The international slave trade

I'm not going to share the awful photos going around the internet of the slave trade in Libya or the riots in Paris demanding that someone DO something about slavery after the CNN report. Modern day slavery is bigger than the 18th c. trans-Atlantic slave trade--about 21 million people; where was the outrage when it has been reported for years? In the U.S. we'd rather focus on microaggressions and reparations for events of 3 centuries ago.

The U.S. has a Trafficking in Persons law begun under President Clinton in 2000 and it is continually reauthorized. The 2001 TIP report names Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany, and other countries as transit and destination areas for trafficked East European women. Also NGOs and Christian organizations have been battling both the sex slavery and labor slavery for years. Even the much maligned Glenn Beck has done extensive stories on this scourge. In 2000 when I wrote my retirement plan, I noted the international slave trade.

Unfortunately, if you look through the TIP 18 annual reports, you see it is a "monitoring" country by country report on what each are doing. No teeth. Like the bank robbery commercial. Or the Congressional "ethics" committee. Europe has its own "monitoring" organization with annual reports for modern slavery, called GRETA.

[2001] "The United Kingdom (UK) is a destination country for trafficked men, women, and girls. A Government-sponsored report estimates that up to 1,500 women and girls are trafficked into the UK annually for purposes of sexual exploitation from Eastern Europe and the Balkans, South America, Nigeria, Thailand, and Vietnam. Although there are no reliable data as to the numbers of victims, men, women, and children from the Indian sub-continent, Sri Lanka, Turkey, the former Yugoslavia, Romania, China, Congo, Angola, Colombia, and Ecuador also are trafficked to the UK; labor exploitation occurs primarily in agriculture, sweatshops, and industry." (2001 TIP report, State Dept)

[2009] Libya: "Both migrants and trafficking victims are routinely smuggled through Libya to Europe, especially to or through Italy and Malta, en route to various locations on the continent. Libya’s migrant population of 1.5 to 2 million represents about one-third of its overall population. Although precise figures are unavailable, foreign observers estimate that one-half to one percent of foreigners (i.e., up to 20,000 people) may be victims of trafficking. In some cases, smuggling debts and illegal status leave migrants vulnerable to coercion, resulting in cases of forced prostitution and forced labor;" (2009 TIP report, State Dept)

[2016] "The purpose of this Report is to enlighten, energize, and empower." (John Kerry, 2016 TIP report, State Dept)

So it seems it does take a war to end slavery, even one fought with impure motives and by people unclear about what they were doing, not just monitoring and annual task force reports.

https://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/

Falls and the elderly

I've been nagging my husband about ladders.  I think we've got help at the lake house, but there's still the pesky storage for Christmas décor that is stored in the garage attic using precarious stairs that need to be pulled down. I followed my own advice, and decided to help him drag out the x-mas decorations from the attic by standing beside the ladder and making sure nothing stupid happened. One very large box fell and broke the lid. And while I was trying to grab it as it fell, I pulled my back a little.  But he's fine.

I think it's about time to go to the little tiny tree that sits on a table.

Thank you, Harry Reid

"As of November 3rd, 13 Trump nominees to the courts have been confirmed this year. The big name is Supreme Court Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, but we also have eight new federal appeals court judges, and four new U.S. district court judges. President Trump has now already surpassed the last four presidents' records for first-year judifical confirmations. And he's even tied President Ronald Reagan number of appeals court confirmations in year one."

Harry Reid killed the filibuster so Obama could railroad his appointees through without Republican objection. Recently Democrats have been trying to use the blue slip tradition to replace it, but Sen. Chuck Grassley (IA) has stopped that.  So the nation has been fixated on "inappropriate' behavior, Trump has been scoring major victories that will last far past his time in office.

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/24/trumps-biggest-win-yet-comes-thanks-to-congress-commentary.html

Friday family photo--Thanksgiving past

1971 birthdays/Thanksgiving

1996

2009

2015

2017

Thankful the president isn't Clinton

The Democrats will continue to drag us kicking and screaming into some wasteland of Marxist gulag, but I think it has been slowed down just a bit. And maybe that little girl who survives the abortion mill will someday be president of the United States. Hollywood and academe still have conservatives locked out, and they are huge forces in the culture.

Washington Post throws a bone occasionally on the Opinion Page (8 out of 9 news articles are anti-Trump--it's owned by Jeff Bezos). This article brings out the big benefits, like the courts, that we have with President Trump.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/this-thanksgiving-im-grateful-hillary-clinton-is-not-president/2017/11/22/68bafc9a-cee7-11e7-9d3a-bcbe2af58c3a_story.html?

"While the Supreme Court only hears about 80 cases a year, the federal appeals courts get final say on about 60,000 — and because Democrats ended the filibuster, they can’t stop Trump from filling those courts with conservative legal rock stars. The Senate has already confirmed eight of Trump’s nine appellate nominees — the most this early in a presidency since Richard Nixon – and Trump will appoint plenty more before his first term expires."

Also, Paris Climate agreement, freeing Americans in foreign prisons, putting some teeth into that red line Obama drew, EPA walk backs, removing shackles from the military, standing up to North Korea, and improvement over the softy and mushy Obama approach to foreign religions.

Build a salad

Although I'm not employed, I do volunteer. Here's how to take a salad to work. Put the dressing on the bottom of a plastic bowl that has a tight lid (some people use glass jars). Then add the heaviest, least absorbent vegetables, washed and sliced so you don't have to wrestle with it in view of everyone. Put chopped lettuce on that, then either the meat/fish, nuts or cheese. Seal and keep upright if possible. Shake briefly before opening. Today I used a vegetable salad mix with beets, carrots and kale. So I zapped that a few minutes in the microwave to make it more manageable--also makes the nutrients more available. Now I'm hungry.

Critical theory

Let's not be naïve about the Black Lives Matter movement, the Snowflakes seeking safe places so they don't have to hear conservative ideas, the Occupiers of a few years ago, and the anthem protests by millionaires. This is not about ignorance, they don't need to be educated.  It's a form of mind control called "critical theory," and that's just dressing up the so-called educated for a party, Marxism. It's effective in societies that don't have a poor working class to riot like the late 1890s or early 20th century.

Your children's teachers were educated in the 80s or 90s when critical theory was usually just literature and history being "deconstructed," and those people had as their faculty a few years before, the radicals of the 1960s and 1970s who enjoyed the sexual revolution, awakening feminism along with the Viet Nam War protests.

Explaining that slavery existed since the dawn of time, or that free American blacks owned slaves, or that the founding fathers developed a truly revolutionary society unknown to the world controlled by church, kings and dictators, or that one can't change his biological sex, or that capitalism has set millions free from thousands of years of poverty, or that climate has been changing for millions of years is not going to work. (Although I will continue to blog about it.) Not even going to "work" after they leave campus is going to work, because their CEOs and managers have absorbed the same distorted view of history, literature, politics and biology.

The purpose of critical theory (aka Marxism) is to rip apart the fabric of our society--beginning with the family, moving on up through business and employment, and to the government at all levels--your school board, city council, state legislature, the House, Senate, Executive and Judiciary, and yes, the military. And once the movement has stripped everyone under 50 of all their values, beliefs, faith and honor, they stand naked before the firing squad.

Just a Christmas cold?

I haven’t seen Elizabeth in probably 40 years—our husbands were co-workers and we’d chat at the office family Christmas parties with all the kids hanging on to us.  But we reconnected on Facebook.  Last week we had to cancel an invitation because my husband got a cold, and we decided not to “share.” Today I noticed this on Elizabeth’s FB page—the story of a Christmas cold and how she lost her voice—maybe permanently.

“ This is how it started: a guest brought a cold to a Christmas Eve party three winters ago and I caught it. I had never had a sinus infection or pneumonia before but knew something wasn't right because my chest would do this weird bubbling sensation when I exhaled. Right after New Year's Day I went to see my primary care doctor about it and he misdiagnosed the pneumonia as acid reflux. I was left untreated until right after Valentine's Day when it finally got so bad I was having serious trouble breathing. I finally hit bottom and was taken to a hospital emergency room by emergency squad. At the hospital I was given the chest x-ray I should have gotten weeks before and they diagnosed double pneumonia. I was treated there with a nebulizer and given a prescription for an antibiotic, slowly recovered, but my lungs were permanently damaged by then and I have never been the same since. After another trip to the emergency room for breathing problems a year later (emphysema was diagnosed from a CT Scan) I was referred to a pulmonologist.

The first medication I was put on was a Breo inhaler daily; it worked for the most part but eventually caused thrush to grow on my vocal chords--a common side-effect with the use of a steroid inhaler; we are told to rinse our mouths after use to keep that from happening but we can't rinse down far enough to reach the vocal chords. I was recently treated with Diflucan, an antifungal, told to stop using the Breo inhaler and was switched to something else, but it did not bring my voice back.

I also have ulcers on my vocal chords. In late July/early August a guest brought a coughing/sore throat virus and I caught it. The virus, because my immune response was compromised due to the Breo, pushed things over the edge and caused me to lose my voice; it has never come back. It may never come back so I am more-or-less a mime now.”

From vice to substance abuse disorder in 100 years

JAMA (Oct. 24/31, 2017) had an interesting opinion piece, "A death in the family" about a doctor who overdosed on fentanyl. It was a tragedy for his colleagues, family, friends, and thousands of future patients who will never benefit from his skill. But it was also a tragedy for the English language and our search for someone to blame. "Overdose on fentanyl?" "substance abuse disorder?" "stress and burnout?"

Remember when poverty was blamed for drug use--it was a ghetto problem? Remember when it was the pathology of the black family and its roots in slavery? Remember when it was poor parenting and kids hadn't been raised right? Or, they just need Jesus? Or going way back, remember when opium was blamed on "vice" (i.e. Asians)? Or today's news--the drug lords (Mexican gangs)?

30 years ago when I was employed at the vet college I learned that veterinarians had a higher suicide rate than physicians, and women higher (in attempts) than men, but the reasons given were different; the grief and sadness the same.

I certainly don't have the answers, but then, neither has anyone else the last 50-60 years, and that's small comfort.

This article contains a good list. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4266064/

Partial view of the JAMA article. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2658326

The best advice you'll get on gratitude

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxmORnnP3WI

Dennis Prager's Prager U. videos are the best.

Grateful people can change the world.

Will there really be more jobs with a tax cut?

You are right to be suspicious.  Look what we were told about Obamacare and saving money and keeping our doctors.  But Tax Foundation has crunched some numbers (for the Senate plan) and says yes, but it depends on your state. Stock market went crazy with the news Thursday—not sure that’s more jobs however.  Ohio already apparently has an unfriendly tax climate—I think we’re something like 45^th and Illinois is 46^th—not a good place to be.  Tax Foundation estimates 35,063 jobs and $2,375 after tax income in Ohio.  For Illinois 38,465 jobs and $2,701 after tax income. A lot more is involved, however.  We all know Mt. Morris jobs didn’t go to Thailand, they went to states in southern USA or to Rockford.   https://taxfoundation.org/tax-cut-senate-tax-cuts-and-jobs-act/

In this example of 9 different filers some get more than others, but the only ones losing are a married couple, Laura and Seth (one earner), with 2 children earning $2 million. Of the nine examples, they have the highest income.  The one who gains the most is the single guy (Jason) earning $52,000.  Of course, if single guy Jason had some children and a wife, he’d be getting EITC and the government would be paying him a bonus of about $6,000.  But only tax payers are covered in this example of 9 households, not the 49% who don’t pay any federal income tax.  https://taxfoundation.org/tax-cut-senate-tax-cuts-and-jobs-act/ 

Democrats of course will point out the gap between $52,000 and $2,000,000 not the change in what each household pays.

The harassment payout

Congress Spent $17 Million Paying For Its Sexual Harassment Settlements

Friday family photo--life expectancy and risk

But it's cold outside.

A recent article in Circulation by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Brigham and Women’s Hospital "found that more moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity -such as brisk walking - was associated with roughly a 60 percent to 70 percent lower risk of death at the end of the study among the most active women, compared to the least active."  Suggested even once a week could make a difference.  So I dug out my winter coat and took a one mile walk in the neighborhood.

I'm not good at math. I was born in 1939 and female life expectancy was 65.4. Then came vaccines and antibiotics. Now I'm 78 and life expectancy for someone my age is about 88-89 (the age at which my parents died). So if I'm reducing the risk of early death by walking where do I start (or end)?

You can tell this photo was taken in my husband's office, all the pencils are lined up. You can't even see the top of the desk in my office.

http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/early/2017/10/31/CIRCULATIONAHA.117.031300

Will this tax plan actually create jobs?

You are right to be suspicious.  Look what we were told about Obamacare and saving money and keeping our doctors.  But Tax Foundation has crunched some numbers (for the Senate plan) and says yes, but it depends on your state. Stock market went crazy with the news yesterday—not sure that’s more jobs, however.  Ohio already has an unfriendly tax climate—I think we’re something like 45^th and Illinois is 46^th—not a good place to be.  Tax Foundation estimates 35,063 jobs and $2,375 after tax income in Ohio.  For Illinois 38,465 jobs and $2,701 after tax income. A lot more is involved, however.  We all know Mt. Morris jobs didn’t go to Thailand, they went to states in southern USA or to Rockford.  https://taxfoundation.org/senate-tax-cuts-and-jobs-act-state-impact/

 

In this example of 9 different filers some get more than others but the only ones losing are a married couple Laura and Seth (one earner) with 2 children earning $2 million. Of the nine examples, they have the highest income.  The one who gains the most is the single guy (Jason) earning $52,000.  Of course, if single guy Jason had some children and a wife, he’d be getting EITC and the government would be paying him a bonus of about $6,000.  But only tax payers are covered in this example of 9 households, not the 49% who don’t pay any federal income tax.  https://taxfoundation.org/tax-cut-senate-tax-cuts-and-jobs-act/ 

 

Democrats, of course, will point out the gap between $52,000 and $2,000,000 not the change in what each household pays.

 

 

The Train, author unknown

THE TRAIN: At birth we boarded the train and met our parents, and we believe they will always travel by our side. As time goes by, other people will board the train; and they will be significant i.e. our siblings, friends, children, and even the love of your life. However, at some station our parents will step down from the train, leaving us on this journey alone. Others will step down over time and leave a permanent vacuum.

Some, however, will go so unnoticed that we don't realize they vacated their seats. This train ride will be full of joy, sorrow, fantasy, expectations, hellos, goodbyes, and farewells. Success consists of having a good relationship with all passengers requiring that we give the best of ourselves.

The mystery to everyone is: We do not know at which station we ourselves will step down. So, we must live in the best way, love, forgive, and offer the best of who we are. It is important to do this because when the time comes for us to step down and leave our seat empty we should leave behind beautiful memories for those who will continue to travel on the train of life.

I wish you all a joyful journey.

I've seen this essay and some similar attributed to various people; at this point I don't know who the author is.

 

49% of Americans pay no federal income tax

Some of them are very wealthy, and therefore aren't employed. They let their wealth work for them. Or they create non-profits with their wealth and contribute to them. But most are on the receiving end.

A worker with a stay at home spouse and 4 children, might earn $50,000/year and receive a check from the government instead of owing--Earned Income Tax Credit. That worker is better off than someone earning $65,000 and paying taxes. It keeps people in the low income bracket.

Our tax system is called "progressive," not in the political sense, but in economic. The more you earn, the higher your rate of taxes. The top quintile is paying for the rest of us. Democrats lie in spirit when they whine that the breaks go to the richest in the new tax plan. The wealthy are paying more than their fair share because of this progressive system.

The top 1% of Americans, who have an average income of more than $2.1 million, pay 43.6% of all the federal individual income tax in the U.S.; the top 0.1% — just 115,000 households, whose average income is more than $9.4 million — pay more than 20% of it. (Market Watch, 2016) Tell me what is fair about 1% paying 43.6%. But it is progressive. Tax Foundation uses different figures--not sure why these figures never match, but the outcome remains the same, the more you make, the more you pay for it. It's the American way.

More babies, longer life span?

https://academic.oup.com/biomedgerontology/article/61/2/190/542517/Does-Having-Children-Extend-Life-Span-A  The Journals of Gerontology: Series A, Volume 61, Issue 2, 1 February 2006, Pages 190–195

I came across an interesting article on using the genealogies of Old Order Amish to see how parity affected life span. Having a lot of children seems to affect both the life span of the father and the mother. Only after 14 (!) children do the pregnancies have an adverse affect on the Amish mother.  You’d have to read it and look up a few words (like parity—means number of deliveries) The advantage that I see in using genealogical records instead of medical records is it ended in 1912, before our current era of modern medicine.

So is it good genes, later menopause therefore affecting life span, or maybe having enough children around to work on the farm and take care of you in your old age? Since the majority of Americans lived on farms before the 20th c. I doubt it is any of today's concerns about diet, GMO, gluten and pesticides.

My genealogy has many Mennonites, some Old Order and some Old Order Brethren, some River Brethren but not sure about Old Order Amish. So far I haven't found another article on health among Old Order sects in American culture, but they are probably out there. You only have to look at a 18th-20th c. genealogies to see the longevity.

If you are related to me on my mother's side, her grandparents were Wengers. There is a database of of Hans and Hannah Wenger, 474,000 - 496,000 names (depending on update) of individuals, mostly descended from 18th century Mennonites, River Brethren (Brethren in Christ) and German Baptist Brethren who settled in Lancaster, Lebanon and Franklin Counties, Pennsylvania, in Ontario, Canada and in Washington Co. Maryland and Botetourt Co. Virginia. In the 1800s a number of the families moved to Darke Co. and Montgomery Co. Ohio and to Iowa, Indiana and Kansas. In the early 1900s there was continued migration to Upland, Calif. and Modesto, Calif.

Women who abort have higher death rates

Within the first 180 days, the risk of death from any cause is over twice as high following abortion compared to that following delivery. The risk of early death remains elevated for at least ten years.
Both abortion and miscarriage are linked to elevated mortality rates, but the effect is more strongly associated with induced abortions.
 
The largest portion of premature deaths following pregnancy loss are due to suicides, accidents, homicides, and some natural causes, such as circulatory disease, which are known to be associated with stress. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2050312117740490

Some awards are just appeals for sales

GQ, a magazine that is aimed at the "metrosexual" narcissistic male, has awarded Colin Kaepernick "Citizen of the Year" award.  Who knew a fashion rag had so much political savvy?

Some magazines will do anything to attract advertising. Founded in 1931 it is a fashion magazine promoting metrosexuality for "narcissistic young men sporting fashionable clothes and accessories." It shows men wearing clothes and women mostly not wearing them. There is a Russian edition. Hmmm.

"J.J. Watt is a superhuman. What he does on the field, like playing despite having a bone in his finger cut through his skin, is evidence of such. But it's his recent off-the-field efforts to aid victims of Hurricane Harvey that has elevated him to legendary status. 

The three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year launched a fund on YouCaring.com to raise money for victims of Hurricane Harvey on Aug. 26 with an initial goal of $200,000. At the time, that seemed like a sizable yet attainable goal. In hindsight, perhaps Watt (and the rest of us) underestimated humanity's goodwill and willingness to help others in need." https://www.si.com/nfl/2017/09/15/jj-watt-hurricane-harvey-fundrasier-37-million

November is prematurity awareness month

Someone asked me nicely if I could share that November is prematurity awareness month. At first I thought she meant old too soon, ;-)  but no, it's about premature babies.

"Mama B. Designs is official partners of March of Dimes, a foundation that funds lifesaving research-giving every baby a fighting chance. A substantial 50% of every item sold goes to the organization. Premature birth is the #1 killer in babies 0-5."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEURNBZaZjo&feature=share

Forget Russia. What about the U.S.A.

Let's forget Russia, Russia, Russia for the moment. “They’re here in large numbers, actively trying to penetrate a whole host of sectors—government, industry, and academia.” according to a Obama official in 2016 as reported in the New Yorker. Going on for over a decade--that'd be Bush and Obama. "After neglecting the Russian threat for a decade, the U.S. was caught flat-footed by Moscow’s election operation. Now, officials are scrambling to figure out how to contain a sophisticated intelligence network that’s festered and strengthened at home after years’ worth of inattention." (Politico)

If destroying patriotism and love of country were the goal, the Russians succeeded in academe and the entertainment culture with a heavy boost from the Democrats who failed to see the problem, then added to it.

But then. How much interfering does the USA do in the cultures and elections and businesses of other countries? You know, like Bill and Melinda Gates and birth control? Or big pharma testing its products on brown and black babies? Or removing DDT from the tool box to defeat malaria as demanded by liberals of the 1970s? Or helping with the funding of preferred candidates in Kenya or Egypt or eliminating the leaders like Muammar al-Qaddafi’s regime by Obama? Department of State AID for agriculture? It's endless. We have military bases all over the world through "treaties" and "trade agreements." That's not interfering?

A successful trip to Asia by President Trump

I was happy to see the President wrap up his trip with a visit in the Phillipines. Filipino Americans are an amazing group--second highest income group in the U.S. just behind Indian-Americans. And Filipinos live all over the world, yet remain loyal to their family homeland and culture. When we ate at a restaurant in Madrid, our waitress was Filipino--spoke good English. Our daughter manages the office for a doctor who is Filipino American. There was a Filipino-American couple on our trip to Scotland--they'd met when both worked in the Middle East.

All the links from the MSM are negative or disparaging.  They haven't learned a thing since the election a year ago.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-asean-summit-song/you-are-the-light-philippines-duterte-croons-at-trumps-request-idUSKBN1DD04O

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-asean-summit/gala-glitz-masks-asias-tensions-as-trump-winds-up-tour-idUSKBN1DC07P

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/11/14/trump-chuckled-as-duterte-called-journalists-spies-thats-no-laughing-matter-in-the-philippines/?utm_term=.d754b2225b3b

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/13/world/asia/trump-duterte-philippines.html

I wonder if the President was served Spam? https://theculturetrip.com/asia/philippines/articles/why-spam-and-rice-is-a-filipino-food-classic/

Going around--don't know source of why Hillary lost, but I've heard them all

"I still haven’t figured out why Hillary lost.

• Was it the Russians?
• Or was it Wikileaks ?
• Or was it Podesta?
• Or Comey?
• Or was it a sexual predator husband?
• Or was it her chief of staff's husband Wiener’s pictures of his penis?
• Was it a subpoena violation?
• Or was it the corrupt Clinton foundation?
• Or was it the congressional lies?
• Or was it the Bengazi bungle that cost several lives?
• Or was it pay for play?
• Or was it the travel gate scandal?
• Or was it the Whitewater scandal?
• Or the cattlegate scandal?
• Or the Trooper Gate scandal?
• Or was it the $15 million for Chelsea’s apt bought with Clinton Foundation money?
• Or Comey's investigation?
• Or her husband’s interference with Loretta Lynch and the investigation?
• Or was it stealing debate questions?
• Was it deleting forensic 30,000 emails?
• Was it the Seth Rich murder?
• Was it calling half the USA deplorable?
• Was it the underhanded immoral treatment of Bernie Sanders?
• Was it the Vince Foster murder?
• The Jennifer Flowers assault?
• The Jennifer Flowers settlement?
• The Paula Jones law suit?
• The $800,000 Paula Jones settlement?
• The lie about taking on sniper fire in Eastern Europe?
• The impeachment?
• The $6 billion she "lost" when in charge of the State Department?
• The $10 million she took for the pardon of Marc Rich?"

C. S. Lewis’ son Douglas Gresham

Douglas Gresham being interviewed about his step-father, C.S. Lewis:  “I mean, for Jack (Lewis) to even imagine a world in which millions upon millions of babies are slaughtered before they’re even born, simply because they’re too young to defend themselves, that sort of horror Jack would have attributed to hell, not to earth at all. So I think he’d find it difficult to live in today’s world as many of us who care about people and care about the world do. But it’s difficult for me to put words into his mouth, of course, I wouldn’t try to do so.”

Following his mother’s death in 1960 and Lewis’ death in 1963, Douglas and his brother David inherited Lewis’ estate.  Douglas Gresham is an actor, writer, produces films, lives in Malta and is a Christian.  His brother David is an orthodox Jew.  http://bustedhalo.com/features/busted-douglas-gresham

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/12/17/surprised-by-c-s-lewis-why-his-popularity-endures/comment-page-5/  Scroll down for photo of Gresham. “Gresham, though, snorts at the suggestion that his mother damaged Lewis’ friendship with Tolkien. “It never happened,” he says. Gresham says that when he went to visit Lewis in the hospital during his last days, he saw Tolkien. Tolkien told him he could live with him if anything happened to Lewis, Gresham says.”

Fund raising in China

Why was UCLA playing their basketball opener in China (3 players, Freshmen LiAngelo Ball, Cody Riley and Jalen Hill were arrested for shoplifting)? To fund raise and promote California.

"Yet lost within that story about their arrest is the even more absurd story about why the UCLA men's basketball team was even in China in the first place — during the heart of their fall academic semester. If we are going to call these basketball players "student-athletes," shouldn't they be in class?

From the standpoint of a college such as UCLA, sending the men's basketball team to China makes business sense. China has one of the world's fastest growing economies, and it serves as a fertile recruiting ground for potential college students. By sending the team to China, UCLA gains the chance to expose a whole generation of young Chinese students to its brand and the opportunity to become Bruins." https://www.forbes.com/sites/marcedelman/2017/11/10/everythings-wrong-with-ucla-and-georgia-tech-opening-their-mens-basketball-season-in-china/#4bcd81ed5299

"Side bar: NCAA boycotted North Carolina over a proposed 'bathroom bill' because it violated civil rights. NCAA is promoting itself in China, which is outstanding at violating civil rights." (Ty Walikonis)

The hypocrisy stinks like a stopped up toilet in a public restroom. And a smaller dose of stink, other UCLA players caught in crimes in other years got a slap on the wrist. Different standard for athletes who bring in money.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/pac12/2017/11/11/report-three-ucla-players-could-remain-china-week-two/855020001/

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/ct-ucla-basketball-china-20171111-story.html

http://www.ajc.com/sports/ucla-basketball-players-expected-serve-time-china/bPK99olg2LtdtL5MHluo0I/

We bought the tickets; we made them rich

For decades the entertainment industry has been pushing and eroding respect for sexuality, parenthood, women, men, children, family, and church, inserting its values into sit-coms, dramas and violent crime shows, until they convinced the world their values were normal. And all along, the men were pawing and raping boys and women, and the females were keeping quiet to protect their careers while performing the roles the men controlled and the women wrote in the screen plays. The industry glorified violence and crime while demanding gun control for the average person. They push dropping pronouns, changing the language and opening bathrooms in the name of "social justice." Sick. Too late now; we bought the tickets, we didn't change the channel, we laughed at their smarmy jokes. We made them rich.

The women blame power imbalance, the men blame their fathers for poor behavior modeling? Richard Dreyfuss calls it flirting and thought it was consensual. She let it go on for decades; I can see why he might get it wrong. So after 40 years of "I am woman hear me roar" it's still all about sex? Apparently, the Marxist message underlying much of the Feminist movement just didn't have much appeal for the ladies.

http://www.vulture.com/2017/11/richard-dreyfuss-accused-of-exposing-himself-to-woman.html?

 The Clinton News Network (CNN) last night at the Pub was featuring Putin and Trump meeting, making a big deal about it instead of pointing out the latest revelations from the entertainment industry, and all the people who knew all about Louis C.K. who could fill Madison Square Garden and masturbate in front of women and make films about 14 year olds and sex. And they all kept quiet while pointing fingers. I guess the late night comedians are not covering it either--comedians need to stick together, plus the Democrat Party hasn't given them the script.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/09/arts/television/louis-ck-sexual-misconduct.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/01/business/media/mike-oreskes-npr-sexual-harassment.html

The Jardiance Commercial

Have you seen the Jardiance Commercial called “Big News?” It’s actually quite engaging and I would give it a prize in the ad world (whatever that is). I’d seen it several times in the morning using my exercycle, and finally looked it up.  It begins with a camera crew of 4 strolling in a park, and the 40-something, fashionably gray interviewer with glasses (Jordan Murphy), asking people questions and showing them the ad on his i-pad (which we then also see as though we are there looking over his shoulder). Everyone he interviews is overweight and dressed in oversized clothing—jeans, sweats, slouch caps, sweaters, just the sort of stuff you wear in a park, or to hide the extra pounds. All seemed to be in the 50-60 age range.  The TV ad staff—young black woman assistant and two young white cameraman and sound assistant-- are not overweight and in their 20s.

The ad (on the i-pad) did not say a word about weight.  But it’s all over the ad.  Subtle.  Well played.

Clinton/Comey worse than Watergate

Former Assistant FBI Director James Kallstrom unloaded on James Comey, Robert Mueller, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama Thursday, charging that major crimes "20 times bigger than Watergate" are being swept under the rug while Attorney General Jeff Sessions "is in a coma."

 

Appearing on Fox News' Varney & Co., Kallstrom told the host that it "was obvious to anybody that knows anything" that former President Barack Obama was not going to let James Comey indict Clinton.

 

"It turns out -- unfortunately -- he was a political hack," Kallstrom said flatly. "I think he maybe started out in an honorable way. His opinion of himself is sky high --  just an unbelievable guy with just an arrogance about him…. It got him in trouble because I think he thought he was Superman and he found out that he wasn’t."

 

Kallstrom blamed the Clintons for Comey's descent into hackery.

 

Read the whole story here. https://pjmedia.com/video/former-asst-fbi-director-clinton-crimes-20-times-bigger-watergate/

Friday Family Photo--Happy Birthday Marines

Happy birthday to the U.S. Marine Corps, founded Nov. 10, 1775 in a tavern in Philadelphia. My dad, (1913-2002) was a Marine in WWII, and the photo is me in 2007 pointing to his name on a monument in Forreston, IL where he was American Legion commander.

http://myplace.frontier.com/~ricksplumbing/forrestonillinois/id9.html

https://www.visitnorthwestillinois.com/what-to-do/history-and-heritage/forreston-veteran-s-memorial.html

Another memorial, this one in Oregon, for fallen soldiers, dedicated in 2015.

http://www.oglecountynews.com/2015/11/16/fallen-soldiers-memorial-dedicated-on-veterans-day/a24oy96/

It seems a few times a week I see a reference on social media or a news story about priests and child sexual abuse. Especially now that there is a lot of attention directed at high profile Hollywood entertainers.  It's part of the toxic, anti-Christian atmosphere we live in (some of it, to be honest, promoted by anti-Catholic Christians), even though it is far more common for a child to be abused by a school teacher than a priest. The Roman Catholic church is a big target, but the prejudice affects all Christians.

"Based on key studies done in recent years, abuse by priests amounted to about 11,000 cases over a period of 50 years, or about 220 abuse cases per year. However, based on a major 2004 study by former Hofstra University Professor Charol Shakeshaft done for the US Dept. of Education (Educator Sexual Misconduct: A Synthesis of Existing Literature ), there were 290,000 cases of child abuse in our public schools over a 10 year period, or about 29,000 cases of child abuse per year committed by public school employees, mostly teachers. In other words, for every one case of child abuse by a priest, there were 130 cases of child abuse by a public school employee. What’s surprising is that in spite of the fact abuse by public school employees occurs more than 100 times as often as priestly abuse, this is rarely, if ever, discussed in our media or newspapers. Why is this ?" https://afany.org/2016/05/01/child-abuse-huge-problem/

https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2004/03/10/26abuse.h23.html

http://www.gao.gov/assets/670/660375.pdf

Democrats are concerned about divisiveness

After 9 years of marches, protests, burning down buildings and disinviting conservatives to speak at colleges, after whiners unfriending relatives on social media, prepared scripts on what to talk about at Thanksgiving, 90 minute CNN specials on how awful the president is for not being Obama, constant Russia, Russia, Russia talk, sneers about faith, sympathy and prayer when an atheist carelessly left out of the NICS database kills Christians, calling the nuclear family "white supremacy," ridiculing western civilization . . . Democrats and Never Trumper non-Democrats announce their concern about divisiveness in the nation and again virtue signal after state and local elections . Duh!

Gun Control

"It's amazing that Sutherland Springs reignites the gun control debate, when it should ignite the "Why Are Christians Being Targeted" debate."  Rex Tillerson tweet.

http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/11/07/dana-loesch-we-need-enforce-gun-laws-are-already-books

She [Loesch] revealed that 38 states report fewer than 80 percent of felony convictions to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), which means there are seven million felony convictions that are unreported.

There were so many fails in the gun law protections we have in the Sutherland Springs church massacre.  He was never reported despite having been in a mental facility, he had threatened his military superiors, he had beaten his wife and infant son, he'd abused animals.  All the gun laws failed.  Plus during the 8 years of Obama, the FBI and DoJ were not working together and did almost no adjudication of the offenders.  There's no way to stop the Sandy Hook shooter who kills his own mother and uses her guns, but there is a way to stop those who have already been fingered who try to purchase guns.

Two church shootings, two gun law failures

"Despite having previously admitted to drug possession, the man, Dylann Roof, 21, was allowed to buy the .45-caliber handgun because of mistakes by F.B.I. agents, a failure by local prosecutors to respond to a bureau request for more information about his case, and a weakness in federal gun laws." July 10, 2015, New York Times

Two church shootings. Two screw ups in background checks. But Democrats won't pray for victims because they want more laws for criminals to not follow.

http://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/11/06/democratic-rep-walks-out-of-a-moment-of-silence-for-shooting-victims-to-post-on-facebook/  Seth Moulton said the same thing after LasVegas.

Sonya Carson has died

From Dr. Ben and Candy Carson:

Today, November 6, 2017 we lost my dear mother, Sonya Carson. Although she came from an impoverished background with very little formal education, she somehow understood how success was achieved in our society. If anyone had a reason to make excuses, it was her, but she absolutely refused to be a victim and would not permit us to develop the victim mentality either. Whenever we made an excuse, she quoted the poem "Yourself to Blame." The poem is included in this post. May she rest in peace.

Yourself to Blame by Mayme White Miller

If things go bad for you
And make you a bit ashamed
Often you will find out that
You have yourself to blame

Swiftly we ran to mischief
And then the bad luck came
Why do we fault others?
We have ourselves to blame

Whatever happens to us,
Here is what we say
"Had it not been for so-and-so
Things wouldn't have gone that way."

And if you are short of friends,
I'll tell you what to do
Make an examination,
You'll find the faults in you...

You are the captain of your ship,
So agree with the same
If you travel downward
You have yourself to blame

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/05/03/ben-carson-to-postpone-first-rally-to-say-goodbye-to-his-ailing-mother/?utm_term=.1b11d1f1ba9c

 

 

How and to Whom?

It seems the advice is "if you see something say something" (serial killer Devin Kelley). How? To whom? Easy to say, hard to do. The lowest scum of the earth in the U.S. has rights that can't be taken away. Who commits a mentally ill person to treatment, and does it work? How do you report a relative who lives under the same roof?   I wonder if Rand Paul had reported his hostile neighbor; did the ex-wife of the TX killer have a worthless piece of paper on file; how many have tried to have a driver's license taken away from an elderly parent--unsuccessfully; a barking dog? Good luck.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/11/06/how-was-texas-gunman-able-to-buy-firearm.html

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/11/06/man-hailed-hero-for-chasing-texas-church-gunman-after-massacre.html

https://www.thedailybeast.com/bystander-shot-devin-kelley-twice-before-suicide

http://www.westword.com/news/texas-church-killer-devin-kelley-and-colorado-springs-connection-9667697

Chocolate deviled eggs

At first I thought, "How ridiculous!" but then lots of chocolate desserts contain eggs. Chocolate just follows me around. When I got home from Meijer's on Tuesday, I found in my grocery bags Devil's Food donuts, chocolate peanut butter Cheerios, and chocolate peanut butter flapjack single serving cups. Watch out for other shoppers throwing things in the cart when you're not looking.

Ingredients

6 hard boiled eggs

3 Tablespoons cream cheese

3 teaspoons unsweetened, dark cocoa powder

1 ½ Tablespoons confectioner’s sugar

1 ½ Tablespoons heavy cream

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

pinch of salt

Directions

Peel and halve eggs. Remove yolks and mash in a bowl.

Add the cream cheese, cream and vanilla to the yolks and thoroughly mix. Add the cocoa, sugar and salt and continue to mix until well incorporated and smooth. A food processor will simplify this process.

Fill the whites with the mixture.

Garnish with shaved chocolate and a bit of sea salt.

Cocoa and sugar amounts may need to be adjusted slightly depending on personal taste and the percentage cocoa used. Accordingly, the amount of heavy cream may also need to be adjusted.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEy8cDtrQyM&feature=youtu.be

Bad posture exercises need a wall

Aging causes poor posture--at least that's my excuse. I have to really think to sit or walk with good posture. When I look at Silver Sneakers' instructions to correct this, they always suggest doing something with a wall. I have doors, windows, rooms with chair rails, wide openings, banisters, furniture either floating or against the wall and maybe 50 paintings, but no wall space for doing chin tucks, corridor stretches, hands against the wall, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJspJaFL_l8   This is not Silver Sneakers, but the moves aren't difficult and some are sitting or standing (without the help of a wall).

The Clinton scandals continue to expand

 

1. New paper trail on Uranium One.
2. Donna Brazile's book
3. Hillary admits the fake dossier was her campaign's, but acts as if it was no big deal.
4. Revelations of the struggling finances of DNC (see #2) taken over by Clinton to get the nomination.
5. Testimony for senate by Google, Twitter, YouTube reveals high tech tricks to help Mrs. Clinton

Where in the world is Jeff Sessions?  Hiding?

Keep your kitties indoors, please.

“Cat lovers in the U.S. own about 90 million cats, bringing much joy to tens of millions of families.  There are also, however, an estimated 60-90 million unowned free-ranging cats in the U.S., cats which may be hit by vehicles, preyed upon by other animals, and can contract – and spread – a variety of diseases. 

Global impacts of cat predation are documented: a minimum of 33 extinctions and a decline of at least 142 species of birds, reptiles, and mammals; mortality of an estimated average of 2.4 billion birds (~69% from unowned cats), 12.3 billion mammals, and hundreds of millions of reptiles and amphibians. Cats can also pose a threat to public health from potential transmission of diseases, most significantly Toxoplasmosis.”

Peter Marra , PhD, Director, Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center at the National Zoo, Washington, D.C. Co-author (with Chris Santella) of Cat Wars – The Devastating Consequences of a Cuddly Killer, Princeton University Press, 2016.  Speaker at Ohio State, November 7, The Environmental Professionals Network Breakfast. https://epn.osu.edu/events/november-7-2017-epn-breakfast-club

https://www.statista.com/statistics/198102/cats-in-the-united-states-since-2000/

http://www.bradfordlicensing.com/documents/pets-fact-sheet.pdf

https://nationalzoo.si.edu/conservation/pete-marra

Remembering Andrew Breitbart--what fun.

Some who hate on Breitbart.com forget that Andrew Breitbart, the creator of it who died at 43, helped start Huffington Post, which I don't even read any more because it's too wild and wooly. He learned all he knew about liberals from working with them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPYNk2dRjX8 Now they hate on Steve Bannon, but Breitbart the man changed the world of internet news.

The panel on Red Eye grieving the loss. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLqEPe9emsU

“The least tolerant people you’ll meet everyday. . . are liberals.” Andrew Breitbart.  This is such fun to watch.  “I had dinner with the 1%—Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dorn.”  He dates the end of the Democratic Party as 2004.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiuySonCfbc

Exposing the Occupy movement, the people who wanted to be the Tea Party of the Left.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KU8dKkS1Kmg

How will this police shooting be played out?

Another black man shot by police, Luvelle Kennon, 27. Will there be riots by Black Lives Matter or investigations about the race of the police officer? He took a female teacher hostage (a grandmother) for over 7 hours, beat up another teacher in Riverside, California elementary school.  When this goes into the Washington Post data base about crime, race and police, it will be white police kill black man.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-riverside-classroom-barricade-20171031-story.html

And in Colorado, three people were killed by a gunman in a Walmart. Haven't caught the perp, but looking for a white man possibly driving a red sports car.  But there was a gleam of light about the goodness of people. " [Jay]Thompson [18 yo Walmart employee] was standing in the parking lot of the Golden Corral with no coat when Manny Colmenero stopped and asked if he was cold. When the teenager said yes, Colmenero took off his own coat and gave it to Thompson — and told him to keep it." Something beautiful in a terrible tragedy. 

http://www.denverpost.com/2017/11/01/thornton-shooting-walmart/

In the annals of stupid parenting, an American family has been rescued after being taken hostage by pirates who took over the ferry they were traveling on with their two toddlers.  Who takes a toddler and 7 year old down the Amazon River?  Our kids complained if we took them to art shows at Capital.

"The Harteaus had recently been living in the southern Brazil city of Florianopolis. They have been using a website to document their journey around South America, which began in 2012 as a plan to travel to Patagonia in their Volkswagen van and return to California one year later." The father is an artist.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/california-family-harteau-rescue-brazil-jungle-amazon-river/

Yesterday: The Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism hearing entitled: “Extremist Content and Russian Disinformation Online: Working with Tech to Find Solutions” October 31, 2017. https://www.c-span.org/video/?436454-1/facebook-google-twitter-executives-testify-russia-election-ads

Isn’t it odd that they don’t investigate the disinformation and slanderous opinion of other “bad actors” like Washington Post and New York Times or CNN and MSNBC, or even our own PACs?
And why just Russia? Do they think that Canada or Germany or Israel never try to influence Americans who get their news from social media? Are we to believe that the United States is never guilty of trying to influence the elections of our friends and enemies? Or American technology funded foundations push contraceptives and abortions on other cultures? 
 

Who in Facebook or Twitter or Google Corporations should judge “inauthentic activity” or valid social communities for blacks and Muslims? By their own testimony, possibly 5% of the ads/comments/tweets, etc. are false, fake, malicious. And if a black woman subscribed to a fake "pro-Trump" sponsored site directed at blacks, did she change her vote from Hillary to Trump, and is there any way to know?

Are these ads worse than any of the stuff I'm seeing right now on my local TV as the election date comes close on school and drug issues in Ohio. How will those companies prevent people who just don't like Trump or conservatives from having those comments or tweets blocked by complaining? It happens.

Our own media gave President Trump billions of “free” publicity during the 2016 campaign—because they hated him, ridiculed him and told lies about him. Apparently, middle America and fly over country ignored them. I’m sure they can ignore Russia, too.
Note: because of the youth of the tech executives, be prepared for every sentence to have an uplift/uptalk/rising inflection as they testify.

Latest terrorist came here on diversity visa

Why do we have "diversity" visas? [NYC Uzbeki jihadist] for special treatment? We have probably hundreds of ethnic and racial groups who are now citizens or with green cards, plus some 800 American Indian tribes with whom the Government has treaties and millions of Americans particularly millennials who are mixed race. The U.S. has more Nigerian Americans than all the Africans who came here in the 3 centuries of the slave trade, but they are all lumped into "black." In the census "Hispanics" is a made up word that includes many countries--even Brazil--completely ignoring their own unique cultures and languages--and "Asian" which also can be hundreds of countries. Ironically, Uzbeks are "white," with all that privilege we white folks are supposed to have. Many of those who come with hopes for a better life have been turned into victim groups and radicals by the leftist politics of our government and political movements of special interests, especially through "multiculturalism" policies and programs in our colleges.

 "The Diversity Immigrant Visa Program (DV Program) makes up to 50,000 immigrant visas available annually, drawn from random selection among all entries to individuals who are from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. The DV Program is administered by the U.S. Department of State (DOS)." https://www.uscis.gov/greencard/diversity-visa

This guy won the lottery, but I doubt if the families of the 8 dead bikers are feeling good about that.   Why are people from countries with "low rates of immigration" more important than the immigrants and descendants of immigrants who are already citizens? They'll need jobs, government benefits and a community, same as all the rest of us. Why are they more special?

I don't think it matters that it was Chuck Schumer's idea to have a diversity visa lottery, but I do think it's important that he and some other politicians feel the need to dilute the racial make up of the U.S. when that is happening naturally -- millennials and their children will greatly increase the mixing of European heritage with those of other continents to about 50%. Why is he against the descendants of the English, Germans, Irish, French, Spanish, Italians, Dutch, Scandinavians, Russians, Jews, Chinese, Japanese, and particularly Christian groups who built the most multicultural country in the world? (That's a rhetorical question; we all know the answer.)