New Year’s message from our nephew Bob

In the cold of a January night here in central Indiana, I hope each of you, my friends are spending time with someone you love, like, or respect. I hope you are engaged in great conversation, or just looking into the eyes of someone you deeply care about. If you're alone, pick up the phone and make the call you've been putting off to someone you once cared deeply for and just let the conversation flow wherever it goes. Consider how blessed we each are, that someone, somewhere on Earth loves us, thinks about us, and would be forever sad to lose you. Each one of you is important, created by God himself, and is loved. I just told you. Now it's your turn to let someone else hear this good news. It might be the most important words they hear today. Make that your gift, and may each of you receive those kinds of gifts for the rest of your lives. Hoping each of you has an amazingly blessed 2018.

Dancing Kevin’s diet and work out

Although I rarely watch a Blue Jackets game, I knew who Dancing Kevin was, even if I didn’t know his name.  He’d take off his shirt and show his bill board size belly.  But last year he told himself he had to change, and he’s been working out and supervised by Jack Skaggs at the gym, Lifetime Fitness, where I go. (I haven’t actually seen him.)  The promo I read yesterday said was down to 196 pounds from 360 in 9 months.  This article about him is from the This Week News, and points out the health and addiction problems he had.

http://www.thisweeknews.com/news/20170220/cbj-fan-through-thick-and-thin-dancing-kevin-recounts-journey-to-health-happiness

The toughest part of a diet is keeping it off.

What happened to Mayberry in 8 seasons?

“. . . The problem lies in the fact that the Mayberry that we see in the first few seasons is systematically undermined so that by the seventh and eighth seasons it has ceased to exist in all but the dereliction of its name, the iconic image of idyllic and idealized small-town America having been desecrated and destroyed by the iconoclasm of sixties’ ideological hedonism. What is presented over the eight years and more than 200 episodes is the demise of Mayberry and all that it represents. What we witness and experience is its decay and disintegration, and ultimately its death.

This was brought home to me after I watched several episodes from the first season, in which I basked in the almost prelapsarian warmth of the benign sun that shines forth on the idealized simplicity of the small and beautiful world in which Sheriff Andy Taylor lives, and then, immediately afterwards, I watched an episode from the seventh season in which the ideal had been swept away by sixties “progressive” preachiness.

In this later episode the simple but sagacious Sheriff of earlier seasons has become an emasculated shadow of his former self, passively embracing the feminist modernism of the female protagonist as she undermines traditional values at Mayberry’s high school, encouraging her students to usher in the forthcoming summer of “love,” which would lead to the loveless loneliness of postmodernist alienation. And thus the timeless moral verities that had formed the solid foundation of Mayberry had succumbed to the quicksand quagmire of relativism, sinking without trace into the desert of the urbanized wasteland. And all with Sheriff Andy’s approval.

http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2018/01/decline-fall-andy-griffith-show-joseph-pearce.html

Democrats are at it again

I remember how the media chided President Bush for being a dim bulb, stupid, etc., but don't recall members of Congress going after him--at least not in speeches demanding removal from office. The Obama lapdog media shut up about that when comparing Bush's extensive reading list to Obama's i-pod selection--hip hop, etc. Trump uses Twitter the way FDR used the radio--to reach and encourage his supporters. It keeps him constantly trolling the press and his fans love it. What the media/politicians called outrageous, like the twitter comment about Obama spying on him, have been proven to be true. Democrats are deeply upset that President Trump is rolling back their eight years of "progress" toward complete socialism.  The Russia, Russia, Russia hysteria has failed miserably, so now they are going after crazy and not smart--but that's what they are. His 80+ accomplishments in 2017 are just chimeras in their exploding, failing minds. Like the ad I see on TV about the guy with dementia seeing things that aren't there.

The old system is in trouble

As I mentioned in a earlier blog, I’m using Kelly Monroe Kullberg’s book Faith and Culture devotional for morning meditations. This paragraph sort of jumped right out at me.

"In 1572 a new star appeared in the skies over Europe that remained visible for a year and a half, even in the daytime, hovering above the moon. Because the Greek system viewed the heavens as changeless, some of the learned professors refused to acknowledge the new star, calling it an optical illusion. But for everyone else it was clear evidence the old system was in trouble." Charles Thaxton, "Modern science, a child of Christianity" in Faith and Culture Devotional. (Zondervan, 2008)

This paragraph in today's readings reminded me of current events on the political, cultural, economic and international scene. Clear evidence that the old system was in trouble.

Reading, working out and socializing at Lifetime Fitness

I know from reading Facebook that some of my friends  like and participate in on-line reading groups. I just don't get it. I often don’t like the books we read in our group, but I like the people. I see them face to face. (And sometimes am surprised when I find I actually do like a book I wouldn’t choose.)  Book Club may be the social event of the week for me. That and going to the grocery store. Or maybe the gym. Like this coming Monday. The book, "The worst hard time" is really a snore. I'm waiting to hear something good about it. Maybe it would mean more if I didn’t remember what my mother told me about the Great Depression.

According to Business First apparently Life Time Fitness has made it a corporate policy not to show MSNBC, Fox News, CNBC and CNN at its 127 clubs in 27 states. Apparently they don't want political discussions or outbreaks of uncivility on the premises. There's a screen on each treadmill, but I haven't figured out how to turn it on, besides I need to finish my book, “The worst hard time.”

Today  was a trifecta. I'll went to the gym, propped this boring book on the treadmill ledge, and then when exercise was over went next door to Marc's to shop.

To meet nice people, wear an interesting shirt. I wore my Black Swamp Bird Observatory long sleeve T to Lifetime Fitness today and met a lovely lady in the locker room who is a bird watcher and she's been bird watching in that area. She's planning a trip to Ecuador to watch more birds. Now that's a serious hobby!  Then I went to Marc's and ran into Diane from our church and got a big hug. She just got back from Florida.

Music for Reading

Although I could find this by going to YouTube, I'm placing it here for easy access. The numbers following the description are times on the recording, so if I want to find Clair de Lune, for example, I can go to 40:23 by moving the timer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc7UzQB8gtI

01 Chopin - Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2 in E-Flat Major

02 Schubert - Serenade "Leise Flehen Meine Lieder" 4:40

03 Chopin - Piano Prelude No. 15 "Raindrop" 9:12

04 Beethoven - Piano Sonata Op. 13 (II: Adagio) 14:47

05 Chopin - Waltz Op. 69 No. 1 in A Flat major 19:57 06 Bach - Violin concerto in E Major (II: Adagio) 24:47

07 Mozart - Piano Concerto No. 21 31:46

08 Chopin - Prelude, Op. 28 No. 17 in A major 37:25

09 Debussy - Clair de Lune 40:23

10 Schubert - Moment Musical Op. 94 D.780 N. 1 in C Major 42:56

11 Liszt - Liebesträume (Love Dream) in A-Flat Major 45:58

12 Chopin - Prelude, Op. 28 No. 6 in B minor 50:26

13 Bach - Solo Cello Suite No 6: Prelude 52:32

14 Chopin - Nocturne Op. 15 No. 2 57:09

15 Bach - Suite for Orchestra No. 3 "Air on the G String" 1:00:32

16 Chopin - Nocturne, Op. 27 No. 2 in D Flat major 1:05:01

17 Mozart - Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (II: Andante) 1:09:36

18 Chopin - Nocturne Op. 9 No. 1 in B Flat minor 1:14:39

19 Beethoven - Fur Elise 1:20:04

20 Schumann - Kinderszenen Op. 15 (I: Von fremden Laendern und Menschen) 1:22:42

21 Beethoven - "Moonlight" Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 27 (I: Adagio sostenuto) 1:24:38

Cornerstone of the Democrat Party platform

Planned Parenthood says its affiliates did 321,384 abortions in the fiscal year that ended on Sept. 30, 2016, according to its newly released 2016-2017 annual report.

In the same report, Planned Parenthood says its affiliates received $543.7 million in payments from our federal government in the year that ended on June 30, 2017. CNS News Jan. 3, 2018

Black women are 6% of the population and have 35% of the abortions. Margaret Sanger started Planned Parenthood and began "The Negro Project."

18 questions for the FBI from Rep. Jim Jordan

Here is a full list of Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan’s 18 questions for the FBI. See reader’s comments at link below. You’ll learn a lot just reading the questions.  But FBI is stonewalling.

1) Did the FBI pay Christopher Steele, author of the dossier?

2) Was the dossier the basis for securing FISA warrants to spy on Americans? And why won’t the FBI show Congress the FISA application?

3) When did the FBI get the complete dossier and who gave it to them?

4) Did the FBI validate and corroborate the dossier?

5) Did Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, or Bruce Orr work on the FISA application?

6) Why and how often did DOJ lawyer Bruce Orr meet with dossier author Christopher Steele during the 2016 campaign?

7) Why did DOJ lawyer Bruce Orr meet with Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson after the election? To get their story straight after their candidate Clinton lost? Or to double down and plan how they were going to go after President-elect Trump?

8) When and how did the FBI learn that DOJ lawyer Bruce Orr’s wife, Nellie Orr, worked for Fusion GPS? And what exactly was Nellie Orr’s role in putting together the dossier?

9) Why did the FBI release text messages between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page? Normally, ongoing investigation is reason not to make such information public.

10) And why did FBI release only 375/10,000+ texts? Were they the best? Worst? Or part of a broader strategy to focus attention away from something else? And when can Americans see the other 96% of texts?

11) Why did Lisa Page leave Mueller probe two weeks before Peter Strzok? This was two weeks before FBI and Special Counsel even knew about the texts.

12) Why did the intelligence community wait two months after the election to brief President-elect Trump on the dossier (January 6, 2017)? Why was James Comey selected to do the briefing?

13) Was the briefing done to “legitimize” the dossier? And who leaked the fact that the briefing was about the dossier?

14) The New York Times reported last week that George Popadopoulos’ loose lips were a catalyst for launching the Russia investigation. Was President-elect Trump briefed on this?

15) Why did Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson meet with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya before and after her meeting with Donald Trump Jr.?

16) Why was FBI General Counsel Jim Baker reassigned two weeks ago? Was he the source for the first story on the dossier by David Corn on October 31, 2016? Or was it someone else at the FBI?

17) Why won’t the FBI give Congress the documents it’s requesting?

18) And why would @SenSchumer, leader of the Democrat party, publicly warn President-elect Trump on Jan. 3, 2017 that when you mess with the “intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you?”

http://dailysignal.com/2018/01/03/conservative-lawmaker-demands-answers-18-questions-russia-fbi/?

Churchill or Trump?

Which of the following things WERE SAID about Trump, and which ones were REFERENCES  to Churchill?

He’s a belligerent bully who would use the military against union strikers.

He’s an outdated throwback to a type of paranoid conservativism that places confrontation over diplomacy.

He’s a racist, an imperialist and a Muslim hater.

He’s a lying self-aggrandizer who claimed to be the lone voice speaking up for making his country strong again when that wasn’t true.

He thought Hitler and Mussolini had their good points.

He’s a war criminal who didn’t care if bombs he ordered to be dropped killed civilians.

He’s a hothead who wants to launch an unprovoked nuclear strike on his enemies.

He was blasted by a major newspaper for “startling the world” with his “outrageous propositions.”

He’s mentally unfit for office, but refuses to step down.

He doesn’t care if brown people starve.

He was described by one prominent politician from another country as being worse than Hitler, Mao or Stalin.

Trick question—all were said about Churchill.  Mike Huckabee newsletter, January 3, 2018

Message for progressive woke white women from Michael Smith

Michael Smith, an oppressive, heteronormative, patriarchal male who lives in Utah has a message for "woke" white women.

"Dear Super-Woke Supercilious Progressive White Yentas, Here's Your New Year's Resolution(s):

1. Stop Treating Racial Minorities As Your Pets. 

Stop inducing them to do stupid pet tricks so you can use them to advance your progressive agenda. Progressives do more to dehumanize racial minorities than any other group. You aren't a member of a racial pet rescue group.

2. Stop Your Oppressive Helicopter Progressive Parenting Of POC's (People of Color).

You aren't their mommies and daddies. Minorities can speak for themselves, they don't need your smug asses stepping in to speak for them. Adopting a black orphan baby from the Sudan may be trendy - but it doesn't imbue you with a right to tell every other black person how to live, nor does it insulate you from criticism when you do. Every time you "woke" morons speak for a minority, you are minimizing them - treating them like a child who isn't old enough, smart enough or mature enough to speak for themselves. Stop it with your condescending patriarchy/matriarchy. Just. Stop.

3. Don't Make Every Situation The Combined Equivalent of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, The Great Flood And Whole Foods Running Out Of Organic, Free Range, Non-GMO, Locally Sourced Kale.

Stop treating every comment or action as if it was the beginning of the zombie apocalypse. Stop seeing everything - and I mean everything - through the lens of race. News flash, not everything is about race. Sometimes people (of color OR pallor) are just assholes - but that doesn't make all people of color or pallor assholes. I don't expect praise for common decency any more than I expect a nuclear holocaust if I use the wrong pronoun. Get. Over. Your. Self.

Respectfully submitted (without the permission of my wife)."

Morning meditations

For my meditation time in the morning I’ve been re-reading Kelly Kullberg’s A faith and culture devotional; daily readings in art, science and life. (Zondervan, 2008)  Not sure when I first read it, but it must have been around the time it was published, about 10 years ago because I think I bought my copy from her husband, David.  We both used to go to Panera’s at 5 points (he still does that but I’ve given up that expensive habit). It’s one of the best “dailies” I’ve ever read, with each day’s reading a challenge with new information.  Today’s reading (they are not dated) is by Walter C. Kaiser, Jr. “Sodom: What archaeology tells us.”  Dr. Kaiser is president emeritus of Gordon-Conwell and executive editor of The Archaeological Study Bible (Zondervan, 2005).  I have a copy of that outstanding Bible, a gift Christmas 2005 from our son.

Dr. Kaiser doesn’t discuss the faith meaning of the story of Sodom in Genesis, but rather the possible location.  “. . .biblical faith contrary to other world religions, insists on the close association of faith and history.” Christians stake everything on the historical reality of the resurrection, Paul asserted in 1 Corinthians 15.

Do you really want to be on the “right side” of history?

Robert P. George writes: "The next time a supporter of the latest fashionable belief, whatever it is, taunts you with the claim "history is on our side," you might consider who made those words famous. It was Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in 1956: "Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you!" He was confidently predicting the ultimate triumph of communism. "I do not mean we will bury you with a shovel," he later explained, "but that your own working class will bury you."

Things didn't quite turn out that way. *Their* working class, beginning with the union-based Solidarity movement in Poland, buried European communism. It was a double victory, defeating not only communism, but the Hegelian view of history that it presupposes and is based upon.
The truth is that what we call "history" is filled with contingencies. Triumphs and defeats are not written in the stars. Progress is not inevitable. Nor is decline.

The future will be determined by, among other things, the deliberations, judgments, and free choices and actions of human beings, including ourselves. And we can't judge a view or movement to be right or wrong depending on whether it succeeds or fails, or seems likely to. Anyone who proposes to decide whether something is right or wrong based on a prediction of whether it is likely to be popular or unpopular, widely accepted or rejected as time goes on, simply has no idea what it means for something to be right or wrong.

Sometimes when people lose faith in God, they deify history, treating it as the equivalent of a divine judge--a quasi-personal force that gets the final say as to what is good and bad, just and unjust. "You had better get in line," they say, "with [here fill in the name of the thing that is supposed to be inevitable] or you will find yourself on the wrong side of history!" But that's a silly threat. History is an impersonal sequence of events. It is not morally normative and it has no more power to judge than does a stone outcropping or a carved and painted totem pole. To believe otherwise, as do Hegelians of both the right and left (including those who've never heard of Hegel), is to succumb to idolatry and superstition.

The idea of a "judgment of history" is contemporary secularism's vain, hopeless, and, in the end, pathetic attempt to fashion a substitute for the judgment of God.

We need to bear in mind that what matters is whether a view is sound or unsound from the moral point of view, not whether people in the future are likely to hold or reject it. What is worth worrying about is whether a view one holds or is considering is right or wrong, consistent or inconsistent with the true requirements of justice and the integral good of human beings as creatures fashioned in the image and likeness of God and, as such, bearers of profound, inherent, and equal dignity--not whether it is on the allegedly "right side of history." " Oct. 31, FB post.

George is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University

A busy New Year's day

I started the day out right--I cleaned my coffee maker with vinegar and water.  So many germs can grow in your automatic coffee pot, you should clean it often. The smell is strong enough to open your sinuses!

Follow these steps to a quick coffee maker cleaning:

1. Empty your coffee maker, rinse the carafe and ensure that the filter basket is properly set and empty. Remove the permanent coffee filter as well as the water filter, if applicable.
2. Fill the water reservoir with a solution of equal parts of water and regular white household vinegar.
3. Run it through a drip cycle.
4. When the cycle is finished, turn off your coffeemaker but allow the water/vinegar to sit in the carafe for a few minutes, to remove any scale deposits, then discard the solution.
5. You should run clear water (no vinegar) through your coffee maker at least twice, allowing your brewer to cool down between cycles. This will remove any lingering vinegar residue.

1. This is a good time to thoroughly wipe the exterior of your coffee maker and clean the removable filter basket, permanent filter and carafe with hot soapy water. A change of water filter is also a good idea if your brewer has one.
2. https://www.thespruce.com/clean-coffee-maker-with-vinegar-1907384?

Then I signed up for a class at Coursera, an online education site from colleges and universities all over the world.  I picked "Understanding clinical research: behind the statistics."  I worked in the Veterinary Medicine Library for 14 years and although I still love reading the medical literature, my eyes glaze over when it comes to statistics. There are several levels of classes, and I chose this one also because it is free unless you want credit.  I don't plan on needing a credit course, so free is good.

https://www.coursera.org/learn/clinical-research/home/welcome

I've printed off the "keynotes" which go along with the videos and text--85 pages.  I also signed in to my "peer" group, which aren't really my peers--medical students, pharmaceutical reps, doctors, etc. But they are from all over the world--one poor guy is from Syria and living in Ukraine!  And I'm off!

And I spent some time looking at old Fulton J. Sheen videos.  His may be the best explanation of Communism and prophecy of the future ever. Bishop Fulton J. Sheen did this program in 1955. He was a hater of Communism, but lover of the Russian people. He reads from Dostoevsky who in 1871 predicted what was to come for his country, and possibly ours. He died in 1979, and since he was from central Illinois, his pronunciation sounds fine to me. "Warshington."  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE9FNwG5myA

Happy New Year 2018

Have to learn to write a new date.

 Pete and Peg are my in-laws once removed, brother and sister-in-law of our son-in-law

I don't plan to do this, but thought it was funny.  Everyone is dieting.

Saying good-bye.

We lost our little "grandpuppy" Abbie, a fawn and white colored Chihuahua, on Thursday. She was 12 and died suddenly with no warning.  She was always the center of attention at family gatherings or with anyone visiting--she seemed to think they came just to see her. Our whole family is so sad. She usually came to our house when her people were traveling or vacationing.  Most recently she spent part of July with us. She would sit on our laps with her eyes glued to the window waiting, waiting.

HRT, good or bad for menopausal women?

I do wish the medical community could come to some agreement on the benefits and dangers of HRT. Thirty years ago it was being pushed as the miracle preventative for osteoporosis, heart disease and dementia for menopausal women; then it became the kiss of death almost over night; then the waffling began after women lived in fear they'd taken the poison pill. Still arguing. But if it is this difficult to figure out how women, nature and hormones work (over fifty years of research), why in the world do some researchers and academics push the silly and dangerous transgendered woman nonsense. Is it just more money for Big Pharma or more big government grants for the medical schools?

https://www.medpagetoday.com/obgyn/hrt

"For women aged younger than 60 years or who are within 10 years of menopause onset and have no contraindications, the benefit-risk ratio is most favorable for treatment of bothersome VMS and for those at elevated risk for bone loss or fracture. For women who initiate HT more than 10 or 20 years from menopause onset or are aged 60 years or older, the benefit-risk ratio appears less favorable because of the greater absolute risks of coronary heart disease, stroke, venous thromboembolism, and dementia. Longer durations of therapy should be for documented indications such as persistent VMS or bone loss, with shared decision making and periodic reevaluation. For bothersome GSM symptoms not relieved with over-the-counter therapies and without indications for use of systemic HT, low-dose vaginal estrogen therapy or other therapies are recommended." North American Menopause Society statement, 2017

http://journals.lww.com/menopausejournal/Abstract/2017/07000/The_2017_hormone_therapy_position_statement_of_The.5.aspx

What the new tax plan does for many income levels

This is an interesting article even if you skim--fast food workers will get a better reduction than librarians. I'm waiting for my liberal friends and relatives to refuse their reduction in taxes.

http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-tax-plan-senate-take-home-pay-changes-every-income-level-2017-12

Fast Food Cook
Average salary: $20,570; Current tax: $1,059; Tax under the Republican plan: $857; Percent tax cut: 19.1%

Paralegals
Average salary: $53,180; Current tax: $5,753; Tax under the Republican plan: $4,999 Percent tax cut: 13.1%

Zoologist
Average salary: $64,890; Current tax: $8,156; Tax under the Republican plan: $7,575; Percent tax cut: 7.1%

Mathematicians
Average salary: $105,600; Current tax: $16,296; Tax under the Republican plan: $15,105; Percent tax cut: 7.3%

CEOs
Average salary: $194,350; Current tax: $35,541; Tax under the Republican plan: $35,457; Percent tax cut: 0.2%
and so forth. . .

Calculate your BMI and physical activity

I tried three different BMI calculators, and got three different answers (all within normal). But I like this one best because it took my sex and age into consideration and eliminated Asian Americans from the race category (they are smaller than European Americans). Also the site added some advice. https://www.smartbmicalculator.com/?ru=2 So if you're going to do the usual New Year's resolution, try this one.

I was surprised when reading this article on physical activity and its relationship to the deadliest killers, to see that 54% of American adults actually do get the recommended 150 minutes a week (about five 30 minute workouts).  There are at least six fitness/gyms within 2-3 miles of my residence, so someone in suburbia is working out.  I am registered at two of them, but I'm not very regular, except on my exercycle in my office. I prefer walking outside, but a slight hill bothers my bursitis.

https://www.yelp.com/search?cflt=gyms&find_loc=Upper+Arlington%2C+OH

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5327681/

"Adults who met the PA guidelines were significantly more likely not to report high cholesterol, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, arthritis, asthma, depression, or overweight. Furthermore, adults meeting the PA guidelines were significantly more likely to report having health insurance, consuming fruits daily, consuming vegetables daily, and not being a current cigarette smoker."

The hypocrisy of academe

Victor Davis Hanson is unhappy with academe-- faculty who make fortunes and careers lecturing about inequality and diversity so they can not feel guilty when buying million dollar homes and fancy cars. It's a mechanism. Paul Krugman earns $225,000 in retirement for studying inequality and not teaching a course. The Ohio State president makes $3.5 million, but entry level faculty salaries have only gone up about 1% over the past 15 years. But they rail about corporations and the poor in society. All the race and class and gender jargon is just that--it means nothing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsYwekCjkvI&t=40s

How contraception and abortion have changed the Christians' view of women

Christians note: Until 1930, no Christian denomination/group accepted birth control. Once the Anglicans did (Lambeth Conference), other followed. By the 1970s the Methodists, Assemblies of God, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Southern Baptists and many others accepted "family planning" with little theological reflection. They followed the culture. Then in 1973 abortion began making the rounds of Christians groups, now only the Catholics hold the line on both, even if individuals ignore church teaching. ELCA, the largest Lutheran synod, accepts abortion for any reason as a woman's choice.

This led to the acceptance of same sex relationships and marriage, then to the transgender unscientific hypocrisy. Pew Research reports 68% of white, mainline Protestants and 44% of black Protestants accept same sex marriage, a huge change in the last decade. According to Barna, 41% of Christians think cohabitation before marriage is a good idea. This is less than society as a whole, but even secular studies show it is a leading cause of divorce later.

The connection between marriage and procreation (God's first command in the Garden) has been severed and women have been devalued becoming simply sex objects. This has led to the current mess in our hypersexualized culture.

Read the whole article. https://www.firstthings.com/article/2018/01/protestants-and-contraception

Adoptees face a special problem with genealogy--so do their children and grandchildren

About 6 months ago I got an e-mail from a stranger whose father I barely knew, but we'd attended the same high school. His father was deceased and had been adopted as a young child, so the question was, could I help him find his father's birth family. We chatted a little (via e-mail) and I told him what I could (mostly small town gossip where everyone knew everyone else's business). I heard from him today, he'd done two DNA services and got the same results--a second cousin from a town near where his father and I had grown up--so probably a connection to the elusive grandfather. He's over the moon. He's done extremely well in life, has a wonderful family, good education and great career. But he just always wanted to know. . .

What do leftists really care about? Stopping economic growth and energy independence of the U.S.

The North Dakota Access Pipeline was approved for construction on private land. The land, however, was the site of tribal sacred places under a treaty that was not observed in the 19th century. It is critical for U.S. energy independence and thousands of jobs in many states. So of course, the left opposed it. The Obama administration jumped in the fray in December 2016 after Trump was elected to stop the North Dakota Pipe Line becoming operational. All the required studies had been done, court cases settled and approvals received. Immediately after taking office, President Trump moved it ahead, it was operational in June and in September he visited the site. Another success for the President for making America great again and protecting the country from being held hostage by cheap middle east oil countries.

“The Dakota Access Pipeline Project connects the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota to Illinois with a pipeline stretching approximately 1,172 miles. According to the lobbying group Midwest Alliance for Infrastructure Now, the new conduit is supposed to be "among the safest, most technologically advanced pipelines in the world." The main supporters are Energy Transfer Partners and Sunoco Logistics, two large companies that primarily focus on similar pipeline projects. Constructing a functional pipeline over this many miles is a very costly endeavor, and the major banks and financial corporations underwriting the financing include Barclays, Wells Fargo, and Citibank. In total, Energy Transfer Partners has received $3.75 billion and Sunoco Logistics $2.5 billion in financial support from these and other major banks. In addition to those sums, Energy Transfer Equity, a Fortune 500 company and sister partnership to Energy Transfer Partners, has a credit line with another $1.5 billion in commitments from international banks. According to the nonprofit Food & Water Watch, in total, “there is $10.25 billion in loans and credit facilities from 38 banks directly supporting the companies building the pipeline.” All of them presumably hope to be paid back from the profits generated by the pipeline.

This pipeline will have a drastic impact on the economy. More domestic oil will be produced, making the United States less reliant on international markets; and many jobs could potentially be created. The pipeline is projected to carry half of the Bakken daily oil production – approximately 470,000 barrels per day with a capacity as high as 570,000 barrels per day or more. Sunoco Logistics envisions an expansion of the Bakken oil fields production not only to supply multiple markets throughout the United States, including in the Midwest and on the East Coast, but along the Gulf Coast as well through a Sunoco crude oil terminal facility in Texas. American oil exports will rise as imports fall, ultimately creating an economic benefit. In addition, the pipeline will generate an estimated $156 million in sales and income tax payments to state and local governments and add some 8,000 to 12,000 construction jobs throughout the United States.”

http://www.scholarsstrategynetwork.org/brief/past-and-future-dakota-access-pipeline
https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060045082
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2016/09/14/five-things-to-know-about-the-north-dakota-access-pipeline-debate/

Sex ratio changes as women postpone pregnancy

I'll have to do a bit more research on something I uncovered recently. Older women have fewer sons than younger women. That changes the sex ratio of the nation as women postpone pregnancy. "Combining all the years studied, older mothers (40 to 44 years of age and 45 years and over) have the lowest total sex birth ratios (1,038 and 1,039, respectively) and mothers 15 to 19 years of age had the highest sex birth ratio (1,054). (CDC, 2005)"

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-scientific-fundamentalist/201104/why-are-older-parents-more-likely-have-daughters
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr051.pdf
https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2458-10-269

Since women do most of the care taking, perhaps it's God's way to provide career women with someone to take care of them in retirement? When she's 85, daughter xyz will only be 40! Or maybe the sex ratio changed because the latest change began around the time of second wave feminist movement. Another odd thing, if the couple has a son (and now there are fewer), the father is more likely to stick around, whether married or not. If the first child is a girl, the divorce rate is higher than if it's a boy. Little girls may be sugar and spice, but dad wants to play baseball.

Thank goodness my parents' fourth child was a boy, but Mom was 29, not an older mother by today’s standards. He's still adorable, the sweetest brother a girl could have.

Mayo Clinic Health Letter advertising

In yesterday's mail we received a large envelop. It contained 8 pages of a description of the Mayo Clinic Health Letter on lined paper, legal size.  It's obviously geared to older people because there was an additional smaller page on sticky paper on top of page 1 about robust people in their 70s and 80s and beyond.

I suppose many older people would just sit down in the recliner and read the whole thing.  Not me. I'm just blogging about it before it goes in the waste basket.  What usually works for me is a free sample of the product along with a half page or card explaining the offer.

Cold remedies--Vicks or Numotizine?

Someone on Facebook today was writing about Vicks Vapor Rub as a cold remedy).  It reminded me that my Mom always used Numotizine, which looks like thick pink peanut butter and she'd swab it on our neck and chest and wrap us up in an old towel or torn sheet. (What wasn't crocheted into area rugs was used as rags for cleaning or medical wraps.) By morning it had dried to chunks but seemed to work. So I looked it up on the Internet to see if it were still made--yes, it's a veterinary product for horses with sore or stiff legs! But I did find a few blogs that admired its assistance for bad colds. It's the heat, I believe. I personally think it was her love and concern that made us better, not that thick pink goo.

In those days the doctor made house calls, but was rarely called.  Those from Mt. Morris, IL may remember Dr. Murray Dumont.  Talk about house calls--Murray Trout told me he was delivered at home and named for Dr. Dumont. Dr. Dumont also delivered me, but in a Rockford hospital.

https://dfarq.homeip.net/the-ultimate-treatment-for-a-cough/

https://www.familyotc.com/Numotizine-Poultice-Ointment-3-5-oz-p/cb3637071.htm

Title X and the birth rate

Federal contraceptive funding was signed into law by President Nixon with Title X co-sponsored by Rep. GHW Bush (R-TX) in 1970. Must have been a success. Our birth rate is now below replacement, and although that accounts for married women, it hasn't changed much the birth rate for unmarried women and girls. It's been very useful in controlling the population of whites, thus we need to import immigrants. White median age is 41; Hispanic 27.
Planned Parenthood uses federal tax dollars to give contraceptives to children under 16 without informing their parents. More sex = more pregnancies = more abortions = more dollars for PP. Title X funding cannot be used for abortions, but Title X grant recipients and abortion providers are allowed to share office and staff. Planned Parenthood, the major recipient of Title X funding is also the largest abortion provider in the country. For FY 2017, Title X received $286.5 million, down from the program’s peak of $317.5 million (in FY 2010). Title X historically has been better funded under Republicans than Democrats. The most drastic cuts since 1982 were under Obama.
Of course, Guttmacher (PP) calls it a war to end birth control.
https://www.usnews.com/opinion/policy-dose/articles/2017-07-17/the-trump-administration-is-waging-a-war-on-birth-control
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/08/title-x-headline_n_846852.html
https://www.hhs.gov/opa/title-x-family-planning/about-title-x-grants/funding-history/index.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2017/06/30/the-u-s-fertility-rate-just-hit-a-historic-low-why-some-demographers-are-freaking-out/

Finally, after all these years, she writes. . .

In 1963 we owned a duplex on White St. in Champaign-Urbana, IL, and rented the upstairs to a young couple--he was also an architect, she was beautiful and artsy and their baby daughter adorable. It was a time of grief for us and they were such good neighbors. When we bought another house, we continued to see them. Somewhere I have a photo of them at a party we had at our Charles St. home.  They moved to Washington we moved to Columbus. We've been exchanging Christmas cards with her for over 50 years, but other than a seasonal greeting never got any news, except a photo or two of the daughter growing up and their divorce. Then today. Finally after all these years, a few lines; the grand daughter is getting married and the ex-husband lives in TX with his wife. In my mind's eye they are still a happy couple in their early 20s with a sweet baby and we're gathered around the tree in 1963.

Trump’s accomplishments—according to Trump

The White House listed the 12 categories and highlighted achievements for each. A summary is below:

Jobs and the economy

• Passage of the tax reform bill providing $5.5 billion in cuts and repealing the Obamacare mandate.
• Increase of the GDP above 3 percent.
• Creation of 1.7 million new jobs, cutting unemployment to 4.1 percent.
• Saw the Dow Jones reach record highs.

Killing job-stifling regulations

• Signed an Executive Order demanding that two regulations be killed for every new one creates. He beat that big and cut 16 rules and regulations for every one created, saving $8.1 billion.
• Signed 15 congressional regulatory cuts.
• Withdrew from the Obama-era Paris Climate Agreement, ending the threat of environmental regulations.

Fair trade

• Made good on his campaign promise to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
• Opened up the North American Free Trade Agreement for talks to better the deal for the U.S.
• Worked to bring companies back to the U.S., and companies like Toyota, Mazda, Broadcom Limited, and Foxconn announced plans to open U.S. plants.

Boosting U.S. energy dominance

• Expanded energy infrastructure projects like the Keystone XL Pipeline snubbed by Obama.
• Ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to kill Obama’s Clean Power Plan.
• EPA is reconsidering Obama rules on methane emissions.

Protecting the U.S. homeland

• Laid out new principles for reforming immigration and announced plan to end "chain migration," which lets one legal immigrant to bring in dozens of family members.
• Made progress to build the border wall with Mexico.
• Ended the Obama-era “catch and release” of illegal immigrants.
• Boosted the arrests of illegals inside the U.S.
• Started the end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program.

Helping veterans

• Signed the Veterans Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act to allow senior officials in the Department of Veterans Affairs to fire failing employees and establish safeguards to protect whistleblowers.
  
• Signed the Veterans Appeals Improvement and Modernization Act. 
• Signed the Harry W. Colmery Veterans Educational Assistance Act, to provide support. 
• Signed the VA Choice and Quality Employment Act of 2017 to authorize $2.1 billion in additional funds for the Veterans Choice Program. 

Restoring confidence in and respect for America

• Trump won the release of Americans held abroad, often using his personal relationships with world leaders.
• Made good on a campaign promise to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel

List from Washington Examiner

How did we get through college without smart phones and apps?

http://undergrad.osu.edu/buckeyes_blog/?p=26611

Peyton, who is from Hillsboro, writes,

“There’s an app for that!”  When it comes to college, the saying is definitely true. In fact, there are tons of apps that make college life easier. Here are six apps that have helped me to successfully navigate my first semester of college:

1.  GroupMe, which I think is an on-line chat.

2. Tapingo, which lets you order food.  Hmmm.

3.  Transit, for catching the bus.
4.  Quizlet, for making flash cards.
5.  Canvas to track grades.
6.  Ohio State app, schedule, meals, finances, etc.

So much for actually asking others, where's the library, or do you know how to catch a bus to the Ag campus.

Diversity scam is expensive

The diversity scam at colleges and universities. Follow the money.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g60ON91ClLA

The one constant in every endeavor--sets up huge bureaucracies and budgets. Diversity, equity and inclusion vice chancellors can get magnificent salaries with lower level bureaucrats sucking up more dollars. Just google "diversity" with the name of any college/university you know. Then check budget. You may never take a class, but you're sure paying the cost.

If you Google "diversity office Ohio State University" you can see the directories--yes plural.  Not only does the main administration have a diversity and gender office, but so do many of the colleges and departments. And the Office of Diversity and Inclusion has sub-departments. This insures the graduates and majors of the various "studies" departments have places to go when they graduate.. . other colleges and universities with similar highly paid positions.  If you pick out a few names and track their biographies and positions, the word "assistant" jumps out.
https://odi.osu.edu/

"The Ohio State University Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI) is one of the oldest and most prominent offices of its kind in the nation. Founded in 1970, ODI has supported the recruitment, retention and success of students, faculty and staff who enhance the diversity of The Ohio State University. ODI oversees the Hale Center, the Todd Anthony Bell National Resource Center on the African American Male, the American Disability Act program (ADA), the nine-city Young Scholars Program, as well as being home to a wide-range of retention, mentoring, scholarship, and access programs."

Please explain that--Explain That Stuff

"Explain that Stuff is an online book written by British science writer Chris Woodford (author of many popular science books for adults and children, including Atoms Under the Floorboards: The Surprising Science Hidden in Your Home). It includes 450 easy-to-understand articles (plus around 2000 photos and 800 illustrations), covering how things work, cutting-edge science, cool gadgets, and computers."

http://www.explainthatstuff.com/

Also has a Facebook site.

Will infrastructure be next on the agenda?

The infrastructure has been a problem for as long as I've been paying attention. All of a sudden it's Trump's fault? I did at least a 3 minute search and combining "infrastructure" with names of the last 5 presidents only turned up technology and space travel. And some error pages. But I did find an estimate:

"According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, as of 2013 (the year of its most recent comprehensive report), the United States will need $3.6 trillion by 2020 in infrastructure investment to rebuild, upgrade and maintain roads, bridges, dams, water and wastewater systems, levees, landfills, airports and radar systems, inland waterways, ports, rail, mass transit, public parks, schools and energy systems. Roads and bridges account for the lion’s share.

Let states and counties make their own infrastructure decisions based on their population demands and ability to pay, and make users pay for the projects. We need to reduce or eliminate federal taxpayer contributions to U.S. infrastructure needs. Let users bear the burden for improvements through state or local revenue bonds. Pay off the bonds through user fees collected for miles driven, water consumed, flights taken, (dare I say) children educated, etc." Washington Post, Aug. 19, 2016

The failure to Act Report by the ASCE

https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/omb/budget/fy2018/fact_sheets/2018%20Budget%20Fact%20Sheet_Infrastructure%20Initiative.pdf

Obama’s legacy

Obamacare failed both financially and medically. "“This was the first time life expectancy in the U.S. has declined two years [2015, 2016] in a row since declines in 1962 and 1963,” the NCHS, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a statement." Obama's legacy. Obama's signature legislation--forcing Americans to buy an insurance product under threat of jail or fine.

Some of this decline was in part due to rising drug deaths, which started before Obamacare was implemented, yet President Obama stopped what might have been the biggest drug investigation [8 years by DEA, Project Cassandra] in history-- Hezbollah and its billion dollar criminal drugs, weapons and money laundering--so he could complete his deal with Iran. For shame! He wasn't leading from behind--he was out front leading our enemies.

https://www.politico.com/interactives/2017/obama-hezbollah-drug-trafficking-investigation/

"But as Project Cassandra reached higher into the hierarchy of the conspiracy, Obama administration officials threw an increasingly insurmountable series of roadblocks in its way, according to interviews with dozens of participants who in many cases spoke for the first time about events shrouded in secrecy, and a review of government documents and court records. When Project Cassandra leaders sought approval for some significant investigations, prosecutions, arrests and financial sanctions, officials at the Justice and Treasury departments delayed, hindered or rejected their requests." 

And now Hezbollah, emboldened by our former President's behavior and help, is leading the fight against Trump and recognition of the obvious for 70 years--Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. Of course, in October the Arab/Muslim press was saying war was inevitable. But our so-called allies in the UN fell for these protests, just as the American people fell for the hope and change promises of Obama.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/11/world/middleeast/hezbollah-nasrallah-jerusalem.html

Different cultures, similar paths--Friday family photo

In the late 1950's my college roommate Dora and I both dated architectural students named Bob whom we married. They both had taken art lessons as children, then put it aside to practice architecture, then developed a hobby of watercolor later in life, particularly after retiring. Here's her Bob.

http://www.galleryblink.com/robert-hsiung