The Castro in Obama's Administration

 

This is outrageous. How long before the first amendment is declared hate speech by the Obama government, an administration that has inflamed racial unrest for years? How long before the creation story in Genesis is declared hate speech or the story of Noah and the flood? After all, it could be code for male and female and procreation.  How long before the only place you'll be able to pray is your jail cell and then in silence so you don't upset your guards?

“The phrases ‘religious liberty’ and ‘religious freedom’ will stand for nothing except hypocrisy so long as they remain code words for discrimination, intolerance, racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, Christian supremacy or any form of intolerance,” said  [Martin] Castro, an Obama appointee, in a separate statement that marked the report’s release.("Peaceful Coexistence: Reconciling Nondiscrimination Principles With Civil Liberties" 

http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/are-religious-freedom-advocates-christian-supremacists/

We will again see the mixing of the words "freedom to worship" and "religious freedom."  Did you know that the Civil Rights Commission had met in 2013 with "scholars and legal advocates" to determine if Christians could be charged with violating the Commission's  interpretation of religion and not ours?  Now, of course they don't say "Christians" in the report, just other code words. Just as bureaucrats, not law makers, changed the word "sex" to "gender identity" in many laws and regulations, now they want to our cherished protections are hate speech.  I think they want to wear us out with law suits.

I read through the "scholars" reports and recommendations.  They are reinterpreting the Supreme Court decisions, and it will translate to regulations and law suits by the Commission.

The parallel universe of Obama and Clinton

Campaigning for Hillary Clinton on our dime while she is recovering from an unknown illness, the President said the Republicans have a dark view of America. "This is a dark, pessimistic vision of a country where we turn against one another, where we turn against the world. They aren't offering serious solutions, they are fanning resentment, and hate. That is not the America I know." 

SIXHIRB--their method to make everyone a victim, call everyone a hater. No one has been more hateful or pessimistic than Obama's administration--he's got college kids rioting, protesting and closing down free-ways, he's got millionaire football players dissing their country, he's got an attorney general who has a tarmac meeting with Hillary's husband another who sold guns to drug dealers in Mexico, he ignores violent crime in his home town where blacks have 8x the crime rate of whites, and says we need more conversations about race, he's misjudged every move by ISIS and Putin and Assad, he says nothing about the crimes of his former Secretary of State, in fact stumps for her. . . and on and on.

He also mentioned Hillary's "experience and qualifications" linking to her travel as Secretary of State.  She mid-wifed the current crisis in Syria with gun running from Libya to support the anti-Assad rebels and created the Benghazi mess. That's not a good thing to bring up during the campaign--I'd call it passive aggressive--do they even like each other?

 She says "that's not America," (referring to half of Trump supporters who she put in a basket of deplorables speaking to rich donors Friday) and he says "not the America I know" about all Trump supporters. 

Now who's the hater?

  

Pope Francis, what's going on?

I'm not a Catholic (I'm Lutheran), but even I know the recent decision (word? opinion? comment? letter? leak?) by the Pope about divorced and remarried Catholics (considered adultery by the church) receiving Holy Communion is going to be very divisive. 500 years ago a not so important man named Martin Luther decided to change 1500 years of church teaching, ignoring the teachings of Jesus, all the church fathers, reinterpreting the writings of Paul and eliminating some books of the Bible; and it started wars, chaos, splits, and evolved into 35,000 denominations many of which don't even call themselves Protestants (called Bible churches, or non-denominational), nor believe in the Trinity, baptism or communion. If Luther could have seen what would come of his agonized searching for peace with God, he probably would have stayed in his house and just continued translating.

Trump or Hillary better for working women?

Lots of confusion, outrage and interesting comments at conservative social media sites today over what some see as Trump's lurch to the left with his announcement about child care and maternity leave.

Let's take a look back at when businesses started offering health insurance--after WWII, to attract good employees during the economic recovery and boom. First it was for the major players, then moved down to the staff and low skilled. It was as unusual then as some of the Google perks are today. My husband worked for small architectural firms and we didn't have employer health insurance for many years, we bought our own. Both employees and employers got tax breaks (one of the goals of Obamacare is to grab that tax money which the president thinks belongs to the government). Eventually it became government policy for firms of a certain size, using tax breaks for the firms. Healthy employees were subsidizing the sick ones, and some sick employees simply lost jobs or couldn't change jobs. Government rules also eventually changed that. 

I worked in academe, and although we always had a fairly generous benefits package, it did evolve to include tuition for children, time off for research, travel to conferences, cumulative sick leave that could be turned in for money or donated to another employee, use of the athletic facilities for exercise, sports and recreation, free parking, special tax advantage retirement packages such as TIAA-CREF annuities in addition to our employer supported pension (403-b) which used to include medical coverage, but no longer does. Oh, and retirement at 55, which almost no business line or staff worker gets. Each year we'd get a printed statement that our tax free benefits were worth--$25,000 to $30,000. Long before the Supreme Court redefined marriage, domestic partnerships for gays (but not heterosexuals just living in sin) also included these benefits. 

Fast forward 70 years, and about half of the labor force is female, and a small percentage of those are having babies. If businesses want to remain competitive and retain good female employees, they've got to accommodate pregnancies, babies and pre-schoolers. Many already do and have generous leave packages for executives, but not lower level employees, or they have on site child care, or work from home arrangements.

Trump is a businessman, not a politician like Clinton who just repeats the same old socialist, tax the rich to give to the middle class line with the government skimming most of that. He'll work it from a tax angle, and that's iffy at this point because it always hurts small businesses and start ups whether it's socialist or capitalist plan. The government likes that because it's easier to control several large companies than thousands of little ones, and capitalists like it because it eliminates competition.

The goals are different. Government wants more breakdown of the family, more single mothers, more Uncle Sam as sugar daddy to ensure a voting block. Businesses want good employees and the smarts that women bring to the company.

Trump's plan of strengthening business is better than Clinton's plan of stealing profits.

Their mantra: Sexist, Intolerant, Xenophobic, Homophobic, Islamophobic, Racist, Bigoted.

The SIXHIRB mantra of the Democrats. “Sexist, Intolerant, Xenophobic, Homophobic, Islamophobic, Racist, Bigoted.” (cDennis Prager) But it's been that way for years, they didn't come out with it just for Donald Trump--they said the same about Mitt Romney, and all he did was comment privately that 47% of the population wouldn't vote for him because they didn't pay federal income tax (and he was correct).  The didn't tell his rich donors that he hated half his opponents supporters and thought they were a basket of deplorables.

 

I subscribe to START (terrorism), and you know what? Our current government says (with PC language) scarier things about the Islamic threat than Donald Trump! I read the Congressional Research Reports--and the Mexican drug cartels and the criminals coming in are reported to Congress, so why is it racist when Donald Trump says it? Our border agency, INS has a budget of $6 billion and 20,000 employees, yet it's Trump who is wrong? I've read the government reports about the failures of major wealth transfer programs (there are 123), like Head Start, which have allowed poor Americans to stay dependent or have not accomplished their goals after 50 years. Isn't that bigotry? 

 

I read the USDA reports, my eyes swimming in acronyms for feeding programs for Indians, elderly, disabled, Appalachian, and school kids. It's no longer about agriculture although it's called the Farm Bill--it's about food and nutrition and changing peoples choices--$151 billion for 2017. Many in that basket of deplorables Hillary sneered at use those programs, and they want something better, but Democrats want them to stay poor. Most recipients of government food aid and rural housing loans aid white, so why are they being demonized? 70% of federal spending is for dependence programs which developed when the War on Poverty kicked in during the mid-1960s. Whoosh.  Onward and upward. But steepest increases were under Republican presidents.

 

And racism? I'm stunned that President Obama, who was to be the one to encourage racial harmony, (take a look at his speech in March 2008) would so agitate, whine, and opine, making race relations the worst I can remember. In 2009 he said the Boston police acted stupidly for responding to a call about a break in. The owner was trying to break into his own house--and he was a friend of Obama's. And it's been downhill sense. George Zimmerman is 1/4 black, but was called a "white Hispanic" so he could be demonized.  If black college kids were rioting and protesting under a Bush or Reagan, we wouldn't hear the end of it. After 20 years of a decrease in violent crime after the Omnibus Crime Bill of 1994 with many criminals in prison and making black neighborhoods safer, Obama decides that's racist. I could have never imagined millionaire black men, coddled and idolized since childhood for something as passing as athletic skills, would act so irresponsibly as Colin Kaepernick (who has now started a movement) and the president would be OK with it. 

 

We now live in a world of victims in a basket woven by haters, liberals, Democrats, politicians and their co-horts in business and non-profits like Target and Planned Parenthood.

Other people's money

It should be amusing, but isn't. The liberal media and the social media are pretending that they've just found out foundations use "other people's money." It was a big story in Washington Post today.

Of course. That's the whole point of those laws. I could find a cause, like a school or clinic in Haiti, set up a 501c3 with my "wealth," and ask you to contribute. You get a tax break, after IRS approval, and I get to shelter my wealth for my family legacy.

Then my 501c3, which can't be for a political cause, could set up a 501c4 to support my ideological views. All these laws were set up by our government to protect the wealthy, especially the wealthy in government, and to buy influence. Some do a lot of good; others just launder money for return to their party. Planned Parenthood which kills the unborn (for a good cause--population control of poor and black) gets money from private donors, other foundations, and from the government, then in return, it supports those candidate, mostly Democrats, who support legal abortion. The Gates Foundation has many good projects (better to give it away than pay the government outrageous taxes), but "population control" has been one of the requirements for accepting the help in Africa. Controlling black populations, regardless of country, seems to be a liberal cause. 

However, the Clintons have something to sell; Donald Trump doesn't. Did Washington Post, which is currently investigating Trump's foundation, investigate Obama's brother Malik's foundation which had no problem getting 501c3 status from the IRS while conservative groups waited years, his "charity" seems to be funding his wives--he's a Muslim polygamist like his father.

How ill is Hillary and what is it?

Although I've never gone out in public looking like Mrs. Clinton did yesterday, if I did, it would take more than 90 minutes of "rehydration" at my daughter's home to get me up and going again. And I certainly wouldn't have hugged a little girl if I didn't know what was wrong with me. This woman just can't be trusted. With anything. With anyone. Any where.

This election season is so strange. A whole new round of speculations and theories about Hillary's health, and Trump is acting presidential and she's acting like a fishwife lugging a basketful of deplorables.

The Hillary media mavens are acting like a diagnosis of pneumonia is no big deal, but for the elderly, it is. 

https://www.cdc.gov/pneumonia/

Sex, race and income gaps

On my walk this morning I saw three women and four men, in four different jobs.

One woman was about 23 and a home health aide walking one of my neighbors around the condo grounds.  She was white, attractive, pleasant and cheerful and they were chatting together. Her median pay scale (on the internet, because I didn't ask her) is about $10.00/hour.  If she works for an agency, the family will probably pay more than double that, but she'll have decent benefits. If she's a private contractor, she'll make more, but will have to contribute her own Social Security.  Not even a high school degree is required.  I often see foreign women with limited language skills in these positions.  It was not the case with this young woman.
 
As I continued, I saw two men with the Columbus Public Utilities department--both had uniforms, tools, and white trucks.  They were white and probably under 40. They were repairing a piece of equipment in a large box near the road. I'm guessing they do some kind of electrical maintenance.  I think the box probably controls power in the whole neighborhood. If they were supervisory, they'd need a bachelor's degree and about 10 years experience. Salaries were hard to determine, since I don't have a job title and am guessing, but the median could be $154,000.

Two women were in the playground of the near by church with pre-schoolers.  I don't know if they were teachers or aides, but I'm going to call them pre-school teachers. They were white and probably early 30s. They were actively involved in the children's activities and very watchful. They weren't sitting and chatting or checking their phones. Their median salary is about $12.06/hour  ($28,570) or about 50% of an elementary school teacher ($56,000), and less than a fitness instructor ($39,410) at a private club or gym. I think the pre-school teachers need a bachelor's degree or would be working on one, but most elementary teachers around here have a master's degree.  Also the teachers work 9-10 months with a number of days off during the school year, but the Fitness instructor works 12.  They would probably all have benefits, at least health, vacation and sick leave.  The pre-school teacher may also get free day care for her own children, or a discount.  The fitness instructor may have a family discount to use the gym.  The elementary teacher gets play ground duty and short lunches.

When returning home I noticed two trucks going  a bit over the speed limit driven by two young black men   for the company, 1-800-Got Junk. These days it's called "environmental diversion."  I think they may have been late teens or early 20s. I actually found this company on the internet, and various job titles.  A truck driver makes $11.36 or ($18-$22,000 a year).  I think they had full benefits. There were various job levels, and room for advancement, and no education (for truck driver) was required. Brian Scudamore, a high school drop-out,  is the founder and CEO of 1-800-Got Junk, and you can check him out for a very interesting career story.  He's founded several companies, but this one does about $152 - $170 million a year. He got this idea when he was 18 and working at McDonald's.  (Company is now franchised, so I don't know who owns the one in Columbus.)

The next time you see an article about the wage gap or gender gap or race gap in employment, remember, not all jobs are the same, they don't have the same requirements, responsibilities, education, and race or gender probably isn't what has caused the difference. And also think about Mr. Scudamore.  Anyone could have done what he did, but he rolled up his sleeves and did it.

Hillary has her own basket of deplorables

Another basket of racist, bigoted deplorables--Hillary's team. Not even close to a retweet of Trump of David Duke who never said he'd rather die a thousand deaths than fight next to a Negro soldier like Hillary's mentor. Senator Robert Byrd was a welcome Democrat KKK member in the Senate. Hillary praised him as her "mentor" and "a man of surpassing eloquence and nobility.” Senator Robert Byrd was a "Grand Kleagle" of the KKK. And Bill Clinton saying "Make America great again" is racist?  He used the phrase many times in his campaigns, plus used it for her 2008 campaign.  These people are such HUGE hypocrites. If they weren't two faced, they'd have no face at all.

 

Monday Memories--up and down the scale

I was looking at this photo of two years ago from a Conestoga trip to Blannerhasset Island (on the river between Ohio and West Virginia). I've lost 30 pounds since then; I've given away the shirt and can now zip the vest (couldn't then). Over my adult life I've lost about 130 pounds beginning in college, but usually 20 pounds here and there (1960, 1983, 1986, 1993, 2006), and this was the most I ever had to lose and the weight gain all happened in 2011-2012 and the weight loss in early 2015. So ladies, trust me, it's not over til it's over--it will creep back. My enforced leisure right now with Bob recuperating from surgery has me eating everything that doesn't have mold.

 About six years ago I read an editorial in JAMA that recommended more government control of my (and your) eating. 

"An effective public health approach to obesity prevention will require fundamental changes in the food supply and the social infrastructure. Changes of this nature depend on more stringent regulation of the food industry, agricultural policy informed by public health, and investments by government in the social environment to promote physical activity." 

Liberals say "stay out of the bedroom" to the government, but invite it into your kitchen and dinner table. I have two nephews, Caleb Poynter and Matthew Clark, who have made amazing changes to their bodies through careful healthy eating and body strength workouts. I don't think they relied on the government to do this. I think they could both do cooking videos and upload them on YouTube.

One of my blogs is about health, but increasingly, it does focus on weight and exercise. Mindful eating

Help for Syrian refugees, pt. 1

 Syria’s civil war has created the worst humanitarian crisis of our time. Half the country’s pre-war population — more than 11 million people — have been forced to flee their homes. I came across a Multi-faith alliance for Syria, an organization set up specifically to help them (don't know if it also receives federal money--many of these religious organizations do.

 http://www.hearttoheart.org/multifaith-alliance-kit-event/…/

Looking quickly through the website of MFA the support seems primarily from Jews, with some Christian denominations and para-church non-profits, a few Muslim, and I saw one Hindu group. I'll need to look more closely at the individual websites. The format of this list is rather shaky since it's too complicated to rewrite the HTML code, but here is the first half of the list. I'm going to spot check the website.  Some I know like Catholic Relief Services, Church World Service, ELCA, UCC.  Others not at all.

Ameinu (Our People)

American Jewish Committee 

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee 

American Relief Coalition for Syria

Anti-Defamation League

Auburn Theological Seminary

B'nai Jeshurun, New York, NY 

Bronx Christian Fellowship Church, Bronx, NY

The Brotherhood Synagogue, New York, NY

Catholic Relief Services

Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA)

Church World Service

Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations 

Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, New York, NY

Congregation Beth El, South Orange, NJ

Congregation Kehillath Israel, Brookline, MA

CURE International 

The Edgar M. Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life at NYU

Episcopal Relief & Development 

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Foa & Son 

Global Ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and

United Church of Christ

Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America

Heart to Heart International

HIAS 

Interfaith Center of NY 

International Refugee Assistance Project

Jamaica Muslim Center, Jamaica, NY

Jewish Coalition for Syrian Refugees 

Jewish Council for Public Affairs 

Jewish Federations of North America

Jewish Funders Network
The Jewish Theological Seminary

Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago

Syrian relief groups, pt. 2

Multifaith Alliance for Syrian Refugees, pt. 2 (couldn't get the HTML to work) See part 1 here.

London School of Economics and Political Science: Faith Centre
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service
Milstein Center for Interreligious Dialogue
National Council of Jewish Women
New York Board of Rabbis
New York Legal Assistance Group
North Carolina Hillel: UNC Chapel Hill
Orient for Human Relief
Rabbinical Assembly
Rahma Relief Foundation
Reform Judaism (UK)
Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
The Riverside Church, New York, NY
Sadhana: Coalition of Progressive Hindus
Saint Peter's Lutheran Church, New York, NY
School for Creative Judaism
Syrian American Medical Society
Syrian American Rescue Network
Syrian Community Network
Syrian Emergency Task Force
Temple Beth El, Boca Raton, FL
Temple Beth Shalom, Palm Coast, FL
Temple Emanu-El, Closter, NJ
UJA-Federation of New York
Union for Reform Judaism
Union Theological Seminary
Unitarian Universalist United Nations Office
United Sikhs
United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism
U.S. Fund for UNICEF
Vassar College Refugee Solidarity
Ve'ahavta
World Jewish Congress
World Jewish Relief
World ORT

Hillary's medical episode

There's something very odd about Hillary's appearance at the 9/11 ceremony today.  And I don't mean tripping into the van and losing a shoe. It's her appearing in public with no make up and her hair not done, like she had to sleep until the last minute and had no time to shower.  Plus she was over dressed even for moderate September weather--did you see what the women around her were wearing? Also, no one around her was wearing sun glasses, and it was an overcast day.  I don't wear a lot of make-up, but it's on my face and my hair is combed if I leave the house.

I realize this episode, as it is being called by the MSM, will not deter loyal Democrats--she could have leprosy and polio and they would still vote for her, but I've been 70, and this is a rough and tumble job even for a 50 year old.  Look how it has aged Obama and Bush before him.

Colin Kaepernick sit upon protest

Colin Kaepernick didn't start this disrespect in the NFL, but he has grabbed the attention of other wannabes when they saw how easy it was to get on national TV and social media even with low stats and a floundering career. Even the president took notice.  And I've read (not fact checked) that he's converted to Islam for his #blacklivesmatter girlfriend. Interesting. For over 1,400 years Arab Muslims controlled the world slave trade and traded captured black Africans to Europeans for the trans-Atlantic horrors and sent millions of others to Europe and Asia. Women particularly were trafficked for sex before the 18th century when focus changed to labor, even as today Islamic Boko Haram steals Nigerian Christian school girls for sex and politics. Fewer than 97% of their captives made it to the North American colonies and the trade was outlawed by the Constitution within 25 years of the U.S. becoming a country. And Kaepernick has three white parents; the black one took off. http://www.africanecho.com/africanechonews5-sept29.html

S.I.X.H.I.R.B.

The "S.I.X.H.I.R.B." mantra of the left (coined by Dennis Prager even before 2010)  --- Sexist, Intolerant, Xenophobic, Homophobic, Islamophobic, Racist, Bigoted-- is just to throw conservatives off their game plan of better education and educational choice, free markets, religious freedom, 2nd amendment rights, border security, better jobs for Americans, counter terrorism, saving lives of the unborn, dignity and safety for women, diversity of thought at colleges, balanced budget, secure retirement, a non-political Supreme Court with justices who are guided by law not feelings, etc., because if they keep us fighting the battles where only they control the language of the rule book or with each other, we lose every time. If you're a #NeverTrumper or supporting #GaryJohnson because you think that's the "high road," you've really been scammed by Hillary and the Left. She's dumped you in the #basketofdeplorables, and you were easy pickin's.

Conservatives have issues to fight for; liberals have names and insults to lob.  Which one will advance our country?

Why we need to evangelize Muslims

"Up until 9-11, I considered Islam one of the three great monotheistic religions. It was not the actions of the terrorists that roused my suspicions, but the silence or obfuscation of the rest of Islam on the matter. If a group of Catholics had done that, I knew my Church would immediately rise in righteous anger to denounce the terrorists, to condemn them and proclaim excommunication on any who adopted such poisonous doctrines contrary to the faith. That did not happen with Islam. About the best they could muster was the “street-gang” defense: “It wasn’t us.” – denying personal responsibility while remaining ambivalent – and often excusing – the act.

It was that disturbing episode that led me to study the Koran. It is not very large…only about the length of the Psalms. I was stunned. I had heard all the quotations “proving” that Islam was a religion of peace. It was a shell game. To simplify, the Koran has two very different sets of rules, one for fellow Muslims and another for infidels. All the quotations supporting the “religion of peace” fantasy come from sections on how to treat fellow Muslims with whom you are in conflict. The rules for infidels are that they must convert or die. The only wiggle room is how long you give them to convert before you kill them."

Concerning Islam

Remember who you're representing, Hillary

Hillary Clinton is calling Trump supporters names.  She's of the party of Jim Crow, slavery and KKK; she's of the party that writes abortion for any reason into its platform--and those are disabled babies, girl babies, and maybe babies who would grow up to be gay; she's of the party that for 50 years has trapped the poor by using the War on Poverty against them. She's the one who said she believed in traditional marriage when she thought it was a voter pleasing phrase, and now she parties with rich gays to raise funds after testing the wind. She's the one who will never share a bathroom with a man who identifies as a woman and whose grandchildren will never attend public school or go without an armed escort. She's the bigot and racist. And a huge crook and phony.

Hillary calls Trump supporters a Basket of Deplorables

Remember how the left, the Democrats, the Media (but I repeat myself) jumped all over Romney for saying 47% of the nation was dependent in some form on the government and didn't pay income tax? What he said was true; but they crucified him for it. Now we've got #BasketofDeplorables sort of what Democrats believed about blacks in the 19th century, or the Jim Crow era, or what they think of the unborn to day. Unworthy people. Not so smart people. Poor people. And she'll get away with it. Romney meant he would never change the minds of 47% because they believed the government should take care of them so he wasn't designing his campaign for them. Leftists sliced and diced this showing that many who don't pay income tax do file taxes, and do work. True, but they don't pay income tax, which is exactly what he said. Then they said, well, a lot of these people are Republicans. Also true, but he was still right. Now, how will they redeem us deplorables? By saying what she said was true.

Hillary did the deeds, now adds the words

Yesterday I heard the softer, gentler Hillary.  Lower, less scratchy voice for a press conference.  But it didn't last long. During an LGBTQ fundraiser for rich gays for her campaign in New York hosted by Barbara Streisand, Hillary attacked a quarter of America, calling half of Trump's supporters a "basket of deplorables. "You know, just to be grossly generalist, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables."

“Right?” she said as the crowd laughed and applauded. “The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic -- you name it,” Clinton continued. “And unfortunately there are people like that."

Five months ago the liberal FiveThirtyEight.com website found that Trump voters' median household income was higher than the median in every state, sometimes by a wide margin; and that 44% of Trump voters have college undergraduate degrees, compared to 29% of US adults. In fact, the median household of a Trump voters is far higher than that of a Hillary supporter.

How many times have we been told (negatively with a sneer) that non-college educated white men are Trump's supporters? Were Obama's supporters ever described as non-college educated black men, and yet he had 99% of the black vote.

Now who is the mean spirited bigot whose favorite policies kill babies, great mayhem in the middle east and lock minorities into ghettos? Hillary is a crook. Now we can add deplorable to that.

Commas matter

I like cooking my family and my pets.  Use commas.  Don't be a psycho.

Government controls through grants

For-profit prisons, for-profit colleges and technical schools like ITT (which was just forced to close when it lost government student loans) and private for profit charter schools are all propped up by government money. And so are many church social service programs, including those run by Catholics, Methodists, Lutherans, etc. Churches particularly are on the dole for their immigration resettlement programs. What the government gives it can take away especially if you begin to ask questions or support the wrong candidate in this election.

It's not like recidivism at state and federal prisons weren't outrageous, or that students at state universities aren't having debt problems, or that teachers union controlled public schools weren't graduating students not ready for the work force.

 https://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/refugee-resettlement-fact-sheets/

 http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/01/heres-exactly-how-much-the-government-would-have-to-spend-to-make-public-college-tuition-free/282803/

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/is-the-federal-government-trying-to-take-down-the-for-profit-college-industry/2016/09/08/effb7ffe-75dd-11e6-b786-19d0cb1ed06c_story.html

So while the federal government pulled out student loans causing a for profit college (ITT) to close without notice and thousands of students are left dangling, many with loans to repay, Bill Clinton gets $18 million as "honorary" chancellor at a for profit college. There really should be riots in the streets over this. There's no evidence that Laureate's business model is any different than ITT (totally dependent on government loans) and its connection with the Clintons allowed it to go global.(Owner is a donor to the Clinton Foundation).

Poor Matt Lauer, eaten by his own

Hillary supporters have had a melt down because Matt Lauer during the NBC debate treated her fairly--asked tough questions--even about the e-mails which just keep oozing out of her past lies. In fact, according to one observer, he interrupted her responses 7 times, and not in an unkind way, and interrupted Trump's responses 13 times. If she can't handle Lauer, what will happen when she meets with Xi Jinping, President of the People's Republic of China or Angela Merkel Chancellor of Germany? It's very common for these broadcast journalists to cover for their candidates, and they don't even pretend to be unbiased. He's still on their team.

Meanwhile, her husband anxious to get his third term has been campaigning for her.  Bill Clinton is calling Trump's campaign slogan "racist," but it's the same one Clinton used in the 1990s, and even more recently--in 2008 for Hillary's campaign. "Make America great again." Why is that more racist than "Hope and Change?" Can Democrats ever discuss issues?

Hillary's overload

Hillary has not only had some press conferences this past week after a long dry spell, but today she's lowered her irritating voice and is speaking quietly and softly (should help the coughing), following Trump's lead.  He met with the Mexican president (she was fund raising with rich celebrities) and black leaders (she was fund raising with rich LGBTQ). Somewhere I read she'd had 41 minutes (before today) to his 4.5 hours of press conferences. Today she really hammered Trump for calling Putin a good leader.

Remember when Mrs. Clinton while Secretary of State gave Russia a red "reset" button, but it said   "перегрузка" (peregruzka) which actually means "overcharge?" Oh, and remember how forceful the U.S. was in handling the Crimea and Ukraine problems? NOT. EVER. Trump was not in office, but she was. She participated in a disastrous Obama foreign policy that got Russia, and Putin, all wrong. Whisper through that one, Hillary.

Leaf peepers

One photo shared today on Facebook was by my veterinary medicine librarian friend (also retired) and colleague  Mitsuko Williams (University of Illinois) sitting atop Cadillac Mountain. I had a flash back to the mid-70s when we drove to New England to see the fall color. Friends Scott and Tricia stayed with our children. It was off season so we thought we'd have our carefully planned sites of interest and roads to ourselves. We were stunned to see a whole world of retired people traveling and enjoying themselves. They were giggling, flirting and laughing like middle school kids, even with various frailties like low vision and walkers. Every restaurant parking lot was filled with their buses and the conversation inside was about the menu, which was often being read aloud. We'd quietly laugh. Now we know what fun they were having.

Hillary's health

 

Oliver Wendell Holmes and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I collect vol.1 no.1 issues of magazines and serials (I have a blog about this), so when vol. 1 no.1 of The Atlantic Monthly was mentioned in this article about Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. my Library of America newsletter on-line I pulled my copy off the shelf and read "Every man his own Boswell." Interesting that in those days it didn't seem to be necessary to list the author's name.

" Everything changed in 1857 when James Russell Lowell, a fellow professor at Harvard, was hired as the editor of a new magazine, and he in turn insisted that his friend Holmes become one of its founding contributors. Initially hesitant, Holmes agreed and even suggested the magazine’s name, The Atlantic Monthly. Holmes then lit on the idea that would make him famous: reviving the Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table as a monthly column. Far more mature in style and content than the essays from a quarter-century earlier, each piece is written as a table conversation monopolized by the unnamed Autocrat, with interruptions (including poetry, stories, and jokes) from other residents—including the Professor, the Landlady’s Daughter, the Schoolmistress, the Poet, the Old Gentleman, the Divinity-Student, “the young fellow called John,” and others. The new and improved “Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table” appeared in the debut issue of The Atlantic (November 1857) and immediately became the most popular feature in a magazine that boasted works by such celebrities as Emerson, Whittier, and Longfellow."

So I kept browsing through the volume (bound) and looked through the next issue (no. 2) finding the poem "Catawba Wine" by Longfellow, also written in 1857. Had to research that one. Catawba Island up on Lake Erie is not named for Catawba Indians (as I always believed) but for the Catawba grape which is praised in this poem. Northern Ohio was big wine country (still is). Catawba wine was made in Cincinnati from Catawba grapes from the Catawba River in NC. 
"For richest and best/Is the wine of the West/ That grows by the Beautiful River/ whose sweet perfume fills all the room/ with a benison on the giver." . . .
 "And this Song of the Vine/ This greeting of mine/ The winds and the birds shall deliver/ To the Queen of the West,/In her garlands dressed,/ On the banks of the Beautiful River." 

Many names of wines in the poem, and rivers of several countries, but the Queen of the West and that river is Cincinnati on the Ohio River.

Traffic fatalities up

I wonder if it is marijuana? More people texting? Both?

“The nation lost 35,092 people in traffic crashes in 2015, ending a 5-decade trend of declining fatalities with a 7.2% increase in deaths from 2014. The final data released today by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration showed traffic deaths rising across nearly every segment of the population. The last single-year increase of this magnitude was in 1966, when fatalities rose 8.1% from the previous year."

 https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/812318

Preparing for surgery tomorrow

[This is what I wrote in an e-mail, but I'm just leaving it here in case you're researching what to do.]

My head explodes when I think what we pay for these EMR!! How many billions ($27 billion in 2009) and there wasn’t a shred of evidence from any studies it would help health care.

 

We just had a call from the hospital (9 a.m. Tuesday) from a clerk checking all the details for surgery tomorrow. We have to call between 2-4 p.m. today to find the hour of the surgery on Wednesday. The hospital still didn’t have any of the test results from his complete physical on Aug. 16—different doctor, 2 miles down the road. Carrier pigeon could have done it better. And as I think I mentioned before, his internist never received the results of the scans 3 weeks before his physical. Also the hospital had him listed as 5’11”, high blood pressure and cataract surgery. None of that is true. I’m wondering what other Bruce’s medical records got folded into his. He’s about 5’8”, no problem with blood pressure ever, and his eyes are fine. Always, always, have another person checking. The lobbyists for IT made a bundle on this, but at our expense. 

 

Rant over. I’m going to vacuum to blow off steam.

 

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/report-electronic-medical-records-market-nears-25-billion-300066515.html

 

http://www.hitechanswers.net/about/about-arra/

 

As a bonus, here’s what I wrote about this problem 7 years ago:

 

I stopped by to pick up a prescription at my doctor’s office because the “electronic transfer” of information between that office and the pharmacy I used hadn’t been able to manage the job in 3.5 days, and I was out (old methods of fax and phone aren't used anymore). Normally, I would have just told the receptionist what I needed, and my file (paper) would have been retrieved (human). No. I waited about 10 minutes as she struggled getting the right screens up, then worked from screen to screen, asking me questions I didn’t know, like date of my last appointment and address of the pharmacy. A line was forming behind me. When she finally found it, she said there was no record from the pharmacy requesting permission for a refill, but the doctor would decide.

That night we got a call from the doctor’s office that “it was ready,” i.e. the prescription script. My husband went to pick it up and waited about 15 minutes in line as the receptionist struggled with the screens of 2 or 3 people ahead of him. Fortunately, it was in a paper envelope with my name hand written on the outside. We can only hope and pray that the national “network” that Obama is forcing thousands of small offices to buy into (causing many to close their doors), doesn’t work any worse than what you’ve all experienced at the local level as your doctor or clinic transitions.

Those nasty, judgmental Christians

Christians can be so judgmental! Here's St. Paul, who wrote most of the New Testament, chastising new Christians for sexual immorality. "Brothers and sisters: It is widely reported that there is immorality among you, . . " He said the congregation should be sorrowful and the offender kicked out. The very first Christian handbook on rites and morality, The Didiche, compiled before the Bible, forbade abortion and homosexual relations with boys, an acceptable Roman and Greek custom. Very different from today's advice, isn't it, when congregations vote on sin and the government decides what can be condemned?

 https://www.pcusa.org/news/2015/3/20/what-same-sex-marriage-means-presbyterians/

 http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-tornado-the-lutherans-and-homosexuality

 http://www.wndu.com/content/news/Goshen-church-passes-vote-to-allow-same-sex-marriages-380426541.html

 http://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/04/us/lutherans-vote-abortion-stance-seeking-new-language-in-debate.html

The protests in Detroit

Do Trump supporters disrupt Hillary's speeches? I watched on TV some protests at a Detroit church. Apparently it went well. The media really took him over the coals for this one.  Imagine, a Republican going for black votes, when blacks went 99% for Obama in 2008. And in the primaries that election year, they didn't like Hillary.  Is it worth checking to see if she spoke at black churches?  Nah.

This is one area I think Donald sounds way too much like a Democrat-- that he can, from the White House, fix everything that is wrong. Really, that should be the state and local governments' responsibility to fix the schools and attract the employers. Then it should be the homes and churches that prepare the young people to be good employees and loving parents.

Candidates all spend too much time treating blacks as victims, when in reality, in the 21st century they've done extremely well.  The poverty rate for married black families is no different than whites. Their college enrollment rate (not graduation rate) has been higher than whites for almost 2 decades.  We've got a black president, attorney generals, senators, governors, businessmen, and even a pouty football player with white parents making millions a year who is protesting white privilege.

http://blackdemographics.com/households/middle-class/

Black and white incomes are not outrageously different, but in household wealth there is quite a gap.  I think lack of marriage (smaller households, fewer incomes) accounts for a lot of this.  Also, there seems to be a distrust in investing outside one's home and community. Blacks tend to rely more on family and friends for financing.  Only blacks can change that perception. Also blacks more commonly have their wealth tied up in home ownership, and that took a big hit in 2008 due to government fiddling in the housing market.  But I'm sure a Democrat president would decide it's unfair that whites have saved and invested for our old age, and should have our wealth "redistributed."

http://www.urban.org/urban-wire/stalled-struggling-black-middle-class

Keep your mind challenged

Just in case you think the only reason to discuss things, argue and research for a blog or Facebook is to change someone's mind,  keep in mind we’re fighting dementia! It's good for us.  Each time you shut down an idea you don't agree with or say "Oh, let's talk about something more pleasant," you might be depriving yourself of a brain boost.

College is protective by about a decade, but lifelong intellectual activities such as playing music or reading keeps the mind fit as people age and also delayed Alzheimer’s by years for those at risk of the disease who weren’t college educated or worked at challenging jobs. http://archneur.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1883334 This is a free access article. 

 

Since I read it to my husband about 2 years ago, he has taken up guitar. Had zero musical training so also had to learn to read music.

 

At our cottage in Lakeside where we attend lectures and concerts daily.

Book Club selections for 2016-2017

Except where noted, we meet at Bethel Rd. Presbyterian Church.

Sept. 12--All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr--led by Carolyn at her home

Oct. 3--Ashley's War by Gayle T. Lemmon--led by Mary Lou

Nov. 7--The Wright Brothers by David Mc Cullough--led by Norma  at home of Peggy

Dec. 5--The Annotated Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll--ed. by Martin Gardener--led by Peggy  at home of Carolyn A.

Jan. 9--Strong Poison by Dorothy Sayers--led by Justine

Feb. 6--Nobody Tells a Dying Guy to Shut Up by David Chilcoat and ed. by Beth Chilcoat--led by Jean

Mar. 6--The Brigade by Howard Blum--led by Peggy

Apr. 3--Lisette's List by Susan Vreeland--led by Carolyn A.

May 1--The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto by Mitch Albom--led by Bev

The Five Biggest Lies of Hillary Clinton--and that's a big stretch

The key points:
1. She cited her 2012 concussion as the reason that she cannot remember details of briefings during her "transition out of office."
2. She said she never even thought whether emails she exchanged on a future U.S. drone attack should be classified.

3. She said she thought the "C" before a paragraph indicated alphabetical order. The C actually stands for "classified."
4. She said no one ever raised concerns to her about her use of a private email server.
5. She said she could not recall any training on how to handle classified information.

She also "lost" 13 mobile phones.

" FBI Director James Comey may have decided not to indict Clinton, but the public revelation of this transcript today (Sept. 2, the day before a 3 day week-end) does a lot of damage. While you can expect most of the mainstream media pundits to pour cold water on the severity of the facts contained in them, the transcripts put the email scandal right back into the center of the news cycle. The last time that happened, Clinton's poll numbers wilted badly and it took a series of Trump missteps to reverse the decline." Jake Novak, CNBC

If Obama weren't under pressure from (God know who or what), these wouldn't have been released.  Not sure what he's angling for.  A different candidate?  A third term--because who's to stop him? Certainly not the Supremes or Congress.

The continuing fall of Hillary Clinton

Today's Wall Street Journal: "The Federal Bureau of Investigation waited until the Friday afternoon before Labor Day weekend to release its investigation summary and interview notes with Hillary Clinton about her private email server, and no wonder. The new information makes a hash of what’s left of the former Secretary of State’s credibility.

Mrs. Clinton is running for President as an experienced statesman, but her handling of classified material was even more reckless about state secrets and disdainful of public records laws than even we had thought. Start with her convenient memory lapses.

For example, Mrs. Clinton told the FBI that she “did not know” that the “(C)” marks on classified material meant classified and “speculated it was referencing paragraphs marked in alphabetical order.” Yet in her famous—and last—press conference about the emails in March 2015 she said, “I’m certainly well aware of the classification requirements and did not send classified material.” To the public she claims to be a sharp professional who knows the score; to the FBI she presents herself as a clueless grandee who left the details to her minions."

I went on-line and looked at the testimony.  The second most stupid, next to citizens who believe her, is James Comey, FBI director who reported to us in July.  My opinion of him has really dropped.  What did she have on him?  It baffles me that intelligent, law abiding Democrats are so worried about Trump's off the cuff, non-teleprompter, silly, injudicious outbursts that have killed no one, or often repeated what Democrats said in the 90s, revealed no state secrets and put none of our spies in danger, yet they will grovel in front of this pathological (or brain injured from her fall/stroke) liar. 

Well, maybe I'm not so baffled--they desperately want Bill back in the White House turning on that charm and chasing interns. They are what they are and they won't change, especially now that they've been joined by the #NeverTrumpers.

Disruptive women

I see an Ohio State University dean has published an article about “wellness” at Ohio State (nothing wrong with its content) at the website of Disruptive Women, which appears to be sort of a global front organization with the obligatory “reproductive justice” feminist agenda, embryonic stem cell research (which has had almost zero success compared to adult stem cell), global development issues and diversity slogans.  Disruptive Women in Healthcare seeks to educate Congress and our politicians about medical research.  I hope there’s a conservative counterpart voice.

Feeding America and its hunger statistics

Just saw an ad on TV by Feeding America about hungry children. Feeding America is a United States-based non-profit organization that is a nationwide network of more than 200 food banks that feed more than 46 million people through food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, and other community-based agencies. Most of these are run by churches and their volunteers and donors. (According to FA website its $2 billion budget is through donations--CEO earns over $600,000/yr.) They do good work, but its ads about 16 million hungry children is most likely an exaggeration.  The federal government doesn't even use the term "hunger;"  it is called "food insecurity," and if mom was in a drug induced stupor or mentally ill and didn't pull a can of pop or chips out of the cupboard twice in 6 weeks, that's called "food insecurity." 

In the USA we don't have hunger, we have bad parenting and dysfunctional families that begin with babies before marriage. Marriage drops the probability of child poverty by 82%. We have foundations and state grant programs tripping over each other to help. We have 123 wealth transfer programs in the federal government to address the problems of low income and poor, everything from housing support to earned income tax credits, to special pre-schools, to special feeding programs for infants, to Medicaid, to clinics for women, to home heating plans, to job training. If there is a hungry child, statistically he sits in front of a flat screen HDTV with video games in an air conditioned home, Mom has a frig, microwave and dishwasher in the kitchen, a cell phone, and probably car in the drive way. But his "poverty" is supporting an enormous number of social workers, academics and non-profit employees through grants that come to his state, then his city, then the non-profit or church, and finally it trickles down to him.

Redefining the word sex, and Title VII and Title IX

Doctors and medical experts didn't redefine the word sex; Congress didn't redefine the word sex; churches didn't redefine sex; not even Merriam Webster's Dictionary redefined the word sex. Everyone in the world knew the word sex was about biology, not about feelings, fantasies or dysphoria. But Washington bureaucrats redefined the word sex to include a made up concept of gender identity. It's time for some law suits. Time to take our country back, regulation by regulation, bureaucrat by bureaucrat, appointee by appointee. Some of you may even have to take back your churches. It doesn't stop with restrooms, locker rooms, marriage or parenting rules. No. You are going to be forced to change pronouns and be subservient to the minuscule number of people and their groupies who are mentally ill or just confused or conning you about who they are. Why would your federal government, your president, do that? For power. And for complete power forget health care--you must destroy the family.

When I was the veterinary medicine librarian at Ohio State I read a lot of human medicine material, especially since about 1/3 of our journals were not specifically about animals but about organs and systems and viruses and infections and cell biology, many shared. That's when I first came across body dysphoria, particularly people with the desire to amputate limbs or other body parts. On the internet you can find support groups for extreme anorexia--not to cure it, but to encourage it as a "right." One of my male assistants was getting counseling for his desire to become a woman, but you didn't hear much about it in the 1990s. Now, we are told believing dismembering healthy body parts is a type of "phobia" suffered by the one who believes it is wrong rather than the one who wants the amputation.

"The medical community—though not all of its members—has decided that amputating healthy breasts and testes and providing sterility-inducing cross-sex hormones constitutes medicine, while amputating an arm is quackery. Isn’t that judgmental and “transabled-phobic”?" 

 
 https://illinoisfamily.org/homosexuality/the-trans-truth/

Before I read the article, I thought this was a male to female transgender because of his face (men have higher hair lines and longer chins), then was surprised he was also a transdisabled, or whatever it's called when you believe erroneously that you have disabilities and try to convince others.

Mexico's race problem

When Trump stood on the stage with President Nieto of Mexico, I couldn't help but notice that Trump was darker than the Mexican president. But maybe it was the make-up for the camera. The ruling and wealthy classes of Mexico are very fair skinned, as are the TV celebrities and movie stars, at least the ones I see on American owned Spanish language TV like Telemundo and Univision. There are some strict rules for Mexico's naturalized citizens quite different from ours and many government elective offices are closed to them. You can shorten the residency requirement for citizenship if you are a native born Spaniard, which would of course make you lighter skinned than someone entering from Central America. or the islands or Africa. But the only people crossing the border into the U.S. looking for better lives or temporary jobs to send money home are brown. The gangs bringing in the drugs, too. Why are Mexican leaders exporting their brown citizens? Mexico is a very wealthy country in natural resources.  Who is the racist here?

 

 

LIS Microaggression on Twitter

There's a Twitter site for librarians who get insulted easily, "LIS Microaggression." Apparently, if you are a white male, no one ever says ridiculous things to you.  Anyway, I've been looking through the sticky notes (which I think someone then catalogs, but I'm not sure), and truly, although librarians are 223:1 liberal to conservative, now they've completely fallen off the left edge of the cliff.  I used to read through the ALA committee assigned e-mails and wondered how they ever got their work done since they were so busy fighting the battles of the world. 

Truly, people have always said dumb things to librarians, my favorite being, "You mean you have to have an education to do this?" or "What a great job--you just sit around all day and read." Once I got a phone call from a NYC chef who wanted to know if baking blackbirds in a pie would be safe from diseases.  Another time a student from another state wanted to know how to cook the flesh off the bones of some road kill so he could reconstruct it for his science class.  

BTW, a WOC is a "woman of color."  And apparently no one ever told her in library school that your boss just might get credit for your work.  Think of it as being the speech writer for the president.

The gay organ majors at Oberlin

Gay alumni of Oberlin (small college in Ohio) have documentation of their history on the internet.  One writer decries always presenting gay men as victims, when in fact he thinks they are quite wonderful  and creative and supportive (in his introduction to this  history of the organ majors of 50 years ago). Here's how they carved out a special dorm space.

"Nearly all the organ majors were gay men, their presence could not be denied, by the school or to each other. It wasn't calculated at all, it simply was. Gay men following their passion for music arrived to discover that others were more like themselves than they could ever have dreamed. How wonderful is that? Starting in the early '50s, someone whose name is lost to history had the brilliant idea for the organ majors to take over the top floor (consisting of 10 or 12 rooms, some double, some triple) of a dormitory named Burton Hall. And so they did. If you have ever lived in a dorm at college you know this took considerable forethought and planning, applying for particular rooms a year in advance. Covert and subversive, it was a sacred trust, no one admitted to what was going on and would deny it if questioned. The administration was mute. It remains unclear whether the scheme was unknown or best unacknowledged. The organ majors of Oberlin did hold some esteem and clout. They were talented and it is said what they lacked in technical skills was far exceeded by the emotion they could find in a seemingly neutral piece of music. There is much evidence that some highly placed, closeted professors knew well what was going on and did what they could to deflect and gloss over rumblings from the administration or gossip."

 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/9/4/1013446/-