, D'Souza concluded: "[Obama] is trapped in his father's time machine. Incredibly, the U.S. is being ruled according to the dreams of a Luo tribesman of the 1950s. This philandering, inebriated African socialist, who raged against the world for denying him the realization of his anti-colonial ambitions, is now setting the nation's agenda through the reincarnation of his dreams in his son. The son makes it happen, but he candidly admits he is only living out his father's dream. The invisible father provides the inspiration, and the son dutifully gets the job done. America today is governed by a ghost."

Watch for it tomorrow night. . .

 

“Sky & Telescope magazine has traced the history of the term in at least two articles and it has even been part of the change of how the term is used.

Here is a summary of what the articles describe:

• The original usage of the term was like the modern statement “When pigs fly.”
• Another described an infrequent event related to volcanic eruptions. The dust ejected high into the atmosphere, can give the moon and sun and bluish hue when see through the dust. While infrequent, blue moons do occur.
• A usage closer to the popular modern concept can be traced to the Maine Farmers’ Almanac that related the term an extra full moon during a season. The seasons normally have three full moons. When a season has four, the third one is called “Blue Moon.” Historically, the months had names, such as Harvest Moon, Egg Moon or Lenten Moon. Because those full moons were related to specific events related to the seasons, there came a time when a season had an extra full moon without a name; the third month in that series was named “Blue Moon.”
• Sky & Telescope also stated that it contributed to the popular notion with articles in 1946 and 1950 that cited the Maine Farmers’ Almanac, but added that a second full moon in a month was a “Blue Moon.”

http://jeffreylhunt.wordpress.com/2012/08/30/august-31-blue-moon/

Does Congress know about this? 200 Marines have landed in Guatemala

"Guatemalan authorities say they signed a treaty allowing the U.S. military to conduct the operations on July 16. Less than a month later an Air Force C-5 transport plane flew into Guatemala City from North Carolina loaded with the Marines and four UH-1 "Huey" helicopters."

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LT_GUATEMALA_US_MARINES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-08-29-18-33-58

Don’t blame the Democrats for these creeps

http://redalertpolitics.com/2012/08/29/leftists-say-murder-ann-romney-via-twitter-call-mia-love-house-ner/

Whose war on women?

Communist Party of the USA endorses Obama

President Obama--get over it

Man up and stop blaming others for your failures.

Love from the Republican convention in Tampa

What a great poster to replace a fading Obama poster

The Democrats big lie about Katrina

The first line of defense in a hurricane, tornado or earthquake is the city, county and state authorities. During Katrina and Rita the mayor of New Orleans, Democrat Ray Nagin (Chocolate city Nagin) and the Democrat Governor of LA Kathleen Blanco failed in their responsibilities. Nagin thought they were prepared up to category 3 (it was a 5) and Blanco dithered about 2 days despite Bush’s urging before she did anything. So who do Democrats blame for 1800 deaths? President Bush. So far with Isaac there has been one death. Let's see if they will give Obama the credit or Governor Bobby Jindal who's been on top of this from the beginning.

How many “hot button” racialist words can you find?

“The Americas Before 1900 Working Group fosters comparative and transnational approaches to the cultures and histories of the early Americas in both research and teaching. Conceptualizing connections across the hemisphere’s cultures and languages is especially crucial for understanding the kinds of colonial encounters and transitions to modernity that proliferate from the pre-Columbian era to the advent of industrialization. We bring historians and literary scholars of both Latin America and Anglo-America together to discuss hemispheric questions such as how narratives across cultures address the legacy of slavery; how colonial encounters influence modern forms of jurisprudence; and how systems of quantification develop across different imperial spaces. Convening in Spring 2013, we anticipate broadening these questions as we create a space for ongoing dialogue about the interconnectedness of the Americas to each other and the rest of the globe. “

It’s just a guess, but research on pre-european cultures with groups killing and sacrificing each other is probably not a part of this Ohio State University Working Group’s conceptualizing connections.

You’ve bought a lie

Wellness exams, electronic records and preventive care do not save money or lives. But that's how Obamacare has been sold. Well trained doctors free of government red tape and payment schedules do. I know a woman who needs surgery tomorrow and is in constant pain, but it may be 4-5 months; I called in July for an appointment with a common specialty and couldn't get in until December. We are Medicare. Welcome to our playpen, all you who thought Obamacare would be so terrific.

Ask you doctor about PPACA

Go ahead, ask your physician at your next visit what she or he thinks of current Washington-directed reform and its impact on the doctor-patient relationship. What you hear will likely surprise you, because it will likely be markedly different from what you hear from Washington. The policy theorists are simply too far removed from the reality of front-line patient care. Health reform, whether via the implementation of ObamaCare or the GOP's "repeal and replace" plan, should no longer ignore the input and counsel of experienced, front-line, practicing doctors.

http://theweek.com/bullpen/column/232510/what-my-doctor-thinks-of-obamacare