We’ve had these laws since the late 1970s

Privacy of phone records? Surveillance of foreign agents inside the U.S.? We've had the laws on the books for some time. What we've learned in the current Obama scandals is we can't trust government agencies not to misuse the guarantees. It’s disturbing that opinions on the law change among the electorate depending on who is in power.

Smith v. Maryland, 442 U.S. 735 (1979) was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the installation and use of the pen register was not a "search" within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment, and hence no warrant was required. The pen register was installed on telephone company property at the telephone company's central offices. In the Majority opinion, Justice Blackmun rejected the idea that the installation and use of a pen registry constitutes a violation of the "legitimate expectation of privacy" since the numbers would be available to and recorded by the phone company anyway. [Wikipedia]

The United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA court, AKA FISC) is a U.S. federal court authorized under 50 U.S.C. § 1803, Pub.L. 95–511, 92 Stat. 1788, enacted October 25, 1978. It was established by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA). The court oversees requests for surveillance warrants against suspected foreign intelligence agents inside the United States by federal law enforcement agencies (primarily National Security Agency and the F.B.I.). FISA and its court were inspired by the recommendations of the Church Committee. . . It is also rare for FISA warrant requests to be turned down by the court. [Wikipedia

People don’t care about snoops

I'm shocked by the people who will accept the explanation that if you're not doing anything wrong why care if Google is passing your information along to the NSA. Tell that to the supporters, donors and board members of conservative groups who had their private financial information passed along to the Obama reelection campaign by someone in the IRS. We didn't think that would happen either. Hey, Chad Johnson is in jail because he didn't know he wasn't supposed to slap his lawyer's butt in front of a female judge. How many laws are out there you don't know about and are violating and perhaps blogging about or discussing

You are public, not private

Phone records are public information; many companies do data mining, plus every time you use a "loyalty" card you are giving away your privacy. Ever read a HIPAA compliance statement? Everyone but the janitor gets your information--same with credit card agreements. Librarians know what books you've checked out (even 25 years ago we knew which professor had what in his office at just a glance). There's a GPS thing in your smart phone. PRISM seems to be the item in question. It is beyond what the Patriot Act allowed--and many Republicans left Bush because they didn't like the Patriot Act. Many in the government have decided it is illegal, but I'm guessing half of Congress haven't read the Act.

A 29 year old high school drop out says NO to PRISM, flees to China, and we have no idea what he might reveal tomorrow that hurts our security. I don't call him a hero, I call him a traitor. I also think a President who calls Ft. Hood "work place violence," but thinks PRISM is our security against terrorists, is really screwed up. PRISM didn't find the Tsarnaev brothers, or even Edward Snowden and even the fact they gave him a job, any job, makes the NSA look pretty ineffective.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/06/09/edward_snowden_why_did_the_nsa_whistleblower_have_access_to_prism_and_other.html

The author of the Patriot Act says it was not intended for data mining. PRISM goes far beyond the original intention. That said, Snowden broke the law. And what about our Congress? Do they break the law by not knowing what is in the Act? Is it like Obamacare--they just don't bother to read it? Obama is defending the actions of the NSA which is violating the intent of the law.

http://www.ibtimes.com/jim-sensenbrenner-republican-author-patriot-act-says-nsa-prism-surveillance-goes-too-far-1297697

Banana Pudding

Got some extra bananas to use up?

BANANA PUDDING FROM SCRATCH
1/2 c. sugar
2 tbsp. flour
1/4 tsp. salt
2 c. milk
4 separated eggs
1 tbsp. vanilla flavor
1 box of Nilla Vanilla Wafers
4 med. ripe bananas

Mix flour, salt, and sugar; add milk slowly. Stir constantly over low heat until thickened. Stir and cook for about 15 minutes. Beat egg yolks in bowl and stir into mixture slowly stirring constantly. Cook about 5 more minutes stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Line bottom of casserole dish with vanilla wafers, bananas (sliced) and custard mixture. Repeat layers, ending with custard on top. Beat egg whites until stiff. Add 1/4 cup sugar; whip until it peaks. Spread on top of custard and bake in oven at 450 degrees for about 5 minutes or until browned. Remove from oven and serve.

From cousin Jodie Minnick Strickland

The agents were in D.C. directing the operations against Tea Party

"The heart of the effort to target tea-party and other conservative groups, we are learning, occurred in Washington, and that is likely why five D.C.-based IRS officials who are connected to the targeting have retired, resigned, been replaced, or been put on administrative leave, since news of the scandal broke in mid May.

They include Holly Paz, who last week, according to an IRS source, was replaced as director of Rulings and Agreements, the division that oversaw the targeting of conservative groups; Washington lawyer Carter Hull, who is accused of micromanaging the processing of tea-party cases, and who, according to IRS sources, requested his retirement package on March 12; the commissioner of the agency’s Tax Exempt and Government Entities division, Joseph Grant, who retired on June 3; former IRS commissioner Steven Miller, who resigned days after news of the scandal broke; and the director of the IRS’s Exempt Organizations division, Lois Lerner, who was placed on administrative leave only after refusing to tender her resignation, according to Iowa’s Chuck Grassley.

All five are or were based in the IRS’s headquarters on Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C."

http://nationalreview.com/article/350644/stop-blaming-rogue-agents-eliana-johnson

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/carolplattliebau/2013/06/10/irs-holly-paz-gets-replaced-n1617171

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/24/joseph-grant-irs_n_3332164.html

http://dailycaller.com/2013/06/05/irs-employees-washington-irs-official-carter-hull-oversaw-targeting-of-conservative-groups/

Did you hear about the scandal?

Bob: “Did you hear about the Obama administration scandal?”
Jim: “You mean the Mexican gun running?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “The State Dept. lying about Benghazi?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “The IRS targeting conservatives?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “The DOJ spying on the press?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “Sebelius shaking down health insurance executives?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “The NSA monitoring our phone calls, e-mails and everything else?”
Bob: “No, the other one”
Jim: “The State Dept. (new today) interfering with an IG investigation on dept. sexual misconduct?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “HHS employees (also new today) being given insider information on Medicare Advantage?”
Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “Clinton, the IRS, Clapper & Holder all lying to Congress?” Bob: “No, the other one.”
Jim: “I give up! … Oh wait, I think I got it! You mean that 65 million low-information voters stuck us again with the most corrupt administration in American history?”
Bob: “THAT’S THE ONE!”

Breitbart "One Million Voices"

The only issue that matters

Does your church condone killing babies? How about its insurance plan?  What organizations does it support? And end of life issues, and marriage?  It’s all connected.

Monday Memories—Passing notes

I saw this on FB and it made me smile, because even in the old days, we knew how to stay in touch without speaking.  However, the more I thought about it, the more I remembered how the less popular or not such good students were left out of the loop except the excitement of the passing.  I wonder, if like kids today who long to be included in texting or other smart phone activities, there were kids who hoped someone would pass them notes scribbled on torn  notebook paper.

Chicken Apple Wraps

Chicken Apple Wraps… This sounds like a healthy meal, and a good use for Iceberg lettuce, which really doesn’t have much to recommend it except for holding other good things.

 

.

Ingredients
1/2 cup chopped cooked chicken breast
3 tablespoons chopped Fuji apple
2 tablespoons chopped black or red grapes
2 tablespoons Crunchy Peanut Butter
1 tablespoon lite mayonnaise (or Greek yogurt)
2 teaspoons honey
Iceberg lettuce

Preparation
Chop chicken meat and fruit, mix in bowl. Mix in peanut butter, mayonnaise and honey.
Spoon into open lettuce leaf, roll and serve

This was posted on FB by Deb Fowler Nicholson who writes about weight loss

MoDo first has to blame Bush before Obama

Maureen Dowd, we tried to tell you not to trust him.  He’s a statist and believes there is no limit to the power government should have.

“There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment,” George Orwell wrote in “1984.” “How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/09/opinion/sunday/dowd-peeping-president-obama.html?ref=opinion

“Back in 2007, Obama said he would not want to run an administration that was “Bush-Cheney lite.” He doesn’t have to worry. With prisoners denied due process at Gitmo starving themselves, with the C.I.A. not always aware who it’s killing with drones, with an overzealous approach to leaks, and with the government’s secret domestic spy business swelling, there’s nothing lite about it. “

It’s more difficult to turn a child around than you might think

Recently Devonshire elementary (NC) was featured on the Today Show for its innovative programs of giving low income minority children extra attention, including a full time social worker in the class room. 40 years ago there was a study done in Columbus, Ohio called "The prevention of juvenile delinquency; an experiment" Ohio State University Press, 1972, by Walter C. Reckless.

"Bad boys" (they'd already had some contact with the law and came from troubled families) were assigned to 2 groups--intervention and control, and compared to "good boys" who had never been in trouble. The intervention group got every possible assistance including special counseling, assigned role models, extra tutoring, and special help for interpersonal relationships. The control group took the same classes, but got no extra help. The third group made up of kids who'd never been in trouble just proceeded as usual. At the end of 4 years, the students, parents, and teachers were all enthusiastic and loved the program. All believed it had made a difference. Unfortunately, it made no difference in the enriched group's drop out rate, contacts with the law, disciplinary events, behavior, or grades. They were the same as the control group.

I blogged about the Reckless Boys 6 years ago.

Google in bed with Obama

Google visits my blog about 10 times for every 100 posts (and I post a lot--1405 times in 2012). When should I expect an audit from the IRS or visit from the FBI? It's absurd for the NSA site to say if you haven't done anything wrong, you have nothing to fear that it gathers private data in violation of the 4th amendment in a Congressionally approved program in place and expanded since 1981. Americans were killed by their government at Ruby Ridge and Waco because of minor gun registration infractions worthy of a fine or a wrist slap. There are laws and regulations you've never heard of that are being violated by all of us . . .

Perhaps people lost their innocence about Google and Facebook long ago, realising that, just because their founders were kids in jeans, they were no less red-toothed than any other capitalist behemoth. But now the president's reputation will suffer the same treatment. This Prism will dim the halo that once adorned him.

For he has authorised not merely the continuation of a programme of state surveillance that he once opposed, but has actively expanded it. That officers who serve him could brag in a 41-page presentation – one, incidentally, laced with David Brent-style grandiosity, starting with the naffness of the Prism logo – of their ability to collect data "directly from the servers" of the likes of Microsoft, Apple and Yahoo, will be a lasting stain on his record. In this, he is George W Obama.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/07/obama-apple-google-facebook-tainted-prism

What Bill of Rights?

The President said he wants us to trust him/NSA, that there are safeguards. Really? We do have safeguards--the Bill of Rights. They've been systematically stomped on, shredded, ridiculed, parsed for loop holes, and laughed at by the left. Why should we trust anything in this administration after what we've learned since September 11, 2012?

What does the 4th amendment say? "“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

About the NSA snoop scoop

The Brits seem to have our best stories; not beholden to Obama

It’s about the money, not your health

Obamacare makes perfect sense if you follow the money, because that's what it is about. Our current employer based system was put in place after WWII as a way to attract workers. But now since it is virtually required and very regulated, it is the standard, not the exception as it was in the 1940s. Only 6% now buy insurance through the non-group market.

Employers' spending on health insurance premiums is exempt from taxation for both employers and employees. When my husband was a partner in an architectural firm he had to buy insurance with after tax dollars (owners weren't part of the benefit plan); when I became a regular employee at Ohio State (not contract or part time) I picked up the insurance for both of us and we probably saved/made an additional $300-400 a month 25 years ago.

The federal government isn't happy about "subsidizing" our health insurance, and wants those tax dollars so it can run its own program. ". . .it reduces federal and state tax revenues by $260 Billion per year and is the government's third largest expenditure on health care, after Medicare ($400 Billion) and Medicaid ($300 Billion)." You see, the government thinks it rightfully belongs to them.

http://www.nber.org/bah/2010no1/w15766.html

When Bobby Kennedy snooped on MLK

Even before the Patriot Act, there were exceptions under federal law to our guarantee of privacy under the 4th amendment.

"One was for so-called "pen-trap" orders. To obtain from a telephone company the numbers dialed to and from a particular telephone, officers must get a pen-trap order from a judge. They do not need to show probable cause, but must certify that the information is needed for an ongoing criminal investigation. The reason for the lesser standard is that these records are far less intrusive than wiretaps and physical searches.

Another major exception was for matters before the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court. Congress created the court in 1978 following scandals revealing that U.S. intelligence agencies had spied on hundreds of thousands of American citizens, most notably the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr." [Bobby Kennedy was the AG for this snooping]

(from "The Patriot Act" - Constitutional Rights Foundation)

He deflects the blame from Obama, so he’s still useful

Dry drowning—I’d never heard of it

“According to the Centers for Disease Control, some 3,600 people drowned in 2005, the most recent year for which there are statistics. Some 10 to 15 percent of those deaths was classified as “dry drowning,” which can occur up to 24 hours after a small amount of water gets into the lungs. In children, that can happen during a bath.”

http://www.today.com/id/24982210/ns/today-today_health/t/boys-death-highlights-hidden-danger-dry-drowning/

Signs:

1) Difficulty breathing

2) Extreme fatigue

3) Changes in behavior

In an active child, these signs would be hard to spot.

You get to play the hand you’re dealt—so don’t whine

   “But the real problem with Clinton's sure-to-become-ubiquitous talking point [at the Democratic convention about job creation]  is that it imputes to the President a level of power that he just doesn't have. Presidents don't get to wipe the slate clean and start the economy over from scratch; they must play the cards they are dealt. President Obama inherited a very bad hand indeed, with the bursting of the mortgage bubble. But he is far from alone in inheriting a bad hand.
     His immediate predecessor, George W. Bush, inherited the bursting of the tech bubble that had helped make the late Clinton years seem so prosperous. George H.W. Bush inherited what was, at the time, the worst banking crisis since the Depression, courtesy of a real estate bubble that had left the country dotted with see-through office buildings that had been built on spec and never leased.
     Ronald Reagan inherited stagflation from Jimmy Carter. Had Reagan been fixated on maximizing job creation in his first term, he never would have given political support to Paul Volcker's aggressive interest rate increases at the Federal Reserve, which succeeded in choking off inflation but at the cost of what was, at the time, the worst recession since the Depression.
     Similarly, Richard Nixon inherited the inflation and various other distortions created by LBJ's guns-and-butter policies. Moreover, his elimination of those half million American jobs LBJ had created in South Vietnam was fairly popular, particularly among the men being displaced.”

Senator Blutarsky, blogger

Rice Power

I'll say one thing about the Verizon scandal, it bumped the Rice/Power appointments off front page. Rice lied on 5 national TV shows--if she wasn't lying then she certainly wasn't asking the boss any questions. And Power? What a disaster. http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/Decoder-Wire/2013/0606/Samantha-Power-Can-Obama-s-UN-nominee-live-down-Israel-comments

It doesn’t matter what you call it

My borrowed Thursday Thirteen—13 good things about getting older

By Anonymous—as seen at Suddenly Senior

1. Your investment in health insurance is finally beginning to pay off.

2. Kidnappers are not very interested in you.

3. It's harder and harder for sexual harassment charges to stick.

4. If you've never smoked, you can start now and it won't have time to hurt you.

5. People no longer view you as a hypochondriac.

6. Your secrets are safe with your friends because they can't remember them, either.

7. Your supply of brain cells is finally down to a manageable size.

8. Your eyes won't get much worse.

9. Things you buy now won't wear out.

10. No one expects you to run into a burning building.

11. There's nothing left to learn the hard way.

12. Your joints are more accurate than the National Weather Service.

13. In a hostage situation, you are likely to be released first.

Verizon is probably just the tip of the ice-berg

The IRS spending spree

As the Federal budget goes, $40 million for one conference for IRS managers is a pittance (and that’s a different problem).  But it certainly shows that they are blind to the problems of their “customers.”  Also, they apparently were deaf to the worries of lesser paid government employees, and Rep. Trey Gowdy contrasts their spending on $3500 hotel rooms with his own staff in 2010 struggling to pay the bills. . . His recommendation?  Start over—a training webinar isn’t going to fix a culture that is so disconnected from reality.

How many died on D-Day, June 6, 1944?

“In April and May 1944, the Allied air forces lost nearly 12,000 men and over 2,000 aircraft in operations which paved the way for D-Day.

The Allied casualties figures for D-Day have generally been estimated at 10,000, including 2500 dead. Broken down by nationality, the usual D-Day casualty figures (killed, wounded, MIA) are approximately 2700 British, 946 Canadians, and 6603 Americans. . .

The total German casualties on D-Day are not known, but are estimated as being between 4000 and 9000 men. . .

Over 425,000 Allied and German troops were killed, wounded or went missing during the Battle of Normandy. This figure includes over 209,000 Allied casualties, with nearly 37,000 dead amongst the ground forces and a further 16,714 deaths amongst the Allied air forces. Of the Allied casualties, 83,045 were from 21st Army Group (British, Canadian and Polish ground forces), 125,847 from the US ground forces. The losses of the German forces during the Battle of Normandy can only be estimated. Roughly 200,000 German troops were killed or wounded. The Allies also captured 200,000 prisoners of war (not included in the 425,000 total, above). During the fighting around the Falaise Pocket (August 1944) alone, the Germans suffered losses of around 90,000, including prisoners.

http://www.ddaymuseum.co.uk/d-day/d-day-and-the-battle-of-normandy-your-questions-answered

Google and Obama

Google’s (GOOG) executive chairman, Eric Schmidt helped recruit talent, choose technology, and coach the Obama re-election campaign manager, Jim Messina, on the finer points of leading a large organization. “On election night he was in our boiler room in Chicago,” says David Plouffe, then a senior White House adviser. Schmidt had a particular affinity for a group of engineers and statisticians tucked away beneath a disco ball in a darkened corner of the office known as “the Cave.” The data analytics team, led by 30-year-old Dan Wagner, is credited with producing Obama’s surprising 5 million-vote margin of victory.”

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-05-30/googles-eric-schmidt-invests-in-obamas-big-data-brains

And now Google owns the data and the team that it created.

So, although voters were manipulated, I still say if Christians had gotten over their prejudices and desire to have a perfect candidate, Romney would be the president.  They simply sat out this election.

Black Quill and Ink Blog looks at the NSA/Verizon scandal and how libs still blame Bush

“Looking at Morning Joe's panel today discussing the new revelation of the NSA's massive data collection of phone calls among Americans. They are complaining how Obama's actions are a major expansion of the Bush policies. Arianna Huffington said that she is disappointed in Obama because he said he was against G. Bush doing this stuff and how Obama promised to end these policies but instead how he has massively increased them. They talked about how Obama criticized Bush for water-boarding three terrorist that are alive today but now how Obama uses drones to kill maybe hundreds of innocent civilians who just happened to be near targeted terrorist. They said that they never would have expected Obama to do this sort of thing given his campaign rhetoric and promises.

Conservatives like me are in no way surprised. I remember warning my Obama loving cousin back in August of 2008 that Obama was a radical and could not be trusted. My cousin said that he liked the fact that Obama was against Bush and that he believed that he would do what he promised. I asked him what in Obama 's past would cause him to believe in Obama, OR anything that he said. Obama's past for liberals was completely devoid of any facts. His past for conservatives was rife with radical associations and people which for us portended bad news. If for no other reason, people like my cousin should have been concerned because they knew nothing about the guy except for the fact that he was black, spoke well and was a Harvard lawyer. It is so amusing (although I weep for my country) how these liberals, who told us in 2008 and even in 2012 how wrong we were about Obama, are now getting wind of his radicalism and far left mentality and corruption. Just imagine if Bush were doing half of the stuff Obama has done and is doing, Benghazi, AP, Fast and Furious, Solyndra, James Rosen and IRS. Amazing....simply amazing.

Now in unison we conservatives won't say....WE TOLD YOU SO.”

[Black Quill & Ink (BQI) is a Black conservative blog providing commentary on current events and news topics. We hope to elevate the discussion of conservative values, especially within the Black community.]

Obama’s Watergate

Corruption and cover up. Surely Democrats must be embarrassed by the daily revelations. Yet they stick by him. Forty years ago chagrined, honest Republicans were fleeing from Nixon, a man whose lines about "I didn't know," or "I'm not a crook," are now being used by Obama. Maybe there's time. It hasn't all come out yet.

The Early Church, contraception and abortion

Some Christians think the church has not always disapproved of contraception and abortion (especially if they listen to that well known theologian, Nancy Pelosi). They may think the HHS battle just belongs to the Catholics.  They would be wrong. For the first centuries of the church, we share many of the “founding” documents written after the New Testament gospels and letters.  The earliest, the Didache, which is sort of a catechism for new believers, is very clear on this issue. Abortion and even infanticide and offering children to the pagan gods were not uncommon among the cultures of the early converts, so something needed to be said. Due to the length of this article, I’m only using the high lights, and I suggest you look at the original if interested in this topic.

The earliest reference to contraception and abortion is in the Didache, a document from the second half of the first century or early second century. Didache reads: “You shall not practice birth control, you shall not murder a child by abortion, nor kill what is begotten” (2).

Many translations read “practice sorcery” because the Greek word sometimes has that meaning (see Wisdom 12:4, Galatians 5:20, Revelation 18:23). However, it also means practice medicine or use poison, and the term may refer to contraceptive measures, as is the case in a number of the following texts.

Another early text is the Epistle of Barnabas: “You shall not slay the child by procuring abortion, nor shall you destroy it after it is born” (19). This also shows that the earliest Christians forbade abortion.

In the second century, St. Clement of Alexandria wrote in the Paedagogus (2.10.96): “Women who resort to some sort of deadly abortion drug kill not only the embryo, but along with it, all human kindness.” This passage supports our translation of the Didache by mentioning the use of drugs to induce abortion.

In 177, Athenagoras of Athens wrote in the Supplication for the Christians: “And when we say that those women who use drugs to bring on abortion commit murder, and will have to give an account to God for the abortion, on what principle should we commit murder?”

.. .Tertullian’s Apology in 197, while he was still in union with the Church, says, “In our case, murder being once for all forbidden, we may not destroy even the fetus in the womb, while as yet the human being derives blood from other parts of the body for its sustenance. To hinder a birth is merely a speedier man-killing; nor does it matter whether you take away a life that is born, or destroy one that is coming to the birth.”

In the third century, Minucius Felix (226) wrote in Octavius: “There are some women who, by drinking medical preparations, extinguish the source of the future man in their very bowels, and thus commit a parricide before they bring forth” (30).

Around 228, St. Hippolytus wrote about unmarried women, including some reputed to be Christians, who became pregnant from illicit relationships. In his Refutation of All Heresies, he says, “Whence women, reputed believers, began to resort to drugs for producing sterility and to gird themselves round, so to expel what was being conceived on account of their not wishing to have a child either by a slave or by any paltry fellow, for the sake of their family and excessive wealth. Behold, into how great impiety that lawless one has proceeded by inculcating adultery and murder at the same time! And withal, after such audacious acts, they, lost to all shame, attempt to call themselves a Catholic Church” (9.7).

. . . . A document known as the Constitutions of the Holy Apostles reads “You shall not slay thy child by causing abortion, nor kill that which is begotten; for ‘everything that is shaped and has received a soul from God, if it be slain, shall be avenged, as being unjustly destroyed’” (7.1).

This states the belief that the fetus has a soul and its life must be protected from conception forward.

. . .  St. Augustine wrote On Marriage and Concupiscence (419). . .  “I am supposing, then, although you are not lying [with your wife] for the sake of procreating offspring, you are not for the sake of lust obstructing their procreation by an evil prayer or an evil deed. Those who do this, although they are called husband and wife, are not; nor do they retain any reality of marriage, but with a respectable name cover a shame” (1.15.17).

St. Basil the Great wrote in his First Canonical Letter, Canon 2: “The woman who purposely destroys her unborn child is guilty of murder. With us there is no nice enquiry as to its being formed or unformed. In this case it is not only the being about to be born who is vindicated, but the woman in her attack upon herself; because in most cases women who make such attempts die. The destruction of the embryo is an additional crime, a second murder, at all events, if we regard it as done with intent” (374). . .

St. Jerome, Letter 22 to Eustochium (396), said: “Some, when they find themselves with child through their sin, use drugs to procure abortion, and when (as often happens) they die with their offspring, they enter the lower world, laden with the guilt not only of adultery against Christ, but also of suicide and child murder. Yet it is these who say: ‘Unto the pure all things are pure; my conscience is sufficient guide for me.’ A pure heart is what God looks for” (13).

Not only did many of the great theologians address abortion and contraception, but so did some councils.. . 

Likewise, the Catholic author of this article says, Luther and Calvin also condemned the practice.

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/abortion-contraception-and-the-church-fathers#ixzz2VQhyQsx9

Man Caves for EPA contractor employees

“The warehouse [70,000 sf]contained multiple unauthorized and hidden personal spaces created by and for the workers that included televisions, refrigerators, radios, microwaves, chairs and couches,” the IG report said. “These spaces contained personal items, including photos, pin ups, calendars, clothing, books, magazines and videos."  . . . In addition to the secret rooms, the IG found an incomplete and inaccurate recordkeeping system; numerous potential security and safety hazards, including an open box of passports. . .”

http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2013/06/secret-man-caves-found-epa-warehouse/64202/?oref=govexec_today_nl

I wonder why the EPA needs passports?

Women and Obama

Make a mess in the Obama administration and you get a bonus, a promotion or the revolving door to a top job in industry or a non-profit: Lois Lerner (FEC to IRS enforcement), Susan Rice (U.N. to Nat. Security Advisor) , Sarah Hall Ingram (IRS to Obamacare implementation), Elizabeth Fowler (Obamacare architect to Johnson and Johnson), Lisa Jackson (EPA to Apple, Samantha Power (special assistant to Obama and all around trouble maker in a variety of positions married to Cass Sunstein to take Susan Rice's place at U.N.).

http://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2011/03/samantha-power-power-behind-gaddafi.html

Star Parker has the CURE for dependency

It's possible you've seen Star Parker on CNN, TBN, CSPAN, CBN, and FOX News, and once you learned she's a conservative Christian, perhaps you picked up the remote and looked for someone else to discuss the news of the day. But if you're a Democrat, you should also know she's had several abortions and been on welfare so she knows your side of the fence too, even if she jumped it and ran to the freedom of Christ, because that's who changed her life. Today she's head of CURE, the Center for Urban Renewal and Education, a 501(c)(3) non-profit think tank which promotes market based public policy to fight poverty.

I wonder if the IRS has investigated her status--after all, she did leave the system for a better plan and tells others how to do it. That could be a threat to the current administration.

http://townhall.com/columnists/starparker/

ProPublica—left wing 501c3 non-profit investigates right wing 501c3 non-profits

Pot to kettle—your non-profit is not appropriate, but ours is. Yours is political and so is ours, but we’re left wing and you’re right wing.  You are funded by ordinary Americans trying to regain control of the country, and we are funded by rich philanthropists who don’t want to give up control.

“ProPublica began operations in 2008 with funding from the liberal Sandler Foundation. According to The New York Times it was “the creation of Herbert M. and Marion O. Sandler, the former chief executives of the Golden West Financial Corporation.”The billionaire Sandlers “committed $10 million a year to the project.”

In addition to the Sandler millions, ProPublica has received $300,000 from liberal billionaire George Soros’s Open Society Foundations.”

“ProPublica was also the organization that received leaked IRS tax forms related to conservative groups.  Pro Publica admitted “they should not have been sent to us before they were approved.””

https://www.mrc.org/articles/soros-funded-news-operation-helped-build-irs-case-against-tea-party

Sexual assault and the military

Most sexual assaults are male on male.  Imagine the mess we'll have in the military now that don't ask don't tell is history.

"Sexual assault includes rape, nonconsensual sodomy (oral or anal sex), indecent assault (e.g., unwanted and inappropriate sexual contact or fondling), or attempts to commits these acts. Sexual assault can occur without regard to gender, spousal relationship, or age of victim.*

Other sex-related offenses are defined as all other sexual acts or acts in violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) that do not meet the above definition of sexual assault, or the definition of sexual harassment as promulgated in DoD Directive 1350.2, Department of Defense Military Equal Opportunity, para E2.1.15.

For the specific articles of sexual assault offenses under the UCMJ, see the Manual for Courts-Martial (MCM).

(*Reference- the DoD definition for sexual assault and other sex-related offenses for all training and education purposes)."

http://www.sexualassault.army.mil/content/faqs.cfm

The IRS needs to fix its labeling machine

“We’re the San Fernando Valley Patriots, not Occupy Oakland.”

Karen Kenny of San Fernando Valley Patriots at today’s Ways and Means Committee hearing in Washington, D.C. on IRS profiling of  conservative groups.

Among the questions her group was asked, Kenny said, was her "personal favorite ... which in relation to protests asked for a listing of our 'committed violations of local ordinances, breaches of public order or arrests' then requested details on how we 'conduct or promote' illegal activities. I think the IRS needs to fix its labeling machine: We're the San Fernando Valley Patriots, not Occupy Oakland."

Kenny said her organization applied for tax-exempt status in October 2010. But she "stopped the costly and exhausting IRS process in July 2012. We survive on my credit card and donations in our cake tin. Like patriots before us, conservation groups.

Their lies caught on tape

Liars lying. IRS, Benghazi, Obamacare

Shovel ready jobs, lobbyists in the White House, deficit cutting, no tax increases for anyone under $250,000

Lies about his personal life

President Gee of OSU has foot in mouth disease

Gee has his foot in his mouth so he won't be speaking at DeSales High school graduation. He has been reprimanded and told he will be fired if it happens again.

* On why Notre Dame wasn’t invited to join the Big Ten: “The fathers are holy on Sunday and they’re holy hell on the rest of the week… You just can’t trust those damn Catholics on a Thursday or a Friday, and so, literally, I can say that.” (Gee is a Mormon.)

* On what the Big Ten looked for in expansion partners: “… institutions of like-minded academic integrity. So you won’t see us adding Louisville.” (He then said the Big Ten wouldn’t be adding the University of Kentucky, either.)

* When asked how Big Ten fans should respond when SEC fans say people in a 14-team league called the Big Ten can’t count: “You tell the SEC when they learn to read and write, then they can figure out what we’re doing.”

*He also called the Arkansas coach Bret Bielema a "thug."

Tsk. Tsk.

Update:  June 4, Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee said this afternoon that he plans to retire on July 1, following the latest in a series of verbal gaffes that he said were meant as harmless jokes but ended up embarrassing the university.

Our Bill of Rights, cafeteria style

When did blacks start voting for Democrats almost exclusively?

Although there are black Republicans, Libertarians and black Tea Party members, until the mid 1930s with the 1936 re-election of Franklin Roosevelt, black Americans had always voted for Republicans--the party that freed them after the Civil War, the party that allowed them representatives in the House and Senate.  Democrats were the party of the KKK, Jim Crow and lynching. Democrats took their guns.   FDR did nothing for blacks to stop those terrible injustices, but he did provide them the same aid during the Great Depression that whites got.  Like public works programs at Howard University. That was huge!  By then many blacks had fled to the northern cities to find work. 

Although FDR did nothing to stop the crimes going on in his party, it was enough to win over blacks increasingly to Democrats in the north.  In the south blacks still couldn't register as a Democrat  which is why Martin Luther King, Jr. and Condi Rice’s father were Republicans.  The civil rights bills of the last century were proposed by Republicans, with little support from Democrats. Republicans even tried to pass an anti-lynching laws.   Between 1882-1968 nearly 200 anti-lynching bills were introduced in Congress, and three passed the House.  Seven presidents between 1890 and 1952 petitioned Congress to pass a federal law. Democrats defeated them. The 1964 Civil Rights Act would not have passed without support from Republicans.

Senator Strom Thurmond (D-SC): "This so-called Civil Rights Proposals, which the President has sent to Capitol Hill for enactment into law, are unconstitutional, unnecessary, unwise and extend beyond the realm of reason. This is the worst civil-rights package ever presented to the Congress and is reminiscent of the  Reconstruction proposals and actions of the  radical Republican Congress."

But has the Democratic party really changed?  Today, abortion is supported by Democratic Party Platform.  Abortion ends about 40% of black pregnancies (57% in New York City).  Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, of which Obama is a huge supporter, favored eugenics and eliminating black babies.  Blacks don’t seem to know their history with the Democrats.

Yes, deaths by war and criminal gun violence are bad—but governments are worse offenders

George Weigel writes that the 19th century ended in August 1914 with the start of WWI and ended in August 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union. That was the bloodiest 8 decades in the history of the world, he says.

Yes, there were a lot of wars in the 20th century, but most of the millions who suffered the massacres, tortures and deaths died from governments killing their own people--Soviets starving the Ukrainians, Turks killing the Armenian Christians, Communist Maoists wiping out millions of Chinese, Nazis killing German Jews, the genocide by Pol Pot in Cambodia, Saddam Hussein killing the Kurds and fellow Muslims, genocidal mass slaughter of the Tutsis by the Hutu lead government in Rwanda  and so forth. Their common thread for ruling was statism, sometimes with some ethnic or religious hatred used on the side to make their case.

It comes in many names and versions, but the state owns the people and knows best. In the United States, “we the people” are supposed to control the government.  We have documents that insure this.  So the next time a 9-12 group or a Tea Party gathering demands a smaller government, at least give it some thought.

High profile Democrats jump the fence

Although I do wonder if they would have ever caught on if it hadn’t been for the AP and James Rosen scandals.

“Bob Woodward of the Washington Post brought up the New York Times story during a press roundtable discussion on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” and said both Holder and Obama need to explain this and other unfolding scandals to the American people.

“It’s all very troubling, and you lump all these things, IRS and Benghazi together, and what you’ve got is a feeling that no one’s coming clean, we aren’t getting straight talk,” Woodward said.

“This goes to President Obama, he’s got to find a way to unravel this. We live in an age of distrust, I think it’s more severe now, and he has to find some way to clean this up and say this is what happened,” Woodward said.

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Holder-Obama-New-York-Times-resign/2013/06/02/id/507546

1939 color film of New York City

I’m not a film buff, but this looks awfully good to me.  Also, I’m blown away by the clothes—people took pride in their appearance, even the poor.  And this was still the Great Depression.

When cornered, blame Bush

Tonight on Fox News a Democratic apologist deflected the current scandals by referring to what the FBI did during the Bush years. So I looked it up. Yes, there were 5 "inappropriate" investigations of anti-war groups in 5 years and some went on for years, and nothing was found. Hardly sounds similar to several hundred groups being profiled, targeted, audited and terrorized by this administration.

And now children can buy them over the counter with no supervision

Barbara Seaman published The Doctor’s Case Against the Pill in 1969, which exposed side effects of oral contraceptives including the risk of blood clots, heart attack, stroke, depression, weight gain and loss of libido. But it wasn’t until almost 20 years later the dosage was reduced and by 2000 the EEOC was requiring coverage in health insurance.  Still, there are studies that claim oral contraceptives are carcinogens, and fifty years [2010] after the FDA approval there were 1,100 lawsuits pending against Bayer Healthcare Corporation regarding blood clots, heart attacks and strokes allegedly caused by the popular pills Yaz, Yazmin and the generic Ocella.

Rich women help kill babies of the poor

In Kuala Lumpur this week for Women Deliver, a global conference on women’s health, a billionaire (Melinda Gates) and a princess (Mary of Denmark) graced the stage to tell nurses and clean water advocates that any effort to help poor women is secondary to giving them contraception and abortion.
Note, the advocates of killing black and brown babies are white Americans and Europeans. Why teach midwives how to save the lives of the mothers, when you can offer them abortions?

 http://c-fam.org/en/issues/global-health/2079-2077-women-deliver-conference-rich-women-vs-poor

A Women Deliver participant noted $8 billion a year goes to family planning and advocates are demanding more. Yet “they don’t want to share it” with other causes. “And they don’t want to give any other group a platform that will distract from expanding abortion.”

Head Start isn’t

The United States has spent over $1 trillion on Head Start ($8 billion per year federal preschool program) since its inception almost 50 years ago in an effort to rescue young children from the effects of poverty, poor parenting, and ill health. For people who try so hard to eliminate babies before they are born, liberals sure do work hard at failed programs to help them succeed. Head Start does provide quality day care for mothers who want to work, and it does provide many jobs, some for the parents of the children. Unfortunately, the studies all along the way, including the most recent by HHS, show most benefits dissipate by first grade.

The way to prepare a child for a better chance at a good life is married parents with good jobs--Obama has set a good example on marriage, and a very poor one on jobs for low income people. No politician will ever dismantle this boondoggle--in fact, they snuck more funding for Head Start ($100 million) into Sandy relief. http://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/opre/head_start_executive_summary.pdf

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/01/14/head-start-sad-and-costly-secret-what-washington-doesnt-want-to-know/

Pillow talk

The wife of Doug Shulman, commissioner of the IRS during these major scandals when he visited the White House 157 times, is Susan L. Anderson. She is the "senior program advisor for the Washington-based nonprofit organization Public Campaign, which claims that it “is laying the foundation for reform by working with a broad range of organizations, including local community groups, around the country that are fighting for change and national organizations whose members are not fairly represented under the current campaign finance system.” "

Even though "fighting for change" and "reform" are in the description, her group probably hasn't had their board and staff audited, threatened by OSHA or investigated by ATF. Wonder why.

Apparently, Shulman didn’t like being questioned by Congress about his politics and contributions.  Appointed by Bush, his money and ethics leans heavily Democratic.

http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/31/former-irs-commissioner-shulmans-wife-works-for-liberal-group-fighting-open-campaign-spending/

http://www.americanclarion.com/20633/2013/05/23/irs-commissioner-upset-by-political-questions/

Criminal behavior in the IRS profiling

Now we know why there were reports of the enthusiasm for the Tea Party groups was waning--the people who might have attended or contributed were being profiled for audits by the IRS, and other agencies like ATF, OSHA and EPA. That's not only bigotry, it's terrorism of the bureaucratic kind. After all, they have the power to destroy your business and reputation. Lefties are also targeting this journalist, Scottie Hughes.  She’s very pretty, very conservative, and very outspoken.  That makes her a target for the Democrats’ War on Women.

http://townhall.com/columnists/scottiehughes/2013/05/30/the-tea-partys-message-is-bigger-than-even-its-most-courageous-messengers-n1608791

As the backlash against the IRS’s lawless assault on the Tea Party shows, that which does not kill the Tea Party makes it stronger. Americans everywhere are Lerning (pun intended) that the I.R.S.’s respect for the law isn’t merely Nixonian – it’s Dillingeresque. They are seeing what the founders warned about – that power corrupts. And they’re rightly concluding that a law like Obamacare – which gives vastly more power to the already out-of-control I.R.S. – is a threat to American freedom.

Mr. Clean

The IRS scandal and Obamacare

“A year ago, the IRS finalized a regulatory ruling to the effect that it will issue tax credits through Obamacare’s federal insurance exchanges. . . [for which] it has been granted no legal authority, by the Affordable Care Act (PPACA) or any other act of Congress, to issue such credits. In fact, the ruling flouts the explicit language of Obamacare.”http://spectator.org/archives/2013/05/28/an-irs-scandal-inseparable-fro

Huge loss for conservatives—Bachmann will not run

                

One of the reasons the lefties like to hate on Palin and Bachmann is because they are attractive and have sex appeal as well as being very smart.  Also they are mothers several times over. Bachmann was even a foster mother to other women's children. Palin chose not to abort her disabled child--driving the ugly left who think allowing a disabled child to live is irresponsible over the cliff .  The left is all about blurring lines and making men and women not only equal, but equally unattractive sexually.  The leftist women who know how to dress are the transsexuals.  If you want to know what brains and beauty looks like compare the Fox women to MSNBC.  I'm linking to Daily Kos and its unflattering, negative story on Bachmann.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/05/29/1212326/-Michele-Bachmann-will-not-run-in-2014-but-insists-my-future-is-full-it-is-limitless#

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pedro dressed for the dance.

Catholic writer bullied and silenced by IRS

It wasn't just Tea Party or Patriot groups. Catholic writer and professor Anne Hendershott wanted the public to know that Obamacare funds abortions and the IRS audited her. She was bullied by IRS agent Michael Iannotti about her Obamacare views. Usually she writes for free, and doesn't make much more than $5,000 a year for her articles. She wasn't allowed to bring her CPA to the "interview." She was intimidated into writing less on the topic--the whole point of targeting Obama’s critics. So if you heard that the Tea Party was losing its influence or critics were softening on Obamacare, now you know why—the Chicago way had wiped them from the stories you should have been reading.

http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/picture-emerges-that-irs-targeted-obamas-political-opponents-and-critics/

Good-byes just don’t get any easier

Today my husband and son are enjoying the Memorial tournament, so I made an appearance at the farewell luncheon for Pastor David Drumel and wife to give him a painting from my husband. They are moving back to the Nashville area after 6 years in Columbus ministering to our seniors at Upper Arlington Lutheran Church.

There is only one little difference between these two crooks

Nixon accepted the responsibility and did the honorable thing.  Obama knows nothing of honor, patriotism, honesty, hard work, or history.

Stop government bullying now

The IRS is bullying conservatives, Christians, wealthy Republican donors and small government patriots, and using audits, electronic snooping, OSHA and ATF to terrify the president's enemies--maybe they could make a new poster?

Waste, fraud and excessive costs—that won’t change

"About 30 percent of health spending in 2009--roughly $750 billion--was wasted on unnecessary services, excessive administrative costs, fraud, and other problems. Moreover, inefficiencies cause needless suffering. By one estimate, roughly 75,000 deaths might have been averted in 2005 if every state had delivered care at the quality level of the best performing state." Summary, Best Care at lower cost report, 2012, National Academies Press. So why didn't Obama start there instead of grabbing our health insurance? The illusion that someone else pays is what causes the unnecessary and excessive costs. When has creating a bloated government agency reduced costs? http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13444

Telephone surveys on health care

I know why Americans sound so stupid on these surveys. I got one last night, and because of the complexity of the questions finally had to interrupt the woman and tell her to call the next person on her list. She wasn't a very good reader, had difficulty pronouncing the words and I doubt she understood the questions either. It was about Comparative Effectiveness Research which preceded Obamacare (never used this word in the survey), but is now incorporated in it. http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/04/comparative-effectiveness-research-under-obamacare-a-slippery-slope-to-health-care-rationing

Are the wealthy getting all the breaks?

So you think the wealthy are getting the tax breaks? You're absolutely right. But they are the ones paying the taxes. It's hard to cut what you don't pay in.

http://taxfoundation.org/blog/cbo-tax-expenditures-eye-beholder

This non-profit had no problem with approval of status

Malik Obama's foundation (he used to go by a different name), which had no problem getting 501c3 status from the IRS while conservative groups waited years, seems to be funding his wives--he's a Muslim polygamist like his father. He has two foundations named after his father, Barack, and grandmother Sarah. These "non-profits" are supported by Americans and funds are used to send young men to radical Islam training. http://www.wnd.com/2013/05/obama-half-brother-uses-irs-status-to-fund-polygamy/

http://shoebat.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/New_IRS_Scandal_052113.pdf

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2287565/Obamas-brother-accused-attacking-2-TWELVE-wives-seducing-schoolgirl.html

Roy Abong’o Malik Obama is the first son of Barack Obama senior
and was best man at the president’s wedding.

The investigation of Eric Holder

Government health care with fringe benefits

The plumber’s friend

With fancy bathrooms and low flow toilets, I decided to buy some new plungers--just in case. The $3  old fashioned kind at Wal-Mart are sort of ugly, but for $15 I can get one in a cute little brushed nickel canister or bronze, and if want to scare the guests to death, there is one with a handle like a sea monster, so when it's in the toilet it looks like some something is attacking. Garden pots work too for storing the ugly ones. This is $30 at Bed Bath & Beyond, but only $15 at TJ Maxx.

Young, healthy males will be subsidizing the older, less healthy and females under Obamacare

"ObamaCare institutes several types of price controls on insurance premiums. The elimination of gender-based ratings forces young men to subsidize the substantially higher claims of young women, ending claims-based differentials of up to 70 percent under age 40. The 3:1 age rating limit requires younger people to subsidize older people, ending the roughly 6:1 rating that was based on actual costs. The elimination of health status as a rating factor forces those in good health to subsidize those in poor health, whether or not good health is due to self-control or lucky genetics." John Goodman, National Center for Policy Analysis.

http://healthblog.ncpa.org/obamacares-war-on-men/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=HA

Lumpy has passed away

I didn’t see Leave it to Beaver until I was an adult and caught the popular early TV sit com on reruns.  My parents didn’t have a TV until after I went away to college. Interesting observation in this story about the death of one of the Beaver characters, Lumpy who went on to a successful career in business.

Beaver and Wally, and their pals Eddie Haskell and Lumpy Rutherford, were a complete breed apart from today's horrific sitcom children. They didn't mouth off. They were actual kids playing average kids - not secret rock stars or internet moguls. They were always respectful — even if it was fake, as in Eddie's case. Their parents knew more than they did. Their actions had consequences. Failure - in school or on the playing field - wasn't whitewashed with an undeserved "awesome!" and a "participation trophy." There was more reality in an episode of Leave It To Beaver than in an entire season of any given show today.

http://family.lifegoesstrong.com/article/another-leave-it-beaver-death?cmp=&utm_source=OB_LGS

In 2007 The New York Times was more skeptical about Obama

The NYT in 2007 accurately raised the alarm about Obama’s voting record in Illinois as a Senator—when he would vote “present” on difficult issues, like gun control.  If he knew he’d get in trouble with Chicago gangs and Blacks, he just didn’t say yes or no.

Sometimes the “present’ votes were in line with instructions from Democratic leaders or because he objected to provisions in bills that he might otherwise support. At other times, Mr. Obama voted present on questions that had overwhelming bipartisan support. In at least a few cases, the issue was politically sensitive. . .

The vote on the juvenile-justice bill [ to let children as young as 15 be prosecuted as adults if charged with committing a crime with a firearm on or near school grounds] appears to be a case when Mr. Obama, who represented a racially mixed district on the South Side of Chicago, faced pressure. It also occurred about six months before he announced an ultimately unsuccessful campaign against a popular black congressman, Bobby L. Rush. . .

The measure passed both houses overwhelmingly. In explaining his present vote on the floor of the Senate, Mr. Obama said there was no proof that increasing penalties for young offenders reduced crime, though he acknowledged that the bill had fairly unanimous support.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/20/us/politics/20obama.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

The clutter of magazines

I used to collect first issues of magazines, in fact, I have a blog about them called In the Beginning.  But I’m trying to resist scanning magazine sections of bookstores and supermarkets.  It takes up a lot of space.  I love reading the occasional article on-line, but nothing replaces the feel and look of a fresh magazine.

Linda Lignon, the former owner of Interweave, one of the nation's largest art and craft media entities, and now its Creative Director after selling it to F+W Media, Inc. F+W Media, Inc.  last July, writes at her blog:

“Like many women my age (and younger), I wax eloquent about my love of paper, pages to turn, magazines as objects. And I hope they never go away. But at the same time, if I had to choose between a set of pages to fondle and all the rich content those pages hold, I'll take the content any day. That's the beauty of magazines in electronic form, on CDs, on the Internet. You can have the content without the clutter. On the other hand, I'm pretty comfortable with clutter. It's a conundrum.”

Happy Birthday Mom

Today is my mother's birthday--she would have been 101. Sweetest woman in the world. I’ve been cleaning out some things I rarely use—like cake pans. One last trip through the dishwasher then off to the resale shop.  I'll keep the coffee pot from the 70s I never use since it was a gift from Mom, but I make terrible coffee.  I think that was the reason for the gift—she was sure it must be the tool, and not me.

Fall 1983 when Mom and Dad visited us in Columbus.

Monday Memories—October 1947

On Memorial Day we remember the war dead of all the wars. In October 1947, I was a little girl at the funeral in Illinois for my mother's brother killed in October 1944 in China. It took that long to get him home. He was part of the largest "repatriation" effort in our history--over 200,000 dead returned on the Honda Knot to San Francisco.

"Congress had passed legislation authorizing repatriation of the bodies, and the majority of the families wanted their boys returned to private burial plots or to a national cemetery nearby. Not all the dead were returned to U.S. soil. An additional 93,242 men were buried in overseas American cemeteries because the families believed it more appropriate for them to rest with comrades near the battlefields where they had died. The families of 78,976 dead soldiers had no choice; their sons were listed as missing in action, and their remains were never recovered. Today the number of missing has been reduced by only a trifle; about seventy-eight thousand Americans who went off to World War II are still listed as lost. Among those still missing are about eight thousand men whose bodies had been recovered but whose identities are unknown. Their remains are buried in American cemeteries overseas.

The entire repatriation and overseas reburial program took six years to complete, from 1945 to 1951, at a cost of $200,000,000 in 1945 dollars—several billion today [2005]. It wasn’t the first American repatriation program following a foreign war, but it was the most extensive. More than twelve hundred U.S. dead were returned for burial after the Spanish-American War, and about 46,292 were repatriated from France after World War I. Another 30,921 U.S. soldiers who died in World War I were buried in eight American military cemeteries in France following that conflict. The vast reburial program after World War II is all but forgotten today." Safely Rest, David P. Colley.

                             

Disinfecting the bathrooms

Make an all-purpose bathroom cleaner by mixing two  tablespoons of dish liquid, two tablespoons ammonia, and one quart of warm water. Use this for the tub, sink, floors, and shower. Rinse with clean water. A baking soda paste can help get rid of marks in the sink or tub. Using a squeegee on shower walls after each shower helps stop mold and mildew from growing.

Leaving the lid up when you flush can spread fecal matter and germs all over your bathroom, even to your toothbrush. To limit nasty germs, clean your toilet bowl weekly -- and keep the lid down. Use a wet cloth and an all-purpose cleaner to wash the lid, seat, and outside of the bowl. Then use a toilet brush and the cleaner to scrub inside the bowl.

From: Web MD, Beat germs all over your house.

The infrastructure cry

If collapsing bridges weren’t so scary, I’d almost smile at the way the media are hyping the story about a bridge in Washington and the train accidents recently. Mix in a little global warning hype because of the Moore, OK tornado, and it’s perfect for pols.

Obama lured Americans with promises of money (mainly for union labor) for the “infrastructure” with the ARRA money.  Didn’t happen.  He hyped it again in a recent SOTU speech.  It’s only good for politicians who are trying to cover for something else. . . like an IRS scandal or snooping on journalists.

Over 100 years ago private companies built the subway system in New York.  The city took it over. It hasn’t been as efficient or as good since.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/13/politics/state-of-union-what-obama-said

http://www.nycsubway.org/wiki/Subway_FAQ:_A_Brief_History_of_the_Subway

Senate Chaplain gives Sunday sermon at Lakeside

Usually the early church service at Lakeside is held on the east deck of the pavilion, but it was rather windy today, although the sun was brilliant.  So it was moved into Orchestra Hall (a movie theater with a stage).  Rev. Barry Black, chaplain of the Senate, who gave the sermon this morning at Lakeside Hoover service at 10:30,  joined us briefly at the relocated dockside service (8:30). He's had the position since 2003 and is a 7th Day Adventist. He told us there are weekly prayer breakfasts for the senators, and they hold hands when they pray. Democrats and Republicans holding hands and praying. It's a nice thought.

                

Lenoisms

I guess we know why his contract isn’t being renewed.  He stopped drinking the Kool-Aid.

Looks worthy of Hollywood

Ethics of Chicago mobsters

Friday Family Photo

Memorial Day was originally called Decoration Day and honored the war dead of the Civil War with flowers on their graves. After WWI it became Memorial Day and honored all war dead, or even all deceased friends and family depending on your customs.

When I was very young, I sold paper red poppies with my siblings to raise money for the American Legion, of which my dad was a district commander in Illinois. When I was older I remember attending services at the band shell in Mt. Morris, where a senior student was chosen to recite the poem, "In Flanders' Field." First my grandparents would decorate my uncle's grave (died in China in 1944) at the Ashton, IL cemetery; then later my mom and aunt; and after they died, my father went to the cemetery with the flowers. Now they are all gone, but I hope there will be a few family members to go to the cemetery in Ashton and Mt. Morris to decorate and memorialize.

            

On how you deal with “Chicago”

Richard, a blogging friend writes: “ I can't get away from it. When I was barely legal, I drove a long haul truck for a little while. I never drove near Chicago but the company did, and it had a "regulation" that if you got pulled over by the police in the Chicago area, when you handed over your license and log book you wrapped the license in a twenty dollar bill. The police expected it, and didn't give the driver a ticket.

The news for the last few weeks has absolutely convinced me that I was correct in the previous election in the feeling that we had handed over our federal government to the heirs of the guys who set up the crookedness of the "then” Chicago police. We are being governed by a bunch of Chicago (not necessarily geographical) ward politicians. I hope we get past it without permanent damage to the nature of our country.”

Please do your own research.  Go online and look at the 28 categories for 501c organizations and read how vague the wording is.  It’s a law that is ripe for misuse regardless of who is in power.  But to connect this power to the health care law (woman who was in charge of exempt groups at IRS is now in charge of the IRS section of Obamacare) is Stalinesque. Truly, “Chicago” knew exactly what it was doing in creating this section of the new ACA.

The scandal timeline

Interesting program on Glenn Beck tonight. He developed a time line and let all the people involved in the scandals like Fast and Furious, Benghazi, IRS, AP, Dept. of Justice and Dept. of State speak for themselves. Mainly they said, and I paraphrase, "I don't know, it wasn't me."