Today’s smoothie

Watercress
Egg
Milk
vanilla and honey
banana
pineapple

“Watercress contains more vitamin C than an orange, more calcium than milk, more iron than spinach, and more folate than bananas. The phytonutrients are where the health benefits of watercress are contained. Watercress contains vitamin A, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, iron, magnesium, calcium, and phosphorus, which are required for a healthy body.” https://www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/vegetable/watercress.html

I made the eggnog first, then heated it to be sure there were no bacteria, since uncooked eggs can be tricky. This turned out to be a pale green.

Taking the low road

Border patrol agents say they are alarmed by the growing number of migrants illegally crossing the border with children – who are not their own – to avoid long-term federal custody. But never mind. It is fodder for the anti-Trump hysteria, food and fuel to keep the masses agitated. Yes, they know it's wrong, that it is hurting children, but it's working and they've sunk this low.

Democrats long road of racism

Ninety nine Democrats and 2 Republicans in Congress signed the “Southern Manifesto” in 1956. The Southern Manifesto declared the signatories’ opposition to the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education (declared separate schools for blacks and whites illegal) and their commitment to segregation forever.  As the South has become more Republican it’s become less racist as has fly over country, leaving the northeast and west coast Democrats to carry on that mantle.  As Democrats gain power in the largest cities, they return to their roots of race baiting, name calling, shaming, and violence which kept blacks in line in the early 20th century.  In Ohio over 40% of abortions are for black women, and nationwide, more black lives are snuffed out in 4 days than in the entire 80+ years of Democratic party terrorism of the KKK and lynching. Abortion is the linchpin of Democrat morality and philosophy. Just watch the hysteria over [fill in the blank] selection for justice of SCOTUS.

NATO costs—for decades Presidents have chided them

I've been browsing what past leaders and presidents have said about NATO costs, and there's virtually no difference from Trump--or rather, the difference is he means it. I'd forgotten that President Clinton was behind the expansion of NATO in the mid 90s and had virtually no plan to pay for it (except we'd continue the lion's share). It's no wonder it's like trying to get a house back from your sister after you've provided it rent free for 50 years. The tenant is insulted and hurt--why now you big meanie? You're picking on me.

Here's Bernie Sanders during the 2016 campaign. "Sanders said, "We spend about 75 percent of the entire cost of the military aspect of NATO. Given the fact that France has a very good health care system and free public education, college education for their people, the U.K. has a good National Health Service and they also provide fairly reasonable higher education, you know what, yeah, I do believe that the countries of Europe should pick up more of the burden for their defense." (Politifact, April 19, 2016)

Politifact is liberal so of course it quibbled. It refigured the math and said it was ONLY 72%. Bernie did say "about," but never mind. The choice was to criticize the Obama administration, or to support the socialist.

So maybe President Obama sounded like Mr. Rogers when he said it, but essentially on April 25, 2016, he said what Trump said sounding like a President of the U.S., and the media did not have a melt down.

“We need to stay nimble, and make sure our forces are interoperable, and invest in new capabilities like cyber defense and missile defense. And that’s why every NATO member should be contributing its full share — 2 percent of GDP — toward our common security, something that doesn’t always happen. And I’ll be honest, sometimes Europe has been complacent about its own defense.” . . . Oh yes, and Obama said he wanted a good relationship with Russia in that same speech.
In fact, the Washington Post claimed candidate Trump was essentially saying what Obama said about NATO. But that was then. . . 2016.

Today’s smoothie

Carrot juice and organic spinach for vegetables, and frozen pineapple, fresh peach (with skin) and banana.  Yummie.

Where were the ICE protests in 2013?

https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/ice-busts-significant-sex-trafficking-ring-operating-florida-north-carolina

Donald Trump wasn’t president in 2013, so there was no need to protest.  Obama was the deporter-in-chief according to some on the far left.  But thousands were released into the U.S. population, never to return for their court date.

Very sad news for our church family

“It is with great sadness that I inform you that Pastor Dave and Pam Mann’s son, Josh, died early this morning. Josh encountered numerous complications following surgery in late June and today he was called home by his Heavenly Father.

Funeral arrangements have not yet been completed, but that information will be shared with you once plans are finalized.

Thank you for your prayers thus far. It has been a blessing to the family to know that so many people have been lifting them in prayer. Please continue to pray for Pastor Dave, Pam, their children Joelle, Isaac, EJ, and the entire Mann family as they grieve the loss of their son and brother.
May we all find comfort and peace in the hope and promise of the Resurrection!”

This just a week after the death of their 4 day old grandson, EJ’s baby. The whole congregation is just reeling.

“Unaccompanied Alien Children” (UAC) included admitted murderers, rapists, drug smugglers, prostitutes, and human traffickers in 2014

"Judicial Watch today released 224 pages of documents containing nearly 1,000 summaries of Significant Incident Reports (SIRs) from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) revealing that “Unaccompanied Alien Children” (UAC) processed during the Obama administration included admitted murderers, rapists, drug smugglers, prostitutes, and human traffickers.

The documents, from the HHS Administration for Children and Families reported to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), are for the approximate six-month period May to November 2014. The reports Include 1,000 ‘Significant Incident Reports,’ revealing UAC ‘refugees’ admitting to murder for drug cartels, prostitution, and sexual predation."

I believe 2014 was on Obama's watch and these "children" were separated from their parents and "refugees" detained for crimes. I'm not expecting to see or hear of this on the evening news. Possibly an opinion show like Tucker Carlson might cover it. This is a long document with details and links. If you remain ignorant about what is going on/what went on, it's by choice.

https://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-watch-new-hhs-documents-reveal-that-unaccompanied-alien-children-processed-during-obama-years-included-violent-criminals-drug-smugglers-and-human-traffickers/

Diversity and White Privilege

“Do not underestimate the Trump voter. When they channel-surfed cable news, or heard of the antics that took place on college campuses, or saw street-theater demonstrations on television, they boiled at the idea that they had often worked at minimum wage, saw their jobs outsourced, never discriminated against anyone, and yet were being damned by smug youth who in a few years would draw on their college B.A. cattle brand, their parents’ lobbying, and the good-old-boy network of being rich, white, and from the proper zip code to inherit their rightful place in business, investment, politics, entertainment, the media, or the university. Google all the rich, white, privileged pundits who at one time or another, both in jest and in all seriousness, have called to deport the deplorables and in their stead give amnesty to illegal aliens or import “better” people from abroad.”

Victor Davis Hanson, https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/07/strange-career-of-white-privilege/

Kavanaugh is the pick

Therese Okoumou, the ungrateful legal immigrant

By Peggy Traeger Tierney, who has a blog and Facebook page.

“The woman who shut down the Statue of Liberty on Independence Day by illegally climbing on it, Therese Okoumou, 44, and then, after saved by the police, denounced the United States of America as "oppressive," is a legal immigrant who came to America from the Congo in 1995.

She has spent the last 20 years as an liberal activist AGAINST America, arrested numerous times, while women are mass raped, children are decapitated and soldiers eat villagers for dinner in the Congo, her country of birth. Let's ask her why she fails to address the nightmare happening in her own African country. It's on the brink of genocide. Why isn't she protesting the horrors in the Congo, where she was born, instead of being a pawn for the resistance, dishonoring America, the country that gave her a second chance at living a free and normal life. What an ungrateful, selfish, pathetic individual.

Rebels and government troops in the Kasai region of the Congo commit sickening atrocities including mass rape and cannibalism. Boys in the Congo rape their own mothers while blood-drinking soldiers feast on the flesh of dying victims. In one horrific massacre, 186 men and young boys from a single village had their heads chopped off. Little girls and boys are told that witchcraft will make them invincible against bullets. Women are forced to choose between gang rape or death.
Witnesses say the Congolese militia actually sport female genitals as medals. They cut up, cook and eat human flesh, including penises cut from men who were still alive and from corpses and drink human blood. Children are killed by machine-gun fire and their bodies are buried in mass graves … or are sometimes piled in trucks by soldiers to be buried elsewhere. Is this the 3rd world culture we want to bring to America? This is the culture Therese escaped and is disingenuously saying is somehow better than America? Lies.

Is this what Michelle Obama meant by "when they go low, we go high"? One would have to be HIGH to avert their eyes from this horror story. Therese, go home and channel your rage where it's needed most. Enough of your faux outrage over America. America is the best thing that ever happened to you.

PS: This is not her first victimhood rodeo: She claimed in 2005 that she was treated “in a demeaning manner” by her bosses and told that she would be fired “for complaining of discrimination.” It’s unclear why her complaint was tossed out.

In 2011, Okoumou made headlines after she was hit with an astounding 60 violations for illegally posting ads for her services as a personal trainer.

The Department of Sanitation slapped her with $4,500 in fines that year after she spent five hours one Sunday posting the fliers on Manhattan utility poles.

In 2017, she was arrested and charged with obstructing governmental administration, unlawful assembly and trespassing during a demonstration at the Department of Labor building. She had allegedly covered her mouth with tape and refused to respond to police demands. What a delightful woman.”

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/mass-rape-cannibalism-dismemberment-un-team-finds-atrocities-in-congo-war/articleshow/64846559.cms
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Today’s NutriBullet

I now have two Magic Bullet machines for making smoothies and/or mixed vegetable and fruit drinks.  One I bought at a WalMart for about $50, and the other, which is  much more elaborate with 4 cups and lids, strainer caps and 3 mixing units for $10 at a yard sale up the street in Lakeside.  I should be all set for replacing patio Donuts with delicious health drinks.

Today’s (breakfast and lunch) is carrot juice, baby spinach, banana, frozen pineapple, and melon.  It’s sort of a pale moss green—if I’d added strawberries or blue berries, it would be dog poop brown. We’ve tried the drinks using kale, but the spinach works better with our digestive systems. These drinks are not juices—contain all the fiber (except for the carrots). I don’t usually think of bananas as having a strong flavor, but when mixed with other fruits, you can always taste it.

Spinach slightly edges out kale, according to a source I quoted in 2015. But both are good. https://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/eat-run/2012/11/08/mango-or-papaya-spinach-or-kale-food-face-offs  I also blogged about this in June. https://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2018/06/stems-leaves-and-stalks-in-vegetable.html

One cup of spinach meets 36 percent of the recommended daily iron value, whereas kale supplies 6 percent. As for other nutrition facts: one cup spinach has 41 calories, 4.3 grams of fiber, 5.3 grams of protein, 244.8 grams of calcium, and 838.8 milligrams of potassium. The same quantity of kale has 36 calories, 2.6 grams of fiber, 2.5 grams of protein, 93.6 grams of calcium, and 296.4 milligrams of potassium. Besides being an excellent source of potassium and calcium, spinach is a nutritional powerhouse delivering vitamins K, A, C, E, and B2. Kale is also a nutrition winner, packing vitamins K, A, C.

Pascal on the Christian religion

“The Christian religion, then, teaches men these two truths; that there is a God whom men can know, and that there is a corruption in their nature which renders them unworthy of Him. It is equally important to men to know both these points; and it is equally dangerous for man to know God without knowing his own wretchedness, and to know his own wretchedness without knowing the Redeemer who can free him from it. The knowledge of only one of these points gives rise either to the pride of philosophers, who have known God, and not their own wretchedness, or to the despair of atheists, who know their own wretchedness, but not the Redeemer.” Pascal's Pensées , p. 153, Gutenberg  e-book, Section VII, The fundamentals of the Christian religion. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/18269/18269-h/18269-h.htm#SECTION_VIII

Pascal died a very young man—39--and Pensees was published after his death, and was assumed to be notes for a larger, more polished work. T.S. Eliot (20th century American/British poet and social critic), in the book’s introduction, implies his religious, theological and science ideas are so well known, he hardly needed to review them. That, of course, is not true—not sure it ever was. My own formal education is quite lacking in philosophy, religion, literature and the mathematical sciences, although that isn’t always the case for others my age, I’m guessing it is for today’s students.  I believe I was in a Bible study many years ago and did come across his famous wager for the existence of God. "If you win, you win everything; if you lose, you lose nothing."

An Arizona citizen, guest blogger Dan

“ Our problem now in AZ is human trafficking of people once they come over the border through open ranch land or Indian reservations.  Likewise for drugs.  People “mules” bring drugs across the border and stash them at an established spot to be picked up and transported to Phoenix where their sent across the country.  People in non-border states don’t appreciate just how much of this is occurring daily.  I have a neighbor who is in the Sheriff’s department and does night patrols. 
And by the way, our  local AZ county is larger than Connecticut!  Maricopa County with the infamous Sheriff Joe was larger.  He did a good job in the rural areas but the liberals in Phoenix took him down.  Phoenix is in Maricopa County.  I have a friend who drives a school bus.  She has to stop at a local low cost motel for kids, the number and who changes regularly as families of illegals move through.  How does a school system cope?  How does a teacher do a lesson plan?  And by the way, they don’t speak English.  Arizona has bad school ratings because of this and the fact rural areas don’t have a tax base to get qualified teachers.  So what’s happening? Charter schools are being used to avoid the public schools.  I don’t think things like this get much national press.” 

Obama administration was the world’s largest arms dealer

An Inconvenient Truth: How the Obama Administration Became Earth's Largest Arms Dealer
https://ammo.com/articles/earths-largest-arms-dealer-is-obama-administration-infographic

Thirty five cooking tips

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbiXc5cUVus

Some of these are well worth noting!

Meaning of the Fourth, by David Keck guest blogger

“As we celebrate "The Fourth of July," let us remember that here, in the United States, it is just the fourth day in a summer month except that it is Independence Day. After all, Senegal has a fourth of July; but it is not their Independence Day. As we picnic and firework, let us remember those men who publicly put their names on this document that immediately with a signature branded them as traitors and made them marked men. And all of them had much to lose financially, and many did, as a result of of their public pronouncement and commitment. When our Constitution went into effect 13 years later, we are the only country in the world with an elected head of state. Sad as the world is now, how many dozens of countries have elected heads of state, all because those men, and those at home and in the field, who took a chance when it was not at all a sure thing, winning the peace and the right to pursue a republican form of government. The United States, with all its faults (which country criticizing us is without them?), has from the start, even before the Declaration, been that "Shining City on the Hill." We didn't get that way being like everyone else.”

DNC chair praises socialism as future of party.

In an interview on the Bill Press Show, Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Tom Perez claimed that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist running for Congress, is “the future of our party.”

http://dailycaller.com/2018/07/03/dnc-chair-socialist-ocasio-cortez-is-future-of-our-party/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIriGu5dtHM

What do Democrats have against ICE?

Maybe it’s just on social media—Democrats and Socialists wanting to get ride of ICE.

“Operation Broken Heart was set up by the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force, which partnered with ICE and its Operation Predator.  The criminal sweep occurred during March, April, and May.

In addition to the 2,300-plus arrests, Operation Broken Heart led to the identification of 195 offenders guilty of child pornography or child sex abuse, and the identification of 383 child victims of child pornography or sexual abuse, reported ICE in a statement.”

https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/gavi-greenspan/over-2300-suspected-child-predators-arrested-through-operation-broken

ICE is actually protecting children—leftists are throwing them to the wolves.

Declaration of Independence

If the American Revolution had produced nothing but the Declaration of Independence, it would have been worthwhile.... The beauty and cogency of the preamble, reaching back to remotest antiquity and forward to an infinite future, having lifted the hearts of millions of men and will continue to do.... These words are more revolutionary than anything written by Robespierre, Marx, or Lenin, more explosive than the atom, a continual challenge to ourselves as well as an inspiration to the oppressed of all the world."
-- Samuel Eliot Morison
(1887-1976) Rear Admiral USNR, Naval historian

A clinger not a climber

“A woman protesting U.S. immigration law attempted to climb the Statue of Liberty on the Fourth of July. She did not get very far. She refused to come down until “all the children are released.” But her pledge held up about as well as her climbing abilities. Headlines screamed of a woman scaling the Statue of Liberty. When a climber does not reach Lady Liberty’s ankles, the said climber becomes a said something else. Call her a demonstrator, an activist, or Lady Lunacy. Don’t call her a climber. Climbers climb. This lady just held onto the base of a statue for a long period of time.”

American Spectator, July 5, 2018

A prayer for Independence Day from the Lutheran Prayer Book

O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come. We give You grateful thanks on this anniversary for the priceless blessing of liberty that with Your help was won for us by our ancestors. Stir up in us a new appreciation for the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness we enjoy in this land of the free and a greater readiness to serve our nation with our talents. Teach us, above all, to treasure that precious freedom of conscience and worship, without which other liberties would not long survive. May we never contribute to the loss of those dearly won blessings by our own selfishness, ambition, or indifference. Teach us furthermore, O Lord, that the enjoyment of freedom brings the responsibility to serve. Make us willing to respect the laws of our country, exercise faithfully our privilege to vote, and give our loyal support to all public institutions. Bless all those in authority. Grant wisdom and faithfulness to those in positions of leadership. Preserve them from becoming the prey of selfish pressure groups and give them willingness to serve the interests of the public. Grant enduring peace to our country and its institutions, so that Your Gospel may be able without hindrance to turn the hearts of all from the bondage of sin to the freedom won by the blood of our precious Redeemer, Jesus,  in whose name and for whose sake we ask this. Amen

My new dryer

Last summer we’d decided we needed to replace our washer-dryer in the basement of our lake house, however we were waiting for the summer of 2018 since we’re not here much after August.  This week we have our niece and nephew Dan and Joan Poynter with us, and he can fix anything, so after looking at the platform and the way the appliances were placed, he thought we could support 2 full size instead of 2 apartment size (more expensive and don’t do as well) if he rewired the outlet and bought longer hoses for the washer. The washer is ancient, but works fine, a freebie from our neighbor about 5 years ago when he was replacing his.

So all four of us went to Sandusky to shop yesterday (we not only put our guests to work, we take them to the best tourists spots!). We were looking for the scratch and dent, but only found one—$250 for a full size dryer—but it was gas not electric, and another more expensive model which was over $600 even on sale. We went to Lowe’s and Home Depot, and finally to ABC Appliances where they “sell for less” and they sold us an Amana for one dollar less than the Home Depot price—$377.  Most of the other makes and models were $500-$800.  Fortunately, Joan had snapped a photo of the tags at the Home Depot, so she had proof, and did the negotiation for us. It was loaded into the van and home we went. It was about a two hour adventure, but then another two hours for Dan in the basement.

Bob and Dan weren’t sure that there was enough room on the platform, so they also bought some wood to extended it, cut to the right size at the store since we didn’t have a power saw.  (As it turned out, the feet on the dryer were a little recessed, so the extension wasn’t needed, but it’s there.)

Of course, you don’t just buy a dryer—we also needed to buy new hoses for the washer, new venting for the dryer, new wiring for the outlet, rent for a dolly (that was to remove the old dryer, and the next day we went to a neighbor’s to get the old one down), plus two doors had to be removed.  We probably have about $550 invested in a dryer I’ll use 10x a summer.  The basement stairs are not standard, and rather dangerous.  I sat on the porch not wanting to listen to the grunting and groaning.  Oh, and Dan also fixed our basement light so I can see now. Today he’s going to install a fan in the guest bedroom. Let this tale be a warning if you ever come to visit us in Lakeside!!

 

 

Northwest Ordinance of 1787

Before we had a Constitution, Americans had the Articles of Confederation and the most important piece of legislation of that era was the Northwest Ordinance. In 1785 and 1787 that government sold land in "the west" claimed as spoils of the war to investors (to pay for the war) on condition that certain rights and responsibilities be observed. It's the core of our Bill of Rights, and also the concept of local education, and the humanity and freedom of slaves and native Americans. Not all townships or states followed the rules--particularly on education and religion--because there's always graft and greed in government especially in collusion with capitalism, but when you read it, you see how far ahead the thinking was for any other existing government. 

https://www.billofrightsinstitute.org/founding-documents/primary-source-documents/northwest-ordinance/

Fan mail

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Least patriotic states

Wallet Hub’s survey.  “In looking at such factors as the percentage of resident volunteers, voters, veterans, and enlistees, the site’s annual study—just in time for the Fourth of July—named Massachusetts America’s least patriotic state (New Jersey and Rhode Island follow close behind; Virginia tops the list [as most patriotic]). As a Bay Stater, this makes me sad. As an American, it makes me sad, too. The American Revolution started here. We celebrate Patriots Day. We root for the UMass Minutemen and the New England Patriots. We make tourism dollars off the Freedom Trail and Boston Tea Party reenactments. Unfortunately, all that history is just that—history. Past isn’t prologue.”

Ohio ranks 32nd in patriotism.

https://wallethub.com/edu/most-patriotic-states/13680/

Wallet Hub has many “best” and “worst” articles.  Some facts about July 4 and the various celebrations https://wallethub.com/blog/4th-of-july-facts/22075/

Desperate Democrats

“Like sharks thrashing about in chum-filled bloody water, the unhinged hysterics of the progressive left have gone into a feeding frenzy as they prepare to attack whomever President Trump nominates to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. Thanks to Kennedy’s retirement, Trump is now in a position to appoint a non-activist, strict constructionist to the Court. Senate confirmation of the nominee will result in a solid, reliably conservative Court majority.

Needless to say, the Democrats in the Senate and their leftist supporters view this as the coming of the Apocalypse. But it was the triumphant Democrats who, during the heady days of the Obama administration, changed the Senate rules to allow judicial confirmations to proceed on a simple majority vote. Thanks to their lack of foresight and the existing bare majority of Republicans in the Senate, they are facing a tough uphill battle. So we should expect the desperate Democrats to resort to every device and artifice to slime, smear, destroy, and defeat the nominee.” George Parry

Read more:
https://spectator.org/too-catholic-for-the-democrats/

Baking powder

Yesterday my neighbor asked me if I had any baking powder—she wanted to make a coffee cake.  So I went to the kitchen cupboard and got out the Ziploc bag with flour, baking powder and baking soda.  I told her I thought it was several years old, and she should just use more.  After she made it and it cooled, she brought over four pieces and returned the can.

Today I needed to borrow a pizza pan, so I went over to her house, and she gave me a new can of baking powder so I could throw the old one out.  Which I did.  But first I removed the price sticker so I could see the use by date on the bottom of the can.  November 1996.

Lakeside 2018, week three

Very, very hot here—when we step outside it’s like be slapped.

About once a summer at our dockside church service we sing the hymn Leaning on the everlasting arms (What a fellowship). I blogged about it in 2012, and  my brother in law Nelson added an update for me. It always reminds me of my sister Carol who died in 1996. https://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2012/08/leaning-on-everlasting-arms.html   Then in the afternoon we went to a memorial service for Joel Brucken who was one of Bob’s clients and in several groups with him here at Lakeside. The organist apparently went to the wrong location and rushed in a few minutes after start time, with only time to play one piece, and it was that hymn. So I heard it twice in one day.

Our niece and nephew, Joan and Dan,  are with us this week.  Since we rarely have anyone to celebrate with in this VERY family oriented place, it’s fun to have them. This is their 4th year to come for the 4th.  They are taking advantage of the new swimming pool that opened last summer.  I’ve been adding to my regular walking routine by using the small exercise room in the new Wellness Center then include a nice walk through the woods. Dan can fix anything, and he rewired an outlet for our dryer.  Now we have to buy a new one.

Another acquaintance at Lakeside, James Fisher, 80, drowned this past week working on his boat. We rented next door to them on Jasmine in the 1970s and they had 6 children, 2 of which were just the right age to play with ours. And they took our kids out on their boat for fishing. Very nice people and a very sad situation—had celebrated their 60^th wedding anniversary.

Saturday evening’s program was the Cleveland Pops Orchestra with a number of patriotic selections plus some medleys by old timey pop stars like Elvia Presley, Billy Joel, Neil Diamond, Barry Manilow, and some show tunes from Music Man and Grease.  The vocalist was Connor O’Brien, and a lovely 18 year old, Kate Klika. Tonight’s speaker is Laura Schroff who wrote “Angels on Earth”.

Medical advancements are the topic this week—today it is lung, and tomorrow eyes. The speaker today is Marie Budev of the Cleveland Clinic, and she was very interesting. She shared some of her success stories, but there are not many. Some of the take-aways I learned: the 5 year survival rate is 47%-57%; short people have more of a problem finding a match for a transplant because lungs must be the right size; transplant for cystic fibrosis is always a double; skin cancers are common after a transplant and must be regularly checked; IPF, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, is frequently misdiagnosed for 2-3 years, and consulting with 4-5 doctors.

Blaming Trump?

On Facebook a friend was complaining about unusual helicopter activity in his Cleveland Tremond neighborhood—he was sure someone was after illegal immigrants and that was all Trump’s fault.  Now I see that the FBI has arrested a possible terrorist who was planning to target the July 4 activities which brings out thousands in Cleveland.  Don’t know if that was the activity, but it might be worth it to say thanks to the FBI for stopping another Boston bombing, Jim.

Update:  Muslim. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/07/02/terror-suspect-arrest-cleveland/750294002/

http://abc7chicago.com/suspect-accused-of-plotting-cleveland-terrorist-attack-on-4th-of-july-arrested-abc-news-reports/3691045/
https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2018/07/02/cleveland-july-4-attack-fbi-makes-arrest-alleged-terror-plan-cleveland/750345002/
https://www.mydaytondailynews.com/news/crime--law/cleveland-terror-plot-fbi-makes-arrest-says-attack-was-planned-for-fourth-july/r97ODUG3ynjERr5gAAdtTO/

Mexico immigration

I haven’t checked the details, but I know the reason the Central American refugees/illegals don’t stop in Mexico, is because they are stricter about illegal immigration.

Old Age

Deportation under Obama

“President Barack Obama has often been referred to by immigration groups as the "Deporter in Chief." (Aug. 29, 2016, ABC News) Between 2009 and 2015 his administration has removed more than 2.5 million people through immigration orders, which doesn’t include the number of people who "self-deported" or were turned away and/or returned to their home country at the border by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

According to governmental data, the Obama administration has deported more people than any other president's administration in history.

In fact, they have deported more than the sum of all the presidents of the 20th century. “
Yet the country was full of marchers this week-end objecting to Trump?  You don’t really think this is about children, do you?

The left hates the Constitution of the United States, guest blogger Michael Smith

Deviations from the Constitution will always end in disaster. It reminds me of Thomas Jefferson quote from his letter to Samuel Kercheval in 1816:

"A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent for a second; that second for a third; and so on, till the bulk of the society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery, and to have no sensibilities left but for sinning and suffering. Then begins, indeed, the bellum omnium in omnia [the war of all against all], which some philosophers observing to be so general in this world, have mistaken it for the natural, instead of the abusive state of man."

The left hates the Constitution of the United States. They have since the days of Woodrow Wilson. They believe it is a dusty old parchment dreamed up by old slave owning cis-gendered white men to preserve white supremacist patriarchy.

You don't have to believe me - just listen to them when they say the Second Amendment is invalid because there is no way the founders could have foreseen the invention of the AR-15 or when it comes to the radical social engineering they favor, engineering that cannot stand without the coercive force of government being applied.

So, just imagine my chagrin when these same people -people who hate the Constitution - hold up signs saying they want to "defend the constitution" from an "un-American president".
They believe when some leftist justice finds a convoluted way to create some "right" from whole cloth - that is what the Constitution is. It isn't.

Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist #78 that "...the judiciary, from the nature of its functions, will always be the least dangerous to the political rights of the Constitution; because it will be least in a capacity to annoy or injure them."

Hamilton also argued that the "Necessary and Proper" clause of the Constitution did not mean the federal government powers were unlimited, that Congress could only enact laws necessary to support the powers enumerated in the Constitution itself.

Boy, I can't imagine the look on old Alex's face if he could see what has happened to his "least dangerous" branch. He had an inkling how despotism could come about - reading a bit further down in Federalist #78, we find this:

"It equally proves that though individual oppression may now and then proceed from the courts of justice, the general liberty can never be endangered from that quarter: I mean so long as the judiciary remains truly distinct from both the legislature and executive; for I agree that “there is no liberty if the power of judging be not separated from the legislative and the executive powers.” And it proves, in the last place, that as liberty can have nothing to fear from the judiciary alone, but it would have everything to fear from its union with either of the other departments."

If we take an honest look at the Supreme Court, over the past century, in addition to its power to interpret the laws, it has assumed the power of the Executive to enforce and the power of the Legislative to regulate. Rather than creating a "union with either of the other departments" the SCOTUS usurped those powers and is shielded from retribution by the idea of "judicial supremacy", a concept twisted from John Marshall's opinion in Marbury v. Madison (1803), elevating the Supreme Court to the single and sloe arbiter of that which is constitutional.

But Marshall's opinion said none of that. Marshall never expressed that SCOTUS should be the ultimate arbiter - he simply held that Congress could not extend the jurisdiction of the Court beyond that which the Constitution had provided. President's all the way through Lincoln saw the three branches as equal in interpretation of the Constitution - essentially saying that the judiciary could be overridden by the other two branches.

The first moves to politicize the courts gained momentum under Woodrow Wilson and continued with FDR trying to pack the Supreme Court when the Republican majority ruled many of his New Deal actions unconstitutional. Conservatives wanted to strengthen the court against FDR's machinations and in doing so, set the stage for things to come.

The first real expression of "judicial supremacy" came about in the Warren court in 1958 when the justices claimed that Marbury v. Madison had “declared the basic principle that the federal judiciary is supreme in its exposition of the law of the Constitution, and that principle has ever since been respected by this court and the country as a permanent and indispensable feature of our constitutional system.”

The Warren Court went a long way toward politicizing and weaponizing the court system and setting SCOTUS up as a super-legislative body that is not co-equal to the other branches but one that sits above them. . . and that is why the progressive left sees control over the Supreme Court as a matter of life or death. For their ideology, it is.

Bullying Maxine

I read that a few people on the right (although who knows on social media—lots of trolls)  are bullying Maxine and the Red Hen biddy. Stop it! No need to act like a Democrat. Besides, their bad behavior is helping Trump.

I'm not being disrespectful to women by using the term "biddy," even though it is slang for a cranky, tiresome old woman. Biddy is also the term used when calling hens to come. It’s like cu-boss (come bossy) when calling the cows. When I was a child, my mother raised a few chickens whose eggs were worth $10 an egg by the time she spent the money to keep them alive.

Prairie plants of Ohio

On Friday afternoon of the second week of the Lakeside season John Blakeman of Sandusky spoke on “The Ohio Prairie Story.”  Called “Noah of the Prairie” because he rescues plants, Blakeman told us prairies are part of Ohio’s heritage, although one usually thinks of Iowa and Nebraska.  Ohio didn’t have many bison, but elk were common.  Fires are essential for prairie regrowth because there are some seed that need the heat to pop and reseed.  The plants are dense and grow deep, with about 1/3 above ground.  The plants he showed us usually grow only on the prairie—he went through the slides quickly and there are Latin names for all, but these are the common names, best as I can read my notes.
 
Indian grass

Michigan lily

Whorled Rosinweed 
 
White lady slipper orchid

• Indian grass
• Switch grass
• Cord grass
• Tall sunflower
• Ashy sunflower
• Butterfly weed
• Milkweed
• New England aster
• False White Indigo
• Water hemlock (very poisonous, looks like Queen Anne’s lace)
• Dense blazingstar
• Wild bergamot
• Prairie coneflower
• Ohio spiderwort
• Michigan lily
• Rough white lettuce (requires fire)
• Virginia meadow beauty
• Tall coreopsis
• Prairie Dock (stem will get 11’ tall with yellow flowers)
• Whorled rosinweed
• White lady slippers orchid (needs fire)

 Blakeman (former high school biology teacher) has established a number of prairie grass areas in Ohio, including one at Terra Technical College, as well as yard prairies for individuals, and our new prairie garden in Lakeside at 6th and Laurel across from the new swimming pool and wellness center.

Drain the swamp

As socialists try to make us feel guilty for “ignoring” the poor, sick, prisoners, immigrants while quoting Bible verses--think on this.

"The Committee on the Budget in the Senate identified 83 overlapping federal welfare programs that together represented the single largest budget item in 2011 — more than the nation spends on Social Security, Medicare, or national defense. The total amount spent on these 83 federal welfare programs amounts to roughly $1.03 trillion. In inflation-adjusted dollars, the amount expended on just 10 of the largest of these programs has increased by 378 percent over the last 30 years. “

That's why a good job is the best program for the poor and low income, not another government program to fatten the bureaucracy. The Trump economy has done more for minorities and poor than guilt and smears the left can throw.

 https://www.budget.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/CRS%20Report%20-%20Welfare%20Spending%20The%20Largest%20Item%20In%20The%20Federal%20Budget.pdf

Democrats vow to fight ANYONE Trump appoints

The attacks aren’t new.  1987 and 1989. Bork and Thomas.  30 years of liberals attacking conservatives and the Constitution. "The left’s attack on Bork had gone far beyond mere good-faith intellectual or ideological disagreement, devolving instead into “intellectual vulgarization and personal savagery,” “profoundly distorting the record and the nature of the man.”" (Commentary) And Justice Thomas described his nomination process as a "high tech lynching." Bork's experience became a verb--borking. Nastier than anything on social media in 2018, but it was 30 years ago. Ted Kennedy's lowest, ugliest point in his career, outside of Chappaquiddick.

My solution to the immigration problem

Here's my solution.

1. Issue more green cards for essential skills and abilities,
2. tighten up removal of those who overstay--like the tech industry.
3. Make those H-1B visas stiffer so Google, FB and Yahoo will hire more American graduates.
4. Enlarge the legal immigration quota and reduce the barriers and costs.
5. Obey the IRCA law--the one Congress passed and then ignored.
6. Take in more Christian refugees. More Christians have been martyred for their faith than any time since the first-second century.
7. Remove incentives to disobey the law.
8. Limit chain migration to immediate family with careful vetting.
9. The Democrats voted for a fence. Let's get on with it. And plug the tunnels, hire more guards, and use more drones.

The cap on H-1B hasn't changed--just the enforcement--or fear that Trump will follow laws. Obama and tech giants were super cozy and in love. He's going to work for Netflix. Browsing the internet you see some of our H-1Bs are going to Canada rather than overstay and be illegals in the U.S. Canada is 98% white and 90% open space where no one lives. Help them populate and diversify.

Time to turn off cable news

I didn't see hysteria, anger and angst about Obama from the regular MSM and cable media--although it was definitely on social media--despite the many strange things he said about America and fly over country, and his flubbed attempts at destroying the economy. Now the news media, especially cable news, are in hysteria mode over Trump, declaring every disaster imaginable, advocating mob violence,  ignoring the biggest killers of the 20th century (Communist regimes) and the devastation in Cuba and Venezuela and going for the Hitler comparisons. What is wrong with these people? Probably it's just for rating$ to bring in the clicks and dollars, but just in case they really are demented, turn them off, do not buy their products (hate, anger, lies).

Using Essential Oils

Our Herb Group (Lakeside) today heard a Lakesider, Karen Glassford, speak about “What’s in the bottle” this morning, about discerning the quality and efficacy of the essential oils that are now all the rage for a variety of health conditions from sleep, to changes in hormones, to skin problems.
Karen said her life was made better once she discovered essential oils

• better sleep,
• emotional support,
• more energy,
• better mood,
• better digestion,
• limited seasonal allergies,
• immune support
• non-toxic cleaning, youth renewal

She encouraged us to READ THE LABEL.  Many oils are diluted with synthetics, plasticizers, solvents, and may contain heavy metals, pesticide residue and a variety of impurities.  That didn’t shock me as much as this: the FDA regulations allow the manufacturer/bottler to claim 100% essential oil if it contains just 5% actual oil.

She encouraged us to buy “farm to table” if possible, knowing the grower and methods.  The grower really needs to be in control of the agricultural practice (such as soil, seeds, harvesting at peak), and be the owner, the distilling, quality control and testing, the use of fillers, and rejection standards. Always look for the amber glass—never buy from Amazon or a large distributor who is a long way from the grower.

I didn’t get a bibliography, but she often referred to Dr. Doug Corrigan, https://revolutionoilspodcast.com/revolution-podcast/essential-oils-vs-pharmaceuticals  and Dr. David Stewarthttp://www.thewholedog.org/WhyEssentialOilsHealandDrugsDont.pdf .  When I looked them up, one reviewer said Stewart’s book had a lot of errors, but I would not be able to judge.

Let Maxine speak her mind--Guest blogger Todd

Todd Thornton (school friend of our son):

 “I do not think Representative Maxine Waters should be fired, resign, jailed, or even sanctioned.

She should be given a bigger microphone and encouraged to speak at every opportunity. For she is, after all, the face of the Democratic Party in the US at this juncture in history.

She hates her country, is racist, ignorant, illogical, and shamelessly advocates a brand of socialism and true fascism that even Soviet Russians would find distasteful. Guilty of sedition, she is the best brand manager of the Democratic Party any Republican could wish for. She and that phony American Indian along with the world’s richest curmudgeon Bernie are the darlings of our leftist media, all determined to destroy America. They should all be proudly put on display and the American public reminded each day they are Democrats and exactly what that party stands for.

When given free reign to speak her mind, she will not only encourage millions of Americans to vote idiots like herself out of office, she will forever be credited historically as a deciding factor in the 2020 re-election of President Trump.”

Dreamland

Reading "Dreamland; the true tale of America's opiate Epidemic" by Sam Quinones. I recommend it. A perfect storm of Mexican drug dealers, pill mills, and pharmaceutical companies in high gear to combat pain, and how it all came together in Ohio. If we think making marijuana legal is a good idea, we need to rethink because it is "legal" drugs that have enslaved us. This book (2015) is now dated but updated daily in the news; the explanation of how the Mexican drug cartel works is happening before our eyes and now includes fentanyl as well as black tar heroin.

Joel Brucken

“The Lakeside sailing program has seen many changes over its 41 years, like kinds and numbers of craft, facilities, kids’ sailing and new people, but a few things never changed. Joel Brucken was always there. He took sailing lessons in 1978, the second year of the program, and was one of the very few who was continuously active every year since. Joel passed away this May after a long battle with cancer. Over the years he competed in regattas, the Mouse Island race, and for many years he was the coordinator of the August Cup, in which he entered with his 22 foot ‘All Day’. He and Angela were always at the end of the pier to watch regattas, attended all picnics and awards ceremonies, and hosted sailing parties. He encouraged his son, Brian and grandsons, Drew, Ben and Jack to sail; Brian and Drew later became sailing instructors.

Joel also participated in many non-sailing activities. He was a past president of the LPOA and on the Lakeside Board of Directors. Programs at Hoover, education seminars, property owners’ meetings—Joel was always there with questions and comments. He also enjoyed diverse events like Guys’ Club, Sunday night poker games, bird symposiums, even ballroom dancing, and he helped with the Heritage Society.

Joel will be missed by those of us who knew him. He was always there.”
- Maryln Dudrow

Do you think liberals might be losing it?

Mike Huckabee reported on Laura Ingraham show:

"By the way Laura, there’s a part of that story that hasn’t been told, you’re going to be the first to hear it. Once Sarah and her family left, of course Sarah was asked to please vacate, Sarah and her husband just went home. They had sort of had enough. But the rest of her family went across the street to a different restaurant. The owner of the Red Hen – nobody’s told this – then followed them across the street, called people, and organized a protest yelling and screaming at them from outside the other restaurant and creating this scene.”

You can help the children

Is it so much to ask that my liberal friends and family weeping over the children separated from adults by borders with fences, court cases and guards stop locking their homes, gated communities (like Lakeside) and cars/bikes/golf carts and allow any stranger to use them? After your homes are full of all that justice, the new owners can just vote you out. Sounds fair, good, and quasi Biblical, based on the memes being shared. You're an American--you've got too much stuff anyway.

Rising Income EQUALITY

Rising income EQUALITY may have helped elect Trump. When all the government transfers are factored in and no taxes on that "spendable income" the lowest quintiles are rising while others are going down. Some apparently see this as unfair. Shocking, right? I blogged about this years ago comparing a beginning librarian's salary (requires a master's degree) in my community with the transfer income of a woman who receives government benefits and works part time at a fast food restaurant. Wall St. Journal article today reports:

"The bottom quintile earned 2.2% of all earned income in 2013, but after adjusting for taxes and transfer payments, its share of spendable income rose to 12.9%—six times its proportion of earnings. The second quintile’s share more than doubled, rising from 7% of earned income to 13.9% of spendable income. For the third quintile, middle-income Americans, the increase was much smaller, from 12.6% to 15.4%.

Not surprisingly, high earners lost a considerable share of their earnings after taxes and transfers are taken into account. The fourth quintile’s share fell from 20.5% to 18.6%, while the top quintile dropped from 57.7% of earnings to 39.3% of consumable income. In other words, the top quintile’s share of earnings was 26 times that of the bottom quintile, but after taxes and transfer payments its share of spendable income was only three times as much. "

It would be political suicide to ever campaign on this--income inequality is the drum beat of both parties. But people do notice--just saying. Some even blogged about it years ago. Ironic isn't it, that the richest man in America, Jeff Bezos, who hates Trump with a passion, helped elect him.

Week 2 at Lakeside

The preacher of the week at Lakeside this week is Carl McColman, a anamchara, which means “soul friend,” and a seanchaí, or "story teller." He's not a minister; he's a retreat leader, author, and a contemplative. I'll check out Monday--see what it's about. His conversion story is a little different than most; he was raised a Protestant, converted to Paganism, then from that religion to Catholicism. Then at 10:30 on to Sam Quinones, the author of Dreamland; The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic, who will give 2 lectures on the opioid crisis. Monday night is a silent film organist (and the film, of course). Sunday evening was the Choral Festival  Concert. Members of the choir are Lakesiders and singers from other choirs in the area who came for a week-end retreat of master classes and methods for choir directors.  Lakeside’s Coordinator of Worship Music, Michael Shirtz  was organizer and conductor.

The Blue Hen Restaurant in Lexington, VA

If a black member of the Trump administration, or a gay member, or the Social Media team Diamond and Silk, or a disabled Republican who voted for Trump, or a Mexican immigrant running for a GOP office, or a female spokesperson for Trump who wants to make America great again, or Alice Marie Johnson, who thinks Trump is terrific (granted clemency) were to come to the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, VA, they'd be served a four course menu of bigotry, distain, ignorance and folly. Fortunately, Sarah Sanders is a lot classier than the owner, and she left when being refused service and told why.

  

The Red Hen Restaurant, Lexington, VA

And no.  This is not a first amendment issue where the owner had religious concerns, long held, about serving a member of the president’s staff.  This is poor service, and would not be allowed for any protected group by gender, race, sexual orientation, ethnicity, or religion, but one is allowed to do this to a white female staffer of Donald Trump, which just shows you how insane our “hate” laws are. You can’t compare Valerie Jarrett to a fictional character in an old movie without losing your job, but you can kick someone out of your restaurant. You can threaten the president’s son on social media, and your movie will still open (Peter Fonda).  The difference is pro-Trump or anti-Trump.

The silly season

Q. Why did God make you?
A. God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him for ever in heaven.
Baltimore Catechism (used in the U.S. from 1885 to the late 1960s)

The Q & A format for learning the basics of Christianity was popularized by Martin Luther, and a similar format was followed by Catholics for four hundred years. The U.S. version was revised several times and went from 100 questions to over 1200. Today it is popular again among home-schoolers.

I don't know what was used between the 1970s and 2005 when the current CCC was published. I've heard it called the "silly season" and sounds a bit like the Lutheran book we received in 1974 when we attended membership classes at UALC, which was orange and pink with balloons and theology to match. I think we have 30 years of poorly catechized Catholics and Protestants in the U.S. as fall out from that era.

Restaurant refuses service to a white, female customer

The The Red Hen in Lexington, Virginia refused to serve Press Secretary Sarah Sanders and her family last night because they hate conservatives. No more, no less. (Several people have told me the owner is the cousin of actress Meryl Streep, though I have no independent confirmation of this).

If you'd like to leave a review of what you think of this policy, then visit the restaurant's FB page at: https://www.facebook.com/redhenlexington

Disinformation/Fake News

The Left and Hillary supporters invented the term "fake news" and then Trump snatched it from them and used it against them. Then they disavowed their baby and threw it out.  Don't fall for the "media literacy" set-ups--they have agendas and are not neutral. Facebook, for instance, uses Snopes to help ferret out truth from fake. That’s rich.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=16&v=UQcCIzjz9_s

Sharyl Attkisson explains how this happened and what to watch for.  She goes back to the case of Richard Jewel and the Olympics to explain how biased, sloppy, erroneous, prejudiced and sensational news grows even 20+ years ago, and now especially through social media. “First Draft” is a non-profit that first used the term “fake news,” and then media jumped on the band wagon demanding someone control this. Attkisson suggests we follow the money—and she found the parent of the company Google.

 https://firstdraftnews.org/

“First Draft Coalition is a group of thought leaders and pioneers in social media journalism who are coming together to help you answer these questions, through training and analysis of eyewitness media.”  And it’s just a coincidence these “leaders” are all on the left, manipulating us.

When all the media are on the same page, that’s when we need to suspect “fake news.”

Making Trump’s case

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=eGuSdXiFtLk

CNN reporter ends up making Trump’s case for separation of families, but doesn’t realize it.  She acknowledges that children are used for sex trafficking and as drug mules.

Wellness seminar in Lakeside on nutrition

Actually, I wrote that yesterday.  This morning we’re going to the Idlewyld Bed and Breakfast www.idlewyldbb.com  owned by Dan and Joan Barris at 350 Walnut.  Best breakfast in town.  First I walked 2 miles along the Lakefront in the glorious sunshine.  Life is tough.

Today’s programing is on sustainability.  I’ve been hearing that, or a version of it, for 40 years, but I might stop in to hear the one on Lake Erie.  Tomorrow there is a seminar on Listening and the art of paying attention by a “geriatric life enhancement consultant.”  I could do that—I’m old and I don’t pay attention!

Also tomorrow afternoon is a book review by my friend Nancy Long on “Dreamland: the true tale of America’s Opioid Epidemic (Sam Quinones) at the Lakeside Women’s Club. Her birthday was this week and we went out for lunch at the Bluebird restaurant. www.bluebirdatlakeside.com I had the “Italian Lover” panini, which is fresh pesto, tender chicken, tomato, and provolone cheese with a side of fresh veggies.  Nancy had the “Rockin’ Robin” salad which was strawberries, crimbld goat cheese, roasted sweet potatoes, toasted nut-medley on baby spinach with maple-balsamic reduction.
Sometimes on Friday afternoon I attend the World Affairs program (it’s call dialogue, but you know how Lakesiders are).

That’ll work

Congress needs to solve this; could start with current law

This morning I listened to Paul Ryan talking about making special facilities for "families." Assuming there's a magic wand to get this past Democrats who need it as an issue going through the mid-terms, the first kid who is found out to NOT be a family member, but trafficked, will all be blamed on Trump.

Senator Schumer is challenging Trump to use his pen, make it go away,  the way Obama did. Since Democrats in Congress will never allow a "comprehensive immigration law" change and have blocked Trump on DACA, which has increased the problem,  and the border, here's an idea for the gridlock. Let's work with the laws now on the books!

Leaving children with parents in detention for weeks or months. Is that what Democrats want? Do you suppose the Democrats could find a judge somewhere, Hawaii maybe, to challenge that and let them go into the general population like the Obama years? Betcha.

Three percent returned for court date under Obama's "catch and release" program for illegal immigrant families. And we wonder why the government doesn't know where the children are? What if only 3% of the children have been trafficked? Is that OK? What if only 3% have joined MS-13. OK with Democrats?

Democrats are ridiculing “family values” of Republicans

They’re certainly right that sanctity of marriage is a Republican value, since Democrats have been in the business of destroying marriage and family since 1964, and Republicans do eventually absorb the cultural values imposed by liberals.

And they’re right that sanctity of life is a Republican value (for some Republicans); abortion doesn't appear in the RNC mission statement as it has in the DNC for 3 decades.

And they’re right that the federal government more often disregards the rights of the states when Democrats are in charge.

But they’re  wrong that the current dust up is about children from Mexico; the unaccompanied minors who are being trafficked for sex or labor come mostly from Central America 'with parents" and have passed through Mexico who doesn't want them, or won't take them as refugees.

And they’re right the protests against abortion are about liberty--the right of a child to live, the most basic form of all liberty.

I'm a little puzzled about the FBI probe, though--they confused me on that one. The left is OK with the bias shown at the highest levels? Is that OK in the Ferguson or Baltimore investigations?

Once again, Democrats get Republicans to take the “get Trump” bait

The Inspector General’s Report Reveals the biggest crime of the Obama administration, but by focusing on children separated from parents who have committed a crime, it can be wiped off the front burner. Democrats have done it again, and I can’t believe the Republicans are falling for it.  It's the "look over there" technique that politicians have perfected.

https://thefederalist.com/2018/06/15/11-quick-things-know-inspector-generals-report/

Maggie Thurber of Toledo observes: "I find it interesting and disturbing that the issue of separating children from family units when the family unit enters the country illegally arose at the same time as the IG report on bias in the FBI came out. Especially because it's a practice that the government has been following for years. Did anyone else notice the report is no longer top news.

Four years ago Mother Jones wrote about the deplorable conditions and 70,000 minor children, yet didn’t mention Obama once. Today the children in custody of HHS is a story all and only about Trump, not the failures of Clinton, Bush and Obama years. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/06/child-migrants-surge-unaccompanied-central-america/

*                            *                               *

Mike Huckabee gives out the Sick Hypocrisy Award: Planned Parenthood jumps on the illegal immigration virtue signaling wagon by tweeting its principled stance that precious children deserve not to separated from their parents. Unless you’re separating them with surgical tools and a vacuum hose, I suppose?

*                    *                       *

FBI bias training? "Career attorney Christopher Wray is only the latest man to reach the top of the FBI without ever serving as an agent. And now he says agents need to be instructed to remain impartial as they conduct investigations. Pentagon officials who never served in uniform typically don’t announce plans to teach their troops about patriotism, but perhaps the FBI is a very different institution. " Wall St. Journal Best of the Web, June 19

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/06/inspector-general-report-reveals-fbi-bias-in-clinton-email-investigation/

Fact checking the media’s version of the child immigration policy

As reported in the Daily Signal.

“In 1997, the Clinton administration entered into something called the Flores Settlement Agreement, which ended a class action lawsuit first brought in the 1980s. The settlement established a policy that the federal government would release unaccompanied minors from custody to their parents, relatives, or other caretakers after no more than 20 days, or, alternatively, determine the “least restrictive” setting for the child.

In a separate development, in 2008 the Democrat-controlled Congress approved bipartisan legislation to combat human trafficking and President George W. Bush, a Republican, signed it into law.
Section 235 (g) in that law, the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, states that unaccompanied minors entering the United States must be transferred to the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement rather than to the Department of Homeland Security.

Section 235 (g) in that law, the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, states that unaccompanied minors entering the United States must be transferred to the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement rather than to the Department of Homeland Security.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit expanded the Flores settlement in 2016 to include children brought to the country illegally by their parents.

For consistency between the provision of the anti-trafficking law and the 9th Circuit’s interpretation of the Flores agreement, children who came into the country illegally with parents had to be taken into HHS custody, said Art Arthur, former general counsel for Immigration and Naturalization Services (now known as Immigration and Customs Enforcement) as well as a former federal immigration judge.

“As soon as their parents are detained, the children are classified as unaccompanied,” Arthur, now a resident fellow for law and policy at the Center for Immigration Studies, told The Daily Signal.” “

First week of the season at Lakeside

The Preacher of the week at Lakeside this week is Rev. Dr. John A. Nunes, President of Concordia College, New York. He said yesterday at church his talks would be on the infantilization of adults and the adultification of children--I think it's based on a book, but I've forgotten the author, as there have been more than one with that theme. I plan to attend (9:15), at least today, but it's awfully hot.
At 10:30 is children's author Jill Hardie and at 1:30 is Richard Cowdrey who illustrates children's books. At 3:30 the curator from Mazza Museum (Findlay, OH, children's books) will give a presentation and there's a display of children's book illustrations at Hoover, which I haven't seen yet. I see no space in here for a nap, one of my favorite things to do.

There was a great program yesterday to celebrate Hoover Auditorium’s 90 years.  The construction began during the fall of 1928 and it opened for business in 1929.  What an amazing building with unusual wiring, bathrooms, sound control, seating, doors and stage curtains all having their own stories including roof collapses and fires. Very interesting display of some of the famous speakers and performers from Eleanor Roosevelt to Marian Anderson to Norman Vincent Peale. The Women's Club will have a presentation by David Blank on Peale tomorrow. In order to go to that, I’ll have to skip one of the program’s on children’s books.

https://www.portclintonnewsherald.com/story/news/2018/06/18/hoover-auditorium-brought-historic-speakers-lakeside/709522002/

http://rcowdrey.com/

Why is Peter Strzok still employed with FBI?

In remarks on Sunday Maria Bartiromo show, Alan Dershowitz said,

“FBI agents are allowed to be biased,” Dershowitz said. “They're allowed to support political candidates. That's part of the law. Where I draw the line is when an FBI agent says ‘we'll stop him.’
“That's not an expression of bias. That's not saying who we're going to vote for. That sends a message to the American people that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is going to interfere in an election, in an effort to try to stop the election of one candidate rather than the other. . .you're entitled to support a candidate if you're an FBI agent. But you're not allowed to try to use your office to stop somebody from being elected president of the United States.”

Arthur Brooks tells a Father’s Day story

Arthur Brooks’ father was a college professor of mathematics who drove a bus in the summer.
“He was a natural born mathematician, though. Here’s a classic dinner conversation:
Dad: “Hey kids, tell me as fast as you can what you get when you sum all the numbers from one to a hundred.”

My brother and I: “We’d need some paper.”

Dad: “Wrong. 1 + 100 = 101. 2 + 99 = 101. 3 + 98 = 101. . . . That’s 50 pairs all summing to 101. 50 x 101 = 5,050!”

Us: “Huh. Please pass the mashed potatoes.”

He died fairly young, at 66, from lymphoma. His doctor said that the median survival age for his diagnosis was at least 10 years, but he died in two. About this he was circumspect. He held a Ph.D. in biostatistics and noted, drily, "Someone has to be on the left tail."

Near the very end of his life, with just a few weeks to live, he was reflecting as a statistician on the life he had been given. “Sometimes I imagine a bargain from God,” he said. “He offers me a choice between dying at 66 with a sure bet that my boys grow up, have happy marriages and good careers, and where I get to meet my grandchildren briefly; or playing the odds on a much longer life but leaving the success of my kids up to chance.”

“I’d take the sure bet every time.”

Pregnancy Decision Health Centers

http://pdhc.org/

Pregnancy Decision Health Center is where I’ve been a volunteer for the last 5 or 6 years (don’t remember when I started but there was a big ice storm and I had to cancel my first day).  It provides women with pregnancy tests and ultrasounds (all free, no government money). It also provides counseling, material aid, educational materials, parenting classes, maternity clothes, layettes of beautiful new clothes and hand made things by church ladies.  It educates the community and has teams that go into the high schools to talk about being sexually responsible.  PDHC also has a fatherhood project to promote two parent families and the benefits of monogamy. There is also an emergency hot line.  All this was started about 40 years ago by one woman who began with a hotline in her home after the Roe v. Wade court case.

There are four locations in central Ohio, all with a nurse-director, para-professionals, interns, volunteer counselors most with degrees, and greeters, which was my position. We do the clerical stuff, entering records on the computer (when I began the files were paper and in a file cabinet) and greet the people with a clip board and instructions, like you would see at a doctor’s office. I also search the internet for any recalls on baby equipment that is donated like strollers, bouncers, bathtubs, write thank you notes for donations, insert educational material into packages which are given to each woman. I unpack and sort baby clothing donations, some of which has to be washed, and some of which comes from Catholic ladies who buy or make them, and pack.  I think that organization is about 100 years old.

Our clinic on West Broad Street has a pleasant lobby with comfortable chairs,  two counseling rooms nicely furnished, an education room with tables, chairs, video, etc.  A “store” with maternity clothes, free children’s clothes for older children in the family, diapers, books, etc., and an ultrasound room, plus 2 restrooms. A certain amount in the store is free, others can be earned by attending classes. Some of the locations, like on the OSU campus, offer STD testing, but we don’t. All the ultra-sounds are read by doctors who volunteer their time.

I’m a greeter, but have been on the prayer team for 18 years. Each week or so we get an e-mail list (without names because God knows) of about 10 requests for prayer as these women make the decision to either parent or abort.  I think I’ve only seen adoption a few times in all those years, although that may be because the decision has been made.  Not every woman is seeking an abortion; some need the documentation to qualify for government benefits. But our staff provides follow up anyway, and at the end of their pregnancy they can still have a layette.  Also if there is a miscarriage, grief counseling.  Some don’t have a doctor and need a referral.

Private contributions are 65% of PDHC’s support, grants 18%, churches direct contributions 12% and investments 4%. There is no government funding.  The current budgeted income is about $1.4 million. In 1981 309 clients were served; in 2017 the number served was 4411. 71% of those who seek help have incomes of less than $15,000.

One surprise for me was the list of local resources we compile and hand out—local, state, federal, non-profit, church, etc. It’s extensive and very specialized, like beds, or scholarships, or free clinics, or low cost housing, or food pantries. The bed ministry is from churches—ours has one.  It’s surprising (to me) how many families don’t have beds, or the women have fled abuse with no furniture, or the house was treated for bed bugs, and all the mattresses were thrown out. For a child to have his own bed is something really special. 

Bias against Trump within FBI

  
There is much more of this hostility evidence in the IG report, but apparently hostility is not against the law, even with vast amounts of evidence beginning at the top.  Mueller chose only those who hated Trump to be part of his investigation.

Father’s Day June 16

I saw this today. "The greatest gift my father has ever given me was his time."

That's not the kind of dad I had. He worked 12 hours a day. I treasure the few memories I have like that because they were so few. Like riding in his truck listening to him sing. Or the Sunday afternoons he drove my girl friends and me to the skating rink. Or his carrying my 11 year old sister in his arms to take her to the hospital when the doctor said she had polio. Or when all six of us would drive to Rockford to see a movie--I even remember the names of the movies! King Solomon’s Mines.  African Queen. What do I remember? How he treated my mother. Like she was the most important person in the world. How he treated his own mother, stopping by to visit her almost every day. That's how to make a little girl feel special and safe.

The Inspector General Report

Manafort is in prison and Ms. Clinton, Comey, McCabe, Clapper, Strzok and Page all of whom tried to bring down the 2016 election are running free. Feeling safe yet?

The Korean dead will be returned

I teared up when I read that the remains of soldiers would be returned from North Korea. Their parents are gone now, but there are siblings and children and grandchildren. I remember when my uncle came home in 1947 after being killed in China in 1944 during WWII. He was an aerial engineer for the 24th Mapping Squadron of the 8th Photo Group, Reconnaissance (10th Air Force) which served in the China, Burma, India theater. Clare and a pilot in his unit were killed in an explosion when their plane hit a gasoline supply, through the stupidity of his commanding officer who insisted the men go up in a blinding storm. No one else in that unit lost his life and we only found out how Clare died when a great nephew, Steve, attended one of their reunions in the 1990s. Clare came home on the Honda Knot through San Francisco with 233,181 American dead mostly from action in the Pacific. Another large number came to New York from Europe. Hundreds of thousands of grateful Americans lined up to greet them. I hope we can welcome home those who died in Korea, the war that never ended. Thank you, President Trump.

https://www.militarytimes.com/flashpoints/2018/06/12/trump-kim-agree-to-repatriating-us-military-remains-from-korean-war/

http://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2010/05/remembering-uncle-clare-on-memorial-day.html

What’s so great about kale?

https://www.eatthis.com/10-superfoods-healthier-than-kale/

https://skipthepie.org/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/kale-raw/compared-to/chard-swiss-raw/

Spinach--Nutrition Score: 86.43
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, a 180 gram serving of boiled spinach provides 6.43 mg of iron, the muscle mineral—that’s more than a 6 oz hamburger patty!

Chard--Nutrition Score: 89.27
Recent research has shown that these powerhouse leaves contain at least 13 different polyphenol antioxidants, including anthocyanins–anti-inflammatory compounds that could offer protection from type 2 diabetes.

Beet greens--Nutrition Score: 87.08
A scant cup of the bitter green serves up nearly 5 grams of fiber—that’s more than you’ll find in a bowl of Quaker oats! Researchers at the University of Leeds found that risk of cardiovascular disease was significantly lower for every 7 grams of fiber consumed.

Watercress--Nutrition Score: 100
The top dog, the unrivaled champion, the chairman of the cutting board, watercress may also be the closest thing yet to a true anti-aging food. Gram for gram this mild-tasting and flowery-looking green contains four times more beta carotene than an apple, and a whopping 238 percent of your daily recommended dose of vitamin K per 100 grams—two compounds that keep skin dewy and youthful.  Richest dietary source of PEITC (phenylethyl isothiocyanate), which research suggests can fight cancer.

Should the minority tyrannize the majority?

I'm old enough to remember when divorce brought shame to the whole family. Even the extended family. Even marrying a divorced person was not acceptable. I was very young--but I remember. There are still people who don't believe in divorce, who would shun a relative, or stay in a miserable relationship just to avoid it. Could be religion, could just be obstinance. There may even be more of them than there are LGBTQ.

So what if an anti-divorce party grabbed political power and could have a career ruined or a business closed or involve one in a law suit because of divorce, or belief in divorce for others even though not even married? That's what we as a nation are being forced to confront with the power of LGBTQ. We have to accept men on the women's track team even though they are clearly men; a CEO can't eat a Chick-fil-a without apologizing because he is attacked on social media; we have to accept men in the ladies' restroom endangering women; we have to accept 5 year olds wanting to be called by a different pronoun encouraged by their wacko parents; we have to accept same sex marriage, not just as a legal entity, but socially and privately; we have to accept fostering and adopting as what's best for the adult couple, not the young child. If we don't accept this tyranny from a tiny minority we are the bigots.

Are church weddings going out of style?

When my parents and grandparents got married (1934 and 1901), home weddings with a few friends and family were common in our (Anabaptist) tradition. No white wedding dress, just something nice that could be reused. Even in the 1940s one of my aunts, Dorothy, was married at our house (first wedding I attended). By the 50s and 60s, most people I knew were married in churches, although a niece had her wedding in 1984 in the same yard where my parents said their vows. Now it's public spaces like parks, fancy city buildings, elegant old mansions, old barns, or destinations like resorts, and I've even heard that funeral homes have been used.

Honor your parents

For June morning devotions I've been reading the book of Sirach in the Bible. This is one that Martin Luther removed, so I'm not very familiar with it. Most Christians around the world do have this one, however. Anyway, for Father's Day there's a wonderful expansion on the commandment to honor your parents.

Sirach 3:12-13.
My son, take care of your father when he is old;
grieve him not as long as he lives.
Even if his mind fail, be considerate with him;
revile him not in the fullness of your strength.

Isn't that beautiful? I know so many people who have lovingly honored parents in this way. It's definitely not easy.