After 2000 years, there are no more Christians in Mosul

“In making his own nation and setting up his Islamic Caliphate, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was able to take advantage of the lack of a centralized authority in Iraq and Syria. Since the last of the Christians have departed the city, Christian churches have had the insides gutted, crosses and statues of the Virgin Mary destroyed, and many have been converted to Mosques. Survivors who fled the city tell gruesome stories of beheadings, crucifixions and worse being perpetrated by ISIS rebels.”

http://myocn.net/mosuls-christians-ask-conscience-world/

Mexico and Guatemalan border agreement

Mexico has strict and swift border enforcement, so how are all these kids getting to the U.S.? Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and Guatemalan president Otto Perez Molina met earlier in the month to work out new border agreement that gives them a 72 hour "gate pass" to travel through Mexico to get to the U.S. border. Mexico will provide medical aid, financial assistance and safety protection for these children--for 72 hours--and then it's our problem.

https://www.numbersusa.com/news/mexico-guatemala-announce-agreement-make-illegal-passage-us-easier

Children of the Tundra

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQeNOiYL3AQ

This is Russia, but many of the lessons and child rearing thoughts will be familiar to you.  It’s about roots and challenges of the world.

Some children just want to return home to the Tundra (some have died trying), and others have become so worldly and accustomed to town benefits, they don’t want to return.

Amazing to watch toddlers eating frozen meat with a sharp knife at their mouth.  Reindeer Festival—what fun and competition.

Can Hutterites be born again?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddIxHNJ38mk

This is a fascinating film about a communal Christian colony called the Hutterites.  Their origins are in the Amish and Mennonite Anabaptist tradition and there are over 400 colonies in Canada and the U.S. This group live near the Canadian border, but some time back during a time of grief, one family went to a tent revival and were “saved,” and now worship differently than the Hutterites.  The emphasis is on Jesus, not love and commitment to the community of believers. They worship in English, not German.

The Flatwillow colony born again women sell their bread at a farmer’s market and use the time to evangelize. This is different from other Hutterites that only send men outside the colony. The “born agains” have Bible study, a practice not observed by Hutterites who read the Bible literally without questioning or interpreting. The “born agains” will not be able to intermarry with the Hutterites, and the two groups no longer do the same tasks on the 15,000 acre property.

I didn’t know when the film was made, but the eye wear looked like the early 1990s, and I found a WorldCat entry for 1992, filmed by BBC. So this all happened over 20 years ago.  They were making so many dress and life style changes I assume they eventually didn’t follow any Hutterite traditions, although when the film was made they continued them.  I did find an obituary for Eli Stahl from 2011, which follows a comment one of his relatives made in the film about an early death for those who leave the faith.

Progressive policies are hurting the poor

The bottom half of the economy has gone nowhere the last 7 years. The gains you see are for the richest Americans in Obama's recovery. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPOnzzB3OZs

Trust in a marriage—what does that mean to you?

"Trust in a marriage." Just what does that phrase mean? This is my list, your mileage will vary.

• Trust with money--one doesn't decide major purchases without consulting the other. Check books and credit cards aren't a battleground. Money isn't about wealth, it's about values, which is why I put it first.
• Trust with communication--no lying, but no unnecessary honesty either, like what was said 10 years ago that hurt, or what you really think of your mother-in-law or her best friend.
• Trust that grievances will be worked out and not cherished and polished like prayer beads.
• Trust that the other isn't "sharing" or "just joking" behind your back, demeaning the marriage relationship instead of lifting it up.
• Trust that the marriage bed is pure and free of outside influences.
• Trust that the marriage vows will be kept, in thought, word and deed.
• Trust that the other can enjoy time with friends and family that may not include the other without jealousy or anxiety.
• Trust that the other will maintain a strong work ethic to support the family.
• Trust that one parent doesn't work against the other in discipline of children (minor or adult), family values, religion.

What would you add?

Coaxing the cat to eat

Our cat has stopped eating, so I took her to the vet, where I discovered she's only about 4.1 lbs even though she'd been eating well until Thursday. I turned down the expensive tests to find out why (she's 16), and asked for subcutaneous fluid and a few appetite stimulants. That has worked in the past when this happened (late summer, always at the lake house). Vet said give her anything to eat you normally wouldn't just to get some calories in her. So, this morning in addition to baby food she got some Häagen-Dazs ice cream and salmon meant for people. She'll get a little freshly cooked chicken and steak later--after she wakes up.

Who is this?

This is an early photo (yesterday) of a baby, the son and 4th child of mother, Sarah, whom we’ve known since she was 14.  The family is thrilled, as are grandma and grandpa.  But even if Sarah didn’t want him, even if his brother and sisters were not excited, even if grandma and grandpa said, “Oh, not again,” he would still be a baby and Sarah would still be a mother.  Separate and equal in God’s sight and love.

And the popular choice winner is . . .

It was announced last night at the evening program at Lakeside Chautauqua that my husband's painting of the children eating ice cream got the "popular choice" award (people vote for their favorite). This photo shows the winning painting with the winning models.

Our birthrate is below replacement levels

Pew Research says the U.S. birth rate is falling because of the recession, but it fell by more between 1990-2000 which were very good years. Let's blame Bush instead of Obama's anti-life policies and insistence on free contraception. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/07/25/chart-of-the-week-the-great-baby-recession/

OSU band director fired

Women were first admitted to the OSU marching band 41 years ago, and those who observed it in those pre-diversity days say it wasn't for wimps then either and there was hazing in the pre-Title IX days. Positions are highly competitive--and not just at try out. I don't know the details on why the band director since 2012 Jonathon Waters was fired, but I have read it was a parent that blew the whistle about serious "cultural issues" and sexual harassment within the band. I don't think this will make the new president the most popular guy on campus.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/ohio-state-university-marching-band-director-fired-sexualized/story?id=24708582

If a director on the job for 2 years can be blamed for behavior that goes back over 40 years, then why not the President who's been on the job for 3 weeks?

I wonder if this parent homeschooled her daughter?  Maybe she doesn’t read Facebook?  The whole world is sexualized but pretending not to be—horrified that someone made a gay joke 5 years ago, but insulted if it is suggested that fornication or adultery are wrong. Has this Mom never watched TV, or seen twerking, or wardrobe failures?

How many Americans are LGBT?

"Of 34,557 adults ages 18 and older, the survey reported, 1.6 percent said they were gay or lesbian. Some critics say the numbers are low, but they fall in the range of other surveys. In the new survey, however, only 0.7 percent of respondents described themselves as bisexual; other studies have reported higher numbers."

Even when they were guestimating the figure wasn't much over 3%. Now, the percentage of stories in the news, or characters in entertainment media or literature, that's probably about 20%. Obama by updating a Nixon era EO, will want gender identity included in personnel records--otherwise how will anyone sue their employer and create another dip in the economic recovery?

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/07/21/how-many-americans-are-lesbian-gay-or-bisexual/

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr077.pdf

Art and antiques of the Gilded Age

We had a wonderful lecture at Lakeside yesterday by Amelia Jeffers, co-owner of Garth's Auctions in Delaware on our theme of the week, the Gilded Age, art and antiques. We had visited Garth's on one of our trips with Conestoga (friends of the Ohio Historical Society--new name is Ohio History Connection) and also one of the mansions she used as an example, Stan Hywet in Akron. If you live in Ohio, both locations are wonderful half day or one day trips. Today at Lakeside is the home tour and craft show--many visitors. One of the open homes is a newly renovated cottage on our street. My husband is a host at one of the cottages for which he was the architect.

Victura; the Kennedys, a sailboat and the sea, by James W. Graham, guest blogger Lynne Wilburn

 

“Another Kennedy book,” was my first thought when seeing this title, but after the first ten pages I came to realize it wasn’t just another Kennedy book. It was a crash course in sailing for a land locked mid-westerner  like  myself and I found myself sailing right along with the family.  The Kennedys sailed when grief was everywhere, during  wedding weekends, in times of joy and  unthinkable sadness,  At times they sailed alone.  One account of Teddy sailing alone at night with just his skill and the stars following his brother Bobby’s death was especially touching . And the competing among family member is long standing going back to Joe, Jr. and Jack in their youth.

Old Joe Kennedy purchased the first sailing vessel for his two older sons and the race was on, entering  races  together and against each other.  Interestingly, the Kennedy women competed  against all comers, too, and Eunice and Ethel are among the finest sailors in the family. Ethel still holds her annual sailing picnics for her expanding family and she is well into her 80’s.

Christopher Kennedy , son of  Robert and Ethel, was author James Graham’s right hand  during the research for this book and they became friends. Chris often took the author sailing, although he was not much of a sailor at the time. Many sailing days later while Chris and Graham were returning to shore for lunch, they came upon a number of children of varying ages with a instructor.  The children were taking lessons in sailing and water safety and when they saw Chris they all smiled their toothy smiles and waved eagerly. Chris turned to the Graham and said,  “They are mostly Kennedys”.

As one generation of Kennedys sails into the sunset, so to speak, another generation comes over the horizon and the reader now understands why the family loves the sea. “We are tied to the ocean, and when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch--we are going back  from whence we came.” John F. Kennedy

University Press of New England
272 pages, 6 x 9", 28 images
Cloth, $29.95, Ebook $22.99
ISBN: 978-1-61168-4117
To order: 800-421-1561
www.upne.com

Got tofu?

Each lecture should have a take-away, just like a good sermon. Last week's lecture at Lakeside Chautauqua about commodities and South America: soybean production is contributing to rainforest destruction in Brazil; China is the world's biggest user of soybeans and now the #1 trading partner for South America. My thought: as America's farmland is used to create ethanol as an alternative to fossil fuel, there is less land for soybeans so the rainforest is destroyed. So can we thank environmentalists for this?

http://www.ozy.com/acumen/south-americas-soybean-revolution/3401.article

http://www.bigstory.ap.org/article/secret-dirty-cost-obamas-green-power-push-1

“past studies showing the benefits of ethanol in combating climate change have not taken into account almost certain changes in land use worldwide if ethanol from corn — and in the future from other feedstocks such as switchgrass — become a prized commodity.

"Using good cropland to expand biofuels will probably exacerbate global warming," concludes the study published in Science magazine.” http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/weather/climate/globalwarming/2008-02-08-ethanol-study_N.htm

How the President finds out what is going on . . .

http://robjonesforpresident.com/2014/05/22/obama-heard-it-on-the-news-collectors-addition/

The buzz about bees

"Bee populations in the U.S. and Europe remain at healthy levels for reproduction and the critical pollination of food crops and trees. But during much of the past decade we have seen higher-than-average overwinter bee-colony losses in the Northern Hemisphere, as well as cases of bees abruptly abandoning their hives, a phenomenon known as "colony collapse disorder."

Citing this disorder, antipesticide activists and some voluble beekeepers want to ban the most widely used pesticides in modern agriculture—neonicotinoids ("neonics" for short)—that account for 20% of pesticide sales world-wide. This would have disastrous effects on modern farming and food prices." http://online.wsj.com/articles/henry-i-miller-why-the-buzz-about-a-bee-pocalypse-is-a-honey-trap-1406071612

The identify crisis in the newest EO

President Richard Nixon in a 1969 Executive Order, included gender to a list of groups that are protected from being discriminated against as federal employees. Why the hoopla about Obama?  And if his EO update (also updated by Johnson and Clinton) makes a difference, why did he wait so long? Being gay didn't stop librarians from rising to the top of their profession. Or artists.  Or musicians. Or novelists.  Certain folks seem to fear their own sexuality and have stayed too long in the closet.  Will they now take the designation "male/female" off personnel records and applications? (I’ve heard California is removing husband and wife designations). Or will job applications and personnel records need to include surgery records for transitioned? Will a black transgender (male to female) have a case against the boss because a gay black man has been promoted and she wasn't? 

http://tgmentalhealth.com/basic-issues-in-transgender-mental-health/

http://www.healthcommunities.com/transgender-health/female-to-male.shtml

The irresponsible care of the children flooding our borders

If you've ever needed to be cleared even to be a volunteer or Sunday School teacher, let alone foster care, I'm sure this will be a mystery--except I suspect the reason there is no check on the families to whom Obama is sending the kids is that these kids' parents are already in the U.S. illegally, and they are the actual "sponsors." Although how that is determined (could be just a trafficker of children) I don't know. These children are being used as political pawns to get his immigration agenda passed.

Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona writes on her Facebook page:

Along with my fellow governors, we participated today in a conference call with the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and the Director of the White House Office Intergovernmental Affairs.

During the call, it was confirmed what I have long suspected – the Obama administration has specifically chosen to avoid its due diligence and is releasing Unaccompanied Alien Children into the care and custody of so-called ‘sponsors’ -- individuals about whom the administration does not check immigration or deportation status.

As a Governor, it’s beyond frustrating that, once again, this administration deliberately neglects its duty to act in a responsible manner and uphold the law. But as a mother, it’s unconscionable that federal officials willingly release children into the permanent custody of people of which little – if anything – is known.

I call on the President Obama and his administration to immediately correct this practice and expedite the removal of illegal aliens to their home country. The American people have had enough. They demand immediate action to return illegal aliens – whether adults or minors – to their countries of origin and secure our border.

Cloward-Piven perfect storm

A story in the Washington Post highlights a number of times the Obama administration was warned of the growing crisis on the border. For instance, a 2012 report by the Women's Refugee Commission spelled out the growing number of unaccompanied minors at the border which started in the fall of 2011. Why did they wait for it to be a crisis? Cloward-Piven, anyone?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-aides-were-warned-of-brewing-border-crisis/2014/07/19/8b5d2282-0d1b-11e4-b8e5-d0de80767fc2_story.html

Thirty Border Patrol agents were assigned in August 2013 to drive the children to off-site showers, wash their clothes and make them sandwiches. As soon as those children were placed in temporary shelters, more arrived. An average of 66 were apprehended each day on the border and more than 24,000 cycled through Texas patrol stations in 2013. In a 41-page report to the Department of Homeland Security, the team from the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) raised alarms about the federal government’s capacity to manage a situation that was expected to grow worse. . .

“There were warning signs, operational folks raising red flags to high levels in terms of this being a potential issue,” said one former senior federal law enforcement official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly about internal operations.

It’s not that Obama is incompetent or dumb.  But the alternative is much more serious.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/09/barack_obama_and_the_strategy.html

“Before the 1994 Republican takeover, Democrats had sixty years of virtually unbroken power in Congress - with substantial majorities most of the time. Can a group of smart people, studying issue after issue for years on end, with virtually unlimited resources at their command, not come up with a single policy that works? Why are they chronically incapable?”  The author announced this warning in 2008—before Obama was in office.

Why?  Cloward-Piven and the manufactured crisis.

Isn’t technology amazing?

And the protection of government employees doing the President’s bidding—that’s pretty awesome also.

Week five at Lakeside

The week begins on Saturday at Lakeside with the sad face renters leaving and the new vacationers coming in with happy faces.  We’re always happy because we’re here 9 weeks.  The Saturday evening program was Blood sweat and tears with Bo Brice (American Idol runner up) and the baby boomers were happy, but the volume drove us out after about 10 minutes. The big event for me on Saturday was the massage at Kenny House in Port Clinton.   Sunday I’ve already blogged about here—so many wonderful things going on and many people enjoying the wonderful weather.

The day time program theme is “The Gilded Age,” with Dr. Thomas Mach of Cedarville University presenting four lectures on big business, labor, the farmer and politics. On Wednesday morning Amelia Jeffers of Garth’s in Delaware will present on Art and Antiques of the Gilded Age, and she is also discussing the book The Classic Style of American Antiques at the Women’s Club on Tuesday.  On Wednesday afternoon, Bryan Wright who is pursuing a PHD in musicology will discuss “Music of the Gilded Age.”  Thursday afternoon is a program on Andrew Carnegie and a film on the Triangle Fire will be shown in the morning. There are some historic preservation workshops on Friday.

Tuesday night will feature some Russian musicians from St. Petersburg, “Moscow nights and golden gates,” (could be an awkward time to be Russian and traveling).  The cottage tour is Thursday, and my husband will be the host at one of them (he was the architect); that always brings in a lot of visitors.

It’s heating up today—we may not be able to enjoy dinner on the deck if it gets into the 90s as predicted.

A perfect day at Lakeside

We at Lakeside often talk about a perfect day (we don't comment when it is muggy or ghastly hot), but yesterday really was. There was so much going on this week-end it looked like the Fourth of July traffic, yet the weather was sunny and under 80. There was the plein air art show in the park, the wooden boat show on the lakefront, a 50s-60s rock and roll band, Wally and the Beavs, at the pavilion, eats on the hotel lawn for a very reasonable price, a wonderful history lecture in Chautauqua Hall, and a fabulous recital, "Songs of Faith" (which I attended) by Andrew Blosser, tenor, and Emily Rogers, mezzo-soprano, at the charming United Methodist Church, and 88 kids showing up for Kids’ Sail (my husband is one of the sailors who take them out). We topped it off with a lovely dinner on the deck with some fresh produce from the Farmer’s Market.  Although I did find out those weren’t Ohio peaches, but South Carolina.  Still wonderfully sweet and delicious.

Carthage College commencement address

This tech CEO gives new graduates good advice about life. I don’t know anything about Reddit, but found this guy charming and honest about curiosity, failure and success.

Netanyahu to U.S. and to us Christians

I’m ashamed of the response and animosity many Christian denominations are showing toward Israel.  Israel is not the aggressor.  No Muslim country believes in its right to exist. How do you negotiate with that?

Putin and Obama

Paul McCobb retro furniture

Anything you search on the internet turns up in ads on anything else you read—online news sites or Facebook, etc. Early in our marriage we purchased Paul McCobb design furniture (modern for po' folk), and we still have it. Now it's worth more than anything in our house. After checking some retro-modern web sites, those ads are now pushing out the wigs and athletic shoes I looked for earlier in the summer.

Kenny House in Port Clinton

I had a wonderful massage at the Kenny House, 226 Adams St. in Port Clinton, Ohio (Nancy Barna) this morning. Haven't had so little pain in many months. Great job. She has 3 locations--others are Sandusky and Catawba Island. She also has an adorable 6 week old male kitten, orange tabby, very friendly, litter trained, she needs to find a home for if you live in the area, you might contact her. (419-734-5943) The mother cat was apparently HBC and 4 little hungry orphans turned up at her door, and she's found homes for 3 of them.

I blogged about the Kenny House in 2008.

Are smart phones changing Christians?

I was really getting into the article about 6 ways smartphones and social media are changing Christians, and then read the final paragraph, "To listen to my entire 34-minute conversation with Wells and Groothius on the pros and cons of personal communications technology, subscribe to the Authors on the Line podcast in iTunes, download the recording (MP3), or stream the conversation." The irony. . .

http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/six-ways-your-phone-is-changing-you

Advice from an older family member

Nephew Bob to his nephew Jacob—as seen on Facebook:

"Always keep in mind Jacob that you have generations of wisdom at your fingertips. Between all of us, there isn't anything you can go through that one or more of us hasn't already walked the path. We can't walk it for you, but we can sure tell you what the road conditions are and where the exits are. Don't ever be afraid to ask for that help. Just think of your family unit as a GPS with one mission, to safely get you to your destination. Trust that it will all work out in the end, because it does." A great definition of family.

Blood on our borders, guest blog by David

This week, Mexican-American comedian and actor, Paul Rodriguez made comments on CNN regarding America’s border crisis and the thousands of children caught in limbo. His strong stance against illegal immigration of any kind came as a shock to many of his fans.

Last night, in light of the controversy, Paul gave an exclusive interview on Estrella TV’s Noticiero con Enrique Gratas to elaborate on his statements. The entire segment (in Spanish) is available at: http://videos.estrellatv.com/video/paul-rodriguez-immigration-responde-a-las-criticas-sobre-inmigracion.

Also below are key statements from his interview. The full transcript in English is available upon request.

ENRIQUE: Many consider your stance is anti-Latino. How do you respond to this accusation?

PAUL: It is not anti-Latino I just care about the lives of these children. My words have no weight on immigration if it was for me they could come, give them life, a home, and education to all of them but the problem is so difficult that neither Democrats nor Republicans have found a solution. I just say that I got into this because of the documentary we making. See the danger they encounter. I ask these parents, would you send your little girl boarding a train called ‘la bestia’ from Quintana Roo to here more than 2000 miles? Who's going to care of her? There are many, many of them are raped.

ENRIQUE: Paul, don’t you think that these kids have the right to stay?

PAUL: Those who are here? Absolutely. The problem with that is the message that we send to other countries. There will be another 60,000 children coming from other countries who will risk their life from Yucatan all the way here? Many of them are not going to make it and we are talking about hundreds of children.

ENRIQUE:  Who’s blame of this crisis occurring and how to solve?

PAUL: Mr Obama, has to resolve this crisis. His  Government failed,  in my opinion because,  his not working in the  migration program, he has to negotiate with the Governments of El Salvador and Honduras and we have to send help to them,  there so they do not risk their lives.

ENRIQUE:  The solution is immigration reform, and to strengthen the borders?

PAUL: Obama has betrayed us. Since he won't be re-elected, he does not care. I blame the Republicans and the Democrats. They take care more action from the things that are happening in the Middle East, when there is more blood spilled here in our borders.

Hobby Lobby and Nancy Pelosi’s lies

The irony of all this is we the people pay for the health insurance through reduced paychecks (aka benefits). But we get an income tax deduction by not paying taxes on that part of our paycheck we never saw. The government is lusting for that deduction which I think amounts to more than the "losses" of the mortgage deduction, and by 2018 we'll be seeing significant changes. Obama thinks our benefit is his. By destroying the employer based system (which also gets a tax break for providing it) the federal government hopes to get huge gains. It's a 2-fer--health care costs go up because of gov't interference in the market, then we get to pay higher prices, and taxes. It's not really about what is covered and what isn't—condoms or orthotics-- but about how to mess it up so badly no one will want it and beg for something really neato like the VA offers.

http://www.lifenews.com/2014/07/10/nancy-pelosi-supreme-court-hobby-lobby-ruling-was-about-if-women-can-use-diaphragms/

http://www.kiplinger.com/article/spending/T027-C001-S001-a-tax-on-health-benefits.html

Wellness—word bloat

"Health and Wellness" programs, websites, books, TV shows, etc.  It's word bloat, and although "wellness" had bounced around in the 50s and 60s, it really took off in the 1990s. "In 1988, a survey of the Usage Panel for the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language found that a whopping 68 percent of panelists disapproved of the word when used to refer to employee benefit plans." (Language column, NYT magazine) But that's the beautiful thing about the English language, you're free to invent words or bloat your sentences. I see someplace in California they want to remove the words "husband" and "wife," so I guess it swings both ways (no pun intended).

http://definitionofwellness.com/

http://www.seekwellness.com/wellness/reports/2000-12-29.htm

http://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/wellness

It’s Latin American week at Lakeside, Ohio

Yesterday was a brain buster day at Lakeside. The theme this week is Latin America. Although I had a Spanish minor in college, it had been 50 years since I looked into the geography, culture and economics of this huge and diverse continent. Today is literature, and tomorrow is devoted just to Brazil--it alone in LA has a full set of global connections--economic, industrial, military, diplomatic and cultural. Also, it was somewhat alarming to see the huge presence of China in LA.

For an Ecuadoran to travel to New York costs about $14,000 using local "loan sharks" and various networks to get him out of the country up through Mexico and across the border and more transportation to NYC. When there he may work as many as 3 jobs and have the loan paid back in 1.5 years (interest is 5% a month). Although there are a lot of illegal things going on in this story, there are also entrepreneurship, creativeness and very hard work. Remittances sent back to Ecuador supports his family and maybe his parents; also builds a nice home in a village that may be almost empty. One is left to wonder why Ecuadoran campesinos will work this hard with only the support of friends and family (no social benefits), but Americans won't.

 

Every Obama speech you’ll ever need

I heard one of these on “crumbling roads and bridges” that was hilarious.

Our guest book—Monday memories

When we bought our Lakeside cottage in the fall of 1988, my mother bought us a guest book, where visitors could sign. Today I was looking on the bookshelf for something, and found that book.  I had used it until 2008 and then started a new one although there were many pages left.

The first names recorded in the summer of 1989 were our neighbors, Vanita, Margie, Betty and Mrs. Lowe; also friends we knew from Columbus, Rich and Julie Crabbs (now both deceased), Ken and Cean Hollenbaugh,  Rosalee, Ned, Jason and Brian Moore who I think were at the camp grounds, Laura Linquist whom I used to work with at OSUL, Don, Gail and Stacey Bren, and Mike and Linda Evans; also my husband’s parents came that summer from Indianapolis, as did Tom and Pat Moir. My husband’s partners from Feinknopf, Macioce and Schappa, and a group from Cursillo seem to be visiting in the winter.  The next summer I see Roger and Judi Gertz, who had a cottage one block over on Lynn, who now live in Marietta, and just arrived yesterday for a week with kids and grandkids. I see in the book our across the street neighbors Grace and Frank Sheidler (now deceased) visited—their cottage had a tree growing through the porch awning, now removed.  That summer my husband’s sister and husband came.  I think they got a call that baby Caleb (grandson) was ill and they rushed home—or was that the next summer?  He’s now in Afghanistan.  Bill Plate and his wife Kathy came to visit—he was one of my husband’s partners.  Our daughter visited that summer of 1990 (she may have been here before, but didn’t sign the book).  In August of 1991, my parents visited, but I think they were here also in the fall of 1989 to deliver some furniture because I remember watching with them the fall of the Berlin Wall. Marvin and Adrienne Zahniser came in the fall to spend some time, then Riitta and Martti Tulamo.  Bob and Jean were back in the summer of 1992 as were Debbie, Kim and Kari Rosenberg and my in-laws the DeMotts.  Summer of 1993 Paul and Marylyn Doncevic visited as did Nancy and Barb, two sisters we know from our church. In the summer of 1994 Donna and Mike Conrad came for supper (they later bought a cottage, but have since sold it, now live in Florida).  Our daughter and son-in-law and his brother Pete and wife Peg came for a week. The Fall of `1994 there were  a lot of folks we knew from Columbus here so we had a 6th anniversary party—Sowers, Shalters and Gatsches all signed, but I know there were many others—Boiarski, Steele, Conrad, etc.  It was a pretty fall week-end and many were here.

Rich and Julie Crabbs who came for the Methodist conferences signed many times—he was a Methodist pastor, as did some of our other regular Methodist visitors (whom we’ve never met).  Our daughter and son-in-law many times—usually a week every summer after 1993 when they married.  And Holly and Lindsey several times, who were part of the family then, but not now. Miss them both.  And many names I don’t recognize! And just so I wouldn’t forget, I noted in the guest book that the new roof and new heating system/AC were installed in 2002 and a new frig June 2002—seems like yesterday.  It all does.  But it has been 25 years.

 

Joseph Nye and soft power

Joseph S. Nye wrote in 2008:  “ . . as I have said before, it is difficult to think of any single act that would do more to restore America’s soft power than the election of Obama to the presidency.”  Soft power, Nye said, was the ability to obtain the outcomes one wants through attraction rather than using the carrots and sticks of payment or coercion.  It’s difficult to think of any assessment of Obama that was more silly or misguided. Nye was commenting on the adulation and swooning of Europeans (they are good at that as history shows), not the desire for high priced reparations and absolution that American voters sought by electing a black man. Obama has messed up in so many foreign policies areas—Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Russia, Pakistan, etc. one doesn’t even need to go into the NSA, IRS, Fast and Furious, and his own “leave no Central American child behind.”

Have you noticed what color the children are?

See anything in this photo? Two white guys sending their brown and poor north to the U.S. No children this color are among the unaccompanied minors flooding our border. President Perez Molina of Guatemala has a reputation for brutality and genocide--so this is much easier and cleaner. President Pena Nieto is a former community organizer and Mexico's John Edwards. http://www.ijreview.com/2014/07/156005-mexicos-shady-deal-guatemala-sheds-much-light-influx-illegals-flooding-border/

Victor Davis Hanson asks: "Have immigration-reform advocates such as Mark Zuckerberg or Michael Bloomberg offered one of their mansions as a temporary shelter for needy Central American immigrants? Couldn’t Yale or Stanford welcome homeless... immigrants into their now under-occupied summertime dorms? Why aren’t elite academies such as Sidwell Friends or the Menlo School offering their gymnasia as places of refuge for tens of thousands of school-age Central Americans?"

Who are getting the jobs? Not native born Americans

In the first quarter of this year, there were 5.7 million more immigrants with a job than in 2000. But among native-born Americans, there were 127,000 fewer with a job in 2014 than in 2000 — 114.7 million this year compared to about 114.8 m...illion in 2000. Since President Obama took office, 67 percent of employment growth has gone to immigrants (legal and illegal).
(Center for Immigration Studies)   http://www.cis.org/who-got-jobs-during-obama-presidency

Support for the President among religious groups

More than 85 percent of Muslim-Americans voted for Obama, and although his popularity has plummeted among other groups, it's still about 72% for Muslims. Why any Jews or Catholics support him is beyond me. http://www.gallup.com/poll/172442/muslims-approving-obama-mormons-least.aspx?ref=image

College rate for Hispanics higher than whites or blacks

Black Americans who support Obama's amnesty and immigration policies might want to take a second look. Hispanic students graduating from high school now have a higher college enrollment than white students, and definitely higher than black... students. Graduation rates are still lagging, but I think that will improve too. And no one can catch the Asian Americans. College graduation rate for whites was 85% and 93% for Asian/Pacific Islander students; 76% for Hispanics and just 68% for black students. The term Hispanic is a made up word and covers Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Chileans, Jamaicans, etc. http://blogs.wsj.com/numbers/amid-affirmative-action-ruling-some-data-on-race-and-college-enrollment-1328/

Mission Accomplished. . . oops

“As he precipitously pulled out all U.S. peacekeepers from Iraq, the president had his own “Mission Accomplished” moment when declaring the country “stable,” “self-reliant,” and an “extraordinary achievement.” “ VDH

But Obama showed himself to be a weak and confused leader after the war was essentially over and won by the time he took office in January 2009 with nothing left to do but stabilize the victories.  His supporters didn’t seem to notice, but the terrorists certainly took note.  Now that ISIS has overrun the region, he is looking around for someone to blame.  Bush and the Republicans, of course.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/381831/how-obama-lost-middle-east-victor-davis-hanson

Why Mexico doesn’t want its ex-pats to come home

Remittances sent by Mexicans living abroad, mainly in the United States, are the country's second-largest source of foreign exchange, after oil, and help cover the living expenses of millions of people.

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2014/04/01/remittances-to-mexico-rise-715-pct-in-first-2-months-2014/

Mexico's emigration (to the U.S.) is a financially lucrative form of ethnic cleansing--moving those with the most indigenous heritage north, leaving Mexico for the mixed population with the most European blood. Until recently, the only immigration acceptable in Mexico was from Europe, which would “whiten” the general population. They are moving quickly to make sure the poorest people of Central America (who are also those with the most Indian heritage), make it across our border.

Raising the minimum doesn’t help the unemployed

Did you notice whose unemployment rate is going up? Teens. The under 25 and part timers are the bulk of Obama's latest minimum wage move to attract voters.
“Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult women (5.3 percent) and blacks (10.7 percent) declined in June, and the rate increased for teenagers (21.0 percent). The rates for adult men (5.7 percent), whites (5.3 percent), and Hispanics (7.8 percent) showed little change. The jobless rate for Asians was 5.1 percent . . . The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) increased by 275,000 in June to 7.5 million. . . In June, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 6 cents to $24.45, following a 6-cent increase in May.” http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

Both Hoover and FDR imposed policies that kept wages artificially high during the Great Depression, which was fine for those who kept their jobs but death for those looking for jobs. When the economy would start to recover, out would come another regulation, and boom, down it would go again, Same thing in smaller doses during this recession. Those who have jobs are doing well and "fat cat cronies" are wealthier than ever; those who don't, well, good luck.

Someone needs to look into this Asian unemployment rate to see why they are in such demand for American employers. They are working hard, staying in school, have a high marriage rate and only 2.4% of welfare recipients are Asian (5.1% of the population) compared to 38.8% of recipients who are whites and 39.8 % blacks, and so they have a leg up on staying employed and moving up the ladder of success. Is that fair? The good news is they are the fastest growing minority in the U.S.

This is what I want, but it is disappearing fast

Every one wants neon green or Wendy Davis pink, or electric blue.

Friday Family Photo

Last Thursday evening the program at Lakeside in Hoover auditorium was The Buckinghams, and they were really excellent musicians.  We enjoyed their talents and had a family selfie photo.

Out and about on the Marblehead Peninsula

I was at a local bank next to a McDonald's today. Noticed the sign for workers at McDonald's. $10/hour. Ohio's minimum is $7.95/hour, higher than the federal. During the Bush years when it was very difficult to get Americans to work in the leisure industry (seasonal), we had a lot of East European and Baltic college students working in Lakeside. After a full shift they'd ride their bicycles several miles to McDonald's and work another shift. Their ambition was impressive, but after traveling when their 10 weeks were up, they went home--with their money.

The bank drive-through had a video camera, so the employee could see everything I was doing.  Well, I was eating potato chips, so I turned my head away from the camera.

We also have a Wal-Mart Super store about a mile from the bank, from which I can’t leave without having spent $40 when I only needed a few items.  Today I was there sort of early, so in the back of the store where I was browsing bikes I will never buy, the employees were having a pep rally of sorts.  Later when I was checking out, I mentioned it to the cashier.  She smiled and said that those at the register weren’t there.  Then she noted that they are only allowed 2 minutes to get from the back of the store to their registers! (It’s a long walk.) The staff there are well trained, polite and helpful.  Instead of pointing if you ask about something, they walk with you to the right location. Also, as is typical at a Wal-Mart, the merchandise is selected to meet the needs of the area, which in this case, is vacation land with a lot of boats and cottages.

Golf carts are very popular in Lakeside. So are cell phones. Unfortunately, many people my age and older are doing both.

The next time you plan to freeze some hamburger

Put it in a zip lock bag, flatten, and score gently so pieces can be broken off for your recipes or sandwiches.

Silence in the face of evil

“One of the things that I noticed when touring Daucau and Flossenbürg concentration camps was that there were many more non-Jewish German citizens who had been imprisoned and died in those camps than I ever realized (along with Jews, Gypsies, those deemed socially unacceptable, Russians, etc). They were, of course, those who took a stand against the Nazis and/or spoke out about the existence of the camps. It helped me to understand how those camps could be so close to the towns (or in the case of Flossenbürg, in the town) and the towns people 'didn't notice them'. Intimidation and fear work wonders to keep people blind, justifying and silent. It could happen anywhere. Anyway, just an insight I gathered from my observations there that may or may not be accurate on my part. In memory of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.” Beth Shaw at Facebook

http://blog.speakupmovement.org/university/thought-reform/dietrich-bonhoeffer-subversive-religious-freedom-advocate/

True the Vote vs. GOP in Mississippi

Last week, True the Vote sued the Mississippi Republican Party and several other defendants over their wrongful denial of access to election documents in the primary and run-off between US Senator Thad Cochran and MS Senator Chris McDaniel.
Now,  the Chairman of the Mississippi Republican Party has gone on full attack.  MS GOP Chairman Joe Nosef told Breitbart that True the Vote has an "awful reputation" and even went so far as to threaten his own voting base with "sanctions" because they were plaintiffs in the suit to shed light on this clouded election for the United States Senate. The challenge is to review what should be publicly available documents related to absentee ballots.

TTV says it has uncovered evidence of possible criminal misconduct involving the destruction of relevant election documents, double voting,  and crossover voting, whereby voters' rights are being sacrificed in the interest of political gamesmanship.
Wednesday, True the Vote asked the federal court to place a temporary restraining order on both the State and the Mississippi GOP to ensure no more documents are destroyed.  From True the Vote e-mail.

Why should we care who represents Mississippi in the U.S. Senate?  Take a look at the votes.  They control and represent all of us.

Rape statistics are inflated, but why?

It's in the news again today--the alarming college rape statistics and those schools that don't report them. Possibly this is why--the numbers have been politicized. The White House says 1 in 5 (20%) of women on college campuses are sexually assaulted; the government agency charged with statistics collection says 1.8 per 1,000 (.18%) of all adult women in the U.S. and that has dropped dramatically in the last 5 years. One reports a number that is higher than the most violent third world country, higher than prison rapes, in highly selective communities with no poverty, no wars, and well educated residents; the other reports 270,000 rape or sexual assault victimizations in a country of over 300 million, half of whom are women. Even if you take into consideration that many assaults are NOT reported, someone is assaulting the WH numbers for political gain. The question is why are we being lied to about this?

Even accounting for all those assaults not reported, the numbers are inflated.  Just multiply the undercount by 5 or 6 times and you still only get 1%, not 20%. Otherwise, no parent would send her daughter to college--it would be safer in Honduras from which people are fleeing for the U.S. to get college benefits.

 http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/press/fvsv9410pr.cfm

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-sexual-assault-20140709-story.html

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2014/07/alarming-stats-from-congressional-campus-sex-assault-report/

1300 more pages for ACA aka Obamacare

Mike Huckabee writes on July 8:

Friday was Independence Day…unless you’re a doctor… While Americans had their eyes on fireworks, the Health and Human Services Department quietly released the latest batch of new Obamacare regulations. If you thought the original 2,000-page bill was long, that was just the blueprint for how to make MORE regulations. This time, HHS unleashed nearly 1300 pages of new regulations. Former New York Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey has actually been reading all this bureaucratic gibberish. She says the first 600 or so pages place new requirements on doctors who see Medicare patients. They not only intrude on the care doctors give, but experts estimate that it will take a doctor up to an hour and 48 minutes per patient to comply. That adds up to about 5.4 million MORE hours a year that doctors will have to spend doing paperwork instead of seeing patients. So if you want to find a doctor who’ll take Medicare patients, better start looking now. Even if you’re under thirty.

Political posturing on the left

James Taranto writes in the WSJ:

“Senate Democrats appear to have concluded that scapegoating religious minorities is good politics. "Sens. Patty Murray of Washington and Mark Udall of Colorado are expected to introduce legislation on Wednesday seeking to prevent companies from relying on a religious freedom law to avoid complying with the Affordable Care Act's requirement to cover all forms of contraception approved by the government without charging workers a copayment," The Wall Street Journal reports.

The bill, a response to last week's Supreme Court ruling in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, would foreclose employers from conscientiously objecting to ObamaCare coverage mandates under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. It has no prospect of being enacted into law this year, given that Republicans control the House. National Journal last week quoted Speaker John Boehner, who praised the decision as "a victory for religious freedom and another defeat for an administration that has repeatedly crossed constitutional lines in pursuit of its Big Government objectives." (Actually, in this case the line it crossed was a statutory one.)

Thus the introduction of the legislation is an exercise not in lawmaking but in political point-scoring.”

So the illegal mandate is going to generate more legislation. Obamacare was declared a tax by SCOTUS and the ACA originated in the Senate instead of the House where those things are required by law.  What a bunch of clowns and crooks.

Is this a man cool under pressure or what?

During an interview with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Wednesday, Democratic Congressman Henry Cuellar of Texas criticized President Obama as “aloof” and “detached” for refusing to visit the southern Texas border and witness the massive immigration crisis firsthand.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2014/07/09/dem-congressman-frustrated-with-aloof-obama-video/#ixzz370Jgw100

Maybe a wig?

I saw a woman yesterday wearing this type of wig and I liked it.  It would certainly solve some sticky hot hair do days.  In the 70s I had several wigs—different colors and styles, and I liked it.  Many women wore wigs then.  Now you mainly see them on women who have had some sort of therapy that has caused hair loss.

Chalk one up for Pro-Lifers

Bryan posted this blog on his website,  StandTrue.com:

The Stand True Mission Team arrived at the Packard Museum in Dayton about an hour before a Planned Parenthood fundraiser was scheduled to begin. We set out immediately to chalk all the sidewalks leading to the museum with pro-life and Gospel messages.  Within minutes someone from the museum came out to tell us we could not chalk near the driveways or big doors. I informed her she was wrong and invited her to call the Dayton Police.

Two Dayton Police officers showed up shortly after and talked to me for a few minutes and then went in to inform the museum that we were well within our rights.

Two employees from the museum came out and approached me to ask about what we were doing. They were both heartbroken that the event had been booked by the agency for the museum and told us how much they were on our side. It was obvious how devastated they were with the decision to host a Planned Parenthood event there.

One of the museum employees, an older gentleman, asked if I had any pro-life literature. I told him Planned Parenthood would take it away from him and he said “They will NOT stop me from passing this out inside the museum.” I loaded him up with some literature and graphic drop cards, and he went inside.

As the night progressed we set up right at the entrance to the event and showed every single person who paid $75 a ticket what their money went to and pleaded with them to stop supporting child killing. We did not get to do much pleading as fewer than 25 people went into the fully catered event. I am sure Planned Parenthood lost money that night.

Watching today’s news (ABC)

The middle east is in chaos because of the U.S. sloppy pullout; Israel is being attacked; the IRS has computers that mysteriously eat their hard drives; smallpox vials from the 1950s have been found in a government store room; thousands of children from Central America have been made refugees by our policies; and ABC is discussing what George Clooney's future mother-in-law said or didn't say. This is the "free press" we were guaranteed in the First Amendment?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/07/08/smallpox-discovered-sitting-in-maryland-storage-room/

After 80 attacks from Hamas. . .

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jul/7/quintanta-us-policies-fuel-central-american-immigr/

Secure the border before offering amnesty

Google and the ghetto

Yesterday we had two fascinating lectures at Lakeside.  First a neighbor who got her first work experience waiting tables at The Abigail (local restaurant, now closed) explained the Google culture where she now works in California.  It was unbelievable.  They can bring their dogs to work; they can get the oil changed in their car; they can bring their laundry and dry cleaning; no desk/cubicle is more than 150 ft from food or a restroom. And she added, the food is delicious and new employees usually gain the Google ten or fifteen.  Workers have social clubs—gays, veterans, hobbies, work out gyms, etc.  Everything is for the team, and the intention is to get more production from the employees. And if employees get burnout from spending too much time at work, a supervisor will add a night out with spouse or partner to their work schedule.

Then at 3:30 p.m. an American embassy employee (Pakistan) who is also a Lakesider and a Christian, talked about the Christians in Pakistan, a tiny persecuted minority.  These people also live and work in a closed environment and rarely go beyond the borders of their ghetto.  They are a persecuted minority and recently we’ve seen stories on TV about the church burning and killing.  The police do nothing. When Pakistan became a country 65 years ago, Christians and the few remaining Hindus were promised religious freedom.  But that began to disappear in the 70s and now there is Sharia Law.  The photos I saw (of their ghetto in Islamabad) are worse than the poverty of Haiti.  These people are descendants of the mid-18th century converts by the missionaries the Europeans sent.  Christians are only welcome if they bring alcohol—Muslims are not allowed to buy it.  Everyone has an ID card that identifies the religion.

It’s very difficult to evangelize for the Christian faith in Pakistan, as you can imagine.  But it must be even harder at Google in California, where every need is met and you must be on the team or be out the door.

The Democrats’ War on Women

The Democrats. They toss freebies like birth control at women and teen girls to get votes, and then import other women who will have larger families. They offer "progressive" programs that are really failed "regressive" socialist programs from the last century designed to create dependence on the daddy long legs of the federal government. They push abortion at a time when our birth rate is below replacement level and falling, and research shows a strong relationship with both breast cancer and suicide. They bad mouth traditional marriage when married couples are succeeding at every societal measure where single moms are not. Women are depicted as helpless victims in constant need of the very party that is attacking them. Yet they ignore as "freedom of speech" the most disgusting music and video game images of 50% of the nation while fainting over words like Redskins.

Losing those e-mails

Sharing from T-bone:
The odds of winning the Florida lottery are 1 in 22,957,480.

The odds of winning the Powerball is 1 in 175,223,510.

The odds of winning Mega Millions is 1 in 258,890,850.

The odds of a disk drive failing in any given month are roughly one in 36. The odds of two different drives failing in the same month are roughly one in 36 squared, or 1 in about 1,300. The odds of three drives failing in the same month is 36 cubed or 1 in 46,656.

The odds of seven different drives failing in the same month (like what happened at the IRS when they received a letter asking about emails targeting conservative and pro-Israeli groups) is 37 to the 7th power = 1 in 78,664,164,096. (that's over 78 Billion)

In other words, the odds are greater that you will win the Florida Lottery 342 times than having those seven IRS hard drives crashing in the same month.

How to close minorities and low income out of the higher education market

"For-profit schools educate a larger share of low-income, minorities, veterans and single mothers than do nonprofit and public colleges. Eighty percent of their students lack parental financial support." Obama has decided they are "predatory" and are making sure they shut down if in violation of federal regulations not required of public institutions. Liberals scream when for-profit abortion clinics close due to health violations, but they applaud this. http://online.wsj.com/articles/obamas-letters-to-corinthian-1404684555

Federal law leaves states and accrediting agencies to prescribe how for-profits calculate job-placement rates. Yet they all have different rules, and most are open to interpretation. Seizing on the confusion, prosecutors have charged Corinthian with misrepresenting its rates. California AG Kamala Harris's suit criticizes Corinthian for "company-wide placement verification issues, including a lack of any definitions or standard procedures." Yet internal Corinthian memos revealed a strategy "to close or sell campuses that are not meeting placement outcomes."

College costs have soared far beyond health care or housing.  If the government needs to clean house, why not start at the top instead of the bottom.

Who has the responsibility?

Virtually any criticism of the president is called racist, whether parody, cartoon, jokes or telling the truth. And I've seen some that truly are racist--and they are sickening. But which is worse--some flake on the internet saying nasty things about a black president, or a black president thumbing his nose at the Constitution, traditions, and Congress while the media and his supporters swoon in admiration? Which person has the greater responsibility and the bigger bully pulpit?

There is so much to do at Lakeside this week Three

My husband’s Perspective Drawing class is full—starts at 9 today at the Rhein Center.  I won’t be taking that class—I think I have 3 times. Lakeside has a new computer sign up for art classes now.

Which is a segue to Monday and Tuesdays programs are on Google, delivered by Amy Carle who is a Lakesider, but also a Google program manager. There’s also a 3:30 Tuesday class on popular Apps, but I don’t need that one.

At 3:30 on Monday is Christianity in Pakistan, persecution of an endangered minority in Chautaqua Hall.

Wednesday and Thursday’s programs are on the Dead Sea Scrolls by John Kampen which should be interesting. I don’t know if it is the same content, but he has about an hour lecture on vimeo on this topic. I’m hoping it’s a bit more animated in person.

On Tuesday afternoon, a Lakesider Diane Hartenburg, will talk about her Christian pilgrimage in 2013, 500 miles across France and Spain at the Lakeside Women’s Club.

At 8 a.m. on Wednesday the Sudomirs are leading a bird walk.  Darn, my binoculars are in Columbus. There will be two other bird programs, on Friday, on Birds of Prey at the bandstand at 10:30 in the morning, and same topic, different presenter at 1:30 in the Aigler Room.

The Foreign Affairs Forum will be 2:30 on Friday as usual, and I assume should be lively given how ISIS has taken over all that was liberated in the Iraq War and is moving on to Syria and Libya.

There are two author/book events, Tuesday at 7 p.m. with Christine Haymond, See my spark, ear my voice, tips for teachers, counselors, social workers, clergy. .. and Thrity Umrigar discussing her upcoming novel, The Story Hour. She is a native of India who now teaches Creative Writing at Case Western Reserve.  That will be a Fine Print Book store at 1:30 on Friday.

And all of that is just the day time programming!

The art show starts Tuesday.  My husband has two great watercolors in the show.

 

 

.

If you have a cat, you’ll understand

10 Reasons Why Iraq's Bloodbath Is Not W's Fault

Forget that you didn't like the Bush administration, and blamed him for the War in Iraq (that essentially ended before he left office)--let's look at how Obama is handling what's going on in Iraq now. This is by Larry Elder.

Let’s review:  “The U.S. intelligence community's belief that Saddam was aggressively pursuing weapons of mass destruction predated Bush's inauguration, and therefore cannot be attributed to political pressure. ... Germany ... Israel, Russia, Britain, China and even France held positions similar to that of the United States. ... In sum, no one doubted that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction."

“George Bush did not "rush" America into the war. He obtained a consensus -- a resolution from the House, a resolution from the Senate and a resolution from the United Nations. There was a 15-month run-up before the war, during which time Saddam could have declared what he did or did not do with the WMD.

“We were greeted as liberators in Iraq. The New York Times Iraq reporter John Burns said: "The American troops were greeted as liberators. We saw it." In April, 2003, the New York Daily News reported, "Jubilant crowds chanted, 'Thank you, Bush' and showered troops with yellow and pink flowers, exactly as administration hawks had promised."

http://townhall.com/columnists/larryelder/2014/06/26/10-reasons-why-iraqs-bloodbath-is-not-ws-fault-n1855756

Census will now include same sex marriage—but how?

It's going to be tricky counting married same sex couples; just because they live together, they might not consider themselves "partners" or "married." Many same sex couples have no intention of getting married, even if they support the concept. Many have never insured their partner, put them in the will, their insurance, their mortgage or added the name to the bank account. This isn't societal prejudice; it's a lack of commitment, or a casual relationship of convenience for sex or rent, or concerns about costs if there were a breakup--just like other couples who have decided marriage is just a piece of paper.

 http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/05/29/census-says-it-will-count-same-sex-marriages-but-with-caveats/

http://money.msn.com/personal-finance/gay-marriage-can-muddle-finances

Happy July 6

“In 2014, Cost of Government Day falls on July 6.This day marks the point during the year when the average American has earned enough income to pay for his or her share of the spending and regulatory burdens imposed by government at the federal, state and local levels. While Americans may be celebrating Independence Day on July 4, they are still working to pay for the full cost of government until the end of the weekend.  This will be the sixth consecutive year that COGD will fall in July; prior to President Obama taking office, COGD had never fallen after June 27.

All told, the full costs of government amount to 51 percent of GDP. Workers toil 121 days to pay for government spending alone, and 65 days to pay for regulatory costs. All told, Americans labor 186 days to pay off the full burden of government.”

Read more: http://www.atr.org/#ixzz36d37he9V

Kathy Ireland speaks on her faith and pro-life views

When enablers are addicted to feeling superior

I was listening to an advice program on the radio today—a mom called about her addicted, bi-polar son who wanted to move out of the group home to an apartment so he could be independent.  He was receiving SSD but always came to mom or a brother when he needed money (usually spent his check quickly). I don’t think she really wanted help.  She wanted to whine.  And she wanted to be the rescuer, even though she realized it was wrong.  The very kind, patient Christian host told her several times to let him fail, or he would never learn to be on his own.  It was like spitting into the wind. And so it is for so many government programs.

Disabling, enabling programs intended to help have grown as often under Republicans as Democrats. But as far as I know, only the GOP is demonized and lied about for being stingy meanies--like the Obama phone story (it was a Reagan program), or the EITC (Reagan) or when GW Bush gave a tax refund to everyone, and to be fair, even to those who hadn't paid income tax for years, or ever. Until President Obama, no president had grown the social programs like George W. Bush. He was an extravagant spender for domestic issues. There was a huge expansion under Nixon, also.  A smaller government with lower taxes is good for everyone. The best poverty program is a job. Raising minimum wage does not help the unemployed, and may actually hurt them.  A husband/wife household both working at current  minimum wage jobs puts that family above poverty level and outside most welfare type programs, including Medicaid and food stamps.  Obama wants tax increases not to help the poor, but to punish the rich, because based on GWB and JFK eras, tax cuts bring in more money to the government coffers (which again is a problem because they invent more programs).

Too little, too late

“In the fiscal year before Obama unilaterally enacted the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in 2012, there were 6,500 illegal immigrant kids who entered the country, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. According to the Christian Science Monitor, "during the decade preceding fiscal year 2012, the federal government agency tasked with caring for unaccompanied minors who cross the border illegally dealt with an average of 7,000 to 8,000 cases a year."

The Monitor noted in the the fiscal year after Obama enacted DACA, "the number jumped to 13,625," and at least 50,000, most of whom have been from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, have entered illegally since October of last year. As Breitbart News has reported, federal and local officials are estimating at least 150,000-160,000 more will try next year.”

I guess Obama thinks they have no cell phones to call home and tell their friends all they get is a bus ride and a piece of paper.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/07/04/Obama-Doppelganger-Dies-in-US-Border-Patrol-Commercial-Aimed-at-Migrants

One Nation by Ben Carson

My husband has finished reading Ben Carson's "One Nation" (Sentinel, 2014), so I asked him to write a book review for my blog, but he said, "Oh, I couldn't do that." But he hasn't stopped raving about the book and opens it to quote from it. I tell him, "See? You could write that," but he shakes his head and continues to tell me how great it is. A neighbor stopped by last evening for a chat on our porch at Lakeside, so my husband immediately began telling him about the book, and opened it to one of his favorite sections.   ISBN 978-1-59523-112-3, $25.95. Buy it, or request for your public library. A keeper.

New media/sports celeb is also a Christian

Leave the dogs at home—hire a sitter if you must

Why do people bring dogs to parades and art shows? They bark at each other, and really don't listen when their owners yell at them. Small children are just moving, threatening objects. A dog’s sense of smell is about 1,000 to 10,000,000 times more sensitive than a human’s (depending on the breed) so imagine how they are interpreting the crowds and food tents! It also is very painful to their sensitive ears when 8 fire trucks, ambulances and police cars start those sirens. Dogs detect sounds in the frequency range of approximately 67 - 45,000 Hz (varies with different breeds), compared to humans with the approximate range of 64 - 23,000 Hz. Plus humans have better vision, so it sort of defeats the purpose of bringing them to parades--unless you're just showing them off.

Have a great holiday and remember what it celebrates

1962 cost of Living

Comparatively speaking, food was more expensive in 1962 than today, according to this chart. In 1962 we bought our first home, $14,000, but our income was more like $4,000, and a wife's income did not count in mortgage applications unless s...he was a nurse or school teacher (considered safe jobs). Banks were strict; no more than 1/3 of income could be home related. My father financed our 2nd mortgage. We rented the upstairs apartment for $65/mo which was the mortgage amount. Rental real estate is the only home that isn't a hole in the ground where you bury money. Tuition, fees and housing at the University of Illinois was probably about $1200/year ($30,300 today). I don't recall specific prices for food, but a good size candy bar was 10 cents. Yes, gas really was that cheap, but automobiles were very inefficient and less safe 40-50 years ago--I had a huge 4  door '69 Olds that got about 10 mpg. My husband had zero benefits in 1962--no insurance, no vacation, no pension. We purchased a hospitalization policy and a small life insurance policy--I think they were about $30/quarter. We paid cash for doctors and dentist. All that said, I think higher education has gone up faster than health care (1,120% since 1978; medical 601%), food or housing--probably because of all the government assistance and loans, and it will only get worse now that the government has taken that over completely.

We were not church members then, and if our "giving" was $10/year, I'd be surprised. We were definitely in Joe Biden territory. We always had month left over after the money ran out until we started to tithe.

Watching the morning scare stories

I'm glad we have TV warnings and coverage of bad weather, I really am, but the breathlessness and excitement, the stirring of fear. Do I see just a tad of wishful thinking for climate change/disturbance/wind change people? There are fewer hurricanes and tornadoes and the temps overall are dropping, and the icebergs were still floating on Lake Superior in mid-June, but why mess with a good story?  My next door neighbor has a huge ash tree.  Now that’s a concern. (Ash borer)

Hurricane Arthur

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyUDGfCNC-k

Hobby Lobby decision

Really. I can't believe the hysteria on the left about the Hobby Lobby decision. You would think women have been condemned to the burka or a life of 15 babies before age 30. They should really take a breath and look at the decision about unions. That hits at the heart of unions forcing themselves on home care workers--mostly women. But four abortifacients? How many women who work at Hobby Lobby will this affect? Yes, there will be more cases, and each one will be different. Obamacare, on the other hand, has hurt millions of women with higher prices and fewer choices. That's where the war on women is--this other is just a cover. http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/381637/hobby-lobby-actually-lavishes-contraception-coverage-its-employees-deroy-murdock

Cheat sheet for ISIS players

Here's a cheat sheet on the players of ISIL, aka ISIS, aka IS, 2004-2014. Although they've only popped into the headlines lately, you'll see they've got deep roots. Probably difficult to read on your phone, but note that ISIS targets both Assad and the U.S. Twelve groups sometimes killing each other, sometimes cooperating. http://www.start.umd.edu/pubs/START_EvolutionofISILRelationships_FactSheet_June2014.pdf

When will women say enough?

Someone is always offended, but it's always open season on 50% of the population in popular culture like hip-hop, videos, cartoons, movies, half time shows at sports events, and advertisements which ridicule women as sex objects and morons. Like most things, women could stop it by just saying no I won't buy/support that product, but instead we've had 40 years of campaigning, work shops, new laws, etc.

http://www.ijreview.com/2014/06/152311-benjamin-moore-sued-former-employee-paint-colors-racist/

Apache red?  Fiesta yellow?  Confederate red?  And Tucker Chocolate?