Another incident with the Secret Service—8 days ago—not reported to Clancy, Obama, or Congress

I don’t know why Eric Holder criticizes the Ferguson police when the Secret Service can’t even keep the President out of harm’s way and act like the Keystone Cops (silent film comedies).

“Learning that top-ranking Secret Service officials — including the second-in-charge of President Obama's own personal detail — went out drinking, then plowed their government car into a barrier at the White House, would ordinarily ignite shock among administration officials and lawmakers.

Instead, that news Wednesday led only to disappointed head-shaking in Washington, where scandals involving the agency now seem to appear regularly.” CNN report

Interfered with a crime scene, and a supervisor wouldn’t allow them to be tested for blood alcohol for sobriety.  Then the story wasn’t released for over a week.

“[Joseph P.] Clancy has told lawmakers he learned of the allegations Monday, according to people familiar with the discussions. That is five days after the incident, which involved two of his most senior agents, including a top member of President Obama’s protective detail.

Lawmakers did not learn of the episode, however, until it was reported by The Post on Wednesday.” Bomb investigation

Hillary Clinton wasn’t very SMART

http://oig.state.gov/system/files/isp-i-15-15.pdf

OIG made seven recommendations to improve the use of record emails by Department of State employees and mission staff members.

• OIG recommended establishing a process to review record email usage across missions and bureaus, as well as issuing guidance to Department of State employees and mission staff members that specifies their record-keeping responsibilities, provides examples to guide choices among cables and record and working emails, and suggests the establishment of record email policies.
• OIG recommended convening functionally defined focus groups to identify practical examples of official records;
• canvassing through focus groups in all bureaus periodically to identify obstacles to the use of SMART for record emails and cables;
• establishing an Electronic Records Management Working Group to advise on record emails and related issues;
• making introductory and refresher courses on records management a requirement for Department of State employees.
• OIG also recommended expanding the Foreign Service Institute’s current record email training curriculum to include hands-on SMART client and classroom training
• additional material on record-keeping requirements.

A tasty breakfast drink and an easy lunch

The last two days I decided I’d try for my fruits at breakfast.  Usually I have either an apple or an orange, and maybe nuts. But this was really good.

In a blender:

One small banana
Two really large strawberries (or several small)
One slice of fresh pineapple
Frozen blueberries (not sure, maybe 1/3 cup)
¼ cup of orange juice
Some orange peel (cooked and sugared)
About two tablespoons of almond meal

This made about 2 1/4 cups of a very pretty purple drink (red and blue make purple) with some texture. Really good. I have no idea what the nutritional value is.

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

Pierogies are pasta filled with whipped potatoes, and this product includes spinach and feta.  Some ethic groups like to make these, but I think it looks like a lot of work. I drop 3 in boiling water for about 7 minutes, and about 3 minutes in drop in some fresh baby spinach.  Makes a great lunch. This package costs about $2.00.

A different view on Ferguson and Obama

Ron Christie, a black Republican, has a different take than the main stream media, many Obama lap dogs—and it was actually published in The Daily Beast, a left wing, on-line news source. Rare.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/03/12/media-and-obama-are-to-blame-for-latest-ferguson-tragedy.html#

“. . . most Americans never should have even heard about a shooting involving Michael Brown and police officer Darren Wilson. Every day in communities large and small, criminals commit crimes that elicit interaction from the police. In the instant case, it is a fact that Michael Brown committed a crime in a small town on August 9, 2014, failed to heed Officer Wilson’s instructions, and was shot to death when the officer thought his life was in danger. The shooting never should have happened—a young man never should have committed a crime and never should have rushed at a police officer. . .”

“. . . On matters of race involving local police investigations, President Obama has not been shy about injecting himself into the narrative while shaping the desired outcomes. In 2009 when Harvard Professor Henry Louis “Skip” Gates had a disagreement with a Cambridge police officer outside of his home leading to his arrest, the president opined that the officer “acted stupidly.” Never mind that Mr. Gates didn’t have his keys and was thought to be breaking into a home by the police officer in question. What I found revealing at the time is that the president offered the Gates incident as showing how “race remains a factor in this society today” when the facts revealed race had nothing to do with the interaction between a professor and a police officer.”

And there’s much more.

Ron Christie is CEO of Christie Strategies LLC. He previously served as special assistant to President George W. Bush and deputy assistant to Vice President Dick Cheney from 2001 to 2004. He has written three books on race and politics in America.

Unequal childhoods and unequal adulthoods

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xq_iCMgP2Q

It will take about an hour to watch this lecture by Annette Lareau as she follows up her original research (early 2000s) on children in middle class and working class families, with how they did as young adults. I’d noticed in stores how differently some parents talk to their children (who may be in the shopping cart).  Although these days, they may be talking on the phone!  Often I wish they’d just shut up.  My goodness, they talk and talk and talk.  But some don’t.  Low income parents talk much less to their children, and by the time kids get to school there is an enormous gap in vocabulary.  But her research goes a lot deeper—about how middle class families “untie knots,” research ways to do things better, get the better school, or teacher, or activity. They have different social networks, they marry different people, and live in different neighborhoods which have different schools.

It’s worth watching.  But I don’t buy any government solution for this which we’ll hear from the academics.   The common complaint will increasingly be “white privilege,” but Lareau found similar attitudes in black and white families who are in the same socio-economic class. Fathers are more likely to be present in the middle class families; parents have more education; more sibling rivalry in middle class families; more talking; more boredom among middle class kids; and middle class kids stay “younger” longer with fewer responsibilities.  Race was not as big an issue as values and attitudes. Many middle class teaching approaches are the opposite of what works with low income kids. Drilling and memorization work well for them—just not for the teachers. Immigrant parents seem to have stronger academic standards for their children which may be lost by the 3rd generation.

I’m still in Virginia!

How big is this state, anyway?  I’ve ridden my exercycle, Gold’s Gym Power 210 Spin, 380 miles since Christmas using an online program called “Tools to Keep you Active” into which you can log your biking, running or walking, and it will show you a photo of where you are.  And I’m still in Virginia!

Black mayor of Selma wouldn’t play the media game

When asked to compare his city to the Selma of 50 years ago, Mayor George Evans said there was less crime then.  There’s more unemployment now and although there are jobs, the population doesn’t have the skills to fill them.

Jason Riley of the Wall Street Journal says, “Liberalism, moreover, tends to ignore or play down the black advancement that took place prior to the major civil-rights triumphs of the 1960s and instead credits government interventions that at best continued trends already in place. Black poverty fell 40 percentage points between 1940 and 1960—a drop that no Great Society antipoverty program has ever come close to matching. Blacks were also increasing their years of schooling and entering the white-collar workforce at a faster rate prior to the affirmative-action schemes of the 1970s than they were after those programs were put in place to help them.”

Minimum wage particularly hurts youth and disadvantaged

“European nations with the highest minimum wages have unemployment rates that are twice as high, on average, as those with no minimum wages. Especially hard hit by minimum wages is youth employment, which averages more than 25% in these countries.

Compare this to those countries in Europe with no federally mandated minimum wages. Most instead have wages that are privately negotiated between workers, unions, and employers. It's an infinitely better system than a one-size-fit...s-all federal minimum wage. Wages are determined by workers and companies, raised when both parties agree, applied to specific jobs, and do not apply to the whole country. In other words, they are market wages.

National minimum wages, on the other hand, are an arbitrary number, determined by politicians, manipulated through a political process, and applied to every sector, industry, and job in the entire country, regardless of skill, merit, or productivity. It is the economic equivalent of 'intelligent design.'

And it harms the poor, the uneducated, and the disadvantaged. The people who desperately need entry level work experience to begin a career. They are denied the opportunity, because the government tells companies they're not allowed to hire such people unless they do so at an economic loss.” Unbiased America

SOURCE: http://www.tradingeconomics.com/cou…/youth-unemployment-rate

http://stats.oecd.org/index.aspx?queryid=36324

https://cambridgesustainability739.wordpress.com/…/singapo…/

http://www.thelocal.it/…/…/italy-plans-national-minimum-wage

Hillary on the phone scandal

Eric Holder gets what he wants

More riots and 2 seriously wounded policemen.  Now actually, the rioters and Holder and Sharpton would have been happier with dead cops, because removing the police chief was never what this was about.  Ferguson’s ticket writing for minorities?  That’s a laugh.  It’s below the national average.  And if a community is predominately minority, why wouldn’t the majority of traffic stops be for minorities.  Should white police be fired as the community demographics change?

The Democratic party can’t survive if Americans--black, white, Asian, male and female, gay and transgendered, young and old-- all get along because the “diversity” meme, which actually means little tight boxes, is essential for their votes.

http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=tp&tid=702

An estimated 17.7 million persons age 16 or older indicated that their most recent contact with the police in 2008 was as a driver pulled over in a traffic stop. These drivers represented 8.4% of the nation’s 209 million drivers. A greater percentage of male drivers (9.9%) than female drivers (7.0%) were stopped by police during 2008. White (8.4%), black (8.8%), and Hispanic (9.1%) drivers were stopped by police at similar rates in 2008. Stopped drivers reported speeding as the most common reason for being pulled over in 2008. Approximately 85% of drivers pulled over by police in 2008 felt they had been stopped for a legitimate reason. In 2008, about 74% of black drivers believed police had a legitimate reason for stopping them compared to 86% of white and 82% of Hispanic drivers.
http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=4780

http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=4914

Capitalism and the Rule of Love

All systems are made of people who fail, and some of those people are evil.  But capitalism is the best of the bad, and offers the world the most loving system.  This article was originally published in 1953, and the author Clarence Philbrook (1909–1978) contends that interventionism and extensive government serve the rule of love less well than capitalism does: “capitalism does less violence to the rule of love than would any other system so far conceived.”  This is important for liberal Christians of the 21st century to know—pushing our responsibility off on to government is not loving, especially when it does such a poor job.

The link is to a descriptive abstract, but the full article will open in pdf. http://econjwatch.org/articles/capitalism-and-the-rule-of-love?ref=articles

“Capitalism is capable of giving us a much better society than we have known. Even apart from its fabulous tendency toward increased production, immense change expressive of the rule of love is available in that depression can be largely eliminated and inequality of income mitigated, both of these by methods quite in keeping with the logic of the system. Moreover, fantastically more brotherly love than has ever been exercised can be given expression through individual attitude, decision, and action in a capitalistic society. But if we repudiate that system by making changes which conflict with its essential mechanism, we give up one of the few protections we have against the evil that is in us.” ECON JOURNAL WATCH 11(3)
September 2014: 326-337.

These are the people many want to give more power

Where do we get these data managers who work for the federal government? Are they like school children who get passed along to the next grade level, only for step increases?  Maybe we should hire some known hackers to straighten it out.  Millions of Social Security card holders don’t exist—or if they do they are using someone else’s record.

The review found that one individual opened bank accounts using Social Security numbers for individuals born in 1869 and 1893.

The official database of active Social Security numbers showed that both beneficiaries were alive, meaning they would be older than 145 and 121 years, respectively.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2015/03/10/thousands-of-u-s-workers-older-than-100-that-might-be-social-security-fraud/

Who believes Hillary?

I have two e-mail addresses (my faculty address at Ohio State, and my Road Runner).  I used to have three (Medscape) so I could access and send e-mail when not at my own computer. If you have a Medscape in your address book, just delete it.  I don’t use it. I don’t use my phone for e-mail, although do occasionally text.

I have never had a problem “carrying around 2 devices.” Does anyone believe anything a Clinton says? She doesn’t lie as well as Bill, but Democrats haven’t changed. They believe the lies. And I don’t think the Obama Administration is being her friend.  Remember, during the 2008 campaign it was not the Republicans who leaked all that dirty laundry about Obama—it was the Clinton campaign.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/03/10/3-reasons-why-hillary-clinton-convenience-argument-on-her-email-controversy-probably-wont-work/

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/03/10/hillary-clinton-emails-blackberry/24725993/

President El-Sisi and President Obama don’t agree about ISIS and Islam

http://www.trevorloudon.com/2015/03/egyptian-president-crushes-jihadists-while-obama-coddles-them/

Trevor Loudon a conservative writer and political activist from New Zealand was interviewed about the world situation on the Glenn Beck show Monday night.  Links many of the world problems back to Putin. This story is from The Blaze and was posted at his blog, New Zeal.

“While President Sisi’s Ministry of Religious Endowments has granted 400 preaching permits to Salafist leaders, his move to close down 27,000 mosques — in the world’s most populous Arab country — is as dramatic as it is telling.

Consideration of such a policy would be unthinkable in America, as it would be seen as a violation of religious freedom, even if the facilities in question were to house those espousing anti-social and anti-American acts bordering on treason.

In fact, under President Obama America has taken a diametrically opposed approach: Actively seeking to partner with mosques, and creating significantly tougher standards for surveilling them.”

President Sisi of Egypt sees the Muslim Brotherhood as the root of ISIS and Islamic jihad and has banned the organization.  Obama welcomes the Brotherhood at the White House. Obama attempts to embrace Iran and reject Israel.

Here’s a interview which ran on Fox News; and he was very careful about what he said about Obama—nothing negative. It’s well worth watching.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/03/09/exclusive-el-sisi-urges-arab-ready-force-to-confront-isis-questions-if-us/

Another Arab at MEMRI opines on Obama’s strange anti-Israel, pro-Iran behavior.

"I will conclude by saying the following: Since Obama is the godfather of the prefabricated revolutions in the Arab world, and since he is the ally of political Islam, [which is] the caring mother of [all] the terrorist organizations, and since he is working to sign an agreement with Iran that will come at the expense of the U.S.'s longtime allies in the Gulf, I am very glad of Netanyahu's firm stance and [his decision] to speak against the nuclear agreement at the American Congress despite the Obama administration's anger and fury. I believe that Netanyahu's conduct will serve our interests, the people of the Gulf, much more than the foolish behavior of one of the worst American presidents. “ Saudi daily Al-Jazirah, columnist Dr. Ahmad Al-Faraj  http://www.memri.org/

And no DDT

In slightly more than a year, the Americas have seen more than 1.24 million cases of chikungunya virus, a mosquito-borne disease that causes high fever and debilitating joint pain.

But there are hopes for a vaccine. http://www.medpagetoday.com/InfectiousDisease/Vaccines/50288

National napping day

was apparently yesterday, to help you gain back that hour you lost due to the crazy, useless thing called Daylight Savings Time.  It doesn’t save daylight.  There will always be the same number.  But here’s some interesting factoids about naps. http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-3423/What-You-Need-to-Know-About-Napping-Infographic.html

I have a black belt in napping.

Pittsburgh has the best deal for home owners

http://www.hsh.com/finance/mortgage/salary-home-buying-25-cities.html#cleveland

In Pittsburgh home buyers would need an annual income of $32, 617 and the median home price is $135,000.

http://www.trulia.com/property/3191271042-116-Woodgate-Rd-Pittsburgh-PA-15235

But in San Francisco, at the other end, buyers would need an annual income of $142,338 to buy a home in the median range of $742,900!

http://www.trulia.com/homes/California/San_Francisco/sold/7146643-138-Shakespeare-St-San-Francisco-CA-94112

A 7 month old girl was murdered by a relative with a saw. No protests—she wasn’t a policewoman.

“A 7-month-old girl was found dead in the Little Village neighborhood Monday morning, her throat cut by a power saw, authorities said.

Police found the child, identified as Rose Herrera, after being called to a building in the 2800 block of South Avers Avenue on the West Side about 9:40 a.m., according to police and the Cook County medical examiner's office.

Authorities said a relative, a 52-year-old woman, used a circular saw to cut the baby's throat, apparently because she wouldn't stop crying. The woman initially tried to shove something in the baby's mouth -- possibly cloth -- to get the girl to quiet down, a source said.

The woman then tried to kill herself and was found by another relative, according to authorities. The woman was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where she was stable and in police custody.

Detectives were conducting a "domestic-related murder investigation," police said.”

http://touch.redeyechicago.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-83010570/

There were 11 people shot, 3 of whom were killed in the Chicago area yesterday—including a 2 year old boy and a 5 year old boy.  I think the student protesters in Madison concerned that an unarmed criminal was killed after bizarre behavior should start out for Chicago, and interview some police. How would they like the job of taking pre-schoolers to the hospital or finding a baby with her throat cut. 

http://my.chicagotribune.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-83011459/

Why do unarmed men battle police who are armed?

Maybe because they are already criminals and don’t want to go back to jail, or they are accustomed to taking risks and have escaped in the past?

In Madison: White Officer Matt Kenny shot unarmed (racially ambiguous) Tony R0binson, 19, who was on probation for armed robbery and whose school/police records show ADD, anxiety and depression. The writer for Reuters opined, “Robinson tended to an impulsive risk-taker and faced a choice between a middle-class lifestyle and the gang world.”  Police had been called to investigate reports of an assault and a man dodging cars in traffic.  The suspect was followed into a dwelling where the officer was struck in the head and he then shot the man (called a teen by Reuters).

In Denver: A 37 year old black man, Naeschylus Vinzant, was shot by police in Aurora, Colorado, who were seeking a male who was wanted for kidnapping and robbery and was known to be armed and dangerous.  He was shot while they attempted to take him into custody.  He was on parole and had removed his ankle monitor. Meanwhile, there were many other black men shot by black men/non-police, whose stories didn’t get into the Columbus Dispatch because the shooter was not white.

In Ferguson:  Eric Holder’s Department of Justice has taken over local police control in a town that is predominately black.  Traffic stops and the court system are for mostly blacks and therefore they are racist and profiling.  In my opinion, Holder is pouting because he couldn’t pin anything on the police after Michael Brown’s death and has decided to crush them or break the city budget.

http://www.wnd.com/2015/03/obama-pressing-for-federal-control-of-local-police/#!

Abortion doesn’t take just ONE life

 

Abortion interrupts the entire lineage of that unborn child. While it’s true that abortion has killed approximately 57 million unborn children in the United States since 1973, this number excludes the millions upon millions of future generations that have been snuffed from existence.

http://onlineforlife.org/blog/abortion-is-not-just-an-economic-issue/

What a shocker—Obamacare co-ops are failing and we’re on the hook

“The insolvent Iowa-based health insurance cooperative, CoOportunity Health, had to be taken over in December by Iowa insurance regulators. Iowa and Nebraska's Guarantee Associations - and state and federal taxpayers - are now on the hook for millions in claims the insurer could not pay.

CoOportunity Health wasn't a traditional health insurer. Rather, it was a taxpayer-funded, non-profit health insurance cooperative (co-op) established under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The co-op program is plagued by numerous flaws. When co-ops were established, they had no customers and no historical actuarial data to assist in setting plan premiums. Startup funds and cash reserves were mostly borrowed from taxpayers. According to industry data only one of the 23 co-ops was profitable last year (a 24^th co-op located in Vermont failed before it even got off the ground). While some of the remaining co-ops are losing money because of small size, others appear to have the strategy of losing money to gain market-share at taxpayers' expense.”

Read more here.

More on e-mailgate—Clinton’s buddy system

“Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), who heads the Judiciary Committee, had previously questioned Clinton’s use of a program that allowed some political allies to work for the government while pursuing private-sector careers.

Grassley had sought e-mails and other documents from the State Department.

But he didn’t know until last week that Clinton was exclusively using a private e-mail account that could contain relevant information about her use of the so-called “special government employee” program. Huma Abedin, a Clinton confidante and adviser who was granted the special designation, also used the private e-mail system.”

Washington Post

I know that Bill Clinton and his cronies were looking forward to getting back into power, but somehow, I can’t help but think he’s chuckling a little at this pay back.

Thank you, President Obama, for the hasty, ill-advised withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan that brought the world to this point

“Sunni violent extremists are gaining momentum and the number of Sunni violent extremist groups, members, and safe havens is greater than at any other point in history. These groups challenge local and regional governance and threaten US allies, partners, and interests. The threat to key US allies and partners will probably increase, but the extent of the increase will depend on the level of success that Sunni violent extremists achieve in seizing and holding territory, whether or not attacks on local regimes and calls for retaliation against the West are accepted by their key audiences, and the durability of the US-led coalition in Iraq and Syria.

Sunni violent extremists have taken advantage of fragile or unstable Muslim-majority countries to make territorial advances, seen in Syria and Iraq, and will probably continue to do so. They also contribute to regime instability and internal conflict by engaging in high levels of violence. Most will be unable to seize and hold territory on a large scale, however, as long as local, regional, and international support and resources are available and dedicated to halting their progress. The increase in the number of Sunni violent extremist groups also will probably be balanced by a lack of cohesion and authoritative leadership. Although the January 2015 attacks against Charlie Hebdo in Paris is a reminder of the threat to the West, most groups place a higher priority on local concerns than on attacking the so-called far enemy—the United States and the West—as advocated by core al- Qa‘ida.

Differences in ideology and tactics will foster competition among some of these groups, particularly if a unifying figure or group does not emerge. In some cases, groups—even if hostile to each other— will ally against common enemies. For example, some Sunni violent extremists will probably gain support from like-minded insurgent or anti-regime groups or within disaffected or disenfranchised communities because they share the goal of radical regime change.

Although most homegrown violent extremists (HVEs) will probably continue to aspire to travel overseas, particularly to Syria and Iraq, they will probably remain the most likely Sunni violent extremist threat to the US homeland because of their immediate and direct access. Some might have been inspired by calls by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in late September for individual jihadists in the West to retaliate for US-led airstrikes on ISIL. Attacks by lone actors are among the most difficult to warn about because they offer few or no signatures.

If ISIL were to substantially increase the priority it places on attacking the West rather than fighting to maintain and expand territorial control, then the group’s access to radicalized Westerners who have fought in Syria and Iraq would provide a pool of operatives who potentially have access to the United States and other Western countries. Since the conflict began in 2011, more than 20,000 foreign fighters—at least 3,400 of whom are Westerners—have gone to Syria from more than 90 countries.”  “Terrorism,”  Worldwide Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community, Senate Armed Services Committee, James R. Clapper, Director of National Intelligence
February 26, 2015

http://www.dni.gov/files/documents/Unclassified_2015_ATA_SFR_-_SASC_FINAL.pdf

Planet Fitness expels female member for complaining about a man in her dressing room

Planet Fitness Welcomes Men in Women’s Locker Room, Kicks Out Objector

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil,
who put darkness for light and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”
~Isaiah 5:20

On Saturday, Feb. 28 Yvette Cormier entered her Midland, Michigan Planet Fitness gym to work out. To her surprise, she found a man just inside the locker room entrance. She reported the incident to the front desk and was told that the man “identifies” as a woman and that Planet Fitness gyms—including their locker rooms—are “no judgment zones.” It should be noted that girls as young as 13 can join Planet Fitness and enjoy their “no judgment zones.”

I’ve seen his photo.  There’s just no way this is a woman. I don’t know why men think a padded bra, tights and a wig makes them  women.

Planet Fitness

“In the service of maintaining a “non-intimidating, welcoming environment,” corporate bigwigs allow a man in a women’s locker room and expel a woman from the gym because she doesn’t want to get naked in front of a strange man. Yes, the man in question was an actual man—you know, the kind born with anatomically correct penises. Even “transactivists” know humans can’t change their sex.

How, pray tell, do club managers verify the “sincerity” of a male member’s or guest’s claim that he wishes to be a woman? And why does sincerity of desire about one’s sex trump the objective state of one’s sex?”

Obama needs a fact checker

"Right now, in 2015, 50 years after Selma, there are laws across this country designed to make it harder for people to vote," President Obama complained at the Selma anniversary.

Blacks are now voting at a higher rate than whites.  Is there suppression of white votes because they need to show ID to vote (and to go into a government building, and to pick up a prescription at the pharmacy, and to cash a check, and to lease a car, etc.) 

“We broke the old aristocracies, declaring ourselves entitled not by bloodline, but endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights.”  That’s correct (and this time he didn’t leave out the Creator, which he has done in the past); and now we have a president defying the founders’ plan of 3 branches and attempting to replace our presidency with a monarchy.

And then he says at Benedict College, “As long as you can go in some neighborhoods and it is easier for you to buy a firearm than it is for you to buy a book -- there are neighborhoods where it is easier for you to buy a handgun and clips than it is for you to buy a fresh vegetable -- as long as that's the case, we're going to continue to see unnecessary violence,"  (he’s speaking out against the 2nd amendment here, not making a case for capitalism).  I assume he’s talking about illegal guns and not illegal vegetables and books.  But after 50 years and trillions of dollars of the war on poverty and all the wealth transfers of 128 federal programs—many in the field of food and education--you still can’t buy vegetables or books in black and low income neighborhoods?  Whose fault is that? How could the government be  trusted with fooling around with the 2nd amendment if they can’t even get fresh vegetables to the city?

His article "Science Increasingly Makes the Case for God" in WSJ most asked for

Dennis Prager has turned the article by Eric Metaxas into a video for his Prager University and has had over 405,000 views.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/eric-metaxas-science-increasingly-makes-the-case-for-god-1419544568

Why can’t we get rid of Daylight Savings Time?

It saves nothing—not daylight and not energy.  Farmers hate it.

5 myths about daylight savings time

http://standardtime.com/proposal.html

http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1284701

Do narrow minded Americans need to travel more to see how others live?

We have travelled outside the U.S.—Ireland, Russia, Italy, Finland, Estonia, Germany, Austria, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Israel (and briefly Canada, but that was just airports). What we saw there in terms of little population groups disliking each other and ethnic battles that dated back for centuries should make Americans feel proud (until the last 6 years) of the way we’ve patched up centuries of ethnic battles.

I think the Lapps (Sami) in Finland have 11 different languages, wander over 4 countries, have special protections like our American Indians, and are generally not well liked by Finns who are a different ethnicity. And among the Sami the reindeer people don’t like the fish people who don’t like the forest people. The Somalis in Finland have a high crime problem among the youth who need to know both Finnish and Swedish in order to get a job and are experiencing discrimination—but were never slaves and have socialized healthcare and free college.

When we shopped in Estonia, the retail clerks were speaking Russian to each other.  Big problems there between native Estonians, and Russians who have lived there for generations—or since WWII. We were pleasantly surprised in Israel, which is another melting pot with Jews, Muslims, Christians and others like Bahai.

In Italy, which hasn’t really been a nation all that long, the light skinned, fair northerners who believe their culture is the only one that matters, look down on the dark skinned, poverty prone southerners.

In Ireland the hatred for the Brits and what they did to them during the famine is still palpable. There seems to be a monument to every battle back to the Scandinavian invaders , most of which we’ve never heard of. Also in Ireland it was the economic boom years when we were there and almost the entire service trade were foreign—Poles, Czech, and other east Europeans whose economy hadn’t yet recovered from Communism—the nannies were head covered Muslims. The Irish wouldn’t take any of those jobs in the tourist industry—except in the rural areas where they were entertainers and historical site managers. Even the restaurant managers were foreign (serving Irish food for the tourists). These people stayed to themselves, had their own churches, clubs, even trades. Meanwhile the Irish were searching for deeper roots with special schools and summer internships in Gaelic language.

The Volga Germans, invited to Russia because of their superior farming skills during Catherine the Great’s reign, are some of the most discriminated against people in Russia, and now its eastern former provinces. They speak a form of old low German, and aren’t welcome in Germany either after 3 centuries since many speak Russian. They do make it in the U.S., however.

The push for diversity and multiculturalism in the U.S. has done the opposite of what those words would seem to mean. And leading the pack in finding irritants among groups is the Obama administration, with appointments like Holder, cheered on by the likes of Sharpton,  filled with poverty and race pimps who fear a loss of their jobs or non-profits if people really were working together for a greater country and the greater good.

Update: Somalis demonstrate at the welfare office in Sweden. 14% of the population in Sweden are immigrants. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tn8sdVIECo0

Rich Weinstein, the man who exposed Jonathon Gruber—and the president

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He’s not a media person; all that happened to him was losing his insurance so he decided to investigate.  Makes me wonder where our adoring Obama-media were—millions experienced the same fate. What else don’t we know.

The fact that Obama carefully says, he was not on our staff, is meaningless—he was a hired gun just like thousands, maybe millions, who take government money to provide advice and research for policies decisions or sell the product. He knows the mess behind the exchanges. The big story is not that the American voter is stupid, but that Democrats are stupid for electing crooks.

Rich Weinstein is the single person considered most responsible for exposing one of the biggest blows to the Affordable Care Act’s image: a series of videos in which a key Obamacare architect discusses the “stupidity of the American people” and how that helped get the bill passed.

Now, Weinstein is speaking on camera for the first time in an exclusive interview with The Daily Signal.

Spinach or Kale

Kale is trendy; it’s the darling of the nutrition bloggers, and today I had both spinach and kale.  Which is better for us?

“Should Popeye have been eating kale over spinach or was he making the right choice? Because he was consuming spinach for iron, he was correct. One cup of spinach meets 36 percent of the recommended daily iron value, whereas kale supplies 6 percent. As for other nutrition facts: one cup spinach has 41 calories, 4.3 grams of fiber, 5.3 grams of protein, 244.8 grams of calcium, and 838.8 milligrams of potassium. The same quantity of kale has 36 calories, 2.6 grams of fiber, 2.5 grams of protein, 93.6 grams of calcium, and 296.4 milligrams of potassium. Besides being an excellent source of potassium and calcium, spinach is a nutritional powerhouse delivering vitamins K, A, C, E, and B2. Kale is also a nutrition winner, packing vitamins K, A, C. As a child, I hated spinach (even though I adored Popeye), but now I love it. I want to love kale too, but my taste buds won't oblige.

Bottom line: Nutritionally, spinach slightly edges kale, but you can't go wrong choosing either. Both are great sautéed, steamed, or added to soups and salads.”

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/eat-run/2012/11/08/mango-or-papaya-spinach-or-kale-food-face-offs

Hillary owns the server—no chance to find the truth

“I want the public to see my email. I asked State to release them. They said they will review them for release as soon as possible.”–Hillary Clinton

Sharyl Attkisson reports

“In a statement, a [Benghazi] committee spokesman added, “The former Secretary’s tweet does not answer questions about why this was not done when she left office, the integrity of the emails while she controlled them, the scheme to conceal them, or the failure to provide them in logical course. The Chairman has said the former secretary is welcome to and should release all of her emails, but legitimate investigations do not consider partial records. And that is the point of the subpoena issued yesterday by the Benghazi Committee.”

Clinton ally David Brock, head of the liberal blog Media Matters and Chairman of the Board at the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), is among the political operatives rushing to Clinton’s defense. In a appearance on MSNBC this week, Brock deployed his common tactic of demanding a retraction from the news outlet publishing the revealing information about Clinton–in this case, the New York Times.”

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/03/07/emails-show-clinton-aides-running-interference-during-benghazi-attack/

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/05/hillary-clinton-media-105901_Page6.html

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/state-dept-changes-story-on-emails-115841.html?ml=m_po

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/mark-davis/2015/03/06/hillary-clintons-use-of-private-server-for-official-emails-put-her-at-risk

http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/05/politics/hillary-clinton-email-home-server/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/state-department-reviewing-whether-clinton-e-mail-violated-security-rules/2015/03/05/16d1547e-c378-11e4-9271-610273846239_story.html

Seeing a travel agent today!

Those who support Obamacare are also on record as supporting killing the unborn for gender, disability, poverty or just parental whim

The usual villains--, MomsRising, The Center for Reproductive Rights, League of Women Voters, NARAL, National Employment Law Project, People for the American Way Foundation, Planned Parenthood Foundation, and UltraViolet.

They and dozens of other leftist groups have all filed an Amicus brief opposing the challenge to Obamacare, which is in violation of the law as written and passed.

Lakeside preliminary schedule for summer 2015 is shaping up

Spring Cleanup Day Saturday, April 25

Mother's Day Brunch Buffet  Sunday, May 10

Memorial Day Weekend Activities  Friday, May 22-Monday, May 25  Jack Hanna 'Into the  Wild – Live'  Sunday, May 24

2015 Bonus Weekend Activities Friday, May 29-Sunday, May 31 Guest Preacher: The Rev. Vernon Shepherd Sunday, May 31

West Ohio Annual Conference Sunday, June 6-Thursday, June 11

East Ohio Youth Annual Conference  Friday, June 12-Sunday June 14

East Ohio Annual Conference Sunday, June 14-Thursday, June 18

Chautauqua Season Opening Day & Classic Car Show Saturday, June 20 Miniature Golf Dedication Saturday, June 20  Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis, Jr. Saturday, June 20

OSU Alumni Band Saturday, June 27

Garden Tour Monday, June 29

Mike Farris "Sings the Soul of America" Friday, July 3

Fourth of July & Children's Bike Parade Saturday, July 4 Fourth of July Float Parade,  Fourth of July  Fireworks  Saturday, July 4

Preacher of the Week: The Rev. Dr. Jerry Root Sunday, July 5

Chautauqua Lecture Series: C.S. Lewis Monday, July 6-Thursday, July 9

Taylor Dayne Saturday, July 11

"State of Lakeside" Address Thursday, July 16

Three Dog Night Saturday, July 18

Lakeside Wooden Boat Show & Plein Air Art Festival Sunday, July 19

Lakeside Women's Club Tour of Homes Thursday, July 23

Steven Curtis Chapman Saturday, July 25

Light Up Lakeside Celebration Saturday, July 25-Friday, July 31

5k Raccoon Run Sunday, July 26

Lakeside Symphony Orchestra Opening Night Wednesday, July 29

Tim Hawkins Saturday, Aug. 8

Northwestern Ohio Gladiolus Show Saturday, Aug. 15

Little River Band Saturday, Aug. 15

Chautauqua Lecture Series: Civil War Week Monday, Aug. 17-Friday, Aug. 21

Antique Show Saturday, Aug. 22  "Summer Serenade" with Jim Brickman & Pavlo Saturday,   Aug. 22

Mike Albert & the Big "E" Band Saturday, Aug. 29  Labor Day Weekend Activities Friday, Sept. 4-Monday, Sept.7

Not sure why they left out the art show—my husband is always in that, but this isn’t the entire schedule.

Céline Dion - The Power Of Love

Sometimes we old ladies think nothing beautiful came out of modern popular music, and although this is no longer new, especially not for the 18 to 21 year olds, I think it is powerful, lovely, and one of the best of the 1990s.  The power of love.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8HOfcYWZoo

http://www.celinedion.com/ca/home

I think she, Lady Gaga and Adele (especially Rolling in the Deep) are better than anything made by women in earlier eras of popular music.

So much better than Doggie in the Window, or It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to.  Agreed?

Lyrics aren’t so great, but you can’t beat Gaga for performance and glamor. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4Gwc6XBgQ4

Social networking—the impact

This could be a little dated considering the speed of change on the internet.  It was published in January 2014, but updated in September 2014. About 50% of people over 65 use a social networking site—and at the time of the survey, the preference was Facebook. Pew Internet Project

“Do social networking sites isolate people and truncate their relationships? Or are there benefits associated with being connected to others in this way? In November 2010, we examined SNS in a survey that explored people’s overall social networks and how use of these technologies is related to trust, tolerance, social support, community, and political engagement, and found:

• Social networking sites are increasingly used to keep up with close social ties
• The average user of a social networking site has more close ties and is half as likely to be socially isolated as the average American
• Facebook users are more trusting than others
• Facebook users have more close relationships
• Internet users get more support from their social ties and Facebook users get the most support
• Facebook users are much more politically engaged than most people
• Facebook revives “dormant” relationships
• MySpace users are more likely to be open to opposing points of view

How cell phones have changed surveys

“Historically, phone-based surveys dominated as the method of choice among those looking for a representative sample of U.S. residents. However, the prevalence of cell-only households has changed that approach dramatically. In 2013, the CDC estimated that 39.4% of American households were cell only, a lifestyle particularly prevalent among the young and those in lower socioeconomic status groups.

Given the prevalence of cell-only homes, online panels specifically built to represent the U.S. population are now the standard approach. The Pew Research Center estimated that 86% of adults used in the Internet in 2013. Online panels do have biases, but these can be mitigated with an appropriate sampling and weighting strategy.” FAQ People for bikes survey

“Because of these limitations [bias, lack of access and no standard list], researchers use two main strategies for surveying the general population using the internet. One strategy is to randomly sample and contact people using another mode (mail, telephone or face-to-face) and ask them to complete a survey on the web. Some of the surveys may allow respondents to complete the survey by a variety of modes and therefore potentially avoid the undercoverage problem created by the fact that not everyone has access to the web. This method is used for one-time surveys and for creating survey panels where all or a portion of the panelists take surveys via the web (such as the GfK KnowledgePanel and more recently the Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel). Contacting respondents using probability-based sampling via another mode allows surveyors to estimate a margin of error for the survey (see Why probability sampling for more information).” Internet surveys, Pew Research

What the Supreme Court will decide

“In March 2010, Congress passed, and President Obama signed, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). The ACA was never implemented as written. The ACA authorizes subsidies to health insurers operating in state-established exchanges, but not the federal exchange. Some 37 states opted not to establish their own exchanges. Nevertheless, the Administration has been paying subsidies to insurers in those 37 states.

On March 4, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in King vs. Burwell. At stake is the Administration's payment of subsidies to health insurers operating in states which use the federal exchange. The Supreme Court is expected to announce its decision by July. A decision to uphold the ACA, as written, will surely cause millions of people to stop paying premiums that will double, triple, or more after the Supreme Court strikes down the illegal subsidies.”

“. . . According to the Congressional Budget Office, there will be 2.5 million fewer full time jobs in 2017 than if Obamacare had not been enacted.

Congress has four options . . .

 http://healthblog.ncpa.org/obamacare-versus-the-affordable-care-act/

How America bikes

I thought riding my bike at Lakeside last summer would be a good option because my bursitis hurt too much to walk.  On the first day I rode my 1968, no-speed bike to a program, I fell.  Actually, I just tipped over and hit a stop sign.  That was the end of my biking for summer 2014.

U.S. Bicycling Participation Benchmarking Report

• Thirty-four percent of Americans ages 3+ rode a bicycle at least one day in the past year.
• Of those who rode a bicycle, 30% rode five days or fewer.
• Those who rode for transportation are much more likely to have done so to get to and from social, recreation, or leisure activities (70%) than to have commuted to and from work or school (46%).
• Forty-eight percent of adults in the U.S. don’t have access to an operational bicycle at home.
• Fifty-four percent of adults in the U.S. perceive bicycling as a convenient way to get from one place to another and 53% would like to ride more often. However, 52% worry about being hit by a car and 46% say they would be more likely to ride a bicycle if motor vehicles and bicycles were physically separated.

Download the Report
Methodology
FAQs

A joke submitted by friend Mary

Subject: FINISHED

The dictionary has ever been able to define the difference between "complete" and "finished." However, during a recent linguistic conference, held in London, England, Samsundar Balgobin, a Guyanese linguist, was asked to make that very distinction.

The question by a colleague in the erudite audience was this: "Some say there is no difference between 'complete' and 'finished.' Please explain the difference in a way that is easy to understand."

Mr. Balgobin's response: "When you marry the right woman, you are 'complete.' If you marry the wrong woman, you are 'finished.' And, if the right one catches you with the wrong one, you are 'completely finished.'"

His answer received a five minute standing ovation."

Before and after Obamacare