Friday Family Photo—our trip to Blennerhasset Island

We had a wonderful trip to Parkersburg, WV yesterday with our Conestoga group to visit the Blennerhasset Island and Museum. Conestoga is a "friends" type group that supports Ohio History Connection (aka Ohio Historical Society). It was founded in 1986 and has raised over $530,000 to support the mission of preserving Ohio's history.

We had a tour of a museum, the Blennerhasset mansion, a carriage ride and a paddle boat ride on the river to get to the island.

Our transportation to the island was via a paddle boat, Island Belle, which made the crossing about once an hour.  By the time we returned in the afternoon, we had bright sun light.

The home burned down in 1811, and was restored by a foundation that used archeology and old family letters to restore it. Harman Blennerhassett was from a wealthy Irish family and appointed the home with silver hardware, gold leaf trim, and expensive oriental rugs. The family had left before the fire when they experienced financial and political challenges so most of the furniture had been sold locally. Some has been repurchased by the foundation.  Most of the furniture is authentic to the period, but not the family. It was considered the most beautiful home in Virginia (was part of Virginia before the Civil War.)

In 1806 Harmon Blennerhasset became involved with Aaron Burr financially; Burr was accused of treason and Blennerhassett went to prison for awhile. They didn’t live on the island even a decade and the rest of their family history is just loss and financial ruin.

The tour group was divided, and here we're waiting to see the kitchen which was separated from the main house. The family came from Ireland and brought servants with them. Even with a lot of servants, food preparation in 1800 was extremely challenging on an open hearth.  The other small building connected to the house was the owner’s study.

Haflinger horses are very hardy, a breed from Austria and northern Italy. They stay on the island all during the season, then the owners take them to West Virginia to winter at the family farm where they do various winter season events. The driver also acted as a tour guide with some history of the other buildings on the island and told about the crops that were raised there.

“After leaving the island, “Harman Blennerhassett purchased a small cotton plantation and moved his family to the Mississippi Territory. Their stay at the plantation was short-lived, however, when declining cotton prices and crop failures forced this once proud family to return to Ireland and survive only by the grace and pity of an older sister of Blennerhassett. Harman Blennerhassett died a devastated man on February 2, 1831 from a series of apoplectic strokes. Margaret Blennerhassett survived her husband by eleven painful years, only to give way to poverty and disease in the summer of 1842.

The Blennerhassetts, once the inhabitants of an impeccable island paradise and the toast of the Ohio Valley, had witnessed the destruction of their nearly Utopian existence, and had resorted to living off of the incomes of various family members, including their two eldest sons. In all, the Blennerhassetts conceived five children, although they adopted another. Two sons and a daughter were born on Blennerhassett Island, but only the sons survived infancy. Once settled onto their Mississippi plantation, Margaret Blennerhassett bore two more children, a son and a daughter. Once again, however, the daughter died in infancy. Of the Blennerhassett sons only the youngest bore children, none of which reached adulthood, and when he himself passed in 1862, the Blennerhassett name died with him.”  Source.

http://www.earlyamerica.com/review/2006_winter_spring/blennerhassett.html

http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Harman_Blennerhassett

The genocide of Mideastern Christians

Peggy Noonan on what is being ignored by the media in Obama’s falling numbers: the genocide of Christians

“Evangelical Christians and conservative Catholics who would normally back strong military action [in Syria] were relatively silent in 2013. Why? I think because they were becoming broadly aware, for the first time, of what was happening to Christians in the Middle East. They were being murdered, tortured, abused for their faith and run out of the region. And for all his crimes and failings, Syria's justly maligned Assad was not attempting to crush his country's Christians. His enemies were—the jihadists, including those who became the Islamic State.

In the year since, the brutality against Middle Eastern Christians, and Islamic State's ferocious anti-Christian agenda, has left many Christians deeply alarmed. Jihadists are de-Christianizing the Mideast, where Christianity began.

An estimated two-thirds of the Christians of Iraq have fled that country since the 2003 U.S. invasion. They are being driven from their villages in northern Iraq. They are terrorized, brutalized, executed. This week an eyewitness in Mosul, which fell to Islamic State in June, told NBC News the jihadists were committing atrocities. In Syria, too, they have executed Christians for refusing to convert.”

http://online.wsj.com/articles/the-genocide-of-mideastern-christians-1410474449?

Liberal media silent on the Memphis hate crimes

A number of media sites and blogs are reporting the arrest of up to 10 black teens in the mob attacks at the Kroger in Memphis, but not the New York Times, Washington Post, or the major broadcast media that were all over the Ferguson story. The local news sources I looked at didn't mention race at all--just teens, youths, and victims.  Apparently, 125 people attacking 3 is not a hate crime, a designation I think should be dropped in all personal attacks. Also, Al Sharpton, Eric Holder and Jesse Jackson have been silent.

http://www.wfsb.com/story/26468259/group-of-teenagers-caught-on-camera-beating-man-in-kroger-parking-lot

The marriage agenda

Two men or two women together is, in truth, nothing like a man and a woman creating a life and a family together. Same-sex relationships are certainly very legitimate, rewarding pursuits, leading to happiness for many, but they are wholly different in experience and nature.

Gay and lesbian activists, and more importantly, the progressives urging them on, seek to redefine marriage in order to achieve an ideological agenda that ultimately seeks to undefine families as nothing more than one of an array of equally desirable “social units,” and thus open the door to the increase of government’s role in our lives.

http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2013/03/9432/  I am gay and I oppose same sex marriage

The Apple Watch

I’m not a candidate, and a decade ago did these kinds of roll outs get this sort of coverage?  Every channel, every 15 minutes.

“There are actually three products: Apple Watch, Apple Watch Sport, and Apple Watch Edition. The differences between them are only apparent in the different materials (including aluminum, 18K gold, and pink gold) and wrist strap choices, which vary between feminine, masculine and youthful.

The Apple Watch starts at $350, and it will be available “early next year,” according to the company. Pricing for Apple Watch Sport and Apple Watch Edition were not announced at today’s event. The watch will require an iPhone to operate, but it works with the iPhone 5 or later and isn’t limited to just the new iPhone 6 devices.”

Wired.

What do CFOs think will happen with a minimum wage increase?

Recent survey by Duke on minimum wage. Findings include:

• Few affected firms would lay off current employees if the minimum wage is increased to $8.75 but 46 percent would lay off employees at $15.
• Future employment growth would be curtailed at 35 percent of affected firms if the wage were set at $8.75, while two-thirds would curtail future hiring at $15....
• Nearly 20 percent of affected firms would reduce employee benefits or increase product prices if the minimum wage were increased to $8.75; approximately half would do both at $15.
• About 30 percent of affected companies think their ability to attract higher quality workers and reduce turnover would improve if the minimum wage were increased to $10, while about 40 percent feel the same at $15.
• In general, firms indicate they could reasonably accommodate a modest hike in the minimum wage to $8.75 but substantial negative consequences would kick in as the wage approaches $10.
• An ongoing shift away from labor and towards machinery will accelerate if the minimum wage is increased.

http://www.cfosurvey.org/2014q3/press-release.pdf

“It is important to put these findings in perspective,” said John Graham, a finance professor at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business and director of the survey. “For one thing, these results primarily apply to employees who currently earn less than $10 per hour, which is about
one-fourth of the U.S. workforce, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Among firms employing these low-wage workers, the expected effects of proposed minimum wage hikes are dramatic. According to CFOs at these firms, the low-wage employees that increases are designed to help will also bear significant employment risk, potentially losing their jobs as firms implement labor-saving technologies.”

Start with Hello

Samantha died on September 9, 2010 at the age of 4. That was four years ago today. Tammy her mother wrote the following after Samantha’s death, “I think a lot of people are afraid to call or come by. They don't know what to say. Hello is always a great start. I still love to talk about Samantha. We always say something about her everyday. She was hilarious. I know the biggest thing I will miss about her is how much she loved me and others. I miss her saying, ‘You’re a good mommy,’ and how freely she gave me kisses and hugs.”

Carol Shaw Johnson is writing each day on Facebook for Childhood Cancer Month.  She knew the children about whom she writes—her granddaughter Lily had cancer. Samantha had Primitive Neuroectodermal Tumor (PNET), a malignant neural crest tumor. Even the children who survive rarely live beyond 25.

https://www.facebook.com/carolsj/posts/10203496209900466

Peter Hitchens, former atheist journalist, now a Christian journalist

". . . all reliable indicators suggest that I am on the losing side in all major moral, cultural and political battles, and am likely to remain there until I die. My books and articles may sometimes call faintly for action, but in general they are just the last rites pronounced over the corpse of my country, muttered mainly as an act of commemoration."

I know how you feel, Peter. 

Oh look, something Obama isn’t good at . . . optics

James Taranto column:  "[Barack] Obama had always had a high estimation of his ability to cast and run his operation," the New York Times's Jodi Kantor wrote in her 2012 book, "The Obamas" (quoted here by National Review's Jim Geraghty). "I think I could probably do every job on the campaign better than the people I'll hire to do it," then-Sen. Obama told job interviewee David Plouffe in 2006. "I think I'm a better speechwriter than my speechwriters," he told another job candidate, Patrick Gaspard. "I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I'll tell you right now that I'm gonna think I'm a better political director than my political director"--namely Patrick Gaspard.

In the 68th month of his presidency, Obama says he has found something he's not good at. "Part of this job is . . . the theater of it," he told Chuck Todd, the new host of NBC's "Meet the Press." "Well, it's not something that always comes naturally to me. But it matters. And I'm mindful of that."

The comment was part of the president's answer to the following question from Todd: "I've got to ask, so during that vacation, you made the statement on [James] Foley"--the American journalist who'd just been beheaded by ISIS--"you went and golfed. Do you want that back?" (Meaning: Do you regret it?)

After complaining about being "followed everywhere" and wishing for a "vacation from the press," Obama meandered toward an affirmative answer: "Because the possibility of a jarring contrast given the world's news, there's always going to be some tough news somewhere, it's going to be there. But there's no doubt that after having talked to the families, where it was hard for me to hold back tears listening to the pain that they were going through after the statement that I made, that I should've anticipated the optics."

Wall Street Journal, Best of the Web, September 8, 2014

My opinion: he’s culturally and emotionally tone deaf. When it comes to Muslims, even those who behead Americans, he only can see “extremists.”  When it comes to anything dealing with the military, even elderly sick veterans, he is deaf and blind.

Just misspell to get comments

Leadership—Perry and Obama

Discounts for seniors

RESTAURANTS:
Applebee's: 15% off with Golden Apple Card (60+)
Arby's: 10% off ( 55 +)
Ben & Jerry's: 10% off (60+)
Bennigan's: discount varies by location (60+)
Bob's Big Boy: discount varies by location (60+)
Boston Market: 10% off (65+)
Burger King: 10% off (60+)
Chick-Fil-A: 10% off or free small drink or coffee ( 55+)
Chili's: 10% off ( 55+)
CiCi's Pizza: 10% off (60+)
Denny's: 10% off, 20% off for AARP members ( 55 +)
Dunkin' Donuts: 10% off or free coffee ( 55+)
Einstein's Bagels: 10% off baker's dozen of bagels (60+)
Fuddrucker's: 10% off any senior platter ( 55+)
Gatti's Pizza: 10% off (60+)
Golden Corral: 10% off (60+)
Hardee's: $0.33 beverages everyday (65+)
IHOP: 10% off ( 55+)
Jack in the Box: up to 20% off ( 55+)
KFC: free small drink with any meal ( 55+)
Krispy Kreme: 10% off ( 50+)
Long John Silver's: various discounts at locations ( 55+)
McDonald's: discounts on coffee everyday ( 55+)
Mrs. Fields: 10% off at participating locations (60+)
Shoney's: 10% off
Sonic: 10% off or free beverage (60+)
Steak 'n Shake: 10% off every Monday & Tuesday ( 50+)
Subway: 10% off (60+)
Sweet Tomatoes: 10% off (62+)
Taco Bell : 5% off; free beverages for seniors (65+)
TCBY: 10% off ( 55+)
Tea Room Cafe: 10% off ( 50+)
Village Inn: 10% off (60+)
Waffle House: 10% off every Monday (60+)
Wendy's: 10% off ( 55 +)
Whataburger: 10% off (62+)
White Castle: 10% off (62+) This is for me ... if I ever see one again.

RETAIL & APPAREL :
Banana Republic: 30% off ( 50 +)
Bealls: 20% off first Tuesday of each month ( 50 +)
Belk's: 15% off first Tuesday of every month ( 55 +)
Big Lots: 30% off
Bon-Ton Department Stores: 15% off on senior discount days ( 55 +)
C.J. Banks: 10% off every Wednesday (50+)
Clarks : 10% off (62+)
Dress Barn: 20% off ( 55+)
Goodwill: 10% off one day a week (date varies by location)
Hallmark: 10% off one day a week (date varies by location)
Kmart: 40% off (Wednesdays only) ( 50+)
Kohl's: 15% off (60+)Modell's Sporting Goods: 30% off
Rite Aid: 10% off on Tuesdays & 10% off prescriptions
Ross Stores: 10% off every Tuesday ( 55+)
The Salvation Army Thrift Stores: up to 50% off ( 55+)
Stein Mart: 20% off red dot/clearance items first Monday of every month ( 55 +)

GROCERY :
Albertson's: 10% off first Wednesday of each month ( 55 +)
American Discount Stores: 10% off every Monday ( 50 +)
Compare Foods Supermarket: 10% off every Wednesday (60+)
DeCicco Family Markets: 5% off every Wednesday (60+)
Food Lion: 60% off every Monday (60+)
Fry's Supermarket: free Fry's VIP Club Membership & 10% off every Monday ( 55 +)
Great Valu Food Store: 5% off every Tuesday (60+)
Gristedes Supermarket: 10% off every Tuesday (60+)
Harris Teeter: 5% off every Tuesday (60+)
Hy-Vee: 5% off one day a week (date varies by location)
Kroger: 10% off (date varies by location)
Morton Williams Supermarket: 5% off every Tuesday (60+)
The Plant Shed: 10% off every Tuesday ( 50 +)
Publix: 15% off every Wednesday ( 55 +)
Rogers Marketplace: 5% off every Thursday (60+)
Uncle Guiseppe's Marketplace: 15% off (62+)

TRAVEL :
Airlines:
Alaska Airlines: 50% off (65+)
American Airlines: various discounts for 50% off non-peak periods (Tuesdays - Thursdays) (62+)and up (call before booking for discount)
Continental Airlines: no initiation fee for Continental Presidents Club & special fares for select destinations
Southwest Airlines: various discounts for ages 65 and up (call before booking for discount)
United Airlines: various discounts for ages 65 and up (call before booking for discount)
U.S. Airways: various discounts for ages 65 and up (call before booking for discount)
Rail:
Amtrak: 15% off (62+)
Bus:
Greyhound: 15% off (62+)
Trailways Transportation System: various discounts for ages 50+
Car Rental:
Alamo Car Rental: up to 25% off for AARP members
Avis: up to 25% off for AARP members
Budget Rental Cars: 40% off; up to 50% off for AARP members ( 50+)
Dollar Rent-A-Car: 10% off ( 50+) Enterprise Rent-A-Car: 5% off for AARP members Hertz: up to 25% off for AARP members
National Rent-A-Car: up to 30% off for AARP members

Overnight Accommodations:
Holiday Inn: 20-40% off depending on location (62+)
Best Western: 40% off (55+)
Cambria Suites: 20%-30% off (60+)
Waldorf Astoria - NYC $5,000 off nightly rate for Presidential Suite (55 +)
Clarion Motels: 20%-30% off (60+)
Comfort Inn: 20%-30% off (60+)
Comfort Suites: 20%-30% off (60+)
Econo Lodge: 40% off (60+)
Hampton Inns & Suites: 40% off when booked 72 hours in advance
Hyatt Hotels: 25%-50% off (62+)
InterContinental Hotels Group: various discounts at all hotels (65+)
Mainstay Suites: 10% off with Mature Traveler's Discount (50+); 20%-30% off (60+)
Marriott Hotels: 25% off (62+)
Motel 6: Stay Free Sunday nights (60+)
Myrtle Beach Resort: 30% off ( 55 +)
Quality Inn: 40%-50% off (60+)
Rodeway Inn: 20%-30% off (60+)
Sleep Inn: 40% off (60+)

ACTIVITIES & ENTERTAINMENT ;:
AMC Theaters: up to 30% off ( 55 +)
Bally Total Fitness: $100 off memberships (62+)
Busch Gardens Tampa, FL: $13 off one-day tickets ( 50 +)
Carmike Cinemas: 35% off (65+)
Cinemark/Century Theaters: up to 35% off
Massage Envy - NYC 20% off all "Happy Endings" (62 +)
U.S. National Parks: $10 lifetime pass; 50% off additional services including camping (62+)
Regal Cinemas: 50% off Ripley's Believe it or Not: @ off one-day ticket ( 55 +)
SeaWorld, Orlando , FL : $3 off one-day tickets ( 50 +)
CELL PHONE DISCOUNTS :
AT&T: Special Senior Nation 200 Plan $19.99/month (65+)
Jitterbug: $10/month cell phone service ( 50 +)
Verizon Wireless: Verizon Nationwide 65 Plus Plan $29.99/month (65+).

MISCELLANEOUS:
Great Clips: $8 off hair cuts (60+)
Supercuts: $8 off haircuts (60+)

YOU must ASK for discount ---- no ask, no discount.

http://www.lifecarefunding.com/blog/senior-discounts/

http://www.bradsdeals.com/blog/senior-discounts

“How much does it cost to kill a man?”

That was the title of a Bishop Fulton J. Sheen’s 1968 television program—he was the master of the green chalk board, looking into the camera with piercing eyes, posing questions which he then answered, and pregnant pauses to let his audience catch up.  Even my parents watched him, after they finally got a TV in the mid-1960s.  (If you’ve ever watched Glenn Beck, I wonder if he watched old tapes of Sheen to develop his style).  You don’t need to be afraid of this Catholic  Bishop—he doesn’t talk dogma or Catholic ceremonial worship.  He emphasizes history and values—and he’s the master of the medium.

In the 1950s, Sheen was firmly anti-Communist—predicted the worst.  And we were at war in 1968, and I wonder if he was having second thoughts—at least about the tactics being used. First he discussed the uselessness of peace treaties—4,568 between WWI and WWII (didn’t supply the source).  In one year before WWII, he said there were 211 peace treaties.  He calculates how often the western world (he doesn’t say western, but those were his examples) has been at war.  Using, I believe, a 500 year time frame (counting back from 1968) he said Great Britain had been in 76 wars, France, 61, and Russia 63. Then he made a startling observation—at least to me--about Russia which made me think of President Obama’s current methods of containment.  He said (paraphrasing here) that the U.S. method of war was to first send in armaments and weapons, then to later send U.S.  troops.  Russia was different, Sheen said, that after sending armaments and weapons it finds dupes in other nations to do their dirty work—they don’t send troops, so it can appear that they are  lovers of peace. Technically, they don’t kill anyone, just their machines.  I assume he was referring to the U.S. struggle with the North Vietnamese who were being funded and weaponized by outside Communist countries like USSR and China—while we and the Vietnamese were losing men, they were just losing machines.

Then he quoted the research (missed the source, but he did give it) of someone who had calculated the cost of killing a man in war (collateral damage to civilians not noted).  For Cain to kill Abel it took nothing but brute force; for Julius Caesar to conquer what is now western Europe was about 75 cents per man; for Napoleon it had increased to $700; in WWI it was $21,000 and WWII, $200,000 per death; and for Vietnam War he estimated it was $1,000,000 an hour.  Then he warned of the earth being destroyed by mistake, and told the story of King Arthur and his son reaching a peace agreement, when one soldier’s sword flashed in the sun, and the opposing sides attacked, killing all but four.

Neither leader trusted the other, so they ordered their knights to attack immediately if anyone pulled their sword. Surrounded by a small band of knights, Arthur and Mordred held their discussion. While they spoke, a snake slithered through the grass and bit a knight on the heel. Acting on reflex, the knight pulled his sword. Both armies saw the flash of the sword. Suddenly, the ranks of knights gave a shout and advanced into battle. For the next several hours, England’s greatest knights slaughtered each other, until only two were left standing. http://superbeefy.com/how-did-king-arthur-die-in-the-battle-against-mordreds-army-and-what-happened-to-his-sword-excalibur/

Maybe Sheen will never make it to sainthood (there is a fight over his body by dueling interests), but he certainly has something to say many years later.

Selfie and twerk

My spell check doesn’t recognize them, however, it’s so old it tried to turn Obama into Osama just like Ted Kennedy.

Key Ignition Park problem in Chrysler Town and Country and Dodge Caravan

This is what's happening with my 2010 Town and Country Chrysler van, and since I found the problem on Google, it looks like I'm not alone and it is in a number of years of models. If I restart, move it a few inches, then place in Park very firmly, I can usually get the key out, but not always. Alternate key works only slightly better.

Intermittently, the key may not start the car or release from the ignition. If it is excessively worn, replace the key. If the new key doesn't work, replacing the lock cylinder including tumblers should correct this concern.

 http://repairpal.com/key-may-not-start-car-or-release-from-ignition-081

Then I found a recall notice, but I haven’t been notified.

RECALL Subject : Ignition Switch may Turn Off , 1 INVESTIGATION(S)
Report Receipt Date: JUN 26, 2014
NHTSA Campaign Number: 14V373000
Component(s): ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
Potential Number of Units Affected: 438,109
All Products Associated with this Recall
Vehicle Make Model Model Year(s)
CHRYSLER TOWN AND COUNTRY 2008-2010
DODGE GRAND CARAVAN 2008-2010
DODGEJOURNEY 2009-2010

Important film about sexual rights and Africa

With the environmental movement the U.S. helped to kill or disable millions of Africans by withdrawing DDT and allowing malaria to soar again; now with sexual rights movement a new type of cultural imperialism is killing even more in the AIDS epidemic. Uganda's ABC program had brought its AIDS rates to one of the lowest in Africa from the highest. Now that it has been dismantled by westerners its rates have soared. Meanwhile, with the help of western values and aid (they get money if they change teaching on the family and sexual behavior), Botswana went from 3% to 24% infection rate in 20 years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INKAv4Y-lW4&feature=share

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1564179/

The first documented case of HIV/AIDS in Uganda occurred in 1982. From that small but ominous beginning, the curse of AIDS soon engulfed the country of Uganda, much as it swept across the African continent through the 1980s and into the 1990s. For Uganda, the epidemic was especially tragic given the nation’s desperate efforts to recover from the dark years of the dictator Idi Amin from 1971 to 1979 and subsequent years of political instability. By the early 1990s, the infection rate in Uganda of HIV reached 30 percent, and there was widespread agreement that if action were not taken quickly, the very survival of the country would be jeopardized.

President Yoweri Museveni, who came to power in 1986, settled on an aggressive government-sponsored plan that involved posters, radio messages, training, education, and public rallies and that called on the support of community leaders, local churches, and general public. The message was said to be as simple as the "ABCs": "Abstinence, Be Faithful, and if necessary, use Condoms."

http://www.catholic.com/magazine/articles/uganda-the-real-abc%E2%80%99s-of-an-epidemic

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/