Houston, we’ve got a problem

There are apparently some government officials in Houston who haven't read the Constitution and don't know the history of clerics in the Revolution, elimination of slavery, the Civil Rights movement, every war protest, and construction of every social agency from schools to hospitals. Somehow they've gotten the idea pastors can't preach morality and politics from the pulpit. That should surprise the ones preaching about climate change and income gap, which is also the topic of many (boring) sermons and church workshops.  I wish I had $5 for every sermon I heard against the Viet Nam war in the 1970s.

The mayor of Houston is a tyrant and bigot. Transgenders now think THEY are being thrown under the bus because they might not have open-to-all toilets if she backs down.

http://allenbwest.com/2014/10/christian-persecution-us-openly-gay-houston-mayor-demands-pastors-turn-sermons/

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/10/14/city-houston-demands-pastors-turn-over-sermons/

Hearty Breakfast Muffins (Carol Shaw Johnston)

• 2 carrots, shredded
• 1 zucchini, shredded
• 2 bananas, mashed
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup yogurt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries (I used low-sugar Craisins)
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger

. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Place paper muffin cups into a 12-muffin pan.

. Mix carrots, banana, zucchini,vegetable oil, yogurt, and eggs together until fully incorporated.

. Whisk flour and baking soda in a separate bowl. Mix brown sugar, oats, coconut, pecans, cherries, cinnamon,salt, and ginger into flour mixture until all ingredients are coated in flour.Stir wet ingredients into flour mixture until just combined. Scoop batter into the prepared muffin cups.

Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean and edges are slightly brown, 17 to 22 minutes. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.

What has NIH done with funding specifically for preparedness and biosurveillance?

The NIH has already been given massive amounts of money beginning with post Katrina funding to handle the situation we have now with Ebola.  Where has the money gone?

Here’s what’s covered in the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Reauthorization Act of 2013

• National Health Security Strategy
• Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response
• National Advisory Committee on Children and Disasters
• Modernization of the National Disaster Medical System
• Temporary reassignment of State and local personnel during a public health emergency
• Improving State and local public health security
• Hospital preparedness and medical surge capacity
• Enhancing situational awareness and biosurveillance
• Enhancing medical countermeasure review
• Accelerating medical countermeasure advanced research and development

“The 2013 law builds on work the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has undertaken to advance national health security. These include authorizing funding for public health and medical preparedness programs, such as the Hospital Preparedness Program and the Public Health Emergency Preparedness Cooperative Agreement. These programs build the capabilities of communities’ health care and public health systems to support people in need during and after disasters.

Thousands of hospitals and communities across the country participate in these programs, and because of this participation they now have stronger capabilities and better planning to respond to disasters. They regularly exercise and conduct drills. They are building partnerships across their communities so that if parts of the infrastructure are overwhelmed by disaster, the system can still provide care. Using these programs over the past seven years to strengthen health systems and build coalitions, states have been able to handle in a number of disasters on their own without federal responders.”

http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2013pres/03/20130313a.html

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/hr307/text

More lies about the Founders—left is working overtime

No, democracy wasn't invented by the Founding Fathers nor the indigenous peoples, who had many cultures and languages. They relied on many sources not only in Europe, but the Bible and all the way back to the Greeks and Romans. No one ever learned the nonsense of this straw man poster misinformation which first tells a lie, then reports to correct the lie. Also, we don't have a Democracy, we have a Republic. The Founders were brilliant men with flaws who knew they stood on the shoulder of giants. We have tiny shriveled gnomes today who don't think, plan or read history, whose ideas are rooted in Marxism and the divine right of kings.

Yes, the archives belong to the victors as we say in the library field, however, we are fortunate to have many original documents, although well hidden and disguised in government schools today. There was a real fascination with everything Indian if you check 19th sources. And if you go back to 16th and 17th c. sources, some Europeans were horrified by the behavior and culture they found--and obviously saw their own culture as superior (although not by our enlightened, humanist standards where we sacrifice the unborn for personal gain but not usually living children).

Contrary to popular belief, Obama’s speeches rate at the bottom of the presidential scale

http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/study-obamas-rhetorical-superiority-myth

I checked several sources for this story. The liberal ones claim that Bush and Obama were equally elementary in the speeches and today no one would be able to understand the complex speech and references of the pre-1920 politicians. But others say Bush's speeches were better. Actually, it's the speech writers, with the politician putting in his own touch. I find Obama's mannerisms, teleprompter dependence and stammering very distracting, as were Bush's facial quirks and folksy good ol' boy mannerisms. But Bush was an avid reader of history, biography and politics--Obama depends on hip hop music on his I-pod and it showed.

https://www.vocativ.com/interactive/usa/us-politics/presidential-readability/

I took a writing class a few years ago at Lakeside in which the instructor told us the most difficult vocabulary and complex constructions were on the sports page of the newspaper. I was once a speech writer for an Ohio female politician. It's not that hard to learn the cadence and style of a speaker by reviewing previous speeches. But you do need to consider the audience.  Speaking to a conference of state workers was different than speaking to a gathering of unemployed workers who were over 55 (the area I was working in).

Do you know what day it is?

Today, October 15, we celebrate the end of the Siege of Vienna in 1529 by the Ottoman Caliphate under The Sultan Suleiman. Buck Sexton says, "Consider it the anniversary of the West refusing to go quietly into the long cold night at the hands of the Islamic conquest almost 500 years ago...."   I'm not sure it's worth too much celebrating. The Muslims were persistent and there was another famous battle in 1683 to take the West.

http://4freedoms.com/group/austria/forum/topics/the-siege-of-vienna-in-1529

http://www.wien-vienna.com/vienna1683.php

Spin and fear equal hysteria

I hate the way Ebola is being politicized, both by the right and the left. There's a Democrat action group that's made a ridiculous ad about the GOP causing this with the budget when the CDC did zip nada zilch about a disease known since 1976 and had it's budget line increased. And on the opposing team paranoid Christian survivalists are claiming Obama is launching germ warfare because he hates us. They are making the loony left look almost normal. Millions are dying of AIDS, TB and malaria in Africa; we have hysterical people in the U.S. who are refusing vaccines for measles, mumps, polio, diphtheria, HPV and seasonal flu. Add to that the biggest killer in the U.S. is not bacteria or viruses, but lifestyle diseases--alcohol, drugs, tobacco, overeating, sexual promiscuity and couch surfing--things we actually DO control. Plus there are those among us who believe we are mini-gods and can control the climate and viruses and bacteria. Really, it's like living in the dark ages. The news media pile on like ants at a picnic spreading fear and misinformation. I’ve been awake about an hour and have heard about the 2nd hospital employee with Ebola at least 10 times.

A different viewpoint on technology

Domestic violence among gays and lesbian couples

It's not easy to find reliable statistics on domestic abuse and battering within the gay community (it's quite a bit higher than among heterosexual couples), in part because they've been afraid to report it, or societal factors are blamed, and more recently there is the not so subtle threat of homophobia if anyone researches it. But this paper has some good resources.

https://www.rit.edu/cla/criminaljustice/sites/rit.edu.cla.criminaljustice/files/docs/WorkingPapers/2009/2009-16.pdf

http://thehairpin.com/2012/08/run-anyway

HIV, Ebola, and spending

This is government speak to absolve individuals who spread this disease of all responsibility.

"Creating an AIDS-free generation will require shared responsibility, including that of partner governments, multilateral organizations, the private sector, civil society, and faith-based organizations, among others."

Yet when a nurse who gave her best to help a dying Ebola patient comes down with the disease, SHE violated protocol.

-------------------------------------------

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife announced Tuesday they are donating $25 million to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control foundation to fight the Ebola crisis. Wow. That's spitting into the wind. Why not give it to a church or charity who actually do something like building hospitals and training local medical staff, or to pharmaceutical R & D companies developing a vaccine or cure? WHO estimates that between 40% and 70% of African health facilities are the property of or managed by Catholic churches. I'm sure they could use some help now that treating Ebola is interfering with other health concerns like malaria, TB and AIDS. Or, since so many Liberian doctors and nurses have died from Ebola, perhaps he could fund their replacements. $25 million for CDC is chump change.

-----------------------------------------------

Think we spend too much on other countries' health problems? When asked, many Americans guess 28% of our budget goes to foreign aid, but it's actually less than 1%. G.W. Bush really pushed the envelop increasing U.S. global health funding from $1.7 billion to $8.2 billion; Obama? Not so much. It's at $8.7 billion. But let's say it's roughly $9 billion. Sounds like a lot on my pension, but that's out of $4 TRILLION, or less than 1%. The largest amounts go to Africa, and most is for HIV ($4.9 billion); very little for "neglected tropical diseases" like Ebola. Also, since the Democrats came into power, some foreign aid is dependent on those countries accepting our anti-family, birth control programs. So don't believe all the hate ads you're seeing from the Democrats that stingy Republicans are to blame for Ebola. The CDC share of the health budget actually went up. (Statistics from Kaiser Family Foundation, published in JAMA, April 23/30, 2014; editorial comments are my own)

http://kff.org/infographic/visualizing-health-policy-a-snapshot-of-us-global-health-funding/

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebola-virus-outbreak/facebook-founder-mark-zuckerberg-kicks-25-million-ebola-n225381

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/notes/2007/np05/en/

No reduction in emergency room visits under Obamacare

Don’t expect use of emergency departments to drop after Obamacare is fully implemented.  A recent study of the Massachusetts system show that ER visits increased after insurance reforms.

“Insured white patients younger than 65 years accounted for 62.7% of emergency visits before reforms went into effect and 64.2% afterward. In the same age group, insured black patients accounted for 12% of emergency visits before the reforms and 13.9% afterward. The largest increase was among Medicaid patients younger than 65 years, who accounted for 23.6% of emergency department patients before the reforms went into effect compared with 29.7% afterward.”

http://newsatjama.jama.com/2014/03/20/emergency-visits-up-in-massachusetts-after-reforms-enacted/

Whatever happened to Born Again Redneck?

He had a great blog—can’t find anything after 2012.  Conservative, libertarian gay man who commented on politics and home décor.  I think his real name is Patrick Joubert Conlon.

Dr. Nancy Snyderman chose not to remain quarantined

Wendy Davis knows no shame

The woman who made her pitch for fame and a place in the Democratic party on aborted babies and pink athletic shoes, is now going after her disabled candidate. James Taranto account:

The Washington Post calls it “one of the nastiest campaign ads you will ever see.” (Hope springs eternal.) It’s for Wendy Davis, the state senator who is the Democratic nominee for governor of Texas and is heavily disfavored for an office her party hasn’t won since 1990. As Politico describes the ad, it “directly references gubernatorial rival Greg Abbott’s partial paralysis—including the image of an empty wheelchair—to charge the Republican with hypocrisy”:

“A tree fell on Greg Abbott. He sued and got millions,” a narrator says over the image of a wheelchair. “Since then, he’s spent his career working against other victims.” . . .

The spot cites three cases Abbott worked on as a state Supreme Court justice or attorney general. In one case, Abbott’s office argued a woman with an amputated leg wasn’t disabled because she had a prosthetic limb. In another, he said a door-to-door sales company wasn’t responsible when one of their employees raped a woman. (The Texas Supreme Court ruled in the woman’s favor.) In the third, he helped a hospital defend themselves [sic] against a lawsuit after a doctor botched surgeries.

“Greg Abbott,” the narrator says. “He’s not for you.”

The ad’s—and Politico’s—account of the cases is tendentious. In that third case, for instance, Law360.com reported at the time (in March) that the plaintiffs were “challenging the constitutionality of a revised state law that requires claimants to prove that the defendant had a specific intent to cause injury or harm.” Abbott, as attorney general, sought to intervene to defend the state on that question of law.

At any rate, the “hypocrisy” charge is ludicrous. Is the Davis campaign’s position that if a lawyer has ever been the plaintiff in a personal-injury action, he is obliged to side with plaintiffs in every subsequent case, regardless of the facts or the law? (As a corollary, are one-time defendants obliged to side with all future defendants? Is a plaintiff who gets countersued guilty of hypocrisy either way?)

But distortion and illogic are not exactly uncommon in political ads. What makes this one unusual is the harsh way in which it seeks to exploit Abbott’s physical infirmity. The criticism has Davis on the defensive; the Daily Caller’s Alex Pappas reports that she reiterated the attack on Abbott this morning at a press conference “featuring speakers in wheelchairs.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/10/13/abbott-if-wendy-davis-wants-to-attack-a-guy-in-a-wheelchair-thats-her-prerogative/

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/10/14/blowback-continues-after-texas-candidate-wendy-davis-ad-uses-wheelchair-to/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/13/wendy-davis-wheelchair-ad_n_5978342.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2791760/wendy-davis-doubles-controversial-wheelchair-ad-attacks-paralyzed-foe-governor-s-race.html

Ebola vs. Malaria, which kills more?

While you're thinking about Ebola, "Over one million people die from malaria each year, mostly children under five years of age, with 90 per cent of malaria cases occurring in Sub-Saharan Africa. An estimated 300-600 million people suffer from malaria each year."

Malaria has been pretty much wiped out in North America, but each year about 2,000 come here with it--didn't take the right precautions. DDT was discovered to be effective in 1939; the U.S. virtually eliminated the disease (about 15,000 a year) by 1951.

Ask the progressives and environmentalists why DDT isn't used today in Africa. Is it any wonder they are suspicious of western values and motives?

http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/viewSubCategory.asp?id=1259

http://www.smh.com.au/world/malaria-death-rate-slashed-with-use-of-controversial-ddt-20131010-2vb7c.html

Life tips

• Life tips for my friends and readers who are 45-ish.
• Put away about 15% in your retirement account, above what your employer or government is contributing.
• Take good care of your relationships--they are like gold.
• Ignore all the food fads and scares; eat all the colors, eat less and move more. Just like mom said.
• Everything in moderation; especially alcohol and coffee and just pitch the cigarettes. They've never been found to benefit anything in your body.
• Don't be a pot head even if it is legal--you need every brain cell you have working at full capacity.
• Take care of your ears--turn down the music--and your teeth. Don't become a deaf senior citizen with ugly teeth--it's not pleasant. Take out the ear buds and see a dentist twice a year.
• Go to church. There are thousands of denominations as a result of squabbles that happened years ago. One should meet your needs. The world is actually more religious now than ever before--don't lose out on the benefits.
• Enjoy the many pleasures of owning a pet, but they are not family--don't kid yourself.
• Think about the benefits and responsibilities of being a citizen of the United States. It's not perfect, but it's the only one ever created with idea that the state/monarch/king/president doesn't own the people.

Monday Memories—my teachers in the 1940s and 1950s

They did a lot with much less.

Week-ends don’t matter much to retirees, but thought this was cute.

Church of the Brethren in Nigeria is being persecuted—for over a decade by Boko Haram

Ekklesiyar Yan'uwa a Nigeria (EYN)  is the name of the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria. Their members are being killed, kidnapped, raped, and the churches are being burned by Boko Haram, a radical Islamic terrorist group similar to ISIS, but bumped from the news lately. The original kidnapped girls were from a Brethren community.  Other Christians like Catholics, 7th Day Adventists, Mormons and also Muslims are also being slaughtered. (Nigeria is about evenly divided between Christians and Muslims.)  CoB in the U.S. is tiny--probably about 120,000 members, but the gospel was so successfully spread in Nigeria that the EYN has about a million members. I've looked through several articles from the Church of the Brethren headquarters in the U.S. and the word Muslim and Islamic doesn't appear in the disaster stories, unless it's about Muslims being killed or interfaith work with the Muslim communities. Boko Haram is referred to as "insurgents." Other Christian sources use terms like Islamic or Muslim.

“The Boko Haram insurgents came to the villages in large numbers and, using rocket-propelled launchers, explosive devices, and bombs, invaded our communities in Madagali,” he said. “They killed, maimed people and destroyed houses before hoisting  their flags in different locations in the villages.”

“Boko Haram attacks that killed at least 150 members of the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria (Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria, or EYN) in the past 10 months (2013) have caused 8,000 Christians to flee, EYN leaders said.”

“Militants from the Islamic extremist group destroyed 15 places of worship belonging to EYN, which is the dominant denomination in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states in northeastern Nigeria with 180,000 members.”

“The Rev. Filibus Gwama, (EYN) Borno state chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, believes the adoption of sharia is a strategy to checkmate Christianity in Nigeria.” (news report from 2001 about Sharia)

 http://www.brethren.org/news/2014/aid-efforts-continue-in-nigeria-mmb-members-to-do-advocacy.html

http://www.crossmap.com/news/how-can-i-celebrate-my-birthday-with-a-homeless-scattered-family-12600

http://christiannews.net/2014/09/09/bible-college-churches-shut-down-as-boko-haram-claims-territory-in-nigeria/

http://morningstarnews.org/2013/11/boko-haram-violence-cripples-christianity-in-areas-of-nigerias-borno-state/

http://www.worthynews.com/605-persecution-forces-nigerians-christians-to-flee-to-cameroon

Drank the Kool-Aid

http://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-presidents-speech-at-un.html

http://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/09/what-obama-doesnt-know-didnt-know.html

http://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/06/while-iraq-goes-up-in-flames-obama.html

http://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/04/un-african-and-un-presidential.html

Abby Johnson

Greta Van Susteren wants to know—are the airstrikes working?

Here is what I know that has happened since we started the airstrikes:

• 1/ ISIS is taking over Kobani — a Syrian town near border of Turkey - and this is huge!
• 2/ ISIS has also taken over control of the crossing between Kobani and Turkey meaning the civilians of Kobani can not escape and no supplies can get in to help them - and this is terrible!
• 3/ Anbar, Iraq’s largest province, is, in the words of the Pentagon ‘in flux’ [which I believe to be code for falling to ISIS]
• 4/ ISIS is 8 miles outside Baghdad [two weeks ago it was about 50 miles -- so this is big ISIS progress]
• 5/ ISIS is armed with ‘shoulder to air missiles’ and knows how to use them [in the last few days have taken down two Iraqi helicopters] - that means the skies are not safe.

In short — ISIS is GAINING ground and control.

So tell me…what are the SIGNS that the AIRSTRIKES ARE WORKING?

I would love to know the good signs. I want us to kill ISIS. They are vicious.

http://gretawire.foxnewsinsider.com/2014/10/11/just-asking-and-if-you-dont-have-an-answer-we-are-in-big-trouble/

                                

Second hand Rose

I think I heard a poll that 61% of Republicans (or maybe young Republicans) accept gay marriage.  This is a sea change since 2008, in fact, right up to the 2012 election Obama claimed that a real marriage couldn't be anything other than one man and one woman. Government officials and judges have changed the law, but the people haven't voted. It really started in the 1970s with the feminist movement.  What better way to say men don't matter? Children are for aborting if it's not convenient. The terrible AIDS plague helped it along by creating a huge block of sympathy because it affected primarily gays, regardless of the misinformation we were given. But mainly, the population just stopped caring about marriage.

I remember watching Phil Donahue when he was still a local show in the early 1970s from Dayton interviewing couples who claimed marriage just wasn't important.  It's like a couple of generations handed homosexuals their tattered hand-me-downs they didn't want any more.

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

Where are the race baiters, Jesse and Al, when you need them?

Many more young black men will be affected by HIV than will ever face a problem with Ferguson police or Ebola. Where are Jesse and Al? "In 2010, there were an estimated 10,600 new HIV infections among African American gay and bisexual men. By comparison, in the same year, there were an estimated 11,200 new HIV infections among white gay and bisexual men and 6,700 new HIV infections among Hispanic/Latinoc gay and bisexual men. Young African American gay and bisexual men aged 13 to 24 are especially affected by HIV." CDC

Allen West on Obama’s priorities

I have a racist troll (obviously if you don’t like a black man you must be racist, right?), so here’s some more.

The Commander in Chief will "drop by" the Pentagon today on his way to a series of 6-7 fundraising events across the country for the rest of this week. I have to bring out an interesting comparison. Obama's massive air strikes have yielded five such actions in Kobani against ISIS over the last two days but Obama has done more and will do more fundraisers over this week -- where is his emphasis? His BFF Turkish leader Recip Tayyip Erdogan sits back and watches what will be a slaughter of Syrian Kurds refusing any assistance to thwart ISIS -- and BHO is at fundraisers. An Air Force family was targeted online by Islamists. Fundraisers. Is there a crisis of leadership in America? We would have to have leadership in order to have a crisis -- there is an ABSENCE of leadership.

Voter ID battles

The lies Democrats are telling about voter ID and suppression and oppression of blacks are intended for one thing--create hate, anxiety and victimhood so blacks won't leave the Democrat controlled plantation.

http://www.ijreview.com/2014/10/185049-democrats-losing-war-voter-id-placeholder-title/

Why it’s important for liberals to have a few conservative friends. . .

Thomas Sowell on Obama and Ebola

Although I haven't been as hysterical as some about Ebola, Obama's casual response has been no surprise. He doesn't see himself as the leader of the United States, but of the whole world, and therefore our needs come last. It's the same mentality that makes him reach out to the mosque in Oklahoma where Nolan worshipped, but not to Christians being slaughtered in Moslem countries in huge numbers, and to make pronouncements about immigrants that caused poor people to rush our borders and to be spread around the country.

“Whatever the reason, or combination of reasons, that led to President Obama's foreign policy disasters around the world -- with the crowning disaster of all, a nuclear Iran, looming on the horizon -- it cannot be a simple lack of knowledge or experience. Various former members of the Obama administration are telling the same story, of information and advice from knowledgeable and experienced officials being ignored by this vain and headstrong man. . .

No one knows at this point how big the Ebola danger may turn out to be. But what we do know is that official reassurances about this and other dangers have become worthless.

The erosion of Constitutional government over the years has become, under the Obama administration, a deluge of arbitrary edicts and defiant lawlessness protected by a grossly politicized Department of Justice.”  Thomas Sowell

The World without and American Leaders, pt. 2, by Roland Lane (from Facebook)

ISIS continues to hammer towns in Syria. Perhaps when the President announced that under no circumstances would we place boots on the ground he really believed that Europe and the Arabs would respond by putting their boots on the ground; another indication that the street organizer from Chicago has little grasp of the geopolitical world or its history. Perhaps Obama now is beginning to comprehend the vacuum that exists has been created by his philosophy of world leadership. Or....maybe not. Most Americans at one time believed they knew something of what was in the heart of Obama--buckets of PC thought combined with the drive of the True-Believing Crusader righting the wrongs of the United States. Okay, nothing different here. Every garden variety Leftist walks in the clouds of the Marxist Mist. This was expected but the Great Narcissist has taken too many bows for crises which have barely been addressed. For most individuals who occasionally sort through the news, the threat of a collapsing Middle East and the implications for the world in the immediate future is real and is in focus. But other than the next fundraiser, what is the focus of Obama?

Traditionally most leaders develop their approach to national leadership from a knowledge of history, precedent, national self-interest, historical models,the nature of power and at the least a reasonable guess of the potential evil in the hearts of humankind. How many of these basics did Obama learn from his Kenya heritage, his nine years of tutelage from the Chicago Marxist Frank Marshall Davis, or the ever Leftward march of Occidental College? The problem with thought process of the Left is that everything it does revolves around a one-note song. If one's world view believes that the United States IS the root of evil, what is the incentive to grasp or study the half-dozen items suggested in the first sentence of this paragraph?

What actions does Obama now consider? In the entire list of preceding U.S. Presidents; the good, and the bad, the successful and unsuccessful, there is no precedent in America history for a President who dislikes his country and its history. Obama stated that he wanted to fundamentally change America but he believes that the American footprint has been too large. Obama believes that America has interfered too often in the affairs of nations. Obama does not believe in American exceptionalism. Now the nation is facing multiple crises and Obama is imprisoned by his own philosophy.

What does Obama do when ISIS threatens Israel? What does he do when Iran gets the bomb? What does he do when, God forbid, the loosy goosey, non-Ebola policy sprouts hot spots in the U.S.military or in major cities in the U.S.? When the public finally realizes that ISIS is now targeting U.S. soldiers and their families here on U.S. soil, it is not outside the range of possibilities that the Democratic Party, to save itself from extinction, will pressure the President via one pretext or another to leave office.

(Except for the last sentence, this is a great article.  Democrats will never ask him to step down, not even to protect their own skins.)

Cat humor

Let’s blame homeschooling!

"Adam Lanza attended Sandy Hook Elementary School for a brief time Afterward, he attended St. Rose of Lima Catholic School in Newtown and then Newtown High School, where he was an honors student. He was taken out of high school at the age of sixteen, and began attending Western Connecticut State University shortly thereafter. Subsequent to his removal from high school, Lanza was home-schooled by his mother and father, and earned a GED. Lanza's aunt said his mother removed him from the Newtown public school system because she was unhappy with the school district's plans for her son. He attended Western Connecticut State University in 2008 and 2009." [Wikipedia]

So what are they trying to blame for the Sandy Hook murders?  His homeschooling! 

http://time.com/18965/a-different-ending-to-my-adam-lanza-story/

http://patch.com/connecticut/avon/avon-state-sen-witkos-bashes-sandy-hook-advisory-commission-homeschooling-inferen-0#.VDXPjmd0wmg

http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2014/09/progressive-gun-control-advocates-blame-homeschooling-for-public-school-shooting.html

Democrat billionaires seek a one party country

It worked well for Nazi Germany—the government controlled the country’s wealth.  Now Democrats want a similar arrangement, but want to control the government.

I remember watching on TV the moaning and groaning of the Democrats after they lost the 2004 election. They decided they needed to be more values oriented and touch the hearts and souls of the voter (with lies, apparently). Here's one of the outcomes of that soul searching--a powerful leftist organization of millionaires--Democracy Alliance. What better way to make more money than to take over the government?

"The political landscape in America is much different than it was ...in 2005 when the nine-year-old Democracy Alliance was founded. The secretive club for radical millionaires and billionaires who want to turn America into Greece was founded soon after John Kerry’s unexpected defeat in the 2004 presidential election. The outlook for the Left was bleak at that time but no longer. The Left has regained its footing and is on the march, determined to dismantle the First Amendment and reorder society through Obamacare, a wealth redistribution scheme disguised as health care policy. The Democracy Alliance, once determined to remain separate from the Democratic Party, is more partisan than it has ever been as its seeks to expand left-wing political infrastructure across the country."

http://capitalresearch.org/2014/10/the-vast-left-wing-conspiracy-george-soross-democracy-alliance-remains-a-potent-force-in-the-2014-elections/

“The new breed of rich and frustrated leftists” saw themselves as oppressed both by “a Republican conspiracy” and “by their own party and its insipid Washington establishment,” wrote journalist Matt Bai.

Organizing for Action (formerly known as Organizing for America), the 501(c)(4) nonprofit group into which the last Obama campaign transformed itself, is intricately enmeshed in the Democracy Alliance network. In other words, Obama and the Democracy Alliance are sharing the same blood line.

Speaking of the rich . .

"As the recession lifted, poor and middle class Americans dug deeper into their wallets to give to charity, even though they were earning less. At the same time, according to a new Chronicle analysis of tax data, wealthy Americans earned more, but the portion of the income they gave to charity declined. . .Residents of Utah remain by far the nation’s most generous... Memphis, Birmingham, Ala., Atlanta, and Nashville are the most generous cities, and . . . The 17 most generous states, as measured by share of income donated to charity, voted for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in the 2012 election." (Chronicle of Philanthropy)

President Obama complains about the income gap and the fat cats. Does his staff understand "optics?" (perception not physics) Last night he had a fund raiser in Connecticut, talked about wealth inequality at a lavish mansion in a gated estate, the home of Richie Richman. The economy is stagnant, the rich are getting richer, and he whines at the home of a rich man named Richman (real estate developer who's made his wealth in "affordable housing"). Federal tax credits and subsidies for “affordable housing” are very complex, but the recession of 2008-09 really had Richman’s business booming since other investors had to back off.

Halloween smiles

We’re looking at a 30 year war—Panetta

"I think we're looking at kind of a 30-year war. It's going to take a long time to be able to go after these elements. It can't be [that] we're going to go in one day and pull back the next day." That's according to Leon Panetta, former defense secretary for Barack Obama. Panetta also criticized Obama for taking off the table the option of boots on the ground. "If we don't, at least in my view -- if they establish a base of operations in that part of the world, it's only a matter of time before they will then use it as a basis on which to attack this country," Panetta added. He also argued in his new book that it was a mistake to leave Iraq in the first place. He should send the commander in chief an autographed copy of that book.

From Patriot Post Daily Digest, Oct. 7

In his book “Worthy Fights” he writes, the White House was “so eager to rid itself of Iraq that it was willing to withdraw rather than lock in arrangements that would preserve our influence and interests.” And finally, “To this day, I believe that a small U.S. troop presence in Iraq could have effectively advised the Iraqi military on how to deal with al-Qaeda’s resurgence and the sectarian violence that has engulfed the country.” His account directly contradicts Barack Obama’s latest story – that total U.S. withdrawal “wasn’t a decision made by me.” Actually, yes, it was, and it was a terrible and costly one.

Allen West sums it up:

“Yeehaw, we finally have reports that our air strikes have killed 29 ISIS fighters -- and how much does one Tomahawk cruise missile cost? ISIS closing in on another major city, Kobani -- and the Kurds admitting they have not received any arms support. We have a growing issue with Ebola in the United States and referred to as a top national security concern. We have our children afflicted with a mysterious respiratory illness and virus that is causing paralysis and just took the life of a young New Jersey pre-schooler. And let's be honest folks, there are nearly 103 million Americans out of work. But have no fear, Obama has it all under control -- I heard him say so last night at a fundraiser. And he will say so again today at several more fundraisers. What a guy!” Facebook post, Oct. 7

Democrats pathologize women and it works at the polls

Women seem to gravitate to the party that sees them as victims, needing a lot of help from the government. They don't walk the talk of, "I am woman hear me roar," and are sleeping with Uncle Sam who has promised to take care of them. "Among unmarried women, Democrats now lead Republicans by 22 points, 58-36 — up from an 11 point lead in July." Washington Post today.

Make the best use of time

It’s the ideology—that won’t change

In 2014 and 2016 many Democrats running for office claim they are not Obama. They will be running from the sluggish economy, from Obamacare increases coming in January, from the executive order that will come on immigration right after the election, from the IRS scandal, from snooping on journalists, from worsening relations with Israel, from the expanded wars in the middle east, from the rollout of Obamacare and the sign up mess, from the sloppy Secret Service mess, from the questions about Ebola. But Obama isn't a person as much as he's an ideology, one that many Democrats subscribe to. They too believe in a government too big to fail.

Our president is a hypocrite

An Obama administration official traveled to Oklahoma City Saturday to offer words of praise to congregants at the mosque attended by Alton Nolen. I wonder if he then stopped by to talk to the traumatized employees of the food processing facility, or if he made a sympathy call on the murdered woman's family, or visited the other woman stabbed multiple times. If Nolan had been a member of a Christian church, would Obama have sent someone to praise them for their good works in other areas?

Monday Memories—missionaries to Nigeria

When I was a youngster, the Church of the Brethren in Mt. Morris, IL would host our Nigerian missionaries. Later my high school principal Evan Kinsley and his wife Lucile went to Nigeria as teacher missionaries in the mid-1960s.  The Church of the Brethren was very successful in Nigeria and had begun work with women and girls establishing a school. The kidnapped girls in the news recently were from a school in Chibok in northeastern Nigeria. Boko Haram the group terrorizing that area  is an extremist Islamic sect in northern Nigeria violently seeking a “pure” Islamic state. The girls are probably great grand daughters of those early converts. Most of the affected families are part of the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria (EYN--Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria). EYN, the CoB mission, now has about a million members and is much larger than its shrinking grandmother in the U.S.

My mother’s cousin, Marianne Michael (on the George side), served in Nigeria. From 1948 to 1961, the Michaels carried out missionary work for the Church of the Brethren, including the organization of the Garkida Girls’ Life Brigade and the establishment of an adult literacy program for women. Michael published extensively in the Gospel Messenger about her missionary work. Her archives are at the University of Iowa Libraries. We usually correspond at Christmas, but now that she’s in a nursing home and in her late 90s, I don’t hear from her.

http://www.one.org/us/2014/10/01/brave-nigerian-schoolgirl-shares-her-escape-from-boko-haram/

http://blog.brethren.org/2014/bringbackourgirls-zooming-out-but-staying-focused/

http://www.christianpost.com/news/nigeria-4-churches-burned-down-scores-killed-in-deadly-boko-haram-attack-on-christians-122439/

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/colinfreeman/100271043/chibok-school-abductions-a-story-of-ancient-islam-and-20th-century-missionaries/

The least recommended college majors

Here are the top 12 majors not recommended by people in the field:

8-12 (Tie): Liberal Arts

• 25% wouldn’t recommend this major
• Starting pay: $36,600

8-12 (Tie): Political Science

• 25% wouldn’t recommend this major
• Starting pay: $41,700

8-12 (Tie): Art History

• 25% wouldn’t recommend this major
• Starting pay: $36,900

8-12 (Tie): Sociology

• 25% wouldn’t recommend this major
• Starting pay: $37,400

8-12 (Tie): Psychology

• 25% wouldn’t recommend this major
• Starting pay: $36,300

6-7 (Tie): Art

• 26% wouldn’t recommend this major
• Starting pay: $36,100

6-7 (Tie): English Language

• 26% wouldn’t recommend this major
• Starting pay: $38,700

5. Journalism

• 27% wouldn’t recommend this major
• Starting pay: $38,100

4. Social Science

• 28% wouldn’t recommend this major
• Starting pay: $37,300

3. Visual Communications

• 29% wouldn’t recommend this major
• Starting pay: $37,300

2. History

• 33% wouldn’t recommend this major
• Starting pay: $39,700

1. Anthropology

• 35% wouldn’t recommend this major
• Starting pay: $36,200

I don’t see anything remarkable; except for journalism, I assumed the same about these majors when I was in college. But obviously, if only 25-35% are unhappy in the job, they are finding other satisfaction besides salary.

Survey was by PayScale and reported in Higher Ed Morning.

I wonder if this was used with gender if it would explain some gender gap in wages.

“In both 1978 and 2005, engineering, physics and mathematics lagged behind many of the humanities departments in attracting women, who tend to flock to fields ranging from art history to English, as well as the “softer” sciences, such as biology and environmental studies.” (2006, The gender gap in majors at Yale)

Then the Harvard Crimson did an article on the differences of majors by genders.  And yes, anthropology was the most female of all the majors, but most of these were listed.

Georgetown University did a study in 2011 of differences in gender and race in selecting a major. The study found that white men are concentrated in the highest-earning majors, including engineering and pharmaceutical sciences, while women gravitate toward the lowest-earning majors like education, art and social work. https://georgetown.app.box.com/s/omooxnult5yvuctf0ftl

October 5, a perfect day, a reposting from 2003

The sky is an October color--a blue you see in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio this time of year, bordered in my side and lower vision with brilliant hues and just enough green left over from the wet summer to make a lump in my throat. But the lump is already there. Today is his birthday and I'm probably the only person who remembers.

As we drive past small towns and corn fields on a familiar route, I say to my husband, "Stanley would be 42 today." It takes a few seconds for him to pull up a memory of that plump, blonde toddler and reconstruct him as an adult old enough to be a grandfather.

"I wonder what he would look like," he says. I can't see his eyes behind his sun glasses.

"Probably just like you. Your baby pictures look so similar, except your hair was more red."

"Maybe he'd be bald by now--mine really started going after 45," he recalled.

I have little memory of what he actually looked like. I've browsed the photo album so many times that all I see when I try to recall his face are black and white and fading color snapshots and a color portrait taken at the department store in Champaign, Illinois. I do remember the way he looked when they placed him on my abdomen in the delivery room with that "what's happening" expression and the way he looked in that little casket in a new blue suit. No photos at the beginning and the end to blur history.

"We wouldn't have the kids now," he says, mentioning they'd be stopping by later to see the DVD of our trip west.

We are quiet. The harvest ready fields roll by and I think again of my favorite Old Testament verse, "Then I will make up to you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten. . ." Joel 2:25

Go and make disciples

• After the resurrection the women who discovered it were told to go to the disciples and tell them. God used the tell-a-woman method that has worked well over the centuries because they followed his instructions. Then the 11 disciples met Jesus who was about to give them a new command (make disciples). The Bible reports, some worshipped him and some doubted. So if 11 guys who'd spent 3 years with him, watched him feed 5,000 and heal cripples and turn water into wine didn't always get it right, why expect people 2,000 years later to be smarter and more obedient than they were? I find that there are licensed drivers who disobey traffic laws; teachers with 2 degrees who don't apply even common sense let alone education principles; dog owners who don't pick up their pet's poop; and presidents who lie about health coverage after innumerable speeches of promises. And he is a Christian. So apparently Christians are forgiven, but not perfect.

Bombing Humvees

"During the past six weeks U.S. combat jets have bombed and eliminated 41 Humvees originally given to the Iraqi military, but afterwards captured by ISIS forces. CNNMoney cited a statement from Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, that the bombs that U.S. jets are dropping on the Humvees cost $30,000 each, while the armored vehicles themselves originally cost about $250,000 each, depending how each was equipped." (New American via CNN) 

If you Google that story, you'll find other news items and opinion pieces about ISIS capturing U.S. equipment as early as June. So why does Obama claim he didn't know they were a problem, or is this when he called them the JV team?

Some of the left over equipment has been given to cities and colleges so they can repress riots and unruly Tea Party members.

Pumpkin pie angel food cake

 

http://realhousemoms.com/pumpkin-pie-angel-food-cake/

We need to import workers for those we’ve killed

For forty years America has legally been aborting its future; now our birth rate is below replacement.  Immigration of hard working brown people who don't speak English and aren't wanted in their own country seems the solution. But is it?

A fired up President Barack Obama had a message to immigration activists at a dinner [Oct. 2] in Washington, D.C.: "No force on earth can stop us."
 
"The clearest path to change is to change [the voter turnout] number," said Obama, "Si se puede, si votamos! Yes, we can, if we vote!"

The inequality focus has made things less equal

The coalition that elected Obama have lost the faith--in America. That's what happens when you believe a socialist who wants to fundamentally transform a capitalist country.

"In the latest grim tiding of the public mood, merely 42% think the American dream that "if you work hard, you'll get ahead" remains true, down from 53% in 2012 and 50% in 2010. According to the Public Religion Research Institute poll last week, the steepest declines in belief in the last two years were among people under age 30 (down 16 percentage points), women (14 points) and Democrats (17)."

A president whose focus has been on reducing inequality has in fact reduced growth, thus hurting the very people he claimed to care about. http://online.wsj.com/articles/the-president-of-inequality-1412292383

Who is working?

A record 92,584,000 Americans 16 and older did not participate in the labor force in September, as the labor force participation rate dropped to 62.7 percent, a level it has not seen in 36 years (September 1978), the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/ali-meyer/record-92584000-not-labor-force-participation-hits-36-year-low

ObamACAre: A Strategic Response for Individuals and Businesses – Our Middle Class Rescue Plan

I haven’t seen the book, but I know one of the authors.

After Bob (financial advisor) Matt (attorney and health insurance consultant) told me (Julie) what they learned from their respective expertise, I (American patriot) almost fell over myself to help them write and edit the book. Our audience is middle class, working poor, Christian, American citizens – or almost everyone in the whole nation! We simply must reach them with a way to counter the radical, regressive agenda plaguing the halls of power and influence.

Here is the pitch: All American employers and individuals need the proper knowledge before they make 2015 health care decisions … Dropped coverage, rising deductibles, tax penalties, financial cliffs all make the future of healthcare and compensation uncertain for families, especially in the middle class. How will you navigate this complicated environment to ensure you are doing the best you can? The healthcare system is in crisis. People need help.

The report is available as a printed booklet OR as a download. Both are $9.99. Please see more details here: http://centerpointstewardship.com/

Our new living room couch—Friday Family Photo

Monday we went shopping for a couch—stopped at 3 stores, and finally purchased one at Kittles we had seen last week. When they told us the delivery charge we decided to take it with us—we were sure it would fit in my van because we’d moved one of our couches to the lake house during the summer (which is why we needed a new couch). So for 2 days the couch was in the garage in the van.  Wednesday our son and another man came and moved our living room couch to the family room, and brought in the new couch.

This is the couch in the van.

This is the couch in the living room. This couch is larger (taller) so we may have to get a larger painting.

This is the couch with a brown sheet from a twin set.  The stretch elastic bottom sheet works really well over the back cushions.  And they have already paid for themselves.  Last night our cat throw up her supper on the sheets, so I’ve already washed them.  Usually she throws up on the white carpet.  They were very inexpensive (100% polyester) and are an exact color match.

I’m now looking for pillows that will have both blue (chair) and brown.

I bought a package today

Quite tasty.

Which is a bigger problem for native Americans, the Bureau of Indian Affairs or the name Washington Redskins?

“In 2011, the Department of the Interior's Inspector General (IG), Mary Kendall, testified to Congress about the "gross program inefficiencies at many levels of Indian Affairs and in tribal management of federal funds."³¹ The IG described, for example, how the BIA funded a fish hatchery at a reservation for 14 years and yet no fish were hatched. Eventually, a BIA official visited the reservation and found that the alleged hatchery was actually a real estate development that the tribes had been funneling taxpayer money into.

In another incident, the BIA spent $9 million for public ferryboat service in Alaska, but the money was redirected to a private tour boat operation.³² And in Montana in 2011, 10 people—including BIA employees—were indicted for a decade-long scheme that embezzled $1.2 million from a tribal lending program operated by the Fort Peck Tribe.³³

The IG found that in one BIA region, millions of dollars were wasted on road projects that were never competed. She noted that "internal management controls were so broken down that wage-grade employees were earning over $100,000 a year, with overtime, without explanation."³⁴ On one of the road projects, $2.4 million had been spent, but the IG couldn't find any of the work that was supposed to have been done.”

http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/interior/indian-lands-indian-subsidies

http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/26/politics/american-indian-settlment/index.html

The BIA and the BIE have approximately 9,000 employees.

The 2014 budget request for the Operation of Indian Programs account is $2.2 billion, an increase of $37.2 million above the 2012 enacted level, excluding a proposed transfer of Contract Support Costs out of OIP to a stand alone account.

Intimate partner violence among minorities

Black females experienced intimate partner violence at a rate 35% higher than that of white females, and about 22 times the rate of women of other races. Black males experienced intimate partner violence at a rate about 62% higher than that of white males and about 22 times the rate of men of other races.

Native Americans are victims of rape or sexual assault at more than double the rate of other racial groups. For Native American victims of violence, the offender was slightly more likely to be a stranger than an intimate partner, family member or acquaintance.  Native Americans described the offender as an acquaintance in 34% of rapes/sexual assaults, and as an intimate partner or family member in 25% of sexual assaults.

http://www.americanbar.org/groups/domestic_violence/resources/statistics.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/wp/2014/10/02/nfl-meeting-with-black-womens-groups-on-domestic-violence-a-productive-beginning/

https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/223691.pdf

Ebola—the virus has taken over the news

The news and talk shows are wall to wall Ebola. Conservative talkers are trying to make Obama look bad without saying so, and the Liberals are trying to ignore all the mess Obama has made in the Middle East, where we have ONE friend, Israel.

• Flu-associated deaths according to the CDC range from a low of about 3,000 to a high of about 49,000 people. They really have no way of knowing.
• CDC estimates that 27,000 unintentional prescription drug overdose deaths occur annually in the United States, 40% from opioids.
• A total of 9,582 TB cases (a rate of 3.0 cases per 100,000 persons) were reported in the United States in 2013. 65% were foreign born. There were 536 deaths from TB in 2011, the most recent year for which these data are available.
• Number of deaths from injuries annually in the USA: 187,464. 80.1 million saw a physician or visited the ER or were hospitalized from injuries. 33,783 Americans died in traffic accidents and 32,351 died from firearms, including suicides. 16,238 homicides (2010), 49% were blacks who are 12.5% of the population, and 93% were committed by blacks. There are 289,171 alcohol induced deaths, and  418,068 for drugs.

. . . So, Ebola is probably the least of our worries.

White couple suing because their daughter is bi-racial

Oh the horror! A bi-racial, AI baby for a white lesbian couple. So they sue. "They are concerned about raising her in the predominantly white community where they live." Yeah, sure. The liberal blame game. It's always someone else's attitude that is the problem. They could move; wonder if they thought of that?

Really, I wouldn’t be surprised if this weren’t a hoax.

http://cleveland.cbslocal.com/2014/10/02/2-white-lesbians-sue-after-becoming-pregnant-with-sperm-donated-by-black-man/

Indigenous peoples of what is now known as The United States of America

I'm waiting for those opportunists who think the word "Indian" or “tribe” is anachronistic, oppressive and racist to file a law suit against the federal government to change to “Pueblo-dwelling peoples” or “Navajo speaking people” or “indigenous peoples.”  Removing and updating government documents could employ a small army for years.  The word Indian appears in thousands of documents, even agency names like Bureau of Indian Affairs.  Just came across it in a gobble-de-gook summary of a section of the ACA aka Obamacare.

“With respect to the other seven exemptions, for reasons set forth below, we proposed that under the program provided for in section 1411(a)(4) of the Affordable Care Act, Exchanges would also issue certificates of exemption with respect to three additional categories (with exemptions also available through the tax filing process) based on membership in a health care sharing ministry, membership in an Indian tribe, and incarceration. In the four remaining exemption categories, however, we proposed that under the program established under section 1411(a)(4) of the Affordable Care Act, certificates would not be issued by Exchanges under section 1311(d)(4)(H) of the Affordable Care Act, and instead individuals would claim an exemption in one of those categories exclusively through the tax return filing process with the IRS.”  Federal Register July 1, 2013

“Dr. Michael Yellow Bird, Assistant Professor and Director of the Office for the Study of Indigenous Social and Cultural Justice in the School of Social Welfare at the University of Kansas, considers both terms, American Indian and Native American, to be “oppressive, ‘counterfeit identities.’” He prefers the terms indigenous peoples or First Nations peoples to either American Indian or Native American.” http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nc-american-indians/5526

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/04/departments/native-names-interactive

And God forbid you should ever say “hold down the fort,” or “on the warpath” or “low man on the Totem pole” or “Indian style.”

The residue of Silent Spring is still killing

Worried about Ebola?  Malaria will probably kill more while you’re reading this than the current Ebola epidemic.

“Published in 1962, Silent Spring used manipulated data and wildly exaggerated claims (sound familiar?) to push for a worldwide ban on the pesticide known as DDT – which is, to this day, the most effective weapon against malarial mosquitoes. The Environmental Protection Agency held extensive hearings after the uproar produced by this book… and these hearings concluded that DDT should not be banned. A few months after the hearings ended, EPA administrator William Ruckleshaus over-ruled his own agency and banned DDT anyway, in what he later admitted was a “political” decision. Threats to withhold American foreign aid swiftly spread the ban across the world.”  http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2010/02/16/the-green-death/

All methods of disease control eventually lose their effectiveness, so don’t send me progressive, liberal and greenie links,  but this was ripped out of the tool box of things that worked 50 years ago freeing Africans from a terrible scourge.  Millions have died or been crippled, and the victims are left with bed nets and local spraying of ponds and homes (and who knows what is in that brew). What works, really works quickly, is building hysteria over diseases that may not ever harm us, or not looking at all for the causes of the current illness sending children to the hospital coinciding with an unprecedented number of illegal immigrant children being spread around the country.

http://www.nature.com/news/ebola-outbreak-shuts-down-malaria-control-efforts-1.16029

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/26/malaria-deaths-ebola-diarrhea-pneumonia_n_5886652.html

A good thought

Eleven years of blogging

Can’t believe it’s October already

Syria is not Iraq

“The October 2002 joint congressional authorization to go to war was not just about fears of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Other worries prompted broad bipartisan support for the resolution. A majority of Democratic senators (as evidenced by their passionate speeches from the Senate floor) cited many of the resolution’s 23 writs. The latter were mostly concerned with things other than WMD: harboring terrorists, offering bounties for suicide bombers, giving refuge to at least one of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing suspects, committing genocide, attempting to kill a former U.S. president, and so on. Hillary Clinton should watch her own 2002 speech from the Senate floor.” Victor Davis Hanson

And here are all 23 writs (whereas. . . ) http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-107publ243/html/PLAW-107publ243.htm

The price of beef

Dinner Sunday and Monday was beef roast, potatoes, onions and carrots in the crock pot, fresh fruit, and carrot cake (I also count that as a vegetable). I only mention this to tell you I was horrified to pay nearly $10 for just under 2 lbs of a rather tough stringy cut of beef. Let's stop burning corn in cars; it mucks up the environment and causes food prices to soar.

http://time.com/61393/beef-prices-record-high-since-1987/#61393/beef-prices-record-high-since-1987/

http://www.postcrescent.com/story/money/2014/08/09/meat-prices-soar/13797437/

Think Tanks

Robert Kennedy Jr. wants to imprison over half the nation for disagreeing with him

“Scientific knowledge, by its nature, cannot ever be said to be so “settled” as to justify the silencing of critics. Still, even were the debate over climate change in some way to be resolved in perpetuity, the prospect of incarcerating those who dissented would be no less grotesque.”

“The United States government, Kennedy lamented in an interview with Climate Depot, is not permitted by law to “punish” or to imprison those who disagree with him — and this, he proposed, is a problem of existential proportions. Were he to have his way, Kennedy admitted, he would cheer the prosecution of a host of “treasonous” figures — among them a number of unspecified “politicians”; those bêtes noires of the global Left, Kansas’s own Koch Brothers; “the oil industry and the Republican echo chamber”; and, for good measure, anybody else whose estimation of the threat posed by fossil fuels has provoked them into “selling out the public trust.” Those who contend that global warming “does not exist,” Kennedy claimed, are guilty of “a criminal offense — and they ought to be serving time for it.” “

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/388595/robert-kennedy-jr-aspiring-tyrant-charles-c-w-cooke

Only 39.5% of 1,854 American Meteorological Society members who responded to a survey in 2012 said man-made global warming is dangerous.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303480304579578462813553136

Fake outrage as Democrat veterans attack Fox—are we surprised?

In a show of fake outrage, 60 veterans who work as Democrat politicians’ staff attacked a Fox News show, The Five,  in “An Open Letter to Fox News,”  because of a tasteless joke which the teller quickly had apologized for.

“Obama campaign workers, one ex-Obama White House aide, liberal activists, Democratic Party congressional candidates, Democratic Party state legislators, and more. The letter was sponsored by the Truman Project, a ten-year-old think tank with a focus on national security. Its board of directors includes Hunter Biden, the son of the Vice President. None of which was even whispered in the haughty “Open Letter” that was distributed to a media all too eager to go along with an attack on Fox News and two of the co-hosts on the Fox show The Five — Eric Bolling and Greg Gutfeld. Instead the letter was presented as a source of genuine outrage from average, non-partisan American veterans — while keeping the real identity of the signers secret.”

Add to this the 10 + a software program of Media Matters who have been bombarding advertisers about Rush Limbaugh and it is just more evidence of the left making a joke of free speech.

http://spectator.org/articles/60523/hit-job-fox-news

Faith based movies

The latte salute