Not today’s smoothie

 

Can you make a smoothie with a giant cuke?

Today’s smoothie is carrot juice, watercress, banana, strawberries and peach slices.

Dogs and babies at Lakeside

I usually stop to admire dogs and babies when I'm on my walks. Today a man about 18" taller than me was rocking a cranky baby in a buggy. I stopped to peek and admire a little one who'd about outgrown the space.
Me: How old is he?
He: 10 weeks.
Me: Wow. He's big.
He: Weighed 8.5 lbs. at birth. But I was 9.
Me: I was 9.5.
He: Yeah, but I was a twin.

Taking care of the children

The anti-Trump cult is obsessed with something that has been going on during the last 4 administrations--separating children from parents at the border to determine what is best for the children. Some are trafficked by non-relatives, some sponsors are ineligible, some parents have returned home without them (the goal was to get them over the border), some parents have been detained and can't take care of them. What is different is Trump is following the law, and that infuriates his enemies.

"More than 2,000 migrant children were detained separately from their parents during the 45 days between the announced launch of Trump's zero tolerance policy and Trump signing the executive order.

The administration missed a court-ordered deadline last month to reunite all detained migrant children under age 5 with their parents, although the administration said it reunited all ELIGIBLE families.

The government in total has reunited over 1,800 children ages 5 to 17 with their parents or sponsors, but numerous children were deemed ineligible to be reunited because of safety or legal concerns." http://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/401221-border-patrol-chief-family-separations-began-long-before-trump

The Sultan and the Saint by PBS, Friday movie at Lakeside

Based on the book The Saint and the Sultan.  https://washtheocon.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Book-Review-Moses-THE-SAINT-AND-THE-SULTAN.pdf

I left the movie after about 5 minutes.  First, I read all the opening credits—all but one were Muslim funding sources.  Now that is fine, but as the saying goes, “You dance with the One who brung you,”  and the production company is an Islamic non-profit. Second, I looked at the faces of the actors portraying the Christians in the opening scenes—they all appeared to be mentally challenged, or starving, or ugly.  Except the pope.  I think he was fat.  Not a good sign.  And the AC was blowing too hard, so I said to Joan (friend), See you later.  I found this review by someone who watched and took notes (which I’d intended to do). All I have is her pseudonym.

-------

I watched it all last night and took notes, writes Erikaspirit16 at the Catholic Answers Forum.

“First, Alex Kronemer is the exec. producer. [This is his production company, Unity Productions Foundation.] He has produced 9 movies on Islam, most of which have been shown on PBS (Spain, Islamic art, Muhammad, etc.). I can’t find out much about him, other than he has an MA in comparative religion from Harvard and he did a lot of work for the federal gov. in various positions. His wife has a Muslim-sounding name. Is he a convert to Islam? I don’t know. In any case, his movies are always very sympathetic to Islam.

If you looked at the sponsors / supporters of the movie at the beginning, other than the Sisters of St. Francis in Iowa (!), they are all Muslims. PBS tacked on a note at the end of the list saying a complete list of sponsors was online at PBS.org, but I couldn’t find it. But clearly this movie (and others by Kronemer) are very sympathetic to Islam, and show it in the best possible light. In other words, propaganda. There is no attempt to be even handed or objective. But of course that’s how it is presented: an accurate, objective presentation of the “facts.”

Is the movie “wrong”? Well, other than pretending a beach in Maryland is a beach in Egypt, no. But the sins of omission are many!

First, the title. They flipped it. The book by Paul Moses (who is one of the commentators) is “The Saint and the Sultan.” The movie is “The Sultan and the Saint.” Subtle, but it shows where it’s coming from.

We begin with Alexius, the Byzantine emperor, writing to the pope asking for mercenaries. No background is given at all. The impression is given that the Pope (who says “my armies” --hardly) began the Crusades as an imperialist venture. Nothing about the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 1009 by Sultan al-Hakim of Egypt; nothing about the interruption of the pilgrim routes; nothing about the Battle of Mantzikert in 1071 where the Saljuq Turks defeated a Byzantine army. All that is omitted. And of course the Byzantines had Western mercenaries in their service for a long time–this was not an innovation.

Then we have the Crusaders vs. Muslims story line. But of course (!) it omitted the fact that the Crusaders in the 5th Crusade had made an alliance with the Turks to occupy al-Malik al-Kamil’s brother in N. Syria. So you have Muslim Turks allied with Christian Crusaders. The Christian / Muslim divide isn’t quite so clear now, is it?

Then the population of Egypt is completely ignored. Most scholars think that at the beginning of the Crusades, Egypt was still a Christian country. Muslims were a minority. It’s only during the Crusades (particularly after the Crusaders burned Old Cairo (Fustat) in 1171) that the Christians began to convert to Islam in great numbers, not for religious reasons, but because they were seen as fifth columnists who would support the Crusaders given the chance. By the 5th Crusade, a large number of Egyptians were still Christian. The business about al-Kamil ruling in favor of the Christians against Muslims who wanted to tear down a church needs to be seen in this light. And even in Egypt today, Christians need a gov. permit to even repair a church, let alone build a new one.

There is some nonsense scattered throughout about “conflict” and the brain, etc. which seems to be there simply to emphasize the violence of the Crusaders vs. the peace-loving Muslims.

al-Malik al-Kamil. Poor Jeremy Irons spent the entire movie pronouncing the name as “Camille.” Why didn’t someone help him out??? It’s pronounced with the stress on the 1st syllable and the final ‘L’ as a “light” l . And al-Kamil, contrary to the impression in the movie, wasn’t the sultan at the beginning of the 5th Crusade. His father was. Al-Kamil came to power in Egypt only. Another brother got Palestine and southern Syria. A 3rd brother got N. Syria and what are now parts of Turkey and Iraq. Al-Kamil didn’t come to power smoothly–there was an attempted coup by a Kurdish regiment. (Al-Kamil and his family were all Kurds.) After the Crusade was over, there was conflict among the brothers, and the Ayyubid dynasty basically dissolved into family quarrels.

Massacre of the Jews in the Rhineland during the 1st Crusade. Yes, it happened. But the movie neglected to say that the Papal representative and the Church generally tried to stop it. And needless to say, there was not a peep about the massacre of the Jews in Granada in 1066—a massacre by the Muslims that most scholars think killed more Jews than the Crusaders did. Note that it was only about 30 years earlier.

At one point the young al-Kamil is reciting the verse about “no compulsion in religion.” Very true. But an objective presentation would have mentioned the imposition of the jizya tax on non-Muslims and the “Pact of 'Umar,” a very discriminatory set of rules for non-Muslims (they couldn’t ride horses, had to dress a certain way, had to make way for Muslims in the street, etc. etc.). Contrast that with a comment later in the movie: “Muslims were considered beasts” by the Crusaders. Not sure where that comes from–I’ve never come across it! And the idea that if only the Crusaders met “real” Muslims all would be well is just silly; Crusaders had been in Palestine well over a century by the time of the 5th Crusade. They had adopted many ideas from the Arabs and had lived with the Arabs.

At one point the movie talks about the “vengeful God” of the Christians. No balance; no other point of view mentioned.

Michael Calabria is the featured commentator, although there are others. From what I can find, he is a Franciscan friar and professor at Bonaventure U. He studied Egyptology. After he became a friar, he seems to have switched fields and now writes about Islam and Christianity (thus his presence in this movie). However, as a long-time student of the Crusades, I have never run across him or any of his work.

The movie portrays Francis as visiting the sultan’s camp to convert the sultan and / or his army. In the 13th century, Christians had the notion that they could make headway by converting Muslims, esp. their rulers. One of the reasons Thomas Aquinas wrote his Summa was as a tool to convert Muslim rulers in N. Africa. So the notion is not new or unique to Francis–he was simply one of many with that notion.

And the sultan allowing Francis to address his court is a common theme among Muslim rulers. This was not unique, it is mentioned often. But of course the idea was that the Muslim rebuttal of the ignorant Christian would show how great Islam was; it wasn’t simply a gesture of ecumenicism or toleration.

The similarities of the Fatiha and the Our Father have been remarked on before. As have the similarities of the 99 names of God vs. a litany of the aspects of God in Christianity.

The movie ends with the idea that the Crusades ended because the idea of a “loving God” replaced the idea of a “vengeful God” in Christianity. Nonsense. The final wish that “the road to peace runs through humanity that we all share,” is a pious hope we can all agree on.

Today’s smoothie is really yummy

Eggnog made with honey

organic baby spinach

Banana

blueberries

Exercising with asthma (while being old)

Nonpharmacologic Treatment Measures for Exercise-Induced Bronchospasm

Increase physical conditioning.

Warm up for at least 10 minutes before actual exercise begins.

Cover mouth and nose with scarf or mask during cold weather.

Exercise in warm, humidified environment, if possible.

Avoid aeroallergens and pollutants.

Cool down or gradually lower the intensity of the exercise before stopping.

Wait at least two hours after a meal before exercising.

https://www.aafp.org/afp/2003/0215/p769.html

Even science for middle schoolers has a bias

Today at WalMart I looked through "Everything You Need to Ace Science in One Big Fat Notebook: The Complete Middle School Study Guide (Big Fat Notebooks)." I have one for Math that I've found very helpful, since even middle school math is a challenge for me. The series is colorful and has a nice format.  But I was shocked to read in one section about 4 factoids of misinformation on Galileo and the Catholic Church—it didn’t accurately present Galileo’s side or the church’s side.  Just the Protestant side.

I'm accustomed to being totally immersed in the Protestant viewpoint of religion, culture, and history, (I be one but our history is written like nothing happened before Luther), but in a review book for pre-teens? Let's look at this from a Catholic viewpoint--it's probably the first time you've ever seen it. It wasn't just the church of that time, it was the SCIENTISTS of that time (think-90% of scientists believe climate change science) .

https://www.catholic.com/tract/the-galileo-controversy

At Galileo’s request, Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, a Jesuit—one of the most important Catholic theologians of the day—issued a certificate that, although it forbade Galileo to hold or defend the heliocentric theory, did not prevent him from conjecturing it. When Galileo met with the new pope, Urban VIII, in 1623, he received permission from his longtime friend to write a work on heliocentrism, but the new pontiff cautioned him not to advocate the new position, only to present arguments for and against it. When Galileo wrote the Dialogue on the Two World Systems, he used an argument the pope had offered and placed it in the mouth of his character Simplicio. Galileo, perhaps inadvertently, made fun of the pope, a result that could only have disastrous consequences. Urban felt mocked and could not believe how his friend could disgrace him publicly. Galileo had mocked the very person he needed as a benefactor. He also alienated his long-time supporters, the Jesuits, with attacks on one of their astronomers. The result was the infamous trial, which is still heralded as the final separation of science and religion.

Gentleman in Moscow, September book club

I'm reading "A Gentleman in Moscow" by Amor Towles for September book club. It's a great read, and I admit to being thrilled I recognize some of the names and events being a Russian major in college and taking all those history courses.  But I had to laugh at a perfect example for all the mush brained snowflakes and Bern babies who think socialism is so great. Count Rostov is indeed quite the gentleman, knows his wine, and which goes with what. One evening in the dining room of the hotel he can’t leave he orders a specific wine, a bottle of San Lorenzo Barolo, 1912, and was told he can order either red or white. He repeats his order, so the manager takes him to the wine cellar of the Boyarsky dining room of the Metropol Hotel where he discovers that 100,000 bottles of wine have had their labels removed. He inquires and is told:
"A complaint was filed with comrade Teodorov, the Commissar of Food, claiming that the existence of our wine list runs counter to the ideals of the Revolution. That it is a monument to the privilege of the nobility, the effeteness of the intelligentsia, and the predatory pricing of speculators."
"A meeting was held, a vote was taken, an order was handed down. . . Henceforth, the Boyarsky shall sell only red and white wine with every bottle at a single price."

Censorship

The socialists are lying to you about the "shrinking middle class."

"The American middle class has been doing just fine. In 1967, 33.7 percent of all American households earned between $50,000 and $100,000; by 2014, that number (in constant 2014 dollars) had fallen to 28.5 percent of American households. That means the death of the middle class, right? Wrong. It turns out that everybody just got wealthier. In 1967, the households earning an annual income of $50,000 or less constituted 58.2 percent of all Americans; as of the end of 2014, just 46.8 percent fell into this group. And while only 8.1 percent of American households earned more than $100,000 a year in 1967, today, 24.7 percent do. That’s not a collapsing middle class. That’s a growing upper middle class."
https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/01/middle-class-income-not-stagnating/
Yes, the middle class is moving up, to upper middle class, and socialists hate that and lie to you, like Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders.
And let's not forget how many Americans are now retired--like the Bruces. Socialists want you to forget that figure. "If we compare full-time workers ages 25 to 64 in 1979 with that same subset of workers in 2013, income exceeded inflation and grew 33 percent total."
A lot of these figures are from the Obama era--they even lie to you about that!

The morning exercise routine

Until this summer, I usually walked about two miles in the morning, always choosing a flat street to accommodate my bursitis pain and getting at least a mile along Lake Erie.  Then the Wellness Center opened in 2018.  Now I walk there (about 1 mile to get there), exercise on a cycle and a treadmill (about 4 miles), then walk home, about 1 mile, and pick up 2 or 3 miles during the day walking to various programs and activities.  Returning home through the woods has been especially nice.

 

 

From a drone photo

White privilege and Whoopi

Whoopi Goldberg is worth $45 million and goes on TV (ABC The View) spewing hate and bigotry and decrying various justice "gaps." She would never need to work again, but loves the platform. This morning on my walk I talked to a white woman, probably about Whoopi's age, who works 40 hours a week at near minimum, then goes across the street and works another 4 hours at a nursing home. I guess that's white privilege.

The Alex Jones fiasco on the left

There's a least one liberal who understands what's happening with Big Tech silencing Alex Jones, and he writes for CNN. Keep in mind how often Facebook Zuckerberg met with President Obama. That bromance is still strong.  Fascism thrives when big business cozies up to the government, and we still have a shadow, swampy government resisting the one we elected.
“Restricting offensive or harmful language for the greater good is all fine and dandy until you become beholden to a definition of ‘greater good’ you don't agree with,” Granderson writes at CNN.com. “Or when you oppose a politician’s view of ‘offensive.’”
Granderson is a black journalist who has come out as gay, formerly married to a woman so he has a son.  He can expect some of the Candace Owens blacklash. (Owens is the black conservative recently attacked by white radicals in Antifa for eating breakfast in a restaurant.  Shades of the 1950s lunch counters)
Big Tech has been restricting conservatives and libertarians like Dennis Prager or various bloggers while outlandish conspiracy buffs like Jones gets more attention while excusing and ignoring the hate speech and protests on the left. If they [Big Tech] were to release the HR searches they've done on their own employees, I think you'll find that they have no diversity of thought in hiring, promoting or development.
So why would incredibly successful capitalists (like Bezos who is the richest man in the world and Zuckerberg who owns your social life) side with oppressive, regulatory government administrations teetering on the cliff of fascism? To keep the start ups at the gate through increased taxes and regulatory power.

What socialized medicine looks like

What you have to look forward to if the socialists like Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders win in 2018: "Native Americans have received federally funded health care for decades. A series of treaties, court cases and acts passed by Congress requires that the government provide low-cost and, in many cases, free care to American Indians. The Indian Health Service (IHS) is charged with delivering that care." [IHS web site quote].

The per person cost is about 1/3 of what the other Americans spend, but is in line with Europe. Also, native Americans have a life expectancy 5.5 years less than all other Americans.

https://www.ihs.gov/newsroom/factsheets/disparities/

Francis Asbury, 1745-1816

On August 7, 1771, Francis Asbury answered John Wesley's call for Methodist preachers to go and evangelize the colonies. In 45 years he covered about 300,000 miles on horseback and crossed the Appalachian mountains more than 60 times; he ordained more than 4,000 Methodist ministers and preached more than 16,000 sermons.

Camp meetings, August 6

Today is the birthday/anniversary of the organized camp meetings and revivals that turned America back to Christianity, August 6, 1801, called the Cane Ridge Revival in Bourbon County, Kentucky, ca. 20 miles west of Lexington.
https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/issues/issue-45/revival-at-cane-ridge.html
Lakeside Chautauqua began as a Methodist camp meeting in August, 1873. "On Aug. 27, 1873, Reverend Henry O. Sheldon, the first presiding elder of the East Toledo Methodist Episcopal district, preached the first sermon of the Lakeside camp meeting from a basic preacher stand surrounded by twenty canvas tents". There will be a marker placed on September 2.
https://www.lakesideohio.com/calendar/event/12895

20 years a spy

"Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) reportedly had a Chinese spy infiltrate her office for some 20 years. "According to reports from Politico and The San Francisco Chronicle, the mole from the communist government served as Feinstein’s driver, an office gofer, a liaison to the Asian-American community, and even attended Chinese consulate functions on behalf of the senator."
And when she was advised of this, she fired him. Good. Close the door after the horse has escaped. And that's usually enough on that team, but if it happens to a Republican, it is hell to pay. And God forbid someone who knew someone from the Trump team should have played golf with or attended an event where there was a Russian.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/34030/report-feinsteins-personal-driver-20-years-was-amanda-prestigiacomo

Out and about on the peninsula

Shopped at Walmart this morning. Noticed the hiring banner at the door. $11.50 starting wage. I've also noticed at various Walmarts that their employees resemble all God's people-- black, white, brown, tattoos, nose rings, obese, anorexic, burka, autistic, disabled, well spoken or not so much, and most are helpful and well informed in their department or will find help if they don't know. I’ve never understood why people want to ridicule.
I read at a trombone website that some people use WD40 for slide lubrication.  So I bought a small container.

Neighborhood block party, August 3

In August the home owners on our Lakeside street will get together for a pitch in dinner and games, and this year it was our turn.  We had everything set up (top 2 photos), and then it started to rain about 4:30, so we moved a few things inside.  By 5 the rain had stopped, but it was pretty hot, and many chose to stay in the air conditioning.  We had 20 people in our little house/yard/deck counting us (one neighbor brought their friends from Indianapolis who were visiting), and I served sweet/sour (meatball recipe) sloppy joes on buns, and the guests brought fruit plate, vegetable plate, chips, cookies and brownies—all finger food so we’d have minimal clean up. We broke up about 7:15 so everyone had time to get to Hoover to see Point of Grace, a trio of Christian women who had replaced the original program, Sandi Patty. https://www.thoughtco.com/point-of-grace-biography-709697

Protected speech

Here’s what Todd Thorton who works for the airlines said about this:
“So I post [on Facebook] about flight attendants and get 281 reactions, 11 comments, and 182 shares among 1,100 friends. I post something about Trump and the same 25 or so friends see it. Tell me Zuckerberg and his thought police aren’t actively engaged in throttling back anything conservative. Apparently such views are against their community standards.”

The porch mysteries

Bob is starting his 9th mystery of porch reading of the summer. So when he announced at 8:30 a.m. that Andrea had been murdered (in chapter 1) I was a little startled. Although I was the librarian, I don't read mysteries or even much fiction. Our daughter supplies them by the sacksful. He's been through all the Maisie Dobbs, and Charles Todd, now roaring through Mary Higgins Clark, and has sampled a few Agatha Christie.
Titles by Higgins Clark read this summer:
No place like home
I’ll walk alone
The last years
Pretend you don’t see her
Daddy’s little girl
Before I say good-bye

Today’s smoothie

Eggnog made with honey

watercress

one orange

one frozen banana

frozen peaches

Free college tools and courses 2018-2019

There are many free courses on the internet, and I’ve taken 2 from Coursera, one of which I completed (Medical Statistics) and one I didn’t (Gut microbiota).  Today I came across a listing of free courses at Ivy League colleges https://qz.com/1263050/here-are-300-free-ivy-league-university-courses-you-can-take-online-right-now/   at Awareness Watch http://awarenesswatch.virtualprivatelibrary.net/V16N8.pdf and looked through the Harvard listing for the Book in medieval liturgies.

“When we think of liturgy today, we imagine short, formal, congregational events happening periodically within the confines of churches. Medieval liturgy, however, took up many hours of every day, filled the city's largest meeting halls, and even spilled onto the streets. At the center of the medieval liturgy were the books we will study in this course.

In this module of The Book: Histories Across Time and Space, we’ll explore and explain the beautiful service books of the medieval church. No prior knowledge of liturgy or Latin is required, but there will be a lot of both, along with music.”

This course is part of a group of courses called The Book. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=9&v=LwHbfJAYqJw

Sounds very interesting—the big question, do I want to work that hard.  You can go at your own pace in a free course, but when I enroll I want to do well.  Sometimes stretching the mind is painful!

Lakeside Symphony Orchestra 2018 season

The Lakeside Symphony orchestra was established in 1963 and after 40+ years the conductor has retired and they are featuring guest conductors, whom I assume are applying for the job. Tonight is Matthew Kraemer and the theme is musical postcards. Guest soloist is Jinjoo Cho on violin. She was here a few weeks ago with a group of very talented students from the Cleveland area.

http://matthewkraemer.com/bio/

Bob’s lunch date with the guys

Have you seen them?

It makes no sense to put a virtue signaling sign in your yard about "in this household we accept everyone" when you live in a gated community and even the cheapest homes are north of $200,000.

Lakeside changes in 40 years

After I left the Wellness Center this morning, I saw something on my walk back to the cottage that caused me to reflect back 40 years when things at Lakeside were so much more simple. I passed a couple carrying backpacks as I made my way to the old rail tracks which are now a walking trail. Thinking maybe they were getting ready to do the Appalachian Trail or El Camino in Spain, I paused. They unloaded their packs, put down yoga mats and opened their laptop computer which was playing an exercise routine. You've come a long way Lakeside.

Straw vote

Trombone review

We have an arts center here at Lakeside, the Rhein Center, dedicated to the memory of a son/Lakesider who was killed in a terrorist attack. It’s extremely popular and the offerings expand every year.   My husband teaches perspective drawing/watercolor there. Today I'm going up to see if there are openings in the trombone class. I've never seen that offered, and 60 years is a long time, but thought I'd see what I remember.

Nothing Gold Can Stay

I have  a new shirt—it’s gray and white blocks with gold flowers embellished with gold sparkles on the white. That’s my reflection in a mirror on the closet door.  There is old style writing on it, and my friend Nancy Long asked what it said.  I didn’t know because the writing was rather loose and slanted and I had assumed it was in a foreign language and hadn’t really examined it.  But I could make out one line “Her hardest hue to hold,” so I looked it up on the internet.

Robert Frost. “Nothing gold can stay.” Whether he’s saying the first green you see in spring is the most desirable, or that the flowers that bloom as the leaves unfold have a gold hue, I don’t know. But they only last briefly, as the dawn becomes day, and nothing precious lasts forever. “So Eden sank to grief.”


I attended a program with Robert Frost reading his own poetry when I was in college, probably 1959 or 1960.  His simple poems were elegant and yet complex.  My date was Chinese.  He seemed a little puzzled.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hha8E2whFkk


Robert Frost, 1874 - 1963

Nature’s first green is gold, 
Her hardest hue to hold. 
Her early leaf’s a flower; 
But only so an hour. 
Then leaf subsides to leaf. 
So Eden sank to grief, 
So dawn goes down to day. 
Nothing gold can stay. 

Something’s gotta give movie for Saturday

It’s a gorgeous day at Lakeside, one of the prettiest we’ve had, and after a stroll through the craft show I sat down and watched a throw away movie, “Something’s gotta give” with Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson. Kind of predictable—the movie begins with him dating her (Keaton’s character) daughter, but in the end the two who are closer in age end up together. Lots of sex scenes and innuendo and jokes about heart attacks, eye glasses,  age and aging.  I wandered away a lot, looking for something crunchy to munch, but there was nothing but healthy stuff in the house.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0337741/

What I found surprising was how up to date everything looked—from the fashion, to the phones to the kitchen counter tops.  For a movie that is 15+ years old, it has aged well.  If this were 1958 or 1968 and the movie was 15 years old we’d be giggling at the fashion and hair styles.

Around town

Dinner tonight: roast chicken, coleslaw, baked potato, grapes and cherries, and carrot cake.  The place is crawling with people.  The program tonight, Home Free, was the biggest draw in 2017, so they’re expecting a big crowd.  I think we’ll have to be at Hoover when the doors open at 7:30 if we want a good seat.

Here’s what I wrote last year. “Home Free, a "vocal band" put on a fabulous show Friday night at the Hoover in Lakeside. Pretty much a packed house--lots of covers of Oak Ridge Boys, Statler Brothers, Alabama, etc. Loved Elvira. Nice Johnny Cash Ring of Fire, too. A few of the hip hop genre I thought were inappropriate for our regular audience, but they are a quality, fabulous group. Don't miss them if they are performing near you. Amazing sound--all vocal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXQpDDcrN-w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W9ue85L9PA

Today’s smoothie

It was sort of clean out the tired and lonely fruit from the frig day. Heading back to Lakeside after a week at home so I needed to make some room in the cooler.

Carrot juice

Baby spinach

strawberries

1 orange

1 peach

This had a lot of fiber.

Christian community—a how to do list

“A good way to start loving God divinely is by generously loving your spouse, children, parents, siblings, and friends. It is doubtful that we will love anyone else if we fail to love the ones closest to us.

Love is the key, love is the secret weapon. Forget about how you feel. Love is not a feeling; it’s a decision to prefer the good of others. Make a habit of this and you will start changing things around you and your work will be amplified.”  Douglas Dewey

And then the author provides 10.5 rules for accomplishing the commandment to love God and others—forming Christian community.  Some may surprise you. https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2018/07/28/10½-rules-for-forming-Christian-community/

Exercising at Life Time

I enjoy working out at Life Time Fitness (117 centers in 26 states and 34 major markets under the LIFE TIME FITNESS® and LIFE TIME ATHLETIC® brands in the United States and Canada) on Henderson Rd., near our home.  I really do. I’ve been going about 5-6 times a week since January—treadmill and resistance machines.  I think it’s helping my balance and the strength in my hands.   However, as I read through its magazine, "Experience Life," I do sense that focusing totally on oneself--personal empowerment--body, nutrition, well-being, fitness, breathing (mindfulness and other eastern quasi-religious exercises are big), and "connectedness"--is a tad shallow even if it is a billion dollar business. "Small acts of kindness. . . offer great health benefits and make us feel more secure" and so forth.

The Founder, Chairman, and CEO is Bahram Akradi, who immigrated to the U.S. from Iran as a teen-ager. His father was in the Iranian Air Force and sensed a revolution was coming so sent his son to the U.S. to live with his brother. He's positive that embracing respect as our guiding principle is good for our health and the country. See what you think and whether something is missing.

https://experiencelife.com/article/a-healthy-dose-of-respect/

https://gym.lifetimefitness.com/upper-arlington/gym-columbus

The most useful course in high school—Latin

Three socialists. . .

Graigmile back for a 6th season in 2018

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

You don’t need to be Catholic to appreciate the excellent program offered in the summer by The Church of  St. Mary in Lake Forest, Illinois by Charles Craigmile.  He is a theologian turned businessman.  I’ve watched them all.  This season is about the culture and relies on the work of Pope Benedict, “Culture Lost, Culture Reclaimed: The Catholic Renewal.” 50 years ago the Pope wrote “Introduction to Christianity” (as Cardinal Ratzinger). 2018 is also the 50th anniversary of Humanae Vitae, http://w2.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae.html and the 100th anniversary of the end of WWI.  Also the 200th anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx. 

“Lecturer Charles H. Craigmile holds an undergraduate degree in philosophy, with minors in Latin and Greek from the University of St. Thomas, an MA in philosophy from DePaul University, and an MBA from JL Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Charles has also completed three-years’ course work toward a graduate degree in Theology at the University of St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein. Over the last 25 years, Charles has taught Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA) programs across the Chicago area and led summer programs in recent years at Church of Saint Mary in Lake Forest. He is president and CEO of Revenova, LLC, the leading Cloud-based Transportation Management Application built on the Salesforce.com platform. Previously, he was president and CEO of Forseva which he sold to Equifax in 2014.” (From 2014 story in Daily North Shore)

http://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2016/10/fourth-annual-summer-school-of-faith.html

July 26, 1833 William Wilberforce and slavery

I have a morning routine of about 30 minutes which includes some reading and journaling, and before we went to the Lake I’d checked out of the UALC library “The One Year Christian History; a daily glimpse into God’s powerful work” by E. Michael and Sharon Rusten, c. 2003.  The passage for July 26 was on William Wilberforce (b. 1759) and his battle to free the slaves of the British Empire.  On July 26, 1833, when Wilberforce was on his death bed he received word that the Emancipation Act freeing the slaves of the British Empire was assured of passing. (The British slave trade itself had been abolished in 1807. The U.S. Constitution had written into it the abolishment of the slave trade in 1807 and which took effect  Jan. 1, 1808.)  He had been working with a group of Christian men and women, wealthy and powerful,  and although Wilberforce is the name known on both sides of the Atlantic as a dedicated abolitionist, his band of friends were essential to his mission.

This link (not in the book) is additional information on his group, and contains an interesting outline describing when Christians band together in common cause and take the long view, much can be accomplished.  ttp://www.cslewisinstitute.org/webfm_send/471 

The outline of how Wilberforce’s group functioned would itself make an interesting topic for a small covenant group or Sunday school class.

• They shared a common commitment to Jesus Christ and a clear sense of calling.

• They were committed to lifelong friendship and mutual submission was the norm. • Their advocacy was marked by careful research, planning and strategy.

• They worshiped both privately and publicly, gathering twice weekly at the Clapham Church.

• Their friendships were inclusive and focused on the essentials. For example, Wilberforce was a Wesleyan and his closest friend, Henry Thornton, was a Calvinist.

• They made family life a clear priority and delighted in each other’s marriages and children.

• They kept the “long view” on completing projects. Abolition of the slave trade took 20 years!

• They made no dichotomy between evangelism and social action. Their magazine, The Christian Observer, exemplifies this.

• Their faith was integral to all of life, family, career, friendship and more. It was a faith that the younger generation calls, “24/7.” They talked together of a faith that impacted every part of their lives. There were no “compartments.”

• They enabled one another vs. trying to “have it all.” They recognized each other’s passions and supported one another in addressing them.

The Rusten title would make a nice gift—especially for one with a shorter attention span but who can still make it through a few pages.  https://www.christianbook.com/the-one-year-of-christian-history/e-michael/9780842355070/pd/55073

Happy Birthday, Carol

Happy 81st birthday to my sister Carol who died in 1996 at 58. We still miss you. Photo is 1989 with her daughter and son. Recently we got to meet her great granddaughter who visited us at Lakeside with her grandparents. What a treat. Carol was the only one of my family with any fashion flair, and loved beautiful clothes, bright colors, stylish purses, shoes and jewelry. As an enterprising teen, she sold Avon products. Although her primary career was in nursing with a degree from Goshen College, she did own a dress shop in Bradenton, FL.

 

Never a snowflake, after high school graduation in 1955 Carol went into Brethren Volunteer Service and did incredible tasks for one so young, like doing church plant surveys in Denver, helping with clean up after flooding in Pennsylvania, teaching Sunday School and leading worship in Kentucky where she road horseback to services because there were no passable roads, and being a "healthy volunteer patient" aka guinea pig at NIH in Maryland. I wonder if she is one of the results cited in this article.  https://clinicalcenter.nih.gov/about/news/newsletter/2007/oct07/newsletter.html  

She was a survivor of childhood bulbar polio and struggled with many health issues, but cared for many as a home health nurse in her last years.

Today’s smoothie

About 10 white grapes (seedless)

6 large strawberries

1 medium banana

8 oz. carrot juice

few handfuls baby spinach, washed, not stemmed

White grapes are used as a natural sweetener, so this one was a little sweeter than usual.  And things were a little messier since I didn’t have the appliance screwed together tightly and some carrot juice leaked out.  Always check!

Hair today, gone tomorrow

 

January 2016

September 2010

 

Fall 1947

 

Spring 1966

 

May 1996

 

July 1984

 

August 2007 

 

Today, July 24, 2018, new perm

The drive to spy on and impeach Trump

“If the information in the FBI’s Carter Page warrant constituted probable cause for wiretapping an American political campaign, then the process and the officials involved in it carried out one of the most significant known violations of American civil liberties in recent history,” Penn writes at The Hill. “The documents released over the weekend reveal quite clearly that the only information that even remotely connected Page and the 2016 campaign to Russia came solely from Fusion GPS dossier and a Yahoo News report that was based on the same information from the same source.”

The evidence is there was no evidence.

Mark Penn, former Clinton pollster, writing at The Hill.  thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/398276-carter-page-warrant-reflects-attack-on-our-civil-liberties?

Comment on Ocasio-Cortez by request

 

ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ’S EMBARRASSINGLY INCORRECT CLAIM
By Kevin Ryan

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made several bizarre claims in an interview with Firing Line’s Margaret Hoover last week that has a lot of people scratching their heads. Ocasio-Cortez, the left’s new darling and self-described socialist, was asked about the strong economy and low unemployment rate. She offered a bizarre explanation.

“Unemployment is low because everyone has two jobs,” she explained. “Unemployment is low because people are working 60, 70, 80 hours a week and can barely feed their kids.”

Huh?

Ok, first of all, that’s not even how the unemployment rate works. It’s a measure of how many people are looking for a job but can’t find one. Neither holding multiple jobs, nor working overtime affects the calculation at all.

Secondly, “everyone has two jobs” couldn’t be further than the truth. The percent of workers with more than one just is near its all-time low, under 5%.

And people aren’t working longer and longer hours to make ends meet. In fact, people are working fewer hours, not more, meaning it’s actually easier than ever to feed your family.

Ocasio-Cortez then goes on to blame capitalism for the above-mentioned made-up problems. Ironically, her dire description of the economy is a more apt description of what life was like BEFORE capitalism, when everyone worked extremely long hours, including children, just to avoid starvation. She seems to long for those days.

“Capitalism has not always existed in the world and it will not always exist in the world,” she said.

SOURCES:
http://www.pbs.org/…/firing…/video/alexandria-ocasio-cortez/
https://www.bls.gov/…/multiple-jobholding-over-the-past-two…
https://www.bls.gov/…/multiple-jobholding-in-states-in-2015…
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS12026620#0
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PRS84006023#0
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/AWHAETP
http://www.politifact.com/…/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-wrong…/
https://www.factcheck.org/…/ocasio-cortez-wrong-on-cause-o…/
https://reason.com/…/…/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-unemployment

NOTE ON METHODOLOGY: Weekly work hours is based on the BLS “Business Sector: Average Weekly Hours” index, which I’ve converted from an index to actual hours. There are many different measures of “weekly work hours,” but all show a long downward trend in hours worked, not an upward trend as Ocasio-Cortez contends.

Today’s smoothie

Banana

blueberries

Strawberries

carrot juice

watercress

water

Here’s the problem.  Blue and orange are used in watercolor to make a vibrant gray, but in food it’s just a yucky brown.  But the taste was fine.

After the boat show we packed up and drove back to Columbus, so our daughter and son-in-law could enjoy their vacation at the lake.

When Trump won, you may have lost some family and friends

"On November 9, you awoke from a self-induced, eight-year-long political coma to find that White House press secretaries shade the truth and top presidential advisors run political cover for their boss. You were shocked to discover that presidents exaggerate, even lie, on occasion. You became interested for the first time about the travel accommodations, office expenses, and lobbyist pals of administration officials. You started counting how many rounds of golf the president played. You suddenly thought it was fine to mock the first lady now that she wasn’t Michelle Obama. Once you removed your pussy hat after attending the Women’s March, you made fun of Kellyanne Conway’s hair, Sarah Sanders’ weight, Melania Trump’s shoes, Hope Hicks’ death stare; you helped fuel a rumor started by a bottom-feeding author that U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley slept with Donald Trump. You thought it was A-OK that Betsy DeVos was nearly physically assaulted and routinely heckled. You glorified a woman who has sex on camera for a paycheck.

You have learned all kinds of new things that those of us who didn’t willfully ignore politics for the past eight years already knew. For example, we already knew that illegal immigrants were being deported and families were being separated."

And there’s more.

https://amgreatness.com/2018/05/30/dear-ex-friends-in-the-resistance/

Week 6 at Lakeside 2018

Usually we go home on the Saturday our daughter and son-in-law have their vacation at our cottage, but this year our friends Rod and Judi will be here for the wooden boat show so we’ll go home after church on Sunday.  This promises to be a good week-end of programing so I’m glad we’ll be here. Although I’m sure the artists are disappointed, we were thrilled to welcome the rain around noon.

From the newsletter:

“A collaborative effort blending the craftsmanship of the Lakeside Wooden Boat Show and the artistic expression of the Plein Air Art Festival will create one of Lakeside’s most unique weekends of the summer from July 20-22.

This three-day event begins on Friday, July 20 when more than 30 plein air artists from across the Midwest arrive to paint outdoor landscapes until Sunday, July 22.

The term “en plein air” means painting “in the open air.” The artists will be painting scenes throughout the entire community, and all are invited to watch them paint.  

On Sunday, the Lakeside waterfront will transform into an outdoor showroom of classic wooden boats, as cruisers line the dock and the lawn of Hotel Lakeside for the 15th Annual Lakeside Wooden Boat Show from 12-4 p.m.

More than 80 wooden boats, each classified by the year it was made, will be featured.

The boats are categorized as historic (prior to 1918), antique (1919-1942), classic (1943-1975), early contemporary (1976-1984) and late contemporary (past 30 years). The sizes of the wooden boats featured range from 9’ to 57’.

The show is coordinated by the Lakeside Wooden Boat Society.

And just for fun, I’ve been cleaning the basement for two days.  It’s not a huge basement—maybe 10 x 10—but when you have one, you just save a lot of stuff that should have been thrown away.  So I have 2 sacks of useable things for the Archives (or Hotel) sale on Labor Day like coffee cups, flower vases, cat dishes, 3 iron skillets, some plumbing repair thingies to fix what we don’t know, and then lots of stuff went to the curb (we don’t actually have curbs) for Friday recycling day (some of which disappeared over night because someone needed it), but they would take the old humidifier.  Now we also need to  find a toxic waste collection site for 30 year old cans of paint. I also washed the rugs and rags, so. . . I’m feeling very self-righteous.

Arguing with a liberal today compared to a generation ago, guest blogger

“I have two "friends" who oppose Trump and do Facebook politics. One is a Democrat and the other is a Never Trumper.

The Democrat posted a meme the other day that said something along the lines of "Avocado farmers can't get enough help to harvest the crop. Now's a good time for Trump supporters to prove these are not jobs Americans won't do."

He's a welder and a union man. He's about 60 years old and is only a Democrat because his dad was. Many years ago, I argued politics with his dad, when he was a middle aged man and I was a teen. (Yes, I've been that bad for that long.) He's been gone for several years now, but occasionally, I spar with his son.

I commented something like this:

"What a strange twist of fate. Many years ago, I would have argued with your dad about this. I would have been on your side, arguing that we should have massive immigration (though I think I would have argued for legal immigration, not illegal immigration) in order to keep prices down for consumers.

"Your dad would have argued that the American working man deserved that job and the companies could pay him enough to persuade him to work for them.

"It's funny how life turns around."

He never responded, but a couple of days went by and he deleted his post.

This week, the "conservative" never Trumper, who is a bureaucrat in DC, posted an article from WaPo about Helsinki and commented that he couldn't believe anyone still supported the president.

The conversation went on at great length, but it included me mentioning his own Pauline Kael moment, the fact that Trump may not have given a well thought out answer, but that the reporter was stupid for thinking he should turn and call Putin a liar to his face.

I went on, after he said I was defending the GRU, to ask where in the world did he get that from and to say that the entire thing was a farce and theater for the weak minded. That if they were actually interested in stopping Russian election activity, it wouldn't have happened in a special prosecutors office, which was staffed with activist Democrat lawyers.

It would have happened secretly in a counter intelligence unit and they wouldn't have announced anything in a press conference, telling everything they knew, but would have worked behind the scenes developing policies and procedures to prevent further damage.

He deleted the post.”

Thank you, good post (used with permission, but no name please).

Today’s smoothie—taking a risk

Today I added a little honey, figuring it might just taste a little—mmm odd.

1/4 yellow bell pepper, seeds removed

2-3 leaves of beet greens, without stems

carrot juice

cantaloupe chunks

banana

1/2 teaspoon of honey + water

Beet leaves are the best part of the beet—the roots really don’t have that much nutrition, although I like them either cooked with butter and salt, or served cold with a sweet sour dressing. Beet greens are an excellent source of vitamin K, vitamin A (in the form of carotenoids), vitamin C, copper, potassium, manganese, vitamin B2, magnesium, vitamin E, fiber and calcium. They are a very good source of iron, vitamins B1, B6, and pantothenic acid, as well as phosphorus and protein. World’s Healthiest foods.  I didn’t cook the greens, but I think that would be best. If you’re watching your Vitamin K due to a blood thinner, this might not be a good option, since it has over 700% of daily minimum.

And beet greens are more powerful and nutritious than kale. https://www.care2.com/greenliving/8-vegetables-that-are-healthier-than-kale.html

Abandoned art

Artist (at the Rhein Center, Lakeside, OH) Bev Beatty is leaving small pieces of art around our little community called “abandoned art.”  Whoever finds them can keep them, or leave them for someone else to find.  Today at the Wellness Center I noticed something on the window sill and thought someone had forgotten something.  Then I noticed the note inside that it was abandoned art just for me to find or leave as is.  It’s a tiny Christmas tree in blue, pink and taupe, just the colors of our cottage, so of course, I brought it home for the fireplace mantel.

Today’s smoothie

First I prepared an eggnog with honey and vanilla, gently cooked it. Then I used carrot juice, watercress, romaine lettuce and a banana.  Very mild, pale yellow green.  For breakfast.

“Romaine lettuce is an excellent source of vitamin A (in the form of carotenoids), vitamin K, folate and molybdenum. In addition, romaine lettuce is a very good source of dietary fiber, manganese, potassium, biotin, vitamin B1, copper, iron and vitamin C. It is also a good source of vitamin B2, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B6, phosphorus, chromium, magnesium, calcium and pantothenic acid. “

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=61

Clinton on Kavanaugh

Hillary Clinton claims that a SCOTUS justice who follows the constitution will return the country to the 1850s. Wow. I'm so thrilled I made the right choice for president. Maybe she should read her party's platform of 1856:

"That Congress has no power under the Constitution, to interfere with or control the domestic institutions of the several States, and that such States are the sole and proper judges of everything appertaining to their own affairs, not prohibited by the Constitution; that all efforts of the abolitionists, or others, made to induce Congress to interfere with questions of slavery, or to take incipient steps in relation thereto, are calculated to lead to the most alarming and dangerous consequences; and that all such efforts have an inevitable tendency to diminish the happiness of the people and endanger the stability and permanency of the Union, and ought not to be countenanced by any friend of our political institutions. "
1856 Democrat Party Platform

What is leadership?

I really disliked President Trump during the campaign of 2016. My loyalties and contributions shifted as the fabulous strong bench of the brightest and best narrowed, my final choice being Cruz, who is, I believe, still the finest speaker and sharpest guy in Congress. About 2 days after Trump was acknowledged as the Republican candidate, I realized although he was no prize personally, he was head and shoulders above the alternative. Time and again he has since proven me wrong about his abilities, intelligence and common sense, and I've seen his brashness, pomposity, energy and shady deals pay off, most recently this week as he seems successfully to be calling Europe to accountability, when 40 years of chiding and mealy mouthed pretty speeches by former presidents resulted in zip, nada, zilch.

I'm reading "Making a Difference; stories of vision and courage from America's leaders" by Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger. It's a collection of stories about what qualities make one a leader--people as different as Tammy Duckworth, Michelle Rhee, and Jim Sinegal. I see Trump's qualities in many of these stories. Sully is a much admired American hero, but if he were to run on a political ticket--either party--he would be roundly denounced.

Lena Raman who Walked Away

There is a growing movement in the U.S. called hashtag Walk Away, and primarily it is former Democrats/Progressives/RINOs and why they’ve left the party that oppressed them.  Lena Raman writes:

“While I was volunteering for an organization in San Francisco, a group of women in hijab came to talk to us about how “America is oppressing them.” I sat in the back row silently listening. When the time came and the girl asked if we had any questions, I raised my hand.

I said, “I am an ex Muslim woman who is half Iranian and half Indian. I’ve lived in Iran for 5 years with little to no rights. Forget having the opportunity to stand before a group of Americans, bashing America. . .I couldn’t even stand before a group of Iranians without a guardian. Today, you stand before me bashing the country which has given me the right your country didn’t. When the Iranians found out that my father was Indian, they would double tax his products. My mother couldn’t leave the house without being harassed. Not saying every Muslim is this way, but why don’t you talk about the extreme oppression which goes on in your country. You are standing on the land of the free. Though the government might not be perfect, but I’d be damned if you said my country oppressed me.”

I didn’t walk away necessarily, but I was asked to leave.

I am a PROUD LEGAL IMMIGRANT. My family fought long and hard to be part of this country. Never will I forget the nightmare I’ve escaped from. It is so easy to point fingers and bash a country which gives you the right to do so. You can’t speak oppression if you can freely practice your religion here. You can’t possibly be oppressed if you can stand in front of a group of Americans, bashing America. You can’t possibly be oppressed if you can leave the house wearing what you want. These are the rights America has given me and trust me when I say. . .
I WILL NEVER APOLOGIZE FOR BEING AMERICAN. “

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!