They’re coming—the JV team

Common Core Math and me

Math has always been my weak point. But I've noticed something reading some of these Common Core math problems that people ridicule. They do represent how I do some math problems, and believe me, that just isn't going to work.

Just a thought

What if the nastiness we see on social media, the accusations of meanness, racism and homophobia you see in the comments of on-line publications, the potty mouth language, the theft of ideas without attribution, the cyber-bullying, the sexting, and the hacking isn't a result of modern technology at all, but just plain old sin more desirable and out of control in tight jeans and more make-up, and no one is teaching manners let alone the 10 commandments. Just a thought.

http://mediasmarts.ca/sites/default/files/pdfs/publication-report/full/YCWWIII_Cyberbullying_FullReport.pdf

https://www.dosomething.org/facts/11-facts-about-sexting

http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/psychological-reason-mean-on-internet.htm

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-10-31/how-truth-and-lies-spread-on-twitter

When the unions raise the cost of fast food, will the poor eat at home?

I wonder how many of the fast food marchers yesterday were actually working for minimum wage or if they are hired by the unions. $15/hour for a teen to learn to wipe tables and sweep the floor? Not going to happen. And if the beginner gets $15, what does the counter person who's been there 3 years get, or the assistant manager? Don't their wages go up too? According to the BLS, 2% are paid minimum, and they are mostly young and part time. The percentage has dropped dramatically in the last 40 years--and maybe that's good, but probably not, since usually a worker’s first job is minimum wage and that's where we learn. I wasn't worth what I was paid at my first job, but it was a learning experience.

Why do women do that?

Meredith Vieira is 60 years old and she’s making a “come back” on talk TV (I didn’t realize she’d left) and I wish her luck.  There are not enough mature women in film or TV.  It’s as though every woman over 55 has gone missing except for ads about Depends, retirement destinations and Nancy Pelosi who is 74.  As I was watching a promo for her show last night, I said to self, “Why do women do that?  Why do they sit like that in public?” You’ve all seen it; maybe you’ve wondered too.  One leg folded under and the knee pulled against the chest to make a shape like a toddler trying to do yoga.  Next time you watch a TV talk show, watch the  female guest.  She flounces in from the Green Room having spent hours on her make-up, hair and torn jeans to look trendy and tousled, sits down next to the host, and promptly pulls one leg up to her chest, or sits with it folded under her. Then look at the men—neatly dressed, usually a suit, sitting up straight (unless a musician—they slouch), and making no attempt to look small and child-like. 

I went through images to see if I could find it, but none were as extreme or as revealing as the one I saw in the promo.  In the promo she was wearing tights (don’t recall the top) and had bare feet—like maybe she was getting ready for bed.  Really?  Is that what it takes to attract an audience of middle age, over weight women (judging from the audiences).  So I looked at an NBC clip of the upcoming show, and she was wearing tight jeans, heels, and something that looked like the jacket for a suit or dress from the 90s picked up at the resale shop.  Very odd; if that’s in style I guess I have some old blazers I can pull out.

In these images, the first looks like the way we probably all sat on the floor for junior high gatherings.  Many carried this position into their 20s and 30s until they gained weight or got pregnant and couldn’t manage it.  But I’ve seen women sit like this in public!  Then the next photo is a very common position I’ve seen at meetings, in restaurants, although usually one leg is curled under.  It’s a more typical guy position—spread the legs and take all the room you can to look powerful.  It’s not flattering for women.  If men blow out their knees in athletics, I think women do it from years of sitting with their legs curled under with all their body weight in the wrong places. I sit like that last photo watching TV—but I wouldn’t if I actually were on TV.

http://www.tvguide.com/News/Meredith-Vieira-Show-Biz-1086460.aspx

Prophetic words from President Bush

"I know some in Washington would like us to start leaving Iraq now. To begin withdrawing before our commanders tell us we are ready would be dangerous for Iraq, for the region, and for the United States. It would mean surrendering the future of Iraq to al Qaeda. It would mean that we'd be risking mass killings on a horrific scale. It would mean we'd allow the terrorists to establish a safe haven in Iraq to replace the one they lost in Afghanistan. It would mean increasing the probability that American troops would have to return at some later date to confront an enemy that is even more dangerous." G.W. Bush, July 12, 2007

It looks like Bush understood the danger much more than Obama.

Billionaires control the EPA

Republican staff on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works has issued, “The Chain of Environmental Command: How a Club of Billionaires and Their Foundations Control the Environmental Movement and Obama’s EPA.” The 92-page report focuses on three funding groups: the Environmental Grantmakers Association, the Democracy Alliance, and the “Invest/Divest movement.” These donors, the report states, are “adept at converting charitable donations into political outcomes …

http://www.epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Files.View&FileStore_id=8af3d005-1337-4bc3-bcd6-be947c523439

“Federal agencies, which wield significant amounts of delegated power, should be staffed with neutral experts dedicated to serving the public interest. However, recent reports of alleged collusion between environmentalists and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) senior officials have made apparent the Obama Administration’s failure to abide by this most basic principle of executive branch governance. In fact, the Committee has uncovered evidence that proves President Obama and his EPA are pivotal partners in the far-left environmental movement. The Agency’s leadership under President Obama is closely connected with the Billionaire’s Club and their network of activists. These connections provide the Billionaire’s Club with the opportunity to exploit the relationships, and in turn shape public policy and the disposition of government grants. This section reveals that as part of the far-left scheme, the Obama Administration has installed an audacious green-revolving door at EPA, which has become a valuable asset for the environmental movement and its wealthy donors.” p. 23

Why not education?

And Obama called them the JV team

The king of Saudi Arabia has warned that extremists could attack Europe and the U.S. if there is not a strong international response to terrorism after the Islamic State group seized a wide territory across Iraq and Syria.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/saudi-king-warns-terrorist-threat-europe-us

"These terrorists do not know the name of humanity and you have witnessed them severing heads and giving them to children to walk with in the street," the king said, urging the ambassadors to relay his message directly to their heads of state.

Are academic peace studies programs working?

Sometimes I ask Google just any thought that comes to mind. She's better at this than most librarians in response time. Today it was "When was the first 'peace studies' program established at a college or university?" (For some reason, I have my doubts that they are working. ) Guess what came up? Manchester University in North Manchester, Indiana where I went to college my freshman year. I'll accept 1948, but am guessing there was a name change somewhere. There is a chair named for Gladdys Muir, my world history professor.

http://www.manchester.edu/academics/departments/peace_studies/index.shtml

Fall 2014 classes began August 27. “Preliminary figures released Tuesday show that there are 441 first-year students, a 20 percent increase over Fall 2013 (367). Total University enrollment is now at 1,479, a 9.6 percent increase over Fall 2013 (1,349), bolstered by a 30 percent increase in transfers and new pharmacy enrollment.”

More pharmacy students?  Wow.  That’s a profession that is overstocked with graduates because so many universities rushed to establish schools in the 90s and 2000s. Definitely an over supply now.  

Obama in Estonia

It was surprising to see at the joint press conference that the Estonian president Toomas Ilves is more fluent in English than our president, but when I looked him up I see he did attend school in the U.S. He was born in Sweden of Estonian parents and Russian grandparents, and educated in the U.S., so I'm not exactly sure how he came to be their president. Ilves hasn't written 2 books about himself, but has quite a long list of publications and awards.

But at least our President did finally mention Sotloff's execution (beheaded by ISIS) in the news conference--but only after Ilves did. He seems to still believe ISIS is a regional threat, and ignored the problem that he ignored them during a year of warnings and memos from his own people. He didn't call them evil, but did refer to them as a cancer.

http://www.president.ee/en/president/biography/index.html

The cost of education

Mark Perry of the University of Michigan has calculated, tuition for all universities, public and private, increased from 1978 to 2011 at an annual rate of 7.45%. By comparison, health-care costs increased by only 5.8%, and housing, notwithstanding the bubble, increased at 4.3%. Family incomes, on the other hand, barely kept up with the consumer-price index, which grew at an annual rate of 3.8%.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303870704579298302637802002

“Most of the growth in higher education costs, according to a 2010 study by the Goldwater Institute, a libertarian think tank, comes from administrative bloat, with administrative staff growing at more than twice the rate of instructional staff. At the University of Michigan, for example, there are 53% more administrators than faculty, and similar ratios can be found at other institutions.”

Messy is my kitchen, not the world

What a glib, inane statement—“The world has always been messy, we just know more now because of social media.” Really? Franklin Roosevelt knew what Hitler was doing to the Jews--he didn't need social media--but he did have anti-war Communist sympathizers in his administration, and USSR and Germany became allies 75 years ago yesterday. I fear it's a similar situation, but now the sympathizers close to the president are Muslims. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/02/opinion/frank-bruni-obamas-messy-words.html?

ABC News reports that the Department of Homeland Security can’t find more than 6,000 people living here on student visas — which sounds awfully familiar--haven't we heard this before, like 2001?

If the president by-passed Congress again on "no boots on the ground" he'll probably say they are wearing shoes instead of boots, therefore he didn't lie.

“American Special Forces commandos are on the ground fighting in northern Iraq, according to a published report, just a week after Barack Obama said that wouldn't happen. And with a second brutal beheading in Syria ,the president may soon have to decide how much more military might to deploy.”

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2740793/American-forces-ground-Kurds-say-US-commandos-fighting-ISIS-northern-Iraq-Obama-said-no-combat-troops-fight.html

What is the Caliphate?

Glenn Beck was warning his subscribers of the Caliphate 2 years ago.  But of course, the regular media laughed at him. And Obama doesn’t read his memos, so he was caught flat footed.

http://www.start.umd.edu/news/tale-two-caliphates/

“For al-Qa’ida senior leadership, “the Caliphate” is a master-frame that it dangles well out in front of violent Islamist groups the world-over, hoping to align their otherwise dispersed and diverse violent campaigns on azimuths that converge in the triumphant, albeit distant, future. The Caliphate is a conceptual destination; a grandiose victory that signals the onset of global conquest in which all of the world’s territories will be governed by their interpretation of Islam.

For the Islamic State, by comparison, it is the reality of an extant Caliphate and its associated obligations that will purify Islam, rally dispersed actors to make the hijra, and ready Muslims for the apocalyptic military battle with the West in the Levant.”

The daily memo

The President apparently gets his daily briefings as memos rather than in person the way other presidents have done. Seems they pile up unread. WaPo reported 2 years ago: "During his first 1,225 days in office, Obama attended his PDB just 536 times — or 43.8 percent of the time. During 2011 and the first half of 2012, his attendance became even less frequent — falling to just over 38 percent. By contrast, Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush almost never missed his daily intelligence meeting." That explains a lot.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-is-obama-skipping-more-than-half-of-his-daily-intelligence-meetings/2012/09/10/6624afe8-fb49-11e1-b153-218509a954e1_story.html

“. . . the former president held his intelligence meeting six days a week, no exceptions — usually with the vice president, the White House chief of staff, the national security adviser, the director of National Intelligence, or their deputies, and CIA briefers in attendance. Once a week, he held an expanded Homeland Security briefing that included the Homeland Security adviser, the FBI director and other homeland security officials. Bush also did more than 100 hour-long “deep dives” in which he invited intelligence analysts into the Oval Office to get their unvarnished and sometimes differing views. Such meetings deepened the president’s understanding of the issues and helped analysts better understand the problems with which he was wrestling.”

Like or hate Bush, he was more engaged and relied on a stronger base of knowledge than Obama, who seems to  believe he knows more than everyone in the room, or the world.

Buffett’s lie about taxes and his secretary

Remember when Buffett claimed his secretary paid a higher tax rate than he did? Here's a breakdown of the figures, and why he "misstated" the facts. "In actuality, his office workers’ relevant 2010 “federal tax rate” was 20.7 percent, not 36.0 percent, while Buffett's was actually 31.12 percent, not 17.4 percent." It's part of a series on Cliches of Progressives.

http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detail/5-warren-buffetts-federal-tax-rate-is-less-than-his-secretarys

http://fee.org/publications/page/cliches-of-progressivism

Yes indeedy

Do unpaid interns get Labor Day off?

I can't seem to find an update on the August 2013 article on unpaid interns in the White House, which I wanted to use for Labor Day. For a guy urging a $10.10 minimum it seems a little hypocritical; on the other hand, it is we the people w...ho would be paying these political unpaid servants. Not only are they unpaid, they'd have to be wealthy or have a rich family to support another year of not paying college loans so they could "move forward" Obama's plans. Not much diversity in the photo.

http://theweek.com/article/index/248475/should-white-house-interns-be-paid

Impossible to tell, but it looks like about 120 in this photo.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/reliable-source/wp/2013/07/12/full-list-of-white-house-summer-interns-for-2013/

I only noticed 2 from Ohio; 12 from Maryland.  Have to be politically connected to get these “jobs.”

Alexander Mccall Smith, The Sunday Philosophy Club

I've started a new novel. I'm on about p. 100. Nothing has happened since about p. 2. "Amateur sleuth Isabel Dalhousie is a philosopher who uses her training to solve unusual mysteries." I think I know why I almost never read mysteries.

Chubby Checker at Lakeside

We enjoyed the Chubby Checker show at Lakeside Chautauqua last night (born Ernest Evans, October 3, 1941.) I didn't know he was still alive--although I hadn't actually been pondering his career. He's 73 and puts on a great show. I’d love to manage those stairs without hanging on to the railing (stage to floor).  Early on I had a little trouble understanding him (although rock and roll songs were not written for their wonderful use of language), but he seemed to work into it using a lot of audience participation. Thankfully for those of us who have not had our hearing destroyed by rock concerts, the band played within a range that didn't drive me out of Hoover after 2 numbers. Sax man was awesome. He does a very good Elvis impression, and not bad with the Beatles.  Then a spectacular fireworks on the lakefront; a nice finale for our last evening. A fine ending to a great season of spiritual growth, intellectual stimulation, and cultural challenges. Also, way too many trips to the pie lady booth at the Farmer’s Market. By the end of the season, I could walk 2 miles plus and was faithful to do my physical therapy for bursitis.

Bus parked at Hoover.

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

Michael Brown’s juvenile record leaked

This is why there needs to be a complete investigation instead of rioters demanding the death of a policeman and Eric Holder showing up. 1) The store security cam showing Brown roughing up the owner after stealing; 2) eyewitnesses who claim Brown struggled with the policeman; 3) autopsy report not what witnesses claimed; 4) a juvenile record that suggests he wasn't a gentle giant. Leaks and rumors won't cut it.

Éclair cake, no bake

Ingredients

• 2 (3.4 oz) packages Vanilla Instant Pudding mix, dry
• 3½ cups whole milk
• 12 oz. cool whip
• 2 (14.4) oz packages graham crackers
• - FROSTING -
• 3 Tbsp. butter
• 3 Tbsp. milk
• 3 Tbsp. cocoa
• 1 cup powdered sugar

Instructions

1. Blend milk and vanilla pudding packets for about 2 minutes. Fold in Cool Whip.
2. In a 9x13 pan, Layer graham crackers to cover entire bottom of pan. You may need to cut and shape the crackers to fit nicely.
3. Pour half of pudding/cool whip mixture on top and level.
4. Put another layer of graham crackers to cover entire surface. Cut and shape crackers accordingly.
5. Put the second half of pudding/cool whip mixture on top and level.
6. Put the final layer of graham crackers on top with bumpy side down. This will help the top look more smooth when you go to put the frosting on top. Once again, cut and shape crackers accordingly to avoid pits and cracks.
7. FOR THE FROSTING: Microwave butter and milk just enough so that they are melted together. You do not need to boil it. Add cocoa and powdered sugar and blend together. This will be a runnier frosting/glaze. Pour over top of graham crackers and smooth out nicely. (**I usually double the frosting recipe)
8. Refrigerate overnight and Dig in!

http://www.chef-in-training.com/2010/08/eclair-cake/

No strategy yet

Huckabee on Obama’s strategy

“You know, the president keeps talking about I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone,” Huckabee concluded. “Well, let him get that pen and write down the list of all these counties who are going to be far more affected and much more immediately that we are…. And then get on that phone of his and call these guys and explain to them in explicit terms that we’ve got to seal off our own borders right now.”

Read more at http://www.westernjournalism.com/watch-mike-huckabee-calls-arab-nations-aid-defense-isis/#gWmKvs4M0jXvKOxp.99

Leading from behind

I love cats, but . . .

Akron 18 year old Trevonte Mitchell who kicked a cat and his friend posted it on FB earlier this month has been sentenced to 6 months and $1,000 fine according to a Cleveland station. Over paid Ravens player Ray Rice assaulted his girl friend (she later married him showing she's as challenged as he is) in an elevator and got a 2 game suspension. "Ravens coach John Harbaugh said: "It's not a big deal. It's just part of the process. . . . He makes a mistake. He's going to have to pay a consequence." I love cats, but this just isn't right. Mitchell was just a dumb kid who kicked a feral cat--Rice was a role model and millionaire who beat on the woman he claimed to love.

Both Mitchell and Rice are black; apparently some unkind things have been said on twitter and Facebook (go figure!) so now they are claiming racism.  Really?

http://www.ohio.com/news/break-news/akron-police-arrest-cat-kicking-suspect-1.513227

http://www.nj.com/giants/index.ssf/2014/08/its_about_time_roger_goodell_admitted_his_mistake_about_ray_rices_punishment.html

Mothers and daughters

My retirement advice, redux

Are you in your 50s or 60s and thinking about retirement? Here's my advice written some years ago, but still true. http://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2007/06/3915-retirement-experts-jonathon.html

Hands up, don’t shoot meme

“What actually happened in Ferguson: Within 10 minutes of committing robbery and assault at the QwikTrip store, Brown, together with his accomplice, Dorian Johnson, encountered a police officer. An altercation took place, and Brown was shot and killed under circumstances that are currently under investigation.

The accomplice, Johnson, claimed later that Brown had been shot from behind while h held up his hands in surrender.  Two other witnesses later backed Johnson’s account, although at least one of the two changed her story when it was reported that an autopsy showed Brown was hit in the front.  Johnson, it should be noted, has served jail time for lying to the police. Other witnesses said that the 6’4”, almost-300-pound Brown hit the officer in the face, possibly breaking his eye socket, and tried to take his gun away (which would have put the officer in mortal danger).  At this point, no one seriously claims that Brown was running away with his hands up when he was shot.”

http://capitalresearch.org/2014/08/the-court-of-memes-why-people-believe-fake-facts/

Homicides of children

https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/187239.pdf

Not a pleasant topic, but I keep misplacing the link.

Homicides of juveniles in the United
States are unevenly distributed, both
geographically and demographically.
Rates are substantially higher for
African American juveniles and for
juveniles in certain jurisdictions. Yet,
85 percent of all U.S. counties had no
homicides of juveniles in 1997. . .

Most homicides of young children are
committed by family members through
beatings or suffocation. Although victims
include approximately equal numbers
of boys and girls, offenders include
a disproportionate number of
women. Homicides of young children
may be seriously undercounted . . .

Women are responsible for 43 percent of
the deaths of children under age 12 who
are killed by identifiable persons, a percentage
that has been relatively stable
since the 1980s (Federal Bureau of Investigation,
1997). Women overwhelmingly kill
very young children (75 percent of their
juvenile victims are under age 6) and members
of their family (79 percent). . . .

http://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/victims/qa02310.asp?qaDate=2011

Colder-than-normal and wetter-than-usual

That’s the Farmer’s Almanac prediction for the winter of 2014-15.  It was correct last winter.

http://www.10tv.com/content/stories/apexchange/2014/08/24/us-farmers-almanac.html

Uniters have a dream, dividers have a scheme

Monday Memories—summer of 1956

During yesterday’s sermon Pastor Jennings was preaching about Joseph and his brothers and said something about kids of 16 or 17, and from there on, all I could think of was, “what was I doing the summer I was 16.”  I have a clear memory of summer 1957, 1958, 1959, and 1960 but am drawing a blank on 1956.  I figure I worked at Zickhur’s Drug Store; I think I’d dropped out of the high school band where I played trombone, so I wasn’t doing the summer practice.  I found one mention at my MMHS blog—a going away party for our exchange student Klaus at our house, before he returned to Germany.  My boyfriend had graduated with the class of 1956 and was getting ready for college in Iowa, but can’t remember if we did anything special or went shopping. My family still lived in the big white house on South Hannah. I was the art editor for the Mounders yearbook for 1957, so the junior editor and I did get together to do some drawings that summer. I knew I would have to do a 25 page report for history, so I collected articles all summer about the election in hopes it would be my topic.  Julie Clark was born in July, so I probably spent some time there (they lived in our back yard in a trailer). So, what happened in 1956?

 

If I needed another t-shirt. . .

Suicide attempts among transgendered

The prevalence of suicide attempts among respondents
to the National Transgender Discrimination Survey
(NTDS), conducted by the National Gay and Lesbian
Task Force and National Center for Transgender Equality,
is 41 percent, which vastly exceeds the 4.6 percent of
the overall U.S. population who report a lifetime suicide
attempt, and is also higher than the 10-20 percent
of lesbian, gay and bisexual adults who report ever
attempting suicide.

http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/AFSP-Williams-Suicide-Report-Final.pdf

The Williams Institute is dedicated to conducting rigorous, independent research on sexual orientation and gender identity law and public policy.  A national think tank at UCLA Law, the Williams Institute produces high-quality research with real-world relevance and disseminates it to judges, legislators, policymakers, media and the public.

The Williams Institute has done a state by state economic analysis of how gay marriage can boost state economies.  Ohio has about 20,000 same sex couples, and if 50% wanted to marry that would bring in about $70.8 million in spending on weddings and "tourism" (aka people traveling to attend the wedding). Well, if that's all it takes to boost Ohio's economy, why not insist that all couples living together without benefit of marriage just get married? Elsewhere I've seen estimates of the number of same sex couples that want to marry, and it really isn't all that high. The reasons are about the same as men everywhere give. 

Prominent Conservative Think Tanks

The term “think tank” seems to have arisen in the 1950s, but there were organizations of that type even back in the 19th century.  Many were established to address the problems of war (not successfully I’ve noticed), and others social, environmental and education policy.

The three most-cited conservative think tanks are

the Heritage Foundation, fifth most influential think tank in America.

the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the seventh most influential think tank in America.

the American Enterprise Institute, the eighth most influential think tank in America.

One can only conclude from 5th, 8th and 7th being conservative, that 1-4, 6, 9 and 10 are liberal think tanks and reporters would be quoting them more often. But this list is for my own convenience so when I read quotes, I’ll know whose bias is what.

Other conservative think tanks include the following:

Cato Institute
Hoover Institution
Manhattan Institute
Lexington Institute
Project for the New American Century (according to Wikipedia, is extinct, 2006)
Center for Security Policy
Foreign Policy Research Institute
Center for Immigration Studies
Claremont Institute
Hudson Institute
http://www.ehow.com/list_5553767_list-conservative-think-tanks.html

Where are the war protesters?

Peggy Noonan and James Taranto (Wall St. Journal) have noticed the lack of war protesters over Obama's recent war action. In 2001 Bush had near 100% support and in 2003 he had 70% and he had made the rounds for international allies. Still, he had protesters marching at the White House. I remember a corner in Columbus where they gathered to call him names and chant War is not the Answer. So where are they when Obama didn't ask Congress and didn't line up allies? Did they all go to Ferguson to divert our attention?

http://online.wsj.com/articles/best-of-the-web-today-the-missing-protesters-1408735767

http://online.wsj.com/articles/a-new-kind-of-terrorist-threat-1408662080

Corbat the Norman

I was reading an Ancestry.com explanation of English surnames, but mine wasn't included because it came with the Norman invasion in 1066, and of course, the Normans were descendants of those terrible Scandinavians, so who really knows. Here's to you, Corbat the Norman.

http://www.1066.co.nz/library/battle_abbey_roll1/subchap133.htm

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

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/corbettonenamestudy/First/People/anglo.htm

Noah’s Compass by Anne Tyler

After the Women's Club book sale at Lakeside Chautauqua a few weeks ago, I tucked the bag of books under the wicker on the porch. Yesterday while waiting for our guests, I poked around in the bag and found Anne Tyler's Noah's Compass. I didn't remember buying it, but there it was. Although I'm in the middle of two other novels, this one has been holding my interest. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/books/review/Harrison-t.html?_r=0

“At 61, Liam has lost his job “teaching fifth grade in a second-rate private boys’ school,” an embarrassment he accepts with the informed stoicism of someone who completed all but his dissertation for a doctorate in philosophy. Now he can settle into retirement in a smaller, cheaper apartment on the outskirts of Baltimore, the city Tyler owns as a novelist, so faithfully does she return to its setting. But before Liam has spent even one night in what he expects will be his “final dwelling place,” a would-be burglar comes through the back door Liam failed to lock.

The next thing Liam knows, he’s in a hospital bed, his head bandaged, with no idea of how he came to be there. The burglar may not have made off with any of Liam’s material possessions, but he hit him hard enough to obliterate a few hours’ worth of his memory, and it is this loss — rather than that of a teaching position he didn’t much like — that serves as a catalyst for all that follows. Neither his ex-wife nor his three daughters, who consider Liam so obtuse they call him Mr. Magoo, understand his growing fixation on retrieving what he can’t remember, especially as it was, presumably, traumatic. But as Liam understands it, “his true self had gone away from him and had a crucial experience without him and failed to come back afterward.”” NYT review

Joann gives it 5 stars: “I love the way Tyler takes everyday happenings and makes the reader realize that nothing is really insignificant, that everything has meaning or value.While reading the book, you hardly realize the layers of character development that she has woven into the story. Her observations of the human condition are always so on-target, but she never makes judgments about what she sees.”

Who is this WWII soldier?

This is going around Facebook with the following explanation: 

“My mom found this behind a picture she bought at a garage sale. The artist is K.B. Ransley - Chicago circa 1943. Please help to share this through Facebook and any other social media in hopes of finding his family. I'm sure they would love to have it!” (https://www.facebook.com/lori.seifert.3)

The artist, K.B. Ransley made over 1400 of these portraits of military passing through Chicago during WWII, according to this website:

“Kenneth Brown Ransley (March 21, 1893-June 12, 1989) was a female portrait artist who painted thousands of paintings in her lifetime.

A native of Dawson, Ga., she studied art at the School of Art Institute of Chicago and met her husband, artist Frank T. Ransley, while in school. The couple settled in Park Ridge, Ill., where Kenneth painted portrait commissions and held open studio sessions with live models.

Park Ridge attracted many artists. "Other artists who also lived and worked in Park Ridge include Albert Krehbiel and his wife, Dulah Evans Krehbiel, Alfonso Iannelli, Grant Wood, Eugene Romeo, Kenneth Brown Ransley."
During World War II, she donated her talents to the war effort, visiting the Service Men's Center in Chicago twice a week to sketch portraits of enlisted men. She executed 1,400 or these portraits and gave them to either the sitter or his family.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1989-06-29/news/8902130434_1_girl-scouts-nursing-home-memorial-services

He looks a lot like Kirk Douglas who was in the Navy in WWII.

Is the president giving signals?

From Roland Lane’s Facebook page:

“ Most every thing a President does is seen as a signal. If you announce further reductions in our military budget the same week the Chinese increase theirs, that is a signal. If you withdraw Poland's missile defense system on the 70th anniversary-on the exact day no less-of the invasion of Poland by Russia, that is a signal. If you give money to Hamas while Egypt, Saudi Arabia, etc. are trying to put a lid on it, that is a signal. If your neighbor's house burns down and you decide to roast hot dogs, that is a signal. If you go golfing seven minutes after one of our own gets his head chopped off, that is a signal. Signals make policy. How do you think moderate Arab nations interpreted this? The Prime Minister of Great Britain cancelled his activity and flew home. That was a signal. We cannot excuse the President's behavior as something that only a social moron would do. At the very best the President's behavior suggests the characteristics of an individual detached from his leadership position and that scares our friends and allies to death. At its worst we see the possibility that President is not on our team, and perhaps never was.”

No wonder

Iceland is under a volcano alert

“An intense earthquake swarm began Saturday deep beneath Bárðarbunga, Iceland’s largest volcano complex. (Here’s how to pronounce it.) As of Tuesday, the Icelandic Met Office cautions there’s no evidence yet of magma moving toward the surface or that an eruption is imminent. Still, Iceland is springing into action, which suggests the threat is real. These people know their volcanoes.”

Global cooling is a great possibility, and interrupted air flights are virtually assured. Ohio used to be covered by glacial ice.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/08/19/iceland_volcano_bardarbunga_how_bad_would_an_eruption_be.html

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/08/17/1322378/-Just-To-Let-You-All-Know?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/02/somalas-volcano-little-ice-age_n_4029092.html

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

Not me

Not me. I read books like the dieter sneaking snack food. I even cheat by reading the ending or sometimes just the footnotes. I like them free or cheap at the resale shop, and I won't read them if underlined. I keep some for pets and adornments. I hang on to some because my mother's name is inside. I keep a book in my lap just in case the TV show is boring, and a few in the car in case the trip is endless. A house without books might as well be haunted.

The double standards over Israel

“Why are Western liberals always more offended by Israeli militarism than by any other kind of militarism? It’s extraordinary. France can invade Mali and there won’t be loud, rowdy protests by peaceniks in Paris. David Cameron, backed by a whopping 557 members of parliament, can order airstrikes on Libya and British leftists won’t give over their Twitterfeeds to publishing gruesome pics of the Libyan civilians killed as a consequence. President Obama can resume his drone attacks in Pakistan, killing 13 people in one strike last month, and Washington won’t be besieged by angry anti-war folk demanding ‘Hands off Pakistan’. But the minute Israel fires a rocket into Gaza, the second Israeli politicians say they’re at war again with Hamas, radicals in all these Western nations will take to the streets, wave hyperbolic placards, fulminate on Twitter, publish pictures of dead Palestinian children, publish the names and ages of everyone ‘MURDERED BY ISRAEL’, and generally scream about Israeli ‘bloodletting’. (When the West bombs another country, it’s ‘war’; when Israel does it, it’s ‘bloodletting’.)”

http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/theres-something-very-ugly-in-this-rage-against-israel/15400#.U_R2n2d0zGh

Walk a mile in ALS shoes-the ice challenge to raise awareness

1. Pick up a 10-pound weight. Now imagine it’s your fork and move it from your plate to your mouth repeatedly without shaking.
2. Sit in a chair for just 15 minutes moving nothing but your eyes. Nothing. No speaking, no scratching your nose, no shifting your weight, no changing the channel on the television, no computer work. Only your eyes. As you sit, imagine: this is your life. Your only life.
3. Borrow a wheelchair or power scooter and try to maneuver quickly through the aisles at Walmart, without speaking. Note the way people react to you.
4. Strap 25 pounds to your forearm. Now, adjust your rearview mirror.
5. Using none of your own muscles, have your spouse or child or friend get you dressed and brush your teeth. Write down some of the feelings you have being cared for in this way.
6. Before you eat your next meal, take a good, long look at the food. Inhale deeply and appreciate the aroma. Now, imagine never being able to taste that – or any other food – for the rest of your life.
7. Put two large marshmallows in your mouth and have a conversation with your friends. How many times must you repeat yourself? How does this make you feel?
8. Go to bed and stay in one position for as long as you possibly can, moving nothing.
9. Strap weights to your ankles and climb a flight of stairs, taking two at a time. That’s the kind of strength it takes for someone with ALS to tackle the stairs on a good day.
10. Install a text-to-speech app on your phone or iPad and use it exclusively to communicate for one day.

From a blogger whose husband has ALS

The woman going after Rick Perrry

Ferguson, Missouri

If the race of the victim and the police officer had been different or reversed, it might have had a paragraph in a St. Louis newspaper/evening news. I am waiting for the investigation. If Brown was in fact a threat, or was stealing, as some videos show, it still is not a death sentence; if the officer has been trained to shoot if he feels threatened, we also need to know that. Beyond the investigation of his death, there's the other issue of the rioting and looting. If it were your neighborhood, what would you want police to do? Beyond the death of Brown, I do question some decisions of the police--like releasing the name of the officer, and the incredibly heavy armaments that only alarmed the residents. And I would ask any reflexive "it's police brutality" person, who do you call when there's a break-in or robbery at your business or residence? Al Sharpton or the police?

Yesterday at Lakeside Chautauqua chaplain hour Dr. Ronald White Jr. had us examine an 1838 speech by Lincoln, and we'll follow the development of his thought over the years through his speeches. This one for the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, IL was during a time of mob behavior, and he was addressing the dangers of mobocracy following the death of Elijah Lovejoy, who had left St. Louis to be safer in Illinois. Same words true today about mobs. "Passion has helped us; but can do so no more. It will in future be our enemy."

Why do the media focus on Michael Brown or Trayvon Martin when their tragic deaths are not the norm? They refuse to do the real story--the high abortion rate and it being the number one cause of death for African Americans. A billboard in NYC "The Most Dangerous Place for an African-American is in the Womb" had to be removed not because it was racist as liberals charged, but because it was true.

Doctors squabble over editorial on Gaza

The August 2 The Lancet, published online July 28  (prominent medical journal) carried an editorial, not only supporting Hamas, but condemning Israel. Now there is a petition circulating to dismiss Richard Horton as Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet .

Here is a sampling of comments from subscribers and readers of Medpage,  where I noticed the controversy, which asked readers to comment on whether medical journals should be political.  The editors of Medpage also seemed to miss the bias—being political isn’t the problem.  Hating Jews and Israel definitely is:

“The editor is an ignoramus-Gaza and Hamas are daggers poised as Israeli's jugular vein. Hamas has declared it will destroy Israeli and all Jews. This idiot sitting behind a desk at a safe distance has the nerve to comment on the ability of a free people to defend itself. For 1800 years western Europe raped, murdered , and vilified Jews. The best of you turned your heads from the slaughter. The worst said so what. Anti-semitism is bred in your marrow. But not this time. Kill one of us and we will kill 1000 of you. No slight will go unanswered. If you want to wallow in blood and slaughter than so be it. OUR LEADERS HAVE SAID IT-NEVER AGAIN!”

“This is a rather prejudiced and hypocritical article, to say the least. Israel is indeed, far from perfect. But Israel is too small and outnumbered, surrounded as she is by enemies funded by Iran, to allow herself to be destroyed. (Like the Yazidis in Iraq). The terror tunnels, built over the past 5 or 6 years, ironically with cement that came from Israel, posed a direct threat to Israel's survival. 500 Hamas terrorists were preparing to launch a huge Mumbai style attack on Israeli civilians this Yom Kippor. There may be tunnels to the north as well, built by Hezbollah and coming from Lebanon. This is being investigated now. The editor might save some of his anger for the UN, who has permitted Hamas to build tunnels on UN premises, and who allows poisonous anti-Semitic lessons to be taught in UN schools in both Gaza and East Jerusalem. The editor might also reflect on Britain's history of anti-Semitism, going back to the the 13th Century in York and elsewhere. Not to mention British soldiers who armed Arabs while simultaneously disarming the Jews in 1948 when the State of Israel was declared a nation. I suggest this editor might want to widen his outlook by reading Brendan O'Neill's excellent online article in Spiked, "There's Something Ugly in This Rage Against Israel."

‘'I strongly suggest you read the balanced response from the Chair of the Israel Medical Association and the Director of the Israel Ministry of Health to the letter recently published in the Lancet. http://www.ima.org.il/Ima/FormStorage/Type8/response.pdf This issue should be of interest to readers of Retraction Watch - not just the dismay felt by medical academics at the political hijack of the Lancet by supporters of Hamas but also the lack of editorial discretion and the non-disclosure of conflict of interest - where the authors of the letter did not acknowledge their long-standing activism against Israel and in favor of Hamas - including apparently the support of some of them for acts of international terrorism: http://townhall.com/columnists/dennisprager/2014/08/05/lancet-a-home-for-evils-useful-idiots-n1874715/page/full. It is a very nasty and dangerous world we live in. There comes a point where you have to stand up and speak up.’'

Being political about moral issues is nothing new in medical journals, from climate change to abortion to causes of poverty. Apparently everything medical is also political.  Reminds me of my career field.  Librarianship leans left perhaps because it is so dependent on government largesse.    Getting published outside the approved opinion or research direction is difficult.

Monday Memories of visiting grandparents on Sunday

I lifted this memory from another blog I wrote 10 years ago on the subject of cartooning.  I wandered a bit off topic, so thought this was worth another look.

“When visiting my father's parents in Mt. Morris, Illinois, we cousins could walk to The Lamb, the town movie theater, to get away from the boring adult conversation. However, when visiting my maternal grandparents, who lived on a farm near Franklin Grove, entertainment was a bit more old fashioned--playing in the out buildings, climbing trees, creating villages with a box of wooden blocks, playing the card game "Authors," or looking through dusty, old books. Not a bad way to spend a boring Sunday afternoon.

When my own family visited that same farm house, about a decade after my grandparents were gone and my mother had converted the house to a retreat center for church groups and family reunions, my children entertained themselves with the same activities (no TV). They would reach for a favorite book which was a compilation of cartoons from the late 19th century through the 1940s, Cartoon Cavalcade. It was most likely a People's Book Club selection (like Book of the Month but through Sears). It was my mother's book, and I had spent many hours browsing it when I was little. Many of her books migrated to the farm house to provide just such entertainment for quiet week-ends.

Someone in the family has this book, but I don’t recall who.

The fault in our stars—movie

Sunday I saw a movie--rare for me. "The Fault In Our Stars" about 2 teens who have terminal cancer who fall in love after meeting at a support group. I'd never heard of the main actors, Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort, but they both did a wonderful job. The book on which it is based won the 2013 Teen Book of the Year at the Children’s Choice Book Awards, and I think I saw more teens than adults in the theater (but there were only about 15 of us). Reviews are mixed.  On the one hand, some say it follows the books closely; others say Woodley was good but Elgort wasn’t (I thought he was perfect).  It’s a very sad topic; love, even teen love, doesn’t solve everything.

Hazel and Gus are two teenagers who share an acerbic wit, a disdain for the conventional, and a love that sweeps them on a journey. Their relationship is all the more miraculous given that Hazel's other constant companion is an oxygen tank, Gus jokes about his prosthetic leg, and they met and fell in love at a cancer support group. IMDb

A reviewer (not a paid critic) writes: “From the moment the title sequence starts, I was hooked straight away. Scene to scene this movie just manages to suck me into this beautiful world of Hazel Grace Lancaster and Augustus Waters. The chemistry between Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elsort is astounding and the performances were astonishing. Honestly, this is the best movie I have seen all year, even better than Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Godzilla which was a massive surprise. I just thought this was going to be another teenie love story and boy was I wrong. I loved this movie and recommend it to everyone across all ages”

Another wrote: “I'm always skeptical about watching the words of my favorite books transformed and materialized on the big screen... but TFIOS stayed true to the book. The movie was absolutely lovely from beginning to end. The young actors were great. The comedy hit on all the right notes, the romance made your heart smile and the tragedy pulled at your heart strings. It really was a wonderful adaptation, and I believe it stayed as true to the book as possible without many changes where there were any. The minute it was over, I wanted to watch it again. Upon leaving the theater, I looked around and there was not one dry eye. Not even the men. If you are a big fan of the book, like myself... and are skeptical about whether this stays true. Don't be. Kudos the John Green on his first film adaptation. It was an absolute success. I'd give it a 10 out of 10 if I could... but I don't believe in "perfect."

But $7.00 is still outrageous for a movie!

On the Health Wagon with Scott Pelley

What bias? Last night I watched a heart wrenching program on 60 minutes on the problems in Appalachian Virginia--no recovery from the recession, coal jobs drying up, and too poor (i.e., too rich) for Obamacare (all this on Obama's economic watch), yet at the end, it is all laid at the feet of the GOP who didn't approve the Democrat governor's Medicaid increase plan. So I looked that up--and see there's a whole other story there for CBS to look into, like how the states that take Obama's carrot, finance this expansion when it is withdrawn.

One woman interviewed said she couldn't afford the insurance offered by McDonald's where she worked. But she was a smoker (part of her health problem) which could have paid for her insurance co-pay. Even one pack a day is about $1660 a year.

This story was first covered in 2008--now the health situation is worse.

This is not the complete segment, but contains information about the background. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/on-the-road-with-the-health-wagon/

The revolving door in Washington

There's no reference to Bush in this Washington Post article, but then Bush didn't say while campaigning, that Americans "want real reform, and they're tired of the lobbyists standing in the way." According to Center for Responsive Politics, 326 revolving door lobbyists are part of the Barack Obama Administration. 527 revolving door lobbyist were part of the Bush Administration, compared to 358 during the Clinton Administration. I'm assuming these numbers include those going from government to business as lobbyists.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/08/15/there-are-65-former-lobbyists-currently-working-in-the-obama-administration/

Elegy for Eddie

 

Just finished reading Jacqueline Winspear's Elegy for Eddie, where Maisie Dobbs solves the murder of a mentally challenged man whose gift was talking to horses. So since she's the main character, I guess that would be me.

Today’s topic at Lakeside was memory

Take aways from today's health lecture on memory at Lakeside Chautauqua. Kathryn Kilpatrick, http://memoryfitnessmatters.com. Developing strategies does not reduce your ability to remember; hectic schedules will interfere with your joy; the seduction of "busyness" is the adrenaline rush; set boundaries with people or events that create stress (which interferes with memory); slow down, pause; don't use hurtful self talk if you forget--may impact your health; sharpen your liste...ning skills--reduce environmental distractions; modern technology can put you on overload; repeat, repeat, repeat, visualize, verify; spend some time just thinking about very simple things; learning jokes are good for you--practice the punch line; don't use your prime time for texting and email; multitasking results in poor listening; scatters your attention, impacts sleep and affects relationships.

Our new old couch for the cottage

We bought our 2nd home in Lakeside, Ohio (Lakeside Chautauqua) in 1988.  On the first walk through we said we’d definitely get rid of the couch which was probably about my age, sagging, and very heavy (had a pull out innerspring mattress). Well, we’ve finally done that, after 25 years!  We brought up our family room couch, purchased in 1993, which has all the colors of our cottage.  And I use the term “we” loosely, since my husband and son loaded it into my van in Columbus, and a neighbor helped unload it with a friend of his and helped my husband get it to the dump. It looks very nice, and isn’t as oversized as we thought.  In fact, it’s about 5 inches less deep.  Because it is a lighter color, the room looks larger.  Now then, at home the living room couch will go to the family room/office and we’ll have to shop for a new couch.

What could possibly go wrong?

“In mid August of 2013, the developer Extell applied for the benefits of New York City’s Inclusionary Housing Program with its 40 Riverside Boulevard residential tower, part of a residential development stretching from West 61st to 72nd Street in Manhattan. 40 Riverside is 33 stories, with 219 market-rate condominiums and 55 affordable rental units. New York City’s Inclusionary Housing program, began in 1987, provides developers who voluntarily build permanent affordable units with increased square footage (also known as FAR). These units are available to those who make 60% of the Area Median Income and have reduced rent rates, such as two-bedroom for $1,099. So, while developers may receive less rent from certain apartments, a building with 20% affordable units receives a 33% more square footage.”

Well, a “poor door” was included in the design. A special entrance for the “mixed income” segment, and it’s not that unusual in NYC.   Now they’re (don’t know who “they” are) trying to discover who is responsible for this defacto segregation by income. $1100 a month is cheap for NYC, but doesn’t sound like homeless, unless the occupants also have other transfer type payments.

This is a city regulation that allows it, but you can bet the politicians are scrambling to blaming someone, anyone else.

http://archrecord.construction.com/news/2014/08/140812-Poor-Door-No-More-40-Riverside-Boulevard-Extell.asp

Walking outside the gates of Lakeside

I had my gate pass with me this morning, so I turned and walked outside the 2nd street gate at Oak Ave., and browsed around the neatly kept neighborhood.  I walked past a man sitting on a park bench, with his right arm in a sling, typing on his laptop computer.  “I bet you’re right handed,” I said as I walked by.  “You’ve got that right,” he said, going back to his one finger typing.

I looked at the lake for awhile then turned south on Park Avenue;.very nice new homes (about 10 years old) on that street.  Then I passed a “little free library.”  Take a book, return a book.  I’d seen them on the internet but had never actually stopped to look and borrow.  It had about 12 books behind a glass door, well protected from the elements.

This one is from Pinterest—I didn’t have my camera with me. But it was very simple.

I selected, The complete guide to walking for health, weight loss and fitness.  With bursitis and asthma, my walking days are probably numbered, but I thought I’d take a look.  Can’t resist a library. There were actually some pretty nice books—I saw C.S. Lewis and John Grisham, and a few others.  Lakeside has two volunteer libraries, one at the Methodist Church and one at the Women’s Club, plus there is one in Marblehead. We also have a nice bookstore with both new and used books. And of course, yard sales, like the one where I bought the 1934 Reader’s Digest.

"Mark Fenton strides right past all the fad-and-gimmick fitness books with practical, no-nonsense advice to help people of all ages, sizes and shapes start and stick with exercise."--Miriam E. Nelson, PhD., Director of the Center for Physical Fitness, Tufts University School of Nutrition Science and Policy, and author of Strong Women, Strong Bones

"Mark Fenton is the master at helping people get the most from walking. His new book provides a highly motivating, step-by-step plan to take you as far as you want to go--from beginner to race-walk marathoner. Even I gained a wealth of new insights about the science and practical application of walking for better fitness." --Kathy Smith, author of Kathy Smith's Lift Weights to Lose Weight

"Having competed in walking races all around the world, it took having a baby and adding a couple of notches to my belt for me to realize the full value of Mark Fenton's structured approach to developing and maintaining a healthy daily walking program." --Carl Schueler, four-time Olympic race-walker (Amazon reviews)

Not even funny anymore

Remember this boondoggle—Cash for clunkers

Cash for clunkers" (part of Obama's 2009 stimulus) actually cost the auto industry 3 billion in less than a year, according to recent research. I wonder why no one ever calculates the cost to low income families, who if they could buy a c...ar, any car which was destroyed by this program, could get to work, the super market, family reunions, recreation, etc.? And how many moderate income family took on new debt to buy that environmentally friendly vehicle due to the carrot of a discount? It's about more than the auto industry losses. http://www.nber.org/papers/w20349

“Cash for Clunkers was a 2009 economic stimulus program aimed at increasing new vehicle spending by subsidizing the replacement of older vehicles. Using a regression discontinuity design, we show the increase in sales during the two month program was completely offset during the following seven to nine months, consistent with previous research. However, we also find the program's fuel efficiency restrictions induced households to purchase more fuel efficient but less expensive vehicles, thereby reducing industry revenues by three billion dollars over the entire nine to eleven month period. This highlights the conflict between the stimulus and environmental objectives of the policy. “

Ohio’s geology—history

The lecture on Ohio's geology by Scott Kell today at Lakeside Chautauqua was really great. It's interesting to see the gender mix when the government doesn't control it. I'd say 90% of this full house was male; a few weeks ago when the lecturer was from Garth's antiques and the subject was home furnishings of the Gilded Age, it was about 90% female. Speaker Scott Kell is a long time Lakesider and really presented a fascinating, well paced lecture. Best joke: "Western Ohio is so flat, that one man sat on his porch and watched his dog run away for 3 days." The hill ridges that run through Lakeside east to west are old shore lines of Lake Erie.

 

Thin Privilege

I’ve lost the link, but yesterday I saw an article about "Thin Privilege." That's like "White Privilege" but only for thin, white people. I'd say this to the author (female); wait a few years, honey, and you won't need to feel guilty about being thin and getting all those privileges. I know many women who were drop dead gorgeous and slender as teens and 20s, and by the time the 40th or 50th reunion rolls around, they were all comparing diets. What's next? "Nice skin privilege?" "Great teeth privilege?"

“That’s my boy.”

Those are said to be the proud words of a convicted terrorist, an Australian Muslim Khaled Sharrouf in Syria, who tweeted out a photo of his young son holding up the severed head of a slain Syrian soldier. No, I won't give you the link because there are photos (Australian newspaper). Too gruesome.

And now some fighters have dropped bombs on ISIS and Yazidis are “free” to flee to Syria.  Syria?  How safe is that?  Maybe if the president had done something two months ago when asked?

http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/10/world/meast/iraq-crisis/

Week 8, 2014 in Lakeside

The week begins on Saturday at Lakeside, and it was a wonderful performance by Joan Ellison and the Lakeside Symphony in a tribute to the “Music of Judy Garland.”  Ms. Ellison is a member of the voice faculty at Baldwin-Wallace and has been a guest artist at many Ohio venues. 

I attended church twice today—lakefront with pastor Jennings, and at Hoover Auditorium. Martin Marty is the guest preacher/teacher this week, and there was a wonderful quintet that played at both services, the Phoenix  Wind Project, which will also present a concert this afternoon at 3 p.m. at the Lakeside Methodist church. A flute, 2 clarinets, French horn and bassoon (I think). Wonderful sound.  Also today is a Heritage Society lecture at 2 p.m. about Lakeside “old timers.”  This week’s lecture series is, Monday and Tuesday, Ohio Geology, history, mining and fracking; and health and medicine, two on cancer, and two on memory loss. There’s a nice architectural walking tour (right in my neighborhood), but it conflicts with the geology.  I hear a lot about architecture so I opt for geology. On Tuesday I’ll need to choose between the fracking and a lecture on fashion of the Downton Abbey era, by the curator of the Kent State University Museum.

The Monday night movie in Hoover, is Meet me in St. Louis, with Judy Garland and Tom Drake.  Drake was my sister-in-law’s Uncle Buddy, brother of her mother.  My nephew looks a lot like him.  Tuesday is Lakeside Symphony with a talented young artist, Gavin George and Wednesday Don Knotts daughter, Karen, will present “Tied up in Knotts” a tribute to her dad (Barney Fife) who died in 2006. On Thursday there is acoustic folk/rock guitarist Al Stewart, with the LSO finishing the week on Friday with violinist Jinjoo Cho and cellist Ana Kim.  And finally, there’s a movie at the local theater that I’d like to see “The Fault in our Stars.”

Wednesday night we’re having guests for dinner, so I’m hoping for good weather—5 people is a tight squeeze in our tiny kitchen.  Then on Friday and Saturday James and Leah from Cleveland will be visiting with us.

If it will fit in our car, my husband may bring back our family room couch for the cottage.  The couch here is probably 70 years old, and when we bought the cottage in 1988, we decided we would get rid of it. . . my how time flies.

Focus, people

The Friday Foreign Affairs Forum at Lakeside

At yesterday's Foreign Affairs Forum one woman said, "I still support President Obama. . . yada, yada" and that in itself didn't surprise me--Lakeside is a highly educated community with progressives retired from university faculties as common as summer flowers and perch sandwiches. But I was tempted to say, "Why? Can you name anything, particularly in foreign affairs, that he has touched that has gone well?" What country where we have national interests is better off than in 2008? We were discussing Gaza, Ukraine, and ISIS. Has he shown leadership there or in Libya, Pakistan, Nigeria, or Somalia? American women get free birth control with bragging rights for the president, and middle eastern women and girls get rape, slavery and beheading. Then he wines and dines African potentates at the White House who suck up American aid for lavish life styles. But I kept quiet. I'm just telling you.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/us-africa-leaders-summit

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/08/05/photos-obama-toasts-african-leaders-at-white-house-dinner/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/reliable-source/wp/2014/08/05/live-watch-as-african-leaders-and-vips-arrive-at-the-white-house/

It’s not true that Obama didn’t know what was coming with ISIS

It may look like Obama was just dumb and caught flat footed when ISIS (aka ISIL or IS) overran Iraq and began killing Muslims and Christians, beheading and crucifying and raping.  But he was warned.  Many times.

“It’s simply not true that nobody saw a disaster like the fall of Mosul coming,” Ali Khedery, who served as a senior adviser at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, told The Daily Beast. “I can’t speak for anyone else, but I literally predicted this in verbal warnings and in writing in 2010 that Iraq would fall apart.”

“I and a zillion other people said in 2014 that we needed to do more than the very slow and inadequate reaction,” added James Jeffrey, a former U.S. ambassador to Iraq. “If [ISIS] could move in and seize Fallujah and they were on the offensive, and they were active in Mosul and Nineweh [province] too, the army was lethargic and not doing very well, at that point there was a possibility for us to provide air strikes and advisers.”

Instead, the Obama policy meandered through a series of half-measures. . .

While the policy process in Washington was frozen, U.S. intelligence analysts still filed their warnings about major weaknesses in Iraq’s military. Both the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency have issued reported analysis for nearly a year warning that Iraq’s military would not be able to stand up against a sustained campaign from ISIS.”

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/06/why-the-white-house-ignored-all-those-warnings-about-isis.html

The cost of war

I’ve seen a lot of people try to explain what money spent on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars could have purchased in social services.  But that’s true of any war.  In the August 1934 Reader’s Digest, this small item appeared:

“The World War, all told, cost—apart from 30 million lives—400 billion dollars.  With that money we could have built a $2500 house, furnished it with $1000 worth of furniture, placed it on five acres of land worth $100 an acre and given this home to each and every family in the United States, Canada, Australia, England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, France, Belgium, Germany and Russia. We could have given to each city of 20,000 inhabitants and over, in each country named, a five million dollar library and ten million dollar university.  Out of what was left we could have set aside a sum for an army of 125,000 teachers and a like salary for another army of 125,000 nurses.” Nicholas Murray Butler

Just bombs—no boots on the ground

When the media report on Obama authorizing bombing of Islamists in Iraq yesterday before leaving for a 2 week vacation, they note that he campaigned on ending the war, without reminding us that Bush ended it.

"17 November 2008 – The US and the Iraqi Government sign the US-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement providing for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraqi cities by 30 June 2009 and a complete withdrawal of US forces from Iraq by the end of 2011."

By the time Obama was elected, the heavy lifting was over, yet the media credit him for ending it. Even at the end of the 2008 campaign, it became a non-issue.  But it wasn't over was it? ISIS aka IS, a Sunni offshoot of al-Qaeda, was growing and although Obama was warned many months before we knew, nothing was done. The leader of ISIS is far more brutal than Osama could have dreamed of. Beheadings and crucifixions are far more common than with Osama.  Although we left troops in Korea in the 1950s and Germany and Japan for decades after WWII to help with stabilization, never mind Iraq--it could wing it. Perhaps if a better solution to helping Iraq get back on its feet had been worked out, there would be thousands of Iraqi minorities and Christians and Shiia still alive.

http://www.westernjournalism.com/obama-kerry-warned-isis-paid-attention/

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/08/world/middleeast/obama-weighs-military-strikes-to-aid-trapped-iraqis-officials-say.html?_r=0

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/06/12/world/middleeast/the-iraq-isis-conflict-in-maps-photos-and-video.html

Pray for the minorities in Iraq

“Please continue to pray for the Iraqi people who have fled their homes because of religious persecution. Their situation is dire--with some reports saying thousands of people hiding in the mountains are being left with two choices 1) die at the hands of the IS militants 2) die of thirst in the mountains. Please pray!

"Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako, who heads Iraq's largest Christian denomination, said the overnight offensive had displaced 100,000 Christians.

"This is a humanitarian disaster. The churches are occupied, their crosses were taken down," he told AFP, adding that 1,500 manuscripts had been burnt."”

http://news.yahoo.com/jihadist-offensive-sparks-mass-iraq-exodus-084039459.html

Jihadist fighters moved into Qaraqosh, Iraq's largest Christian town, and surrounding areas on Wednesday night after the withdrawal of Kurdish peshmerga troops, who are stretched thin across several fronts.

"Qaraqosh, Tal Kayf, Bartella and Karamlesh have been emptied of their original population and are now under the control of the militants," Joseph Thomas, a Chaldean Catholic archbishop in northern Iraq, told AFP.

Christians flee ISIS

“UN officials said an estimated 200,000 new refugees were seeking sanctuary in the Kurdish north from Islamic extremists who had pursued them since the weekend. The city of Qaraqosh, south-east of Mosul, home to around 50,000 Christians was the latest to fall, with most residents fleeing before dawn as convoys of extremists drew near.

Other Christian towns near Mosul, including Tel Askof, Tel Keif and Qaramless have also largely been emptied. Those who remained behind have reportedly been given the same stark choice given to other minorities, including Yazidis: flee, convert to Islam, or be killed.

Christians, Yazidis and Turkmen have been at the frontlines of Iraq's war with the Islamic State (Isis) ever since the jihadist group stormed into Mosul and Tikrit and mid-June. The Iraqi army capitulated within hours, with at least 60,000 officers and soldiers fleeing on the first day of the assault alone.”

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/07/isis-offensive-iraq-christian-exodus

Quoting a UNICEF spokesperson, the Washington Post reports today: “There are children dying on the mountain, on the roads. There is no water, there is no vegetation, they are completely cut off and surrounded by Islamic State. It’s a disaster, a total disaster.”  Not to worry.  The Obama administration made a statement. “The United States is committed to helping the people of Iraq as they confront. . . and so forth.”

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/384773/1500-iraqi-civilians-were-slaughtered-yesterday-isis-and-obama-administration-issued

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28686998

How to ride a dead horse—the church version

The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians—passed on from generation to generation—says that when you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.

Modern churches, however, have found a whole range of far more advanced strategies to use, such as:

1.     Buying a stronger whip.

2.     Changing riders.

3.     Declaring, “God told us to ride this horse.”

4.     Appointing a committee to study the horse.

5.     Threatening the horse with termination.

6.     Proclaiming, “This is the way we’ve always ridden this horse.”

7.     Develop a training session to improve our riding ability.

8.     Reminding ourselves that other churches ride this same kind of horse.

9.     Determining that riders who don’t stay on dead horses are lazy, lack drive, and have no ambition - then replacing them.

10.  Lowering the standards so that dead horses can be included.

11.  Reclassifying the horse as “living-impaired.”

12.  Hiring an outside consultant to advise on how to better ride the horse.

13.  Harnessing several dead horses together to increase the speed.

14.  Confessing boldy, “This horse is not dead, but alive!”

15.  Providing additional funding and/or training to increase the dead horse’s performance.

16.  Riding the dead horse “outside the box.”

17.  Get the horse a Web site.

18.  Killing all the other horses so the dead one doesn’t stand out.

19.  Taking a positive outlook – pronouncing that the dead horse doesn’t have to be fed, it is less costly, carries lower overhead, and therefore contributes substantially more to the bottom line of the church’s budget than do some other horses.

20.  Rewriting the expected performance requirements for all horses.

21.  Promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position.

22.  Name the dead horse, “paradigm shift” and keep riding it.

23.  Riding the dead horse “smarter, not harder.”

24.  Stating that other horses reflect compromise, and are not from God.

25.  Remembering all the good times you had while riding that horse.

Sources for this version