Frozen track and swimming pools

When Leno asked if such laws [about homosexuality] would impact the upcoming Winter Olympics, Obama said he felt Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia "have a big stake in making sure the Olympics work, and I think they understand that for most of the countries that participate in the Olympics, we won't tolerate gays and lesbians being treated differently."

"They’re athletes, they’re there to compete," Obama said. "And if Russia wants to uphold the Olympic spirit, then every judgment should be made on the track, or in the swimming pool, or on the balance beam, and people’s sexual orientation shouldn’t have anything to do with it."

The Winter Olympics, it goes without saying, will not have events on the track, in the swimming pool, or on the balance beam.

 http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-Sports/2013/08/06/Obama-Confuses-Sochi-Olympics-for-Summer-Olympics

Obama’s “legitimate rape” phrase—James Taranto

"The odds of people dying in a terrorist attack obviously are still a lot lower than in a car accident, unfortunately," President Obama told NBC's Jay Leno last night.

Wait, "unfortunately"? Does the president really wish more Americans were killed in terrorist attacks? Indeed, orders of magnitude more, since nationwide traffic fatalities typically run between 30,000 and 50,000 a year?

Of course not. Obviously when he deployed that adverb he was thinking of the unfortunate souls killed in car accidents, not the victims of terrorism. He simply misspoke--just as Todd Akin did last year when he used the unfortunate phrase "legitimate rape." But for some reason, the World's Greatest Orator and the most powerful man in the world is held to lower standards of verbal exactitude than a lowly congressman from Missouri.

James Taranto, Wall St. Journal, August 7

Yes, and Ohio and all the Appalachian states agree

Oprah and Till

It’s very unfortunate that Oprah Winfrey, the richest and most successful woman in the United States, has passed along the misinformation that the Emmett Till case of 60 years ago is like the Trayvon Martin case.  Essentially, she’s said the last 50 years of the civil rights movement, her rise to prominence, the election of thousands of black officials to city and state and federal governments, the election of a black president, a growing middle class and rich CEOs like her have been for nothing.  Both the Defense and the Prosecution said the Martin/Zimmerman case was not about race. Martin attacked Zimmerman, and was bigger than Zimmerman.  His friend Rachel said on the Piers Morgan show that Zimmerman didn’t understand “whoop ass” and that he was a creepy ass cracker maybe a gay man intent on raping Martin. Emmett Till was 14, was from Chicago visiting in Mississippi, and flirted with the wife of a convenience store owner.  Does that sound like the Trayvon Martin case? Till was kidnapped, tortured and murdered and dumped in a river.  Zimmerman called the police and clearly thought he was in danger of his life when attacked.  Maybe it’s true what Obama says about rich fat cats—they lose their perspective. Oprah certainly did.  If she said this to get publicity for her new movie, her respect meter really sinks.

Afghanistan U.S. military deaths under Obama and Bush

This was dated February 2013, so Obama’s would now be higher.

http://icasualties.org/oef/

This is for all my Democrat friends and relatives, and those Republicans who gave up on Bush and decided to vote for “hope and change.” Remember, Bush had the Congress behind him to go to war.  Obama has just done what he pleased, and not what he promised.

Work place violence? Don’t tell that to the victims

How did the early Christians worship?

For as long as I’ve been a member of a 20th or 21st century church, I’ve heard that we need to go back and do things the way the early church did.  Yet I experience churches that have liturgy, creeds and hymns with preachers in robes, and churches that have the look and feel of a rock concert with preachers in torn jeans holding guitars. Christian leftists in the mainline churches think “social justice” when they read certain passages in the Gospels; others to the right somehow find free markets and capitalism. Why not take a look at how the first and second century Christians did “church?”

St. Justin Martyr, A.D. 150
“On the day we call the day of the sun, all who dwell in the city or country gather in the same place. The memoirs of the apostles and the writings of the prophets are read, as much as time permits. When the reader has finished, he who presides over those gathered admonishes and challenges them to imitate these beautiful things. Then we all rise together and offer prayers for ourselves . . . and for all others, wherever they may be, so that we may be found righteous by our life and actions, and faithful to the commandments, so as to obtain eternal salvation. When the prayers are concluded we exchange the kiss. Then someone brings bread and a cup of water and wine mixed together to him who presides over the brethren. He takes them and offers praise and glory to the Father of the universe, through the name of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and for a considerable time he gives thanks [eucharistian] that we have been judged worthy of these gifts. When he has concluded the prayers and thanksgivings, all present give voice to an acclamation by saying: ‘Amen.’ When he who presides has given thanks and the people have responded, those whom we call deacons give to those present the ‘eucharisted’ bread, wine and water and take them to those who are absent.”

Luke 24:30-31, 35; Acts 2:42, Corinthians 11:23-26

“He took the bread and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened. . . He was known to them in the breaking of the bread.”  “They devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”  In Chapter 11, after telling the Christians of Corinth everything they were doing wrong, Paul explains: “ ²³ For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, ²⁴ and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” ²⁵ In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” ²⁶ For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

With the exception of the kiss, and not communing at each gathering Justin’s letter sounds like our traditional service at Upper Arlington Lutheran Church, and with the exception that the believers don’t get wine (only the priest does), it sounds like a Roman Catholic service.  Todays Protestants follow the Reformers who gave up a lot to break with Rome.  They would probably do better to follow the early church patterns, in service and sermons.  I don’t know where sermons on right relationships, parenting, attitude, volunteerism, war, government, patriotism, etc. come to play in “challenges them to imitate these beautiful things.” Maybe I’m splitting hairs, but I think everyone in the pew, saved or not, needs to hear the Good News that Jesus died for them—that no one killed him—he gave his life willingly and asked us to remember his sacrifice and to give thanks by eating his body and drinking his blood in the bread and wine.

97% of news jobs are part-time

The July jobs report was blah. . . Over the past six months, the Household Survey of the Bureau of  Labor Statistics shows 963,000 more people reporting that they were employed, and 936,000 of them reported they’re in part-time jobs. This hasn’t happened in the history of this survey.  And it happened under Obama, and the finger of blame should be at his “signature” program, Obamacare.

Arguments both pro and con at Forbes.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2013/07/31/who-can-deny-it-obamacare-is-accelerating-u-s-towards-a-part-time-nation/

Having a crowd for Breakfast? Lazy eggs might work.

1) Spray each muffin well with nonstick spray.
2) Place a slice of ham in the bottom of each muffin well.
3) Place about a teaspoon or so of diced tomatoes on top of the ham.
4) Sprinkle some shredded cheddar cheese over the tomatoes.
5) Break one egg into each spot.
6) Sprinkle a little bit of salt and pepper on each.
7) Bake at 180/350 degrees for 18-20 minutes or until the yolks are as firm as you desire and the whites are cooked through.

What can’t the government fix? The government.

Monday Memories—pre-school?

Noticed this advertisement for the OSU run pre-school--"a high-quality early education and care program that prepares 3 and 4 year olds to be ready for kindergarten." Although I did attend kindergarten in Alameda, CA, when I was 5 I'm not sure there were pre-schools.  My early education program prepared me for life—not kindergarten.  It was playing with neighborhood friends Mike, Tommy and Dick, riding tricycles and pulling a wagon around the block, attending church and Sunday School at the Mt. Morris Church of the Brethren on Seminary Avenue, watching how my mom did household tasks, making tents out of blankets and the dining room table, lining up my dolls for “school,” and lunch, visiting my neighbors Ruth and Earl who had no children so I used the box of toys in their living room, shopping with my mom at the A & P,  watching the traffic on Rt. 64 which was in front of our house and pretending to be a truck driver making all the transmission noises and gear shifts, standing on a stool at the kitchen sink to “pretend” to do the dishes, listening to Mom read to my brother and me from “My book house,” a collection of children’s stories from around the world, coloring and trying to stay inside the lines like my big sisters, walking down the street to visit my great-grandmother, watching the older kids—9 or 10—play softball in the street one block over, inspecting the toes and fingers of baby cousins Joyce and Janet,  listening to my Mom tell stories while she French braided my hair, and of course, the best pre-school adventure in the world—travelling to California and back from northern Illinois in a 1939 Ford with my family seeing the prairies, mountains, desert, and interesting people.

 

The North Dakota jobs boom

When I see posters like this, I wonder how many young, unemployed or under employed, government dependent adults would even be able to figure out how to get there, apply, and then show up. Do they have any skills? Can they read instructions; follow instructions?  Would they even know ND is in the United States? What do you bet immigrants will find the jobs? 

Well, they still need fast food workers to feed all those with the necessary skills. “North Dakota has turned into an energy mecca that has delivered state budget surpluses, the nation’s lowest unemployment rate and thousands of workers who get $15-an-hour-plus jobs in restaurants and convenience stores that serve $30-an-hour oil field and construction laborers who hail from across the United States.”

WELCOME TO THE 21ST CENTURY!

*Our Phones ~ Wireless
*Cooking ~ Fireless
*Cars ~ Keyless
*Food ~ Fatless
*Tires ~ Tubeless
*Dress ~ Sleeveless
*Youth ~ Jobless
*Leaders ~ Shameless
*Relationships ~ Meaningless
*Attitude ~ Careless
*Wives ~ Fearless
*Babies ~ Fatherless
*Feelings ~ Heartless
*Education ~ Valueless
*Children ~ Mannerless

Everything is becoming LESS,
but still our hopes are Endless.
In fact we are ~ Speechless
And our PRESIDENT is . . ... CLUELESS
and our Congress, USELESS!

Passed along by my sweet sister-in-law, Debbie.

Paula Priesse—How can this be?

August 4th – NBC: “Al Qaeda threat is ‘real and serious’ intelligence chief says.” ABC: “Senior U.S. Official: Intercepted Al Qaeda Communications Indicate Planned Attack ‘Big,’ Strategically Significant,” CBS: “Source: Terrorists behind embassy threat in place.”

How can this be? Last fall President Obama assured voters 32 TIMES that he had al Qaeda on the ropes. Examples: 9/13 – “Al Qaeda is on the path to defeat, and Osama bin Laden is dead.” O used this same line seven other times. 9/25 – “Al Qaeda has been weakened” 9/28 & 10/5 - “They (al Qaeda) are on the run.” 10/9 - “al Qaeda is on its heels.” & 10/23 - “That’s why, working with Joe Biden and our national security team, we’ve been able to decimate al Qaeda.”

Either O last year was full of it or (heaven forbid) this is a cynical ploy to justify the NSA actions while keeping Benghazi & the IRS off the front pages. So which is it O-loving media? Regardless, 22 U.S. embassies are closed ‘til August 10th so it doesn’t appear it’s al Qaeda who is “on the run.” For once Mr. President, tell Americans the truth! P  (from her Facebook page)

Recent book chronicles women’s role in Iraq, long before the “combat” approval

Recently I was asked to review a new title, "All I could be; my story as a woman warrior in Iraq," by Miyoko Hikiji, Chronology Books, 2013. $18.95, ISBN: 978-1-933909-58-5. If you have a daughter or granddaughter considering a military career, she will most definitely benefit from Miyoko's story. If you've never read an account of our soldiers in Iraq, make this the first or only one. If you've ever questioned the dedication or challenges of today's military, read this book. If you've suspected sex on the battlefield now that women are in combat with men, you're right. If you’ve ever wondered what they do with human waste in the desert, you’ll find out.  She's a good writer with an ear for dialogue, and she took good notes when she was there (has  B.S degrees in journalism and psychology). And yes, she is a Japanese American, 5th generation, but grew up in rural Iowa and is a Christian, so she also brings that to her story. Recommend this to your local public library.

http://www.kcci.com/news/central-iowa/Iowa-Army-veteran-writes-book-on-woman-in-combat/-/9357080/18422922/-/gs3wrz/-/index.html  Interview with Miyoko at KCCI in Iowa.

She was U.S. Army, then joined the Iowa National Guard when she'd completed her time; her unit was called up after 9/11, and I think she had days to go before completing that obligation, but didn't ask to be released early (which some did). She was in transportation and supplies, technically non-combatant, but it sure was nerve wracking in my opinion.

http://www.allicouldbe.com/ is the website of Miyoko’s blog.

Kingston Trio at Lakeside, Week 6

We walked to Hoover Auditorium in a downpour last night, but the Kingston Trio was fabulous and worth damp clothes. They've kept their program fresh, with a few old favorites for the sing a long audience (which seemed at bit older than usual). The group began 56 years ago, and none of the originals perform, but one has been with the trio 37 years, so that's not too shabby. When the audience joined in on the MTA song, I thought of Snowden (did he ever return, no he never returned) and the riots in Brazil over the fare increase. Charlie is handed a Starbucks instead of a sandwich. Being an Ohio audience, we loved the song about trying to get to Morrow, Ohio.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Qp88oumRQvs#at=14  The original Kingston Trio sings To Morrow.

1959 hit for the Trio, the MTA . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP1bvY7IqZY

A lament for the vanishing bookstore

For this topic I’m going to refer you to an article by Mark Lisheron,  but note Chautauqua is misspelled throughout the article. Also, industrialization didn’t kill the traveling Chautauqua, radio, movies and the Great Depression did. The local business community put up the funds to bring the performers (like Redpath) to the rural communities.  When there are no profits, there is no charity.  My parents grew up in adjoining counties in Illinois (didn’t know each other) and Lee County had two Chautauquas  (one in Dixon, IL and one in Franklin Grove, IL).  His point is simple.  Even with Amazon, the independent bookstores are hanging in there and publishers and authors are making money.  At Thursday’s lecture on East Asia Gene Swanger recommended the book China goes global by David Shambaugh at least 3 times, and strongly recommended that we purchase it at our local bookstore, Fine Print, which just opened 2 years ago. (Before that Cokesbury had a branch here in the summer.) Even if it costs a little more, Gene said, the whole community benefits from having a book store, and he noted with pleasure that it usually has many children in it.

“Ann Patchett, prize-winning novelist and co-owner of one of those dwindling number of local bookstores, was giving [in the WSJ] another of those waspish scoldings schoolmarms used to regularly dispense in the old Chatauqua days.

This time the recalcitrant pupil was President Obama, who snubbed Patchett’s Parnassus Books in Nashville to deliver a speech on job creation Tuesday at an Amazon warehouse two hours away in Chattanooga.

Amazon, for the last 41 people in America who haven’t heard the familiar Walmart refrain, is a destroyer of small business, a killer of jobs, a giant bent on monopoly. . .

Book sales grew by 7.4 percent last year alone, $451 million more than the year before, according to Association of American Publishers figures. Amazon gets singled out, but I’ve purchased books from Alibris and at least half a dozen online sellers whose job-producing businesses weren’t even imagined in the heyday of little corner bookshop.

I’d like to believe that with $6.5 billion spent on books in 2012 somebody is making money. I hope one of those somebodies is Ann Patchett. Many of my books came from stores like hers. I loved some of those stores.  . . ”

The latest Terrorist threat

Good thing Obama's got that terrorist threat going--what with the heating up of the new Benghazi information on gun running, more about IRS targeting going right to the top, and the crappy jobs report, he needed that.

‘On August 2, the State Department announced that as a result of unspecified, but credible threats about potentially imminent al Qaeda attacks, diplomatic missions in 21 countries will be closed beginning Sunday, August 4 and will remain closed at least until the end of August. So non-specific were the apparent threats that the US response was equally non-specific, affecting US missions from the Sudan to Asia, without any indication as to whether any specific sites were identified as targets. The move was apparently prompted by credible intelligence pointing to an al-Qaida plot “against American diplomatic posts in the Middle East and other Muslim countries.”

The State Department warned American travelers to “take every precaution to be aware of their surroundings and to adopt appropriate safety measures to protect themselves when traveling.” It also warned travelers in the affected countries that consular services might not be available to them in an emergency and that they should take that into account when making their travel plans.’ Gerard Direct, Aug. 2

Teaching math over the years

1. Teaching Math when I was in school
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit ?
2. Teaching Math In 1970s
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or $80. What is his profit?
3. Teaching Math In 1980s
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80. Did he make a profit ? Yes or No
4. Teaching Math In 1990s
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80 and his profit is $20. Your assignment: Underline the number 20.
5. Teaching Math In 2000s
A logger cuts down a beautiful forest because he is selfish and inconsiderate and cares nothing for the habitat of animals or the preservation of our woodlands. He does this so he can make a profit of $20. What do you think of this way of making a living? Topic for class participation after answering the question: How did the birds and squirrels feel as the logger cut down their homes? (There are no wrong answers, and if you feel like crying, it's ok).
6. Teaching Math In 2010
Un hachero vende una carretada de maderapara $100. El costo de la producciones es $80. Cuanto dinero ha hecho?
ANSWER: His profit was $375,000 because his logging business is just a front for his pot farm.

Seen as a comment at VA Viper blog.

Looking back with regrets, but forgiven and set free by Jesus

Ayesha writes:  “I had my first abortion at 14. I was in my 2nd trimester and had to go to Saratoga, New York, for them to perform the killing, as I was too far along for local doctors to do it. In my early 20's I had (at the time) a much welcomed and relieved miscarriage; at 24 I was pregnant again and this time scared, but happy about it. Before this pregnancy I had never known a sober day in my life. Getting pregnant saved my life. I only wish I had accepted the life God gave me the first two times. I cannot take back killing my first child Navar, nor can I take back not wanting the second one, but I have repented and I am forgiven and set free. I can also say without question that if I had kept that first child my life would have been forever changed and for the better. There is nothing happy, joyful or safe about killing your child. There is always hope and always a better way. All life is precious.”  From Ayesha Kreutz’ Facebook page.

The very rich and the poor love Obama

He’s their sugar daddy. You've got to love it when the "experts" complain that growth is slow because of greedy corporations only investing for the short term, and CEOs making buckets of money by laying off workers. Who do they blame?  Republicans, not Obama who has kept the economy at its miserable growth level by his policies and burdensome regulations. Are the rich getting richer? Oh yes, they love Obama.

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/07/31/reasons-americas-slow-economic-growth/

“The real reason American corporations aren't investing is that the folks who control and run them have become so selfish and greedy that they are focused on only one thing: Maximizing short-term profitability.
When the folks who control and run American corporations get together to set future goals, for example, they don't agree to, say, hire and invest heavily for the next several years in order to produce higher earnings and stock prices 5-10 years from now. In a business and investment culture ruled by annual bonuses and quarterly earnings reports, 5-10 years from now is so far into the future that it's barely worth considering. Instead, the folks who control and run American corporations set annual bonus and quarterly earnings targets designed to maximize profits and stock prices today.
In a period in which economic growth is weak (because corporations aren't investing), the way to hit annual profit targets and get those bonuses is to "increase efficiency." And "increasing efficiency," everyone knows, is usually just a synonym for cutting costs, firing employees, and scrimping on investment.
So big American corporations are maximizing their profits and letting mountains of cash build up on their balance sheets while, in the process, starving the economy and their employees of cash that would otherwise turbo-charge consumer spending and economic growth.”

If Obama won’t do what is right for the economy, why should American corporations help him drag us down?  I’d invest short term too, if I had a corporation.

The brown bag lunch is now off limits

I see that a major city, Seattle maybe, has expanded the politically correct no-no’s used in official announcements to “brown bag.”  That’s because back in the 40’s and 50’s there were clubs and establishments that had a skin tone rule—no darker than a brown bag—for African Americans.  Never mind that this was in the black community. 

I do remember this brown bag rule. In the 1970s my husband and I were part of a racially mixed couples club.  Five black couples, five white couples and membership was rather fluid.  The blacks in the group were socially and economically above most of the whites, as I recall—a judge, a dentist, a pharmacist, a businessman, civil service, teachers.  Yes, we were going to change the world through friendship and fair housing laws.  I remember one black couple complaining there were no other black families in their neighborhood.  “I thought you white folks all moved out when we moved in,” he joked.  As it turned out, and remains so today, most black churches, social clubs and businesses were all on the east side of Columbus, and most of the white couples lived either in Worthington (north) or Upper Arlington (northwest) and really didn’t have much appeal for black families with children.

One year we decided to have a holiday season dance and each couple would invite a few friends, we’d bring food, and hire a combo.  Even with friends, that’s a small group, but one of the black couples was a member of a private social club, and able to get that facility—I think it was perhaps a former bar or restaurant.  Not very fancy, but better than what the rest of us had to offer. Ed, the member who was very dark, told me that in the 1950s he wouldn’t have been accepted for membership because of the “brown bag” rule.  I thought perhaps that was local to our area, but if Seattle had it, and still remembers it in 2013, I guess not.

http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2013/07/31/political-correctness-brown-bag-citizens-are-out/

“Citizen” is also on the chopping block—might offend illegals.  Before you know it, “worker” will make the list.

How to make/take money from white fans

Rachel Jeantel, Trayvon Martin’s friend from Miami, has clarified the used of "nigga" on national TV, so it must be OK for Obama's BFF to use the word to make millions from white fans who are clueless. She also explained to gullible Piers that when Trayvon attacked Zimmerman, it was just “whoop ass” and he wasn’t going to kill him. 

Summer is going quickly

The homosexual agenda in Presbyterian denominations—guest blog

What Norma says about church numbers declining is largely true - with the exception of some non-mainline churches that are conservative and are not subject to a large bureaucracy at their denominational headquarters. Southern Baptists lost members for the first time this past year! The Assemblies of God (if I'm not mistaken) are not losing members. My denomination, the PCA, has had one year when it lost members - two years ago. There has been a mass exodus from many of the 'mainline' denominations - largely for the same reasons people and churches are bailing out of the ELCA. [Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, created in 1988 with the merger of 3 synods, the former synod with which UALC was affiliated.]  A homosexual agenda - both in regard to ordination issues and marriage. Though I am not in a mainline denomination - not affiliated with the National Council of Churches or World Council of Churches--I am somewhat familiar with the mainline Presbyterians.

The past five years they have seen a significant number of churches leave for smaller, more conservative Presbyterian bodies - not the one I belong to as it is too conservative for them (on women's issues mostly). A new denomination in Presbyterianism was formed just last year called "ECO" (Evangelical Covenant Order). These were mainly large metropolitan churches across the nation who were tired of fighting the bureaucracy on homosexuality. In 1981, the EPC (Evangelical Presbyterian Church) began out of dissatisfaction with the then Northern Presbyterian Church (it no longer exists as in 1983, they merged with the Southern Presbyterian Church). A few years ago it was about 40,000 members. It has more than doubled in size from the last couple of years - and the reason?  PCUSA churches unhappy about the developments with regard to homosexual marriage and ordination. The EPC is now the third largest Presbyterian body in North America - still just a fraction (as is the PCA) of the mainline Presbyterians - but those folks are hemorrhaging members and will continue to do so as they put forward that radical homosexual agenda.

[guest blogger is a pastor in PCA]

About those fast food wage protests . . ..

Why do you think they are pushing for $10/hour minimum for fast food workers, rather than say $15? Well, they need to keep it low enough to continue to qualify for Medicaid, EITC, SNAP, WIC, housing, school lunches and snacks and summer meals for the children, etc., which could bring their disposable income to levels higher than their managers. There are people who turn down higher paid jobs rather than lose important benefits, especially those with chronic health problems. I know a manager who recently lost a $10/hour employee to a $9/hour job at another firm.  He couldn’t afford a pay raise to $12.50.

 

Overnight Oatmeal

I doubt that my husband will ever give up his cooked oatmeal with raisins, but this looked interesting. Obviously more expensive than regular oatmeal.

OVERNIGHT OATMEAL

INGREDIENTS
1 container (6 oz) Greek yogurt, any flavor
1/4 cup uncooked old-fashioned or quick-cooking oats
1/4 cup fruit

Instructions:
In container with tight-fitting cover, mix yogurt and uncooked oats. Stir in desired fruit.

Cover; refrigerate at least 8 hours but no longer than 3 days before eating.

The Green Room makeover

You won’t appreciate this since I don’t have a photo of what it looked like before.  This is where I attend lectures in Lakeside.  Sometimes they are in Orchestra Hall (the movie theater), but usually in this room. It is now called The Chautauqua Room.  It is in the Fountain Inn. Today’s lecture in the morning was on research and advancements in types of dementia (Alzheimer’s, Lewy Body) and this afternoon was on hospice.

Obama the bystander President

Black on black. . . politics

Carlos Danger

Week 6 at Lakeside

Today we’ve had a record low for this date—both the low and the high temperatures were record lows!  Lake Erie is warmer than the air temperature.

Last night’s program was David Cassidy, 1970s teen idol, and lots of his formerly teen fans showed up to fill Hoover Auditorium in Lakeside. In fact, at breakfast this morning I was sitting next to a table of them, analyzing every move plus that of his band and stage helpers. Cassidy rose to fame in the TV show “The Partridge Family,” and is the son of two actors, Evelyn Ward and Jack Cassidy.  Shirley Jones, who played his TV mother, was his step-mother. During these shows, like last week’s Peter Noone, the rocking grandmas provide a lot of entertainment.  He was recovering from a burn and possibly coming down with the flu so was having some voice problems.  I suspect his shows are usually longer, but he made a good effort, and had an adoring audience.

This week’s programming looks good.  On Monday and Tuesday the theme is health and medicine. Alzheimers, hospice, updates on vaccines, nutrition, and 60 tips for the caregiver. (Bev: should I take notes?)  Wednesday is something on ombuds, and I don’t think I’ll attend those, but the morning bird walk at 8 a.m. looks good.  Then Thursday is a Lakeside favorite, Gene Swanger talking about East Asian Culture.  The Lakesiders love him.  The Symphony starts its 50th season this week, and the conductor gave a talk today that I attended. My husband is teaching perspective drawing and painting at the Rhein Center and registered a full class today.

The boring Knox speech

Obama says he wants to assure that the middle class has access to good jobs, education, retirement, healthcare, etc.  Except.  There's no evidence that the middle class is shrinking, and isn't he the president of all the people? All 5 quintiles?  There is still great mobility, despite a recession that was over in 2009, despite the millions added to SNAP rolls during the Obama reign. What about the poor, for instance? They need jobs so they can make it into the middle class; government assistance and transfers won't get them where they need to go. There are so many areas where the economy could boom in just energy, spreading out to more jobs, but Obama and Democrats block them. Then Obama blames "Washington" and "phony scandals."

Don't buy Obama's lies about the middle class. "A Treasury Department analysis of income-tax returns for two 10-year periods, 1987-1996 and 1996-2005 by Treasury economists Gerald Auten and Geoffrey Gee, representing 84 million returns for 120 million taxpayers, found that economic mobility has not changed. From the 1980s to 2005, many Americans progressed both in terms of absolute mobility — they became better-off in absolute terms — and in terms of relative mobility — they rose to another part of the income distribution." Diana Furchtgott-Roth, Market Watch

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamespoulos/2013/07/26/at-knox-college-a-new-speech-for-obama-but-the-same-unimaginative-economics/

First things first

Ho Chi Minh, the Communist

Ho Chi Minh slaughtered millions. Mostly Vietnamese. And it continued after the Americans left. Instead of trying to rewrite history, maybe Obama should have told President Truong Tan Sang the truth? I'm not even going to give him credit for a gaffe. I think he believes his own nonsense. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/07/26/uh-ho-obama-says-vietnamese-dictator-inspired-by-founding-fathers/

Sneaking out of the White House

Imagine if the president and his daughters decided to sneak out of the White House at night to get a Dairy Queen without security (and without Michelle knowing about it). They see six figures coming toward them--can't see the race, but get close enough to identify the clothing and gender.  Which group would make them feel safer—six teen-men in hoodies and low slung pants, or three middle aged men in khaki shorts walking with their wives/girlfriends? Obama grew up white—he’d be the first to be profiling for the safety of his girls and relieved he didn’t have to confront the hoodies in his hood.

Don’t fund Obamacare

JFK at the U. of I., October 24, 1960

Photos of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John F. Kennedy making a campaign stop at the University of Illinois. (U. of I. Archives photo.)  Can't be positive but that looks like McKinley Hall over on the far left in the motorcade photo where I lived in 1960. 801 S. Wright. However, I got married in September and was living and working in Indianapolis.

The American Elms that formed a cathedral arch over the campus walks were gone by then, in fact, I believe they had all been cut even before I got there in 1958.

Update:  looking closer, I think the motorcade is further south, nearer the library.  That’s not McKinley.

Friday Family Photo—The Lustron

I love the Lustron, I really do. There are many in Mt. Morris, IL where I graduated from high school, and my grandparents owned one. They are beautifully designed and very functional. But they were the Solyndra of the 1940s--a federal government boondoggle that ran into problems with the local housing codes, unions, and an over priced product that eventually failed. They live on today.

[Carl] Strandlund knew a major investment would be required to achieve the efficiencies necessary for financial success, so he heavily lobbied the federal government for support. The Truman administration saw the potential of his concept and, in 1947, helped him secure a $15.5 million dollar loan from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, a government agency formed to assist industry during the Depression. In addition, Strandlund got the keys to a million-square-foot former Curtiss-Wright plant next to the Columbus airport. It was an unprecedented government venture into the housing industry, but, according to Knerr, that fact actually gave the project greater credibility and notoriety.

 http://www.ohiohistory.org/publications/ohio-histore-news/2013/july-25-2013/the-lustron-home

Unlike this story reports, there was no post-WWII housing shortage. Housing was taken off the market with government regulations, and that created the shortage which created a housing and mortgage boom.

My grandparents enjoying the porch on the Lustron.

My cousins Pam, Ron, Fred, Jenny Sue, and Lorrie in front of the Lustron owned by their grandparents.

Christian non-profits

“CARM is a 501(c)3, non-profit, Christian ministry dedicated to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and the promotion and defense of the Christian Gospel, doctrine, and theology.”

If the government gives, it can take away.  This is a bad idea from several angles.  Eventually, Christian non-profits will have to do something contrary to their beliefs if they want this tax status—maybe recognize same sex marriage, or provide insurance for abortion, or accept non-Christians on their board.  It’s also wrong, I believe, to ask non-Christians to support our religion—because that’s what we’re asking for in not paying  taxes on the income that pays the staff or the office supplies or the real estate costs.  Also, now that we know the government is using the IRS to punish and control, why should be put our people in harm’s way.  Why should board members and staff have their private accounts audited because the organization is under scrutiny.  Let’s get the churches and para-church organizations out from under the government’s thumb so we can be free to speak truth to evil, and the good news to the masses.

Don’t blame Obama for Detroit . . .

Blame Democrat control since the 1960s.

“Detroit is an apropos metaphor for Obama's America. It is the prototypical terminal manifestation of the Democratic Party's socialist economic policies that have created ever-expanding urban poverty plantations in once-great cities across the nation. That in turn drives the departure of middle-class families for greener pastures in outlying suburban counties with better schools and lower crime.

Over just the last decade, some 240,000 of Detroit's residents (25 percent of its population), and thousands of businesses, fled the city's oppressive taxes and corrupt one-party government. Indeed, Detroit was a bustling city of nearly 2,000,000 residents as far back as 1950; today, that number is just over 700,000. (Not coincidentally, Detroit's last Republican mayor, Louis Miriani, served more than a half-century ago, from 1957 to 1962.)”  Mark Alexander, Patriot Post

Stand your ground, Texas.

True the Vote (TTV), the nation's leading voters' rights organization, responded today to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's plans to launch a wholesale attack against the State of Texas by filing federal lawsuits against Texas' voter ID law and election procedures.

"We will not sit idly by and allow the most politically charged Department of Justice in US history to set aside the US constitution and attempt to bully the people of Texas", True the Vote President Catherine Engelbrecht said. "We will meet Attorney General Holder in court and we will do whatever we need to do to advance the cause of voters' rights for all Americans."

"General Holder's announcement today demonstrates just how radical the DOJ has become. The same department that criminalizes journalism and fails to prosecute IRS agents who violate the rights of American taxpayers is promising to sue states with taxpayer dollars to block laws passed by elected legislators such as voter ID and citizenship verification.

"Every American voter deserves to have his or her vote counted - and not diluted by fraud or error. The DOJ just put itself between the voters of Texas and their guaranteed constitutional and civil rights.

"True the Vote has watched as Attorney General Eric Holder has repeatedly disregarded the rule of law," Engelbrecht continued. "We understand that this Department of Justice does not believe that protection of voters' rights should be colorblind.

"Texas will stand its ground in San Antonio - that's a promise."

Beating the middle class to death in boring speeches

Obama's speeches on the campaign trail show he says he's not the president of poor Americans, or rich Americans, only the middle class, and he's killing that class with his policies. Under Obama the 1 percenters have really grown, and so have the very poor--he's really growing the SNAPper class, making them dependent on the government so they'll vote Democrat.

"For four and a half years, Mr. Obama has focused his policies on reducing inequality rather than increasing growth. The predictable result has been more inequality and less growth. . . median real household income [$51,500] is $2,718, or 5%, lower than the $54,218 median in June 2009 when the recession officially ended." WSJ, July 24. Doubling the number on food stamps is not a plan, Mr. President. Forcing Obamacare on businesses which then reduce hours and employees is not a plan. Expanding the wars in the middle east is not a plan. Fomenting race riots is not helpful to cities with high minority unemployment. Blaming and not accepting responsibility is not a plan.

A lot of support for this little guy

Former President George H.W. Bush and members of his Secret Service detail shaved their heads to show solidarity for a 2-year-old boy undergoing treatment for leukemia. http://on.wsj.com/17G8IpO

George and Barbara Bush lost their second child, 4-year-old Robin Bush, to leukemia almost 60 years ago.

Sister Simone Campbell, dupe of the CPUSA

CPUSA,  (The Communist Party of the USA) the Democratic Socialists of America, Freedom Road Socialists, and the so-called Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism came together to discuss “how to better unite the left” on June 5 hosted in the New York City union hall of SEIU 1199 United Healthcare Workers East. Their topic was how to expand—“new allies must be carefully sought out, identified, upheld, tapped—in a word, used.”  What better group than a renegade group of Catholic nuns that have beat the drum for Obamacare? The communists and catholic nuns practically fell into each others arms.

http://spectator.org/archives/2013/07/19/the-communist-party-usas-netwo

http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Item/578/the_59000_nuns_for_obamacare.aspx

http://www.womenofgrace.com/blog/?p=16323

Obama on jobs, the economy and the middle class--again

November 2009: Meeting with his Economic Recovery Advisory Board, the president says his administration "will not rest until we are succeeding in generating the jobs that this economy needs."

April 2010: Obama goes on a "Main Street" tour, saying "it's time to rebuild our economy on a new foundation so that we've got real and sustained growth."

June 2010: The president declares a "Recovery Summer" to highlight the jobs created by stimulus-funded infrastructure projects. "If we want to ensure that Americans can compete with any nation in the world, we're going to have to get serious about our long-term vision for this country and we're going to have to get serious about our infrastructure," he said.

December 2010: The president tells reporters "we are past the crisis point in the economy, but we now have to pivot and focus on jobs and growth."

August 2011: After lawmakers reach a compromise to avert default, the president vows "in the coming months, I'll continue also to fight for what the American people care most about: new jobs, higher wages and faster economic growth."

February 2013: At the start of his second term, the president refocuses on job creation in his State of the Union address, saying "a growing economy that creates good, middle-class jobs--that must be the North Star that guides our efforts."

May 2013: Kicking off his "Jobs and Opportunity Tour," the president says "all of us have to commit ourselves to doing better than we're doing now. And all of us have to rally around the single-greatest challenge that we face as a country right now, and that's reigniting the true engine of economic growth, a rising, thriving middle class."

July 2013: The president says his speech Wednesday is going “to be the kickoff to what is essentially several months of us trying to get Washington and the press to refocus on the economy and the struggles that middle-class families are going through.”

This list was compiled by Mary Bruce, not Norma Bruce.  She works for ABC – or did.  I hope she can keep her job.  Obama doesn’t like having the truth, or even the obvious, come to light.

The fact is, he hasn’t a clue how to fix the economy since he only knows higher taxes, kiss union butts, spread the war resources thinner and wider, spy on American citizens, and blame someone else for his own failures in leadership.

Father Hunger—guest blogger

“In America’s families, much has been made about the effect on boys whose fathers are not around to help raise them, but Dee Louis-Scott, co-chair for the Black Family Technology Awareness Association’s Youth STEM Fair, says the consequences are very tangible in the lives of girls, too.

“Even though my father was in my life until his passing, I did not understand him, and it was always an emotionally distant relationship,” says Louis-Scott, author of “Believe in the Magic,” (www.mattiefisher.com).

“The men I married were emotionally distant; much of my time was spent chasing their love, time and attention. The problem was that I never experienced a true partnership between a husband and wife as a girl.”

New polls suggest “father hunger” is continuing to alter the family structure in the United States. A recent Associated Press poll finds 42 percent of women would consider having a child without a partner. Additionally, more than 24 million daughters and sons in America live in homes without their father, according to the U.S. Census data.

“I know fathers and mothers who are unmarried, yet both are very proactive in their children’s lives and are by all accounts doing a great job with their kids,” Louis-Scott says. “Unfortunately, the number of fathers living outside the home of their children often reflects a lack of participation from most of those fathers.”

A girl’s first love is her father, and if he has abandoned her, she will find herself in romantic relationships that are similarly unhealthy later in life, she says. While writing the book on the extraordinary life of her mother, Mattie Fisher, who was married five times and who didn’t have a relationship with her father until midlife, Louis-Scott realized just how formative a father’s role is in his daughter’s life.

“If a father treats his daughter like a princess, she will demand better treatment in her romantic relationships,” she says. “But if he treats her poorly, she will come to expect that and even seek it out in future relationships.”

For women whose fathers have provided a poor example, Louis-Scott offers these relationship tips for women who want to break the cycle of unhealthy partner-seeking:

• Consider your relationship with your father: Ladies, what kind of chemistry do you have with Dad; do you even have a relationship with him? How might this be influencing your romantic decisions? Take an in-depth look at the relationship between you and your father. A painstaking review will help you avoid sabotaging a current or future romantic bond.The first (and probably the hardest thing to do) is to recognize and define the problem, if any.

• Take time for you: Get up every morning with the thought that you are rebuilding your life. Reward yourself, perhaps with a massage, a good book or a long bike ride. While reflecting in your solitude, think about the role you played in the failure of your relationship. Consider your past relationship mistakes, and be honest. Remember, as long as you make it the other person’s fault, you will remain a victim.

• When you are ready, ease back in to new relationships: Take a little longer than you normally would to get to know someone. Enjoy the dates and learning about each other. See your potential partner as they are and not how you want them to be, because when we are in a low place it’s easy to put a high value on a person’s potential. Trying to change a man is a bad idea; relax and enjoy getting to know more about him to decide whether you’re compatible just the way he is.

About Dee Louis-Scott

Dee Louis-Scott is retired after working 30 years as a federal employee. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration. Scott has co-chaired the Black Family Technology Awareness Association’s Youth STEM Fair for nine years; its mission is to encourage studies in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math curriculum in urban communities. Twenty years since the death of her heroic mother, Mattie Fisher, Louis-Scott honors her life, which was experienced in a time in American history when it was a double-curse to be a black woman. “

The speech at Knox College

I have rarely heard or seen such a tepid audience.  Even hand picked they’ve heard it all before.

On the road again with Obama

In a speech in 1963, John F. Kennedy (who incidentally cut taxes to goose the economy) said, "a rising tide lifts all boats," and he used that saying several more times. In 2013, President Obama who never met a tax increase he didn't love, denied it.

Obama can't point to a single success in his 5 years in the 21st century, but he can point to the 1950s as the golden era of the middle class. Go Conservatives!

Obama is clueless about the middle class. All his speeches say that (they are reruns). But he's added a new paragraph of blame to add to Bush and the GOP--the sequester. It's the drag, not Obamacare, not over regulation. He's added 7.2 million jobs, and twice that on food stamps.

I’ve never seen less enthusiastic more lack luster audiences than those on this campaign swing.  Some don’t even bother to clap.  The only ones clapping are those that didn’t hear this speech in 2008.

Tip for the president: Homeownership doesn't lift anyone into the middle class. Clinton and Bush tried that and we got the 2007 mortgage melt down. Obama's refinancing of their administrations' defaults have already defaulted. He is economically impotent.

Allen West on Stand your Ground in Florida

“In a sure case of foot in mouth disease, seems US Attorney General Eric Holder, speaking in Florida, may want to study up on Stand Your Ground use in the Sunshine State, my home. Based on data maintained by Tampa Bay Times, approximately one-third of Florida Stand Your Ground claims in fatal cases have been made by black defendants, as a defense with a 55% success rate. Blacks used Stand Your Ground defenses at nearly twice the rate of their percentage of Florida's population (16.6% in 2012). As well, it seems the majority of victims in Florida Stand Your Ground cases have been white. Either Attorney General Holder is incompetent or ignorant, regardless, we all await his clarification, or correction, of his comments before the NAACP in Orlando.”

What does Al Sharpton have against this white family?

They were an automobile accident in Florida.  George Zimmerman came to their rescue and pulled them out of the car.  Now they fear for their lives lest they be targets for the hate Sharpton, Obama, Holder and Jackson have helped whip up.  Sharpton’s campaigns over the years have contributed to many deaths and injuries.

He’s on the campaign trail again

7.2 million more jobs, 15 million more on food stamps than 2009.

It made me laugh

Didn’t know Geraldo was sending pics . . . he’s just one who is the balance on Fox.

Sometimes the New York Times gets it right—calls for Weiner to drop out of mayoral race

"At some point, the full story of Anthony Weiner and his sexual relationships and texting habits will finally be told. In the meantime, the serially evasive Mr. Weiner should take his marital troubles and personal compulsions out of the public eye, away from cameras, off the Web and out of the race for mayor of New York City.
{...}
When the first texts were revealed two years ago, Mr. Weiner lied about it, saying he had been the victim of hackers. Then he owned up, tearfully abandoned his office and retreated into private life. Then he was back, telling the world that therapy and his wife’s forgiveness had turned him around and that he was ready to begin a new chapter. That turned out to be the mayor’s race, which he entered in May. What he did not say then, and what voters did not realize until Tuesday, was that his resignation had not been the end of his sexual misconduct.

The timing here matters, as it would for any politician who violates the public’s trust and then asks to have it back. Things are different now, he insists. “This behavior is behind me,” he said again on Tuesday. He suggested that people should have known that his sexting was an unresolved problem well into 2012.
That’s ridiculous and speaks to a familiar but repellent pattern of misleading and evasion. It’s up to Mr. Weiner if he wants to keep running, to count on voters to forgive and forget and hand him the keys to City Hall. But he has already disqualified himself."

Why they think it’s worse on the internet than in the Oval Office, I don’t know.

Gay marriage

Carlos Danger and wifey Huma Amedin have made the best case for same sex marriage I've ever heard/seen.

Holy Hannah! She’s dense.

Just got an e-mail from Hannah who is urging me to support the Dream Defenders plan to honor Trayvon Martin in Florida, and getting rid of Stand your Ground.

I wrote back:

"Let’s honor the lives of all those killed during the trial that never got any publicity. Let’s examine the factors that whipped up racial hatred by our politicians. Let’s look into the story of the guy in a hoodie who came in the convenience store in Dearborn during your riots, killed the male clerk, kidnapped the female manager, then killed her. Has that been on the national news? Lots to investigate here. Illinois has tougher Stand Your Ground than Florida—strengthened by a bill co-sponsored by Sen. Barack Obama."

Maybe she'll take me off her list--I think they scoop up every dot edu and assume they're mush brains for liberal causes.

Pathologizing childhood

CDC claims that 20% of children and adolescents in the U.S. have a mental disorder. (JAMA, v. 310, no.1) Wow. So I skimmed the article. 2/3 of those were hyperactive/attention deficit, about 1/6 were behavior problems, and 1/6 alcohol or drug problems. Talk about pathologizing childhood! This is a gift to Big Pharma to push legal drugs on your kids. But it gets worse. The "health care" costs? $247 billion. No wonder our health care costs exceed those of other industrialized nations if this is how it is figured.

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1707733

http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder-adhd/medications.html

From a mother who was talked into drugging her child:  If “accelerated” has become the new normal, there’s no choice but to diagnose the kids developing at a normal rate with a disorder. Instead of leveling the playing field for kids who really do suffer from a deficit, we’re ratcheting up the level of competition with performance-enhancing drugs. We’re juicing our kids for school.

We’re also ensuring that down the road, when faced with other challenges that high school, college and adult life are sure to bring, our children will use the coping skills we’ve taught them. They’ll reach for a pill.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/19/opinion/sunday/raising-the-ritalin-generation.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/22/health/22KIDS.html?_r=0

Al Sharpton, race agitator who never accepts responsibility

From Wikipedia, with sources.

In 1995 a black Pentecostal Church, the United House of Prayer, which owned a retail property on 125th Street, asked Fred Harari, a Jewish tenant who operated Freddie's Fashion Mart, to evict his longtime subtenant, a black-owned record store called The Record Shack. Sharpton led a protest in Harlem against the planned eviction of The Record Shack.^[37][38][39] Sharpton told the protesters, "We will not stand by and allow them to move this brother so that some white interloper can expand his business."^[40]

On December 8, 1995 Roland J. Smith Jr., one of the protesters, entered Harari's store with a gun and flammable liquid, shot several customers and set the store on fire. The gunman fatally shot himself, and seven store employees died of smoke inhalation.^[41][42] Fire Department officials discovered that the store's sprinkler had been shut down, in violation of the local fire code.^[43] Sharpton claimed that the perpetrator was an open critic of himself and his nonviolent tactics. Sharpton later expressed regret for making the racial remark, "white interloper," and denied responsibility for inflaming or provoking the violence.^[15][44]

School choice for the poor; private schools for the rich

The Obamas send their daughters to a toney private school, as do many politicians who come to Washington.  It’s their choice—they love their kids and want the best for them.  However, in 2012 he dropped that same choice (charter schools) for other Washington, DC families, mostly black.  It’s not that he doesn’t care that black children succeed (because they do in those schools), he’s just more afraid of the unions who helped elect him.

The Opportunity Scholarship Program offers vouchers to low-income students to attend private schools. A 2010 study published by Patrick Wolf of the University of Arkansas found that the scholarship recipients had graduation rates of 91%. The graduation rate for D.C. public schools was 56%, and it was 70% for students who entered the lottery for a voucher but didn't win.

Because the president's teachers union allies are opposed to school choice for poor people, Mr. Obama ignores or downplays these findings. He repeatedly has tried to shutter the program, even though it is clearly advancing his stated goal of increasing graduation rates and closing the black-white achievement gap.

http://www.federationforchildren.org/articles/651

http://www.timesdispatch.com/opinion/their-opinion/cantor-let-s-expand-opportunity-for-all-kids/article_c656e8fa-d423-5d56-be66-6d5c0b157d8a.html

Feeling crabby?

LOUISIANA HOT CRAB DIP

Ingredients:
1/2 pound jumbo lump crabmeat, free of shells
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
3 tablespoons minced green onions (white and green parts)
2 large garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon hot sauce
1/2 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
Combine all of the ingredients in a casserole dish and gently stir until thoroughly mixed. Adjust seasoning to taste. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until lightly golden on top. Serve hot.
Serve hot, with hot sauce on the side for those who like it spicy.
Makes about 1 1/2 cup

Because we all need a break from Obama’s scandals.

Weiner wags again

"New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner admitted on Tuesday to sending additional explicit photos and texts to a woman he met online — correspondence she says began months after he resigned from Congress for similar behavior." (WaPo).

Happy now?

Not all Obama's independent and Republican supporters were voting from white guilt--some were tired of war in 2008 and apparently had missed history class on how to spot a socialist.  Well, not only do we have the two he was handed, he's expanded them to other middle eastern countries and Africa, and added uncountable scandals then lied about them.  Happy now?

The Obama administration is arming Syrian terrorists. The groups within the rebels are squabbling with each other, but we know who will come out on top—al-qaeda.  Christian Syrians are being killed by the rebels, not Assad’s forces. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Martin Dempsey said, "It is no less than an act of war."

“House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers said Monday that his panel agreed to the administration's plan for military aid despite reservations about its chances for success.

"After much discussion and review, we got a consensus that we could move forward with what the administration's plans and intentions are in Syria consistent with committee reservations," the Michigan Republican said.”

http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/23/politics/us-syrian-rebels

I’m disappointed in the gutless Republicans who seem to think if someone says “war” they need to fund it.

        

Violent crime drastically reduced since 1993, many African-American lives saved

Firearm-related homicides declined 39%, from 18,253 in 1993 to 11,101 in 2011 according to the Department of Justice.  About 50% of those not killed were young, black males.  There were over 1.5 million firearm non-fatalities in 1993 compared to about 478,000 in 2011. Let’s assume over half of the non-fatalities were also black.  School related homicides also declined from about 29 a year to 20 a year. 

Violent victimization rate per 1,000 persons, by annual household income, location of residence, and region, by race/Hispanic origin of victims was higher for poor whites and Hispanics than for poor blacks. 

There was a huge outcry in the late 1980s and early 1990s about black on black crime, and tougher measures were taken in response. The decline in violence came about because of improved policing and tougher sentencing which took hardened criminals off the streets.  It resulted from more drug busts, and more illegal guns removed from the streets.  Also, the baby boomers were aging, and homicide tends to be a crime of young males.   Since 93% of blacks were being killed by other blacks, if the killer were arrested, over half the people being  tried and imprisoned were also black.  That might please the victims’ families, but now the poverty pimps and racialists are crying out over the disparities among the races in prison populations. 

         

Source of graph: U.S. Bureau of Justice statistics, Wikipedia

So which do they want?  More blacks killed by leaving criminals on the streets or out early, or their assailants in prison?

http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/fv9311.pdf

http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/bvvc.pdf

http://www.centerforhealthandjustice.org/foj%2011-10.pdf

http://www.indystar.com/article/20130508/NEWS19/305080040/Erika-D-Smith-Federal-crackdown-gun-crime-black-neighborhoods-unfortunate-necessary

http://tpj.sagepub.com/content/91/3_suppl/87S.abstract

http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/p10.pdf

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324448104578616333588719320.html

8 lbs, 6 oz of hypocrisy

Our media lauds a woman’s “right” to kill her baby—right up to term, yet fawns over one who is in line to be king.

Maybe it’s not hypocrisy, but just a way to keep from talking about all the scandals of this administration, any one of which is worse than Nixon’s Watergate. And he at least had the decency to resign.

The economy isn’t exactly a scandal anymore—it’s just same ol’ same ‘ol.  Huffington Post reports, "The address Wednesday at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., will be the first in a new series of economic speeches that White House aides say Obama intends to deliver over the next several weeks ahead of key budget deadlines in the fall." Except it won't be "new"--it will be the same speeches he gave before he was elected and during his first term. What can he say? Tax the rich more; pass more regulations; it's all the GOP's [Boehner] fault (the Bush meme got old); the children are hungry. It's the summer rerun season—no wonder it’s fun to watch for a baby.

Paula Priesse on the quacking IRS scandal

“The White House appoints only two IRS positions, the commissioner and the IRS chief counsel, currently William Wilkins. In 2008, Wilkins defended the tax-exempt status of Jeremiah Wright’s church and did so pro bono. What a guy, no wonder O gave him the IRS gig! So check out this timeline from the IG report in the Daily Caller today: 1) April 23, 2012 - Wilkins meets with O in the WH. Arrived 3:54pm, departed over 7 hours later. 2) April 24, 2012 – IRS Commissioner Shulman meets with O. 3) April 25, 2012 – Wilkins sends IRS official Lois Lerner & former IRS lawyer Carter Hull “additional comments on the draft guidance” for accepting or denying Tea Party applications. So we have Lerner taking the Fifth, Cincy agent Liz Hofacre & Carter Hull testifying that denials of DC involvement are pure BS and now this. Forget walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, this has been a duck since day one. And this big fat duck is starting to point directly to O! The media’s reaction? Oh goody goody gumdrops, Kate had a boy!!! P” [from her Facebook wall]

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/05/19/Chief-IRS-counsel-bailed-Jeremiah-Wright-s-church-out-of-IRS-probe-in-2008

http://dailycaller.com/2013/07/19/retiring-irs-lawyer-fingers-obama-appointee-in-testimony/

Summer reruns

"The address Wednesday at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., will be the first in a new series of economic speeches that White House aides say Obama intends to deliver over the next several weeks ahead of key budget deadlines in the fall." (HuffPo)

Except it won't be "new"--it will be the same speeches he gave before he was elected and during his first term. What can he say? Tax the rich more; pass more regulations; it's all the GOP's [Boehner] fault (the Bush meme got old); the children are hungry. It's the summer rerun season.

We got an eyeful at the coffee shop

We all stared as she walked by at the coffee shop. She was over 6' tall. She wore high heels. Blonde hair in a pony tail. But the dress was a tight sheath, with short sleeves and the hem was just about at the knees. “Very revealing,” I thought. Then thought again. We all wore that look in the late 50s, early 60s.

                 

Looking at Martin through black eyes